sPvP Power Ranger
I think if rapid fire cast time was reduced a bit it would be really solid. While power ranger is a solid build it is lacking something. It lacks either damage, a way to lock down a target, or survivability. Changing one of those things will make it balanced imo. However, I do not think it is anything that should be done to the ranger or the skills the only thing it lacks in terms of survivability is sustain vs. condis. All that is needed for just a tad bit more sustain is one more condi clear besides SoR which I believe should be something given by traits. Something like grandmaster skirmishing: remove 3 conditions when you gain quickness so that QZ can be used to clear condis as well. This would open up build diversity a lot especially something like 0/30/0/0/30 a power BM essentially that is not reliant on EB. But I digress, the thing that the power ranger most lacks is pet control because if we could control just one more pet skill we would have the ability to lock down targets easier (since we wouldn’t have to have god tier pet control/timing like is needed now) which would also increase our damage and help with survivability via self peels.
Am I good?… I’m good.
I think if rapid fire cast time was reduced a bit it would be really solid. While power ranger is a solid build it is lacking something. It lacks either damage, a way to lock down a target, or survivability. Changing one of those things will make it balanced imo. However, I do not think it is anything that should be done to the ranger or the skills the only thing it lacks in terms of survivability is sustain vs. condis. All that is needed for just a tad bit more sustain is one more condi clear besides SoR which I believe should be something given by traits. Something like grandmaster skirmishing: remove 3 conditions when you gain quickness so that QZ can be used to clear condis as well. This would open up build diversity a lot especially something like 0/30/0/0/30 a power BM essentially that is not reliant on EB. But I digress, the thing that the power ranger most lacks is pet control because if we could control just one more pet skill we would have the ability to lock down targets easier (since we wouldn’t have to have god tier pet control/timing like is needed now) which would also increase our damage and help with survivability via self peels.
I personally find the extreme lack of AE and burst a larger issue for power rangers specifically. The poor condition cleansing is a class wide problem. Same with the pet responsiveness. Even with strong condi cleanse and F2 that worked even half the time I still would say power Rangers are probably the least effective power based class in the game.
Without burst or AE there’s simply no way to pressure the target. Without sufficient pressure it all becomes a very mechanical process where the opponent isn’t concerned with timing heals or avoiding interrupts and things like this. He knows at 25% to cast a heal because even if the Ranger interrupted him, the Ranger couldn’t bleed the remaining HP before he could get it off again later.
I don’t feel the class needs tons of burst or ae added to the class. A single reliable source of burst would probably be enough. Give us an aimed shot for example to have some synergy within the weapon. Or just give us a trait to swap weapons faster so we could swap to GS and back out once maul is dodged.
Without burst or AE power builds simply don’t have any real use. They’re more of an annoyance than anything else.
Well the burst of power does lie completely in maul which is a shame but where power builds excel is in interrupts. It is possible to 100-0 any target with well timed interrupts between you and your pet if they don’t have stab (that’s another thing we lack is boon removal).
I don’t think we should have burst on longbow (though max range quickness autoattack is devastating against the right targets. I think the longbow has enough AoE with barrage and I feel it is a pretty solid weapon for PvP though I do think we DEFINITELY need to be able to move while barraging in WvW.
I think the idea to lower GS/LB wep swap would be really helpful to the build as well.
Am I good?… I’m good.
Well the burst of power does lie completely in maul which is a shame but where power builds excel is in interrupts. It is possible to 100-0 any target with well timed interrupts between you and your pet if they don’t have stab (that’s another thing we lack is boon removal).
I don’t think we should have burst on longbow (though max range quickness autoattack is devastating against the right targets. I think the longbow has enough AoE with barrage and I feel it is a pretty solid weapon for PvP though I do think we DEFINITELY need to be able to move while barraging in WvW.
I think the idea to lower GS/LB wep swap would be really helpful to the build as well.
The main reason I advocate changing the weapon is there’s very little synergy within the weapon. Other classes have skills they can tie together and this makes the weapons feel more engaging and less passive. The Ranger weapons don’t really have this other than swoop+hilt+maul.
Longbow we have a stealth to reset remorseless, but don’t have anything to do once we do this but attack with effectively our #1 skill. We have a knockback but nothing to chain that up with other than our #1 skill. We have barrage that, as you mentioned, feels very out of place because of the root. I also feel Barrage is very weak for all the downsides to it but I’m not sure what they could do to it to ever make it feel like a good fit for the weapon. Though removing the root would certainly help.
Why not change one of our signets to do something similar to the Ele’s marks? If you have a shortbow equipped, activating the signet does X, if you have a sword equipped, it does Y, if you have an Axe equipped it does Z, if you have a longbow equipped it is a killshot style attack?
Could also just remove barrage and replace it with a killshot style skill and allow barrage to replace spike trap. If barrage were then changed to immobilize on the first weave of attacks and bleed on each hit it would be infinitely better than a fully traited spike trap.
The weapon swap trait is my least favorite idea, but it would also work.
IMO the class as a whole is teetering between useless and great and just needs some nudges to get us there. A single reliable form of burst to compliment rapid fire is really all I think a power ranger needs. F2 responsiveness and condi cures is about all the class as a whole needs to move to the point where number crunching and trait adjustments would finish us off and make us a complete class.
There’s tons of pet peeves I still have, but these 3 things would at least make the class whole.