Guild Wars 2

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have spent a lot of time reading the posts on this forum and wanted to put in my $0.02 with ideas for improving the Ranger, which is by far my favourite class but is so disadvantaged compared to a few others in GW2. I played my ranger for over 3000hrs in GW1 but this new incarnation is just not as fun, here are my ideas for making it so again, whatcha think?

Longbow

Long Range Shot
Add 2 stacks of Torment for 2s at ranges below 500.

Rapidfire
Normal – Reduce arrows to 6 and double damage per arrow, 2 stacks of vulnerability per arrow, 3s cast time. (essentially a 20% increase in damage over a shorter time period)
While Stealthed – “Sloth Hunter’s Shot”, Channeled 4s. Marks target. This arrow does
same dmg as ‘maul’ and applies 6 stacks of Bleeding and Torment for 3s. 60s CD. 1500
range.

Hunter’s Shot
Normal – Arrow moves twice as fast. Stealths more reliably. Cancels AA.
While Stealthed – “Called Shot” You fire an arrow that moves twice as fast and cannot
be blocked, if you hit, your pet shadow steps to target foe and gains an attack of
opportunity. 12s CD. 1200 range.

Point Blank Shot
Normal – Add 3s of vigor and swiftness on hit.
While Stealthed – “Debilitating Shot” Applies 8s of Cripple and weakness. 12s CD. 1200
range.

Barrage
Normal – Drop 1/2 second off the cast time, allow movement but at 50% speed.
While Stealthed – “Ignite Arrows” Preparation. Your next 3 arrows explode on hit,
dealing damage and applying Burning and Blindness for 1s to foes in a 240 radius. You
are revealed. 60s CD (cancels AA)

Shortbow

Crossfire
Remove condition for bleed, make it 2 stacks for 2s base.

Concusion Shot
Add 5 stacks of Confusion for 5s on interupt.

Axe

Whirling Defense
Increase base Retaliation to 5s
Cause AoE weakness for 5s.
(See traits for main hand improvement)

Sword

Make the AA go, Pounce/slash/kick instead of slash/kick/pounce. Make chain break more responsive to #2,3 and dodge and movement. Improve the pathing of the other skills so that you hit your target most of the time, make them actually path to the mob, not away. Mostly a problem on uneven terrain.

Greatsword

Maul
Blast finisher.

Make the skills path correctly.

Dagger

Stalker’s Strike
Increase damage significantly

Crippling Talon
Increase cripple to 8s

Torch

Throw Torch
Explodes on hit dealing dmg and causing 3s of Blindness and Burning to foes near
target foe. Blast finisher.

Bonfire
Increase size to 240, ground targetable, more damage. Removes Weakness & Chilled from allies and give them 25% endurance.

Warhorn

Reduce cast time on both skills.

Call of the Wild
Increase might to 3, add functionality remove immob. Reduce CD.

Hunter’s Call
Add 1s of torment per hit, make dmg AoE with small radius.

Elite Skills

Rampage as One
Halve Durations and recharge.

Nature Spirit
Halve Durations and recharge.

Utility Skills

Sharpening Stone
Make this skill affect 6 arrows and always critical. (so it fits with the improved rapid fire above). Reduce the CD by 20% base.

Guard
Remove cast time. Add functionality, Your pet gains an attack of opportunity.

Protect Me
Add functionality, your pet gains protection and regeneration for 6s.
Make this work when a shout is used or the pet is given an order, pet should still
attack during.

Search and Rescue
Reduce CD, give pet stability for the duration and make revive 100% speed not 33%.

Lightning reflexes
Remove damage and instead Confuses foes in a 240 radius, 8 stacks for 2s. Remove
Cripple, chill, immob and weakness.

Sick Em
Stays on the pet until duration ends. Remove need for targeting, applies the revealed
if there is a target. Revealed duration needs to be substantially longer, like 12s. Then it would be an actual counter to stealth.

Signets
Should always affect the ranger.

Traits

Marksmanship

Opening Strike
Affects both you and your pet

Alpha Training
Pets apply weakness for 5s on Opening Strike.

Beastmaster’s Bond
Add functionality, your pet gains protection for 10s

Read the Wind
Add functionality, causes torment 2 stacks for 2s with each hit. This trait should
also affect pet projectiles.

Eagle eye
Should affect the shortbow.

Signet of the Beastmaster
All signets last 50% longer and give fury on activation.

Skirmishing

Strider’s Defense
You have a 10% chance to block ranged attacks while wielding a melee weapon.
You have a 10% chance to block melee attacks while wielding a ranged weapon.
Activate Signet of Stone when your health reaches 25%

Honed Axes
Main hand Axe attacks deal +10% damage, cause torment for 2s and bounce to one
additional target.

Pet’s Prowess
Pet gains +30% crit dmg, +100 precision and +150 toughness.

Companion’s Might
Pet attacks grant the ranger 3 might for 1s and Ranger crits grant the pet 1 might for
3s.

Quick Draw
Add functionality, 10% faster attack speed with bows.

Agility Training
Pets Move 50% faster.

Carnivorous Appetite
You and your pet are healed for 5% of your pets critical damage.

Furious Swap/Tail Wind
Fix duration bugs, it should scale with boon duration.

Wilderness Survival

Companion’s Defense
Your pet gains evade at the beginning of your dodge roll. You both gain protection at
the end. Pet Evade: 2s Protection: 3s

Oakheart Salve
reduce CD to 10s

Poison Master
Add +250 condition dmg and your pet does +20% more dmg to poisoned foes.

Nature Magic

Rejuvenation
Reduce CD to 20s

Two Handed Training
Should affect bows.

Fortifying Bond
Remove the durations and allow stability to be transferred but don’t double up on boons from skills that affect both you and your pet.

Beastmastery

Instinctual Bond
Add functionality, Your pet also gains fury for 5s.

Master’s Bond
Since its called masters bond, not pets bond, the buff should be applied to the pet but counted/recorded on the player. Like a kill stack sigil. Shouldn’t go away on pet swap, still lose it on ranger down/death and changing to different pets, but not on pet down/death/swap.

Change all pet family specific traits to include all pets, not specific types. ie Vigorous/Intimidation/Stability training and Rending Attacks should affect all pets.

Pets

Ability to choose pet skins, stats and skill set seperately (depending on family),
four drop down boxes with Family, Skin, stat set and F2 Skill is all that is needed, like choosing stats on a legendary. ie Feline, Snow Leopard, Rabid, Rending
Pounce. Canine, Wolf, Assassin, Howl of the Pack.

Make pets dmg appear on combat log.

Set cast time on all pet skills to 1/2 second, remove channel. Animations can last
longer, but the skill has to go off immediately while in range.

Remove 60s CD on pet swap after death. Should be 30s.

Make pet names persistent.

Make boons applied by the pet ALWAYS apply to the ranger, if in range.

Make an area in the pet screen that has an inventory slot that you can add food to
which the pet would automatically use on recharge if outside a town. Good way to use up all the cheap food on the TP and buff pets a bit too. You need to feed your pet too. Either that or make Food/Utility buffs apply to the pet also, since we are really only getting 70% value from cons anyway.

And, or, a sigil slot for the pet. Maybe.

Other pets to add;
Coyote, Rock Dog, Mistfire wolf, Hound of balthazar, raptor pets, GW1 Black wolf.