Guild Wars 2

I’m about to make a suggestion spreadsheet thread for Ranger to deal with balance inconsistencies (see links in signature for examples)

Before I do so, I’d like to collect information from other players:

What are the current balance problems of ranger/druid?
What is too strong and overbearing in build diversity?
What is too weak and overshadowed by stronger options?
How is your experience in PvE / PvP / and WvW?

I look forward to reading everyone’s response.

To awnser them in order.

As far as balance issues go I would say that druid is far TOO necessary in the current ranger build list. You don’t really lose anything when you take druid that druid itself doesn’t make up for. Which removes alot of the choice involved. Sustain? Take druid. Support? Take druid. Control? Take druid. Utility? Take druid. Its got too much potential that it really overshadows our core lines. And it complements almost EVERY ranger playstyle. Any one trait line complimenting EVERYTHING needs to be relooked at.

Many would argue thats a good thing. But it ends up meaning that our actual build choices we have in order to be considered optimal in certain roles ALL involve druid. Which can be pretty stifling.

I would prefer if ranger got balanced with fewer group focused traits and more personnel improvement/utility methods. With druid having less 1v1 power yet getting those group buffing methods rolled into it. That way theres a bit more ability to actually direct your build in a direction.

Which leads to the second question.

I get enough of that with frost spirit. I have wanted to take frost spirit off my bar in PvE for an EXTREMELY long time. Now even MORE of my bars are taken off by things I can’t get rid of without being kicked. (Glyph of empowerment for example) and my traits are pretty much the same way (Grace of the Land, spotter etc…)

A rangers build in most content is largely decided for him. I spend most of my time in WvW and PvP now because at least there the results you actually get mean more than the POTENTIAL results. It doesn’t matter HOW you killed the enemy team. Only that you did and that you survived doing it. But in PvE people are alot more judgemental. Focusing purely on how LONG it takes to kill something. A ranger who doesn’t take group damage buffs but instead ops for other forms of group support (like guard instead of frost spirit) is asking to be kicked….even by his own guild he may have known for years. Thats because people care more about the potential and percieved results than whether or not the boss actually dies. Druid just becomes one more thing that a ranger HAS to take. And I doubt even the next elite spec will change that. Druid is just way to good. I would guess that even after the next expac unless ancestral grace disappears raids will still demand druids only… and not for the druid himself. But only for the buff he puts on there bar.

On question 3. Most of the old trait lines can be exchanged for druid and see a net gain except when it comes to pure damage. Within druid itself. Cultivated synergy is pretty heavily overshadowed by druidic clarity in PvP and Primal Echoes in PvE. Utility is just way too important in this game to pass those up. But it still has a place when raw healing is needed.

Pretty much all of the tier 2 traits are useful in there niches. Not much to say on those. I do find I take celestial shadow more than the other two however. But then I don’t typically run glyphs.

Lingering light in the grandmaster tier got hit by the nerf bat hard. Hard enough I feel like it needs a functionality change instead of a numbers tweak. Ancient seeds is great in PvP. And Grace of the land is MANDATORY in all PvE builds from what I remember. (Talk about limiting build diversity)

The staff is a straight upgrade on greatsword. More utility. Better movement. More sustain. It lacks burst damage but that can be worked around. It also has NONE of the weaknesses of the longbow thought it is still outclassed in raw damage. I can’t speak for staff in condi builds however due to lack of experience with that playstyle.

So far my experience in PvE/PvP/ and WvW are pretty much the same. There isn’t anything a ranger can do that a druid can’t do more efficiently. And the players around you know it. As an experiment I went through the entire first PvP league as a non druid ranger. All the way to legendary. The sheer list of insults I recieved on a daily basis I could probably make a book with. The druid outclasses the ranger that much…especially in the eyes of the community. I did the diamond division with both team and map chat turned off for most games.

In PvE its pretty much the same. If your not playing druid good luck getting into any for of organized raiding. Your simply not wanted. And if you ARE playing druid you had BETTER be playing the cookie cutter build with all the mandatory goodies pumped in. There is no room for experimentation or personnel enjoyment in the eyes of those around you.

Ditto for WvW.

In conclusion. The druid is AMAZING. It is great for the class. And its largely what keeps us relevant in GW2 as it is today. But it is so kitten BINDING that there is a part of me that wishes it never got released at all. If I sound bitter throughout this post. Its because I feel like druid cut out alot of potential simply by having too MUCH potential.

Shadelang.3012:

<snip>

Be careful what you wish for – what most would like to see are buffs/changes to core ranger, but in true Anet fashion we’ll recieve nerfs to druid instead, to make core ranger more viable.

They introduced druid as the master of healing – they can’t back away from that.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Shadelang.3012:

<snip>

Be careful what you wish for – what most would like to see are buffs/changes to core ranger, but in true Anet fashion we’ll recieve nerfs to druid instead, to make core ranger more viable.

They introduced druid as the master of healing – they can’t back away from that.

Like I said I am fine with it being an awesome group line. My issue with it is that it is an awesome EVERYTHING line.

Agree with everything you said, but it is also true for pretty much all classes. You pick the spec no matter what especially in pvp because they are stronger that the core ones (this is most obvious in reaper scraper and chronomancer).
Instead of making elites open up new play styles to classes, which they do for some, they made them a strait up upgrade to most classes which is not what they said they wanted for them when they revealed the plan for HoT and character progress.

What needs to happen is a nerf to almost all elites across the board (or a buff to the cores but we do not need more power creep), or a more drastic change where the class mechanic trait line (beast mastery in case of ranger) is made a elite specialization and brought up to the level of the hot elite specs. This way you would have to make a choice when making a build (because allot of classes take their mechanic buffing trait line and the elite), and non hot owners would have access to a elite spec and will be able to make a competitive build for pvp.

But honestly what i expect form anet at this point is that they introduce a second wave of elites with another expansion, and they end up more powerful than the current ones to drive sales for some reason.

foste.3098:

Agree with everything you said, but it is also true for pretty much all classes. You pick the spec no matter what especially in pvp because they are stronger that the core ones (this is most obvious in reaper scraper and chronomancer).
Instead of making elites open up new play styles to classes, which they do for some, they made them a strait up upgrade to most classes which is not what they said they wanted for them when they revealed the plan for HoT and character progress.

I think the reason for this is that the new specs were specially designed for group content (raids) so is group situations they excel. Altho this might have been the original goal, but it seems that some elites are better in every aspect of the game and don’t really have any tradeoffs.

But druid, to my experience, is not always best for PvE content, it feels like a waste of spec slot. Druid offers sustain and group support, so in harder content and group situations it is better than other specs by design. I don’t think druid can be nerfed enough or core ranger buffed that druid wouldn’t be the best for group play. Well of course it “can” be nerfed to the ground but lets not go there.

Druid is usually taken in place of beast mastery (PvE), the main reason I use beast mastery is Loud Whistle and Zephyr’s Speed for quickness. In a group this is not needed since you should have a mesmer to provide quickness. Overall in a group, druid offers much more than beast mastery, the little personal damage gain you get from beast mastery is far less than the group wide boost that druid provides.

So my bottom line is that for solo play I prefer core ranger.

Shadelang.3012:

The staff is a straight upgrade on greatsword. More utility. Better movement. More sustain. It lacks burst damage but that can be worked around. It also has NONE of the weaknesses of the longbow thought it is still outclassed in raw damage. I can’t speak for staff in condi builds however due to lack of experience with that playstyle.

I played trapper druid with a staff for a while. The build was nice for soloing HOT and exploring maps, I pretty much only used staff as a mobility stick but it did have some gimmicks such as a gap closer (melee traps). My favorite combo was to turn myself into a cruise missile, zap in the middle of mobs and melt them with traps and stuff. Another nice trick is that you can proc Ancient Seeds with Primal Echoes and Sigil of Geomancy when you swap to staff (free entangle on weapon swap sounds nice). Of course damage wise a staff in a condibuild is not optimal but fun never the less.

Haven’t tried staff with Sharpened Edges and Sigil of Earth but in theory it should work since staff hits super fast and the trait doesn’t have icd. Not optimal in PvE but might work in WvW? And by the way, how come Solar Beam doen’t have burning, that would make an interesting build.

I personally think the most important issue with the highest reach is the pet.
It doesn’t scale and doesn’t track targets – which makes it naturally unreliable.

I think that we are in a nice spot with a lot of options. Actually the class with the most options while each offers a certain advantage over the other with a different role and game-play.

1) I don’t think there’s anything too strong we have atm. Everything we are good at has a really obvious and easy counter. But Druid is a must-have for everything we stand for. Core Ranger lacked a lot of things and Druid offers everything we lacked
2) Traits (Predator’s Instinct, MDG, LoYF, definitely Refined Toxins, Invigorating Bond). These are the ones that no one will ever really use at all if he wants results. I sometimes see people use them for fun but extremely rarely.
3) My experience is quite satisfying. We became wanted in PvE (yup, LFG is finally searching for druids) and I currently have like 7-1 win-lose ratio in PvP (I’m still in Saph, I slack a lot and usually go for dailies only)

However, I can tell this is going to drop at competitive PvP environment like tournaments or anything of that matter. Our counters are way too obvious. But technically speaking we are “fine”. If QoL issues get addressed and some classes in particular get nerfed – we’d be in a perfect spot.

Blue Hare.8612:

But druid, to my experience, is not always best for PvE content, it feels like a waste of spec slot. Druid offers sustain and group support, so in harder content and group situations it is better than other specs by design. I don’t think druid can be nerfed enough or core ranger buffed that druid wouldn’t be the best for group play. Well of course it “can” be nerfed to the ground but lets not go there.

Druid is usually taken in place of beast mastery (PvE), the main reason I use beast mastery is Loud Whistle and Zephyr’s Speed for quickness. In a group this is not needed since you should have a mesmer to provide quickness. Overall in a group, druid offers much more than beast mastery, the little personal damage gain you get from beast mastery is far less than the group wide boost that druid provides.

So my bottom line is that for solo play I prefer core ranger.

Totally agree with this. It was found some time ago that the highest dps build for ranger was the condi build. it outshines our power build on all but the most mobile bosses. for this you don’t need druid at all. druid is great as a support line and can add dps in the form of GoL buffs but those really aren’t necessary outside of raid content.

Tragic Positive.9356:

I personally think the most important issue with the highest reach is the pet.
It doesn’t scale and doesn’t track targets – which makes it naturally unreliable.

I think that we are in a nice spot with a lot of options. Actually the class with the most options while each offers a certain advantage over the other with a different role and game-play.

1) I don’t think there’s anything too strong we have atm. Everything we are good at has a really obvious and easy counter. But Druid is a must-have for everything we stand for. Core Ranger lacked a lot of things and Druid offers everything we lacked
2) Traits (Predator’s Instinct, MDG, LoYF, definitely Refined Toxins, Invigorating Bond). These are the ones that no one will ever really use at all if he wants results. I sometimes see people use them for fun but extremely rarely.
3) My experience is quite satisfying. We became wanted in PvE (yup, LFG is finally searching for druids) and I currently have like 7-1 win-lose ratio in PvP (I’m still in Saph, I slack a lot and usually go for dailies only)

However, I can tell this is going to drop at competitive PvP environment like tournaments or anything of that matter. Our counters are way too obvious. But technically speaking we are “fine”. If QoL issues get addressed and some classes in particular get nerfed – we’d be in a perfect spot.

agree with this as well although i think more emphasis should be made on improving the pet. Improving the AI could be considered a big project, increasing the range of most pet melee attacks or making more of them cleaves would solve a lot of the targetting problems of pets. they really need to scale better with higher teir content, the added damage with or without BM just isn’t enough. we have a lot of pet traits scattered throughout the lines that just don’t add much and rarely see play. those should be improved or eliminated to make room for things that matter.

ranger/druid really needs a dps increase, a portion of that going to the pet and an increase to some of the weapons.

Tragic Positive.9356:

I personally think the most important issue with the highest reach is the pet.
It doesn’t scale and doesn’t track targets – which makes it naturally unreliable.

I think that we are in a nice spot with a lot of options. Actually the class with the most options while each offers a certain advantage over the other with a different role and game-play.

1) I don’t think there’s anything too strong we have atm. Everything we are good at has a really obvious and easy counter. But Druid is a must-have for everything we stand for. Core Ranger lacked a lot of things and Druid offers everything we lacked
2) Traits (Predator’s Instinct, MDG, LoYF, definitely Refined Toxins, Invigorating Bond). These are the ones that no one will ever really use at all if he wants results. I sometimes see people use them for fun but extremely rarely.
3) My experience is quite satisfying. We became wanted in PvE (yup, LFG is finally searching for druids) and I currently have like 7-1 win-lose ratio in PvP (I’m still in Saph, I slack a lot and usually go for dailies only)

However, I can tell this is going to drop at competitive PvP environment like tournaments or anything of that matter. Our counters are way too obvious. But technically speaking we are “fine”. If QoL issues get addressed and some classes in particular get nerfed – we’d be in a perfect spot.

What do you mean it doesn’t track targets? Elaborate. If you’re referring to stealth…It’s working as intended. Bristleback and several other ranged pets (which is a projectile) tracks it. So not sure what you’re talking about here.

Lettuce.2945:

What do you mean it doesn’t track targets? Elaborate. If you’re referring to stealth…It’s working as intended. Bristleback and several other ranged pets (which is a projectile) tracks it. So not sure what you’re talking about here.

I’m talking about the fact that pets lose 20-50% DPS on moving targets since they have to stop to perform an attack. Not to mention the old pets and Wyverns that lose around 70%.
Bristleback F2 in particular loses around 20% of his hits on ranged stationary target due to scattering of projectiles. Furthermore, F2 loses around 75% attacks on side-stepping targets at 800+ range.

I’m referring to mechanics that do not allow pets to move and attack simultaneously. Pets always have to choose between these two (unless ranged where it can be body-blocked like VG seekers and technically everything in PvP). And a moving target can get out of range till pets’ animation finishes which will result in an empty attempt to hit – miss.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Lettuce.2945:

What do you mean it doesn’t track targets? Elaborate. If you’re referring to stealth…It’s working as intended. Bristleback and several other ranged pets (which is a projectile) tracks it. So not sure what you’re talking about here.

I’m talking about the fact that pets lose 20-50% DPS on moving targets since they have to stop to perform an attack. Not to mention the old pets and Wyverns that lose around 70%.
Bristleback F2 in particular loses around 20% of his hits on ranged stationary target due to scattering of projectiles. Furthermore, F2 loses around 75% attacks on side-stepping targets at 800+ range.

I’m referring to mechanics that do not allow pets to move and attack simultaneously. Pets always have to choose between these two (unless ranged where it can be body-blocked like VG seekers and technically everything in PvP). And a moving target can get out of range till pets’ animation finishes which will result in an empty attempt to hit – miss.

Very good. You are correct on this. ANeT refuses to up ranger DPS because “You have a pet to make up for it”. Yet, our pet dies too easy, chases around the wrong target at times, misses a lot, takes too long to reach target once it has the correct one, and has no real burst damage. Yes, in one on one it can be sort of effective, but not as effective as the ranger doing direct lethal damage instantly. The pet has to go through its cyle of attacks and can’t independently decide to change its pattern, dodge, launch its big attack or heal. And on an F2 attack -it takes too long to go off and usually misses the intended target. Drake breath weapons are notorious for this.

In short, rangers are great PVE, moderate to good PVP, good roaming WVW, and undesired or rejected in Raids(unless on Druid Healer). I main a ranger in nearly all aspects(not raid anymore since the DPS just isn’t there) of the game. I’m very good in WvW and PVE is a piece of cake(mmmmm, cake).

So I believe, and so do many more on at least two things:
DPS needs increase
Pets need a major overhaul(or give at least 50% of the pets damage output directly to ranger)

@Heibi
Send a greeting card to those players who reject Rangers into raids. Even elitists are aware that Druid is the highest DPS increase for the raid. That’s why all elitists run 2 druids in their squads. I wouldn’t want to get into raid with people who don’t know about their content. Be glad they rejected you. They have no idea.

We are the best players to carry our newbie raids via healing and we are the best DPS increasing assets to hardcore runs.

I already did an excel equation that calculates Ranger’s DPS according to power and toughness values in DPS setup (pretty accurate on immobile fights). And you know what’s funny? We would have been competitive if our pets scaled from buffs and had their attacks hit (which means 100% uptime). Yes, that’s all there is to it. Nothing else. This is the magic.
Our numbers would have been right if our pets weren’t a stupid anchor to our whole class in every bloody environment.

If we could have slotted BM instead of Druid for DPS increase and we didn’t need NM to have the stupid pet booned and buffed (via frost spirit, glyphs etc) the DPS would match those of DPS classes.
So let’s give our thanks to ANet who knowingly keep ignoring the main issue being mentioned over and over again while keeping it nerfed every single patch.
Have anyone beside me realized that vast majority of nerfs we got were pet-oriented? SmokeScale, Bristle, Go for the Eyes…

@Tragic
You’re right – the pet is the main issue. Our DPS is being held down by a robot created by ANeT that doesn’t do what it is really supposed to do. It starts to attack a boss and dies in ANeT’s wonderful one-hit kills they so love. Thus taking out our damage dealing until our other pet comes up and dies in the next hit, and we wait for the pet go and die timer to come back up. Meanwhile our damage output is now reduced. Thanks for the useless drone, ANeT.

If pets had independent dodging and hit more accurately(and lethally) and actually tracked the right target there wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

But ANeT will ignore all this and let the ranger remain broken. They’d hate to fix everything and actually make the ranger truly effective in ALL aspects of the game.

ANeT did truly create a good healing class with the Druid. It made the ranger become two classes in one. But the other classes’ elite specializations didn’t really change them. ANeT just made them more offensive and deadly.

And nerfs – yes, they constantly nerf ranger even when they say they aren’t.

Heibi.4251:

@Tragic
You’re right – the pet is the main issue. Our DPS is being held down by a robot created by ANeT that doesn’t do what it is really supposed to do. It starts to attack a boss and dies in ANeT’s wonderful one-hit kills they so love. Thus taking out our damage dealing until our other pet comes up and dies in the next hit, and we wait for the pet go and die timer to come back up. Meanwhile our damage output is now reduced. Thanks for the useless drone, ANeT.

If pets had independent dodging and hit more accurately(and lethally) and actually tracked the right target there wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

But ANeT will ignore all this and let the ranger remain broken. They’d hate to fix everything and actually make the ranger truly effective in ALL aspects of the game.

ANeT did truly create a good healing class with the Druid. It made the ranger become two classes in one. But the other classes’ elite specializations didn’t really change them. ANeT just made them more offensive and deadly.

And nerfs – yes, they constantly nerf ranger even when they say they aren’t.

Oh comeon. I was staying out of the topic cause I had already made my post but lets ATLEAST stay honest.

Pets no longer die often in PvE. That was fixed with HoT.

Our Pets DPS is largely fine. The bristleback and smokescale are both reliable PvP pets (they can land there attacks/burst with only minimal help by the player). They can also auto attack with upwards of 3-4k crits with high might stacks (which a bm build can easily maintain). And felines have always done high damage in PvE.

The reason our damage isn’t as high as some other classes is not because of the pet. its because we have access to grace of the land, frost spirit, and spotter. Group wide buffs we have to be balanced in mind for. We also have alot of sustain on our melee weapons. (evades,blocks,movement). Our weapons are toned down yes. But then we can also have 50 stacks of might…(25 for us and the pet BOTH) which is pretty massive. Especially with the new pets and their high scaling.

The ranger isn’t “broken” we work fine in all 3 game modes. MOST of our traits function correctly without unintended effects. All of our skills work. We don’t have any rune or sigil comboes that fail to do anything with our affects. And we are capable of doing what we were designed to do.

Are we THE BEST class in the game? No. But we are one of the top ones. So stop acting like were some bloody martyr being sacrificed for the game. And this is coming from someone that played SHOUT RANGER for 3 years. At least I finally became openly viable for the first time a month ago. But I never blamed the class as a whole for my issues. Or ANET for that matter.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Lettuce.2945:

What do you mean it doesn’t track targets? Elaborate. If you’re referring to stealth…It’s working as intended. Bristleback and several other ranged pets (which is a projectile) tracks it. So not sure what you’re talking about here.

I’m talking about the fact that pets lose 20-50% DPS on moving targets since they have to stop to perform an attack. Not to mention the old pets and Wyverns that lose around 70%.
Bristleback F2 in particular loses around 20% of his hits on ranged stationary target due to scattering of projectiles. Furthermore, F2 loses around 75% attacks on side-stepping targets at 800+ range.

I’m referring to mechanics that do not allow pets to move and attack simultaneously. Pets always have to choose between these two (unless ranged where it can be body-blocked like VG seekers and technically everything in PvP). And a moving target can get out of range till pets’ animation finishes which will result in an empty attempt to hit – miss.

I can’t speak much for PvE. But I disagree with you about PvP. I still think Bristleback is STILL slightly overtuned in regards to damage. They still should transfer some of the damage from BB to the ranger to promote more skillful play. The bristleback’s attack speed got ninja buffed last patch, actually. It used to fire a projectile every 3-4 secs. Now it’s firing every .75 to 1 secs. I don’t know if you guys noticed. I personally use the smokescale/bristleback combo and I’m not seeing a damage loss in pvp at all. Even with “moving” targets. This is coming from a ranger main playing at a very high level of play.

1) Pet issues mainly arising from poor AI, LOS, and animation issues noted above.

2) Devs “fixing” problems only to make them worse. (Bristleback -25% damage instead of fixing the amount of projectiles)

3) Outdated traits and utilities.
Signet of the hunt for example. Druids will run natural stride + 8% quicker, and if you’re using it for the Attack of Opportunity (+50% damage next attack) it has a ridiculous 30second cooldown and Remorseless is much better +25% damage every time you gain fury.

Soften the Fall – pointless trait.

Lingering Light – Even if you heal 5 allies simultaneously it still only gives 1 ally blind on next hit, instead of 5. In addition to a long cooldown.

Enlargement – Has a ICD not noted.

Invigorating Bond and similar pet f2 traits have a pathetic 300 radius.

Honed axes – Useless trait

4) Spirits have been useless for quite a while with no rework.

5) Signets are sad and have outrageously long cooldowns. Signet of Renewal removes 3 conditions every 10seconds, which is sad already, but to top it off has a 60second cooldown, HA.

6) In general every other class outdoes rangers. Dragonhunter traps > ranger traps. Ele heals > ranger heals. Ele condtion removal > ranger condition removal. Thief, guardian, mesmers movement > ranger movement.

7) Hornet Sting+Monarch Leap and Lightning Reflexes should both have directional arrows.

UnitedChaos.8364:

1) Pet issues mainly arising from poor AI, LOS, and animation issues noted above.

2) Devs “fixing” problems only to make them worse. (Bristleback -25% damage instead of fixing the amount of projectiles)

3) Outdated traits and utilities.
Signet of the hunt for example. Druids will run natural stride + 8% quicker, and if you’re using it for the Attack of Opportunity (+50% damage next attack) it has a ridiculous 30second cooldown and Remorseless is much better +25% damage every time you gain fury.

Soften the Fall – pointless trait.

Lingering Light – Even if you heal 5 allies simultaneously it still only gives 1 ally blind on next hit, instead of 5. In addition to a long cooldown.

Enlargement – Has a ICD not noted.

Invigorating Bond and similar pet f2 traits have a pathetic 300 radius.

Honed axes – Useless trait

4) Spirits have been useless for quite a while with no rework.

5) Signets are sad and have outrageously long cooldowns. Signet of Renewal removes 3 conditions every 10seconds, which is sad already, but to top it off has a 60second cooldown, HA.

6) In general every other class outdoes rangers. Dragonhunter traps > ranger traps. Ele heals > ranger heals. Ele condtion removal > ranger condition removal. Thief, guardian, mesmers movement > ranger movement.

7) Hornet Sting+Monarch Leap and Lightning Reflexes should both have directional arrows.

I’ll correct you on point 6 , Ele has Better Burst healing while Druid ranger has Better Health sustain/CA Burst healing even with 0 healing power it still out sustains the healing from a Healer ele while pumping out Buffs , if kitted with Runes of the Monk and Sigil of Transferance mending ontop its a instant 35-40% increase in outgoing Healing. so ele healing can go suck it.

Lettuce.2945:

I can’t speak much for PvE. But I disagree with you about PvP. I still think Bristleback is STILL slightly overtuned in regards to damage. They still should transfer some of the damage from BB to the ranger to promote more skillful play. The bristleback’s attack speed got ninja buffed last patch, actually. It used to fire a projectile every 3-4 secs. Now it’s firing every .75 to 1 secs. I don’t know if you guys noticed. I personally use the smokescale/bristleback combo and I’m not seeing a damage loss in pvp at all. Even with “moving” targets. This is coming from a ranger main playing at a very high level of play.

It has always been around 1 second for Bristle’s attack. Nothing has changed.

And I don’t believe it’s “overtuned”. It’s overtuned in ideal 1v1 scenario where bristle is in melee range and enemy without a single dodge or playing blindfolded.
And you can’t persuade me that Bristle will hit moving targets from long range. I’m sorry but you won’t.

Do you know what would transferring damage from Bristle to Ranger mean? 2 years of uselessness for Ranger till they get the numbers right. I’m against the idea.

Shadelang.3012:

Heibi.4251:

@Tragic
You’re right – the pet is the main issue. Our DPS is being held down by a robot created by ANeT that doesn’t do what it is really supposed to do. It starts to attack a boss and dies in ANeT’s wonderful one-hit kills they so love. Thus taking out our damage dealing until our other pet comes up and dies in the next hit, and we wait for the pet go and die timer to come back up. Meanwhile our damage output is now reduced. Thanks for the useless drone, ANeT.

If pets had independent dodging and hit more accurately(and lethally) and actually tracked the right target there wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

But ANeT will ignore all this and let the ranger remain broken. They’d hate to fix everything and actually make the ranger truly effective in ALL aspects of the game.

ANeT did truly create a good healing class with the Druid. It made the ranger become two classes in one. But the other classes’ elite specializations didn’t really change them. ANeT just made them more offensive and deadly.

And nerfs – yes, they constantly nerf ranger even when they say they aren’t.

Oh comeon. I was staying out of the topic cause I had already made my post but lets ATLEAST stay honest.

Pets no longer die often in PvE. That was fixed with HoT.

Our Pets DPS is largely fine. The bristleback and smokescale are both reliable PvP pets (they can land there attacks/burst with only minimal help by the player). They can also auto attack with upwards of 3-4k crits with high might stacks (which a bm build can easily maintain). And felines have always done high damage in PvE.

The reason our damage isn’t as high as some other classes is not because of the pet. its because we have access to grace of the land, frost spirit, and spotter. Group wide buffs we have to be balanced in mind for. We also have alot of sustain on our melee weapons. (evades,blocks,movement). Our weapons are toned down yes. But then we can also have 50 stacks of might…(25 for us and the pet BOTH) which is pretty massive. Especially with the new pets and their high scaling.

The ranger isn’t “broken” we work fine in all 3 game modes. MOST of our traits function correctly without unintended effects. All of our skills work. We don’t have any rune or sigil comboes that fail to do anything with our affects. And we are capable of doing what we were designed to do.

Are we THE BEST class in the game? No. But we are one of the top ones. So stop acting like were some bloody martyr being sacrificed for the game. And this is coming from someone that played SHOUT RANGER for 3 years. At least I finally became openly viable for the first time a month ago. But I never blamed the class as a whole for my issues. Or ANET for that matter.

I’m thinking this is a troll post.

Pets still get one shot killed in PVE. Often. HoT has only brought out the truth even more. Pet goes in and attacks boss, pet dies swiftly.

Ranger is broken – otherwise we would be desired in the new raids without having to play Druid.

The reason our damage isn’t high is because ANeT artificially counts our pets as part of our damage. But our pets miss too much and chase around targets and not hitting them.

PVP doesn’t really matter. A very enclosed environment with very limited number of targets.

These are honest and very true statements.

“What are the current balance problems of ranger/druid?”
Since we got druid as our elite specialisation I’m very happy on where we’re at. We as rangers are actually wanted in endgame pve content, which is a enormous relief after 3 years. And it really filled the gap rangers couldn’t provide yet, which is a lot more support/healing.

“What is too strong and overbearing in build diversity?”
Some stated they want something else as frost spirit/spotter/grace of the land/glyph of empowerment in their build. I can relate to that for a tiny bit, but I think in every endgame content people tend to find out which are the best traits/skills to bring along to get the party as strong as possible. At least we have that spot as druid now, as other professions have dps-wise, I would like it to stay that way. I really do not want to go back to “meh don’t want to take a ranger in my party”, we’ve been there for 3 years, no thanks, really.

“What is too weak and overshadowed by stronger options?”
Pet AI: Don’t know, if it has improved, but my pets die less often last few months. I really liked GW 1’s idea better, where you could choose to bring your pet or not.

“How is your experience in PvE / PvP / and WvW?”
PvE stated above.
I don’t have a lot of PvP experience.
I like our spot in WvW too. We bring a lot to the table, both roaming and in zergs: cc, heals, dps. Pets and zergfighting (or large PvE fights) doesn’t go well together though.