Guild Wars 2

Like Traits some ranger skills have a lot of interesting core designs but are either flawed or inferior to others.
I will go over Weapon-, Utility- and Petskills and i will point out why i propose those changes.

Weaponskills:

Sword:
Swordskills are good skills but in the wrong position IMO.

Monarchsleap & Serpentstrike are the chain for sword #2 in this order.
Additionally Increase the poison stacks on serpentstrike to 5.
Monarchsleap has the same dmg multiplier as Final Thrust(Sword 3 Warrior) and it also doubles in power for enemies under 50% ->1.5 instead of 1.1 and 3.0 if enemy are under 50% health
Hornetsting is the new #3 and applies cripple to foes and vigor to the ranger and allies he is passing through.

This way Ranger would have a gap closer on a Onehanded weapon and it would be more viable for Condi and powerbuilds. The evasion would be as accesible as before but also would give some kind of gruop support and synergy with my proposed traits.

Dagger
Dagger is somekind of neglected in PvE because its fairly inferior to Torch.
The only thing that makes dagger in some situations useful in any gametype is the evade. I have two changes that could bring dagger in a very useful spot.

First: Add a Shadowstep to crippling Talon. You throw the Dagger and teleport to the target damaging up to 3 foes arround you.
Second: Change the animation of Stalkers Strike to something similar to Deathblossom of thief. Jump behind your enemy while doing a whirl finisher.

Dagger would have huge utility increase without loosing dmg.

Torch:
Save to say Bonfire is a very goodskill and a No-Brainer for Condibuilds. Throw Torch on the other hand is kinda blunt.

I have to different proposals:

First: Bonfire is ground targeted and throw Torch hits more than one target.

Second: Bonfire stays as it is but throw Torch is now a melee attack and applies 2 stacks of burning to multiple foes in front of you.

This will put torch into either more Ranged or more melee position. I like the Second proposal more than the first one though because it will give us a pure melee Offhand.

Axe:
Main: Wintersbite now hits up to 5 targets and do not need the trait to do so.
Off: Path of Scars is now like Phoenix from elementalist and has a small ground target function. Whirling defense can now be used while moving.

The path of scars change is because the projectile vanishes if throwing over a ledge or something like that and this could fix that. In addition it can be used more tactically.
Whirling defense change is purely because its the only longterm Whirlfinisher you cant move and are a wonderful target for AoE attacks. With the change you have a chance to escape AoE without cancelling the skill.

The Cone like Attacks: Poisonvolley and Split Blade.
Make the Cone more narrow. Half as wide would be perfekt for mid distance combat.

Utilities and Petskills will follow after this.
Constructive criticism is welcome.

Hmm, weapon skills are an odd one out for me. I always thought most are just right, especially after the years of improvements made to them. Guess to keep the fruit hanging low, I’d like to see:

Sword:

• Crippling Thrust (1b) to cleave up to 3 targets.
• Hornet’s Sting cast time reduced from ½s to ¼s to access the evade faster.
• Serpent’s Strike cleave up to 3 targets. Giant snake head and hits only 1 target – blah.

Dagger:

• Crippling Talon shadowsteps the Pet to the target if it hits, similar to “Strike as One” (GW1 skill). Even though giving shadowstep to the player would be better, I’d like to see it go to the Pet, otherwise we’re just copying Thieves.

Axe:

• Winter’s Bite aoe is baseline, but at the cost of a radius reduction to 180 instead of 240. I think at this point, if Winter’s Bite were to be an aoe baseline, this is a fair traide-off so it’s not completely giving the boost Honed Axes provides.

That’s about it. Not too many changes and nothing drastic aside from Crippling Talon.

Utilities:
Signets:
There are a lot of good Signet ideas but some have bad CD or design flaws or both to go to other skills instead.

But First: Visuals: Signet of the wild Icon fix please, its not important but it buggs me since launch.

Signet of the Hunt:
Passive: Fine
Active: Instead of giving 1 Attack of Opportunity i would give it a 3s effect that increases dmg done by 25% and is stackable with attack of opportunity from Maul and moment of clarity. At the end 175% dmg output for 3s with attack of opportunity.

Signet of Stone:
Passive: Reduce incoming dmg and Condi duration for 7%
Active: Stays the same.
CD reduction to 60s (This can be PvE only)
SoS is a very good “Oh Kitten” button but the long cd makes it kind inferior to something like lightning reflexes in PvE. The reduce condi duration is just to streamline the whole dmg reduction theme.

Signet of the Wild:
Passive: I like it but i will give it to Signet of Renewal, because SotW is by far the strongest Signet and it has one of the most appealing Signet passives especially for power Druids.
I will replace it with: Reduces Dodge cost
Active: Instead of growing bigger you just get Stab, swiftness and vigor.
Add stunbreak.
Decrease CD to 35s

Now the Big one->
Signet of renewal:
Passive: Grants you and your pet health regen.
Active: Removes conditions and heals you and your pet for a small amount per condition cleansed.
Removes stunbreak.
decrease CD to 40s.
This change is mainly because you kill the pet with a skill on a 60s CD that will leave you vulnerable to condis for nearly a minute if you do not have a condi cleanse. Now it counteracts some condi dmg with health regen and you get a good heal if you have a lot of condis cleansed from you.
Its not very altruistic to other players because it doesnt cleanse condi from them but it helps your pet instead of letting it suffer.

Lonely Flawed ones:
Sic em.
Muddy Terrain.
Frost Trap.

Sic em:
Has a good core idea but it has some issues.
First: The reveal should be AoE and not on target->Its not very useful against a stealthed target if you have to target something you cant see.
Second: The effect distrupts pet skills so i wanna change the main effect:
The next attack on your pet knocks enemies down. Pet gains superspeed.
you and your pet gain quickness for 5s.
Reduce CD to 30s

Now sic em does provide more movement speed to the pet than before, it will on the otherhand not double its attack power but rather double its atatck speed and that of the ranger. The quickness duration is halved because bth get a doubled attack speed and compensate for that.

Muddy terrain:
Its just inferior to other AoE control skills/ survival skills the ranger has.
I suggest somewhat of a carboncopy of stomp from the warrior.
Leap to targeted Area, pull enemies in the center of the Impact, apply immob and cripple. It is a explosion finisher. Range is 450 like stomp.
It is not a Stunbreaker. Therefore a CD of 30s would be fitting.

This would give muddy terrain a purpose. Mobility and Fieldblasting.
I would put it on my bar if it would be like this.

Frost Trap:
Same as Muddy terrain it is just inferior to others.
I suggest to add a stunbreak(like hundreds before me) and a small stun when activating something like 0.75 seconds being frozen. This way you can apply some stacks of chill to enemies and make them easier targets.

Traps:
Other Trap improvement despite FT:
Vipersnest should get longer Combofield uptime. I propose 5s field uptime instead of 3 and applying only 2 stacks instead of 3. This will give vipersnest more combo synergy and it will apply one stack of poison more. CD can be the same if it is like this.

Spirits:
As i Proposed in other Topics:
Spirits should give a Flat out buff. The actiavtion should be ground targeted or skillshot targeted.
Actiavtion effects: Effects Stay the Same Bu: If Ground Targeted Spirits will becom visble on that Area and make the usual Animation. If skillshotted they shoot out like the #3 wisp of druid in the targeted line and apply the corresponding effects.
Keep in mind: Either Ground Targeted OR Skillshotted.
I like both ideas.

Passives:
Frost: Default
Sun: 10% condi dmg increase
Earth: 10% dmg reduction
Storm: 10% crit chance OR dmg
Nature: 10% Condi duration decrease, 10% more boon duration

I like the idea of Spirits being attached to rangers as wisps. If the ranger goes downstate all spirits are lost and do not make any effect. Neither active nor passive.
CD and Actives stays the same.
Trait change: Spirits activate on death, this does not accure when the ranger goes downstate.

Water Spirit comes with heal skills later on.

Heals:
Healing Spring:
Return to the old Healing Spring Mechanic:
Initial Heal when laying Trap and if someone injured is in the Healing SPring Area the Trap triggers and applies a HoTand Condi cleanse. The Field can be blastet as usual.

This change will remove the wonky get out-in mechanic it has.

Troll Unguent:
It is the Strongest healing Skill Ranger has but it has one major drawback, it cannot be used to keep you away from dying when you on low health. I suggest that the number of heal pulses from Troll unguent is halved but the remaining heals are added to the initial heal when activating the skill. This would mean without healing power (lvl 80) a initial heal of 4250 health and additional 4250 in the next 5 seconds.

The healing capabbilities of troll unguent would stay the same but the rescue factor would increase immensively.

Waterspirit:
10% increased healing and grants healing per dmg done.
activation leaves a Waterfield behind that has no additional effect except combos.

Trap Visuals:
Like the healing SPring it would be neat to have a visual effect to indentify your traps.
Like a fire, a poison a frost and a spiky ring.

For druid i make a third topic if wanted.

Pet Skills

Despite a lot of cast times are waaaaaay to high e.g. Howls, Breaths, screeches etc.
and a lot of skills have a HUGE CD e.g Lashtail venom 60s
There are some pet families that could benefit from some minor skill changes that effects particular aspects.

Porcine:
The one i mostly care about is a change in forage.
It should work like a steal from steal-> The forage skill mis replaced by the new item the porcine had picked up.
Porcine themself are good pets but there active gives them a disadvantage because its a wonky mechanic, this would remove this.

Spiders:
Spiders have a good skill pool, but the active skill is just the most boring one. I suggest that the poisonfield is switched with the active skill of the spider. Each spider would have its own passively activated bonus like the bleed effect of bristleback and the impactful combofield can be controlled by the ranger.

Devourer:
Devourer have one skill with a particular design flaw. It has a MELEE knockback. The devourer wents from range to melle to use this skill which is basically dumb.
I propose a ranged knockdown to give it more uses with druid and better ranged support.
The auto attack should apply poison on default but only 3s instead of 6s.
The retreat skill should leave some trail behind which cripples foes.
These improvements are just there to improve devourer as condi pets.

Carrion Devourer should lifesteal from foes (healing ranger and devourer with this)instead of giving regen.

Fire Wyvern
It should use the firefield on the target and not on its position.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Hmm, weapon skills are an odd one out for me. I always thought most are just right, especially after the years of improvements made to them. Guess to keep the fruit hanging low, I’d like to see:

Sword:

• Crippling Thrust (1b) to cleave up to 3 targets.
• Hornet’s Sting cast time reduced from ½s to ¼s to access the evade faster.
• Serpent’s Strike cleave up to 3 targets. Giant snake head and hits only 1 target – blah.

Dagger:

• Crippling Talon shadowsteps the Pet to the target if it hits, similar to “Strike as One” (GW1 skill). Even though giving shadowstep to the player would be better, I’d like to see it go to the Pet, otherwise we’re just copying Thieves.

Axe:

• Winter’s Bite aoe is baseline, but at the cost of a radius reduction to 180 instead of 240. I think at this point, if Winter’s Bite were to be an aoe baseline, this is a fair traide-off so it’s not completely giving the boost Honed Axes provides.

That’s about it. Not too many changes and nothing drastic aside from Crippling Talon.

Letting the pet shadowstep to the target is very situational though because porting a ranged pet to a target makes it more vulnerable. How about swapping places with the pet? it could be used as gap closer and as a retreat mechanic.

Nah. Crippling Talon is a pretty decent snare, and should work as such. Swapping places with the Pet is moving into concepts once designed for Mesmer and can be disorienting like Revenant’s former displacement mechanic.

It’s also more situational in loadouts with melee weapons and pets, and can work against the player when needing to use it to snare. Got to keep in mind that CT is a snare at its roots. It’s better to focus on its utility.

Otherwise, we start moving into Anet territory of attempting to make moves unique and flavorful while the execution becomes impractical. Just remember that shadowsteps do not interrupt moves.

So, burst with a Pet F2 while chasing down a fleeing target low on health, toss Crippling Talon and the Pet shadowsteps to the target mid-animation and lands the attack. Or with other pets with long animations like Wyverns’ Wing Buffet or Consuming Flame.

A foe could well move out of range on those attacks before the first strike lands. Use CT to shift the Pet’s attack field while lowering a target’s speed. The concept can be greatly utilized with a bit of creativity.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Nah. Crippling Talon is a pretty decent snare, and should work as such. Swapping places with the Pet is moving into concepts once designed for Mesmer and can be disorienting like Revenant’s former displacement mechanic.

It’s also more situational in loadouts with melee weapons and pets, and can work against the player when needing to use it to snare. Got to keep in mind that CT is a snare at its roots. It’s better to focus on its utility.

Otherwise, we start moving into Anet territory of attempting to make moves unique and flavorful while the execution becomes impractical. Just remember that shadowsteps do not interrupt moves.

So, burst with a Pet F2 while chasing down a fleeing target low on health, toss Crippling Talon and the Pet shadowsteps to the target mid-animation and lands the attack. Or with other pets with long animations like Wyverns’ Wing Buffet or Consuming Flame.

A foe could well move out of range on those attacks before the first strike lands. Use CT to shift the Pet’s attack field while lowering a target’s speed. The concept can be greatly utilized with a bit of creativity.

But it restricts its usefulness with some kind of pets which makes it more flavorfull indeed but even more flawed.
CT could hit multiple targets and immob them for a short time and apply cripple and bleed.

Well now we’re at an impasse since either swapping places or the pet shadowstep can be restrictive, even though each weapon has its restrictions.

I’ll still stand firm to not give the Ranger a shadowstep (in general). Add in more blinks and teleports, then dedicated snares like Muddy Terrain and Frost Trap start to diminish further in value.

Immobilize doesn’t seem necessary either, since that begins to blur into Crippling Shot from shortbow, but without positional or skill emphasis.

I might suggest scratching Crippling Talon off the list. Probably best to instead focus on Stalker’s Strike and request the missing range from Off-Hand Training to be added to it.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Well now we’re at an impasse since either swapping places or the pet shadowstep can be restrictive, even though each weapon has its restrictions.

I’ll still stand firm to not give the Ranger a shadowstep (in general). Add in more blinks and teleports, then dedicated snares like Muddy Terrain and Frost Trap start to diminish further in value.

Immobilize doesn’t seem necessary either, since that begins to blur into Crippling Shot from shortbow, but without positional or skill emphasis.

I might suggest scratching Crippling Talon off the list. Probably best to instead focus on Stalker’s Strike and request the missing range from Off-Hand Training to be added to it.

The skill could benefit to hit multiple targets, sinilar to wintersbite. The immob isnt neccesary though.
Throw torch and crippling talon have the same drawback like the untraited wintersbite have: It does not have high impact or cleave.
CT would have a more unique position this way, a ranged small area snare.
Theshadowstep can easily be scrapped though, my main focus was to improve CT against more than one enemy.

That’s true that moves like Crippling Talon and Throw Torch have drawbacks of being single-target, but something seems off here. For what both of those do, it’s simply tossing a weapon at a foe.

A small aoe would seem kind of off, but having it bounce is just another copy/paste of what Thieves have. Could have it pierce, but that’s like a traited shortbow. I’m starting to think CT is fine as is, single-target and all. Not to mention we can toss it further than we can throw an axe or fire our shortbow.

There’s something to be said about Throw Torch though. Maybe not inherently an aoe move, but possibly have some setup involved for a better payoff. Right now, it’s just throw a torch – set a foe on fire.

What about expanding on that with a requirement? Throw Torch burns nearby foes around the target (3s, 120 radius) if target foe is burning. Half the stacks and duration, but there’s some aoe in there for tossing it at a foe that’s already on fire. Cap the aoe at 3 targets and -not- have the person who had the torch tossed at receive an extra stack of burning.

Benefits setting foes up with other burning sources (Sun Spirit, Pets, Flame Trap, etc.) so it’s not just a freebee aoe while expanding on the thematics of a foe on fire burning their nearby allies. Not too strong and a decent starting point for the devs to measure if this addition can be included.

Wondrouswall.7169:

That’s true that moves like Crippling Talon and Throw Torch have drawbacks of being single-target, but something seems off here. For what both of those do, it’s simply tossing a weapon at a foe.

A small aoe would seem kind of off, but having it bounce is just another copy/paste of what Thieves have. Could have it pierce, but that’s like a traited shortbow. I’m starting to think CT is fine as is, single-target and all. Not to mention we can toss it further than we can throw an axe or fire our shortbow.

There’s something to be said about Throw Torch though. Maybe not inherently an aoe move, but possibly have some setup involved for a better payoff. Right now, it’s just throw a torch – set a foe on fire.

What about expanding on that with a requirement? Throw Torch burns nearby foes around the target (3s, 120 radius) if target foe is burning. Half the stacks and duration, but there’s some aoe in there for tossing it at a foe that’s already on fire. Cap the aoe at 3 targets and -not- have the person who had the torch tossed at receive an extra stack of burning.

Benefits setting foes up with other burning sources (Sun Spirit, Pets, Flame Trap, etc.) so it’s not just a freebee aoe while expanding on the thematics of a foe on fire burning their nearby allies. Not too strong and a decent starting point for the devs to measure if this addition can be included.

I actually thought about something like that. Basically my proposal is not a AoE but more of a cleave. Enemies standing near eachother get hit. This could work for TT and CT.
The idea of spreading burn is kinda interesting. Could make things conplicate to code maybe but would give the skill an interesting twist.
What do you say about the other skill changes?

Well, I’m not too fond about the suggestions for Signet of Renewal and the Wild. I’m partial to how both currently work, even though Renewal’s can outright kill a Pet, but I understand the dynamics of what they were going for.

Signet of Stone I guess can be 60s in all modes. I say this since Elementalist had their most defensive cantrips reduced from 75s to 60s/50s – so as long as offensive utilities remain as is or are reduced in trade – it wouldn’t be too crazy.

I already said my peace for traps on the other thread. Trapper’s Expertise & Trap adjustments will have to go hand-in-hand instead of one or the other. Trap visuals would be nice, but it’s not like it would be a huge priority, otherwise Thieves would have to get theirs, too.

As for Sic ’Em, I would be happy with just the addition of Fury for the Ranger so it can have boon interaction like our other shouts. I would almost take a reduction on the skill as a whole to have access to it more.

Almost to the point of the cooldown reduced to 30, in trade for the bonus damage and movement speed reduced from 40% to 30%, and the reveal down from 6s to 4s with the addition of 4s of fury.

Though, one way I thought it could work is keep the 40s cooldown and 6s reveal, but remove the damage bonus, replace the movement speed bonus with super speed for 10s, and grant the pet immunity to movement-impending conditions for the duration.

Have the pet sort of be this insanely persistent beast out to get its target, and the only ways to get it off is by hard cc or outright defeating it. Just a (thematic) idea.

This is not a QoL improvements, but balance changes(bad, I can say).
Few examples:

First: Add a Shadowstep to crippling Talon. You throw the Dagger and teleport to the target damaging up to 3 foes arround you.

This will make it super annoying to use in melee range for condi builds when flanking is hard/impossible.
Spirits:

Sun: 10% condi dmg increase

Matthias says hello.
Chance to apply burning gives more damage for fast attacking classes.
Your suggestion is just a plain nerf.

Earth: 10% dmg reduction

This is equal to remove this spirit completely from the game. Absolutely useless.

Nature: 10% Condi duration decrease, 10% more boon duration

Another nerf of a powerful skill. This will make it useless too. -10 condi duration/boon duration is just a plain joke. In current state spirit feels like a real elite and very flexible skill.

InsaneQR.7412:

If the ranger goes downstate all spirits are lost and do not make any effect

Have you ever did self-res?

White Hunter.3416:

This is not a QoL improvements, but balance changes(bad, I can say).
Few examples:

First: Add a Shadowstep to crippling Talon. You throw the Dagger and teleport to the target damaging up to 3 foes arround you.

This will make it super annoying to use in melee range for condi builds when flanking is hard/impossible.
Spirits:

Sun: 10% condi dmg increase

Matthias says hello.
Chance to apply burning gives more damage for fast attacking classes.
Your suggestion is just a plain nerf.

Earth: 10% dmg reduction

This is equal to remove this spirit completely from the game. Absolutely useless.

Nature: 10% Condi duration decrease, 10% more boon duration

Another nerf of a powerful skill. This will make it useless too. -10 condi duration/boon duration is just a plain joke. In current state spirit feels like a real elite and very flexible skill.

InsaneQR.7412:

If the ranger goes downstate all spirits are lost and do not make any effect

Have you ever did self-res?

I wanted to remove the ICD and the pure chance factor of spirits.
The numbers are just placeholder and could get tweaked.

Additionally this is for unkillable spirits in mind attached on the ranger.
It could give more mobility to the spiritbuffs and the buffs could stack with boons which could lead to a very strong buffing spec-> frost and sun are meta right now but stone and storm basically neglected in comparison.

The spirits should affect 10 people in PvE to give them a better buff place like banners have.

Why sun should be a plain nerv i dont get.
Lets assume you have 900 condi dmg and there are 10 stacks of burn you do 16’786 dmg per second with buff, without you do 15260. The higher condi dmg and stacks are the higher the difference.
Lets say you apply with bonfire 10 stacks of burning because of spirit procs(which is by chance) you would have a dmg increase thats true. But in a group environment were a lot of people are stacking dmg it would increase the dmg in long fights. The difference of the 10 stacks with and without are pretty much the dmg of one stack and this number increses per stacks and condi dmg.
As i said the numbers could be tweaked.
Stone spirit with 10% dmg reduction is good for all people because you would have a lot of protection eitherway in group fights and this would stack with protection. ->43% dmg reduction, with a tempest in group even 50%.

The numbers on Natures spirit are really a bit weak maybe 25%? Try to keep it constructive.

White’s made some valid points. Might wanna alter the title slightly and remove the “QoL” part as a lot of these start falling into balance changes. As for Spirits, he also has a point on most. Though, like traps – any changes made, if drastic, should have Nature’s Vengeance in mind. I’ll change my stance on it and suggest (again):

QoL tweaks for Spirits
-% chance removed
-Storm, Stone, and Water Spirit effect recharge reduced from 10s to 8s.
-Storm Spirit vulnerability duration for passive on-hit effect reduced from 10s to 8s.
-Frost Spirit bonus reduced from 10% to 7%.

Storm Spirit wouldn’t be affected, and it will become easier to have permanent protection with Nature’s Vengeance on Stone Spirit – which is all right, considering you’re taking a Grandmaster trait.

Water Spirit would likely remain as a niche, but the 2s reduction on the recharge makes the heal slightly more attractive without having to increase the values. Only Frost Spirit would be taking a slight hit. The current average is 7.5% (post-09/14) and the old average was 7% (pre-09/14) – take the old one for a clean whole number.

Even though 10% would be ideal, at that point, Frost Spirit would be mounds better Grace of the Land and Glyph of Empowerment. Wouldn’t be an issue if neither of those buffs existed, but since they do, gotta keep the power creep in mind and try to not increase it any further.

These are much smaller changes, and ones that are also more likely to happen.

I keep the topic title, because its meant to be a QoL OR improvement topic.
Some points are QoL some are clear improvements.

I did the calcs again and i have to say White was right about the condi dmg output.
I try to orient now on frost spirit and sun spirit mechanically wise.

I personally think that storm spirit isnt very valuable as group support because vuln is always present. In addition i think the passive of stone spirit could have an offensive twist and the protection application comes from the trait.

How about:
ICD removed
10 target cap
Frost 7% dmg increase (-33% rounded up)
Sun 50% chance to burn (-33%)
Storm 7% increased crit chance or dmg (still dont know which would be better)
Stone 50% chance to apply 2 stacks of bleed

Stone and sun would be the condi buffs.
And storm and frost the power buffs.
CD keep same.
Trait keep same.

For CT: Just a ranged cleave would be a goid QoL IMO.

Keep Stone as is. There is already too much condition creep in all modes – we need less, not more. As of now, Spirits fulfill one role of the game: power (frost), debuff (storm), defense (stone), condition (sun), heal (water), support (nature). Why would you want to reduce those roles?

A critical chance buff for Storm would be nice, but at this point, that’s starting to give Ranger so many unique buffs that we’ll see start to see less diversity in utility selection, especially if the target cap remains at 5.

We could keep suggesting an increased target cap, but none of us know the details of how their system and servers work over there. So, with that in mind, I’d avoid another unique buff all together.

50% burn with no ICD on Sun can get out of hand fast unless it’s reduced appropriately. That said, I’d rather have RNG completely removed and keep it as is. ICDs aren’t all bad, especially when utilized properly.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Keep Stone as is. There is already too much condition creep in all modes – we need less, not more. As of now, Spirits fulfill one role of the game: power (frost), debuff (storm), defense (stone), condition (sun), heal (water), support (nature). Why would you want to reduce those roles?

A critical chance buff for Storm would be nice, but at this point, that’s starting to give Ranger so many unique buffs that we’ll see start to see less diversity in utility selection, especially if the target cap remains at 5.

We could keep suggesting an increased target cap, but none of us know the details of how their system and servers work over there. So, with that in mind, I’d avoid another unique buff all together.

50% burn with no ICD on Sun can get out of hand fast unless it’s reduced appropriately. That said, I’d rather have RNG completely removed and keep it as is. ICDs aren’t all bad, especially when utilized properly.

Hmm yeah thats a point.
Stone has just no diversification and protection is omnipresent in larger fights.
Even the trait of stone gives it additional protection which keeps it kinda flavorless.
Sun spirit should get something like a 10% chance to burn no ICD. One stack.
Frost would be good with 7% on 10 people.

Reduction of incoming dmg would be best for stone thats true but the double boon stackong with the trait keeps it uninteresting for me.
Maybe slow? Similar like vuln is on storm. This is a defensive debuff but this could get out of hand to.
Whatever i had enough ideas.
What about tge other changes and ideas? Are there some you would add?

Some more, but I feel like I must refine and reiterate, because regardless of the ideas – they should be (more) realistically achievable for the balance team. A lot are repeats, but these are all that I would want changed. At least on the next balance patch.

-Sword: Cleave on Crippling Thrust; reduced cast time on Hornet’s Sting; cleave on Serpent’s Strike.
-Axe: Winter’s Bite AoE baseline; reduced radius from 240 to 180.
-Dagger: Stalker’s Strike range increased from 250 to 400. (half of what Off-Hand Training would have added)
-Spirits: % chances removed; effect recharge reduced from 10s to 8s on Storm, Stone, and Water; Frost Spirit damage boost reduced from 10% to 7%.
-Traps: Viper’s Nest applies 2 stacks of poison (4s) on-trigger and for 3 pulses; increase poison field duration from 2s to 3s; increase number of targets from 3 to 5; Frost Trap cooldown reduced from 30s to 25s.
-“Sic ’Em!”: No target required in order to cast; reveal is applied to the nearest enemy if no target is selected; grants Fury (6s) to the Ranger only.
-Signet of Stone: Cooldown reduced from 80s to 75s.
-Porcines: Number of Foraged items reduced from 3 to 2; Boar- Skull Crack & Throw Rock (hard CC); Pig- Healing Seed & Drink (defensive); Siamoth- Blinding Tuft & Consume Plasma (unique); Warthog- Throw Gunk & Exploding Venom Sack (conditions with combo fields).

Wondrouswall.7169:

Hmm, weapon skills are an odd one out for me. I always thought most are just right, especially after the years of improvements made to them. Guess to keep the fruit hanging low, I’d like to see:

Sword:

• Crippling Thrust (1b) to cleave up to 3 targets.
• Hornet’s Sting cast time reduced from ½s to ¼s to access the evade faster.
• Serpent’s Strike cleave up to 3 targets. Giant snake head and hits only 1 target – blah.

Dagger:

• Crippling Talon shadowsteps the Pet to the target if it hits, similar to “Strike as One” (GW1 skill). Even though giving shadowstep to the player would be better, I’d like to see it go to the Pet, otherwise we’re just copying Thieves.

Axe:

• Winter’s Bite aoe is baseline, but at the cost of a radius reduction to 180 instead of 240. I think at this point, if Winter’s Bite were to be an aoe baseline, this is a fair traide-off so it’s not completely giving the boost Honed Axes provides.

That’s about it. Not too many changes and nothing drastic aside from Crippling Talon.

I like it. These are reasonable changes.

There are a couple of things that the Ranger is currently lacking:
- base condition removal
- utility on traps
- sub par weapon skills

Base condition removal can be fixed through tweaks to some existing traits and skills.
For example, Emphatic bond could be made to convert 3 conditions from self to 3 boons to pet to promote a healthy and positive relationship between ranger and pet.

Signet of renewal could be a simple remove conditions instead of transfer to pet. Perhaps even adjust the CD from 60s to 30s and limit the conditions removed to 4-5.

Traps sorely need a stun breaker and some defensive perks if they are to become viable, especially in PvP. I would suggest:
- Spike trap becomes instant cast and a stun breaker
- Flame trap pulses 2 stacks of 10s of might
- Vipers nest pulses weakness and vulnerability on top of poison
- Ice trap pulses protection, and also stuns the enemy for 2 seconds on activation.

As far as weapons go, sure some cast times could be reduced, but what we are lacking in spades is melee weapon DPS, and not burst, but sustained damage. It is simply not competitive.
- Sword auto attack buffed by 20%
- Great sword auto attack buffed by 20%
- Serpent strike (sword 3) damage increased by 100%, poison stacks from 2 to 4
- Stalkers strike (dagger 4) poison stacks increased from 2 to 4
- Crippling talon (dagger 5) slows for a few seconds on top of current effects

All those seem like too much, Chokolata. Let’s step back a bit and instead ask for simple tweaks that go a long way instead of more adding more power creep. We all want our profession(s) to improve, but let’s not get too out-of-hand with it.

I can get behind the Signet of Renewal suggestion though. Limit the amount transferred, as well as a cooldown reduction could hit a sweet-spot for endangering your pet while aiding yourself and nearby allies from conditions.

As for any trap becoming instant, let alone a stun break, I guess I really am in a minority since I want none of it. 4/5 of our traps provide combo fields and all are unblockable – Spike Trap (above any) does not need more utility.

I’d rather Anet take a look at DH Traps one more time and normalize them with other traps of other professions, meaning: Fragments of Faith and Test of Faith get a ½s cast time and Fragments of Faith is compensated with 1s Stability during activation as a stun breaker with a cast time.

At least then no traps would be instant when laying them down, which is equally worse than being able to throw them like grenades – animation free, zero time to react AoE damage is something we should want Anet to cut down on.