Guild Wars 2

JonPeters.5630:

No because in order for the creatures to attack they are going to use animations. For example I’m not going to spit fire breath out of a drake without it using its fire spitting animation.

Add quickness to F2.

Ah, Zen
I think he means Swoop would receive the invulnerability effect of an evasion for the duration of the existing animation, not that it would help you evade something by automatically moving you backward. Less like Lightning Reflexes, more like Mesmer Distortion.

JonPeters.5630:

Summoned creature AI is a different can of worms that we aren’t opening for the same reason. Pets that delay F2 use isn’t some wait script we put into their skills it has to do with core AI behavior shared by all pets and creatures and how they decide tasks. Rewriting that has the risks of breaking millions of unknown things so we have up until now band aided the solution. It is something that needs addressing but won’t be addressed until we can kitten how and when we will test it.

Question, have you tried looking at how their AI operates when they get hit by Morph Moa? They seem to react faster, attack while moving, and whatnot when like that, so I’m wondering if there’s something in how the AI gets changed when morphed that you could possibly use for the normal AI for pets.

JonPeters.5630:

Kal Spiro.9745:

ChillyChinaman.6057:

JonPeters.5630:

Sytherek.7689:

JonPeters.5630:

Summoned creature AI is a different can of worms that we aren’t opening for the same reason. Pets that delay F2 use isn’t some wait script we put into their skills it has to do with core AI behavior shared by all pets and creatures and how they decide tasks. Rewriting that has the risks of breaking millions of unknown things so we have up until now band aided the solution. It is something that needs addressing but won’t be addressed until we can kitten how and when we will test it.

As a former AAA PC game developer, I am mystified by the above.

My frost drake’s underwater F2 is instant, but the dry land F2 has a several-second delay — that makes no sense whatsoever. Underwater, I press F2, and the button works immediately; on dry land, clicking F2 does nothing initially, for 2-3 seconds.

Why the difference?

Since you asked so nicely. The underwater skill is an instant skill which doesn’t not require the AI to change it’s think state, as it can fire off during other actions. The land skill plumbs into our animation system which requires the drake to change it think state and execute a new order to the animation system. Both AI think state and animation can’t be running 100% of the time on every creature on the server for obvious reasons (it would create massive CPU usage and generate tons of skill lag) Animations are masked by client side blending, but the AI stuff has no way to be masked. We can make special cases for Ranger Pet F2, but doing so requires time and testing.

Can someone put this in layman’s terms?

Due to poor programming concepts pets have to actually contact the server and effectively ask for permission to run their F2 ability if any animations are involved in the ability. They then have to wait for the server to respond before they actually pull off the maneuver.

Being ignorant about how an online game must function does not make for good laymans terms. If we did not validate skill use on the server players could hack their clients to use skills without cooldown. I don’t think a lot of players would enjoy that.

That’s true, but the way your describing it doesn’t make any sense either. F2 should be an automatic block. It doesn’t matter what the pet is doing or trying to do. It should not need to reference some list, or work it’s way through a decision tree. As soon as the system sees F2 it should wipe the out whatever the pet was about to do, or what it planned to do next and immediately interpose it with the F2 command.

Just like when I’m in the middle of any action that isn’t a leap and I hit dodge. The system doesn’t have to figure out if I should finish doing what I was doing, or what animations to do, it stops everything and throws me in the proper direction running the dodge animation.

That’s how Pets should work. This also “should” not effect anything else because only Ranger pets even have an F2 to interpose it. It’s not like a Scale is suddenly going to have an F2 go off and interrupt its regen vomit, there is no F2 to go off.

Maybe it would be a tough change to throw this in now, but that’s why I said poor programming, this is something that should have been done as soon as F2 for Pets became a thing. The fact that it has never been addressed in any way is a poor programming concept.

Zenith.7301:

The last thing I want in pve, where you stack and melee the boss while stacking boons, is to send myself flying 600 yards away from the boss and waste preciois DPS walking back. I’ll just use my dodge.

The gap closer as an evasion skill makes no sense. How about after using counterattacked and it is triggered, you gain a short evade or distortion period?

You don’t HAVE TO aim in a different direction for the Swoop attack. I think the animation period in which you leap into the air, no matter your distance traveled, is the evasion they have planned? So you could be right in the face of some mob and just keep going, use your Swoop when it charges up it’s big attack, then keep going.

To me? That sounds perfect for a lot of fights. Like Subject Alpha and a few CoF bosses. I’d much rather have a third evade-on-demand than to wonder if my auto-attack chain is going to sync to Subject Alpha’s AoEs.

mzt.3270:

Another point to make on ranger skills for future developer refining ( hopefully). Traps are a viable playstyle but are not commonly used due to several factors
1 -why are trap traits in the precision tree?, would they not be better placed in the condition damage trait line?
The common problem is ranger skills have no synergy to the skills they are supposed to reflect, oakheart salve for example in the conditions line… ? Why?
It just seems all over the place, would this not be better placed in the vitality line for instance ?

I digress slightly… traps also are an issue as they are not influenced in any way from traiting, apart from a 30 point skill to improve the duration of conditions . Traps should reflect the level of conditions traited into the line, just now it makes no difference to actual collective condition or duration damage on stats.
I have to say traps are far from useless in a theoretical playstyle, but unless condition damage on them are influenced by stats, then traps will always remain as a less used option ( simply because they don’t do enough damage ).

Don’t forget the issues with condition damage not scaling with other stats, where as power builds have 3 stats to build from. And the other issue is the condition cap and how rangers get the short end of the stick in that department. Trap rangers are useless in group settings with other condition users.

About greatsword – could you please do some changes to auto-attack #3 animation? It looks a bit slow imho.

kitten nic Touch.7960:

mzt.3270:

Another point to make on ranger skills for future developer refining ( hopefully). Traps are a viable playstyle but are not commonly used due to several factors
1 -why are trap traits in the precision tree?, would they not be better placed in the condition damage trait line?
The common problem is ranger skills have no synergy to the skills they are supposed to reflect, oakheart salve for example in the conditions line… ? Why?
It just seems all over the place, would this not be better placed in the vitality line for instance ?

I digress slightly… traps also are an issue as they are not influenced in any way from traiting, apart from a 30 point skill to improve the duration of conditions . Traps should reflect the level of conditions traited into the line, just now it makes no difference to actual collective condition or duration damage on stats.
I have to say traps are far from useless in a theoretical playstyle, but unless condition damage on them are influenced by stats, then traps will always remain as a less used option ( simply because they don’t do enough damage ).

Don’t forget the issues with condition damage not scaling with other stats, where as power builds have 3 stats to build from. And the other issue is the condition cap and how rangers get the short end of the stick in that department. Trap rangers are useless in group settings with other condition users.

Ah yup, sorry I forgot that part. You are correct in that statement. TY

JonPeters.5630:

OGDeadHead.8326:

JonPeters.5630:

No because in order for the creatures to attack they are going to use animations. For example I’m not going to spit fire breath out of a drake without it using its fire spitting animation.

Add quickness to F2.

Quickness is not the problem. The problem is the server delay which would also have to wait for in order to get quickness applied.

Well something has to give. Players are suffering because you guys won’t allow the skills to function without the animation. What if you change the concept of the animations?

For example… Ranger hits F2. It puts a Howl buff on the Wolf for 1 second. After the buff fades, it AE fears and plays a animation of a wolf howl much in the same way when we use Horn #5?

You could do this with every attack. A drake head appears spitting fire/frost/lightning/rings. Owls could show a large owl swoop by with 2 slashes coming out etc. VEry ‘final fantasy’eque’.

Could you improve the IU’s pet ? I need to see boons and conditions.

JonPeters.5630:

Kal Spiro.9745:

JonPeters.5630:

Kal Spiro.9745:

ChillyChinaman.6057:

JonPeters.5630:

Sytherek.7689:

JonPeters.5630:

Summoned creature AI is a different can of worms that we aren’t opening for the same reason. Pets that delay F2 use isn’t some wait script we put into their skills it has to do with core AI behavior shared by all pets and creatures and how they decide tasks. Rewriting that has the risks of breaking millions of unknown things so we have up until now band aided the solution. It is something that needs addressing but won’t be addressed until we can kitten how and when we will test it.

As a former AAA PC game developer, I am mystified by the above.

My frost drake’s underwater F2 is instant, but the dry land F2 has a several-second delay — that makes no sense whatsoever. Underwater, I press F2, and the button works immediately; on dry land, clicking F2 does nothing initially, for 2-3 seconds.

Why the difference?

Since you asked so nicely. The underwater skill is an instant skill which doesn’t not require the AI to change it’s think state, as it can fire off during other actions. The land skill plumbs into our animation system which requires the drake to change it think state and execute a new order to the animation system. Both AI think state and animation can’t be running 100% of the time on every creature on the server for obvious reasons (it would create massive CPU usage and generate tons of skill lag) Animations are masked by client side blending, but the AI stuff has no way to be masked. We can make special cases for Ranger Pet F2, but doing so requires time and testing.

Can someone put this in layman’s terms?

Due to poor programming concepts pets have to actually contact the server and effectively ask for permission to run their F2 ability if any animations are involved in the ability. They then have to wait for the server to respond before they actually pull off the maneuver.

Being ignorant about how an online game must function does not make for good laymans terms. If we did not validate skill use on the server players could hack their clients to use skills without cooldown. I don’t think a lot of players would enjoy that.

That’s true, but the way your describing it doesn’t make any sense either. F2 should be an automatic block. It doesn’t matter what the pet is doing or trying to do. It should not need to reference some list, or work it’s way through a decision tree. As soon as the system sees F2 it should wipe the out whatever the pet was about to do, or what it planned to do next and immediately interpose it with the F2 command.

Just like when I’m in the middle of any action that isn’t a leap and I hit dodge. The system doesn’t have to figure out if I should finish doing what I was doing, or what animations to do, it stops everything and throws me in the proper direction running the dodge animation.

That’s how Pets should work. This also “should” not effect anything else because only Ranger pets even have an F2 to interpose it. It’s not like a Scale is suddenly going to have an F2 go off and interrupt its regen vomit, there is no F2 to go off.

Maybe it would be a tough change to throw this in now, but that’s why I said poor programming, this is something that should have been done as soon as F2 for Pets became a thing. The fact that it has never been addressed in any way is a poor programming decision.

Right but we are not going to get into the nitty gritty of server programming and how a giant online game needs to send packets back and forth to a multitude of clients and how it needs to handle dropped packets, and how it needs to handle different kinds of server hops, and how it needs to prioritize what it send/receive when the client bandwidth is overloaded. Let’s please leave any technical discussions out of this. This is a design discussion on potential ranger changes and I think if you look at the overall performance/uptime/etc of our server structure with or without some actual expertise you would have a hard time arguing that Guild Wars 2 is not one of the most technically sound massive online games to date.

You brought it up, but seriously, if this was a problem for the pets, shouldn’t it be a problem for every key we hit? It either does a thing, or it doesn’t. In the pets case it doesn’t, in everything elses case it does. If the problem was infrastructure, that doesn’t make sense.

Simple point when prioritizing: everything the player actively controls should have a higher priority than something the player doesn’t control. Meaning all F keys should supersede any action the pet is trying to take on its own, no matter what that action is.

JonPeters.5630:

Even though we wouldn’t do it now another shot at Greatsword to discuss

A) 1 chain NDA by giving Vigor.
B) Add evade to swoop…

Discuss?

I would prefer the chain to give protection and I like evade on swoop.

That would also be nice maxinox. I wouldn’t mind being able to know what’s on my pet at any given time.

First, thank you, and Im sorry if people are attacking you, and if my suggestions seem like Im telling you how to do your job, I apologize.

My question, removing evade on GS1 would lower its defensive abilities. It would make it more demand, yes but overall a lowering. Would the offensive capabilities be increased? I.E. if you removed the evade from GS1, would you increase the damage coefficients on GS1?

Another suggestion, I like the evade on the swoop, but maybe add a blind effect onto it afterwards. So, you get an evade, then a blind. That would give you the ability to avoid a decent amount of damage on demand.

My only other request is for a, I suppose update on the longbow, and the traits associated with it. I know ranger doesn’t mean using range, but Id like to.

Thank you again!

One thing i would really like to see is a numerical pet health bar similar to what the Necros got in the last patch.

Jon, would you be inclined to offer some thoughts on the axe mainhand’s autoattack in relation to the theme of the weapon (conditions)? Ricochet just does not feel good, and splitblade only works for condition heavy builds.

What about the offhand axe, particularly whirling defense?

Could you take a look at the axe trait and make it affect not only the mainhabd, but the offhand axe as well? Maybe add an additional effect to it because 10% crit dmg increase on mainhand axe that is mainly used as a condition weapon is not a very used trait.

Could you improve the IU’s pet ? I need to see boons and conditions.

Personally, I want to see the cooldown of the pet’s special skill we can’t control, so I can time working with it better.

Pet discussion going on with a DEV in the ranger forums. Glad I was here for this. Remember,
remember,
the 6th of November.

Hedgehog in the fog.1053:

First, thank you, and Im sorry if people are attacking you, and if my suggestions seem like Im telling you how to do your job, I apologize.

My question, removing evade on GS1 would lower its defensive abilities. It would make it more demand, yes but overall a lowering. Would the offensive capabilities be increased? I.E. if you removed the evade from GS1, would you increase the damage coefficients on GS1?

Another suggestion, I like the evade on the swoop, but maybe add a blind effect onto it afterwards. So, you get an evade, then a blind. That would give you the ability to avoid a decent amount of damage on demand.

My only other request is for a, I suppose update on the longbow, and the traits associated with it. I know ranger doesn’t mean using range, but Id like to.

Thank you again!

Honestly, I’d say drop the evade if the weapon could do competetive damage. Right now my biggest issue with the weapon is how it’s our primary source of burst, but outside of Maul the weapon is a utility/support weapon there strictly for defensive purposes. This is why I wish the class had a trait to reduce the cooldown on weapon swap. At least then the class’ burst deficiency would be made up some because we wouldn’t be stuck in a bad weapon for the full duration.

The evade is very tacked on. I understand it’s very powerful in zerg scenarios because you can run in and avoid all damage 1 out of 3 seconds, but are you accomplishing anything with the other 2 seconds other than being a body in the swarm?

I think adding vigor on auto-attacks is an elegant solution to “evade-spamming” auto-attacks. I also like the evade on swoop, but I wonder, wouldn’t a 1100 range skill with evasion be a bit too much? Maybe decrease the range to 900, 750, 600 or something? I know, I know, the weapon as a whole needs some sort of buff, but talking solely about one skill out of five, I think swoop could get a range decrease in favor of this change, even if nothing drastic (say, 900). It’ll make them escaping-gods otherwise.

Zenith.7301:

Jon, would you be inclined to offer some thoughts on the axe mainhand’s autoattack in relation to the theme of the weapon (conditions)? Ricochet just does not feel good, and splitblade only works for condition heavy builds.

What about the offhand axe, particularly whirling defense?

Could you take a look at the axe trait and make it affect not only the mainhabd, but the offhand axe as well? Maybe add an additional effect to it because 10% crit dmg increase on mainhand axe that is mainly used as a condition weapon is not a very used trait.

Again, this is to do with Ranger Skills having no synergy in reflection to the weapons they are supposed to affect. Axe 10% trait should be in precision.

mzt.3270:

Zenith.7301:

Jon, would you be inclined to offer some thoughts on the axe mainhand’s autoattack in relation to the theme of the weapon (conditions)? Ricochet just does not feel good, and splitblade only works for condition heavy builds.

What about the offhand axe, particularly whirling defense?

Could you take a look at the axe trait and make it affect not only the mainhabd, but the offhand axe as well? Maybe add an additional effect to it because 10% crit dmg increase on mainhand axe that is mainly used as a condition weapon is not a very used trait.

Again, this is to do with Ranger Skills having no synergy in reflection to the weapons they are supposed to affect. Axe 10% trait should be in precision.

This is a Master precision trait right?
Honed Axes

maxinox.6283:

mzt.3270:

Zenith.7301:

Jon, would you be inclined to offer some thoughts on the axe mainhand’s autoattack in relation to the theme of the weapon (conditions)? Ricochet just does not feel good, and splitblade only works for condition heavy builds.

What about the offhand axe, particularly whirling defense?

Could you take a look at the axe trait and make it affect not only the mainhabd, but the offhand axe as well? Maybe add an additional effect to it because 10% crit dmg increase on mainhand axe that is mainly used as a condition weapon is not a very used trait.

Again, this is to do with Ranger Skills having no synergy in reflection to the weapons they are supposed to affect. Axe 10% trait should be in precision.

This is a Master precision trait right?
Honed Axes

yup the very one, however the 10 % I believe makes little or no difference to the axe due to its very poor base damage. At best rangers need the vits or toughness to survive, making any precision crit worthless, 22 to 30% at best for a survival build

The point is that due to the spread of the mainhand axe skill, with the exception of ricochet which is a weak power based skill, the mainhand axe is primarily a condition weapon.

And so Honed Axes affecting only a condition weapon seems odd as condition weapons have no use for crit damage.

F2 topic:
What if all 4 skills of pet were much (MUCH) fasterand got balanced by reducing damage? From what I understand, it should make F2 more responsive. And as bonus it’d also help pets hit moving targets

GS topic:
Evade on swoop sounds cool for smaller fights or to escape, and I agree about RNG feeling with auto attack evade… but on the other hand, GS is our main weapon in current WvW big fights meta (if we even get a spot :P ), and the built-in evade is strong asset there. If we were to replace it with anything other, it’d make rangerseven weaker in this part of game. But if we had blast finisher on maul… xD

And btw, in case it got skipped here, it’s worth mentioning problems with traiting bow builds – in LB case I need 50 points (piercing, eagle eye and CD reduction), just to have my main weapon traited, and I can’t even get last trait I’d need for LB – Remorseless. I belive it needs some merging.

It’s very nice to see such gear discussion with Devs, I just hope you won’t get tired by it too fast, with all those requests and suggestions, when one is opposite to another ^^

mzt.3270:

maxinox.6283:

mzt.3270:

Zenith.7301:

Jon, would you be inclined to offer some thoughts on the axe mainhand’s autoattack in relation to the theme of the weapon (conditions)? Ricochet just does not feel good, and splitblade only works for condition heavy builds.

What about the offhand axe, particularly whirling defense?

Could you take a look at the axe trait and make it affect not only the mainhabd, but the offhand axe as well? Maybe add an additional effect to it because 10% crit dmg increase on mainhand axe that is mainly used as a condition weapon is not a very used trait.

Again, this is to do with Ranger Skills having no synergy in reflection to the weapons they are supposed to affect. Axe 10% trait should be in precision.

This is a Master precision trait right?
Honed Axes

yup the very one, however the 10 % I believe makes little or no difference to the axe due to its very poor base damage. At best rangers need the vits or toughness to survive, making any precision crit worthless, 22 to 30% at best for a survival build

I take this trait on my build because i use double Axes. I agree to say the benefit is better on the off hand and not the main hand .

JonPeters.5630:

Holland.9351:

JonPeters.5630:

Even though we wouldn’t do it now another shot at Greatsword to discuss

A) 1 chain NDA by giving Vigor.
B) Add evade to swoop…

Discuss?

Why do you want to change the Greatsword?
Does the evade have to go and you need to come up with an acceptable solution for it?

I don’t have to change it. I am hoping to improve it with changes without making it overpowered. I think right now one of the major problems, despite being good is that the evade on the chain is very hit or miss and feels very RNG when using it or fighting against it. I would rather put more of the skill of when to evade under player control to give this weapon more agency.

You could put evade on Swoop or improve Hilt Bash without removing the evade from chain 3.
The evade can be really good on chain 3 eventhough it’s a bit random. Removing it would have too much impact I think.

I use Greatsword a lot and find Hilt Bash the most lacking. It’s slow, has short range and the animation is a bit rough. I’m rarely able to hit with it, so I rarely even bother trying anymore. You could change this into anything else and I wouldn’t shed a tear. I wonder how others feel about it.
You could make Hilt Bash have an “Attack of Opportunity” on the next attack, so you could go Hilt Bash -> Maul for a nice combo. Currently it only gives it to the pet or you need a Grandmaster trait + an interrupt to do it otherwise (Moment of Clarity).
Related to this, please make “Attack of Opportunity” stackable.

Put the evasion on swoop, and change the 3rd attack on #1 to a short (2sec) cripple instead. <— my vote!!!

JonPeters.5630:

Holland.9351:

JonPeters.5630:

Even though we wouldn’t do it now another shot at Greatsword to discuss

A) 1 chain NDA by giving Vigor.
B) Add evade to swoop…

Discuss?

Why do you want to change the Greatsword?
Does the evade have to go and you need to come up with an acceptable solution for it?

I don’t have to change it. I am hoping to improve it with changes without making it overpowered. I think right now one of the major problems, despite being good is that the evade on the chain is very hit or miss and feels very RNG when using it or fighting against it. I would rather put more of the skill of when to evade under player control to give this weapon more agency.

Ehh Jon….That Evade is incredibly important to Rangers in Massive Fights.

Most WvW fights consists of the game frankly lagging where the only thing you can actually use is the Auto attack, That Evade saves rangers a TON of damage….The changes you’re suggesting would make the weapon overall much weaker.

Again, Swoop is not a problem, Swoop is fine the way it is, If you want to actually improve the weapon, remove the damage bonus that overlaps with Moment of Clarity from the Hilt Bash, and add something else. That’d improve the weapon.

Going to add these to this post, maybe give you some ideas on Traits, this post was made a while back, and some of these wouldn’t work anymore.

Marksman

Major Traits
__________________
—Adept Traits—
Steady Focus – This Trait needs no change
Malicious Training – This Trait needs no change
Keen Edges – After recent patch, this Trait is now perfect
Signet Mastery – This Trait has been combined with Beastmaster’s Might Trait
New Trait Added
Poison Tipped Arrow – Longbow/Shortbow now has a chance on crit to apply a 3 second Poison to the target
Predator’s Instinct – This has been changed to a 3 second immobilize when the target drops below 25% health.
Beastmaster’s Bond – This talent now also grants you 3 seconds of stability when your pet reaches 50% life.
_____________________
—Master Traits—
Spotter – This Trait no longer needs a change after the last patch
Piercing Arrows – This Trait has been combined with Eagle Eye Trait
New Trait Added
Horn Mastery – Hunter’s Call now Dazes the target for 2 seconds, Call of the Wild now grants 10 seconds of Retal to your pet.
Beastmaster’s Might – Has been combined with signet mastery trait, now grants 20% reduction in signet cooldowns along with the 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds.
Eagle Eye – Now grants shortbow/longbow/harpoon the ability to pierce target’s, increases Longbow/Harpoon Range, Increases Longbow/Harpoon damage.
______________________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Signet of the Beastmaster – This Trait has been redesigned, Signets no longer require this trait to grant the active to the Ranger, This opens up Signet usage to other builds as currently most don’t even pop signets they have due to it only working on the pet. This Trait now Coverts 1 condition into 1 boon on the ranger, and 2 conditions into 2 boons on the Ranger Pet on Signet Use. This change gives the Ranger ranger more active condition removal instead of relying on passive condition removal.
Remorseless – This has been redesigned, Your pet now consumes a condition on itself every 5 seconds, Causes your pet to have a 15% chance to cleave on critical hits, Your pet now applies 5 stacks of Vulnerability on its next attack each time it consumes a Condition.
________________________

Minor Traits
Opening Strikes – Alpha Training has been combined with this trait.
Alpha Training – Your pets opening strike now grants 3 stacks of might to all who are 500 radius around him.
Precise Strike – This Trait has not changed

Skirmishing

Major Traits
_______________________
—Adept Traits—
Pet Prowess – This Trait has not changed
Sharpened Edges – This trait has been increased to 2 seconds duration.
Trapper’s Defense – This Trait now also lays frost trap along with spiked trap
Primal Reflexes – This Trait has not changed
Companions Might – This Trait has not changed.
Agility Training – This Trait has not changed.
__________________
—Master Traits—
Carnivorous Appetite – This trait has been combined with Compassion Training in Beastmastery line.
New Trait Added
Excessive Baggage – You now drop a random trap at your location when you dodge, This has a 15 second ICD.
Trapper’s Expertise – This has been combined with Trap Potency
Honed Axes – This Trait now grants the Ranger 5 seconds of might on axe critical hits, increases axe critical damage by 10%. This opens up Axe/Axe Builds to multiple specs.
Quickdraw – This Trait has not changed
__________________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Moment of Clarity – This Trait has been redesigned, Currently this trait is ok only if you’re Asura and have access to Technobabble, Making a Grantmaster trait reliant so much on a racial ability is silly. Keeping with granting Rangers more Active Condition removal this trait now removes 2 Conditions from the Ranger when he Interrupts a target. Dazes and Stun Duration are increased by 50%. This makes weapon attacks such as the longbow knockback, path of scars, shortbow and great sword dazes as active condition removals for the Ranger.
New Trait Added
Flight Control – This Trait has replaced Trap Potency which was combined with Trapper’s Expertise, This Trait increases Shortbow/Axe Mainhand range to 1200.
_________________________

Minor Traits
Tail Wind – This trait has not changed
Furious Grip – This trait has not changed
Hunter’s tactic – This trait has not changed

Wilderness Survival

Major Traits
______________
—Adept Traits—
Soften the Fall – This trait has not changed
Healer’s Celerity – This trait now grants 5 seconds of stability along with swiftness on reviving a target
Shared Anguish – This trait has been redesigned, This now grants the pet Aegis for 10 seconds whenever it receives cripple/chill/immobilize. This has a 30 second ICD.
Vigorous Renewal – This trait has not changed.
Expertise Training – This trait has been changed, Now increases the pets condition damage by 30 each time it applies a condition for a maximum of 25 stacks, This Decays at 1 second very 2 seconds outside of combat, This resets on Pet Swap or Pet Death.
Wilderness Knowledge – This trait has not changed.
__________________________
—Master Traits—
Offhand Training – This trait has not changed
Oakheart Slave – This trait has not changed
Hide in Plain Sight – This trait now allows you to move while Camouflaged, 30 second ICD still in effect.
Martial Mastery – This trait has not changed.
________________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Empathetic Bond – This now transfer’s a condition to your pet whenever you evade an attack, This can only happen once every 2 seconds (So a bunch of people spamming attacks don’t instantly removal all conditions on you), This removes the Rangers more passive condition removal, and instead moves it towards a more active role. Things like Lightning Reflexes, Shortbow, Sword/Dagger become condition removal abilities.
Barkskin – This trait has not changed.
__________________

Minor Traits
Natural Vigor – this trait has not changed
Companion’s Defense – this trait has not changed
Peak Strength – This has been changed to 80% health.

Nature Magic

Major Traits
____________
—Adept Traits—
Circle of Life – This trait has been redesigned, Causes a Healing Spring on the area of the death of the Ranger and the Ranger pet.
Concentration Training – This trait has not changed
Nature’s Bounty – This trait has not changed
Spiritual Knowledge – This trait has not changed
Strength of Spirit – This trait has not changed
Nature’s Protection – This trait has not changed
___________________
—Master Traits—
Nature’s Vengeance – This Trait now also causes the pet to leave a combo field based on which spirit died, Stone Spirit leaves a Smoke Field, Frost Spirit Leaves an Ice Field, Sun Spirit Leaves a Fire Field, Storm Spirit Leaves a Lightning Field.
Evasive Purity – This trait has not changed.
Two handed Training – This Trait now also grants Might for 5 seconds on critical hit attacks for Greatsword/Spear
Enlargement – This Trait has been removed
New Trait Added
Reflective Personality – Whenever you Block or Reflect an attack, You Enrage your pet causing it to grow in size, and grant fury/might for 5 seconds to those around it in a 360 radius. This has a 1 Second ICD.
_________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Spirits Unbound – This trait has been redesigned, Spirits can now move freely, Whenever a spirit dies it removes 2 condition from allies in a 360 radius around it. This opens up Condition Removal for Spirits specs, and Makes Ranger spirits more useful for zerg fights when following the ranger. It also keeps with more Active Control.
Nature’s Voice – This trait has not changed.
______________________

Minor Traits
Rejuvenation – This trait has not changed.
Fortifying Bond – This trait has not changed.
Bountiful Hunter – This Trait has been redesigned, you and your pet now do 2% extra damage for each boon you have.

Any chance Lightning Reflexes can break immob, maybe reduce the vigor a little bit? And could the cast time on Heal as One be reduced to 3/4s or at least 1s?

Beastmastery

Major Traits
_______________
—Adept Traits—
Speed Training – This Trait has been combined with Commanding Voice
New Trait Added
Pet Cemetery – Whenever your pet dies, The ghost of said pet will now follow the target who killed him for 15 seconds in an unwavering rage.
Master’s Bond – This trait has been redesigned, Now increases the pet attribute by 1 for every second the pet is active in combat for a max of 25 stacks, Decays at 1 stack every 2 seconds outside of combat. Resets on Pets Death, or Pet Swap.
Shout Mastery – This trait has not changed.
Compassion Training – This trait has been combined with Carnivorous Training from Skirmishing Line, Now grants the pet health whenever it critical hits, This is based off the pet healing stat
Commanding Voice – This trait was combined with Speed Training, It now reduces pet cooldowns by 20%
Mighty Swap – This trait now grants the Ranger 3 Might stacks on swap along with the pet.
_________________
—Master Traits—
Rending Attacks – This Trait hasn’t been changed.
Stability Training – This trait has been removed.
New Trait Added
Psychedelic Truffle – The Enemies face now looks like a giant truffle to your Pig, The Pig Gains the ability to strip 2 boons from the target for 10 seconds on crit after using its (F2), 1 Boon goes to the Pet, the other goes to the Ranger.
Intimidation Training – This trait has been redesigned, Now causes the Spiders (F2) abilities to Cripple the Target, Now causes the Canines (F2) to cause 7 seconds of Weakness to all enemies hit by it. Bears (F2) ability now grants Aegis to all allies around it in a 360 radius for 5 seconds.
Vigorous Training – This trait has been redesigned Birds/Jellyfish Grant Vigor on Swap for 5 seconds, Moa’s (F2) Abilities are now Blast Finishers.
__________________
—Grandmaster Traits—
Zephyr’s Speed – This trait has not changed
Natural Healing – This trait has been redesigned it now applies to all allies in a 360 radius around the Ranger and Ranger Pet, The Ranger and Ranger pet no longer have a passive regen from this ability. To get the Regen from this ability, they must be within radius of one another.
_________________________

Minor Traits
Instinctual Bond – This trait instantly summons the pet to you on death, causes the pets next attack to daze for 1 second, grants the pet 3 seconds of quickness.
Loud Whistle – This trait has not changed
Nature’s Wrath – This trait has not changed.

Good god Xsorus

Yea, I did a Trait post a while back, I was working on a pet one… But I got lazy and didn’t finish it, But to give you an idea

This is just for bears

Bears

A. Brown Bears
Shake it Off – Cures 3 Conditions Now
Bite – Casts Regen on itself (No Change)
Slash – Applies 1 Vulnerability to the Target for 5 Seconds
Defy Pain – No Change

B. Black Bears
Enfeebling Roar – Strips 2 Boons from Targets in 600 Radius (20 Second Cooldown)
Bite – Steals 2 Boons from the Target (25 Second Cooldown)
Slash – Applies 1 Vulnerability Stack to the Target for 5 seconds
Defy Pain – Converts Conditions on itself into Random Boons (45 Second Cooldown)

C. Polar Bear
Icy Roar – Converted to Icy Charge, Now Bullrush’s the target leaving behind a Frost Field (Think Burning Speed from Elementalists, but Frost Instead), Chill Increased to 7 Seconds. (20 Second Cooldown)
Bite – Immobilizes the Target for 4 Seconds
Slash – Applies Cripple to the target for 3 Seconds.
Defy Pain – Changed to South Paw, Knocks the Target on the Ground for 3 Seconds. (30 Second Cooldown)

D. Arctodus
Rending Maul – Change to Protective Stance, Absorbs 15% of damage done to allies in the area for 8 seconds, 30 second Cooldown.
Bite – Changed to Intercept, Charges the Ranger and Takes the Next Hit intended for him.
Slash – Applies 1 Stack of Vulnerability to the target for 5 seconds.
Defy Pain – Changed to Bodyguard Splits damage between Ranger and the itself for 5 seconds – 30 Second Cooldown.

E. Murellow
Poison Cloud – Change to Sickly Aura – now transfers 2 conditions from itself to enemies in a 600 Yard Radius every 2 seconds for 10 Seconds. (25 Second Cooldown)
Bite – Now Applies Poison and Weakness for 10 seconds (25 Second Cooldown)
Slash – Applies 1 Stack of Bleed for 5 Seconds to the target
Defy Pain – Changed to Disease Prone – Converts Boons on itself into Conditions (25 Second Cooldown)

As you can see, I’ve Made Each Bear Unique and Have a specific thing they’re good at.

Brown Bears being the Standard Bear, Black Bear Being all about Boons, Polar Bear being all about CC, Arctodus be all about Protecting its master, and Murellow Being all about Spreading Conditions.

Lol. Man, Xsorus, way to hijack the thread XD
Not that we’re not all a little bit guilty of that right now. >.>;

Would the WvW folks feel as though greater damage on the autottack chain would offset the loss of the evades, or does something like that not really matter to you guys?
I know that’s something us PvE folks would be delighted to see.

Master’s Bond – This trait has been redesigned, Now increases the pet attribute by 1 for every second the pet is active in combat for a max of 25 stacks, Decays at 1 stack every 2 seconds outside of combat. Resets on Pets Death, or Pet Swap.

I thought the same thing awhile ago, however it still goes against pet swapping. To make it more “Pet swappy”, maybe have it work in reverse. You start with 25 stacks, and you lose 1 stack per second. Make it a master trait.

Vox Hollow.2736:

Lol. Man, Xsorus, way to hijack the thread XD
Not that we’re not all a little bit guilty of that right now. >.>;

Would the WvW folks feel as though greater damage on the autottack chain would offset the loss of the evades, or does something like that not really matter to you guys?
I know that’s something us PvE folks would be delighted to see.

I feel like most WvW people would want evade on 1, evade on swoop and increased damage -_-

That being said, I think that if you made GS3 truly defensive, removing the evade and making GS1 more powerful would make it a true weapon used outside of a single burst chain.

Possible Greatsword improvements

Crippling Throw 1200 range up from 900. I mostly only use it to stop people who are running away, but 900 is kind of short range for that.

Hilt Bash Attack of Opportunity given to Ranger instead of pet (or to both). Maybe increase its range if that’s possible. Or maybe make it always stun and not require flanking and increase stun duration without Grandmaster trait.
Or a knockdown… yes I’d like that more than stun/daze. Just don’t make it a knockback.

Evade on Swoop is welcome, but not at the cost of it being removed from chain 3. It’s a good skill as-is though. It’s a Leap finisher and a gap closer and an escape tool.

Maul could use a Blast Finisher. I’m not a fan of using warhorn nor drakes, so I personally rather have it on Maul.

Please consider updating:
Poison Volley (skill 2 on short bow)

A poison aoe similar to how barage is done would be cool (short range aoe) even with maybe 1 stack of torment @ 40% on crit. ?

Thats the one thing that short bow is actually missing from making it a true viable weapon is a decent aoe…..

I have to quote myself here

Hilt Bash Attack of Opportunity given to Ranger instead of pet (or to both). Maybe increase its range if that’s possible. Or maybe make it always stun and not require flanking and increase stun duration without Grandmaster trait.
Or a knockdown… yes I’d like that more than stun/daze. Just don’t make it a knockback

Just imagine…
Hilt Bash-> knockdown -> Attack of Opportunity -> Maul.

It’s a great combo and it makes sense to have an Attack of Opportunity on a knocked down foe.
Hilt Bash is already tough to land, so it would be very rewarding if you managed to make it hit.
You could make it stun from the front and give it a knockdown+Attack of Opportunity if you flank. Now you have some serious reason to try and flank with Hilt Bash.

Hey JonPeter, I really appreciate your replies.

To increase efficiency of the Ranger in dungeons and FoTM, perhaps we could look at the GW1 Ritualist?

1. Spirit of Recovery
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Recovery

Perhaps modify one of the existing spirits to reduce condition duration on allies by 50%, so long as it is up? For its “Overcharge” ability (Engineer term), it instantly removes all conditions on nearby allies?

2. Spirit of Shelter
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Shelter

The GW2 equivalent of Protective Spirit. All allies affected by Spirit of Shelter have a 75% chance to reduce damage of their next hit by up to 10% of their maximum health. Effect recharge: 15.

3. Spirit of Quickening Zephyr.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Quickening_Zephyr

The opposite of Chill, Quickening Zephyr reduces the weapons recharge of everyone affected. Very unique niche without becoming overpowered, great synergy with Warrior.

Furthermore, increase spirit range to 10 players instead of 5? With only 5, the spirit impacts itself, the player, its pet, and only two other players, rather than the whole party. That is obviously a problem, but increasing number of players affected would alleviate that in dungeons.

Regarding Greatsword since it is my most carried weapon, and skillwise;

#1. I think the main ‘problem’ is simply the damage. It is not completely bad, but it’s lower enough to make the 1h + oh combination be both stronger and more versatile without cost (as you can use different ohs). The only thing you gain is the smooth gap closer (roughly), everything else you can get with sword/x, and more. It wouldn’t be as much as a problem if I could choose the GS to be my primary weapon rather than the eternal backup to 1h sword for melee.

#2. Maul is fine in my opinion, of course we would all love a blast finisher but maybe it gives GS too many things. It would really increase its chance vs choosing warhorn in one of the weapon sets though. But maybe instead, the leap finisher on swoop could be turned into blast?

#3. Swoop, it is perhaps the reason why I just love this weapon because it feels awesome, helps travel and tactical target swaps. I am honestly thinking the evade should stay in the autochain, and Swoop should grant vigour instead. This means that you are still a bit unpredictable in the attack chain, and Swoop remains the tactical choice to respond to bad situations instead of having to save it for a preset condition, and thus limiting its gap-closer nature.

#4. No problems whatsoever here, great button.

#5. Hilt Bash! It is the other ability which makes GS interesting to me – awesome feel and it is very useful if you land it. You can mostly get past that if by practice, but I would not be unhappy if it got 50-100 units longer range, so that you can rely on it a bit more to do its thing. The animation includes stopping so I don’t think you could use it to gain speed even then, if that would be an issue.

Regarding shouts, is it possible to look over the cooldowns of these things? It feels like that is a lot of what holds them back, except for Guard (which is awesome with Nature’s Voice!).

That GS Auto Attack can be pretty useful sometimes when you take it off of auto and time the evade (Crazy talk, I know!). Because most enemies in the game have a pretty long delay in their attacks, you can almost never get hit by anything if you time it right. Its I solo champions, and its how many rangers you see on youtube solo dungeon bosses. It also frustrates players to no end in WvW when I do half of the auto chain to start the evade, then dodge for real, do the auto chain to evade again, then dodge for real yet again.

I would be fine to see it go and be replaced by something else, since timing that attack can still be a pain, but just adding more damage to it doesn’t really seem like the answer for me. Neither is giving GS#2 a Blast Finisher that you can spam every 4 1/2 seconds.

It would be neat to see a 1 second retaliation on the auto attack instead of the 1 second evade though. It will deal at a minimum, 250 extra damage to whoever deals damage to you, plus, if you decide to invest into Nature Magic for the boon duration, you could potentially make it last through the first two attacks in the chain as well.

Seeing 1 Second of Vigor would work for me too.

Jon:

As a fmr. chief customer officer, love to see the tone you have taken with the community. But we are here to talk rangers!

What might be extremely helpful is to look at and provide the community on the usage rates of different weapons by type of play (wvw, spvp, pve). I would particularly focus on the weapons new rangers pick first. Those tend to be the ones they want to play where later you adjust to play the best.

Shouldn’t that lead to which weapons might be best to first fix? I suspect you will find a heavy emphasis on bows (long and short) as most customer expectations in any sort of MMO or rpg on ranger tend to be “bow class”.

So let’s talk bows!

Would be helpful to understand what your vision is for bows considering you seem to have hinted at the need for one bow to be AE and the other single target.

Which of the following approaches do you think needs to be done with bows and which are you focused on?

Trying to provide in order of magnitude of change:
1) Consolidating traits in marksmanship?
2) Improving current skills (damage, range, rate of fire, conditions etc)?
3) Changing bow skills (e.g. making longbow single target and shortbow small radius focused etc.)?