Guild Wars 2

Bran.7425:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

I’ve created my ranger expecting an archer.

Was this because of just the profession’s flavor text? Or because of some other game’s idea of what a ‘Ranger’ is? Please don’t say it was because Ranger has the ‘range’ as the first five letters.

Maybe because I’ve always wanted to play an Archer in MMOs and maybe because I’ve created the ranger 2 day after I bought the game?
I didn’t know what the classes where about but the ranger looked like an archer to me.
So yeah, because of the text. I still want to play an archer and still I get hindered.

Bryzy.2719:

Bran.7425:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

I’ve created my ranger expecting an archer.

Was this because of just the profession’s flavor text? Or because of some other game’s idea of what a ‘Ranger’ is? Please don’t say it was because Ranger has the ‘range’ as the first five letters.

Rangers are “unparalelled archers”.

Probably because of that. And why shouldn’t he?

That paragraph below it detailing ‘Pets’.

So what I am gathering from this is a lot of skimming while reading is going on.
If we are going on the assumption that the flavors text are correct then Warrior will have to remain a better archer as he is a “master of weaponary” and a bow is still a weapon.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

I still want to play an archer and still I get hindered.

That is more of a total game design issue where the developers designed the entire game to work around the sPvP system of maps with 5v5 being the ideal situation so we get PbAoE buffs and the stack on one spot being the safest option. Kind of destroys risk vs reward there.

Bran.7425:

Bryzy.2719:

Bran.7425:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

I’ve created my ranger expecting an archer.

Was this because of just the profession’s flavor text? Or because of some other game’s idea of what a ‘Ranger’ is? Please don’t say it was because Ranger has the ‘range’ as the first five letters.

Rangers are “unparalelled archers”.

Probably because of that. And why shouldn’t he?

That paragraph below it detailing ‘Pets’.

So what I am gathering from this is a lot of skimming while reading is going on.
If we are going on the assumption that the flavors text are correct then Warrior will have to remain a better archer as he is a “master of weaponary” and a bow is still a weapon.

Yes, the paragraph below does indeed detail pets. But that does not make the statement that Rangers are “unparalleled archers” suddenly obsolete. He chose the Ranger profession to play an archer because that is what ArenaNet have described it as. Whether or not that description is accurate is completely irrelevant.

Please take your nonconstructive and frankly condescending comments elsewhere. This thread is not the place for them.

Specific Game Mode
WvW

Proposal Overview
Make ranger Shout builds viable

Goal of Proposal
Currently Gaurd and Sic em are bad skills. The Ai cant handle the Sic Em buff. Gaurd only serves as a trait trigger neither does any thing for the ranger or his team.

Proposal Functionality
Option 1 Awesome Stuff
SicEm: Swiftness and fury(or might) to nearby allies 25s CD
Gaurd: Send pet to target loction where it pulses protection, but does not move or attack. 60s cd (only works if both changes are made need a short CD skill)

Option 2 (simple small changes)
Gaurd: 4-6s Protection for You and Nearby allies instacast 25s CD
Sic Em: give your pet swiftnes fury might, remove stealth in a 240 raidius. (NO target req)

Risks
Option 1 gaurd Could be to strong for spvp I would propose a long 1-1.5s cast time with a visiable animation.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Ranger Design Philosophy: Please keep this in mind when posting feedback.
The Ranger is a resilient profession that excels at skirmishing by drawing from nature to support themselves as well as their allies. Alongside their pet, they have some of the best single target and sustained damage that will whittle their opponents down.

Allie if is isn’t too much of a bother could we perhaps get the exact definition (as the designers are using) for the terms “resilient” and “sustained” as the former is slightly ambiguous and the later is thrown around the forums without clear use.

Bran.7425:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

I still want to play an archer and still I get hindered.

That is more of a total game design issue where the developers designed the entire game to work around the sPvP system of maps with 5v5 being the ideal situation so we get PbAoE buffs and the stack on one spot being the safest option. Kind of destroys risk vs reward there.

That’s the reason why I’ve suggested among other things, that bows should get a damageboost if you hit someone from above, rewarding you for your positional play.
Furthermore you could remove the damagecomponent from pets (if you’re using a bow), so you wont lose any damage.

Bryzy.2719:

Bran.7425:

Bryzy.2719:

Bran.7425:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

I’ve created my ranger expecting an archer.

Was this because of just the profession’s flavor text? Or because of some other game’s idea of what a ‘Ranger’ is? Please don’t say it was because Ranger has the ‘range’ as the first five letters.

Rangers are “unparalelled archers”.

Probably because of that. And why shouldn’t he?

That paragraph below it detailing ‘Pets’.

So what I am gathering from this is a lot of skimming while reading is going on.
If we are going on the assumption that the flavors text are correct then Warrior will have to remain a better archer as he is a “master of weaponary” and a bow is still a weapon.

Yes, the paragraph below does indeed detail pets. But that does not make the statement that Rangers are “unparalleled archers” suddenly obsolete. He chose the Ranger profession to play an archer because that is what ArenaNet have described it as. Whether or not that description is accurate is completely irrelevant.

Please take your nonconstructive and frankly condescending comments elsewhere. This thread is not the place for them.

You are the one to take it as an attack. I am just saying that taking that much out of the flavor text is setting oneself up for disappointment. When I read the “unparalleled archer” took it as they can equip both longbow and short bow (together it that is your thing) and that eagle eye option existed to give additional distance.

Bran.7425:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Ranger Design Philosophy: Please keep this in mind when posting feedback.
The Ranger is a resilient profession that excels at skirmishing by drawing from nature to support themselves as well as their allies. Alongside their pet, they have some of the best single target and sustained damage that will whittle their opponents down.

Allie if is isn’t too much of a bother could we perhaps get the exact definition (as the designers are using) for the terms “resilient” and “sustained” as the former is slightly ambiguous and the later is thrown around the forums without clear use.

I think the quote shows a misconception of the ranger regarding bows. You wont pick up a bow to deal sustained damage. You want to pick up a bow to stop an enemy before he can reach you. That would be possible with burst, especially if you get the drop on somebody (speaking of Opening Strike).

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

That’s the reason why I’ve suggested among other things, that bows should get a damageboost if you hit someone from above, rewarding you for your positional play.
Furthermore you could remove the damage component from pets (if you’re using a bow), so you wont lose any damage.

Until we get more of commitment that truly no option is off the table, ranger is going to remain a pet focused profession. Perhaps you could work on options that improve the performance of the ranged pet help fit the image of ranger and pet firing squad.

Bran.7425:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

That’s the reason why I’ve suggested among other things, that bows should get a damageboost if you hit someone from above, rewarding you for your positional play.
Furthermore you could remove the damage component from pets (if you’re using a bow), so you wont lose any damage.

Until we get more of commitment that truly no option is off the table, ranger is going to remain a pet focused profession. Perhaps you could work on options that improve the performance of the ranged pet help fit the image of ranger and pet firing squad.

I’ve also posted a suggestion dealing with improving the pet. However, this would require ArenaNet to switch the AI engine to the client site, which I doubt would happen. None the less, even with a working pet, you would still lose damage since the pet has to close the distance to the target while you’re already hitting it. Also, the pet could be kited, which wont happen to you if you’re using a bow.

Specific Game Mode
WvW
Proposal Overview
Changing Signet of Beastmaster, Pets and Spirits
Goal of Proposal
My goal is to make Ranger a more viable class to play in WvW zerg fights.
Proposal Functionality
1st: Changing/Moving Signet of Beastmaster.
-Signet of Beastmaster being under Marksmanship is weird
-Moving Signet of Beastmaster to other traits or tier it down

Signet of Beastmaster is almost a MUST to get when a Ranger plans to play in the frontline of a zerg. But making Signet of Beastmaster Grandmaster tier makes Ranger less tanky as Marksmanship scale Power and Condition Duration. This cause Ranger to have less viable build for being in the frontline. If Signet of Beastmaster is tiered down, moved to other traits or removed (making all signet’s active affect the user too) it will open up a lot more different kind of builds viable for being in the frontline. Maybe changing Signet of Beastmaster to Nature Magic/Wilderness Survival Grandmaster tier(or lower) will be a better as both traits scale mainly defensive and Signet of Beastmaster are mainly used defensively.

2nd: Most pets are useless in zerg fights.
-Pet dies too quickly in zerg fights
-Pet F2 takes too long to cast
-Some pet F2 are useless
Pets in zerg fights are completely useless other than some (example moa for pre fight fury) as pets just die instantly under all those AOEs. Changing pets to scale with the User’s stats like having 50% of the User’s Stats will make the pets tankier and maybe even be useful in zerg fights. Making F2 cast time instant and changing some pet’s F2 skills to more useful effects (example boar’s F2 Forage changed to AoE knock down), will make pet choice to have more impact during a zerg fight.

3rd: Spirits.
-Spirits die quickly
-Cast time too long
-Change Spirits to Aura (unkillable but shorten effect time)

It have the same issue with pets. It die almost instantly in a zerg fight and it’s cast time is too long, allowing enemies to get out of the AoE before even hitting them (as most of the time zerg are constantly moving). Changing Spirits to something like an Aura will be great. Auras have all of the Spirits’ skills BUT it is like a “buff” and not a “pet”. But the effect time of Aura should be reduced to 1/3 of Spirits’ duration (60s) as Aura does not die. Like Spirits, after casting, it will be able to have active skills that are the same as Spirits BUT allowing the User to cast it while running. This will make Ranger a more supportive class in a zerg and this is an original concept (no other class have skills like this), so “Spirit” build might be viable in zerg.

Associated Risks
Currently I do not see any issue other than changing Signet of Beastmaster will affect many other traits too which might be complicated to balance.

One thing that really stands out about the ranger is that while every other class has a class mechanic that either supplements or synergizes with their play (depending on their spec), Rangers have a class mechanic that reduces the effectiveness of the class in almost every situation and for every spec.

The Pet mechanic as a concept is fine. As implemented it is a horrible, horrible failure and needs to be reworked.

That’s why you see so many people ask for the ability to kill off their pet (stow). Because the pet really does make playing the game less fun outside of map clearing in PvE.

As for why people want to play as an archer, anyone who played GW1 knows the answer to that. It is truly a SHOCK to the system to go from being the ranged master to a class that gets mocked for pulling out a bow.

Game Mode
PvE

Proposal Overview
make spirits useful

Goal of Proposal
spirits are stong in PvP & WvW,but not enough for dungeons

Proposal Functionality
-cancel 20s cooldown to summon spirits in pve.
spirits are fragile enough in dungeons,and you can’t escape until your spirits ready like you are in pvp & wvw.
-reduce spirit’s active cast time
now spirits can be interrupted,so the cast time should be reduced.and spirits should follow ranger closer.
-improve spirit’s skill
Frost spirit
active is too similar with stone spirit’s and no one want to use elite skill(180s cd)to cure conditions
change
passive:inflict chill
active:area condition cure
Storm spirit
swiftness is good but we want it when we out of battle more
change
passive:grant vigor
Sun spirit
active is too weak
change
passive:grant fury
active:inflict burning and blind

Associated Risks
spirit of nature’s active will no longer cure conditions,so reduce its cooldown or improve healing ability.

I am really surprised with 90% of these posts. They show that most players just do not know how to play a ranger.

Since…

- Pets are Rangers, Rangers are Pets. Take another profession if you do not like to control 2 things (the pet and the ranger) at the same time.
- Pets do not die if you play well (not in Wurrm, Teq or any fractals 50)
- Ranger+Pet do an amazing direct dps in PVE [note: I am full berserker, full ascended, full infused (with +5p and +5 T in armour) SSS ranger (sword, spotter, spirit)]

So, what is the only real lack for rangers?
1) Safe our pets names!!! (we change several pets in each fractal run and they lost their names…)
2) See the buffs and debuff in our pets HP bar
3) See a casting bar of our target (right now we have to anticipate our actions just by experience) to see what they are exactly doing/casting/attacking in each moment.

Please, do not make rangers as easy to play as other professions.

Chiaope.6397:

3rd: Spirits.
-Spirits die quickly
-Cast time too long
-Change Spirits to Aura (unkillable but shorten effect time)

I think spirits should stay mortal to differentiate them from warrior banners.
However, since mortality is a huge weakness, spirits should get some new or better strenghts to make up for that.

lushy.5310:

I am really surprised with 90% of these posts. They show that most players just do not know how to play a ranger.

Since…

- Pets are Rangers, Rangers are Pets. Take another profession if you do not like to control 2 things (the pet and the ranger) at the same time.
- Pets do not die if you play well (not in Wurrm, Teq or any fractals 50)
- Ranger+Pet do an amazing direct dps in PVE [note: I am full berserker, full ascended, full infused (with +5p and +5 T in armour) SSS ranger (sword, spotter, spirit)]

So, what is the only real lack for rangers?
1) Safe our pets names!!! (we change several pets in each fractal run and they lost their names…)
2) See the buffs and debuff in our pets HP bar
3) See a casting bar of our target (right now we have to anticipate our actions just by experience) to see what they are exactly doing/casting/attacking in each moment.

Please, do not make rangers as easy to play as other professions.

Lots of players, myself included, can overcome the handicaps with the class and perform well with Rangers. That does not mean that Rangers are fine and don’t need help. The fact that the class was voted as “most needing help” in the Dev Poll supports the idea that Rangers are not fine and need help.

As for the “easy to play” argument, every class in this game is easy to play. This isn’t GW1 you know.

lushy.5310:

I am really surprised with 90% of these posts. They show that most players just do not know how to play a ranger.

Since…

- Pets are Rangers, Rangers are Pets. Take another profession if you do not like to control 2 things (the pet and the ranger) at the same time.

I can’t disagree more. Pets are a bad elaborated mechanic. Just because you can make them work doesn’t mean they’re good.
And I’m definitely not going to reroll a warrior just to play as a crippled archer.
You can have your pet, I’m completely fine with that. However if I don’t want to use it, I should be able to stow it and get the damage back.

Specific Game Mode
PVE

Proposal Overview
1h Sword should not root (because it prevents dodging)
Reef Drake should have his underwater reflect skill aswell above water
Serpent’s Strike should cause another condition than poison (bleeding/torment)

Goal of Proposal
Making ranger useful in pve and not the first person to kick when entering an instance
Ranger needs more reflects to justify himself in a party
Poison is already covered by so many skills and bleeding or torment would be way more useful if ranger has to compete with a necro condition build

Proposal Functionality
Healthy for the game in general

Associated Risks
No risk at all

Specific Game Mode

PvE (Dungeons & Fractals), may affect other Modes if you do not intend to split mechanics.

Proposal Overview

Pets. There are several problems in PvE:
a) AI and very tough to controll
b) Survivability (AoEs, no Dodges – in Combination with the AI)
c) Too complex pet system. Some Cleave, some do not, some are Rangepets. Different Stats and Skills. It leads to a small group of superior Pets.

Goal of Proposal

The Pet is more like a task to take care of than a nice, helpful mechanic. It should not be the Rangers highest priority to react to the pets stupidity (As moving, just because the pet does not leave the AoE etc.). On the other hand there is that bunch of pets with different mechanics, but a lot of them are useless or incomprehensible. Why does not every pet cleave? The Warrior, Ele or Guard cleaves/Aoes with quite everything. Make a general pet-skilltree and let the different pet-vaiations be ornamental as armors.

Proposal Functionality

Works fine, at least it would improve the current situation.

Associated Risks

Pet could became a bit overpowered. But you could also reduce general pet damage and increase the rangers damage on the other hand.

Bran.7425:

So what I am gathering from this is a lot of skimming while reading is going on.
If we are going on the assumption that the flavors text are correct then Warrior will have to remain a better archer as he is a “master of weaponary” and a bow is still a weapon.

Wrong, Being a master of weapons means he has the knowledge of all weapons. He would be just as good with a hammer as he would be with a sword, he is proficient in all weapons aspects because he has studied and learned how to use all weapons.

From Guildwars2 Website:
“Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.”

let’s start with unparalleled from the dictionary:
“having no parallel or equal; exceptional.
‘the sudden rise in unemployment is unparalleled in the postwar period’
synonyms: exceptional, unique, singular, rare, unequaled, unprecedented, without parallel, without equal, nonpareil, matchless, peerless, unrivaled, unsurpassed, unexcelled, incomparable, second to none; "

This means that warriors are not better then ranger’s with the bow because ranger’s have no equal and we are second to none with the bow. According to Anet’s description:
“Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows.”
This is the reason why I, and I am sure that many others, Chose Ranger for our class. Because we wanted to be archers/ranger’s, a person that can take down their target from a distance with the bow. So everyone that keeps on saying that because ranger has the word range in it doesn’t mean we’re a range class, please, grab a napkin and wipe your mouth off because your talking kitten! According to Anet, which this is an Anet game, Ranger was designed with just that in mind, a RANGE class. All you have to do is read the description of the class to see that. Until Anet comes in and changes the description on their website to say it’s suppose to be a melee class, it is a range class.

Unfortunately, when they implemented the profession they screwed up and nerfed it’s range damage to the point that we are not second to none but we are now third to warrior and thief. And the implementation went wrong when they added the damage to the pets, reducing our damage, effectively handicapping the profession by 30-40%. Ranger’s have to work 30-40% harder then any other class in order to be effective in the game. This is why we are shunned from groups, this is why we are looked down upon, and this is why we are the punch line of every joke I hear in the WvW chat.

I stopped playing for about 4 months and came back to give it another shot, after two months of trying to get somewhere in WvW and having a tough time I rolled a mezmer and a warrior and in WvW I destroy things with both of those classes The mezmer is such a wonderful roamer, while the warrior can just run through zerg’s stunning everyone around them with the hammer…the TONS of bags I would get with my warrior. Ranger’s are so underpowered it’s pathetic and when you play other classes you realize this. It honestly does feel like ranger’s are the red headed stepchild of the game. I just finished purchasing ESO this weekend, I’m not big on the game play of ESO but at least archery isn’t as hindered as it is in GW2. Since GW2 is free to play, when and IF they ever do fix ranger’s, I’ll just hop back on again…but for now, I’m tired of being the free bag. I’ll stay here voicing my opinion because I want to see this game succeed and I would love to return, but not until the profession is working as the class description tells us it should work.

Suggested Game mode: WvW and SPvP

Pet attack accuracy improvements

Currently the pet’s are not properly equipped with the right tools to land their auto attacks, holding back the ranger class.

The changes I suggest are multi-faceted including all of the following changes added simultaneously, each to address its own unique issue in pet attacks:

1)Adding a fifth skill; ~10 second cooldown “Charge/Rush” skill added to all melee class pets as a distance closer utility. The range of this skill should be similar to the distance covered by GS3 “Swoop”. The skill itself should have virtually no damage output. Answers to: Distance creator skills and kiting tactics.

2)An instant cast short-range(150-ish-to 200) pounce/teleport effect added to the pet’s auto attack that drags the pet towards the center of the opponent’s character model before the attack animation initiates. Answers to: Problems with pets auto attack execution determinations. This would “override” its initiating from earliest point of attack so that it makes better use of its attack range.

3) A ~30% projectile speed increase in ranged pet auto attacks. Answers to: Slow ranged pet attack speed. The attacks are already highly telegraphed so I foresee no dodging issues with it at all.

4) All/more melee pets given default cleave to their auto attacks. Answers to: Accuracy issues with mobile targets sidestepping attacks.

Potential risks: Passively attacking “Fire and forget” condi bunker builds may appear to become overpowered with such changes. The answer to this: Reduce condition output to reflect the same “pet accomodation” our physical damage has seen to support the pet. Approximately -30% condition output across the board for rangers.

I want to make a special post about the ranger sword despite having it mentioned in a previous post already to elaborate my thoughts, since it’s the strongest weapon of the ranger yet it’s the clunkiest one.

PvE

Overview

• Remove the leaps on sword #1
• Both leaps on sword #2 should ge forward
• Animationtime should match evadetime on sword #3

Current Problems

• Leaps on Autoattack can’t be interrupted
• Leaps prevent normal movement
• sword #2 too slow
• sword #2 backleap unpredictable if target is moving
• sowrd #3 unpredictable if target is moving

Proposal

• Sword #1

Remove the leaps. Even if you can evade while performing a leap, it would still prevent your normal movement.

• Sword #2

I would rework this to a double leap, same as the current 2. and 3. autoattack, which cripples your enemy if you hit him and turns into a tripple leap if you hit an enemy once. This skill would get a long uptime of 10 seconds, so you don’t have to leap immediately after your first leap to use all your charges, and a mediocre long cooldown of 20 seconds, starting after the first leap.

• Sword #3

Either the evade time has to be increased to match the animation time or the animation time has to be cut to match the evade time.
Alternatively, the animation could be changed, so you wont dodge around your target but through your target, just like a normal dodgeroll.

Risks
I can’t see any. The gameplay wouldn’t be changed much, the weapon would feel a lot smoother to use.

Avariz.8241:

Specific Game Mode
WvW

Proposal Overview
Player ability to semi-turn-off pet combat AI. This is to enable player to have direct clicking/button pressing of pet skills in the same way as player’s own skills. Also the ability to turn back on pet combat AI.

Goal of Proposal
Pet combat AI is adequate for PE but not against large number of intelligent hostile players in WvWvW. The on/off pet AI option allows the player direct control of an extended set of pet skills just like player’s skills.

Proposal Functionality
More pet skills and all these skills should be displayed when pet AI is turn off to allow the player to click/press them. Like player’s skills pet skill icons should show cool down effects etc.

Associated Risks
When pet combat AI is semi-turn-off, the player will have more work to do, more to think about, and more things to be aware of and know.

---

Update: When I referred to pet skills I was of cause referring to the 3 or 4 pet attack skills automatically controlled by the pet AI.

The proposal was for the pet AI to have a player semi-switch on/off option. So that when off, the player can directly activate the pet AI controlled attack skills. Further on from that the pet attack skills should have an auto attack function, which allow the player to setup when pet AI is switched off, exactly the same as for the player’s skills.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Ranger Design Philosophy: Please keep this in mind when posting feedback.
The Ranger is a resilient profession that excels at skirmishing by drawing from nature to support themselves as well as their allies. Alongside their pet, they have some of the best single target and sustained damage that will whittle their opponents down.

So, a new profession concept to replace the old one from the main page. I think everyone got the hint of careful wording to exclude the “unparalleled archers” line. Can we take this as devs finally admitting we are not supposed to succeed as a ranged profession?

On a more humorous note, if we cannot stow the pet permanently, can we have an option to stow the ranger? :P

Akisame.9508:

Bran.7425:

So what I am gathering from this is a lot of skimming while reading is going on.
If we are going on the assumption that the flavors text are correct then Warrior will have to remain a better archer as he is a “master of weaponary” and a bow is still a weapon.

Wrong, Being a master of weapons means he has the knowledge of all weapons. He would be just as good with a hammer as he would be with a sword, he is proficient in all weapons aspects because he has studied and learned how to use all weapons.

[…]

While I don’t agree with the chosen diction of this post, I do agree on every single point mentioned.

Specific Game Mode
WvW, I suppose. But this is like a new mechanic I’m offering, so I don’t know. Could work for each.

Proposal Overview
Rangers must get manly and start strangling enemy with their bare hands! Become the fist of fury! Fighter of true courage and might, that even foul elder dragons themselves will tremble.

Goal of Proposal
To make Ranger a much more entertaining class. If not, then another weapon to hopefully compete with sword. Or an alternative for people who don’t like jumping around without any control over it.

Proposal Functionality
Ranger was once viewed as a evading disaster or a coward who flings sticks at you. Now rangers will become the spirit of honor and challange. I’m not a norn player. Traveling across the land of Tyria with their faithful companion bear (or any other weak animal) to build own legend and bust skulls apart with very own hands. I’m not a norn player.

I do realise that it would be quite ridiculous to suggest Anet to add a whole new weapon to the game. Perhaps it could work as an elite skill, but like engineer weapons. Or as a regular skill. Maybe even a trait that will strip you from an ability to use your first weapon set (but keep stats and etc) and instead replace it with unarmed combat. Why rangers? Well, I’ve got this idea when I saw how rangers use nature magic to empower their strikes with the melee weapons they already got. So why not empowering their own fists? Punching somebody with an image of a ram guiding you or something neat like that.

It can start with a simple chain that would include punches and kicks, with a third attack adding one stack of might or something neat like that.

Second skill could be a very mean punch. Perhaps adding some conditions on the way too. Maybe like confusion or vulnerability. Or maybe even short daze.

Third skill could be a headbutt. That could do something with a boar or a ram. Imagine this: Ram Slam. Could stun targets that it hits.

Fourth skill is a flying kick ofcourse. How can you forget about those.

Last one just gotta be a mighty throw. Imagine a ranger grabbing one somebody and swiftly throwing over himself. Neat.

Associated Risks
Seeing how I’m an absolute amateur when it comes to balance itself, then I guess I can offer just concept.

Specific Game Mode
PvE

Proposal Overview
There are many pet suggestions already that are similar to my own, but I just want to add my voice in case you are keeping a tally of pet related improvements.

Pet Scaling: With Ascended gear there is a powercreep that leaves pet behind. Adding AR was an improvement, but also a tacit acknowledgement that pet stats need to be based off of the ranger. Without some % increase to pet stats off the ranger’s gear and choices the pet will be weak and a liability in anything but open world PvE.

I have 2 suggestions. One is an overly simple suggestion that may not improve things for all builds but will add to the viability of pets. The other is more in depth and would require a lot of development.

Suggestion 1: Have pets scale off of Ranger gear. DPS speced rangers will have pets that fit their play style. Damage based pets will have improved damage, and some survivability (because of Ranger armor class) and support oriented rangers will have hardier and tougher pets. Even Rangers that want a pet that compliments their play style with an opposite function (Bear bow rangers) will benefit as the pet will still have increased stats, it may not be ideal but I don’t know a ranger that would turn down increased pet stats.

The empathy traitline will increase the % gained from Ranger stats and can still be a great traitline for rangers wishing to focus on the pet.

Suggestion 2: Give pets their own traitline and allow the Ranger to customize the pet to their needs. Pets will have damage, survivability, and support traitlines (keep it simple) with a few minor traits and a few grandmaster traits to add build diversity to pets. Pets gain trait points as they level.
The empathy traitline will increase the points rangers can put into their pet.

Goal of Proposal
Suggestion 1: Will prevent powercreep and allow pets to stay competitive as different tiers of gear are released. Will add depth to gear choice as rangers need to consider how their stats affect the stats of the pet.
Suggestion 2: Will add a new meta involving pets, giving rangers a way to add synergy with their pets and their own traits. Will add depth to a class that currently doesn’t have a lot of it and will increase the functionality of pets across the board.

Proposal Functionality
Suggestion 1: I would have a base 3-5% ranger stats apply to pet stats with each point of Empathy adding 1%.

Suggestion 2: The traitlines could be simple and current ranger traits affecting pets can be moved to the pet trait system freeing up space for more diverse and interesting traits for the ranger. Traitline examples can be: Improved movement speed, % of toughness to power, improved crit damage, improved stat (like power or condition damage) to all party members when in combat. These traits can be interesting and make a pet desirable to have in the party instead of a liability in some fights.
The traits can be opened up in the pet window and reset for a small a fee when out of combat (or when visiting a ranger trainer).

Associated Risks
Suggestion 1: Pets can become very powerful, and may make scaling back damage necessary. It may make tanky pets nearly invincible and would require a lot of testing to balance it correctly. I think it can be done and I think it would be necessary to improve the functionality and efficacy of pets.

Suggestion 2: Same as above. It will also increase the learning curve of rangers, but let’s be honest, it’s pretty low now and the class could use some depth. It will also give the ranger a reason to be invested in the pet instead of now which is more of a fire and forget weapon. I think the biggest risk is to leave the pet alone, as it’s slowly strangling the class.

Aioros.4862:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Ranger Design Philosophy: Please keep this in mind when posting feedback.
The Ranger is a resilient profession that excels at skirmishing by drawing from nature to support themselves as well as their allies. Alongside their pet, they have some of the best single target and sustained damage that will whittle their opponents down.

So, a new profession concept to replace the old one from the main page. I think everyone got the hint of careful wording to exclude the “unparalleled archers” line. Can we take this as devs finally admitting we are not supposed to be a ranged profession?

On a more humorous note, if we cannot stow the pet permanently, can we have an option to stow the ranger? :P

The pet wouldn’t be a problem if it was equipped to contribute effectively to our damage output. Currently, rangers are mighty against any non-moving target but chumps when a player starts hitting their w,s,a,d keys as poor pet accuracy makes us only able to draw out 70% of our character strength. In addition to this there’s a myriad of threats that pets are not equipped to deal with: Entire area covering one-shot AoE circle attacks that certain bosses use, condition saturation due to empathetic bond, , pathing issues, pets not benefitting from our critical damage increases and others.

If this was changed, we’d be far more successful across the board. “Change the perception” as ArenaNet so fondly puts it. If we suggest viable ways to make the pets work properly, they wouldn’t have to be the weak point of the class.

For example, Empathetic Bond could be given another effect that purges all received conditions from the pet 10 seconds after they are received, allowing the ranger to still receive stress on his pet, but not so much that it simply gets obliterated the moment someone chucks multiple stacks of ticking death on us.

Pets could be made to receive an evade effect when we evade so bosses don’t nuke them so easily and pet’s don’t suicide charge into engineer-created minefields, bombs and grenades, etc. Obviously, ArenaNet WANTS the pets to be something that can be targeted and killed for PvP and WvW purposes, but they are far too conservative about how easily accomplished they want this to be. Treating our pets as though they were slightly more durable mesmer clones on a class that loses 30% damage capability across the board when our mechanic dies, for in general a period of 60 seconds.. is grossly unfair treatment, and not a realistic interpretation of the pet mechanic.

Specific Game Mode
PvE (PvX)

Proposal Overview
Allow Rangers to keep pet names.

Goal of Proposal
It gives Rangers a small way to customize their pets.
It gives the Ranger a small way to be invested in their pet. It psychologically has less meaning when “juvenile jaguar” gets one shot by AoE compared to, “Fluffy McSharpclaws”. Fluffy’s death has meaning and consequences.

Proposal Functionality
Just fix the existing naming tool so the names stick to the pet it is assigned to. The names should be unique to the individual animal so my Wolf, “Moon Moon” doesn’t become “Moon Moon” the pig.

Associated Risks
Development. It will take Anet developers a whole afternoon, probably before lunch, to fix this small, but glaring issue of the Ranger class and will likely make most of the Rangers very happy.

I still think the best solution to the pet dodging issue is simply giving the pet aegis every time the ranger dodges or evades with some sort of internal cooldown to remove abuse.

I don’t think giving the pet dodge frames when the Ranger dodges will solve anything. No ranger is going to use their dodge or evade to save their pet from being hit. Doing so would be a huge DPS loss and one not worth taking if you could just swap pets after the hit so the pet can continue dpsing.

If on the other hand the pet received aegis, and given the number of evades and dodges available to the class, you could probably count on the aegis being up when you need the pet to avoid large damage.

Now I realize some players want to remove some of the passive play for this class, but this isn’t the area to do it. Remove passive play by making F2 actually work when players want. Give players control of their secondary pet skills. Introduce weapon synergy and combos the class can pull off.

Specific Game Mode
PvE

Proposal Overview
Give pets a dodge mechanic. I have a few ideas.
The pet can evades (on an ICD) if it is going to take more than 50% of its health in damage. This way it gives the ranger some time to react to spikes and pull the pet out before it dies.

The pet receives a “blur” or “displacement” buff when the ranger evades so a ranger can time when to dodge to keep both pet and ranger alive. This helps melee rangers as the Ranger will likely be dodging anyway and it can help ranged weapon Rangers as they have a better view of the battlefield and can time their dodges to assist the pet. This buff will also be applied to ranger evade skills like Lightning Reflexes, GS 1, Serpent strike, etc.

Pets leap, and dodge backwards when ranger recalls pet. Right now, the pet moves very slow, especially if it’s crippled or chilled that even when the pet is called back it will still likely die from major AoE or boss cleaves. The recall needs to be quick and near instant and the pet should avoid damage for a short period during this time.

No Dodge: pets take a flat damage reduction from All AoE damage. This is the lazy approach and I’m not a big fan of it.

Goal of Proposal
Increases pet survivability without having to increase pet stats again. Gives a good risk/reward game play to the Ranger. Rewards heads up play and allows the Ranger to micro his pet just a little bit more but doesn’t punish the ranger who can’t or won’t.
Proposal Functionality
As I lay out above, I think either of my suggestions would drastically improve pet survivability and improve gameplay for the Ranger. It’s our core mechanic and in most high level content the pet lacks the responsiveness to survive.

Associated Risks
Will make pets more survivable and thus may need to scale damage back. I would refute this however as their damage is calculated in the ranger overall damage on the front end. Boss fights right now are stacked against the ranger’s prime mechanic and adding any of these changes will level the playing field and make pets more viable in these encounters.

Ranger Design Philosophy:
The Ranger is a resilient profession that excels at skirmishing by drawing from nature to support themselves as well as their allies. Alongside their pet, they have some of the best single target and sustained damage that will whittle their opponents down.

First things first, for me, my first reaction to the philosophy is that I feel we do not fit the bill as ‘resilient.’ In full PVT gear in WvW I don’t die in one hit, but nor can I survive long enough to ‘whittle opponents down’ as intended. Full healing builds are the only ones with significant resilience, IMO. Lack of condition removals hurts, as does the fact we are seen as an ‘easy kill’ and focused early in most cases. The pet’s support is also hit and miss at best in such situations, without enough damage to cause serious concern to an opponent or reliable enough utility to help save the ranger unless extremely lucky and/or skilled. In PvE, survivability usually boils down to dodging.

Game Mode: PvX

Proposal Overview: Amend pet/ranger damage/utility ratio

Goal of Proposal: To ameliorate issues arising from the unreliable pet UI (which is unlikely to be changed in the foreseeable future as I understand it), as well as scaling with gear.

Proposal Functionality: If pets cannot be tweaked to make their damage and utilities hit more reliably, then the base dps done by pets could be reduced, and ranger base weapon damage increased by a corresponding amount. (No numbers I’m afraid, I’m not that advanced a theorycrafter.) Likewise, some of the pet utilities could be moved to existing ranger skills or traits, or formed into a generic ‘pet utility skill’ which would function differently depending on which pet was equipped at the time.

Associated Risks: Ranger damage could theoretically become too high in certain situations where the pet is able to dps more reliably (eg stationary targets.) Utility skills could become overpowered, or rangers would have to choose to drop other utilities to gain access to pet utility.

N.B. This is just me throwing an idea out there, so take with as many grains of salt as your cardiologist says you can handle!

i easily overcome the handicap my pet pose because im 100% specialised for it.

1. my pet doesnt die
2. i have decent survivability
3. i actualy manage to do a average but ordinary dps

Reality is im speced 0 25 0 15 30 for the purpose of maximising pet effectiveness and i run a full zerker gear. However my spec feels like despite the fact i run a build based on improving pet damage deals absolutely no damage in comparison to a rampaging warrior. Truth is on a 0 to 0 basis i hit as hard as the war or the thief but the moment we start scaling up the power with food/buff my pet becomes increasingly weak because

1. pet has 30% critical damage at best and only when traited wich is sad
2. pet needs to be buffed trought signet of the wild 25 might stack and sic em to even become barely damage viable and even then i have to sacrifice most of my party utility to make it worth it. Beastmastery easily becomes a selfish specialisation centralized around itself only even more so then the warrior who runs a single banner is. Truth is while i bring dps comparable to what the other teamate do unbuffed i cant compete with the damage of an organised team at all and my build becomes damage viable only in pugs filled with clerics and other bunker type unit. Im a glass cannon all the same as them yet i dont pull my dps share despite im 100% traited for a damage centralised build. The guy who made the pet traitline didnt seem to care about giving beastmasters the option to deal damage trought their pet as much as one could in guild wars 1.

Now we say ranger lack utilities. I say lets bring back the rainbow pheonix from guild wars 1 give it a aoe heal ability and a party ressurection on F2 and well have our support pet.

Those of you making posts about pets…you do realize that everything in these pet posts hinges on Anet actually making pets useful and not glitchy right? If they can’t accomplish fixing pets ALL of these posts are going to end up useless.

Anet has to build in a option to stow pets permanently. Period.

Part 1

Specific Game Mode

PvE

Proposal Overview & Proposal Functionality

Changes in current Traits and balance of Ranger weapons with an eye on these changes.

I was completely satisfied with the current concept of the Ranger, I’m not satisfied only with the pet response and location&functionality of more than 50% Traits.

Goal of Proposal

• Moment of Clarity - All your changes not fix uselessness of this trait.
  As a first approximation, dase and stun effect only have Greatsword skill Hilt Bash, Shortbow skill Concussion Shot and Longbow Point Blank Shot. And their daze/stun durations extremely low – 1s each. And with improvements of trait, 2s not cool at all.
  200%,300% – it’s still be useless mostly for all weapons.

• According “The Attack of Opportunity granted to your pet by this trait replaces, and is replaced by, the Attack of of Opportunity granted by Hilt Bash and by Signet of the Hunt, according to which is applied last. They do not stack.” we have zero changes of this trait.

1. My suggestion to improve this trait – add Attack of Opportunity buff after dodge roll and evasion with Rangers weapons, without staking with multiple dodge/evades and save global 5s-10s cd.
2. Replace +100% Daze and stun duration. to +100% Poison duration (or add trait with this proposal)
3. Many of our weapon skills give concept Ranger, as a class use tactical/dodge concept – switching weapons, mobility, using pet and right place to attack, keeping enemy distance.
4. In that case, we have changes, what adds some new combinations, what’s really presented top tier Trait – for example, we have improve Greatsword damage in autoattack chain – if proc evade, third attack will hit 50% more.
5. Sword&Dagger also can use this change too. Ranger really have so many evade&poison skills, what affected only 1-2 traits and zero grand tier trait. Viper nest trap, over 7 (!) poison pet skills.
6. In many situations, we use dodge to gap distance close to enemy, and if we have dodge proc, our “Maul” from Greatsword will have some burst damage and big numbers, what all people want. And many other uses, and not just only at interrupt.
7. With this change and many innative endurance restore skills on Ranger, we have cool mobile warrior, which use brain for guaranteed bonuses every 5-10 seconds.

• Swap Master’s Bond with Instinctual Bond.

1. In current mechanics, the more you invest in a Beastmastery traitline, the more you need swap pet on every cool-down time.
2. It’s good to WvW and PvP too, making for 5 points strong non-swapping pet, without going deep into Beastmastery traitline (10 points without change).
3. That 5 saved points on Beastmastery will help keep it to spend for 20 or 25 points traits in the other branches, for many builds it’s good choice.
4. Yet it would be good to become not lost stats from pet swap, only lost from pet death.

Part 2

• Instinctual Bond must be activated on 25%-50% health threshold, not on downed state.
• Swap Instinctual Bond with Vigorous Training.

1. With this change it well synchronized with new Enlargement. Adept trait requiring downed state not good choice in many ways. I never use them.
2. Adept tier Vigorous Training is very good for support build like 0-0-30-30-10.
3. Master tier Instinctual Bond good source for raw pet damage and haste pet skills.

• All effects Healer’s Celerity combine with Circle of Life to create Healing tree when revive ally (20 seconds cool-down), instead of giving swiftness and staying to Nature Magic traitline.

• In Wilderness Survival branch Healer’s Celerity transforms to Hunter’s Celerity, giving on Ranger’s downed state 10 second of swiftness&vigor to allies.

1. Thieves have annoying Merciful Ambush, Guardians Resolute Healer, Rangers must be have something useful too.
2. For new Circle of Life trait effects, it bring back nerfed water-field source in some way.
3. For Hunter’s Celerity new trait, it’s going to nice utility trait too.
4. For example it’s good choice in everything, adding speed/evade source to allies (On WvW/PvP/Fractals it make people run away faster from thing what kill you (dodge it), or run close faster to revive you)

Associated Risks

• Moment of Clarity trait change:

1. Add minimum 3 new possible builds, combined with all variety of Ranger weapons (Raw damage on evade, poison stacks, with or without crit stacking, with or without traps and etc).
2. Easy balance, switching cool-down on proc buff effect Attack of Opportunity (5, 10, 15 seconds), Poison duration (+50%, +200%)

• Swapping Master’s Bond with Instinctual Bond:

1. Add potential to Beastmastery line on every game aspect, 5 points strong pet, no need change global HP for all pets for WvW/PvE/PvP/Fractal’s, 5 points minor trait do it for you.

• Instinctual Bond trait change:

1. No need strong pet AI coding – pet everytime can be hasted, when Ranger itself in real troubles (less than 1-99% hp), and it comes time for accelerated pet action
2. Again, easy trait balance – less than 20-70% Ranger hp, with 20-50 second cd

• Healer’s Celerity* and Circle of Life changes:

1. Traits and trait effects placed into right places, and become a great support traits on WvW/PvP

P.S.

Previously in my forum post’s, i also negate Remorseless, what at that time not have resumed crit on battle, now you change it, and skirmishing trait line became better.

Please, combine Piercing Arrows,Eagle Eye,Quicl Draw in any source of viable single trait.

Specific Game Mode
PvE

Proposal Overview
Exchange of the Traits [Martial Mastery] (Wilderness Survival X) and [Trap Potency] (Skirmishing XI)

Goal of Proposal
Making trap builds a little bit more easy to attain and keeping the Sword or Greatsword builds more specialized in a trait line where they actually are useful.

Proposal Functionality
[Martial Mastery] is at the moment a Master Trait of Wilderness Survival. The Trait line where you get Vitality + Condition Damage. [Martial Mastery] reduces recharge of Sword/ Greatsword and Spear by 20%.
The only skills of these 3 weapons that actually have damage conditions in them, are [Serpent Strike] of the Sword and [Dart] of the Spear. Both of which are not any spammable attacks and are not ideal for condition damage. Why is the recharge on those 3 weapons then in the condition damage traitline?
In comparison, many traps actually deal good condition damage. But the [Trap Potency], which reduces its cooldowns, is a Grandmaster! Trait of Skirmishing, where you aquire Precision and Crit damage?

So my suggestion would be to just switch those two, making [Trap Potency] a Master trait of Wilderness Survival, which sounds alot more like actual wilderness survival, and makeing [Martial Mastery] a grandmaster Trait in skirmishing, so that players which go for those weapons, have the chance to actually get the cooldown on those. At the moment having [Martial Mastery] pretty much disables you to play Greatsword and Sword, because you go heavy on condition damage, in order to get it.

Associated Risks
It makes Trap builds more easy acquireable and gives greatsword and sword a boost in a zerker build. The chances of it being too strong is really low though, but it gives a nice boost and actually makes it possible to play different builds.

So its been about 24 hours at at this point, 7 pages of proposals, and very little response (pratically none) to said proposals from devs. I was under the impression (perhaps incorrectly?) that devs would be active proponents in the advancement of the discussion in this forum. So far what im mostly seeing is people posting their own ideas and ignoring/bypassing the ideas of others. We honestly need some sort of moderation in here, motivation if you will, on the part of the devs, to move this thread in a direction of discussion, other wise by tommorow well be 20 pages in, floating in a sea of lost and forgotten proposals. Are the ideas good so far? are they way off base? What aspects of the proposals so far are peaking your intrest? More dev involvment please from here on out please.

lushy.5310:

I am really surprised with 90% of these posts. They show that most players just do not know how to play a ranger.

- Pets do not die if you play well (not in Wurrm, Teq or any fractals 50)

Wrong.

1) Mai trin, unleash the cannons. Last 30 seconds (means you can swap pet only once). Even if you call return me, pet would still move into red circles and dieing eventually.
2) Aetherblade Fractal, Frizz. Last 3 phases. Even though easier than Mai Trin, pets is likely to die.
3) Molten furnace fractal, weapon test. Pet wont stack with group, it is probably gonna die.
4) Volcanic fractal, Legendary Grawl Shaman. Your pet won’t move around to save itself from burning. It will probably die.

Now, you can probably save your pet at 2,3 and 4 with extensive care. But why do ranger has to take extensive care to do normal damage? This is the question here. And I would love to see you save your pet in Mai Trin. If you can, at fractal 30 and higher, please take 2 screenshots at the start and at the end of unleash the cannons part with time stamps on and show me that your pet do not die.

GeneralJimmy.2186:

Currently Gaurd and Sic em are bad skills. The Ai cant handle the Sic Em buff. Gaurd only serves as a trait trigger neither does any thing for the ranger or his team.

I often see people saying that Guard does nothing, but that is not true.

1. Guard gives protection and stealth to the pet. (The pet lives longer).
2. Guard defines an area around the pet where the pet will automatically attack enemies without them having to first interact with you or the pet. When its target dies, it immediately starts moving to another target in the area instead of immediately running back to you. This reduces the lag time between when you choose a target and when it starts moving to attack (Less waiting around & running back to you = more attacking = more efficient damage dealing).
3. Guard defines an area around the pet that it won’t leave… if enemies get too far away it will stop chasing that squirrel. The pet can be assigned to guard a relatively safer area… like the catapults in back, or guard the area near you while you pew-pew targets 1500 units away. It is ready to leap into action when an enemy approaches instead of being way off chasing your far targets in the heart of the aoe spam.
4. Guard allows you to leave the pet someplace… outside a tower gate or on the floor of garrison, while you run upstairs to use the oil or ac or ballista during the defense (as long as you don’t run too far in the process). With clever use, it allows you to use your pet in situations it would normally just be sitting useless near you.

Guard has a role in pet management.

Specific Game Mode
WvW (I primarily play PvE, but am trying to get into WvW)

Proposal Overview
I feel that the Ranger is fairly strong in PvE, however, in WvW it seems to fall flat comparatively.

It was stated that the Ranger is intended to have some of the highest single target and sustained damage of any class; it does not seem to fit that at all, at least in WvW. This proposal aims to correct some of those issues while staying in step with the design philosophy of the class.

Goal of Proposal
To make the Ranger a stronger class in WvW, through improvement to the pet as well as make it actually behave in accordance with the stated design philosophy.

Firstly, in order to be an effective single-target damage dealer in WvW, burst damage is needed. That is fairly lacking. Sustained damage is, while nice, usually not effective in ending a fight before a target can escape or kill you. Alternatively, survivability and/or speed is needed to make the sustained damage aspect of the design work.

As it stands, pets are a major hindrance— they cannot be effectively sent to slow an enemy down (they cannot damage a moving target well) and are easily killed because they cannot dodge, particularly against AoE, making them an extreme liability in group combat. Given the design philosophy, one might expect that rangers could form an assassin-like squad and be used to take out key members of opposing worlds using their high range and damage to conduct faster strikes. Unfortunately, in practice, this isn’t do-able. Rangers mobility is dramatically affected by the pet— in order to slow a Ranger sufficiently to catch and kill him, all an opponent need do is attack the pet and the Ranger is instantly reduced to combat speed, making escape impossible or insuring the opponent’s own escape. Meanwhile, the pet is generally unable to retaliate due to targeting problems.

Proposal Functionality
The Ranger should be given additional burst capability. The longbow damage increase with range was a good step in the right direction, but it is problematic for a couple of reasons: A Ranger who has traited to increase his longbow range cannot auto-attack at maximum range— it constantly cancels, forcing you to manually press the button for each individual attack. Additionally, a Ranger at maximum range cannot participate in his group boons at all, further weakening him and making him an easy target. The long bow should have the traited max-range fixed, as well as doing maximum damage at all ranges allowing the Ranger to choose which range they wish to engage at, while applying other conditions at longer range (such as proposed by mtpelion.4562 on page 1)

The pet issues could be fixed by adjusting pet melee targeting range and increasing the Ranger’s control over the pet. Currently the only options for control are “attack my target”, “return to me (and do nothing until you receive another order)” or “don’t attack anything and stand around”. Adding a “guard me” option where a pet will attack opponents entering a certain range would be extremely useful in helping a Ranger survive, and perhaps allowing them to focus on a distant target while not leaving themselves completely defenseless. (Note: the Guard utility skill seems to be nice for this, although I never have the utility slots available to use it. This should not be required to use up a utility skill.)

It would also be useful to be able to set the guard range of the pet; something like telling it to stay within a particular radius of the player to facilitate tighter maneuvers. Perhaps ranges like “distant” (perhaps roughly the radius of Barrage; I have seen my pets sit at this range occasionally), “two body lengths (ish)”, and “sit on my foot”

Associated Risks
Increasing the Ranger’s single-target effectiveness will change the WvW landscape somewhat. I do not see this as a problem, since currently the Ranger is widely regarded as weakest in WvW (by a large margin), but there are some balancing concerns here.

Another note
This is for all modes: It would be nice if some long-standing issues were corrected with pets in general. In beta, pet names were remembered across change-outs (not swaps, but actually using the pet management menu to select different ones). This has never been brought back since beta, and along with general pet deficiencies, the pet mechanic feels like an afterthought to players. It would go a long way to helping that feeling if some of these problems were resolved.

I know this has been mentioned already, but sometimes in tandem with adding a passive buff to ranger damage. I believe this is a required addition regardless of whether or not the ranger receives any sort of buff for doing it.

Specific Game Mode:
PvX (Specifically PvE)

Proposal Overview:
Add in a permanent stow option for pets. This option would be use-able in or out of combat, but the pet would either have decreased or be unable to regenerate health while stowed in combat.

Goal of Proposal:
Fix specific situations in which the pet becomes a burden on the player and/or it is impossible to maintain the pet alive. The option would also give the ranger a way to negate damage to the pet without being tied into the ranger’s dodge and thereby hindering our own ability to survive.

Proposal Functionality:
Change the F1 function to toggle the pet as attacking (aggressive) or following (passive). Change the F3 to a permanent stow option. This could have the pet either fully disappear, or change into an ethereal like version of the pet where it cannot be the target of, or take damage from, any enemy attacks or skills. This would allow the ranger to stow the pet during high AoE aspects of fights such as the Mai Trin bombardment phase (which it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep the pet alive), prevent the pet from being the target of boss attacks that hinder progression against the boss (Jade Maw death ray), and allow the ranger a way to negate damage to the pet without hindering our own ability to survive. This function could have a cooldown just like pet swapping while in combat to prevent abuse.

Associated Risks:
Without some sort of cooldown on your ability to stow and recall the pet I’m sure players would find a way to abuse it.

GLOBAL PROPOSAL

*No skill should require more than two traits to max out. *

This results in specialist gimmick builds with no diversity that aren’t fun to play. This should apply to all classes in all game types, but, for example, you don’t see a rangers with a trap, a spirit, and a shout because the trait load outs are too onerous. Rangers need 3 traits just to get their bows working properly, 3 for signets, 3 for spirits, at least 2 for traps, 2 or 3 for reviving….

It’s is not a coincidence that weapon and slot skills that are affected by the most traits are among the most underwhelming in the game.

Sepecific Proposals

Remove Piercing Arrows just give it to Ranger Bows by default. Warrior bow has this already, thief bow bounces, why is ranger bow worse than both?

merge signet mastery/beast master’s might into one trait

Eliminate Trap potency. Refund some small percentage of the cooldown reduction and condition duration to normal trap skills.

With the eliminated traits freeing up some slots, the ranger can hopefully get some traits to help out with conditions. In sPvP, immobilize is a hard counter to ranger, but even basic bleeds are tough to get rid of.

Specific Game Mode
PvE (PvX)

Proposal Overview
Healing Fixes
Troll Unguent: Troll Unguent should apply condition removal for each pulse. Reduce pulses but increase healing coefficient (same healing, less time – thus less time of condition removal. I would even suggest adding stability to it for an extra source of the boon outside of elites.

Heal as One: Acts as a revive to pet if pet is defeated.

Spirit of Water: Chance to heal on hit and cleanse a condition

Goal of Proposal
Right now healing spring is THE healing skill most rangers use. It has a balanced cooldown, good healing coefficient, applies regen and heals conditions with every pulse and gives a water combo field. There is literally nothing bad about this skill. Even with my proposed changes, HS will likely still be the go to heal.
Changes will balance the other heals and perhaps add some motivation to using them.

Proposal Functionality
TU: TU is a good healing skill that increases the survivability, over time, of the ranger. Adding condition removal fits the theme of the skill and the existing gameplay it favors. Furthermore adding more condition removal to a class that lacks it, is a step in the right direction. Adding stability is just an additional carrot to the skill that gives the ranger a source of the boon outside of elites.

Heal as One: This is a bland healing skill, besides the short cool down, there is very little reason to take it over other heals. Giving an on use pet revive would make this a favorable heal for any build.

Spirit of Water: Simply adding some condition removal to it would make it a competitive heal compare to HS.

Associated Risks
It will make Ranger Heals more powerful. As it is now, HS is one of the best heals in the game so I think just bringing them in line with Healing Spring won’t over balance the class – it simply gives the Ranger more choices.

Specific Game Mode
PvP (PvX)
Proposal Overview
Signet Actives

Goal of Proposal
change so signets fit in to all/many builds and dont require a whole build centerd around them.

Proposal Functionality
Signet of renewal is a “easy” fix change from draw to send. Evan better remove stunbreak and lower CD
Signet of the Hunt Stunbreak

Dont no about the other ones but Just in generall stuff should be about the ranger not the pet. A few Ideas:
Merge the CD and might on actvation traits
A trait that lets u keep the pasive affects when there on CD.
Trait that removes condis on sig activtion.

Associated Risks
General balance Issues

lushy.5310:

I am really surprised with 90% of these posts. They show that most players just do not know how to play a ranger. Since…
- Pets are Rangers, Rangers are Pets. Take another profession if you do not like to control 2 things (the pet and the ranger) at the same time.
- Pets do not die if you play well (not in Wurrm, Teq or any fractals 50)
- Ranger+Pet do an amazing direct dps in PVE [note: I am full berserker, full ascended, full infused (with +5p and +5 T in armour) SSS ranger (sword, spotter, spirit)]
Please, do not make rangers as easy to play as other professions.

Lushy – c’mon man, be reasonable.

Okay, while it’s obvious that some of the “pets are terrible and useless” comments are nothing more than overstated hyperbole in order to buttress arguments, the same is true in reverse. The “pets are fine, L2P” argument is equally as ridiculous.

Somewhere between the goofy claims that pets die from a breeze and actually hurt more than they help, and the equally false claims that pets are great, just add a “save pet name option” is all they need … somewhere between those 2 extremes lies the truth.

True, there are people here that actually believe that if they describe Ranger issues in the most dire manner that Anet is going to do a 100% overhaul of the Ranger so that they can play the massive ranged damage “pet-less ranger” they would prefer – but it’s just not going to happen. Because there is no way Anet is going to redesign the 3rd most popular class into something that is so far removed from what a massive amount of the Ranger player-base had in mind when they chose to roll a Ranger, that they would alienate them all to please a vocal minority of forum posters. Not to mention the time and resources needed in order to “re-invent the wheel” so-to-speak.

On the other hand, Lushy, we are NOT imagining things .. there is a pet F2 responsiveness issue, there does exist an issue from pets being too vulnerable to AOE in dungeons and WvW zergs, and there is an issue with pets being able to effectively hit moving targets … these are real issues, and not some imaginary stories made up by people that need to “L2P”.

Specific Game Mode
This is principally targeted at WvW though it applies to any team based play in PvE as well. It is also a strategic concept discussion rather that addressing just changes to weapon and trait mechanics.

Proposal Overview
There have been many times that I have finished a session in WvW as a ranger and thought that was fun, I collected lots of chests, points and bags but did I actually contribute to the team.
Even if you only contribute a little to a successful engagement you still should feel that by completing your role that you made a difference.
No profession should be in a position where teams post “not wanted” because they do— or are perceived to—contribute less. For a number of the adventurer and scholar classes this is a problem.

Goal of Proposal
To give the ranger a sense of importance in team and WvW play–both in offensive and defensive engagements.

Proposal Functionality
Core issue: To facilitate roles there needs to be trade-offs between the classes in terms of strengths and weakness. The biggest issue here relates to weight (armour) vs mobility. You cannot have the heaviest armour classes possessing equal or the best land speed. It severely limits the role of light and medium armour classes. Mobility needs to be an asset. Scholars should have the greatest base speed with soldiers the slowest.

Core issue: Pets need an attribute that makes them valuable in team play.

Rangers should not be viewed as a Pet based profession. Professions need to be orientated towards a purpose. Rangers are the ideal guerrilla class. Pets are a tool that we use.
For example;  

• Increase the damage of the longbow especially in flanking and rear attacks or from higher ground.
• New wilderness trait: camouflage – player and pet are not detectable until within xxx range unless a weapon is used.
• Signet of the wild: new active requiring camouflage trait—provides camouflage and first strike bonus to nearby (up to x number of) allies until within xxx range unless a weapon is used.

Note this is not the same as stealth – it allows movement close to or around opponents without detection, for executing an unexpected first strike, or for hiding a proportion of a force from an enemy before engagement.

Traps are a classic weapon for guerrillas so make them dangerous with power scaling

• minimum trap size as is
• medium scaling – additional time spent in preparation –increases the radius and damage
• with supply (WvW)–which is consumed in the trap. Has the highest level of radius and damage. Keep in mind the supply requirement limits a single ranger to setting one powerful suppy based trap
  The ranger is however vulnerable to attack when setting these traps – any interruption whilst setting the trap destroys the trap.

Why give rangers these capabilities in WvW? Essentially to break up the zerg, by providing a threat to its dominance by potentially smaller coordinated groups. Hopefully this will facilitate complex strategies and provide enriched roles for other adventurer and scholar classes in acting as flank guards or sweepers engaging potential threats until the main body arrive. No different from the traditional role of light infantry/cavalry in real warfare.

In developing offensive capabilities like this for one class you automatically create potential counter roles for other classes.

An example of a team based attribute for pets is to provide a pet trait which exposes enemies using stealth within a given range of the pet to the team.

Zatoichi.1049:

So its been about 24 hours at at this point, 7 pages of proposals, and very little response (pratically none) to said proposals from devs. I was under the impression (perhaps incorrectly?) that devs would be active proponents in the advancement of the discussion in this forum. So far what im mostly seeing is people posting their own ideas and ignoring/bypassing the ideas of others. We honestly need some sort of moderation in here, motivation if you will, on the part of the devs, to move this thread in a direction of discussion, other wise by tommorow well be 20 pages in, floating in a sea of lost and forgotten proposals. Are the ideas good so far? are they way off base? What aspects of the proposals so far are peaking your intrest? More dev involvment please from here on out please.

This. +1

Otherwise, CDI or not…

xallever.1874:

Zatoichi.1049:

So its been about 24 hours at at this point, 7 pages of proposals, and very little response (pratically none) to said proposals from devs. I was under the impression (perhaps incorrectly?) that devs would be active proponents in the advancement of the discussion in this forum. So far what im mostly seeing is people posting their own ideas and ignoring/bypassing the ideas of others. We honestly need some sort of moderation in here, motivation if you will, on the part of the devs, to move this thread in a direction of discussion, other wise by tommorow well be 20 pages in, floating in a sea of lost and forgotten proposals. Are the ideas good so far? are they way off base? What aspects of the proposals so far are peaking your intrest? More dev involvment please from here on out please.

This. +1

Otherwise, CDI or not…

It’s 8 o’clock in seattle. Just wait, you probably wont get response to your suggestion anyways since this thread is already 350 posts long.