Guild Wars 2

We’ve balanced the class around the idea that you always have a pet with you to aid in any fight. The fact that the ranger can have multiple pets allows them to combine their pets in ways that most impact the current fight.
They [warriors] can still do some decent damage at range, but they aren’t as good at it as the Ranger (with their pet).

If what Anet claims here was a real in-game fact there would never be any complaints from rangers. Ever!
However the truth is unfortunately far far away. But I know we will get there some day. It’s only a matter of time and positive constructive feedback from us rangers.

In the following list, we will do our best to help Anet towards the needed fixes in order to eventually be truth to their own philosophy:

Pets:
- If we are supposed to always have a pet with us, we need our pets to deal better with AoE. Pets simply die to easily in dungeons or wherever AoE is abundant. This is a massive flaw in the pet mechanism. There are many posts in the forum with suggestions and ideas of how to fix this. Something needs to be done with it! And I am not accepting suggestions from players who say that you can call the pet back. This is not a valid fix. The pet will still die from all the AoE on its way back to ranger anyway. And using a skill slot like Signet of the stone for 6 sec immunity with a cooldown of 120 sec is just ridiculous. A major system flaw can not and should not be compensated with the use of other skills!

- If we are supposed to combine our pets in a way that allows to most impact the current fight we simply need the option to change our inactive pet during a battle. As it is now, ranger must leave fight in order to change pets. It should be possible to change the inactive pet whenever and wherever!

- Anet did a good job with melee pets getting better to hit moving targets. A good start. Now the ranged pets need the same attention! How often have you actually seen your spider hit a moving target? Not even in pve the pet’s ranged projectiles can hit a moving target. Pet’s ranged attacks are so slow that the target (even npc) can simply walk towards you (even with some stacks of cripple) and not be hit. If target is not glued to the ground a lot of potential dmg from ranged pets are wasted. Which means the total dmg a ranger should have done is enormously decreased.

- Ranged pet’s attack must equal the range of longbow when not traited (1200) and to 1500 when traited.

- A little buff to all pets attributes, specially vitality would make the pets more viable.

- Investing 30 points (almost half of your total trait points!) in Beastmastery and gain only +30 in pet attribute is a mean joke! By investing 30 points in BM you have sacrificed either ranger damage or health. And what have you gained instead? A pet that does +30 more damage and still has major mechanic failures.

- BM traits should not be limited to only a specific family of pets. This is in contrast with multiple pets allows them to combine their pets in ways that most impact the current fight.

Spirits:

- Make the ranger a profession all dungeon groups would wish to have! Make the spirits better by making spirits move and follow by default. They are spirits, the least they can do is to follow you now that you have conjured them!

- Buff the spirit chance percentage!

Weapons:
- Longbow needs default + 5% range (untraited to 1500).

- The longbow’s default attack, long range shot, should have bleed like warrior’s rifle bleeding shot.

Traps:
- Traps range to 1200.

- Make Viper’s nest (snake trap) to a combo field.

Please feel free to add suggestions (realistic) to the list.

awe extender.1908:

And I am not accepting suggestions from players who say that you can call the pet back. This is not a valid fix.

This is the truth. Managing your pet is one thing (which I do just fine thank you), it’s not that hard most of the time. But when we pull our pets out of a fight, we cut our effectiveness in half.

We are supposed to be balanced with an active pet. With a pet on passive, pulled out of a fight, or dead, we are subpar compared to every other class – it really is that simple.

awe extender.1908:

- Investing 30 points (almost half of your total trait points!) in Beastmastery and gain only +30 in pet attribute is a mean joke! By investing 30 points in BM you have sacrificed either ranger damage or health. And what have you gained instead? A pet that does +30 more damage and still has major mechanic failures.

Tooltip is wrong, you get +10 attribute points to each pet attribute for each point invested in this traitline, so +300 to all attributes with 30 BM.

OGDeadHead.8326:

awe extender.1908:

- Investing 30 points (almost half of your total trait points!) in Beastmastery and gain only +30 in pet attribute is a mean joke! By investing 30 points in BM you have sacrificed either ranger damage or health. And what have you gained instead? A pet that does +30 more damage and still has major mechanic failures.

Tooltip is wrong, you get +10 attribute points to each pet attribute for each point invested in this traitline, so +300 to all attributes with 30 BM.

That’s good to know :-) I guess we can take this one off the list then!

Warrior Rifle does more damage than Ranger.

awe extender.1908:

Pets:
- If we are supposed to always have a pet with us, we need our pets to deal better with AoE. Pets simply die to easily in dungeons or wherever AoE is abundant. This is a massive flaw in the pet mechanism. There are many posts in the forum with suggestions and ideas of how to fix this. Something needs to be done with it! And I am not accepting suggestions from players who say that you can call the pet back. This is not a valid fix. The pet will still die from all the AoE on its way back to ranger anyway. And using a skill slot like Signet of the stone for 6 sec immunity with a cooldown of 120 sec is just ridiculous. A major system flaw can not and should not be compensated with the use of other skills!

This especially.
Because of this rangers are nigh useless in dungeons.

The ranger’s trap skills are described by Anet as:

Traps
Rangers can punish enemies who dare to approach them with traps, skills that are placed on the ground nearby.

I strongly believe the ranger should be able to deploy ground targeting traps by default. If this is our special skill why should we be forced to use 20 points in Skirmishing just to be able to throw a trap? Extra condition duration and larger AoE is understandable, you boost your trap skill by traiting which is ok. But you really shouldn’t have to use traits to have ground targeting traps. The ranger needs to have this knowledge from the beginning!

ps. trap skills should be in Wilderness survival tree (Malice, traps are condition based) and not in Skirmishing (have nothing to do with precision).

awe extender.1908:

Weapons:
- Longbow needs default + 5% range (untraited to 1500).

- The longbow’s default attack, long range shot, should have bleed like warrior’s rifle bleeding shot.

LB does not need bleeds. That’s what the SB is for. LB is about physical dmg while SB is about conditions/condition dmg. So, no to bleeds, but perhaps a 3-4s vulnerability on hit (enough to keep 1-2 stacks up, and this is more in line with the physical dmg aspect of the LB). I could maybe see LB getting a bit more range than SB to compensate for it’s slower firing rate, maybe. But then what would a traited LBs range be? 1800+? That’s pushing it and I’d foresee lots of QQ in the future. :P Especially if you were to get both the vuln. on hit and the extra range, heh.

I do agree with some of the pet suggestions, especially attacking while on the move and making them tougher, and projectile range being in line with the Rangers current distance from the target (talking about ranged pets).

Oh, and I would also add to “Weapons:” Remove rooting on Sword auto-attack. This is a major issue to me and to other Rangers that prefer to use Sword as their melee weapon of choice.

Antisceptic.9174:

Warrior Rifle does more damage than Ranger.

False.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Shortbow-vs-Warrior-Rifle-DPS-tests/first

I think that the way shouts are handled in this game is kind of bad.
Some of the shouts should already be in the pet control interface, not in utility skills. Like guard.

We should have the option to tell our pets to move somewhere and stay there without having to use an utility skill, or making your pet revive people without a utility skill. The pet revive skill is absolutely useless because of its ridiculous long cooldown, so why not make traits that improve these pet skills?

Also, let us manage our pet. I want to be able to choose when my wolf knocks someone down, just like my f2 skill.

Those improvements i listed there, would improve ranger’s usefulness on PvP a lot. Being able to revive fallen comrades with your pet would add a unique feeling to rangers just like mesmers have it with portals.

And being able to control our pet’s abilities will give us chance to say, interrupt enemies healing, or burst someone down while that person is on the ground, that kind of thing.

Oh, and please, improve the range on the wolf’s knockdown, it’s really low and very easy to be avoided.

To fix the shortbow, i think if you increased the bleed duration by say 30%, and gave us the ability to bleed from all sides, that would be a decent fix (without the need to fix QZ with it, for balancing reasons). Oh, and make shortbow’s number 2 something like rapid fire that applies poison per tick, that would be decent.

The longbow needs more raw damage, in its current state, the shortbow does more damage than the longbow without the bleed and that is unacceptable given its constraints.

The data Ursan linked is interesting, seems we do output more ranged damage than warrior looking at that data. Also the 30 BM points do a lot more than just 30 points in every attribute.

I don’t agree with the Longbow suggestions. Why are you unwilling to trait into longer range and more damage? What justifies giving longbow a free traitsworth of improvement with no investment? The improvement you are asking for is already there, unless you are asking for 1800 range, which is ridiculous. They would dodge everything at that range anyway and then you would ask for arrows that move faster than bullets. Also, bleeding is for shortbow, longbow is not a condition stacking weapon, though there is a trait you can get bleeding on crits as well as sigils if you want this so badly.

As for traps, I can agree with the poison combo, but not 1200 range. Traps make sense to have to be set, getting ground target is already a huge improvement in the first place. Besides, we aren’t necros.

With pets, I can see that ranged pets could use longer range, I think its a possibility. In regards to pet switching and dying, that is a personal control issue, you already have a secondary option. Engineers can’t change their f1-f4 options on a whim either. I think the best needed buff for pets right now is keeping the name on switch lol.

I do believe spirits need a buff. I tried to run a spirit build early on, but it just doesnt work out. They don’t need extra proc chance though. I think the grandmaster trait of mobility can work, if the spirits are worth bringing with you in the first place. The keys are decreasing the cooldown of the effects to honestly no more than 2 seconds and increasing the survivability.

Edit: Also on Spirits, I keep forgetting about their extra skill ability. Even with that, give them the survivability for it to me used.

OGDeadHead.8326:

awe extender.1908:

And I am not accepting suggestions from players who say that you can call the pet back. This is not a valid fix.

This is the truth. Managing your pet is one thing (which I do just fine thank you), it’s not that hard most of the time. But when we pull our pets out of a fight, we cut our effectiveness in half.

We are supposed to be balanced with an active pet. With a pet on passive, pulled out of a fight, or dead, we are subpar compared to every other class – it really is that simple.

This is actually a very very very valid point. If the ranger class is balanced around the idea of 100% pet up-time so significantly then the ranger class needs pets that are capable of 100% pet up-time. Any time you press f3 or your pet dies to a single aoe (lol @ pets being alive in WvW fights for instance) you’re basically pressing a button that is “Reduce your damage by 50% for an indefinate amount of time”.

And for the love of all that is holy PLEASE give rangers control over their pets. REAL control, not this press F2 and maybe some time in the next 2-10 seconds it might happen. Oh and the attack chain is completely random. Enjoy your pet! It’s just so… bad, the way it works currently.

AlexRD.7914:

I think that the way shouts are handled in this game is kind of bad.
Some of the shouts should already be in the pet control interface, not in utility skills. Like guard.

We should have the option to tell our pets to move somewhere and stay there without having to use an utility skill, or making your pet revive people without a utility skill. The pet revive skill is absolutely useless because of its ridiculous long cooldown, so why not make traits that improve these pet skills?

Also, let us manage our pet. I want to be able to choose when my wolf knocks someone down, just like my f2 skill.

Those improvements i listed there, would improve ranger’s usefulness on PvP a lot. Being able to revive fallen comrades with your pet would add a unique feeling to rangers just like mesmers have it with portals.

And being able to control our pet’s abilities will give us chance to say, interrupt enemies healing, or burst someone down while that person is on the ground, that kind of thing.

Oh, and please, improve the range on the wolf’s knockdown, it’s really low and very easy to be avoided.

I agree, shouts are too bad to be utility skills. Maybe a bit more pet control could be a good thing.

Ursan.7846:

Antisceptic.9174:

Warrior Rifle does more damage than Ranger.

False.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Shortbow-vs-Warrior-Rifle-DPS-tests/first

I already pointed out the flaws in that “test” Antisceptic is correct, the rifle does more damage.

Braxxus.2904:

OGDeadHead.8326:

awe extender.1908:

And I am not accepting suggestions from players who say that you can call the pet back. This is not a valid fix.

This is the truth. Managing your pet is one thing (which I do just fine thank you), it’s not that hard most of the time. But when we pull our pets out of a fight, we cut our effectiveness in half.

We are supposed to be balanced with an active pet. With a pet on passive, pulled out of a fight, or dead, we are subpar compared to every other class – it really is that simple.

This is actually a very very very valid point. If the ranger class is balanced around the idea of 100% pet up-time so significantly then the ranger class needs pets that are capable of 100% pet up-time. Any time you press f3 or your pet dies to a single aoe (lol @ pets being alive in WvW fights for instance) you’re basically pressing a button that is “Reduce your damage by 50% for an indefinate amount of time”.

50% is a bit of an exxageration, but he does present a valid point. However, what you would gain is buffs and heal, depending on the pet you have active. Not agreeing that equals damage output, but all this is hard to quantify. On the other hand, if you are investing 50% of your damage output into your pet (not even sure this is possible), maybe you should give it some survivability. There are traits where you can give you pet LOTS of regen. For instance I know a build where my pet gets 500 regen every second, making it much harder to kill.

This same argument could go for a mesmer using clones or a necro using minions, which both have less survivability than a pet.

Braxxus.2904:

This is actually a very very very valid point. If the ranger class is balanced around the idea of 100% pet up-time so significantly then the ranger class needs pets that are capable of 100% pet up-time. Any time you press f3 or your pet dies to a single aoe (lol @ pets being alive in WvW fights for instance) you’re basically pressing a button that is “Reduce your damage by 50% for an indefinate amount of time”.

That’s false, and I’d like to shill my thread again. I’d like to point out the results of when Rangers without pets. Their DPS in an optimal situation (every attack flanking with Crossfire) is superior to that of a Warrior’s rifle, even without a pet.

I think the idea of the Ranger is that they can reach their peak performance through 1 good positioning and 2. alive pets. Do pets being dead hurt? Yea, you lose a portion of your DPS and essentially a 4th utility skill. But by no means do pets consist 50% of your damage.

Here’s what I’m suggesting. Instead of a 2 minute CD on Signet of Stone, why not make it a 1 minute CD. Instead of 6 seconds of immunity, make it 5 seconds, or even 4 to counter balance it.

Would that be too overpowered?

Adrenaline.2854:

Here’s what I’m suggesting. Instead of a 2 minute CD on Signet of Stone, why not make it a 1 minute CD. Instead of 6 seconds of immunity, make it 5 seconds, or even 4 to counter balance it.

Would that be too overpowered?

I would agree with this. I don’t like that two of our Signets have elite skill cooldowns. Nerf them if you have too, but reduce that cooldown. 4 still sounds good to me, same with signet of the wild.

One skill I hope Anet continues to work on is “Search and Rescue”

The cooldown is still too high. I understand they don’t want people using that on a regular basis but the skill is pretty situational. And while they did improve the revive speed, I still feel that the cooldown is too long. I think if they increase revive speed just a tad bit more and decrease the cooldown a tad bit, then that should work pretty nicely.

The other thing are spirits. In my entire time of playing GW2 since August, i have seen rangers use sprirts maybe 5% of the time that i’ve been playing the game. In other words, I rarely see spirits being used. Spirits could be incredible but as of now, they just do not bring anything to the table. The spirits are so restricted and even when traited, you’re sacrificing quite a bit for average results from spirits. I feel as if Anet should do away with spirits and give us other skills like a condition cleansing utility or possibly a stealth utility. I mean, we do have ways to access stealth but they might as well give us a stealth skill since the ranger is within the swift and agile of classes.

Just my two cents…

Adrenaline.2854:

Here’s what I’m suggesting. Instead of a 2 minute CD on Signet of Stone, why not make it a 1 minute CD. Instead of 6 seconds of immunity, make it 5 seconds, or even 4 to counter balance it.

Would that be too overpowered?

Those 6 seconds are so valuable but I do agree that the cooldown is pretty high. I too was thinking why it seems as if we’re being punished by not only having to trait all the way to grandmaster to have the signet apply to the ranger but also with how high that cooldown is. There has to be a give and take. Rangers don’t have escapability like other classes, nor do they have a high pool of vitality as necros do.

I lol’d when I read about ANET thinking the warrior isn’t better and ranged than a ranger. Until a ranger can pull a 20+k crit with a ranged weapon then it’s total bunk.

IMO

-Signets still need a major overhaul. Buffing Sig of the Hunt was very welcome. However I would appreciate a meaningful active ability as well. And of course our remaining signets are still laughably bad.

-Spirits need to be immune to damage. They are already on a timer, and they have cooldowns. Spirits don’t do damage directly, unlike a mesmer clone. Warrior banners and necro wells don’t take damage, why should spirits?

-In addition spirits should follow you without needing to be traited. There should be a reason to take them without traiting heavily into them, for this and the above reason there currently isn’t.

-Pet attributes should scale with the player’s gear. That’s how the rest of your attacks improve. If the pet is suppose to be an integral part of the class this should be implemented.

-Finally there needs to be a solution for situations when a pet can’t path to it’s target, ie when you or your target are on a wall in WvW. IMO pets should grant their F2 abilities to the ranger’s next weapon attack. For example if your pet’s F2 is an AoE fear, change it so that when you use the F2 ability, it gives a buff that applies an AoE fear effect to the ranger’s next weapon attack. This will make the pets a little less useless when they can’t get to their targets, although it would probably require more time an effort than we’re likely to see.

Arsenic Touch.7960:

Ursan.7846:

Antisceptic.9174:

Warrior Rifle does more damage than Ranger.

False.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Shortbow-vs-Warrior-Rifle-DPS-tests/first

I already pointed out the flaws in that “test” Antisceptic is correct, the rifle does more damage.

What flaws? I see your post that says “redo test with pets on passive.” You should check out the numbers without pets.

By the way, instead of just stating things like “Rifles do more damage,” mind like, providing evidence that they do? It’s much more illuminating and helpful if you can provide some solid numbers that back up your claim, instead of just saying “rifles wars do more damage. Fact.”

Kam.8109:

I lol’d when I read about ANET thinking the warrior isn’t better and ranged than a ranger. Until a ranger can pull a 20+k crit with a ranged weapon then it’s total bunk.

Doing 20k damage doesn’t equal DPS. It just means Wars have better burst damage.

Kam.8109:

I lol’d when I read about ANET thinking the warrior isn’t better and ranged than a ranger. Until a ranger can pull a 20+k crit with a ranged weapon then it’s total bunk.

IMO

-Signets still need a major overhaul. Buffing Sig of the Hunt was very welcome. However I would appreciate a meaningful active ability as well. And of course our remaining signets are still laughably bad.

-Spirits need to be immune to damage. They are already on a timer, and they have cooldowns. Spirits don’t do damage directly, unlike a mesmer clone. Warrior banners and necro wells don’t take damage, why should spirits?

-In addition spirits should follow you without needing to be traited. There should be a reason to take them without traiting heavily into them, for this and the above reason there currently isn’t.

-Pet attributes should scale with the player’s gear. That’s how the rest of your attacks improve. If the pet is suppose to be an integral part of the class this should be implemented.

-Finally there needs to be a solution for situations when a pet can’t path to it’s target, ie when you or your target are on a wall in WvW. IMO pets should grant their F2 abilities to the ranger’s next weapon attack. For example if your pet’s F2 is an AoE fear, change it so that when you use the F2 ability, it gives a buff that applies an AoE fear effect to the ranger’s next weapon attack. This will make the pets a little less useless when they can’t get to their targets, although it would probably require more time an effort than we’re likely to see.

+1 sir, nice post

Well, Anet is promoting Jan/Feb as big months so we can only hope that there will be huge changes within the game

Ursan.7846:

Doing 20k damage doesn’t equal DPS. It just means Wars have better burst damage.

Oh please. Being able to hit for 90% of most peoples life is amazing. It means the warrior can basically two or three shot someone. The ranger doesn’t have anything close to this. I sincerely hope you’re trolling and aren’t drinking the “warriors aren’t better at ranged” kool aid.

Kam.8109:

Ursan.7846:

Doing 20k damage doesn’t equal DPS. It just means Wars have better burst damage.

Oh please. Being able to hit for 90% of most peoples life is amazing. It means the warrior can basically two or three shot someone. The ranger doesn’t have anything close to this. I sincerely hope you’re trolling and aren’t drinking the “warriors aren’t better at ranged” kool aid.

Thats a very easily dodged skill though. Besides, the test was measuring warrior rifle autoattack vs ranger bow autoattack, not killshot vs skills that the ranger has.Warriors have better burst damage. Their ranged dps on autoattack is not greater than ranger, according to the test.

Antisceptic.9174:

Warrior Rifle does more damage than Ranger.

When it comes to practical situations.
Yes.

I’m sure rangers can ideally pull as much if not more dmg with a dps pet, but that involves a pet which has a janky AI and is pretty killable…

Kam.8109:

Oh please. Being able to hit for 90% of most peoples life is amazing. It means the warrior can basically two or three shot someone. The ranger doesn’t have anything close to this. I sincerely hope you’re trolling and aren’t drinking the “warriors aren’t better at ranged” kool aid.

Yes, Warriors can burst very high amounts of damage, but that doesn’t mean → high dps. It just means they’re good at burst. How often can you do 20k crits? Not very often. Killshot has a cooldown, and on top of that you have to charge adrenaline to use it. And it has a 1.75s cast time.

You can easily do high burst damage, but still do crappy long-term dps. There’s a difference between the two, and you have to decouple them.

Ursan.7846:

How often can you do 20k crits?

Every 8 seconds.

Just sayin’. Main was a warrior before I discovered the awesomeness of the ranger.

But yeah, every 8 seconds. Like clockwork.

Braxxus.2904:

Ursan.7846:

How often can you do 20k crits?

Every 8 seconds.

Just sayin’. Main was a warrior before I discovered the awesomeness of the ranger.

But yeah, every 8 seconds. Like clockwork.

Mind telling me the build? As you can see, I’ve been experimenting a bunch. It’s very possible that my Warrior trait build just wasn’t optimal. Tell me, and I’ll test it out!

BTW I see Killshot’s cd is 10s. How is every 8s possible? Is there a trait that decreases CD? (This is with the rifle 20% cd trait btw)

I’d like to hear ANet’s philosophy on the pet AI. I cut it slack in Beta, but four months in and I’m wondering if pets are really where they want them to be.

Ursan.7846:

Mind telling me the build? As you can see, I’ve been experimenting a bunch. It’s very possible that my Warrior trait build just wasn’t optimal. Tell me, and I’ll test it out!

BTW I see Killshot’s cd is 10s. How is every 8s possible? Is there a trait that decreases CD? (This is with the rifle 20% cd trait btw)

8s is with 20% burst skill CD reduction trait.

Build is
15 – V
25 – optional (I’m testing the new VI), VII
0
0
30 – V, VI, XI (<—Reduces burst skill CD by 20%, hence 8 seconds)
Zerker gear all the way
Divinity runes cause I’m lazy like that atm when it comes to my warrior
sig of prec, on my mark, optional, sig of rage (cause warrior elites suck kitten)
Rifle obviously and whatever, usually I run sword/shield for mobility and block/stun in oh kitten situations. Very glass, but hide in a group or snipe and melt faces every 8s.

Ursan.7846:

Braxxus.2904:

This is actually a very very very valid point. If the ranger class is balanced around the idea of 100% pet up-time so significantly then the ranger class needs pets that are capable of 100% pet up-time. Any time you press f3 or your pet dies to a single aoe (lol @ pets being alive in WvW fights for instance) you’re basically pressing a button that is “Reduce your damage by 50% for an indefinate amount of time”.

That’s false, and I’d like to shill my thread again. I’d like to point out the results of when Rangers without pets. Their DPS in an optimal situation (every attack flanking with Crossfire) is superior to that of a Warrior’s rifle, even without a pet.

I think the idea of the Ranger is that they can reach their peak performance through 1 good positioning and 2. alive pets. Do pets being dead hurt? Yea, you lose a portion of your DPS and essentially a 4th utility skill. But by no means do pets consist 50% of your damage.

Unless I’m using longbow with rapid fire, at any given time, my pet is pumping out 40-50% of the dps.

At any given time, my pet is hitting for about 1000-2500 (sometimes more) per hit which is roughly what my longbow does. Even when critting, the shortbow does not do the same amount of damage while flanking. The only real use I find for the shortbow is its far more versatile (which is why i have it equipped more).

On single standing still targets, out comes the long bow, and the pet will deal nearly similar damage. So in effect, taking the pet away (for me) cuts my dps in half.

Braxxus.2904:

Ursan.7846:

Mind telling me the build? As you can see, I’ve been experimenting a bunch. It’s very possible that my Warrior trait build just wasn’t optimal. Tell me, and I’ll test it out!

BTW I see Killshot’s cd is 10s. How is every 8s possible? Is there a trait that decreases CD? (This is with the rifle 20% cd trait btw)

8s is with 20% burst skill CD reduction trait.

Build is
15 – V
25 – optional (I’m testing the new VI), VII
0
0
30 – V, VI, XI (<—Reduces burst skill CD by 20%, hence 8 seconds)
Zerker gear all the way
Divinity runes cause I’m lazy like that atm when it comes to my warrior
sig of prec, on my mark, optional, sig of rage (cause warrior elites suck kitten)
Rifle obviously and whatever, usually I run sword/shield for mobility and block/stun in oh kitten situations. Very glass, but hide in a group or snipe and melt faces every 8s.

Huh. Thanks for the build. It actually kills things at around an average of 19s with full adrenaline, which is faster than the other builds I’ve tested, (Using methodology described in my thread), and about 22s no adrenaline to start with.

It feels like after you use the precision signet, the adrenaline gain kinda slows down. Unless I’m doing something wrong. I’ll Killshot, precision signet, killshot, then wait way more than 8s for my next killshot.

Thanks for your build though. One of the biggest conclusions I’ve gotten from my tests is that Killshot/Volley is a big part of War Rifle DPS, and maximizing the use of those two skills seem to be the be most optimal rifle builds.

DeadlySynz.3471:

Ursan.7846:

Braxxus.2904:

This is actually a very very very valid point. If the ranger class is balanced around the idea of 100% pet up-time so significantly then the ranger class needs pets that are capable of 100% pet up-time. Any time you press f3 or your pet dies to a single aoe (lol @ pets being alive in WvW fights for instance) you’re basically pressing a button that is “Reduce your damage by 50% for an indefinate amount of time”.

That’s false, and I’d like to shill my thread again. I’d like to point out the results of when Rangers without pets. Their DPS in an optimal situation (every attack flanking with Crossfire) is superior to that of a Warrior’s rifle, even without a pet.

I think the idea of the Ranger is that they can reach their peak performance through 1 good positioning and 2. alive pets. Do pets being dead hurt? Yea, you lose a portion of your DPS and essentially a 4th utility skill. But by no means do pets consist 50% of your damage.

Unless I’m using longbow with rapid fire, at any given time, my pet is pumping out 40-50% of the dps.

At any given time, my pet is hitting for about 1000-2500 (sometimes more) per hit which is roughly what my longbow does. Even when critting, the shortbow does not do the same amount of damage while flanking. The only real use I find for the shortbow is its far more versatile (which is why i have it equipped more).

On single standing still targets, out comes the long bow, and the pet will deal nearly similar damage. So in effect, taking the pet away (for me) cuts my dps in half.

Interesting. What pet are you using? Feline? I actually used Devourers for my tests, and they consisted of a solid ~20% of my damage. From my personal experience, Felines just don’t hit as consistently as Devourers do (And the whole ranged factor too). But yes, I imagine Felines are a pretty big part of your damage. Sorry about that, wasn’t really thinking when I posted my original post.

I Agree with your ideas. Even after this patch, my wolf isn’t properly activating its F2 skill. These last patch notes were nice but there’s some more work to do.

I would like to see Anet:
-Fix the sword “root”
-Continue to fix the pets
-Make spirits useful
-Give us an option to stow the pet even during combat
-Give us some nice medium armor choices for once?

for the love of god…. DO NOT make short bow #1 always apply bleed. Its kinda like a built in aggro reduction mechanic. 1300 condi damage 55% crit rate and +41% crit damage in fractals and i have more then enough issues getting the boss to look away.

for pets, aoe’s and bosses one shotting them. Simple fix, when pet is on passive they take 75% less damage (when not attacking/ doing anything) OR when you hit f3 the pet gains 3 seconds of invulnerability (unless you hit f1/f2/f4) I’m fine with having to actively protect my pet, but when i hit f3 to call it back and then it stands right inside the red circle of AOE DOOM that I wanted to get it away from…… fml

@ Kishandreth

i like that idea for the pets.

I think that Anet is going in the right direction, slowly but we see improvements.
In the previous patch, yes I was disappointed to see not the stuff Jon wrote to ranger players but I really appreciated his honesty explaining why and the reasons of delay were fully understandable because of developing and testing issues.

I agree with OP and I think that is Anet’s goal for ranger.
Surely there is a lot of stuff to work on and we will see.

I have to say that I don’t like the so few abilities around, but this is the game itself.
I had a great fun playing Snowball Mayhem as scout while I play rarely sPvP or I pretty quit it. First of all I don’t like domination mechanic, so Snowball Mayhem was something I enjoyed more but this is off topic, there is a second reason why I like this pvp event: scout has two abilities that ranger should have, two abilities that often many here suggested.

I’m speaking about Sniper Shot (4) and Snowblind (5).

I don’t know how, but Jon, please, think a way to add something similar to Ranger.
Sniper shot, so a chargable shot, growing in casting time/dmg, would be perfect for Longbow: it requires you to stay still, you can use it then just reading/understanding strategically the battlefield or you risk doing so, becoming an easy target, it fits a Longbow a lot. This will add not just an ability, not just damage but the fun to play and use it strategically.
One option is add a new weapon like crossbow, Point Blank Shot could pass to crossbow and longbow could get Sniper shot in exchange.
Another option, better imho, would be give to Point Blank Shot the same function of Sniper Shot but then longbow would lose an important knockback: here then you can add the Sniper Shot mechanic to Point Blank Shot. I mean knockback + a chargable shot: so pressing 4 you can use the first tick with 1/2 second cast on the move but staying still you can build up a stronger shot. This new version of Point Blank Shot would still keep the knockback, no matter how long you charge, it can be used as utility but also as damage ability charging it while still.
Another solution would be add simply Sniper shot and give the knockback utility to Rapid Fire or Hunter’s Shot. Personally I think that previous one is far away better for also a simple reason: it’s realistic that a strong shot can knockback.

Obviously, in all these suggestions proposed, knockback would work just under 600 as range.

And what about Snowblind (5)?
Well this seems more a thief stuff but it resembles the camouflage many suggested.
Here the options are two imho: a new survival ability working both for ranger and pet or replace something with that mechanic.
Imho it would fit the activation of Signet of the Hunt.
The activation we have is not really good while a camouflage like Snowblind would fit more the name, speaking of hunt. Activation could work just on pet, so that stuff is not op, if you want to apply it also on your character you need the Grandmaster trait Signet of Beastmaster. There are other options around, probably easier one is add directly a new ability but the second idea is also to solve the active ability of Signet of the Hunt, that is not good atm.

What do you think about these proposals?
The question is obviously for the community and hopefully for Jon, if he likes these ideas or at least the one about Sniper shot.

The active from signet of the hunt is aweful, a petty damage boost to one attack. When taking signet of the hunt I never use it’s active, unless I am defending a stationary position and am rarely moving- which is almost never. It would be good if the active was changed and the other signets boosted.

AlexRD.7914:

The pet revive skill is absolutely useless because of its ridiculous long cooldown, so why not make traits that improve these pet skills?

/disagree. S&R is excellent for tough fights where allies go down often, including NPC allies. Those fights are usually the ones where the pet struggles to survive, and S&R doesn’t need the pet alive to work. This combined with quickness from traited pet swap and/or QZ makes the Ranger capable of reviving people in the most ridiculously dangerous situations.

Munrock.3092:

AlexRD.7914:

The pet revive skill is absolutely useless because of its ridiculous long cooldown, so why not make traits that improve these pet skills?

/disagree. S&R is excellent for tough fights where allies go down often, including NPC allies. Those fights are usually the ones where the pet struggles to survive, and S&R doesn’t need the pet alive to work. This combined with quickness from traited pet swap and/or QZ makes the Ranger capable of reviving people in the most ridiculously dangerous situations.

Keep in mind this only revives ONE person, and you have to wait 85 seconds to use it again. If you want to revive people its a lot better to just pop your spirit of nature renewal, which revives a lot more people.
Maybe useless was a harsh word, but it does need a smaller cooldown.

I think they should review the Shortbow because it sucks since the damage nerf a few patches back. As a Ranger I cannot consistently deliver the damage I should be dealing. I use the Warhorn skill Call of the Wild, Rampage as One, “Sick ’Em”, Quickening Zephyr and my pet’s Mighty Roar in a build specced towards my Jungle Stalker ripping through mobs but the damage isn’t there. Essentially I am sacrificing my utility slots to add to the damage and I still come up short.

They need to give pets full Agony resistance right now. I do not think it should scale with the player’s resistance nor do I think it should be left to a later date! Basically our class mechanic is taken away in the endgame content of this game and no other class faces anything of the sort. Warrior can still build adrenaline in FotM, Guardians still have access to their virtues, Mesmers can still pop clones, Elementalists are still able to switch through their attunements, and so on…

We don’t have access to exceptional utility outside of Healing Spring and I tend to pack my skillbar with the skills mentioned above in the hope of dealing damage that is close to comparable to that of the other classes. My Mesmer brings plenty of utility in the form of Arcane Thievery, Feedback, Nullfield, Portal, Time Warp and so on WITHOUT sacrificing her damage. My Warrior can pack Warbanner, “For Great Justice!”, “Shake it off!”, and all the non-elite banners as required but still deal massive amounts of damage. I am not even going to mention the incredible utility that Guardians and Engineers can bring to battle. At the moment I do not feel that my Ranger brings anything superior to what my Mesmer, Guardian and Warrior have at their disposal. The damage nerf did hurt badly in my humble opinion because we had to work hard to even try and draw level even before they nerfed it. The utility we bring isn’t worth it because other classes have better utility and still deal higher damage.

What do Rangers bring to the table that make them a solid selection?