Guild Wars 2

After seeing so many ranger (trait) redesign threads popping here and there, I’m trying to encourage people to post their ideas under single post for better readability. Therefore, I’ve modified the thread’s title into something more appropriate. So, feel free to share your suggestions/opinions/whatever concerning ranger traits down below. On to the original post…
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I’ve always felt ranger traits were a bit lacking, so I made my own! After hours of hard work and some wikisurfing it’s finally done. Hope you enjoy!

Few notes before we start:

Don’t pay too much attention on numbers given below. I’m no balance team. Most of the stuff is just op or OP! This is just how I picture the ranger traits should look like. My dream traits you could call them. Moving on…

Shortbow has 1200 range and Longbow 1500 range by default.

Why? Because I prefer bows to slingshots. And also:

Signet passives affect ranger only. Signet actives affect both ranger and pet.

WHY!? Because i hate the current signets. Please continue!

Marksmanship:

Minor Traits:
Adept – Opening Strike: Apply 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds with your first strike when entering combat. This effect recharges when you kill a foe or reset combat. (10 second cooldown while in combat)
Master – Remorseless: Regain Opening Strikes when you gain stealth or use a heal skill. (Shares cooldown with OS.)
Grandmaster – Sundering Strike: You and your pet deal 5% more damage to vulnerable foes.

Major Traits:

1. Steady Focus: Damage increased by 10% when endurance is full.
2. Keen Edge: Use Sharpening Stone when your foes health reaches 50%. (45 second cooldown)
3. Spotter: Increases precision of nearby allies by up to 150 points.
4. Beastmasters Bond: Gain fury and 3 stacks of might for 9 seconds when your pet’s health reaches 50%. Your pet gains retaliation for 5 seconds. (60 seconds cooldown or pet swap)
5. Predator’s instinct: Apply 1 second immobilize and 3 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds to foes you hit when they are below 25% health (15 second cooldown).
6. Signet of the Beastmaster: Passive effects of signets also affect your pet.
7. Signet Mastery: Signets recharge 20% faster. Activating a signet grants 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds.
8. Piercing Arrows: All arrows pierce targets. Arrows cause 3 seconds of vulnerability.
9. Beastmasters Might: You and your pet have 50% chance to grant 5 seconds of might to each other when you attack.
10. Favourable Winds: Projectile speed increased by 15%. Damage increased by 10% when hitting foes further than 1200 units away, 5% damage increase otherwise. (Alternative: Eagle Eye: Increases longbow, shortbow and harpoon gun range. + same damage bonuses as above)
11. Primal Echoes: Active effects of signets also affect nearby allies. This effect’s duration/intensity is halved on allies.
12. Splinter Weapon: Your strikes from behind (100% chance) or from the sides (25% chance) have a chance to fragment on impact damaging your target and adjacent foes. These splinters inflict bleeding and vulnerability for 3 seconds. This effect can trigger maximum of 5 times every 10 seconds.

Skirmishing:

Minor Traits:
Adept – Tail Wind: Gain swiftness when swapping weapons in combat.
Master – Furious Grip: Gain fury when swapping weapons in combat.
Grandmaster – Hunter’s Tactics: Deal 10% more damage while flanking.

Major Traits:

1. Sharpened Edges: 66% chance to cause 1s of bleeding on critical hits.
2. Trapper’s Defense: Create a spike trap when your health reaches 50%. (60 second cooldown)
3. Beastial Fury: Gain 2 seconds of fury and quickness when you are struck by a critical hit. (20 second cooldown)
4. Scavenger Strike: Increases critical damage to foes suffering from condition by 10%.
5. Natural Stride: You and your pet move 10% faster when affected by swiftness. (Alternative: Gain 1s of vigor whenever you get swiftness)
6. Edge of Extinction: Increases damage by 33% while downed. Your pet gains quickness for 5 seconds.
7. Trapper’s Expertise: Trap skills are 50% larger and use ground targeting.
8. Honed Axes: Your axes increase critical damage by 10%.
9. Predatory Season: You apply 2 seconds of fury and swiftness to you and nearby allies on critical hits. (10 second cooldown)
10. Quick Draw: Shortbow and longbow skills recharge 20% faster.
11. Trap Potency: Conditions caused by traps last twice as long. Traps skills recharge 20% faster.
12. Moment of Clarity: Remove a condition from yourself and nearby allies when interrupting a foe. Apply 1 second of quickness to you and nearby allies on successful interrupt.

Wilderness Survival:

Minor Traits:
Adept – Natural Vigor: Increases endurance regeneration by 50%.
Master – Companions Defense: You and your pet gain 2 seconds of protection when you dodge roll.
Grandmaster – Peak Strength: Deal 10% extra damage when your health is above 90%.

Major Traits:

1. Soften the Fall: Create Muddy Terrain when you take falling damage. You take 50% less damage from falling.
2. Symbiotic Bond: You and your pet convert a condition into a random boon (10s) when afftected by incoming disables. (30 second cooldown)
3. Toxicity: Apply 5 seconds of weakness when you apply poison. (15 second cooldown)
4. Vigorous Renewal: Gain vigor when using a heal skill.
5. Dust cloak: Blind nearby foes for 5 seconds at the end of a dodge roll. (15 second cooldown)
6. Wilderness Knowledge: Survival skills recharge 20% faster.
7. Off-Hand Training: Offhand skills have a longer range and 20% quicker recharge.
8. Oakheart Salve: Gain regeneration for 5s when you suffer from bleeding, poison, burning. (20 second cooldown)
9. Hide In Plain Sight: Applies camouflage to you and nearby allies when your health reaches 25%. (60 second cooldown)
10. Martial Mastery: Sword, greatsword, and spear skills recharge 20% faster.
11. Dryder’s Defenses: Apply 5 seconds of stability and protection to you and your nearby allies when you use a stun break. You take 50% less damage when suffering from disables.
12. Bark Skin: You and your pet take 30% less damage when under 25% health.

Nature Magic:

Minor Traits:
Adept – Rejuvenation: Gain regeneration when your health reaches 75%.
Master – Fortifying Bond: Any boon you get is shared with your pet.
Grandmaster – Bountiful Hunter: You and your pet deal 5% more damage while you have a boon.

Major Traits:

1. Circle of Life: Creates healing spring when you revive someone (30 second cooldown). Increases revive speed by 10%.
2. Otyugh’s Cry: Activated pet skills (F2) grant a random boon to you and allies near your pet.
3. Nature’s Bounty: Regeneration you apply lasts 33% longer.
4. Vigorous Spirits: Spirits have twice as much health. Spirit bonuses have a 35% better chance of providing their benefits.
5. Spirits Unbound: Spirits can move and follow you.
6. Nature’s Protection: Receive protection for 5 seconds when you take more than 10% damage in a single strike. (30 second cooldown)
7. Tranquillity: Activated skills of spirits apply 5 seconds of stability and regeneration to allies within spirit’s range.
8. Evasive Purity: Dodging removes 1 condition from you. (10 second cooldown).
9. Two-Handed Training: Greatsword and spear damage is increased by 5%. Blocking removes a condition from you and your allies. (2 second cooldown)
10. Frozen Soil: Freeze nearby foes for 5 seconds when you suffer from cripple, chill or immobilize. (20 second cooldown)
11. Symbiosis: Convert 2 conditions into 2 random boons (10s) to you and your nearby allies when you use a heal skill. (procs with Circle of Life)
12. Nature’s Vengeance: Activated skills of spirits create a combo field (fire, ice, poison, lightning or water) in addition to spirit’s usual effect. Activated skills are larger and trigger when the spirit is killed.

Beastmastery:

Minor Traits:
Adept – Zephyr’s Speed: You and your pet gain 2 seconds of quickness when you swap pets.
Master – Loud Whistle: Pet swapping recharges 20% faster.
Grandmaster – Master’s Bond: Your pet has a bond with you that increases its attributes based of your trait lines.

Major Traits:

1. Speed Training: Pets recharge their skills 20% faster. Pet skills (F2) recharge 20% faster.
2. Call of Haste: Pets move and attack 25% faster.
3. Call of Protection: Pets gain 3 stacks of defiant and have 20% damage reduction.
4. Commanding Voice: Shouts recharge 20% faster. Pets gain 5 seconds of swiftness when activating a shout.
5. Feral Aggression: Pets do 30% more damage on critical hits.
6. Mighty Swap: Pets gain fury and 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds when they are activated.
7. Compassion Training: Pets heal for more. Boons applied by your pets last longer.
8. Malicious Training: Increases duration for conditions applied by your pets. Pets deal extra condition damage.
9. Rending Attacks: Pets have 33% chance to strip boons on critical hits with their basic attacks.
10. Predatory Bond: Pets heal you on successful attacks.
11. Serpent’s Quickness: Quickness you apply lasts 50% longer.
12. Natural Healing: Your pets have natural health regeneration. Shouts heal nearby allies.

I’ve commented a few things down in the comments. Check them out!

tl;dr: I didn’t like the current ranger traits so i remade them.

Some are over the top but i have seen many many great ideas , especially in the nature and BM lines. Cudos to you good sir

you really want rangers to boon share/steal :P

“Primal Echoes: Active effects of signets also affect nearby allies. This effect’s duration/intensity is halved on allies.”

This would make a great grandmaster trait and give us a niche that other classes can’t provide.

Party invulnerability for 3 seconds, and 25% party damage boost for 4 seconds. Sign me up.

There are some really nice ideas in here some are a little op for sure but others would make us much more useful in group situations.

glad you like them

Now that I have some time, I’d like to bring up few points about the choices i made.

• On a high level I tried to both separate and still at the same time tie together the two pieces that are the ranger and the pet. What this means is that strictly pet related traits such as Pet’s Prowess (which translates to Feral Aggression because GW1 > anything else) is put in the Beastmastery tree. At the same time pet related traits still exist outside Beastmastery but which work in synergy with the ranger providing different kinds of effects. This connects us nicely to the next topic that is…

• …Master’s Bond which now acts as a Minor Grandmaster Trait. With Master’s bond I try to further strengthen the synergy between ranger and the pet by allowing the pet to gain stat points from rangers traitlines. For example with the traitcomp 30/10/0/0/30 pet would gain 300 healing power, 300 power, 30% condition duration, 100 precision and 10% critical damage from rangers stats as a bonus to already existing 300 base bonus from the beastmastery line. “OP!” I hear someone scream? Well as Anet seems to be so keen to nerf pet’s damage output I’ve been HEAVILY relying on that untraited pet is max 20% of the total ranger+pet damage output. This is why so many of the traits in Beastmastery have such extreme effects. In my perfect gameworld full gc beastmaster would have it’s damage split 50/50 with ranger and the pet. But moving on to last big change…

• …which is support. This game and especially ranger as a class is truly so very lacking on viable support builds. So I tried to shove it everywhere I could because I feel that this game needs a shift towards supporting traits. @starlessk This is why you see so much boons/heals/effects shared with nearby allies.

I hope this clarifies some parts which would otherwise seem INCREDIBLY OP. OP ranger? there’s no such thing… :P

As a Condi/Trap Ranger I would be sad to see the Trap Ground Targeting 50% larger, but it would be worth it over all. Even if some of these were nerfed, so they aren’t op.

is this topic for post dreams players have about how ranger should be? :P
then here my dream ideas:

generally:
-ranger have only a pet when he use the beastmastery trait line, ranger should have other f1-f4 skills.
-this f1-f4 skills should depend on which weapon sets ranger use, this whould give the ranger more active skill use (most classes have more skills then a ranger can use)
-when ranger run beastmastery traits he should become a pet.
pets should reworked and give a beastmaster ranger full pet controll.
maybe he should have a trait in beastmastery 10 which give the signet of the wild (or maybe create a new signet) the effect that the ranger have a pet when he start to use this signet.
when the ranger activate signet of wild he become the pet controll on 1234 buttons, something like engi kit with no cooldown to swap fast between pet skills and weapon skills…

the f1-f4 skills should something like this

longbow:
f1: stealth for the ranger, the next arrow from behind make more dmg, depending on
range
f2: the next 5 seconds the ranger have multishoot (5 arrows) nice combo with bow 2 :P
f3: ranger block or dodge the next attack
f4: scout, the ranger can see where are the enemy players running around and see invis
players

and when anet whould remove spirits and give ranger firefield or icefield instead of spirits, then there whould be rly nice ice and fire arrow combos…

for other weapon sets i have no idea atm for f1-f4
but should be different skills depending on weapon sets

so back to traits, skills
-much useless traits need a improve or remove and add new traits.
-spirits need a full redesign
-also some shouts need a full resign
-longbow, longsword and secondhand axe need some skill reworks in my mind

to the traits:

at first all pet traits in the not beastmastery trait lines should go to beastmastery and become a improve, but much of them can just be removed there are the most realy useless of them
(beastmasters bond, malicious training, carnivorous appetite, agility training, companions might, pets prowess, expertise training, concentration training, enlargement)

traits in the beastmastery traitline need rework, depening on what kind of pets ranger whant to run (support, dmg, stun/knockdown)
also there are 3 traits just can be removed or need hard rework.
instinctual bond, stability training, masters bond

useless traits in my mind:

-marksmanship:
remorseless, beastmasters bond, predators instinct, malicious bond, steady focus
some of them totaly crap some need hard improve…

-skirmishing:
trap potency is totaly wrong in a crit trait!!!!
trappers expertise is also total wrong in a crit trait…

quick draw: is not rly strong trait because shortbow cooldowns 20% better is not
much enoug to make it interesting

honed axes: no ranger use axes for make crit dmg atm, its ok when you improve dps
of ranger and let him make much dmg with axe 4 and 5…

carnivorous appetite: just a beastmastery trait for my dreams

agility training: just a beastmaster trait

trappers defense: this skill put spike trap when i rez… not rly powerful and useless…

pets prowess: beastmaster trait

-wildness survival:
bark skin: never a ranger use it as grandmaster trait because there is the empathic
bond

expertise training: beastmaster trait

healers celerity: just bad joke why i need swiftness when i start to rez my mates?!

soften the fall: pls remove this trait, no ranger will use that

-naturemagic:
well all spirit traits should just reworked in my mind.
also the 4 spirit skills should be reworked full… just bad joke of skills

concentration training: beastmastery trait

cirlce of life: aha a healingspring when i die… ok, rly usefull

enlargement: beastmastery build

all the beastmastery traits in the non beastmaster traits just need hard improve and go to beastmastery trait line

-beastmastery:
well should have traits make the ranger able to choose he go
support, dmg or knock down/stun pet use

yes its much unrealistic wishes, but in my mind
ranger just need something like a full rework.
and with this, the old beastmaster whould work like always
and the bow rangers whould maybe have nice dps builds

at least, sry for bad english

Taushullu, try getting a job at anet, and fix our class please ~__~

Great try OP, but as the Dev silence continues, i wouldn’t hold your breath for these changes, they don’t want rangers good..

@ Taushullu and Oidmetala – I have an extremely long post over on the suggestions board that I’d love you to add these suggestions to… I’d like to bombard the suggestions box with our feedback without any of the normal QQ and bickering that goes on, so please, if you don’t mind, copy and paste what you listed here over there, or start your own topic. The only way to get their attention is to light a fire in the right place, and that’s the suggestions board:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Complete-Ranger-class-suggestions/

These are really good suggestions. I really like the Primal Echoes trait and yeah it would definitely give us more of an edge for in terms of support.

What happened to the “Training” traits though? No more additional condition duration for pets? I really like that trait.

jubskie.3152:

What happened to the “Training” traits though? No more additional condition duration for pets? I really like that trait.

All of the “Training” traits are put in the Beastmastery tree and merged to have stronger effects, you can find Malicious Training at Master level. Basically every trait that had anything to do with pet only is either removed, merged or put in the Beastmastery tree.

I like all of OPs suggestions for traits, sure some seem to be overpowered but numbers can always be tweaked!

I love the spirit changes, especially your GM trait, though with their current health and the need to trait just for them to move with they are still terribad.

Get rid of the wacky spirits. They should just be like auras, radiating from the ranger, without any trait investment. I shouldn’t have to deal with by “Buff” getting killed by cleave. Additionally, active effects radiate out from the ranger. Next thing you know, everyone wants rangers in their group for protection/+dmg procs.

Raven.9603:

I love the spirit changes, especially your GM trait, though with their current health and the need to trait just for them to move with they are still terribad.

I do admit spirits need some tinkering with but I wouldn’t throw them away just yet. I’d like to see spirits providing more powerful passive and active effects while still being something you can kill if you focus on them. Their untraited survivability should go up however, especially in PvE scenarios. Maybe make them immune to AoE/cleave damage and increase their toughness little? That way you would have to directly target the spirit to get rid of it (which should happen rarely in PvE if done correctly). Oh and I still feel that they should be stationary when untraited.

Please do share your own “dream traits” and/or offer some “constructive feedback” on given trait changes or current ranger traits in general. I’d also like to hear some opinions on what kind of mechanics you’d like to see ranger traits providing.

mine are pretty close to what yours are , so i wont bother

Feedback, my friends, feedback is what keeps me and the ranger “DREAM TRAITS” alive. So share your minds, fellow rangers. Keep those trait suggestions/trait discussion/whatever going!

Raven.9603:

I love the spirit changes, especially your GM trait, though with their current health and the need to trait just for them to move with they are still terribad.

Get rid of the wacky spirits. They should just be like auras, radiating from the ranger, without any trait investment. I shouldn’t have to deal with by “Buff” getting killed by cleave. Additionally, active effects radiate out from the ranger. Next thing you know, everyone wants rangers in their group for protection/+dmg procs.

I like this.

I also like the suggestion of spirits not being damaged unless targeted specifically.

brilliant. i really love your ideas. and also a lot of the ideas in the comments.
specifically the one stating “spirits should only get damaged when directly targeted”
maybe something similar could be applied to pets.
like they receive 50% less damage from all aoe/cleave damage. (maybe this would be a survival trait)

changes like this would definitely get me back into the game.

Nice to see some positiveness regarding the class

My suggestions for traits:

We need more ways to add retaliation and stack might on ourselves and allies.

Rangers need a blast finisher they can control, add a blast finisher to one of the first three weapon skills for each weapon.

Do away with any ‘on swap’ traits unless the benefit is directly related to that weapon or simply adds might or retaliation to self and allies.

Give might or retaliation for most trait benefits not, boon stripping, swiftness, vulnerablity, etc. and make it for self and allies.

The negative effects of conditions transferred to pets should be less 50% shorter and less powerful.

Up spirit percentage procs to 75% chance and make them susceptible to direct targeted attacks only, not AOE.

Add or modify a trait that will temporarily make more pet attacks AOE in nature.

While traits may be at the heart of why we lack much viable choices in builds, what really needs fixing first is Pets so that they are less susceptible to AOE, fixing ranged pets so they maneuver as ranged pets not melee ones, and make pets in general less kitable by human foes.

Good, good. Nice to see some suggestions appearing. Awesome job.

We need more ways to add retaliation and stack might on ourselves and allies.

Do away with any ‘on swap’ traits unless the benefit is directly related to that weapon or simply adds might or retaliation to self and allies.

Give might or retaliation for most trait benefits not, boon stripping, swiftness, vulnerablity, etc. and make it for self and allies.

This got me thinking what kind of boons would appropriate for ranger. Mightstacking would be very nice indeed (25 stacks of might is just INSANE damage) and I agree that there should be ways to achieve some nice sweet might stacks with relative ease. In general, however, I think these two boons are more appropriate to Heavy armor class professions.

I’d like to share few of my observations on ranger as a profession. I see ranger being more of a precision type of class, PvP ranger runes increase precision and crit dmg after all. This is why I’d like to see some vulnerability in the mix. This would also make fury an appropriate choice for boonsharing. Being medium armor class with adventurous feel stamped to it, I’d also include swiftness and vigor to shareable boons. One of rangers strengths has always been (prior to latest patch atleast) it’s fast access to quickness. I also try to boost quickness effects with my dream grandmaster trait Serpent’s Quickness. So quickness, eh…

And this leads me to improved version of Moment of Clarity grandmaster trait in Skrimishing tree!

Moment of Clarity: Gain an attack of opportunity for you and your pet on interrupting a foe. Interrupted skill is disabled for +5 seconds. You apply 1 second of quickness to nearby allies. (15 seconds cooldown)

I originally wanted to take ranger’s role as an interrupter in GW1 and bring it to GW2 aswell. After some further thinking, 5 second increased cooldown on interrupted skill would have very little to no effect in PvE environment. Combined with Serpent’s Quickness this new version would result in whooping 1,5 seconds of supporting quickness. Just to note that this quickness effect would ONLY affect allies and not the ranger itself. What do you think? Do you want to jump on the “OP train” or just silently express your agreement/disagreement or go “Best change ever!” with your fingers crossed behind your back? Please do leave your comments below and keep those “dream trait” suggestions rolling!

Edit: Added the new suggestion to OP. Old effect for those who are interested:
Moment of Clarity: Gain an attack of opportunity for you and your pet on interrupting a foe. Interrupted skill is disabled for +5 seconds. (5 seconds cooldown)

Taushullu.6180:

1. Primal Echoes: Active effects of signets also affect nearby allies. This effect’s duration/intensity is halved on allies.

I was so hoping this trait would find its way into the game with the last patch. Unfortunately it didn’t. I am hoping it’ll come with the next patch, although I doubt it will.
Also good work on the traits! You should be part of the balancing team, you have some really great ideas.

Taushullu.6180:

Good, good. Nice to see some suggestions appearing. Awesome job.

I’d like to share few of my observations on ranger as a profession. I see ranger being more of a precision type of class, PvP ranger runes increase precision and crit dmg after all. …

I think your idea for a role could be fun, but the games core design rewards might so much more than precision. I think we need some of both. By traiting ways to get might, it leaves stats available to put into precision.

I have run max crit Ranger builds which can seem powerful but get beat down fast by other squishy classes that can generate might more easily and often.

Add roughly 100 points of precision and see your attack rating go up by single digit percentage points.

Add 25 stacks of might to the same build, and watch your attack rating jump with double digit percentage point increases.

Either global precision and crit related mechanics need a major buff or might needs to be globally toned down before I would see becoming a crit based profession as viable, especially when competing with other classes with better might generation ability in pvp or indirectly for dungeon slots, etc.

Your suggestion about Moment of Clarity is a good example of how many of our traits just need a little more oomph.

Rather then get into a drawn out debate, I would really like to hear more suggestions and leave the judgement/analysis for later when more voices have been heard.

each stack of might adds 35 power and condition damage

I like all of them, and in the context of the perceived power creep of the game, I don’t really think any of them are over the top except one:

Symbiosis.

Your effect is fine but that cooldown is much, much too short for its effect. It would essentially make Guardian shout builds obsolete if it wasn’t for the RNG nature, but every 5s for you AND allies is too much imo. It should be more like 15-20s, as to not break the game entirely. I agree that condis are strong, but passive mitigation on a large scale level isn’t the answer because damage and survival shouldn’t stalemate each other, damage has to eventually be able to win, so that people wanting to go full defensive still have to worry about killing other players or they will eventually lose the fight.

Just an opinion though.

I love everything else, especially the throwback to guild wars 1 names. Hopefully the ranger focused trait rebalance comes in the next months, since we’ve been relegated to bottom tier in tpvp.

I like your Idea for the ranger and how the the major traits for the pet are more pushed to the beastmastery line.

I think that in the Marksmanship line have to many traits that give might and some should be converted in vulnerability condition. As the Marksmanship gives +30% condition duration and the Grandmaster minor gives +5% damage for vulnerability, which I think is a better combi.

In wilderness survival:
9. Hide in Plain side is I think op. its almost the same as mesmer Stealth elite.
having a big group suddenly in stealth is very strong, as defense and as offence.

In the Nature magic is Sysmbiosis op, because you do not actually remove the condition, but convert it and Also share the boon with your pet which is a double ++.

In Beastmastery nr.9 33% is bit to much, especially with quickness. This will make pet the best boon remover, this will best Necro and Mesmer Boon removal.

What I had in mind was to move the Compassion (healing boost) to the Nature Magic trait line, because it would fit in Nature magic with the rangers current trait and I think that the Beastmastery still lack the traits for the Healing boost attribute.

Awesome to see more feedback appearing! I really appreciate it. And keep those suggestions rolling.

jcbroe.4329:

I like all of them, and in the context of the perceived power creep of the game, I don’t really think any of them are over the top except one:

Symbiosis.

Your effect is fine but that cooldown is much, much too short for its effect. It would essentially make Guardian shout builds obsolete if it wasn’t for the RNG nature, but every 5s for you AND allies is too much imo. It should be more like 15-20s, as to not break the game entirely. I agree that condis are strong, but passive mitigation on a large scale level isn’t the answer because damage and survival shouldn’t stalemate each other, damage has to eventually be able to win, so that people wanting to go full defensive still have to worry about killing other players or they will eventually lose the fight.

I totally see your points and I totally agree on them. I originally wanted Symbiosis to be something equally powerful compared to Emphatic Bond since so many of the current ranger builds rely heavily on it’s condition removal. Now in this “dream setup” Emphatic Bond is “nerfed” to remove only 2 conditions from you and your pet (why?!, because rangers should love their pets, not hate and torture them) thus making the Symbiosis strong in comparison. Especially strong considering the new suggested boonsharing mechanism. This could at least create some almost OP 0/0/30/30/0 bunkers (as no ranger could possibly be OP).

So maybe the ICD should go up or maybe the effect could be tied to “when using a heal skill” and increasing the amount of conditions converted to 2-3 making it something less rng based but still viable. This would make the first tick of Healing Spring act as a some sort of condition cleansing wave (from yourself) and maybe even Heal as One would become something more frequently used due it’s shorter cooldown. Making it work with proposed Circle of Life -trait, ressing might just become a pleasant experience. Or maybe it’s still, after all these complains and reasonings, perfectly fine as it is. You decide… with your feedback.

Taushullu.6180:

Awesome to see more feedback appearing! I really appreciate it. And keep those suggestions rolling.

jcbroe.4329:

I like all of them, and in the context of the perceived power creep of the game, I don’t really think any of them are over the top except one:

Symbiosis.

Your effect is fine but that cooldown is much, much too short for its effect. It would essentially make Guardian shout builds obsolete if it wasn’t for the RNG nature, but every 5s for you AND allies is too much imo. It should be more like 15-20s, as to not break the game entirely. I agree that condis are strong, but passive mitigation on a large scale level isn’t the answer because damage and survival shouldn’t stalemate each other, damage has to eventually be able to win, so that people wanting to go full defensive still have to worry about killing other players or they will eventually lose the fight.

I totally see your points and I totally agree on them. I originally wanted Symbiosis to be something equally powerful compared to Emphatic Bond since so many of the current ranger builds rely heavily on it’s condition removal. Now in this “dream setup” Emphatic Bond is “nerfed” to remove only 2 conditions from you and your pet (why?!, because rangers should love their pets, not hate and torture them) thus making the Symbiosis strong in comparison. Especially strong considering the new suggested boonsharing mechanism. This could at least create some almost OP 0/0/30/30/0 bunkers (as no ranger could possibly be OP).

So maybe the ICD should go up or maybe the effect could be tied to “when using a heal skill” and increasing the amount of conditions converted to 2-3 making it something less rng based but still viable. This would make the first tick of Healing Spring act as a some sort of condition cleansing wave (from yourself) and maybe even Heal as One would become something more frequently used due it’s shorter cooldown. Making it work with proposed Circle of Life -trait, ressing might just become a pleasant experience. Or maybe it’s still, after all these complains and reasonings, perfectly fine as it is. You decide… with your feedback.

Well the biggest issue, besides being better than Guardians and even outclassing their shout build a little (I like meta change ups though, so I wouldn’t really complain. I hate the guardian meta), is how much potential cleansing you can have.

In a build with 0/0/30/30/0, I could trait Symbiotic Bond, Oakheart Salve, Empathic Bond, Nature’s Bounty, Evasive Purity, Symbiosis

Then I could take Signet of Renewal and Healing Spring, and if I wanted to go overboard, 6x Runes of Melandru.

Conditions literally would not be able to stick to that build long enough to do anything but tickle the ranger, and in a healing spec, rangers with the right weapon set (axe/dagger sword/torch and in pvp, shamans amulet) would also be able to take on burst specs with ease too.

It would make rangers easily the best bunker in the game, and the defense against conditions would just be too much, virtually eliminating any threat from a person running a condition build against you.

Just my thoughts on it though. Symbiosis was the only thing that was really taking it over the top, and only because of the ICD. If it was within a 10s time frame, you could still cleanse extremely well, but it would allow condition users to actually stick some conditions on the ranger and do enough damage over time to be able to win the fight by outplaying them.

Just my opinion though lol. And I really do love all the other ideas, and with the power creep that I perceive within the next few months, I find everything else to be within reason.

jcbroe.4329:

In a build with 0/0/30/30/0, I could trait Symbiotic Bond, Oakheart Salve, Empathic Bond, Nature’s Bounty, Evasive Purity, Symbiosis

Then I could take Signet of Renewal and Healing Spring, and if I wanted to go overboard, 6x Runes of Melandru.

Conditions literally would not be able to stick to that build long enough to do anything but tickle the ranger, and in a healing spec, rangers with the right weapon set (axe/dagger sword/torch and in pvp, shamans amulet) would also be able to take on burst specs with ease too.

It would make rangers easily the best bunker in the game, and the defense against conditions would just be too much, virtually eliminating any threat from a person running a condition build against you.

Perfect, just the kind of feedback I was hoping for. At this point I’d like to remind everyone that while I try to achieve some kind of “mock balance” with my dream traits, I’m still no balance team and OP combinations like this anti-condition-tank are bound to appear. Also numbers are evil, don’t trust them.

As I see it it’s more of a problem with Emphatic Bond providing such a powerful passive condition cleanse every 10 seconds. I actually hate traits like this that do something on a timer, encouraging more of a passive play instead of making traits proc when actually doing something (when using a heal skill, for example). This is why I’m forcing a maybe an unnessessary change here. Much to my embarrassment traits like these still appear in my dream setup due to my incompetence to actually make them work otherwise. And Emphatic Bond being such a popular trait, I’m little scared to completely revamp it.

So how about something like this: Emphatic Bond and Trap Potency trade places. Same thing would happen with Trapper’s Expertise and Offhand Training/Martial Mastery or other Master level WS trait. Traps being in the “wrong” tree is probably one of the most common complaints when it comes to ranger traits. After playing trapper for such a long time it didn’t really occur to me how wrong it felt back when I started playing ranger. This would fix the condition cleansing overload in defensive trees, while further providing some relief to crit-based-builds. It might also make traps OP but, as always, numbers can be tweaked. Is it right? Is it wrong? Feedback, my friends, feedback is the answer.

edit: Feedback and suggestions. Keep posting your dream traits!

I’ve made few changes and adjustments to my Dream Traits. Be sure to check them out and/or leave your own suggestions and feedback in the comments!

If someone happens to wonder what has changed here’s a short list:

• Alternative versions added to many of the trait suggestions.
• Alternative GM trait to WS: Dryder’s Defense was added in case we might get more active condition cleansing through weapon/utility skills or pets.
• Evasive Purity now removes 1 condition on a dodge roll. The old version (removes poison, blind etc.) would have been very powerful in some situations and very weak in others. So to make the trait more “safe” to pick I removed the type limitation. Now in combination with the current Emphatic Bond and Signet of renewal it would create some serious passive cleansing but future updates might change that. This trait should also include some sort of indicator when it’s off-cooldown in the UI, most likely in the dodge bar.
• Symbiosis was (forced) changed to convert conditions when using a heal skill to promote more of an active play instead of relying on passive condition cleansing. Self nerfing so to say. Something similiar should happen with Remorseless if I still feel like theorycrafting.

I really do wish to hear your versions of ranger traits so feel free to post them.

Changed the thread’s title to open up more discussion and to collect ranger trait suggestions under one title. And to celebrate 1500 viewers on this thread! Thanks a lot guys!

Updated my dream traits (maybe one last time considering the lack of feedback) in an attempt to hone them to perfection. Here’s a short list of what was changed:

• Grandmaster Trait from marksmanship Remorseless was moved to Master level minor trait replacing Alpha Training and had it’s effect reverted back to original. Grandmaster trait that only affects minor trait’s cooldown?! That doesn’t feel right. Basically this trait was forcing people to spend 30 points to Marksmanship to get ANY reward from tree’s minor traits.
• Opening Strike had it’s vulnerability duration increased to 10 seconds to reflect the missing stacks from Alpha Training.
• Added a new Grandmaster Trait to Marksmanship: Splinter Weapon. Ranger’s lack of AoE damage (apart from traps) is often cried on forums and is one of the very reasons why ranger is left out of dungeon groups. So I took maybe THE most iconic skill from ranger AoE spike from GW1 (barrage+splinter weapon=big numbers) and transformed it into a new Grandmaster trait to Marksmanship.
• Trapper’s Expertise and Trap Potency was moved to Wilderness Survival tree. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. So i moved them.
• Offhand Training was moved to Skirmishing to fill the space Trapper’s Expertise left. Basically this could’ve been any of the WS Master level traits.
• New Grandmaster Trait was added to Skirmishing: Cleansing Accuracy. This is basically Emphatic Bond reworked to proc on critical hits instead of proccing on a 10s timer.
• tinkered with some of the cooldowns/alternatives.
• now removed GM trait suggestion to WS for those interested. Dryder’s Defense: Apply 5 seconds of stability and protection to you and your nearby allies when you use a stun break. You take 50% less damage while stunned.

That’s about it. More updates might come if I still feel like theorycrafting. you may leave your feedback or ideas of ranger traits if you dare!

Current trait order is a complete mess (will explain in next video), and half of them are just simple bad. There are some really good tho – the only useable ones.

Nice to see some criticism (not sure if this is directed towards my suggestions or current ranger traits, though). I like it.

tracking training: canines porcines and felines reveal stealth enemies for 10 seconds(90 seconds cd)

LOL

elprimo.4398:

tracking training: canines porcines and felines reveal stealth enemies for 10 seconds(90 seconds cd)

I actually had a similar thought about having a trait to reveal stealth. It would’ve been a bonus effect on Spotter (Marksmanship, master level) and it would’ve revealed foes in a small radius around the ranger. I decided to drop it as it seemed to provide too direct counter vs. thieves. It never occurred to me that it might have some usage on pets too. Nice suggestion in any case!

My trait suggestion:
Masters Bond does not reset on pet swap.

It would also be nice to have the option to not use a pet at all. Giving the Ranger an over all boost in damage.

Many of OP’s suggestions on pets are great, but you still have the biggest issue with pets and that is the really, really bad AI. It would be nice if Rangers actually had the option of using the pet or not using it.

Perhaps switching out the pet gave the ranger a new F1 ability.

Taushullu.6180:

elprimo.4398:

tracking training: canines porcines and felines reveal stealth enemies for 10 seconds(90 seconds cd)

I actually had a similar thought about having a trait to reveal stealth. It would’ve been a bonus effect on Spotter (Marksmanship, master level) and it would’ve revealed foes in a small radius around the ranger. I decided to drop it as it seemed to provide too direct counter vs. thieves. It never occurred to me that it might have some usage on pets too. Nice suggestion in any case!

Maybe not reveal them but what about chasing. therefore at least you would be able to teel if the thief ran away or is about to back stab you so atleast you have a window for dodging or something.

Laiboch.4380:

It would also be nice to have the option to not use a pet at all. Giving the Ranger an over all boost in damage.

Many of OP’s suggestions on pets are great, but you still have the biggest issue with pets and that is the really, really bad AI. It would be nice if Rangers actually had the option of using the pet or not using it.

Perhaps switching out the pet gave the ranger a new F1 ability.

Everytime I see people suggesting to remove pets I’m like why don’t they roll a warrior?(no offense)

elprimo.4398:

Maybe not reveal them but what about chasing. therefore at least you would be able to teel if the thief ran away or is about to back stab you so atleast you have a window for dodging or something.

Interesting idea, but this would be even more powerful counter vs. thieves. I could just send my pet to track the thief and it would transmit his location to me AND all of my allies. You could effectively kill the thief just by following the pet and swinging the air. It’s a fitting suggestion to pet-related traits but I don’t believe anti-stealth traits like this are the answer to stealth-problems.

Laiboch.4380:

It would also be nice to have the option to not use a pet at all. Giving the Ranger an over all boost in damage.

As a veteran GW1 ranger, I can understand the frustration pets can cause, but I would like to remind everyone that Anet has made very clear statement that they want pets to be integral part of ranger. I can see permastow with no bonuses being a possibility at best, but no way we are going to get boosts from not using our profession mechanic. Sorry to be so blunt about it, but I would like to keep pets in the mix when theorizing about ranger traits.

And keep those trait suggestions rolling! Awesome to see some feedback from the ranger community!

Name: Aspect of the Beast

10 pt Trait in BM. Gives a bonus to Ranger based on the type of pet stowed.

eg. +10% dmg; +200 toughness; +200 crit; +200 condition damage.

Need to implement a lock on the stow button so your pet doesn’t come out when you start combat.

Tracker.6483:

Name: Aspect of the Beast

10 pt Trait in BM. Gives a bonus to Ranger based on the type of pet stowed.

eg. +10% dmg; +200 toughness; +200 crit; +200 condition damage.

Need to implement a lock on the stow button so your pet doesn’t come out when you start combat.

I find this trait ironic. You’re investing 10 points into into a mechanic that you want gone.

It appears I had made a huge oversight in my trait suggestions so I just had come back and fix that. Made a few other changes too. Here’s a short list:

• Trap-traits got moved back to Skirmishing! NO! YES! WHY! Because there was no alternatives. Every traitline is given 1 utility skill type to take care of. Marksmanship has signets, skirmishing has traps, WS has survival skills, NM has spirits (and shouts wtf!), BM has shouts + pet. So unless survival skills are reworked to better fit the Skirmishing tree, I don’t see traps being moved to WS.
• Predator’s Instict (Marks, adept) got it’s effect changed to immobilize + vulnerability because it seemed to fit the traitline lot better than cripple + weakness, imo. Vulnerability was added because otherwise I don’t see any usage for this trait in PvE.
• Primal Reflexes was removed and new trait was created to replace it: Scavenger Strike. Imo, Skirmishing had too many defensive traits (suggestions) on adept level, so I wanted to add some offensive suggestions there aswell.
• Beastial fury now procs on now removed Primal Reflexes’ effect.
• Moment of Clarity was reworked to remove a condition instead of giving attack of opportunity on interrupt because the old condition removal trait Cleansing Accuracy (removes conditions on crits) was replaced by Trap Potency.
• Old trait suggestion Dryder’s Defenses was resurrected to fill the GM trait opening Trap Potency left in WS.
• Some numbers were tweaked and alternatives added.

Guess that’s all. I’m still not happy with Remorseless so there might be some changes to that coming later. As always you can leave your own trait suggestions down below.

Remorseless: Doubles duration of Vulnerability applied by Opening Strikes. Opening Strikes renews on a kitten cooldown.

I don’t know those signet traits look deadly. A party of rangers could have 15 secs of no damage, 20 secs of 25% damage and long duration stability, and 5 full condi cleanses. Not to mention that they could all be running glass cannons and with all of this still have decent survivability. But hey a team of 5 guardians would basically be godlike so what the hell.

jcbroe.4329:

Remorseless: Doubles duration of Vulnerability applied by Opening Strikes. Opening Strikes renews on a kitten cooldown.

I kinda like that effect. Might just need to borrow that if I’m in the mood to theorycraft some more traits. OS already recharges on a 30 second timer in my suggestion though, so I can’t just simply steal this. Nice suggestion.

Mcrocha.3891:

I don’t know those signet traits look deadly. A party of rangers could have 15 secs of no damage, 20 secs of 25% damage and long duration stability, and 5 full condi cleanses. Not to mention that they could all be running glass cannons and with all of this still have decent survivability. But hey a team of 5 guardians would basically be godlike so what the hell.

It might seem strong but there are some quite long cooldowns when it comes to Signets and the coordination required to actually achieve those numbers isn’t as easy as it seems. There’s skill chaining sure but there’s also positioning requirements as you need to be close to each other. And (theoratically) if signets were to be changed as proposed (passives affect ranger, actives affect ranger+pet) some signet durations/intensities would probably need to be cut down as you no longer need GM trait to get those effects for yourself. Also random stuns don’t necessarily count as interrupt. Just sharing some of my thoughts.