Guild Wars 2

http://etheusrook.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/etheus-talks-traits/

This is a link to a post from my new blog, which is aimed at providing suggestions to Arenanet and improving Guild Wars 2 in all areas.

This is merely the first of 8 major profession trait reworks that I have planned.

*No, Rangers are not underpowered right now. No, we don’t need buffs. I do, however, strongly feel that we are riddled with bad traits and that EVERY profession (and the game as a whole) could benefit to a major trait overhaul that includes new traits.

*Keep in mind that this is not intended to push the Ranger’s balance state up, as it is meant to be accompanied by overhauls to everyone.

After going trough marksmanship in his blog, the first thing that hurt is that “etheus” seem to be a range freak that want more and more range damage.
To much “range” emphasis in trait is already what kill this traitline and cripple rangers for dungeons.

Skirmishing : not much to say exept the fact that the emphasis on “swaping weapon” is interresting and “flanking strike” totally outclass “predator onslaugh”. Beware, pet’s already hit really hard do not underestimate them.

Wilderness survival : same here seem like you clearly underestimate pets damage. As a beastmaster when I see a 10% increase damage for my pet on adept I just smirk and say “yes please, yes! I will wreck everything yes…”

Nature magic : Just… No. Especially “Force of Nature” totally broken idea.

Beastmastery : adept come with more pet’s damage… Master, I had expect that you will come to a solution to the totally useless stability training but no (very disapointing). Grandmaster… more damage to pet and more healing in a world where the developpers don’t want a proeminent healing power… Just no.

From the point of view of a long date beastmasters all your suggestions are insane. Just understand that the cat would be able to do some 18k-ish crit while they already can top around 10k (you know, before pet nerf, beastmasters were wreaking everything while roaming?). From the point of view of a dungeoneer, their are way to much trait that say : “Use bow man use bow” while everyone need to be melee for maximum support/damage.
Other thing, I didn’t saw anything on “expertise training” one of the most horrendous trait for pets. there is absolutely no base condi damage on pet’s and this thing grant 350 condi damage to them. What the point? Even with this it’s impossible to create a condi pet.

Just because traps have to do with wilderness doesn’t justify moving them there.
The traits themselves are good, but when looking at the whole, it’s just not balanced.

Most of them are too much, or too little.

As a side note, the whole post is just biased. “Preparation”? What is that good for? Fury + Swiftness for a bow…. It doesn’t contribute for anything else.

Okay okay… I’ll make a quick crude build for you:
Marksmanship:
(Adept) Precise Shots – Inflict 3 seconds of vulnerability when you hit a foe. (Duration kept low for non-crit reliant, no-cooldown proc).
(And the other minors)

Any Adept Major

Quick Attack (New) – Gaining Swiftness applies Inertia to you, halving the cast time of your next attack.

Pin Cushion (New) – Your projectiles stick in the foe for 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Each stack inflicts minor damage-over-time that scales on your Power.

Skirmishing:
(First 2 minors)

Sharpened Edges (Unchanged)

Vulnerability Master (New) – Vulnerability inflicted by you and your pet last 1 second longer

Nature magic:
(First 2 minors)

Nature’s Protection (Unchanged)

Vine Wrap (New) – Activating a utility skill immobilizes the next foe you hit for 1 second.

Gear for hybrid rabid/knight’s and condition duration (mainly for vulnerability).

Then just kill everyone with axe or bow

A few notes.

Numbers are all rough estimates.
I’m not paid to balance. Hell, I’m not even paid. All I did was make rough estimates to create some semblance of reasonable, but not necessarily ideal balance, and I think I did a relatively good job of that.

I had a goal of creating more viable builds for all weapon sets.
And I did. While “Range freak” may be an initial impression, going off of the Marksmanship line, this is largely because the Marksmanship line is literal in its theme. I actually created MORE utilities that are dedicated to (such as Skirmisher’s Mobility, Momentum, and Hunting Knife) melee or that are useful for all weapons (such as Quick Attack, Swap Master, and others).

It is entirely possible that I would still need to shift or create new traits in the Marksmanship line for melee builds, but it is, if anything, better for melee weapons now than it was before. And I may go back and tweak it again, because Greatsword is my favorite weapon, and I’d like to see more out of it.

The idea of Force of Nature being overpowered is actually rather laughable.
Minor damage that doesn’t affect the original target? The only time this skill even ramps up is when multiple foes are clumped together in melee range. This is 95% useless in sPvP/tPvP (where such balance is truly relevant), mediocre in WvW, and only truly shines in PvE content (especially stacked dungeons). It is a little ironic to accuse me of not furthering the Ranger’s viability in dungeons when one of the traits that you criticized does PRECISELY that.

I made a point of keeping a lot of the unique existing traits.
Yes, even if they are underpowered (like Malicious Training or Stability Training). Most of these may find love in certain situational builds and would be fixed by a numbers tweak or merger with another trait. I certainly did not want to lose the potential build variety that they may contribute to. I merely lacked the experience with these mediocre traits to really bring out significant changes to them.

On Beastmastery

Most of the new traits would probably need numbers tweaks, but some of the changes (or ones similar to them) are flat out necessary. The Minor changes particularly stand out as being well… needed.

FYI straight up moving traps to WS would ruin pretty much every trap build there is.

Why? Because you could not longer take EB for cleansing, you still couldnt use SotF because of too few utility slots to make it work well enough, condition reductions food / runes would still be impracticle because you need the +duration food and either traveller or trapper runes… so basicly, as far as condition removal goes.. such a change would completely screw over every trapper.

Cufufalating.8479:

FYI straight up moving traps to WS would ruin pretty much every trap build there is.

Why? Because you could not longer take EB for cleansing, you still couldnt use SotF because of too few utility slots to make it work well enough, condition reductions food / runes would still be impracticle because you need the +duration food and either traveller or trapper runes… so basicly, as far as condition removal goes.. such a change would completely screw over every trapper.

Perhaps then it would be best to re-swap the trap and wilderness survival traits to their current positions. With that, the only change would be a large improvement to Survival Utility traits, and I’d like to think that this would be of great benefit to the Ranger.

what about as a grandmaster that pet gain permanant stability and immunity to cripple? Name of the talent would be ‘’On all four’’ Periodic stability is just stupidly weak for a grandmaster it should be permanant or grant the ranger the bonus in question but i have an even better idea.

How about when using a pet skill all pet attack leech life and grants it to you for x seconds (as in very high life leech the grand return of the heal as one elite from guild wars one?)