Guild Wars 2

Hi, I just want to say that my main is a guardian, but it’s pretty clear that rangers need some love. I had an idea that will probably never be followed through from devs, but you never know…when things get enough support things happen.

Anyway, I thought it would be really cool for rangers to gain a “tracking” ability or trait line, or something of that nature, perhaps called “scent” through beast line. Whatever you want to call it, the basis would be the ability to detect, (dare I say it), HIDDEN ENEMIES. What this would do would basically kill two birds with one awesome stone.

1: It would provide a direct counter to the incredibly erroneous stealth-troll theives.
2: Would give a bit more incentive/purpose for general ranger population (sorry if that’s offensive, but I think you know what I mean).

Clearly, I don’t have all the details ironed out, nor should I have to, but the general idea I think is a strong one. Support this if you think it’s right, and again, I’m no ranger, I’m suggesting this for YOU guys. Not that this is a thief discussion, but my opinion on them is that they really are a balanced class, but stealth having no direct counter is the fundamental problem with the way they are being played.

I think if you take damage it should break stealth. Maybe let stealth give 1s of invulnerability and after 1s you get kicked out of stealth from taking damage. Stealth is by far the cheapest and easiest and most uncounterable skill in the game. But giving the only counter to rangers is not the way to go.

So I don’t really think Rangers need a new mechanic. They just need to revert some of the nerfs they did in beta or re-buff them in other ways. I’m looking at you spirits (health was halved and they received an internal cooldown) and signets (signet of beastmaster was changed from adept to grandmaster).

Rangers have a real problem with their default utility skills being “lackluster” if you don’t throw several traits at it, including some grandmaster traits. This is true for both Spirits and Signets. Signets have very long cooldowns and their active effect only affect the pet. Spirits are immobile by default, die literally in 1 hit, and have a very small range. Actually, spirits aren’t useful at all, even if you get all traits that could affect them (and there are 4 traits in 1 trait line for them, so you can only really get 3).

I do feel rangers are missing a way to use camouflage on demand. Currently it’s only available if you get a master trait and you get hit by a control skill and you don’t move. This trait should be changed to stealth so you can move and camouflage should be a utility skill. There really needs to be a general counter to stealth tho.