Guild Wars 2

Hi there!

Note that this is just a take at creating a semi petless ranger E-spec. I do not particularly want to see a petless E-spec but I think it could be an interresting thing for a lot of players out there.

The inspiration for this E-spec come from an older game that ironically focus a lot on pets : Rappelz.
More specifically this is a spec that take as model the Evoker.

http://rappelz.wikia.com/wiki/Evoker

To give it a GW taste, I’m also adding a little bit of the GW canthian’s ritualist as something that could be a lot like spirit weapons.

Evoker

In the tragedy of the bloodstone fen a high number of pet’s soul were corrupt and kept lingering in between the mists and the world. A few ranger caring for these lost soul befriend them and start to learn new way of communing with their own pets. They now can imbue the very soul of their pet in their weapon, keeping the fleshly body in an unknow place.

Profession mechanism :

Unity : Your pet’s soul now dwell into your weapon adding 0.2x (pet power) as additionnal weapon damage to your attacks (ICD 1s) (work somehow like sigil of air but with a 100% chance on hit). These additionnal damages depend of the pet’s stats and can crit. While stored in between the mists your pet’s body still receive boons or conditions from traits and damage from specific skill (guard!).

Cool down of unity : 20 seconds.
Cool down of unity if your pet die or you are downed while in unity : 60 seconds.
Cast time of unity : 2 seconds.

Spliting soul : You return your pet’s soul to it’s fleshly body which return to the mortal world.

F2 skills : while in unity, for convenience, the ranger will need to cast the skill and :
- Melee skills will need the ranger to be in melee range and this will summon gosthly image of the pet that will strike the foe
- Ranged skills will start from the ranger
- Skills that affect specifically the pet will apply to the ranger
- Skills that have an effect around the pet will apply their effect around the ranger
- Skills only affected by pet’s stats

weapon :

The first evokers needed a Focus to clearly enter in contact with the lost souls of these pets. This weapon quickly became an iconic way to distinct them.

Focus #4 : Mending grip : remove up to 2 condition from you and your pet. For each condition removed grant 3 seconds regeneration. (CD 25 seconds)

Focus #5 : renewing memories : You and your pet selflessly evade all attack while casting this skill, by renewing your bond with your pet, the 2 of you feel strenghtens and rejuvenated. You and your pet gain quickness, might and regeneration. (CD 40 seconds)

Skill :

Heal skill :
Spirit light link : You and your pet gain some health. The next 2 attacks of your pet drain a condition from you.

Utility skill :
Splinter link : The next 3 attacks of your pet hit up to 5 additionnal targets on impact.

Shadow link : the next 3 attacks of your pet blind foes.

Vengeful link : the next 3 attacks of your pet steal life. (if under the effect of unity : the ranger is the one that benefit from the life stealing effect)

Sundering link : the next 3 attacks of your pet inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability.

Elite skill :
Wailing link : the next attack of your pet daze your foe for 2 seconds.

Trait :

Minor adept :
Soul harmony : Gain access to links. You can now use Unity that let you merge with your pet and wield a focus.

Major adept :
Steady guardian : upon switching pet you gain protection for 5 seconds.
Painful bond : grant you 3s retaliation whenever your pet receive a condition. (10 seconds ICD)
Gracefull bond : using an evade skill grant you health.

Minor master :
Soul wrath : When your unity is forcefully broken (if you are down or if your pet’s health is totally depleted) Unleash a wave of force that harm your enemies and heal your allies.

Major master :
Deep connection : Focus skills recharge faster. Focus skill also affect nearby allies.
clever link : Link skills recharge faster. Hitting a foe with less than 5 stack of vulnerability grant your pet a sundering link charge.
Soul gift : Your endurance refill faster while under the effect of unity.

Minor Grandmaster :
Soul master : You can now swap pet while under the effect of Unity.

Major grandmaster :
Bountifull unity : while under unity ranger’s and pet’s outgoing boons last 20% longer.
Wrathfull unity : while under the effect of unity pet’s damage are increased by 15%.
Strenghtening unity : While under the effect of unity the ranger gain 5% of it’s pet’s vitality.

NB.: this is just for fun but I hope at least some of you enjoy it.

Looks like preperations determined by the pets you choose. The rest looks weak but that’s not important.

I wouldn’t mind something like that as it would give more meaning to choosing your pet besides “what does MOAR dmg?”.

Justine.6351:

Looks like preperations determined by the pets you choose. The rest looks weak but that’s not important.

Indeed, it is deliberatly weak. But it’s not intended to be “preperation”, it’s more imbuing weapon with the soul of a pet. Technically, it would be like “spirit weapon”. But you are not wrong since it’s similar to “preperation” in a lot of way.

Justine.6351:

I wouldn’t mind something like that as it would give more meaning to choosing your pet besides “what does MOAR dmg?”.

Yeah, almost all pets have a similar base power pool so the additionnal damage would be pretty much the same whatever the pet race. Without any trait, the additionnal damage would do around 300 and probably 600 on crit. Which isn’t strong nor negligible I think. Traited and buffed it probably wouldn’t be impossible to see the crits reach 3-4k damage (would probably need ideal condition for it) which would be “ok”.

yeah i like the shamman thing.
The spec seems too weak and bland thou, weaker than the vanilla ranger which would makw it underisable. You could add more effects to the unity because
Why only affects the weapon?
couldn’t the ranger get other skills\effects when they join?

Honnestly, I just wanted to make a weak but practical base that could be balanced by being strengthened. Imagining something strong with tons of good effect would have ended up with a result to remove effect that would feel necessary for some people.

Overall, I think that the special mechanism is “ok” (not to strong yet not weak since it cover one or two of the weakness of the ranger which is due to the unreliability of the pet. I pretty much feel like you that the grandmasters traits may be lacking a bit. In the begining I intended to link to the different trait each of the different utility skill of the pet instead of just the F2 skill, but it felt way to complicated. However, If I look at it objectively the grandmaster’s traits feel somewhat balanced.

The traitline cover 3 aspects :
- boon support (one possibility would be to change steady guardian to make it affect up to 5 allies around you) which would strenghten the line)
- aggression (I feel that this line doesn’t lack in any ways, but if I had to change something, I’d change painful bond which doesn’t seem to really fit the ranger’s thematic since it proc retaliation)
- survivability (I wouldn’t change anything on this traitline, the adept trait help a lot of ranger’s weapons even if the greater benefit goes to the greatsword, the master trait will always be usefull and the grandmaster trait is basically a nich trait for bears since making it like this is the only way I can imagine for me to use a bear)

The focus is designed as a support weapon and can cover a bit of the ranger’s weakness against condition.

As for the utility skills they deliberatly have a large range of use and the fact that I didn’t put any cool down make room for balance. I think that a stun breaker could be put on vengefull link.

I believe that the way the F2 skills work while in unity already open a lot of new possibility for the ranger.

As for the “effects”, this is an overall design of the E-spec, not a visual showdown. And let’s be clear, it affect the weapon only by adding the damage of the pet to the weapon, I didn’t imagine any visual things. The only visuals effects that I oversaw were visual effect on F2 use where a ghostly image of the pet appear at your side to perform it’s skill.

[Suggestion]Shaman

So here I’m trying something totally different that again put the pet on another path to glory. To be honest I try more or less to make some ranger’s thingy into a better place via very simple means. (Well it doesn’t mean that these “means” are necessarily easy to introduce in game.)

You could say that again there is a lot of the ritualist in this spec and you would be right but you could also say that it feel closer to the elementalist which is totally true since the utility skills are designed with _Arcane_’s skills in mind.

Shaman

In the chaos that reigned under the pressure of mordremoth a group of rangers sylvaris chose to part with their pet in order to avoid hurting them if mordremoth happen to control them.

In order to remain usefull in the fight against the dragon, these sylvaris chose to make a pact with nature’s spirit and created new bond and a totally new form of magic.

Profession mechanic :

Shaman chose to trade their pets over whisps which are pets made of the natural spirit that exist everywhere around us. Shamans have directly access to 6 whisps :

Water whisp : That have as F2 a version of Aqua Surge that only heal allies around him on use (no initial heal)
Storm whisp : That have Call lightning as an F2.
Frost whisp : which let you use Cold snap as F2.
Stone whisp : which let you use Quicksand as F2.
Sun whisp : which let you use Solar flare as F2.
Nature’s whisp : which have an F2 that remove up to 2 condition on surounding allies.

These whips are nothing more than ball of energy. They’ve got the basic form of the energy ball of the valley guardian’s fight, anly their color change. Their auto-attack is a low damage pulse that hit enemy around them (base radius 130) and happen only when attacking. F2 skills have a standardized CD set at 20 seconds untraited.

Weapon :

Shamans are ranger’s that mastered the use of the scepter in an original manner since in their hand it’s a close range weapon that they use to channel the natural energy that surround them. (Add unique scepter skin that look like a whip)

Auto-attack : a 3 skill chain that lash onto up to 3 foes applying a balance amount of bleed and vulnerability stack.
Skill 2 : Unleash a powerfull whirl that hurt enemies around you (combo whirl). Channeled skill that hit twice per second.
Skill 3 : Unleash nature’s power and tether yourself to a poisoning it every seconds (ranger’s version of spear of justice).

Skill :

The _shaman_’s skills affect directly the whisp, they are designed to support and take advantage of the whisp’s mechanic. In accord to the effect, while it could be _arcane_’s skill we will call them manipulation (since the skills are manipulating the whisp). Note :
- Using one of these skill while another one of these skill is in action end the first skill.
- While your pet is in a “transformed” state, he is considered as if he is in down state.
- While your pet is in a “transformed” state no attack can reach it.
- These skills work even if the pet is in a “dead/down” state.

Heal :
Natural convergence : Your whips fade from it’s position and reform itself next to you, healing both of you in the process.

Utility :
Nature’s spear : Your whisp change itself into a spear that launch toward your foe (range 1200). At the end of the skill your whisp appear where the spear stopped. (the skill don’t pierce)

Natural erosion : Your whisp disappear, leaving a field that damage foes. Last 6 seconds. Combo field depend on which whisp you are using. (water/air/frost/poison for earth whisp/fire/light for nature’s whisp)

Nature’s wrath : Your whisp transform itself into a tempest that whirl at it’s position. last 6 seconds.

Nature’s rift : Your whisp rupture itself creating kitten that pull surrounding enemies. When the hole close itself a powerfull blast hit the ennemies and your spirit reform itself.

Elite :
Nature’s blessing : Your spirit transform itself into a beacon that strenghten allies around it (improve direct damage and condition damage by 10%). Last 20s CD 60s.

Trait :

Minor adept :
Communing : Your pets are replaced by whisp. You can now use a scepter and control your whisp with manipulation’s skills.

Major adept :
Everlasting whip : Your scepter’s skills last longer.
Mishievous nature : you’ve got a chance to cripple for 2 seconds foes that are under the effect of swiftness. (25% chance on hit)
Nature’s care : F2 skill drain 1 condition on sourrounding allies (up to 5 allies may be affected by this effect)

Minor master :
Weakening aura : whenever you switch whisp, enemies that surround you are weakened.

Major master :
Nature’s clamor : F2 skills do additionnal direct damage. Whisp auto attack range is improved.
Nature siphon : Whenever your whisp autoattack inflict a critical hit on a foe, it remove swiftness from that foe.
Nature’s transfer : Break stun whenever you switch whisp.

Minor Grandmaster :
Nature’s boon : Whenever you switch whisps surrounding allies are partially revived and receive regeneration.

Major grandmaster :
Reclaim essence : whenever your whisp is in down state you gain 5% condition damage and 5% direct damage bonus.
Frost soil : Your manipulation recharge faster. Whenever your whisp transform into a manipulation skill, he leave behind him a dark field that prevent foes from being healed while in down state.
Nature’s ward : henever your whisp enter down state, it grant you a buff called nature’s ward that last 6 seconds and reduce conditions damage that you suffer by 25%.

So this one is clearly an E-spec that lack survivability tools but I think it could feel enjoyable to use in game.