Guild Wars 2

There are some pretty good suggestions on these forums. Below is a compilation of the more reasonable and realistic (low-hanging fruit) QoL improvements the Ranger community seem to agree on (for the most part). No specific numbers, overhauls, or anything like that. Just general and small QoL suggestions.

Disclaimer: The list has been adjusted post-Ready Up! reveal of the new Ranger specialization (which are a work-in-progress).

• Hornet’s Sting: Reduce or remove the cast time for a more reliable dodge.
• Spirit Passives: Base % of benefits are increased or guaranteed.
• Pet Survivability: Damage reduction against AOE attacks in PvE & WvW only.
• Fortifying Bond: Stability is shared. +
• Greatsword: Auto-attack damage increase.
• “Guard!”: Remove the cast time.
• Maul: Becomes a Blast Finisher.
• Stability Training: Merge function into Vigorous Training. +
• Master’s Bond: Resets only when the Ranger is downed or defeated.
• Forage: Items are automatically equipped instead of lying on the floor.
• Pet Names are remembered. +
• Hide In Plain Sight: Merge function into Shared Anguish. +
• Healer’s Celerity: Merge function into Trapper’s Defense. +
• Circle of Life: Merge function into Instinctual Bond. +
• Carnivorous Appetite: Merge function into Rending Attacks. +
• Rending Attacks: Boon removal on hit instead of bleed on crit. +
• Winter’s Bite: AOE from Honed Axes is baseline. +
• Protective Ward: 4 seconds of Protection to both the Ranger and Pet instead of 8 seconds of Protection for only the Pet. +
• Concussion Shot: Applies Confusion on interrupt.

Notable Suggestions:

• Hunter’s Shot: Also grants the pet stealth or the pet shadowsteps to the target.
• Pet Evade: Dodging grants the Pet ¾ seconds of Evade. Will not apply when using weapon skills or utilities that evade.

Any to add or that were missed?

+ Indicates it was edited or added based on community feedback.

Wondrouswall.7169:

There are some pretty good suggestions on these forums. Below is a compilation of the more reasonable and realistic (low-hanging fruit) QoL improvements the Ranger community seem to agree on (for the most part). No specific numbers, overhauls, or anything like that. Just general and small QoL suggestions.

• Hornet’s Sting: Reduce or remove the cast time for a more reliable dodge.
• Spirit Passives: Benefits are guaranteed instead of a %.
• Pet Survivability: Damage reduction against AOE attacks in PvE & WvW only.
• Fortifying Bond: Stability is shared.
• Greatsword: Auto-attack damage increase.
• “Guard!”: Remove the cast time.
• Maul: Becomes a Blast Finisher.
• Stability Training: Pets also grant Stability to nearby allies when activated.
• Beastmaster’s Bond: Resets when the Ranger is downed or defeated instead.
• Forage: Items are automatically equipped instead of lying on the floor.

Notable Suggestions:

• Concussion Shot: Applies Confusion on interrupt.
• Hunter’s Shot: Also grants the pet stealth or the pet shadowsteps to the target.
• Pet Evade: Dodging grants the pet evasion frames. Does not apply when weapon skills and utilities are used that grant evasion.

Any to add or that were missed?

Spirit Passives could be made 50% chance, base, and then 100% with trait, then if Spirits Unbound also gave -30% damage to them they would be in a decent place.

Remove all durations from Fortifying Bond and make it copy all boons exactly as they are on the Ranger. Why does my pet only get 4s of fury when I got 25s?

Beastmaster’s Bond should be a stack on the Ranger, not on the pet, like bloodlust.

Would be a great list to have fixed

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Wondrouswall.7169:

There are some pretty good suggestions on these forums. Below is a compilation of the more reasonable and realistic (low-hanging fruit) QoL improvements the Ranger community seem to agree on (for the most part). No specific numbers, overhauls, or anything like that. Just general and small QoL suggestions.

• Hornet’s Sting: Reduce or remove the cast time for a more reliable dodge.
• Spirit Passives: Benefits are guaranteed instead of a %.
• Pet Survivability: Damage reduction against AOE attacks in PvE & WvW only.
• Fortifying Bond: Stability is shared.
• Greatsword: Auto-attack damage increase.
• “Guard!”: Remove the cast time.
• Maul: Becomes a Blast Finisher.
• Stability Training: Pets also grant Stability to nearby allies when activated.
• Beastmaster’s Bond: Resets when the Ranger is downed or defeated instead.
• Forage: Items are automatically equipped instead of lying on the floor.

Notable Suggestions:

• Concussion Shot: Applies Confusion on interrupt.
• Hunter’s Shot: Also grants the pet stealth or the pet shadowsteps to the target.
• Pet Evade: Dodging grants the pet evasion frames. Does not apply when weapon skills and utilities are used that grant evasion.

Any to add or that were missed?

Spirit Passives could be made 50% chance, base, and then 100% with trait, then if Spirits Unbound also gave -30% damage to them they would be in a decent place.

Remove all durations from Fortifying Bond and make it copy all boons exactly as they are on the Ranger. Why does my pet only get 4s of fury when I got 25s?

Beastmaster’s Bond should be a stack on the Ranger, not on the pet, like bloodlust.

Would be a great list to have fixed

• Empathic Bond – Addition: Pets have -25% duration on conditions applied to them
• Companion´s Defense – Pet gain aegis when you dodge

As for for fortifying bond, I like it the way it is. It’s perfect for might stacking. Fury could use a longer duration though, and stability should be shared as well – remove the useless sharing of vigor.

Some sort of shadowstep for our pets would be most welcome. If not on a weapon skill, then add it to guard. I’d also like to see a “swap location with your pet” ability, could be added to guard as well, as a secondary function of that skill. Powerful? Yes. Fun? HELL YES!

:)

Ranger pet names saving properly.
Zero impact on PVE/PVP too!

I’ve always said I don’t think they can increase the GS autoattack damage much more without the evade starting to make it OP. I’m sure a lot of people would prefer just a plain damage weapon with no evade, but then you might as well just play a warrior or guardian. Right now ranger GS is unique.

OGDeadHead.8326:

…As for for fortifying bond, I like it the way it is. It’s perfect for might stacking. Fury could use a longer duration though, and stability should be shared as well – remove the useless sharing of vigor.

Might is the only thing with any decent duration and even then, its only the same as you would get from sigil/blasting fire fields. I say again, all boons need to be copied and have the same duration as the ranger. All. Vigor is not useless, it may perhaps fulfil Bountiful Hunter.

Fluffball.8307:

I’ve always said I don’t think they can increase the GS autoattack damage much more without the evade starting to make it OP. I’m sure a lot of people would prefer just a plain damage weapon with no evade, but then you might as well just play a warrior or guardian. Right now ranger GS is unique.

No way I want a dmg increase at the expense of evades, GS is good as is, if Maul was a blast finisher, it would be gravy. GS is all utility and I love it for that aspect, not its damage.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Vigor is not useless, it may perhaps fulfil Bountiful Hunter.

Perhaps, perhaps not. The wiki isn’t clear on that:
“You and your pet deal more damage while you have a boon.”

Does that “you” mean you the ranger, or does it mean either the ranger or the pet?

Anyway, since pets can’t use vigor, it’s a useless boon for them.

Updated the list.

It’s only speculation, but seeing unique dodging animations when you use tonics to transform into a Wolf or Cat makes me think Anet might have had plans to allow pets to dodge at some point – which is why Vigor is shared with Fortifying Bond.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Might is the only thing with any decent duration and even then, its only the same as you would get from sigil/blasting fire fields. I say again, all boons need to be copied and have the same duration as the ranger. All. Vigor is not useless, it may perhaps fulfil Bountiful Hunter.

No, if the pet got the same duration boons as we do then their might stacks from axe auto attack would disappear in seconds after swapping weapons. We wouldn’t be able to maintain the 25 stacks of might at all. It would be 10-15 might with the axe and maybe 2-3 might in our second weapon set, which would hurt beastmaster builds a lot more than it’d help.

If anything Fury and Swiftness just need longer durations, and even then with the Warhorn equipped I can easily maintain perma fury and swiftness on my pet anyway. Your change would only destroy my ability to keep high might stacks on my pet with little to no additional investment.

greatsword auto attack definitely needs improvement, i don’t understand why the “community” decided otherwise.

Agility Training: You and your pet move 25% faster while it is alive.

@ Ehecatl
Ah, the axe AA, forgot that one. Fair enough. Still, the rest of the boons need adjustment or exact copies. All boons are important for the pet too.

@Noein
The GS has so much other utility that more damage on the AA would make it OP. It already has the 1s evade on a 1.75s AA chain (not inc aftercast). You cannot compare it to warrior GS, its a totally different weapon and not all about damage.

@Malhavoc
That would be sweet!

The biggest QoL change I would want is to put a pet icon/health bar up somewhere in the top left of the screen, much like you have for other party members when you are partied. At large events it is so easy to completely and totally lose sight of the pet in the midst of all the other players etc. and it becomes impossible to monitor the pet’s health bar. Every other MMO that I have played that used pets, there was always an icon for the pet somewhere on the screen visible that made it really easy to monitor the pet’s condition.

1. All pet buff should be ignore range and be guaranteed for the pet owner when cast, so bow users can still get stalker might and bear cleanse even when you send them out to +600 range for attack.

2. F1 should become toggle for attack/retreat, thereby freeing up F3 for other functions, like engage/avoid combat.

3. Pet’s buffs/debuffs should show up above the F1 to F4 bar, instead of having to click on the pet itself to show the buff window.

MithrilSoul.5049:

The biggest QoL change I would want is to put a pet icon/health bar up somewhere in the top left of the screen, much like you have for other party members when you are partied. At large events it is so easy to completely and totally lose sight of the pet in the midst of all the other players etc. and it becomes impossible to monitor the pet’s health bar. Every other MMO that I have played that used pets, there was always an icon for the pet somewhere on the screen visible that made it really easy to monitor the pet’s condition.

You want it further away from your skills to be MORE visible? I think its in the perfect spot now. But I agree it should display the boons/conditions too.

Ranger could use some built in boon removal.

Also pet only traits need to be looked at as they are not really adding enough to the over all effectiveness of the Ranger + pet focus that they want to use.

Fortifying bond (as it is now) probably needs to be made baseline then have the replacement trait increase duration on pet boons applied to the ranger and ranger boons applied to the pet.

Fortifying Bond should not be base, its quite powerful. However, deleting Instinctual Bond and replacing it with FB would be great.

I would then make Rending Attacks also remove a boon on crit with a five second CD.

When look at the request for baseline additions between profession Fortifying Bond is no where near as much of an issue in comparison.

All spirits will have a base 75% proc chance and maul will never ever become a blast finisher because it would be OP on such a short CD. So I would cross those two off.

My suggestion:

Allowing rune, sigil and/or armour be equipped to pets.

mistsim.2748:

All spirits will have a base 75% proc chance and maul will never ever become a blast finisher because it would be OP on such a short CD. So I would cross those two off.

I wouldn’t count it out as they it is part of a grand master trait, but at the same time I would as it is ranger and they didn’t exactly seem that interested in the ranger profession in general (or it might have been part of being at the end of long stream).

mistsim.2748:

All spirits will have a base 75% proc chance and maul will never ever become a blast finisher because it would be OP on such a short CD. So I would cross those two off.

I submit, for your perusal, this skill. Mighty Blow it is a blast finisher on a 5 second CD, 1s less than Maul.

Updated the list. Scratched out Spirits’ passive benefit % since it’s a baseline for the utility and a 5% increase from what we currently have with Vigorous Spirits. Master’s Bond has been removed from the list as well since they decided to thrash that trait.

Added Stability Training and Hide In Plain Sight to be reworked back into our traits and a merger of Healer’s Celerity and Trapper’s Defense into one trait. Both have to do with reviving allies, both are garbage, both deserve each other, and both do not deserve their own separate traits.

Wondrouswall.7169:

…a merger of Healer’s Celerity and Trapper’s Defense into one trait. Both have to do with reviving allies, both are garbage, both deserve each other, and both do not deserve their own separate traits.

Those two are perfect for each other too. You try to rez someone, someone else comes to attack while you are, they get hit by spike trap, crippling them, then you finish the rez and both of you get swiftness to get away. Perfect. Still, its hardly going to be used, maybe with mercy runes and in PvP.

Exactly. If someone does take it, it’s going to be very niche and in limited use. It also makes sense having Healer’s Celerity merged into Trapper’s Defense for what you described – the swiftness applied to retreat fits the theme of skirmishing (to me).

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

mistsim.2748:

All spirits will have a base 75% proc chance and maul will never ever become a blast finisher because it would be OP on such a short CD. So I would cross those two off.

I submit, for your perusal, this skill. Mighty Blow it is a blast finisher on a 5 second CD, 1s less than Maul.

Owned! :-)

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

mistsim.2748:

All spirits will have a base 75% proc chance and maul will never ever become a blast finisher because it would be OP on such a short CD. So I would cross those two off.

I submit, for your perusal, this skill. Mighty Blow it is a blast finisher on a 5 second CD, 1s less than Maul.

not to mention mighty blow does significantly more damage AND has more range than maul (220 vs 300). It’s literally better in every way…….except the 5 stacks of vulnerability.

Yup, exactly why Maul should be a b-finish.

Yeah well it won’t be. I can guarantee it. We have our own water field so getting 2-3 blast finishers on it plus a leap with swoop would heal us for 6k without HP. We also have our own chill, poison and fire fields. That’s why it’s not gonna happen.

That would be exactly the reason they should look at doing it. Ele gets exactly the same, fire/water/lightning fields and lots of blast finishers.

Edit: Revenant is getting an attack that does 3 blast finishers at once, with an 8s CD.
Echoing Eruption, which they can combo with the dark field from Unyielding Anguish or the lightning field from Inspiring Reinforcement to either blind for 4×3s to 5 targets or to Daze for 1s and give 30s of AoE swiftness.