Guild Wars 2

Hello ranger fans (or casual forum surfers),

I have been doing a bit of theorycrafting for what future elite specializations would look like. Today I bring you the Warden.

Overview: It is a perilous world of gods and monsters. While everyone is scrambling to fight or flight amidst the chaos, there are those who protect the vulnerable and defenseless that are not just civilians and refugees, but the world around them and the animals as well. One sees these defenders rushing into battle, ready to block incoming aggressors to protect the innocent and invoke nature’s blessing to those around them. In many cases, the animals they protect will often rally to their side as well as their pets.

New Weapon: Shield

1. Griffin’s Sweep: throw your shield and stun up to three foes.
2. Oakheart’s embrace: raise your shield and protect yourself from incoming attacks. Each attack blocked restores health for you and your pets.

New Skills: Totem (functions similarly to both a signet and a minion ability of the necromancer. Totems grant passive stat boosts to you and your pets while activating the totems summons a random pet based on the totems respective category)

• Totem of Mending:
  - Passive: increased healing power
  - Active: summon an animal companion to heal nearby allies.
• Totem of Resilience:
  - Passive: increased toughness and vitality
  - Active: summon an animal companion that can tank.
• Totem of Aggression:
  - Passive: increased precision and ferocity
  - Active: summon an animal companion that is damage oriented.
• Totem of the Hunt:
  - Passive: increased condition damage and movement speed
  - Active: summon an animal companion that can inflict condition damage.
• Totem of Benevolence:
  - Passive: generates a random boon every ten seconds
  - Active: summon a support oriented animal companion.
• Totem of the Pack (Elite):
  - Passive: boost all stats of you and your pets (+75)
  - Active: All pets active, as well as yourself, receive quickness, fury, might, and regeneration for 10 seconds.

New mechanic:
*Nature’s Blessing (charged whenever an boon is applied to you and nearby allies. Press F5 to emit a healing pulse plus a removal of one condition every two seconds for 10 seconds)

*Rangers can now have two pets out at a time with F4 alternating between pets and F2 to use the special abilities of both pets at once. When activating totems, the animal selected is random. The animal can be recalled at anytime after summoned to revert back to totem, or if they die, but there will be a cooldown. Those companions use their special ability when entering battle.

Traits:
Minor proficiency: you can now use the shield, totems, and Nature’s blessing

Major adept: Pet skills now provide aegis to nearby allies.

Minor adept: Boons on you and your pets last 33% longer

Minor Adept: when you use griffon’s sweep, allies also gain protection; shield recharge reduced.

Minor adept: Totems now provide boons to allies when activated.

Major master: Pet skills now provide stun nearby foes.

Minor adept: Totems keep their passive after activation and during cool down.

Minor adept: totems have a reduced recharge.

Minor adept: activate oakheart’s embrace when your health is below the threshold.

Major grandmaster: pet skills now remove conditions.

Minor grandmaster: Nature’s blessing’s radius is doubled.

Minor Grandmaster: When a summoned animal companion falls, they will now set off the pet skill of that summoned companion before leaving the battlefield.

Minor grandmaster: Nature’s blessing now removes two conditions at a time and lasts longer.

So what do you all think? Pros? Cons? Please leave a comment and I would love to hear your feedback.

Nobody has any input on my elite speculation?

I get the idea you have, and although it’s very thematic I can’t stop but wonder why we’d want a shield? Rangers have been all about melee-mid range combat since release, we need something else

Why not this: Implement main hand spears into the game (2 handed), and make them ranged weapons (throwable spears). Make this weapon and it’s spec all about Critical damage.
It is honestly time we Rangers get a proper ranged power based build.

Skuzz.6580:

I get the idea you have, and although it’s very thematic I can’t stop but wonder why we’d want a shield? Rangers have been all about melee-mid range combat since release, we need something else

Why not this: Implement main hand spears into the game (2 handed), and make them ranged weapons (throwable spears). Make this weapon and it’s spec all about Critical damage.
It is honestly time we Rangers get a proper ranged power based build.

I do like this idea…

ps. See sig.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Skuzz.6580:

I get the idea you have, and although it’s very thematic I can’t stop but wonder why we’d want a shield? Rangers have been all about melee-mid range combat since release, we need something else

Why not this: Implement main hand spears into the game (2 handed), and make them ranged weapons (throwable spears). Make this weapon and it’s spec all about Critical damage.
It is honestly time we Rangers get a proper ranged power based build.

I do like this idea…

ps. See sig.

:D nice.
While yours focusses on melee combat, and I like that aswell (kinda phalanx like) I myself was thinging more in the lines of how a javalin amazon from Diablo 2 played like, throwing javalins like mad, with them splitting on impact dealing elemental damage, or have them pierce, stuff like that.

Anyway, all good ideas i guess, same with the warden from OP, I myself personally would just like a more ranged orientated ranger build, so that we have even more options (we alrdy have a ‘bunker’ build , a melee power build for fun and condi builds (which are mostly all based around being very close for traps and torch firefield etc.)