Opening Strike made baseline. Like Steal on Thief, Aegis on Guard, Rangers will always have Opening Strike (OS). Because Vulnerability will now affect conditions, OS shouldn’t be tied to the Power-based trait line, Marksmanship. The following are a list of proposed trait changes that would incorporate OS into each line, solidifying it’s presence.
Opening Strike: Apply 5 stacks of Vulnerability for 10s. Recharges after XX seconds. (The increase in duration to OS would compensate for the loss of +Condition Duration in trait lines.)
MARKSMANSHIP:
- Minor Adept – Gain X Power for Xs when using Opening Strike.
- Minor Master – Gain X Ferocity for Xs when using Opening Strike.
SKIRMISHING:
- Minor Adept – Opening Strike applies X amount of bleeding for Xs.
- Minor Master – Gain Fury and Swiftness when swapping weapons on combat.
WILDERNESS SURVIVAL:
- Minor Adept – Opening Strike immobilizes your target for 1-2s.
- Minor Master – You and your pet gain protection when you dodge roll. Endurance Regeneration increased by 50% while protected.
NATURE MAGIC:
- Minor Master – Opening Strike applies an addition 5-10 more stacks of Vulnerability.
- Minor GM – Any boon you get is shared with your pet, and boons applied by you and your pet last longer.
- Bountiful Hunter: This trait seems fairly trash, Rangers lack consistent direct damage with basically all weapons except for LB. GS is arguable, but the evades, block, and stun make up for it’s lack of damage on the auto attack. Remove this trait and increase the damage of all weapons except LB (and maybe GS) by just a tiny bit, any thing about 5% might been too strong. Replace this trait with: Your pet deals more condition damage and conditions applied by your pet last longer.
BEASTMASTERY:
- Minor Adept – Pets have Opening Strike and inherit all traits affecting Opening Strike.
(Can anyone defend why Pets would need quickness when the player is downed?) - Minor GM – Pets move 30% faster, deal more damage on critical hits, and OS recharges 15% faster.
Commentary:
- If Opening Strike were to be part of the Ranger’s core, it needs to have consistent presence. The double digit recharge would compensate for the lack of traits that would refresh OS.
- Now that all minor traits are inherited upon specializing in a particular trait line, I feel like it’s unnecessary to have consistent progression among Minor Traits. Players who aren’t level 80 will only suffer from this change, but removals come with additions and hopefully, they won’t suffer too much
. - Wilderness Survival – The change to the Minor Master trait will make the passive endurance regeneration less brain dead, but more rewarding.
- Nature Magic – has a lot of support and pet synergy so if more stacks of vulnerability are added to OS, then pet’s (and other people) would benefit from this support specialization. Also, there is no support for pets that apply conditions! So the change to Bountiful hunter would compensate for this.
- The combination of these two trait lines would synergize very well, however, there is little to no accommodation for dealing damage. Players would lose a lot of damage, but gain superior player support/sustain while being able to fortify your pet with Major traits.
Thanks, I look forward to your thoughts! I hope it’s not too late to propose changes.
PS, had to reduce “[Suggestion]” to “[Sugg]” to maintain a meaningful title.