Guild Wars 2

If we have to sacrifice a ranger style to the druid it’s likely going to be traps. They are the core utilities least suited to the druid play style. What do you think?

Meh. I’m hoping we sacrifice the pet. Literally and figureatively.

I wouldn’t mind losing traps. I’m hoping staff is going to provide enough control to make a beast-master style spec more reliable and more engaging. But even that is sort of a bandage instead of fixing the animation issue with.pets that makes them so terrible vs. moving targets.

For one of the next specializations, I’d like to see a more archer/survivalist spec which ditches the pet and replaces the f1-f4 with a quiver that held different limited use charges of arrow types for different effects, and with very long cast times when emptied, like mantras. Or maybe have the f1-f4 change depending on equipped weapon so that melee rangers get utility out of it as well.

Edit: Sorry for the triple post, my phone went sort of berserk for a bit.

SuzukiMethod.4732:

I wouldn’t mind losing traps. I’m hoping staff is going to provide enough control to make a beast-master style spec more reliable and more engaging. But even that is sort of a bandage instead of fixing the animation issue with.pets that makes them so terrible vs. moving targets.

For one of the next specializations, I’d like to see a more archer/survivalist spec which ditches the pet and replaces the f1-f4 with a quiver that held different limited use charges of arrow types for different effects, and with very long cast times when emptied, like mantras. Or maybe have the f1-f4 change depending on equipped weapon so that melee rangers get utility out of it as well.

Edit: Sorry for the triple post, my phone went sort of berserk for a bit.

Sounds a lot like preparations from GW1.

I have no idea which utilities we’d give up to be honest, I just know that it wont be Spirits lol. I have a feeling it might end up being signets though…

Giving signets up would be terrible…

SuzukiMethod.4732:

For one of the next specializations, I’d like to see a more archer/survivalist spec which ditches the pet and replaces the f1-f4 with a quiver that held different limited use charges of arrow types for different effects, and with very long cast times when emptied, like mantras. Or maybe have the f1-f4 change depending on equipped weapon so that melee rangers get utility out of it as well.

That pretty much is preps from Gw1. And if they were to do that it F1-4 wouldn’t be a quiver, it’d just be “Apply X for next # of attacks”. Which is fine by me.

aussieheals.6843:

If we have to sacrifice a ranger style to the druid it’s likely going to be traps. They are the core utilities least suited to the druid play style. What do you think?

Check the skills linked to the beast master trait line. Those likely will change since Druids are said to have unique class mechanics to rangers.

aussieheals.6843:

If we have to sacrifice a ranger style to the druid it’s likely going to be traps. They are the core utilities least suited to the druid play style. What do you think?

Check the skills linked to the beast master trait line. Those likely will change since Druids are said to have unique class mechanics to rangers.

It needs to enable a new support build in PvP.

We have plenty of damage for side point, skirmishing…but if we want to see rangers back in top teams then it needs to provide support above what a spirit ranger can currently do…

And hopefully the staff will do just that.

For everyone hoping to drop the pet, you can dismiss that thought right now. Just watch the trailer. We see a Norn Druid, wielding staff and everything, with alpine wolf pet right there next to him.

Whatever changes occur with class mechanics, it will not be to replace them with something completely different.

My best assumption, based on the limited seconds seen on the trailer, is that the pet mechanic “merges” with our weapon skills to some degree, meaning that each attack skill is really both our skill, and a pet skill (like an F2) rolled into one.

Now, maybe they just lined up a flashy scene where the pet and player somehow miraculously work in tandem for a few split seconds with no “special” pathing, but in an attempt to be more hopeful than that and build upon the idea, I’ve been having a hard time speculating whether, if that is the case with all the skills, the pet will just be a model on the screen that takes no damage because “the pet and player have merged into one unit” or if the pet will still be a targetable, killable entity (meaning they need to add to it in some other way or we’ll just have a bunch of staff skills that only kind of work to their full potential and are extremely hindered, if my thoughts are the actual new system).

So yeah. But yes, there is definitely still a pet in the trailer. I wouldn’t have wanted the “staff specialization” to be the “petless” specialization anyhow. Assuming each specialization adds a new weapon or takes a new focus, I hope it turns into something like a Nature Magic (Druid), Pet Master (Hammer or Mace), and Survivalist (unfortunately would probably have to be one of the guns, since there is nothing left).