Guild Wars 2

I’m not gonna go on and on about how Rangers get no love or how they’re neglected and forgotten. It’s all been said before.
With that said, let’s move on to the actual ideas I had:

Basically, Rangers feels very much like a Solo profession, its Utility skills save for Spirits are all mostly meant to keep the Ranger herself up an running, while providing little to no actual team support like the other professions can. This needs to be remedied, else people will stop wanting to work together with Rangers at all.
All in all, Rangers have 5 Distinct categories of Utility skills:

Signets
Traps (Limited Team Support, what with the combofields it provides)
Spirits
Survival
Shouts

Now, what I want to focus on are the shouts. The Ranger share this archetype with Warriors and Guardians, but where they focus on supporting the team with their shouts, Rangers only support themselves with Pet commands. This doesn’t necesserily have to be the case, which could simply be done by adding a few actual Party-wide buffs to the shouts. Here are my suggestions for a few changes to each shout:

Sic ’em!: Grant Fury (10s) and Swiftness (10s) to allies within 600 units. Your pet deals increased damage for a short duration (10s). Lower CD to 30s.

Protect Me (Us)!: Grant Protection (6s) and Regeneration (6s) to your Pet. Instead of attacking, your pet will redirect half the damage done to all allies within 600 units to itself for a short duration (6s). Reduce CD to 50s.

Guard!: Order your pet to Aggressively guard an area. Your pet gains Stability (15s) and Allies within the Area gain Protection (3s) once every 5s for as long as this is active. Duration 15s. CD increased to 30s. Cast time reduced to 1/2s. Obviously ends if you order your pet to attack or retreat, or if the pet loses all health.

Seek and Rescue!: Command your pet to seek out and resurrect downed allies instead of attacking. Your pet will also remove conditions from nearby allies once every 4s for as long as this mode is in effect. Duration 12s. Obviously ends if you order your pet to attack or retreat, or if the pet loses all health.

With these changes, a Ranger will be able to buff their team with both offensive and defensive boons, as well as gaining a lot more team-oriented Utility, making for a good middle ground between Warriors and Guardians.

Guard needs to go back to the drawing board entirely.
With the leash range it’s just kind of silly. It’s like, exactly how often do I want a pet to start it’s pathing ever so slightly to the left of me?

I know what you mean by the self-centered-ness of Ranger Utilities, and I think Shouts are a good candidate to get a revision pass toward that end.

These are interesting ideas, but I kind of wish they were more unique to a pet class and not just boons. Like, Guard temporarily turns my pet into a minion-class entity for another player and it can follow them well beyond the leash until I press Guard again to recall or time on the skill runs out.

any of these changes would kill off the current shout build FOREVER. Seeing as our current shout build allows us to grant permanent regeneration and swiftness to allies.

TheSwede.9512:

….little to no actual team support like the other professions can. This needs to be remedied, else people will stop wanting to work together with Rangers at all…

Heh, that ship has already sailed

But hey, interesing ideas. I don’t think they’re nearly strong enough to combat ranger’s terrible team-support reputation, especially in the face of more spirit nerfs that just keep happening and AREN’T being split to tPvP only… But they’re something to think about.

One thing in particular though: Guard: REALLY needs the activation time removed.
It’s the only “Shout” in the game that’s not actually a Shout.

ilr.9675:

TheSwede.9512:

….little to no actual team support like the other professions can. This needs to be remedied, else people will stop wanting to work together with Rangers at all…

Heh, that ship has already sailed

But hey, interesing ideas. I don’t think they’re nearly strong enough to combat ranger’s terrible team-support reputation, especially in the face of more spirit nerfs that just keep happening and AREN’T being split to tPvP only… But they’re something to think about.

One thing in particular though: Guard: REALLY needs the activation time removed.
It’s the only “Shout” in the game that’s not actually a Shout.

Nature voice + Guard would be extremely OP then.

runeblade.7514:

ilr.9675:

One thing in particular though: Guard: REALLY needs the activation time removed.
It’s the only “Shout” in the game that’s not actually a Shout.

Nature voice + Guard would be extremely OP then.

He’s talking about activation time, not cooldown. With all the other shouts, you press it and it activates instantly (meaning you can return to using other skills – heck, you can activate a shout while using another skill).

Guard is the only shout that doesn’t behave like this. You spend about 1 sec doing a little animation after you push the button before the skill activates. During this time, you can’t use other skills. Though thankfully you can move.

Prysin.8542:

any of these changes would kill off the current shout build FOREVER. Seeing as our current shout build allows us to grant permanent regeneration and swiftness to allies.

If you change them one after another they should last long enough to give perma regen/switftness. Also, those two boons are more easily accessed and maintained by other classes anyway. If it were say, Retal or Might, it might be more meaningful.

Prysin.8542:

any of these changes would kill off the current shout build FOREVER. Seeing as our current shout build allows us to grant permanent regeneration and swiftness to allies.

If somebody would use a shout build. Honestly you don’t use this skills they’re not even supported enough through traits. It’s just “Nature’s Voice” and that’s it.
Other classes got reduce CD and some more traits for it.

But overall it’s a great idea to improve our shouts. Then it’s maybe worth to create a shout based build.

@TheSwede: As for your ideas…

• Sic ’Em; good idea, works as call of the wild for your pet.
• Protect Me; kills the pet almost instantly unless your companion is a bear/drake.
• Guard; change the protection to condition removal and let it trigger every 1(1.5) sec.
• Search and Rescue; cond removal should be retaliation to ress more efficient.

As for the traits… add for god sake more traits for it. for example a cool down reduce. Maybe modify “Nature’s Voice” a little bit and perhaps something more (let your imagination free).

If this would be done then has the ranger an additional build type to the existing one (condition (trapper), spirit, BM)

This and a new pet control system would make the ranger more attractive for other players. Even I would change to a shout build to use my companion more effective.

@Troopa
Reduced shout CD is Adept trait in the beastmaster line

uf… overlooked it. Thx for mention it but it’s still bad traited i think. Though i never used it maybe it’s right.

Troopa.6179:

uf… overlooked it. Thx for mention it but it’s still bad traited i think. Though i never used it maybe it’s right.

thats not a question since we have to spreat our traits way too much and most of the time have to go 30 ponts in 1 line to make skills useful ^^

ChillyChinaman.6057:

Also, those two boons are more easily accessed and maintained by other classes anyway.

That so, eh? “More easily accessed and maintained” by what other classes? Using what skills and traits exactly?