Guild Wars 2

One of the major problems I find with the ranger is the lack of synergy between ranged and melee weapons.

Both the sword and greatsword have amazing mobility skills such as hornet’s sting and swoop to disengage the target and put distance between the ranger and the enemy.

Unfortunately the weaponswap cd prevents the ranger from capitalizing on this created distance because if you defensively swap to sword and hornet’s sting away from the enemy, you still must wait 10s on the weapon swap cd to switch to a bow.

As a skirmisher, I believe one of the ranger’s strengths should be controlling distance between him and a foe and being ambidextrious between ranged and melee combat.

To support this idea I propose the following new trait:

Bowmaster’s Parry
Location in trait tree is debatable, likely a grandmaster trait in marks, ws, or skirmishing.
-Successful hits with hornet’s sting, counter attack, crippling throw, and lightning reflexes recharge the ranger’s weapon swap when swapping to a ranged weapon (bows or mh axe)

This trait will make rangers more of a true skirmisher by allowing them to disengage to a ranged position then instantly swap to a bow or axe. However if a ranger misses with the attack needed to gain the refresh, they don’t proc the trait.

It’s an interesting idea, and I definitely like the idea of having greater melee/ranged synergy and interplay. It’s hard to say how well it would work in practice.

Just two words : Over Power.

Ranger got already buffs on weapon swap, with this you could probably stack fury an swiftness add nauseum.

As much as i like the idea there is NO WAY IN HELL that could be anything other than a Grand Master trait.

Dadnir.5038:

Just two words : Over Power.

Ranger got already buffs on weapon swap, with this you could probably stack fury an swiftness add nauseum.

No you can’t, there’s an ICD on those because people already took advantage of another way to stack it endlessly.

Fury and swiftness on weapon swap got 9 sec CD ( added 2 updates ago iirc).

Great idea OP! But I’d prefer to see as GM trait in skirm tree.

Edited the post a bit to leave the trait tree location more open to focus the discussion more on the concept