Guild Wars 2

They said they wanted to add utility.

I have some small hope fo them going after the guard suggestion where you can activate the skill a second time to teleport to the pet (aka fleshworm).

Sic em obviously should stop interrupting other pet actions like f2 and also not require a target.

Protect me needs to get something unique to compete with the much better signet of stone, I’d say no longer stopping cap point contribution and only transfer 66% of the dmg but on shorter cooldown. This would make both skills more different. Obv pet should no longer stop to attack itself.

Last but not least search and rescue needs a much lower cooldown and full rezz speed. 85s is a joke. Since quickness will no longer influence rezzing this would be completely fine. Should propably also get an additional effect like making the pet run to the closest ally and heal him if he is not downed.

What do I expect?
… Literally nothing at all.

I’ll wait and then decide whether to send a hello letter to ANet or start using them. That’s basically all there is to it.

There has been so many suggestions on how to improve them. If none of them get implemented and we get stuck with
“Protect Me now gives your pet regeneration on cast”
I’ll probably get my patience filled and get a break. And put the time and money to my mouth, not to their company. False promises can be cruel and they were aware of that. And I know a nice bunch of people who’ll do the same.

More WHaO or SotP instead. Those two shouts are good, although i don’t see strength of the pack strong enough to be an elite and to have too long CD for the effect provided, that basically is stability.

Could be great if we could get more counter-invisibility mechanics and boon ripping that the ranger has no access to.
A rework of the pet system sooner than later also would be amazing. More control about the pet and better mechanics to make them actually desirable not only to burst one enemy down.

Anyway i hope this patch no only brings shouts rework, but also more changes. Ranger needs a lot of work to bring it in line to the rest of the classes.

I’m hoping the shouts will also pass buffs to everyone around us too.

If Shouts were still associated with Nature Magic I would have guessed Resistance. Sigh.

I’m hoping for something more extensive than slapping some boons on top. Guard, in particular, really needs some core revision.

I expect:
* Search and Rescue recharge time reduced. Healing bonus is lowered to bring it inline with the announced changes to quickness.
* Guard now gives your pet celerity in addition to existing boons. Note this does not reduce the recharge time of F2 skills.
* Protect Me, recharge time increased. Existing damage deflection removed. Instead it now provides 1 pulse of Aegis to 3 nearby allies.
* We Heal As One recharge time increased, to encourage use of other healing skills as an alternative.
* Sic Em now shadow steps your pet to target. This will consolidate the combined bugs of Shadow Step and Pet Pathing, and remain completely broken for the next 6 weeks..

I’m really curious if they buff them enough that people consider running shout rangers/druids over the more typical glyph build. If not, it’s not going to be that interesting.

This balance patch would be a good time to bring core builds in line with elite specs, now that the HoT buying phase is over.

/pipe dreams

What I expect? A shift in functionality. Atm Shouts lack any real sense of Purpose. There almost like blank enchancments based around enhancing the pet. However in how there actually used they tend to point in different directions. Protect me for example causes the pet to stop functioning. Sic Em enhances it while it IS functioning. And Guard and Search and Rescue alter how it functions (though in the case of guard it hasnt been able to work properly since the leash range nerf).

Id guess well see the shouts set into a general theme. Possibly boon related in order for them to fall in like with Heal as One and Rampage as one. How that will effect them mechanically? I honestly have no idea.

Ive been using them for years now (hell I just hit legendary today playing only Shout Ranger and solo queing without even the use of druid) so its kind of reached the point where the only changes I could see being made to them are largely mechanical. I.E. Reworks instead of simply “this now produces fury”.

Adding boons to them like they did with dragonhunters would help sure. But in order for shouts to ever be truly relevant. They need a rework to how they function on the base level.

I would guess they will still be primarily selfish. With a small amount of support. But I COULD see them going towards control. Maybe increasing access to soft CCs like cripple and immobilize. That would actually give them more synergy with other pet traits. Like predators onslaught. Or Expertise training. And would push shouts towards a debilitation role.

WHaO and SotP are pretty much the only used shouts while its true that I SOMETIMES use Sic Em in WvW for those pesky theifs guard and protect me always felt weird being a shout
and last but not least Search and Rescue while pretty much everyone else can get the person up instantly after a small cast time we have to wait for the pet to find the person and start ressing which can be INTERUPTED…..
and dont forget that since HoT the pets do quite a large chucnk of our total dmg
which turn out something like 25-30% of our dmg will be standing there ressing someone for 5-10 sec

so bottom line can there be changes to the shout YES and big ones but do I expect them NO it expect they will become viable sometime around when the next xpack comes which I estimate will be in something around 2-3 years

Search and Rescue sounded good from a flavor perspective, not sure how much better it’ll really be since they didnt go into details. Protect me is a tiny bit better, the damage modifier buff is nice but not much.

they where only giving a preview so I guess we wait for the blog post or w/e to get the full story.

What was the PM change? I only half caught it, wife walked in and started talking during it. I heard AoE stunbreak and something about taunt.

Search and Rescue – Give ally in the area in the regeneration but if there is an ally down in the area (1200 range), the pet will teleport the downed person to you and then revive them.
Protect Me – Break stun on nearby allies, giving you protection and cause the next foe that attack you to be taunted by your pet.

Wouldn´t the new search and rescue make the trait that uses it when you begin ressing somebody useless?
Since it will draw pet to your location, which is the same place since you are on top of the downed person already.

uri.6521:

Wouldn´t the new search and rescue make the trait that uses it when you begin ressing somebody useless?
Since it will draw pet to your location, which is the same place since you are on top of the downed person already.

Still double the revive speed.
I’d take it, if you ask me.

Depending on the CD, PM sounds like a possible improvement over the glyphs in the current popular builds. Since shouts are already fit into most builds, this is pretty exciting. Just have to see the final numbers. Perhaps trooper runes are the next meta. We might become team fighting machines! Especially with the presumed death of cele amulet and the associated team fighting builds.

Anyone else feel the cooldown for Search and Rescue should be lowered? Scrappers and their Function Gyro seem almost equal, with the exception it’s on a 20s cooldown with half the range (600) while ours is on a 85s/68s and will now gain the ability of the pet teleporting to a down ally with the 26th update.

I feel as though it could use a CD reduction down to 75s/60s.

I get the feeling it will be lowered, but they didn’t mentioned numbers. There is no point in reworking the skill if it’s still on such a crazy CD. Many professions already have a rez skill on a huge CD that no one takes.

Ironically many elite skills are less important than utility skills and you see warbanner, or have in the past anyway.

they did say the changes discussed weren’t all the changes, before jumping to far to conclusions wait for the patch notes. those are supposed to come soon (lolol)

Wondrouswall.7169:

Anyone else feel the cooldown for Search and Rescue should be lowered? Scrappers and their Function Gyro seem almost equal, with the exception it’s on a 20s cooldown with half the range (600) while ours is on a 85s/68s and will now gain the ability of the pet teleporting to a down ally with the 26th update.

I feel as though it could use a CD reduction down to 75s/60s.

Probably even 45.

I expected nothing and I was still dissapointed.

Seems like : Team Utility + Pet performs action if specific External Event happens.

I kind of think cool down might make it or break it.
But, I’ll admit, I’m curious to see where they’re going with this.

Yeah i hope they halved in half the CD. Those cooldowns in the shouts are crazy and the new Protect Me could be everything i asked for those perma-stealth pesky thieves.
The Search and rescue is nice, it allows you not only to double the ress speed but also in case you needed take your ally out from a dead zone.

This could be a thing in WvW if now they can make the pets not to insta-die when travelling to rescue your teammate because it crossed an AoE dead zone.

I hope they make also sick’em and guard more useful. Let’s see.

uri.6521:

Wouldn´t the new search and rescue make the trait that uses it when you begin ressing somebody useless?
Since it will draw pet to your location, which is the same place since you are on top of the downed person already.

start ressing a downed player and then stop and keep dpsing and let the pet do it on the secound downed use Search and Rescue
thats usually how I do it but now you can mix it up a bit more since now you will have use for it other then the regen

Im just a bit dissapointed they didnt do anything about guard…

Redemer.2601:

Im just a bit dissapointed they didnt do anything about guard…

The only gave a handful of example changes, this isn’t the full list.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Anyone else feel the cooldown for Search and Rescue should be lowered? Scrappers and their Function Gyro seem almost equal, with the exception it’s on a 20s cooldown with half the range (600) while ours is on a 85s/68s and will now gain the ability of the pet teleporting to a down ally with the 26th update.

I feel as though it could use a CD reduction down to 75s/60s.

I would still never use it with such a long cd, unless the other effect of the skill is very good.

I don’t think anyone would use it anyways unless they did WvW as some sort of role or just grabbing Allies’ Aid if they slotted NM. Anet has always been very cautious of cooldowns. It wouldn’t surprise me if all the shout cooldowns did not change with the update due to added utility.

I know some people might be expecting some to be reduced, but I highly doubt it, and if some were, the reductions would be very small like my example for S&R above. If it happens to be a base of 60s, all good, but I’m pretty sure if Irenio decided to lower the shouts to something like PM (45s) S&R (60s) Sic ‘Em (30) let’s say as an example, the other devs would be breathing down his neck about it.