Guild Wars 2

If there are going be lots of these kinds of post then why not. Thanks to Sang post on a pet replacement idea (link below) I decide to write up some of my own ideas.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Remove-Pets-and-give-us-Animal-Spirits/first#post776136

Ranger Improvements

First I would like to mention that Sang came up with a brilliant start of a fix on ranger that could be used as a basis for overall ranger improvement. In ‘Remove Pets and Give Us Animal Spirits’ Sang outlined an alternative to the current pet as profession mechanic and with that in mind the Ranger profession could be rebuilt from the ground up.

Pets as they are currently would be gone, replaced my an animal spirit. The spirit would still be a model in the game, but no longer would it directly interact with the world instead it would be another of the Ranger’s connection to the wild.

Special Skill Types
Chains
Survival
Spirit
Trap
Signet

Animal Spirit Types
Taking the Animal Families as the example we can base the profession mechanic around what has already existed in the game. I would like to keep with the idea of Pets Providing a bonus to the ranger
as the Ranger ‘Pet Attribute Bonus’ could be Companion’s Boon and have it scale with point in ‘Beast Mastery’. That may prove to be a bit much for balance, but it could always be scraped and a new secondary trait line put in it’s place. F4 on the bar will remain the companion swap. F1-F3 would be determined by pet family. New name for Pet Skills is Companion Skills.

Armor Fish: Stat Bonus: Toughness. F1- Group Protection Boon F2- Ranger Targeted Aegis F3- Group wide next hit recovers small amount of health

Bear: Stat Bonus: Vitality. F1- Short duration Defy Pain, F2-Weakening Roar, F3- Regeneration

Bird: Stat Bonus: Precision. F1-Group Swiftness Boon, F2- Single Target Blind F3- Single Target Vulnerability

Boar: Stat Bonus: Vitality. F1- F2- F3- Keeping Forage, but with the item replacing the F1-F3 for use.

Canine: Stat Bonus: Power F1-Immobilizing Howl F2- Fear F3- Howl of the Pack

Devourer: Stat Bonus: Toughness F1- Poison to next Attack F2- knock back F3- Cripple (from the burrowing spirit)

Drake: Stat Bonus: Power. F1-confusion F2- burn F3- chill

Feline: Stat Bonus: Precision. F1-Group Might Boon F2- Stalk F3- chill

Jellyfish: Stat Bonus: Vitality F1- Healing Cloud F2- Blind F3- immobilizing whirl

Moa: Stat Bonus: Toughness F1-Daze F2- Group Fury Boon F3- Protection Boon

Shark: Stat Bonus: Power F1- Fear F2-Swiftness Boon F3- Group Based Bleed added to attack.

Spider: Stat Bonus: Precision F1-Web (immobilize) F2- Single Target Weaken F3- Single Target Stun

Weapon Skills: all weapon skills will need some adjustments to make up for lost pet damage.

Greatsword: Hilt Bash Drop to a 25 sec cooldown

Longbow: Speed up the projectiles.
Hunter’s Shot add cripple. Barrage: add a 1s immobilize.

Shortbow: Crossfire: remove the facing requirement for the bleed, increase damage for flanking.
Crippling Shot: further increase in damage to reflect the bleed lose

Sword: Fix the rooting bug. Pounce (20% chance leap finisher) Might granted to Ranger and nearby Allies.

Axe: Ricochet allow for it to bounce off or more terrain to help with single target use.

Spiltblade: Tighted up the spread so it doesn’t need to be in melee range to get the 5 stacks of bleed.
Winter’s Bite 4 bounds First Target is chilled additional ones are crippled. Path of Scars: Dazes.
Whirling Defense allow for movement during.

Warhorn: Call of the Wild increase range base range to 900 (1200 traited) add immobilize removal.

Harpoon Gun: Feeding Frenzy: applies fury to allies within the area of attack. Mercy Shot add damage modifiers for target’s health, 100%-50% one value increasing for lower health targets.

Healing Skills
Heal as One: Heal for more the more Companion Skills are off cooldown.

Utility Skills: Shouts are gone, Search and Rescue made into a Spirit ability.
Signet of Renewal: Keep the cool down the same as the companion will get removing the group’s conditions
Signet of Stone: Increase the toughness it grants. Active ability effect the Ranger 60 sec cool down
Signet of the Hunt: increase movement speed buff to 25%, Active Next Five attack deal 10-15% more damage
(Added) Warden’s Signet: Grant’s faster endurance regeneration Active: Recharge Companion Skills
(Added) Smoke Trap (Trap Skill): Smoke Field Blinds and Dazes cooldown as best decided for balance.
(Added) Foebane (Survival Skill) Remove Boons with your next five attacks

Traits: Unmentioned Traits are as current build of game or with the added companion in place of pet.
Marksmanship
Opening Strikes Increase the number of Stacks of Vulnerability it causes.
Alpha Training: You attack deal X% more damage to targets with 75% health or more.
Steady Focus: Damage increases by 10% when attack crippled, chilled or immobilized foes.
Malicious Training: Increases the duration of conditions applied from Companion Skills.
Beastmaster’s Bond: Randomly recharges one Companion Skill at 75% health.
Signet of the Beastmaster: Maintain the passive effects of signet when you activate them.
Remorseless: Regain Opening Strikes at X stacks of Might.

Skirmishing
Pet’s Prowess: Rename Companion’s Prowess: grant the ranger X% more damage on critical hit.
Companion’s Might: Grant Might to Ranger and nearby allies.
Agility Training: You move 30% faster out of combat.
Carnivorous Appetite: Allies Regain health (small amount) on critical hits.
Honed Axes You do 10% more critical damage when wielding an axe in you main hand. Axe main hand skills have longer range ranged.

Wilderness Survival
Companion’s Defense:You gain X seconds of protection when you dodge roll. Nearby Allies are granted 2 seconds of protection.
Peak Strength: Increase to 10%
Shared Anguish: Your companion’s absorbs one debilitating condition directed at you, this effect can only trigger once every 90 seconds.
Expertise Training: Companions deal extra condition damage.

Nature Magic
Fortifying Bonds: Single target boons granted by companions now effect all allies within 600-1200 final ranged decided by what is balanced.
Concentration Training Boon applied by companions last longer.
Two-handed Training:Renamed Martial Training: Sword, greatsword, and spear damage increased by 5%.
Enlargement:Companion enlarges when you reach 25% health (think of effect similar to a ward)
Evasive Purity back to removing all conditions (at least a 10s cool down maybe a 20)

Beastmastery
Speed Training: Maybe increase the effect speed of offensive companion skills.
Master’s Bond have it increase the stat bonus granted by the companion for each kill. Dropping the stack when you are down or swap companions.
Shout mastery: Removed Replaced with Companion Mastery effect of you companion are larger.
Compassion Training: Companion skills heal for more.
Might Swap: Grant Might to the Ranger instead.
Rending Attack Use of Drake, devourer and shark companion skills inflict bleed on foes.(cool down need)
Stability Training Ursine, porcine and armor fish skills grant stability (2s) when activated (cool down need)
Intimadate Training Activated canine and spider companion skill inflict cripple (cool down need)
Vigorous Training Moa, bird and jellyfish companion’s activated skills grant vigor (cool down need)
Instinctual Bond: Needs a complete rework maybe activating companion skill while down heals you.
Natural Healing Just add regeneration to the Ranger

All these posts are pointless. You know by now they only have 2 people doing skill balancing and working on all that kitten. We aren’t going to get an overhaul or anything really fixed until they actually start giving a kitten about the players and I don’t see that happening.

would almost be worth the damage loss in pvp, would miss the RNG element of hound type pets and their knockdown tho

Just let us do a bit more damage, that’s all I’m asking for, and maybe a bit less time on CD’s.