Guild Wars 2

This thread is intended as a bunch of realistic suggestions and tweaks to ranger to solve a number of issues:

-Power based builds being weak for Pvp/Roaming
-Reliance upon 30 in Wilderness Survival for Empathic Bond in a PvP setting
-Pet clones and worthless pets
-Slow pet F2s
-Bad power scaling on a number of weapons
-More emphasis traditional Ranger boons and conditions such as regeneration, swiftness, vulnerability, cripple and chill
-Makes pets better for team support with improved F2 abilities and better beastmastery traits

Marksmanship
IV New Trait : Hunter’s Focus – Critical hits with longbow skills now have a 33% chance to grant might for 10 seconds
V Predator’s Instinct – Added 10 stacks of vulnerability for 8 seconds
VI Beastmaster’s Bond – Reduced ICD to 30 seconds from 60
IX Beastmaster’s Might/Signet Mastery – Combined into one trait (3 stacks of might & 20% reduced signet cooldown)
XII Remorseless – Regain opening strike whenever you kill a foe or gain stealth. Opening Strikes now remove a boon

Skirmishing
V Companion’s Might – Increased Might duration from 5 seconds to 7
IX Honed Axes – Axes do 10% more damage. Critical hits with axes have a 33% chance to cripple for 2 seconds.
XI Trap Potency – Now moved to Wilderness Survival XI, Replaced with: suggestions for new GM traits

Wilderness Survival
II Healer’s Celerity – Replaced with new Empathic Bond
V Expertise Training – Increased condition damage bonus to 500
VI Wilderness Knowledge: Now also affects Marksmanship III Keen Edge ICD
XI Empathic Bond: Moved to Wilderness Survival II – Pets now remove 1 condition every 10 seconds from you, and also from up to 5 allies in a 360 radius Note remove, not take. Empathic Bond replaced by Trap Potency

Nature Magic
II Concentration Training: This trait is broken and needs to be fixed, it currently does nothing for a lot of pets
VIII Evasive Purity: Reduced ICD to 5 seconds
IX Greatsword Training: Increased damage to 10% bonus
Grandmaster Minor: Bountiful Hunter – Now increased damage by 2% per boon instead of 5% if you have a boon

Beastmastery
I Speed Training: Reduces cooldown on Pet Skills by 20% (from 10%)
III Shout Master: Shouts now also remove 1 condition from all allies within a 600 radius
IV Compassion Training: Pet healing attributes are increased by 350. Activating a moa pet now grants 7 seconds of regeneration to all nearby allies
VIII Stability Training – Ursine, Porcine and Armor Fish pets now grant 3 seconds of stability to nearby allies when activated, 600 radius
IX Intimidation Training – Now applies an addition 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds
X Vigorous Training – Added 5 seconds of Swiftness in addition to Vigor
XI Zephyr’s Speed – In addition to quickness, now removed chilled/crippled/immobilize when swapping pets.

Weapon Skills
Axes
#1: Ricochet – Increased base damage by 25% (still decently below the power of thief shortbow auto)
#5: Whirling Defense: Unrooted, Now lasts for 4 seconds with 8 attacks instead of 5/12

Greatsword

1. Evade removed from chain, replaced with 3 stacks of vulnerability, damage increased by 20% on each attack
2. Maul – vulnerability removed, bleeds returned to maul
3. Swoop – Now evades all attacks for the duration

Longbow

1. Barrage – Cooldown reduced to 25 seconds from 30

Dagger

1. Stalker’s Strike – Evade reduced to 1/2 seconds from 1 1/4 seconds. Added two stacks of Torment for 3 seconds. Reduced poison from 10 seconds to 6 seconds

Utility Skills
Shouts
“Protect me!” – Your pet now takes half the damage you would take for 6 seconds (reduced from 6), CD reduced to 40 seconds from 60
“Sic ’Em” – Reduced recharge to 35 seconds.
“Guard” – suggestions wanted
“Search and Rescue” – suggestions wanted
Spirits
Stone Spirit – Reduced base protection duration to 2 seconds (from 3 seconds)
Frost Spirit – Bonus damage increased to 20%
Nature Spirit – Active will now only remove 2 conditions on nearby allies (compared to 5)

Healing Skills
Heal as One: Is now a shout, Cooldown increased to 25 seconds, now removes Poison, Bleeding and Burning
Water Spirit: The passive proc now also removes one condition

Pet Changes
Dogs: Design philosophy – Strong skirmishers whose howls can have a dramatic effect on both team fights as well as solo play
Alpine Wolf – Reduced F2 (Chilling Howl) Cooldown to 25 seconds from 30, more in line with Krytan Drakehound
Fern Hound – F2 (Regenerate) base heal increased to 1500 from 1000
Hyena – Power scaled to that of a normal pet, F2 (Howl of the Pack) now applies weakness to foes within range for 5 seconds, 25 second cooldown

Birds: Design philosophy – Strong solo fighters with damage mitigation and soft CC used to shut down single targets
White Raven –
Hawk -
Eagle -
Owl – F2 (Chilling Slash) increased chill duration to 4 seconds from 3

Cats: Intense single target pressure with powerful attacks and the ability to stick on the target with gap closers
Lynx – F2 (Rending Pounce) cast time decreased to 1/2 second. CD decreased to 25 seconds
Snow Leopard – F2 (Chilling Pounce) cast time decreased to 1/2 second. CD maintained at 30 seconds
Jungle Stalker – F2 (Mighty Roar) cast time decreased to 2 seconds from 3

Drakes: Design philosophy – Offensive skirmishers with devastating activated attacks
Reef Drake – F2 (Sonic Shriek) functionality changed: Emit waves of discordant sonic energy to confuse foes. (Frontal wave pattern similar to Guardian Staff auto)
Ice Drake – F2 (Frost Breath) funtionality changed: Breath a wave of frost, damaging and chilling foes. (Frontal wave pattern similar to Guardian Staff auto) CD increased to 30 seconds
Salamander Drake – F2 (Fire Breath) functionality changed: Breath a wave of fire which burns foes. (Frontal wave pattern similar to Guardian Staff auto)

Bears: Design philosophy – Tanky group fights with good downed body cleave or group support

All bear attacks now cleave

Arctodus: F2 (Rending Maul) functionality and name changed: “Fury of the North”: Unleash a fury of six brutal cleaving strikes each chilling your foe for 1 second. Cast time 3/4 second, duration 2 seconds. This attack should deal between 3-6k damage depending on beastmastery traits/opponent defense ratings.
Polar Bear: F2 (Icy Roar) cooldown reduced to 25 seconds from 45
Black Bear: F2 (Enfeebling Roar) functionality and name changed: “Fury of the Grove”: Unleash a fury of six brutal cleaving strikes which weaken and cripple foes for 2 seconds. Cast time 3/4 second, duration 2 seconds. This attack should deal between 3-6k damage depending on beastmastery traits/opponent defense ratings.
Murellow: F2 (Poison cloud) functionality and named changed: “Noxious Cloud”: Added 2 seconds of weakness in addition to 2 seconds of poison, 7 pulses.
Brown Bear: F2 (Shake It Off) cooldown reduced to 20 seconds

Devourers: Design Philosophy – Fast ranged attacks with a focus on conditions
Whiptail Devourer: Increased auto attack speed by 25% (from 1 second to 3/4 second), F2 (Poison Barbs) cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 15, cast time reduced to 1 second from 2 1/2
Carrion Devourer: Increased autoattack speed by 25%
Lashtail Devourer: Increased autoattack speed by 25%, F2 (Rending Barbs) number of barbs increased from 7 to 9, cooldown reduced to 25 seconds

Spiders: Design Philosophy – Accurate single target duelists with the ability to hamper enemies through timely venom use

Porcine Family
Currently every pig is a clone of the same design ideas needed

Moas
Are currently underrated in my opinion, possible cooldown adjustments, attack functionality changes are needed.

Signets
1. Reduced signet cool down on all signets, except maybe signet of the hunt.
2. Combine sSignet traits to apply to player and reduce CD, or just have them affect the player and create a new grandmaster trait.
3. Remove reliance of your pet being alive (OR kittenING IN RANGE) for the Signet of Renewal active effect.

Misc. Traits

1. Shared Anguish reduced CD… 90secs?! C’mon man. Compare that to warriors last stand trait is terrible. On a 60(?) sec CD but it gives like 6 sec of stab. Ugh.
2. Bark Skin needs to not share a spot with emphatic bond.
3. Emphatic bond kills your pet, destroying Beastmaster builds.
4. Masters Bond sucks, clearing the stacks each time you swap pets, which is a class mechanic that you have to utilize to kill just ONE other decent player. So the most you will have is 5 stacks for like… The beginning of the fight.
5. Several others, but I got frustrated just typing this, realizing none of these things will change.

Fomby.4295:

Signets
1. Reduced signet cool down on all signets, except maybe signet of the hunt.
2. Combine sSignet traits to apply to player and reduce CD, or just have them affect the player and create a new grandmaster trait.
3. Remove reliance of your pet being alive (OR kittenING IN RANGE) for the Signet of Renewal active effect.

Misc. Traits

1. Shared Anguish reduced CD… 90secs?! C’mon man. Compare that to warriors last stand trait is terrible. On a 60(?) sec CD but it gives like 6 sec of stab. Ugh.
2. Bark Skin needs to not share a spot with emphatic bond.
3. Emphatic bond kills your pet, destroying Beastmaster builds.
4. Masters Bond sucks, clearing the stacks each time you swap pets, which is a class mechanic that you have to utilize to kill just ONE other decent player. So the most you will have is 5 stacks for like… The beginning of the fight.
5. Several others, but I got frustrated just typing this, realizing none of these things will change.

I think signet cooldowns are fine in general, but its annoying that you need a grandmaster trait to use them.

Warrior’s last stand is on a 90 second ICD, but it also grants 8 seconds of stability and swiftness with no boon duration. I would say reducing the ICD on Shared Anguish might be good, maybe to 75 or 60 seconds, since it does disable your pet

Master’s Bond is an interesting trait, but I would have to agree that it sucks. I think it should only be on pet death, and stack separately on each pet you have out when you get a kill.

Looking at high level team compositions I’m now seeing most spirit rangers ditch Stone Spirit for Lightning Spirit, so maybe the protection nerf is unnecessary

Also, could a mod move this thread to the Profession Balance Forum?

I see what you’re trying to accomplish, and while I don’t disagree with the idea on most of the changes you’re proposing, I also am having issues with some of them, but mostly because of the “it wouldn’t really be how I would do it, or what I would prefer.”

Nothing too serious though. For the traits:
Remorseless: Vulnerability is already very maintainable, so I personally think that, while Remorseless is a good place to make changes, more vulnerability doesn’t really seem like the most beneficial change. I think that I would prefer to see Remorseless cause Opening Strikes to either remove a boon from an enemy, or to remove a condition from you (my preference is for boon removal because of how immensely better power builds have the potential to be with that simple change, and how easily it would be to add more condition removal elsewhere).

Trap Potency: because Trapper’s Expertise remains in the Skirmishing line, I don’t think that further spreading the traits out between different lines, even with the Empathic Bond change, would be the most beneficial change that could be made. It would probably be fine as far as balance goes, however.

Personally though, I think that with Skirmishing, Traps can be left in the line, though I would prefer to see Spike Trap turned into a pulse (pulses after initial hit only pulse a lower duration cripple and single bleed stack), Frost Trap have a 25 second cooldown and have damage per pulse, and then see the base damage of the traps increase so that on crit they hit around 300-400 per pulse each (assuming of course 30 in skirmishing only, with no power investment). Then, merge/remove traits from Skirmishing and introduce more “on interrupt” traits that have more synergy with Moment of Clarity.

Of course, there is no right or wrong, and my preconceived vision of what I’d like to see doesn’t make your suggestions any worse or less good, they’re just different, and I’m only trying to introduce perspective so that you can understand my view to see where I’m coming from.

For Beastmastery, I would suggest just removing the pet type limitation on traits entirely, so that while there are optimal and suboptimal choices, pet selection doesn’t entirely force you into a particular trait and you could still benefit from the other options.

Really, nothing to big if you ask me, as far as traits go.

For the weapons, I only have minor adjustments, like, keeping your greatsword changes, but giving Maul a decent duration cripple, and adding the vulnerability lost from Maul to swoop, on top of your suggestion for swoop. That way, there is a nice soft CC option that doesn’t perma cripple, so that Mainhand Sword remains unique, but that allows the Greatsword more of a close range sustain role that punishes players that get hit by Maul with more than just a big damage hit.

Also, instead of torment on Dagger 4, I’d prefer to see it on Sword 3, to keep with the whole “punish movement and soft CC” lockdown theme.

I don’t really have anything else to offer. Just some friendly insight on places that I think we differ, and I don’t think that I truly disagree with any of the suggested changes, but rather, already have bias based on what my preferences are.

Post this in the Ranger CDI ¬¬.

jcbroe.4329:

I see what you’re trying to accomplish, and while I don’t disagree with the idea on most of the changes you’re proposing, I also am having issues with some of them, but mostly because of the “it wouldn’t really be how I would do it, or what I would prefer.”

Nothing too serious though. For the traits:
Remorseless: Vulnerability is already very maintainable, so I personally think that, while Remorseless is a good place to make changes, more vulnerability doesn’t really seem like the most beneficial change. I think that I would prefer to see Remorseless cause Opening Strikes to either remove a boon from an enemy, or to remove a condition from you (my preference is for boon removal because of how immensely better power builds have the potential to be with that simple change, and how easily it would be to add more condition removal elsewhere).

Trap Potency: because Trapper’s Expertise remains in the Skirmishing line, I don’t think that further spreading the traits out between different lines, even with the Empathic Bond change, would be the most beneficial change that could be made. It would probably be fine as far as balance goes, however.

Personally though, I think that with Skirmishing, Traps can be left in the line, though I would prefer to see Spike Trap turned into a pulse (pulses after initial hit only pulse a lower duration cripple and single bleed stack), Frost Trap have a 25 second cooldown and have damage per pulse, and then see the base damage of the traps increase so that on crit they hit around 300-400 per pulse each (assuming of course 30 in skirmishing only, with no power investment). Then, merge/remove traits from Skirmishing and introduce more “on interrupt” traits that have more synergy with Moment of Clarity.

Of course, there is no right or wrong, and my preconceived vision of what I’d like to see doesn’t make your suggestions any worse or less good, they’re just different, and I’m only trying to introduce perspective so that you can understand my view to see where I’m coming from.

For Beastmastery, I would suggest just removing the pet type limitation on traits entirely, so that while there are optimal and suboptimal choices, pet selection doesn’t entirely force you into a particular trait and you could still benefit from the other options.

Really, nothing to big if you ask me, as far as traits go.

For the weapons, I only have minor adjustments, like, keeping your greatsword changes, but giving Maul a decent duration cripple, and adding the vulnerability lost from Maul to swoop, on top of your suggestion for swoop. That way, there is a nice soft CC option that doesn’t perma cripple, so that Mainhand Sword remains unique, but that allows the Greatsword more of a close range sustain role that punishes players that get hit by Maul with more than just a big damage hit.

Also, instead of torment on Dagger 4, I’d prefer to see it on Sword 3, to keep with the whole “punish movement and soft CC” lockdown theme.

I don’t really have anything else to offer. Just some friendly insight on places that I think we differ, and I don’t think that I truly disagree with any of the suggested changes, but rather, already have bias based on what my preferences are.

I like the boon removal idea! Thanks for the feedback

The idea behind the trap change was so that you now only have to put 20 into Skirmishing since crit and precision don’t synergize with traps that well.

No problem!

Yeah, the Trap Potency idea isn’t even a bad switch, it’s just hard to speculate how build would change without sitting in front of a build editor and seeing possible build combinations.

Like, with your changes, a trap build would become x/20/30/x/x with Trapper’s Expertise, Trap Potency, and Empathic Bond, and either Offhand Training or Shared Anguish, which is a new tough decision that I didn’t previously have to make. That leaves me with 20 points to spend, and I can honestly say I have no idea what I would spend them on. Because of the range on traps,

I’d be tempted to go 30 points into Skirmishing anyways to pick up Honed Axes for that much more CC lockdown to keep people I’m attacking in traps while doing more consistent damage combined with a Rabid Amulet, and then the last 10 in Either Marksmanship or Nature Magic I guess.

But that’s just off the top of my head theorycrafting. I would probably end up testing lots of different variations before I could even begin to give a solid opinion.

jcbroe.4329:

No problem!

Yeah, the Trap Potency idea isn’t even a bad switch, it’s just hard to speculate how build would change without sitting in front of a build editor and seeing possible build combinations.

Like, with your changes, a trap build would become x/20/30/x/x with Trapper’s Expertise, Trap Potency, and Empathic Bond, and either Offhand Training or Shared Anguish, which is a new tough decision that I didn’t previously have to make. That leaves me with 20 points to spend, and I can honestly say I have no idea what I would spend them on. Because of the range on traps,

I’d be tempted to go 30 points into Skirmishing anyways to pick up Honed Axes for that much more CC lockdown to keep people I’m attacking in traps while doing more consistent damage combined with a Rabid Amulet, and then the last 10 in Either Marksmanship or Nature Magic I guess.

But that’s just off the top of my head theorycrafting. I would probably end up testing lots of different variations before I could even begin to give a solid opinion.

Well for example you could go 20 into marksmanship for piercing arrows and sharpening stone to play traps with more team fight capability or you could put it into beastmastery and run with a shaman’s amulet for tanky trap Beastmaster type spec

infantrydiv.1620:

jcbroe.4329:

No problem!

Yeah, the Trap Potency idea isn’t even a bad switch, it’s just hard to speculate how build would change without sitting in front of a build editor and seeing possible build combinations.

Like, with your changes, a trap build would become x/20/30/x/x with Trapper’s Expertise, Trap Potency, and Empathic Bond, and either Offhand Training or Shared Anguish, which is a new tough decision that I didn’t previously have to make. That leaves me with 20 points to spend, and I can honestly say I have no idea what I would spend them on. Because of the range on traps,

I’d be tempted to go 30 points into Skirmishing anyways to pick up Honed Axes for that much more CC lockdown to keep people I’m attacking in traps while doing more consistent damage combined with a Rabid Amulet, and then the last 10 in Either Marksmanship or Nature Magic I guess.

But that’s just off the top of my head theorycrafting. I would probably end up testing lots of different variations before I could even begin to give a solid opinion.

Well for example you could go 20 into marksmanship for piercing arrows and sharpening stone to play traps with more team fight capability or you could put it into beastmastery and run with a shaman’s amulet for tanky trap Beastmaster type spec

Yeah, but I’m thinking at that point, with the damage increase on the Axe plus Rabid plus potentially Sharpened Edges (bleed on crit) and the chance to cripple, the axe might end up being the overall better team fight utility.

Entirely up to preference though, you would still have to get point blank to create bleed stacks which would probably discourage the axe from team fights a lot, and being forced into Rabid isn’t really the most enjoyable thing in the world.

Ehhhh, just semantics lol. Overall, again, I don’t seen anything wrong with any of your suggestions, so nitpicking over theorycrafting preferences is like, for the sake of doing it at that point hahaha.

You just nerfed our condi cleanse, traps and a lot of other stuff.

Am I supposed to spend 50 (!!!!) points for traps now?

How many hours do you have on your ranger?

solrik.6028:

You just nerfed our condi cleanse, traps and a lot of other stuff.

Am I supposed to spend 50 (!!!!) points for traps now?

How many hours do you have on your ranger?

If you had bothered to read the entirety of my changes you would see that condition removal is added in other places. Rangers already have great condition removal in condition based builds like spirits. My changes add condition removal to shouts as well as adding it to two heals. It also makes Empathic bond easier to get on all builds and more team based.

And as for traps, I suppose you have a point, but I consider traps only worth taking in condition builds, and clearly Wilderness Survival is the strongest condition traitline. Therefore to me it would seem as though I actually had to spend less points in Skirmishing

jcbroe.4329:

infantrydiv.1620:

jcbroe.4329:

No problem!

Yeah, the Trap Potency idea isn’t even a bad switch, it’s just hard to speculate how build would change without sitting in front of a build editor and seeing possible build combinations.

Like, with your changes, a trap build would become x/20/30/x/x with Trapper’s Expertise, Trap Potency, and Empathic Bond, and either Offhand Training or Shared Anguish, which is a new tough decision that I didn’t previously have to make. That leaves me with 20 points to spend, and I can honestly say I have no idea what I would spend them on. Because of the range on traps,

I’d be tempted to go 30 points into Skirmishing anyways to pick up Honed Axes for that much more CC lockdown to keep people I’m attacking in traps while doing more consistent damage combined with a Rabid Amulet, and then the last 10 in Either Marksmanship or Nature Magic I guess.

But that’s just off the top of my head theorycrafting. I would probably end up testing lots of different variations before I could even begin to give a solid opinion.

Well for example you could go 20 into marksmanship for piercing arrows and sharpening stone to play traps with more team fight capability or you could put it into beastmastery and run with a shaman’s amulet for tanky trap Beastmaster type spec

Yeah, but I’m thinking at that point, with the damage increase on the Axe plus Rabid plus potentially Sharpened Edges (bleed on crit) and the chance to cripple, the axe might end up being the overall better team fight utility.

Entirely up to preference though, you would still have to get point blank to create bleed stacks which would probably discourage the axe from team fights a lot, and being forced into Rabid isn’t really the most enjoyable thing in the world.

Ehhhh, just semantics lol. Overall, again, I don’t seen anything wrong with any of your suggestions, so nitpicking over theorycrafting preferences is like, for the sake of doing it at that point hahaha.

Well, I think my axe changes would really help MH Axe become the group fighter it seems it was meant to be. Right now the axe auto feels insanely weak compared to thief shortbow. Axe 2 is a good team fighting ability since it automatically pierces targets, but after you use axe 2 and 3 the auto feels like you have nothing left. Right now the ranger shortbow is used to apply consistent pressure to any target the team calls and it’s really good at that because of the fire rate, the interrupt and the poison.

Personally I find Carrion to almost always be the better option for offensive based condition builds and the current meta would agree with me since almost all rangers are using carrion. I’ve often wondered why this is and I think it’s mainly because the Ranger class relies a lot on attrition and having a big health pool to soak up initial hits is pretty valuable against warriors/thieves. It’s also great against necromancers and engineers… since toughness doesnt matter at all to them

I think it’s a combination of different things that make Carrion much better than Rabid, which like you mentioned, plays off of the shortbow because of the constant pressure, not to mention that the shortbow’s poison is more invaluable than splitblade, although they function mechanically the same.

But right now, a huge driving factor is Carrion+Forge runes, +30% more boon duration from the Nature Magic line from the Spirit setup. We have protection on dodge roll, which essentially makes up for the toughness lost by not picking a different amulet, and really, there is only Sharpened Edges that would benefit from picking up a Rabid Amulet, outside of Companions Might.

The more I though about it though, thinking about the trap build I could make with your changes would end up looking something like 10/25/30/5/0 for:
Marksmanship:
Keen Edge

Skirmishing:
Primal Reflexes
Trapper’s Expertise

Wilderness Survival:
Empathic Bond
Shared Anguish
Trap Potency

Shortbow and either sword/dagger or sword/torch. Picking up 25 in Skirmishing because you would do more damage when flanking, and the shortbow’s main goal is to flank, so that seems like a fairly decent choice with a Carrion/Forge setup, and the last 5 going to Nature Magic because there wasn’t a better place I could find to put it.

It’s between that and a 20/20/30/0/0 build with Piercing Arrows. They both have their uses, and I think that it would actually give some versatility to the Trap Build and let players vary their build more for the role they are meant to be playing on their team.

So the tl;dr version is that after thinking about it some more, I would like your trait changes specific to a Trap build better than what’s currently in place because it ends up opening up more options.

Lots of good suggestions. For remorseless, I would really like to unlock this trait for other weapons than the longbow. Either regain it on pet swap, or give us more options to gain stealth, maybe through the jaguars F2 and/or through guard.

I prefer the first option though, since I think the game would be better overall with less stealth in it.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Lots of good suggestions. For remorseless, I would really like to unlock this trait for other weapons than the longbow. Either regain it on pet swap, or give us more options to gain stealth, maybe through the jaguars F2 and/or through guard.

I prefer the first option though, since I think the game would be better overall with less stealth in it.

Although most probably overpowered, it would be cool if Opening Strike recharged on interrupting your foe as well