Guild Wars 2

I realize by the title alone, this might seem a bit disjointed. I didn’t want to make an umbrella post for every single issue the ranger currently has, as that would be somewhat of a novel. Instead, I’m going to focus on two minor issues, and then one major one. (Note: After realizing how long this is going to be anyways, I’ll break it into different posts at least.)

Large Swords – the Greatsword, obviously. This weapon is in a weird spot – I myself enjoy the theme and the idea behind it, but it is mechanically weak and the abilities are a bit disjointed. There is no pet synergy, and the chain is very defensively focused with evasion.

Ability 1 (Chain):

Honestly, the damage is just incredibly low. It’s low relative to other “melee” Greatsword users, and it’s low compared to the Ranger’s 1H sword. Yes, the Ranger has a 20 range advantage on two of the auto-attacks compared to the Guardian and Warrior (The Mesmer is a bit of an incomparable here). No, that does not justify the greatly diminished damage output. No, the pet does not make up for it either. The pet does not bring much AE damage to the table, and it is ridiculously squishy in any real fight. There is also a lack of synergy between Greatsword and Pet – compare this to the 1H sword where the pet gets Might as part of the autoattack chain.

Ability 2 (Maul):

I don’t have any huge complaints on this one, other than it’s another move which sort of pigeonholes the Ranger into condition-based play. I do have a recommendation for this though which I will get to later.

Ability 3 (Swoop):

No real complaints here, it’s good damage, just boring.

Ability 4 (Counterattack):

While the parry move is nice, the immobility is a bit much. It’s really far too telegraphed and the resulting “punishment” is very low for something with such a high cooldown.

The crippling throw I’m alright with, but it’s an awkward mechanic.

Ability 5 (Hilt Bash):

Cooldown is way way way too high for not at least being a guaranteed stun from any side. The secondary pet buff is nearly negligible.

Suggestions:

1: Autoattack chain damage needs to be increased, possibly by 20 or 25% to be at all viable compared to the 1H sword. Autoattack range can be set to 130.

2: Generally alright, should give a stack of Might to the ranger’s pet.

Or, combining 1 and 2 (which I realize is much more work due to animation changes) – remove Evasion from the autoattack chain, have it add a stack of Might to the pet, and add Evasion to Maul. Mechanically this raises the skill cap of the Ranger as it allows for a reliable dodge maneuver rather than relying on the random timing of the autoattack chain.

3: Swoop is pretty good, really. Looking at some of the other “high” damage GS abilities such as 100 blades, I wonder if maybe changing the cooldown to 10 seconds might be in order. Other than that, giving the Pet Fury (5s) on a Swoop would be nice and promote more offensive play.

4: I understand the need for a high cooldown on Counterattack, but there really isn’t much punishment here. Adding Quickness (2s) for both the Ranger and Pet on a successful Parry would actually force other players in PvP to not simply take the weak hit and continue on.

Now, regarding the Crippling Throw – if the throw is used, the Cooldown should instead be 10 seconds, not 20.

5: For a 30 second Cooldown, this is weak. Allow it to Stun from any side (I promise you, taking a hilt in the face is just as painful as one in the back of the head, if not more so.) Give the pet 3 stacks of Might for 10s – this promotes pet synergy and honestly compared to the current combo of Bash -> Lynx Pounce (which can be done, just not reliably due to F2 issues) is probably not more damage overall.

Now for post 2#…

Small Bows – the Short Bow, of course. For the most part, this is actually a good weapon. It suffers from the 25-stack bleed mechanic in large-scale engagements, but that’s not a criticism directly on the weapon.

I only really have a couple of comments on this one, as for the most part it’s a good weapon.

Ability 1 (Crossfire): Please allow bleeding from any side. There’s really no sense in requiring flanking – the Warrior Rifle does not, and realistically at level 80, pets hold aggro so horribly that even using the Shortbow in open-world PvE becomes an exercise in annoyance. In almost all cases, Rangers will still endeavor to achieve flanking if they possess the +10% flanking damage Trait – this change would only mean that their damage is not completely ruined if unable to flank.

Ability 5 (Concussion Shot): As with the Greatsword, for being on a 25 second Cooldown, this should stun from any side. Other than that, it is fine, as it is a ranged attack – no real secondary effect is required.

EDIT: I wanted to be a bit more clear on what the core problem is with the autoattack. This is sort of a “carrot vs stick” thing. Take another flanking ability – Backstab – it’s double damage and returns initiative if you flank. That however is not an autoattack ability – it’s a “skill shot,” and there’s an incentive (a carrot) to perform it from the proper side. (It’s a Stealth skill and is obviously not intended to be the bulk of a Thief’s damage, only resulting in a “spike” if played well.)

Contrast this with the shortbow. There is incentive to flank the mob, for the bleed. However, the shortbow’s autoattack damage is quite obviously balanced with the intention that it will be bleeding the mob. So the incentive here is a perverse one – performing the action while flanking is not “a carrot” – it is not expected return above and beyond the normal balance point of the weapon. Rather, failing to flank results in horrible performance (the stick).

Lastly…the Questionable Utility part.

Conceptually, the Ranger has some good utility, and with enough patience and flawless execution, it can be used to good effect. So there are two real sections I’d like to address here: Traps and Spirits.

Traps can be great, they really can be. But the traits are a bit disjointed (this can be argued in general), but I’ll point out a few changes that I feel would encourage a lot more trap-play.

The trap traits are good, but would benefit from some compacting and reorganization.

-On the surface, Traps should be considered as “Survival” skills. They are mechanically somewhat similar to Muddy Terrain, and having that lumped under a common Cooldown reduction trait would be helpful for a trap-based playstyle.

-The trap traits should be compacted into a single, Master-tier trait. Moving them to survival necessitates that the 20% CD reduction be dropped from the Grandmaster Tier. Compressing the remaining traits into a single one would result in one “Trap Mastery” Trait with:

50% Larger Traps
2x Trap Duration
Ground Targeted Traps

That’s too much for a single trait, I agree. So that last part – Ground Targeted Traps – should be how all traps work by default. Muddy Terrain already is ground targeted (and as mentioned, there is existing similarity), and Ranger NPCs all seem to have ranged traps (Thanks, Ascalon Catacombs).

Would that make traps too powerful? Not really, actually it wouldn’t make them any more powerful than they already are – the numbers themselves can remain unchanged. Would it encourage more use from non-trap specced Rangers? Yes it would, as it plays a bit better with deployment.

Alright, so what about Spirits?

Spirits are the ugly one – by all reasonable metrics , they are mechanically worse than Banners.

Honestly, these see so little use right now that I’m not sure where to start with them. Even without getting into the fairly weak abilities on the Spirits themselves, they should behave as Guardian Spirit Weapons do – invulnerable and mobile. There should not be a trait to increase their HP – they shouldn’t be attackable. There should likewise not be a trait to allow them to move, as they should be able to by default.

Now, take another bit of usefulness from the Guardian Spirit Weapons – using the activated abilities should poof the Spirit. Done, fair enough. Then, since we removed those Spirit traits from earlier, reintroduce a Spirit-based trait that works in a manner similar to “Eternal Spirit.”

Yes, cribbing from the Guardian may seem unfortunate, and from what I can tell, a lot of Guardians don’t even really like Spirit Weapons, but this is actually how bad Ranger Spirits are right now.

Even just going with those mechanics – the spirits themselves need a bit of work. Mechanically, unreliable buffs flat out aren’t seen to be as good as something reliable, although that may depend on the effect. So, I’ll go Spirit by Spirit and add some suggestions. I’ll admit that these aren’t necessarily perfect or ideal, but I’m trying not to deviate too far from the existing mechanics:

Sun Spirit: Upon summoning, the next attack made by the Ranger, Pet, and nearby allies should grant burning. Beyond that, the 20% is fair, although the Spirit is still somewhat redundant if anyone else is providing a source of Burn damage.

Stone Spirit: Upon summoning, grant 5s (maybe 10s) of Protection to the Ranger, Pet, and all nearby allies. 20% from there on.

Frost Spirit: Upon summoning, the next attack made by the Ranger, Pet, and all allies should apply Chilled (1s). 20% chance to chill on attacks from there on.

Storm Spirit: No effect on summoning. Change effect from Swiftness (3s) to Quickness (1s). 20% to apply on attacks.

Spirit of Nature: This one is okay. The only thing it can directly be compared to is the Battle Standard, in which case the major functions are roughly equivalent, and the ongoing bonuses are reasonably incomparable.

In general, while I don’t love random buffs, it is fairly clear that the original intent was for them to act in this manner. By providing a guaranteed effect on Summon, they act in a sense as Warrior Banners do – Banners provide a Burst combo on activation in addition to their over time buffs – the suggested changes above encourage more skill-based play in using spirits, as choosing when to summon them (and use their activated abilities) matters.

TL, DR: Nope, no summary. Sorry.

So, if you read all of that, thanks very much. I’d like to hear your feedback on it. Of course, it’s probably all a bit of a pipe dream and a lot of rambling, but if anyone at ANet takes a look at this and comes away with even one thing that they like and agree with, I’ll be happy.

I agree with OP. Greatsword needs a buff. I really love being able to use greatsword on my ranger but agree, damage is too low to use it.

I was expecting another whine post but I have to agree with a lot of this. Rangers aren’t broken by any means, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t get a little help in certain areas.

Crossfire applying bleeds from any angle would be removing a gigantic headache with using it as it stands right now.

Illushia.3721:

I was expecting another whine post but I have to agree with a lot of this. Rangers aren’t broken by any means, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t get a little help in certain areas.

Thanks. I also agree that Rangers aren’t broken, and I feel that I can hold my own reasonably well. However, there’s sort of an underlying issue with the Ranger profession of systematic undertuning followed by compensation through Traits.

Personally I think we see this with Traps and Spirits. If left untraited, traps are so gimmicky and situational that they will almost never find a spot on your bar. The issue is that the Traits can be used to make them good, but the problem is that it takes 2 Traits to go from Mediocre -> Good.

In general, Traits should take somewhat useful abilities and make them better. They shouldn’t be used as a crutch to take bad or mediocre abilities and make them feasible. Even discounting how bad Spirits are right now, they still require a 30 point investment (movement) to even learn just how ineffective they really are.

The shortbow I already did the carrot vs stick thing, and I think it holds true. I will admit that rangers are somewhat harder to balance for, as we do not have a resource which corresponds to Initiative. However, the fact that the shortbow’s damage is already impacted by the Bleed cap just makes the flanking requirement a bit steep.

I use the Spike Trap rather often, because it’s aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawesome for kiting mobs. Between that, shortbow jumpy-fasty thing, crippling shot, and the daze, I can keep people off of me for a very long time. And if absolutely necessary I can Axe/Warhorn for singletarget DoT, bleeds, and a freeze, then swap back for more slowing action.

Edit: But yes, ground-targetting built in would be awesome for using it more often during bosses.

Illushia.3721:

I use the Spike Trap rather often, because it’s aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawesome for kiting mobs. Between that, shortbow jumpy-fasty thing, crippling shot, and the daze, I can keep people off of me for a very long time. And if absolutely necessary I can Axe/Warhorn for singletarget DoT, bleeds, and a freeze, then swap back for more slowing action.

Edit: But yes, ground-targetting built in would be awesome for using it more often during bosses.

Agreed that Spike Trap has a use in kiting, and it does provide some damage. But I would imagine that you could achieve a similar result with Muddy Terrain as well, in addition to covering a much larger area. (I actually use Muddy Terrain myself – with the 20% survival CD reduction, it’s at 24s vs Spike Trap’s 25, covers way more ground, and I can circle strafe the poor target caught inside if I feel like it.)

Although, it’s worth mentioning the 1s immobilize on Spike Trap. Even so, I think it’s a much more interesting mechanic to be able to lob them and would give Rangers more tactical options in WvW beyond Longbow at range 1500. Speccing for traps would come at the cost of offense or defense, so I don’t think the balance would be upset here.

I used Spike over muddy because it does bleed damage(I’m shortbow so I went Condition/Power out the wazoo).

Otherwise yeah. Good post. And stuff.

I agree almost 100% with everything in this post. Ranger is a good class and I don’t think it’s horribly broken or anything… but it feels like we don’t have a large amount of viable builds for high end PvE and PvP because of some of the issues listed above.

I personally really like my Trap spec with Melee as my primary weapon… but I am frequently irritated with my melee options. Greatsword has the issues listed above with the damage feeling too low (probably an after effect from nerfing it from it’s horribly OP state in earlier BWEs) but 1h Sword has the issue with the Auto Attack Chain making you lose your mobility. Even though I want to play more in melee, I always find myself falling back to shortbow, as it kills noticeably faster than my melee option usually does.

I also wrote a post on Ranger Spirits and agree 100% on the things here as well. Spirits as they are probably need to be looked at right after the Pet F2 issues, as it is probably the single biggest issue concerning ranger Utility behind Pets.

Good suggestions all around. Shortbow auto always applying bleeds might be too strong in pvp when combined with quickness, but given pet attack unresponsiveness this is probably ok.

My only suggestion is for one of the GS autos or GS 2 should apply cripple. It’s not really feasible to use GS 4 for crippling and otherwise you get kited a ton thanks to no built in slow.

It might just be me, but I actually prefer having traps that aren’t ground targeted. They’re one of the few abilities I can “blind fire” on my Ranger without having to position my cursor or twist my torso to get a line on the target, which is helpful when kiting.

I guess you can do that with GT too, to some extent, but I find it results in the occasional wacky positioning.

Fuuga.3287:

Good suggestions all around. Shortbow auto always applying bleeds might be too strong in pvp when combined with quickness, but given pet attack unresponsiveness this is probably ok.

My only suggestion is for one of the GS autos or GS 2 should apply cripple. It’s not really feasible to use GS 4 for crippling and otherwise you get kited a ton thanks to no built in slow.

Given the current PvP meta of condition curing, the shortbow change would have little impact. As it stands, it is limited to ambush engagements and chaotic group battles where it is possible to flank. I love the idea of a condition damage build, but this is somewhat a 100 Blades fallacy – any reasonably competent player will negate it. They will not leave their back open to you, and you will not bleed them. The difference between this and 100 Blades is that dodging 100 Blades doesn’t ruin the Greatsword’s overall PvP viability.

As far as a cripple on GS auto, I feel that’s a bit much. That’s really an AE cripple, and that would be devestating in PvP. Swoop already provides a method for rangers to avoid being kited too badly, and if ranged traps are the standard, that gives rangers another anti-kite method as well as battlefield control.

What I am attempting to do is give suggestions on how to raise the “skill ceiling” of the profession while keeping the mechanics interesting. Swoop and ranged traps provide an anti-kite mechanic which can again be countered by the other player (perma-cripple really can’t be), leading to a more interesting dynamic.

On that note, that is why I’m really not happy with the 20% random chance effect on spirits – if ANet is envisioning ESport level play with PvP, that kind of randomness in class utility simply can’t exist and the class remain viable at that level. Competitive gaming is a lot like science – the same inputs (meaning battlefield conditions) should produce the same results. Randomness should not play a major role, and currently with Spirits, it does. Assuming evenly matched teams and the same keyboard inputs and damage rolls every time from both sides – the simple random chance of a Spirit providing (or not) a buff at any given moment is able to change the winning side.

SpectacularYak.6518:

It might just be me, but I actually prefer having traps that aren’t ground targeted. They’re one of the few abilities I can “blind fire” on my Ranger without having to position my cursor or twist my torso to get a line on the target, which is helpful when kiting.

I guess you can do that with GT too, to some extent, but I find it results in the occasional wacky positioning.

Once you get used it, it’s actually pretty easy to get the GT traps to work exactly how you want them to. Keep in mind that you can double tap the button to instantly throw on cursor target. Again, this is partially a skill ceiling consideration, but it also makes them more viable for things outside of kiting.

If you ever played Mario Kart, you know that there’s skill involved in throwing banana peels in front of you or launching green shells behind you – GT traps are an analog of that. Not inherently more powerful, and in a lot of cases harder to use, but it adds another dimension of play.

I like the idea of bleed on hit with shortbow. But I think it would be better if we got a buff on the critical to bleed trait. ie 3sec bleed on every critical hit.

I really love your points, and read your entire post (except for the spirits, I hate spirits :P).

I completely agree with the flanking side of our abilities; its just not unnecessary for us to be put up with that kind of unreliability for no good purpose.

Now lets see if ArenaNet uses these forums to improve the game

I have to add though;

I really hope they buff the 1H sword build, because as of now its just not viable.
Not because it doesn’t do decent damage, but because everything is based on such gimmicky and broken movement in the abilities that it often screws up whatever you are doing at that time. A single ability like the serpent strike would be an amazing gap closer by itself, but theres no need to jump to your target TWICE with the 1 auto attack ratio of the 1H sword.

I love melee ranger builds, and hopefully ANet will change them to allow rangers to preform on equal grounds with these builds.

Do you know how much damage Crossfire does if you flank your target? It’s on par with the Warrior’s or Guardian’s Greatsword #1 but with 1200 range; if the condition for the bleed is removed it would had to be toned down to be put in line with other ranged options.

I would rather give the Longbow some love; Long Range Shots deals less damage than Crossfire even if both hit the target from the front and more than 1000+ range away. Increase the damage so it’s at least not subpar in that situation.

My main incomprehension about the trap traits is why are they in the tree that increases Precision and Prowess which both add next to nothing to traps?!

Artbeard.4319:

I really love your points, and read your entire post (except for the spirits, I hate spirits :P).

I really hope they buff the 1H sword build, because as of now its just not viable.
Not because it doesn’t do decent damage, but because everything is based on such gimmicky and broken movement in the abilities that it often screws up whatever you are doing at that time.

The fact that you didn’t even read the Spirits says a lot about them I feel.

And yeah, I agree that the 1H sword is numerically sound and mechanically flawed. The loss of control needs to be looked into, but I didn’t want to expound on that with this series of posts. I might make another for that.

DesertRose.2031:

Do you know how much damage Crossfire does if you flank your target? It’s on par with the Warrior’s or Guardian’s Greatsword #1 but with 1200 range; if the condition for the bleed is removed it would had to be toned down to be put in line with other ranged options.

I would rather give the Longbow some love; Long Range Shots deals less damage than Crossfire even if both hit the target from the front and more than 1000+ range away. Increase the damage so it’s at least not subpar in that situation.

My main incomprehension about the trap traits is why are they in the tree that increases Precision and Prowess which both add next to nothing to traps?!

Yes – the theoretical maximum is around 840 DPS if you are fully and completely condition specced. If geared more reasonably, it’s probably around 600ish. On the low end, it’s 280 DPS from bleeds. Maybe add another 250 or so for the actual direct damage of the arrows. In the extreme case, is this on par with Guardian and Warrior Greatsword? Yes it is…except it’s not AE. Remind me again how much less damage they do if not flanking.

Want to take a guess at the theoretical maximum bleed DPS of a warrior rifle? It’s about the same. They shoot slower but their bleed lasts 6 seconds, not 3. They can stack just as many. The reason you don’t see it as an issue is because almost all warriors use Berserkers gear; they don’t build for condition damage. They can get away with that because they have way higher base armor and HP when compared to rangers. (You also don’t see it because they have other options which make the rifle look so-so.)

I’m not trying to segway that – warriors aren’t necessarily OP, but they are definitely the most complete class.

Regarding the longbow – yeah it needs a bit of love as well. But if you have a power/crit build meant to use it, it will outdamage a shortbow at range 1000+. Probably not by as much as it should, I will grant.

Geez, nothing but complaints in these forums. I don’t have anything to say about your comments but I love my ranger!

spayced.2016:

Geez, nothing but complaints in these forums. I don’t have anything to say about your comments but I love my ranger!

Let me guess… you run a condition build, don’t you?

spayced.2016:

Geez, nothing but complaints in these forums. I don’t have anything to say about your comments but I love my ranger!

I love my country, but I still vote.

Don’t mistake objective criticism for unwarranted complaining. If I didn’t like the class, I wouldn’t play one, and I definitely wouldn’t be level 80. ANet is a pretty competent group of devs, and one thing I sure hope they have learned is to listen to the people who know what they’re talking about. It took Blizzard a while to figure that out with Diablo III, and that nearly killed the game. 1.0.4 is such a huge overhaul that it may as well be Diablo IV. (Sidenote: Even in Diablo, they realized that pets taking AE damage was unfair.)

I’m actually a fan of the more defensive feel of the Ranger’s greatsword. It’s different than everyone else’s greatsword and feels like a uniquely Rangery sort of use of such a large, cumbersome, generally un-Rangery weapon.

I like the evasion built into the autoattack chain – it’s harder to time it properly to deal with single large hits a’la boss whacks, but that’s not really its purpose. I use Counter and Hilt bash for those. The AA evasion, on the other hand, makes itself felt when I’m hip-deep in meanie-kittens and getting attacked on all sides.

That said, while I like it, I agree that it needs help. Swoop has some funky targeting issues that could use resolving, Counter is just weird and frankly kinda contradicts the weapon’s function – why, exactly, does a greatsword ranger want to kick his enemy out of his weapon’s reach? – and Hilt Bash has way too much cooldown for not really doing much. You can’t usually time it sufficiently to catch your pet’s big attacks anyways. The fact that said interaction is the only pet interaction bothers me.

I’d work the greatsword a little differently myself, though. Up the AA damage for the thing and keep its evasion. Swoop works – it’s a little boring, but it’s a nice long-range lunge with solid-if-unexceptional damage. Maul could use an extra stack of bleeding or two – it’s where the greatsword’s damage is supposed to be, so why is it so…meh? Still, mechanically fine if numerically a little blah.

What I’d like is for Counter’s knockback to flush itself. Instead, a successful counterattack gives the Ranger Protection for, say…five seconds. That’d give it a lot more flexibility – use it strategically to counter single large attacks, or hit it in a scrum, counter whatever pokes you first and get the Protection to help blunt the onslaught. I’d also like to see Crippling Throw either cut Counter’s recharge in half, as has been suggested, or do a good bit more damage. Right now about all it’s good for is finishing a running whatsit you don’t feel like chasing down or getting a bit of damage from a whiffed Counter. Neither of those is a task that should be encouraged.

As for Hilt Bash, if they insist on keeping the flanking thing, then I’d much prefer for it to be a stun in general and a knockdown when flanking. A 30s recharge for a one-second Daze that deals no real damage is steep, and it’s not honestly that much better as a stun. A knock, on the other hand, is absolutely worth trying for the flank to get, and at the same time getting the stun if you whiff it or don’t have time to flank isn’t too bad. The pet interact on that could, perhaps, change to Protection or Regen, to help emphasize the more defensive/controller-y aspects of the thing. personally, I’d like to see a Blind on it for the same reason – would let you exercise a lot of control for your 30s, effectively null-damage control skill, and make the playerwant to actually learn to use it well instead of just A.) throwing it out there because it’s a skill and why not, or B.) forgetting it exists.

DevilLordLaser.8619:

I’m actually a fan of the more defensive feel of the Ranger’s greatsword. It’s different than everyone else’s greatsword and feels like a uniquely Rangery sort of use of such a large, cumbersome, generally un-Rangery weapon.

I like the evasion built into the autoattack chain – it’s harder to time it properly to deal with single large hits a’la boss whacks, but that’s not really its purpose. I use Counter and Hilt bash for those. The AA evasion, on the other hand, makes itself felt when I’m hip-deep in meanie-kittens and getting attacked on all sides.

That said, while I like it, I agree that it needs help. Swoop has some funky targeting issues that could use resolving, Counter is just weird and frankly kinda contradicts the weapon’s function – why, exactly, does a greatsword ranger want to kick his enemy out of his weapon’s reach? – and Hilt Bash has way too much cooldown for not really doing much. You can’t usually time it sufficiently to catch your pet’s big attacks anyways. The fact that said interaction is the only pet interaction bothers me.

I’d work the greatsword a little differently myself, though. Up the AA damage for the thing and keep its evasion. Swoop works – it’s a little boring, but it’s a nice long-range lunge with solid-if-unexceptional damage. Maul could use an extra stack of bleeding or two – it’s where the greatsword’s damage is supposed to be, so why is it so…meh? Still, mechanically fine if numerically a little blah.

What I’d like is for Counter’s knockback to flush itself. Instead, a successful counterattack gives the Ranger Protection for, say…five seconds. That’d give it a lot more flexibility – use it strategically to counter single large attacks, or hit it in a scrum, counter whatever pokes you first and get the Protection to help blunt the onslaught. I’d also like to see Crippling Throw either cut Counter’s recharge in half, as has been suggested, or do a good bit more damage. Right now about all it’s good for is finishing a running whatsit you don’t feel like chasing down or getting a bit of damage from a whiffed Counter. Neither of those is a task that should be encouraged.

As for Hilt Bash, if they insist on keeping the flanking thing, then I’d much prefer for it to be a stun in general and a knockdown when flanking. A 30s recharge for a one-second Daze that deals no real damage is steep, and it’s not honestly that much better as a stun. A knock, on the other hand, is absolutely worth trying for the flank to get, and at the same time getting the stun if you whiff it or don’t have time to flank isn’t too bad. The pet interact on that could, perhaps, change to Protection or Regen, to help emphasize the more defensive/controller-y aspects of the thing. personally, I’d like to see a Blind on it for the same reason – would let you exercise a lot of control for your 30s, effectively null-damage control skill, and make the playerwant to actually learn to use it well instead of just A.) throwing it out there because it’s a skill and why not, or B.) forgetting it exists.

I agree with this post 100%! ANET please listen to this post.

DevilLordLaser.8619:

I’m actually a fan of the more defensive feel of the Ranger’s greatsword. It’s different than everyone else’s greatsword and feels like a uniquely Rangery sort of use of such a large, cumbersome, generally un-Rangery weapon.

(and other stuff)

I agree with the sentiment; that’s really why I suggested keeping Evasion, albeit just moving it. In all honesty, moving it to Maul would be a ton of work and unlikely, but I just threw it out there as another option. It’s a nice touch, I just feel that the auto-attack chain also needs some offensive punch to it. A large elegant weapon is neat and all, but it needs damage, and it needs pet synergy.

While I wouldn’t object to more Bleed damage on Maul, I don’t think that Bleed damage is the way to go with it. It also puts us in that unenviable situation of the Greatsword being another weapon that loses a lot of effectiveness at max bleed stack. If we’re going to insist on some sort of condition infliction, I think adding some Vulnerability into the mix would be nice. Currently, rangers don’t have much outside of the longbow that plays into power/crit as opposed to conditions. And on certain dungeon fights which I will not spoil, that is quite problematic.

On counterattack, I’m not sure how I feel about protection – the block itself is some mitigation, I was really looking for a bit more punch to the whole thing. I wouldn’t be averse to both. The ranger is in a weird position in that we’re “tanky,” but not really. There are times where it almost feels like Rangers should maybe be in the high HP group.** In any case, the knockback is somewhat silly, I will concede.

Hilt Bash I’m totally in agreement with you on, changing it to Stun with a Flanking Knockdown would actually justify a positioning requirement, although again I’d prefer some better pet synergy. The 50% single attack boost is just noise – with my suggestion, I don’t really know if 3 Might stacks is a lot better or not, but it’s much more tangible and usable with non-cat pets. It also doesn’t rely on F2 execution wizardry for effectiveness.

**Just to point out, while I’m not seriously saying “OMG hey we really need this,” it would create a more interesting dynamic in that you’d have a Heavy/Medium/Light armor combo at both High and Low HP pools. Adding a ninth class with Heavy Armor and Medium HP (in an expansion or something) would then provide some nice triple-symmetry.