Personally, I do not understand why the best buffs we can offer to our team come from a static source, especially considering that our class is designed to be really mobile.
Right now, the effects that our spirits can give are good, but they can be useful only in a pve environment since once you summon them, they will stay in place throughout their lifetime.
So, these are my suggestion for our spirits to make them work in pvp/wvw:
- Instead of summoning a Spirit, our ranger will be surrounded by an “ethereal aura” with the same colour and the form of the spirit we have summoned. These auras will grant the same aoe buffs we have right now, but with less range since we can move while buffing allies;
- Once we are surrounded by these spirits, we can active the second effect exactly like our current Spirits;
- Every “Spirit Aura” can be destroyed. This means, if we take a lot of damage, activated spirits will expire;
- The duration of our spirits in pvp/wvw mode will no longer be 1 minute, but less (like 30 seconds seems reasonable to me). Also cooldowns need to be adjusted;
- Our current Grandmaster Trait “Nature’s Vengeance” will be changed according to these new effects: “Spirits grant a boon to allies around them. Spirit Activating-skills will activate when Spirits are killed. Reduce the recharge of Spirits.”
I think this can be a good option especially if we decide to run with a zerg (this will bring the ranger in meta, for sure).
At the same time, pve will get exactly the same buffs as before and pvp will get more build diversity maybe. Let me know what do you guys think