Guild Wars 2

After my Ranger Trait Evaluation , I’ve decided to do the same regarding our utilities, which in my opinion is the next spot where the Ranger needs the most help.
The scores are always given “untraited”, with the score in brackets with the relevant traits. Comments are welcome.
Note: I think many good things will happen with the trait rework making some old traits “baseline”. As you will see, one of my main problems with current Ranger utilities is that they are average/bad without the appropriate traits.

Spirits Overall : 1/5 (2.5/5 with traits).
Spirits are the best example of ranger utilities that are unplayable without the appropriate traits, with the exception of the Frost Spirit in PvE (which leads me giving it 1 point, would otherwise be a clear 0 untraited). I think utilities should never rely on traits to be “just playable”.
Note that Anet tends to agree with this as it was announced spirits will get a total revamp soon with the revision of their related traits, reworking their utilities and making them immobile.

• Storm Spirit 0/5 (2/5) The damage coming from the active skill is pretty good, but the small radius, long cast time and unpredictable position in PvP/WvW makes it unreliable in fights. I still wonder why the passive requires the player to hit something, it would otherwise be a great team utility.
• Sun Spirit 1/5 (3/5) Probably one of the best spirit in PvP/WvW when traited, as its effects are both useful and easier to control. If burning stacks are a thing in HoT, I expect this spirit to get a MASSIVE boost in efficiency.
• Stone Spirit 1/5 (3/5) It gets one point untraited because 3 seconds of protection is good, but fully traited it almost gives a 30% protection coverage on the ranger when it’s up, which is a significant effect. The active though is pretty bad (for the same reasons than Storm Spirit, on top of a BIG cooldown).
• Frost Spirit 2/5 (2/5) In pure PvE only, this is probably 4/5, where it doesn’t even need to be traited. The very good passive is a stackable party-wide damage boost which is the be-all and end-all in that game mode. It’s much harder to exploit in other modes, and the active is pretty bad overall (for the same reasons as Stone Spirit).

Traps Overall : 1/5 (2.25/5 with traits, probablu up to 3/5 with traits AND Trapper runes)
Traps at the moment are not really traps, they’re like Wells of conditions you drop under the target’s feets. They lack severely in utility, efficiency AND flavor, and are in the same boat as spirits : being unplayable without the appropriate traits (and even runes, in this case).
Note that again Anet seems to agree with this as they’ll get a big revamp in the next balance update.

• Spike Trap 1/5 (2/5) Spike Trap is unimpressive regarding its cooldown, 2s of cripple and 3 stacks of bleeds is simply not enough for a 25s cooldown.
• Poison Trap 0/5 (1/5) Unimpressive condition application and no utility. Rangers already have tons of Poison application sources. If Poison stacks are a thing in HoT, this might get a lot better as-is.
• Flame Trap 2/5 (3/5) Two things plead in favor of this trap: one, its low cooldown. Two, its fire field which can be combo-ed. But the damage is still too low on an intelligent target.
• Frost Trap 1/5 (3/5) If you can bring a target in this trap you can apply immense Chill durations with its effect + combos, which can really screw some classes like Eles. The problem is its big recharge time.

Signets Overall : 3.75/5 (4/5 with traits)
Signets got a massive boost some months ago by making them affect the Ranger also. This made signets a staple in many rangers builds in almost all game modes. They are in a pretty good shape at the moment and do not need traits to be effective (the 20% cooldown reduction trait is still very strong considering the cooldowns on most actives).

• Signet of Stone 4/5 (5/5) Signet of Stone received the most spectatular improvement with the Signet changes, giving Rangers an Endure Pain. Both the passive and active are very useful in many builds. This signet benefits a lot from the cooldown reduction trait.
• Signet of the Hunt 5/5 (5/5) This trait is a staple for many months now as the passive gives the Ranger a passive 25% speed boost, which is great in all game modes. The active isn’t as game changing as the Signet of Stone, but on a Greatsword Zerk Ranger it can give you access to insane spikes “on demand” with Maul (like 9k+ hits on Thieves or Mesmers).
• Signet of Renewal 3/5 (4/5) The only condition removal utility (untraited) is still very useful in condition heavy environments. The active can be a life saver but the fact that it can fail if your pet is too far makes it sometimes unreliable. The breakstun is also very good.
• Signet of the Wild 3/5 (4/5) This Signet will find most of its uses in PvP/WvW environments where 8s of insane damage (+25%) and 8s of stability are insane utilities. The big cooldown makes it a bit hard to use, but the trait recharge is still pretty useful. It will often compete with Signet of the Hunt though, which is in general easier to use.

Survival Overall : 2.75/5 (3.5/5 with traits)
Survival Skills are hit-and-miss, one is fantastic but the others are “okay” to “meh”. But they benefit from traits a lot, which is good.

• Muddy Terrain 2/5 (4/5) Muddy Terrain is pretty hard to use effectively as its hard to pin down a moving opponent with a ground targeted skill that takes 3/4s to cast. But with the appropriate traits it provides the survival skill with the lowest cooldown, making it a powerfull condition removal / fury application tool.
• Quickening Zephyr 3/5 (4/5) This skill could have been buffed after the Quickness nerf years ago, but can still be useful for powerful bursts. The cooldown is a bit high though.
• Lightning Reflexes 5/5 (5/5) One of the best utilities overall in the rangers kitten nal, this skill is a life saver. Stun break, Immob break, 10s of Vigor, damage, immense dodge…
• Sharpening Stone 1/5 (1/5) This skill … I don’t know. kitten cooldown for 5s stacks of 6s bleed ? I don’t get it.

Shouts Overall : 0.5/5 (1.25/5 with traits)
Shouts are atrocious. No build uses them. There was once a use for Protect Me, not anymore now since the rise of Signet of Stone. The others have unique mechanics yes, but are still horrendous. Too bad, because there would be opportunities for a traited Shout Ranger build (with Nature’s Voice + Rune of the Soldier).

• Sick ‘Em 1/5 (1/5) At least this skill has a unique mechanic in the sense that it’s the only skill at the moment which applies the Reveal debuff, but it’s still so pointless otherwise that I’ve never seen it used.
• Protect Me 1/5 (1/5) As said above, not interesting anymore compared to Signet of Stone. But at least this skill does something useful.
• Guard 0/5 (3/5) There is nothing in the game that pets could guard while being useful. EDIT : The skill can be used to proc Nature’s Voice on cooldown in a bunker/support build. Fun thing is, the skill effects are mostly ignored.
• Search and Rescue 0/5 (0/5) Why would I waste a utility slot to ask my Pet to rez someone, on a 85s cooldown ?

Personal note : I would like to have access to Anet’s statistics to see how many times those 2 last skills have been used since launch. I might be able to count that on my hands. Those are amongst the worst skills in the entire game I would say.

Guard would have been used millions and millions of times. Search and Rescue about 24.

Then I need your lights. What is “Guard” good at ?

Nature’s Voice.

Also, sadly “Sick’em” is not the only skill to currently apply the Reveal debuff. “Analyze” the tool belt skill of the engies “Utility Goggles” also applies Reveal. Neither are great skills mind you.

And with the purposed reveal on the new Dragon Hunter trap, one that does not need to target the person prior to the reveal, that unique use will be even less useful on “Sick’em” in comparison given the cool downs, at least as per current views, to be about the same between the DH trap and “Sick’em”

Yeah, Guard is used on cool down in a very common build with high survivability.

You used to be able to put pets on the top of walls in WvW with “Guard” too and that was pretty great, before they nerfed pets and their being able to climb walls. Throw a Jaguar up there and watch the numbers!

Did some research (I am no WvW expert, am only lvl 210 in that game mode), it’s that build right ? http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Shout_Heal

Then I think my evaluation isn’t that far off, but I should maybe put 3/5 when traited as it’s used in a niche build. Doesn’t change much in the end to the overall evaluation, shouts are trash which is sad because there would be opportunities to good shout builds.

I have to say, the weakness of Ranger utilities is one of the worse things about the class. Spirits suck (niche), Shouts suck (niche), survival are decent, and signets are decent. Outside of a few survival and signet skills, all ranger utilities are weak, outside of some very niche builds. I really hope they buff traps and spirits with the changes coming. Both are being nerfed so far, and they were already poor choices mostly. They need to seriously buff those skills.

Ouroboros.5076:

Did some research (I am no WvW expert, am only lvl 210 in that game mode), it’s that build right ? http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Shout_Heal

Any variation of Guard + Nature’s Voice (+ Shout Mastery) would be it.

Sick ’Em should be higher on the list. It’s quite popular in WvW when there are thieves around. I’d say 3/5, maybe even 4/5.

Protect Me should also be higher. I use it all the time. Not as good as Signet of Stone, but that’s why you use them together It’s also a stun breaker and has a shorter cooldown. I’d give it a 3/5. If it gave the pet 6s protection, it would be 4/5. If the pet couldn’t die: 5/5.

Well someone likes their signet builds. Sadden you much that you cannot go 5 signet warrior on ranger?

muddy terrain imo shouldn’t have a cast time. then it would be great with SotF. right now it’s almost entirely useless due to the long cast time.

Justine.6351:

Well someone likes their signet builds. Sadden you much that you cannot go 5 signet warrior on ranger?

I would rather like to enjoy good, meaningful utilities on rangers.

Yeah, shout heals (or regen ranger back in the day) is solid as a condi bunker/roamer. Guard is useful for the buffs on shout as well as repositioning your pet for a stealth fear. Sic’Em is great for securing kills on thieves and mesmers.

It may even make a decent celestial build depending on your weapon choice, but I haven’t tested that personally.

I actually used to run a clerics version using GS/SA just to build as much defense in as I could. That will be more viable once we can have 3 full trait lines though so I can max BM.

I use ‘Guard’ in PVE to solo ridiculous things, like champions with large numbers of adds and dungeons. Traited for shout cooldown, you can give your pet near-permanent Protection, which lets something like a Bear tank anything in the game.

‘Sic Em’ is useful as a DPS cooldown for a BM build. Not that anyone uses those. More notably, it’s VERY useful in spvp as a thief killer. 6s reveal will stop most thiefs in their tracks.

Traps are very good when traited – almost too good, since you can get permanent Chill uptime when combined with pets, plus good CC on short cooldowns (spike immobilizes when traited). Unfortunately they only synergize with condi builds, which are terrible. The downside is that you give up a LOT of useful traits to get that. Usually not worth it, but very powerful for certain playstyles.

Holland.9351:

Ouroboros.5076:

Did some research (I am no WvW expert, am only lvl 210 in that game mode), it’s that build right ? http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Shout_Heal

Any variation of Guard + Nature’s Voice (+ Shout Mastery) would be it.

Sick ’Em should be higher on the list. It’s quite popular in WvW when there are thieves around. I’d say 3/5, maybe even 4/5.

Protect Me should also be higher. I use it all the time. Not as good as Signet of Stone, but that’s why you use them together It’s also a stun breaker and has a shorter cooldown. I’d give it a 3/5. If it gave the pet 6s protection, it would be 4/5. If the pet couldn’t die: 5/5.

I wouldn’t say a skill with niche use against one class deserve a 3/5. It’s also sad that the skill itself is worthless, while the reveal is what it’s used for.
1.5/5 at best I’d say.

PART 1.

I’ll only focus on the ones people use regularly that I feel need improvement. These skills are not necessarily good, they are just slightly better than the other options. I’m not even going to bother with the ones that aren’t commonly used because they need to be completely reworked instead of just adjusted.

PvP/WvW

Guard This is not a good skill. It only becomes somewhat useful if you trait Nature’s Voice in a full regen build which costs you significant condition removal from losing Surival of the Fittest. The main reason it blows is that it has a long cast time… Who knows why this one shout has a 1s cast time. Fix remove cast time. I’ll still never use this but whatever.

Lightning Reflexes i agree this is one of our better skills, but it is useless unless facing an opponent. This severely limits the skill. It only works when facing an opponent which makes it useless when running away. Now some will argue that you can about face. This is only half true. You can’t about face while immobilized, which is the main reason you’re bringing this. About face also slows you down significantly so that by the time you about face and evade you’re barely ahead of where you’d be simply running forward. Fix make Lightning Reflexes evade in the direction you choose with WASD. This will make it a fantastic skill.

Signet of the Hunt This is a terrible signet. The active effect is utterly atrocious on all but full power classes despite the fact condition classes need it more unless they run shudders Guard. Rangers have relatively little access to swiftness unless they choose warhorn which is awful or a bird which only works in combat. Considering that Chronomancer is getting a minor trait that grants NOT ONLY 25% movement speed but also -25% to movement impairing conditions this signet looks even more awful than ever. Fix Not even sure where to start on this one… either completely rework the signet and give us the base in traits or give us a way better active effect. 25% bonus dmg on 1 attack is pathetic.

Protect Me/ Signet of Stone Protect me looks good on paper. It offers immunity, a stun break, and a 60s CD. Unfortunately Anet has decided not to give pets the HP boost they got in PVE so this skill is CRAP. Pets simply will not live through it. Hell they already die to guardian, ele, necro etc… AoE in 1v1 without even being focused. Protect me is a death sentence. I don’t have many issues with SoS. It’s decent compared to our other options although it is only 2s longer than endure pain but on a 40s longer CD which doesn’t seem quite right. Fix either give us the pet health boost or give pets protection while Protect Me is active. Literally anything could make this better.

Signet of the Wild This signet is decent although the bonus 25% dmg applies only to direct damage not conditions. Since this is one of only two abilities that give us stability and since we have literally no skills that grant immunity (mist form etc..) this is unacceptable. This means this signet is basically reserved only for power builds, which once again screws over condition builds. Fix Have the 25% work with conditions too so this skill is useful to more builds.

Signet of Renewal This signet is another baddie. I know Anet wants to add synergy with the pet but this is not the way to do it. As it transfers the conditions to our already glassy pets it all but assures either their death or reduces their already kitten poor combat effectiveness. Fix activated effect removes conditions instead of transferring them to pets.

PART 2.
Muddy Terrain I really want to like this skill but the cast time is simply too long. Landing it is tricky and the payoff is too low. 2s immob and a short cripple is meh. IMO even when running Survival of the Fittest, you can take other, better things. Fix reduce cast time.

All the Traps Our traps are not terrible… unless you compare them to DH traps in which case they are unspeakably bad. Frost trap is actually rather nice if you invest in extra chill. The others are unremarkable. The problem with traps is that other than frost trap there’s no reason to take these unless you run a trapper build. Fix buff damage of traps.

Quickening Zephyr this skill used to be good back when it was 100%. At least then rangers had an effective way to stomp! oh well. Current QZ is lackluster thanks to a long cooldown and -50% healing penalty. unfortunately we have few survivals to choose from and when running Survival of the Fittest as condition cleanse it’s pretty much required in power builds. Condition builds have other options and the boost to speed is fairly useless to them. Fix lose the healing penalty and lower the cooldown slightly.

Sharpening Stone on a condition build this is actually good when running Survival of the Fittest. Cooldown is a little long but overall it isn’t terrible. Since you have 30s to use the bleeds this is a good on demand condition removal that doesn’t cost you like using LR or QZ would. Fix One of the few utilities that doesn’t really need one! OMG!

PVE

Thanks to the Berserker meta you’re going to be running signets which in PVE are fine IMO although buffs to their WvW utility would also benefit them in PVE. You’ll also take Spirit of Frost which is the only good one. The others might as well not even exist. Search and Rescue was good back in the day but is now useless.

Spirit of Frost is only good when traited to have 70% chance (7% boost to party dps) but is still completely outclassed when compared to warrior banners. Banners don’t die, they go where you place them (spirits spawn in your general vicinity which makes placing them a total crapshoot) and they can be picked up and moved. The only advantage Frost Spirit has is a lower cooldown and the ability to swap to another utility while it is still alive.

vespers.1759:

PART 2.
…

All the Traps Our traps are not terrible… unless you compare them to DH traps in which case they are unspeakably bad. Frost trap is actually rather nice if you invest in extra chill. The others are unremarkable. The problem with traps is that other than frost trap there’s no reason to take these unless you run a trapper build. Fix buff damage of traps.

…

… but in a Trapper build and with Trapper runes they’re really strong. You can place a trap by trap and with the low cooldown you will never wait long for placing them again. The damage is very cool, too. I get a WvW camp in no time and without risk with these and can kill one human player in adittional to the camp npcs.

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

vespers.1759:

PART 2.
…

All the Traps Our traps are not terrible… unless you compare them to DH traps in which case they are unspeakably bad. Frost trap is actually rather nice if you invest in extra chill. The others are unremarkable. The problem with traps is that other than frost trap there’s no reason to take these unless you run a trapper build. Fix buff damage of traps.

…

… but in a Trapper build and with Trapper runes they’re really strong. You can place a trap by trap and with the low cooldown you will never wait long for placing them again. The damage is very cool, too. I get a WvW camp in no time and without risk with these and can kill one human player in adittional to the camp npcs.

I’ve played trapper ranger and yes it is decent, but imo still outclassed by a straight condition ranger because the traps are not the main focus of that build anyway. The focus is on the stealth and speed, and if you’re stealthing you aren’t doing damage. you also lose significant condition removal and stunbreaks in order to run those traps.

I would like to see our traps buffed, and if trapper becomes ridiculous as a result I’d like to see trapper runes adjusted instead. Buffs to traps would give us more build diversity by giving us a reason to take them outside of a single trapper build.

It makes no sense to keep four of our utility skills garbage because buffing them might make one rune set too strong. Just adjust the trapper runes.

Rhyse.8179:

I use ‘Guard’ in PVE to solo ridiculous things, like champions with large numbers of adds and dungeons. Traited for shout cooldown, you can give your pet near-permanent Protection, which lets something like a Bear tank anything in the game.

I’m pretty sure I could provide a decent number of encounters where your perma-protected bear will go down fast…

Rangers have too many utilities that are used more for the traits that trigger when you use them, instead of their own effects. Guard is the no#1 ‘offender’ in this list, others worth mention are Muddy Terrain and Sharpening Stone because they can trigger SotF.

I’d say the OP got the list just right. Removing cast time on skills that are in no way game changing in such a way that “you better dodge/interrupt this skill or you’ll die” are just a small first step. Guard shouldn’t have a cast time at all, Muddy Terrain could also be instant cast, or at the very least much faster cast time than now.
Muddy Terrain should pulse Immobilize, and/or have a bigger radius.

Ah, I can’t even go over all the utilites. The majority are crap for one reason or another.

Muddy terrain without cast time is op tbh, but having it at 1/2 second would be much better, 3/4 is just too clunky to land. Otherwise I mostly agree with the OP.

Rampage as One should be instant cast
Signet of the Wild should be instant cast

Getting stability shouldn’t take 1 second. Stability is to counter CC. CC shouldn’t counter stability.

Guard should be instant cast. It’s a shout and spending about 1/10th of your playtime casting this skill is just annoying.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Rhyse.8179:

I use ‘Guard’ in PVE to solo ridiculous things, like champions with large numbers of adds and dungeons. Traited for shout cooldown, you can give your pet near-permanent Protection, which lets something like a Bear tank anything in the game.

I’m pretty sure I could provide a decent number of encounters where your perma-protected bear will go down fast…

Seriously, I’m pretty sure anyone could point to multiple encounters where anyone/thing is downed in seconds… A Bear with Protection is going to last a lot longer than most.

Holland.9351:

Rampage as One should be instant cast
Signet of the Wild should be instant cast

Getting stability shouldn’t take 1 second. Stability is to counter CC. CC shouldn’t counter stability.

Guard should be instant cast. It’s a shout and spending about 1/10th of your playtime casting this skill is just annoying.

Agree that all shouts should be instant cast, if everyone else’s are, so should ours.

SoTW, don’t agree, but it could be 3/4 second instead of 1s.

They changed Stability so that it is indeed countered by CC and CC is countered by Stability, its balanced now.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

OGDeadHead.8326:

Rhyse.8179:

I use ‘Guard’ in PVE to solo ridiculous things, like champions with large numbers of adds and dungeons. Traited for shout cooldown, you can give your pet near-permanent Protection, which lets something like a Bear tank anything in the game.

I’m pretty sure I could provide a decent number of encounters where your perma-protected bear will go down fast…

Seriously, I’m pretty sure anyone could point to multiple encounters where anyone/thing is downed in seconds… A Bear with Protection is going to last a lot longer than most.

True. Keywords here though: “Bear tank anything”. No, it won’t.