Ranger shouts are still in a rather bad place. Sure, WHaO and SotP are perfect, but they weren’t shouts initially. ‘Guard!’ is pretty much used for Regen and Swiftness but I guess its somewhat in a good place now. So we have 3 other shouts that have very low usefulness, even with traits and appropriate runes. Here are a few suggestions I’d like some Dev to read just to rethink Ranger Shouts.
First, I’d like to mention that unlike most other shouts, Ranger Shouts are extremely selfish; they offer next to no Team Utility (except when traited… Swift and Regen… Also ‘Search and Rescue’, let’s not even talk about it yet)
The announced change to ‘We Heal as One!’ was very promising, but apparently there was very little testing and it was not balanced but nerfed to the ground.
My first suggestions are for that particular shout,
‘We Heal as One!’
The healing value, the traited regen and swiftness and the CD are perfect.
The boon copy effect is very interesting, but with the new flat duration, you can’t even ‘feel’ the boons. My suggestion is to tweak the flat durations:
- Quickness – From 2 to 4s
- Protection – From 2 to 4s
- Resistance – From 2 to 4s
- Fury – From 3 to 8s
- Stability – From 3 to 6s (it’s just 1 stack after all… A change that wasn’t mentioned as it would copy all stacks of stability before the sept 30 patch)
- Swiftness – From 3 to 8s
- Vigor – From 3 to 8s
- Aegis – From 5s to 8s
- Regeneration – from 5 to 8s
- Retaliation – 5s is perfect
- Might – For this one, either keep its 3 stacks limit but make it 15s or lower its duration to 8s but remove the stack limit.
I’ll mention it again, Ranger Shouts are very selfish, almost no team utility unlike 87.234% of the other shouts in the game. Warr can have a 100% 25 might upkeep, Guard has a CRAPLOAD of boons (to self AND team), Eles and Engies can stack an enormous amount of boons on self and allies… Rangers have nothing.
ALSO, by using WHaO to copy the boons, the ranger is crippling himself a bit, as it puts its healing skill on cooldown. High Risk, High Reward. It fits.
Now, by balancing the copied boons, this is when we can play with other Ranger Shouts -
‘Guard!’
It’s fine as it is. It is pretty much only used for the Regen+Swift Stacking, and for the pet’s survivability (protection is really nice for the pet)
By tweaking the base durations of the WHaO boon copy, it brings some nice survivability to the ranger aswell. a 4s Protection on the player is fair. With 30% boon duration, that extends to 5.2s of protection. Add ‘Protective Ward’ trait and you have a nice protection uptime.
‘Sic ’Em!’
Oh yeah this one.
First, you ABSOLUTELY need to make it so the effect stays after giving pet orders (F1/F2 etc). I mean really. The ‘Revealed’ effect is a nice touch, but it requires target. But still a nice touch.
Change ‘40% Attack Speed’ to 8s Quickness
That way, the effect stays when giving a pet order, and with WHaO, it’ll give the player some quickness as well.
Add 8s Fury to give some punch to the pet, and again, by giving a boon, the effect wouldn’t be cancelled by giving an order to the pet (and always the WHaO synergy)
‘Protect Me!’
This kills the pet.
Yes, the killing curse the killing shout.
Stun break is nice. Effect is interesting. Killing pet is not fun.
Either Reduce damage dealt to pet by 30-50% for the duration OR
- Add 6s of Protection to the Pet and
- Add 6s of Resistance to the Pet
More survivability to direct damage and condi damage, and again, with WHaO, some nice survival boons on player.
Other Suggestions: - Add 2s taunt towards pet on a small radius – It can become a really nice evasive skill; Stun Break + Taunt from Pet or
- Any CC effect is transfered to the pet for the duration of the Shout – Much like the Shared Anguish Trait, but for like 6s. Again, very evasive skill.
‘Search and Rescue’
I’ve had more precursor drops than players using this shout. (Had zero precursor drop in 3+ years of play)
This one could use a bit of love.
- Lower base CD from 85s to 80s. That’s 68 to 64s traited. A nice uh… Little buff.
- Add 3 stacks of Stability to the Pet for 10s
- Add Aegis to pet for 10s
This will aid the pet in rushing to the ally without being too much interrupted. I really like this skill’s concept but… Yeah
And the boon copy from this shout would give some support to the ranger, 1 stack of stab + aegis for a few seconds.
Other Suggestions: - Add a 2s Fear from the Pet – Oh man that would be super useful in cancelling stomps and would add more utility to the shout. a 2s Fear on a 80s CD.
‘Strength of the Pack!’
This one is in a solid place.
Maybe change base might from 8s to 10s
?
Change the graphical effect to falling leaves Autumn leaves (yellow, orange, red), it fits the nature theme, maybe!
So yeah.
Ranger Shouts = Selfish compared to other professions’ shouts.
Ranger Shouts = Very very low utility except for 3 (of which 2 weren’t initially shouts)
Ranger Shouts = High Risk, Low Reward. Except the same 3.
In terms of balance, here’s a few notes.
- WARRIORS can mega stack mega might to the entire party. Also Banners. And all the boons. They also get burst heals instead of regen when traited.
- GUARDIANS can mega boon mega everything the entire party. Not only that, but their shout trait converts condis to boons, so even more boons.
- TEMPEST shouts grant a crapload of effects to the party, heals, auras, stun breaks…
- REAPER Shouts have more than just ONE effect, and have converts/corrupts
- RANGER offer next to no team utility unless traited. And even then they are awful. High CD, few effects, they put the pet on standby mode. At least make them useful for the Caster himself?
Thanks for reading!