Guild Wars 2

<WvW +>

Overview
So, some people want to have no pet, and want spirits to work differently. What if spirits were pets?

Goal
Pets and spirits both have poor uptime in some gameplay modes, and do not fit the desired play style of some rangers. Merge spirits into pet category with unique mechanics for a dependable solution.

Functionality
A spirit in a pet slot will follow you around, giving you and allies in range an effect like they do now, (but stronger).

Instead of health, they have a Spirit Power gauge that depletes whenever the buff procs, and recharges slowly over time. If the gauge runs empty, the spirit disappears until power refills. Importantly: having no health means they are immune to damage, (but still susceptible to control effects), making them viable in AoE-heavy situations. When swapping between a spirit and a living pet, the spirit power and health gauges share the same approximate level.

Commands for spirits would be different than fleshy pets:

• F1: Force effect to proc on next attack (consumes extra power)
• F2: Trigger spirit’s active skill
• F3: Toggle spirit’s range on/off, to grant effect to allies or conserve power

When a spirit is in the “stowed” pet slot instead of being out and active, it still grants its effect to the ranger themselves – on a lower proc chance and without consuming spirit power.

Risks
Having multiple spirits up simultaneously is no longer possible, (unless we get an elite skill to bring out both pets simultaneously for a while), effectively ending the “spirit build” as we know it. You have less counter-play against an enemy’s spirit, aside from stunning it or hoping they run it out of power. Traits and balance would need to be heavily reworked. Rangers would lose an entire category of right-side skills, which would probably need to be replaced. Altogether, this change would require a hefty investment of team resources.

(Note: The forthcoming subclass CDI could theoretically have a large impact on this concept.)

Specific Game Mode
PvE, but really any game mode that has rangers play with groups.

Proposal Overview

Change Point Blank Shot to Daze instead of Knockback. Increase range for greater functionality.

Goal of Proposal

This skill offers very little to no benefits to groups and frequently hinders other players functionality. As a Knockback, its range is too far and its recharge is too short allowing it to be spammed safely and conveniently from range. However, it is not safe or convenient to other players in the ranger’s group. It knocks opponents out of their melee range frequently caused allied attacks to miss and either rescuing opponents or putting melee allies in greater danger. Thus, it serves little purpose in group play and causes frustration to those who have rangers in their groups.

The proposed changes will keep/improve the functionality of the skill as an interrupt without making the ranger a nuisance to group play.

Proposal Functionality

“Daze your foe with a point-blank shot. The closer they are, the longer the duration of daze.”

Activation Time: No Change
Recharge Time: Increased by 5 to 20s

Damage: No change
Daze 1s for range greater than 900
Daze 2s for range between 300-900
Daze 2s, Stun 1s for range less than 300
Combo Finisher: No Change
Range: Increase by 300 to 1200

Associated Risks

Basically, this is a longer range/duration version of Concussion Shot. The addition of Stun at 1s is less useful in PvE, because most monsters behave as if stunned when dazed anyway. Also, a 2 second daze might still be overpowered at 20 second recharge, but trying to keep this skill as powerful as before while getting rid of its annoyance factor to allies.

Marksmanship/Skirmishing Trait changes here!

Wilderness Survival Trait problems

A lot of traits in other lines I have placed here, so this trait line may require some pruning in the end.

Off-Hand Training A very nice trait for a lot of builds, but stuck in a traitline it has no particular attachment too. Move to Marksmanship or Skirmishing.

Oakheart Salve Possibly this is absolutely fantastic in PvP but a part of me feels it’s cooldown should go down to 10s. Either way, it suits Nature Magic as a traitline more.

Martial Mastery 100% a generic power trait. It screams to be in the Marksmanship tree – how it lasted so long stuck here is frankly silly.

Some of these traits to me, someone who does not play Ranger in PvP, definately look like they could be combined without causing the Forest of Niflhel burning down. Hide in Plain Sight/Shared Anguish seem very close in purpose. This would give more room for the incoming mass of Trap/Condition damage traits arriving from their exodus into other trait lines.

Nature Magic Trait problems

Concentration Training A large part of the little love I have for pets is their ability to give party wide boons. This seems more fitting for Beastmastery.

Spirits seem to have big problems anyway. (Fun Fact: I submitted a bug report in Beta Weekend 2 that spirits did not work as their tooltip implied, in fact discovering through testing that they had an ICD, which I thought surely, surely, must be a bug) I won’t list specific changes to traits then, as to be honest, I think they require a complete overall – more so than the pet.

Evasive Purity For this high invested into a very healing orientated line, I expect more than Poison/Blind removal. Either remove any one condition, or remove a bigger list of conditions here.

Two-Handed Training Even more cuckoo in the nest that last time, this Trait would fit better into Marksmanship or Skirmishing.

Nature’s Voice I understand that it applies Regeneration, but attaching it to Pet shouts seems to suggest Beastmastery more than Nature Magic. Also is this worth a Grandmaster trait slot in any game mode? If the GM is to be filled with applying regeneration, it at least should get some more use – changing it to “When you use a Pet F2 skill, you and your allies gain Swiftness/Regeneration” would at least mean that it would come up more often.

Part 2 End

Karl McLain.5604:

mtpelion.4562:

Wilderness experts should be masters of poisons. Therefore, Rangers should have the most potent poisons available.

Great point here and I agree. I would be awesome to see a way to increase poison potency for the Ranger and it’s something we’ve been talking about internally as well. We’ll keep looking into it and see if there’s something that can happen here.

If they become even better at poisons then the spirit ranger build definitely needs nerfs. That’s mostly a condi spec. I’d like to see the shortbow become the best ranger condi weapon.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Many of you have suggested removing traps from the Skirmishing line. It seems the primary reason for this is because it is the crit line while traps are primarily focused on conditions.

Given the idea behind skirmishing (for Ranger, we expect them to be able to survive longer while whittling their opponent down), would it maybe make more sense to leave the traps there and perhaps swap the stats with a different line?

I was just about to come post on this topic, then decided it would be better to check the Dev Tracker first…

It has been suggested multiple times that traps should be moved to the Wilderness Survival line due to stat synergy. If you take this route, I feel that the trap traits would need to be moved down in tiers to not create a conflict between Trap Potency and Empathic Bond. If Trap Potency and Empathic Bond are GM traits in the same line, you run the risk of killing off WvW trap builds.

(One only has to look at how infrequently Barkskin is used to see how Empathic Bond currently dwarfs its competing GM trait).

Regarding the quote, I think this would be an interesting approach. If you implemented your suggestion, would Precision be maintained as the primary stat bonus (as to be consistent with all other second trait lines)? If so, would the secondary bonus be switched to Condition Damage to better synergize with traps?

From a power-build perspective, pairing Precision with Crit Damage is very helpful, and separating them, as noted above, could be detrimental to the future of Ranger power builds.

That said, maybe it would make logical sense to move Skirmishing away from Precision and Crit Damage, but keep those two stats paired in a different line. Thematically, your idea of Skirmishing being focused on survival and attrition does not lend itself to increased crit chance and damage. IMO, Marksmanship would have a good thematic relation crit based traits (in name only; not necessarily in the specific traits currently assigned to Marksmanship).

PvX

Greatsword Rework

To make the Greatsword function properly as a power based weapon

Functionality

GS1 >> Triple the damage, why? because with a full crit build a swing with my might sunrise does a might 1200 damage on a good day…this is against normal enemies with regular armor at level 80. With a bunker build, this does 200-400 damage. Not the GS is not a condition based weapon, so why it does little to no damage is beyond me.

GS2 >> Add an Aoe cripple cone or a knockdown

GS3 >> An evade during the duration of the cast would be nice and make sense

GS4 >> If i did not know better i would say the root was a bug, not sluggish animation. Make the knockdown super fast or don’t root us while were counterattacking .

GS5 >> A very underwhelming skill 5 … a 1 person stun for 1 second…what are we supposed to do with that? Yes with attack of opportunity it goes to a 2 second stun…even still it is 1 hard to land and 2 does very little damage with a very mediocre stun duration that is ONLY viable if you trait 30 points into skirmishing.

risks
None

BondageBill.4021:

That said, maybe it would make logical sense to move Skirmishing away from Precision and Crit Damage, but keep those two stats paired in a different line. Thematically, your idea of Skirmishing being focused on survival and attrition does not lend itself to increased crit chance and damage. IMO, Marksmanship would have a good thematic relation crit based traits (in name only; not necessarily in the specific traits currently assigned to Marksmanship).

I don’t think that would work. If you notice, every single traitline in every class is always following the same pattern, in that they’re all the following from top to bottom, in order.

Power, Precision, Toughness, Vitality, Class Mechanic

I feel the primary stat for the traitlines shouldn’t be changed, but the secondary stats SHOULD be flipped around. This fixes the problems with several traits seemingly being in the wrong traitlines (IE trap traits) with minimal trait changes required.

As someone who decided to play a ranger, I picked the class because, like many, I wanted to play that “archer/survivalist” type role. I debated and debated on what class to pick, since from the beginning, I did NOT want a pet tagging along. Personally, I’ve just always hated them. After playing for over a year now, I can definitely say that hatred has increased, as I have watched my pet fail to hit moving targets, sap 20-30% of my damage, draw aggro from mobs I was trying to run through, and die in an instant in an AoE storm in WvW.

Having said all that, I am extremely in favor of appeasing people on both sides of the “pet fence.” I would like to see basic fixes such as F2 skills activating immediately, and more importantly, some better pet A.I. I’d also love to see a stow option, as some people like myself do not and have not ever wanted to use the pet. I like the idea of some kind of aura or special buff when your pet is stowed, but at the same time it needs to be balanced enough so that not everyone goes right to stowing their pet for the rest of their days.

I think it would be cool to let the players play how they want. Fix/change some pet aspects, and give players the option of getting rid of them. Also, good to see all the dev response on here, makes me have some hope for this class after suffering for so long!

Allie Murdock.8152:

Many of you have suggested removing traps from the Skirmishing line. It seems the primary reason for this is because it is the crit line while traps are primarily focused on conditions.

Given the idea behind skirmishing (for Ranger, we expect them to be able to survive longer while whittling their opponent down), would it maybe make more sense to leave the traps there and perhaps swap the stats with a different line?

While its easy to become damage-obsessed in this game, the stat boost that needs to appear in the same line with the Trap-enhancing Traits is Condition Duration, not Condition Damage.

Look at the traps ~
Flame Trap: Set a trap that burns foes.
Frost Trap: Set a trap that chills foes.
Spike Trap: Set a trap that bleeds and cripples foes.
Viper’s Nest: Set a trap that poisons foes.

While damage is good, duration enhances all the effects of Ranger Traps.

The simplest swap is move Condition Duration to Skirmishing, Crit Damage to Marksmanship, a name that certainly suggest pin-point accuracy and an arrow in the eye… a.k.a. a crit that really hurts

Marksmanship leverages Condition Duration through Opening Strike (vulnerability) and the Keen Edge (bleeds) and Preadtor’s Instinct (cripple) traits. The Traits could be moved… Predator’s Instinct sounds like it may be more skirmishing-themed to begin with. While the swap would hurt Opening Strike, I think many would embrace a clearly defined “This is the Power Ranger Line” providing both Power & Crit Damage. This swap would also leave Condition Damage in Wilderness Survival, a line already nominated as the home for improved Poison Condition themed effects…

If you were to move Condition Damage to Skirmishing, rather than swap Crit Damage, I would suggest a new stat bonus be added to Wildeness Survival called “Persistence”. Persistence would give a -1% incoming Condition Duration per trait point (max -30%). While not an effect considered for trait lines when the game launched, it has proven immensely popular for defensive-minded build via food buffs, and would give Rangers a unique alternative to condition removal, an area they could definitely use some help with.

Permastow just seems like a roundabout form of Pet Invulnerability to me.

You know, between all this talk of pet dodging, micromanagement, Aegis, AOE reduction, Stowing, etc. I kind of don’t wonder if it might just be more direct to revisit Pet Health as our profession resource. If we’re all trying this hard to circumvent it, maybe it’s just not the way to go.

Specific Game Mode
PvE; larger implications

Proposal Overview
Remove Pet Health as profession resource; Replace with something else movement-based.

Goal of Proposal
Health doesn’t have the ability to scale with encounter size, it can make you feel punished for reasons outside of your control, and it requires a Goldilocks zone of Damage Input in order to get some good gameplay out of it and that’s a relatively rare event in the game proper.

But more importantly; it doesn’t forward Ranger’s agenda as a Resilient Sustain-based Skirmisher.

A Pet having Health doesn’t improve our Resilience; having my pet break down in dangerous situations means it isn’t around to help me when I need Resilience. It doesn’t improve our Sustain; if anything a pet dying and taking our damage with it runs counter to the notion. It doesn’t improve our ability to Skirmish, in hard situations it’s not having a positive impact and in easy situations Pet Health+Aggro is a holdover from games with Tanking and it plays that way.

Pet Health just sort of exists for its own sake wholly independent of what the Ranger is trying to accomplish. Regulating it to bite-sized doses doesn’t really save it from being a pretty broken notion.

Proposal Functionality
I think in some way you have to use the Pet to affect movement and the profession resource should be related to the Master’s movement, in order to really play into Skirmishing concepts. If you allow the pet to invite some form of control-based counterplay, this can improve Resilience by encouraging people to switch targets. Sustain should probably be handled by Master, to avoid the Damage Division and it’s problems.

I have no idea what’s technically feasible on the development end. So I’ll just toss out a couple suggestions of the sort of thing I’m talking about to get the ball rolling.

• Proposal Functionality Example: Pet affects Enemy movement negatively and resource is restored by Master’s movement.
  Changing F3 to: ‘Your pet charges to target location, Launching nearby foes during travel.’ Similar to porcine charge, wind-up included, except it keeps going. And the profession resource is basically your kinetic energy buildup that your gifting to the pet so it can do this. The greater the distance you ask it go, the more energy it uses up. But the more you move around in combat, the more energy a pet has to work with.

• Proposal Functionality Example: Pet affects Master’s movement positively and resource is restored by Master’s skirmishing skill use.
  Changing F3 to a ‘leap’ towards the pet. The farther the pet is from you, the more distance you can ‘overshoot’ it. Sort of like having a rubber band between you and the pet, and the pet resource is a visual representation of it’s ‘tension’. You can improve the elasticity of the rubberband by using your own leaps/retreats/evades/swiftness. Would really need a ‘go to’ command on F-skills somewhere to really get the most out of it, and Longbow and Axe would need to get some of these skills so they can join the party.

Associated Risks

• Your Pet is your Tank is one of the classic tenants of Pets in ye old Trinity RPGs. What makes it so out-of-synch with Ranger’s gameplay intentions, and honestly the game at large, also makes it iconic. Iconic things are hard to kill.
• So, So much rebalancing. Oh god. The Workload.

WvW

Proposal Overview
An increase in Ranger CC to help pets hit more reliably thereby making them a real threat in a fight.

Goal of Proposal
The class is designed to be a 2v1 class but pets aren’t helping much. Pets have trouble hitting player targets that move! Thus Pet builds should be built to help assist pets hit more by use of cripple chill and immobilize and utilities and traits should reflect this. As it stands the pet is not really a threat. For it to be a true 2v1, the enemy should have to think about whether or not he should consider killing the pet, not just going for ranger. This will help to increase ranger utility in PvP situations. Redesigned shouts will also increase ranger and their pets utility in dungeons making them more desirable.

Proposal Functionality
SHOUTS
They need a rework. In some cases shouts are just used to proc Natures voice, extremely sad. Rework shouts so that and help Pets hit more to increase their effectiveness

Sickem (CD lowered) – for pet burst
Reveal 4 seconds
Your next attack immobilizes your foe (3 seconds) and your pets next two attacks deal 100% more damage.

Protect Me changed to “Watch Out” – good for defense and zerg play
Your pet gains protection and retaliation (5 seconds) and you gain vigor (4 seconds)
Stun Breaker

Search and Rescue changed to “Special Attack” – good for pet interaction and burst (lower CD)
Recharge your pets skills and F2 instantly, refresh Pet Skill que.

Guard – A naturally instinct for a pet to guard its on territory.
Your Pet protects an area of your choosing gaining +30% damage and +20% speed for 10 seconds. Allies in the area gain 3 seconds of protection.

New trait, “Foot specialist” – Remove Masters Bond
Immobilize and Cripple you apply last 33% longer

New trait, “Target in sight” –New 5 point BM Minor (15 sec ICD)
Your pet gains 1 seconds of quickness when you immobilize target foe.
OR your pet deals additional damage to foes suffering from Chill cripple and immobilize (5%) damage increase.

Associated Risks
Shouts might become too strong when paired with Natures voice, that might need to be toned down. Spike trap and Muddy Terrain of course become very good options and perhaps toned down a tick or so. Frost trap with the new minor trait might be considered okay though.

Additional discussion
If the ranger can be built to more support and help pets hit targets with additional immobilize, the overall damage on ranger would improve. in sPvP and roaming. Some of the changes on these shouts would also help pets and pet utility in larger scale fights.

Allie Murdock.8152:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Gotejjeken.1267:

IMO, the discussion on pets is becoming overcomplicated. Why not just redistribute the power, fix the F2 timing, and keep them as-is? The pet is not the problem if you swap it, its the pet hitting things that is a problem.

Also I am not super happy with the idea of stow buffs and even less happy with a perma stow. The pet is part of me as a Ranger, it is one of the core things of the class.

You may not be happy about permastowing. I would be absolutely. Furthermore, if you could stow your pet, you could still use it like you are used to. And people like me, who don’t want to rely on the pet can stow it. Simple as that.

As Orca pointed out, some people aren’t as fond of the pets. The idea of the buff would be to appease everyone. Also, what if stowing the pet and having an aspect gave the Ranger some kind of aura that communicated to others they are in that “aspect”? Would it still feel like the pet was a part of you if them being stowed affected your physical appearance?

If not, I don’t think the aspect idea would be a necessity for players. There are definitely things that need to be done to fix Ranger pets in general, and it’s something we are well aware of. If we fixed those things, but maybe also added in the aspect idea, I think we’d be in a spot where everyone would be pleased, no?

Just musing!

I like where your going with this Allie. Ranger is my first and favorite class in GW1 and 2 so I have a lot riding on these changes.

Having a different color aura like green (holographic looking effect kinda like how spirits and spirit weapons look) with fur on different body parts for bear

Blue effect with claws and tail for canines

Red effect with like fangs and some other thing for Cats

Yellow with wings and such for Birds etc..

of course it doesnt have to be the effects I listed (Your not paying me to think of cool effects and im sure the artists at Anet can come up with much better effects than me)
The main idea of the effects is a certain color for certain pet type with some physical differences with opacity so its easy to tell the difference.

This would only appear when you enter combat and when the pet is stowed. The aspects could be buffs like 20% more healing and 15% chance for 2s protection on strike (10s cd) for Feline Aspect.

if all aspects gave you like a 20% dmg boost that would be great.

it would fit the original theme of being one with nature since you would be channeling the spirit of bear and such (like the norns kinda) and using it to support yourself and all that jazz.

It would also open a little more counter play, if some on sees you in feline aspect(or using cat pets) they can switch to using posion skills to counter the extra healing and go for more burst.

You could use this until you actually fix pet AI and still use it after.

I was just looking through all the pet abilities, and I know from experience when they will use a certain skill at a certain time, And I can usually plan my actions accordingly. Ex; I know my bird will grant AoE swiftness when I send it to attack anything, so I send it to attack a random mob and call it back to gain out of combat swiftness.

While I can understand each pet mechanic and how to use them, I think the game could do a better job explaining how each pet will use it’s non-f2 skill. Maybe add in a short description on non-f2 skill when the pet is mostly to use the skill. It might get people thinking those skills aren’t as random as they think. Like if I’m someone new, how would I know when my devourer will use it retreat skill?

I think the pet skills in general need a pass anyway, updating the description on those skill like you did for everything else. Because I know when my bird does it’s swoop attack, it does an evade, even though it doesn’t say so on the skill itself.

I like where this idea of “Aspects” is going and just want to let everyone know I am in full support of it. I’m actually one of the bigger supporters of major improvements to pets; you can view my suggestions at increasing their accuracy in previous pages… yet I think the choice as to how critical the pets are to our character.. should be the players. I’d actually love to try a melee build that doesn’t have me and my pet stepping on eachother’s toes.. and unlike what some people think, it would be VERY different from warriors and thieves. Rangers are much lighter armored than warriors, relying completely on honed instinct and evasion.. giving a completely different feel. At the same time obviously despite high evasion we retain a unique identity from thieves by not relying on stealth mechanics. Pushing up our survivability with our evasion, instincts and nature-inspired quick regeneration, it shouldn’t be surprising that would be some rangers out there that are more of a “Beast-man” than “Man and beast” and able to swing a claymore with no less force than the warrior class. We should logically have options to choose a less pet dependent path, while still having options that rely on the pet that are also very powerful. It’s all about expanding horizons and build variability with “choice”.

I’d find it interesting from a roleplay perspective as well.

Game Mode: PvX, though when playing ranger, mostly PvE and WvW

Proposal Overview:

drastically reduce the pet leash when idle/not attacking. the F3 should bring the pet within 100 units of the ranger at most. add a “melee guard” pet status (alongside “passive” and “guard”) that makes so the pet only attacks targets within melee range of the ranger.

Goal of Proposal:

keeping your pet properly positioned can be a pain even when you call it back, because the “idle leash” sometimes means “almost 300 units away from you, no matter how much you call the pet”. this leads to the ranger sitting safely outside the AoE, while the pet insists on taking damage 200-300 units away.

the melee guard function would allow rangers to keep their pet alive more reliably without resorting to put it on passive, giving them a reliable “offensive-defense” mechanism. the melee guard could be overriden by the F1 attack command, much like the F3 return command overrides the current guard.

Proposal Functionality:

not much that hasn’t been covered on the overview. the idea is tweak already existing pet properties, instead of developing new mechanics, thus providing a faster short term improvement to ranger pets.

reducing the idle leash is a background change that, to the best of my knowledge, doesn’t affect pet AI, so implementation should come without requiring a major redesign.

melee guard is a third status the ranger can pick for their pets, alongside the two current options, guard and passive. the leash on melee guard should be just long enough to allow the ranger to move without breaking the pet’s attacks. ideally, the ranger would be able to dodgeroll backwards, circle strafe, or use hornet sting without breaking the pet’s attack loop.

Associated Risks:

i don’t see any risks with this suggestion. the pet micromanaging level is kept roughly the same as the current state, while being more reliable, responsive allies for group content.

I am really liking this Aspect idea, let’s keep brainstorming about it. Here are my random ideas:

What if the Aspect replaced the existing (and generally agreed problematic) F2 skill? What if it functioned more like an Engineer’s toolkit and replaced the player’s 1-5 skills until they either hit the weapon-swap key or actively used the pet again?

I am kind of envisioning a standard bearbow ranger sniping away, when his target (NPC or other player) gets annoyed and rushes the ranger thinking him an easy target once in melee range. The ranger suddenly merges with his bear and becomes much more formidable in melee having gained the bears hardiness as well as biting/swiping/mauling with increased attack power etc.

Obviously it needs to be balanced a bit because it’s kind of like giving rangers the ability to switch to additional weapons beyond their standard 2… and it’s possibly encroaching too far into the Engineer’s toolkits mechanic, but it sounds like a lot of fun to me.

Blind Jimmy.1634:

I am really liking this Aspect idea, let’s keep brainstorming about it. Here are my random ideas:

What if the Aspect replaced the existing (and generally agreed problematic) F2 skill? What if it functioned more like an Engineer’s toolkit and replaced the player’s 1-5 skills until they either hit the weapon-swap key or actively used the pet again?

I am kind of envisioning a standard bearbow ranger sniping away, when his target (NPC or other player) gets annoyed and rushes the ranger thinking him an easy target once in melee range. The ranger suddenly merges with his bear and becomes much more formidable in melee having gained the bears hardiness as well as biting/swiping/mauling with increased attack power etc.

Obviously it needs to be balanced a bit because it’s kind of like giving rangers the ability to switch to additional weapons beyond their standard 2… and it’s possible encroaching too far into the Engineer’s toolkits mechanic, but it sounds like a lot of fun to me.

Yeah the idea really does sound fun to work with, huge room for variability which I think is something all classes need to see improved over time; more viable builds to play on = more fun.

I like the idea of the ranger gaining the “Aspect” of their pet, however i do think it should be an actual part of the ranger, not a sort of “Choose the pet or choose the aspect” sort of feature.

Essentially, the mechanic should be changed so instead of cycling through 2 pets, the F4 instead “Stows” our pet, giving us their aspect and then hitting kittenain could resummong the pet, removing the access and allowing us to fight alongside them again.

Preferably i’d LOVE to see us have our pet skills (such as shouts, signets, weapon skills that give the pet a boost like Hunter’s Shot, Winter’s Bite, Pounce etc.) have an altered effect if we were using our pets aspect instead of the pet themselves. Also, if while the pet was stowed our F2 became a sort of “Become the Beast” skill which amplified the effect and maybe added another one in addition that’d be AMAZING, and i’d be absolutely in love with ranger (and i love my pets to begin with).

EX: Bird Aspect: Movement Speed increased, Enhanced Aspect= Movement Speed further enhanced and attacks now have a 50% chance to blind with an ICD for a time limit, maybe play a spirity version of the pet around you when you activate this plus a sound effect.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Atherakhia.4086:

Proposal Overview
By now everyone is familiar with the word ‘Zoo’ and how it relates to the Ranger class. While the screen clutter is still there, the strategic value of all the minions has lessened because of the changes to tab targeting. Body blocking is still a large issue though and I am proposing we remove the spirits from the game.

snip

Removing Spirits would be a pretty big change to the class. Additionally, they are part of the “spirit” (sorry, had to) of the Ranger. I do think the idea to add it to the pet is interesting, though I’m not sure how it really makes sense (the pets aren’t the ones drawing from nature, it’s the Ranger).

Do you have any thoughts or ideas that wouldn’t necessarily remove them, but maybe help to lessen the body blocking as you said?

What if you add it to the ranger? We should be a moving banner. May the spirits be with us!

Allie Murdock.8152:

Also, what if stowing the pet and having an aspect gave the Ranger some kind of aura that communicated to others they are in that “aspect”? Would it still feel like the pet was a part of you if them being stowed affected your physical appearance?

One way to simplify the range of mechanics required and FX workload would be to make Aspects based on pet families rather than individual pets.

Aspect of Arachnids
Aspect of Canines
Aspect of Devourers
Aspect of Drakes
Aspect of Felines
Aspect of Moas
Aspect of Porcines
Aspect of Raptors
Aspect of Ursines

And if stowing/Aspect are allowed underwater (not a given, actually), add~
Aspect of Armor Fish
Aspect of Cnidaria (jellyfish)
Aspect of Sharks

For I while I’ve been suggesting replacing the Skirmishing 5-point minor trait with what amounts to a universal aspect~

Lone Wolf: While your pet is stowed you gain a +25% bonus to Power and Condition Damage.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Shadowsong.4820:

Permastowing a pet really shouldn’t be the “solution” to clunky pet mechanics. The people who would prefer this over having the pet mechanics improved/reworked just shouldn’t play rangers, I guess.

That idea would actually be in lieu of a permastow. It would give Rangers a little more utility while not losing site of the concept of a Ranger.

Either way though, I don’t want this whole CDI to be able stowing the pets. There have been a lot of great ideas outside of this one that will help pets to be a more viable option. Perhaps just fixing some of the issues with the AI could be enough for people to feel better about the lack of permastow.

WvW is 1/3 of the game. And at siege, defend, 5+ combats pets just cant deal enough damage… Let us stowe it for an “aspect”. Same with every spirits.

Allie Murdock.8152:

As Orca pointed out, some people aren’t as fond of the pets. The idea of the buff would be to appease everyone. Also, what if stowing the pet and having an aspect gave the Ranger some kind of aura that communicated to others they are in that “aspect”? Would it still feel like the pet was a part of you if them being stowed affected your physical appearance?

If not, I don’t think the aspect idea would be a necessity for players. There are definitely things that need to be done to fix Ranger pets in general, and it’s something we are well aware of. If we fixed those things, but maybe also added in the aspect idea, I think we’d be in a spot where everyone would be pleased, no?

Just musing!

Whatever you guys end up doing, I think you guys should strive to incorporate a way to let players hot swap pets on the fly instead of limiting the player to only two pets/aspects.

I find being limited to 2 pets while in combat to be very shallow. I run pure glass in wvw so I have zero margin of error and I have very specific pet pairs that I use depending on the situation. (spider+wolf for max cc solo, double drakes for open field zerg, stalker + moa for camping keep etc.) And those settings could change from one to the next within minutes.

Being limited to 2 pets because I’m in combat or essentially deterred from changing it due to a clunky interface makes for very frustrating experience in game play. Being able to identify the optimal pet to use in every game play situation should be a requisite skill of a pet based class. And you won’t get that if you don’t make more, if not all, pets available on the fly.

Nike.2631:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Also, what if stowing the pet and having an aspect gave the Ranger some kind of aura that communicated to others they are in that “aspect”? Would it still feel like the pet was a part of you if them being stowed affected your physical appearance?

One way to simplify the range of mechanics required and FX workload would be to make Aspects based on pet families rather than individual pets.

Aspect of Arachnids
Aspect of Canines
Aspect of Devourers
Aspect of Drakes
Aspect of Felines
Aspect of Moas
Aspect of Porcines
Aspect of Raptors
Aspect of Ursines

And if stowing/Aspect are allowed underwater (not a given, actually), add~
Aspect of Armor Fish
Aspect of Cnidaria (jellyfish)
Aspect of Sharks

For I while I’ve been suggesting replacing the Skirmishing 5-point minor trait with what amounts to a universal aspect~

Lone Wolf: While your pet is stowed you gain a +25% bonus to Power and Condition Damage.

Nike, i think we should just do it.

ps: this is similar to what i said so i fully support it

Point Blank Shot is very fun with that knockback!
Please don’t suggest it to change entire effect, try out knocking people off the cliffs as forever-stunner hammer warriors do inthe Edge/WvW. Its kitten amazing and very useable!!
Only wish it to have Stealth for an excellent tactic opportunity we would have on this. ^^

Allie Murdock.8152:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Gotejjeken.1267:

IMO, the discussion on pets is becoming overcomplicated. Why not just redistribute the power, fix the F2 timing, and keep them as-is? The pet is not the problem if you swap it, its the pet hitting things that is a problem.

Also I am not super happy with the idea of stow buffs and even less happy with a perma stow. The pet is part of me as a Ranger, it is one of the core things of the class.

You may not be happy about permastowing. I would be absolutely. Furthermore, if you could stow your pet, you could still use it like you are used to. And people like me, who don’t want to rely on the pet can stow it. Simple as that.

As Orca pointed out, some people aren’t as fond of the pets. The idea of the buff would be to appease everyone. Also, what if stowing the pet and having an aspect gave the Ranger some kind of aura that communicated to others they are in that “aspect”? Would it still feel like the pet was a part of you if them being stowed affected your physical appearance?

If not, I don’t think the aspect idea would be a necessity for players. There are definitely things that need to be done to fix Ranger pets in general, and it’s something we are well aware of. If we fixed those things, but maybe also added in the aspect idea, I think we’d be in a spot where everyone would be pleased, no?

Just musing!

I think its a really bad idea to make ranger less about pets. I honestly feel like if you dont want to deal with pets you shouldnt be playing a ranger. I fully think that there could be another class that has good ranged options without being attached to pets, However i think most resources on rangers should work with the class mechanic, not against it.

If people want a mesmer, with no illusions, no shattering, then why play a mesmer?
thief without stealth/steal/dual skills?

Im all for a marksman class (after martial artist comes first of course) that focuses on preparations/long range dmg, controlling enemies, but its a bad idea to make ranger resources that work by making your pet cease to exist.

However if you decide that you cant do pets well no matter what, sure, but you need to totally rework the class mechanics and traits

Allie Murdock.8152:

Shadowsong.4820:

Permastowing a pet really shouldn’t be the “solution” to clunky pet mechanics. The people who would prefer this over having the pet mechanics improved/reworked just shouldn’t play rangers, I guess.

That idea would actually be in lieu of a permastow. It would give Rangers a little more utility while not losing site of the concept of a Ranger.

Either way though, I don’t want this whole CDI to be able stowing the pets. There have been a lot of great ideas outside of this one that will help pets to be a more viable option. Perhaps just fixing some of the issues with the AI could be enough for people to feel better about the lack of permastow.

Having a way to remove the pet’s ability to be attacked and damaged until desired is a necessity in my opinion. It doesn’t have to physically disappear, as that wouldn’t make sense, but there needs a way to make it completely invulnerable and untargetable by enemies. Even reducing the damage received to 30% of AoE damage, I can’t foresee many of the pets surviving the Mai Trin bombardment phase. There also needs to be a way to prevent the pet from becoming the target of specific boss attacks like the Jade Maw. The pet literally IMPEDES progress against that boss, and there is NOTHING the ranger can do about it aside from stay out of combat entirely, which IMPEDES progress against the boss. A ranger literally causes the Jade Maw fight to become longer, or more difficult, and that should NEVER be the case.

Pet’s arent entirely useless, as they do provide some damage and utility. If the pet AI was fixed/improved, and there was no buff for permastowing the pet, most rangers would be gimping themselves by NOT having the pet out. There is no GAMEPLAY downside for allowing permastow in some form or another.

Rick.5781:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Shadowsong.4820:

Permastowing a pet really shouldn’t be the “solution” to clunky pet mechanics. The people who would prefer this over having the pet mechanics improved/reworked just shouldn’t play rangers, I guess.

That idea would actually be in lieu of a permastow. It would give Rangers a little more utility while not losing site of the concept of a Ranger.

Either way though, I don’t want this whole CDI to be able stowing the pets. There have been a lot of great ideas outside of this one that will help pets to be a more viable option. Perhaps just fixing some of the issues with the AI could be enough for people to feel better about the lack of permastow.

Having a way to remove the pet’s ability to be attacked and damaged until desired is a necessity in my opinion. It doesn’t have to physically disappear, as that wouldn’t make sense, but there needs a way to make it completely invulnerable and untargetable by enemies. Even reducing the damage received to 30% of AoE damage, I can’t foresee many of the pets surviving the Mai Trin bombardment phase. There also needs to be a way to prevent the pet from becoming the target of specific boss attacks like the Jade Maw. The pet literally IMPEDES progress against that boss, and there is NOTHING the ranger can do about it aside from stay out of combat entirely, which IMPEDES progress against the boss. A ranger literally causes the Jade Maw fight to become longer, or more difficult, and that should NEVER be the case.

Pet’s arent entirely useless, as they do provide some damage and utility. If the pet AI was fixed/improved, and there was no buff for permastowing the pet, most rangers would be gimping themselves by NOT having the pet out. There is no GAMEPLAY downside for allowing permastow in some form or another.

Keeping the pet on passive in order to achieve an invulnerable pet also sacrifices all damage the pet is meant to contribute. Stowing the pet and boosting the ranger’s damage makes more sense.

PVE

Make GS do more damage than warrior banner

Allie Murdock.8152:

As Orca pointed out, some people aren’t as fond of the pets. The idea of the buff would be to appease everyone. Also, what if stowing the pet and having an aspect gave the Ranger some kind of aura that communicated to others they are in that “aspect”? Would it still feel like the pet was a part of you if them being stowed affected your physical appearance?

Rather than stowing/removing the pet could just be made unable to attack, take damage or be targeted. It’s still visually there running after the ranger, just not doing anything. Would save devs time on creating new visuals as well.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Atherakhia.4086:

Proposal Overview
By now everyone is familiar with the word ‘Zoo’ and how it relates to the Ranger class. While the screen clutter is still there, the strategic value of all the minions has lessened because of the changes to tab targeting. Body blocking is still a large issue though and I am proposing we remove the spirits from the game.

snip

Removing Spirits would be a pretty big change to the class. Additionally, they are part of the “spirit” (sorry, had to) of the Ranger. I do think the idea to add it to the pet is interesting, though I’m not sure how it really makes sense (the pets aren’t the ones drawing from nature, it’s the Ranger).

Do you have any thoughts or ideas that wouldn’t necessarily remove them, but maybe help to lessen the body blocking as you said?

Allie, you may have missed my original post. I have the perfect solution.

“- rework current spirits to wisps. Wisps are untargetable orbs that orbit the ranger while in their passive state. Wisps imbue ranger’s arrows with elemental damage.
- When activated, wisp shoots out to 900-1200 creating an aoe field depending on wisp type, and the ranger gains a personal effect and loses the passive weapon buff. aoe fields do no damage.
- according to seasons: spring – rain, bloom (water field, removes 3 condis from ranger), summer – energy (fire, ranger gets might or stunbreaker), autumn – electricity (electrical field that pulses to drain endurance in aoe; activation recharges ranger’s endurance), winter – frost field”

This would make sense conceptually, it would add an additional layer of depth to the ranger, fix a whole bunch of utilities, remove clutter from the game, and improve viability in WvW.

Keeping the pet on passive in order to achieve an invulnerable pet also sacrifices all damage the pet is meant to contribute. Stowing the pet and boosting the ranger’s damage makes more sense.

And I would be ok with making the pet completely invulnerable and untargetable while in passive mode as well. This would remove the need for a permastow, though those that hate the pet mechanic entirely may not be pleased. I for one am not against pets, but wish they weren’t as useless as they are. Buffing their resistance to AoE, making them be able to attack WHILE moving, increasing their melee attack range, giving them cleave, having their stats scale with the ranger’s stats, allow F2 to be instant on pressing it, etc. would all help make the pet less useless and more viable. If however the pet CANNOT be made to be a viable option under the current system, I am also not against buffing the ranger’s damage, but I will miss some of the versatility my pet brought me in some RARE PvE scenarios.

Allie Murdock.8152:

mtpelion.4562:

snip

When Stowed, the ranger should gain the “Aspect of the [pet name]” effect, which provides unique buffs based on the pet family and specific pet.

mtpelion.4562, you have some really great ideas in your posts. I noticed your sentiments about Ranger pets right now are shared by a lot of the community here. The quote is an idea in particular struck me as interesting.

If we weren’t able to have an option to keep the pet permanently stowed, would having an option like you suggested make it feel better to toggle the pet? It seems like the kind of thing that you could develop a strategy around (pet could be out for one reason, then you switch it up to catch opponent off-guard).

I see no reason why you couldn’t perma stow as it’s a very straight forward coding change unless you choose not to. Many of us point to perma stow as it addresses the glaring flaw with rangers in dungeons and wvw (pet AI and hitting moving targets and dead pets) without requiring you to re code the pet AI and mechanics. I love using my pets in open world but in every other gameplay environment they’re sub par.

If anet was considering a pet rework I think it would be cool if pets were stowed away by default. The players F1 skill could be a calling to the pet. For 20 or 30 seconds the pet you chose would come flying into battle with you and it would be invulnerable. In this case, like now, pets would need a massive buff. They should be something other players fear once the rangers calls them out. The other mechanics of it can be whatever, like the rangers F2+ skills could call out other pets letting the ranger have some options or they could be skills of the F1 pet. For now I’m thinking the pet "whistle” as it would be called can be used every minute or so but maybe there could be something more interesting to it rather than time. I don’t think it would require much reworking of the traits as well.

I can’t think of any games where a similar mechanic is applied so if someone understands what I’m trying to say and has an example, shout it out. I don’t think I’m explaining it well.

@ Hammerguard

Summoner, Final Fantasy XI (their first MMO).

Ultimately, it was never fearful or impactful enough to make the concept really work. But that was totally what they were going for.

Finally read all the posts and got caught up!

Nike.2631:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Also, what if stowing the pet and having an aspect gave the Ranger some kind of aura that communicated to others they are in that “aspect”? Would it still feel like the pet was a part of you if them being stowed affected your physical appearance?

One way to simplify the range of mechanics required and FX workload would be to make Aspects based on pet families rather than individual pets.

Aspect of Arachnids
Aspect of Canines
Aspect of Devourers
Aspect of Drakes
Aspect of Felines
Aspect of Moas
Aspect of Porcines
Aspect of Raptors
Aspect of Ursines

And if stowing/Aspect are allowed underwater (not a given, actually), add~
Aspect of Armor Fish
Aspect of Cnidaria (jellyfish)
Aspect of Sharks

For I while I’ve been suggesting replacing the Skirmishing 5-point minor trait with what amounts to a universal aspect~

Lone Wolf: While your pet is stowed you gain a +25% bonus to Power and Condition Damage.

I like this, though I don’t fully agree with giving the Ranger just a power and Condition Damage boost.

In some cases in PvE, and sometimes in WvW (I don’t play PvP), the Pet is an essential part of my survival. Other times (dungeons and zergs, fighting Champions),…..its even useless for that.

It would be neat if that split focus the Ranger was originally designed for was still there in some way. What I mean by that is, what if our pet is stowed, and while in the Feline Aspect, we get a Damage and Critical Damage Boost….. well, that Warrior eyeing me over there can see that visual aspect, so, he suddenly makes a beeline for me.

Before he gets there, I switch over to the Bear Aspect, and I get a Toughness and Vitality boost instead. That Warrior suddenly can’t kill me as easily, though depending on the gear stats I have(zerker for example), I’ll still fall pretty quickly. While I endure his hits for a time wasting his skills, pet switch recharges, and I switch back to the Feline Aspect to land a nice big Maul, bringing him down.

This way, all playstyles are still considered, and some new ones might even open up depending on the stat bonus.

Having a way to remove the pet’s ability to be attacked and damaged until desired is a necessity in my opinion. It doesn’t have to physically disappear, as that wouldn’t make sense, but there needs a way to make it completely invulnerable and untargetable by enemies. Even reducing the damage received to 30% of AoE damage, I can’t foresee many of the pets surviving the Mai Trin bombardment phase. There also needs to be a way to prevent the pet from becoming the target of specific boss attacks like the Jade Maw. The pet literally IMPEDES progress against that boss, and there is NOTHING the ranger can do about it aside from stay out of combat entirely, which IMPEDES progress against the boss. A ranger literally causes the Jade Maw fight to become longer, or more difficult, and that should NEVER be the case.

As I suggested on page 2, I think the solution is to make it so that even after a pet loses all HP they should be able to continue attacking, just that they would no longer generate threat, so they would provide continuous, 100% up time DPS, but could only tank as long as you could keep them alive.

There is no way I can find the time to skim through all 12 pages in order check if this proposal has already been made, so please forgive me if this has come up before. However, for me, the following point (as cosmetic as it may seem) is still the major point holding me back from playing my ranger, so I hope this can be addressed some day:

Specific Game Mode
PvE

Proposal Overview
Make ranger pets remember their name persistently (instead of resetting them to a generic term like “juvenile teacup pig” when swapping them out)

Goal of Proposal
We rangers care for our pets, so let us bond with them.

This may sound like just a small QoL improvement, but the fact that pets loose their names has been bugging me since release. Maybe this is merely an RP thing, but names give the pet character. This is not a mere “juvenile hyena” by my side, this is Chukk, a true friend, that hunts with me since the days when I was fighting ghosts in the ruins of Ascalon. For me, collecting and naming the pets is a very important part of a ranger’s progression.

Proposal Functionality
Maybe I am crazy, but as a ranger, I care for each and every of my pets. And I don’t want to disrespect my pets by giving them a placeholder name. Hence, I do in fact have a handwritten list next to my PC of all the individual names I have given them, and I reenter the names whenever I switch out pet. I’d like to make the plea to spare me from this tedious work and to allow us (RPish) rangers to give our unique profession mechanic a proper name that sticks with it.

Associated Risks
Beside blowing up the space needed to store pet names from something like 4x 40 bytes to something like 45x 40 bytes per ranger character I cannot foresee any risks associated with this proposal.

~MRA

PS: As a comic relief, and although it is about a DnD sorcerer and not about a GW2 ranger, I want to link this web cartoon that depicts exactly the situation I want to avoid (tl;dr: 1st panel in 3rd row): http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0154.html

I’m trying to work through this, since ranger is my favorite class despite being regarded as either “suboptimal” or “dirt useless” depending on who you ask.

“Point Blank Shot” – Doesn’t need a rework as much as it needs people to use it more intelligently. That is, don’t just spam it as soon as it hits cooldown despite your melee group members winding up for hits now ruined by the knockback. The knockback is pretty useful when running alone in PvE.

Pets – I hate to be blunt and problematic but if you’re not able to fix the AI without a massive revision, we need to then look at where the problems are. Personally, I have exactly two problems with pets:

- They die too fast in some instances, and there is no means of recovering them faster. Being able to revive a pet was present earlier but was taken out for some purpose (I don’t recall what it was exactly, but know it was player requested). What about letting the pet owner and only the pet owner revive it at an increased speed? Also, could there be a way to “train up” pets to be tougher/stronger . . . a way of progressing them not unlike the “Elder/Dire/Hearty” of GW1?

- There is no way to “lock a target”. In GW1 it was possible for me to split my pet onto a target while I attacked another, which was actually a useful ability sometimes to let it harass one enemy while I as focusing on another. (In Random Arenas, this would often be some Mesmer or Elementalist, and I’d be trying to lock down and kill a Monk.) Pressing F1 doesn’t stick, because the pet will just switch targets when I do; this means, for instance, I can’t have it attacking some minor element I don’t want to devote my full attention to (spider boss hatchlings) while I beat on the primary target (said spider boss).

MRA.4758:

PS: As a comic relief, and although it is about a DnD sorcerer and not about a GW2 ranger, I want to link this web cartoon that depicts exactly the situation I want to avoid (tl;dr: 1st panel in 3rd row): http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0154.html

PS, that’s not a sorcerer, that’s a wizard. Varsuvius would be cross if you got it wrong.

It’d be nice if these Aspects would provide some sort of unique group buff to enhance ranger desirability in WvW. As it stands, the current pet mechanic is useless for GvGs, zerg busting, etc., because the pets die too quickly and their attacks are limited to single targets. If you’re still disinclined to give rangers access to decent AoE and burst, then to be competitive we at least need to provide worthwhile buffs.

xev.9476:

It’d be nice if these Aspects would provide some sort of unique group buff to enhance ranger desirability in WvW. As it stands, the current pet mechanic is useless for GvGs, zerg busting, etc., because the pets die too quickly and their attacks are limited to single targets. If you’re still disinclined to give rangers access to decent AoE and burst, then to be competitive we at least need to provide worthwhile buffs.

That’s what spirits are for, though, I will admit they are just as useless in all the situations you mentioned because they die withing seconds of being summoned. Its nice to keep them similar to GW1, but, I think they should be redesigned to being nothing more than a visual effect when summoned. Even if the effects are changed (like in Mistsim’s idea from a few posts back), it woud still be an improvement and make Rangers more useful in a group.

(also, Frost Spirit and Spotter are both very valuable buffs in a group. The Ranger just needs more of that)

Game mode
PvE/WvW

Proposal Overview
To increase the uptime of pets in game modes where a lot of AoE cleave is present, i think pets should revive on heal (skill 6).

Goal of Proposal
To increase the uptime of pets in pve and wvw.

Associated risk
Pets will become more prevalent in PvP and it would become a waste to target them in that gamemode because the Ranger could easily heal and bring the pet back to life.

Specific Game Mode
WvW, and PvE to an extent

Proposal Overview
General modification of traits and skills across the board

Goal of Proposal
Increase group utility of Rangers so that they are more useful in group engagements.

Proposal Functionality

Rangers are generally not welcomed because rangers bring nothing useful to a group. Or rather they can, but they fail in execution(spirits dying easily), are hardly noticable(aoe vigor on pet swap) or just plain useless(aoe swiftness and regen with shout).

I think one of the factors that contribute to this is that all the weapon skills on ranger are extremely self-centred/single target oriented. While this fits the new design philosophy, it pushes rangers even further away from being welcomed in groups, not to mention there is already a profession that perfoms better in such a role – Thieves, the king of single target dps.

For example,

Now this would be fine if our group utilities worked. They don’t. Spirits die at the drop of a hat, traps hardly make an impact(no, you’re not being useful because you cripple enemy players for 4~5 seconds), and these skills take up slots that should be used for stunbreakers/condition clearing which-oops, can’t take that because one trap/spirit/muddly terrain ain’t gonna do crap so you have to sacrifice personal survivablity by using at least two slots.

So why not change a few skills around to give rangers better group utility/AoE?

Weapons

Skills

I would add more AoE or CC suggestions, but they go against the design philosophy so I only include these adjustments.

[/end wall of text]

Hm. Let’s see what I can do, even though I know this will be ignored by devs. I’ll just take it as mental training.
It will concern Dungeons in PvE and I guess the open world, focusing on the 2 main issues I have with this class.

The sword
Weapon concept
The sword is seemingly meant to be the highest dps weapon and it currently is, because the other melee weapon is beyond lame. Evasive utilities. Hard to kite.

Overview
The only thing that prevents the ranger from being a great PvE class and not only viable, is its incredibly clunky way of delivering damage. From the CDI: “Alongside their pet, they have some of the best single target and sustained damage that will whittle their opponents down.”
The sword’s autoattack is frustrating and forbids the main thing this game should promote, mobility. It needs to deliver damage consistently, while allowing the player to dodge dangerous 1-hit attacks. Incoming changes on the aa chain and the 2nd skill.

Proposed functionality
Autoattack
1. I assume Slash to be an opening attack with a 1s cripple, that could help land the second skill more efficiently
2. No leap from the 2nd attack, let it retain the cripple→ 1s. An increased range from the traditional 130 of melee weapons is advisable. 180? 220? The ranger thrust the sword forward to hit the enemy.
3. Pounce. I feel like it’s supposed to be the big hit. Well, “big”… The might on the pet is great. To prevent the target from escaping, I was thinking of lowering the cast time of it. It’s currently slower than the others: a 1/2 cast time would help the ranger land its combo more easily. It would also improve the dps considerably. It needs number tweaking.
It could also retain its leap status, with a lower range (100? 150?). Better follow-up with “Kick”.
2nd skill, Hornet sting, Monarch’s leap
Invert the functionality of the 2 by making the first skill Monarch’s leap, so towards the opponent. I was thinking of a 3s cd, 180-200 range. The short cooldown fascinates me, because it opens up the possibility of comboing up with the autoattacks, instead of letting the sword’s leaps passively follow the enemy around. It’s active.
About Hornet sting, I’d just make it shorter range but a much faster and responsive evade.

Risks
Requires some effort on your part. Yes, I’m totally poking you. I tried to respect the weapon and the game modes, but as in all new things, it could be unbalanced. I still think number tweaks would suffice in this regard.

The pet
Overview of [only some of the] problems

1. Sloppy F1.
2. Sloppy damage against moving targets.
3. Pets that don’t dodge and choke the damage of rangers.

Proposed ideas/improvements
1. A few steps were made towards this, I’d just lower the cast times again a little, this could prevent the f1 attacks from missing a lot of times.
2. That isn’t too much of an issue in dungeons since the enemies are dumb as hell, but I’d lower the cast times on pets autoattacks and skills or give them a passive speed boost. Needs number tweaks.
3. Want the easy way out? Flat 15% damage reduction on single attacks, flat 50% on AoEs. Want the super cool way out that will make you look like demigods? 1/2-1/4s invul window on ranger’s dodge. It was said many, many times, and there’s a reason why so many yearn for it.

Risks
Requires mild-to-impressive effort on your part. Would be a PvE thing only, obv.

Notes

The torch could use some tweaking:
1. Have the 4th skill give blindness and/or a higher burst of damage
2. Have the 5th skill give 1stack of might every 2s while in the field. So 4 stacks
or
1. Have the 4th skill be an AoE and blast finisher.
Please, more active play and interesting combos/synergy and less dumb skills which do nothing.
Still, I love off-hands in general.

The suggestion of moving critdamage away from the precision line sent shivers down my spine. It would gut the power ranger’s (!) damage, and it’s not like it’s op right now.
Look for less drastic changes first. The ranger deserves to be on par, trait-wise, with mesmers, eles and warrs.

It would be nice to have some improvements to at least one of the problems rangers have, especially regarding pet’s survivability, without you chopping viable setups in PvE for the sake of PvP or some weird WvW setup. In brief, split skills.
I won’t expect anything good from this, but a man can dream.

Even though i really liked the stowing the pet and getting some kind of aspect with bonus damage, i really liked the idea of aura giving unattackable pets too.

Actually this reminds me the gwen at pre-ascalon in gw1. Do you remember buying her a flute and letting her follow you? She would heal you +20 while playing her flute and never take aggro, always staying beside you. I would love to have a small pet that would give me small buffs. Cuteness would be a bonus. I honestly want a squirrel that follows me and giving me some buff

Specific Game Mode
PvX

Proposal Overview
Improve ranger weapon skills to same level with other classes.

Goal of Proposal
When playing my ranger i have find many of my weapon skills drop short when compared to other classes similar weapons and they skills. This include damage output and secondary effects.

Proposal Functionality
-Greatsword is one of rangers best weapons, but it still drop short when compared to warriors and guardians greatsword. Both of them gs auto-attack does 50% more dmg every swing and same thing keeps going on every skill, why only really necessary improvement this weapon need is damage buff. Minor improvement that would be nice is have small leap on hilt bash so it would have better change to hit on moving target, because even thought it has 300 range i have notice it tend to miss quite often.
-Sword has decent damage after pet is included in calculation, why its only problem is thous leaps on auto-attack and nom.2 skill witch should works as charge and retreat not other way around.
-Shortbow need its flanking requirement removed from auto-attacks bleed apply, to balance this it would be fair decrease attack speed to be same at level with thief vital shot. Other thing is increase range we jump back at quick shot, so we get little more room to breath.
-Longbow feels to me real mess, because its feels like burst weapon, but dose’t really have have burst or skills keep distance. What i like to be changed is rapid shots cast time reduced to 2,5-3sec from 4,5sec. Hunter’s shot is other thing that bugs me, because its dose’t live up its name and stealth from hit dose’t really help. Something like pin down from warriors long bow or frost fan from elementalist ice bow would be much more useful. Barrage feels little odd in single target heavy damage weapon, but that is just my option.
-Axe is this supposed to be condition or power weapon? When i look at main and of hand skills i think this should be power weapon, but then i start wonder what splitblade does there whit its bleeds. Personally i thing thous bleed should be removed and something like vulnerability added instead with some more damage. It would be nice to be able to move during whirling defense but in other hand it has already so much stuff in it that something needs to go and my suggestion is vulnerability stacks removed and ability to move added. It would also nice have small buff on ricochet damage or attack-speed so it would be more useful when there is only one target.
-Warhorn have bit to long cooldowns and hunter’s call should get some love, because its have low dmg and no secondary effect. Small aoe damage around target or weakness stacking would be nice adding.

Associated Risks
Well if pet suddenly start to do its job then some of our weapons don’t need that much damage buff, but until that happen no risk that i can get in my mind and even if pet get improved enough to be useful even then ranger weapons need some improvement.

I only have a single proposal:

Improve pet AI.

That is really all there is to the Ranger right now, IMO.
Most of the class issues are dependent upon the AI problem, in that damage is too low, utility too low or survivability too low as a result of the pet failing to attack, path or survive.

Mind you, I don’t want a living-DoT pet. Pets should take manual control, but that manual control should make the pet powerful. Say pets have buttons for “Rushdown”, “Utility” (the F2 skill), “Survive” and “Retreat”:

• Rushdown: Pet gains cleaving attacks (ranged pets spray in a cone) and +damage.
• Utility: Pet uses Utility skill once right away and then uses it frequently instead of rarely (needs a tweak to CDs).
• Survive: Pet dodges the first 2 attacks and takes 75% less damage from AE effects (and 75% less duration from AE conditions). Moderate CD and until that CD expires cannot put the pet into another mode.
• Retreat: No CD, ends any other mode and the pet fully disengages and returns to you.

This would allow the Ranger some amount of direct control, making pet-deaths the fault of the ranger more than the AI.
Ofc, on top of that the AI needs to be fixed, but this is a larger-than-ranger problem.

No matter how good ones pet control is, there will still be game modes and situations where the pet is 100% useless or a massive burden. On the top of my head:
-WvW
-Aetherblade dungeon, now fractal
-Twilight arbor
-Arah
-Maw boss fight
-Dynamic molten duo boss fight
-Mai trin boss fight
-etc…

There are 2 ways to approach this. Perma stow or a massive pet survivability buff. WoW did it with a 75% damage taken reduction from AoE.

I would prefer the stow option with a minor buff when stowed. It lets people roleplay the classic archer arhetype that is missing from this game.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Angela Ranna.5638:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Many of you have suggested removing traps from the Skirmishing line. It seems the primary reason for this is because it is the crit line while traps are primarily focused on conditions.

Given the idea behind skirmishing (for Ranger, we expect them to be able to survive longer while whittling their opponent down), would it maybe make more sense to leave the traps there and perhaps swap the stats with a different line?

However you would then lose the on-crit drive that the skirmishing tree has. And where would the crit stats go then? Marksmanship might make sense but then our trees would look almost identical to thieves in stats, which may or may not be a good thing. Wilderness Survival would be a natural choice for the PvP meta, but wouldn’t make much sense for other content.

Not that it’s a bad idea, just playing devil’s advocate for a second.

Yeah, it would also mess up a bunch of builds. I spoke with the guys on this one and they aren’t super happy with the skirmishing line in general either.

Honestly my disatisfaction in the upper lines is achieving any survivability while using them. Too glass. AKA the whittling is dependent on that in WvW where the pet can’t act as a damage shield as they do in PvE.

Indeed a condition trap build forced into skirmishing feels awkwards as you know you could be MORE survivable elsewhere.

If a key concept of us is whittler more Ranger survivability traits in the upper lines seems a must. Lots of soft CC but everyone leaps hops skips and dances past them anyways in WvW SPVP as cleanses spam everywhere. Or make me really happy Blade turns make a revival and rangers get them in skirmishing(replacing honed axes). OK that was another game great skill for a whittler damage dealer tho. Of course there would be a lot of non trap throwing trap builds….