Guild Wars 2

I don’t get why the shouts are even in the game, there’s literally no use for them vs other abilities, they should just be settable as an F button skill instead seems pretty basic that we should be able to control our pets past “hit that thing, don’t hit that thing” as a ranger.

Pls give us the opportunity to play a petless ranger in exchange for survivability and dps amped up. Personally i feel pets are unecessary/unreliable (except for questing). They pretty much get 1 shotted in dungeons…not to mention the accidental pulls… Imo they do more bad than good and I see no point in having them.

Option to fly solo in this new patch wld be great. However, I wont have any expectations coz the higher it its, the harder u come crashing down when its not as u intended. :P

For the love of god, can we please get rid of the pets? They seem like a hindrance to the class and causes our group efficiency to go down the toilet.

I absolutely love my ranger, I’m currently running a Trapper Build (20/30/20/0/0) and it’s soo fun.. but regardless of the build I’m running. My pet only gets in my way, the only pets thats been tolerable are Devourer/Spiders. if given the choice, I’d stow them away permenantly.

Make pets a skill choice like how “Charm Animal” in GW1 was required to be equipped too get an active pet. Forcing us to use these pets are really only hurting the class. I’m not alone in this, I have soooo many people on my server who agree 100% that pets should be choice.

@joker, have you tried a Ranged warrior, using Longbow for AOE and Rifle for Single, works fairly well, you will have more health, more armor and the same if not more damage, all without a pet.

Hope that does not come across wrong, because it is all true, what it sounds like you are seeking is already in game, don’t worry about the broken spirits, the banners work well, and the warrior signets are fairly well done as well, so it is not like you will miss anything.

Those of you complaining Rangers have bad shouts I disagree. There is nothing wrong with Battle Roar at all. While it may be slightly weak for solo play, it borders on overpowered because of its 1200 radius that buffs everyone with +20% crit chance for 6.5 Secs plus a decent Might buff(60Pwr/60Cond Dmg) for 16.5 secs.

Battle Roar is a Char racial skill not a shout. The ranger shouts consist of Guard, Protect Me, Search and Rescue and Sick Em.

Maybe some here should have made a Char Ranger then.

Would not help in sPvP as there are no racial skill included there. Also as a racial skill Battle Roar is unaffected by the trait Shout Mastery.

This does bring up the slightly related point that Charr Racial skills are OP compared to other races skills and Ranger’s class skills.

Please do not get rid of pets. I don’t know why so many people are having trouble with Rangers my ranger works just fine.

I only wish pets were optional because they are terrible at wvw and dungeons and make rangers seem worse than they really are. The hate the idea that part of our dps is AI dependent. I’m sure most rangers will agree with a way to exchange pet for some buffs if given the option and those that prefer pets can always have them. Ridding some useless skills(shouts and most signets) and replacing them with beneficial ones will also be great.

Munrock.3092:

Some skills like sword #1 have critical design errors but are still usable. For shouts, there is always something more useful to slot for every build. I’ve found a use for everything but the shouts.

TL;DR
I’ve found a use for everything but the shouts.

You know what? I’ll second this, shouts scaled AWFULLY, like when i FIRST got search and rescue, and actually up until ~lv 70 or so it was a REALLY REALLY good skill and actually was able to pick up downed allies by itself because it healed for the same, if not more than, what i could heal the downed ally for, however once i got higher lv it began to heal for less, and less, and less, and less of what i could heal them for… sick’em is good, but is kinda only good for keeping your pet on the target a little better, the damage increase is minor at best.

Protect me i guess is good? Idk i don’t use it i think it seems cruel… and well guard…. yeah it’s just kinda there… i guess it breaks pet agro and allows you to position your pet… sometimes… cause 95% of the time your pet doesn’t even move and just gains protection…

One quest though, why can guardian spirits move down cliffs and ranger pets cant? are the AI of the 2 so different? coudnt you just put the pathing AI of the spirits onto the pets?

I will say again never get rid of the pets…do not take away the pets. i love the idea of the pets just fix them. and to anyone saying to get rid of pets anytime i see a thread regarding this i will post this very same thing. i know why you want to get rid of the pet, but honestly if they actually fix the pet then it will actually make us pretty powerful.

Daevas.6943:

Please do not get rid of pets. I don’t know why so many people are having trouble with Rangers my ranger works just fine.

i also do not want to lose pets, however pets are not fine they are unresponsive with F2 alot of times and they have a very hard time chasing down moving targets especially in Spvp

the survival of DPS pets is really bad but the dogs or bears is pretty good.

DirtyDeeds.6075:

Those of you complaining Rangers have bad shouts I disagree. There is nothing wrong with Battle Roar at all. While it may be slightly weak for solo play, it borders on overpowered because of its 1200 radius that buffs everyone with +20% crit chance for 6.5 Secs plus a decent Might buff(60Pwr/60Cond Dmg) for 16.5 secs.

Dude, even the devs agree that ranger shouts are bad. :P

@Psychrome

Quit being over dramatic. People are asking for an OPTION to not use a pet. You could still have your dumb pet that doesn’t attack people that move (aka 99.9% of people in wvw). But there would be an option for people who know they are being limited by the pet.

It would be as easy as giving 10-20% damage increase or 10-20% crit change with a perm-stowed pet. Not sure on the numbers but that would be for the devs to figure out.

Ranger Utilities in general just suck horribly. Probably the only ones I tolerate are 3x Signet (for braindead play) and traited Traps. And even then, the latter doesn’t actually accomplish much apart from a 1s AoE Immobilize being useful from time to time.

- Signets have average passives, and their actives are ENORMOUS cooldowns for effects that only work on your pet…unless you decided to trait 30 Marksmanship. Why the heck should I be forced to take a deep trait just so certain utility skills stop sucking?

- In that same vein, Spirits are extremely crappy Banners/Wells. No mobility without traits, no durability without traits, effect radius is pathetically small and the effects themselves are % chance procs, making them really unreliable at best. The only way to make them tolerable is to trait 30 Nature and take BOTH Spirit traits, and even then they still fall short of comparable group buffs.

- The shouts have obscenely long cooldowns for what is effectively an extra pet command. The only tolerable on is Search and Rescue, and even then it’s a tradeoff of sacrificing half your damage so you can res a random nearby ally. These shouts should really be built into Pets, perhaps shifting “Heel” on top of F1 (no target = Heel, target = Attack) and then making F3 a shout of your choice.

- Traps are at least marginally interesting, but the Traited version once again reeks of “Why the heck aren’t traps like this, standard???” Trigger and effect radii are absolutely pathetic if not traited, although it’s less pathetic than Signets/Spirits because at least you can still cast them on the move for local AoE with less annoying targeting requirements.

- Wilderness Survival is probably the only set that isn’t objectively fail, but these skills are more or less boring. Muddy Terrain is just an AoE cripple/immobilize, Quickening Zephyr is the profession Haste, Lighning Reflexes is the extra dodge roll. Sharpening Stone is kinda terrible unless it’s the 75% HP trait, but at least that trait can occur very frequently.

The thing that always puzzles me is “traps need a good range!”
Isn’t the entire point of a trap being something to lure them on? So if/when the longbow gets improved, and you’re there shooting their socks off, anyone who tries to melee you gets made to regret it.
If it’s got range it’s just a grenade.

The problem Loki, is that in GW1 traps didn’t have range. So when we come here and put down a trap, run away and waiting with my LB and enemies pop the trap where i put it. The trap get’s teleported to the 600 range in front of me, far far away from the mob/person that popped it. Big F’up!

And DirtyDeeds, there’s no such shout called battle roar for rangers… We have call of the wild. But that’s on our warhorn, not uti skill.

I really hope to get buffed soon.

I hope that they make pets optional and when it is perma-stored you get a damage or critical chance boost, or you get your lost damage % pack (something like that.) In their present form pets are dead weight, like an anchor around the ranger’s neck dragging it down into a weakened stupor. Because that’s one of the main buffs a ranger needs. Making the utilities better will also help along the way.

As it is, ranger DPS is tied to a bug-ridden useless pet system that will take multiple patches and a whole new AI to get it into a functional state.

It’s easy to kite and DPS in-game without a pet. Not that I have anything against pets, I just want them to be optional and full patched, so that when you do choose to use them, they’re actually useful. And when you know they’re going to cause trouble, say in a dungeon— like pulling unwanted adds etc, perma stow it.The option for no pet was in GW1, so why not here?

To all the people asking for no pets: it won’t happen. That’s the profession. I’m sorry, but roll something else if you don’t want to have a pet.

That being said, pets and their contribution to the rangers overall damage do need to be addressed and adjusted. I’m not sure to of the accuracy of this claim but I’ve seen the pet claimed to be responsible for 45% of our damage. That is absurdly high. The pet shouldn’t be nearly half our damage as that dramatically raises the skill floor (in situations where the pet is able to be on a target) and lowers the skill ceiling (in all situations). I think something in the range of 20-30% would be much more reasonable, but that’s for the developers and their internal testing to decide. Additionally I think pets should attack on the move. Why not? If their damaged is lowered I can’t see any issue with this. A penalty might be in order to the pets damage while it’s moving, however. PvE AoE damage on pets should also be reduced if the ranger is to be competitive while also maintaining the pet as an integral part of the profession.
Increase ranger damage; decrease ranger pet damage; pets attack while moving; pets take less AoE in PvE.

Another issue is with making spirits more beneficial to the ranger. Perhaps giving the ranger and his pet a buff in addition to what they already grant. I’d love to run a buffing/support ranger (I like to in every class).
Make spirits more appealing and better able to facilitate a support role.

The shouts give me mixed feelings. I see how they’re useful but I don’t think I’d choose any of them aside from “Protect Me!” I’d like to see “Sic ’Em” also grant stability to the pet.

I really enjoy how the weapons work, but I’d like to see an increase in longbow damage (as would a lot of people!). Perhaps stacking buff for remaining in the same place (more crit, more power, ignore a percentage of armor).

Salt.6794:

To all the people asking for no pets: it won’t happen. That’s the profession. I’m sorry, but roll something else if you don’t want to have a pet.

That being said, pets and their contribution to the rangers overall damage do need to be addressed and adjusted. I’m not sure to of the accuracy of this claim but I’ve seen the pet claimed to be responsible for 45% of our damage. That is absurdly high. The pet shouldn’t be nearly half our damage as that dramatically raises the skill floor (in situations where the pet is able to be on a target) and lowers the skill ceiling (in all situations). I think something in the range of 20-30% would be much more reasonable, but that’s for the developers and their internal testing to decide. Additionally I think pets should attack on the move. Why not? If their damaged is lowered I can’t see any issue with this. A penalty might be in order to the pets damage while it’s moving, however. PvE AoE damage on pets should also be reduced if the ranger is to be competitive while also maintaining the pet as an integral part of the profession.
Increase ranger damage; decrease ranger pet damage; pets attack while moving; pets take less AoE in PvE.

Another issue is with making spirits more beneficial to the ranger. Perhaps giving the ranger and his pet a buff in addition to what they already grant. I’d love to run a buffing/support ranger (I like to in every class).
Make spirits more appealing and better able to facilitate a support role.

The shouts give me mixed feelings. I see how they’re useful but I don’t think I’d choose any of them aside from “Protect Me!” I’d like to see “Sic ’Em” also grant stability to the pet.

I really enjoy how the weapons work, but I’d like to see an increase in longbow damage (as would a lot of people!). Perhaps stacking buff for remaining in the same place (more crit, more power, ignore a percentage of armor).

The option of making the Pets optional are already 1/2 way there. The stow button, it has the potential to be the bases of what we ask. Make the Stow button work, even if in combat and give us a damage perk to make up for the damage lost from not having a pet…. which in all honestly would be an improvement because of how poor the Ai system is for pets, they don’t do much damage now. In WvWvW they offer no benifit, and because of how pets are fundamentally designed to be a large solid portion of our damage output, we only LOSE damage as it is.

The idea about making the Stow Pet a lasting effect, and then add the option to bring the pet back out just by hitting the “Stow” button, not automatically summon upon going into combat would be very easy to add into the games coding. In addition, have us gain a 10-20% damage increase passive effect while pet is stowed. Problem solved right there, no longer restricting people, like myself who LOVE the ranger class, but dislike the Pet mechanic to being forced into be penalized for it. Yet leaving the option open to the players who do enjoy the addition of a pet for combat untouched.

Everyones Happy.

It’s quite frustrating how the class is balanced around both the ranger and the pet having 100% dps uptime and the mobs being stationary. A standard 30% move speed bonus for melee pet (instead of wasting a major trait) would help this so much.

I would love to see a separate trait tree for pets. And I do not mean the beastmaster line. Have a global pet talent line, that really specializes the pets you use more, fond of using bears? well at the end of the Vitality/Heal line there will be a nice trait that makes your Bears auto attack cleave, while taking reduced damage from AOE. Fond of using cats? well at the end of the precision/critical damage tree there is a nice trait that increases cats critical chance and reduced damage from AOE.

Obviously these could effect more than one type of pet, was just an example but it could really help fine tune peoples pets.

I’ve been playing ranger type classes in every MMO since the dawn of time it feels like, and this iteration of the bow wielding pet master feels pretty good overall, it just seems to be missing some of the groundwork that years of trial and error other companies and games have gone through.

1. pets and spirits…in most of these games the survivabilty of an A.I controlled companion has to either be aware and responsive to terrain and area of effect, or it needs to have passive bonuses to reduce thier impact. This one area would go a long way to helping the class along, in other MMO’s this has always been a problem and the simple soloution was aoe dmg reduction to the pet.

2. The lack of diversity in builds…well lets be honest, most of us came into the class expecting to rock a longbow and be a pest, supported by a pet. I think for some things the longbow and shortbow are for the most part accomplishing that, but the problem is the utility. We don’t have enough tricks up our sleeves in relation to the other classes..and it’s not just extra damage or attack speed math stuff..I mean fun things to do in combat. For instance abilities like ground targeted jumps like engineer or warrior hammer f1. blinks, teleports, invisibility etc all other classes have some fun tactical stuff that makes exploring and playing the game fun, rangers have nothing like that.

3. Melee suvivability…well every class that decides to run into a fight swinging an implement of death can either survive by mitigation or evasion, rangers have the option to roll with a greatsword, but nothing really fun to back it up, it feels fairly boring and even a little kittened.

after saying, I would like to see an independent pet tree, that we would have to really specialize our pets, I thought I would make a trait tree as an example of what it could be. It may have a fair few holes in it, and some may be rather odd or imbalanced, but I thought I would still give it a go, as why make a suggestion and not try and be a little creative / constructive!

Wild Training (Felines and Spiders)
Precision (10) and Critical damage (1%)

Adept Minor trait = (Infected wounds) Felines and Spiders now cause poison for 1 second on critical hits.
Master Minor trait = (Wild bond) Felines and Spiders now give you might for 3 seconds on critical hits. (5s CD)
Grandmaster Minor trait = (Gift of precision) Felines and Spiders now take 75% reduced damage from area of effect attacks.

Adept Major trait (I) = (way of the wild) on critical hits felines and spiders give allies might for 3 seconds, 600 range.
Adept Major trait (II) = (Hidden path) When your felines and spiders takes 20% damage in one hit, it will gain stealth for 3 seconds.
Adept Major trait (III) = (Mark of the wild) When your felines and Spiders apply a condition, it is applied to a nearby enemy.
Adept Major trait (IV) = (Hunters prey) When your felines and Spiders attack a target with 50% or lower health, it does 5% more damage.

Master Major trait (V) = (Stalker) When you activate your F2 ability, felines and Spiders gain 3 seconds of Stealth.
Master Major trait (VI) = (The hunt) Your felines and Spiders have a 30% chance to apply Cripple for 1s on critical.

Grandmaster Major trait (VII) = (Blood hunt) Felines and Spiders have a 30% chance to apply Bleed for 3 seconds on critical.
Grandmaster Major trait (VII) =(Frenzy) Felines and Spiders have a 30% chance to apply Frenzy to allies for 3 seconds on critical, 600 range.

Fleet Training (Moa, Bird and Jellyfish)
Power (10) and Condition duration (1%)

Adept Minor trait = (Joyful) When your Moa, Bird and Jellyfish apply a condition, allies gain regeneration 1 second, 900 range. (5s CD)
Master Minor trait = (Fleet) When Moa, bird and jelly fish are hit by a critical allies gain swiftness 5 seconds, 900 range.
Grandmaster Minor trait = (Gift of sight) Moa, Bird and jellyfish now take 75% reduced damage from area of effect attacks.

Adept Major trait (I) = (Birds eye) Your moa, bird and jellyfish now cause vulnerability for 10s when you use your F2 skill, 300 range.
Adept Major trait (II) = (Panic) When your moa, bird and jellyfish take 20% damage in one hit, it will blind all nearby enemies, 300 range.

Adept Major trait (III) = (Flourish) Your moa, bird and jellyfish now give Vigour to all party members for 3 seconds when using F2, 900 range.
Adept Major trait (IV) = (Retaliate) When your moa, bird and jellyfish apply a condition, they have a 30% chance to give retaliation to all allies, 600 range. (5s CD)

Master Major trait (V) = (Flail) When your moa, bird and jellyfish Critical hit, they hit two nearby targets. (10s CD)
Master Major trait (VI) = (Pain) When your moa, bird and jellyfish Critical hit they have a 30% chance to cause weakness, 1 second

Grandmaster Major trait (VII) = (Escape) at 75% health your moa, bird and jellyfish cause blind to all enemies, 600 range. (10s CD)
Grandmaster Major trait (VII) =(Cripple) If your moa, bird and jellyfish are subject to a direct attack, they will cause cripple 2s to the target and gain retaliation 2s. (5s CD)

Defensive Training (Drake, Canines, Devourer and Shark)
Toughness (10) and Condition damage (10)

Adept Minor trait = (Evade) When you use dodge, drakes, canines, devourer and sharks evade the next attack within 3s. (5s CD)
Master Minor trait = (Thick Skin) Your Drake, Canines, Devourer and Sharks gain Aegis every 60 seconds.
Grandmaster Minor trait = (Gift of protection) Your Drake, Canines, Devourer take 75% less damage from area of effect damage.

Adept Major trait (I) = (Charge) When your drake, canine, devourer and shark cause a combo finisher they gain Frenzy 5 seconds. (10s CD)
Adept Major trait (II) = (Harass) When your drake, canine, devourer and shark interrupt a target, they cause cripple 2s.
Adept Major trait (III) = (Protector) Your drake, canine, devourer and shark will gain 5 stacks of might, when you reach 50% health. (10s CD)
Adept Major trait (IV) = (Punish) When you activate your F2 skill, your drake, canine, devourer and shark will cause a Blast effect.

Master Major trait (V) = (Roar) When your Drake, canine, devourer and shark takes 20% damage from one hit, they will cause Fear 1s. (10s CD)
Master Major trait (VI) = (Embrace) When you switch to a Drake, canine, devourer or shark they will have protection and Aegis for 5 seconds.

Grandmaster Major trait (VII) = (Bond) Your Drake, canine, devourer and shark will take 20% of all damage you would have taken.
Grandmaster Major trait (VII) =(Sacrifice) If you would have died from damage, your pet will take your place, you also gain frenzy and 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds. (30s CD)

Vital Training (Ursine, Porcine and Armour Fish)
Vitality (10) and Compassion (10)

Adept Minor trait = (rejuvenate) Your Ursine, porcine and armour fish have a 30% chance to apply regeneration 3 seconds on auto attack. (5s CD)
Master Minor trait = (Swipe) Your Ursine, Porcine and Armour fish auto attack now hits an extra two targets.
Grandmaster Minor trait = (Gift of strength) Your Ursine, Porcine and Armour fish take 75% reduced damage from area of effect attacks.

Adept Major trait (I) = (Attention) If your ursine, porcine or armour fish are not attacked for 5 seconds, their next attack will cause cripple for 2 seconds.
Adept Major trait (II) = (Muscle) If your ursine, porcine or armour fish take 20% damage in one hit, they will gain protection for 5 seconds, and cause their next attack to immobilize the target.
Adept Major trait (III) = (Headstrong) Your Ursine, porcine and armour fish take 15% reduced damage from all attacks.
Adept Major trait (IV) = (Bliss) Ursine, porcine and armour fish will remove one condition from themselves every 10 seconds.

Master Major trait (V) = (Heavy Weight) Ursine, porcine and armour fish gain stability for 3 seconds when you activate their F2 skill.
Master Major trait (VI) = (Sure footed) Ursine, porcine and armour fish gain swiftness for 5 seconds when they are crippled or immobilized.

Grandmaster Major trait (VII) = (Vitality) you and your Ursine, porcine or armour fish gain regeneration every 30 seconds for 5 seconds.
Grandmaster Major trait (VII) =(Effective life) Your ursine, porcine or armour fish gain an extra 200 vitality, and also gain 10% of their vitality as power.

Whilst the above are cool ideas it’s way too much to do for one class.

P.S. (Condition damage for Canines? what Canines are you using?oO)

@Morphic, while some of the lines done suit all of the animal types put in to the list, it still benefits other ones, so some may get less of a boost via their trait line… I am sure that it could be mixed up more effectively.

I tried to make it more simple by adding four in the adept line, but I don’t think it would be to much for people to grasp, maybe it could be made even more simple, not sure… It is not even really needed in all honesty, just thought it would be fun ^^

But saying that, its no less weird than some of our other things ^^ We could switch condition duration and condition damage around, would make more sense. In fact, it makes more sense if they both have condition duration, as it is for the set pet type only.

Why are people defending the pets so much? They are obviously broken and weigh the ranger down so much. I get that pets are part of the class and I don’t want to see them gone completely (though I wouldn’t mind) but they definitely need to be reworked a bit.

I hate that I do like 45% less dps than I should because I’m supposed to rely on the AI to pick up the rest. Make pets more for utility, and give rangers back their damage output. Or fix the pets AI (unlikely).

A great part of this community is monitoring this thread of our beloved profession, so i would like to take a moment and bring forth one of our biggest concerns, that being our Pets; So here is a post with all our issues and suggestions in that direction :
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Pet-overhaul/first#post650221

Ideas, thoughts and all kind of feedback is more than welcome ! : )

With respect,
Haya-jii

I said during beta that Arenanet should look at City of Heroes/Villains’ mastermind class. It allowed for up to six pets to be out at all times (including keeping them spawned thru zoning) and sometimes a seventh timed pet. They did not auto-spawn unless summoned. It also had a much more robust system of control, including essentially a flag for them to defend an area of ground. That’s similar to the flag system in the first GW. So the tech already exists, no need to reinvent the wheel. Having to choose “Guard” as a utility skill is a poor substitute. It should be an inherent ability.

Maybe Arenanet should consider buying CoH/V. Not necessarily to save it from closing at the end of November (though that would make 20,000 or 30,000 players very happy), but to gain access to the design of the mastermind class in any future tweaks for rangers.

Where does this talk of pets doing 45% of ranger dps come from? Lol. It wouldn’t even be that much if you were just on auto attack.

I do not even see much of an issue with pets, they are far more responsive than in other titles.

My biggest suggestion would be to buff up a single skill in SB, maybe some AOE, because in long group pve fights its pretty dull. Thief SB puts it to shame apart from rangers AA speed. A melee closer would b good too, I know the Gs has one and you can trait for the speed buff when you switch in combat but I feel it would make melee that little bit more viable for more players.

I don’t feel any of those would be op at all, I could be wrong.

Also, some of the slot skills are very poor, 20% chances are not that useful, nor is a 10% speed buff, some of the elite summon skills timers are way too long also, imo. Also, more variety in traps and possibly more trap based traits?

I do not feel our DPS is that bad (considering our CC and CD’s) once you build for it and know how to chain attacks. We have one of the largest and fastest to cast rAOE’s in the game, plus it cc’s too, stop crying, really.

This all reminds me of WAR’s shadow warrior, which was a far far inferior class, many QQ’ed it was terrible, it was poor compared to it’s opposite but could be devastating in the correct hands.

I think many crying about the ranger so much should try ele and other classes.

Sunspear Mars.1480:

I said during beta that Arenanet should look at City of Heroes/Villains’ mastermind class. It allowed for up to six pets to be out at all times (including keeping them spawned thru zoning) and sometimes a seventh timed pet. They did not auto-spawn unless summoned. It also had a much more robust system of control, including essentially a flag for them to defend an area of ground. That’s similar to the flag system in the first GW. So the tech already exists, no need to reinvent the wheel. Having to choose “Guard” as a utility skill is a poor substitute. It should be an inherent ability.

Maybe Arenanet should consider buying CoH/V. Not necessarily to save it from closing at the end of November (though that would make 20,000 or 30,000 players very happy), but to gain access to the design of the mastermind class in any future tweaks for rangers.

God forbid! Want a class with a dozen of pets – take the necromancer. Better let them take their own idea from GW1 and return to ranger damage from pet.

Ninjah.6298:

Where does this talk of pets doing 45% of ranger dps come from? Lol. It wouldn’t even be that much if you were just on auto attack.

I do not even see much of an issue with pets, they are far more responsive than in other titles.

My biggest suggestion would be to buff up a single skill in SB, maybe some AOE, because in long group pve fights its pretty dull. Thief SB puts it to shame apart from rangers AA speed. A melee closer would b good too, I know the Gs has one and you can trait for the speed buff when you switch in combat but I feel it would make melee that little bit more viable for more players.

I don’t feel any of those would be op at all, I could be wrong.

Also, some of the slot skills are very poor, 20% chances are not that useful, nor is a 10% speed buff, some of the elite summon skills timers are way too long also, imo. Also, more variety in traps and possibly more trap based traits?

I do not feel our DPS is that bad (considering our CC and CD’s) once you build for it and know how to chain attacks. We have one of the largest and fastest to cast rAOE’s in the game, plus it cc’s too, stop crying, really.

This all reminds me of WAR’s shadow warrior, which was a far far inferior class, many QQ’ed it was terrible, it was poor compared to it’s opposite but could be devastating in the correct hands.

I think many crying about the ranger so much should try ele and other classes.

Well, actually they can. Apparently you use mostly glass builds and short bow. Try speknutsya in BM and tafness – and the pet will do 60. In any case, did not mean that they make 40% of your damage, and that your loss is less than 40% because of them. That is the problem. Without a pet you are nothing. And pets are useless and very bad fit into the concept of action RPGs such as this.

Well, actually they can. Apparently you use mostly glass builds and short bow. Try to spec in BM and thougness for example – pet will do all 60. In any case, ppl does not mean that they make 40% of your damage, they mean that your loss 40% because of them. That is the problem. Without a pet you are nothing. And pets are useless and very bad fit into the concept of action RPG such as this.

Ninjah.6298:

Where does this talk of pets doing 45% of ranger dps come from? Lol. It wouldn’t even be that much if you were just on auto attack.

I do not even see much of an issue with pets, they are far more responsive than in other titles.

My biggest suggestion would be to buff up a single skill in SB, maybe some AOE, because in long group pve fights its pretty dull. Thief SB puts it to shame apart from rangers AA speed. A melee closer would b good too, I know the Gs has one and you can trait for the speed buff when you switch in combat but I feel it would make melee that little bit more viable for more players.

I don’t feel any of those would be op at all, I could be wrong.

Also, some of the slot skills are very poor, 20% chances are not that useful, nor is a 10% speed buff, some of the elite summon skills timers are way too long also, imo. Also, more variety in traps and possibly more trap based traits?

I do not feel our DPS is that bad (considering our CC and CD’s) once you build for it and know how to chain attacks. We have one of the largest and fastest to cast rAOE’s in the game, plus it cc’s too, stop crying, really.

This all reminds me of WAR’s shadow warrior, which was a far far inferior class, many QQ’ed it was terrible, it was poor compared to it’s opposite but could be devastating in the correct hands.

I think many crying about the ranger so much should try ele and other classes.

People have, and I think that’s why rangers are upset. A rifle warrior is what many people imagined for the ranger. Also ele’s are power houses. I agree they were complained about for awhile, but a skilled ele can wreck almost all other skilled classes. The skill ceiling is just more like a trump tower than a ranch.

Ninjah.6298:

This all reminds me of WAR’s shadow warrior, which was a far far inferior class, many QQ’ed it was terrible, it was poor compared to it’s opposite but could be devastating in the correct hands.

No disrespect, your post was both interesting and had valid points up until I read this last quoted section. I’ve played a ranger as my main in many games, mmo or other. I do not consider myself the best nor the worst. Never did I feel in those other games I had to play Godlike with elite skills in order to compensate for lack of diversity or to workaround the bugs in order to play on par with other classes. WHO wants to play a character like that? hmmm? Not very likely. People want to play the class the way it should be. No one wants to be known as “the ranger who can keep up because they play a broken class with godlike skills” If you play ranger so well, then playing the class as it is meant to be will serve to show your prowess even better, deservedly so

Salt.6794:

To all the people asking for no pets: it won’t happen. That’s the profession. I’m sorry, but roll something else if you don’t want to have a pet.

I’m sorry, nothing personal here, but I’ll admit that I’m old school, I won’t tell you how old though. Every game I have ever played has always been a ranger (style) character. I have always had a thing for rangers and read all the books I can that revolve around rangers, my favorite being ranger’s apprentice, but getting to the point…Every game I have ever played a ranger, it has always been a ranger with NO pet. And out of all the games I have played, the only game that seemed to get the ranger concept right was Everquest…up to a point since they reduced their bow damage and increased their duel wielding damage, making them into more of a melee class unfortunately. Even if you look at the Guildwars 2 website: The Game>Professions>Ranger, you’ll read:

“Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.”

Read it good, it says ranger rely on a keen eye, steady hand, and power of nature itself, NOT Pets, no where does it say pets in that sentence. They rely on these three things to bring down foes from a distance, we are suppose to be unparalleled, (unequaled) Archers, yet the warriors are better archers then us. Hell, they, and rogues, do better Ranged damage then us period. With the ability to use traps, spirits and pets, ranger can ADAPT to any situation. It’s not saying that we need pets to do damage but to adapt to a situation, such as using a pet for crowd control, for knockdowns, for slowing foes, etc. I don’t want a pet, it’s more problematic then what it’s worth. It’s always pulling aggro on mobs because it likes to run around instead of staying close to me. If you want to play a beast master, then trait it, we already have a beast master trait line, put your first 5 points into that and you can pull a pet out, the higher you go into the line the more damage and abilities open up for the pets, otherwise leave us be as what we are suppose to be, RANGERS.

The concept of a ranger becoming a beast master was implemented recently by WoW, before WoW no other game that I can remember playing ever linked rangers with pets. I’m not talking about MMO’s here, I’m also referring to RPG’s. Hell, look at the movies, did you see Legolas walking around with a freaking dog or wolf? (yes, I went there, so what) Lets be honest here, Ranger’s are not beast masters nor should they be beast masters. Remove the pets from rangers and give rangers the damage they are suppose to do because having a useless, faulty, buggy AI responsible for half, or even a quarter of our damage is just stupid!

I believe this has been touched upon before but I’ve always liked the idea that a choice to stow the pet but retain the special ability and some added strength depending on the pet would make an interesting addition. Something akin to a pet ‘aura’ or mantle that would encompass the ranger, a ‘soul of a Moa’ if you will. The F2 would become your ability.

This way it matters which pets you acquire and they still have an effect while giving the ranger options. The melded form loses the pet’s hitpoints and usefulness as a secondary attacker but gains some added utility and a general strength increase. A win-win in concept. You are still a pet class you simply use them to bolster yourself in a fantasy based shamanistic fashion.

Some existing abilities already dwell within this sphere showing wolf or bear, etc. Ah well, just a thought.

My level 9 Thief just kited 3 level 12 mobs with the shortbow, including one veteran, and I took one hit. All I can say is OMG. It’s actually fun to play the thief all the time – having 4 useful skills available all the time unless I spammed the crap out of them was a blast.

As opposed to my ranger, where I use my available non/utility abilities and sit there auto-attacking for 15 seconds….

I guess, people who ask for get rid of pets don’t like their aesthetics in the main, not mechanics. They think like “I am ranger, agile and cunning, so why I forced to carry this clumsy bag of fur, that they name pet? It makes me look bulky!” So, just use birds – they are almost unnoticeable on the game screen. Or maybe Anet should give us small, flying, endure and long-ranged pets, that will be just another fancy accessory for ranger, like minis.

Well, actually they can. Apparently you use mostly glass builds and short bow. Try to spec in BM and toughness for example – pet will do all 60. In any case, ppl does not mean that they make 40% of your damage, they mean that your loss 40% because of them. That is the problem. Without a pet you are nothing. And pets are useless and very bad fit into the concept of action RPG such as this.

Who is using SB for anything but 1v1 or fun? With LB The ‘burst’ you can get from the AOE and then the rapid shot is far better than anything SB can do.

I really don’t see those number adding up, unless you are a SB BM, imo, you should be stacking for crit and crit damage, more so for SB where it’s really just AA damage. If you go skirmish this is exactly what you get. I haven’t done a test, though, so it’s just my opinion, with regard to the beast dps.

As I said, SB is a bit poor. Good for PvP small fights, and a change from LB, but maybe reduce range, buff damage or add some AOE to it. People seem to not notice the Thief SB has a draw time where as the Rangers does not. Plus the Theifs AOE Bomb has a travel time, not that accurate against a fast moving target.

Anyway, these are just observations and my opinions, I think people need to see the classes as an entirety and not just what skill 1 does in comparison to another skill 1. Traps are great in many situations though they need more variety imo. The elite root skill is amazing in conjunction with other AOE skills.

I think with any good MMO it’s about how you combine all the options and skills free to you to create something powerful, this is why we see so many cases of some people seeing crap while others see gold.

I can see gold in the ability of any other class, but not ranger.
You found the normal builds and dismissed all others. And you’re not interested, that almost all abilities are useless. Or that people wants a variety. You do not wonder how wide the possibility of other classes in relation to your, if you are able to kill members of thou class.
That’s the problem. Maybe this is the reason why in ranger’s topics people complain that all their ability is crap, and in topics of thieves people are complaining that they can kill all with a 3 heartseeker and it’s too OP for them.

This means shortbow/condition rangers are getting nerfed?

Ideas for Build Diversity issue:

One of the most glaring problems is how Nature Magic line is sub-par for anything but a Spirit build. Few people put 30 (or rarely even 20pts) into it.

I have a couple ideas to help make it more desirable which will help build diversity.

1. Move Oakheart Salve from the Wildnerness Survival Tree down to Nature Magic. Few people pick this because they’d rather take the CC protection.

2. Combine Two Handed Training with Martial Mastery in the Survival Tree(combine +5% damage with the reduced cooldown).

3. This would open up a spot for a new trait in Nature Magic. Maybe something to make Shouts more worthwhile, like removing a condition on use, or applying a boon like Protection on use (which would get shared with the pet because of the 15pt minor).

4. There would also be a spot for a new trait in Wilderness Survival.

Not to rain on anybody’s parade, but,
of all the things mentioned to be on the table for revision – the profession mechanic wasn’t one of them. There’s no harm in playing armchair developer, but, try not to let harmless passtime escalate into genuine expectation for the coming patch.

I think Oakheart Salve is in the Toughness line because DoTs are your Achilles’s heel while investing in Toughness. That one’s pretty sensible, actually, and I’ve used it from time to time for exactly that reason. Two Handed Training and Martial Mastery getting combined is a great idea, though.

Ghertu.7096:

I guess, people who ask for get rid of pets don’t like their aesthetics in the main, not mechanics. They think like “I am ranger, agile and cunning, so why I forced to carry this clumsy bag of fur, that they name pet? It makes me look bulky!” So, just use birds – they are almost unnoticeable on the game screen. Or maybe Anet should give us small, flying, endure and long-ranged pets, that will be just another fancy accessory for ranger, like minis.

Yeah i like this idea. If i could carry around say an air elemental as a pet that would be amazing.

Of course pets need major fixes. More responsiveness, better control, good AI, resistance to AOE, better tracking, ability to hit moving targets, better f2 skills, etc. I also want them to follow me down cliffs instead of running 5 miles backwards to walk down a path.

Ninjah.6298:

Where does this talk of pets doing 45% of ranger dps come from? Lol. It wouldn’t even be that much if you were just on auto attack.

I do not even see much of an issue with pets, they are far more responsive than in other titles.

My biggest suggestion would be to buff up a single skill in SB, maybe some AOE, because in long group pve fights its pretty dull. Thief SB puts it to shame apart from rangers AA speed. A melee closer would b good too, I know the Gs has one and you can trait for the speed buff when you switch in combat but I feel it would make melee that little bit more viable for more players.

I don’t feel any of those would be op at all, I could be wrong.

Also, some of the slot skills are very poor, 20% chances are not that useful, nor is a 10% speed buff, some of the elite summon skills timers are way too long also, imo. Also, more variety in traps and possibly more trap based traits?

I do not feel our DPS is that bad (considering our CC and CD’s) once you build for it and know how to chain attacks. We have one of the largest and fastest to cast rAOE’s in the game, plus it cc’s too, stop crying, really.

This all reminds me of WAR’s shadow warrior, which was a far far inferior class, many QQ’ed it was terrible, it was poor compared to it’s opposite but could be devastating in the correct hands.

I think many crying about the ranger so much should try ele and other classes.

I had an RR80 SW and a RR80 Squig Herder.

The SW was very very poor till it got the range increase SH have about 2 years after release. From what i understand they’ve buffed it even more….But Anyway the SW was absolutely awful compared to most classes in the game..I mean I could kill people yes.. and after the range increase I was able to solo fairly decently on it..However If you played any other class like I did in that game (Knight/Black Orc/Warrior Priest) you knew how really subpar SW was..Being Effective on a subpar class doesn’t make it suddenly an ok class…It just means you can do ok even with a poor class.

I mean…How subpar was the SW? How about Skirmisher SW having less range damage then a Disciple of Khaine..which was a Duel Wielding Melee Healer….It’s Nuke hit harder then the Skrimsher SW’s attacks…and applied a proc (usually a snare, or a lifetap..)

Please make point blank shot instant and also allow for jumping shots. :-D ??