Before anything else I would like to say, this is a LONG post. Ranger has been my passion since GW1 launch and it honestly pains me to play it in this game. I’m aware the actual reality of a developer caring about, much less reading this, is slim to none. That’s why it took me so long to find the motivation to finish it.
I started this several days ago and finally committed myself to finishing it. I originally intended to make this a short post with quick fixes (or band-aids as I call them) that would be easy to implement for developers and would aid in patching up my favorite profession. What I ended up realizing was that although a few skills can be buffed or nerfed the profession as a whole has so many holes that someone really can’t fix anything without some bigger changes. Well it of course started to get carried away because “Hey, if I’m going to fix this issue I should fix the other issue instead of band-aiding it.” and so my entire original purpose went out the window and this nightmare took shape. If any developer or other employer actually reads this please just let me know. I’m fully aware this post is massive but I believe it helps shape the Ranger profession into something amazing, which it is well over due for.
This was actually a lot of effort with brainstorming and mathz so please give it a read everyone and tell me what you think.
Thank you.
-Sco
PS. Please keep in mind the bigger picture. These are not all random stand-alone changes. If you have a suggestion let me know and I’ll throw it in here if I feel it fits better/as well. Thanks!
- Rune of the Trapper: Bonus (6) remove stealth for all professions other than Thief. Replace with Resistance(2s).
(Stealth on traps was not an effect that encouraged active play or counterplay for any profession except Thief. Changing it to Resistance helps mitigate the condition problems commonly faced by non-thief trappers without outright removing them. I understand this will probably not be a favorable change but I hope the changes as a whole compensate for it.)
- ”Strength of the pack!:" Unchanged
(This skill is currently an extremely powerful offensive powerhouse and no change is necessary.)
- ”Guard!”: You and your pet block the next incoming attack for 2s. If an attack is blocked in this way gain Protection(4s). If only one(or neither) of you blocks an attack this skill recharges 5s faster. 20s Recharge.
(Emergency defense skill for pet and Ranger.)
- ”Protect Me!”: Pet has 50% damage reduction for the duration of the skill. Reduced recharge to 50s.
(This skill not only stops all pet based DPS but often sacrificed the pet as well which is just…wrong. Now it can be used to either keep the pet alive in an emergency at the cost of DPS or keep you alive.)
- ”Search and Rescue!”: Your pet gains (3)Stability(10s) and Stealth(10s). Revive speed reduction removed. Stealth ends early if skill is cancelled. Recharge reduced to 80s.
(This skill had a great idea but over-nerfed the actual effect. This skill is now taking the pet stealth from Guard and applying to a situation it actually needs it.)
- ”Sic ‘Em!”: Your pet Reveals(5s) nearby foes. Your pet causes Immobilization(2s) with its next attack. If it hits a foe from behind it causes knockdown(2s) instead. Radius 1,200.
(The damage of this was either too powerful or wasted. Removing the potential damage and trading it with AoE stealth counter and hard/soft CC is better at achieving the goal for this skill.)
- Signet of Renewal:
Passive: Affects pet as well.
Active: Cleanses 3 conditions from you and your pet and 1 from allies near you. Gain (10)Endurance for each condition removed from you. Remove Stun Break Effect. Lower CD to 45 seconds. Added 1/2s cast time.
(By removing the large potential of this skill for a more reliable and beneficial effect it can be better used by the player to support himself and his pet while also providing a small amount of group support.)
- Signet of Stone:
Passive: Unchanged.
Active: Add Stun Break and (5)Stability(8s). Recharge 90s.
(This skill did too little to justify the long CD. Added Stability and the Stun Break from SoR to better focus the defensive signets and give more purpose to the skill.
- Signet of the Hunt:
Passive: Unchanged.
Active: Your next 3 attacks deal 25% more damage. Your pet’s next attack causes cripple(5s). Duration-10s. Added 3/4s cast time.
(This skill’s active really only benefited a single Ranger skill to any meaningful degree. By spreading out the damage and removing the pet’s damage portion of the skill we can increase the overall utility of the skill as well as the player-based damage by allowing the damage buff to stack with other Attack of Opportunity sources.)
- Signet of the Wild:
Passive: Unchanged.
Active: Add reduced endurance regeneration by 50% for duration.
(This skill is very strong and versatile. Reducing endurance regeneration helps balance the skill.)
- Entangle: Grants (1)Stability(1s) on cast. Add Blast Finisher.
(Entangle is a great skill that didn’t need much. Blast Finisher is to add a small amount of utility to the skill.)
- Lightning Reflexes: Unchanged
- Muddy Terrain: Unchanged
- Quickening Zephyr: Unchanged
- Sharpening Stone: Add (1)Torment(7s) per strike. Recharge 30s.
(This skill provided very little damage and zero utility. Adding torment increases damage potential but is balanced by the common application of immobilize in condition Ranger builds which limits movement forcing well timed play. Recharge reduced to 30s as it still provides zero defensive utility while untraited.)
- Flame Trap: Add (1)Torment(2.5s) per pulse.
(Flame Trap actually provides very little damage and zero utility so adding damage helps make the skill more punishing.)
- Frost Trap: Add Stun Break. Recharge 45 seconds.
(Adding a stun break to Frost Trap gives the skill much needed utility for Trappers. Increasing the recharge to compensate.)
- Spike Trap: Unchanged.
- Viper’s Nest: Add Cripple(2s) per pulse.
(Adding cripple gives another trap a snare effect reducing the dependence on Frost Trap for movement control.)
Ranger spirits have long been what I can only describe as a nightmare. I know I’m not the only one that feels this way and what follows is my personal recommendation for the skills based on current themes and past experiences. I think this is a chance for these poor set of skills to be reborn anew. I fully understand these changes alone represent a massive overhaul but please, please consider it. I invested a lot of time and mathz to come up with these iterations. Every time spirits get “reworked” it’s been a complete let down because the base design is just a flawed system and needs to be let go I’m sorry to say. These changes address this issue and bring the Ranger closer to the Druid thematically as well which is something sorely lacking from the current iterations.
General Changes
- 900 Range or Point blank summon distance (will specify)
- Visually Orbit a small area or the caster (like a colored wisp)
- Applies effects at set 3s intervals and immediately upon activation.
- immune to damage
- 360unit radius passive & 240unit radius active.
- 15s duration. Recharge does NOT start until spirit is destroyed.
- Range is based on spirits current location, not caster’s. (Would be nice if tiny red bar on the skill reflected this.)
Skill Changes
- Sun Spirit: Summon a Sun Wisp at target location. Foes near the wisp (1)Burn(1s) and allies near it cause (2)Burning(2s) with their next attack. Recharge 45 seconds.
Active: Sun Wisp flies to your current foe and sacrifices itself in a blinding flash that leaves foes Blind(5s) and (5)Burns(5s) foes for a short duration. Range 900.
(The idea behind this skill is to give the ranger a way to apply heavy condition damage in an area while being able to sacrifice the area control when needed.)
- Frost Spirit: Summon a Frost Wisp at Target location. Foes near the wisp become (3)Vulnerable(9s) and allies near the wisp gain (3)Might(9s). Recharge 45 seconds.
Active: Frost Wisp flies to current target and explodes in a cold snap Chilling(5s) and damaging nearby foes. Range 900.
(This works similar to Sun Spirit but works for a more power orientated builds but takes some time to reach full potential.)
- Storm Spirit: Summon a Storm Wisp around yourself that grants Swiftness(2s) to allies near it and damages foes near itself. Recharge 30s.
Active: Storm Wisp flies to current target and burst into electricity damaging and Dazing(2s) foes in a small radius. Range 900.
(Storm Spirit now acts as a damaging area around the Ranger that can be sacrificed as a ranged interrupt attack.)
- Stone Spirit: Summon a Stone Wisp around yourself that grants Protection(2s) to allies near it and Cripples(2s) foes instead. Recharge 50 seconds.
Active: Stone Spirit flies under the ground beneath your feet and after a short delay the ground erupts upward Breaking Stuns and granting Vigor(5s) to nearby allies.
(Gives the Ranger an option for a party supportive defensive skill that can be sacrificed at an opportune time to break stuns.)
- Water Spirit: Summon a Water Wisp around yourself that grants healing(1000) for you and nearby allies. Pet receives same amount of healing as user. Recharge 25s.
Active: Water wisp splashes to the ground healing you(2500) and nearby allies(1500) leaving behind a water field(4s).
(This heal focuses on being a mobile but slightly weaker version of Healing Spring in terms that it doesn’t remove conditions for you or allies and whose water field is a much shorter duration making it much harder to capitalize upon.)
- Spirit of Nature: Summon a Spirit of Nature Wisp around yourself that pulses (3)Stability(3s) and removes 2 conditions from yourself and nearby allies.
Active: Send the Spirit of Nature Wisp out to target location before it sucks itself and up to 3 downed allies into the earth teleporting them to your location and instantly revives near downed allies before exploding in one last large heal(2500). Radius 360. Recharge 150s.
(By removing the insanely large potential healing from this skill we can make it a much stronger temporary supportive skill that can be sacrificed to resurrect downed allies and burst heal in an emergency. This skill s balanced by the long recharge.)
- Barrage: Destroy Projectiles within range. Recharge 45 seconds.
(Allowing Barrage to not only target enemies but also their projectiles gives the skill a huge boost in effectiveness even if enemies move out of the damage portion of the skill while not over-emphasizing the offensive focus of the skill. The increased recharge helps balance the new effect.)
- Crossfire: Bleed is now applied regardless of direction. Bleed duration reduced to 2s.
(Reduces Bleed duration for reliability.)
- Poison Volley: Renamed “Poison Arrow”. Applies (5)Poison(4s) to target.
(This skill’s weakness was needing to be in melee range to get full effectiveness. By removing the potential AoE effect we can focus greater on a single target and in doing so remove the weakness of the skill.)
- Crippling Shot: Cripple duration doubled if hits a moving foe.
(Increases effectiveness by rewarding skilled play.)
- Concussion Shot: Add Unblockable skillfact.
(Allowing this skill to be unblockable greatly rewards skilled play as it can cancel a foe’s defensive action if timed appropriately.)
- Ricochet: Replaced with Melee Skill chain. See Below.
- Chop: Cut your foe with your Axe inflicting (1)Vulnerability(5s).
- Swift Chop: Chop at your foe again inflicting (2)Vulnerability(5s).
- Furious Chop: Chop at your foe and gain (1)Might(9s) for every foe struck.
(Making Axe a cleaving melee weapon opens up new playstyles for Ranger that are currently unviable do to the lack of a controllable one-handed cleaving weapon while also helping give the Shortbow a more unique identity.)
- Winter’s Bite: Leap at your foe inflicting Chill(3s) on foes you strike. Your pet’s next attack inflicts Weakness(10s). Range 600. Recharge 12s.
(Now a Leap skill to aid in the new melee aspect of the weapon.)
- Hunter’s Call: Add Blind(2s) when cast and every 8 hits thereafter.
(Adding Blind to this skill increases its utility)
- Bonfire: Increase cast time to 1.25s.
(Bonfire is an incredibly powerful skill. Increasing the casting time allows for better counterplay.)
- Predator’s Onslaught: You and your pet deal 10% increased damage to movement-impaired foes and 10% more damage to foes disabled as well. Axe Skills recharge faster.
(This trait was never taken as it had to complete with two very powerful and effective traits. By merging it with Honed Axes and repurposing the damage boosts it brings a new and very effective playstyle to Marksmanship for those wanting a cleave based brawler.)
- Light on your feet: While Wielding a Shortbow you gain (15)Endurance back after dodging. Shortbow skills recharge faster and your arrows pierce.
(Increasing Damage on Shotbow was pointless as the base damage is well below average. Condition duration was also removed and instead replaced with endurance gain to provide the weapon a much needed sustain bonus.)
- Empathetic Bond: Reduces the remaining duration of any condition transferred this way by 50%. Moved to Beastmastery Grandmaster.
(This move opens up much needed build diversity by re-distributing the condition removal traits in Wilderness Survival and reducing the condition duration on the conditions as to not be so mean to the pet.)
- Honed Axes: Removed. Replaced by Natural Resilience.
(Merged with Predator’s Onslaught as Ferocity is un-needed on Axe and Winter’s Bite now cleaves this trait became pointless.)
- Shared Anguish: Cast “Guard!” when your pet is disabled. Recharge 20s. When you are disabled your pet takes the blow and suffers Weakness(5s) instead. Recharge 50s.
(Shared Anguish was a mean skill that scarified your pet’s well-being. Now it acts as a dual sided skill that has both you and your pet protecting each other in different ways.)
- Natural Resilience: Take 25% less condition damage for a time (3s) after dodging. Gain (5)Endurance for each condition on you when you dodge. Wilderness Survival Grandmaster.
(This trait is focused around surviving conditions instead of removing them as Ranger has limited on-demand condition removal. It also completes the trait line’s focus on defense via dodging while providing a defensive alternative to Wilderness Knowledge, for those not using Survival skills.)
- Trapper’s Expertise: Traps recharge 20% faster. Lay down a Frost Trap when disabled (negating the disable).
(Buffing the traps themselves removes the need for this trait for them to be useful. Adding a defensive aspect to the trait instead gives trappers needed sustain.)
- Nature’s Vengeance: Spirit skills recharge 20% faster. Sacrificed Spirits recharge an additional 10% faster and remove a boon from struck foes. Water Spirit and Spirit of Nature restore a small amount of (10)Endurance instead.
(Spirit Skills can be sacrificed at any point, sometimes immediately so adding additional recharge rate for doing so helps reduce the downside while Boon removal revisits old school ranger Boon hate. Not to be left out the two supportive spirits grant some endurance back to allies.)
(edited by Castaliea.3156)