Guild Wars 2

While pets are always the number 1 issue with ranger, there are also some synergy problems that do not allow lean builds to prosper.

Take condition builds for instance:
- trap traits conflict with sharpened edges, you have to pick one or the other
- traps offer no utility and thus you are forced into things that is not a condition build essentially
- Wilderness survival has 2 condition traits that should essentially be 1 trait

To be honest, we should probably take a page from the Dragon Hunter trap book on how to make trap offer utility alongside damage, yet still not be overpowered. This would go hand in hand with some trait re alignment in the Skirmishing line:

Skirmishing traits:
- Sharpened edges made an adept minor
- Hidden barbs made into a master minor
- Hunters tactics changed into 10% extra crit chance on bleeding foes instead of when flanking
- Furious grip and tailwind merged into a single trait at the master level
- Striders defense moved to adept tier
- New trait : Preparedness – drop a spike trap when CCed.

Trap changes:
- every trap will offer some utility and/or boon alongside its current effects
- Flame trap pulses 5 seconds of 2 stacks of might
- Spike trap is a Stun break, cast time removed. CD reduced from 45 seconds to 35 seconds
- Frost trap CD reduced to 25 seconds. Pulses 1s of resistance and protection on activation
- Vipers nest pulses 2 seconds of fury.

This, or something similar, would close off traps as a valid utility group. They have been left alone for so long and have significantly fallen off in terms of viability. Dragon hunter traps are amazing in concept, and it really does not matter whether DH are OP or UP.

Chokolata.1870:

While pets are always the number 1 issue with ranger, there are also some synergy problems that do not allow lean builds to prosper.

Take condition builds for instance:

To add to this, another issue with condition builds is the lack of a proper mainhand condition weapon. We have nothing to apply condition pressure with in terms of autoattacks which is a waste considering we have Torch and Dagger offhands applying conditions.

Chokolata.1870:

…

You’re turning Skirmishing into a condition traitline by replacing the Minors this way which makes them completely useless for anyone just looking for a crit or power build. Why would you do that? That is totally uncalled for and boring as hell. Your suggestion would aid condition Trappers at the cost of other potential builds. We certainly don’t need that. And Spike Trap on CC? What the…

I also don’t think forcing Boons onto Traps is the right way to go. Why copy DHs regardless wether it makes sense conceptually or not plus pee on Spirits? Just no!

We need a stunbreaker which can be used in combination with Traps, yes. Sharpening Edges shouldn’t compete with Trappers Expertise, yes. But that’s about it. Traps might not be meta but they are far from being useless or trash. I also feel that people harshly underestimate what Rangers can do with the combo fields they provide.

A trait rework I’d prefer:

Adept

Tail Wind – No change

Primal Reflexes – No change
Trapper’s Expertise – No change
Hunter’s Tactics – Moved here from Grandmaster Minor.

Master

Furious Grip – No change.

Spotter – No change.
Strider’s Defense – No change.
Hidden Barbs – Merged with Sharpened Edges.

Grandmaster

Thrill of the Hunt – Break stun on weapon swap (9s ICD). Revenants got it for Legends so I really don’t see a reason not to give it to Rangers. It could cause some technical issues with Druid Clarity, I guess, but that shouldn’t be our problem to solve. I think it would give a lot of flavour to Skirmishing and makes it easier to run a full Trap set up.

It could also be a Grandmaster Major instead but it would conflict with Quick Draw. Quick Draw on the other hand is way too powerful and build defining to ever become a Minor unless it was nerfed quite signifcantly.

Quick Draw – No change.
Light on Your Feet – No change.
Most Dangerous Game – The concept is interesting but it is too difficult to utilize and partly conflicts evasive gameplay. To be honest, I’d rather see it work like Light on Your Feet but that would be redundant. So why not make it an inversed Pure of Sight? It even could be a combination of an inversed Pure of Sight and an inversed Executioner. E.g.: Deal more damage to enemies based on their distance to you (more damage the closer). The effect is amplified when your health drops below 50%. This way you could at least gain something from the trait through positioning and adjusting your distance even when you’re not half dead. It works for Traps, Sword and to some extent even Shortbow although Light on Your Feet should be the obvious pick here.

psizone.8437:

To add to this, another issue with condition builds is the lack of a proper mainhand condition weapon. We have nothing to apply condition pressure with in terms of autoattacks which is a waste considering we have Torch and Dagger offhands applying conditions.

I could agree to this when we’re talking about a melee condition weapon. However, Axe performs pretty well as condition mainhand especially so when running Traps so you can combo off the fields.

That aside, this probably would be a none-issue if Sharpened Edges and Trapper’s Expertise weren’t on the same tier. I’d start there.

Xaylin.1860:

I could agree to this when we’re talking about a melee condition weapon. However, Axe performs pretty well as condition mainhand especially so when running Traps so you can combo off the fields.

I’d love a mainhand condition weapon.

Axe performs alright as a condition weapon but without conditions on the autoattack it’s a bit lackluster, you end up spending a great deal of time plinking weak power based shots at the enemy until your condition skills are off cooldown. Combo fields are a nice addition but a 20% situational chance shouldn’t be considered a replacement for standard condition application.

Can Jungle Stalker’s might shout be a leap like the tiger instead? Make it a 15 sec cd 8 might stacks 15 sec duration, 1 sec cast time like the tiger’s leap.

Snow Leopard’s chill leap should be 5 seconds chill on a 10 sec cd. 30 seconds for 3 seconds of chill is pathetic.

Same goes for all these weak 30 sec cd pet skills.

Zenith.7301:

Can Jungle Stalker’s might shout be a leap like the tiger instead? Make it a 15 sec cd 8 might stacks 15 sec duration, 1 sec cast time like the tiger’s leap.

Snow Leopard’s chill leap should be 5 seconds chill on a 10 sec cd. 30 seconds for 3 seconds of chill is pathetic.

Same goes for all these weak 30 sec cd pet skills.

On your other thread, I am simply agree with everything you said.

I was talking to Shadelang the other day, and you are right, gear progression right now has ZERO Effect on the ranger’s pets.

So in reality we are still missing 10% of ascended stats for our pets. That is not fair.

There is soooo much lost potential that is simply tied to our pets. No food/oils interaction either.

I am just horribly confused, rangers are not very competitive in the DPS department to begin with so buffing some aspects now would only make us competitive with other classes.

Yes I HATE class comparisons but again, it is very evident that we are missing something here.

StickerHappy.8052:

Yes I HATE class comparisons but again, it is very evident that we are missing something here.

You need class comparison in order to bring balance into a game. The balance can never be perfect but you can always achieve a situation where it feels right.

You cannot compare individual skills. But you have to compare classes (their general contribution) if you don’t want a group of people feeling robbed.
And rangers have been treated extremely unjustified for a very long time. I’m glad we can all agree on that.

It’s not wrong to fight opinions with data.

Tragic Positive.9356:

StickerHappy.8052:

Yes I HATE class comparisons but again, it is very evident that we are missing something here.

You need class comparison in order to bring balance into a game. The balance can never be perfect but you can always achieve a situation where it feels right.

You cannot compare individual skills. But you have to compare classes (their general contribution) if you don’t want a group of people feeling robbed.
And rangers have been treated extremely unjustified for a very long time. I’m glad we can all agree on that.

It’s not wrong to fight opinions with data.

Thank you for that. But yeah, I finally tried to play ranger in PvE, but man, every class out there melt mobs faster even if I am in FULL ZERK. it is really sad.

Now that you posted, any ideas for The GM axe trait? That one also needs to be looked at.

Btw the suggestion is open for anyone not just tragic.

My opinions:
What we need:
1. Some form of unblockable trait/utility because of the stupidly overabundance of projectile denial.
2. A revisit to spirits. Since the nerf they’ve been completely useless. (I would even be happy removing these skills and replacing them with movement utilities such as lightning reflexes.)
3. An update to traps. Dragonhunter traps completely put ranger traps to shame
4. Obvious pet updates that have been posted, and posted, and posted, but ultimately ignored.
—Organized pet windows
—Base pets brought into line with HoT pets.
—30% base movement speed (not traited into beastmastery)
—Melee pets need to hit moving targets accurately, not move-stop-attack-miss-repeat.
—Pet names that last
—Pet F2 reworks (as mentioned above multiple times).
5. Directional arrows on Sword 2 (Monarch Leap and Hornet’s Sting) and Lightning Reflexes
6. Reworks to horrible traits/utilities like Refined Toxins, Poison Master, Sharpened Stones, and Invigorating Bond (as mentioned above and in OP). And especially Predator’s Instinct (Like, seriously, this is a joke of a trait.)
7. Verdant Etchings reverted back to 2 conditions cleansed. (If ele can have infinite cleanses so should the “dedicated healer class”, or, more seriously, other overpowered classes brought back in line).
8. General bugs and fixes like Staff 5 (Sublime Conversion) none of the healing projectiles hit you because they transform to healing bolts and arch over you at a stupidly slow rate.

UnitedChaos.8364:

My opinions:
What we need:
1. Some form of unblockable trait/utility because of the stupidly overabundance of projectile denial.
2. A revisit to spirits. Since the nerf they’ve been completely useless. (I would even be happy removing these skills and replacing them with movement utilities such as lightning reflexes.)
3. An update to traps. Dragonhunter traps completely put ranger traps to shame
4. Obvious pet updates that have been posted, and posted, and posted, but ultimately ignored.
—Organized pet windows
—Base pets brought into line with HoT pets.
—30% base movement speed (not traited into beastmastery)
—Melee pets need to hit moving targets accurately, not move-stop-attack-miss-repeat.
—Pet names that last
—Pet F2 reworks (as mentioned above multiple times).
5. Directional arrows on Sword 2 (Monarch Leap and Hornet’s Sting) and Lightning Reflexes
6. Reworks to horrible traits/utilities like Refined Toxins, Poison Master, Sharpened Stones, and Invigorating Bond (as mentioned above and in OP). And especially Predator’s Instinct (Like, seriously, this is a joke of a trait.)
7. Verdant Etchings reverted back to 2 conditions cleansed. (If ele can have infinite cleanses so should the “dedicated healer class”, or, more seriously, other overpowered classes brought back in line).
8. General bugs and fixes like Staff 5 (Sublime Conversion) none of the healing projectiles hit you because they transform to healing bolts and arch over you at a stupidly slow rate.

Traps are my favorite, I can go into another whole topic bout it but I think what are trap needs is more impactful changes like CC and damage or utility. As it stands now, there is sooo much condition removal to make them worth it.

SB too is still underwhelming. It needs condition variety, not just bleeds.

The unblockable stuff is I very much agree with too, DH is in the same boat as us. I have no idea why Anet just kept giving classes Projectile Hate.

Guys I would like you to share your ideas on these traits too.

Enlargement Useless with druid form since it cancels it out. Long CD too.

Brutish Seals Only signet this benefits from is Signet of the hunt, everything else is High CD.

Honed Axes Another ill placed skill, Even if you make winter’s bite AoE, its not even noticeable. Ferocity for mainhand is useless too. Why would you need ferocity for a Condition Weapon?

All ideas are very much appreciated. thanks!

EDIT I didn’t know that Winter’s bite dealt 3 stacks of bleeding now? I remember it was only chill. So Honed Axes trait makes this an 8 second chill/bleed AoE bomb. Kinda looks strong but too bad it’s not ground targeted. 240 Radius is still decent though.

StickerHappy.8052:

EDIT I didn’t know that Winter’s bite dealt 3 stacks of bleeding now? I remember it was only chill. So Honed Axes trait makes this an 8 second chill/bleed AoE bomb. Kinda looks strong but too bad it’s not ground targeted. 240 Radius is still decent though.

If they ever turn this into another ground targeted skill I swear I’m gonna rage quit this game for good.

I personally think Signets might need a look-at, too.
If you check
Signet of the Hunt – the ability is horrible. Ranger as the master of multi-hitting of very low attacks has a bonus 50% damage on next attack – useless.
Signet of Renewal – flawed design. The only pet it works with is SmokeScale in it’s F2. Everything else is just a TnT explosion on your pet in case it works which it doesn’t most of the time because it has short range.
Signet of the Wild has way too weak passive. I don’t remember it making a difference.
Signet of Stone is … Fine, I guess. But having the CD halved just as duration would make it more appealing. Everyone can see you activated the skill, so they’ll just kill someone else instead and you have to wait 80 SECONDS (which is more than 2/3 our elite skills) to make enemies target someone else again (because they won’t waste any more cooldowns on you.)

When it comes to Honed Axes – 1st of all I believe some of the suggestions should just become baseline. The AoE on #3 could / should become baseline. As well as #5 cast on the move. What I personally think the trait could do is plain and simple swap of Ferocity into Precision (synergy with Sharpened Edges) with a feel of an active or trigger effect on it (if you hit more than 1 target with an Axe skill, your movement and attack speed is increased by 5% for 3 seconds, stacks up to 5 times). This is just a suggestion. Numbers are not important.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Signet of the Wild has way too weak passive. I don’t remember it making a difference.

Would personally like to see the active and passive switched; Passive being 25% damage boost, and active being the Stability and a small burst of pulsing healing similar to Troll Ungeunt.

All I really require are pet F2’s that work consistently…and a bigger aoe radius for Glyph of Tides.

having 2 condi clears back on glyphs would be nice too…

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Signet of the Wild has way too weak passive. I don’t remember it making a difference.

Would personally like to see the active and passive switched; Passive being 25% damage boost, and active being the Stability and a small burst of pulsing healing similar to Troll Ungeunt.

I feel like the passive is fine as is, swapping it around would make it too strong. The game needs less powerful passives as a whole.

What it needs is to be instacast, 1s activation is a killer when you desperately need that stability.

kiwituatara.6053:

Please this. I want it. I must have it. Please Please Please this.

https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/191360/Pet_UI.jpg

I would cry nornly tears of joy if this came true.

Edit: But have it be a check-able option in the pet menu.

Signet of the Wild’s passive should be changed to Power, not a miserably low regen heal that’s only useful in a BM bunker build nobody uses.

The duration of signet of the wild should be 10 seconds and its cast time should be reduced to 1/2 seconds.

Signet of Renewal needs to have its cd lowered to 30 seconds, and conditions cleared per 10 seconds be increased to 2. We have no good stunbreaks.

The shouts still need serious help, they’re all terrible.

Zenith.7301:

Signet of Renewal needs to have its cd lowered to 30 seconds, and conditions cleared per 10 seconds be increased to 2. We have no good stunbreaks.

The shouts still need serious help, they’re all terrible.

You can’t really buff Signet of Renewal’s active by so much. You overbuffed it into oblivion. It’s an AoE full cleanse. And that by itself is a powerful tool. And there are other classes that don’t have this luxury on such a short cooldown. Similar counterparts are for the caster only.
We probably only have to make it more reliable and less counter-productive (like not sacrificing the pet for it as well as removing the range limiter for the caster but still having it for other targets)
The passive might welcome a buff. I’d personally welcome reduced the trigger to 5 seconds rather than having number increased. But that’s just methinks.

When it comes to shouts – I believe they are not necessarily bad. Protect Me and Guard are both viable ones. Protect Me is exactly the example of a wonderful low CD stunbreaker you are looking for. And an AoE, up to that. WHaO is also our best healing skill if you count it as a shout.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Zenith.7301:

Signet of Renewal needs to have its cd lowered to 30 seconds, and conditions cleared per 10 seconds be increased to 2. We have no good stunbreaks.

The shouts still need serious help, they’re all terrible.

You can’t really buff Signet of Renewal’s active by so much. You overbuffed it into oblivion. It’s an AoE full cleanse. And that by itself is a powerful tool. And there are other classes that don’t have this luxury on such a short cooldown. Similar counterparts are for the caster only.
We probably only have to make it more reliable and less counter-productive (like not sacrificing the pet for it as well as removing the range limiter for the caster but still having it for other targets)
The passive might welcome a buff. I’d personally welcome reduced the trigger to 5 seconds rather than having number increased. But that’s just methinks.

When it comes to shouts – I believe they are not necessarily bad. Protect Me and Guard are both viable ones. Protect Me is exactly the example of a wonderful low CD stunbreaker you are looking for. And an AoE, up to that. WHaO is also our best healing skill if you count it as a shout.

You still haven’t given me your ideas on Brutish, Honed Axes. I think Enlargement should be Signet of the hunt for 5 attacks. SIgnet of stone is nice but MM is a DPS line, it would be weird to put a Defense trait there.

UPDATE:

So me and Shadelang were talking about how rangers do not have boon hate (Again do not want any comparisons) But with the rampant boon farting other classes have (ele, revs, etc), we have no options to deal with them so I present these ideas to you.

Enlargement

Signet of the Wild is soo useless with this because: 1.) It’s on a high CD 2.) Has A long Cast time and 3.) It cancels Druid Form out.

Changes:

• If your target has 2 or more boons, Activate Signet of the Hunt.
  Your next attack and your pet’s next attack deal more damage.

• +15% damage on next attack. Attack of Opportunity (4s):
  15% increased damage lasts the entire 4 seconds
  30 second ICD

Reasoning: Again we do not have options to deal with boon farting meta. This effect also fits the MM DPS line and you can get the effect more frequently. So think of this effect not as a damage boost, but as a utility

Honed Axes

All of the traits effects do not make any sense since MH is a condi weapon while OH is a power weapon.

Changes:

• While wielding an axe, gain 2% Damage and Condition Damage for each boon your opponent has. Winter’s bite is now an AoE skill. Axe skills recharge faster.

• Attribute bonus: Damage and Condition Damage Increase 2%
  Number of Targets: 5
  Radius: 240
  Recharge Reduced: 20%

Reasoning: With this change, it benefits BOTH MH and OH on their respective roles. Another utility since we do not have boon strips or corrupts. This turns your axe into another utility weapon. Now with the change YOU DO NOT HAVE to have an axe in your MH since it also benefits you as an OH.

Honed Axes – Axe In main hand increases condition duration by 10%. Axe in Offhand increases ferocity by 250.

There, fixed.

Im still waiting for Shortbow to be made a viable PVP weapon.

StickerHappy.8052:

You still haven’t given me your ideas on Brutish, Honed Axes. I think Enlargement should be Signet of the hunt for 5 attacks. SIgnet of stone is nice but MM is a DPS line, it would be weird to put a Defense trait there.

I … did actually give you an idea about Honed Axes. At the end of my former post. The last paragraph.

I personally think Enlargement as such is not a bad trait. It’s a nice utility one. What I think is the problem are the Signets themselves (no one uses signets – so no one uses the trait). Long Cooldowns for mediocre effects.
If you imagined a simple change such as:
Signet of Hunt active now increases your and your pet’s damage by 25% for 3 seconds.
Signet of the Wild active now only procs Stability and +50% movement speed, is now instant and cooldown is reduced to 40 seconds.

This would make signets much more appealing and Brutish seals would be perfectly viable. I mean, having Signet of the Hunt as offensive, Wild as utility and Stone/Renewal as defensive ones would make solid choices. And you might as well need that might it offers.

Agreed on that split. Would be nice if the damage bonus from Wild was moved to Hunt so it can become instant with stability and (essentially) super speed. I’d take a short duration +25% increased damage buff for me and my pet on Hunt over 50% on the next attack for sure.

On that note, I’m not convinced Enlargement deserves to be its own trait. A merger with Brutish Seals would make it appealing and beef it up. Have an slot open for something… more retro that can introduce some synergy with a certain gameplay style and traits.

I have another weird idea, but it probably won’t work without shuffling one trait down. :s

Tragic Positive.9356:

StickerHappy.8052:

You still haven’t given me your ideas on Brutish, Honed Axes. I think Enlargement should be Signet of the hunt for 5 attacks. SIgnet of stone is nice but MM is a DPS line, it would be weird to put a Defense trait there.

I … did actually give you an idea about Honed Axes. At the end of my former post. The last paragraph.

I personally think Enlargement as such is not a bad trait. It’s a nice utility one. What I think is the problem are the Signets themselves (no one uses signets – so no one uses the trait). Long Cooldowns for mediocre effects.
If you imagined a simple change such as:
Signet of Hunt active now increases your and your pet’s damage by 25% for 3 seconds.
Signet of the Wild active now only procs Stability and +50% movement speed, is now instant and cooldown is reduced to 40 seconds.

This would make signets much more appealing and Brutish seals would be perfectly viable. I mean, having Signet of the Hunt as offensive, Wild as utility and Stone/Renewal as defensive ones would make solid choices. And you might as well need that might it offers.

I like the idea of adding SOTW immunity to movement-impeding conditions(keep cast time and CD time)

Enlargement – in addition to the SOTW improvement, it should be working like last stand and negate any disabling effect if triggered. This will make it a real utility in both offence and defense. ATM making the effect trigger on Health Threshold: 50% is relay clunky, if stun chain this trait wont even help you, the stun duration will keep with your big stack of stability, and the bigger you are the harder you fall.

SOTH – make it 3 attacks, make the bonus stackble with other sources like hitbash/MOC etc.. make the 3 hits unblockbl(?2 much?).

StickerHappy.8052:

UPDATE:

So me and Shadelang were talking about how rangers do not have boon hate (Again do not want any comparisons) But with the rampant boon farting other classes have (ele, revs, etc), we have no options to deal with them so I present these ideas to you.

Enlargement

Signet of the Wild is soo useless with this because: 1.) It’s on a high CD 2.) Has A long Cast time and 3.) It cancels Druid Form out.

Changes:

• If your target has 2 or more boons, Activate Signet of the Hunt.
  Your next attack and your pet’s next attack deal more damage.

• +15% damage on next attack. Attack of Opportunity (4s):
  15% increased damage lasts the entire 4 seconds
  30 second ICD

Reasoning: Again we do not have options to deal with boon farting meta. This effect also fits the MM DPS line and you can get the effect more frequently. So think of this effect not as a damage boost, but as a utility

Honed Axes

All of the traits effects do not make any sense since MH is a condi weapon while OH is a power weapon.

Changes:

• While wielding an axe, gain 2% Damage and Condition Damage for each boon your opponent has. Winter’s bite is now an AoE skill. Axe skills recharge faster.

• Attribute bonus: Damage and Condition Damage Increase 2%
  Number of Targets: 5
  Radius: 240
  Recharge Reduced: 20%

Reasoning: With this change, it benefits BOTH MH and OH on their respective roles. Another utility since we do not have boon strips or corrupts. This turns your axe into another utility weapon. Now with the change YOU DO NOT HAVE to have an axe in your MH since it also benefits you as an OH.

Why are we making traits that are only relevant in PvP? Your suggested change turns a mediocre trait that is used in neither format into a niche one that will still be rarely taken in spvp/wvw because the fact is very few people will ever run BM traitline so long as spotter and quickdraw remains on skirmishing.

There are very few circumstances outside a few fractal scales where mobs will have a bunch of boons.

I want universally useful traits, not ones for one format and ones for the other.

Maybe make opening strike trigger every 10 seconds while in combat and remove 3 boons when it triggers.

sorry my proposed changes are a bit broader and less on specific skills or traits:

rather than +150 to pet stats when taking BM it should be +300 in PvE. This needs to be split between PvE and PvP as to not completely unbalance the ranger in PvP. PvP stat bonus can be reduced to +200 or remain at +150.

The pet’s bonus stats, +150 for non BM, +300 for BM, should be divided based on gear type. You should be able to choose Assassins stats for your Bear if you want to. This would eliminate the fact that pets are only brought for their stats and not their skills. By being able to choose you’re pets bonus stats you could focus it’s traits for PvP, Raids or Fractals etc.

more dmg buffs need to be added to MM that affect the ranger and pet only. to bring the ranger in-line with other DPS classes they need at least an overall 20 increase to dps. This would increase overall damage without changing the overall burst ability of the class so that in PvP damage could still be dodged or blocked.

WS and SK trait lines need optimization as condition trait lines. At the moment the rangers traits offer very little when building a condition class. The boost to poison damage can be brought back to what it initially was when poison master was first discussed(50%). Rangers should have more access to torment either through traits or weapon skills. Traps need an overhaul in the number of conditions they provide and their other effects. Direct damage can be removed in place of more stacks of a condition or additional cover conditions.

Trap ranger should be a strong point defender.

power Lb ranger needs to be a stronger dps capable of maintaining offensive pressure even when rapid fire is on cooldown.

healing to others should be increased in CAF but reduced on the ranger to prevent further bunker abuse. GoL should be baseline at 1% per stack, increased to 2% and reducing the CD of CAF abilities by taking the GM trait. Druid, specced for healing, should be able to truly support allies who are being focused. At the same time allies must down enemies quickly to prevent their druid support from being nuked.

the AA of birds range at 300, this allows birds to hit more than almost any other pet. This change could be made to ALL pets AA to allow them to hit more regularly.

really bad pet skills, like Quickening Strike, should just go away and be replaced with almost anything else. swiftness is combat is totally useless.

the pounce attacks of the cat family should be coded similar to guardians LB2 that can track an enemy as they move instead of it missing completely anytime someone moves an inch.

F2’s overall need quicker response times, many more pets would be useful in both PvE and PvP if you could get there F2’s to work.

Pigs F2 should go straight into the rangers hand, similar to Steal. In Combat this skill is currently useless.

Prophet.1584:

healing to others should be increased in CAF but reduced on the ranger to prevent further bunker abuse. GoL should be baseline at 1% per stack, increased to 2% and reducing the CD of CAF abilities by taking the GM trait. Druid, specced for healing, should be able to truly support allies who are being focused. At the same time allies must down enemies quickly to prevent their druid support from being nuked.

This is the only part I don’t agree with.

With a Druid specced properly, this is one avenue we can at least be on par with another class – Bunker Ele/tempest.

I wouldn’t mind more allied healing, but don’t take away my ability to keep myself alive too.

On the topic of Boon Hate, I feel you could have Hunter’s Call on warhorn also rip boons off the target to give that weapon some more value. Warhorn needs a little more something to make it competitive with dagger and torch, and Hunter’s Call is pretty much universally considered a lackluster skill.

Ehecatl.9172:

On the topic of Boon Hate, I feel you could have Hunter’s Call on warhorn also rip boons off the target to give that weapon some more value. Warhorn needs a little more something to make it competitive with dagger and torch, and Hunter’s Call is pretty much universally considered a lackluster skill.

Yes please. It would also be nice if this skill was turned into an aoe skill.

Druid spec only:
- Staff #1: Heal max 3 target, deal dam max 3 target. So total 6 target at perfect position
- Staff #2: The wisp tralve faster, apply bleed each time it deal dam. Have option to detonate the wisp, deal 2-3 stack of bleed/1 stack of burn + 1s of blind + heal ally around target.
- Staff #4: Change to an aoe cast ? The current is slow cast, hard to use.
- Staff #5: Current works like project destroyer, the healing bolt is terrible and so random. It should convert the project into healing bolt and heal the ally that enemy target.
- CA #1 need to be rework. How about cast a chain to heal nearby ally ? just like chain lightning or cast a wave in front of you and heal ally ?
- CA #2 should remove 2 condi again. 1 from cast (self) and 1 more when standing on the aoe circle (ally).
- CA #5 add 0.5-1s knock down at final dam, the immobi is not nessesary.
- Glyph of Empowerment: In CA, reduce incoming dam by 10% to ally or increase ally boon duration by 10-15%. Because 25% more heal is terrible.
- Glyph of Unity: Transfer 1 condi (cd 3s) to each tether enemy. In CA, transfer 1 boon from you (cd 3s) to each tether ally. Max 5 target, Radius 600, 6s duration. Increase cd.
- Glyph of Reju also heal the pet.
- Rework Lingering Light, we dont need blind. Suggestion: Increade CA duration, reduce cd of CA skill by 20% and reduce incoming dam/condi dam while in CA form by 5-10% ? Worth a GM trait.

Zenith.7301:

StickerHappy.8052:

UPDATE:

So me and Shadelang were talking about how rangers do not have boon hate (Again do not want any comparisons) But with the rampant boon farting other classes have (ele, revs, etc), we have no options to deal with them so I present these ideas to you.

Enlargement

Signet of the Wild is soo useless with this because: 1.) It’s on a high CD 2.) Has A long Cast time and 3.) It cancels Druid Form out.

Changes:

• If your target has 2 or more boons, Activate Signet of the Hunt.
  Your next attack and your pet’s next attack deal more damage.

• +15% damage on next attack. Attack of Opportunity (4s):
  15% increased damage lasts the entire 4 seconds
  30 second ICD

Reasoning: Again we do not have options to deal with boon farting meta. This effect also fits the MM DPS line and you can get the effect more frequently. So think of this effect not as a damage boost, but as a utility

Honed Axes

All of the traits effects do not make any sense since MH is a condi weapon while OH is a power weapon.

Changes:

• While wielding an axe, gain 2% Damage and Condition Damage for each boon your opponent has. Winter’s bite is now an AoE skill. Axe skills recharge faster.

• Attribute bonus: Damage and Condition Damage Increase 2%
  Number of Targets: 5
  Radius: 240
  Recharge Reduced: 20%

Reasoning: With this change, it benefits BOTH MH and OH on their respective roles. Another utility since we do not have boon strips or corrupts. This turns your axe into another utility weapon. Now with the change YOU DO NOT HAVE to have an axe in your MH since it also benefits you as an OH.

Why are we making traits that are only relevant in PvP? Your suggested change turns a mediocre trait that is used in neither format into a niche one that will still be rarely taken in spvp/wvw because the fact is very few people will ever run BM traitline so long as spotter and quickdraw remains on skirmishing.

There are very few circumstances outside a few fractal scales where mobs will have a bunch of boons.

I want universally useful traits, not ones for one format and ones for the other.

Maybe make opening strike trigger every 10 seconds while in combat and remove 3 boons when it triggers.

your suggestion is exactly the same way though. I could use your argument that mobs will not have a bunch of boons too, so removing boons will be useless in pve as well right?

But not everything revolves in PvE.

Traits with falling damage? Who uses them in PvP? See how you create your argument?

MadCat.9172:

- Staff #2: …Have option to detonate the wisp…

Like searching the sea for gold. Though the rest of your suggestions do hold some merit in one way or another, this particular section struck my fancy.

The vocal majority have stated that Astral Wisp leaves something to be desired. It’s not a bad skill and it does what it intends to do rather solidly. However, this suggestion of giving it a detonation option is something – I believe – to be discussed and possibly elaborated on.

Sacrifice the Wisp early before its duration is up for an effect other than healing. A support for allies? Something detrimental for nearby foes? Both? The curiosity of possibilities grasp me on this one. >:}

GS4: Counter attack.
Can the auto activation of crippling throw be turned off for melee attacks (already works for ranged)

Draeyon.4392:

GS4: Counter attack.
Can the auto activation of crippling throw be turned off for melee attacks (already works for ranged)

Except it doesn’t activate crippling throw in meele, but counterattack with knockback (should also be a knockdown).
I agree to some extent though at the same time I like the automatic nature of counterattack, especially vs a backstabbing thief.

Tragic Positive.9356:

I personally think Signets might need a look-at, too.
If you check
Signet of the Hunt – the ability is horrible. Ranger as the master of multi-hitting of very low attacks has a bonus 50% damage on next attack – useless.
Signet of Renewal – flawed design. The only pet it works with is SmokeScale in it’s F2. Everything else is just a TnT explosion on your pet in case it works which it doesn’t most of the time because it has short range.
Signet of the Wild has way too weak passive. I don’t remember it making a difference.
Signet of Stone is … Fine, I guess. But having the CD halved just as duration would make it more appealing. Everyone can see you activated the skill, so they’ll just kill someone else instead and you have to wait 80 SECONDS (which is more than 2/3 our elite skills) to make enemies target someone else again (because they won’t waste any more cooldowns on you.)

Brutish seals : Activiting a signet grant might to you and your pet. Signets recharge faster. Maintain the passive effects of signets when you active them.

Honestly, i can’t see anything op here : few toughness ? a clean every 10 sec ? 25 % speed (withthe perma swiftness we can have or Natural stride) ? A pitiful regen (you need like 1200 healing power for the regen to tick like the boon with no healing power) ? It’s a good start to me.

SOTW need to be instant and break stun, nothing to explain here, really : break stun + stability (remove the growing thing from another age).

OGDeadHead.8326:

Draeyon.4392:

GS4: Counter attack.
Can the auto activation of crippling throw be turned off for melee attacks (already works for ranged)

Except it doesn’t activate crippling throw in meele, but counterattack with knockback (should also be a knockdown).
I agree to some extent though at the same time I like the automatic nature of counterattack, especially vs a backstabbing thief.

Ah ye, that is correct.
Would still like it changed to a 2-3 second block though.
Maybe add a daze/stun to crippling throw instead?
Would go a long way for GS considering its relatively low damage.

For other traits/utilities.

Spirits need a serious rework.

Turn Signet of the Wild and “Strength of the Pack!” into instant cast stun breaks.

Reduce Sharpening Stones CD considerably or maybe add a Poison stack to each hit as well as the bleed? Would work in well with the Wilderness Survival Line.

Merge Refined Toxins with Poison Master. Have the poison application from refined Toxins combined with the increase to poison damage. Change health threshold to 75% since it is a GM trait and competing with condition removal. Leave ICD as is.

New master trait:
Ranger autoattacks have a chance to apply poison (20%, 2-3seconds, no icd).
or
Grant Resistance (2-3seconds) when x amount of conditions are on you. 15s ICD.

Change Empathic Bond to cleanse 2 conditions every 5 seconds.

Invigorating Bond: Halve the ICD or better yet, increase the healing coefficient to something like 2.0-2.5

Sharpening stone would be much more interesting if the next five attacks would each apply a different condition:

#1. Chilled
#2. Poison
#3. Bleed
#4. Torment
#5. Burning

Balance stacks a durations accordingly. Rename to toxic goo while you’re at it.

;)

What needs immediate attention:
Axe #4, Warhorn #4 and Frost trap.

StickerHappy.8052:

Zenith.7301:

StickerHappy.8052:

UPDATE:

So me and Shadelang were talking about how rangers do not have boon hate (Again do not want any comparisons) But with the rampant boon farting other classes have (ele, revs, etc), we have no options to deal with them so I present these ideas to you.

Enlargement

Signet of the Wild is soo useless with this because: 1.) It’s on a high CD 2.) Has A long Cast time and 3.) It cancels Druid Form out.

Changes:

• If your target has 2 or more boons, Activate Signet of the Hunt.
  Your next attack and your pet’s next attack deal more damage.

• +15% damage on next attack. Attack of Opportunity (4s):
  15% increased damage lasts the entire 4 seconds
  30 second ICD

Reasoning: Again we do not have options to deal with boon farting meta. This effect also fits the MM DPS line and you can get the effect more frequently. So think of this effect not as a damage boost, but as a utility

Honed Axes

All of the traits effects do not make any sense since MH is a condi weapon while OH is a power weapon.

Changes:

• While wielding an axe, gain 2% Damage and Condition Damage for each boon your opponent has. Winter’s bite is now an AoE skill. Axe skills recharge faster.

• Attribute bonus: Damage and Condition Damage Increase 2%
  Number of Targets: 5
  Radius: 240
  Recharge Reduced: 20%

Reasoning: With this change, it benefits BOTH MH and OH on their respective roles. Another utility since we do not have boon strips or corrupts. This turns your axe into another utility weapon. Now with the change YOU DO NOT HAVE to have an axe in your MH since it also benefits you as an OH.

Why are we making traits that are only relevant in PvP? Your suggested change turns a mediocre trait that is used in neither format into a niche one that will still be rarely taken in spvp/wvw because the fact is very few people will ever run BM traitline so long as spotter and quickdraw remains on skirmishing.

There are very few circumstances outside a few fractal scales where mobs will have a bunch of boons.

I want universally useful traits, not ones for one format and ones for the other.

Maybe make opening strike trigger every 10 seconds while in combat and remove 3 boons when it triggers.

your suggestion is exactly the same way though. I could use your argument that mobs will not have a bunch of boons too, so removing boons will be useless in pve as well right?

But not everything revolves in PvE.

Traits with falling damage? Who uses them in PvP? See how you create your argument?

Except my suggestion ties boon removal to a trait that already does something else useful (apply vulnerability and do damage on opening strike). Yours grabs a trait and makes it worthless.

Falling damage traits were merged with other traits to provide other effects, and quite frankly they shouldn’t exist to begin with. They’re a waste of a trait slot, so I don’t know where you think this is a working model.

HeadCrowned.6834:

What needs immediate attention:
Axe #4, Warhorn #4 and Frost trap.

I might be off-track but …
… What’s wrong with Axe #4? I believe they improved it with the ground targeting. Is it worse than Axe #5?

borya.2964:

Tragic Positive.9356:

I personally think Signets might need a look-at, too.
If you check
Signet of the Hunt – the ability is horrible. Ranger as the master of multi-hitting of very low attacks has a bonus 50% damage on next attack – useless.
Signet of Renewal – flawed design. The only pet it works with is SmokeScale in it’s F2. Everything else is just a TnT explosion on your pet in case it works which it doesn’t most of the time because it has short range.
Signet of the Wild has way too weak passive. I don’t remember it making a difference.
Signet of Stone is … Fine, I guess. But having the CD halved just as duration would make it more appealing. Everyone can see you activated the skill, so they’ll just kill someone else instead and you have to wait 80 SECONDS (which is more than 2/3 our elite skills) to make enemies target someone else again (because they won’t waste any more cooldowns on you.)

Brutish seals : Activiting a signet grant might to you and your pet. Signets recharge faster. Maintain the passive effects of signets when you active them.

Honestly, i can’t see anything op here : few toughness ? a clean every 10 sec ? 25 % speed (withthe perma swiftness we can have or Natural stride) ? A pitiful regen (you need like 1200 healing power for the regen to tick like the boon with no healing power) ? It’s a good start to me.

SOTW need to be instant and break stun, nothing to explain here, really : break stun + stability (remove the growing thing from another age).

Brutish seals will be absolutely broken as a master trait + its not unique.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Written_in_Stone

Tragic Positive.9356:

HeadCrowned.6834:

What needs immediate attention:
Axe #4, Warhorn #4 and Frost trap.

I might be off-track but …
… What’s wrong with Axe #4? I believe they improved it with the ground targeting. Is it worse than Axe #5?

Axe 4 is a skill shot, i am completely fine with it. 5 on the other hand should remove the rooted part.

To be fair, every trap we have needs a serious buff. but this is another topic all together.

But a more realistic approach to buffing is just asking to buff unused traits at this point.

Imo the ground targeting made Axe #4 worse as the radius is too small while it is a physical projectile. The range is actually good, but I’d rather make it a damaging attack, such as for example Necro focus #4 or #5. It is weird that we don’t have any dps on off-hand weapons, except for Axe #5, which is…. yeh, rooted.

Yeah, I also felt the change to axe 4 was a quality of life loss. The reticle and path of the projectile is too small.

Now when fighting a boss you actually have to place the reticle behind him to make sure the skill strikes twice, and using the skill while moving is a pain as it no longer tracks your target.

Path of Scats needs a damage buff for the cooldown it has anyways.

Whirling Defense should allow movement.

Edit- this is the pvp (wvw and spvp) perspective

Offhand axe is completely useless in wvw and spvp.

GS is only really good for the movement skill and against the occasional not so good player because the damage is awful. Unless you get the lucky crit here and here depending on build.

I haven’t seen SB in pvp modes since the LB buff. Damage is awful, and without bleeding from the front it’s even more useless. But ya know, some professions can flood players with conditions so naturally any bleeds from the front would be unbalanced…

Main hand axe is a good zerg tag weapon but damage is mediocre.

Sword eh, an ok dueling weapon, but damage is meh too and without tracking now…

LB rangers get torn apart in pvp settings unless they are left unchecked to pew pew away.

Staff is meh damage, could use some burn on 1 and 2. 3 is good for kiting and a bit of healing. 4 misses constantly. Hardly ever waste time with 5.

Overall our damage is low on weapons. Druid we can sustain more. Until pets are optional, we will always be the meh damage profession with clunky heals throughout the game.

There isn’t anything very notible about Ranger/Druid except for being desired in raids to do close quarter healing and buffing. Beyond that, there really isn’t any place that this profession shines. Although, we can run away awesomly in wvw with the right build so that’s a big plus!

Swagger.1459:

Edit- this is the pvp (wvw and spvp) perspective

Offhand axe is completely useless in wvw and spvp.

GS is only really good for the movement skill and against the occasional not so good player because the damage is awful. Unless you get the lucky crit here and here depending on build.

I haven’t seen SB in pvp modes since the LB buff. Damage is awful, and without bleeding from the front it’s even more useless. But ya know, some professions can flood players with conditions so naturally any bleeds from the front would be unbalanced…

Main hand axe is a good zerg tag weapon but damage is mediocre.

Sword eh, an ok dueling weapon, but damage is meh too and without tracking now…

LB rangers get torn apart in pvp settings unless they are left unchecked to pew pew away.

Staff is meh damage, could use some burn on 1 and 2. 3 is good for kiting and a bit of healing. 4 misses constantly. Hardly ever waste time with 5.

Overall our damage is low on weapons. Druid we can sustain more. Until pets are optional, we will always be the meh damage profession with clunky heals throughout the game.

There isn’t anything very notible about Ranger/Druid except for being desired in raids to do close quarter healing and buffing. Beyond that, there really isn’t any place that this profession shines. *Although, we can run away awesomly in wvw with the right build so that’s a big plus! *

Natural Stride, staff+greatsword+signet of stone+lightning reflexes+rao+signet of renewal = By Felicia, I’m Outta Here.

Warrior and thief can probably keep up but they won’t kill you before you reach either another zerg or a castle wall.

That’s all ranger is good for, really. Healing and running away.

Because my herald is piercing zergs for 5-6k autoattacks from any distance and CoR is critting more than one person for 12k.

And that’s when I’m not playing a Tempest and seeing 6k meteors and 5k lava font ticks and 4k fireballs all over my screen.

My idea about the ranger’s weapons.

• If Anet decided to follow any of my ideas about the pets:
  to nerf the DPS from the pets autos about 2\3 so the pet get the same functionality as the druid’s staff. To deal little DPS but constantly.
• Buff the DPs in all weapon to a 20% damage increased. LB in full zerker should do at least 2.8k in crits which is fine for a 1500 ranged.

SWORD

• Sword 3 ranged increased up to 600 units that apply poison and same damage as Serpent’s Strike. Cd is reduced to 10 seconds. The circle around is done in an smaller space. Just to get back the gap closer and not to fall off bridges.

SHORTBOW
posted here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Shortbow-almost-there-but-not-quite-yet/

LONGBOW

• Hunter’s Shot: if it hits the ranger get 3 seconds super-speed. to allow re positioning effectively.
• Barrage : this skill becomes unblockable. it does weak damage, and this could be anice solution without actually buffing the dps.

AXE

• Path of scars: Still very unreliable. The ground target skill is good but need to have the width of the path increased and faster projectile speed. Pull maximum range 1200
• Whiling defence: Ranger can move while executing the skill. Increased range of projectile reflection to 600.

WARHORN

• Hunter’s Call: increased to 3 targets, same as the runes of the mad king. This skill steal up to 2 boons for each target affected. Because it’s a support weapon.

DAGGER

• Stalker Strike get the same animation as the sword’s serpent strike. Ranged increased to 600. The range is really a nono in this one.
• Cripping talon apply also knockdown on hit. Cripple doesn’t work anymore as gap closer, this should do.

GREATSWORD

• Hilt Bash: remove the cast, this skill takes more than 1\2 to apply the effect which makes it impossible to land unless the target is already immobilised. Normalise the daze/stun with SB to 2 seconds.
• Maul: Apply 2 seconds Slow on hit.
• Power Stab: Increase the speed to normalise with the rest of the chain. Decrease the evade
  to adjust to the new speed.

STAFF

• Solar beam: apply 3 seconds burning if the target within 600 units.
• Astral Wisp: apply 1 second burning when passing thru enemies.
• Vine surge: changed to a ranged AoE 300 radius that cleanse conditions(chilled, crippled,immobilise) up to 5 allies, and apply Entangle up to 5 targets. Range 1200. Increase CD to 25 seconds.
• Sublime Conversion. Decrease cd to 20 seconds. Increase wall duration to 10 seconds. Increase coefficient for the healing by projectile to 0.5 by projectile. Fixed the angle of the healing projectiles to hit the friendlies behind the wall.

Zenith.7301:

That’s all ranger is good for, really. Healing and running away.

Druid is one of the strongest classes/builds in 1vs1 and small scale fights. Together with the mobility and stealth access this makes it excellent for roaming in WvW.

It is not that great for zergs, true, mainly because pets are useless there and because of the lack of strong aoe. But that doesn’t make it a weak class in general.

anduriell.6280:

WARHORN

• Hunter’s Call: increased to 3 targets, same as the runes of the mad king. This skill steal up to 2 boons for each target affected. Because it’s a support weapon.

10k+ retaliation dmg inc. This would make the skill unusable against targets with retal. (I’ve already killed myself with Mad’s King rune because of this).

Hunter’s Call just needs lower CD and higher dmg and/or some utility (i like the idea of pulsing blind – and it would fit the skill thematically – birds pecking for the eyes).

anduriell.6280:

GREATSWORD

• Hilt Bash: remove the cast, this skill takes more than 1\2 to apply the effect which makes it impossible to land unless the target is already immobilised. Normalise the daze/stun with SB to 2 seconds.

The problem with HB is the self root during the cast. Removing the root and fixing the decreased range when crippled or chilled should be enough to solve most issues with this skill. Increased stun/daze duration seems fair after MoC nerf.

anduriell.6280:

STAFF

• Solar beam: apply 3 seconds burning if the target within 600 units.
• Astral Wisp: apply 1 second burning when passing thru enemies.
• Vine surge: changed to a ranged AoE 300 radius that cleanse conditions(chilled, crippled,immobilise) up to 5 allies, and apply Entangle up to 5 targets. Range 1200. Increase CD to 25 seconds.
• Sublime Conversion. Decrease cd to 20 seconds. Increase wall duration to 10 seconds. Increase coefficient for the healing by projectile to 0.5 by projectile. Fixed the angle of the healing projectiles to hit the friendlies behind the wall.

Solar Beam is fine. Your suggestion is ridiculous. Perma 3+ stacks of burning from an ranged autoattack? Really? Staff isn’t meant to be a dps weapon, it doesn’t need more dmg. Edit: Only improvement needed → Make it usable without a target again. The current restriction doesn’t make sense anymore.
Astral Wisp can need some improvement, i agree. Some aoe dmg (or burning) would be fine i guess.
Vine surge just needs to be a bit faster. No need to turn it into a stronger version of an elite skill.
CD and duration of Sublime Conversion are ok – the game doesn’t need even more projectile destruction. The healing projectiles should be improved though, i agree with this point.

Shortbow and warhorn are the weapons which need improvements the most. GS and sword could get some (small) dmg buffs, and QoL changes (like shorter casttime on sword’s evade skills or removal of the root from GS5), but are overall not too bad. Offhand axe is a bit clunky, but dmg is pretty decent. Definitely usable in some builds. Mainhand axe is not that great, but still ok for condi or hybrid builds. Minor buffs won’t hurt. Longbow, staff, torch and dagger are overall fine imo and don’t need buffs right now.