Guild Wars 2

I’ll start by saying what changes there were for the Ranger were great. Good on you, Irenio for some of the Shout reworks and buffs to traits. I’m not sure about other Rangers, but I felt as though other small adjustments could have been made elsewhere that would have had a significant, and beneficial impact. I’ll elaborate.

Main-Hand Axe After-Casts
I was surprised “Throw Axe” on Warrior had the after-cast delay reduced by 0.5s while the Ranger main-hand axe received not a single after-cast delay reduction, even though both the Warrior “Throw Axe” and Ranger “Ricochet” (A1) & “Winter’s Bite” (A3) [used] to share the same drawbacks.

I would propose equal treatment for Quality of Life of having Ricochet, Splitblade, and Winter’s Bite have the same amount of after-cast delay reduced, or some after-cast if not 0.5s of it.

Light On Your Feet
Is there a reason why evasion will not be added in order to proc this effect? There is built in evasion for many of our weapons (sword, greatsword, shortbow) that would have further synergy with this trait.

On a side note, the extra condition duration is weak. Could that be changed to condition damage instead so it can further rival Quickdraw to amplify the Ranger playstyle of constant damage vs a utility/burst trait?

Shortbow
Nothing on Shortbow was touched. This is one of the most, if not the most, under-powered weapons of the Ranger. For years, there was a suggestion by the Ranger community on countless occasions of adding smart, and active play to “Concussion Shot” (SB5) by inflicting Confusion when successfully interrupting a foe.

This, in turn, would add to the utility and damage of the Shortbow’s skirmishing playstyle, alongside the already unique flanking criteria of certain moves within the set. I would hope that this would be considered in the next balance update to place Shortbow in a higher relevance in the future, even if it is just a hair higher than it is currently.

Sic ’Em! Unchanged
With the shout reworks, I was hoping “Sic ’Em!” could use some improvement. There were some fine suggestions in the past for this shout, ranging from the pet shadow-stepping to the target (like a skill in GW1) or having the pet reveal enemies around it if the utility were to trigger on activation or reveal enemies in an area if changed to be a ground-target.

However, Sic ‘Em! remains unchanged and the only utility skill across all professions that is a preventative measure against stealth vs an active reveal. Why wasn’t this looked at or changed for something more practical? Even if it was to apply an AOE reveal, the reveal duration could be reduced from 6s down to 4s to compensate depending on the radius and potency.

Some of the Less Used Traits are Hurting More
I’m grateful for the buffs on some traits. Increases to Predator’s Onslaught, Hidden Barbs, and even Primal Reflexes were a nice touch. I cannot thank you enough for those. However, the already weak traits are now even weaker in comparison.

I’m surprised that traits such as Predator’s Instinct wasn’t touched at all. Not even an interval added to ensure it can apply on multiple opponents with their own ICD to make this effective in group fights. What’s even more daunting is the push to make Most Dangerous Game relevant with the change to “Guard!” and its cooldown.

So, now the combo of killing your pet for more Might and being able to linger under 50% (along with any of the other health threshold traits) is a potential combo. It’s interesting, I’ll give it that much, but why wasn’t the simple and effective solution of pulsing Fury (even for 1s) added to this formerly-planned Adept trait knee-jerked into the GM tier?

There was and still is, so much talk of synergy, and for a trait placed so high, there is so little of it. Having synergy with Remorseless would truly make it Most Dangerous during a Game (match).

Again, I really like and appreciate the current changes. You’re our (Ranger) guy, Irenio. Thanks for the work you have done. Hopefully, these points may be touched upon later balance updates. Cheers.

/rant

They did well in buffing the ranger but they did poor on the relevants of the improvements. Totally agree with you especially in case of axe and sb. Sword AA also still needs an improvement and signets and spirits too. Traps could get more love in case of visuals and improvements of there effects (i am talking to you frosttrap) .
A lot of unused traits are not covered and traitlines still have some distinction problems and lack of synergy. I mean look at mesmer and necro, they got a lot if synergy in traits which makes it a hell fun to play, synergy in core and in elite specs and rangers still have issius just with the core class….

I’m happy for every little we got.

We could have been better but I’m fine with current changes.
I just wish they’ll fix all the mess they brought with the patch. Hello Healing Spring that they keep ignoring this whole time. And keep bugging further.

I also thought that the teaser notes from the other week were alluding to more – and was also sad to see no mention of Axe and Shortbow. I have to take LoYF for the peirce and recharge reduction for the Shortbow – it needs more to make it worth the Grandmaster trait – either on evade and dodge as Wonderous says, or add “Positioning requirements no longer apply” (so bleeds etc can proc from anywhere) to make it worthwhile.

The axe trait bugs me the most because it’s one of the traits that needed it the most and had the some of the most obvious solutions to it. Attack speed while wielding an axe (any hand), precision instead of ferocity as a stat boost for each axe wielded (to cater to both power and condi), etc. Instead they slap on some extra ferocity, with no changes to the weapon itself (aftercast issues and the fact that Winter’s Bite should be aoe baseline).

At least shortbow and the skirmishing traits might be looked at in the future.. maybe.. maaaybe……

Well said. You should post this over at @ https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/January-26th-Update-Your-feedback/

They also missed our elite shout for some reason. We Heal as one got a nice buff, then the rest get changed, but they leave our elite skill from the list, a THREE SECOND buff on a 60 sec cooldown. Compare that to Signet of Rage for the Warrior that gets almost the same things we do, bar stability but makes up for it with a passive, that lasts 8 times as long…

Is there a worse trait anywhere in GW2 than Predator’s Instinct? This could be a fun mini-game in LA where you win a bag of masterwork gear for naming a worse trait.

OFFTOPIC

I can’t post a topic or pm people for being suspended multiple times. I do apologize for this off topic question.

Minor concern about Taunt, Namely the beastly warden trait.

How do you make this work with ranged pets?

yes you could swap into them on melee range but that defeats the purpose of having a range pet right?

This trait sucks so much especially on the Spiders since their f2s are venoms.

I don’t know it just feels inefficient on range pets, hell even the bristleback f2 burst, you have to be at the right distance for taunt to affect your foes.

TheydonBois.9208:

They also missed our elite shout for some reason. We Heal as one got a nice buff, then the rest get changed, but they leave our elite skill from the list, a THREE SECOND buff on a 60 sec cooldown. Compare that to Signet of Rage for the Warrior that gets almost the same things we do, bar stability but makes up for it with a passive, that lasts 8 times as long…

3 second buff? I don’t think you understand how the skill work, as the boons are refreshed every 3s
So minimum 9s of swift, stab, fury, if you don’t have boon duration modifiers.

Then throw in Might.

Pet Attacks, might on you.
You attack, Might on Pet.

Use ‘We Heal as One’ and its 25 might in a snap. PLUS more duration for all the other boons (Swift, Fury, Stab) as WHaO ‘copies’ them.

Trait shouts, and you gain more swiftness, AND regen. And -20% CD

Warrior’s SoR has no ‘constant’ application, meaning it can be boon stripped completely. We have a few applications, so it won’t be stripped. Plus, we have stability, which is a very useful boon, and again, warriors get like 5 stacks of might, while we can get up to 25.

So in short, let’s pretend it’s TRAITED:

Might (8s, stacks anywhere from 1 to 25 depending on attack speed)
Fury 9s
Swiftness 19s (9s + Trait)
Stability 9s (3 stacks, that get ‘refreshed’ every 3s)
Regeneration 10s (Trait)

All that, on a 48s CD

‘Strength of the Pack’ is pretty darn solid

ProtoMarcus.7649:

TheydonBois.9208:

They also missed our elite shout for some reason. We Heal as one got a nice buff, then the rest get changed, but they leave our elite skill from the list, a THREE SECOND buff on a 60 sec cooldown. Compare that to Signet of Rage for the Warrior that gets almost the same things we do, bar stability but makes up for it with a passive, that lasts 8 times as long…

3 second buff? What?

It’s 3s, but that, THREE TIMES. So minimum 9s of swift, stab, fury, if you don’t have boon duration modifiers.

Then throw in Might.

Pet Attacks, might on you.
You attack, Might on Pet.

Use ‘We Heal as One’ and its 25 might in a snap. PLUS more duration for all the other boons (Swift, Fury, Stab) as WHaO ‘copies’ them.

Trait shouts, and you gain more swiftness, AND regen. And -20% CD

Warrior’s SoR has no ‘constant’ application, meaning it can be boon stripped completely. We have a few applications, so it won’t be stripped. Plus, we have stability, which is a very useful boon, and again, warriors get like 5 stacks of might, while we can get up to 25.

So in short, let’s pretend it’s TRAITED:

Might (8s, stacks anywhere from 1 to 25 depending on attack speed)
Fury 9s
Swiftness 19s (9s + Trait)
Stability 9s (3 stacks, that get ‘refreshed’ every 3s)
Regeneration 10s (Trait)

All that, on a 48s CD

‘Strength of the Pack’ is pretty darn solid

Dude your opinion is Based in what you’re reading on paper and that is not nice at all.
Strength of the pack seems solid it is very weak for the 60 seconds cool down. That shout it is only used for the 9 seconds stab and that’s it.

I would put the stab in any other shout like protect me or guard and change that shout to have the original mechanic in the beta of calling more pet allies to fight for you.

The ranger does not have much access to stab, the signet and the shout are in a very long cooldown. We could say CCs could be its hard counter.
However improve a bit that problem could be nice to make the profession more balanced sbecause other professions have more accessible to stab and insane amount of cc.

I don’t think it’s just used for stab;

It’s an excellent opener for fights, 20%+ Critical Chance, Cannot be CC’d, up to 750+ Power and Condition Damage (if you get 25 stacks of might) and 33% move speed.

Remorseless has excellent synergy with it thanks to the Fury applications
The might stacking is pretty good
Traited regen gives a bit more survival

‘Alpha Strike’ is the skill you’re thinking of, I agree it would’ve been interesting to see it in game. Maybe modifying it to a signet, and making the ‘call 3 animal companions’ its active or something, would be interesting (no idea on the passive though… Pet attacks heal you while you heal the pet on attack? I don’t know).

StickerHappy.8052:

OFFTOPIC

I can’t post a topic or pm people for being suspended multiple times. I do apologize for this off topic question.

Minor concern about Taunt, Namely the beastly warden trait.

How do you make this work with ranged pets?

yes you could swap into them on melee range but that defeats the purpose of having a range pet right?

This trait sucks so much especially on the Spiders since their f2s are venoms.

I don’t know it just feels inefficient on range pets, hell even the bristleback f2 burst, you have to be at the right distance for taunt to affect your foes.

Can anyone answer me?

StickerHappy.8052:

StickerHappy.8052:

OFFTOPIC

I can’t post a topic or pm people for being suspended multiple times. I do apologize for this off topic question.

Minor concern about Taunt, Namely the beastly warden trait.

How do you make this work with ranged pets?

yes you could swap into them on melee range but that defeats the purpose of having a range pet right?

This trait sucks so much especially on the Spiders since their f2s are venoms.

I don’t know it just feels inefficient on range pets, hell even the bristleback f2 burst, you have to be at the right distance for taunt to affect your foes.

Can anyone answer me?

You are pretty much correct. The use of this with Ranged pets is limited.
I use 1 ranged and 1 melee pet for that matter. And I always start with SmokeScale – he can port to his target and immediately taunt him since he sticks to the target. At this point – I’m still at range.
The second taunt usually works out when I need to swap the pet while still being in melee range.

I don’t know – I always use the taunt strategically knowing that my ranged pet has limited use.