If its as fundamental as he’s saying, it could be an entirely new and different mechanic from what Rangers have now, and they have it only when they are druids (which means, no pets mechanic), but the problem with that was we saw the druid in the trailer with his pet, meaning that didn’t actually change. That or the new mechanic really is optional and can be switched out at any time, or its not related to our pets or our F1-F4 skills and is something different.
I’m not entirely sure how that would work if it removes pets, since pets are literally half of our profession when you count our survival, utility, and damage, and the half of our traits that only work with pets.
We are speculating on just what they meant and what the video meant… They could have even put the pets into utility skills ala GW1. We just won’t know until the demo reports are out.
RNG is a bell curve. Better hope you’re on the right side.
The mechanic is for sure a pet mechanic. I hope for a really new and funny mechanic.
For example, the druid could sumon one of 4 (F1-F4) pets for a short time. A bird with good single target damage, a wolf with group damage, a bear as tank and with support and a spider for range and condition damage. And with traits it could be possible to summon up to three pets (after each summon, all skills have a delay). These pets are less powerful as the ranger pets. Its like a minion, but as class mechanic.
So this system is just with pets (rangerlike) and it is something new without micro management.
It could also be possible, that you will get a druid traitline instead the beast master traitline. And you will get additional utilities for traps, nature ritual etc. But the pet-skills are also exchanged for special druid utilities.
The last point are the special pet bonus for some weapon skills. There can be a special for druid pets too. Like “5 s swiftness for ranger pet or druid pets”. The druid summons are weaker so it could be fair to have the same bonus.
Guild Wars balancing concept: Never change a ruined system!
I must’ve missed in the transcript where Colin said that during the PAX presentation. Or was that stated as fact by another Anet employee?
But man, if they do what you think they’re going to do the Druid is DOA to me. I don’t need a zoo keeper (although some RP’ers and kids would like that). I need a Ranger that’s less AI dependant, not more. If you’re right, I’ll hope for a future expansion that includes something that is a Specialization without being dragged down by AI (that, if you have forgotten, is the same AI that’s used by every other creature in the game).
RNG is a bell curve. Better hope you’re on the right side.
Who wants to bet it’s a support profession that’s essentially blacklisted from the PvE “kill kitten before it kills you” zerker meta.
Screw those PvE kats,,,,, I want more support for helping my allies in WvW when fighting other zergs. That will be a blast like playing Instanced PvP in WoW/Rift as a healer.
I could be a threat once again as a support build. That’s where the fun is!!!
