Guild Wars 2

Why our spirits, die instantly by a mob touch or player, give buffs “randomly having a chance”?
Compared to the banners of warriors; better buffs (constant, they don’t have a CHANCE), inmortal, you can take them and actually give buffs, like speed for the whole party around you?
The spirits are useless

Please can I have a answer about this?

Because they’re weak, don’t use them.

This is something that a number of Ranger players have pointed out in many other threads. There is no sense starting another new thread to complain about this.

Because ArenaNet was contacted by the Almighty Lords of Role Playing and informed them that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should the Ranger class ever become powerful, lest people actually play them. Thus, following in the example of Blizzard and those who went before, ArenaNet unsheathed the mighty Nerfbat, and in the dead of night, ambushed the Ranger and smote him. After he fell, the conspirators agreed that he must not ever return, so they took his most prized possessions- his bow, his speed, and his skills-and took them under the nerfbat as well. Then, when their deed had been rendered, they returned to the Almighty Lords of Role Playing, and it was decided that Ranger was put in his place. As their final measure, the Almighty Lords of Role Playing gathered together, and with a ancient chant, cursed the Ranger with pet AI incapable of avoiding AoE and attacking while moving. Only then was the Ranger deemed incapable of playing, and with the universe at balance, ArenaNet returned to their offices to…. eat donuts…. or… play table tennis…. or whatever they do there.

/Serious answer

They look more like an oversight to me. When ArenaNet nerfed a lot of the Ranger stuff a few betas ago, they didn’t seem to really check their math or playtest it to see the effects of the nerf. On top of that, a lot of the Ranger skills and traits didn’t “mature” as the other professions did. As a result, a lot of the Ranger skills are in a weaker state than they should be.

/Serious answer
They look more like an oversight to me. When ArenaNet nerfed a lot of the Ranger stuff a few betas ago, they didn’t seem to really check their math or playtest it to see the effects of the nerf. On top of that, a lot of the Ranger skills and traits didn’t “mature” as the other professions did. As a result, a lot of the Ranger skills are in a weaker state than they should be.

After reading this, my face is :<

Pets blow at the start of most games, took wow what, 2 years or more to figure out pets need to scale? Took D3 about 6 months..

Give it some time, im sure we will see changes to the systems. Im hoping the Masters Bond thing changes from + stats on kill, to a solid +5% of your stats to pet. Then i might actually use it for wvw.

I think the difference between the banner to spirit thing is that banners cant be up 24/7 where as a spirit will always be there, unless killed. I still think they blow, but that was likely the thinking behind it.

So make due for now, pets and their ai are always something that gets fixed later.

I basically think of them as armor that has a chance to buff occasionally. They take a shot or two for the team (mobs LOVE to kill them for some reason) then go bye bye.

I’m not sure what they were supposed to be like, but given that I can’t tell when/if they actually do whatever they do… yeah, I stopped using them completely and try to focus on other skills that I’m more certain actually work.

I don’t think the devs finished making full passes to bring all classes up to par before launch. It seems they don’t really even know where par is, so the game didn’t release when ranger class balance was ready – pet responsiveness (particularly f2) was still bugged at launch. Look at the ranger bug thread, a good number of ranger skills and traits are either bugged or simply don’t work. They didn’t finish class balance before launch, they didn’t even have it all working properly to try and balance it.

Give it a few months when they take a proper look at ranger skills (especially spirits) because I suspect there will be some considerable buffs coming along for some skills and builds. Unfortunately they’ve decided to let it sit and wait for a while before doing anything (even if they are obviously underpowered) but hopefully they won’t wait too long or don’t pull a GW1 and leave some skills dead for the life of the game.

I don’t think there is a good reason for ranger spirits to be so weak comparatively, I think they are just relics of old design that never got brought up to par with the rest of the classes, much like many skills.

It brings back nostalgia, yes they are relics from the past, but look into this:
Spirit didn’t generate aggro whatsoever like this ones does, and the range of spirits was enormous, so I could place them far away and survive and let my party get the buffs ( all the time ) and not to have a chance for it, which makes them more useless.
And I give again the warriors banners, permanents buffs (which are better..), you can move them, use them, and in the top of that don’t take damage.

I really don’t know why there’s so huge difference, not to say as well the Necromancer pools.

i would like to see spirits being viable.

Alur.7510:

Why our spirits, die instantly by a mob touch or player, give buffs “randomly having a chance”?
Compared to the banners of warriors; better buffs (constant, they don’t have a CHANCE), inmortal, you can take them and actually give buffs, like speed for the whole party around you?
The spirits are useless

Please can I have a answer about this?

Hey hey hey hey, don’t say ALL spirits… Natures Spirit is still reining supreme being a total boss, it however, is the only spirit that doesn’t fall over to a leaf in the breeze, really needs to be fixed… or AT LEAST buff the hell out of the range on them…

to ANet :

make them invulnerable if you want to make the buffing by chance, reduce the spirit duration if you want but make them invulnerable…. they are almost useless as of now…. if you don’t have the love towards those spirits, take them out of the game completely….

I like them a lot. Even as is. I know they’re not super effective, but it’s fun to be surounded by a ton of glowing spirits! That’s all there is to class balance, really. My cool visual effects will get me through another day of battle. Yup.

I agree, the spirits need more health. It is ridiculous to only get it out for the secondary benefit, without allowing it to function for its allies-benefit first function. The thing never lasts longer than 10 seconds, if that. For the length of time it is given, it needs more health. Either a base health amount or have the health level with the ranger. As of right now, spirits are just a very long cast time for their secondary functions.

Xenos.1072:

I think the difference between the banner to spirit thing is that banners cant be up 24/7 where as a spirit will always be there, unless killed. I still think they blow, but that was likely the thinking behind it.

There’s always a comparison being made between warrior banners & ranger spirits. And i think, altho the professions are quite different, the comparison is a valid one. While banners can’t be up 24/7, they can be picked up & moved. This mobility function is pretty awesome, not to mention a few new skills (that i’m not familiar with) when holding the banner. I don’t know if enemy PvPers can pick up the banner or destroy it, but I don’t see PvE mobs doing it. What do u mean “can’t be up 24/7”? They have a duration just like spirits. Do you mean that the duration of spirits is the same as their CD? Cuz if so, the CD doesn’t start until the spirit dies, due to the 2ndary function of spirits (which have a delay and small radius, especially for something so immobile).

On the bright side you can grab the warriors banner and use it’s blast finisher in your water field or fire field or frost field but mainly in your water field.

underwater the spirits seem to blend and survive well enough. Otherwise….

Spirits would be better if you could trait them to stealth or linger their passive effects for X seconds after they die. Otherwise, the non-elite spirits as a whole are kind of underwhelming traited, and borderline useless untraited.

I’d like to know why they’re rooted unless you spec into them so far. They MIGHT be worthwhile as is if they were mobile, but I mean really, who just stands in one spot in this game? Ever?

Seems a bit silly to me, but since I never use them anyway, it’s the least of the silly things about this game that I wonder about.