I’d like to make some suggestions, mainly concerning the ranger:
- Rangers should have the ability to select a set of stats for their pet. One reason for this is that if a ranger wants their pet to have ranged capabilities, they should not have to settle with the stats offered by the devourers or spiders (ie. precision sacrificed for toughness/vitality).
- If a ranger swaps pets shortly before getting out of combat, they are unable to select different pets from the pet menu until pet swapping is available again. This is like being unable to change weapon sets when out of combat because a weapon skill is on cooldown.
- Several of pets’ F2 abilities are lacklustre in their purpose and/or cast time. Rangers are unable to command their pets to activate their basic attack skills at certain times, so rangers are in desperate need of some more beneficial F2 abilities (especially considering the unreliability of pet AI). I believe this has been discussed in depth so I won’t go into details.
- Move Trapper’s Expertise and Trap Potency from Skirmishing to elsewhere (such as Wilderness Survival). If a player wants their build to be largely based on their utilities (ie. 3 traps), having to invest 30 points into precision and critical damage is in no way beneficial since traps deal no direct damage. I would suggest replacing these traits with benefits more appropriate to a precision/critical damage based build, such as a chance for arrows to grant fury when hit.
Whether or not the sword’s auto attack is designed to root the player to the ground, I wanted to point out some current issues:
- If you need to interact in a hurry (eg. revive someone or pick up a conjured weapon), you must wait until the auto attack chain allows you to do so.
- If rangers have been given a dodge in both skills 2 and 3 of their sword, these dodge skills should be ready without delay. Skill #2 takes time after activation to actually dodge. Not only does the ranger currently have to wait until their auto attack permits them to activate this skill (unless they are lucky with timing), they are also helpless for the first half of the animation.
- Lightning Reflexes needs to be reworked. I’ll steal a suggestion from the ranger forums: It should cure crippled, immobilized and chilled. As a skill that aids in the ranger’s survivability, the damage it deals is unnecessary.
- Move the stun breaker from Signet of Renewal to one of the other signets (I would suggest Hunt or Wild). Rangers that need a stun breaker is often (and I’d argue more often than not) during times that immediate condition removal is unnecessary. If this stun break was moved to Signet of the Hunt, players would have an incentive to activate this signet. Alternatively, giving the stun breaker to Signet of the Wild would bring it up to standard with skills like ‘Stand Your Ground’ or ‘Balanced Stance’.
- And concerning stability, I agree with the numerous Elementalists who argue that the cooldown for Armor of Earth, even if reduced to 75 seconds, is too long.
- I’d also like to suggest that Signet of the Wild apply stability to both the ranger as well as the pet without the need for a (grandmaster!) trait, especially since this signet is not a stun breaker.
Lastly, I wanted to make a comparison between two weapon skills of different professions. As these skills serve the same purpose, I am extremely concerned with profession balance.
Windborne Speed (Elementalist)
You and nearby allies gain swiftness, while curing crippled, immobilized, and chilled.
Swiftness: 10s
Radius: 240
Recharge time: 30s
Charge (Warrior)
Grant swiftness to yourself and allies, while curing chilled, crippled, and immobilized.
Swiftness: 10s
Range: 1200
Recharge time: 15s
Charge has half the recharge time as Windborne Speed, yet five times the radius. Why is this? Charge takes ¼ of a second longer to cast but this difference is so minute it is negligible.
