[PvE viability] Solution to Rangers

[PvE viability] Solution to Rangers

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Posted by: Tragic Positive.9356

Tragic Positive.9356

Nature’s Vengeance

Regardless of how you guyz believe this trait is underpowered I see a lot of potential in it.
The truth is – it’s actually a 33% boon uptime to every single boon it provides.

  • 33% Protection uptime is quite high
  • Swiftness combined with the effect on spirit provides around 125% uptime all by itself
  • 33% Regeneration uptime has a potential to cover up uses with Windborne Notes(horn)
  • 33% Vigor is not bad, either.

The only thing is Might…
… And yes – this is plain terrible. Doesn’t stack in duration but intensity. And the amount is plain horrible.

Solution:
Frost Spirit – Grants 1 second of Quickness every 3 seconds.

For this – your DPS from beast-mastery goes down noticeably, but your team-support goes up. And this is a grandmaster trait what we are talking about. And it should feel like it. Moreover, it would stack with other Quickness applications just as every single boon that is provided via Spirits. (Means it will be an option to prolong Guardian’s Quickness, but will not be OP at boss fights because of Mesmer’s long-lasting Quickness)
__________________________________________
This would make Rangers finally a choice for PvE. Spotter has a cap, Frost Spirit is not as effective as other classes’ buffs.
And since it’s only for 1 second – it won’t make it OP. This is the solution to our PvE problems.

“Observe, learn and counter.”

(edited by Tragic Positive.9356)

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

We already have so many sources of Regeneration, I don’t think we need more from the spirit, Resistance would be really good imo. Same goes for Swiftness and to a lesser extent, Vigor.

I was really hoping for game changing boons with this trait, but so very meh.

I like Quickness, I was suggesting that be the Storm Spirit’s pulse, it would be all about speed then and Frost get fury for proccing Remorseless. Would make stacking vulnerability a breeze, but Quickness would be a better party buff and we need that more imo.

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Posted by: Prophet.1584

Prophet.1584

most of our traits have potential, they’re just so incredibly underpowered that they become bad. this is one of them. 2-3s of a boon would be good so that boon duration would have some effect. with a 1s boon every 3s you’ll never stack enough + boon duration to actually stack the buffs. frost proccing fury for remorseless synergy would be nice, 1s of fury would help us out more than the party though. resistance on the water or elite spirit would be nice as well.

even just extending the time and changing one of the spirits to fury would provide remorseless And bountiful hunter synergy.

I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.

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Posted by: Elorna.5329

Elorna.5329

Nah, only guardians and warriors get to have useful party wide boon application. It is known.

In all seriousness, frost spirit is good as is, the GM trait should be completely overhauled to offer something not boon related. Like 100% on all spirit effects, or an extra spirit effect for all of them. Something that is a unique buff. More boons are boring design.

EDIT:
Making the GM into proccing something similar to the spirit active skill each time the passive procs would also be nice – a blind whenever you proc the passive burn, a 1 sec chill when you proc the 10% dmg, etc.

The greatest freedom is the freedom not to get involved.

(edited by Elorna.5329)

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

I was thinking about this today and the only problem with the spirit pulsing quickness is that quickness applies its effect to the entire channel cast while under it’s effect. For a strange example, if you cast Whirling Defense (5s channel) right after the spirit pulsed Quickness, you would get the effect for the entire duration, which would last until it pulsed again. It would work far better with channels. Something to think about anyway.

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Posted by: Wondrouswall.7169

Wondrouswall.7169

Sadly, Anet would most likely never allow a regular utility spirit access to such a great boon, GM trait or not. I think they made that very clear by having Stability on Spirit of Nature.

Best we can hope for is an increased amount of might stacks on Frost Spirit, but even then, there was a post that pointed out the synergy with Fortifying Bond in that trait line. I bet when the devs read that, one of them probably screamed, “Someone gets it!” and a change probably won’t happen.

PET PRECISION & DPS TESTS -OUTDATED-
Will update once Path of Fire releases.

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

It synergises with FB, sure, but only for 3 might stacks, which is near pointless too, since it requires a GM trait and utility skill to happen. Not only that, but its even worse when there is a PS war in your party. So, a non meta build ends up making a meta build less effective… Genius.

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Posted by: Wondrouswall.7169

Wondrouswall.7169

There is a method to Anet’s madness when it comes to Spirits. I want to say that when the boons were discussed, they looked at that list and thought amongst themselves that it was “Pretty Good.” ;3

PET PRECISION & DPS TESTS -OUTDATED-
Will update once Path of Fire releases.

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Posted by: Kaz.5430

Kaz.5430

Instead of spirits having an active effect that is triggered during the lifespan killing the spirit, maybe spirits should cast the active effect immediately, and then cast the passive effect for the remainder of the lifespan of the spirit.

That way, the active effect is still ‘on demand’ and the cool-down can start immediately, giving rangers the ability to summon multiple spirits, or re-summon a spirit that they’ve moved away from.

Also, in order to give better traited boons, they could be applied by a pulsing combo field that occurs when the spirit dies. There would be less up-time of these boons, but having the cooldowns allowing for multiple spirits would compensate.

E.G.

Water spirit casts Aqua Surge when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 5s water field that pulses Resistance. Duration 60s, recharge 20s (15s traited)

Frost spirit casts Cold Snap when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 5s ice field that pulses Fury. Duration 60s, recharge 20s (15s traited)

Stone spirit casts Quicksand when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 5s smoke field that pulses Stability. Duration 60s, recharge 20s (15s traited)

Storm spirit casts Call Lightning when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 5s lightning field that pulses Quickness. Duration 60s, recharge 20s (15s traited)

Sun spirit casts Solar Flare when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 5s fire field that pulses Retaliation. Duration 60s, recharge 20s (15s traited)

Spirit of Nature casts Natures Renewal when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 10s ethereal field that pulses Aegis. Duration 60s, recharge 120s (90s traited)

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Posted by: Zenith.7301

Zenith.7301

Nature’s Vengeance

Regardless of how you guyz believe this trait is underpowered I see a lot of potential in it.
The truth is – it’s actually a 33% boon uptime to every single boon it provides.

  • 33% Protection uptime is quite high
  • Swiftness combined with the effect on spirit provides around 125% uptime all by itself
  • 33% Regeneration uptime has a potential to cover up uses with Windborne Notes(horn)
  • 33% Vigor is not bad, either.

The only thing is Might…
… And yes – this is plain terrible. Doesn’t stack in duration but intensity. And the amount is plain horrible.

Solution:
Frost Spirit – Grants 1 second of Quickness every 3 seconds.

For this – your DPS from beast-mastery goes down noticeably, but your team-support goes up. And this is a grandmaster trait what we are talking about. And it should feel like it. Moreover, it would stack with other Quickness applications just as every single boon that is provided via Spirits. (Means it will be an option to prolong Guardian’s Quickness, but will not be OP at boss fights because of Mesmer’s long-lasting Quickness)
__________________________________________
This would make Rangers finally a choice for PvE. Spotter has a cap, Frost Spirit is not as effective as other classes’ buffs.
And since it’s only for 1 second – it won’t make it OP. This is the solution to our PvE problems.

The uptime numbers are meaningless if you can’t guarantee the protection being up when you actually need it.

If you lay a frost spirit and the boss attacks every 2 seconds or every second really, and those hits like in fractal 50 are hitting for as hard as 7-10k an autoattack from mossman, 1 second of protection on a 3 sec interval is worthless.

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

To be fair, you can never guarantee it. Even with a hammer guard, he can be CCd, downed or not complete his chain to get the symbol, shouts/Virtues on CD etc.

The boons are 1.25s duration too, so with the +20% from Lingering Magic, the boons actually last for 1.5s, so 50% uptime. Combine that with the 3.6s proc from Stone Spirit and you have 86% uptime, which is quite decent, assuming the spirit is alive…

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Posted by: Tragic Positive.9356

Tragic Positive.9356

To be fair, you can never guarantee it. Even with a hammer guard, he can be CCd, downed or not complete his chain to get the symbol, shouts/Virtues on CD etc.

The boons are 1.25s duration too, so with the +20% from Lingering Magic, the boons actually last for 1.5s, so 50% uptime. Combine that with the 3.6s proc from Stone Spirit and you have 86% uptime, which is quite decent, assuming the spirit is alive…

My thoughts exactly. Thanks for clarifying.

“Observe, learn and counter.”

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

I was about thinking this today and think that the Nature Magic line could also add in some other effects that work along with NV for more party support.

Vigorous Training; Whenever you apply vigor to an ally, they gain retaliation as well.
Windborne Notes; Whenever you apply regeneration to an ally, they gain resistance as well.
Evasive Purity; Whenever you apply swiftness to an ally, they gain quickness as well.
Allies Aid; Whenever you apply Stability to an ally, they gain aegis as well.
Bountiful Hunter; Whenever you apply might to an ally, they gain Fury as well.

Not really thought out completely, durations and boons etc, but it could be nice to have something like this added to the traits in NM so there is more synergy with the spirit boons and makes the NM line far better, imo.

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Posted by: Sube Dai.8496

Sube Dai.8496

Instead of spirits having an active effect that is triggered during the lifespan killing the spirit, maybe spirits should cast the active effect immediately, and then cast the passive effect for the remainder of the lifespan of the spirit.

That way, the active effect is still ‘on demand’ and the cool-down can start immediately, giving rangers the ability to summon multiple spirits, or re-summon a spirit that they’ve moved away from.

Also, in order to give better traited boons, they could be applied by a pulsing combo field that occurs when the spirit dies. There would be less up-time of these boons, but having the cooldowns allowing for multiple spirits would compensate.

E.G.

Water spirit casts Aqua Surge when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 5s water field that pulses Resistance. Duration 60s, recharge 20s (15s traited)

Frost spirit casts Cold Snap when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 5s ice field that pulses Fury. Duration 60s, recharge 20s (15s traited)

Stone spirit casts Quicksand when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 5s smoke field that pulses Stability. Duration 60s, recharge 20s (15s traited)

Storm spirit casts Call Lightning when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 5s lightning field that pulses Quickness. Duration 60s, recharge 20s (15s traited)

Sun spirit casts Solar Flare when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 5s fire field that pulses Retaliation. Duration 60s, recharge 20s (15s traited)

Spirit of Nature casts Natures Renewal when summoned, then provides passive effect during remainder of lifespan. On death, (if traited) creates 10s ethereal field that pulses Aegis. Duration 60s, recharge 120s (90s traited)

Definitely an improvement. Still not sure if I’d take them though.

Maybe remove the cast time so that you get the active immediately.

John Snowman [GLTY]
Space Marine Z [GLTY]

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Posted by: Sube Dai.8496

Sube Dai.8496

The boons should be permanent while the spirits are alive as well (given that they die so easily).

I say change the pulse time to 1s.

John Snowman [GLTY]
Space Marine Z [GLTY]

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Been playing around with NV and Cleric amulet to make a support Bunker, not sure about it yet, any thoughts?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBhYD7kSFoVQsiFwXFgoFMgJU9yW4BwfDrak7LejnBnsiGsC-TZBHwAEOIALLDA4CAY4JAge/BA

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Posted by: Sube Dai.8496

Sube Dai.8496

Been playing around with NV and Cleric amulet to make a support Bunker, not sure about it yet, any thoughts?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBhYD7kSFoVQsiFwXFgoFMgJU9yW4BwfDrak7LejnBnsiGsC-TZBHwAEOIALLDA4CAY4JAge/BA

I don’t think you can stack might effectively without zeyphers speed, so prob better to go doom sigils if you want bw.

Also the more I look at it WS is a terrible line, particularly for group support. I’d go skirmishing for traited healing spring, and QuickDraw.

You’ll still get your perma regen for the party, condi clear, a field to blast, and a tonne of leaps for extra heals.

You can also then swap sick em for a stunbreak.

John Snowman [GLTY]
Space Marine Z [GLTY]

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Hmm, kinda need WS for condi removal in this build. Taking Skirm does give spotter though for support, QD is nice. Using HS means the runes have to change really and if WHaO goes, RT goes too. It would be a totally different build really.