Guild Wars 2

While some stuff was addressed in the latest balance patch, I feel like some traits still needs to be worked on. So here is my personal take on the current ranger traits (to find what could need some love). I’d like to have your opinion on those as well.

I tried to focus line per line, and to regroup traits following their field of actions.
I put an appreciation in front of each :
++ Very good skill
+ Good skill
0 Ok
- meh
— Why would you ever take that.

Marksmanship
Opening strike related traits.
Opening strike is something that I find pretty weak, I’m not sure that 5 stacks of Vuln for 5 secs really changes the outcome of a fight.
From a PvE standpoint, the fight against lower mob is quicker, but it’s not the part where you need help. Against bosses, it’s useless.
In sPvP it could allow you to have a quicker fight against glass canon (that is, if they don’t run away, heal and come back , and you still don’t have os back), but it’s useless against Guards (hello Aegis…)

• Adept minor: 0. Nothing special, just gives opening strikes.
• Master Minor: 0. Yey, os for pets. Now it’s 10 stacks. That is, if the pets lands the hit.
• Grandmaster Minor: -. To bad critical damage is in skirmishing. Anyway if I play crit, it’s at least with a 30% crit proc chance, so this traits is rather meh for a grandmaster.
• XII: —. Heck, that’s a grandmaster traits, it should be something that can change the outcome of a fight, not something that’ll help you kill trash mobs faster in PvE…
  (and it’s an utter joke in sPvP).

Signet Related Traits:

• IV: ++. Always nice to have less CD (especially for stone).
• IX: —. 1 stack of might for 5 secs? Really?
• XI: ++. The only way to make Stone signet and signet of the wild (to bad you can’t stomp) useful, making it a very good trait (well those 2 signets are useless otherwise, but it’s another problem )

Other traits:

• I: -. I guess it’s for snipers. It’s useless in close combat (and well, you can’t snipe that well in this game).
• II: 0. Boosts some pets damage(Boars, Devourers, Spiders, Feline, Reef Drake, Salamander Drake, Eagle, Hawk, Arcotdus, Murellow, Shark). Nothing good, nothing bad.
• III: +. Bleeds for the next 6 attacks, always nice. Tho there seems to be an ICD.
• V: 0. 2 seconds of cripple seems kinda weak (with and ICD of 15secs).
• VI: +. Your pet is going to take hits anyway. So 9 seconds of fury/might is good. Well except for 1v1 against single target damage in sPvP, but still.
• VII: —. 70 precision isn’t much and it doesn’t grant the boost to you or your pet…
• VIII: ++. Piercing arrow. You have to position yourself to make use of this one, but it’s a good one.
• X: 0. More range and more damage is always something useful (not like longbow in itself :p ).

Skirmishing
Traps related traits:
Really, traps oriented traits (so one of the only conditions spec for ranger) in a trait line focused on Precision/Crit Dmg.
Yey, I can play both Pure Dmg (with crits) and Condition (with traps). To bad most classes can focus on either one or the other.
So this is going to reflect on the usefulness of the traits.

• III: -. Not sure that a spike trap will help to prevent stomping (and the damage it produce is quite a laugh, because you know, it’s not in a contidition traits line).
• VIII: +. Good in itself (larger, not at your feet). And only a Master.
• XI: 0. Good as well. But heck, that’s a grandmaster trait.

Critical Hit related traits:

• I: -. Your pet don’t crit that often.
• II: +. 1 sec of Bleed is not much, but that’s still something giving you a tad more damage.
• V: —. 1 stack of might for 1 sec. On your pet. That’s like nothing.
• VII: —. See I (and the heal isn’t that strong).
• IX: +. More damage on crits in a line focused on crits. Make sense, and a nice boost to the Axe damage output.

Other traits:

• Adept Minor: ++. Swiftness for 5 secs every 10 secs, nice.
• Master Minor: ++. Fury for 5 secs every 10 secs, nice.
• Grandmaster Minor: ++. Actually gives you an incentive to place yourself well in a fight (not easy in 1v1, but still a very good minor).
• IV: +. 5 secs of vigor every 15 secs seems good. In sPvP. Not sure that’d be useful in PvE.
• VI: +. More mobility to the pets. Means more chance to follow a target. Yey.
• X: ++. Less cooldown on weapon skills. Extremely useful.
• XII: -. Given the fact that you have only two skill that stun/daze (5 GS, 5 sb) for 1 sec (so it’s a 1.5 sec stun) and the fact that those have a medium CD (between 20 and 30 secs), it’s kinda weak for a grandmaster trait.
  And to make it even worse, 5 GS already gives an attack of opportunity to your pet.

Wilderness Survival
I don’t see how to regroup them, so it’s just a list

• Adept Minor: ++. More dodge, nough said.
• Master Minor: ++. Protection on dodge, making dodge a very good defensive tool.
• Grandmaster Minor: -. It’s nice for snipers. But heck, staying above 90% life when you’re not one shooting people isn’t easy (especially with no healers ). And it’s a grandmaster traits.
• I: +. No use in sPvP, but well so useful everywhere else (like all falling traits in fact :p).
• II: -. Might be useful in some situation, but I don’t see that worth taking.
• III: 0. Prevent one disable. Might help with the lack of stun breaker(yey, only prof w/ 2 stunbreakers whereas all others have at least 4).
  But you still don’t decide when it’s preventing it. And 90 sec cd.
• IV: ++. More dodge when healing. Very nice on the defensive end.
• V: 0. See Marksmanship II.
• VI: ++. Less CD on 5 very good skills, nothing to say.
• VII: 0. Nice boost to the offhand weapons. But given the lack of main hand choice (yey, 4 oh for 2 mh), it would often be a trait for 2 skill only.
• VIII: +. A little boost to counter condition damage. Not much, but still helps.
• IX: 0. Good one in PvE. Not so much in sPvP (works well only if combined with WS III or a sb, otherwise, if the opponent’s not dumb, it’s useless).
• X: ++. Less cooldown on weapon skills. Extremely useful.
• XI: +. Good condition removal. But well 10 secs can be long enough for you to die.
• XII: ++. You’re harder to take down. That’s good.

Nature Magic
Spirit related traits.
One trait that seems missing for me, would be one that would increase their range (I mean it’s like 900 or 1000 right now, which is noting if you want to hide them a bit (à la GW1)), in order to allow you to place them in strategic points.

• IV: +. Given the weak nature of spirit, it’s a good one.
• VII: -. For most of the spirits, it still imply that the target is close to them. Any ranged opponent won’t be bothered.
• VIII: +. A decent boost to spirits.
• XI: -. It’s good when you have to move. But it also brings spirit in AoE range. And make them perfect target for bouncing attacks.

Boon related traits:
It’s about traits applying to every boon, not specific boons.

• Master Minor: 0. Not much to say. I don’t think it’ll play a major role in a fight.
• Grandmaster Minor: +. 5% More damage is always good to take. Especially when you can try to have this bonus up almost constantly.
• II: -. Not enough boon given by the different pets to make it worth taking.

Other traits:

• Adept Minor: +. A little regen is always good.
• I: +. Allow friend to revive you easily.
• III: +. Since you can have some nice source of regeneration (healing spring and two traits), it’s a good one.
• V: 0. Not much to say.
• VI: ++. 5 seconds of prot every 30 sec when you’re focused. V
• IX: +. A little boost in damage.
• X: -. Pet enlargement doesn’t seem like something you’d take a master trait for.
• XII: —. One of the worst trait of the ranger skill tree. Dodge remove poison (well to remove blind, you just have to auto-attack, so dodging for that is just overkill). In sPvP, Poison is one of the easiest condition to apply after bleed (hello Necro/Ranger/Thief/Engi).
  Moreover it’s a grandmaster trait. The other traits that remove condition on dodge are at a master level and remove either chill or cripple. Making them a tad more powerful (just a little bit).

Beastmastery
Species Pet boost.
I feel like this group of traits should be merged in one trait. I mean taking one of those means that you’ll have to take both pets from the families affected by the traits or you’ll end up wasting something.
Moreover, they represent all the majors traits in the line, that doesn’t give you an incentive to go this far in the line.

• VII: +. A bit more condition for the feline/dev/sharks seems good. Not really the kind of think you’ll take with a drake imho.
• VIII: -. Stability is good. On you. Not much use on a pet imho.
• IX: +. More control on the pets that are already meant for control. But the CDs are high on those family.
• X: +. AoE 5 sec vigor on a CD between 6 and 40 sec. The 6 sec looks like almost perma vigor.

Other traits.

• Adept Minor: ++. 2 seconds of quickness on a 20/60 sec CD, w/o any drawback. What else?
• Master Minor: +. Quickness more often (that’s how I see it at least).
• Grandmaster Minor: +. Not much to say its 10% whereas other tends to give 5%.
• I: 0. Most skills are still out of your control so…
• II: —. Pet swapping remove the bound. So you either let your pet die or swap it, losing the bond quickly enough.
• III: 0. Less cd is always nice. But shouts are kinda useless anyway.
• IV: -. Pets heal are a bit more efficient. But does that really matters?
• V: +. Less CD on something you almost control. Good enough.
• VI: +. A bit more damage on the pets, always something good.
• XI: -. Your pet might be dead when you are downed. And it won’t last ‘till lick wounds is up, so it’s kinda meh.
• XII: 0. The regeneration is something nice, but given the fact that more fight are fast paced, it won’t always be meaningful.

So one of the main problem (besides the one pointed along the posts) imho is that except for the traits in Wilderness Survival, almost all the grandmaster traits aren’t that good. Or that’s what they should be.
And you, what are your thoughts?

N.B: I play mainly sPvP and a bit of PvE, but no WvW, so I might not see the use of some traits, most likely in WvW.

Don’t agree with several points of analysis but darn that was a lot of effort.

PS you have access to a 3 second stun environmental weapon and some pets crit practically constantly. The boar also gives a daze environmental weapon but I forget it’s duration. SO Juvenile board pet and 2 of it’s 3 forages should work with 30 skirmishing.

Boar plus moment of clarity may be a very decent CC option now I think about it. So if those 2 work with moment of clarity…. THat’s good cc in a damage build option.

I didn’t knew about the boar, I just tested it, and it works fine with the rock and the bone. That’s giving you a 3 sec stun, making the boar an interesting pick in term of CC. Though the bone indicates two different stun on the tooltip, the one that seems to proc is the one with 2s on it and not the one with 3sec).

But what points are you disagreeing with? (just out of curiosity)

Yeah I tested the piggie stun last night as well. Pretty sure it used to be 3 seconds.

Vulnerability is valuable stacked particularly in a group setting… Using assist in PvP or pve grouped on a set target it increases damage potential nicely. And marks is also our condition duration line so 5 seconds of vulnerability becomes 6.5 seconds at 30 marks. Alot of attacks with either a SB or sword or fast attacking pet synergizes well with longbow.

In terms of not alot of options for sniping TPVP maps are pretty well designed with snipers nests in mind particularly if you use a snare KD pet…. Better than most MMO’s in that regard.

Endurance full damage is very usable if your specced for vigor + end regen even if you end up at melee.

The pet crit damage on crit trait is a way to burst in BM builds. Some pets do crit alot (cats birds – jaguar on demand).

Flanking is a 270 degree arc that includes behind +10% damage there is a very nice benefit 1v1 or group. One is practically always flanking in combat against any skilled opponent that jukes as you do.

As for the stat distribution in skirmishing line. If you use it as a major line 30 points you can have switch gear builds that are strong trap condition builds and/or strong power crit builds. I actually like what they did with skirmishing line as a result. I know some don’t but it’s great flexibility in a game you can swap so much out of combat and have access to all gear for s and tpvp.

The stability on the pig synergizes with your WS line. Agree somewhat lackluster but there is a logic there.

Spirit proc chance to 50% – I actually find irrelevant at 35% with fast attack times and the 10 second icd on 3 of 4 spirit procs you’ll max proc out at 35% over 60 seconds.

I also tend to ignore spirit health and simply hide my stone spirit if using them. (valuable if going 30 and moving).

The expanded PBAOE area of effects & on death is valuable. Elite spirit auto procs it’s raise/cleanse on death, any melee killer of your hidden spirits takes damage snare immobilize etc…Also more margin for error on the elite spirits raise on dying maneuver in PvP.

Several of the BM traits your not crazy about actually help the tank heal build rangers quite a bit. Pet heal improvement currently can tic 177 health onto the ranger in combat. Thats actually useful in DPS BM builds and tank builds.

Some are somewhat pet specific. Cats attack fast enough with short enough CD’s that even if swapping the 10% reduction is handy….

F2 reduction is handy if using a MB bomb drake.

Masters Bond is situationally useful even in PvP….A drake bomb is a terrible thing to waste…. If you yourself aren’t built to burst it helps you burst through your pet and can make squishy pets significantly more durable.

I pretty much don’t like on down low health traits as you don’t seem to. Many traits are very situationally useful or can work into a build playstyle strategy.

Arrys.7145:

Vulnerability is valuable stacked particularly in a group setting… Using assist in PvP or pve grouped on a set target it increases damage potential nicely. And marks is also our condition duration line so 5 seconds of vulnerability becomes 6.5 seconds at 30 marks. Alot of attacks with either a SB or sword or fast attacking pet synergizes well with longbow.

Tbh, I don’t like LB, i find myslef doing way better with SB. But vulnerability is nice, I agree, but I wouldn’t mind it it were a bit longer. And the two traits that annoy me are rather the XII and the grandmaster minor. I mean, if I want crit, I’ll play with a 30% crit chance, that’d be more valuable than a one time crit to open the fight. And I’d rather have it up every X secs when on combat than on kill. Making it something that might help you in the middle of a fight.

In terms of not alot of options for sniping TPVP maps are pretty well designed with snipers nests in mind particularly if you use a snare KD pet…. Better than most MMO’s in that regard.

Never played something else than GW1, so I’d assume it’s true.

Endurance full damage is very usable if your specced for vigor + end regen even if you end up at melee.

It might be me, but even when I spec it like that, I tend to dodge if my endurance is full when in close combat, otherwise, I’d be wasting some regen.

The pet crit damage on crit trait is a way to burst in BM builds. Some pets do crit alot (cats birds – jaguar on demand).

Yeah I noticed that after some more test, cats/birds do crit.

Flanking is a 270 degree arc that includes behind +10% damage there is a very nice benefit 1v1 or group. One is practically always flanking in combat against any skilled opponent that jukes as you do.

I tought it was only around 180°, well that’s quite nice.

Arrys.7145:

As for the stat distribution in skirmishing line. If you use it as a major line 30 points you can have switch gear builds that are strong trap condition builds and/or strong power crit builds. I actually like what they did with skirmishing line as a result. I know some don’t but it’s great flexibility in a game you can swap so much out of combat and have access to all gear for s and tpvp.

Since the last patch, you can’t switch either Utilities/Traits/weapons in tPvP :/ .

Arrys.7145:

The stability on the pig synergizes with your WS line. Agree somewhat lackluster but there is a logic there.

Spirit proc chance to 50% – I actually find irrelevant at 35% with fast attack times and the 10 second icd on 3 of 4 spirit procs you’ll max proc out at 35% over 60 seconds.

Didn’t knew about the ICD, tought it was shorter (like 3secs), the traits is less usefull then :/.

I also tend to ignore spirit health and simply hide my stone spirit if using them. (valuable if going 30 and moving).

Due to the low range, I find hiding them quite difficult (if it’s not from a sniping PoV, but rather as a team support).

The expanded PBAOE area of effects & on death is valuable. Elite spirit auto procs it’s raise/cleanse on death, any melee killer of your hidden spirits takes damage snare immobilize etc…Also more margin for error on the elite spirits raise on dying maneuver in PvP.

I agree that it’s a nice feature, the thing is, i’d love to know the original radius and the extended radius to have sth to base my judgment on (afaik, the ground effect has the same size in the two case)

Several of the BM traits your not crazy about actually help the tank heal build rangers quite a bit. Pet heal improvement currently can tic 177 health onto the ranger in combat. Thats actually useful in DPS BM builds and tank builds.

I have to admit, that I didn’t test BM builds since the last update.

Some are somewhat pet specific. Cats attack fast enough with short enough CD’s that even if swapping the 10% reduction is handy….

Yeah, but as it doesn’t reduce the F2 as well (we could always dream), I find it somehow less usefull thant 20% on F2.

F2 reduction is handy if using a MB bomb drake.

Well F2 reduction is a nice trait imho. Not the best trait out there, but useful for almost all pets.

Wilderness Survival Master minor trait. Useful bonus, the 2 secs bonus doesn’t do a whole lot for the Ranger who spends most of it in dodge animation. Its primary and most useful aspect I have found is that it actually benefits the pet more. It allows the pet to tank through some painful AoE attacks. This is your pets dodge roll folks, use it wisely.

It also helps that you already have bonus endurance regen going into this line so you will already be able to dodge more often. Use them often and use them wisely for you and your pet.

Well done! This kind of work is time consuming. We appreciate it.

Some of the traits that I find valuable in contrary to your statements, have already been mentioned by fellow rangers.
Also some traits are only good with certain builds but can be a waste with a different build.

In general I don’t use traits that give cool down reduction if the default cool down is pretty low it self. Because you don’t gain so much valuable seconds anyway. Eg. 20% faster sword recharge (Wilderness Survival X) gives your sword skill #2 only a reduction of 1½ seconds. That’s nothing! But the same 20% faster recharge for signets gives you 24 seconds shorter cool down for Signet of the stone. Now that I can feel! Anet shoudn’t just copy paste “20%”. They need to consider its actual benefit.

I always use “pets heal for more” in dungeons. My pet saves my kitten on several occasions and you can really see the difference.

Keep up the good work.

omg that is so funny! I didn’t know Anet automatically changes some body part words to “kitten”. That’s awesome. kitten kitten LOL