Guild Wars 2

So we heard that RaO and HaO will be shouts in HoT, we know that they will roughly stay the same and we know that the current shouts find no real use outside of providing swiftness.
I’d like to use this opportunity to suggest changes to the current shouts to increase the interaction between pet and ranger.

One example would be a long lasting buff that pulses protection on you and your pet, just like RaO pulses swiftness, fury and stability. Furthermore, if your pet gets hit you will gain regeneration and vice versa, like RaO gives might on hit.

Another example would be a condition remove for both you and your pet upon skill usage and another boon on hit for each other.

A third example could be a replacement for “Guard”, which would constantly pulse swiftness on you and your pet, while your attacks grant your pet stealth and your pet attacks grant you a boon like vigor or fury.

An example for an updated Heal as One would be a significant heal upon skill usage and condition remove/regen application.

An idea to convert “Search and Rescue” to the new shout system would be to give the downed player and your pet a burst of health (200 – 500 HP) per attack you do while your pet is reviving the player.

Current shouts are not good, Guard and S&R need a makeover, but Sic Em and PM are OK imo. I’ll be using “HaO”, “Sic Em”, “PM” (instead of SoS) and “RaO” on my bar quite often with Resounding Timbre (and Oakheart Salve) it will be a nice build imo.

HaO will be getting a 16s CD as well as 10s of Regen (another 1300 heal with no healing power) and 10s of Swiftness with Resounding Timbre, it doesn’t really need a condi clear, since you can use trooper runes for that if you really need it. Or use SoTF and TU. Look at the amount of runes with an effect on-heal, 16s CD is great for those.

Surely they’re going to do something with guard. It will be useless once we have access to good shouts to use with nature’s voice.

I hope so.

I do hope it is kept short CD though with the same protection, stealth and a shadow step to your target.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Current shouts are not good, Guard and S&R need a makeover, but Sic Em and PM are OK imo. I’ll be using “HaO”, “Sic Em”, “PM” (instead of SoS) and “RaO” on my bar quite often with Resounding Timbre (and Oakheart Salve) it will be a nice build imo.

HaO will be getting a 16s CD as well as 10s of Regen (another 1300 heal with no healing power) and 10s of Swiftness with Resounding Timbre, it doesn’t really need a condi clear, since you can use trooper runes for that if you really need it. Or use SoTF and TU. Look at the amount of runes with an effect on-heal, 16s CD is great for those.

Sic Em needs all its little bugs and quirks worked out of it before it can be classed as OK. Then maybe include a damge buff to Ranger to actually be good.

Yeah, it could do with some work, which would make it good. Namely, staying on the pet even if you use F2 skills or another shout. We don’t need more damage, we need the pet to be able to do its damage. So if anything were to be added to “Sic Em” I would say remove the 40% speed buff, since pets are getting +30% if you spec into BM and swiftness is +33%, I would make it either a shadow step or super speed. Add in a cripple with the next X attacks. I would also make it able to cast without a target and apply the revealed if there is one.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Yeah, it could do with some work, which would make it good. Namely, staying on the pet even if you use F2 skills or another shout. We don’t need more damage, we need the pet to be able to do its damage. So if anything were to be added to “Sic Em” I would say remove the 40% speed buff, since pets are getting +30% if you spec into BM and swiftness is +33%, I would make it either a shadow step or super speed. Add in a cripple with the next X attacks. I would also make it able to cast without a target and apply the revealed if there is one.

Super speed for sic-um is a must it really makes no sense to keep 40% speed while they have near perm 33% .

super speed + X attacks bleed + cripple , anet said somthing about raising the bleed cap and or turning 25 bleeds into a Deep wounds type condi .

pets don’t bleed much apart from 8 stacks but 4 drop off quickly and only 4stacks if using a feline so if it bleeds and cripples like it really is being a Ankle biter Sic-um Boy!

would allow some better pet skills turning that 2 or 4 bleeds into 8 or 12 if using a lynx then 12-16 over time while traited for bleeds on pet, factoring in missed attacks wouldn’t be too bad or strong if those bleeds where of shorter duration more as a top up than application .

being a top up would also mean condi builds could use a pet as a means to quickly boost bleed stacks to reach the Deep wounds level as it could replace a full stack of bleeds.

its just a idea but without how anet is going to do these stacked condis , this is the best i could come up with while making sic um based off your idea a little more SIC UM this way the cooldown wouldn’t have to change ether it can stay 40secs.

the idea of a pet boosting bleeds to turn into deep wounds makes the attack feel much more like you really did Sic um down and have a rabid hound eating your ankles.

In all honesty guard would be just fine if it actually did what it said. Confined a pet to a point. Gave the pet protection and stealth for the duration of the cast. And let you actually engage something a thousand range away without it ABANDONING HTE PLACE YOU SET IT TO GUARD.

Atm it does none of those. It does NOT give protection or stealth for the duration of the effect. It does NOT confine the pet to a point. And the pet doesn’t guard a kitten thing because the leash range nerf it was given in the past causes it to abandon the point hte second you get attacked OR NOT EVEN ATTACK ANYONE IN ITS RANGE if your more than the leash range away.

S&R honestly for all its drawbacks should be capable of reviving a dead player just hte same as a player. seeing as its pretty much using the same mechanic.

Just hoping Guard gets the cast time removed.

Like Heimskarl, the first thing I’m gonna do in HoT is try HaO, Protect Me, and RaO with Resounding Timbre. I’ll add Centaur runes to the mix so that my heal becomes a 16cd source of 10s regen and 26s swiftness in an AoE.

Resounding Timbre, Centaur Runes, and Oakheart Salve in conjunction with Heal as One will give me permanent regen and swiftness. Protect Me and Rampage giving these bonuses will just be icing on the cake.

Well, the reason I think why shouts will never be truly good is because they only affect our pet and only traited give any advantage to us. My suggestions try to add a benefit for the ranger as well, but if you have a better idea how to add bonuses for the ranger to shouts, please post them.

An idea how to make Sic’Em worthwhile for both Ranger and pet would be to add superspeed in hit for each other to its current kit.

I hope guard becomes a pet taunt.

Shadelang.3012:

S&R honestly for all its drawbacks should be capable of reviving a dead player just hte same as a player. seeing as its pretty much using the same mechanic.

Search & Rescue used to work exactly like that. It was the only revive skill that could revive dead players/NPC. I used to run it in fractals when they were new with mild success. But they changed it and I’ve never used it after.

A huge shame, because it’s such a worthless nonsense shout now. It will only work if the person is downed, the pet has to move to the target in the meantime, it has to revive and does it slowly, it stops attacking (dps loss) and it costs a utility skill on top of it. Also, the pet just gets interrupted and the “skill” goes on a very long cooldown. Also, it can just bug out as much as Lick Wounds does. Also, you can’t target anything, the pet will just move to the closest target, even if it’s a worthless NPC.

Compare it to any of the other revival skills and you’ll see how ridiculous it is. Many instantly revive (some up to 5 people).

Makes me angry just thinking about it, eventhough I really couldn’t care less at this point. How does something like this go past their Q&A? Makes you think they didn’t have any.

They could make S&R work properly and people probably still wouldn’t take it, its such a big investment for a revival, when you can sic your pet onto someone and do the revive yourself in a lot less time. I think it just needs to go away and something else take its place. For instance;

Strike as One or Predatory Bond

What I can’t wait for is to try out this gear and skills with

http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=ranger&traits=“Marksmanship”,3,6,8-“Wilderness Survival”,3,4,7-“Beastmastery”,3,5,8

Edit: Dulfy calc doesn’t seem to want to link properly, have to cut and paste.