Guild Wars 2

First and foremost – I’ve been a ranger for a long time. I’ve seen it through its ups and its downs. While I’ve always been rather harsh in my opinion of how the class was executed in GW2, I don’t think it’s inherently “bad”. In my opinion, it just needs tweaked. I’ve played just about every “meta” build, have been responsible for the creation of some of them, but I typically run custom builds.

Below is a selection of my ideas to that I believe would positively affect underused abilities(as well as some outright useless ones) and bring them up to par. I had originally planned to wait for another rework thread to pop up, but I also want feedback from other rangers as well.

My desire is to give rangers a unique and noticeable place in a team fight without trying to replace nor take the place of other classes. I know that this is simply impossible, but I’m trying.

Notes:
1. everything here is just an idea of a player, not something that will (probably)ever happen.
2. due to character limits and the sheer length my formatting would require, only summaries are in this thread. the actual bulk of text is hosted on dropbox.
3. numbers used for damage and duration are subject to change. as i cannot field test this, actual balanced numbers is hard to pinpoint. the numbers look good to me personally, but you know how these things go.
4. the number of traits, as well as their location, is up for debate – i sometimes add 6 traits for some things when the standard is only 1-3. i don’t list a line to put them in due to the current layout scheme and having yet to configure a full trait reorganization.

Up first: Traps.
When I joined GW2, I originally made a ranger because I wanted to use traps. I wanted to use those traps to build an ambush on unsuspecting opponents. Needless to say, that’s not really how traps work in GW2.

Through my changes, I hope to bring more utility to traps, more lethality for falling into them, and an upgrade to some of the baseline functionality of them.

Second: Shouts.
I shouldn’t need to tell anyone that the current “shouts” do not particularly.. shine. Nor do they shout. With these changes, I hope to bring them in-line with other shouts in the game, as well as add their own uniqueness to differentiate their use.

Third: Spirits.
While some are in denial for whatever reason, it should be obvious to the vast majority that spirits are lacking. The boons they offer are great(except storm/water), but the spirits themselves are far too soft and do nothing but add clutter to an already overloaded field. My ideas include making them more like signets and fine tuning their “turret” capabilities.

Forth: Weapon skills(WIP).
For now, my changes are primarily focused on bows, as I feel that is the biggest flaw in rangers weapons. While certain things(eg, sword AA/axe 5) could also use some attention, I haven’t yet gotten to them.

Fifth: Pets(WIP).
This is a long one. Instead of a simple tweak, it’s a complete overhaul. I know that certain functionality changes will hit a nerve instantly, but I feel it fits with the overall design. It’s a big change though, and I would greatly appreciate feedback on it.

tl;dr Pet is less “unique”, new utilities, new traits, and a new hotbar.

PS: Please no complaints of super OP abilities. I want suggestions, not whining. Some things in particular:

1. How would you implement an elite of the types we don’t currently have(trap, shout, signet)?
2. Other than “disable pet for more damage”, what’s a real change you want to see made to pets? AI is obvious, I want creativity.
3. Are there any weapon skills you simply wish would change? What would you change them to?

1. Elite trap sounds like a great idea, and it’s more unique in a sense because none of other classes can use traps as well as ranger. If they ever add one, it should be on shorter cool down (maybe 40~60 seconds) and should be condition base, adding with some CC.

What I can think of currently is something like this:

Set a trap on target location that pulses every second and last for 5 seconds, dazing up to 5 targets within the area, while causing poison, burning, and 3 stacks bleeding for each pulse. (I try not to include conditions that usually ranger doesn’t get, and try not to add soft CC in it so people can walk out of it if the ranger doesn’t use other source of soft cc to force the player to stay inside the daze field)

2. We should have the ability to command pet to use their 2~4 skills, not just f2.
This will add a great deal of depth and skill level to ranger, rewards good micro controlling, and punish lazy micro.

3. I really hope ranger can use dagger on their main hand. I’m really surprised that GW2 ranger can’t use dagger in their main hand. Most rogue class that I know can use dagger as their main weapon.

Added note: I checked some of your weapon skills suggestion.
I think the SB one is interesting, but LB one will destroy the weapon entirely.
None of the skills should have this type of range restriction because there’re so many ways to gap close in this game. Best example I can give you is Mortar. It’s a completely broken skill that no-one ever want to use.

Aomine.5012:

Set a trap on target location that pulses every second and last for 5 seconds, dazing up to 5 targets within the area, while causing poison, burning, and 3 stacks bleeding for each pulse. (I try not to include conditions that usually ranger doesn’t get, and try not to add soft CC in it so people can walk out of it if the ranger doesn’t use other source of soft cc to force the player to stay inside the daze field)

i was thinking something similar to a daze field too, as that reminds me of a skill back in gw1. i just wasn’t sure how the community would take it seeing as how touche they are at any potential boon to a class, especially one as disliked as rangers are at the moment. i’m not sure how you could make it believably pulse, though.

this is what i have written down:
Daze Trap: 3/4s cast, 60s cd (elite)
Trap. Set a trap that dazes and damages foes.
Damage: 240
Daze (3s): Unable to use skills.
Bleeding (10s): 1,240 Damage
Cripple (10s): -50% Movement Speed
Trap Radius: 210
Damage Radius: 270
Unblockable

Aomine.5012:

2. We should have the ability to command pet to use their 2~4 skills, not just f2.
This will add a great deal of depth and skill level to ranger, rewards good micro controlling, and punish lazy micro.

this has been requested a lot(even in the last CDI), anet repeatedly claims that it’s forcing too much micro-management on players. obviously a silly reason, but so far they’ve been very adamant in their position(even though some classes, eg., d/d ele, who put a helluva lot more effort than 3 additional buttons).

Aomine.5012:

3. I really hope ranger can use dagger on their main hand. I’m really surprised that GW2 ranger can’t use dagger in their main hand. Most rogue class that I know can use dagger as their main weapon.

i’ve seen a lot of suggestions for this on the forum, but unfortunately they all just ask for a reskinned version of the thiefs dagger

Aomine.5012:

but LB one will destroy the weapon entirely.
None of the skills should have this type of range restriction because there’re so many ways to gap close in this game.

one of the reasons i was comfortable with adding range restrictions is because i’ve added a lot more crippling abilities to rangers, and i also want to encourage people to switch out to a melee weapon(or even possibly have a dual-bow build, which is essentially impossible right now). as it is right now, many rangers will keep using their longbow even while standing inside their target, which is both illogical and nonsensical. i’m sure some of them could be made less harsh though, it’s not like i’m capable of field-testing these things

how would you handle longbow better?

Traps:
I couldn’t see that you change the traps. You improve them (too strong for my opinion), but the mechanic is the same. I thought you want more ambush-like traps, but i couldn’t see this ambush-like. Maybe if you can only ground traps in regions without enemies. Or you’re easy to interrupt while using a trap. With these restrictions the strong improvements are realistic.

Shout:
Your shouts have very nice ideas. Some are too strong (protect me-taunt is too long), but nice mechanics.

Spirits:
The idea of the spirits is really cool. The mechanic, that the spirit has to move to the located position is a little bit clumsy, in my opinion. The spirits have to move fast to use this command-skills. But the whole concept is really cool. I’ve wrote down a spirit-concept a week ago. I love the idea of the spirit-orbs, but i like the appearance of the current spirits too :P

Wepaonskills:
The new Weaponskills are hard to implement in the current game. There are too manay mechanic which are not in the game yet and which are really complicated (smoke bomb for example) In addition i dislike the idea of bombs or other engineer stuff for a ranger.

Elite Smoke-Trap
I know there was a smoke trap in the GW2 beta. I hope it will come in the game, but i can’t imagine, that it will come as an elite for the druid.

Class mechanic:
As a new mechanic for the druid, i hope for summoning skills for temporary pets. So we needn’t control our pet whole the time (and yes, you can play without pet if you want, like you can play other profession without their profession mechanic :P ) But I really hope this mechanic will come for ranger and the current ranger mechanic will go to the druid. A druid should care more about other and his pet. As a sort of support specialization.

i often forget that i’m playing an action game now and that every second is more important here than they use to be, so my duration may seem extreme in some areas lol

i’m not sure why you have something against smoke though. it’s not really an engineer thing – rangers being what they are in this game(roamers and travelers), using smoke to deter predators seems like something they would already have access to

arron.7348:

i often forget that i’m playing an action game now and that every second is more important here than they use to be, so my duration may seem extreme in some areas lol

i’m not sure why you have something against smoke though. it’s not really an engineer thing – rangers being what they are in this game(roamers and travelers), using smoke to deter predators seems like something they would already have access to

You’re right. I read smoke bomb, but it was a concussion bomb. But where did the smoke come from? or is it like a dust cloud?

i might be tired, but i think you’re confusing two abilities

Smoke Cloud: 3/4s cast, 30s cd
Those who stand within the cloud are hidden from everyone outside the cloud and vice-versa.
Duration: 10s
Radius: 300
Combo Field: Smoke
Range: 900

the smoke just sorta appears here, i haven’t thought of an elaborate way to make it show up that could be done in a timely manner

Blinding Flash: 1/2s cast, 20s cd
Throw a concussion bomb at the ground, removing invisibility and stunning nearby foes.
Stun: 1s
Radius: 360

this, in my mind, is the character pulling something out of its pocket and throwing it at the ground

one of the things i was hoping to achieve was adding more ways to counter stealth, giving rangers a (small)place in certain comps

also: i added a concept for pets and removed the range requirements as per suggestion

As a quick note i didn’t go through the traits, as that is alot of detail in there.

Traps:

Well, you didn’t really change anything about the traps, you just buffed them a bit. I don’t think that this was something important enough that you would include it in a rework.

For the ultimate trap, it just doesn’t feel like an ultimate. I think an ultimate should be strong and impressive, but the smoke trap is just strong.

If I was going to make a change to traps, i would shuffle some traits around to put the trap traits into the wilderness survival traitline from the skirmishing traitline, so that traiting for traps naturally gives you the condition damage.

Shouts:

Ya, shouts definitely need a change like this.

One thing i like about shouts(for all the classes) is that they are tied to the profession. Warriors are for charging with allies, Guardians are for defending your allies, and Rangers use it for communicating with their pets.

I am not a fan of “Show Yourselves”, this type of aggressive shout sounds like it should belong on a Warrior, and it doesn’t involve the pet.

I see you merged “sic’em” and “protect me”. I think that the better name for this skill is still sic’em, as it is closer to the original skill and more fun to hear in-game.

“Run” is too similar to the guardian’s “Retreat” for my tastes, though it isn’t a bad shout.

“Don’t give up” is an ok shout as well, but i like the concept of having the pet manually go to a target and get them up. As the shout is now, it just feels too convenient.

If i were to change up the shouts, they would look like this:

“Sic’em” : unchanged

“Distract’em” : Your pet taunts a target enemy for 3 seconds. Skill only goes on cooldown if an enemy is selected. 30s cd.

“Search and Rescue”: Ground targeted ability. Your pet goes and tries to resurrect an ally in the target area. The skill only goes on cooldown if a downed ally is in the target area. 15s cd.

“Find Cover”: You and your pet gain camouflage, making you and your pet invisible until you move. Max invisibility of 40 seconds. Skill goes on cooldown after camouflage is finished. 30s cd.

Spirits:

I really like your idea for this one.

Do the spirit skills still have an internal cooldown on their passives? If not that is probably a smidge overpowered as is.

I am kinda sad that the sun spirit lost its burning on hit. If i were you i would have kept burning on hit with sun spirit, gave frost spirit your suggested chill on hit, and put the extra damage on hit to the storm spirit, but that is just me.

On a side note i will be sad that i won’t be able to swim with my dolphin spirits if this happened, but it is a fair trade off for the new functionality.

Weapon Skills:

I am not a big fan of the weapon skill suggestions, the smoke-bomb and concussion grenade skill just feel like they belong on a thief or engineer, not a ranger.

If i could change one thing on the longbow, i would change the get invisibility on hit mechanic, as it really just feels off. I would change this to a “gain camouflage” skill that gives you might, fury, and swiftness upon exiting camouflage.

Pets

I think moving to a 1 pet system is the right choice, just because it gives us more access to pet control. I do think however that there is a way to do this without stripping the pets of their individuality.

With my idea:

F1 is still attack

F2 is still the pets special skill

f3 is now a skill based on the type of pet. If you think about it, every pet has one skill that the player would like to have control of. Dogs have their knockdown, porcines have their charge, birds have their swiftness, moas have thier heal, and the list goes on. These skills would now be activated manually by the player..

With this the ranger can control 3 of the pets 4 skills. The 4th skill is typically not that important, so you could either choose to discard it or you can simply include it as a part of a basic attack chain like it is right now.

f4 is now a ground targetted “move here” command, replacing the “return” command. It adds alot of micromanagement to the pet, but it allows the ranger to guide the pet out of aoe skills and position them in battle. using “move here” on the ranger would make the pet follow you.

That is all i have for you right now, thanks for taking the time to write all of this up.

Deleven.7508:

…

Pets

I think moving to a 1 pet system is the right choice, just because it gives us more access to pet control. I do think however that there is a way to do this without stripping the pets of their individuality.

With my idea:

F1 is still attack

F2 is still the pets special skill

f3 is now a skill based on the type of pet. If you think about it, every pet has one skill that the player would like to have control of. Dogs have their knockdown, porcines have their charge, birds have their swiftness, moas have thier heal, and the list goes on. These skills would now be activated manually by the player..

With this the ranger can control 3 of the pets 4 skills. The 4th skill is typically not that important, so you could either choose to discard it or you can simply include it as a part of a basic attack chain like it is right now.

f4 is now a ground targetted “move here” command, replacing the “return” command. It adds alot of micromanagement to the pet, but it allows the ranger to guide the pet out of aoe skills and position them in battle. using “move here” on the ranger would make the pet follow you.

That is all i have for you right now, thanks for taking the time to write all of this up.

This is a also nice pet idea. But for this we also need a working Pet AI and working Pet attacks.

i considered keeping each pets individual set of skills, but i personally couldn’t figure out a way to get the varied skills of each pet to work in a more collaborative way between the pet and ranger(which is my goal) without just using the pet as a hard cc turret. i also wanted to bring more effects similar to my “rip” ability to the ranger itself too, probably on some weapon skills(or traits that make it so)

i’m sure with more time i could alter each and every pet to have its own uniqueness, but this is more of an idea thread than a “this is how it will be” thread