Spirits now more pointless than ever

Spirits now more pointless than ever

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

I generally only used frost spirit, and I feel like I actually get better uptime now since I can pop it when a fight is over and have it ready for the next, as opposed to having it follow me as we skip a bunch of trash and go on cool down right as we start fighting again. I also love that you no longer have to waste traits to make them useful.

You don’t realize that you could easily just kill it off by switching out the spirit for another utility and then put it back on your skillbar?

The uptime is the same as it always was.

You are probably better off just popping it before the fight ends, you’ll still have the buff up until the end and it starts recharging immediately.

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Posted by: Durzlla.6295

Durzlla.6295

I was thinking what if they destroyed our current spirit trait line to involve them into the Druid elite spec trait line?

There has been absolutely NO sign of other elite specs getting traits for non elite spec specific utilities, so i would not count on it, and would be quite upset about them spreading spirits across multiple trait lines when all other utility types have ONE trait for it in ONE line.

Now if they want to add stuff that has a ton of synergy with spirits and makes them really cool to use WITH the druid traits, that’d be cool, we’ve seen that already from other elite specs.

They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna

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Posted by: Lazze.9870

Lazze.9870

I generally only used frost spirit, and I feel like I actually get better uptime now since I can pop it when a fight is over and have it ready for the next, as opposed to having it follow me as we skip a bunch of trash and go on cool down right as we start fighting again. I also love that you no longer have to waste traits to make them useful.

You don’t realize that you could easily just kill it off by switching out the spirit for another utility and then put it back on your skillbar?

The uptime is the same as it always was.

You are probably better off just popping it before the fight ends, you’ll still have the buff up until the end and it starts recharging immediately.

You can, and thus your spirit is almost off cooldown immediately after the fight. Rarely makes much of a difference in terms of having the spirit up where it matters, though.

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

I generally only used frost spirit, and I feel like I actually get better uptime now since I can pop it when a fight is over and have it ready for the next, as opposed to having it follow me as we skip a bunch of trash and go on cool down right as we start fighting again. I also love that you no longer have to waste traits to make them useful.

You don’t realize that you could easily just kill it off by switching out the spirit for another utility and then put it back on your skillbar?

The uptime is the same as it always was.

You are probably better off just popping it before the fight ends, you’ll still have the buff up until the end and it starts recharging immediately.

You can, and thus your spirit is almost off cooldown immediately after the fight. Rarely makes much of a difference in terms of having the spirit up where it matters, though.

Just means you can use it for the next lot of trash mobs as well as the next boss.

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Posted by: Lazze.9870

Lazze.9870

Just means you can use it for the next lot of trash mobs as well as the next boss.

It does, but I can assure you that trash mobs melt fast enough as it is since the patch.

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Suppose that is why they are called trash mobs eh?

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Posted by: ProtoGunner.4953

ProtoGunner.4953

In a dungeon run with frost spirit, 60-80% of a run the spirit is somewhere behind, I can’t destroy it, I can’t recast it, nor move it. This is just stupid. Make them movable similar to the GW1 Ritualist skill:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Summon_Spirits

‘would have/would’ve been’ —> correct
‘would of been’ —> wrong

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Posted by: Lazze.9870

Lazze.9870

In a dungeon run with frost spirit, 60-80% of a run the spirit is somewhere behind, I can’t destroy it

You’re doing it wrong then.

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Posted by: Aleksander Suburb.4287

Aleksander Suburb.4287

I thought the spirit destroy itself after activ skill, wasn’kitten

Guild Wars balancing concept: Never change a ruined system!

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Posted by: Calanthe.3857

Calanthe.3857

Spirits used to be good. Now they are almost worthless. Using spirits as your primary source of healing is no longer reliable.

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Posted by: Calanthe.3857

Calanthe.3857

Make spirits invulnerable or immune to aoe, and allow the ranger to reposition them like engineers and warriors can reposition their turrets/banners.

Spirits definitely shouldn’t be so easy to kill. Even in PvE now they die easily, not to mention the fact that you have to sacrifice them (your source of healing) and resummon them in such a clunky manner.

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Posted by: Durzlla.6295

Durzlla.6295

Make spirits invulnerable or immune to aoe, and allow the ranger to reposition them like engineers and warriors can reposition their turrets/banners.

Spirits definitely shouldn’t be so easy to kill. Even in PvE now they die easily, not to mention the fact that you have to sacrifice them (your source of healing) and resummon them in such a clunky manner.

Are you using the trait? And are you putting them a ways away since they’ve got a 1k radius on their passive? Or are you dropping them at the feet of the enemies and praying they’ll be fine?

They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna

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Posted by: Zenith.7301

Zenith.7301

Make spirits invulnerable or immune to aoe, and allow the ranger to reposition them like engineers and warriors can reposition their turrets/banners.

Spirits definitely shouldn’t be so easy to kill. Even in PvE now they die easily, not to mention the fact that you have to sacrifice them (your source of healing) and resummon them in such a clunky manner.

Are you using the trait? And are you putting them a ways away since they’ve got a 1k radius on their passive? Or are you dropping them at the feet of the enemies and praying they’ll be fine?

Wait guys, let me walk out of melee range and stop attacking, doing zero DPS, so I can place the spirit in a place which I hope the Molten Shaman doesn’t conjure a fire storm over it or the Jade Maw doesn’t target them either.

The whole babysitting argument is a load of crap. This game’s PvE rains AoE all over the area, Molten Bros is a good example of it it desn’t matter where you place it, aoe from the boss will kill it.

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Posted by: Calanthe.3857

Calanthe.3857

Make spirits invulnerable or immune to aoe, and allow the ranger to reposition them like engineers and warriors can reposition their turrets/banners.

Spirits definitely shouldn’t be so easy to kill. Even in PvE now they die easily, not to mention the fact that you have to sacrifice them (your source of healing) and resummon them in such a clunky manner.

Are you using the trait? And are you putting them a ways away since they’ve got a 1k radius on their passive? Or are you dropping them at the feet of the enemies and praying they’ll be fine?

Wait guys, let me walk out of melee range and stop attacking, doing zero DPS, so I can place the spirit in a place which I hope the Molten Shaman doesn’t conjure a fire storm over it or the Jade Maw doesn’t target them either.

The whole babysitting argument is a load of crap. This game’s PvE rains AoE all over the area, Molten Bros is a good example of it it desn’t matter where you place it, aoe from the boss will kill it.

Well said.

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Posted by: Calanthe.3857

Calanthe.3857

Another thing about spirits…I remember when they were mobile and Nature Spirit used to heal the other spirits and Water Spirit I think at least healed Storm Spirit when it attacked, but that doesn’t seem to be true anymore.

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Posted by: Durzlla.6295

Durzlla.6295

Make spirits invulnerable or immune to aoe, and allow the ranger to reposition them like engineers and warriors can reposition their turrets/banners.

Spirits definitely shouldn’t be so easy to kill. Even in PvE now they die easily, not to mention the fact that you have to sacrifice them (your source of healing) and resummon them in such a clunky manner.

Are you using the trait? And are you putting them a ways away since they’ve got a 1k radius on their passive? Or are you dropping them at the feet of the enemies and praying they’ll be fine?

Wait guys, let me walk out of melee range and stop attacking, doing zero DPS, so I can place the spirit in a place which I hope the Molten Shaman doesn’t conjure a fire storm over it or the Jade Maw doesn’t target them either.

The whole babysitting argument is a load of crap. This game’s PvE rains AoE all over the area, Molten Bros is a good example of it it desn’t matter where you place it, aoe from the boss will kill it.

you can just do the smart thing and put them down BEFORE the fight starts, since you know, the common PvE build starts in longbow anyway.

And yeah, there’s a lot of AoE, but the spirits stand a better chance against that AoE at range, than they do in melee range where they’ll not only get hit by fire storms, but can be hit by his whirling defense, or the churning earth 1 shot ability.

I’ve ran spirits in Fractals too, and don’t have half the issues you guys seem to have, which leads me to think it’s you guys placing the spirits stupidly.

You placing them down on the Jade Maw fight to begin with seems to support this theory… everyone knows you use as little AI on that fight to make it as painless as possible.

Another thing about spirits…I remember when they were mobile and Nature Spirit used to heal the other spirits and Water Spirit I think at least healed Storm Spirit when it attacked, but that doesn’t seem to be true anymore.

They still get healed by both of theses, including the regen that water spirit gives, but just like they did way back before the patch came out, the spirits prefer to buff, or in this case heal, player targets over AI targets, so it’s unlikely to see.

They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna

(edited by Durzlla.6295)

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Posted by: Vox Hollow.2736

Vox Hollow.2736

I’m generally alright with the HP design direction.

But, I do think they need to get it to a place where you feel good about putting a spirit near a mob and popping the active if you see it dying. Some actives lack the impact or diversity to feel good versus a broad range of situations, and active’s casting times just need to goooooo.

Fun Fact:
You can cast a Spirit before the time to chain into Monarch’s Leap runs out. The timing isn’t even all that aggressive, you can press the Spirit’s button mid-air during Hornet Sting and it’ll start up when you land. You can even press Monarch Leap while casting the Spirit, and it’ll pop you forward right after.

(edited by Vox Hollow.2736)

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Posted by: Durzlla.6295

Durzlla.6295

I’m generally alright with the HP design direction.

But, I do think they need to get it to a place where you feel good about putting a spirit near a mob and popping the active if you see it dying. Some actives lack the impact or diversity to feel good versus a broad range of situations, and active’s casting times just need to goooooo.

Fun Fact: you can cast a Spirit before the time to chain into Monarch’s Leap runs out. The timing isn’t even all that aggressive, you can press the Spirit’s button mid-air during Hornet Sting and it’ll start up when you land. You can even press Monarch Leap while casting the Spirit, and it’ll pop you forward right after.

I do this quite often myself, and I agree that some of the actives are negligable, ESPECIALLY frost, I feel like that spirit in particular needs the most work overall. Storm i’d say is likely the strongest since the active changes though.

They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna

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Posted by: Vox Hollow.2736

Vox Hollow.2736

Oh yeah, definitely.
Heck, I think Storm and Sun might be in an even better place than we think, since their actives will affect the Breakbar system.

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Posted by: Sulfarius.1756

Sulfarius.1756

Spirits are a cool idea but fail as being support skills. I’ll try to keep my writing style simple as I explain, don’t want to put walls of text everywhere

General
Can’t move + no ground targetting + extremely low health (even after traits) = Sacrifice parts impossible to use in situation you’d want to use them in.
They just feel like weak banners right now, with buffs that are often not that important or give boons that you can aqcuire easier from 100 other sources.
Sacrifice skills don’t feel impactful at all. Sometimes they are just worse versions of other skills.

Water spirit
Worst skill in game. Dismissable team heal, impossible to use self-heal (and also dismissable). Nature’s renewal spirit should really be part of this (except for team rez ofc).

Sun spirit
Can work on condi build but generally you don’t want to keep it allive. Encourages cast -> sacrifice behavoir for burst burning. Corpse gives buff anyway.

Frost spirit
10% damage on hit, 75% of the time is nice, a unique buff (banners can kinda do the same but atleast these two stack). Sacrifice = meh. Spirit will never be placed where this will be used.

Earth Spirit
Chance on hit to gain protection = Too rng. Sometimes useful, often does nothing at all. Sacrifice skill… let’s not even go there, it’s muddy terain that can’t be targeted and is worse. Lazy design, you can do better Anet.

Storm spirit
Swiftness on hit should really be a pulse. Also spirit should move, as swiftness encourages moving yet this spirit just says where it us, thus you quickly lose the swiftness. Sacrifice looks good on paper, but unusable due to slow animation, easy predictability and spirit low health.

Spirit of nature renewal
pathetic radius. Heal feels like it would fit water spirit better. Resurection function too diffecult to use. Rez 10% faster trait outshines this spirit. Bad elite.

I feel like spirits should get new buffs. They should really influence the area around them. Storm spirit, for example, could increase allied projectile velocity by X% and enemy velocity by X%. It’s use skill could be a heavy winds that knock enemies and projectiles alike back. I am sure there’s ideas for all spirits out there but I’m running out of time right now ^^

Secondly they should concider placing the buffs on the ranger. Many say pet, but I think that would still be too annoying to use. Putting it on the ranger means they can truely control where the buff goes, sacrifice skills would be way easier to use. To counter this, put a “Threshold” of sorts on each of these buffs. Make it something like: “If you receive XK dmg / are hit Y amount of times, the buff fades”. An orb of spirit energy could hover around the ranger to make it visible that they’re using it.

That’s all I can come up with right now. I hope with the release of Druid preview soon they’ll start looking at our forum and possibly review our suggestions, so pour them all in and who knows what’s in store for us! I remain hopeful

Happy hunting!

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Water spirit
Worst skill in game. Dismissable team heal, impossible to use self-heal (and also dismissable). Nature’s renewal spirit should really be part of this (except for team rez ofc).

Earth Spirit
Chance on hit to gain protection = Too rng. Sometimes useful, often does nothing at all. Sacrifice skill… let’s not even go there, it’s muddy terain that can’t be targeted and is worse. Lazy design, you can do better Anet.

Water Spirit is very much the worst heal in the game. Even when traited with NV’ a GM trait, it is still only the same healing as having Perma Regeneration if you keep the spirit up for 3 procs, then sacrifice it. Pathetic.

Stone spirit is hardly “too RNG”, the probability of hitting 3 times and it not proccing is 1.5%. I would like to see proof that it even sometimes does nothing at all. I think the effect recharge is too long, the recharge and duration should be halved. Works nice with NV, though.

(edited by Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582)

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Posted by: slingblade.1437

slingblade.1437

Ground-target placement with a range of say 900 seems like it would be a nice improvement. Much better odds you can put the spirit in a safe spot if you want to use the passive, or you can put it near enemies if you want to just pop the active.

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Posted by: Electro.4173

Electro.4173

IKR, what were they thinking when they typed in that boon duration for Might? I actually would love to know the reasoning behind that. It should be Fury.

It should be anything but 1 stack of 1s might lol

Yeah, its seriously the absolutely worst effect of any trait in the game. You need a utility skill and a GM trait to gain the “advantage” and it is, on average, an increase of 10 power and condition damage… So, 0.5 damage per second added to a bleed stack or 0.07% more damage on RF haha!

W . T . F?

I’m guessing they were thinking more of the effect on pets via Fortifying Bond than anything when they put that in. Yah, players get a totally pathetic amount of Might from it, but thanks to FB (which just happens to be in the same traitline) pets get 12 seconds of Might from each proc minimum thanks to Lingering Magic, more if you run extra boon duration. Granted the ~4 stacks of perma-might you can get on your pets isn’t exactly mind-blowing either, but if they made it, say, 5 stacks then that could get pretty crazy from just a passive action like summoning a spirit.

So yah, if they want it to be more meaningful for players they probably need to change the boon given rather than just upping the might numbers. To Fury I would guess, since that would fit with the offensive nature of the skill.

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Posted by: Zenith.7301

Zenith.7301

Make spirits invulnerable or immune to aoe, and allow the ranger to reposition them like engineers and warriors can reposition their turrets/banners.

Spirits definitely shouldn’t be so easy to kill. Even in PvE now they die easily, not to mention the fact that you have to sacrifice them (your source of healing) and resummon them in such a clunky manner.

Are you using the trait? And are you putting them a ways away since they’ve got a 1k radius on their passive? Or are you dropping them at the feet of the enemies and praying they’ll be fine?

Wait guys, let me walk out of melee range and stop attacking, doing zero DPS, so I can place the spirit in a place which I hope the Molten Shaman doesn’t conjure a fire storm over it or the Jade Maw doesn’t target them either.

The whole babysitting argument is a load of crap. This game’s PvE rains AoE all over the area, Molten Bros is a good example of it it desn’t matter where you place it, aoe from the boss will kill it.

you can just do the smart thing and put them down BEFORE the fight starts, since you know, the common PvE build starts in longbow anyway.

And yeah, there’s a lot of AoE, but the spirits stand a better chance against that AoE at range, than they do in melee range where they’ll not only get hit by fire storms, but can be hit by his whirling defense, or the churning earth 1 shot ability.

I’ve ran spirits in Fractals too, and don’t have half the issues you guys seem to have, which leads me to think it’s you guys placing the spirits stupidly.

You placing them down on the Jade Maw fight to begin with seems to support this theory… everyone knows you use as little AI on that fight to make it as painless as possible.

Another thing about spirits…I remember when they were mobile and Nature Spirit used to heal the other spirits and Water Spirit I think at least healed Storm Spirit when it attacked, but that doesn’t seem to be true anymore.

They still get healed by both of theses, including the regen that water spirit gives, but just like they did way back before the patch came out, the spirits prefer to buff, or in this case heal, player targets over AI targets, so it’s unlikely to see.

You do realize you told me not to use a spirit in Jade Maw because the game’s mechanics specifically punish the use of these utilities exclusive to the ranger, right?

There’s deep irony in telling us spirits are fine on one hand and then telling us we shouldn’t be using them in some encounters. I don’t recall that ever being the case for banners let alone any thief/ele/warrior/guardian group utility.

Moreover, I can lay a spirit running in once. Once the spirit dies, as it often does in Molten Bros or what have you, my option is to place it on melee or stop DPS and go deposit it somewhere far away. Spirits are not permanent, they die after some time, so in longer encounters at some point I will need to renew the spirit. This will be the case particularly when they implement “challenging group content” with fights that last more than 30 seconds/1 minute.

More importantly, the whole “place it far away” comes with the caveat that if I do so, and we happen to move the boss, we might move out of the spirit’s range since we were barely in it to begin with.

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Posted by: style.6173

style.6173

As unused as spirits were before the recent patch, now they’re a joke.
Useless. Absolutely useless.
It’s changes like these that make we wonder if Anet actually plays their own game.
It’s heartbreaking.

Here is the issue: How do you make spirits so they are valuable in PvE without them becoming OP in PvP. The fact is that in PvP, they used to be strong but did so in a way that was “skill-less”. Any random person could spec for spirits and do really well.

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Posted by: Raziel.8072

Raziel.8072

More importantly, the whole “place it far away” comes with the caveat that if I do so, and we happen to move the boss, we might move out of the spirit’s range since we were barely in it to begin with .

This right here is the biggest crippling feature of spirits. Removing mobility on them is fine, but if you don’t increase range to compensate, they become nothing more than glowing punching bags (and terrible ones at that). And by range I mean passives. The actives on them are worthless to begin with and need total reworks. Also- sacrificing my elite spirit and heal spirit for a single activation? NO THANK YOU

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Posted by: Raziel.8072

Raziel.8072

Here is the issue: How do you make spirits so they are valuable in PvE without them becoming OP in PvP. The fact is that in PvP, they used to be strong but did so in a way that was “skill-less”. Any random person could spec for spirits and do really well.

Umm, separate balance? Why they are so resistant to balancing separate between pvp and pve is beyond me….

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Posted by: Sulfarius.1756

Sulfarius.1756

Water spirit
Worst skill in game. Dismissable team heal, impossible to use self-heal (and also dismissable). Nature’s renewal spirit should really be part of this (except for team rez ofc).

Earth Spirit
Chance on hit to gain protection = Too rng. Sometimes useful, often does nothing at all. Sacrifice skill… let’s not even go there, it’s muddy terain that can’t be targeted and is worse. Lazy design, you can do better Anet.

Water Spirit is very much the worst heal in the game. Even when traited with NV’ a GM trait, it is still only the same healing as having Perma Regeneration if you keep the spirit up for 3 procs, then sacrifice it. Pathetic.

Stone spirit is hardly “too RNG”, the probability of hitting 3 times and it not proccing is 1.5%. I would like to see proof that it even sometimes does nothing at all. I think the effect recharge is too long, the recharge and duration should be halved. Works nice with NV, though.

Not RNG in the way it procs. But rather, often this skill will proc while you are not being attacked, then when you need the protection the proc affect will still be on CD due to it having been procced earlier. It’s bad design, can’t expect us to wait to attack till we see a burst.

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

I suppose that is why it is called a passive buff.

If the effect recharge was not a crazy 10s, it would be fine. Since the Protection is 3s and the recharge is 10s, they could just make the effect 1s and the recharge 3s, which would be much better imo, since if you combine it with Nature’s Vengeance, its over 80% uptime.

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Posted by: Voramoz.6790

Voramoz.6790

We need spirits unbound back.
But let me not go any further. It seems from data mining, Rangers will get glyphs. Okay. Well two glyphs for elementalist are glyphs which summon elemental.
Let me be the first to cry FOUL if a Druid glyph summons and for that they nerfed spirits unbound! FOUL!
How dare they do it. And ANet, if you are listening think long and hard before you do it!
Edit: all of those who are being sarcastic about us needing spirits unbound back are not helping the issue. Plain talk. Spirits Unbound needs to return. Before Specializations Patch there were three bunker builds: Guardian Bunker, Turret Engi, and Spirit Ranger. Why did Anet think it would add diversity to nuke two of those three into the ground?! Now there is only one bunker, Guardian, and btw the oldest bunker build in the game.

There is no doubt in my mind that it was done intentionally and knowing the consequences. The devs would not miss out on the changes they are about to make reducing PVP to one type of bunker. Jokes aside. I will cry foul if Arenanet took spirits unbound away to make way for a Druid Glyph which summons or similarity to Engineer Drones. And as a community, who love ranger, we all should be, too.

(edited by Voramoz.6790)

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Posted by: Rym.1469

Rym.1469

If their actives were ground-targeted with long range and Spirits themselves got passive range increase they would be decent.

Still, I’m not a fan of spirits and wouldn’t mind if:

a) They worked like Guild Wars 1 Ritualist’s Spirits

b) Acted like environmental effects on both allies and enemies like they did in Guild Wars 1 for Rangers.

Having more pets which don’t do much and just passively proc boons + worst design of weapon in this game (Ranger’s Shortbow) = terrible and braindead gameplay that’s not interesting for either side.

[rude]Antagonistka – Revenant, EU.
[SALT]Natchniony – Necromancer, EU.
Streams: http://www.twitch.tv/rym144

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Posted by: Justine.6351

Justine.6351

I use sun spirit for my condi longbow. It’s fun. And in camps I use it like a trap and aoe burn the npcs when I pull them into corner.

I wouldn’t mind getting ele auras aoe to allies when I used active skill ;-)
Fire aura
Water aura
Magnetic aura
Shocking aura

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Posted by: Durzlla.6295

Durzlla.6295

Make spirits invulnerable or immune to aoe, and allow the ranger to reposition them like engineers and warriors can reposition their turrets/banners.

Spirits definitely shouldn’t be so easy to kill. Even in PvE now they die easily, not to mention the fact that you have to sacrifice them (your source of healing) and resummon them in such a clunky manner.

Are you using the trait? And are you putting them a ways away since they’ve got a 1k radius on their passive? Or are you dropping them at the feet of the enemies and praying they’ll be fine?

Wait guys, let me walk out of melee range and stop attacking, doing zero DPS, so I can place the spirit in a place which I hope the Molten Shaman doesn’t conjure a fire storm over it or the Jade Maw doesn’t target them either.

The whole babysitting argument is a load of crap. This game’s PvE rains AoE all over the area, Molten Bros is a good example of it it desn’t matter where you place it, aoe from the boss will kill it.

you can just do the smart thing and put them down BEFORE the fight starts, since you know, the common PvE build starts in longbow anyway.

And yeah, there’s a lot of AoE, but the spirits stand a better chance against that AoE at range, than they do in melee range where they’ll not only get hit by fire storms, but can be hit by his whirling defense, or the churning earth 1 shot ability.

I’ve ran spirits in Fractals too, and don’t have half the issues you guys seem to have, which leads me to think it’s you guys placing the spirits stupidly.

You placing them down on the Jade Maw fight to begin with seems to support this theory… everyone knows you use as little AI on that fight to make it as painless as possible.

Another thing about spirits…I remember when they were mobile and Nature Spirit used to heal the other spirits and Water Spirit I think at least healed Storm Spirit when it attacked, but that doesn’t seem to be true anymore.

They still get healed by both of theses, including the regen that water spirit gives, but just like they did way back before the patch came out, the spirits prefer to buff, or in this case heal, player targets over AI targets, so it’s unlikely to see.

You do realize you told me not to use a spirit in Jade Maw because the game’s mechanics specifically punish the use of these utilities exclusive to the ranger, right?

There’s deep irony in telling us spirits are fine on one hand and then telling us we shouldn’t be using them in some encounters. I don’t recall that ever being the case for banners let alone any thief/ele/warrior/guardian group utility.

Moreover, I can lay a spirit running in once. Once the spirit dies, as it often does in Molten Bros or what have you, my option is to place it on melee or stop DPS and go deposit it somewhere far away. Spirits are not permanent, they die after some time, so in longer encounters at some point I will need to renew the spirit. This will be the case particularly when they implement “challenging group content” with fights that last more than 30 seconds/1 minute.

More importantly, the whole “place it far away” comes with the caveat that if I do so, and we happen to move the boss, we might move out of the spirit’s range since we were barely in it to begin with.

you do realize rangers are far from the only class with AI utilities right? EVERY class but warrior (and revenant) have AI utilities, all those builds are useless on the jade maw because all they do is get targeted and die. It’s not an issue with AI utilities, it’s an issue with the kittenty jade maw fight.

They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna

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Posted by: anduriell.6280

anduriell.6280

Spirits as right now are the definition of what Anet has being doing to ranger class from the beginning. As i said before we desperately need a dev that play with the ranger exclusively. Until now i can’t see any of the devs or team leader or whatever to have any clue of what is the ranger about.
The spirits need to be seriously buffer, right now the utility they bring is rubbish. To waste an skill slot to put an spirits there when you can have better skills that can bring better support than an spirit. Shouts can bring extra regen and speed for the team. Survival will bring boost in damage and stun breakers. I can’t think any reason of why anybody would be the worst at team support and survivability for using an spirit instead a shout/survival/signet.

  • They lost they capacity to move.
  • They lost the trait that make the spirit to cast the active skill when killed
  • When dead they pulse for about 2-3 seconds before disappear. Not 10 secs like someone said.
  • The GM new boons are a joke of a very bad taste.

So to fix this:

  • They spirits must move. Ranger is supposed to be a class about mobility and positioning. Than can’t be done if you have to stay close to the thing
  • The spirits have to be permanent until killed or we must have an indicator of time left in every spirit. Right now we play guess how long until i expire
  • The GM trait must be better. Pulse every 5 seconds for same duration buff to avoid perma-boon imposible to remove.
  • The GM trait brings back the cast of the active skill when killed.
I TOLD YOU SO
Inverse to Apple: SBeast is the worst yet.. jurl jurl
I’m all in for Team Irenio!

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Posted by: Justine.6351

Justine.6351

Why do people want them to move? Won’t they just get nuked down by aoe?

Place them properly.
Perhaps we could see a cdr if we use spirit skill instead of letting it get killed.

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Posted by: Zenos Osgorma.2936

Zenos Osgorma.2936

Ironicly I have been placing my Traited Sun spirit inside a Triggered HS with double blast clarions+horn to give it regen and heals also cure it of any Condis that may hit it.

right now i have Steady focus Traited and use Sun spirit traited for Vigour they way this Pulses means i have a increase of endurance 25% from(trait) + 25% endurance (due to 1second intervals its total effectiveness is reduced on average) my endurance regeneration ups to perma 50% if not sacrificed.

I use this to power Steady focus with LR when needed , which makes Sun spirit strong for rangers using steady focus allows a slightly higher upkeep of Endurance levels , while providing strong Burns , which is why Sun spirit is a Contender right now with Frost spirit for condi Specs.

the only thing Spirits need is the Traited Pulse on a Way larger Radius the current one is too small.
and a change of Boons on some of the Natures vengence trait , I find the Nature spirits Stability is not of any use with its Really short Duration which i find annoying rng to avoid CC’s.

That should be changed to Resistance 1second boon , 1 second intervals between pulse and presto Condis are not as strong while the spirit is alive , creates counter play you must kill this spirit when it is summoned .

the nature spirit should have enough hp to trigger its Active if it gets focused.

the Might gained from frost is ok but since it is 1second it only provides a overall boost of 1might, which the duration should be long enough for this GM to provide 3 Perma might and start to stop stacking up after the 3rd pulse so each boon should last atleast 3seconds (including the lingering magic) so that would be a base duration of 2.5seconds since runes do not effect Spirits.

and or Reclassify spirits as Compainions to benifit from the lingering magic rule for 50% boon duration and increase the base Duration of all Natures Vengence boons by 1second to 2seconds + the 50% bonus = 3seconds per boon keeping the 1 second intervals means you’ll have 3 stacks of Might, resistance for 3seconds at all times while inside the radius too , everything else will hit its duration threash hold Fury/swiftness/protection.

I understand that Anet are scared to give Rangers a Hard Support role because if they did what i suggest it would be that way , perma protection , resistance , fury , swiftness ect ect which would also be Very Overpowered.

THOUGH considering this! if spirits are movable and had the Hp reduced a little , it maybe fair enough because that Puts the spirits in more risk of being killed.

its a hard Balancing act for sure since if we use the Current Spirit boons and use 10xfrost they provide 10 perma might but that requries 10 rangers , increasing the might to 3 means you’ll only need 3 rangers to give 9 might party wide ontop they can also blast a fire trap with clarions bond for 4 might totaling 12 for everyone , this gives Ranger the ability to team stack might when in groups which will be awsome for WvW and less Op in PVP due to its 3 might limit.

for now Frost and Nature spirit are the only two that need changes without making Spirit ranger way Overpowered.

(edited by Zenos Osgorma.2936)

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Posted by: anduriell.6280

anduriell.6280

Why do people want them to move? Won’t they just get nuked down by aoe?
Place them properly.
Perhaps we could see a cdr if we use spirit skill instead of letting it get killed.

because of this:

  • They spirits must move. Ranger is supposed to be a class about mobility and positioning. Than can’t be done if you have to stay close to the thing

If you play with ranger more than a casual PvE from time to time you already know we are not warriors and we can not stay still in one place.
Doesn’t matter were you strategically put your spirit we don’t have the control of the positioning in the battlefield, because we have to move continuously.
So if we want to actually be able to get something from them they need to stay with us so we can avoid AoE instead the spirit standing still dying from any random damage come in their way.

It’s tiresome to have to repeat always that this class is not warrior, if you want banners we don’t have the ability to make use of them. Our Spirits must move to be coherent with the class itself.

I understand that Anet are scared to give Rangers a Hard Support role because if they did what i suggest it would be that way , perma protection , resistance , fury , swiftness ect ect which would also be Very Overpowered.

THOUGH considering this! if spirits are movable and had the Hp reduced a little , it maybe fair enough because that Puts the spirits in more risk of being killed.

The solution is pretty simple: apply longer duration for the boons for more slow pulses so other classes have to equip their traits and skills to strip boons.
Yes we don’t have anything like it, we can not strip boons but all the other classes in game can do it
So for example, Frost gives 1 stack of might for 5 seconds every 5 seconds i don’t see it overpowered.
Now lets think about the most powerful of them, stability from the elite. 1 stack every 5 seconds. The first CC you get will be ignored but the stack is gone for another 4 seconds.
Now:

  • if the spirits have to stay still they should behave like warriors banners, no Hp attached and life span limited by time. They want banners just give banners no this piece of kitten.
  • If the spirits have HP pool they must behave like minions. Follow us and be permanent until killed that should be baseline. Give them a longer CD like the old one and we will be set. I like the idea of sacrificing the spirits in active ability cast.
    That would allow us to actually be able to use their active skill strategically.

I like that last idea because it opens the ranger builds to new choices. Right now we only have Survival ranger as ONLY choice.

I TOLD YOU SO
Inverse to Apple: SBeast is the worst yet.. jurl jurl
I’m all in for Team Irenio!

(edited by anduriell.6280)

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Posted by: Durzlla.6295

Durzlla.6295

Everyone here complains about how spirits need to be mobile because we are mobile, which is the dumbest argument ever.

Spirits have a 1000 radius effect on their passive, if you can not place your spirit somewhere and stay within that 1k range you are doing something horribly wrong and you need to work on your positioning big time.

On top of that massive effect range, spirits can give their boons through walls gasp you know what isn’t going to be thrown on a spirit of its around a corner or a rock or some little nook where you’re fighting? This infamous AoE that seems to magically kill spirits despite me having literally no issue with this happening in any aspect of the game.

Will you have to run out of melee range every so often to drop your spirits? Sure, I guess if your fights are lasting that long, but if you’re running any halfway decent spirit build you’ll have a ranged weapon that you can be using while you move out of melee, place the spirit, and run back into melee.

And if you guys haven’t noticed by the actives killing the spirit, they’re meant to be used to either 1) punish people for going for your spirit or 2) you drop them in a dangerous area (like at your feet in melee range) and immediately pop it for the active effect + one MAYBE two passive procs.

You can put the spirit down and never once activate the kitten thing and it’s still worth placing which a lot of you can’t seem to grasp the idea of.

Stop being lazy and demanding the devs to change the skill to play the way YOU want it to play, and start using it the way it’s meant to be used. It’ll give you much better results.

They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna

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Posted by: Justine.6351

Justine.6351

Everyone here complains about how spirits need to be mobile because we are mobile, which is the dumbest argument ever.

Spirits have a 1000 radius effect on their passive, if you can not place your spirit somewhere and stay within that 1k range you are doing something horribly wrong and you need to work on your positioning big time.

On top of that massive effect range, spirits can give their boons through walls gasp you know what isn’t going to be thrown on a spirit of its around a corner or a rock or some little nook where you’re fighting? This infamous AoE that seems to magically kill spirits despite me having literally no issue with this happening in any aspect of the game.

Will you have to run out of melee range every so often to drop your spirits? Sure, I guess if your fights are lasting that long, but if you’re running any halfway decent spirit build you’ll have a ranged weapon that you can be using while you move out of melee, place the spirit, and run back into melee.

And if you guys haven’t noticed by the actives killing the spirit, they’re meant to be used to either 1) punish people for going for your spirit or 2) you drop them in a dangerous area (like at your feet in melee range) and immediately pop it for the active effect + one MAYBE two passive procs.

You can put the spirit down and never once activate the kitten thing and it’s still worth placing which a lot of you can’t seem to grasp the idea of.

Stop being lazy and demanding the devs to change the skill to play the way YOU want it to play, and start using it the way it’s meant to be used. It’ll give you much better results.

boom ;-)

People want little petting zoo for some reason. My sunspirit explodes from cleaving/aoe because I am stupid and stand on top of it when I don’t even need to.

I rewatch some of my recent gameplay and the #1 killer of sunspirit is Mesmer’s Mirror Blade and Warrior’s Whirlwind Attack. Not because they say “oh my god kill sunspirit!” but because I think “I need to stand within 240 to get proc”.

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Posted by: Ehecatl.9172

Ehecatl.9172

Spirits don’t need to move to be viable. In fact they shouldn’t move. Just double the range of the passive effects and boon sharing and you’d be able to strategically place them and remain mobile within the designated area. You could pretty easily cover the entire mid point of Foefire with a 2,000 range spirit while still having them sitting in a hard to reach spot.

Their actives also need to be ground targeted and teleport the spirit to the targeted area when activated. Right now it’s almost impossible to get someone near your spirits to get the actives off, and before the change it was incredibly frustrating to always have my spirits running in circles around me as I tried to “aim” the active so it’d hit my target. Which they never did because it’s not hard to casually walk away before the cast finishes.

Spirits should be area support and control tools we summon when we want to bunker down in a specific area. Ranger isn’t all about mobility. The fact we have two sets of utilities that are best used in turning an area into a death trap for enemies is proof of that. Rangers can be built as the roaming survivalist or the patient hunter, and spirits thematically fall into the patient hunter theme.

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Posted by: anduriell.6280

anduriell.6280

Ok guys, this is a flawless example of a main warrior/very casual if any gameplay with ranger that come here to kick the class down, in case the devs decide to actually fix the class and make it not any more free bags.

Everyone here complains about how spirits need to be mobile because we are mobile, which is the dumbest argument ever.
Spirits have a 1000 radius effect on their passive, if you can not place your spirit somewhere and stay within that 1k range you are doing something horribly wrong and you need to work on your positioning big time.

Yeah sure, we all know rangers are the best a defending nodes. Their sustain is unparalleled and their damage has no rival.

On top of that massive effect range, spirits can give their boons through walls gasp you know what isn’t going to be thrown on a spirit of its around a corner or a rock or some little nook where you’re fighting? This infamous AoE that seems to magically kill spirits despite me having literally no issue with this happening in any aspect of the game.

Right, because you exactly choose where the spirit will be exactly positioned. Seriously, first you have to play with ranger and then you will see they don’t work as a warrior banner. Please go back to your main warrior.

Will you have to run out of melee range every so often to drop your spirits? Sure, I guess if your fights are lasting that long, but if you’re running any halfway decent spirit build you’ll have a ranged weapon that you can be using while you move out of melee, place the spirit, and run back into melee.

Yes you have. That actually don’t matter because you have to run always from melee all the time. As i said, keep playing with your warrior.

And if you guys haven’t noticed by the actives killing the spirit, they’re meant to be used to either 1) punish people for going for your spirit or 2) you drop them in a dangerous area (like at your feet in melee range) and immediately pop it for the active effect + one MAYBE two passive procs.

Indeed, that could be the case if not because you need 1 full second to cast, a cast that is even more striking that the Maul.

You can put the spirit down and never once activate the kitten thing and it’s still worth placing which a lot of you can’t seem to grasp the idea of.
Stop being lazy and demanding the devs to change the skill to play the way YOU want it to play, and start using it the way it’s meant to be used. It’ll give you much better results.

Yes indeed, and whose fault is that? We main rangers know that the area of effect is so small that doesn’t worth to cast the active ability. So why bother.
Also we are not asking to change anything, We ask to bring back something that it was already there.

Their actives also need to be ground targeted and teleport the spirit to the targeted area when activated. Right now it’s almost impossible to get someone near your spirits to get the actives off, and before the change it was incredibly frustrating to always have my spirits running in circles around me as I tried to “aim” the active so it’d hit my target. Which they never did because it’s not hard to casually walk away before the cast finishes.

That’ a very nice idea. But i like more the idea of mobile spirits with no expiration time.
Fits more with the idea of the Ranger that it is not a patient hunter but and i quote Anet itself

Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.

To my understanding can adapt to any situation means mobile, fast and be able to reposition very quickly. After the thief we should be the most mobile class in game.
And standing still in one corner while i keep close my rooted in place spirit it is not.

So again, i’m tired of repeating the same every single time. I understand the other classes don’t want the ranger to leave the status of free bags but 3 years is time enough already.
It is the time to make this class viable in any competitive game.

I TOLD YOU SO
Inverse to Apple: SBeast is the worst yet.. jurl jurl
I’m all in for Team Irenio!

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Posted by: Ehecatl.9172

Ehecatl.9172

That’ a very nice idea. But i like more the idea of mobile spirits with no expiration time.
Fits more with the idea of the Ranger that it is not a patient hunter but and i quote Anet itself

Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.

To my understanding can adapt to any situation means mobile, fast and be able to reposition very quickly. After the thief we should be the most mobile class in game.
And standing still in one corner while i keep close my rooted in place spirit it is not.

So again, i’m tired of repeating the same every single time. I understand the other classes don’t want the ranger to leave the status of free bags but 3 years is time enough already.
It is the time to make this class viable in any competitive game.

So you’re saying rangers shouldn’t have the option of having an area denial build because it would make us less adaptable? That makes no sense. The very idea of being an adaptable profession implies we can fill a multitude of different roles depending on what sort of kit we bring. Rangers can build themselves to suit their current need, be that a mobile roamer to hunt enemies down or a warden protecting our territory from intruders. That is adaptability.

Also, the Anet quote in no way invalidates the idea of a patient hunter ranger. The fact we have traps, which are exactly what they sound like and only activate if an enemy walks into them, is proof that we are suppose to have builds that focus on the lay and wait style of play. Spirits likewise are baseline immobile and always have been, even have in GW1, which suggests they were designed to be effective while stationary. Rangers were conceptualized and designed with two sets of utility skills that emphasize a low mobility style of play.

As far as mobile spirits, I’ve used spirit builds off and on for a long time. Before the trait overhaul the main thing stopping me from enjoying them was the mobility of the spirits. They make TERRIBLE followers. They make erratic movement choices when you are in combat and tend to get obliterated by cleave and random AoE if you so much as think of standing on point with them.

Spirits would be much more beneficial if you could summon them off-point and have them stay there than if they followed you to their doom. The way they work now is fine, they just need a bigger range so you can make sure more teammates are in your area of effect without the spirits being in danger.

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Posted by: anduriell.6280

anduriell.6280

So you’re saying rangers shouldn’t have the option of having an area denial build because it would make us less adaptable? That makes no sense. The very idea of being an adaptable profession implies we can fill a multitude of different roles depending on what sort of kit we bring. Rangers can build themselves to suit their current need, be that a mobile roamer to hunt enemies down or a warden protecting our territory from intruders. That is adaptability.

No, we are not guardians or warriors we don’t have the sustain nor the skills set to be able to hold point for long. Saying that the traps is because we can do that is wrong, Traps are a very bad skills, their damage is really low and to use them you have to loose Sharpening Edges and at least one possible cleanse.
You will not be ever ever at the same level of any guardian or warrior at defending point neither at melee the class is not designed for long fights.

Spirits likewise are baseline immobile and always have been, even have in GW1, which suggests they were designed to be effective while stationary. Rangers were conceptualized and designed with two sets of utility skills that emphasize a low mobility style of play.

Yeah unfortunately the Ranger in GW2 has nothing to do with the fantastic ranger in GW1. And the traps are really awful skills compared to survival or even the shouts.

As far as mobile spirits, I’ve used spirit builds off and on for a long time. Before the trait overhaul the main thing stopping me from enjoying them was the mobility of the spirits. They make TERRIBLE followers. They make erratic movement choices when you are in combat and tend to get obliterated by cleave and random AoE if you so much as think of standing on point with them.

In this we agreed. If you pretend to use the ranger as a warrior and get in the middle of the zerg they will die. Same as you.
I used to have an spirit ranger before the massive nerf in the spirits and they were great.

  • Because they followed you i could cast the active skill strategically when i needed, instead being forced to stand still in one corner.
  • Because the cast the active ability when killed or expired it was very helpful if you got in the middle of a blob.

So YES, mobile spirits, bring them back with no time expiration. So we can have some utility/support for the group instead this bad joke where some ppl theorize about how great could be to put them in the top a mountain while we fight in the valley and get all the benefits from them.

And i don’t want to think that the only reason that Anet made them static is because that way there are not that many objects in game and they cramp up more players in one instance, because on the opposite of the minis the spirits can’t be hidden due the rising population

I TOLD YOU SO
Inverse to Apple: SBeast is the worst yet.. jurl jurl
I’m all in for Team Irenio!

(edited by anduriell.6280)

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Posted by: Ehecatl.9172

Ehecatl.9172

No, we are not guardians or warriors we don’t have the sustain nor the skills set to be able to hold point for long. Saying that the traps is because we can do that is wrong, Traps are a very bad skills, their damage is really low and to use them you have to loose Sharpening Edges and at least one possible cleanse.
You will not be ever ever at the same level of any guardian or warrior at defending point neither at melee the class is not designed for long fights.

Indeed we are not. We are rangers and are designed differently. You are wrong in that we don’t have the tools we need. We do. We have access to blocks, protection, regen, and a lot of free evades from out weapon skills, along with two invuln skills as utilities. On top of that we have pets that do damage independent of our own stats, which allows for a ranger to deal decent damage while still being built defensively. Bunker rangers can be made. BM bunker rangers were a thing way back when before pet damage got nerfed. You’re right that we aren’t as effective as a guardian when it comes to bunkering, but at the same time we’re not as good as a mobile roamer as a thief. These are mechanical limits that can be addressed with buffs to needed skills, not a thematic limit.

Traps really aren’t as bad as you say. And even if they were it’s just proof that they need to be buffed. Again, you’re citing a limitation in terms of our numbers, not a thematic limitation.

Yeah unfortunately the Ranger in GW2 has nothing to do with the fantastic ranger in GW1. And the traps are really awful skills compared to survival or even the shouts.

That isn’t true. GW2 ranger is clearly based thematically on GW1 ranger. And again if traps are so bad it’s purely a mechanical limitation and not thematic. Rangers were designed with the idea that our traps would be viable.

In this we agreed. If you pretend to use the ranger as a warrior and get in the middle of the zerg they will die. Same as you.
I used to have an spirit ranger before the massive nerf in the spirits and they were great.

  • Because they followed you i could cast the active skill strategically when i needed, instead being forced to stand still in one corner.
  • Because the cast the active ability when killed or expired it was very helpful if you got in the middle of a blob.

So YES, mobile spirits, bring them back with no time expiration. So we can have some utility/support for the group instead this bad joke where some ppl theorize about how great could be to put them in the top a mountain while we fight in the valley and get all the benefits from them.

And i don’t want to think that the only reason that Anet made them static is because that way there are not that many objects in game and they cramp up more players in one instance, because on the opposite of the minis the spirits can’t be hidden due the rising population

Have you never heard of melee ranger? Because that is a thing. It’s a very effective dueling build. One of our best in fact, and can be used as an effective WvW roamer or SPVP point holder. It’s just not as viable as other ranger options right now.

Even then melee ranger plays very differently from a warrior. You rely on evades and fast movement to get around your enemy and overwhelm them. It’s a lot of fun. If you’re new to ranger there is an excellent thread made by Heimskarl that has over 40 unique ranger builds you could try, many of which focus on close range combat.

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Posted by: Durzlla.6295

Durzlla.6295

Ok guys, this is a flawless example of a main warrior/very casual if any gameplay with ranger that come here to kick the class down, in case the devs decide to actually fix the class and make it not any more free bags.

Everyone here complains about how spirits need to be mobile because we are mobile, which is the dumbest argument ever.
Spirits have a 1000 radius effect on their passive, if you can not place your spirit somewhere and stay within that 1k range you are doing something horribly wrong and you need to work on your positioning big time.

Yeah sure, we all know rangers are the best a defending nodes. Their sustain is unparalleled and their damage has no rival.

On top of that massive effect range, spirits can give their boons through walls gasp you know what isn’t going to be thrown on a spirit of its around a corner or a rock or some little nook where you’re fighting? This infamous AoE that seems to magically kill spirits despite me having literally no issue with this happening in any aspect of the game.

Right, because you exactly choose where the spirit will be exactly positioned. Seriously, first you have to play with ranger and then you will see they don’t work as a warrior banner. Please go back to your main warrior.

Will you have to run out of melee range every so often to drop your spirits? Sure, I guess if your fights are lasting that long, but if you’re running any halfway decent spirit build you’ll have a ranged weapon that you can be using while you move out of melee, place the spirit, and run back into melee.

Yes you have. That actually don’t matter because you have to run always from melee all the time. As i said, keep playing with your warrior.

And if you guys haven’t noticed by the actives killing the spirit, they’re meant to be used to either 1) punish people for going for your spirit or 2) you drop them in a dangerous area (like at your feet in melee range) and immediately pop it for the active effect + one MAYBE two passive procs.

Indeed, that could be the case if not because you need 1 full second to cast, a cast that is even more striking that the Maul.

You can put the spirit down and never once activate the kitten thing and it’s still worth placing which a lot of you can’t seem to grasp the idea of.
Stop being lazy and demanding the devs to change the skill to play the way YOU want it to play, and start using it the way it’s meant to be used. It’ll give you much better results.

Yes indeed, and whose fault is that? We main rangers know that the area of effect is so small that doesn’t worth to cast the active ability. So why bother.
Also we are not asking to change anything, We ask to bring back something that it was already there.
.

It’s almost like you don’t even play ranger, how can you be so oblivious? We have very good node defending builds, we always have, we can have quite a bit of sustain and evasion to make us good at holding points for quite some time. Can our glass bow do this? kitten no, but our condi builds have been very effective side point holders for quite some time. Yes, we are not warriors or guardians, we do not have the raw passive defense they do, we are rangers, we dodge most of the enemy damage and heal it back up.

As for spirit placement, it’s not you choosing exactly where it is, but this is another example where most of you can’t figure out very consistent patterns. If you haven’t noticed, your spirits will spawn in the same position to your character EVERY time you cast them. Utilize that, it makes it very easy to put the spirit in the general area you want it. Will it be pin point effective like a ground targeted spell? kitten no, i’d like to be able to spawn a spirit within like a 600yd radius of me, but it doesn’t work that way, stop crying and kittening that it doesn’t and just deal with it.

Your other points are just really bad, you complain that we’d have to be out of melee a lot, yeah, we know, you have a ranged weapon and a pet so you can at least deal SOME damage as you’re replacing the buff for your group. In case you didn’t realize, sacrificing some damage from one player in the group is well worth buffing the rest of the group.

Also, me and several other rangers aren’t asking to change anything about spirits, we ask to bring back something that was already there.

They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna

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Posted by: Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582

@ anduriell

You really gotta stop coming to the forum and making a fool out of yourself with your mindless QQ and finger pointing.

Spirits now more pointless than ever

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Posted by: Vox Hollow.2736

Vox Hollow.2736

As for spirit placement, it’s not you choosing exactly where it is, but this is another example where most of you can’t figure out very consistent patterns. If you haven’t noticed, your spirits will spawn in the same position to your character EVERY time you cast them. Utilize that, it makes it very easy to put the spirit in the general area you want it….

…not that I intend to defend someone I otherwise disagree with, but, I might have to devil’s advocate this point.

I mean, I really sat down one day and tried to puzzle out the minion summoning circle. And my god….this thing. /shakes at fist at the sky. This Thing!
Here’s some of my notes on it:

If you pretend your character is at the center of a clock and the direction it’s facing is 12:00. The summoning slots are: 2:00, 5:00, 7:00, 11:00. Pets and Spirits both occupy these slots.

Pet 1 you slot on your build menu favors 11:00
Pet 2 you slot on your build menu favors 2:00
If they don’t have their favorite spot, they’ll summon where they have space. If you slot a new pet over the current pet that’s out, they’ll switch.

   11’oclock Pet Spirit Summoning pattern:
      2:00, 7:00, 5:00, 11:00 (farther away from you)

   *2’oclock Pet Spirit Summoning pattern:
      11:00, 7:00, 5:00, 2:00 (farther away from you)

   *5’oclock Pet Spirit Summoning pattern:
      11:00, 2:00, 7:00, 11:00 (farther away from you)

   *7’oclock Pet Spirit Summoning pattern:
      11:00, 2:00, 5:00, 11:00 (farther away from you)

Once a pet or spirit has ‘occupied’ that location, they occupy it regardless of how things actually happen spatially in the game. That is to say, if I have a 2’oclock Pet and summoned Spirit1 at 7’oclock, the next summon will appear at 5’oclock of me even if I’ve moved and turned around. It’s as though the summoning circle rotates with you, and you have to remember which slots are ‘taken’. Spirits continue to occupy their slot until their model disappears from the playing field.

I’ve spent agggeesss trying to parse this out to something in the stratosphere of comfortable, and the best I’ve gotten is doing a few well choreographed jigs to stack them on top of eachother for novelty’s sake.

This reads like a series of independent design decisions that happened to coalesce into something unfortunate, not a definite refined intentional direction. And that happens in game design and it’s fine…for a 1000 radius buff. A 240 radius active effect is a whole different story. The mechanics of spirits is one rewarding placement, but precise placement is the summoning circle’s specific downfall*, causing spirits to have a skill curve with the top shaved off in the most frustrating way. This doesn’t seem to me like an ‘oh well’ kind of misstep, this seems like a ‘hollar and rattle the jailhouse bars’ kind of misstep.

If nothing else we could be getting Engineer turret code and have spirits appear directly in front of us and stack on top of eachother. No balance consideration, no technology request to programming, just a straight conversion that suits a precision play-style more accurately.

(*I mean, sure, I recognize there’s a pattern; but I recognize that it’s crazy).

(edited by Vox Hollow.2736)

Spirits now more pointless than ever

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Posted by: Mcrocha.3891

Mcrocha.3891

Local Charr Ruins Everything

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Posted by: SkiTz.4590

SkiTz.4590

No, mainly due to the fact no one even runs spirits in PvP

Probably overlooked by anet since why would they even bother testing spirits in PvP before implementing the changes in game right? Who in their right minds would use spirits in PvP lol

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Posted by: Mcrocha.3891

Mcrocha.3891

No, mainly due to the fact no one even runs spirits in PvP

Probably overlooked by anet since why would they even bother testing spirits in PvP before implementing the changes in game right? Who in their right minds would use spirits in PvP lol

I quoted bug because it could be intentional lol, I have no idea why it would be, but just wanted peeps to be aware of this if they pvp.

Local Charr Ruins Everything