Guild Wars 2

Here’s a brief overview of what’s there if you don’t know or want a refresher.

There are five spirits, four utility and one elite.

• Frost Spirit
• Stone Spirit
• Storm Spirit
• Sun Spirit
• Spirit of Nature

There are four traits, currently, that interact with spirits.

• Nature’s Vengeance — Activated skills of spirits are larger and trigger when the spirit is killed.
• Spirits Unbound — Spirits can move and follow you.
• Spiritual Knowledge — Spirit bonuses have a 35% better chance of providing their benefits.
• Vigorous Spirits — Spirits have twice as much health.

That all said, here is some explanation of what a majority of the problem with spirits are in PvE, PvP, and everywhere. First, consider that these are passive area of effect boosts, and so they will always be compared to similar skills from other professions, banners first and foremost. Consider some key differences:

• Banners cannot be destroyed by enemy players
• Spirits can be destroyed by enemy players

This means that banners cannot be counterplayed for as long as you’re in range of them, but spirits can be. That’s a big difference.

• Banners cannot move of their own accord, but can be picked up and moved by the player.
• Spirits cannot move of their own accord, but Rangers can invest 30 trait points into Nature Magic for a trait that allows them to move with the Ranger automatically.

This, in my opinion, is still in favor of the Banner. The banner may be inert on its own, but the Warrior does not have to trait a certain way to move the banner around, whereas the Ranger does, severely limiting build diversity, and severely limiting ways to make Spirits useful. The only advantage the Ranger carries here is that once traited, he can use his weapon skills unhindered as the spirit follows him (though in many cases, this puts the Spirit in danger’s path).

• Banners do not have 100% uptime without a 20% reduction minor trait. (Technically it’s more like a 95% uptime traited, but close enough)
• Spirits have 100% uptime only if they are not destroyed.

Again, factoring in that a spirit can die, its uptime can be significantly lower than the uptime of a banner when traited.

• Banner passives are flat stat boosts that significantly improve the effectiveness of a team.
• Spirit passives are percent chance boosts that even when triggered minimally affect the effectiveness of a team.

This is a real killer for spirits. Banners have incredible passives with irreplaceably beneficial boosts, whereas not only are spirits a percent chance, the net gain from them is very weak compared to the increase gained from the banners. Furthermore, the spirits (except frost) have internal cooldowns on their activations, which further limits their ability to actually be useful to a team.

• Banners grant 2/3 uptime swiftness base and some other assorted skills (like a blast finisher) with their active skills
• Spirits do negligible things in a shallow AOE around themselves with their active skills

You don’t want things near your spirits because those things will kill them. Meanwhile, all of their skills are melee range, which ruins that value. Banner active skills aren’t used frequently because they give up weapon skills to use them, but have specific uses in running areas due to the significant swiftness uptime, and are great for escorting Dolyaks in WvW. Banners still win out here.

How do we fix it?

Bold changes must be made for Ranger spirits to become on par and niche compared to other Ranger utilities. I realize that the devs don’t like “Whack-A-Mole” balancing, but these skills are beyond useless in their current iteration in every play format, and minor changes are insufficient for making them even remotely viable.

First is probably the most radical change, but one I think is critical to spirits becoming meaningful: Spirits can and will follow the player at a distance of 750 without the need for a trait.

The range is so that the 900 range of the spirit will be enough to always encompass the player, but so that the spirit isn’t following so closely that monsters will strike it frequently with cleaving attacks.

Next, less address their passive effects, which in the current form are abysmal.

Frost Spirit
Allies in range have a 50% chance on attacking to inflict chill for 2 seconds on their target.
Internal Cooldown per Ally: 3 seconds
Range: 900

Sun Spirit
Allies in range have a 50% chance on attacking to inflict burn for 2 seconds on their target.
Internal Cooldown per Ally: 3 seconds
Range: 900

Storm Spirit
Allies in range have a 50% chance on attacking to deal 10% bonus damage with that attack.
No Internal Cooldown
Range: 900

Stone Spirit
Allies in range have a 50% chance on attacking to inflict 2 stacks of bleed for 2 seconds on their target.
Internal Cooldown per Ally: 3 seconds
Range: 900

Spirit of Nature
Allies in range have a 50% chance on attacking to heal themselves for 600 (0.2) life.
Internal Cooldown per Ally: 3 seconds
Range: 900

These passives are directly beneficial to everyone because they are more likely to trigger more often, and have a lesser internal cooldown. This also makes it more likely to be useful, supplements damage appreciably without being over the top, and enables the spirits to fill a niche that the Warrior Banners don’t fill, which is to supplement damage with conditions. The Storm Spirit over the Frost Spirit makes more sense dealing bonus damage to me, and this enables the Frost Spirit to inflict chill, which is powerful and exciting to add to the Spirit arsenal. Spirit of Nature heals a sizable amount primarily because it is an elite skill with 1/4 uptime which has serious counterplay to consider.

Now let’s look at their active effects. Currently they’re terrible! No one ever really uses them seriously, so let’s consider what would make them really valuable.

Frost Spirit
Blast Finisher
Allies in range gain Vigor (8 seconds) and Regeneration (8 seconds).
30 second cooldown
Range: 900

Sun Spirit
Blast Finisher
Allies in range gain 3 stacks of Might (8 seconds) and Fury (8 seconds).
30 second cooldown
Range: 900

Storm Spirit
Blast Finisher
Allies in range gain Swiftness (8 seconds) and Retaliation (8 seconds).
30 second cooldown
Range: 900

Stone Spirit
Blast Finisher
Allies in range gain Protection (8 seconds) and Stability (8 seconds).
30 second cooldown
Range: 900

Spirit of Nature
Allies in range have all conditions on them converted into boons and are revived from the downed state.
30 second cooldown
Range: 900

Now these are strong, don’t get me wrong, but remember that the enemy can counterplay these skills by destroying the spirit. That’s why these active skills must be strong, so that they are useful, and so that they are worth using at clutch moments. That’s also why traits like Nature’s Vengeance are great for spirits, and seques into our next topic effectively. Also, for clarity, the condition conversion on Spirit of Nature would convert at a fixed duration, much like other conversion skills in-game.

With this all said, let’s look at traits for these spirits. Recall that this is what we currently have.

• Nature’s Vengeance — Activated skills of spirits are larger and trigger when the spirit is killed.
• Spirits Unbound — Spirits can move and follow you.
• Spiritual Knowledge — Spirit bonuses have a 35% better chance of providing their benefits.
• Vigorous Spirits — Spirits have twice as much health.

Nature’s Vengeance is perfect for our spirits’ new active skills, and very valuable. Vigorous Spirits is also still fairly meaningful still in order to help the spirits stay alive longer, and so should be kept in its current form with one addition because it has to compete with Nature’s Vengeance for a trait slot.

• Vigorous Spirits — Spirits have twice as much health and spirit skills recharge 20% faster.

Some other traits will change, however. Spirits Unbound is no longer necessary, and can have its Grandmaster slot replaced with the following:

• Empowering Spirits — Whenever a player triggers a spirit’s passive effect, that player gains 1 stack of might for 10 seconds.

This is valuable because it increases the effectiveness of spirits in protracted battles, and physically rewards the ranger for investing so heavily into Nature Magic to get this trait. This means that per spirit that is up at any given time, a maximum of 3 stacks of Might can be maintained not factoring boon duration boosts. That means with all five spirits up, if you chose to go that path, you could maintain 15 stacks of might on your team at the cost of absolutely no other utility/elite skills. Spiritual Knowledge is also valuable as-is, but should be updated with the new percent chance of the spirit passives listed above.

• Spiritual Knowledge — Spirits always provide their passive benefits on attack.

This, essentially, means that there is no luck involved when you take it, which is important to give spirits the consistency that is so necessary in a passive effect like this.

In conclusion, I think that spirits have a lot more to bring to the table than they currently can due to their implementation and what they currently do. You might argue over the numbers of my suggestions, but it’s critical to always remember the counterplay involved in having a spirit out. Unlike a banner, the enemy players in PvP/WvW can eliminate your spirits, and in PvE AOE attacks may spell doom for your spirits as well. It is thus critical that a spirit be worth carrying despite that cost. I feel that with changes like the ones I have suggested here, spirits can be a meaningful part of a Ranger’s arsenal, and perhaps even help to elevate them up a few ranks in the totem pole of PvE with their newfound support options.

Hopefully you’ve liked my ideas, and maybe it’ll inspire some positive changes to spirits down the road!

agree to all thing in this

I would rather see a much simpler solution:

Spirits are just like auras. The passive buff of the existing spirits radiates out from the ranger, moves as he moves, etc. Likewise, the on-demand effect also radiates from the ranger. Aura runs until canceled.

To show others that the ranger is running a spirit (if that is really needed?), a non attackable spirit could follow the ranger around. it is essentially a “mini” that you see in the gemstore. The spirit glows whatever color aura the ranger is running. If he is running multiple auras, the color of the spirit changes every few seconds.

I was expecting a pretentious post when I came in here and was pleasantly proven wrong

You analyzed the Spirit Skills and traits, gave realistic suggestions and sound reasoning behind the changes. I wish more people like you come into the ranger section

Ultimately, spirits just need to give a better return on investment. Comparing them to warrior banners is inevitable given the similarity of the skills but really the comparison isn’t necessary. Ranger spirits would not be useful even if warrior banners didn’t exist. We have at least a dozen other utility skills that are more useful than any of them, even in a group situation where the spirits are supposed to be at their best.

Raven.9603:

I would rather see a much simpler solution:

Spirits are just like auras. The passive buff of the existing spirits radiates out from the ranger, moves as he moves, etc. Likewise, the on-demand effect also radiates from the ranger. Aura runs until canceled.

I wouldn’t like this because it wouldn’t be fun. Even the most passive abilities in the game, Signets, have play to them insofar as you can activate them for a powerful burst effect at the cost of the passive effect. Having a spirit as you suggest would involve no play, and really wouldn’t be fun as a result. I think what really makes spirits fun and unique is that they can die, and that the enemy can counterplay you by killing them.

jubskie.3152:

I was expecting a pretentious post when I came in here and was pleasantly proven wrong

You analyzed the Spirit Skills and traits, gave realistic suggestions and sound reasoning behind the changes. I wish more people like you come into the ranger section

Thank you so much! I’m glad you found the posts constructive!

Stice.5204:

Ultimately, spirits just need to give a better return on investment. Comparing them to warrior banners is inevitable given the similarity of the skills but really the comparison isn’t necessary. Ranger spirits would not be useful even if warrior banners didn’t exist. We have at least a dozen other utility skills that are more useful than any of them, even in a group situation where the spirits are supposed to be at their best.

Ultimately, yes, that’s exactly what it comes down to. That’s why I aimed in my posts to construct spirits in a way where they are valuable to the ranger in a vacuum and where when you compare them to banners, they still retain niche and value. I think that’s the best approach to making them a valuable and meaningful part of the Ranger arsenal.