Guild Wars 2

Eh, I don’t really care that apparently there are some Ranger changes already chambered. Here’s this anyway.

It’s by no means complete, but here are some ideas that I just wanted to get out of me so I could sleep.

My overhaul would be like hit F1 to mount on your pet

Nah. I like the system as it is now. I understand a lot of people want a perma-stow option but that’s negating the profession mechanic entirely. It would be like playing Necro and never using DeathShroud. Regardless of whether you’ve traited into DS, it’s still a beneficial tool for various reasons.

The main reason it seems that players want a perma-stow option is to side-step the downside of a pet in certain circumstances. I say Anet just fixes those issues. Perma-stow in dungeons because pets are always dead right? Give pets aoe damage reduction and distortion upon Ranger dodge. Boom, problem solved. Fix the pet pathing so they don’t aggro the world unintentionally. Fix the F2 so it’s responsive. Fix the Passive function so that it recalls our pets to us quickly, possibly even shadowstepping to us. If it is a shadowstep, give it a small cooldown (no more than 10s) due to it being so awesome. Because of the aoe reduction & distortion I previously mentioned, this cooldown would be ok.

I like my pet, the only time I like to stow him is sneaking past bad guys or jumping puzzles.

That being said it would be nice if when I took falling damage (darn jumping puzzles) he didn’t come back out and play again.

The only people that agrro the world unintentionally are the people that are not good at pet classes and simple micro management. Period. I can’t recall a single dungeon in which my pets aggro’d stuff unintentionally.

Yes, the pathing can be a lot better, but so can you.

Protip:

1) If your pet aggros the world, let it fight, run farther away, swap pet. Profit.
2) Stow your pet before running past mobs. If you are bad, or can’t dodge through aggro’d mobs and get hit, see rule #1.

Rangers have the perfect pets! No stepping barefoot in the morning into some kittening kitten kitten.
Vitigis has it right, it’s ll about management. As in the real world it’s the pets owner that needs the training.(and probably the rest of your pug in dungeons),

vitigis.4160:

The only people that agrro the world unintentionally are the people that are not good at pet classes and simple micro management. Period. I can’t recall a single dungeon in which my pets aggro’d stuff unintentionally.

Yes, the pathing can be a lot better, but so can you.

Protip:

1) If your pet aggros the world, let it fight, run farther away, swap pet. Profit.
2) Stow your pet before running past mobs. If you are bad, or can’t dodge through aggro’d mobs and get hit, see rule #1.

+1. There’s really no excuse for your pet aggroing mobs in dungeons, I don’t recall it ever happening to me either. You don’t even have to stow it, all you have to do is put it on defensive and keep the normal safe distance from mobs. I don’t like the idea of the pet permastow at all, I do however agree with Bitsy that they should not hop out every time I take falling damage.

I like this idea, I like it alot, pets are both great and terrible in this game and the current form just doesn’t cut it in my opinion.

So many “Just manage your pets better” responses.

The point of the change isn’t so much that the current pet mechanic has really bad innate management capacities, but rather that those (very, very basic) management capacities are all that you really get when your pet is on the field. A pet is a second body on the field for the Ranger. I think that the current mechanic is a gratuitous waste of that resource. There should be more interplay between the pet and the Ranger with regards to both mutual positioning and active skill-use or attacks. You can’t do that with 3 out of the 4 F-skills being taken up by “Attack this guy!” “Stop attacking that guy!” and “I’m a Pokemon trainer!” You can argue that “Oh, hey, but I get 3 unique F-skills because I have 3 different pets!” but are you really going to reduce the entire pet mechanic to 3 straightforward and typically mediocre skills with long cool-downs?

Again, what a waste. You’re not thinking big enough.

In GW2, you simply just cannot develop a profession’s maximum capacity for complex play using a single F-skill. That’s why the Warrior is so straightforward (as is the Ranger at the moment). The only real way to deepen Ranger combat and make pets have a bigger impact on play is to introduce more skill variety and skills that directly play off of your pet’s positioning and are based on your chosen pet’s family.

Furthermore, I don’t even play Ranger. That is to say, I did, but I stopped after realizing how mentally shallow the pet mechanic is and thought to myself, “I could design something better.” At this point, the Ranger profession—given it’s actual number of profession mechanic skills that have a direct impact on combat—is literally just the Warrior profession with less damage and three NPCs that follow you around, do some damage and die a lot. My overall suggestion is mostly just changes that would make me want to play Ranger again. Nobody has to get offended or insult my Ranger play (especially because I don’t even play the class anymore).

Daemon.4295:

+1. There’s really no excuse for your pet aggroing mobs in dungeons, I don’t recall it ever happening to me either. You don’t even have to stow it, all you have to do is put it on defensive and keep the normal safe distance from mobs.

I’ve had it happen in a couple places in dungeons where you take a small step down a ridge, and your pet decides the shortest way to follow you is to run to the opposite side of the room, aggro everything around there, before returning to you with all its “presents” in tow. Usually I’m quick enough to swap pets when this happens, but it’s so arbitrary which ridges are safe to step down and which are not that sometimes a step I think must be safe isn’t and I don’t swap my pet in time.

The other place I’d really like a permanent stow is when killing those flame turrets in AC. My pet doesn’t contribute at all and invariably ends up dead, leaving me with a 47-60 sec cooldown before I can use it again. If the pet AI were much better (i.e. pets would avoid AOE and red circles on their own), I’d agree there’s no need for a perma-stow option. But right now a perma-stow is needed to make up for shortcomings in the current AI.

Pet’s getting Distortion when you dodge would be brilliant. There’s so many times when I’ve dodged close calls, only to have my pet walk straight through that AOE I just dodged out of.

It would increase their lifespan by a lot.

Just my 2 cents….I love the ranger. Love it love it! However…..
Usually run (20/25/15/0/5) or (20/30/0/0/20) btw

DPS for rangers without a pet is quite frankly low, in some cases against a high toughness target, embarrassingly so, and in many instances when your pet cannot be used due to agony, AoE or other effects, our damage is quite weak. I think with a simple fix of allowing us to control these guys a little more. (I understand the in and out control of pets), and manage it closely and it works well, but let’s be honest we have all had pets run in or get caught somewhere and they are 1 shotted in fractals. Pet gone? So is a LOT of your DPS.

-If I have a pet, let me tell it when to use it’s bleed, pounce, F1-F4 could be toggled to always run, never run but run on click/key bind, etc. In RL if I have a pet I can tell it to heel or bark, so if my pet could heal me or knock you over, why can’t I command it to do it on call?

-AoE mitigation or be able to assign talent points to pets for resistance (polar bear frost resist, or fire resist, or more vitality, toughness whatever. This way out pets could be used for different circumstances a raw DPS linx with even more DPS, or added toughness etc. but my bear could have more toughness as well as vitality. The list goes on…our damage is weaker than many other classes because of the pet, so make them more viable in different situations.

-(more for a fun thought off the top of my head rather than a need) Pet talents are scattered throughout the traits, why no put more pet in 1 tree and give us another, consolidate them? Rangers are the class I think lives off the land and is at one with nature. Pets bows and the weapons we have work well for it, but what about the ranger that wants a touch of stealth in lieu of a pet? not a must but it might lead to a bit more fun to make it a pet-less (or weak pet) class but they become a sniper type character, or use more of the nature magic use of spirits for healing or team support?

Our traps and 1 AoE heal are nice, but I think more group buffs or a way to support our team more would be a good trade off instead of adding damage to give us more desire to be included in high end fractals.

just some thoughts off the top of my head

Swagg.9236:

So many “Just manage your pets better” responses.

The point of the change isn’t so much that the current pet mechanic has really bad innate management capacities, but rather that those (very, very basic) management capacities are all that you really get when your pet is on the field. A pet is a second body on the field for the Ranger. I think that the current mechanic is a gratuitous waste of that resource. There should be more interplay between the pet and the Ranger with regards to both mutual positioning and active skill-use or attacks. You can’t do that with 3 out of the 4 F-skills being taken up by “Attack this guy!” “Stop attacking that guy!” and “I’m a Pokemon trainer!” You can argue that “Oh, hey, but I get 3 unique F-skills because I have 3 different pets!” but are you really going to reduce the entire pet mechanic to 3 straightforward and typically mediocre skills with long cool-downs?

Again, what a waste. You’re not thinking big enough.

In GW2, you simply just cannot develop a profession’s maximum capacity for complex play using a single F-skill. That’s why the Warrior is so straightforward (as is the Ranger at the moment). The only real way to deepen Ranger combat and make pets have a bigger impact on play is to introduce more skill variety and skills that directly play off of your pet’s positioning and are based on your chosen pet’s family.

Furthermore, I don’t even play Ranger. That is to say, I did, but I stopped after realizing how mentally shallow the pet mechanic is and thought to myself, “I could design something better.” At this point, the Ranger profession—given it’s actual number of profession mechanic skills that have a direct impact on combat—is literally just the Warrior profession with less damage and three NPCs that follow you around, do some damage and die a lot. My overall suggestion is mostly just changes that would make me want to play Ranger again. Nobody has to get offended or insult my Ranger play (especially because I don’t even play the class anymore).

So…you’re going to slam the profession we love to play and then go on to say “don’t insult my terrible play, I don’t even play the class”. You don’t play the class, yet you’ll sit there and theorycraft up a couple hours worth of schematics about how it needs changed? I have 1010 hours on my ranger. Here’s my answer for you: play it more—practice before you speak.

Chopps.5047:

Swagg.9236:

So many “Just manage your pets better” responses.

The point of the change isn’t so much that the current pet mechanic has really bad innate management capacities, but rather that those (very, very basic) management capacities are all that you really get when your pet is on the field. A pet is a second body on the field for the Ranger. I think that the current mechanic is a gratuitous waste of that resource. There should be more interplay between the pet and the Ranger with regards to both mutual positioning and active skill-use or attacks. You can’t do that with 3 out of the 4 F-skills being taken up by “Attack this guy!” “Stop attacking that guy!” and “I’m a Pokemon trainer!” You can argue that “Oh, hey, but I get 3 unique F-skills because I have 3 different pets!” but are you really going to reduce the entire pet mechanic to 3 straightforward and typically mediocre skills with long cool-downs?

Again, what a waste. You’re not thinking big enough.

In GW2, you simply just cannot develop a profession’s maximum capacity for complex play using a single F-skill. That’s why the Warrior is so straightforward (as is the Ranger at the moment). The only real way to deepen Ranger combat and make pets have a bigger impact on play is to introduce more skill variety and skills that directly play off of your pet’s positioning and are based on your chosen pet’s family.

Furthermore, I don’t even play Ranger. That is to say, I did, but I stopped after realizing how mentally shallow the pet mechanic is and thought to myself, “I could design something better.” At this point, the Ranger profession—given it’s actual number of profession mechanic skills that have a direct impact on combat—is literally just the Warrior profession with less damage and three NPCs that follow you around, do some damage and die a lot. My overall suggestion is mostly just changes that would make me want to play Ranger again. Nobody has to get offended or insult my Ranger play (especially because I don’t even play the class anymore).

So…you’re going to slam the profession we love to play and then go on to say “don’t insult my terrible play, I don’t even play the class”. You don’t play the class, yet you’ll sit there and theorycraft up a couple hours worth of schematics about how it needs changed? I have 1010 hours on my ranger. Here’s my answer for you: play it more—practice before you speak.

You’re putting words into his mouth. Nowhere did he say “don’t insult my terrible play.” I suggest you go back and read what he said a bit more carefully.

I think you have great ideas here that should definitely be looked at and considered. You’re not offering buffs per-say to the class but rather better and more intuitive pet management options and I for one think they are brilliant.

Chopps.5047:

So…you’re going to slam the profession we love to play and then go on to say “don’t insult my terrible play, I don’t even play the class”. You don’t play the class, yet you’ll sit there and theorycraft up a couple hours worth of schematics about how it needs changed? I have 1010 hours on my ranger. Here’s my answer for you: play it more—practice before you speak.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. I guess I was just frustrated is all. I played Ranger a lot in GW1, and it had a definite role in the field. Moreover, when you ran with a pet, that pet actually mattered a lot to you. It wasn’t just some thing you threw away at trash mobs because you could or because it accidentally aggroed something.

About my play-time for Ranger: several hours was all I needed to determine a problem and begin seeking possible solutions. Again, I don’t mean to insult anyone here, I’m just saying that it didn’t take a lot for me to see how many possibilities and how many resources that the Ranger profession was letting slip through its fingers simply because it’s entire profession mechanic consisted in: “Attack this, pet!”, “Come back, pet!”, “Swap out, pet!”, and a species-specific pet skill on a long cool-down that, when experienced holistically, made the Ranger’s companions feel like slightly more competent Necromancer minion utilities than a well-thought-out and implemented profession mechanic.

My aim here is to not slam the Ranger. My aim is to address its designers’ shortcomings regarding the full utilization of all profession-specific resources available (mainly the pet’s extra body on the field—it’s pretty much entirely untapped, there are so few skills that synergize with its presence; and when they do, they do it poorly/in a shallow manner).

LiquidLeopard.9823:

Just my 2 cents….I love the ranger. Love it love it! However…..
Usually run (20/25/15/0/5) or (20/30/0/0/20) btw

DPS for rangers without a pet is quite frankly low, in some cases against a high toughness target, embarrassingly so, and in many instances when your pet cannot be used due to agony, AoE or other effects, our damage is quite weak. I think with a simple fix of allowing us to control these guys a little more. (I understand the in and out control of pets), and manage it closely and it works well, but let’s be honest we have all had pets run in or get caught somewhere and they are 1 shotted in fractals. Pet gone? So is a LOT of your DPS.

-If I have a pet, let me tell it when to use it’s bleed, pounce, F1-F4 could be toggled to always run, never run but run on click/key bind, etc. In RL if I have a pet I can tell it to heel or bark, so if my pet could heal me or knock you over, why can’t I command it to do it on call?

-AoE mitigation or be able to assign talent points to pets for resistance (polar bear frost resist, or fire resist, or more vitality, toughness whatever. This way out pets could be used for different circumstances a raw DPS linx with even more DPS, or added toughness etc. but my bear could have more toughness as well as vitality. The list goes on…our damage is weaker than many other classes because of the pet, so make them more viable in different situations.

-(more for a fun thought off the top of my head rather than a need) Pet talents are scattered throughout the traits, why no put more pet in 1 tree and give us another, consolidate them? Rangers are the class I think lives off the land and is at one with nature. Pets bows and the weapons we have work well for it, but what about the ranger that wants a touch of stealth in lieu of a pet? not a must but it might lead to a bit more fun to make it a pet-less (or weak pet) class but they become a sniper type character, or use more of the nature magic use of spirits for healing or team support?

Our traps and 1 AoE heal are nice, but I think more group buffs or a way to support our team more would be a good trade off instead of adding damage to give us more desire to be included in high end fractals.

just some thoughts off the top of my head

I like your comment because towards the end it mainly conveys ideas relating to carving out a niche for the Ranger in combat. Niches are incredibly important in GW2 since there’s no trinity. Effectively, the class that delivers the most consistent, high damage wins out in GW2. Support is often overlooked. I was thinking of refining my idea again, and maybe the Ranger mode could do with another F-skill relating to GW1 Expertise skills ported into GW2.

Things like Distracting Shot, Incendiary Arrows (post-functionality change), Melandru’s Shot, ect—those sort of utilities are often what defined the GW1 Ranger and got him spots in groups. I think that the Ranger could use those or even just CC like a pull or push (for synergizing with traps or setting up combos) in order to better define what it does on the field as a class.

My main hope remains in pet-management and utilizing the pet’s positioning in the field to conduct mutual attacks and maneuvers with its Ranger. The end goal there is effectively: “Let’s make the Ranger the only profession that can have two active bodies in play at the same time.” I hope that in implementing a profession mechanic design that achieves that goal, that the Ranger would find its way into groups by utilizing its two bodies on the field.