Guild Wars 2

Title. Discuss what bothers you most about the ranger class and what you would like changed.

Personally I love my ranger and the insane amount of build variety we can implement and thus don’t have any major complaints, other than how some of our traits need reworking, or perhaps a different system for the way pets are managed and not broken down into categories.

I would get rid of the pet.

That being said, I play a BM bunker build that is super effective. The problem, is that the AI just isn’t good enough for my liking. Feels clunky.

I do agree that it can be clunky and less responsive then I’d like it to be, I chose the class because it had a pet. Instant cast times on all F2 abilities would be something I really would like to see.

There is nothing worse then trying to get off your pet skill and the player dodges, the pet misses etc.

A 25% move speed buff that comes with one of the major trait lines would be nice freeing up a utility slot, but thats just coming from my opinion that was from another mmo I used to play.

Spirits need to be buffed, running all spirits can feel useless sometimes when they die in 2 hits.

I’ve never really understood spirit builds outside of using the elite. They just seem so, meh.

That’s why they need improving, i really want to use them but i feel like I’m wasting 3 skill slots.

ArenaNet always said that they want you to play how you want to play and all “builds” are viable, yet the ranger spirits feel like a waste, in fact the only ranger skills i feel have any use are the traps.

I would have 20% or so of my pet’s damage transfered to me, I think the stupid kitten runs around with way too much of my damage potential the sum is pretty darn good when both of you are able to tee off on a target but anyone of us know precisely how crappy weak you get the second your pet is not with you whether he’s dead or just chasing an unreachable target or whatever reason there may be.

Increase Longbow fire speed.

Pets take 30% less damage from NPC AoE, and 15% less damage from player AoE.

OR

Pet base movement speed increased by 20%.

Furajir.3815:

the insane amount of build variety we can implement

We have 2 viable builds (BM and trapper) and a dps build that only really works in wvw (and pve, but who plays gw2 for the pve). Not exactly my definition of build variety unless you don’t care about losing.

Spirits need a rework more than anything else I can think of in this game. They are so overly useless and weak, even when traited. The devs don’t seem to get that by taking spirits, the ranger throws all survivability out of the window for near worthless and random buffs that can be provided more consistently and directly by other professions. The only 3 spirits worth a kitten are frost (no icd is the only reason and even then you average a 7% dps increase which I don’t really think is worth it considering that is all it does), nature (group revive, aoe heal/regen are great. The cooldown and health capacity are terrible though), and sun (only really useful on condi builds, otherwise it is a weak inconsistent burn). Personally think they should be an embodiment of the ranger (think effects around the character like elementalist has), invulnerable, offer more defense/utility for the ranger (activating the active on stone spirit grants 5s of stability?), and provide a buff that guarantees an effect on hit every 10s instead of buffing players with a chance to proc and going on cd for 10s after a proc.

Will my idea ever be considered? Maybe. Could it be implemented? Some tweaking to ensure balance may be required, but I don’t really see it as very op to make these spirits unkillable and more useful since they are on a 60s cd. Will the every be implemented? Ha. Extremely doubtful. Making radical changes to game mechanics 8 months after release doesn’t seem very likely and this is something that requires a radical change to be even remotely useful. Spirits simply lack so much that I would honestly prefer a glass cannon ranger beside me than a spirit ranger because at least the glass cannon fellow can do something.

One thing?

Since no one sees the real problem with pets….
Improve the pet’s pathfinding so that it updates more frequently and does not cause jaggy paths for the pet, this eliminates, amongst many other, the problem with running in circles to avoid pets. This also includes pathfinding around red circles.

Removing the pet will make rangers a warrior class with less armor
Increasing pet’s speed is just a workaround solution.
Reducing AoE damage done is the same… As a plus, it will make some content very easy with a group of rangers.

Make GS skill 2 Maul a Blast Finisher.

If I could change one thing it’d be to give pets better pathing and movement speed so that they achieve higher uptime on moving targets. Even if Anet nerfed pet damage in compensation for the higher number of attacks successfully landed, I’d be happy. It just really annoys me that an enemy can significantly reduce my total DPS by strafing around randomly, not even using defensive mobility skills.

I can live with all the crummy traits and utility skills we have (it’s not like other classes don’t have those too) but the pet functionality just drives me nuts.

Either that or just give me a trait or a utility skill I can use that removes the pet from play but grants me a significant boost to my damage. The problem with this, of course, is that more than half the rangers in the game would probably never use a pet again, thus kind of destroying what is intended to be the class’ signature mechanic.

greatsword 2 and warhorn 4 as blast finishers

Chokolata.1870:

greatsword 2 and warhorn 4 as blast finishers

Bro, do you even read?

“One thing”

I wouldn’t know what to choose first. Fix traits? Fix pet targeting? Fix pet survivability against AoE? Fix F2 pet skill responsiveness? Make F2 pet skills have a larger impact? Increase attack rate of longbow and greatsword? Improve the overall burst capability of the Ranger? Make new shout skills that actually affect allies? Make spirits invulnerable? Improve active abilities of spirits? Improve active abilities of signets? Give all pets the ability to revive allies, without having to use a utility slot? The list is long..

I’ll sacrifice all my pets to whatever god will take them.

Why do some people hate their pets so much? I love all of my pets!

Master’s Bond stacks on me not the pet, lose stacks if pet dies not me.

zTales.4392:

Why do some people hate their pets so much? I love all of my pets!

Because 90% of the time you fail at something is because of a pet you cannot control beyond “try hit that” and “don’t hit that” either dies or can’t hit it’s target and with it goes anywhere from 30-60% of your damage, it’s not so much hating the pet as hating being forced to fighting with your pants down so often.

I do like having pets in games but if I was given the choice of keeping my and my pets total damage capability purely put into me and straight up have pets and all their skills removed I would take it in a second, they are very useful sometimes but not a day goes by that my pet doesn’t screw me over in some way.

If all the damage was transferred from the pet to the players would people do better? Probably yes, your average joe doesn’t utilize the pets well enough. Overall the class would be weaker.

That skills and pets are good without traits.

Spirits are bad, until you trait them, then they’re just kinda bad (costs 30 trait points).

Longbow is bad, until you get the 1500 range and piercing arrows and 20% cooldown reduction (costs 50 trait points).

Pets are bad and die easily to AoE and boss battles, until you trait into beastmastery. (costs 30 trait points)

Active effects of some signets are bad, until you trait for them (costs 30 trait points)

We have a lot of bad skills and pets, but to make them useful requires a heavy investment in traits. Shouts are bad with or without traits.

only option at the moment is a complete redesign. no numberchanges will be able to make playing a ranger enjoyable.

although i always keep trying to have fun with it.

I love my ranger as well, I tried to make alts but always came back to my ranger in the end. Anyway, if I could change one thing about rangers, I’d want my pet to be able to hit moving targets. Some have said a movement speed increase for the pets, while that’d help, because they stop moving to attack anyway it becomes useless. However, if they had a higher chance to hit the target that’s moving, that’d be great!

I love my beastmaster build and wouldn’t want to play anything else at the moment as it fits my current playstyle, but my pet not being able to land hits on targets that move even slightly is a big decrease in damage output. That’s my one thing!

Spirit.9158:

Anyway, if I could change one thing about rangers, I’d want my pet to be able to hit moving targets. Some have said a movement speed increase for the pets, while that’d help, because they stop moving to attack anyway it becomes useless.

facepalm

D’oh. I can’t believe that I said I’d want a +20% pet movement speed increase, but I didn’t even think about this. xD

Puandro.3245:

If all the damage was transferred from the pet to the players would people do better? Probably yes, your average joe doesn’t utilize the pets well enough. Overall the class would be weaker.

Best case scenario I think would be pets being able to cast their no1 skill while moving and only stop on bigger better cd abilities and at the same time transfer some of their damage to the ranger so they would still be worth too much too lose in pure damage but at the same time do a little less due to higher uptime on other players for example, in my opinion anyway cause some of the more mobile classes don’t really get hit at all by the pet unless they literally stop moving.

Manekk.6981:

Puandro.3245:

If all the damage was transferred from the pet to the players would people do better? Probably yes, your average joe doesn’t utilize the pets well enough. Overall the class would be weaker.

Best case scenario I think would be pets being able to cast their no1 skill while moving and only stop on bigger better cd abilities and at the same time transfer some of their damage to the ranger so they would still be worth too much too lose in pure damage but at the same time do a little less due to higher uptime on other players for example, in my opinion anyway cause some of the more mobile classes don’t really get hit at all by the pet unless they literally stop moving.

I wish pets would attack as they move but at the same time their damage would have to be toned down.

Immediate pet skill activations and the ability to micromanage each of your pet’s abilities (when they do each of their skills and not autoattack).

1. get rid of stupid 60s cooldown on pet death
2. pet gets 2s aegis on dodge roll

For me it’s pet’s, if physically possible, should always attack target’s regardless of terrain. There is nothing more annoying than watching a flying pet sit beside me instead of swooping in. There is no logic to these limitations. This was nerfed because of whine in WvW and needs to be reverted back. Especially when Engi’s can drop crates on walls and Mesmers can get illusions everywhere….

Remove pet death penalty during certain boss fights and a lot of the QQ goes away. Also, nerf reflection in PvE (this is related to the first part because why should mesmers be able to reflect lupicus 100k+? Because that’s not OP /s; Lupicus doesn’t even stand in the bubble. He stands outside the feedback bubble!). That felt good, normally I’m not a cowardly whiner but this time I chose to be because I feel like they’re two reasonable issues.

Lower the CD on Lightning Reflexes or make it so it cures Immobilize.

Oh wait I want to change my wish, can I be invisible to thieves? that would make me more happy than anything.

Make Longbow visible useful on overall going without stupid struck/slow mod flying bullet/bug/not shot da target when get a new lock(They still shot at old target 1st shot) or somewhat god only know…

Change evasive purity: All boons gained through traits are shared with nearby allies.

Hello group utility, nice to finally meet you.

One thing I wish for – a perma stow option for pets.

One thing we may actually get; Give the pets the same AI scripting as the bandits in queensdale. They dodge AoE on their own, and keep weapon appropriate range.

Incorporate Eagle Eye’s bonus to range and damage into the weapons themselves without the trait.

i would trade out being able to use a greatsword which has no real feeling of ranger’ness for me, with a the abiltiy to wield a rifle were rangers/hunters we need a rifle lol.

Possibility to play without your pet and focus on dealing maindamage with your own hands. Actually you are forced to play Beastmastery/Wilderness Survival.

Greatsword is great. I hate rifles.

Game should remember ALL pet names!
I hate to rename them again and again.
Running with pet named juvenile… it’s not in ranger (connection beetwen human and pet) playstyle.

I’d make Pigs F2 work like Thief Steal, and just give us the ability in our F2 Slot

1 thing is not enough! At least 3 things!

You can use all your pet skills yourself, not only F2
You can dodge and move during 1h sword autoattack
When you dodge, so do your spirits and pets <_<

So simple, when you can control pet yourself, you don’t need any UI!

It would be nice to add some new party support abilities
But it will never happen, I know, it’s better to make some new gemstore items instead of some reworking of profession, haha ._.

Better Pet UI. Show numerical health bar, boons, conditions without me having to click on my pet. It will definitely help with micromanaging pets without any real vit/tough buffs to them.

Masters Bond doesn’t make sense with the minor trait.

Change one of them. Make it not disappear on switch. Or change the quickness trait, somehow.

Xsorus.2507:

I’d make Pigs F2 work like Thief Steal, and just give us the ability in our F2 Slot

But then you can’t 7 second aoe fear with your terror necro friends.

Xsorus.2507:

I’d make Pigs F2 work like Thief Steal, and just give us the ability in our F2 Slot

This times infinity.
There’s other things I want (since I’m spirit build and all) but I want this more than all of them.

Dropping the importance of pets unless specced for it, basically making them optional.

Chokolata.1870:

greatsword 2 and warhorn 4 as blast finishers

Greatsword 2 blast finisher would be overpowered.

fishergrip.4082:

Chokolata.1870:

greatsword 2 and warhorn 4 as blast finishers

Greatsword 2 blast finisher would be overpowered.

Mighty Blow
Cluster Bomb
Dragon’s Tooth
Eruption
Thunderclap

Clearly 4,8s is grossly overpowered. I’d like some more blast finishers as well…but Rangers aren’t the only profession lacking in that department, so doesn’t seem unintentional.

Change #3 Lb skill with a low cd Sniping skill that does dmg the lowest the enemy hp is.