Guild Wars 2

for WvW I would be ok with sentry turrets going into normal WvW with the rest of the traps vendor.

I main a ranger. I play most of my time in wvw (90+ %).

Here is my feedback on the ranger for wvw:

PETS:
Pets die really fast. They have useful abilities but their pathfinding is terrible and sometimes prevents them from using the abilities. The more people there are, the faster the pets die and thus, the less we have damage and abilities.
Either improve the pathfinding, upgrade their HP or make their stats scale with the ranger’s stats.
That or give us an option to perma stow them and get a boost to our stats.

SHOUTS:
Our shouts are near useless in wvw, even when traited and using rune of the soldier. I tried a shout build and while it CAN be effective, the fact that it does way less than a warrior’s shout build makes it useless. This could be changed if at least one of our shouts gave some utility or removed a condition, similar to the warrior shouts.
Search and rescue has never worked for me even once, i’ve stopped trying to use it.
Guard is useless and mostly used because of the smaller cooldown on it. It serves no purpose at all other than getting those swiftness/fury buffs (and potential condi removal).

SPIRITS:
Spirits are really lackluster in wvw. They die even faster than pets since you can’t control them at all, have a chance to trigger an effect and need heavy trait investment to even be considered. Basically they are banners that can die and sometimes don’t give a buff. Spirit of Nature is particularly useless when it could and should be pretty strong. It dies almost instantly, you can’t rez anyone with it because of the cast animation that occurs when you try to, giving enough time for opponents to kill it, and obviously, no one gets that great healing since he’s dying so fast.
Compare them to banners and you see why this is an issue.
This could be avoided by granting the spirits more health (still have them killable but nowhere near as easily) and upgrading the trigger chance to 50 (untraited) / 100%.

WEAPONS:
Most weapon skills are ok in my opinion and they complement each other. However, since we have the pet, the skills do much less damage than other classes’s weapon skills. If i compare the greatsword damage to the hammer of guardian or warrior, those 2 grant more CC, much more damage and utility as well.
An upgrade to damage on Greatsword (#1, #3) and mainhand axe (mainly #1) seems appropriate.
Mainhand axe would be perfect if the bounce occured even if there wasn’t 3 targets (=> bounced back to previous target). It would make it a stronger weapon against solo/duo enemies and stay the same vs the rest.
Torch, sword, dagger, offhand axe, shortbow and longbow feel pretty good and have the right skills. They all have a different purpose and i have had no issue with those.

And make entangle unblockable. The tooltip says it is, but it really isn’t.

Paulie.6215:

THIS IS THE WRONG THREAD. STOP POSTING IDEAS HERE.

BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Paulie.6215:

THIS IS THE WRONG THREAD. STOP POSTING IDEAS HERE.

BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!

I really can’t see your point. Here is a post from Allie asking for feedback in page 2.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the feedback so far! I have some requests:

• Please keep the feedback focused on Ranger.
• In your feedback, please tell us what area of the game you play the most (PvE/WvW/sPvP).
  • If possible, include stats on how much you play in each of those areas too.
• Please include the profession you play the most, even if it isn’t Ranger.
• Most importantly, Pleased keep your feedback as concise as possible. Using special formatting is really nice if your post is a long one.

Thanks,

Allie

Ranger SPvP Only 100%. The complete list of changes required from my point of view.

Weapons

Greatswords

• Maul – Activation time increased to 1/2 from 3/4.

Longbow

• Long Range Shot (Auto-Attack) – Increase damage by 10%.
• Rapid Fire – Increase damage by 50%.
• Hunter’s Shot – Increase damage by 100%
• Point Blank Shot – Increase damage by 100%
• Barrage – Is now a Blast Finisher and increase Radius to 480.

Axe (main and off-hand)

• Ricochet – Increase damage by 10%.
• Splitblade – Will about-face to target.
• Whirling Defense – You can move while using.

Torch

• Bonfire – Increase radius to 180

Warhorn

• Hunter’s Call – Now also Blinds target for 5 seconds.

Slot Skills

Healing

• Heal as One – Increase heal to 8520.
• Water Spirit – Aqua Surge now also removes 2 condition as well (Active Skill)

Utility

Shouts

• Sic’Em – Now effects both the Ranger and Pet.

Signets

• All active effect’s now effect the ranger as well, no longer require’s Signet of the Beastmaster Trait.

Survival

• Lightning Reflexes – No longer deals damage, removes immobilize/chilling/cripple instead.
• Quickening Zephyr – Now also removes blind.

Trap

• Spike Trap – Now has Smoke combo field.
• Frost Trap – Also deals 280 Pulse damage for 5 seconds.

Traits

Marksmanship

• Eagle Eye – Also increases shortbow range and damage.
• Signet of the Beastmaster – Removed from the game.
• Trapper’s Expertise – Moved to Marksmanship Master tier, increase ground targeting range to 900
• Trap Potency – Moved to Marksmanship Grandmaster tier.

Skirmishing

• Tail Wind – Now scales with boon duration.
• Furious Grip – Now scales with boon duration.
• Sharpened Edges – Now inflicts in Vulnerability for 5 seconds on critical hit, no longer inflicts bleeding.
• Companion’s Might – Now grants might to both the Ranger and Pet.
• (New Grandmaster) Beastmaster – Pet’s deal 30% more damage and take 30% less damage.

Wilderness Survival

• Hide in Plain Sight – Moved to Grandmaster tier, now Applies stealth rather then camouflage and transfers effect to pet.
• Empathic Bond – Moved to Master tier.

Nature Magic

• Nature’s Voice – Shouts now Heal for X amount and scale off healing power no longer applies Regeneration and swiftness.

Beastmastery

• Stability Training – Pets grant Stability to nearby allies when activated.

Pet’s

• Globle – Fix F2 skill so it will about-face and no longer requires to be attacking the target before using there F2.
• Globle – Pets take 20% less damage from AoE.

I have just one request, even though I know that for the forum population – which seems extremely specialized compared to the general playerbase ingame – this is going to be highly unpopular:

Please don’t base balancing decisions on sPvP.

It is a much too specialized and “quirky” game mode. It doesn’t reflect the kind of combat which comes up in both WvW and PvE, it lacks anti-structure combat, it lacks logistics, it has it’s own set of items and rules. It’s not at all a representative game mode, and should be last-priority (IMO) behind PvE, smallscale (dungeon) PvE, WvW combat and WvW material warfare (no specific order between those).

I understand that it often seems on the forums that sPvP is the game mode or something. But ingame it really doesn’t feel like many players actually play sPvP. And it worries me that this playerbase seems to “camp the forums”, so to say, making the forum opinion seems drastically different from what is experienced ingame when talking to players.

Please don’t base balance in such a vocal minority.

Carighan.6758:

I have just one request, even though I know that for the forum population – which seems extremely specialized compared to the general playerbase ingame – this is going to be highly unpopular:

Please don’t base balancing decisions on sPvP.

It is a much too specialized and “quirky” game mode. It doesn’t reflect the kind of combat which comes up in both WvW and PvE, it lacks anti-structure combat, it lacks logistics, it has it’s own set of items and rules. It’s not at all a representative game mode, and should be last-priority (IMO) behind PvE, smallscale (dungeon) PvE, WvW combat and WvW material warfare (no specific order between those).

I understand that it often seems on the forums that sPvP is the game mode or something. But ingame it really doesn’t feel like many players actually play sPvP. And it worries me that this playerbase seems to “camp the forums”, so to say, making the forum opinion seems drastically different from what is experienced ingame when talking to players.

Please don’t base balance in such a vocal minority.

What you just said is like someone whom only does SPvP coming to the forums and saying the same thing but changing where you put PvE and WvW with SPvP and TPvP.

Also you should take the time to read some of the idea’s us SPvP players are putting forward, if you look closely they greatly increase viability of Rangers in both PvE and WvW. Allot of us Ranger’s whom play SPvP have spent allot of time in both WvW and PvE. Speaking from personal exp, I’ve done more WvW then I have SPvP………

Edit: Also you rarely ever see the balance dev’s taking any idea’s or input from the player base and using them. Only input I’ve seen them take are things like make Spirit’s viable. Pet’s do to much damage. Normally they look at what people think and come up with there own ideas.

Sol.4310:

Carighan.6758:

I have just one request, even though I know that for the forum population – which seems extremely specialized compared to the general playerbase ingame – this is going to be highly unpopular:

Please don’t base balancing decisions on sPvP.

It is a much too specialized and “quirky” game mode. It doesn’t reflect the kind of combat which comes up in both WvW and PvE, it lacks anti-structure combat, it lacks logistics, it has it’s own set of items and rules. It’s not at all a representative game mode, and should be last-priority (IMO) behind PvE, smallscale (dungeon) PvE, WvW combat and WvW material warfare (no specific order between those).

I understand that it often seems on the forums that sPvP is the game mode or something. But ingame it really doesn’t feel like many players actually play sPvP. And it worries me that this playerbase seems to “camp the forums”, so to say, making the forum opinion seems drastically different from what is experienced ingame when talking to players.

Please don’t base balance in such a vocal minority.

What you just said is like someone whom only does SPvP coming to the forums and saying the same thing but changing where you put PvE and WvW with SPvP and TPvP.

Also you should take the time to read some of the idea’s us SPvP players are putting forward, if you look closely they greatly increase viability of Rangers in both PvE and WvW. Allot of us Ranger’s whom play SPvP have spent allot of time in both WvW and PvE. Speaking from personal exp, I’ve done more WvW then I have SPvP………

Edit: Also you rarely ever see the balance dev’s taking any idea’s or input from the player base and using them. Only input I’ve seen them take are things like make Spirit’s viable. Pet’s do to much damage. Normally they look at what people think and come up with there own ideas.

Except less people play pvp than the rest of the game.

What to take from Edge of the Mists?

The varied textures and different scenery models.

Don’t take anything to do with the map design, it’s atrocious.

Ezrael.6859:

Don’t take anything to do with the map design, it’s atrocious.

Interesting. I would have said that many elements are individually interesting.
EotM IMO serves it’s purpose as a “wait queue” map very well. It could be more condensed (takes too long to run to the action, though being Red and using the wisp form helps a lot), but it gives you nonstop combat action due to how small the paths are and how few ways to get around each other without fighting there are.

I also like how knockbacks can be lethal and positioning is hence extremely important. Getting your group’s/zerg’s back to an edge usually means you lose, while at the same time you want your enemy in that position.

Ofc, EotM wouldn’t work as a material warfare map. Those need ways to get around enemies.

But individual components are quite cool:

• The different utility points of each side. Red not being 100% equal to Blue is quite cool.
• The winding narrow passageways would be interesting for “stealth lines”. There should be pathways which players can take to get behind enemy lines, while at the same time (bleh that this game has no collision detection :P ) being unusable for zergs.
• “Themed” home zones are awesome. Wish the 3 home battlegrounds had a different theme, even if the layout were the same.
• Multi-layer 3D maps are very interesting. It means just seeing something on your map isn’t all the information you need, and strategic movement is important because you don’t want enemies equipped with all their falling damage traits to jump into your zerg.

Fenrir.6183:

Sol.4310:

Carighan.6758:

I have just one request, even though I know that for the forum population – which seems extremely specialized compared to the general playerbase ingame – this is going to be highly unpopular:

Please don’t base balancing decisions on sPvP.

It is a much too specialized and “quirky” game mode. It doesn’t reflect the kind of combat which comes up in both WvW and PvE, it lacks anti-structure combat, it lacks logistics, it has it’s own set of items and rules. It’s not at all a representative game mode, and should be last-priority (IMO) behind PvE, smallscale (dungeon) PvE, WvW combat and WvW material warfare (no specific order between those).

I understand that it often seems on the forums that sPvP is the game mode or something. But ingame it really doesn’t feel like many players actually play sPvP. And it worries me that this playerbase seems to “camp the forums”, so to say, making the forum opinion seems drastically different from what is experienced ingame when talking to players.

Please don’t base balance in such a vocal minority.

What you just said is like someone whom only does SPvP coming to the forums and saying the same thing but changing where you put PvE and WvW with SPvP and TPvP.

Also you should take the time to read some of the idea’s us SPvP players are putting forward, if you look closely they greatly increase viability of Rangers in both PvE and WvW. Allot of us Ranger’s whom play SPvP have spent allot of time in both WvW and PvE. Speaking from personal exp, I’ve done more WvW then I have SPvP………

Edit: Also you rarely ever see the balance dev’s taking any idea’s or input from the player base and using them. Only input I’ve seen them take are things like make Spirit’s viable. Pet’s do to much damage. Normally they look at what people think and come up with there own ideas.

Except less people play pvp than the rest of the game.

Yeah, cause PvE and WvW get all the update’s……

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

The next round of CDI topics will be starting on Monday 17th February.

The topics will be as follows:

PVE: How would you like to see us evolve Fractals?- Owner- Chris Whiteside

PvP: What would you like to see from a League system? – Owner- John Corpening

WvW: What aspects of Edge of The Mists do you think could carry over to the rest of WvW and how? – Owner- Devon Carver

Bonus: Global: Professions: How would you like to see us evolve Ranger balance?- Owner- Allie Murdock

The CDI rules are as follows:

1: This initiative is all about discussion.
2: We will not be disclosing information pertaining to what is currently in development.
3: Anger and emotion will have less impact than intelligent discussion.
4: Together we will share and evolve design philosophies which will impact how we develop the game moving forward.
5: Aggression and disrespect to a fellow community member or developer will not be tolerated, and in the extreme could lead to the shutting down of the initiative.
6: The teams primary focus is work toward the development of GW2 and therefore posting of discussion and commentary may not be as frequent as you like. Please do understand that the initiative is taken very seriously by us all and that we will be reading the discussions and joining in as often as it is possible to do so.

Finally please note this is not a competition, either between yourselves or the developers in regard to one up man ship. The point of this Initiative is to work together to make the game better.

Note: We will disclose the ideas we do or don’t like as a group but we will not discuss schedules or timing around implementation. If there is still concern surrounding how seriously we take community collaboration then please do take the time to think about how much impact the community has had on the working of this game over the year.

Chris

I do not see these new CDI topics listed anywhere. I believe CDI posts are supposed to be separate right?

I think another HUGE issue the ranger faces is the fact that they have NO AOE whatsoever. Sure they have barrage and the 2 ability for shortbow but that’s it? Ele is all AOE, warrior has deadly AOE, ranger single target. In WvW or this new event for instance, tab often selects someone that is already close to death. Rangers often miss out on loot and xp. Also this is not one of my biggest concerns, the same can be said about pvp and wvw. It is extremely important that a class is able to trade around the same amount of damage as another and be able to target their counter for the same amount of time; however, the ranger has a lot of difficulty with this. While a warrior can spam 1 without targeting an opponent and still land his/her hits or an ele can throw out aoe and hit his/her foes, a ranger just…. Can’t!

AOE is the most annoying issue I have with the ranger. Also Pet AI is another one.

For fractals, simply less RNG let us salvage ascended ring for the mist essence for god sake and you can buy fractals skins with tokens. And yea, Dredge, should probably do something about Dredge too

Sol.4310:

Carighan.6758:

I have just one request, even though I know that for the forum population – which seems extremely specialized compared to the general playerbase ingame – this is going to be highly unpopular:

Please don’t base balancing decisions on sPvP.

It is a much too specialized and “quirky” game mode. It doesn’t reflect the kind of combat which comes up in both WvW and PvE, it lacks anti-structure combat, it lacks logistics, it has it’s own set of items and rules. It’s not at all a representative game mode, and should be last-priority (IMO) behind PvE, smallscale (dungeon) PvE, WvW combat and WvW material warfare (no specific order between those).

I understand that it often seems on the forums that sPvP is the game mode or something. But ingame it really doesn’t feel like many players actually play sPvP. And it worries me that this playerbase seems to “camp the forums”, so to say, making the forum opinion seems drastically different from what is experienced ingame when talking to players.

Please don’t base balance in such a vocal minority.

What you just said is like someone whom only does SPvP coming to the forums and saying the same thing but changing where you put PvE and WvW with SPvP and TPvP.

Also you should take the time to read some of the idea’s us SPvP players are putting forward, if you look closely they greatly increase viability of Rangers in both PvE and WvW. Allot of us Ranger’s whom play SPvP have spent allot of time in both WvW and PvE. Speaking from personal exp, I’ve done more WvW then I have SPvP………

Edit: Also you rarely ever see the balance dev’s taking any idea’s or input from the player base and using them. Only input I’ve seen them take are things like make Spirit’s viable. Pet’s do to much damage. Normally they look at what people think and come up with there own ideas.

Fact is, that the shortbow recieved some PvP related nerfs which makes him to a really pitiful dps weapon in PvE.

1) Unless you Devs follow through with implementation of suggestions from the CDI there is no point to the CDI beyond a PR campaign.

2) Unless you replace the entire mod AI code for the pets, there is no other option than giving us the option to opt out of the pets for nothing altogether, passive buffs, or another class mechanic.

Ranger “evolution” cannot happen with a banded-aided class defining mechanic that is a handicap to the class. The ranger will not be any better off until those shakles have been removed. Period.

Problem with the “pet AI” is that it mostly comes from game mechanics. The pathfinding is one of the worst i’ve seen in a mmorpg so far. The skills mechanics are a problem as well since most of them can’t be used without a target or without attacking. This makes the pet run toward an opponent rather than actually casting his ability.

Could you please create a CDI thread for the ranger discussion, instead of continuing the discussion here? it is more convenient for those looking for it.

Not mostly, it is completely from the mob AI as stated already in another CDI thread. It’s just be slightly modified.

I repeat: the Ranger will not get better until the pet situation is fixed.

Soronthar.7236:

Could you please create a CDI thread for the ranger discussion, instead of continuing the discussion here? it is more convenient for those looking for it.

The Devs create the CDI threads.

thefantasticg.3984:

Not mostly, it is completely from the mob AI as stated already in another CDI thread. It’s just be slightly modified.

I repeat: the Ranger will not get better until the pet situation is fixed.

What i meant is…it can’t be fixed. It’s a game engine issue and it would require a lot of work…much more than they can do since it could cause major bugs to the rest of the game. I haven’t seen the code of course but i’m pretty sure it’s much more difficult than most people believe it would be.

What I mean by fixed is made 100% optional

PVE: How would you like to see us evolve Fractals?- Owner- Chris Whiteside
1: How about getting that awesome one that was being talked about for voting for Ebon Gnashblade?
2: DREDGE! I do not understand why one fractal is equal to the time of all the others combined in a set of four. The balance here is absurdly stupid, the only good thing that comes out of it is the T6 loot bags. If I wanted to farm loot bags I could hope on the Orr trains, I am doing a Fractal run because I want something that will generally max at two hours for a set that is fun and challenging, not to be spamming AA for 2 hours on a single fractal. (With getting this 5 in a row with cliffside I am at the point of quit on site of this fractal. Atleast the mesmer porting and wall rubbing alleviated some of the pain.
3: Find a way to try and balance the set for an average run to last 2 hours at max.

PvP: What would you like to see from a League system? – Owner- John Corpening
1: More modes, I have very little interest in the League system as it is now becuase I find the mode not to represent skilled PvP. GvG and HA showed great modes for PvP and promoted player based and team based skill to be worked upon together. A TDM or a CtF, hell even a proper setup of King of the Hill would have be better. And yes I know at higher level play the team based skill cap rises, but the build synergy still isn’t there. The current mode represents how well each player plays not how well the team plays. I guess if you view PvP as a person vs person sport and not a team sport then it would be fine.
2: Monthly skill balances, stick it on the 28th of every month. Who cares if it is only one skill or twenty, doing it in bursts like this just causes more issues then fixes half the time. As well then leaving the broken skills like they are for the same period just really stagnates the game mode.
3: Quicker hotfixes on really broken skills. Otherwise you will see just like these past couple months, the FotM flip. Who wants to see everyone rolling a Mesmer because you gave them a game breaking skill?

WvW: What aspects of Edge of The Mists do you think could carry over to the rest of WvW and how? – Owner- Devon Carver
1: I would love to see is the lack of trash mobs. The event areas like the Aetherblade area are fine, but otherwise I don’t see a reason for them.
2: Sentry upgrades, having something that can’t be AAed to death by a single player on all the classes is not mind-engaging and the only reason to skip them is to get a jump on the camp first.
3: Giving us the ability to upgrade to have that wall around our area in EBG if we own everything in it and have our keep maxed out. Sounds really fun, don’t know how well it would balance though.

Bonus: Global: Professions: How would you like to see us evolve Ranger balance?- Owner- Allie Murdock
Give the players the ability to not have pets out in combat, but at the choice of something else. Maybe pets skills related as a weapon skill instead.

Is this supposed to be the Ranger CDI thread? If not, why haven’t they started it so its more publicly visible for everyone who is waiting and looking for it? I thought it’s supposed to start today or is it further delayed?

Fenrir.6183:

thefantasticg.3984:

Not mostly, it is completely from the mob AI as stated already in another CDI thread. It’s just be slightly modified.

I repeat: the Ranger will not get better until the pet situation is fixed.

What i meant is…it can’t be fixed. It’s a game engine issue and it would require a lot of work…much more than they can do since it could cause major bugs to the rest of the game. I haven’t seen the code of course but i’m pretty sure it’s much more difficult than most people believe it would be.

Every pet is using the mob AI engine. Someone has to implement a better AI and another one has to redirect the links. Done.
A little bit more challenging would be, if you want to switch the petAi to the clientside but it’s not impossible and it would greatly improve the effectiveness of the pet.

ReesesPBC.4603:

Is this supposed to be the Ranger CDI thread? If not, why haven’t they started it so its more publicly visible for everyone who is waiting and looking for it? I thought it’s supposed to start today or is it further delayed?

Everything concerning ranger is half good/half bad. We get the attention of the devs for CDI, but there is no thread opened for us. Yepp, thats ranger.

That is what’s depressing; the lack of concern to start a thread for issues over a year and a half old which has been already delayed from its original commencement on Monday.

In regard to Fractals, there has been a large bugs and issues compilation thread that was posted in the Fractured subforums about three and a half months ago. It would be greatly appreciated if you took the time to read it.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/fractured/Summary-of-Fractal-Issues-and-Bugs/

I saw an idea a few pages back that I liked and I wanted to build upon it. When the pet is stowed, a passive effect is turned on. For example, a chance to poison when a spider is your stowed pet. It doesn’t give the on demand poison or the immobilize the spider gives when it is out, so it doesn’t overshadow the active abilities of the pet.

Sol.4310:

Yeah, cause PvE and WvW get all the update’s……

Sol is right, you can’t really complain about the spvp getting too much attention, and while I play wvw a lot, I learned more about rangers once I started playing spvp, even if it’s quite different, it transversely improved my wvw gameplay.

I dont like generalization anyways, and I don’t like how some of you perceive people who also play pvp with passion. We are not guilty of anything because we enjoy a mode and care about it.

However, I’m all for a skill split for every mode, it’s much needed.

Guess I’ll do an updated version of my Trait Changes

Marksman

Major Traits
__________________
—Adept Traits—
Steady Focus – This Trait needs no change
Malicious Training – This Trait needs no change
Keen Edges – After recent patch, this Trait is now perfect
Signet Mastery – This Trait has been combined with Beastmaster’s Might Trait
New Trait Added
Poison Tipped Arrow – Longbow/Shortbow now has a chance on crit to apply a 3 second Poison to the target
Predator’s Instinct – This has been changed to a 4 second immobilize when the target drops below 50% health.
Beastmaster’s Bond – This talent now also grants you and your pet Might and Fury when either of you Drop Below 50% health – Cooldown Decreased to 25 seconds.
_____________________
—Master Traits—
Spotter – This Trait no longer needs a change after the last patch
Piercing Arrows – This Trait has been combined with Eagle Eye Trait
New Trait Added
Horn Mastery – Hunter’s Call now Dazes the target for 2 seconds, Call of the Wild now grants 10 seconds of Retal to your pet.
Beastmaster’s Might – Has been combined with signet mastery trait, now grants 20% reduction in signet cooldowns along with the 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds.
Eagle Eye – Now grants shortbow/longbow/harpoon the ability to pierce target’s, increases Longbow/Harpoon Range, Increases Longbow/Harpoon damage.
______________________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Signet of the Beastmaster – This Trait has been redesigned, Signets no longer require this trait to grant the active to the Ranger, This opens up Signet usage to other builds as currently most don’t even pop signets they have due to it only working on the pet. This Trait now Coverts 1 condition into 1 boon on the ranger, and 2 conditions into 2 boons on the Ranger Pet on Signet Use. This change gives the Ranger ranger more active condition removal instead of relying on passive condition removal.
Remorseless – This has been redesigned, Your pet now consumes a condition on itself every 5 seconds, Causes your pet to have a 15% chance to cleave on critical hits, Your pet now applies 5 stacks of Vulnerability on its next attack each time it consumes a Condition.
________________________

Minor Traits
Opening Strikes – Alpha Training has been combined with this trait.
Alpha Training – Your pets opening strike now grants 3 stacks of might to all who are 500 radius around him.
Precise Strike – This Trait has not changed

Skirmishing

Major Traits
_______________________
—Adept Traits—
Pet Prowess – This Trait has not changed
Sharpened Edges – This Trait has not been changed
Trapper’s Defense – This Trait now also lays frost trap along with spiked trap
Primal Reflexes – This Trait has not changed
Companions Might – This Trait has not changed.
Agility Training – This Trait has not changed.
__________________
—Master Traits—
Carnivorous Appetite – This trait has been combined with Compassion Training in Beastmastery line.
New Trait Added
Excessive Baggage – You now drop a random trap at your location when you dodge, This has a 15 second ICD.
Trapper’s Expertise – This has been combined with Trap Potency
Honed Axes – This Trait now grants the Ranger 5 seconds of might on axe critical hits, increases axe critical damage by 10%. This opens up Axe/Axe Builds to multiple specs.
Quickdraw – This Trait has not changed
__________________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Moment of Clarity – This Trait has been redesigned, Currently this trait is ok only if you’re Asura and have access to Technobabble, Making a Grantmaster trait reliant so much on a racial ability is silly. Keeping with granting Rangers more Active Condition removal this trait now removes 2 Conditions from the Ranger when he Interrupts a target. Dazes and Stun Duration are increased by 100%. This makes weapon attacks such as the longbow knockback, path of scars, shortbow and great sword dazes as active condition removals for the Ranger.
New Trait Added
Flight Control – This Trait has replaced Trap Potency which was combined with Trapper’s Expertise, This Trait increases Shortbow/Axe Mainhand range to 1200.
_________________________

Minor Traits
Tail Wind – This trait has not changed
Furious Grip – This trait has not changed
Hunter’s tactic – This trait has not changed

Wilderness Survival

Major Traits
______________
—Adept Traits—
Soften the Fall – This trait has not changed
Healer’s Celerity – This trait now grants 5 seconds of stability along with swiftness on reviving a target
Shared Anguish – This trait has been redesigned, This trait now causes the pet to take 15% of the damage done to a Ranger when he is Stunned,Knockdown,Feared,Dazed,Sink, Launch)
Vigorous Renewal – This trait has not changed.
Expertise Training – This trait has been changed, Now increases the pets condition damage by 30 each time it applies a condition for a maximum of 25 stacks, This Decays at 1 second very 2 seconds outside of combat, This resets on Pet Swap or Pet Death.
Wilderness Knowledge – This trait has not changed.
__________________________
—Master Traits—
Offhand Training – This trait has not changed
Oakheart Slave – This trait has not changed
Hide in Plain Sight – This trait now allows you to move while Camouflaged, 30 second ICD still in effect.
Martial Mastery – This trait has not changed.
________________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Empathetic Bond – This now transfer’s a condition to your pet whenever you evade an attack, This can only happen once every 1 seconds (So a bunch of people spamming attacks don’t instantly removal all conditions on you), This removes the Rangers more passive condition removal, and instead moves it towards a more active role. Things like Lightning Reflexes, Shortbow, Sword/Dagger become condition removal abilities.
Barkskin – This trait has not changed.
__________________

Minor Traits
Natural Vigor – this trait has not changed
Companion’s Defense – this trait has not changed
Peak Strength – This has been changed to 80% health.

Nature Magic

Major Traits
____________
—Adept Traits—
Circle of Life – This trait has been redesigned, Causes a Healing Spring on the area of the death of the Ranger and the Ranger pet.
Concentration Training – This trait has not changed
Nature’s Bounty – This trait has not changed
Spiritual Knowledge – This trait has not changed
Strength of Spirit – This trait has not changed
Nature’s Protection – This trait has not changed
___________________
—Master Traits—
Nature’s Vengeance – This Trait now also causes the pet to leave a combo field based on which spirit died, Stone Spirit leaves a Smoke Field, Frost Spirit Leaves an Ice Field, Sun Spirit Leaves a Fire Field, Storm Spirit Leaves a Lightning Field.
Evasive Purity – This trait has not changed.
Two handed Training – This Trait now Has a 50% chance to grant 1 Stack of Might Might for 5 seconds on critical hit attacks for Greatsword/Spear/Longbow/Shortbow (1 second ICD)
Enlargement – – Whenever you Block or Reflect an attack, You Enrage your pet causing it to grow in size, and grant fury/might for 5 seconds to those around it in a 360 radius. This has a 1 Second ICD.

—Grandmaster Traits—
Spirits Unbound – This trait has been redesigned, Spirits can now move freely, Whenever a spirit dies it removes 2 condition from allies in a 360 radius around it. This opens up Condition Removal for Spirits specs, and Makes Ranger spirits more useful for zerg fights when following the ranger. It also keeps with more Active Control.
Nature’s Voice – This trait has not changed.
______________________

Minor Traits
Rejuvenation – This trait has not changed.
Fortifying Bond – This trait has not changed.
Bountiful Hunter – This Trait has been redesigned, you and your pet now do 1% extra damage for each boon you have.

Beastmastery

Major Traits
_______________
—Adept Traits—
Speed Training – This Trait has been combined with Commanding Voice
New Trait Added
Pet Cemetery – Whenever your pet dies, The ghost of said pet will now follow the target who killed him for 15 seconds in an unwavering rage.
Master’s Bond – This trait has been redesigned, Now increases the pet attribute by 1 for every second the pet is active in combat for a max of 25 stacks, Decays at 1 stack every 2 seconds outside of combat. Resets on Pets Death, or Pet Swap.
Shout Mastery – This trait has not changed.
Compassion Training – This trait has been combined with Carnivorous Training from Skirmishing Line, Now grants the pet health whenever it critical hits, This is based off the pet healing stat
Commanding Voice – This trait was combined with Speed Training, It now reduces pet cooldowns by 20%
Mighty Swap – This Trait has not been changed.
_________________
—Master Traits—
Rending Attacks – This Trait hasn’t been changed.
Stability Training – This trait has been removed.
New Trait Added
Psychedelic Truffle – The Enemies face now looks like a giant truffle to your Pig, The Pig Gains the ability to strip 2 boons from the target for 10 seconds on crit after using its (F2), 1 Boon goes to the Pet, the other goes to the Ranger.
Intimidation Training – This trait has been redesigned, Now causes the Spiders (F2) abilities to Cripple the Target, Now causes the Canines (F2) to cause 7 seconds of Weakness to all enemies hit by it. Bears (F2) ability now grants Aegis to all allies around it in a 360 radius for 5 seconds.
Vigorous Training – This trait has been redesigned Birds/Jellyfish Grant Vigor on Swap for 5 seconds, Moa’s (F2) Abilities are now Blast Finishers.
__________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Zephyr’s Speed – This trait has not changed
Natural Healing – This trait has been redesigned it now applies to all allies in a 360 radius around the Ranger and Ranger Pet, The Ranger and Ranger pet no longer have a passive regen from this ability. To get the Regen from this ability, they must be within radius of one another.
_________________________

Minor Traits
Instinctual Bond – This trait has not been changed
Loud Whistle – This trait has not changed
Nature’s Wrath – This trait has not changed.

I need to correct myself on this post, from a couple pages back on this thread ::
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/The-New-CDI-Topics/3641963

Warriors do not have only 3 traits tied to their f1-f4 mechanic, they actually have the same number as every other class (8-12).

However, Rangers having 25+ traits tied to their pet (fully 1/3rd of our traits, probably more once you look at how they all work with each other)…, its still a little absurd since almost all of them only affect the pet, and not the ranger in any way.

I was doing a Pet Version of my Trait update a while back, Mainly to show how we could change Pets in this game to be something other then carbon copies of one another

Bears

A. Brown Bears
Shake it Off – Cures 3 Conditions Now
Bite – Casts Regen on itself (No Change)
Slash – Applies 1 Vulnerability to the Target for 5 Seconds
Defy Pain – No Change

B. Black Bears
Enfeebling Roar – Strips 2 Boons from Targets in 600 Radius (20 Second Cooldown)
Bite – Steals 2 Boons from the Target (25 Second Cooldown)
Slash – Applies 1 Vulnerability Stack to the Target for 5 seconds
Defy Pain – Converts Conditions on itself into Random Boons (45 Second Cooldown)

C. Polar Bear
Icy Roar – Converted to Icy Charge, Now Bullrush’s the target leaving behind a Frost Field (Think Burning Speed from Elementalists, but Frost Instead), Chill Increased to 7 Seconds. (20 Second Cooldown)
Bite – Immobilizes the Target for 4 Seconds
Slash – Applies Cripple to the target for 3 Seconds.
Defy Pain – Changed to South Paw, Knocks the Target on the Ground for 3 Seconds. (30 Second Cooldown)

D. Arctodus
Rending Maul – Change to Protective Stance, Absorbs 15% of damage done to allies in the area for 8 seconds, 30 second Cooldown.
Bite – Changed to Intercept, Charges the Ranger and Takes the Next Hit intended for him.
Slash – Applies 1 Stack of Vulnerability to the target for 5 seconds.
Defy Pain – Changed to Bodyguard Splits damage between Ranger and the itself for 5 seconds – 30 Second Cooldown.

E. Murellow
Poison Cloud – Change to Sickly Aura – now transfers 2 conditions from itself to enemies in a 600 Yard Radius every 2 seconds for 10 Seconds. (25 Second Cooldown)
Bite – Now Applies Poison and Weakness for 10 seconds (25 Second Cooldown)
Slash – Applies 1 Stack of Bleed for 5 Seconds to the target
Defy Pain – Changed to Disease Prone – Converts Boons on itself into Conditions (25 Second Cooldown)

As you can see, I’ve Made Each Bear Unique and Have a specific thing they’re good at.

Brown Bears being the Standard Bear, Black Bear Being all about Boons, Polar Bear being all about CC, Arctodus be all about Protecting its master, and Murellow Being all about Spreading Conditions.

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Sol.4310:

Carighan.6758:

I have just one request, even though I know that for the forum population – which seems extremely specialized compared to the general playerbase ingame – this is going to be highly unpopular:

Please don’t base balancing decisions on sPvP.

It is a much too specialized and “quirky” game mode. It doesn’t reflect the kind of combat which comes up in both WvW and PvE, it lacks anti-structure combat, it lacks logistics, it has it’s own set of items and rules. It’s not at all a representative game mode, and should be last-priority (IMO) behind PvE, smallscale (dungeon) PvE, WvW combat and WvW material warfare (no specific order between those).

I understand that it often seems on the forums that sPvP is the game mode or something. But ingame it really doesn’t feel like many players actually play sPvP. And it worries me that this playerbase seems to “camp the forums”, so to say, making the forum opinion seems drastically different from what is experienced ingame when talking to players.

Please don’t base balance in such a vocal minority.

What you just said is like someone whom only does SPvP coming to the forums and saying the same thing but changing where you put PvE and WvW with SPvP and TPvP.

Also you should take the time to read some of the idea’s us SPvP players are putting forward, if you look closely they greatly increase viability of Rangers in both PvE and WvW. Allot of us Ranger’s whom play SPvP have spent allot of time in both WvW and PvE. Speaking from personal exp, I’ve done more WvW then I have SPvP………

Edit: Also you rarely ever see the balance dev’s taking any idea’s or input from the player base and using them. Only input I’ve seen them take are things like make Spirit’s viable. Pet’s do to much damage. Normally they look at what people think and come up with there own ideas.

Fact is, that the shortbow recieved some PvP related nerfs which makes him to a really pitiful dps weapon in PvE.

Wrong again, that wasn’t related to PvP, it was related to animation bug which they fixed and that is the reason for the so called “nerf”.

Terravos.4059:

Skirmishing

Major Traits
_______________________
—Adept Traits—
Pet Prowess – This Trait has not changed
Sharpened Edges – This Trait has not been changed
Trapper’s Defense – This Trait now also lays frost trap along with spiked trap
Primal Reflexes – This Trait has not changed
Companions Might – This Trait has not changed.
Agility Training – This Trait has not changed.
__________________
—Master Traits—
Carnivorous Appetite – This trait has been combined with Compassion Training in Beastmastery line.
New Trait Added
Excessive Baggage – You now drop a random trap at your location when you dodge, This has a 15 second ICD.
Trapper’s Expertise – This has been combined with Trap Potency
Honed Axes – This Trait now grants the Ranger 5 seconds of might on axe critical hits, increases axe critical damage by 10%. This opens up Axe/Axe Builds to multiple specs.
Quickdraw – This Trait has not changed
__________________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Moment of Clarity – This Trait has been redesigned, Currently this trait is ok only if you’re Asura and have access to Technobabble, Making a Grantmaster trait reliant so much on a racial ability is silly. Keeping with granting Rangers more Active Condition removal this trait now removes 2 Conditions from the Ranger when he Interrupts a target. Dazes and Stun Duration are increased by 100%. This makes weapon attacks such as the longbow knockback, path of scars, shortbow and great sword dazes as active condition removals for the Ranger.
New Trait Added
Flight Control – This Trait has replaced Trap Potency which was combined with Trapper’s Expertise, This Trait increases Shortbow/Axe Mainhand range to 1200.
_________________________

Minor Traits
Tail Wind – This trait has not changed
Furious Grip – This trait has not changed
Hunter’s tactic – This trait has not changed

I don’t agree with Trap trait’s being in Skirmishing, they should be moved into our Power/Condition Duration, some have asked for them to be moved into Wilderness Trait line without taking into account you will be able to run Flame/Spike/Sun Spirit/Spirit of Nature, while having BM tank setup…..

I just had this idea flashing, how about a new utility skill that would clean/dispel any hostile combo field (comb shot yeah!)? plus it makes sense for a ranger to be able to do such things isnt it?

Sol.4310:

Terravos.4059:

Skirmishing

Major Traits
_______________________
—Adept Traits—
Pet Prowess – This Trait has not changed
Sharpened Edges – This Trait has not been changed
Trapper’s Defense – This Trait now also lays frost trap along with spiked trap
Primal Reflexes – This Trait has not changed
Companions Might – This Trait has not changed.
Agility Training – This Trait has not changed.
__________________
—Master Traits—
Carnivorous Appetite – This trait has been combined with Compassion Training in Beastmastery line.
New Trait Added
Excessive Baggage – You now drop a random trap at your location when you dodge, This has a 15 second ICD.
Trapper’s Expertise – This has been combined with Trap Potency
Honed Axes – This Trait now grants the Ranger 5 seconds of might on axe critical hits, increases axe critical damage by 10%. This opens up Axe/Axe Builds to multiple specs.
Quickdraw – This Trait has not changed
__________________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Moment of Clarity – This Trait has been redesigned, Currently this trait is ok only if you’re Asura and have access to Technobabble, Making a Grantmaster trait reliant so much on a racial ability is silly. Keeping with granting Rangers more Active Condition removal this trait now removes 2 Conditions from the Ranger when he Interrupts a target. Dazes and Stun Duration are increased by 100%. This makes weapon attacks such as the longbow knockback, path of scars, shortbow and great sword dazes as active condition removals for the Ranger.
New Trait Added
Flight Control – This Trait has replaced Trap Potency which was combined with Trapper’s Expertise, This Trait increases Shortbow/Axe Mainhand range to 1200.
_________________________

Minor Traits
Tail Wind – This trait has not changed
Furious Grip – This trait has not changed
Hunter’s tactic – This trait has not changed

I don’t agree with Trap trait’s being in Skirmishing, they should be moved into our Power/Condition Duration, some have asked for them to be moved into Wilderness Trait line without taking into account you will be able to run Flame/Spike/Sun Spirit/Spirit of Nature, while having BM tank setup…..

Walk me through why you think they should be in the Power/Condition Duration Line vs Precision/Crit Damage line?

About WvW…
I know you are asking about the edge of the mist.. but IMO that’s a nearly useless map for randomly fight ( but fun to play like you could traval around pve maps to pass time )
Multi server for one side → no clear vocal organisation like for official maps.

I would like to suggest one thing about WvW.
I know many players wont agree,but whatever.

Do NOT allow food in the “officials” WvW maps. Why ?

• Its something external to a build ( gear + stats + traits ) that bring strength and weakness. Food bring a too important advantage that can way too much offset somes build weakness, or boost too much
• Not 100% of the players are using food = it break the balance in a pvp place where everyone should have the EXACT sames chance like in the PvP mode

Its not because its WvW where we use our pve character that its a reasons to have a unbalance pvp that advantage the food farmer or thoses who have more money.

Same thing for the ascended stuff. Exotic armor stat should be boosted to ascended armor rank to have a correct balance since Anet choosed to destroy the gear balance with that stuff.
Of course, the gear stat boost should only occur in WvW maps.

Terravos.4059:

Walk me through why you think they should be in the Power/Condition Duration Line vs Precision/Crit Damage line?

Because traps (or any other source of condition damage) don’t crit?

300 points of Precision & Ferocity are wasted on skills that inflict Bleeding, Burning, and Poison. Even condition damage is a bit of a waste since it doesn’t help with Cripple or Chill.

But Condition Durations? That makes everything better for a Ranger trap-setter.

Nike.2631:

But Condition Durations? That makes everything better for a Ranger trap-setter.

‘Free’ extra 30% condition duration might be a bit too convenient, though. I would be even more concerned about that condition damage-wise than the set up Sol described when Traps where moved to Wilderness Survival.

Xaylin.1860:

Nike.2631:

But Condition Durations? That makes everything better for a Ranger trap-setter.

‘Free’ extra 30% condition duration might be a bit too convenient, though. I would be even more concerned about that condition damage-wise than the set up Sol described when Traps where moved to Wilderness Survival.

It’s a risk vs reward. Biggest problem I have at the moment with Trap’s are we are forced to use 3 Slot skills (Utilities) to make them effective.

So I would like to be rewarded for taking a Risky build rather then all risk with no reward.

Sol.4310:

It’s a risk vs reward. Biggest problem I have at the moment with Trap’s are we are forced to use 3 Slot skills (Utilities) to make them effective.

That is true. Therefore, the baseline skills need to be buffed and the traits need to be reworked to provide a different benefit. But when talking about moving the traits to a different line I’m not sure that Marksmanship would be the appropriate choice.

Changing the role of the pet

As it currently stands, we’re looking at roughly a 75/25 split in damage between ranger/pet.

This is a problem. A combination of poor pet AI, lagged f2 casting and generally defensively weak pets means that 25% of our damage is far too easy to disappear.

Rather than saying “oh just fix pet AI”, perhaps we need to take a step back and look at changing the role of the pet. What if the pet was made much weaker in terms of physical DPS, changing the ratio to something like 90/10 or even 95/5, and instead shifting the pet focus to being a provider of boons and much more defensive?

The ranger itself would require a physical damage boost to fill in for the reduced pet damage, allowing us, the players, to take more control over our DPS. This is something desperately needed. The pet on the other hand would become more tanky and provide either multiple boons or single, strong boons depending on the pet.

Shifting the pets to a support-focus would not only increase their general usefulness and heavily reduce the need for improved AI (e.g. We’re not tearing our hair out because the fact that we need the jaguar to chase the target to provide damage no longer matters much), but it would also pave the way for more build diversity and a better role in dungeons.

Naturally this would require a re-work of some pet skills, and the replacement of some of the pets’ auto-chain damage-based skills with boons.

@Chris
If you are still here, lurking, can you and the developers please sit down and write a official statement as to what YOU envision the ranger to be.
Yes, Mr Peters, or i think it was him, did state it was intended by all purposes to be “The Pet Profession” however it is very clear that it does not fulfill this role appropriately. This has been stated so many times by now that the developers also should have noticed the blatant lack of pet performance.

What i wish for, is for ArenaNet LLC to make a proper official statement, as to their goals (Not your ongoing projects) for the ranger profession as a whole. What do you guys and gals think the ranger profession should excel at.
Why should you write such a statement?
Because we, the players, can make a billion suggestions, however we can make a billion suggestions suggesting something that completely contradicts you guys vision, and as thus, the vast majority of these suggestions will not be very helpful to you, nor us.

So in order to be as constructive, specific and thematically correct as possible, we, the players, should be presented with some official guidelines as to what you, the developers, want the profession to evolve into.
This is not a single skill, this is an entire profession we are looking at. Going at it without any proper guidelines to work with will only result in a pile of suggestions asking for power creeps and “make this into a warrior+guard+ele+thief with pet profession”.

Tell us what you want, and we shall in return tell you what we want.

Pretty much what Prysin has said. The Ranger community has been begging ANet to provide a ‘mission statement’ for the Ranger class for a year now. The closest we came was the ‘pet class’ comment in the Twitch broadcast.

It will be impossible to have a proper CDI thread when the Rangers don’t know if we should be proposing solutions to support a possible pet fix, if we should be proposing solutions to work around the current assortment of issues, or if we should be proposing solutions as if the pet will be phased out because it’s simply not feasible for ANet to ever get it working.

Heck, we can’t even suggest proper solutions to power based problems with the class because we don’t know if the complete lack of burst and AE is intentional and a design choice that you won’t step back from. Do you want the class’s strongest attacks to be their auto-attacks?

Agree with Prysin