Guild Wars 2

Following the description for rangers, we could argue that spirits are sort of a mechanic for rangers. However it is an outright terrible one.
The spirits are a hindrance as much as a help to us, an major annoyance for others and relatively useless outside sPvP and higher tier PvE.

To change this i suggest a change in functionality;
From being summoned etheral forms, to being sort of how mesmer mantras work.

My proposed change functions as this;
The selected spirit (let us use Sun Spirit for this example) is made into a channeling spell. That needs a channeling time of around 2.5 seconds to complete. Upon completing this, 10 players(1) in close proximity to the ranger will get the spirit “buff”. In the case of sun spirit this buff would grant players 1 second burning on attack for 20 seconds. The ranger get’s an additional extra to “detonate” it’s buff for an AOE blind.
The buff will last only 5 seconds out of combat to prevent spammage and unreasonable uptimes. The buff will be lost upon detonating it, or upon being disabled by stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, launch or other hard control options. Stealth and other skills that does not count towards capture point in PvP will also disable the buff. Fear will not affect this buff.
Spirit cooldown is set to 35 seconds to keep a reasonable amount of uptime, The uptime will be slightly less then it currently is, but it will also be stronger.

To keep from gaining too much of a power creep, spirits such as the Frost spirit would have its function changed to 1 second chill on attack for 15 seconds. Active section of this spirit would be a water field healing allies for 3k HP. Field lasts 4 seconds. Cooldown 30 seconds.

Storm Spirit would grant 7% more damage per attack for 15 seconds. Active effect would be a lightning strike that does 5k damage flat. Storm spirit CD would be 30 seconds.

Stone spirit would grant 1 second protection upon attack for 20 seconds. Active effect would be AOE weakness + Cripple lasting 12 seconds. CD 35 seconds.

Elite spirit would grant -75% condition duration towards affected player and 350 hitpoints per second regeneration for 30 seconds. If a player affected by the buff is downed, it is immediately revived however the buff will be lost. Cooldown 240 seconds. The elite spirit buff is only affected by stun/daze. Elite spirit buff would require 5 second channeling time.

To make these buffs usable in-combat, the channeling would not root you, but you would suffer from reduced movement speed. Dodging or activating other skills during channeling would cancel the channeling and reset the skill.

(1) – to explain why i chose to make it 10 players:
Currently, up to 15 players can get the buff at the same time by moving in and out of the spirit AOE. To prevent too much “nerfing” of the current functionality in more numerous encounters, i suggest 10 players being affected. Warrior Warhorn 4 alongside a skill tied to “Become the Wolf” elite named “Howl” also affect 10 players. These two skills may be an oversight, but to retain functionality across all modes and combat forms, these spirits would need to affect more then 5 players.

• 2.5s is too long. 1.5~2s may be better.
• Assuming internal cooldown due to muti hit attacks.
• Lower storm spirit damage and allow it to crit since with damage mods you will blast people for like 7.5k. Also change it to the zephyr lightning skill. 2s charge but stuns/daze+damage. Better imho.
• Lower frost spirit heal and have it scale with healing power.

Best idea for spirits i have seen thus far though and adresses the issues people have with them. No ai clutter and its no longer passive.

How would you change the traits that pertain to spirits though? Only two i can think of is an increase of the effect duration and then one to increase the effectivness of the condition/damage boost.

Sigmoid.7082:

• 2.5s is too long. 1.5~2s may be better.
• Assuming internal cooldown due to muti hit attacks.
• Lower storm spirit damage and allow it to crit since with damage mods you will blast people for like 7.5k. Also change it to the zephyr lightning skill. 2s charge but stuns/daze+damage. Better imho.
• Lower frost spirit heal and have it scale with healing power.

Best idea for spirits i have seen thus far though and adresses the issues people have with them. No ai clutter and its no longer passive.

How would you change the traits that pertain to spirits though? Only two i can think of is an increase of the effect duration and then one to increase the effectivness of the condition/damage boost.

Traits;

Adept: Vigorous Spirits; Each attack drains 5 endurance from the enemy.
Master: Vengeful Spirits; Each attack drains 100 hp + (0.15*healing power) from the enemy (applies to allies with the buff similar to how the healing trait for venoms works for thieves).
Grandmaster: Spirits Unbound; Rename – Spiritual Wisdom; Spirit active effect no longer remove spirit passive effect upon use. Cooldown reduced by 20%.

So its basically a mixture between a signet and a banner am i right?
Endurance drain may be a bit op. Since you can have a potential 4 entities yourself you can completely stop someone from dodging forever.

Imo, make Vigorous Spirits BOOST your endurance regen (all affected by it) for natures vengeance I’d say have it give a power/ferocity/precision (one of then idc which) buff to those affected by the spirit and make the actives occur for each person using spirit IE: if you use the blind from sun spirit with 5 people it’s 5 blinds.

Also, there shouldn’t be a heal on frost spirit, that’s water spirits thing, it’d just be mixing for no reason, imo it should make a LARGE ice field that applies chill, make the spirit itself apply vuln

EDIT: question, for the channel is it literally a “we sit there and channel” or is it like mantras where you cast it and then it lasts? If it’s the later, then it’s too kitten long.

As others have said, the 2.5 second cast time is simply too long. Especially if you aren’t going to allow a player to pre-cast them before engaging or if players are going to use more than one. I’m also not sure ANet has the capability to have any skill affect more than 5 players on a single cast like you mention. I don’t know about Howl but I don’t think Warhorn 4 actually affects 10 people. Perhaps it’s buffing 5 and choosing 5 different to cleanse debuffs?

As to the idea, it’s fine overall but I don’t see the need in the 2.5s cast since there’s a downtime built into the buff duration and skill cooldown. It would be one thing if you could manage 100% uptime or something, but a .5 to 1 second cast while able to move is more than fair for a 20 second buff on a 30 second cooldown imo. I also see no issue with using these out of combat because you really can’t abuse the duration any.

Personally if we are gonna lose the buff from being CCed there is literally 0 reason to ALSO give it a large cast time.

Durzlla.6295:

Imo, make Vigorous Spirits BOOST your endurance regen (all affected by it) for natures vengeance I’d say have it give a power/ferocity/precision (one of then idc which) buff to those affected by the spirit and make the actives occur for each person using spirit IE: if you use the blind from sun spirit with 5 people it’s 5 blinds.

Also, there shouldn’t be a heal on frost spirit, that’s water spirits thing, it’d just be mixing for no reason, imo it should make a LARGE ice field that applies chill, make the spirit itself apply vuln

EDIT: question, for the channel is it literally a “we sit there and channel” or is it like mantras where you cast it and then it lasts? If it’s the later, then it’s too kitten long.

Vuln stacking is OP. Imagine Vuln stack + damage boost spirit… waaaay too strong.
A necro can apply 15+ seconds chill easily, even we can do that with some condi duration and Owl + Snow Leo.

Its the former.
You channel (much like guardian Empower) grant people buffs then the Active bit remains possible to activate for the duration of the buff. CD starts once buff is over.

The active effect is only going to trigger for the ranger. If not it would be a waste of spirit buff, not to mention with storm spirit, a massacre where you could potentially hit someone for 50k damage+…. not a balanced thing… So only for ranger.

Internal CD of the active skills should be slightly less then total duration of the buff.

draining 5 stamina is not much. With 25-50% regeneration of stamina you usually get 15 stamina/1.5 second.
I do realize that spirit buffs should only be able to hit ONE target. So that AOE skills would not become extremely OP. Or they could hit multiple targets but last shorter. I’d prefer single target only though, as it would be faaar too OP to deal burning to people with AOE. Imagine an ele giving you an icebow… thats potentially 80+ people set on fire with one AOE volley…. too much, too strong.

We can already stack vuln easily, as can a few other profs/builds, I really don’t see how having a vuln stack spirit would be OP, and either way the point still stands that as of now the frost spirit just encroaches on the water spirits domain.

Either eay 2.5s is still way too long unless it gives an effect (like empower) during the channel (possibly via natures vengeance?)

Durzlla.6295:

We can already stack vuln easily, as can a few other profs/builds, I really don’t see how having a vuln stack spirit would be OP, and either way the point still stands that as of now the frost spirit just encroaches on the water spirits domain.

Either eay 2.5s is still way too long unless it gives an effect (like empower) during the channel (possibly via natures vengeance?)

yeah i forgot the water spirit.

Lets see…
Water Spirit; Each successful hit heal for 20% of the damage done, effect lasts 15 seconds. Active Effect; Initial Self heal – 4500, AOE Heal allies (only) 3200 + (0.75*healing power). AOE radius: 360. Cooldown 30 seconds.

Prysin.8542:

Durzlla.6295:

We can already stack vuln easily, as can a few other profs/builds, I really don’t see how having a vuln stack spirit would be OP, and either way the point still stands that as of now the frost spirit just encroaches on the water spirits domain.

Either eay 2.5s is still way too long unless it gives an effect (like empower) during the channel (possibly via natures vengeance?)

yeah i forgot the water spirit.

Lets see…
Water Spirit; Each successful hit heal for 20% of the damage done, effect lasts 15 seconds. Active Effect; Initial Self heal – 4500, AOE Heal allies (only) 3200 + (0.75*healing power). AOE radius: 360. Cooldown 30 seconds.

I wouldn’t make it heal allies only… Otherwise it’d immediately be inferior to all the other heals… Especially since it’d have a 2.5s cast and you lose the passive when you use it, I wouldn’t make it scale off the damage done either or you’re gimping the people who would actually take it, IE support (the purpose of the heal).

can someone please explain the idea to me again in short and in easy? xD i cant fully understand how it works

Basically you cause the spirit skill and it puts a buff on everyone for x seconds that does y effect depending on spirit. Additionally centred around the ranger their is an active effect ie frost field, lightning strike, blind pulse,weakness/cripple/immobilise pulse. Like a cross between a signet, a venom and the current spirit actives.

Essentially the idea is great and removes the complaints that people had about it being screen clutter and passive play while adding some huge team play aspects.

Durzlla.6295:

Prysin.8542:

Durzlla.6295:

We can already stack vuln easily, as can a few other profs/builds, I really don’t see how having a vuln stack spirit would be OP, and either way the point still stands that as of now the frost spirit just encroaches on the water spirits domain.

Either eay 2.5s is still way too long unless it gives an effect (like empower) during the channel (possibly via natures vengeance?)

yeah i forgot the water spirit.

Lets see…
Water Spirit; Each successful hit heal for 20% of the damage done, effect lasts 15 seconds. Active Effect; Initial Self heal – 4500, AOE Heal allies (only) 3200 + (0.75*healing power). AOE radius: 360. Cooldown 30 seconds.

I wouldn’t make it heal allies only… Otherwise it’d immediately be inferior to all the other heals… Especially since it’d have a 2.5s cast and you lose the passive when you use it, I wouldn’t make it scale off the damage done either or you’re gimping the people who would actually take it, IE support (the purpose of the heal).

20% of damage is returned as healing for 15 seconds, in addition to a 4.5k heal…. thats strong… but i can understand your reasoning… perhaps do it like this;

Active effect; Self Healing – 4800 + (1.2*healing power), Ally healing only – 3600 + (1.05*healing power)
Internal Active CD: 9 seconds
If active skill is used, spirit buff CD is extended by 33% for each activation (max CD before next summoning = ~50 seconds

This means that you can get max 2 activations (extremely strong heal), but the more you spam that Active effect, the longer it will take before you can heal again. This way it is VERY strong, has some counterplay (trick the enemy into using the active effect as many times as possible).

Healing spring would still cleanse conditions and be a water field you can blast.

Pro’s:
I do realize that spirits would become VERY strong, however, they would last shorter, have better counters (powerblock mesmer would completely shut you down if it interrupted you while summoning elite or healing spirit). It would introduce a need for more build diversity and roles in all game modes.

Con’s:
It is a power creep. However it is inevitable that the Ranger Profession as a whole must “creep upwards” seeing as it is currently below most others in pure power, and as it currently stands, the ranger would be utterly worthless if it did not have as many evades and as good reactive play as it has.

I thought activating the spirit removed the passive… And personally I think it’d be cool if ALL the actives worked like your proposed water spirit, where you can use them multiple times but it increases the CD of the spirit for each time you use it.

That’d be a very interesting, and unique, mechanic to the spirits and add a lot of depth to them as a whole.

Durzlla.6295:

I thought activating the spirit removed the passive… And personally I think it’d be cool if ALL the actives worked like your proposed water spirit, where you can use them multiple times but it increases the CD of the spirit for each time you use it.

That’d be a very interesting, and unique, mechanic to the spirits and add a lot of depth to them as a whole.

not to mention balance them out a bit. so they are not just overwhelmingly powerful