Q:
With the recent patch updates during the major content update, I was wondering if the other underling issues that Ranger has were going to be addressed- sadly my questions were answered with a bit of harsh repose.
TL;DR: Check the bottom of the post.
-Not only did the glaring Grandmaster Traits like Moment of Clarity, Natural Healing, and Empathic Bond get touched properly or were properly synergetic with the current builds for all the Ranger game modes but the development team also left us with a lot of glaring questions. What would be interesting from the balance team is to see these traits be improved upon, perhaps making Natural Healing ignore Poison, giving Moment of Clarity more skirmishing uses, and making Empathic Bond not kill my loyal companion?
-Next another issue that confused me was the lack of recent pet variety/current changes to existing pet skills. One of the strongest assets that the Ranger has is the ability to have a diverse kitten nal of pets to choose from; this task being impossible to muster when all of your pets fit a simple cookie cutter order and the only one that can truly be unique is a spicy hot-red drake whom casts an array of interesting skills. All I’d like to see is that somewhere within the next year the development team in charge of things like this creating more diverse pets, maybe a raptor whom stuns and cripples enemies, a Wurm that throws conditions at the enemy, or perhaps a majestic swan to come in and give you a small three-second invulnerability phase.
-Now to the more important issue- the most daunting thing I and many other players have experienced is the hampered amount of hatred the pets receive for being ‘controllable AI’ with ‘powerful skill-sets’. Now these claims might seem far-fetched but in all honesty…I, as well as many others, run into those comments on almost a weekly basis- yet other variants of AI aren’t hindered like ours in SPvP or WvW. A pet getting a 1/3 if not 1/2 of it’s health reduced while being in these game-modes is absolutely terrible- but from what I remember I don’t recall a lot of other classes having to deal with health issues from their pets. If ArenaNet were to find a way to balance out the other summon-able creatures for classes in the game for these structured game-modes then there shouldn’t be any complaints, at least entertain the thought please?
-Lastly the biggest issue I’ve run into is the weapon variety, yes I understand that Axes and Longbows got an amazing change for the better but…some of it was unneeded- if not annoying. Case in point Rapid Fire, it ‘bugs’ me to no avail to have to see my Norn Ranger break his arm when using that skill, also far to many build utilize that weapon skill and nothing else- a proper balance to this skill would be great. Perhaps reducing the damage if an enemy gets closer during the channel to entice players to watch their fire and keep a proper control of their shots. Or maybe even reduce the range on some of the skills to 1,000 or perhaps 800 range while giving the skills a bit more damage on the side. Ideally I’d like to see other weapon sets get a nice bit of attention as well, mainly my dear off-hand weapons, it’d be interesting to see some diversity being thrown into the mix with new effects and attacks. Perhaps buffing off-hand dagger to do more base damage and give some variant of swiftness when you hit an enemy with Crippling Talon. Or maybe you folks could tease around with the idea of Shortbow gaining more ‘raw’ power while also giving some of the 3-5 skills a bit of proper care, I’d love to be able to use my Shortbow as effectively as my Power Thief or my off-hand Dagger be as useful on my Elementalist.
TL;DR:
In short all I’m asking is this…
#1. For a bit more diversity and re-balancing of the current state of Ranger Grandmaster, Major, and Minor traits- give them more life and functionality!
#2. The ability for more build diversity/revamping of the current Ranger Pets; it’d be far more interesting to see more power-oriented predators, protective beasts, and tactical hunters.
#3. A proper AI balance in terms of stat placement, skill set choices, or the down-scale of other AI to properly have it on a fair playing field. Seriously Spirit Guardian and Minion Master Necro, calm down.
#4. More Weapon Revamps and Variety! Seriously, this’ll help create new coordinated Ranger builds for all types of game-modes as well as bringing other weapons back from the graveyard of “Never-Being-Touched-Ever Land”.
In conclusion, this post isn’t meant to rag on anyone at ANet, nor diminish any other classes in this beautifully tailored game that you folks have built for us players. This is a simple post, from a simple loyal player, about a not-so-simple game he cares about deeply.
-Kaino of Gates of Madness.
P.S. Seriouslyaddmorebearsformetocollect.
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