Guild Wars 2

On the topic of placeholders, does anyone remember what happened to this thing?:

https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/89067/Aetherblade_Rifle_1.jpg

There was speculation that it was the new mortar, but I haven’t seen it since. Is this from the actual game, or is it just a fake? It looks perfect for the mortar kit, but it doesn’t match the charr-aesthetics of the rest of the kits, so I’m a bit suspicious.

To throw in a bit of a conspiracy theory to the mix, that skin looks remarkable similar to the cannon engineers used in Torchlight 2. Throw in the fact that we’re getting the other T2 engineer weapon (hammers) in the expansion, the preview had what looked like drones (T2 engineer skill),and the fact that the GW2 engineer absolutely loves to pull stuff from other games, and it starts to look a bit plausible.

Anyway, if the mortar is staying as a rifle model with new animations, I think the easiest fix would be to just use the charrzooka. It’s big enough to differentiate itself from the regular rifle, and it’s already a rifle skin, so it doesn’t require a whole new set of animations. (I assume. I’m not a programmer). Plus, it looks just like the old mortar, but with a stock and fin/blade/sight/upside-down bayonet thingy.

Charrzooka:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Charrzooka_(weapon).jpg

Old mortar (It used the same model as Pact mortars, right?)
!http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Pact_Mortar.jpg!

Most likely a BM shenanigans build. All those numbers came from either a bird or a cat, the two highest damage pets. With Sic ’Em up and perhaps Signet of the Hunt, those numbers can easily be reached.

@monepi

It should be 30 points in precision, I didn’t type that out right and I can’t edit my post. You’ll actually notice running 20/25/15/0/5 leaves a blank 5 points.

The general trait layout is 20/25/15/0/5. Take the trap traits, obviously, but the rest can be tailored to what you need.

As for weapons, Shortbow with Axe/Torch, Sword/Torch, or Axe/Warhorn depending on what you want.

We are always going to need a 1-handed ranged weapon, I don’t see how that’s going to magically change in the future. The reason why we have the Tomahawk-style axe skills is to accommodate ranged use of the OH weapons (which are mostly ranged). If both MH options were melee, a lot of Rangers would be very irritated for having to melee in order to use the ranged off-hand skills.

Also, why would you ever change the axes to melee? Throwing Axes are very fun and much more interesting than the generic melee style. If you want to melee with axes, why not roll a Warrior?

The Axe is our only 1-handed ranged option. The only way I see it becoming a melee weapon is if we get some other 1-handed ranged weapon.

Rhyse.8176:

Axe(s) need an interrupt or other utility. With the exception of 5 (reflection) and 3 (chill), every skill is pure offense. It’s kinda boring to just cycle through the DPS skills and only have 1 thing you can use to react to a changing fight.

Well, way back before the beta, there was this skill called Staggering Throw. It resided where Winter’s Bite is now, and it knocked back foes. However, there were some issues with it due to it knocking opponents out of range (Axes had a shorter range then), so it was removed and Winter’s Bite took it’s place.

However, a few builds later, the wiki had Staggering Throw listed as a 4 skill on the OH axe, making the OH axe more of a defensive weapon. That turned out to be a typo, and the OH Axe has been Path of Scars and Whirling Defense ever since.

I think Staggering Throw should make a comeback. Put it on 4 with a knockdown instead of a knockback. That makes Axe/Axe more interesting, the playstyle would revolve around using skills 3 and 4 to control opponents to hit them with SplitBlade/Whirling Defense.

Doug.9628:

wow, the majority of posters in this thread need to relax. I play a ranger too and of course I can see what’s not working properly, but you should play the class because you thematically enjoy it and not because it’s the fotm/quasi-op class.

calm down and let Anet do their job. They said change is coming and they even told you when it is coming, that’s more than enough information.

+100 internets to you, good sir.

It seems everyone in this thread is suffering from serious ego problems. Hate to break it to you, but Rangers aren’t the only profession with problems. There isn’t a magical switch A-Net flips to make balance changes, there is a process, and it takes time. Tack on the time needed to make major balance changes for the other classes, and it’s no surprise the patch is coming out with the Nov 15th update.

Instead of whining about the patch not being when YOU wanted it, why not be happy we’re getting a patch?

The Ranger isn’t broken, unplayable, and downright awful like everyone has been exaggerating it to be. The Ranger just suffers from a lack of purpose and build variation. I can be a great Ranger, but I don’t fulfill any role. Jon said this is what the patch will address, giving Rangers more builds by fixing some weapons and buffing some suckish utilities.

JonPeters.5630:

Wow this escalated quickly

Still thinking of you rangers… Next balance patch is mid Nov, but I’ve got at least a handful of fixes in testing already!

Woohoo! While a few others may be disappointed, I had feeling it was going to have to be in the big Nov 15th update. I have done a bit of game testing, so I know how long it takes to push out a patch like that. The fact you guys are throwing in the changes despite the work with Halloween and “November Island” makes me smile.

Any chance we can get a hint as to what’s changing? Not exact changes, but at least an idea of what is being done.

Out of curiosity, did you average in the bonus DPS the 1h sword gets from the might it applies to the pet (or yourself with certain traits)? It might be worth noting approximately how much more damage it contributes in total.

Also, the Longbow DPS is very interesting, especially considering how many times it has been cited as the lowest DPS. Did you test it with Eagle Eye? While simply calculating 5% more damage is easy, I’d like to see if it really is giving the 5%.

While we’re on the subject, bring the original Honed Axes trait back. It made so many cool Axe builds possible.

Add a chain to Skill 1, it’s absolutely boring to spam the same skill over and over. At least both the bows have the positional mechanic so you are actually moving around and/or using the other skills. The other 2 MH Axe skills are fine IMHO.

OH Axe needs a good rework. Path Of Scars needs a buff/rework/replacement, and Whirling Defense could use a bit of love.

deepwinter.9015:

@DoomBunny, You mentioned mobs and I’ve noticed that the NPCs in the game act very much like my pet. In fact, I’ve used their attack-and-move and pathing issues to move through zones quickly, without entering combat.

Surprise, surprise, pets use the same AI as mobs. So, all those dumb-as-a-brick mobs you’ve kited in a circle are at the same AI level as your pet. The only difference is pets actually have and use skills (which they aren’t too bad at).

*puts up "Do Not Feed the Troll" sign*

As I said in the other thread, I believe this patch is going to focus heavily on Pets and Utilities. A few weapons might get buffed (Longbow), but I doubt it will be by much.

The Pet issues should and probably will be the highest priority. Pets are not the "2nd player" everyone calls them, they are a mob strapped to our character. And like mobs, they came with all the hideous issues, but without any benefits. Rather than just buff pets to compensate for their stupidity, A-Net will *hopefully* be adding QoL/AI enhancement changes to make the current pets usable.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Brutal_Charge_

It’s one of the other 3 skills.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Dont forget projectile speed increase. Thats a must. AND..And….and….QUIVERS…worth a shot.

I don’t think projectile speed is going to change. The obstructed bug might be fixed, but it seems unlikely they’d increase the projectile speed, as that would require changes to the Warrior and Thief as well.

Quivers, are most likely on the bottom of the Ranger Priority List. Although, they could pull a Blizzard and give us quivers so we forget about the balance issues for a month. All they need to do is add them as a new back skin and the Ranger forums would go ape.

Actual Speculation:

Pet QoL changes will be at the top, guaranteed. (e.g. attack while moving, ability to attack walls, etc.)

Spirits will either be significantly buffed or overhauled.

Signet of the Hunt will probably be getting its effects made on par with the newer Thief versions.

Signet of the Wild and Signet of Stone will get CD reductions and a possible rework in the case of Wild.

Signet of Renewal and Protect Me will get QoL change to work at any range.

Sic’ Em and Guard will get either buffed or reworked to be worth using.

Longbow damage increased, possibly through traits.

Greatsword either gets a small damage buff on 1 or gets some new mechanic to be usable.

Sword no longer roots.

I am almost certain the patch is going to focus on pets and utilities. As much as I would like buffs to the Longbow or Greatsword, A-Net obviously thought they were too strong before given the drastic nerfs. I’d like to see some better traits in BeastMastery and Marksmanship minors re-worked, but I doubt A-Net is concerned with out traits given how much better the rest of ours are.

I used to use it with Sharpening Stone and QZ when I ran a full-on glass cannon leveling for funsies. Sometimes I still equip it and pretend it does something. The poor fella is all lonely hanging out with Spirits and Racial skills all day in the land of worthless utilities.

Mark my words though, the patch will give SotH the same changes Thieves got for their equivalent skills. Then, SotH will finally be useful.

Silly Rangers. Tomorrow’s Mischief Night. In spirit of the holidays, A-Net is going to fix some more animation bugs!

@Duke BlackRose
While everyone suffers from pigeon-holing to some degree, it’s worse on some classes than others. Playing my Engineer or Guardian, I feel like I have plenty of viable options, whereas playing a Ranger, entire sets of options are lackluster. Thankfully, the next patch supposedly addresses the awful spirits and certain mediocre shouts/signets, so it’s safe to say the utility famine is coming to pass.

As for pet dependency, it’s not about just removing pets when they don’t work. The Ranger is a pet class, so it’s reasonable to expect they would just work everywhere. Unlike the other classes with pets, we can’t unequip ours when the situation doesn’t favor it, so A-Net needs to have them work in every situation.

Take WvW for example. Right now, my pet is useless in any sort of siege. They can’t attack the gate or the defenders on the wall, they can’t jump down walls when defending, and they can’t dodge out of the endless parade of siege attacks.

Now, what A-Net needs to do is look at the situation and figure out how they can make it workable. For starters, pets need to be able to attack objects, that’s just easy. After that, we can get a bit more indepth. Letting us control ALL of the pet skills lets us use the Spider/Devourer AoE attacks to hit defenders. Letting melee pets leap off the wall fixes another issue.

Simple fixes like that can make pets work in more situations, without actually buffing or nerfing pets.

The other big hurdle I mentioned is making pets usable in all specs. Like I said, without points in BM, pets drop like flies. Pets already have the skillsets to be usable in a variety of builds, they just need to have the “mandatory” boosts built in so they can perform without the need to sink 5-25 points in a traitline. BM should enhance pets, not make them usable.

For an example of what I’m ranting about, look at WoW (yes, I know we all hate this game here). No matter what you specialized in, pets were durable and still accounted for 30ish% of your DPS while adding a bit of utility. Specializing into BeastMastery gave you access to very powerful pets and skills that made the focus of your gameplay the pet.

That’s what Rangers need. 0 point BM pets should be basic, but usable. Simple things like bonus movespeed and AoE resistance should be built in, while more specialized perks like added utility or damage should be traited.

You made some excellent points throughout the post, but you pretty much ended up giving the major reasons for why Rangers have huge issues right now.

“What our ours? Our spirits suck, some of our signets suck, some of our shouts suck, a minority of our major traits suck, and our sword has a gamebreaking bug that causes you to be rooted in place while attacking with it.”

That right there is one of the major issues. All Spirits and some shouts, signets, and traits not working destroys a number of builds. 80% of Rangers I see are either using traps or Survival Skills + SoS/SoR/Protect Me. Those are just are only “real” options. Rangers are always criticized for running “cookie-cutter” builds, but there’s a reason why. Rangers have managed to find what little actually works for the class and make builds focused around it.

The other, and largest, issue is pets.

“Your Pet Is Everything”

That sums up the grand issue with Rangers. We are a pet class, and like you said, it’s very well designed (what with the skills, swapping, and weapon synergy). However, pets themselves are the issue. When 50% (it’s actually closer to 20-35 I believe) of our damage comes from pets, along with a good amount of utility, pets are absolutely critical to the Ranger. Unfortunately, when pets don’t work, we’re kittened. Fights with stupid amounts of AoE, any WvW, or even PvP against anyone competent makes pets more of a hindrance than a help.

They just aren’t designed for GW2’s combat. They can’t dodge, they can’t heal, and they can’t attack while moving. Players can do that, but pets can’t. Considering the pet is a part of the Ranger, it’s restricting us in situations where pets don’t work. The “Controls” can only alleviate part of the problem. We have a whopping 4 commands, attack, heel, use ability, swap. Keeping pets alive requires heel and swap, but they don’t work in all situations. Playing melee prevents you from calling your pet out of PBAoE you can dodge, leaving your pet dead if swap isn’t up. Even range users suffer, heel only works assuming the pet won’t run through AoE on the way back and will actually move out of it in time.

That leaves a whole other issue: some people just don’t like being pet-focused. Playing a BeastMaster is all fine and dandy, but there’s 4 other trait lines to choose from. Some people want to play snipers, druids, or skirmishers, all of which are viable through traits. However, without speccing into BM, the pet is just dead weight. They need the points in order to survive in combat, without it, they’re best just left on passive until you need the f2 skill. Just look through the recent forum posts, most people complaining about pets have few to no points in BM, while those advocating them have a sizable amount in BM. Pets need to be out-of-the-box usable for all specs, not just a few.

That said, I think the working bits of the Ranger are well-designed. The new patch, coincidentally, is supposedly targeted at the aforementioned list of problems. I can guarantee once the majority of the bugs and whatnot on the Ranger are fixed, you’ll suddenly see plenty of people citing the Ranger as the greatest profession. It has the mechanics and design, it just needs proper execution.

Demolitionist Tonn and meeting him in Mount Maelstrom is part of the personal story. Someone in your party is probably in the middle of it.

That, or it’s a bug.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_pirate

Agadar.4931:

Exactly how does this work? Does every attack have a 20% chance to do 10% more damage? And if so, why would I ever want to use what is essentially a targetable, easily-killable, stationary 2% damage buff with a 60 second cooldown?

That, sadly, is exactly how it works. You can get the same effect with a fraction of the CD and absolutely no hassle by using Hunter’s Shot and Frost Trap.

All the Spirits suffer from this in 1 way or another. When someone designed the buffs, they obviously didn’t do the math out. They’re so absolutely worthless it’s not even funny. You might be able to make Stone or Storm usable with 30 points in Nature Magic for the 35% proc chance and boon duration, but that’s it. Sun Spirit is out-played by Flame Trap 100 times over.

Chrollo.2173:

I feel like the people who love it are people who played a lot of NES games back in the day.

Like Battletoads? The whole puzzle reminds me of that game.

I like it. It really feels like a jumping puzzle. It’s not about having great reflexes or mad platforming skills, it’s about having the patience to practice it several times to get the path down to a formula, then having fun feeling completely BA doing speed runs in your slippers. It’s real easy to see why so many people like it, it’s one of the few things in game that is truly challenging and truly rewarding.

Unfortunately, I have neither the time nor patience to complete the whole thing, so I’ll content myself with the halfway mark. It’s still a fun distraction when you have 20 or so minutes with nothing better to do.

mrsrachelm.7618:

I’ve yet to see a snake in game and don’t recall them being a part of GW

Never seen a snake? It’s not like we have a trap that summons 20 of them or so. :P

As for what I want to see:

Gryphons
Crabs
Turtles
Furrier Spiders (Mokittenantulas!)
Dolphins

Don’t underestimate Spirit of Nature’s Renewal, it can be a game changer in the right hands. The healing is decent, but the active ability puts it well above other elite skills. Over the course of its life, Spirit of Nature’s Renewal can revive your entire party 3-4 times. In PvE/dungeons, it’s an absolute godsend. PvP has the issue of it getting gunned down by most competent players, but good use of it can turn a fight.

Entangle is better in other situations. Against the dumb mobs in PvE or the mindless zerg in WvW, it can easily root 5 people for the entire duration. In PvP, most non-noobs can get rid of it quickly, but it can at least buy you a bit of time to spike someone or get away. One bit worthy of note is that the vines occasionally bug out, making trapped players unable to attack them, securing you an easy kill.

My other little favorite trick is to just pop Entangle when your team is chasing a zerg in WvW. Whatever unlucky 5 players get snagged are instantly annihilated by the sea of players chasing them, leaving you with 5 shiny loot bags.

I have no issue with the difficulty of the Clock Tower. I found it incredibly challenging, and still haven’t beat it after 25+ tries. That, to me, is a good thing. Some people find the other jumping puzzles easy, so they can have one that’s difficult for them.

I just wish it wasn’t linked to the Halloween meta-Achievement. At least make it an optional achievement with its own title or have some alternative to get the meta-achievement (like winning one of the other two games).

EDIT: Apparently it isn’t necessary for the meta-Achievement, so let the madness continue! I think I’ll make another attempt after some cofee.

The HoM pets have the same skills as non-HoM counterparts to keep the game balanced for everyone.

Also, the 4 boars appear to have the same skill, but each boar has a different set of items they can forage. One forages damage items, one forages control items, etc. The tooltip does not include this.

The whole fight is bugged burrow-wise. Ranged attacks will get obstructed a good portion of the time, but their is a “sweet spot” angle where they hit. Finding it though, is a royal PITA, so alternatively use AoE attacks or a melee weapon to kill the burrow.

I never really saw the issue with the old Longbow’s damage, even with the bugged Eagle Eye.

Using a LB as a Ranger always struck me as similar to playing an AD carry in LoL/DotA/whatever. You hit VERY hard from long range, but if you’re cornered or caught out of position, you’ve maybe 1 or 2 escape skills, but they can only buy time for teammates to save you. Alone, a LB Ranger gets melted. In groups, he’s a dangerous DPS machine.

That’s just how the LB was set up. If you let Mr. Ranger McLongbow chill at 1500 range and pewpew while you smash your face into the bunker Guardian, then the Ranger should be punishing. It’s a tradeoff. At max range, a LB Ranger should do more damage than other comparable DPS builds. If caught inside his preferred range, he’s going to hit like a wet noodle.

That provides a tangible benefit for staying at range. Right now, their is no “range bonus” You NEED to stay at max range just to keep up with other specs, who do not have a range requirement.

Sigh…. this thread again.

Answering some questions first:

@Dispari
The best explanation we’ve got so far is that the Harpoon Gun is powered by compressed air, while rifles/pistols are black powder-based, which has a more significant effect on the environment.

@YumCHA
Back during the pre-Alpha days, A-Net announced some professions (like the Thief) would be moving more towards the new technological advancements, while others (like the Ranger) would “cling” to old traditions like magic. That’s why Rangers have a larger emphasis on Nature Magic (it’s got a whole trait line) and a lack of rifles.

As to the OP:
Rangers can’t use rifles because A-Net said so. They chose the Ranger weapons for what fit their interpretation of the Ranger theme. For them, that means more “traditional” weapons (swords/axes/bows) and less “newer” weapons (pistols/rifles).

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

@DoomBunny.

Well they could make protect me better with a simply change, make it teleport your pet to your side, and make the pet take less damage during it, and let it break stuns. Boom a viable panic button for rangers. Inc viablity.

Range removal for Protect Me and Signet of Renewal is highly likely to show up as a Quality of Life change.

That said, Protect Me is the only shout really worth taking. Guard and Search and Rescue are so far beyond situational there’s rarely a reason to take them. Sic ‘Em could work if it wasn’t competing with the other 4 or so Ranger DPS utilities. We only have 3 utility slots, and when you factor in necessities like Stun Breaks, bar space becomes very valuable. If I’m taking a DPS utility, I’m taking QZ hands down. Rarely will you ever take 2 or 3 DPS utilities, and when it gets to that, Sic ’Em is still trying to outperform Sharpening Stone, Signet of the Hunt, and Signet of the Wild.

I really wouldn’t be surprised if they were dropped entirely, save for Protect Me. I just can’t think of a way to make them useful outside of the situational niche they occupy.

Lobo.1296:

All this speculation is great, but it sucks that my Ranger is gonna be shelved until the next patch. It could be months away.

From what Jon Peters said, it sounds like the fixes are ready-to-go, but were withheld for outstanding reasons. I’d be surprised if the patch was more than a week or 2 away.

My magic 8 ball told me Signets are most likely going to get some changes. Signet of the Hunt will be overhauled to match the buffs/reworks on the Thief counterparts. Signet of the Wild and Stone will have massive CD buffs.

I’m also willing to bet money on buffs to the Longbow and Greatsword. Spirits, too, will most likely get overhauls.

Despite needing the most work, I doubt shouts will get changed. Right now there’s not much that can be done to make them useful. I figure we’ll just suffer through them for a while longer until they get replaced/reworked.

@NlDixon (pretend there’s a quote here)

I feel the same way, and I run LR more often than the other listed options. The only time I really skimp on the stun breaker is W3 and Dungeons, as I rarely (if ever) end up face to face with someone else in W3, and stunbreakers aren’t necessary for most of the dungeon bosses.

You’re probably better off posting this in the actual staff thread than making a new post.

Troll Unguent vs Healing Spring is a bit of a toss up, IMHO.

Troll Unguent makes you very tanky for a good duration of time, but lacks condition removal. Healing Spring heals instantly for less, removes conditions, and can heal allies, but is immobile. I personally prefer Healing Spring, but I run with a Thief friend who can pop Cluster Bomb in it for huge AoE healing.

The only thing I don’t agree with is Spirits. Without the correct traits, they’re worthless, and even with traits they aren’t too great. For a pure Archery build, I’d rather take a traited Signet of Stone for clutch survivability and Quickening Zephyr for Spiking. The 3rd utility is really situational. I take Signet of the Hunt in W3 for getting around a bit faster (it’s a bit more noticeable on the large map), Signet of Renewal for Condition cleansing, Lightning Reflexes, or Sharpening Stone.

Neat idea.

As the #1 advocate of Staff Rangers way back in the pre-Alpha days, I fully endorse the idea of magic-wielding Rangers.

Unfortunately, the idea was shot down for a number of reasons. 1) We have enough Staff-wielding professions. 2) Some people want to keep the Ranger as physically-based as possible. 3) Ranger “Nature-Magic” was really just an excuse for Spirits, and never implied actual magical skill. 4) There are more gun-advocating Rangers than Staff-advocating Rangers

Either way, I think it would be an awesome idea for an expansion, and would spice up the Ranger quite a bit. It’s just probably best saved for such, as I’d rather A-Net fix what we have in the class already before adding new stuff.

If you’re really interested, there was a massive thread on the GW2Guru discussing staff Rangers, I’ll try to find it if I have the time.

EDIT: Bonus points for Hunter’s Mark. Never realized how much I missed that skill until I don’t have it anymore. Animation must include the obnoxious floating arrow that serves the bonus purpose of alerting the ever-intelligent masses which enemy is the boss.

Part 3:

(just the last of it)

Other
Lightning Reflexes
breaks crippled, chilled, and immobilized
Rangers got shafted in the snare-break department. Both of the other adventurer professions have a skill for removing snares (Roll for Initiative, Rocket Boots). The Ranger equivalent, Lightning Reflexes, apparently never got the memo. Adding the Snare break would do wonders for Ranger durability.

Shouts
Just leaving a few general words here.

Shouts need an overhaul. The only shout that adds actual utility is Protect Me. The others are wither highly situational (Guard, S&R) or are outclassed by other skills (Sic ‘Em). They aren’t adding anything to the Ranger’s utility. Why take Sic ‘Em when I have the choice of Quickening Zephyr, Sharpening Stone, Signet of the Wild, Signet of the Hunt. and even Sun and Frost Spirit for DPS-enhancing options? We are already saturated with DPS options, so Shouts need to add more. Adding a bit more movement or debuffing somewhere in Shouts would make them usable, but I don’t have high hopes for their future.

Right now, I’d suggest they either:
a) have Protect Me changed to a Survival skill and add 3 new utilities, such as Preparations, Stances, or Environment manipulation.
b) Keep the pet idea, but change Shouts to be more competitive options.

I might do a little write-up on traits and whatnot later, but I don’t think they’re that bad. Marksmanship needs better minor traits, and BeastMastery needs better Major traits in tier 2 and 3, but that’s about it. Traps would be better in Wilderness Survival, but that’s not a major issue atm.

Part 2: (rest was cut off)

Utilities

Signets
-Signet of Stone, Signet of the Hunt, and Signet of the Wild all affect the Ranger by default
Ok, having to trait 30 points to make signets’ actives usable is a bit silly. Pets and Rangers are parts of the same whole, having to trait our skills to affect the entire whole is not choice, it’s just bad design. Removing the requirement for SotBM alone would make Signets usable in a lot more builds, which would be a huge help for providing non-trap or spirit Rangers with utility skills that aren’t survival.

Signet of the Hunt
-increase runspeed buff to 25%
The first part just puts it on par with on the Thief equivalent, the Elementalist could get the buff too. It could also use some changes to make it more usable for ranged builds (most skills are multi-hit), but between a buffed LRS and new Maul, I think Power-Rangers could make use of it.

Signet of Stone
-Cooldown reduced to 90 seconds
-Duration reduced to 4 seconds
This just puts SoS in the same league as the other invincibility skills. Reducing the duration while reducing the CD gives Rangers more opportunities to activate the skill without feeling overly vulnerable without the toughness buff.

Signet of the Wild
-reduce CD significantly
-Remove Stability, shorten duration, or something of that sort
Once again, reducing the CD while reducing the effect gives Rangers more reasons to push the button outside of using it as a pseudo-elite skill. The effect might even need a nice overhaul to function as something other than yet another DPS boost.

Spirits
-increase Spirit health slightly
Remove proc chance, change proc as needed
Spirits. They stink. The health makes traiting nigh-on mandatory to use them in combat, and even then the procs are either too weak or never at the right time. Active effects are a whole other issue, all of which I would like to change in my proposed reworks.

Sun Spirit
-Active changed to give X stacks of might
This spirit is arguably the best-designed for procs. Having it scale with crit chance might be a better option, but would injure professions whose condition damage is not tied with Precision, or do not spec Precision for their condition build. The change to the active makes it a better choice for DPS builds, and the blind on the activation made timing it near impossible, and otherwise not helpful.

Frost Spirit
-Proc removed entirely
-Active now heals
On the other hand, the proc on Frost Spirit is just awful. A 20% chance for 10% extra damage is destined for failure, but just removing the proc leaves a 10% increase, which is quite respectable and not OP. The active change is a bit more necessary. Look, AoE chill is great, but we have Frost Trap for that. Another heal would fit the idea of constant combat Frost is built for, while adding another heal option to the Ranger arsenal.

Stone Spirit
-Passive now procs when being hit hit, not when hitting the enemy
-Active grants stability for short duration
The proc change just makes it more likely to proc when needed. Most of the time when you’re hitting the enemy repeatedly, you don’t need the protection. When you do need it is when half a pack of mobs decides to come play, a situation when you’re being hit. The active change gives it additional use, especially if Stability is dropped from SotW. More importantly, do we honestly need 4 skills that can AoE cripple? (Barrage, Spike Trap, Muddy Terrain, Quicksand)

Storm Spirit
Passive changed to give Swiftness guaranteed on Dodge Roll
Active removes Crippled, Chilled, and Immobolized and grants Vigor

The change to the passive gives players more control over when they get the swiftness buff, as opposed to absolutely randomly. The active better fits the spirit, while providing Rangers with an ever-needed snare-breaker.

Halloween isn’t up yet, might as well throw in my 2c on what needs to be done for the Ranger:

Weapons:

Longbow
-increase damage on LRS by X%.
Look, the Longbow is a hard-out DPS weapon. The only control it has is a defensive KB and AoE cripple, both of which are to keep enemies at Range where you can pound them. The other 3 skills need to hit hard. RF and HS are both great, but LRS is just awful. A mid-range LB should be slightly less than a flanking SB, but if a Ranger is sitting at max range undisturbed with a DPS spec, he should be dangerous. Max range isn’t easy to keep (outside of W3), so there needs to be substantial benefit to staying there and punishing players who ignore the Ranger.

Greatsword
-increase auto-attack damage
-Buff maul base damage, remove bleeds
Simple really, give slight buffs and remove the conditions so power-based melee DPS specs are a valid option, as opposed to 1h sword DoT specs or GS tank specs.

1h Sword
-remove leap from kick
Remove useless leap, fix sword self-rooting. No balance changes needed.

Shortbow
-Increase damage from Poison Volley, reduce spread to 3 arrows
Since spamming 1 is bland and generally no fun, buffing Poison Volley gives an incentive to push 2, while reducing the spread means you can still use it outside of point-blank range and not waste 4/5 of the damage. Crippling Shot will become useful if pets can reliably hit targets.

Axe
-Add some sort of chain to Ricochet
This one is just my personal little wish, and is by no means necessary. I’d just prefer if the axe skill 1 was a bit more exciting since it lacks the positional modifiers of the Bows.

IMHO, A-Net tried so hard to make new mechanics and be different, they left the good parts of “WoW-era” MMOs behind.

Having played a Hunter for 3 years (end of BC to mid-cata), Ranger pets really feel like a step backwards. The issue is A-Net is treating pets with the same ideals as professions, when they both behave very differently. It makes sense on paper that high-DPS like cats should be super-squishy, like how high-DPS builds have low survivability. However, a player can react to his environment. He can dodge roll, move out of AoEs, or use skills like evades to defend himself. Pets can’t do any of that.

That’s why I honestly believe WoW did pets right. They were designed to work within their design. Pets can’t behave like players, so why should they be balanced like one? The AoE resist is the most obvious feature, but there were some other great things. For one, both DPS pet “types” (WoW pets had seperate talents/traits, another great feature) had a passive run speed bonus and gap closer available relatively easily in their talent trees, meaning anyone could take it without having to devote their points into a different tree. WoW pets were also much, much tankier. Even the relatively squishy DPS pets had comparable tankiness to GW2’s Bear (Actual Tank pets were a tad more durable and had some tanking skills).

Now, while GW2 made some great things happen with pets (having more than 3 types and ranged pets is amazing), they could learn from the past. Adding the AoE resist is going to be a must at some point, but added speed and health buffs would be great.

IMHO, you’re beating around the bush to make traited SotH work. Instead of changing an entire skill to benefit one utility, why not just change the one utility in question?

Make SotH work with multi-hit attacks or provide the boost for a short (3-4s or so) so it works with Rapid Fire.

Remember, changing RF to a single shot trashes one of our best “bursts” we have with QZ and Rapid Fire.

I mentioned this a loooooooooong time ago back before the SB nerf when spirits were the favorite QQ topic of the forums.

The spirits all suffer from this to a similar degree. The buffs uptime is absolutely minuscule due to a combination of low duration + proc. Frost Spirit looks like someone forgot to do the math and just rolled it out. Hunter’s Shot provides a larger DPS increase assuming everyone is attacking the Hunter’s Shot target.

It should either have a proc for 100% damage or be a constant 10% damage. 10% on a proc is just absolutely awful.

Pounce has a leap on it because in ye olde days of the Ranger, Kick actually knocked the target back, so you would pounce on them. Now, obviously having a knockback as part of an auto-attack was never going to end well, so it died and was replaced with a cripple. On top of that, a short leap was added to Kick for unknown reasons.

Why do we have 2 leaps on a weapon’s auto-attack? No good reason. I don’t think any tears would be shed over losing the leap on Kick and Pounce. It would be much better if the leap was put somewhere more usable; we have 3 leaps on the MH sword, but none of them can be used to initiate combat.

deepwinter.9015:

@DoomBunny, That just sounds like accepting defeat; resigning to the pitiful state of the profession.

It’s not really accepting defeat, it’s just working with what we’ve got.

Right now, I play a Shortbow+Sword/Torch trap condition build for PvE and WvW (I don’t care as much for sPvP ). While I don’t nearly deal as much damage as say, a Thief can, I do things a Thief can’t while helping my team in other ways.

I can drop combo fields, heal my party, or tank a few stray mobs, all while still dealing a respectable bit of damage. Sure, the Thief can make pretty numbers appear, but I can do a bit of that too while doing bits of other stuff as well.

I’m not saying we should all just give up and write the Ranger off as a pseudo-Druid and move on, we just need to play with the cards we’ve been dealt with for now. I honestly believe A-Net is working their behinds off trying to fix the Ranger, but it’s not going to happen overnight. Rather than just re-roll until the fixes arrive, I find it more fun to just find something the Ranger is good at and just stick it out.

I don’t think people are having issues because they “haven’t tried all the builds” or “don’t get the class”. I’d say it’s almost the exact opposite. The majority of the negative posters here already have played the builds, and aren’t frustrated because they can’t use them, they’re upset they aren’t as good as other professions.

It’s not a matter of profession mechanics, it’s just raw numbers. Rangers have plenty of tools an options to build for spike damage, but they can’t spike as well as a Thief can. Likewise, we can build very tanky and go for a bunker build, but we’ll never bunker like a Guardian. We truly are the Jack of All Traders, Master of None. Whereas every profession has its own niche it fits in, the Ranger is just a homogenized bit of everything with a pet slapped on top.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Whereas everyone has grown frustrated with not being able to be as effective as other professions in certain roles, I’ve decided to just accept the odd state of the Ranger and work from it. At this rate, we’ll never be DPS as well as a Thief, or Tank as well as a Guardian, but we can do a little bit of both at the same time. Instead of slapping on full Berserker gear and playing a sub-par Thief, why not opt for a little more Vitality/Toughness and play a Hybrid? Our traits are very well set up for the hybrid style. I can play a heavy-condition DPS build with my Shortbow and Traps, and then swap to a Greatsword in combat and suddenly I’m shrugging off hits like nobody’s business. Or I can be rocking a BeastMaster DPS build with my Jaguar, but be able to drop Healing Spring or Spirit of Nature and heal my entire party 5 times over.

I just think the Hybrid style, although very fun and quite effective, is probably why most people are dropping the Ranger. In team settings, Hybrids just aren’t very effective. It’s more efficient to make sure everyone has a defined role, there’s the damage guy, the bunker guy, the roamer, etc. The Ranger can easily fill 2 or3 roles at the same time, but when you have 5 or 8 people, it’s not like your hard-pressed for filling every role.

We’re in a similar bind to all the original WoW hybrids. We can do lots of stuff decently, but we can’t match the “purist” professions at what they do. Going forward, it isn’t about just making the Ranger a Warrior 2.0, but letting him be the hybridized class he is while allowing him the options to be effective at a specific role if he wants to.

EDIT: Chat filter: making valid English words look like vulgarity since 2012.

I’ll second the condition Ranger. Right now I’m running this build:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcom0Vc9MomwvMomwvMGxf0VcRzRqV

Replace the Sword with an Axe by preference, I do PvE mostly so the root isn’t too irritating.

Traps are just too good to pass up right now. Everyone is up in arms over the QZ/SB nerf, but Traps are still very powerful for control and support. Bring Healing Spring as well and your everyone’s best friend.

@Namu (quote button not working)

They still have to verify if it’s a bot and all that jazz. As much as everyone abhors botting, it’s even worse when your account gets banned because of insta-banning without investigation.