Also, I’m a little biased since I just finished my Twlight and I think the color scheme of it goes perfectly with the Rev.
Personally, I’d rather see it as a hard hitting, close ranged weapon. Swords (and OH axe) does a fair job, but I’d rather see something like Hammer, but melee ranged.
Here is my idea:
1. Slash->Void Slash->Mist Slash (gain 1s quickness)
2. Blade of Disaster – Perform a large downward attack with the greatsword while summoning a massive sword from the mist that also drops onto attackers. (maul animation – attacks twice, sword attack is a blast finisher)
3. Circle of Ruin – Slash the sword in a circle creating an expanding unstable rift around you that damages foes and causes Torment. ( Berserker greatsword burst animation)
4. Mist Assault -Leap to target causing a burst of mist energy from your starting position, crippling foes where you left and causing vulnerability when you land-Leap finisher. Reduced recharge if first attack hits a target.(damage when you land and damage from where you left).
5. Mist Storm – Area is bombarded with mist energy, causing damage and burning (fire field) ->Rift Eruption. Cancel bombardment and strike your sword into the ground causing massive damage, knocking down foes and granting retaliation.
This is what I would love to see, a lot of movement a lot of bursty big hits, and some utility thrown in.
Personally, I wouldn’t like to see it tied to another elite spec, and instead just make it a baseline upgrade. Perhaps throw in a GS talent to one of the existing lines to give it a little more flavor.
(edited by Lobo.1296)
Hey all, returning to the game with my old necro. I used to play Condimancer but there doesn’t seem to be current info on most of the build sites on how to talent, gear and slot him.
So what’s the current “go-to” Condimancer build? Is it complete trash compared to Reaper? Is it accepted in Fractals, Dungeons and Raids? Thanks in advance.
(For reference I used to play a Rabid Condition build with undead ruins)
I imagine we’re pretty great to have around for break-bars, especially Reapers with all the Chill to the Bone and Shroud 5, plus the fears.
As the topic says, I need to find a guild that does guild missions on Tuesday or Thursday nights as this is the only night I have available to do them.
I play mostly PvE, so not looking for a hard PvP or WvW guild either.
Ok I’ll add my voice:
Overall: Concept is good but it needs work. The animations to dodge and staff don’t mesh with what the concept is. Many other people have said it already, they are recycled animations to skills and it just seems sloppy and/or lazy. Dash especially, the character still acts like he’s holding an invisible great sword.
Staff: I don’t see what it fits into any kit. I primarily do PvE, and I wouldn’t even use it for open world exploration. EVERY kit does what it does better.
Staff 1: Clean up animations and get rid of spinning staff. Instead add an AoE sweep (recycle Guard’s Ring of Warding animation).
Staff 2: Make it act like Warriors Whirlwind ability with a targetable range. Give an evade.
Staff 3: Increase range. Range similar to rangers sword 2.
Staff 4: I like how it looks but I think it should be an AoE blind. Again, I would look at the Guard’s hammer Ring of Warding skill for animation idea.
Staff 5: I think I’m in the minority here in not liking it. It’s good AoE damage but the animation is so long and defies physics. I wish it was just a simple vault jump without all the extra stuff. It looks fancy, but adds to animations times.
Dodges:
All of the animations needs to get cleaned up. Period. Otherwise no one will use the specialization. The facing needs to be addressed too so we don’t face in the opposite direction when we use these dodges.
Utilities:
I like them, but I just don’t see where they fit with the current kits. I can’t see giving up any other utility for any of the current ones.
Elite:
I like it in theory, but I don’t see me using it over any other elite.
Overall:
The concept is there. It’s a strong concept. The execution though is disappointingly lazy and shoehorned into not unique animations.
The execution leaves you with a build and access to utilities that frankly don’t do anything really well. Everything a DD has access to any other build simply does it better. I hope the time between this BWE and the next will polish some of these issues and bring it up to speed.
(edited by Lobo.1296)
Can someone point me towards the going builds for all of the above for thief? I’m going to dip my toe into pvp this weekend and I’d like to know what the current go-to builds are.
Also, I do a lot of PvE and if anyone can tell me what the current dungeon and fractal metas are I would appreciate.
Thanks in advance!
I’ve taken a hiatus from the game for a few months, hoping they would fix the ranger. I planned on coming back after this patch because of the cool wardrobe system (I tend to be a collector).
After reading the patch notes, there doesn’t seem to be a lot going for the ranger still. How has the pet changes worked out in game? Are they more responsive?
If some of the frustrating things about rangers have been fixed, I’ll give it a shot. If not, I may just stay away for a bit longer.
In PvE? We already are. We bring spotter and frost spirit to the group, no other class can offer those buffs.
Coupled with steady fury boon and a really long water field, I say we’re pretty handy.
Do we know if these are the only changes we’re getting or are there more to come? If this is it, I’m disappointed.
This is just two changes. We don’t know how many changes we’re getting this patch so I’ll hold my judgement until we see the full patch notes.
F2 responsiveness will be great, but we’ll see how instantaneous the cast really is.
Keen Edge…one of the lower requested improvements, but an improvement nonetheless.
Crossing fingers for more class specific info these next few updates.
Easy there everyone…we don’t know the other changes coming to the class. It’s a little premature to judge how that trait will impact us without seeing the big picture.
I’m optimistic that the CDI wasn’t a complete waste of time and we’ll see some good changes.
Posted by: Allie Murdock
Also, I don’t want this thread to be entirely about pets. We’ve seen a ton of great feedback about them, and I would like to hear more about utilities that need help (and aren’t viable unless spec’d into) as I haven’t seen as much on that front!
Thanks all
There has been a lot of posts about traits and utilities, many of them very well thought out and balanced if implemented properly. I do agree, though, that we should get off pets for awhile on this CDI, we’re beating a dead horse (which resembles my pet during most boss fights).
I’ll highlight some of my favorite suggestions on weapons and utilities, but will forgo the suggested format as I am pressed for time.
Weapons:
Warhorn 4: Add a blind to the bird attacks and allow it to ignore line of sight OR add a condition removal OR add a protection/stability/regen buff (or just one of those).
Longbow 1: Increase damage at close range, add vulnerability debuff based on range instead of damage increase. Also, increase missile travel time as it is very easy to dodge or side-step glitch.
LB 2: Keep damage the same, decrease channel time. Add cripple or immobilize
LB 4: Add a cast-time to the skill. One click keeps damage/knockback the same. Hold the cast bar for increased range, damage and knockback.
LB 5: Allow for movement during channel, add immobilize on first pulse. Or remove and rework the skill as it has a lot of issues in WvW
Shortbow 1: Have bleed stack regardless of position, add torment or increase damage if used while flanking.
Shortbow 4: Add torment
Shortbow 5: Add confusion
GS 1: Increase damage okitten
S 2: Add blast finisher
GS 3: Add evade to swoop
MH Axe 1: Increase damage – at least on primary target
Torch 4: AoE fire burst when it hits
Torch 5: Increase duration of bonfire, remove conditions when in it.
OH Axe: Allow projectile to travel on the Z axis.
Sword 1: You know what to do.
Sword 2: Reduce animation time on evade.
Weapons General: A look at damage coefficient may be in order to make up for AI. Also, weapon skills beside the AA should have damage looked at as we are the only glass whose best damage abilities come from the Auto Attack.
Heals:
Troll Unguent: Add condition removal on each pulse or at least on initial pulse.
Heal as One: Allow it to revive down pet.
Utilities:
Signets: Allow all signets to affect ranger and pet without needing Beastmaster Signet trait
Signet of Stone: Change toughness to damage reduction like Guardian and Warrior signets
Shouts: In general are considered weak across the board. Cooldowns and durations should be looked at.
Sic ’Em: Grant stability to pet
Protect Me: Grant protection to pet
Guard: Reveals stealth in target area (remove protection from pet if necessary) increase damage of pet when in area.
Search and Rescue: 1st click: skill functions as normal. 2nd click: pet shadow steps to ranger with downed player.
Sharpening Stone: Have it increase damage of next attacks by 5-10% and bleed (for power rangers)
Muddy Terrain: Knocks Down when cast
QZ: Remove blindness, weakness, chill
Lightning Reflexes: Remove Immobilize, cripple, chill. Have it hit 5 targets
Traps: Increase damage when triggered so they can be used as another form of burst and not just condition pressure. Increase radius and duration of fields.
Spirits: I won’t get into a lot of detail on these since I think we’re going to see some changes on this front. I will say that the RNG nature of their skills should go in favor of a static buff.
Storm Spirit: Remove swiftness and add another buff or give attacks condition cleansing, boon removal or some other benefit.
Utilities General:
Cooldowns should be looked at across the board. Signets and shouts especially but all should be looked at for what they give and how long they are on cooldown.
What I’ve been seeing a lot of is that you guys don’t necessarily dislike pets. What you dislike is how they act and how they are controlled. It seems to me that these are feelings that have been built up over time, and have culminated into “pets have to go” because you guys haven’t seen the improvements that should be made to pets to make them desirable. I certainly don’t blame you for getting to this point, but I do want to know the core of the problem before we start talking about rebalancing an entire class.
First off, thank you for replying. It’s gotta be tough wading into this thread and getting out alive. Bad 2×4 analogy aside, I’ll bite on this part of your statement.
The Core:
• Pet die too quickly in PvE content, high level fractals and WvW. Especially new/living world content.
• Pets offer limited utility unless heavily traited, or micromanaged.
• Pet damage plays too heavily in the ranger weapon coefficient and dead pets deal no damage giving too harsh a punishment to the ranger
• Pets are great on stationary targets, that don’t AoE or cleave, bad on anything else. Which, let’s face it, is 90% of content now.
• The best utility skills that use the pet – often kill the pet.
Listen, I’m a pet supporter, I chose ranger because I like pet classes. But the problem is more than just a 2×4. These are core, mechanical and gameplay flaws in the very design of the pet and the game it inhabits. You are consistently and constantly adding new content that are just anti-pet. No matter how you redesign the pet, the flaws are in the design of the game.
To use the house analogy: We’re worried about a damaged 2×4 in a house, when the entire neighborhood is changing. Our damaged bungalow is being built in a neighborhood of mansions and no matter what replacements we make, the house won’t fit in that neighborhood.
So let’s be honest. We’re not asking for a 2×4 fix. We want a new house. The changes the pet need are BIG changes that will take weeks, months and maybe even years to get where they need to be to be effective and fun to use. Will we wait for these changes? Yes, we’ve waited 1.5 years already. What do we need while you address the Core issues? Communication and small QoL changes along the way (even if they aren’t pet related). Without open and direct communication from you all, we’ll fill in the blanks with worst case scenarios. Without some changes along the way to the massive revamp, Rangers will get even more frustrated and leave.
I don’t think it’s out of line for the devs to prioritize a patch to be entirely ranger focused. I don’t think it’s out of line to have a patch, “The year of the Ranger.” where the entire patch team is laser focused on fixing the pets once and for all. Period. I know I’m biased, but I think the players will see the commitment you show on fixing a class that has struggled for a long time.
In the mean time, there are a lot of great ideas, made by smarter people than me on how to address the core issues.
Also Pet Aspects. Because it’s too good of an idea to dismiss outright.
(edited by Lobo.1296)
Really do not want to lose swiftness on warhorn, its our only main ability that grants it.
Me either! I’m not suggesting it. Warhorn 5 is good as is. I would maybe give it 3 stacks of might instead of one, but otherwise I think it’s great.
Warhorn 4 is where I would add a blind to the direct damage. Or the buffs Allie listed (but I would still keep the hawks and damage).
General:
Rangers need more group utility. Particularly in the upper tiers of dungeons
Give them something similar to shouts. Vague. How? Through utilities, traits, pets, weapon skills? We need more utility and there’s been a lot of suggestions. Again, I’m curious to see what the devs are leaning towards so we can focus some of the vagueness.
Also when looking at group utility, look at our ability to provide reliable AoE and Burst. It’s been a problem that has been mentioned about our class, and I get it that we are supposed to be sustained damage, but we should have one skill, similar to Maul, in other power weapons that offer some form of burst. LB, sword, Axe, should offer something more in the line of AoE and/or burst.
Marksmanship:
III. Keen Edge – Critical hits do +1% damage. Oh god, yes.
IV. Signet Mastery – Grant power similar to Necro Signet Mastery. Why wasn’t this addressed umpteen patches ago?
VII. Spotter – Should be moved to Skirmishing as Gradmaster minor. No. Why would you talk about having to invest so heavily in traits to get useful and then add one of our most group friendly and useful buff to a GM trait. I understand that it’s powerful, but making it GM in skirmishing would force power rangers to go deep into Skirmishing when that’s optional right now. It would practically force 30/30/x builds.
Move it to Skirmishing, fine. I like that, but don’t make it GM.
Rework to 5% crit chance & 3% crit damage if it’s move to GM, ya. If not, it’s fine as is.
X. Eagle Eye – Include shortbow. Provides 200 range and +5% damage on longbow and harpoon gun. (no range bonus for shortbow) I think it should function the same for both bows and harpoon gun. Range and damage for SB please.
XII. Remorseless – Next attack applies 3 stacks of vulnerability for 6s. 16 sec cooldown I don’t know what this means? Remorseless is good as is imo.
Nature Magic:
VIII. Evasive Purity – Dodging removes 1 conditions from you and your pet. (10s cooldown) Sploosh. Yes!
Skirmishing:
Tail Wind – Provides +20% movement speed while in combat. Mmm Hmmm!
Weapons:
Longbow: I liked many of the ideas on this thread and your summary. I would, however, echo what many have said that these changes don’t address burst abilities. You have an opportunity with KBS or Hunter’s Shot to add a high risk/reward bust ability in either one of those. Don’t blow the chance to add it with the other changes. I love the idea of a long cast time, high burst ability similar to the winter mayhem slingshot ability. Hold it down for increase range and damage, whamo, LB now has some burst to go with the utility.
Shortbow: I like where this is going. I would suggest, like my above LB suggestion says, add some increase damage to 3-5 abilities, right now there isn’t a lot of reason to no auto attack with the SB since the other skills are equal or lesser in damage. Even though it’s a condi weapon, there should still be bigger direct damage outside of AAs.
Sword:
Dodge overrides animation (s1), s2 jumps reversed (first goes in, second goes out), s3 cast time reduced to better time evades Yeah I think we’ve said this enough, I think y’all have said it’s a problem. If this is fixed you’ll hear a lot of happy cheers from us Power Rangers.
The jumps don’t need to be reversed on s2. s2 is fine and I like that it’s a good “Oh crap” button to get out of the way of big hits. I would just increase the damage of Monarch Leap so the sword has some burst better than the AA. Right now there’s no reason to work s2 into combat because you get better damage and utility on your AA.
Warhorn: s4 gives Protection, Regen and Vigor to nearby allies I’d love this, but even just adding a blind to it will make it worthwhile. Also cut the recharge rate by about 2-3 seconds. It’s too long now for just direct damage. If you add the buffs, I’d still reduce the cooldown.
Torch: S4 sets location of target on fire (small aoe), s5 causes burning and blindness Yes, 4 should cause an AoE burst when it hits and cause burning. 5 adding blind, and increase the duration of the fire. It really is way to short lived to be useful, especially when you compare it to other fields. If you add condi removal or regen you would probably turn Torch into something useful.
Skirmishing:
Remove traps from this line. Yes! That would be great.
They simply do not make sense here, because they are largely condition based but skirmishing is the crit line. That, or swap the stats of the skirmishing line altogether. Don’t swap stats, leave skirmishing Precision and Ferocity
Improve traps in terms of utility, damage and group oriented play. Vague. How? There’s been a ton of suggestions. Longer duration on combo fields, condi cleansing in field or buffs when in a field. Curious to see what devs like.
Wilderness:
Wilderness experts should be the masters of poisons. Therefore, Rangers should have the most potent poisons available.
Rangers should be given some trait options to improve poison in various ways (extended duration, improved healing suppression, higher damage values, bonuses against poisoned foes, etc.). Ok…I think one person suggested this. I wouldn’t be against it really but it wouldn’t be high on my list of needed changes. If this is where traps end up, and it becomes the condition trait line, then yeah…sure I guess.
PvE
Beastmastery & Pets:
Pets die easily in dungeons because they can’t dodge telegraphed skills. So give them a dodge.
New Grandmaster minor: Companionship – Pet gains +7% stats bonus from the player. No. Make this standard to the pet. Don’t make us trait to make our pets scale.
(edited by Lobo.1296)
PvX
General:
Remove spirits. I think this is unnecessary. I think if you give them the ability to move by default, make them immune to damage and adjust the numbers to balance (perhaps getting rid of that pesky RNG aspect too) Spirits would be perfect. It wouldn’t solve the screen clutter but it would dramatically affect gameplay.
More than any class in the game, Ranger requires a significant investment in traits before a large number of their utility skills are even work slotting. Yes. We’ve been saying that for a year and a half. I’m curious to see what the devs think the solutions are.
Ranger heals should match their purpose more.
Reduce cooldown of Troll Unguent/add condi removal: Yes!
Increase radius of Healing Spring & increase cast time: Ok…sure.
Reduce cooldown of Heal as one or reduce cast time: Yes! Also make it revive a dead pet please.
Beastmastery & Pets:
Pets need stat scaling: YES!!!
Stats could scale based on the Ranger’s stats and the pet’s family, with a weight on specific stats based on the individual pet: Even better! It’s like you guys are listening.
Beastmastery should improve the pet stat scaling: I know right?
Pets should take less damage from AoE and one-shot mechanics. Now you’re just messing with me.
Pets should take 30% damage from AoEs, be immune to one shot mechanics and take 25% damage from cleaves when not the selected target. If this happens I’m naming my next kid Allie Murdock Community Coordinator
Pets can’t keep up in combat.¬ No, they can’t. We’ve been saying that!
Melee range should be increased to 600 to accommodate the “run>stop>begin attack>cancel attack>run>stop” type mechanics you see throughout the game. Good, this will help.
Increase pet movement speed by 10-15%. Replace Agility Training with Vigorous training If the above is added, with this, that may solve some of the problems.
Pets have a hard time sticking to their target because they can’t attack and move at the same time. Increasing their speed could help increase their damage by just allowing them to keep up with their target. So let’s make this happen.
Allow pets to attack while moving. I can’t even…the feels…if this becomes reality…
General QoL changes.
When the pet is stowed, the Ranger should gain “aspect of the <pet name>” effect which provides unique buffs based on the pet family and specific pet. I saw this in my dream. This would be one of the best things you could do for us.
BM trait changes
Signets should always affect the Ranger and require a beastmastery trait to also affect the pet. I just pooped my pants.
Use new UI symbols for each pet type and combine Rending Attacks, Stability Training and Intimidation training into one trait.
With these traits the way they are, it discourages mixing pets and hurts build diversity. Yeah, that would help BM builds, I like it.
New trait: Master: Cleansing Swap: When you swap pets, you lose 2 conditions (ICD of 10 seconds).
Counterplay – when ranger swaps pets, the pet loses boons
Gives Rangers a good option for mobile condi removal. Yeah that would be good.
New trait: Grand Master: Camaraderie: When you swap pets, the inactive pet gains the same boons as the active pet (boon values are capped).
Counterplay – if you swap when your pet is dead, there are no boons to copy. I think this was suggested once, seems solid. But I don’t know how game changing it will be.
I really like where people have taken the idea of the aspects.
I’d like to see it work so that having the pet out or the aspect up is a tactical decision that gets made as you are playing the game.
I also had an idea about splitting pets between selfish and group pets and then having the aspect of that pet be the opposite. For example, the Stalker with it’s AoE buff for the group would be a group pet, so the Stalker aspect would buff the Ranger whereas the Reef Drake’s ability is selfish (it only helps the Ranger’s DPS) so the Aspect of the Reef Drake would buff all party members near the Ranger (maybe a buff that allows allied attacks to have a 5% chance to cause confusion?)
This would add a level of strategy to your pet selection and make Rangers more desirable for group play (since we are supposed to be the sustained single target class, grouping up is not going to be our strong suit which will make us “unwanted” unless we bring something to the table that others can’t bring).
EDIT: I also want to point out that the aspect idea was meant to complement pet play, and not replace the fixes that pets desperately need in terms of moving targets, survivability, pathing, etc. While it should certainly be possible to play as a pet only Ranger or an aspect only Ranger if you so choose, I think the best results should be available to those who learn when to use which.
I’m really glad you commented mtpelion.
I agree that it can complement play, that’s really what sold me on this idea. If you asked me before I read your idea on petless Ranger I would have adamantly said no. I chose ranger because of the pet and I like the pet play, however, because the mechanic is flawed in a lot of content your solution is, a. easy to implement, b. adds a depth to the class that doesn’t exist now and c. offers opportunities to add more support and team play options.
Anyway, thanks for the great idea. Out of that whole CDI thread, all the pet ideas, I thought yours was the best and I’m glad Allie acknowledged it.
And to the nay sayers that say “No” because the pet problem needs to be fixed. I totally agree. These changes should not, in anyway, get the devs off the hook from fixing the shoddy AI, I would still expect that to happen. In a perfect world both could happen. Pet rangers (like me) could have a functioning pet AND an aspect mechanic that could compliment my play and Rangers wishing to go Petless could do so with the added bonus of Aspects to play with.
Anyway, thanks for discussing. The more I chew on this idea the more I like it.
mtpelion.4562 posted an idea on the Ranger CDI thread about gaining a buff if you stow your pet. It seemed to gain some traction from Allie Murdock and she encouraged us to start a new thread that discusses this proposed mechanic.
I, personally, have never been a fan of permastowing our pets. However, with a lot of the recent content…Wurms, Marionette, high level fractals, it does make keeping a pet alive an effort of futility. Adding some static buff, when a ranger chooses to stow the pet could solve the problem that many rangers have with our current pet but still allow the ranger to be thematically tied to their pet.
Adding a flat damage boost for perma stowing pets doesn’t necessarily solve the problem and seems lazy and uninspired. Adding a static boon, based on the pet of choice, I think is a brilliant way to add depth and consequences to pet choice regardless of whether it’s out attacking your foe or stowed and giving you her aspect.
Now that I’ve started the discussion, I’m curious what the brilliant minds of the ranger community can come up with if this mechanic is introduced. Judging by Ms. Murdock’s reaction to mtpelion.4562 post, it seems possible that the devs would consider it.
Here are my ideas on the mechanic. I’ll keep it brief so I can read everyone else’s idea.
Here are the basic buffs I would add to perma stowing a pet. Ranger gains the buff based on the family of pet they have and the F2 ability becomes an added ability for the ranger.
Pet Family:
Bear: Ranger gets 10% toughness
Brownbear: Cleanse one condition
Polar Bear: Next attack Chills (2s)
Black Bear: Next attack Weakens (5s)
Murellow: Next attack Poisons (3s)
Arctodus: Next attack Bleeds (2 stacks 3s)
Bird: 25% movement speed
Raven: next Attack Blinds (2s)
Snow Owl: Next Attack Chills (2s)
Eagle/Hawk: Next Attack Bleeds (2 stacks 5s)
Cat: 10% Precision
Stalker: On use Might (1 stack 5s)
Jaguar: One use Stealth (3s)
Snow Leapord: Next Attack Chills (2s)
Lynx: Next attack Bleeds (2 stacks 5s)
Canine: 10% Power
Wolf: On use single target fear (2s)
Drakehound: On use single target Immobilize (2s)
Arctic Wolf: On use single target Chill (2s)
Fernhound: Ranger gains regen (5s)
Spider: 10% condition damage
Cave Spider: Next 2 attacks causes Vulnerability and Weakness ( vulnerability (5s) weakness (2s)
Forest Spider: Next 2 attacks cause Poison (3s)
Jungle Spider: Next attack causes Immobilize (2s)
Drake: 10% vitality
Ice Drake: Next attack chills (3s)
River Drake: On use single target lightning strike ( damage 380)
Reef Drake: Next attack causes Confusion (2 stacks 3s)
Salamander Drake: Next attack causes Burning (2s)
Marsh Drake: Next Attack Poisons (3s)
Porcine: 10% Healing Power
All Porcine give their forage on F2 use
Moa: 10% Boon Duration
Blue: Grants Protection to Ranger (2s)
Pink: Next attack Dazes (1s)
Red: Grants Fury to Ranger (6s)
White: Next attack chills (2s)
Devourer: 10% Condition Duration
Carrion: Next attack Poisons (3s)
Lashtail: Next attack Bleeds (5s)
Whiptail: Next attack causes Torment (3s) just to give us torment
There doesn’t need to be a fancy graphic associated to it, and the F2s are toned done by about half to make up for the fact that the pet (in all her faults) isn’t delivering the ability. Combo fields and projectile finishers and everything else the pet offers are out to offer a balance to the petless gameplay.
EDIT: Let’s not have the debate here on whether pets should be in or out or how to fix the AI. This post it to brainstorm a proposed mechanic and offer constructive ideas on how you would implement it, NOT if you would. Thanks all.
(edited by Lobo.1296)
Specific Game Mode
PvE (PvX)
Proposal Overview
Add blind to Hunter’s Call or condition removal
Goal of Proposal
Hunter’s Call offers decent fire and forget damage but other than that offers no utility whatsoever. Warhorn is primarily a utility, support weapon and since it only has 2 skills it should represent this.
There are very few weapon skills that are just raw damage and adding a blind (or condition removal) would make the weapon more interesting.
Proposal Functionality
A blind makes the most sense since it’s a bunch of birds pecking at the bad guys face, so I go with that condition. It makes sense thematically and it offers good defensive utility.
If the devs wanted to address one of Ranger’s major concerns (condition removal) adding a condition removal on use could be one way to achieve this. Like the warrior warhorn, removing cripple, chill, immobilize at least would be helpful.
Associated Risks
As I said, it’s a decent Fire and Forget damage ability and can accumulate some pretty decent numbers and it’s incredibly helpful for stacking might on RaO. However, adding a small debuff like a blind would not imbalance the skill at all and would bring it in line with many other off hand weapons of other classes.
Specific Game Mode
PvE (PvX)
Proposal Overview
Healing Fixes
Troll Unguent: Troll Unguent should apply condition removal for each pulse. Reduce pulses but increase healing coefficient (same healing, less time – thus less time of condition removal. I would even suggest adding stability to it for an extra source of the boon outside of elites.
Heal as One: Acts as a revive to pet if pet is defeated.
Spirit of Water: Chance to heal on hit and cleanse a condition
Goal of Proposal
Right now healing spring is THE healing skill most rangers use. It has a balanced cooldown, good healing coefficient, applies regen and heals conditions with every pulse and gives a water combo field. There is literally nothing bad about this skill. Even with my proposed changes, HS will likely still be the go to heal.
Changes will balance the other heals and perhaps add some motivation to using them.
Proposal Functionality
TU: TU is a good healing skill that increases the survivability, over time, of the ranger. Adding condition removal fits the theme of the skill and the existing gameplay it favors. Furthermore adding more condition removal to a class that lacks it, is a step in the right direction. Adding stability is just an additional carrot to the skill that gives the ranger a source of the boon outside of elites.
Heal as One: This is a bland healing skill, besides the short cool down, there is very little reason to take it over other heals. Giving an on use pet revive would make this a favorable heal for any build.
Spirit of Water: Simply adding some condition removal to it would make it a competitive heal compare to HS.
Associated Risks
It will make Ranger Heals more powerful. As it is now, HS is one of the best heals in the game so I think just bringing them in line with Healing Spring won’t over balance the class – it simply gives the Ranger more choices.
Specific Game Mode
PvE
Proposal Overview
Give pets a dodge mechanic. I have a few ideas.
The pet can evades (on an ICD) if it is going to take more than 50% of its health in damage. This way it gives the ranger some time to react to spikes and pull the pet out before it dies.
The pet receives a “blur” or “displacement” buff when the ranger evades so a ranger can time when to dodge to keep both pet and ranger alive. This helps melee rangers as the Ranger will likely be dodging anyway and it can help ranged weapon Rangers as they have a better view of the battlefield and can time their dodges to assist the pet. This buff will also be applied to ranger evade skills like Lightning Reflexes, GS 1, Serpent strike, etc.
Pets leap, and dodge backwards when ranger recalls pet. Right now, the pet moves very slow, especially if it’s crippled or chilled that even when the pet is called back it will still likely die from major AoE or boss cleaves. The recall needs to be quick and near instant and the pet should avoid damage for a short period during this time.
No Dodge: pets take a flat damage reduction from All AoE damage. This is the lazy approach and I’m not a big fan of it.
Goal of Proposal
Increases pet survivability without having to increase pet stats again. Gives a good risk/reward game play to the Ranger. Rewards heads up play and allows the Ranger to micro his pet just a little bit more but doesn’t punish the ranger who can’t or won’t.
Proposal Functionality
As I lay out above, I think either of my suggestions would drastically improve pet survivability and improve gameplay for the Ranger. It’s our core mechanic and in most high level content the pet lacks the responsiveness to survive.
Associated Risks
Will make pets more survivable and thus may need to scale damage back. I would refute this however as their damage is calculated in the ranger overall damage on the front end. Boss fights right now are stacked against the ranger’s prime mechanic and adding any of these changes will level the playing field and make pets more viable in these encounters.
(edited by Lobo.1296)
Specific Game Mode
PvE (PvX)
Proposal Overview
Allow Rangers to keep pet names.
Goal of Proposal
It gives Rangers a small way to customize their pets.
It gives the Ranger a small way to be invested in their pet. It psychologically has less meaning when “juvenile jaguar” gets one shot by AoE compared to, “Fluffy McSharpclaws”. Fluffy’s death has meaning and consequences.
Proposal Functionality
Just fix the existing naming tool so the names stick to the pet it is assigned to. The names should be unique to the individual animal so my Wolf, “Moon Moon” doesn’t become “Moon Moon” the pig.
Associated Risks
Development. It will take Anet developers a whole afternoon, probably before lunch, to fix this small, but glaring issue of the Ranger class and will likely make most of the Rangers very happy.
Specific Game Mode
PvE
Proposal Overview
There are many pet suggestions already that are similar to my own, but I just want to add my voice in case you are keeping a tally of pet related improvements.
Pet Scaling: With Ascended gear there is a powercreep that leaves pet behind. Adding AR was an improvement, but also a tacit acknowledgement that pet stats need to be based off of the ranger. Without some % increase to pet stats off the ranger’s gear and choices the pet will be weak and a liability in anything but open world PvE.
I have 2 suggestions. One is an overly simple suggestion that may not improve things for all builds but will add to the viability of pets. The other is more in depth and would require a lot of development.
Suggestion 1: Have pets scale off of Ranger gear. DPS speced rangers will have pets that fit their play style. Damage based pets will have improved damage, and some survivability (because of Ranger armor class) and support oriented rangers will have hardier and tougher pets. Even Rangers that want a pet that compliments their play style with an opposite function (Bear bow rangers) will benefit as the pet will still have increased stats, it may not be ideal but I don’t know a ranger that would turn down increased pet stats.
The empathy traitline will increase the % gained from Ranger stats and can still be a great traitline for rangers wishing to focus on the pet.
Suggestion 2: Give pets their own traitline and allow the Ranger to customize the pet to their needs. Pets will have damage, survivability, and support traitlines (keep it simple) with a few minor traits and a few grandmaster traits to add build diversity to pets. Pets gain trait points as they level.
The empathy traitline will increase the points rangers can put into their pet.
Goal of Proposal
Suggestion 1: Will prevent powercreep and allow pets to stay competitive as different tiers of gear are released. Will add depth to gear choice as rangers need to consider how their stats affect the stats of the pet.
Suggestion 2: Will add a new meta involving pets, giving rangers a way to add synergy with their pets and their own traits. Will add depth to a class that currently doesn’t have a lot of it and will increase the functionality of pets across the board.
Proposal Functionality
Suggestion 1: I would have a base 3-5% ranger stats apply to pet stats with each point of Empathy adding 1%.
Suggestion 2: The traitlines could be simple and current ranger traits affecting pets can be moved to the pet trait system freeing up space for more diverse and interesting traits for the ranger. Traitline examples can be: Improved movement speed, % of toughness to power, improved crit damage, improved stat (like power or condition damage) to all party members when in combat. These traits can be interesting and make a pet desirable to have in the party instead of a liability in some fights.
The traits can be opened up in the pet window and reset for a small a fee when out of combat (or when visiting a ranger trainer).
Associated Risks
Suggestion 1: Pets can become very powerful, and may make scaling back damage necessary. It may make tanky pets nearly invincible and would require a lot of testing to balance it correctly. I think it can be done and I think it would be necessary to improve the functionality and efficacy of pets.
Suggestion 2: Same as above. It will also increase the learning curve of rangers, but let’s be honest, it’s pretty low now and the class could use some depth. It will also give the ranger a reason to be invested in the pet instead of now which is more of a fire and forget weapon. I think the biggest risk is to leave the pet alone, as it’s slowly strangling the class.
Pets should just have their own unique trait trees where we can trait them towards damage or support. They gets points as they level up and additional points in Empathy (from traiting into BM) will give you even more points.
I think that could solve most of the pet problems, and the power creep with ascended gear, once and for all.
It’s hard to imagine that we would be any worse off to be honest. I love the class, but our problems are obvious and everywhere.
My biggest hope out of all of this is not a complete rework of the class or core mechanic (I think it’s unrealistic just from a development standpoint). but simply just addressing the small problems every ranger build faces.
Unresponsive pets
Poor weapon damage/spike damage/AoE damage
Messy trait lines
Bad signets
Pet survivability/cooldown
If just 1 or 2 of those are “fixed” I will think of it as a success and be content for awhile.
I’m happy that it’s delayed. Gives me hope that it’s going to be productive.
I don’t disagree with you Prysin (very eloquently written by the way). But I think Anet has provided us with their vision.
Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.
I think that’s a pretty clear vision statement for the class. It’s just the reality doesn’t match the game play.
The ONE change the dev listed isn’t going to be the only change. And it’s far from a useless one. It’s welcome (albeit a little late) and surely won’t fix the pet altogether but it will improve gameplay. It’s not helpful to downplay the little improvements we get. Most of what we are talking about here are little changes that will add up to dramatic quality of life improvements.
1. Ranger
2. Ranger
3. Ranger
Its the first two minor traits, that force you to play a minion master, whether you want it or not.
“reanimator (5)”, you have to take it, because its a minor trait. It gives you “jagged horrors”which are completly useless, they deal no damage and attack every enemy that is nearby.
“Protection of the Horde (15)”, again a minior trait. But if you run a well build, you dont have any minions (except those jagged horrors). But 20 thoughness makes absolutly no sense.I would also add the point against class mechanic, and not only balance or bugged to the list.
Yes. And also, Yes.
Ranger:
Sharpening Stone (Utility)
Next 5 attacks cause bleeding (6s)
I don’t know any build that would use a vital utility slot for this piece of garbage.
Scaling it with power only benefits builds that stack power. If I want to use a pet for support or if I invest heavily into condition damage it won’t fix the pet scaling issue. Scaling with power only helps one play style and that wouldn’t be fair.
Sign me up for the business please
It’s a good idea but you still have one major problem that this does not solve. The pet does not hit a moving target. Because of this we are handicapped in the damage department by 30% base, more if you factor in new gear such as ascended armor for people with a zerker build for instance. Now, there is a way to have both, a pet doing damage and the ranger having full 100% of their damage.
First, you have to remove direct damage from pet, give the ranger full 100% control over their damage.
Second, you leave the pet in the game as a utility, providing boons, and whatever effects they give. So your bear still remove’s effects, your dog still does knockdowns, your birds will still do bleeds, and so on.
Third, By buying into the beastmaster trait line you can add damage to the pet, this will make the beastmaster trait line viable for people who want to be a beastmaster and not just a ranger. Make it so you have to apply 30 points into it. This way you only have 40 points left so you can’t really go full zerker plus pet damage since full zerker requires 30/30/x/x/x.In a way this is like a win/win scenario for ranger’s who want pets and ranger’s who do not want pets. Does anyone find any faults with it?
I like your ideas. My suggestion was just how to scale the pet up, not fix the glaring attack animation and F2 cast times. That’s already been discussed by smarter people than me.
I posted this in the class balance forum, but wanted to put it here too so Rangers can chew on it and give some feedback. It’s a solution I came up with with improving pets scaling. Enjoy.
One problem I see, going forward, is scaling. As gear becomes better (ascended weapons and armor) our pets will be less effective than they were a few months ago. Bosses and events will be balanced with ascended gear in mind (or at least the majority of people in full exotics) and our pets don’t have a way of scaling up.
Our BM trait line has the Empathy attribute that increases pet stats, perhaps making Empathy scale with our own attributes passively (without investing in BM if we don’t want to).
One stat comes to mind as a universal between all rangers, regardless of build, and that is our armor class (NOT Toughness – that’s different). Our armor goes up numerically depending on the color of armor we wear, as we gear up to exotics and beyond that number goes up. Having a ratio of armor:empathy will also increase the pets stats as we gear up. There’s no way to increase the scaling beyond just acquiring the best armor you can in each slot. This is a fair way to passively increase pets stats as the ranger improves his gear and takes on new content.
Slotting points into BM will, of course, make for a better pet, but that’s the way it should be and it can be balanced to accommodate for the increased pet stats gained through armor.
It shouldn’t effect sPvP at all and in WvW it will make pets far more survivable and less
frustrating and give the ranger another reason to gear up.
Thoughts on this?
One problem I see, going forward, is scaling. As gear becomes better (ascended weapons and armor) our pets will be less effective than they were a few months ago. Bosses and events will be balanced with ascended gear in mind (or at least the majority of people in full exotics) and our pets don’t have a way of scaling up.
Our BM trait line has the Empathy attribute that increases pet stats, perhaps making Empathy scale with our own attributes passively (without investing in BM if we don’t want to).
One stat comes to mind as a universal between all rangers, regardless of build, and that is our armor class (NOT Toughness – that’s different). Our armor goes up numerically depending on the color of armor we wear, as we gear up to exotics and beyond that number goes up. Having a ratio of armor:empathy will also increase the pets stats as we gear up. There’s no way to increase the scaling beyond just acquiring the best armor you can in each slot. This is a fair way to passively increase pets stats as the ranger improves his gear and takes on new content.
Slotting points into BM will, of course, make for a better pet, but that’s the way it should be and it can be balanced to accommodate for the increased pet stats gained through armor.
It shouldn’t effect sPvP at all and in WvW it will make pets far more survivable and less
frustrating and give the ranger another reason to gear up.
Thoughts on this?
4. Skills:
a. Give Troll Unguent Stability or Protection or some other buff
b. Give Heal as One Stability or Protection or some other buff (I like the idea of it giving the heal on attack buff to pet and ranger)
c. Have Lightning Reflexes remove immobilize
d. Get rid of Sharpening Stone. It’s a terrible utility and one that no one takes. Either rework it to provide some other measurable buff like might stacks, torment, increase pet damage, something, anything, or scrap it.
e. Storm Spirit. Get rid of the Swiftness on Hit and have it grant fury or might.
f. Signet of Stone: Remove Toughness and have it provide a flat damage reduction like the warrior or guardian signet. Have it break stun.
g. Give all shouts a buff when used AoE . Protect Me – Protection, Sic ‘Em – Swiftness, Guard – Stability, S&R – Regen or Aegis
h. Have Sic ‘Em grant stability to pet. It should basically be an unstoppable machine when this is active.
i. Have Protect Me reduce incoming damage to the pet so it’s not a Kill Pet Now button.
j. Have S&N give a revive speed bonus to pet
k. Have Guard reveal stealth in the area.
l. Reduce cooldown on Frost and Fire Trap. Allow fields to persist. Perhaps allow traits to give boons when in field (stability, protection, condition removal).
m. Add a utility (or Elite) that allows the Ranger to summon both pets at once. It was in the early alpha but never made it to live. It would be fun.
5. Mechanics:
a. Normally, I’ve been against getting rid of the pet or making it permanently stowable, but after each content release in GW2 it has made me admit that the pet is a liability at worst case, dead at best. Giving a flat damage bonus – 10% or so, when the pet is perma stowed will eliminate the frustration of running around with a dead pet during big boss events or high level content. The bonus should not be significant enough that rangers always go without a pet, but won’t completely penalize the ranger during the AoE fests like the wurm fights. Furthermore, this bonus won’t apply if the pet is dead. It will require the ranger to stow the pet away, out of combat, thus requiring some forethought on the player’s part.
b. Add roles or stances to pets. I’ve mentioned this above. Some pets can have multiple roles, but can only pick one at a time. For example:
1. A bear can be both support (tanky) and damage. He gets different F2s based on the role and his stats will change to compensate for the role switch. In support Role he has his normal condition removal F2, in damage role he has a charge/stun. His other abilities are different too so it no longer has endure pain or the regen and gets damage abilities.
2. Stalker can be damage and support. In damage he has a might giving roar in support he is more tanky and his F2 is a damage evading ability. He also gets skills like the bear regen on attack skills.
c. Make pet names stick when swapped out. Very annoying mechanic and if other games have figured this very basic mechanic out, surely Anet can.
(edited by Lobo.1296)
1. Pets:
a. Decrease cast time of F2 abilities. They should be on use and the cast animation should be cosmetic only. Wolf howls, Moa screeches, etc. should cast while pursuing target.
b. Similarly, pets should move while attacking. This is improved from release but still an issue.
c. Better diversity of support skills. Perhaps add damage/support roles to pets so you can have different F2 abilities based on the role you choose.
d. Consolidate pet specific traits and move many of the pet centric traits into BM. BM currently has very, very underwhelming traits like intimidation training, vigorous training, and compassion training. Eliminate these traits and move Some of the pet specific traits out of the other lines will free up space to add more compelling traits.
e. Give the pet the displacement buff when the Ranger dodges. Why this isn’t in already is beyond me.
2. Weapons:
a. I was pleased to see they are working on MH Sword 1. Free it up so ranger can dodge during animations will help greatly.
b. Add a shot, similar to the scout weapon 4 in The Snowball Madness, to the long bow. Chargeable cast time, increased range and damage based on how long you “draw”. Hunter’s Shot or Knockback Shot would work.
c. Remove bleed from SB 1 flanking and just have it increase base damage when behind. Have SB 1 apply the bleed regardless of position if not.
d. Add blind or torment to Hunter’s Call.
e. GS – Maul add blast finisher.
3. Traits:
a. Remove Signet of the Beastmaster and make all signets affect the Ranger. This was a poor design from the beginning and it’s time to change it. This is one of the most common requests from rangers. If not – then all cooldowns on signets need to be dramatically decreased.
b. Consolidate Eagle Eye and Quickdraw and have EE apply to Shortbows.
c. Get rid of Trappers Defense. Consolidate with another trap trait or eliminate it.
d. Consolidate Martial Mastery with Keen Edges or Offhand Training or all three.
e. Move Empathic bond down the trait tree. Like many have said it’s the best condition removal we have and it hurts to invest so much in the tree to take it.
f. Hide in Plain Sight. Get rid of it or allow us to move or reduce the cooldown.
g. Consolidate Nature’s Vengeance with Spirits Unbound and give another nature magic GM trait.
h. Perhaps rework Evasive Purity to remove more conditions (cripple, immobilize, chill) to make it more desirable. Move it to Grandmaster if this is done.
i. Consolidate Concentration Training and Expertise Training and move into BM.
j. Carnivorous Appetite should also heal the Ranger.
k. Companion’s Might should also apply might to the ranger when the pet crits (put in ICD).
l. Merge Pet Prowess and Agility Training.
m. Merge Trap Potency and Trap Expertise
(edited by Lobo.1296)
+1
I don’t mind the pet mechanic per se, it just needs some tweaking to make the pets better in any build.
I do Knights with celestial trinkets and divinity runes with a pretty sturdy build. I just don’t like glass cannons, especially since that means my pet is going to be squishy too. I like full BM so my pets can actually last through some AoE and I’m tanky enough to take hits for the team.
Ya it does pretty well in WvW, it’s tough enough to handle roaming and most players ignore the pet, and that’s pretty dangerous with this build.
Mini skirt seems a sensible choice.
I have a might stacking build for my pet and I would love a buff/debuff bar so I can keep track of the might on my pet. Also, to watch in sadness when my master’s bond drops off when I enter 5’ of water on accident…
Hey Tower,
This is my current build that I use that is very tanky and can do some respectable damage. It’s a pure melee build, but for some dungeons and fractals you’ll want a bow in reserve.
http://intothemists.com/guides/116-non_frustrating_pet_dungeonfotm_guide
The gist is, you are tanky and can keep damage off your pet so it can be a beast and damage away on the mob. It works pretty well, I’m in the 40s now in fractals and don’t have issues with him (besides the normal ranger gripes). Let me know if you have any questions.
I would rework KBS and Hunter’s shot thusly:
KBS: Just add the stealth effect to this skill. I like the stealth and it fits nicely with the disengage of KBS.
New Hunter’s Shot: Ranger draws the bow, damage, range and missile speed is based on how long the Ranger draws the shot up to a max of 5 sec for max damage, range and speed. If shot at max draw (5 sec) target is immobilized (3s).
I have always loved the idea of a staff for the ranger so it can embrace the nature magic/druid side of their character and fill a niche that the ranger can’t right now through weapons…full support. Also, condition removal is a ranger weak spot right now and they have no way of dealing with high boon bunkers right now so this could help with that role.
Here’s mine:
Skill 1:
Strike: 1 Strike foe for moderate damage
—>Club: Club foe for moderate damage pet gains fury
—->Shillelagh: Swing staff in an arc knocking back foes around ranger and removing one boon. (Blast finisher)
Skill2:
Wall of thorns: Summons a wall of thorns at target area. Foes passing through will be crippled, and suffer from 2 stacks of bleed (5s).
—->Bloom: Wall of thorns will bloom flowers causing foes to suffer from poison and regen for allies (5s)
Skill 3:
Lunar/Solar Flare: Effects will change depending on day/night cycle or ranger can “charge” ability to pick cycle when out of combat.
Targeted AoE with combo field that lasts 5s.
Lunar Flare: Bathes area in the light of the moon curing one condition every second while in field and giving allies retaliation (1s). Allies have a 15% chance of healing with their attacks. Light field.
Solar Flare: Bathes area in the intense rays of the sun causing blindness to foes (1s) and stripping one boon every second from foes. Causes burning for 1s for each boon removed.
Allies gain 1s of vigor and attacks have a 15% chance of causing burning (2s) while in the area. Fire field.
Skill 4:
Edge of Extinction: PBAoE: Causes 5s torment and grants pet swiftness and 5 stacks of might for 10s. Refresh stacks of might if you kill a target during effect.
Skill 5:
Primal Focus: Strikes enemies in front of ranger. Grants allies protection and vigor (8s). Also enlarges pet granting it stability for 8s
For kicks and giggles I did an OH Focus skills also focusing on the druid/support theme.
Skill 4:
Nature’s Stride: Grants 15s of swiftness and vigor to allies. Pet gains stability
Famine: PBAoE: Causes weakness and cripple and removes a boon every second in area. (dark field). Pet conditions are converted to boons.
Main-Hand Dagger:
It’s hard to find another main-hand weapon that doesn’t already copy what sword or axe does and still fits with the OHs. Because my previous entries were caster specific I decided to make the MH dagger a support oriented weapon that could easily be paired with the warhorn, torch or my new focus.
Because it’s a dagger, it still requires close to medium ranged attacks.
Skill 1:
Jab: Jab forward with the dagger causing moderate damage and bleeds for 2s
—>Ferocious Strike: Stab for with dagger marking target for pet causing pet’s next attack to do 15% more damage and causing 5 stacks of vulnerability (5s)
Skill 2:
Scavenger’s Focus: Slash in front of you and summon crows that deal additional damage for each condition on a target. Pet’s next attack causes blindness. (This can have a bird animation similar to rune of the mad king.)
Skill 3:
Storm Chaser: Leap backwards leaving a lightning field behind you and causing causing weakness to foes (4s). Foes are stunned if struck at the end of the leap.
That’s it for me. I really like some of the ideas of others, I hope we see a staff in the future. I’d love a full support/spirit build for my ranger.
(edited by Lobo.1296)
Hi, I’ve been playing GW2 since beta but my guild sort of dissolved and I’m all alone now.
I’m looking for a mature, active medium to large sized guild that does a mixture of activities mostly PvE, Guild Missions and Fractals. I do some WvW but that doesn’t need to be a focus of the guild.
I don’t have a ton of time to play but when I do I like to be active and have things to do with like-minded folks.
I love the TC community so I am NOT interested in switching servers. Let me know here or through a PM if anyone has ideas on where this homeless bum can go.