Guild Wars 2

Mr. Peters, the following is a list of, at least what I believe, priority fixes for the Ranger. These fixes would ease a lot of the tension in the Ranger community. They would also make the Ranger a more viable profession.

These are issues that I believe are priority as I see the Ranger (through my gameplay). They may or may not be on your list. Please feel free to add what you see as a major cause of your rage.

THESE ISSUES ARE RELATED TO PVP/WVW AND HAVE LITTLE BEARING ON PVE. PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN REPLYING.

Pets
You have stated yourself Mr. Peters that pets need improvement. They need MASSIVE improvement. Our pets are a core mechanic to the profession. Here are the highest priority fixes for pets:

• The inability to move and attack at the same time. The Ranger’s DPS is lower then other classes because of the DPS we gain from our pets. See the problem? Our DPS is significantly lower then other classes because our core mechanic fails us. This should be a priority fix ASAP.

• The utter lack of survivability our pets have, even with Beastmastery traits. Not only do our pets not attack on the move, they also die very quickly in PvP. You must add a passive for all pets that reduces AOE damage. I personally would like to see 75-90%. There is just too much AOE in this game that destroys our pets in seconds. This should be a priority fix ASAP. (Note: I personally do not know if AOE resistance would be enough. Give Beastmastery a trait for HP increase).

• The delay in using our F2 pet abilities. This sucks but I would much rather see the above two fixed first.

If fixing attacking while moving is very difficult to code, then please add an option to stow our pets for a % increase in damage. This could be a temporary fix until you are able to work out the code. I love using pets but they have very limited use in PvP at the moment. I doubt you envisioned Rangers keeping their pet by their side for pet or rune buffs.

Weapons
I’m over the shortbow “fix” that the Rangers received a few patches back. I do not understand your thinking though about how you personally believe that, paraphrasing, “You do not think spamming 1 is any fun”. The reason everyone was upset was because it was the only viable weapon for PvP. The shortbows skills 2-5 are not damage skills, they are utility skills. There is a reason most Rangers were using shortbows because it was our only viable weapon. Which leads me to:

• Missile speed. Let us face it, it is far to easy for arrows to miss at range. Guns do not suffer this problem. Trying to hit a moving target at range is simply frustrating. We are primarily a ranged class according to your companies description of the class (“Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows.”). Missile speed must be increased to allow us to bring down foes from a distance with our bows! Even using the shortbow, a moving target at medium range will avoid (NOT EVADE) most of the arrows. I see fair play in evading a Crossfire under Quickness or Longbow’s Rapid Fire, but I do not see fair play missing those skills at the range of 500. This should be a priority fix ASAP.

• Obstructed. Enough said. This should be a priority fix ASAP.

• Sword mainhand 1 skill rooting the Ranger in place.
• Longbow damage based on range needs to be removed.
• Longbow 1 skill needs it’s speed increased slightly (too much plus a damage increase might be overkill).
• Shortbow 1 skill flanking requirement for bleed needs to be removed (Hello Warriors!). The duration of our bleed and flanking requirement warrants it’s removal. The only other conditions on shortbow have long cooldowns.
• Greatsword 1 skill needs it’s damage increased.
• Greatsword 5 needs it’s behind target requirement removed or increased from 1 second.

I do not have a lot of experience with axes, daggers, and torches in PvP so I will leave this to other posters who do.

Traits
You have stated yourself that they need to be re-worked to fit with the profession as a whole. There are many useless and unappealing traits. Some need to be moved to different locations and some just need to be removed. Please post ideas on improvements.

Spirits
Spirits are currently not viable at all. I have yet to see a Spirit Ranger since the beta nerf in PvP. Warrior banners are invincible. I am not asking to make Spirits invincible but they need two things: a lot more hit points and AOE reduction as well. We give up utility slots for our spirits only to have them die quicker then our pets in PvP. Unacceptable. I personally, believe that Spirit of Nature is fine.

I personally would like to see the range inscreased and internal cooldown decreased.

Signets
Complete re-work. Better synergy with our profession. This might take some time though. One thing you can do quickly is increase Signet of the Hunt to match the Thief. The argument of Ranger being a ranged class and Thief being a melee class isn’t valid. Both can use melee and ranged weapons. Personally, I believe the Thief has far better mobility and close-the-gap ability then the Ranger. If anything the Signets need to be reversed.

The cooldown needs to be decreased across the board on Signets until the re-work. At least give us something to work with.

Downed state skills
Please fix number 3 or give us a new one. Pets in current state are either already dead or at 10% health. In PvP/WvW this skill isn’t even viable unless you died and no one is around. They need to instantly run to you and not be able to be interrupted. They should be able to take damage and be killed though. This skill is even worse with the current patch: PvP downed health is now 75% of what it was.

EOF

Please remember this is priority fixes and not annoyances. These are fixes that would make the Ranger profession viable. Remember this when you post about what you would like to see changed.

Keep the post civil and constructive please!

I can live with most melee pets missing against uncrippled targets.
Maybe that’s just because I run axe/dagger shortbow with traps so have the cripples/chills to ration out to help the guy out, that and in small fights my own dmg is hefty even without him.
Projectile speed is the #1 in my book, the class is outright bad at ranged combat because of it. There shouldn’t be a blanket blocking an entire style of play from a class with weapons set up for nothing else.

The problem for me in regards to pets is actually balance…
Canines are better than felines in near every way.
They deal about 90% of their dmg, have a 2s knockdown and a 5s cripple (so can land more of their kitten). They have 4~k more health and 700 more toughness. Their activated skills are better.
No reason to choose a feline in the slightest.
That’s a problem with a number of complete species’ of pets (boar, devourer, feline, and probably bears/drakes off the top of my head)

When I was running a pet n TPvP I could work with its survivability plenty well, i really couldn’t complain about it. I ran protect me and empathetic bond on the build to boot (canine pets), but I also wasn’t chasing larger fights, I could see how it would be EXTREMELY helpful in them though.
Less aoe dmg to pets I would see best to be a trait, at least that’s how I would do it given the chance. Something like a 2nd tier trait in the beastmastery tree or 15 point minor.
That’d give people who are aiming for those larger fights with their ranger a chance to pretty easily spec into it if need be.

Axe offhand needs a massive buff.
Both abilities are terrible in PvP, Path of Scar’s does roughly the spammables dmg, possibly twice. The aoe is standstill and bad dmg to boot.
Everything else you posted is great though

Axe/dagger doesn’t need anything, there are a number of tweaks I’d like to it but the weapon set works which means it is far far down the list of priorities for this class.

One thing I don’t understand is why Thieves get 25% movement speed buff with their signets, while Rangers only get 10% with ours. They’re both signets and thus should provide comparable effects. Buffing our Signet of the Hunt to match the one thieve’s have is probably one of the most needed changes to help with ranger’s mobility.

Keep em’ coming!

Spirits need a Major life buff, they die extremely fast to make them any use in pvp at all.

Sol.4310:

Spirits need a Major life buff, they die extremely fast to make them any use in pvp at all.

Ground targeted, a larger buff radius and MUCH shorter CD would do just as well
(that might be too big of a mix between turrets and phantasms though, lol)

If they want to stick with the whole fallowing deal (which odds say the do) then yeah, large buffs to survivability are pretty necessary.

BAEK.8561:

One thing I don’t understand is why Thieves get 25% movement speed buff with their signets, while Rangers only get 10% with ours. They’re both signets and thus should provide comparable effects. Buffing our Signet of the Hunt to match the one thieve’s have is probably one of the most needed changes to help with ranger’s mobility.

That’s the case of pretty much every signet.
SoS is just endure pain on a longer CD and needing a trait, a 3rd tier trait, to work…
Ranger signets need ALLOT of work to, well, work.
The passive healing one was good for a while, it actually was the only signet in the class I liked, it gave solid selfhealing (before it was nerfed) so grabbing it alone fit a few tank specs, then if you were more offensive you could get the trait to make it give you stability (another fantastic buff).
The CD was excessive but it still fit the mold for the special ranger “beastmaster’s signets” deal, unlike the 3 others…
Signet of the hunt is close, bird spikes are the only use for it atm…
(I’ve seen pretty consistent 8~k spikes from ravens because of it)
Rangers need attacks that actually hit hard for SoH to be worthwhile with the 3rd tier trait (even then it is exceedingly mediocre).
So yeah tweaks to how it improves dmg would seem pretty important.

What do you guys think about the weapons?

Psisah – You pretty much nailed it.

Psisah.9140:

What do you guys think about the weapons?

I think they are perfectly reasonable, doable, evenhanded changes that could breath new life into the class while the heavier workload of pet improvements is looked at. Which, of course, is why none of it will ever be implemented, unfortunately.

If anything, I would add the idea of flipping the order of Monarch Flight and Hornet Sting as it would give the sword a gap closer and make it possible to use our hardest hitting sword skill on demand rather than have to fly backwards first as we already have a dodge in Serpent Strike and another in the dagger #4 skill.

Please return the firing rate of the Shortbow to its original speed. It was nerfed because of an animation issue not because it was overpowered and no one was even mad about it. Don’t nerf somthing because of an animation issue that is sorry excuse to nerf somthing. Change the animation not the skill. You can return it back now so we don’t have to wait till next patch(whenever that is) It doesn’t need to be tested cause there was nothing wrong with it in the first place only how it looked. So please make that change now. You changed traps back to their original way within a hour of them being bugged, im pretty sure your capable of changing shortbow back now

Psisah.9140:

What do you guys think about the weapons?

I don’t like the setup of a number of the weapon’s abilities, but that is a topic that won’t get anywhere 2 months after launch, which I take isn’t what you want.
At best only a numeric tweaks, bug fixes and small buffs will happen. when it comes to that its pretty simple.

Longbow, after a projectile speed buff would need a few tweaks to dmg and possibly increased duration on each tick of the aoe cripple.
Greatsword, I like the individual abilities but hate how they work together so just won’t comment beyond maul should have been defensive or the stun should have been a mobility ability and auto attack dmg increased. Its at a terrible, uncohesive inbetween atm.
Offhand axe needs work. Period. Both abilities are terrible, Path of Scars needs a massive dmg buff. The whirl needs work, if I had to throw out examples it would be to either be able to move during it, it pulses weakness, gives you protection or it is much faster but deals the same net dmg because atm it is useless in PvP.
Offhand horn is allright. Its basically just some passive swiftness/fury/might. Effectively it works, those boons can get you places, but I hate how the weapon plays so I’ll just leave the point be since conforming to my tastes aren’t a necessary change.
Mainhand axe is fine. It deals its good condition dmg and gives a chill. I would like a tweak or 2 but that’s just a detail at this point.
One handed sword is fine after the spammable fix (I’ve heard complaints that you can’t dodge at times in the animation because of the leaping action). Other than that it is a relatively strong weapon.
Offhand torch is fine. It works well with sword by giving it a fire field to leap threw, the torch toss does a good 6s burn. Sword also stalls well giving you plenty of time to ration out these burns (even though it would be a dozen times better settup in a class with a 5s weapon swap CD instead of 10).
Offhand dagger is fine. It has an evade which works wonderfully with ranger (bad at dealing with immobilizes, but you can use this evade while immobilized). The cripple/bleed is fantastic for kiting (the class has a fair deal of endurance to dodge back if need be, the cripple lasts 6 freaking seconds).
Shortbow is fine. With a bump to projectile speed I’d call it good enough.

Shortbow and longbow though… if you wanted the weapons to be allot more interesting, I would have their spammable’s combo chance doubled or it being a countable the first in 3 shots combo’s, making combo fields allot more useful to them (turning shortbow/longbow spammable into less of a blind spam). That and spirits would make combo fields with their activated abilities.
I’d find that interesting, but at this point a bit beyond reason (since so much other stuff needs to be done first).

Casey.9687:

Please return the firing rate of the Shortbow to its original speed. It was nerfed because of an animation issue not because it was overpowered and no one was even mad about it. Don’t nerf somthing because of an animation issue that is sorry excuse to nerf somthing. Change the animation not the skill. You can return it back now so we don’t have to wait till next patch(whenever that is) It doesn’t need to be tested cause there was nothing wrong with it in the first place only how it looked. So please make that change now. You changed traps back to their original way within a hour of them being bugged, im pretty sure your capable of changing shortbow back now

JON ^ ^

Substance E.4852:

If anything, I would add the idea of flipping the order of Monarch Flight and Hornet Sting as it would give the sword a gap closer and make it possible to use our hardest hitting sword skill on demand rather than have to fly backwards first as we already have a dodge in Serpent Strike and another in the dagger #4 skill.

Learn to unclick and turn around.
Its a hassle ><
but works

That’s the first thing I practiced when i picked up the weapon.
The ‘roll away’ is a makeshift gap closer, it just doesn’t hit at the end
Then you save the leap for if they get out of your reach again in the next 4~ seconds.
It works extremely well with a lil practice, I just rarely ever see anyone go for it.

garethh.3518:

Substance E.4852:

If anything, I would add the idea of flipping the order of Monarch Flight and Hornet Sting as it would give the sword a gap closer and make it possible to use our hardest hitting sword skill on demand rather than have to fly backwards first as we already have a dodge in Serpent Strike and another in the dagger #4 skill.

Learn to unclick and turn around.
Its a hassle ><
but works

That’s the first thing I practiced when i picked up the weapon.
The ‘roll away’ is a gap closer, it just doesn’t hit at the end
Then you save the leap for if they get out of your reach again in the next 4~ seconds.
It works extremely well with a lil practice, I just rarely ever see anyone go for it.

I’ve started doing this to get around WvW faster but it still leaves a lot to be desired.

Substance E.4852:

I’ve started doing this to get around WvW faster but it still leaves a lot to be desired.

Without a doubt it does.

Good list posted by OP. The sad thing is, for the past month so many constructive threads, none taken. There needs to be an independent review by Gamespy or some other known reviewer to state these facts and the delay taken by Anet to correct these issues. Then Anet will probably act with more haste.

Sad state of responsiveness to community feedback.

Calypso.9701:

Good list posted by OP. The sad thing is, for the past month so many constructive threads, none taken. There needs to be an independent review by Gamespy or some other known reviewer to state these facts and the delay taken by Anet to correct these issues. Then Anet will probably act with more haste.

Sad state of responsiveness to community feedback.

The problem is that the class still attracts masochists that take pride in being less effective in PvE and having 1:100 KDR’s in pvp so it will be a long time before the player numbers reflect actual performance.

They made a game where everyone can do everything and there are no class roles. With that said, when I can make a warrior and rock at everything in the game, no one will care if one or more other classes are crummy.

You can list all the suggestions you think is best for this class but the devs will NEVER take your ideas into account.

How many ranger suggestions have you seen being implemented into the game, ever since beta, launch and till now?

People have outstanding ideas waiting to be read, only to be wasted by utter silence.

Hire this man to your part-time job positions Anet because clearly whoever is in charge of fixing the ranger needs to get fired and replaced by someone who actually knows what they are doing.

The last patch saw EVERY CLASS in GW2 see an update except the ranger and we were promised that because of that we would be concentrated on. But you completely lied and gave elementalists, necromancers, and engineers double to triple the amount of updates rangers received. Outright deception.

Substance E.4852:

The problem is that the class still attracts masochists that take pride in being less effective in PvE and having 1:100 KDR’s in pvp so it will be a long time before the player numbers reflect actual performance.

There are charts, I saw one somewhere on this forum, ranger is the least played class in PvP by a longshot.

Fully support these suggestions. The ranger is currently broken and Anet is doing nothing about it. A Warrior is better than a Ranger in every single aspect, including and I might even go as far as to say especially in regards to ranged combat.

Be careful now, the last “constructive” thread got locked after a couple hundred replies

probably Mr. Peters dont give a kitten what we are writing here.

Good recap but don’t forget that we really need trap traits to be moved to the Wilderness Survival trait line, I personally consider that secondary only to the major bug fixes (pet, projectiles, sword root). They have no purpose being in a trait line that develops precision and crit damage, as reaching Trap Potency prevents you from maxing condition damage and duration.

Velimirius.7018:

probably Mr. Peters dont give a kitten what we are writing here.

Ofc he doesnt.Have you ever saw in here a thread or a post about fixing the harpoon?
Even tho this is what we got.
And probably this post will be deleting for not contrubing in the conv but i cant get whats the meaning to write something that you think that will help to this game.
Its like they telling me : “i see what you wrote but this is my shop and i will made any changes i want,totally different from what you talked cause I think this is right”

People generally have a problem to understand that nothing is right and nothing is wrong.Is just what people want and dont want