Guild Wars 2

I copy and pasted this from dulfy’s live stream notes. The part that intrigues me is they said theres amazing changes coming for the ranger. Could we finally be able to perma stow our pets? Or maybe were getting crossbows…. Unlikely, but crossbows would be great! Lol, what do you all think?

Ranger

Spirit of Nature – right now it says it heals for 320 every 3 seconds but it actually heals for 480 every second due to a bug. We are aiming for 320 per second. It is still incredibly strong
Field type (combo fields) adding to all of the traps.

Empathic Bond – removing conditions from ranger even if the pet is dead – we are fixing that bug.

There are some amazing stuff coming for the ranger but we can’t talk too much about it yet (and also to other professions).

Mainhand sword issue – not being able to dodge. Looking to fix it, may not make it to the first balance patch.

My Expectations on what I want to see getting changed or improved with rangers are these things, which I’d call for me personally “amazing”

• Make each Pet Name fixated, so that they don’t lose their names when chaning your equipped pets

• Add a Pet Menagerie where you can customize more your Pets to make them look far more unique and where you can develop your Pets further (Pet Evolution)

• Adding of alot of new Pets to improve that way the Build Diversity of the Ranger.
  Example:
  - Various Gryphons will become tameable now as juvenile pets
  - Rock Hounds/War Beasts will become tameable now as juvenile pets
  - Added into the game back the Phoenix and Rainbow Phoenix
  - Added other GW1 Pets back into the game
  Tiger, White Tiger, Reef Lurker, Lion, Rat, Iguana, Crocodile
  - Other new Pets added:
  Tropic Bird, Cheetah, Polar Fox, Racoon, Anaconda, Manta, Octopus, Falcon, Dolphin, Hammer Shark, Tiger Shark, Sea Turtle, Eel, Monkey ect. pp

• Rangers are able now to control 2 Pets at the same time and don’t need to swap Pets anymore, Pets have now also downed states. Pets will have now aulso their own Self Heal Skills as Skill Number 5. 2 Pets can perform Pet Combos, when their “Confidence” to their Master reaches a certain threashold together, which raises, when the ranger heals or buffs their pets or cures them from conditions.

• Pet AI has been significantly improved, so that Pets will dodge now more oftenly direct attacks and move out of AoEs

• All the Pet Command Utilities have been reworked and work now as the F1-F4 Pet Commands.
  Pets will now always attack the same target, that the player is attacking, but players can directly control their pets now by setting “Territories” for them, which they will defend against everything that enters their asigned Territories.
  A Pet that has been asigned to a Territority, will stay there, as long the Ranger either removed that Territory Command, or if the Ranger moves over a certain distance away from that Territory (Range bigger than xxxx to you, and pet runs back to you)
  In their Defense Mode in assigned Territories, Pets will have different Skills, as when being in their Offensive Mode, where they follow you.

• For the removed Command Utilities, the Ranger will receive 4 complete new Utility Skills, so called “Nature Spells” with that we strengthen the skill builds that are based on the Nature Magic Traitline andto give the ranger a fitting Druid gameplay.
  Due to this, Rangers become able to use Staffs now also and receive with this 5 new Weapon Skilsl with the Staff that further increase the Naturalist kind of build of a Druid using real Nature Magic controling the nature with direct magic spells that let for example roots whip lash at foes, that lets flowerfields appear for stunning and poisonous clouds of pollen. Which lets razosharp leafs slice up foes in a storm of leafs and so on … or just summons temporarely some wild animals that help you and attack nearby foes

• Some tweaks to the existign skills have been made as also to the traits.
  Useless traits have been merged to make space for some new interesting traits

• Mentioned Bug Fixes and Problem Solvings.

TL DR version:

Amazign Things would be for me personally:

- Alot more Pets
- Customizable Pets/ Menagerie with Pet Evolution coming back
- Adding Staffs and new utility Skilsl to to a rework of the pet Command Utilities to become the new F1-F4 Skills, no Pet F2 anymore, therefore have all Pets now 5 Skills including their own Healing Skill.
- Two Pets controlable at the same time, letting Rangers become true Beast Masters that can let their Pets perform Pet Combo Attacks with implemention of the Confidence System.

That would be imo definetely amazing changes for me, if that stuff might find exactly that way into the game, like described.

Those are some really great ideas Orpheal. If any of these would happen, I would be 1 happy ranger! =D

I would love to see the option for a ranger to be less dependent on his pet, or to be able to forgo a pet entirely without losing effectiveness. I am not suggesting that pets be taken away from those who enjoy them however.

Being able to have 2 pets (or even 2 plus your starter, since you can have 800 minions) would be a kitten good start.

Until the avg pug…stops using longbow in melee range, can control their pet correctly, and stop wasting a utility slot on signet of the hunt…idc what they do to rangers..I will continue to ask for no rangers on my dungeon runs

Orpheal.8263:

My Expectations on what I want to see getting changed or improved with rangers are these things, which I’d call for me personally “amazing”

• Make each Pet Name fixated, so that they don’t lose their names when chaning your equipped pets

• Add a Pet Menagerie where you can customize more your Pets to make them look far more unique and where you can develop your Pets further (Pet Evolution)

• Adding of alot of new Pets to improve that way the Build Diversity of the Ranger.
  Example:
  - Various Gryphons will become tameable now as juvenile pets
  - Rock Hounds/War Beasts will become tameable now as juvenile pets
  - Added into the game back the Phoenix and Rainbow Phoenix
  - Added other GW1 Pets back into the game
  Tiger, White Tiger, Reef Lurker, Lion, Rat, Iguana, Crocodile
  - Other new Pets added:
  Tropic Bird, Cheetah, Polar Fox, Racoon, Anaconda, Manta, Octopus, Falcon, Dolphin, Hammer Shark, Tiger Shark, Sea Turtle, Eel, Monkey ect. pp

• Rangers are able now to control 2 Pets at the same time and don’t need to swap Pets anymore, Pets have now also downed states. Pets will have now aulso their own Self Heal Skills as Skill Number 5. 2 Pets can perform Pet Combos, when their “Confidence” to their Master reaches a certain threashold together, which raises, when the ranger heals or buffs their pets or cures them from conditions.

• Pet AI has been significantly improved, so that Pets will dodge now more oftenly direct attacks and move out of AoEs

• All the Pet Command Utilities have been reworked and work now as the F1-F4 Pet Commands.
  Pets will now always attack the same target, that the player is attacking, but players can directly control their pets now by setting “Territories” for them, which they will defend against everything that enters their asigned Territories.
  A Pet that has been asigned to a Territority, will stay there, as long the Ranger either removed that Territory Command, or if the Ranger moves over a certain distance away from that Territory (Range bigger than xxxx to you, and pet runs back to you)
  In their Defense Mode in assigned Territories, Pets will have different Skills, as when being in their Offensive Mode, where they follow you.

• For the removed Command Utilities, the Ranger will receive 4 complete new Utility Skills, so called “Nature Spells” with that we strengthen the skill builds that are based on the Nature Magic Traitline andto give the ranger a fitting Druid gameplay.
  Due to this, Rangers become able to use Staffs now also and receive with this 5 new Weapon Skilsl with the Staff that further increase the Naturalist kind of build of a Druid using real Nature Magic controling the nature with direct magic spells that let for example roots whip lash at foes, that lets flowerfields appear for stunning and poisonous clouds of pollen. Which lets razosharp leafs slice up foes in a storm of leafs and so on … or just summons temporarely some wild animals that help you and attack nearby foes

• Some tweaks to the existign skills have been made as also to the traits.
  Useless traits have been merged to make space for some new interesting traits

• Mentioned Bug Fixes and Problem Solvings.

TL DR version:

Amazign Things would be for me personally:

- Alot more Pets
- Customizable Pets/ Menagerie with Pet Evolution coming back
- Adding Staffs and new utility Skilsl to to a rework of the pet Command Utilities to become the new F1-F4 Skills, no Pet F2 anymore, therefore have all Pets now 5 Skills including their own Healing Skill.
- Two Pets controlable at the same time, letting Rangers become true Beast Masters that can let their Pets perform Pet Combo Attacks with implemention of the Confidence System.

That would be imo definetely amazing changes for me, if that stuff might find exactly that way into the game, like described.

I don’t agree with most of the things you mentioned because they are ridiculous.
My main is Ranger btw.
1.That must be fixed,but i never named my pets because i don’t care about that.
2.Customize your pet,no ty,the pets are from the nature,they are not created by us,we tame them,not make them.And if you mean customize stats,what’s the point on having so many pets if we can have the same stats.
3.New pets?We already have 40 terrestrial and 5 aquatic only, pets.I would not mind if they add one or two pets once in a while.
4.I would like to have a skill “summon the second pet for 30 sec” or something like that.
4/5.Pets are pets,not other players,there are limits in training your pet to do stuff.

Half of your post is about “dress up barbie” game with your pet and another half is having a pet acting like a player.Pets will always have flaws because they are “animals”.

A true ranger should master his bow but it seems in this game other classes can “master” the bow better than a ranger.So all i want is a proper Archer.

time to finish leveling my incompetent ranger than.

LOL you mean tldr: Make pets do everything and kill everyone so I can sit in the back and have some popcorn. You should not have 2 pets. No thank you. You should not have more pets added, you already have 400 of them. What you really need is better balance with the pets so others are used more. I mean I could go through this whole post but I think its all pretty self explanatory that almost everything you said is over the top op/ridiculous. Necros themselves shouldn’t even be able to have so many minions and your pets don’t even take up any utility slots like theirs do.

The only thing thats ridiculous here, are your arguments Nury/Cush.
Don’t call my points ridiculous, only because of you having as it seems some kind of personal problems with the Ranger’s Pet Feature.
—-

1) Thats fine for you, that you never named your pets, Whats your point here? Why do you point it even up, if you don’t care about this?

2) Under Pet Customization and Pet Evolution I understand, that I can do something for my Pets, so that my Pets grow and become bigger, that they change with their Evolution also the way how they look, that you see the difference between a fresh tamed new Pet and a battle hardened and experienced War Pet that has already battled with you against countless foes together.
Pet Customization in form of changing how our Pets look, to make them more individual with visual Accessoires like giving for example my Wolf a Spike Necklace ^^
Or giving my White Moa a red scarf and so on.
That way we can make our pets look more unique and different.
Currently Pets are boring, because every single Pet in the game exactly looks the same.

3) A Game like GW2 can’t have Pets enough.
If you would be a GW1 Veteran and by your reaction to this Point I clearly know now, that you absolutely aren’t one, you would understand this! Especially as a Ranger Player
Pets add new Skills also to the Ranger in an indirectvway, so they also increase the Build Versatility of the Ranger. If freaking love to have for my Norn Ranger a Pet that is an Owl Gryphon. Would be so awesome

4) Necromancers can run around permanently with 6 Minions (+ a 7th temporal one on kills,when traited) around, among 1 of them being an Elite Skill and you want the second ranger pet to be a freaking rediculous 30 second skill???? muahahahahahaahahah, now thats really ridiculous!
Rangers are underpowered if you haven’t got that still after 1+ years. They needa second permanent pet to sustain better their Damage, because Pets currently die way too easily/fast and the pet is a big DPS part of the ranger.
The Pet Swapping is just a silly mechanic that needs to get changed.

5) Hey, I haven’t suggested that Anet should make out of Pets out of a sudden acrobatic super talents, that can’t be hitten anymore. But currently, pets dodge and avoid nearly absolutely no damage at all.
When certain Enemies in PvE, or in Dungeons still can easily beat the pets to pulp with just only a few to only 1 hit(s) and our pets do take these hits, like being bonnded to the ground always, as if they would be enchained to it, then this is simply a matter of bad pet AI, especialyl if they stand for half of an eternity in AoEs around, until they simple die due to the AI beign too stupid to let them move out of the AoE and we the players, the masters of our Pets can’t even directly control our Pets to other spots, like we were able to do so in GW1!!
In that kind of gameplay feature is the GW2 Ranger worser, than in GW1, thats the sad truth. Thats also the way, how I came onto “Territories”, because I want to be able again to give my Pets clear commands, where they have to move to and why they should stay, to either defend that territory that I have manually chosen for them to move to, or just as a maneuver for them to move out of AoEs from foes that way simply skillfully, what would be naturally better, than an AI having to let control this, when the player can decide over that manually, if, yeah if thast mechanic would be just again in the game, like in GW1 T_T, that worked the same way, how we commanded Hero NPC around in the game with those small flags to put onto the Minimap lettign the Hero/Pet automatically move to that set up Flag Position.

There is no “true” ranger.. the Ranger in GW1 already too was a Pet Class and not just an Archer that out of coincedence coudl run around also with Pets.
We just had only more freedon in GW1 to decide over it, if we want to play with or without them.
But the Point is for GW2 this time. Anet has decided, that Pets are constant part of this Class, the permanent Duo/Trio so to say. I suggest you to get over this and to accept, that its very unlikely, that you will ever see Rangers to become 0815-Archers, not unless ANet implements my Suggestion anywhen after the first wave of huge Feature Updates around the huge disccussion based on Sub Classes, that my idea brought up in the horizontal progression CDI thread.
But thats first something up for debate in future, whenever Chris Whiteside will start that new thread. See below my Signature

JBDanger.2603:

There are some amazing stuff coming for the ranger but we can’t talk too much about it yet (and also to other professions).

I’m going to be honest here. The Devs seem to be kind of clueless as to how to fix Rangers. They have a mechanic they don’t wish to give up (pets), less they become second-rate warriors. But pets are … flawed.

There is a very good chance that this “amazing stuff” will leave us all very disappointed.

Orpheal.8263:

The only thing thats ridiculous here, are your arguments Nury/Cush.
Don’t call my points ridiculous, only because of you having as it seems some kind of personal problems with the Ranger’s Pet Feature.
—-

You have your own vision about the ranger that some of us consider ridiculous.
If you want to run with 123456787432 pets,you have spirits,run around with them if you feel the need to have an entire jungle around you.You speak too much about gw1,this is not gw1….is gw2.

Customizing a pet brings nothing for a ranger, the ideea is how to make the ranger a better class not how to “dress up” our pets and tbh the pets might be booring for you,but not for me,is a matter of taste.

Pets die too easily? I killed legendaries in fractals,only me and the pet,the rest were dead.
You either want to play “dress up barbie” or “pokemon”….or both combined.

Remember when we where going to get big things back in Nov 2012 and then we got underwater buffs and a year of dev blackout?

Not saying it’s impossible but they always seem to give us a nerf/buff/nerf sandwich and label it as an improvement.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Something said in this thread has gotten me to thinking. What if pets… had levels?

Let’s say that when you get a pet, it starts at level 1, and it gains EXP if it’s out while you’re kill things. It can go up in level, getting small boosts to stats and size, until it hits level 20 and is “fully trained”. Maybe even an extra attack, or a better version of a current attack/skill, at some points.

Would anyone be interested in that?

Substance E.4852:

Remember when we where going to get big things back in Nov 2012 and then we got underwater buffs and a year of dev blackout?

Not saying it’s impossible but they always seem to give us a nerf/buff/nerf sandwich and label it as an improvement.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

I’ve learned not to trust dev hyperbole. Part of their job is to present changes as if they were the best thing to happen, ever.

Everyone speaks about pets….the pets are not the problem…

Nury.3062:

Everyone speaks about pets….the pets are not the problem…

They’re part of it, and the fact that they’re the Ranger’s central “thing” makes them very easy to focus on. Even if they don’t add much stat-wise, they add a lot to the feel of the class.

Nury.3062:

Everyone speaks about pets….the pets are not the problem…

Feel free to try and use it in a wvw zerg fight and then get back to us on that.

@Nury:

What makes you believe, that everything of these “amazing” things anet has in the pipeline for ranger Changes must be related for combat mechanics and mechanics that have to be for balancing reasons only.
Anet hasn’t made any clear words about it, what exactly all falls under “amazing thinga”
It could be just everything and not all of the plans they have and didn’t talk about yet, must be class balance related, so cut this please out of your head and stop being so arrogant with your childish crap talk about Pokemon and Dress Up Barbie.
So often as you repeat this BS, one must think you have grown up with this…

If I’d want to be with my build a “Druid”, Id play with Nature Spirits, but thats not the case.
I want to see Rangers become true Beast Masters and a true Beast Master controls at least more than 1 pet at once. The minimum amount of pets to achieve this balance related goal is simply 2 and 2 is just also enough to enable the implementation for Pet Combo Skills.

You don’t like Pets anyways, you want your stupid Archer that you can play like a Hunter or something similar, so why the hell do you care about it, when other people want to see Rangers getting specialized more into Pets?
You aren’t forced to play them the same way anyways, so what??.

And don’t take it personally, but I absolutely give a **** about it, if you think Rangers don’t need more Pets. Pets add more flavor to the game and allow for more character customization options, such are also part of horizontal progression
If you can’t simply understand this, then I’m sorry and then I can just only commiserate with you.

Let me guess, you played the fractal with a Brown Bear?? The known number 1 pet when it goes for survivability??? But many other pets don’t have the same survivability as like Brown Bears for example do have it.
However, after your last posting I think you just want to troll this tread, because I fail to see, how you try to be constructive yet in this thread.

You are just bashing so far only my ideas, because they favorize the pet ranger as Anet has concepted this Class, over your personal vision of the “Archer” type of ranger, that uses no Pet for becoming basically the ultimate “Bow Master”.
I share not your vision.
But that gives neither you , nor me the right to declare each others ideas as ridiculous, only because we have different opinions and different likings on how to play the Ranger.
Play the Ranger with your own preference as you like, but don’t bad mouth the preferences of others only because you don’t like the Pet Gameplay and as it seems you also don’t care about character customization options either.

Oh an I’m right, you 100% aren’t a GW1 Veteran for sure, otherwise you’d know as good as me, that GW1 had some mechanics that worked in relationship of the ranger, better, than here, so theres nothing wrong with it with comparing GW1 with GW2 just to clarify about what I was talking to make it better understandable.
Get over it !!

JBDanger.2603:

There are some amazing stuff coming for the ranger but we can’t talk too much about it yet (and also to other professions).

Based on all past promises, what I expect this means is that they’ll nerf a big heap of things and then be evasive and unresponsive when we ask “is that it?” They “can’t talk too much about it yet” means they haven’t actually decided to do anything good yet, and therefore probably won’t.

Wow, you don’t get it. You want another pet when you have spirits. You can have as many pets/spirits as a necro and you want more on the screen? More clutter. And did I not mention that necros have to slot minions as utilities while you don’t with pets? Oh wait, you didn’t respond to that because you know you’re wrong. I don’t care if you can customize your pet, go for it. But this game doesn’t need more kitten ai clutter. No thanks. K bye.

@Orpheal

“What makes you believe, that everything of these “amazing” things anet has in the pipeline for ranger Changes must be related for combat mechanics and mechanics that have to be for balancing reasons only.”

Do i belive that? Where did i wrote that i belive that,all i said is what my vision is about how to improve the Ranger.What we are missing now is a good Ranger stats/skills/build etc. wise….a bird with a red scraf will not make the ranger better…

“Pokemon”,“Dress up barbie”… i mention that because i can compare your vision with that,i am too old to grow up with that but even if i grew up with that,do you have a problem with that?

You want a “Beastmaster” with more than 1 pet,rangers already have issues with 1 pet,luring mobs etc. but that’s only the player skill so i can’t say that would be a problem.

“You don’t like Pets anyways, you want your stupid Archer that you can play like a Hunter or something similar, so why the hell do you care about it, when other people want to see Rangers getting specialized more into Pets? "

So you can call my vision about the ranger “stupid” but i can’t call what you say ridiculous…
You think your pet customization and other aesthetics will help the ranger during a fight?I don’t like pets becasue i don’t give them names and i don’t want scarves for them?
459 days ago i created my ranger,to this day i still play the ranger,someone that would not like aspects of the class would still play that?i don’t think so.I want a great Archer that is better using a bow than a warrior using a bow…
All you want is aestetics….and 2 pets.
You might be right that i don’t care about pet customization because i like the way they are and the way they perform.About the fractal with the bear,the bear is supposed to be tankish and other pets to not have the same survivability,that’s why you have to chose the right pets for the situation and about the guy that said about pets in wvw,a spider with poison and immobilze might help more than a bear or other thing.
If you want to continue this just whisper me ingame,we have different opinions about what a ranger should be and we said everything we had to say for this thread’s topic,anything else is just you trying to prove me that your ranger version is “the mighty and supreme” etc. but you don’t understand that that’s only your opinion and is sustained by your ideas and vision on what direction the ranger class should go.

Palador.2170:

Something said in this thread has gotten me to thinking. What if pets… had levels?

Let’s say that when you get a pet, it starts at level 1, and it gains EXP if it’s out while you’re kill things. It can go up in level, getting small boosts to stats and size, until it hits level 20 and is “fully trained”. Maybe even an extra attack, or a better version of a current attack/skill, at some points.

Would anyone be interested in that?

This is how pets work already. They are scaled as the Ranger levels.
We have sub-classes already…they’re called builds.
Lol…another classic one of these threads by yours truly…I don’t
know why you all take these seriously. Ranger is pretty good, it’s people
with bad builds/situational awereness that are the problem. I’ve been
in plenty of speed clears where I almost got kicked with my ranger but they saw my AP first and asked if I had something else to bring. I told them to trust me on my ranger
in a war/guard group and ended up getting huge props and sighs of relief after.
They’re a pretty crazy duo really, and pretty dynamic. “I make a pretty good team!”, isn’t just a sarcastic remark. It is a Ranger/Pet; it’s not just a ranger with a pet. When people start playing it as a duality and not as an archer with some random, passive damage/effects, Ranger/Pet will be a much more appreciated profession.
PS. Bring back Rainbow Phoenix O.o why wasn’t this in at launch? A major profession based achievement from GW1 that didn’t make it…sad

Tman.6349:

Palador.2170:

Something said in this thread has gotten me to thinking. What if pets… had levels?

Let’s say that when you get a pet, it starts at level 1, and it gains EXP if it’s out while you’re kill things. It can go up in level, getting small boosts to stats and size, until it hits level 20 and is “fully trained”. Maybe even an extra attack, or a better version of a current attack/skill, at some points.

Would anyone be interested in that?

This is how pets work already. They are scaled as the Ranger levels.

I’m not suggesting that they shouldn’t. But, rather, that they shouldn’t be fully trained the moment we press “F” near a tamable one.

When you catch one, it starts out a bit weaker than they do now, and by using it in battle you make it stronger and grow it to full size. Of course, I do expect that they’ll be trying another small buff to pets sometime soon, so the end result would be a bit stronger than they are now.

If there is no incoming buff, then scratch that part of it. Maybe make it so it’s size only. Starts off Juvenile size, then becomes adult size at around the half-way point, and in the end winds up a bit bigger than an adult wild animal. (You ARE taking good care of it after all, right?)

Palador.2170:

If there is no incoming buff, then scratch that part of it. Maybe make it so it’s size only. Starts off Juvenile size, then becomes adult size at around the half-way point, and in the end winds up a bit bigger than an adult wild animal. (You ARE taking good care of it after all, right?)

Well, Unless you use Empathic Bond, Protect me, or Signet of Renewal, then your pet is probably quite sickly, and the Tyrian Humane Society must be notifed of your mis-treatment of animals immediately!

Also, Orpheal, you have some sound suggestions there, but, just like what I did to Yoh in this Thread, I’m going to pick apart and shred everything you just suggested, because….its what I do….

Orpheal.8263:

• Make each Pet Name fixated, so that they don’t lose their names when chaning your equipped pets

yes, Yes, a Googolplex times, yes! I don’t care if some people don’t name their pets, I do. I like to name my pets things like “Leafee”, or “Nathan Drakehound”. I hate seeing the Juvenile identifier at the begining!

Orpheal.8263:

• Add a Pet Menagerie where you can customize more your Pets to make them look far more unique and where you can develop your Pets further (Pet Evolution)

Unless that Suggestion can account for other professions and their class mechanic, I don’t see it ever happening. Visual Cusomization is probably the most important thing is a game where you can hit level 80 in a week, but, you can’t just do Ranger pets, and forget about everything else in the process.

Orpheal.8263:

• Adding of alot of new Pets to improve that way the Build Diversity of the Ranger.
  Example:
  - Various Gryphons will become tameable now as juvenile pets
  - Rock Hounds/War Beasts will become tameable now as juvenile pets
  - Added into the game back the Phoenix and Rainbow Phoenix
  - Added other GW1 Pets back into the game
  Tiger, White Tiger, Reef Lurker, Lion, Rat, Iguana, Crocodile
  - Other new Pets added:
  Tropic Bird, Cheetah, Polar Fox, Racoon, Anaconda, Manta, Octopus, Falcon, Dolphin, Hammer Shark, Tiger Shark, Sea Turtle, Eel, Monkey ect. pp

Adding new pets is always a good idea. We especially need two of our Aquatic pet Families to be filled up at least (Sharks and Armor Fish). Anet should also explore the possibility of passive pets that do nothing to atack, but offer buffs to you instead (in much the same way as a spirit, but, a little more permanent)

Orpheal.8263:

• Rangers are able now to control 2 Pets at the same time and don’t need to swap Pets anymore, Pets have now also downed states. Pets will have now aulso their own Self Heal Skills as Skill Number 5. 2 Pets can perform Pet Combos, when their “Confidence” to their Master reaches a certain threashold together, which raises, when the ranger heals or buffs their pets or cures them from conditions.

The Problem with this suggestion is that if we have two pets out, they will be as weak as the Hyena is now. Its attack was literally cut in half to compensate for the fact that you can pretty much always have two out at any time.

(continued in next post)

(Continued…)

• Pet AI has been significantly improved, so that Pets will dodge now more oftenly direct attacks and move out of AoEs

It would be nice, but, we should probably let Anet fix the current problems with pet AI and leave them as “dumb animals” before they start adding all sorts of special cases and stuff.

Orpheal.8263:

• All the Pet Command Utilities have been reworked and work now as the F1-F4 Pet Commands.
  Pets will now always attack the same target, that the player is attacking, but players can directly control their pets now by setting “Territories” for them, which they will defend against everything that enters their asigned Territories.
  A Pet that has been asigned to a Territority, will stay there, as long the Ranger either removed that Territory Command, or if the Ranger moves over a certain distance away from that Territory (Range bigger than xxxx to you, and pet runs back to you)
  In their Defense Mode in assigned Territories, Pets will have different Skills, as when being in their Offensive Mode, where they follow you.

Pets already attack your target unless you switch targets, and you can make your pet attack new targets by pressing F1. As for everything else, I already made a pretty big argument for why everything else is actually worse for the ranger, not better, in the other thread.

Orpheal.8263:

• For the removed Command Utilities, the Ranger will receive 4 complete new Utility Skills, so called “Nature Spells” with that we strengthen the skill builds that are based on the Nature Magic Traitline andto give the ranger a fitting Druid gameplay.
  Due to this, Rangers become able to use Staffs now also and receive with this 5 new Weapon Skilsl with the Staff that further increase the Naturalist kind of build of a Druid using real Nature Magic controling the nature with direct magic spells that let for example roots whip lash at foes, that lets flowerfields appear for stunning and poisonous clouds of pollen. Which lets razosharp leafs slice up foes in a storm of leafs and so on … or just summons temporarely some wild animals that help you and attack nearby foes

We can only hope that we get new skills and abilities in the future that expand our play options and that the good things coming our way are actually coming…., until then, we should enjoy the nerfs that other professions are getting (some are quite substantial like the Mesmer stuff), and bask in the fact that there is pretty much nothing that will be able to stop us after that patch hits!

Orpheal.8263:

• Some tweaks to the existign skills have been made as also to the traits.
  Useless traits have been merged to make space for some new interesting traits

I’m actually wondering what traits you would consider useless?

Orpheal.8263:

TL DR version:
Amazign Things would be for me personally:

Amazign indeed. Maybe in a perfect alternate universe that an Asura has complete control over in a dictatorship….Until then, we have humans in charge, and humans are, well….only human!

Amazing Thing: Remember that idea we floated about removing the evade from the 1 skill on greatsword that received overwhelmingly negative feedback? We did it anyway!

I’ve played Ranger for nearly a year, and recently invested heavily in ascended zerker gear.

Anet you just ruined my character and ripped me off for my gold and laurels. The whole point of me going zerkers was to bring my DPS up to a level where it wasnt horribad compared to other classes. Now that’s completely wasted. Im done, no more GW2 until such time as the balance team actually get its head out of its anus and start balancing Rangers properly instead of hitting them with the nerf bat over and over again.

This is a prime example of what’s wrong with Anet; Nerf an entire stat set that is most prevalent rather than buff the other sets and correct design mistakes in encounter and monster design which caused the perceived imbalance in the first place.

So the sum total of ranger atm is; Broken pets that wont be fixed because Anet is to bloody lazy, bad weapon skills, idiotic traits, useless signets, crappy utility skills, atrocious DPS with anything other than sword and “meta” builds, and last but not least the entire class is shunned by the playerbase.

GG Anet, really GG.

Lexandro.1456:

I’ve played Ranger for nearly a year, and recently invested heavily in ascended zerker gear.

Anet you just ruined my character and ripped me off for my gold and laurels. The whole point of me going zerkers was to bring my DPS up to a level where it wasnt horribad compared to other classes. Now that’s completely wasted. Im done, no more GW2 until such time as the balance team actually get its head out of its anus and start balancing Rangers properly instead of hitting them with the nerf bat over and over again.

This is a prime example of what’s wrong with Anet; Nerf an entire stat set that is most prevalent rather than buff the other sets and correct design mistakes in encounter and monster design which caused the perceived imbalance in the first place.

So the sum total of ranger atm is; Broken pets that wont be fixed because Anet is to bloody lazy, bad weapon skills, idiotic traits, useless signets, crappy utility skills, atrocious DPS with anything other than sword and “meta” builds, and last but not least the entire class is shunned by the playerbase.

GG Anet, really GG.

I’m afraid that masses of players have to stop playing this game before ANet even relizes that there are serious unsolved balancing issues over and over.
tbh if I had to invent a new MMO, I would hire all of ANet’s designers and none of their balance teams.

I honestly never thought I would feel this way, because it is after all only a game. And its no fee system has always been a big attraction for me. But enough is enough. When a class is shunned by the playerbase you know there is a problem that needs rectified ASAP.

It happened with GW1 Wa/Mo classes, those got a “bad rep” for years in the game but where still kinda required as they fulfilled a role. Rangers in GW2 have no role, they don’t have enough utility, party support, DPS, or condition clearing. Worst class in the game atm, and Anet solution is to make matter worse for them.

Lexandro.1456:

It happened with GW1 Wa/Mo classes, those got a “bad rep” for years in the game but where still kinda required as they fulfilled a role. Rangers in GW2 have no role, they don’t have enough utility, party support, DPS, or condition clearing. Worst class in the game atm, and Anet solution is to make matter worse for them.

“Wammo’s,” got a bad rep in GW1 because of how so many of them were played. There was nothing wrong with the class combo.

Didn’t say there was. My point still stands though, they did get a bad rep but where still required at times. Rangers now have a (justified) bad rep and are never required for any part of the content. They are shunned, and with no role and no requirement I would say its actually worse for Rangers than it was Wa/Mo’s.

Lexandro.1456:

I honestly never thought I would feel this way, because it is after all only a game. And its no fee system has always been a big attraction for me. But enough is enough. When a class is shunned by the playerbase you know there is a problem that needs rectified ASAP.

It happened with GW1 Wa/Mo classes, those got a “bad rep” for years in the game but where still kinda required as they fulfilled a role. Rangers in GW2 have no role, they don’t have enough utility, party support, DPS, or condition clearing. Worst class in the game atm, and Anet solution is to make matter worse for them.

Well, you can’t ispect bug fixing as nerf, but still, no real effort from ANet ever to solve the issues of the rangers. Since nearly 1 Year the ranger is stated as useless in any kind of partyplay. The Ranger is simply a roaming class, since noone can tell you what you have or have not to play in normal PvE. However this is in no way an excuse for the enormous imbalance.

I would really like to thank ANet for this game which such wealth of detail but since the balance is such a pain I cannot.

I would like to be able to dual wield pets as said above (maybe have one an ‘offensive’ skill pet and the other ‘defensive’?) but to be honest… for open PVE I don’t know why everyone rags on them.

I have 2 level 80 rangers. My female is bowcaster only (SB/LB – considered a flawed build) with 30 in Beastmastery (seen as a poor trait line). My female just mashed through the PS up to the Arah finale using pick up blue and green armour between levels 72 and 78.

I don’t know Jack about WvWvW or PvP since I have zero interest in those aspects of the game, but I prefer to take my bowcaster to dungeons ahead of any and all of my other level 80s. She’s usually the last to die. I’ve solo’d champions with her including the (lvl62 I think) Champion Fluffy.

Fixing the sword would be a nice move however. How many times I have been thrown out of combat range by its leap, and downed because it didn’t let me dodge? A hell of a lot. But there the weapon is broken, not the class. It HAS to bind, otherwise the AA leap would be constantly throwing you out of contact with the enemy, but it still has to be fixed.

Flippin’ ell.

Could we at least get the basics of the pet done properly before we dress it up?

You know, hit moving targets [players], F2 not firing – but still going on cooldown, scale with Ranger gear, and so forth and so bleedin’ on…

Please, get the fundamentals on how our pet will, can and should behave – THEN add more, paint them, buy them jewelry and whatnot..

My bet is on a tooltip fix.

Personally I am going to totally ignore their promise of “awesome things coming” until we get more details.

It would mean absolutely anything.. it could genuinely be some amazing pet update, or utility or trait revamp.. or it could be something that they think it awesome but the players universally agree is rubbish.

So yeah.. until we know more..

It could very well be another heal skill for all the professions = amazing new thing in their minds…

The last time they said amazing or great things we waited for 2 months iirc and all we got was underwater buffs and then another month after we got like..something so completely insignificant I don’t even remember what. Like Remoresless and/or 15% (WHOOOA +sarcasm) arrow speed. Don’t get your hopes up. They have no idea what they’re doing anymore and I dare any of them or you to argue that.

Yeah, “amazing” in anet’s mind mean things like the sic-em change or a the LB4 change for stealth. I’ve lost any kind of faith in Anet when it comes to improving the ranger.

I do Longbow GS combo, I have 30 in marksmanship and a mix of beserker, toughness gear. I also use Butternut Squash and maintenance oil. Yesterday I was fighting a seasoned group of 6 in WvW with about 9 other team mates. I decided to take down the guardian. I sent in my pet, who unfortunately could not keep up with the guardian who was now charging towards me. I decided to knock him back, but he was immune to my knockback, I figured with my signet I could outrun him, but as a ranger once you engage a target you can’t run as fast so anyone can catch you. Luckily I got hit twice before another guardian engaged him. I ran some more and at a sufficient distance turned around to get my revenge. I began immediately with rapid fire plus I activated my quickness, that took him down to about 1/2 his health. Next I saw my pet was finally catching up to the fight but he was almost 1/2 dead just from shrapnel or something. Then I decided to help my comrade by deploying a barrage, at 1/4 health the guardian was worried for his life and decided to heal. He was crippled but still hitting the other guardian. Then his friends joined in, but little did they know the cycle was up on my rapid fire and I engaged again. Between me and the pet he would at least be on the ground begging for his life before I died. AND I had a plan, if they came close I would drop entangling roots. My guardian friend was down, my pet was down, and I was working that guardian for the second time with rapid fire. His friends were closing in, he was getting low on health, I just wanted him to feel some ranger power, by at least getting him to the ground. He began to run away, he only had 1/8 of his life left, when suddenly he was back up to half health and he turned around with revenge on his mind. I deployed entangling roots on his friends, most of them evaded, I fired point blank shot again, he was immune, he leapt and I evaded…..

It was over in 8 seconds…

Lexandro.1456:

Yeah, “amazing” in anet’s mind mean things like the sic-em change or a the LB4 change for stealth. I’ve lost any kind of faith in Anet when it comes to improving the ranger.

if those are any kind of indicators, then yes, there are some truly “amazing” things coming down the pipeline.

Don’t get your hopes up for this patch, those “amazing” things are probably planned for 2014, but it might be December and they might not get to it in time, so expect December 2015 at the earliest.

and on top of that, expect it to be an improvement to an underwater skill.

Based on history we will be heavily nerfed then thrown a bone that no one wants. O.o just read about empathetic bond nerf, yay.

I just want a pet ooze

Zenaide.3046:

I just want a pet ooze

pet oozes would be awesome! would be even more awesome if they could change into various weapons during combat and mimic certain profession attacks. for example, you could have one that can take shape of a dagger that bounces around and has an auto attack like heartseeker. the f2 ability could be a stealth/backstab combo on a 10 second timer. all damage would be equivalent to a lvl 80 thief built for high damage. warrior hammer ooze… elementalist staff ooze… mezmer greatsword ooze… guardian shield ooze… think of the possibilities and amazing balance oozes could provide rangers!

Official Amazing Ranger Changes
-Dyeable pets
-Water Spirit proc base healing increased by 5%
-Reduced player’s total damage by 10% to balance it out

Sir Isaac The Great.5341:

Until the avg pug…stops using longbow in melee range, can control their pet correctly, and stop wasting a utility slot on signet of the hunt…idc what they do to rangers..I will continue to ask for no rangers on my dungeon runs

Well then you’ll be missing out on the Rangers that actually know what they’re doing, who can give you all 7% increased damage, 5 might stacks every 10 seconds, and permafury. I bet that would benefit your full zerker warrior, would it not?

New elite for rangers !

So…, can this be the aquatic version of that elite?