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(edited by Chrispy.5641)
Ranger Trait Rework, ver 1
RANGER EFFECTS
I changed the way Opening Strike and Attack of Opportunity works, so attack of opportunity can grow off of Opening Strike, and any of source of vulnerability on the enemy actually.
Opening Strikes – Your next attack Inflicts Vulnerability. (1 stack)
(Opening Strikes stacks 5 times now, and if you read on to the marksmanship traits, you can see why. 1 Trait makes each instance deal 5% more damage. And even though Precise Strikes only has a 20% greater chance to crit, statistically, its about the same as having just 1 attack always deal a critical hit, though your results will vary based on how much precision you have to start, and whether or not you have fury.)
Attack of Opportunity – Your Next attack deals 5% more damage, + 1% more damage for each stack of vulnerability on foe. (it does more damage when foe has vulnerability now, making it more urgent for enemy players to cleanse that condition, or risk taking alot of extra damage.)(Maximum damage boost from this effect is 30%)(This stacks 5 times when using Signet of the Hunt, and 5 Times on Moment of Clarity. It also stacks 5 times on GS #5, meaning your pet can have up to 15 stacks of it at a time, and you can have up to 10)
Wild Strikes – Your Attacks deals 10% more damage, + 1% more damage for each condition on foe. (maximum damage boost from this effect is 22%)(Stacks 5 times when using Signet of the Wild, and stacks 5 times when using the Enlargement trait, both skills of which also grant stability for 6 seconds)
Renewal – Your attacks cure conditions and heal you. (1 condition per attack)(healing should be low, like what you get on life steal effects(for example, 325 per hit with Omnomberry Ghost food))(Stacks 5 times when using Signet of Renewal, and stacks 5 times when using Oakheart Salve, making for 10 stacks total)
Stone Skin – You take 100% less damage when struck. (Stacks 5 times when using Signet of Stone. Also Stacks 5 times when traited with Instinctual Bond, making for 10 stacks total on you or your pet)
SIGNETS
Signets are too strong to have untraited, and that still leaves the effect of having them traited. I decided on a way to solve this issue by changing the way the signets work. If they are bad ideas, say so, and give me a new idea to work with. Also, no change to cooldown times since I changed signets to affect allies when traited, making them quite powerful.
Signet of the Hunt
Passive – Grants 25% increased movement speed to you and your pet
Active – Grants 5 Attacks of Oppurtunity for you and your pet.
Active(traited) – Grants 5 Attacks of Oppurtunity for you, your pet, and up to 5 allies. (crazy burst potential here)
Signet of the Wild
Passive – Grants health regeneration to you and your pet.
Active – Grants 5 stacks of Wild Strikes to you and your pet, dealing more damage. You also gain stability for 6 seconds.
Active(Traited) – Grants 5 stacks of Wild Strikes to you, your pet, and allies, dealing more damage. You also gain stability for 6 seconds.(even more burst potential here)
Signet of Renewal
Passive – Cures a condition every ten seconds
Active – Grants 5 stacks of Renewal for you and your pet. If you are stunned, this skill breaks stun and you are granted 4 stacks of renewal instead.
Active(Traited) – Grants 5 stacks of Renewal for you, your pet, and allies. If you are stunned, this skill breaks stun and you are granted 4 stacks of renewal instead.
Signet of Stone
Passive – Improves toughness for you and your pet.
Active – Grants 5 stacks of Stone Skin to you and your pet.
Active(Traited) – Grants 5 stacks of Stone Skin to you, your pet, and allies.
(edited by Chrispy.5641)
MARKSMANSHIP
Marksmanship still has a focus on long range combat and signets. other than a few tweaks here and there, I switched Eagle and Beastmaster’s Bond, so we could still have increased range and spotter/piercing arrows, and still be able to take a grandmaster trait. I also added a few effects to other traits to make them more desirable to take instead of what is usually taken.
Opening Strikes – Your and your pet’s first 5 strikes cause vulnerability when entering combat.
Alpha Training – Opening strikes deal 5% more damage. If your pet’s opening strike is sucessful, you gain another opening strike.
Precise Strikes – Opening strikes have a 20% greater chance to critically hit.
I – Steady Focus – Damage for you and your pet is increased when Endurance is full. (10%)
II – Malicious Training – Increases duration for conditions applied by your pets. (50%) Increase the duration of your non-damaging conditions (cripple, immobilize, vulnerability, chill, weakness)(10%)
III – Keen Edge – Use Sharpening Stone when you strike a foe below the health threshold. Your Pet gains Blood Thirst when you strike a foe below the health threshold.
IV – Signet Mastery – Reduce Recharge on Signets(10%). Passive effects of Signets are 10% stronger.
V – Predator’s Instinct – Apply cripple to foes you hit while they are below the health threshold and your pet gains swiftness.
VI – Eagle Eye – Increases longbow and harpoon gun range. Longbow, Shortbow and harpoon gun damage is increased. (+ 300 range, + 5% damage)
VII – Spotter – Increase precision of nearby allies. (+ 150 precision)
VIII – Piercing Arrows – All arrow attacks pierce targets.
IX – Beastmaster’s Might – Passive effects of Signets are 10% stronger. Activating a signet grants might to you and your pet.
X – Beastmaster’s Bond – Gain fury and might when your pet’s health reaches 50%. Your pet gains fury and might when your health reaches 50%.
XI – Signet of the (beast)Master – Active effect of Signets are granted to Allies.
XII – Remorseless – Opening Strikes deal 10% more damage. Regain Opening Strike whenever you kill a foe or gain stealth.
- The 2 traits that make Signets 10% stronger each , can combine for a 20% stronger effect total. Signet of the hunt’s passive turns into a 30% increased movement speed. Signet of Stone’s Passive goes to 180 extra toughness. Signet of Renewal’s Passive cures a condition every 8 seconds instead of 10. And Signet of the Wild’s base healing increases by 20% and healing from healing power inceases by 20%.
(edited by Chrispy.5641)
SKIRMISHING
The main thing I did here was make a way for most of the traits to be able to affect both Ranger and Pet. I left traps in Skirmishing because I believe that Wilderness Survival should stay defense focused. I also changed Primal Reflexes so it wasn’t so sacrificial for one measily boon.
Tail Wind – You and your pet gain Swiftness when you swap weapons in combat.
Furious Grip – You and your pet gain Fury when you swap weapons in combat.
Hunter’s Tactics – You and your pet deal more damage while flanking.
I – Pet’s Prowess – Pets do more damage on critical hits. You have 10% more critical chance while your pet is alive.
II – Sharpended Edges – Chance to Cause Bleeding on Critical Hits. Chance to grant pets Blood Thirst on critical hit.(66% for both effects)(Blood thirst effect should have a 10 second cooldown)
III – Trapper’s Defense – Create a Spike Trap when reviving allies. Create a seperate Spike Trap when you are struck with a critical hit (25s cooldown, is affected by trap traits)
IV – Primal Reflexes – You and your pet gain Blur at the end of your dodge roll. (.25 seconds of evade, making your dodges last 1 full second instead)
V – Companion’s Might – Critical hits grant might to your pet. Critical hits your pet makes gives you might.
VI – Agility Training – Pets move faster. You move faster while your pet is alive.
VII – Carnivorous Appetite – You and your pet gain health on critical hits.
VIII – Trapper’s Expertise – Trap skills use ground targeting and are larger.
IX – Honed Axes – You deal more critical damage when wielding an axe in your main hand.
X – Quick Draw – Reduces recharge on short bow and longbow skills.
XI – Trap Potency – Conditions caused by traps last longer. Reduces recharge on traps.
XII – Moment of Clarity – Gain 5 attacks of opportunity for you and your pet on interrupting a foe. Daze and stun durations you inflict last longer.
WILDERNESS SURVIVAL
I want Wilderness survival to stay defense focused, and wth an added focus on survival skills. So, other than adding a few things so some traits affect pets as well. I moved Oakheart Salve to the adept tier, and moved Expertise Training to the Master Tier, while adding a new effect so traits affect both Ranger and Pet
Natural Vigor – Increases endurance regeneration. Gain vigor when your pet is downed. (10s)
Companion’s Defense – You and your pet gain protection when you dodge roll. Gain protection when your pet is downed.(5s)
Peak Strength – You and your pet deal more damage while your health is above the threshold. (+10% damage above 90% health)
I – Soften the Fall – Create Muddy Terrain when you take falling damage. You and your pet take less damage from falling.
II – Healer’s Celerity – Grant swiftness to yourself and your ally when you revive them. Increases revive speed for you and your pet.
III – Shared Anguish – Incoming disabling conditions (stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, sink, float, fear, or launch) are transferred to your pet instead. (Sorry, can’t think of how to change this one)
IV – Vigorous Renewal – Gain vigor when using a heal skill. Remove a Condition from your pet when using a heal skill.
V – Oakheart Salve – Use Signet of Renewal for you and your pet when you suffer from a number of conditions. (3)
VI – Wilderness Knowledge – Reduces recharge on survival skills(10%). Survival Skills deal damage (low damage like other profession’s utility skills).
VII – Off-Hand Training – Reduces recharge on off-hand skills. Off-hand skills have longer range.
VIII – Expertise Training – Pets deal extra condition damage. Survival Skills deal 100% more damage.
IX – Hide in Plain Sight – Applies camouflage when you or your pet are dazed, knocked down, launched, pushed back, or stunned.
X – Martial Mastery – Reduces recharge on sword, greatsword, and spear skills.
XI – Empathic Bond – Pets periodically take conditions from you. Cure yourself of all conditions when your pet dies.
XII – Bark Skin – You and your pet take less damage while your health is below the threshold.
(edited by Chrispy.5641)
NATURE MAGIC
Because Beastmastery is so focused on pets, I added more emphasis on healing in this trait line, as well as adding new effects so traits affect both Ranger and Pet. Most of the traits in this line are also stronger when your pet is downed.
Rejuvenation – You and your pet gain regeneration when health drops below the threshold.
Fortifying Bond – Any boon you get is shared with your pet (vigor switched with stability). Any boon your pet gets is shared with you (vigor and stability)(for balance, only half as long as what fortifying bond does normally).(Does not affect boons that were already shared)
Bountiful Hunter – You and your pet deal more damage while you have a boon. (increased to 10%, since 5% for a grandmaster trait is kind of weak, and splitting it between Ranger and Pet is not enough of a trade off.)
I – Circle of Life – Create a healing spring when you are downed. Create a healing spring when both of your pets are downed.
II – Concentration Training – Boons applied by your pet lasts 50% longer. Heals you apply are 10% stronger when your pet is downed.
III – Nature’s Bounty – Regeneration you apply lasts 33% longer. Pet healing skills heal for 25% more.
IV – Vigorous Spirits – Spirits have increased health and a greater chance to trigger their benefits.
V – Strength of Spirit – Gain power based on your vitality. Pets gain power based on their vitality.
VI – Nature’s Protection – You recieve protection when you take damage greater than 10% of your maximum health. Pets receive protection when they take damage greater than 10% of their maximum health.
VII – Spirit’s Unbound – Spirits can move and follow you. Activated effects of spirits are larger.
VIII – Evasive Purity – Dodging removes a condition from you and your pet.
IX – Two-Handed Training – Greatsword and spear damage is increased. Greatsword and spear attacks have a chance to grant fury on hit.
X – Enlargement – Use Signet of the Wild when your health drops below the threshold.
XI – Nature’s Vengeance – Activated skills of spirits trigger when the spirit is killed. Spirit’s passive effects recharge twice as fast when your pet is downed.
XII – Nature’s Voice – Shouts apply regeneration and swiftness to allies. If your pet is downed, Shouts also heals and removes conditions.
BEASTMASTERY
I placed greater focus on shouts, pet commands, and switching pets, and also added effects so the Ranger isn’t totally helpless for investing in this trait line
Instinctual Bond – When you are downed, your pet gains quickness and 5 stacks of Stone Skin. When both of your pets are downed, you gain quickness and 5 stacks of Stone Skin.
Loud Whistle – Reduces recharge on Pet swapping. Damage and apply confusion to surrounding foes when you swap pets. (1 stack of confusion)(600 range)
Nature’s Wrath – Gain Power equal to 10% of your healing. Pets gain Power equal to their level.(since they have no healing power)
I – Speed Training – Reduce Recharge on Pet skills by 20%. Reduce Recharge on all of your Utility Skills by 5%.
II – Master’s Bond – (Seems powerful enough, but just in case…) Your pet has a bond with you that increases its attributes each time you kill a foe. When it is defeated or deactivated, the bond is reset. You have a bond with your pet, and have increased Vitality, Toughness, Power, and Precision as long as you have a living pet. (100 to each)
III – Shout Mastery – Reduces recharge on shouts. When using a shout, pets break stun and are cured of immobilized, cripple. and chill.
IV – Compassion Training – Pet healing attributes are increased. Your Healing Skills remove 1 additional Condition (even if they don’t already).
V – Commanding Voice – Pet Skills (F2) recharge faster. Damage your pet’s target when you give your pet an order (Shouts or F2’s).
VI – Mighty Swap – You and your pet gain might when they are activated.
VII – Rending Attacks – Drake, Feline, Devourer, and Shark pets bleed on critical hits with their basic attacks. You have a chance to inflict vulnerability with each attack you make.
VIII – Stability Training – Ursine, porcine, and armor fish pets gain stability when disabled. You gain Stability when standing in Muddy Terrain or any other Combo Field.(3s)(10s cooldown)
IX – Intimidation Training – Activated (F2) abilities for canines and spiders cause cripple. You deal damage and Cause Cripple to surrounding foes when you use Shouts.
X – Vigorous Training – Pets grant vigor to nearby allies when activated. Vigor applied to you lasts 33% longer.
XI – Zephyr’s Speed – You and your pet gain 3 seconds of quickness when you swap pets.
XII – Natural Healing – Pets have natural health regneration. Players have increased natural health regeneration when their pet is down. (same level as pet had originally)
…They are kind of overpowered in some cases, and some aren’t powerful enough, but its a good starting point, right?
Anyone have ideas to add or take away from this?
(edited by Chrispy.5641)
I think the signet changes (especially traited) and the changes to opening strike are exactly what the ranger needs in PvE and/or WvWvW, but it would be way too strong in PvP. Other than that, I like your suggestions. Thanks for taking the time to make this, you have some very nice ideas and you didn’t go over the top with the buffs. Anet should definitely take a look at this.
Just to start with, not done;
Some of this is indeed very strong. I really like the idea of capitalizing on stacking vulnerability but I feel that’s really just nothing compared to the huge bonus having 5 Critical hits for you, your pet, gaining another when your pet hit, (15 total), Remorseless giving you another 1-5, and signet of the hunt giving another 5. Don’t get me wrong, I like that and anything that gives me free criticals but I think that might just be too powerful. I really do love building up tons of synergy between traits and skills though and I feel that’s a great direction to go.
Some issues for me…
I both like and dislike what you’re doing with the signets. Signet of Stone above all others I completely disagree with. For starters, ANet is not likely to introduce a new condition like this. They’d more likely just grant protection (even though we effectively have bark skin). I realize you changed it from being a Ranger’s version of Endure Pain to this because of how you want to make Signet of the Beast Master to be group oriented, but you should find another method… like just introducing a unique buff each signet gains if you have the trait for example.
I’m also not a fan of your adjustments to Marksmanship. I see that you moved Eagle Eye so you could now one additional longrange oriented trait into the build, but you’ve left Remorseless alone which is a questionable trait (even with the change you’re making effectively allowing the Ranger for every shot in rapid fire to crit). You’ve also not relieved any of the bloat the tree has. I’d argue you really didn’t change anything because with the changes to signets you’re almost certainly going to want signet mastery making the ranger give up traits they currently give up, don’t you think?
Skirmishing you also aren’t fixing much. We ignore the obvious trap issue because we don’t want to move the traits (I understand why you don’t want to and agree… but it still doesn’t change the simple fact that traps don’t belong in this tree) and you left the Ranger needing 2 traits before their traps are even worth slotting (unless you have further trap improvements in mind?). We also have quick draw in the tree still which doesn’t belong, but god knows we can’t make room for it in marks unless you attach it to something else (like eagle eye, but with your changes we can’t get the trait still). I also am convinced the Ranger class needs a ‘Fast Hands’ trait like Warriors have. Perhaps if you put something like that on quick draw, where if you have a bow in one of your hands, your weapon swap time is reduced by 50%?
The only other tree I want to comment on is WS. Without dramatically improving the way this class handles conditions (I skimmed your suggestions so I may have missed it, but you were discussing possibilities in another thread which I thought were good) Empathic Bond absolutely must be a 20pt trait. 30 pts is destroying build diversity and because you need so many traits to make bows work or traps work you basically move this out of reach for any power oriented build this class has.
I do have a question for you as well… you didn’t want to move traps to WS because you want it to be the defense tree and making players choose offense (with traps) or defense (with whatever) is too much. But why didn’t you have this same issue with Marksmanship? You’ve effectively forced players to decide between enormous group utility which they’ll never be able to live without, or making longbow a viable weapon by making rapid fire ‘quazi-burst’ but requiring remorseless?
I’m just curious because your changes to Marks are over the top and, imo, don’t solve much of anything but make matters much much worse.
(edited by Atherakhia.4086)
some of these are just too strong and would be too complex to new players who want to join in the ranger community.
the direction youre going for is good though specially team plays with signets traited.
I agree with castaliea, on vulnerability. I like that we have a lot of access to those and should be a trademark condition for a ranger to invest on. but having a lot of free crits is just a bit OP for me, most of your suggestions are fair though.
for beastmaster traits, I would say this should be focus on pet switching. more into pet presence like giving out an aura of some sort when activated in battle or perhaps boons associated to the type of pet.
example:
moa and ursine provides 6 seconds of protection on activation (300 range)
drake, spiders and canines provides 6 seconds of retaliation on activation ( 300 range)
porcine and devourer provides 6 seconds of stability on activation (300 range)
bird and feline provides 6 seconds of fury on activation (300 range)
not only does this makes a ranger excited about their pet coming out of the battle field, but it promotes synergy as well as team plays, and pet specialization that caters to the type of gameplay a certain ranger is looking for.
in short, build diversity. it will make every ranger in game different
say it to your self, it will make you different in game.
now wouldn’t that be something that interest you?
Success is my only option, failure is not.
I like some of the ideas but the rework should be balanced for PvP too.
A few of your suggestions are ridiculously overpowered (e.g. “Moment of Clarity – Gain 5 attacks of opportunity” = multiple extremely high bursts with barely any CD).
Anyway, it’s good to see people making more suggestion. Just keep in mind it should be balanced, not over the top.
These are all just initial ideas I wrote down last night and this morning, so, every last one of them are definitely open to change.
@BolshoiBooze.3406 / Blackhat.4016 – I will admit that I very rarely play PvP, so if anyone that does play that game mode regularly comes in here and makes some suggestions, I won’t complain.
(also Blackhat each attack of opportunity can only deal a maximum of 30% more damage, and thats if vulnerability can stay stacked at 25. Is it still too powerful?)
@Castaliea.3156 – The way I was changing around Opening Strikes and Attacks of Opportunity ended up getting a little complex because it also tied directly into the changes made with Signet of the Hunt and other signets in general, and I never got around to changing around Precise Strikes, and decided to just leave it be for now.
One change I was thinking of was to change Precise Strikes to Opening Strikes have a 20% greater chance to critically hit, basically applying fury on you when you have opening strike. would it still be too powerful?
@Atherakhia.4086
Still working on signets. I’ll get back to you on that one.
For Marksmanship, I pretty much left remorseless alone (except for that 10% damage buff on opening strikes), because I’m not sure what to do with it yet. For the Signet traits, I buffed the passive effects on them so they would be more desirable to take than just what 90% of rangers take no matter what(Steady Focus, Spotter, etc.). The two 10% buffs to signet passive effects was to add a little more survivability to the Marksmanship tree, which currently has none (except signet of the beastmaster).
For Skirmishing, I’m working on traps still. I’ll get back to you on that as well. I do have several ideas for trap improvements, but it involves traps, and further reworking the Skirmishing traitline.
For WS, what would you suggest I replace Empathic bond with if it gets moved to a 20 point trait?
I did have an idea to make Oakheart salve a bit different of a trait than it is now. My idea was for it to grant you regeneration, and automatically cures you of conditions when you have a certain number on you (like 2 or 3)(and with a cooldown of course)(and not just limited to bleeding, poison, and burning like the original trait).
AEFA.9035
That is certainly an interesting idea. Which trait(s) would you suggest get removed to make way for that idea? Also, Stability and Protection for 6 seconds every 20 seconds (16 seconds with loud whistle) is kind of powerful, even with all the op ideas I have in this thread. 3 seconds on stability and 4 seconds on protection, especially if it affects all allies, seems a little more fair.
Keep the feedback coming guys.
(edited by Chrispy.5641)
Nice wall of teyt Chrispy!
Would you try to tweak it for mine Endurance/Stamina based Mechs?
I’m a little lost at balancing Traits.
Game Designer || iREVOLUTION.Design \\
“A man chooses; a slave obeys.” | “Want HardMode? Play Ranger!”
“A man chooses; a slave obeys.” | “Want HardMode? Play Ranger!”
I like the direction that you’re going with the signets, but I think they are a little too strong. 50% reduced damage can be balanced, but 12 seconds is too long to give for your allies, even for just the ranger. I think 10 seconds for the ranger and 5 seconds for allies would be good.
I also think Signet of Renewal needs to have a cap on the number of conditions it can clear. I’d say give it condition removal for your next 6 attacks, and then 6 attacks for allies. If it’s a 5 second thing, I also think the stun break is a little too strong to give it to allies, but guardians have a grandmaster trait that does it as well. So maybe it works. I also think that signets need to have a limit on how many allies they can affect. Balancing against other skills, I think 5 is probably appropriate.
Maybe instead of moving the trapper traits to WS, they could be moved to Marksmanship? I think it’d make more sense to have them be there than with the prec/crit stuff, anyway. I think swapping Predator’s Instinct, the now master trait Beastmaster’s Bond, and Remorseless would for the three trap-related traits would be a good change. And now the traps will benefit from increased condition duration.
That’s if you want to keep WS for only defensive stuff. Considering what they do, it could be argued that traps are semi-defensive anyway.
My last thought for now is that Two Handed Training needs to be moved out of Nature Magic, but I’m not sure to which other trait line.
(edited by footballisgod.4075)
Good stuff, but you’ve got to trim it down. I just don’t see them redesigning the entire profession to one person’s vision no matter how through. I think your 8 best ideas are drowning in a sea of the other 50.
“You keep saying ‘its unfair.’
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.
Still working on this…
As far as Signet of Renewal goes, It already cured(transfered to pet) all conditions from us and allies, and breaks stun at the same time (not sure if its just you or nearby allies too). I wanted our traits to have a greater impact on the skill.
I would argue that Signet of Renewal is actually weaker starting out, even with the added healing, but the ability to get the effect of healing and condition removal on each attack is too strong, I’ll agree on that part (especially if you are using warhorn for example, which is like 17 attacks in 2 seconds).Your other idea to change it from being a timed effect to a certain number of attacks is also a good idea.
Oh, as another unrelated idea. Nature Magic has the trait Enlargement, which ‘uses’ signet of the Wild when you health drops below the threshold.
The Wilderness Survival Trait Oakheart Salve could work in the same way. The trait would read like this:::
V – Oakheart Salve – Gain renewal when you suffer from a number of conditions.(3)
The trait still has the built in regeneration through what the renewal effect gives you(see second post in thread), and it removes several conditions as well, making it more useful overall. It would need to move back to the master tier because of how powerful it got, but you also have two powerful condition removals in Wilderness survival now (oakheart salve and empathic bond)
On the greatsword thing, its a problem that all our weapon have that aren’t bows, and I can’t think of a way to fix that right now. (and its starting to look more obvious that every trait needs to be completely redone instead of tacking on effects at the end to bring them in line with other traits…)
Some nice ideas.. I like how you have tried to include the pet in the traits more without making pet-only traits. Nice to see triats which help both the ranger and the pet.
Some look a bit too powerful, such as:
VII – Carnivorous Appetite – You and your pet gain health on critical hits.
III – Evasive Purity – Dodging removes a condition from you and your pet.
But generally some interesting thoughts and I actually like how you’ve changed signets.
Cufufalating – Ranger / Part-Time Mesmer
Gunnar’s Hold
Gunnar’s Hold
I got around to making some changes (to the changes, heh) that I made, you can re-read the six posts above, or just read the changes below. :::
- All Signet effects are Stacking effects now instead of timed effects. There are also traits outside of marksmanship that can trigger Signet effects. They now work in a similar way to preparations from Gw1, or Thief venoms or Sharpening Stone, but, they don’t have to be effects on attack.
- Signet of the Wild Grants 5 stacks of Wild Strikes, and 6 seconds of stability.
- Signet of Renewal grants 5 stacks of Renewal. If you are stunned, this skill now breaks stun and you start with 4 stacks of Renewal instead.
- Signet of Stone grants 5 stacks of Stone Skin, which reduces damage taken by 100%, but you are still vulnerable to conditions, stuns, etc.
- I don’t have cooldown times listed, but they will most likely need to change to reflect the changes made.
- Marksmanship
- Precise Strikes now have a 20% greater chance to critically hit instead of being 100%.
- Added Shortbow to Eagle Eye Trait.
- Skirmishing
- No changes yet. Still working on a way to make traps more viable without 30 point investment.
- Carnivorous Appetite’s strength depends on the healing you recieve, which I’ll leave for smarter people to balance it out. If its like what the Zealous Blade trait does, then it might actualy be pretty well balanced.
- Wilderness Survival
- Changed Oakheart Salve. Instead of regen on poison, burning, or bleeding, it instead has you use Signet of renewal when you suffer from 3 or more conditions.
- Nature Magic
- No changes made. (yet)
- I was looking at Evasive Purity, and, it is kind of strong to just remove any condition for you and your pet on dodge. That trait does already have a 10 second cooldown, which I think is balanced, and it does prevent you from spamming multiple condition removals.
- Beastmastery
- Changed Instinctual Bond so it grants Stone skin to your pet when you are downed, and it grants stone skin to you when both of your pets are downed.
My Questions for you guys…
- Is the Changed version of Precise Strikes still too powerful?
- Same question for Signets, or are they not powerful enough?
- I have changes in the Wilderness Survival Traitline to where Survival Skill deal damage, and another trait that increases that damage by 100%. If that enough to make it worth taking a full set of Survival utility skills?
- Same question for Shouts. I changed around traits in Beastmastery so that shouts, switching pets, and pet F2’s deal damage, and I also changed Nature’s Voice to be much more powerful if you have a downed pet. It might not be enough, but is it worth taking a full set of Shout utility skills with this change?
- What if Heal as One and Rampage as One were Shouts?
…that’s all for now!
(edited by Chrispy.5641)
- I have changes in the Wilderness Survival Traitline to where Survival Skill deal damage, and another trait that increases that damage by 100%. If that enough to make it worth taking a full set of Survival utility skills?
- Same question for Shouts. I changed around traits in Beastmastery so that shouts, switching pets, and pet F2’s deal damage, and I also changed Nature’s Voice to be much more powerful if you have a downed pet. It might not be enough, but is it worth taking a full set of Shout utility skills with this change?
- What if Heal as One and Rampage as One were Shouts?!
I’m not sure that giving Survival skills damage is what they need to be useful. They are defensive traits, so they make sense as either a compliment to an offensive build, or for a defensive-based build. I think adding boons that compliment the skills would be a better trait. Protection to go along with vigor for Lightning Reflexes and fury to go with Quickening Zephyr (that might be too strong). Just reducing the cooldown is enough for the adept trait, and then adding the boons for the master trait? I don’t know, it would definitely make them more attractive for me.
As they are now, no amount of buffing to shouts is worth a grandmaster trait. The skills themselves needs to be reworked. However, if Heal as One and Rampage as One were shouts, I think a trait affecting shouts might be worth it. I still think grandmaster is a bit too high, but it would make the trait (and the healing skill) a lot more worth it.
So, I’ll ask – do you see any of this giving a sense of synergy or gigglingly-awesome combos?
The biggest problem to me has being while the profession works down a list of rangery-expectations I can totally see having been on a whiteboard at one point, it has terrible internal connections. When I’m on my Necro and punch blood is power, then use focus-4 to stuff the self-inflicted conditions back on my target, then pop Epidemic and watch the waves of bleeding ripple outward to annihilate everything in draw-distance (and consume those conditions for extra healing just for good measure), I know I’m on a class that has at least the potential to rock.
The interactions between Ranger Utilties and their other Utilities or Weapons skills, when they exist at all, are just DULL. Its not just “I swing my sword, I swing my sword again” its also “I set a trap, I set another, trap, hey, look at that I set another trap, wooo… bleh.” Nothing chains together to be more than just a bunch of grey, leafy, there-’cause-rangers-always-do-that parts.
Does this fix that?
“You keep saying ‘its unfair.’
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.
So, I’ll ask – do you see any of this giving a sense of synergy or gigglingly-awesome combos?
The biggest problem to me has being while the profession works down a list of rangery-expectations I can totally see having been on a whiteboard at one point, it has terrible internal connections. When I’m on my Necro and punch blood is power, then use focus-4 to stuff the self-inflicted conditions back on my target, then pop Epidemic and watch the waves of bleeding ripple outward to annihilate everything in draw-distance (and consume those conditions for extra healing just for good measure), I know I’m on a class that has at least the potential to rock.
The interactions between Ranger Utilties and their other Utilities or Weapons skills, when they exist at all, are just DULL. Its not just “I swing my sword, I swing my sword again” its also “I set a trap, I set another, trap, hey, look at that I set another trap, wooo… bleh.” Nothing chains together to be more than just a bunch of grey, leafy, there-’cause-rangers-always-do-that parts.
Does this fix that?
I know what you mean Nike. What I want from Ranger as well is the synergy of skills and combo, to have more fluent game play. As of now, unfortunately we don’t have that synergy with our pets or with our utilities.
I proposed an idea for pets giving boons per switch, what Im aiming for is diversity game play for Rangers whether you’re power build or condition build. I see Ranger and pets as a ying-yang. Complimentary.
Example:
Beastmastery
Stability Training: Ursine, porcine, and armor fish pets gain stability when disabled.
-
Stability Training: Urcine, Porcine, Devourer, and Fish grant 300 AOE stability on activation for # seconds.
An actual sample of this idea that are in game right now are: mighty swap and vigorous training. Basically think of an Elementalist switching elements and getting boons from those per switch, same idea for Beastmastery rework. Pet synergy and game play promotion if you can see what I mean, and smooth game play to top it off.
Success is my only option, failure is not.
I didn;t look too far into the whole combo thing really, but, probably the biggest change I made was to Signet of the Beastmaster, which now shares active effects of signets with allies. This means that the Enlargement trait (after you reach 25% health) would affect allies if you have it traited. The changes I made to Oakheart Salve would also make it affect allies.
Then there is Signet of the Hunt which increases the damage you deal based on how much vulnerability the enemy has. Its far too powerful the way I have it now, but, it shouldn’t be too hard to see the possibility of sharing Signet of the Hunt with allies, and, as long as Vulnerability stacks can be maintained to the max. of 25, there should be some incredible burst potential there.
Beastmastery is a little more active now when it comes to pet switching, shouts, and using F2’s. All of those deal bonus damage when used now. Using just “Guard” our shout with a very short cooldown, you can possibly have all these effects::
- Shout Mastery makes “Guard” break a pet from stun, and removes chill, cripple, and immobilize.
- Shout Mastery also makes “Guard” recharge faster.
- Commanding Voice makes “Guard” deal damage when you use it, even though the damage would probably be as low as any other utility skill.
- Intimidation Training makes it to where your shouts also cripple.
- Also invest in Nature Magic, and “Guard” will also apply Swiftness and Regeneration, and if your pet is down, it will also Heal, and cure a condition.
Some traits are more powerful when your pet is alive, others are more powerful when you pet is downed. So there is zero balance taken into consideration when I thought of these trait changes. So its not a crazy combo chain effect you got from combining 4 or 5 specific traits and skills together. I still think its a much better starting point than what we’re at right now.
Proposal Overview
Opening Strike
Goal of Proposal
To make Rangers weapon skills more useful
Proposal Functionality
With this trait, all Ranger weapon skill 1 will have a special skill when Ranger is out of combat.
For example:
1 hand sword skill 1:
Opening leap – Leap into the fight, crippling your foe.
Crippled: 3 s
Combo Finisher: Leap
Range: 600
Which can make Sword Ranger has a REAL opening strike.
It will be good to interact with other related traits:
Opening strike always critical hits.
Regain Opening Strike whenever you kill a foe or gain stealth.
Pets have Opening Strike. (We can also make pets to have special opening skills)
Associated Risks
Need a 10s Cool Down and if the skill hit is miss,
or it will make Ranger spamming these skills.
(Just like Thief in stealth mode and spam his skill 1 when he hit miss)
Or, dev is too lazy to make this change.
(edited by BlackenX.7386)
I don’t like that effects increase when pet is downed as such traits may force to let kill pet for added bonuses. So instead it should increase bonuses when you keep pet alive, not dead.
I don’t like that effects increase when pet is downed as such traits may force to let kill pet for added bonuses. So instead it should increase bonuses when you keep pet alive, not dead.
There are traits already in the rework that make you more powerful when the pet is alive.
The reason why some traits were changed to have more power when both pets are down is so the Ranger can stay somewhat powerful instead of being totally helpless (once their equally helpless pets go down.)