Guild Wars 2

jcbroe.4329:

Natronix.9827:

My ranged ranger is zerk while having tank pets with having all 30 points i beastmastery they almost NEVER die due to their defense and perma regen. Even as a zerk based ranger i can still take a lot of dmg and just regen up, and my longbows rapid fire chained with quickness will take anyone from full hp to down or 20% left unless they dodge or have any invul skill up.

It at falls to your playstyle and skill, i like the current pet system i can easily put them on a target and pull em back whenever i want without having any issue. I really dont understand all the complains about the class

To sum it up; people don’t like having a lack of control of their damage/utility. While crude though, I agree the pet gets the job done.

Still, being able to have control over things like the moas heal, the birds swiftness, or the drakes blast would be that much better, and it’s a real tease seeing that we have good utilities like that with no consistent way to use them at our leisure.

I guess at the end of the day, most people feel in some degree or another that the system is too simple to be as efficient as they feel they have the potential to be, especially when compared to other classes they play.

Ranger will forever be my main though, regardless of the little quirks and lack of features that bug me. Longbow is still the best 1200 range DPS weapon in the game, and there aren’t many classes in the game that can match the survival and DPS rangers can build to have at the same time (with the DPS, I think only like Eles and Thieves can build to have the same sustain with damage output, and that’s saying something because of rangers ~5k higher base hp pool).

To sum it up for you:

Melana.8345:

Whether that nerf [toward the Ranger’s effectiveness] is due to pet death, to calling them out of combat to prevent death, or simply just due to them not being able to hit a moving target doesn’t really matter – the end result is that the Ranger was balanced around an NPC AI that is incapable of reacting to the challenges that players can, and the mechanic itself is in direct conflict with the desire to be able to provide interesting & challenging content.

A primary mechanic that makes you automatically (and sometimes unavoidably) weakened by AI failures you can’t control right when you need all your skill and capability is a failed mechanic.

Every classes forum sits and cries about their class except the Guardians. Their crying is at a minimum. Ranger can solo PVE better than most of the classes except guard and warrior. In WVW we work well in groups due to our healing/condition removal and sustained support DPS. We are good are roaming because we’re hard to kill and vary in our methods. in PVP we are one of the top classes, only outdone possibly by a great thief and good necros. We are one of the few classes that isnt completely screwed by conditions, so fighting engis and necros isnt a pain in the kitten. We are never going to be top tier in damage, unless you can master using birds/cats and timing your Mauls and sword 1 combos, but we dont even need to go into that. Basically we dont have an I WIN button like some other classes do, but we’re in a much better spot than mesmers and eles are currently. Also, if you look at the boards and pvp matches, we are one of the few classes that arent crying about PVPing the new Warrior meta. we have enough evades AND possible tankiness (depends on build) to fight them right back. I main Mesmer/Thief and ill tell you Cond/Tank warriors and Stunlock Warriors are a complete nightmare for them. (beatable with thief, but forced to use daggers as warriors regen more hp than a s/d thief build can muster).

Yeah… I made my own opinion heard on that topic already as well.

Having had discussed it with some other rangers, I think people would prefer to see the options of the capabilities expanded on pets before a basic “use or stow” option, although having the option to do that on top of being able to give the pet more options/capabilities would be the MOST ideal way to handle it in order for the most amount of people to enjoy a change.

We have always been a split community, because the ranger class doesn’t just have one attractive mechanic like other classes do (thief is stealth/evade, mesmer clones, etc). Rangers attract both players that want to use a ranged, or bow class (and ranger is the most proficient/versatile bow user in the game by sheer number of options), and players that want to use a pet class.

So now, we have a pretty even split of people that want the abilities and damage of the ranger player improved, while other people want the capabilities of the pets to be improved and the limitations of the class to be a little less strict than they are now.

And I’m here to say “why can’t we have both, and let the builds dictate which way people decide to play?”

jcbroe.4329:

And I’m here to say “why can’t we have both, and let the builds dictate which way people decide to play?”

Because ANet took that choice away.

Ranger was my main for 6 months until the nerfs every week by ANet. R.I.P ranger.

Castaliea.3156:

jcbroe.4329:

And I’m here to say “why can’t we have both, and let the builds dictate which way people decide to play?”

Because ANet took that choice away.

I never even felt like we had that choice. I feel like (but cba to crunch the numbers atm) rangers have just about the lowest count of direct damage increasing sources in the game. Little to no might stacking, 5 % damage increasing traits, and then nothing else besides Spotter. No boon rips, relatively low burst damage potential, and only a single trait for condition builds that even increases procs, and it’s one of the worst crit procs in the game comparatively.

Rangers only have 1 thing going for them besides their now middle of the pack constant health regen; dodges and evades. Thieves may do that better, but that’s only one class, and if this makes it better for anybody else; rangers look cooler when they evade imo.

90% of the traits still feel like they are in beta compared to the other classes I play (warrior and necro), which I guess makes sense, since those 2 classes have received the most work to date, but ANet is basically one balance patch away from either keeping their audience or loosing another portion of their gaming community because things are just stagnant, and not changing for the better quick enough to maintain player interest, from ANY aspect of the game (PvE, PvP, WvW).

Zylonite.5913:

Ranger was my main for 6 months until the nerfs every week by ANet. R.I.P ranger.

Ranger was my main through that, it got shaky granted but still my main, Liadri though… I draw the line there, if our mechanic (and thus reason I play ranger) is useless In “challenging content” I see no reason to play the profession when all the others I enjoy are unphased

jcbroe.4329:

Castaliea.3156:

jcbroe.4329:

And I’m here to say “why can’t we have both, and let the builds dictate which way people decide to play?”

Because ANet took that choice away.

I never even felt like we had that choice. I feel like (but cba to crunch the numbers atm) rangers have just about the lowest count of direct damage increasing sources in the game. Little to no might stacking, 5 % damage increasing traits, and then nothing else besides Spotter. No boon rips, relatively low burst damage potential, and only a single trait for condition builds that even increases procs, and it’s one of the worst crit procs in the game comparatively.

Rangers only have 1 thing going for them besides their now middle of the pack constant health regen; dodges and evades. Thieves may do that better, but that’s only one class, and if this makes it better for anybody else; rangers look cooler when they evade imo.

90% of the traits still feel like they are in beta compared to the other classes I play (warrior and necro), which I guess makes sense, since those 2 classes have received the most work to date, but ANet is basically one balance patch away from either keeping their audience or loosing another portion of their gaming community because things are just stagnant, and not changing for the better quick enough to maintain player interest, from ANY aspect of the game (PvE, PvP, WvW).

Mesmers with high crit (read any viable Mesmer build) have perma vigor in combat, engi kit swap builds have perma vigor and swiftness, scepter has equal regen to a ranger, probably better if they can crit cause I think they get perma vigor like mes via crits.

The only thing that keeps rangers above sub par in dodging is their Evades on several attack skills, but even then it’s an “iffy” advantage at best…

Durzlla.6295:

jcbroe.4329:

Castaliea.3156:

jcbroe.4329:

And I’m here to say “why can’t we have both, and let the builds dictate which way people decide to play?”

Because ANet took that choice away.

I never even felt like we had that choice. I feel like (but cba to crunch the numbers atm) rangers have just about the lowest count of direct damage increasing sources in the game. Little to no might stacking, 5 % damage increasing traits, and then nothing else besides Spotter. No boon rips, relatively low burst damage potential, and only a single trait for condition builds that even increases procs, and it’s one of the worst crit procs in the game comparatively.

Rangers only have 1 thing going for them besides their now middle of the pack constant health regen; dodges and evades. Thieves may do that better, but that’s only one class, and if this makes it better for anybody else; rangers look cooler when they evade imo.

90% of the traits still feel like they are in beta compared to the other classes I play (warrior and necro), which I guess makes sense, since those 2 classes have received the most work to date, but ANet is basically one balance patch away from either keeping their audience or loosing another portion of their gaming community because things are just stagnant, and not changing for the better quick enough to maintain player interest, from ANY aspect of the game (PvE, PvP, WvW).

Mesmers with high crit (read any viable Mesmer build) have perma vigor in combat, engi kit swap builds have perma vigor and swiftness, scepter has equal regen to a ranger, probably better if they can crit cause I think they get perma vigor like mes via crits.

The only thing that keeps rangers above sub par in dodging is their Evades on several attack skills, but even then it’s an “iffy” advantage at best…

If by “iffy” you mean stronger on point in spvp than in other content in the game then yes lol. Dagger 4 is pretty amazing utility though. Nice long poison that lasts the entire cooldown of the skill with a nice long evade time. Good stuff.

Warriors and necros got a big focus last time around though, let’s hope that this time around rangers will see some love (after PAX that is). Statistically, 25% chance of it being a ranger heavy patch? fingers crossed

jcbroe.4329:

Durzlla.6295:

jcbroe.4329:

Castaliea.3156:

jcbroe.4329:

And I’m here to say “why can’t we have both, and let the builds dictate which way people decide to play?”

Because ANet took that choice away.

I never even felt like we had that choice. I feel like (but cba to crunch the numbers atm) rangers have just about the lowest count of direct damage increasing sources in the game. Little to no might stacking, 5 % damage increasing traits, and then nothing else besides Spotter. No boon rips, relatively low burst damage potential, and only a single trait for condition builds that even increases procs, and it’s one of the worst crit procs in the game comparatively.

Rangers only have 1 thing going for them besides their now middle of the pack constant health regen; dodges and evades. Thieves may do that better, but that’s only one class, and if this makes it better for anybody else; rangers look cooler when they evade imo.

90% of the traits still feel like they are in beta compared to the other classes I play (warrior and necro), which I guess makes sense, since those 2 classes have received the most work to date, but ANet is basically one balance patch away from either keeping their audience or loosing another portion of their gaming community because things are just stagnant, and not changing for the better quick enough to maintain player interest, from ANY aspect of the game (PvE, PvP, WvW).

Mesmers with high crit (read any viable Mesmer build) have perma vigor in combat, engi kit swap builds have perma vigor and swiftness, scepter has equal regen to a ranger, probably better if they can crit cause I think they get perma vigor like mes via crits.

The only thing that keeps rangers above sub par in dodging is their Evades on several attack skills, but even then it’s an “iffy” advantage at best…

If by “iffy” you mean stronger on point in spvp than in other content in the game then yes lol. Dagger 4 is pretty amazing utility though. Nice long poison that lasts the entire cooldown of the skill with a nice long evade time. Good stuff.

Warriors and necros got a big focus last time around though, let’s hope that this time around rangers will see some love (after PAX that is). Statistically, 25% chance of it being a ranger heavy patch? fingers crossed

Yeah I was using “iffy” more because I’m not sure if those dodges make them on par/ahead of the profs with perma vigor (there’s a lot) I think mesmers with a sword may be better off, but they’re supposed to be elusive so w/e.

I swear to god though, if ranger gets nerfed this upcoming patch I’m done holding out… ESPECIALLY our spirits…

Durzlla.6295:

jcbroe.4329:

Durzlla.6295:

jcbroe.4329:

Castaliea.3156:

jcbroe.4329:

And I’m here to say “why can’t we have both, and let the builds dictate which way people decide to play?”

Because ANet took that choice away.

I never even felt like we had that choice. I feel like (but cba to crunch the numbers atm) rangers have just about the lowest count of direct damage increasing sources in the game. Little to no might stacking, 5 % damage increasing traits, and then nothing else besides Spotter. No boon rips, relatively low burst damage potential, and only a single trait for condition builds that even increases procs, and it’s one of the worst crit procs in the game comparatively.

Rangers only have 1 thing going for them besides their now middle of the pack constant health regen; dodges and evades. Thieves may do that better, but that’s only one class, and if this makes it better for anybody else; rangers look cooler when they evade imo.

90% of the traits still feel like they are in beta compared to the other classes I play (warrior and necro), which I guess makes sense, since those 2 classes have received the most work to date, but ANet is basically one balance patch away from either keeping their audience or loosing another portion of their gaming community because things are just stagnant, and not changing for the better quick enough to maintain player interest, from ANY aspect of the game (PvE, PvP, WvW).

Mesmers with high crit (read any viable Mesmer build) have perma vigor in combat, engi kit swap builds have perma vigor and swiftness, scepter has equal regen to a ranger, probably better if they can crit cause I think they get perma vigor like mes via crits.

The only thing that keeps rangers above sub par in dodging is their Evades on several attack skills, but even then it’s an “iffy” advantage at best…

If by “iffy” you mean stronger on point in spvp than in other content in the game then yes lol. Dagger 4 is pretty amazing utility though. Nice long poison that lasts the entire cooldown of the skill with a nice long evade time. Good stuff.

Warriors and necros got a big focus last time around though, let’s hope that this time around rangers will see some love (after PAX that is). Statistically, 25% chance of it being a ranger heavy patch? fingers crossed

Yeah I was using “iffy” more because I’m not sure if those dodges make them on par/ahead of the profs with perma vigor (there’s a lot) I think mesmers with a sword may be better off, but they’re supposed to be elusive so w/e.

I swear to god though, if ranger gets nerfed this upcoming patch I’m done holding out… ESPECIALLY our spirits…

Well the one thing that makes a difference is that ranger evade skills don’t decap points, which is something only shared by thieves I think. Though you’re right that there are equally elusive classes, like mesmer, than can do it just as well, if not better, and can be considered less situational.

Ranger is going to get nerfed. I’m not sure how they’ll do it, but even the top ranger players like Follidus keep saying it’s too strong on the forums right now. I mean, I really wouldn’t mind the outcome, but for the fact that nothing will probably improve to a high enough point to compensate for what was lost.

I just wish that these “top players” would stop complaining for one moment about classes even they play just because they have a cheese build, so said player goes “nerf this cheese build” enough times til other people agree and it happens. What should be happening is that these players should actually have a constructive conversation about the classes that could be problematic, see why that spec is strong, and what other specs are available, then discuss what needs to be done to that class so it can be viable at a competitive level without being a cheese build.

That’s what I thought the SoTGs were supposed to be, but apparently they’re just another outlet for “top players” to get on with ANet employees and cry that other classes can beat the specs they like so those things need nerfing.

I mean, I’ve been playing a guild wars titled game now for between 8-9 years now, and I’m just left mouth open by ANet at times going “what the kitten is that?” I sure didn’t use to feel like their patches were this nonsensical.

I wish they’d just let builds get countered like in GW1, EX: my ranger had a build that absolute DEMOLISHED casters, did it stand a chance against sins and warriors? kitten no, but the casters (mostly monks and eles) would be destroyed unless something happened.

There’s scenarios like this in GW2, condi necro vs Low vit condi builds for example, but god forbid those stay as is…

And I’m not saying “Anet better not nerf ranger at all!!” I’m more saying “overall it better not be negative.” Because in all honesty I’d say rangers need more buffs than nerfs. Especially outside of PvP, and what “cheese build” does a ranger have that’s “OP”? Is it the spirit builds? Because those things are kitten against any heavy AoE build and the only thing they counter is a turret build and bad players.

Durzlla.6295:

I wish they’d just let builds get countered like in GW1, EX: my ranger had a build that absolute DEMOLISHED casters, did it stand a chance against sins and warriors? kitten no, but the casters (mostly monks and eles) would be destroyed unless something happened.

There’s scenarios like this in GW2, condi necro vs Low vit condi builds for example, but god forbid those stay as is…

And I’m not saying “Anet better not nerf ranger at all!!” I’m more saying “overall it better not be negative.” Because in all honesty I’d say rangers need more buffs than nerfs. Especially outside of PvP, and what “cheese build” does a ranger have that’s “OP”? Is it the spirit builds? Because those things are kitten against any heavy AoE build and the only thing they counter is a turret build and bad players.

I feel like my ranger was pretty much a monster in GW1. The only thing that could shut me down was a blindspamele, and short of a coordinated spike, it took a stance removal class to finish me off. Both of those things were direct counters though, and I agree that there needs to just be flat out pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses to every class.

If rock-paper-scissors balancing is so bad, how come nothing else is working is my question.

As far as the spirit build, I don’t think its OP, but I do think that storm spirit hits for a little too much damage, and that it really sucks being on the receiving end of all of the active procs when you make the right play and kill the spirits, then they proc on death, then the ranger can resummon them again at times almost immediately because of the running cooldown timer.

My first option though is what I think Battosai suggested; don’t necessarily change mechanics, but add passive proc indicators to the UI. If somebody is about to proc dhuumfire on you, there should be a UI indicator that their next attack is going to proc it. Similarly, the spirits could get a lifespan timer on them when they are targeted. That way, people know how “fresh” the spirits are to know whether or not there would be any value to killing them, or if doing so will cause more damage than just waiting/going right for the ranger.

Well dhuumfire is on crits, and I think rock paper scissor balancing is 100% ok so long as its not X class will beat Y class which beats Z class, as long as its builds/roles and not classes I think it’s fine.

As for the spirits I play ranged, and thus never eat their actives on death unless I kitten up big time (staff/scepter mes and a pistol/shield engi with rocket boots and PBR, good luck getting in Melee and staying there) and I also tend to just stop them from resummoning due to the sheer amounts of CC I tend to have, that and screwing up even just one spirit cast can be enough to kill them or force them into healing (especially when you pack the amount of confusion my Mesmer has or the hard CC my engi has)

Durzlla.6295:

Well dhuumfire is on crits, and I think rock paper scissor balancing is 100% ok so long as its not X class will beat Y class which beats Z class, as long as its builds/roles and not classes I think it’s fine.

With the dhuumfire, I know, but just the passive stuff in general (I think he said similar to how sigil of doom gets an indicator that the next hit will poison). It already exists with the passive procs that are visible when people are affected by spirits. Right now though, the only visible “countdown” skill I think is the updated mesmer portal (they get some sort of UI indicator when they use portal now).

If things like that were applied to summons in general (not just spirits), there would be nothing to complain about. The build would still function, but there would be counterplay ability by having that much more transparency. Things like “oh, their Elite spirit is about to go down, hold off downing him, save your burst” or “look, that spirit ranger just summoned his spirits, lets focus him down first.” As it stands now, it’s guesswork. “Well, I could kill his spirits now, but what if they are close to being off cooldown. Then I’ve wasted time and probably won’t get the kill because he’ll get his procs on me then summon the spirits again.”

That wouldn’t nerf the build at all, it would just add a tool to be able to play against it.

jcbroe.4329:

Durzlla.6295:

Well dhuumfire is on crits, and I think rock paper scissor balancing is 100% ok so long as its not X class will beat Y class which beats Z class, as long as its builds/roles and not classes I think it’s fine.

With the dhuumfire, I know, but just the passive stuff in general (I think he said similar to how sigil of doom gets an indicator that the next hit will poison). It already exists with the passive procs that are visible when people are affected by spirits. Right now though, the only visible “countdown” skill I think is the updated mesmer portal (they get some sort of UI indicator when they use portal now).

If things like that were applied to summons in general (not just spirits), there would be nothing to complain about. The build would still function, but there would be counterplay ability by having that much more transparency. Things like “oh, their Elite spirit is about to go down, hold off downing him, save your burst” or “look, that spirit ranger just summoned his spirits, lets focus him down first.” As it stands now, it’s guesswork. “Well, I could kill his spirits now, but what if they are close to being off cooldown. Then I’ve wasted time and probably won’t get the kill because he’ll get his procs on me then summon the spirits again.”

That wouldn’t nerf the build at all, it would just add a tool to be able to play against it.

I don’t think you -should- know when their stuff is about to come off CD, I mean why would you? Next people will be asking to know when my PBR is off CD so they know when it’s safe to stand near a cliff or when they can close the gap on me in a team fight without it being the last thing they do. Or when my Mesmer can CoF + MW for massive AoE confusion so they can prepare for it.

And spirits aren’t exactly difficult to take out, especially if you’re AoE based or in a team fight, those things will be gone in a matter of seconds, try fighting an ele (any ele really), or most engi builds, or a condi necro, or a shatter mes, or a condi thief(they do exist and they hard counter silly pet builds by making Leaping Death Blossom into infinite life steal via malice sig), etc etc. even with their doubled health it just makes it so they can not be slaughtered mercilessly by a stiff breeze, it doesn’t save them from anything really apart from maybe Melee cleaves.

And the counter play to the elite spirit is killing it and denying them that passive, I have no idea why you’d allow that thing to live for an entire minute unless you were disengaging from the fight. Or better yet, launching it away from the spirit ranger when he’s downed guaranteeing that under NO circumstances it’ll be picking him up.

Durzlla.6295:

Zylonite.5913:

Ranger was my main for 6 months until the nerfs every week by ANet. R.I.P ranger.

Ranger was my main through that, it got shaky granted but still my main, Liadri though… I draw the line there, if our mechanic (and thus reason I play ranger) is useless In “challenging content” I see no reason to play the profession when all the others I enjoy are unphased

Not to brag (yes totally bragging), I beat Liadri in 7 tries today. I lost to her in about the same amount of attempts, maybe a few less, yesterday. So overall it took me probably 15 or so attempts.

Obviously, the pet wasn’t worth jack kitten. But ya, with that gear prysin sent you, I know you can do it. After all that talk of carrion I just said “meh, screw it, I’m going in zerker”. I’m pretty sure the sigil of purity on the shortbow helped a lot. Shortbow is clutch in so many ways in phase 2. LR is clutch for orbs: breaks stun and destroys orb all in one instant skill.

Chopps.5047:

Durzlla.6295:

Zylonite.5913:

Ranger was my main for 6 months until the nerfs every week by ANet. R.I.P ranger.

Ranger was my main through that, it got shaky granted but still my main, Liadri though… I draw the line there, if our mechanic (and thus reason I play ranger) is useless In “challenging content” I see no reason to play the profession when all the others I enjoy are unphased

Not to brag (yes totally bragging), I beat Liadri in 7 tries today. I lost to her in about the same amount of attempts, maybe a few less, yesterday. So overall it took me probably 15 or so attempts.

Obviously, the pet wasn’t worth jack kitten. But ya, with that gear prysin sent you, I know you can do it. After all that talk of carrion I just said “meh, screw it, I’m going in zerker”. I’m pretty sure the sigil of purity on the shortbow helped a lot. Shortbow is clutch in so many ways in phase 2. LR is clutch for orbs: breaks stun and destroys orb all in one instant skill.

Yeah I can totally do it in zerker I only tried her twice in it (both times I kittened up due to the blind, just gonna turn off post processing) but got her to 25% with little issue.

Actually, my bird did some damage. At the start of phase 2 I swapped to the eagle and got a little burst in (probably 6k or so) before BOOM HAHA PET DED NOOB. Silly visions of mortality—I think my pets get all hypno-eyed and just walk right into them.

CHUCK DONT GO INTO THE LIGHT!!!!!

Durzlla.6295:

jcbroe.4329:

Durzlla.6295:

Well dhuumfire is on crits, and I think rock paper scissor balancing is 100% ok so long as its not X class will beat Y class which beats Z class, as long as its builds/roles and not classes I think it’s fine.

With the dhuumfire, I know, but just the passive stuff in general (I think he said similar to how sigil of doom gets an indicator that the next hit will poison). It already exists with the passive procs that are visible when people are affected by spirits. Right now though, the only visible “countdown” skill I think is the updated mesmer portal (they get some sort of UI indicator when they use portal now).

If things like that were applied to summons in general (not just spirits), there would be nothing to complain about. The build would still function, but there would be counterplay ability by having that much more transparency. Things like “oh, their Elite spirit is about to go down, hold off downing him, save your burst” or “look, that spirit ranger just summoned his spirits, lets focus him down first.” As it stands now, it’s guesswork. “Well, I could kill his spirits now, but what if they are close to being off cooldown. Then I’ve wasted time and probably won’t get the kill because he’ll get his procs on me then summon the spirits again.”

That wouldn’t nerf the build at all, it would just add a tool to be able to play against it.

I don’t think you -should- know when their stuff is about to come off CD, I mean why would you? Next people will be asking to know when my PBR is off CD so they know when it’s safe to stand near a cliff or when they can close the gap on me in a team fight without it being the last thing they do. Or when my Mesmer can CoF + MW for massive AoE confusion so they can prepare for it.

And spirits aren’t exactly difficult to take out, especially if you’re AoE based or in a team fight, those things will be gone in a matter of seconds, try fighting an ele (any ele really), or most engi builds, or a condi necro, or a shatter mes, or a condi thief(they do exist and they hard counter silly pet builds by making Leaping Death Blossom into infinite life steal via malice sig), etc etc. even with their doubled health it just makes it so they can not be slaughtered mercilessly by a stiff breeze, it doesn’t save them from anything really apart from maybe Melee cleaves.

And the counter play to the elite spirit is killing it and denying them that passive, I have no idea why you’d allow that thing to live for an entire minute unless you were disengaging from the fight. Or better yet, launching it away from the spirit ranger when he’s downed guaranteeing that under NO circumstances it’ll be picking him up.

What harm would it do though? Just as much as it is an assistant for opponents, it can be a boon for the player using them. It can indicate things to you like “oh, if I use the active now, I’ll be able to use it again before the spirit dies” or even better, you’ll be able to see the lifespan of your own spirit instead of guesstimating. Instead of hopping into the teamfight right as your spirits randomly die, then hope you don’t get focused as you resummon them, you’d be able to go “oh look, my spirits are going to die, let me hold off so I can get fresh spirits before jumping in.”

Also, a passive proc indicator for things like Dhuumfire, etc, isn’t just for players. As crazy as it sounds for the low population; it’s also for spectators. Let’s say the game is being displayed on a mainstage somewhere, and a guy is autoattacking, and all of a sudden the target catches on fire randomly. People with a lack of knowledge on the game are going to be completely lost, and they may shy away from continuing to watch because they can’t follow the action.

The thing is, with the short cooldowns that passive procs have in this game, especially the 100% on crit ones, or the spirit ones, it really would just clean up the spam fest a little, make the game more watchable, and slow down the action just ever so slightly enough to make people consider there next move, instead of rolling their face on the keyboard, then weapon swapping and rolling their face on the keyboard, trying to just land a bunch of crap and hope a passive proc goes off for even more damage (I’m describing the necro spec lol).

I’m not saying you have to agree, it is just an opinion. But games tend to not succeed on a competitive level when they are frontloaded with RNG based procs that are invisible to spectators.

Chopps.5047:

Actually, my bird did some damage. At the start of phase 2 I swapped to the eagle and got a little burst in (probably 6k or so) before BOOM HAHA PET DED NOOB. Silly visions of mortality—I think my pets get all hypno-eyed and just walk right into them.

CHUCK DONT GO INTO THE LIGHT!!!!!

I don’t think those actually kill the pets unless they blow up on you and the pet is close… I know my pets are clearly not seeing the red circles and moving… Maybe they’re color blind?

@JC I’m not saying that the OWNER of the spirits shouldn’t be able to see their lifetime, I still would like to see a ring or something around the spirit skills that will Deplete as their life goes out, make it like a dark grey or something so it can be seen easily, I don’t think ENEMIES should be able to see it however.

And for things like Dhuumfire an audience who doesn’t play the game doesn’t need to know when every little thing procs, they just need to know “that’s a necromancer, and he will throw every dot in the game on people.” They don’t need to know every minor detail. EX: when I watched LoL (friend would have me do it) and when I watch champions I don’t play/play against, I don’t need to know every little detail they have IE there’s mysteries that make your crits boost your attack speed with a CD, do I know that? No, do I need to? No, I just need to know X champion does damage and their skills do X, Y and Z. The minor details like Crit procs are things actual players want to know CDs of so they can dodge them better, yet Anet has said repeatedly they don’t want you to know exactly what your enemy is doing which is why we don’t have cast bars.

Durzlla.6295:

Chopps.5047:

Actually, my bird did some damage. At the start of phase 2 I swapped to the eagle and got a little burst in (probably 6k or so) before BOOM HAHA PET DED NOOB. Silly visions of mortality—I think my pets get all hypno-eyed and just walk right into them.

CHUCK DONT GO INTO THE LIGHT!!!!!

I don’t think those actually kill the pets unless they blow up on you and the pet is close… I know my pets are clearly not seeing the red circles and moving… Maybe they’re color blind?

Lol I have no clue to be honest. I was too focused on eyeing the aoe and avoiding it. The pets died so kitten fast I couldn’t even see what hit them. Oh, and, of course, there’s no pet combat log SO WHO KNOOOOOOOOWS.

Although you have been extremely accurate with your understanding of pve, bro, big time props from a small time player.

Okay, from a ranger player standpoint, no, I personally would prefer to have my opponents not see the lifespan of my spirits. But I also don’t agree with their potential to have 100% uptime in PvP (it can stay how it is in other content, and actually needs to for dungeons). I’ve been playing the build for awhile now, and I can say that it just requires zero tactics. You are a walking, persistent banner.

Is there counterplay that allows opponents to kill the spirits? yes. But if they are unlucky with cooldowns, they will waste all that energy and still not have anything to show for it. Which is why I’ve been advocating for spirits only having a 45 second lifespan in pvp.

But besides the point, for passive procs, I’ll go 50/50. Maybe the opponent shouldn’t be able to see when dhuumfire or something else is going to proc. But why can’t it be visible the same way spotter is? I mean, it is persistent when in combat, it is something that is always active. I’m not saying for every persistent proc, but on things that raise stats or increase damage and give additional effects, I don’t see why there can’t be a UI indicator there.

I hate trying to watch LoL by the way. I honestly know nothing about the game, and when I watch I really can’t follow whats going on other than when somebody burns a cooldown. It’s an extremely dissatisfying experience, that makes me shy away from even trying the game, especially since I generally try to watch top player footage to learn and progress into a game and get better.

So that’s my compromise on the subject. If dhuumfire or spotter or whatever is active, then it should have a UI indicator that it is active (this is actually EXACTLY what the spirit buff is, which is a good feature already imo). It doesn’t have to disappear when it goes off, but there should definitely be some indicator. Especially since it’s kind of nice to KNOW what’s doing the damage to you.

I don’t really feel like I’m asking for much. Just to be able to use a little bit more of my UI for some effects that should make some features of combat more visible, like how my opponent has the potential to passively damage me.

jcbroe.4329:

Okay, from a ranger player standpoint, no, I personally would prefer to have my opponents not see the lifespan of my spirits. But I also don’t agree with their potential to have 100% uptime in PvP (it can stay how it is in other content, and actually needs to for dungeons). I’ve been playing the build for awhile now, and I can say that it just requires zero tactics. You are a walking, persistent banner.

Is there counterplay that allows opponents to kill the spirits? yes. But if they are unlucky with cooldowns, they will waste all that energy and still not have anything to show for it. Which is why I’ve been advocating for spirits only having a 45 second lifespan in pvp.

But besides the point, for passive procs, I’ll go 50/50. Maybe the opponent shouldn’t be able to see when dhuumfire or something else is going to proc. But why can’t it be visible the same way spotter is? I mean, it is persistent when in combat, it is something that is always active. I’m not saying for every persistent proc, but on things that raise stats or increase damage and give additional effects, I don’t see why there can’t be a UI indicator there.

I hate trying to watch LoL by the way. I honestly know nothing about the game, and when I watch I really can’t follow whats going on other than when somebody burns a cooldown. It’s an extremely dissatisfying experience, that makes me shy away from even trying the game, especially since I generally try to watch top player footage to learn and progress into a game and get better.

So that’s my compromise on the subject. If dhuumfire or spotter or whatever is active, then it should have a UI indicator that it is active (this is actually EXACTLY what the spirit buff is, which is a good feature already imo). It doesn’t have to disappear when it goes off, but there should definitely be some indicator. Especially since it’s kind of nice to KNOW what’s doing the damage to you.

I don’t really feel like I’m asking for much. Just to be able to use a little bit more of my UI for some effects that should make some features of combat more visible, like how my opponent has the potential to passively damage me.

Then they’d have to display like their entire trait choice which is just cluttered UI, I don’t need to know every single one of my enemies trait choices, all I know is “Necromancer burned me, he has 30 in spite” or “I just got feared when I CCed him he has that trait” most players (that are playing) will KNOW the enemies tricks (traits at least) after the initial encounter. And then spectators can view the actual builds, and see every single detail behind them, which is up to both the spectator and the shout caster to get that info to the spectators.

And luck plays a big role in ALL of PvP, IE: I use Elixir U, I could get super freaking lucky and end up with that silky QZ debuff which does nothing to hurt me so I slaughter my enemy with that nearly cost less quickness, or I can take the worst possible scenario and end up getting Frenzy and end up being destroyed by the 25% damage increase I can’t mitigate. Or I drop a chaos storm and I get a lucky daze + aegis securing an enemy stomp and saving an allies death at the same time… Or get a poison + swiftness and lose them both.

Or to bring it closer to home, I could be using spirits and just need that one more tick of burning to proc to kill the thief before he can re stealth and backstab me, but it doesn’t go off and he puts me into downed state.

RNG is good, especially in the scenarios -you- are talking about because its not actually random. And spirits are fine, tbh if I start killing my enemies spirits and they all start dying due to the CD I’m ecstatic because that means he’s going to be useless the moment he tries to summon them up again and I can take advantage of that by either securing a kill or interrupting him.

The ONLY reason spirits are “OP” in PvP is because everyone and ther grandma seems to think they should be able to ignore every summoned creature and just smash their face into their Keyboard and be able to kill the summons owner. That doesn’t work against spirits, or minions, or turrets (in a 1v1 god those things suck in team fights) or phantasms, or BMs. Notice how 4 of those builds were “OP” for a long period of time? (minions still are strong, no one uses them though because condi necro hard counters the current meta)

I don’t think that at all about spirits. I think that they deserve to be targeted and focused. My only issue is that they punish players for playing against the build properly at times, which is honestly an unfair mechanic (no matter how much I love watching them melt). So I guess Nature’s Vengeance is what I have the problem with.

You’re completely right though, the shoutcasters could remedy the problem for spectators entirely with a general build setup rundown, which they always seem to just skip over.

I’m personally extremely biased against passive mechanics though. That really isn’t going to change. Damage bonuses don’t bug me, but being able to every 10s just go “hey, you built for precision, here’s a free burn” just adds to the crazy amounts of spam, and there’s no way to counter that.

I’m not sure if it already works like this, but if the trait was set to proc for a certain attack, and that attack misses or is evaded, do the procs still go on cooldown? I don’t think they do, which is why I don’t like it, but if they do go on cooldown even if they miss (like Sharpening Edges, etc), then that’s fine. If they don’t however, that would be the change I push for after this conversation.

jcbroe.4329:

I don’t think that at all about spirits. I think that they deserve to be targeted and focused. My only issue is that they punish players for playing against the build properly at times, which is honestly an unfair mechanic (no matter how much I love watching them melt). So I guess Nature’s Vengeance is what I have the problem with.

You’re completely right though, the shoutcasters could remedy the problem for spectators entirely with a general build setup rundown, which they always seem to just skip over.

I’m personally extremely biased against passive mechanics though. That really isn’t going to change. Damage bonuses don’t bug me, but being able to every 10s just go “hey, you built for precision, here’s a free burn” just adds to the crazy amounts of spam, and there’s no way to counter that.

I’m not sure if it already works like this, but if the trait was set to proc for a certain attack, and that attack misses or is evaded, do the procs still go on cooldown? I don’t think they do, which is why I don’t like it, but if they do go on cooldown even if they miss (like Sharpening Edges, etc), then that’s fine. If they don’t however, that would be the change I push for after this conversation.

They do not go on CD (at least the engi burn crit one doesn’t), and one thing they said when they made the game was they wanted crits to do less damage per hit than power stuff, but they wanted crits builds to have a bunch of added effects to compensate, the 2 they used regularly as examples was applying bleeding and blinds, only bleeding is common…

That being said I’d love to see more traits that are essentially X Y and Z moves now also do W. would be more interesting than “all crits burn people!”

And I’d rather then just make spirits work like minions, drop the CD down to like, what? 30s? But make the duration last until they die and make it so your spirit CD only starts when they die. This is when the spirits unbound trait is active btw, otherwise leave them as is.

Durzlla.6295:

jcbroe.4329:

I don’t think that at all about spirits. I think that they deserve to be targeted and focused. My only issue is that they punish players for playing against the build properly at times, which is honestly an unfair mechanic (no matter how much I love watching them melt). So I guess Nature’s Vengeance is what I have the problem with.

You’re completely right though, the shoutcasters could remedy the problem for spectators entirely with a general build setup rundown, which they always seem to just skip over.

I’m personally extremely biased against passive mechanics though. That really isn’t going to change. Damage bonuses don’t bug me, but being able to every 10s just go “hey, you built for precision, here’s a free burn” just adds to the crazy amounts of spam, and there’s no way to counter that.

I’m not sure if it already works like this, but if the trait was set to proc for a certain attack, and that attack misses or is evaded, do the procs still go on cooldown? I don’t think they do, which is why I don’t like it, but if they do go on cooldown even if they miss (like Sharpening Edges, etc), then that’s fine. If they don’t however, that would be the change I push for after this conversation.

They do not go on CD (at least the engi burn crit one doesn’t), and one thing they said when they made the game was they wanted crits to do less damage per hit than power stuff, but they wanted crits builds to have a bunch of added effects to compensate, the 2 they used regularly as examples was applying bleeding and blinds, only bleeding is common…

That being said I’d love to see more traits that are essentially X Y and Z moves now also do W. would be more interesting than “all crits burn people!”

And I’d rather then just make spirits work like minions, drop the CD down to like, what? 30s? But make the duration last until they die and make it so your spirit CD only starts when they die. This is when the spirits unbound trait is active btw, otherwise leave them as is.

That was a suggestion I saw over on the spvp forums that I wouldn’t mind, for the spirits.

I understand what they want crits to do and all, but I think that if a player dodged or avoided damage, especially damage that had a crit proc attached to it, that it should still go on cooldown, especially with the 100% on crit skills. You shouldn’t get an infinite amount of tries to land your crit proc til it finally activates, if you got dodged and your stuff activated, it should go on cooldown.

I don’t see that as being a bad global change, but I could be wrong. It would really only punish spammers more than anything, since they would just keep throwing stuff out there and losing their procs for being reckless with their abilities.

jcbroe.4329:

Durzlla.6295:

jcbroe.4329:

I don’t think that at all about spirits. I think that they deserve to be targeted and focused. My only issue is that they punish players for playing against the build properly at times, which is honestly an unfair mechanic (no matter how much I love watching them melt). So I guess Nature’s Vengeance is what I have the problem with.

You’re completely right though, the shoutcasters could remedy the problem for spectators entirely with a general build setup rundown, which they always seem to just skip over.

I’m personally extremely biased against passive mechanics though. That really isn’t going to change. Damage bonuses don’t bug me, but being able to every 10s just go “hey, you built for precision, here’s a free burn” just adds to the crazy amounts of spam, and there’s no way to counter that.

I’m not sure if it already works like this, but if the trait was set to proc for a certain attack, and that attack misses or is evaded, do the procs still go on cooldown? I don’t think they do, which is why I don’t like it, but if they do go on cooldown even if they miss (like Sharpening Edges, etc), then that’s fine. If they don’t however, that would be the change I push for after this conversation.

They do not go on CD (at least the engi burn crit one doesn’t), and one thing they said when they made the game was they wanted crits to do less damage per hit than power stuff, but they wanted crits builds to have a bunch of added effects to compensate, the 2 they used regularly as examples was applying bleeding and blinds, only bleeding is common…

That being said I’d love to see more traits that are essentially X Y and Z moves now also do W. would be more interesting than “all crits burn people!”

And I’d rather then just make spirits work like minions, drop the CD down to like, what? 30s? But make the duration last until they die and make it so your spirit CD only starts when they die. This is when the spirits unbound trait is active btw, otherwise leave them as is.

That was a suggestion I saw over on the spvp forums that I wouldn’t mind, for the spirits.

I understand what they want crits to do and all, but I think that if a player dodged or avoided damage, especially damage that had a crit proc attached to it, that it should still go on cooldown, especially with the 100% on crit skills. You shouldn’t get an infinite amount of tries to land your crit proc til it finally activates, if you got dodged and your stuff activated, it should go on cooldown.

I don’t see that as being a bad global change, but I could be wrong. It would really only punish spammers more than anything, since they would just keep throwing stuff out there and losing their procs for being reckless with their abilities.

Actually it’d just reward random dodgers because there’s no way I can guarantee an attack will or won’t crit, so idk how they’d even implement it, it’s not like your crits cause your next attack to do something, it’s a bonus you get for actually landing a crit.

Well I was thinking of it like this: it has a success rate tied to it, and an ICD. So, when not on cooldown, it has x chance to apply to an attack. So, when that person attacks, their attack goes through the games formula, and decides whether or not it’s going to crit, and then it going through another formula and decides if the proc is going to be applied, then if yes to both, applies the proc to that attack. If that attack is unsuccessful, then it “spends” the chance to proc and the proc goes on cooldown.

I mean, the current system rewards random attackers. If I had to take my choice between a person rolling their face across their keyboard and getting a proc on me, versus going up against a dodge happy person that expends all their endurance trying to make me miss something that by definition is already unreliable, so that I can then land all of my damage skills, I’d prefer the second option. It would allow at least allow for good dodgers to dodge spam heavy players and have a reward.

There should definitely be more reward for a player capable of dodging attacks than a player spamming skills on recharge. Especially if a dodge happy player expends all of their energy and will die because of it because now, the skilled opponent, who used their procs as bait, can land all of their high damage skills.

I mean, a simpler question is this, how come I loose stacks of sharpening stone on a 45 second cooldown from missing or them being dodged (at least, I think I do, correct me if I’m wrong), but I don’t loose the ability to proc Incendiary Powder or Dhuumfire. I’m not particularly interested at this point in the other proc abilities that have less than 100% proc chance on crit (because I agree with the random chance mechanic, but I don’t agree with the idea that every 10s, with precision, you’re guaranteed a burn).

Azure.8670:

Every classes forum sits and cries about their class except the Guardians. Their crying is at a minimum. Ranger can solo PVE better than most of the classes except guard and warrior. In WVW we work well in groups due to our healing/condition removal and sustained support DPS. We are good are roaming because we’re hard to kill and vary in our methods. in PVP we are one of the top classes, only outdone possibly by a great thief and good necros. We are one of the few classes that isnt completely screwed by conditions, so fighting engis and necros isnt a pain in the kitten. We are never going to be top tier in damage, unless you can master using birds/cats and timing your Mauls and sword 1 combos, but we dont even need to go into that. Basically we dont have an I WIN button like some other classes do, but we’re in a much better spot than mesmers and eles are currently. Also, if you look at the boards and pvp matches, we are one of the few classes that arent crying about PVPing the new Warrior meta. we have enough evades AND possible tankiness (depends on build) to fight them right back. I main Mesmer/Thief and ill tell you Cond/Tank warriors and Stunlock Warriors are a complete nightmare for them. (beatable with thief, but forced to use daggers as warriors regen more hp than a s/d thief build can muster).

PVP may be a problem, given the inability of pets to hit moving targets, but it isn’t the main one (much less the only one). General solo PVE play is the least problematic, because it’s easy for everyone and doesn’t offer any rewards that one class can get more easily than another. The problem is the newer, more challenging PVE content, particularly dungeons and fractals. Poor positioning or failing to dodge at the right time will get you killed, as the bosses and traps hit much harder than other players in PVP. The problem is that pets have abysmal positioning and no dodge. Therefore, rangers are forced to play with a ~30% damage penalty in those areas.

I feel if you accept that the pet makes up a chunk of your DPS and that there is more to running a dungeon then your DPS then you will find the ranger is a great class. I hit for around 5k per auto attack and I share +15% crit chance with allies as well as frost spirit’s 10% dmg bonus and have the ability to stack vuln. I feel like I can contribute to a party and have had very little trouble doing PVE on my own. I can’t speak for WvW or PVP as I have played very limited amounts.

Ben.3526:

I share +15% crit chance with allies as well as frost spirit’s 10% dmg bonus

Where are you getting these numbers?
If I recall spotter is ~7% crit chance, half of what you mentioned. Also, Frost spirit adds ~7% damage not 10%. Is there other things I’m missing? If so I’d like to know so I can improve my effectiveness….

I’m at work so I didn’t have exact numbers the wiki claims frost spirit gives “35% chance to grant 10% bonus damage”, sorry, I meant 150 precision not 15% crit. Regardless thats still a pretty good party contribution

I have hope the Ranger’s faults will be fixed in time. It’s just the trip there that many find hard to bear. If you enjoy playing your Ranger, then by all means do so. It will only get stronger in the future.

Ben.3526:

I feel if you accept that the pet makes up a chunk of your DPS and that there is more to running a dungeon then your DPS then you will find the ranger is a great class. I hit for around 5k per auto attack and I share +15% crit chance with allies as well as frost spirit’s 10% dmg bonus and have the ability to stack vuln. I feel like I can contribute to a party and have had very little trouble doing PVE on my own. I can’t speak for WvW or PVP as I have played very limited amounts.

The problem that I see is that other professions deal at least as much damage, while also having better party buffs and more fields/finishers. 150 precision and 3.5% DPS boost isn’t exactly amazing, especially on a class that has these other faults.

thefantasticg.3984:

Durzlla.6295:

thefantasticg.3984:

Chopps.5047:

Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a pro team of 3 wars and mes to run with every time to melt alpha. I end up bringing my warrior if we only have one on the team, and that happens much much more often than me bringing my ranger. So, I can do everything right, but Alpha will still not melt and my pets still die 90%+ of the time because I don’t run in optimal groups because they are simply unavailable.

In my BM build I can keep my pet up for 80% of the Alpha fight pretty easily, and I don’t run wih any warriors or mesmers unless we find a pug, my group comp (friends) is a guardian (rerolled to ranger now) and 2 thieves, and then me as a ranger (currently leveling my engineer) and we pug the last one.

Yeah, I can see that in a BM build with people who are good at the professions they play. I usually end up with at least one or two necros or engineers cause we don’t discriminate in the guildie runs. It’s all about how fast you can get Alpha down vs pet survival.

I have to laugh at the part about engineers being a detriment to how fast you can kill something, especially like in coe. A bomb sd build is absolutely bananas there. This illustrates the issue for this game, people simply don’t know how to play effectively most of the time, they pick one build or use one weapon and stick with it and then make proclamations that this class or that class is bad (including ranger). A engineer is capable of putting out every bit as much damage as any other class (with the exception of abusing certain mechanics like with a elementalist’s fgs and pushing a mob to the wall). The problem is with the players not the classes, people just don’t want to admit to themselves that they are anything less than “pro”. That is not to say that there are not certain imbalances in degrees of ease of use or certain encounters or group compositions that favor some classes over others, but literally every class is effective if the people know what to do and how to adapt accordingly to the situation at hand.

Seriously. Lemme perma-stow my pet and I’d be so happy therefore busy playing you’d never see me on the forums again (except during downtime at work) complaining about any aspect of the Ranger… I guess that’s because the pet is the only aspect I don’t like.

thefantasticg.3984:

Seriously. Lemme perma-stow my pet and I’d be so happy therefore busy playing you’d never see me on the forums again (except during downtime at work) complaining about any aspect of the Ranger… I guess that’s because the pet is the only aspect I don’t like.

I’m more irked with how boring most of our utilities are… and our pets uselessness in “challenging” PvE content…

thefantasticg.3984:

Seriously. Lemme perma-stow my pet and I’d be so happy therefore busy playing you’d never see me on the forums again (except during downtime at work) complaining about any aspect of the Ranger… I guess that’s because the pet is the only aspect I don’t like.

I hear ya, and from a amount of work standpoint I don’t know which would seem like the easiest solution? Stow the pet and get a % damage buff to make up for not using it, though I am not sure how to address losing the f2 functionality, unless they just still let you somehow use the f2 with maybe a different utility depending on the pets you had selected. Or they can figure out a way to make pets negate damage so that they are not basically fire and forget weapons. All the “pet” ai suffers from this though, mesmer phantasms and necro minions (of course both of those have vastly shorter cooldowns). Maybe that should be looked at, lowering cooldowns on the ranger pet’s “downstate”. Being able to stow the pet and getting some kind of compensation for the loss of damage still seems like the ideal solution to me.

ShadowPuppet.3746:

thefantasticg.3984:

Seriously. Lemme perma-stow my pet and I’d be so happy therefore busy playing you’d never see me on the forums again (except during downtime at work) complaining about any aspect of the Ranger… I guess that’s because the pet is the only aspect I don’t like.

I hear ya, and from a amount of work standpoint I don’t know which would seem like the easiest solution? Stow the pet and get a % damage buff to make up for not using it, though I am not sure how to address losing the f2 functionality, unless they just still let you somehow use the f2 with maybe a different utility depending on the pets you had selected. Or they can figure out a way to make pets negate damage so that they are not basically fire and forget weapons. All the “pet” ai suffers from this though, mesmer phantasms and necro minions (of course both of those have vastly shorter cooldowns). Maybe that should be looked at, lowering cooldowns on the ranger pet’s “downstate”. Being able to stow the pet and getting some kind of compensation for the loss of damage still seems like the ideal solution to me.

In all honesty i think they should just balance the Ranger profession around the pet being bonus damage and then make the pet not out 100% IE you summon the pet who will fight with you for X seconds or until it dies (we get command of it as we do now) and then it leaves and begins going on CD (F4 would make it so we send it back sooner than it normally would and thus start the CD earlier). Pet would still be the rangers mechanic, you’d still NEED to use it to be playing to your fullest (like a necro needs to use death shroud or a thief steal), but ignoring it, or not relying on it wont destroy your viability.

Just throw some Grandmaster Major trait in the BM tree that makes it so your pet will be out 100% of the time( or maybe make it so the CD on the pet starts when summoned so you have the potential of 100% uptime) and make Zephyrs Speed or w/e it’s called trigger on pet summon.

Durzlla.6295:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

thefantasticg.3984:

Seriously. Lemme perma-stow my pet and I’d be so happy therefore busy playing you’d never see me on the forums again (except during downtime at work) complaining about any aspect of the Ranger… I guess that’s because the pet is the only aspect I don’t like.

I hear ya, and from a amount of work standpoint I don’t know which would seem like the easiest solution? Stow the pet and get a % damage buff to make up for not using it, though I am not sure how to address losing the f2 functionality, unless they just still let you somehow use the f2 with maybe a different utility depending on the pets you had selected. Or they can figure out a way to make pets negate damage so that they are not basically fire and forget weapons. All the “pet” ai suffers from this though, mesmer phantasms and necro minions (of course both of those have vastly shorter cooldowns). Maybe that should be looked at, lowering cooldowns on the ranger pet’s “downstate”. Being able to stow the pet and getting some kind of compensation for the loss of damage still seems like the ideal solution to me.

In all honesty i think they should just balance the Ranger profession around the pet being bonus damage and then make the pet not out 100% IE you summon the pet who will fight with you for X seconds or until it dies (we get command of it as we do now) and then it leaves and begins going on CD (F4 would make it so we send it back sooner than it normally would and thus start the CD earlier). Pet would still be the rangers mechanic, you’d still NEED to use it to be playing to your fullest (like a necro needs to use death shroud or a thief steal), but ignoring it, or not relying on it wont destroy your viability.

Just throw some Grandmaster Major trait in the BM tree that makes it so your pet will be out 100% of the time( or maybe make it so the CD on the pet starts when summoned so you have the potential of 100% uptime) and make Zephyrs Speed or w/e it’s called trigger on pet summon.

I’m 200% on the same page as you. +1