Guild Wars 2

Greetings, my fellow Rangers.

I had an idea of how to change ranger traps, because they do not feel like traps at all (unlike thief ones).

So I was thinking, currently the traps are being used but AoE condition bombs. Which is wrong and absolutely non-defining to what traps are supposed to be.

So what my suggestions are:
I’d be absolutely fine with traps having arming time of … Nice 2-3 seconds. That would be no problem for me. Traps are supposed to be pre-set before combat and rewarding if the enemy steps into them without ranger even being there . That being said, my idea is:

1. “The traps now have an arming time of 2 seconds after being cast”
2. “When the trap is triggered, nearby enemies are rooted for 2 seconds, (5 targets.)”
3. “Trap mastery no longer increases condition duration, but applies double the stacks of original amount. Ice trap provides knockdown when triggered on all enemies hit. Area of Effect increase stays unchanged.”

What this change would do is provide a huge support on strategic points, while allowing a clear counter-play.
But the biggest concern is:
The traps would finally feel like “ kitten , I triggered it!” and would give your team the opportunity to strike, just as traps are supposed to.

Ideas?

Yes and can I have a beartrap that literally chops off their feet when they walk into it? plxxxxxxxxxxx!

Tragic Positive.9356:

Greetings, my fellow Rangers.

So I was thinking, currently the traps are being used but AoE condition bombs. Which is wrong and absolutely non-defining to what traps are supposed to be.

Greetings!

Care to explain why?

solrik.6028:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Greetings, my fellow Rangers.

So I was thinking, currently the traps are being used but AoE condition bombs. Which is wrong and absolutely non-defining to what traps are supposed to be.

Greetings!

Care to explain why?

Because one of the definitions of traps is:

1. A stratagem for catching or tricking an unwary person.

There’s literally zero connection to the definition. Necromancer’s wells are a good example of AoE condition design.

Traps should not be pokeballs. Not even granades as we all use them today.

Tragic Positive.9356:

solrik.6028:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Greetings, my fellow Rangers.

So I was thinking, currently the traps are being used but AoE condition bombs. Which is wrong and absolutely non-defining to what traps are supposed to be.

Greetings!

Care to explain why?

Because one of the definitions of traps is:

1. A stratagem for catching or tricking an unwary person.

There’s literally zero connection to the definition. Necromancer’s wells are a good example of AoE condition design.

Traps should not be pokeballs. Not even granades as we all use them today.

What do you suggest in terms of function? Doubling the stacks will still make it a condi bomb right?

Rather than double stacks of the same condition, I’d suggest a second condition or cc like the knockdown idea on frost trap for when Trapper’s Expertise is taken. A blind with flame trap, knockdown on spike trap, slow on frost trap, and weakness with viper’s nest. Would make traps provide much more utility.

Manekk.6981:

Yes and can I have a beartrap that literally chops off their feet when they walk into it? plxxxxxxxxxxx!

At first I thought you meant a beartrap. Literally. You lay down a trap and when it gets triggered, a bloodthirsty bear pops out and mauls the victim. Then I read your suggestion again and I was not impressed. Sadface.

StickerHappy.8052:

What do you suggest in terms of function? Doubling the stacks will still make it a condi bomb right?

Not really.
… If the arming time of 2-3 seconds is going to be present, you won’t be able to use it for standard DPS. That’s a lot of time to literally walk out of it.

If you wanted them “not to be a condi bomb of any kind at all” you’d have to change the whole ability as such, which I find sci-fi. We already know it’s not going to happen.
I think that stepping into a trap, and getting burned with 2 stacks of fire for 3 seconds while being immobilized for 2 of them is much more Trap-defining than watching a campfire for 6 seconds that you use for DPS, and not for trapping people at all.

The idea of adding additional effects on traps is nice too. But I might have found the idea of adding Chilled effect to the trap that chills people… Strange. I might just not have understood what the poster meant.

But if we get rid of the initial idea of being rooted on trigger, that would be cool too.

Blind on Fire trap is cool.
Weakness on Snake trap too, even though I might like torment, as well. You can already apply weakness through leaps and blasts.
On Spike trap… Here could be the rooted bonus from the trait.
About Frost Trap, I like the idea of people tripping on the ice, being knocked down. The chill effect alone is rather weak for it’s cooldown.

Slow is a going to be a new condition that makes animations and cast times, well, slower. Think, the opposite of quickness. Paired with chill, it would be a powerful addition to frost trap.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Slow

Wondrouswall.7169:

Slow is a going to be a new condition that makes animations and cast time speeds halved. Think, the opposite of quickness. Paired with chill, it can be a powerful addition to frost trap.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Slow

That might be true, but I have a feeling that AoE Winter’s Bite would have the upper hand.

But we can’t really test it yet. So many theorycrafting changes are going to be washed away by practice once the expansion comes out live.

2-3 second arming time? That would totally destroy traps imo, they would be mostly unusable in combat, only useful to set them up and move off somewhere else.

That’s kinda the same reason everyone QQd about turrets, you could place them somewhere, to defend a point, then go somewhere else.

I’m thinking an arming time of 1 second or less would be ample.

Unless they were super powerful or you could place multiple instances of the traps so you could stack them up to kill something instantly like in GW1, nobody would ever use them again.

I don’t know why anyone would want an arming time of 2 or more seconds.

IF they made a 5th trap, then combined all the traps into a kit, a long arm time would be acceptable because of the added utility.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

2-3 second arming time? That would totally destroy traps imo, they would be mostly unusable in combat, only useful to set them up and move off somewhere else.

That’s kinda the same reason everyone QQd about turrets, you could place them somewhere, to defend a point, then go somewhere else.

I’m thinking an arming time of 1 second or less would be ample.

Unless they were super powerful or you could place multiple instances of the traps so you could stack them up to kill something instantly like in GW1, nobody would ever use them again.

I don’t know why anyone would want an arming time of 2 or more seconds.

I believe … Destroying them for DPS purposes and making them powerful… TRAPS, is the whole point of this thread …

That’s why we are discussing what should be the trade off. I believe bunker or roamer trap ranger would totally be a thing with the proposed changes, be it a global 2 sec root for all traps on trigger, or additional effects on traps via the trait, such as blind and knockdown.

I thought you guyz understood the point. I mean… I may be able to edit the original post to say it word by word but …

Just one example of the power of the root I suggested would be 6 (3×2 separate) seconds worth of Immobilize all in the condition fields. Which is basically blowing all of the cleanse and defensive cooldowns of your enemy.

The other idea that Wondrouswall said was to provide a boost to utility that Trap Ranger would bring by basically doubling the condition arzenal of drastically lowering the enemy’s way to fight back (blind,weakness,knockdown,chill).

All of those changes seem fair to me, taken into account they still won’t be instant.

Would it really be practical in combat to have actual traps? Possibly for defending a point or WvW objective, but probably not for roaming.

The problem I think you will run into is everyone wants active play. The current traps are active play, you throw them and stuff happens. The propose traps would be passive play, you throw them and then later stuff happens.

I do see the idea though. Like if we could place them between two points and actually have a tripwire setup, that would be amazing IMO. Or even a proximity mine type setup. Though both of those seem more engineer, which begs the question..what ARE Ranger traps supposed to do?

@Gotejjeken

I was hoping for them to open gates for ambush possibilities. The traps with arming times definitely lower the active part of the design…
… But then again, the same goes for Signet users (which is not rare for most of classes).

Trapping the key paths at WvW (they stated there will be more narrow paths in the new maps), bunkering a point in sPvP – those all are very useful tools… I still find few uses for them in PvE, but the meta might change when Expansion comes out (they weren’t used in PvE ever even now).

And for the question what are they supposed to do:
The current answer is to deal damage. Just like Barrage or Maul, or autoattack from Shortbow.
And I’m hoping to see a change into a strategical device that ALSO deals damage if used correctly.

Also, the numbers are not really important. The idea behind it matters. I will be fine with 1sec arming time and lower benefits, be it an immobilize or other bonus conditions as long as I’ll feel that I actually “trapped” someone.

Here are my ideas.

Spike Trap – no longer imobilize, now and AOE knock down. increase bleed stacks to 5 and cripple by 2 seconds.

Poision trap – Now applies slow as well as poision.

Fire Trap – Applies 2-3 stacks of burn per pulse instead of 1.

Frost Trap – Pulses damage as well as chill

FrouFrou.4958:

Manekk.6981:

Yes and can I have a beartrap that literally chops off their feet when they walk into it? plxxxxxxxxxxx!

At first I thought you meant a beartrap. Literally. You lay down a trap and when it gets triggered, a bloodthirsty bear pops out and mauls the victim. Then I read your suggestion again and I was not impressed. Sadface.

I got the same picture too, with an angry bear falling out from the sky onto the victim in cow-finisher style. This needs to happen.

Could call it the Drop Bear Trap, joke for Aussies, that one.