Guild Wars 2

Overall, found the beginner’s guide was not very accessible to the viewer base they might be aiming for. If you expect the viewer to know all the ins and outs of min/maxing before watching – what’s the point?

A big negative is that It watched like a school lecture; he only utilized the video to show off item and skill tool tips and then just narrated an unstructured dialogue about the profession.

I would have liked to see more depth of the different styles of play – since PvE encompasses Dungeons, Fractals, Open World, WvW, and Living Story. More focus on different weapon and build options (and why); and possibly – where to start with your builds (including trait distribution) and highlight some which players can play with; saying merely ‘condition’ or ‘damage’ isn’t necessarily beginner lingo.

This is also a “level 80 ranger guide” as well. Since, although some of the advice can be filtered down below 80, it focuses mostly on the armour and runes at level 80.

It does give some idea for what people should aim for, but suggesting that beginners pick up full offensive gear and then “not die” seems like a poor choice. I understand that might be optimal gear but its not practical to some of your audience.

Agrios.9071:

?
I mean if was quite obvious that RoF would never win the bronce league.

Oh man, what should i do now? I really believed RoF can win if we will defeat DL and DZ. Now you ruined my life man.
Nooooooooooo

ps. Noooooooooooo

So I’m to assume this next month or two goes toward “fixing” Ele? Will Rangers get their turn sometime in 2016? As it stands we are still seeing major bugs that have existed since launch, and the class has only seen nerfs to it because you “balanced” the class in all aspects of the game off of TPvP.
So because of balancing around X(TPvP) the WHOLE PROFESSION felt it in Y(PvX) and became generally unuseable in WvW, and became unwanted in most other game forms.
I’ve posted before on Ranger Forums, and I’ve sent multiple bug reports and still no action on those has been seen. The class needs fixing, as it’s the laughing stock of players in WvW and it only has a gimmicky build for TPvP. You are in fact not “fixing” or “Opening up new build options” when we still have to trait 30 just to have condition removal(I am not even sure it should be called this as conditions would have killed you before it proced). You want to open build options?

• Give us more options for a condition removal so I don’t have to trait for it, wasting half of my trait points.
• Fix our LB. If a Dev says its not viable or how the class should be played when the main site says we are “Master Archers” then there is an issue with class design at some point.
• Fix Pets If our weapons have lowered DPS because we have pets to do DPS then maybe our pets should be able to reliably hit a target. During the Ranger PvE stream IC circled our f1-f4 for pet survivability and talked about pet management which I find funny as all of these are buggy. F1, and F3 rely on pet buggy pathing. F2 just seems to activate after 5 seconds of you actually hitting F2.
• Our Utilities, much like a Thief we are really selfish and dont being anything to a team other than Spirits, similar to a Thief having venoms. As it stands currently, we bring nothing to a team effort like zerging that benefits the game as a whole.

If some of these changes ever reached the light of day, maybe, just maybe we would actually be able to play WvW. If you want to advertise a game where you can play the class your way, make sure the statement is true. As right now I have to play the game according to how I can best survive X situation, and even then I am only surviving and not helping anyone other than myself.

Regards, Shinra

Jon,

Symbol of Swiftness

• In WvW the symbol has the risk of putting the player in combat and causing a self-snare, which for a swiftness is terrible. For this reason I’ve already switched to +25% speed runes and use the symbol as a nuke / heal.

• What is Symbol of Swiftness really supposed to DO? 4s swiftness on a symbol… perhaps you should change the boon to vigor at that point to help allies dodge.

• You could put swiftness onto Line or Warding for group swiftness as there’s no risk of the guardian entering combat (mobs running into the symbol… “combat mode” self-snare… happens ALL the time)

Wilderness 5 Natural Vigor

• In WvW this is my only “vigor” besides Lightning Reflexes, which I’m obviously going to hold back for the stun break / evasive roll. The ranger can’t generate vigor-on-crit or endurance-on-burst, making Natural Vigor core to the ranger’s evasion with every weapon set.

• If the ranger is generating too much evasion, perhaps the problem lies elsewhere.

About Rangers in wvw….. one thing I hate about ranger is pet always dies you can use bear in passive standing right next to you once aoes start flying it will be dead in 5s.

If there was a talent somewhere that reduced the amount of damage you pet takes by say 50%? while in passive/ not attacking (loses the buff once it attacks something). Then you can have your pet live reasonably long enough so you can make use of traits and utilities……protect me, fern hound, bear cleanse, some signets etc.

Also longbow would be an amazing tool in WvW if you could move while barraging to help snare a zerg while not being left behind your self -.-

also Mesmer clones that are already “shattered” could go off where they are killed by AoE from ac/whatever.

Pretty much wvw changes that would be really nice (using f1-f4 yes plz !) with out effecting spvp 1v1 etc.

Rangers on the right track but having the shortbow on a 900 m cap is really punishing this weapon as well as its lack of punch either in both its base damage or upping conditions. One of which should be improved considerably. Traps skills should be moved from Skirmishing altogether. Traps use conditions, why should we trait into precision for a trap where it would be of much better use in marksmanship or Wilderness survival . At the moment its traiting into a line that’s not getting the full benefits of its chosen damage ( conditions). Is there any chance of re-jigging this in the next patch so it would make more build diversity ( not only for traps but other builds too). I am sure power and precision would go far better paired hand in hand to what the traits sit at now. .
P.S – Short sword route on skill 1 ( bad scene) , this needs obliterated as it is more of a hindrance and not free flowing as other classes attacks on melee weapons as it basically immobilises you to the spot and are a sitting target. .This really should be sorted too.

Jos.8793:

Ranger

1/ active condition removal

I have the feeling that one of the ranger’s weakness is that he has almost no active way to deal with conditions and that most of them need the pet to be alive and close to you

>> make lightning reflexes remove immobilize, cripple and chill would be a good start to adress this issue.

2/ the power build

when you want to play a power build u realise that the marksmanship tree is overloaded with useful traits while the skirmishing tree is quite lackluster.

>> add the piercing arrow effect to quickdraw ( like warrior’s crack shot would be a good way to solve this problem

Agreed completely. Condition removal is a serious achilles heel of Rangers. While we can remove all conditions from you and 4 others with the signet, it absolutely requires the pet be in close proximity to us and alive. And with no other real active condi clear skll we are severly hampered. Sure there are a couple of other ways to remove conditions (like bears/spring) however these are not “synergistic” as it were, and cannot be easily used by many builds. This combined with Rangers relatively low healing levels for direct healing means that many builds that are not specifically bunker builds crumble in seconds when set against a condition user. This can be seen in numerous game modes, and is not limited on one exclusively.

What we really need is a second utility skill that can condi clear, giving us more flexibility in skill selection. Your proposed change to LR would do this, however I feel it would need to have the dodge range halved to not make it far to effective.

Secondly as you noted a power build is limited in choice in traits, because so many that a power build would want to take we cant as they are all together in one tree. My view is that “Spotter” should move in to Skirmishing tree, as it provides a precision bonus and that is what this tree line specialises in.

That would free up choices in Marskmanship for Rangers to seriously consider LB viability across different modes. Hell to be honest anything that allows a ranger to chose all the bow skills in one build is a MUCH needed change.

Yeah I like using my LB on the ranger, because I want ONE character who can attack at range effectively. It would be nice if wasnt so crap.

well rangers r.i.p. for another few months. this changes wont make the rangers good in wvw.

Ranger

1/ active condition removal

I have the feeling that one of the ranger’s weakness is that he has almost no active way to deal with conditions and that most of them need the pet to be alive and close to you

>> make lightning reflexes remove immobilize, cripple and chill would be a good start to adress this issue.

2/ the power build

when you want to play a power build u realise that the marksmanship tree is overloaded with useful traits while the skirmishing tree is quite lackluster.

>> add the piercing arrow effect to quickdraw ( like warrior’s crack shot would be a good way to solve this problem

I like most of the changes. I will list my bullet points now though.

Rangers need more pet control. Do it as a toggle-able option. This way, advanced skill level Rangers get more options by putting a check mark in the box for more pet options, and Novices get the vanilla controls.

Skill splits for different formats. This needs to be done. What is useful for one format is rendered useless for other formats. Playing a control class is GREAT in sPvP. In PvE? It’s not even an option.

I feel like you guys are fixing things that don’t really address the main issues. The core of the problem is that this game was supposed to be Support, Control and Damage. Damage is the only thing that matters in PvE. In sPvP it works.

I own my own Arena. I play a LOT of sPvP, but this game should not be balanced around sPvP. It should be balanced around PvE, with skill splits to balance sPvP and WvW on their own.

Underwater combat needs an overhaul. You have a world that has a TON of underwater areas and they don’t see any use because a lot of the skills are left out and the combat is lacking. Skills need more punch on underwater fights. Underwater combat needs to play like a dogfighting arcade game with a targeting reticule.

Eles need a reason to spec into one line at the expense of the others. Make every elementalists XII trait for an element do something that bars them from traiting in another element’s XII trait, but makes the one that is specced into really powerful.

Meteor Shower in sPvP and PvE needs to be able to be cast on the move. Not in WvW. It isn’t that way now because it would break WvW. Other formats shouldn’t be hindered because it would ruin one. Do skill splits.

Hi all

After reading this post from Anet, im giddy to see the ranger class getting certain tweaks (be it buffs or nerfs) as they are all pointing to the right direction, however i did not see any statement in the post mentioning about our short-sword auto attack root, so i decided to copy/paste my recent post here, since this seems to be the go-to-thread with regards to class balances/changes and to have constructive discussion with the community and devs.

Im writing this post with regards to our Short Sword number 1 skill.
While there has been much contention with regards to strength of the root that comes with this auto-attack , i have not (or yet) seen Anet’s response to this matter since i played my first gw2 character, a ranger in 2012.

Hence, i have decided to write this post, to not only get the feedback from the ‘ranger’ community, but hopefully from our Anet developers too, so that we can finally get some closure or maybe response to this sticky matter.

Anet has always requested for players constructive feedback with regards to this matter, so here is my 2-cents thoughts with regard to the short sword:

Summary: it is the weapon with the right risk/reward element BUT due to state of other classes weapons, compounded by a myriad of other problems (traits, condi removal, pets, lack of anet response which will not be discussed in this post). The short sword number 1 skill becomes more of a heavy cripple to the strength of the class which is very disheartening to individuals that have ranger as their main and wish to be proud of being one.

Rewards:
1) It’s number 1 skill/‘auto attack’ has one of the (if not) highest dps of all rangers weapon and with the right buffs/traits can hit up to 5k per hit.
2) It has 2 evade skill; number 2 and 3
3) It has an effective disengage skill and leap skill (for us combo-field users); number 2
4) It works very well with our offhand weapons
i) torch : fire-fields from skill 5 + heavy fire-pressure while u auto-attack away
ii) warhorn : fury to raise damage output for power orientated rangers + a combo blaster (although the CD is way too long for my liking, it is wonderful when combo-ed with our healing spring especially when we are going into the thick of melee/condi-fights), very effective in teamfights/offhand choice in PVE from skill 5
iii) dagger : it provides us with another evade (giving us a total of 3 evades and up to 5 including our dodge rolls before combat begins) and cripple skill; an effective weapon of choice when it comes to fighting against other classes 1-1

Risk:
The one and only root which brings a heavy disadvantage in any form of fight in PVE/WVW/PVP, it is essentially the ‘Achilles Heel’ of this weapon.
Why Achilles Heel? This root creates 3 critical problems:
1) its a hidden immobilize condition which cannot be removed =3
2) unlike being immobilized, you cant dodge out of an attack!
hence, very often you will see rangers getting clipped by a perma-stun warrior, hit with shatters or torment/confusion skill(from scepter)by the mesmers, COE alpha-subject aoe ring, the multitude of AOE agony rings in FOTM and a myriad of other things.
3) it creates an unnecessary skill ceiling, for new players and old, and enhances the GW2 community already negative view of the ranger class, as:
i) newer players will shun the melee option with the short sword (as their mortality rate will increase significantly from using it) in favor of going ranged, this will result in rangers being less inclined to discover/explore new build potentials.

Conclusion: So essentially, as discussed above, it can be seen that the sword is an excellent weapon with a nice risk and reward attached to it but it is only excellent IF AND ONLY IF this risk/reward theme is applied to all other weapons in the game, which isn’t the case.

if one of the devs decide the fix this or at least explain to the community, it will be a soothing balm and potentially a game changer for rangers as we become more viable/deadly/effective in a myriad of scenarios.

This post is only posted in the pvp and ranger forum thread, so feel free to hop in-between both threads and i will also update bother threads if any kind Anet dev decides to respond on this matter.

Ranger:

• Longbow damage is welcome, but traiting to make bows effective is prohibitively expensive; consider merging two of the bow traits, Quick Draw and Piercing Arrows, to be like warrior’s Crack Shot.
• Natural Vigor: vigor got a serious in-combat nerf recently with the change to healing spring, is this reduction still necessary? If 50% is too much for an adept minor, consider moving it to master minor.
• All the Nature Magic changes seem good.

Things that should probably still be addressed:

• Sword 1 root – I understand it’s a leap, and game mechanics prevent you from dodging out mid-leap, but the movement lock lasts much longer than the actual leap animation. It should be possible to dodge or move slightly between each of the attacks.
• Traps being in skirmishing. Much has been said on this.

Wish list:

• An option for rangers to revive their downed pets, like Comfort Animal, automatically swapping the downed pet’s F2 for this. Chained 60s periods without any use of our profession mechanic is punishing. No other profession can have theirs taken away.
• Pets that don’t root when attacking. In PvE this is fine the way it is, but players move too much, which is why pets with leaps, tracking attacks, and cleaves are far more useful in PvP/WvW.

Ranger, suggestions and additional thoughts:

• Beastmaster’s Bond: Always thought this trait belonged with the Beast Mastery Line.
• Eagle Eye: Have it grant +300 range to the shortbow as well.
• Bark Skin: I think 30% dmg reduction below 50% health treshhold is actually more useful. Too strong? Maybe tweak the dmg reduction number then, but I believe that a dmg reduction below 50% health is of greater use than a dmg reduction below 25% health. Especially so, since it’s a grandmaster trait and competes with Empathic Bond.
• Fortifying Bond: This trait shares Vigor with the pet, which is rather pointless since the pet has no means of dodging. However, stability is not shared, which actually would be useful.

I really wish sword #1 wouldn’t root us in place. A change that #1 chain skills and animations are interrupted upon dodge attempt, would be much appreciated.

What about more active condition removal for rangers ? What about pet durability in WvW ?

I only speak for 2 classes I know well. I also speak from WvW stand point.

Ranger: #1 issue with ranger is condition removal. You need to fix way it works, it relies on pet that can either be dead or too far away to actually remove any conditions. Only other option is a stand still heal skill. These are all death sentences in current condition fest you got going on. Until condition spam gets toned down you need to give ranger a reliable way to remove conditions and more options. Nerfing Natural Vigor will only make things way worst as currently it is only thing keeping rangers alive in WvW.

Ranger is worst class in game due to the whole pet system. One suggestion to help was make pets dodge when you dodge. I personally really want option to totally disable pet and get some form of DPS compensation. In b4 play another class replies.

Guardian: Move traits around to different trees so it actually makes sense, specifically symbol traits. It has been said a million times before. Remove Revenge of the Fallen and Strength of the Fallen, NO ONE uses these EVER, totally worthless. Guardian needs speed more than anything else, replace one of those traits above for speed trait, and symbol swiftness change makes zero sense.

Glacial Heart has so much potential… Guardian could really use more chill skills and traits to help keep up with all kiting they get. Guardian needs a second condition badly, until that happens condition guard will be worst condition class in game. Kindled Zeal will continue to be totally worthless even after you “buff” it until that happens.

Zealots Defense is currently one of worst attacks in game. It roots you and cant hit anything moving or more than a arms length away. It works in only 2 instances, when someone is running at you in a straight line or when someone is in downed state. I guess you could count someone afk as one instance as well. At least you guys listened to me about scepter auto attack, hopefully this will be fixed and not fallen on deaf ears.

tl;dr
Ranger needs reliable condition removal or extra condition removal.
Guardian needs most traits moved around, access to speed, and 2nd condition.

These changes look great and very well thought out. Thank you for submitting it beforehand to get player feedback. I would very much like to offer my opinions on the Ranger class and the proposed changes.

• Natural Vigor should not be changed. Rangers are outclassed by pretty much every other class in terms of damage output, but what they do have is their speed and agility. This trait is key to almost every Ranger build out there and this change simply cripples and underclasses the Ranger. In order for a Ranger to get the “too much endurance regeneration” it has to invest trait points into those lines. Just like every other build out there, this means the Ranger must sacrifice other traits to get this survivability. Please don’t remove this cornerstone for Rangers. If this change MUST happen, at the very least, make it a conditional endurance regeneration like, ‘while health is below 50%,’ or a ‘chance on hit,’ but this change really does cripple the Ranger, forcing him to invest even more trait points to get that extra survivability, becoming even more outclassed by every other profession.

• Rangers have to spread their trait points too much to get a nice condition damage build going. Why does a trap ranger have to invest 30 points into Skirmishing, a precision/crit damage line, to get the most out of their traps? Marksmanship and Wilderness Survival are the condition damage lines and trap Rangers would like to see more trap synergy in those lines (ideally, obviously, Wilderness Survival); perhaps the trap traits should be moved to WS.

• Condition Damage Rangers are forced to choose between utilizing shortbow skills or trap skills by having to choose either Quick Draw or Trapper’s Expertise, respectively. Moving Quick Draw to the Marksmanship line and merging it with Piercing Arrows would be an ideal change and would bring the Ranger’s traits in line with the traits of other classes, like the Warrior, and would allow a shortbow/trap Ranger to have a decent build that uses both traits. This would free up room for a new trait in Skirmishing; something more suitable for a Skirmishing build. You could create more synergy for a pet build, like: pets do 5% more damage while wielding a bow, or pets have a higher crit chance (synergizes with Pet’s Prowess). You could also offer more offhand options, like: increase the duration of conditions caused by offhand skills, or offhand skills do 5% more damage. You could also offer some sort of payoff for sword, greatsword, spear Rangers investing into the Skirmishing line, like: chance to grant boon on crit, or conditional damage increase, etc.

I am kind of impressed. These are all generally very good changes, but more important (to my being impressed) are the reasonings supplied and the subsequent response posts. Do more of that.

Though at the same time I’m disappointed that the core problem with rangers (pet inability to dodge or hit moving targets) has yet to be touched. (I don’t even play ranger. but that’s part of why I don’t.)

Ranger Notes—
1. Active condition removal for rangers. We rely too much on Empathetic Bond for condition removal to make the new Bark Skin trait worth taking (in my opinion).

2. Sword skill 1 rooting is the most infuriating thing I have ever experienced. Please for the love of all that is good in this world please… remove the rooting. I will love you forever and probably name my first born child JohnPeters. Just saying :P

Overall I love the way this looks. Doesn’t do much for my ranger’s trapper build but I’m happy we’re at least getting some attention after that last patch. Looking forward to December!

JonPeters.5630:

*
Ranger:

• Marksmanship V – Predator’s Instinct. Increased the threshold from 25% to 50%. Increased the Cripple Duration from 2s to 10s. Increased the cooldown from 15s to 30s.

This is not a sufficient change to help the LB. There’s no condi to cover the cripple and it’ll be removed fairly quickly. Keen’s edge, sharpened edges and sharpening stone’s duration is not long enough/too unreliable to be used as cover especially with the HP threshold requirement.

Cool down is far too long to be of use. You’re not likely to get the target to 50% hp before they’re in melee range especially if they’re bunkers.

Instead of giving long duration on the cripple, it should be a shorter duration with lower ICD.

Change it to 3 second cripple with 9 seconds ICD (so it’s better than a sigil) and remove the 50% threshold requirement. Or have a chance cripple proc on crits.

Pet buffs are still counter intuitive to cast for range weapons like LB/SB/Axe. Make pet buffs disregard range for pet owner so LB users can stay at 1k killzone and get stalker/moa buffs.

LB traits need to be consolidated. Too many traits in order to max out a weapon which is not found in other classes. e.g. eagle eye, piercing, cooldown, spotter, etc. Piercing and cool down should be on one trait to get a ranger version of Crackshot.

Some great changes there, warrior could use a Healing Signet nerf but scale it better with healing power or something. I play one in spvp, I love how ridiculous it is but it’s probably time for it to go.

Some interesting changes for Ranger, particularity mighty swap and enlargement. Going 30 into Beastmaster has some great traits now.

Honestly if anet really want to improve build diversity on the ranger, they gotta getsome condition removal that doesnt blow a 30cd heal or at least combine some traits specifically in the power line. We’re stuck with 30 in wilderness for EB, go check out the builds in the ranger forum.

The previous balance preview said minions would be buffed in WvW. I thought this was being addressed in the previous patch but it looks like it was left out. Did we ever find out what happened with this? You guys gotta know how long they last by now right? Even a bear on peaceful dies almost instantly.

This may be outside the scope of this patch but any consideration for Ranger pets now that ascended weapons, trinkets and Armour are on the scene?

Thank you, this all looks very nice.

I just had some questions with some ranger traits. Now, I actually like pets. I also don’t mind having to invest into utility to make it useful. Sort of makes you define yourself as a trap, spirit, signet, or shout ranger.

Shout-Beast Master
Spirit- Nature Magic
Signet – Marksmanship
Trap- Skirmisher?

My issue is some of the traits are a mess. For example, when I think traps I think DoT damage, and some rugged survival man. Neither of which say “skirmisher” to me. They say wilderness survival. To that, I feel Trapers Expertise and Trapers potency should be moved to Wilderness Survival Tree. Traps are DoT based moves, and more in line with the idea of a wildland survival man. Now, the Skirmisher line could take on some defensive traits to be more in line with a skirmisher… You could choose a purely defensive option, or offensive option. This would make the Skirmisher/Markmanship lines a place to customize yourself based on your other build needs.

My other issue with the trait system, is that shouts are not that strong. Now Sic’ Em, is a strong CD for beast masters, however the other shouts are somewhat lacking, and have a weird cast timers. I ask if you could look intro increasing the viability of beast masters by improving shouts. On the beastmasters line, my question is to Masters Bond, which is the only trait which doesn’t want you to switch pets in its current design. I am sure there is some way of improving this (I recommend making it a Grandmaster trait which builds up stacks when you/your pet crits) to make it more in line with the spirit of “master of beasts”

There are other issues which people may add. But I just wanted to add this. I hope you see this and thank you again.

This patch has made me decide to stay, but there are some things that I see issue with.

Fade.7658:

Serious question: Why does Anet ask for opinions and comments, when all they are going to do is what they proposed in the first place? I can’t recall a time where they posted proposed changes, and things were actually changed/modified, based on the player’s input.

I’m sure there were a couple small things, but I’m referring to balance changes, not QoL improvements and things of that nature that were changed, based on input.

I just look at the posted changes now, and figure those are going to be the changes to expect on the date given. All we are getting, imo, is the illusion of making a difference.

It’s just as you said. It’s an illusion so they can say “See, we’re listening”
I love it when game companies say patch notes are “draft” or “incomplete” or “not set in stone” it just warms the <insert censored word) that is another name for bivalves) of my heart. I don’t see any discussions here having any marked effect on what they’re doing, it never does.

Bri.8354:

So in conclusion: The longbow buff is insignificant and trait changes are nice but won’t put power builds in a better spot. Then you look at the nerf to endurance regeneration and realize this patch is an overall nerf to power rangers.

Pretty much nailed it.

While I’m glad they’re improving the longbow, the changes are pretty much insignificant if they don’t address the problems with the builds for it. Considering longbows need piercing, cooldown and range traits to be viable, this isn’t going to do anything about build diversity. We’re still pigeon holed to get the longbow even remotely viable.

It also doesn’t address the placement of traits related to traps and it doesn’t address any of the pet mechanics that need to be addressed like last year.

Plus that endurance regen nerf makes zero sense to me. How anet says we have too much endurance regen just leaves me scratching my head. They already nerfed it with the healing spring change.

You also made a great point about beastmaster’s bond.

About the ranger changes:

You speak about changing around a few things to make power builds more appealing, but in reality these changes do close to nothing to bring them up.

First off the longbow. While bringing up the power of the auto-attack at closer ranges is a good idea, you didn’t do enough to solve the problem.

Currently:
1,000+: 0.9 coefficient
500-1,000: 0.65 coefficient
0-500: 0.5 coefficient

After the change:
1,000+: 0.9 coefficient
500-1,000: 0.74 coefficient
0-500: 0.6 coefficient

See how large the gap still is? Long range shot struggles to competes with the shortbow’s damage output minus its bleeding at 500-1,000 range. I’d suggest buffing the damage to be 0.8 at 500-1000 and 0.7 at 0-500 to create more acceptable damage at non-max range.

Now the trait changes:

Predator’s Instinct is a nice change. Ranger’s have a lack of stuns available so increasing stun duration on Moment of Clarity won’t be very useful outside of gimmicky builds that use things like racial skills for extra stuns. The cool-down on Beastmaster’s Bond being reduced is nice, but the real problem with this trait is it relies on your pet going below 50% health to trigger. Why are we encouraged to let our pet get killed to buff ourselves? Don’t you think this trait would be more viable if it activated on something like a pet swap?

Furthermore, when comparing these traits with the other one’s we have available, none of these are worth using because the ranger is forced into heavy traiting to make their utilities and weapons acceptable. Do you want to make the longbow decent? There’s 3 traits for that. Want to make your signets not suck? 3 traits. Want opening strike, which eats up all the passive traits under marksmanship, to be good? Use a grandmaster AND a longbow for stealth to trigger it, otherwise it’s lousy.

If you really want to improve power specs merge some of the traits so they have more options.

Signet Mastery and Signet of the Beastmaster could be merged into the same trait under master or grandmaster. Piercing Arrows and Eagle Eye could be merged as a master trait as well as Eagle Eye increasing the shortbow from 900 to 1,200 range to make up for the cartoon logic nerf you gave it to make the longbow more appealing.

So in conclusion: The longbow buff is insignificant and trait changes are nice but won’t put power builds in a better spot. Then you look at the nerf to endurance regeneration and realize this patch is an overall nerf to power rangers.

Some good Ranger changes and can’t wait to try them out but still needs some condensing of Longbow traits as their is basically 4 LB traits fighting for your trait points, 3 of which fighting it out over 2 Marksmen spots along with some very good none longbow marksmen traits. Also Master tier Beastmaster traits are still a barren wasteland of uselessness. As is Instinctual Bond, please replace that with something useful (or at the very least swap it back with Zephyr’s speed so we can go back to ignoring it).

Mighty Swap looks like it will be the first time Rangers get an actual benefit out of their Mechanic since you took away quickness on swap. But the mechanic still needs to go under heavy review especially in World vs World or new hard PvE content like Tequetl and Liadra.

Mesmers still need some OoC movement increases and I still think IC should be moved back to 5 trait points.

Ranger:
•Wilderness 5 Natural Vigor. Reduced the increased endurance regeneration from 50% to 25%.

Bad idea!
ist one of the best traits the ranger has and makes a ranger more viable because this great trait cost only 5 Points.
The ranger has big issues with doing as much dmg than other classes but we have the possibility to dodge them more than others what makes it more balanced. Thats my opinion.
When u u strongly believe the ranger can evade too many attackes, then u could decrease a little bit the evade time of sword and dagger skills 3 and 4.
please dont nerf the Thing rangers make Special, the cool survivabilty! :/

PS: please add the weakness Duration in the tooltip of axe #3 and the stability Duration of signet of the wild, thanks

Opinions and suggestions regarding possible ranger changes:

1. Long Range Shot - Even if the proposed changes for this skill are for the better, it still doesn’t change the fact that you are actively crippling your damage output if not staying at max range (which isn’t optimal in many cases).
   Suggestion: Equalize damage on all ranges and make it add cripple (1s) when shooting at 1000+ range.
2. Predator’s Instinct - I like this one a lot. Nothing to change here.
3. Beastmaster’s Bond - This change does absolutely nothing as the effect already recharges when you swap pets.
   Suggestion: Make it add retaliation (5s) to the pet.
4. Moment of Clarity - I don’t really like this trait to begin with. Ranger has 2 skills that cause stun, Concussion Shot and Hilt Bash, both of which require flanking to actually inflict the one second stun. I guess the idea here is that the extra 1 second should help the pet to land it’s burst, but for the ranger itself it changes nothing as the only skill you want to use here is Maul or Swoop.
   Suggestion: complete rework – Remove a condition from you and nearby allies on interrupting a foe. You and your pet gain quickness (3s) on successful interrupt.
5. Natural Vigor - This and the old Zephyr’s Speed were the cornerstones of every ranger build. I’m sad to see this one go.
6. Oakheart Salve - Maybe an unnecessary buff to passive trait that is already quite good?
7. Bark skin - Rather than buffing another passive trait, I’d like to see a complete rework into something more active.
   Suggestion: New skill – Dryder’s Defense: You and all nearby allies gain protection (5s) when you use a stun break. You take 50% less damage while stunned.
8. Circle of life - I’d like to see this, Healer’s Celerity and Trapper’s Defense fused into one trait.
   Suggestion: New effect – Create a Healing Spring when reviving an ally (with appropriate cd). Increases revive speed by 10%.
9. Strength of Spirit - I never use this trait as the effects sound so boring.
10. Two Handed Training - I like the change on this one but it could still use little something something.
    Suggestion: Drop the damage bonus and add the following functionality; Blocking reflects projectiles while wielding a greatsword or spear.
11. Enlargement – Again a trait that I never use. No opinion.
12. Nature’s Vengeance / Spirit’s unbound – Good change. I’ve had this idea that the Nature’s Vengeance should be reworked into making spirit actives create combo fields (3s) but that requires some other changes to go with it.
13. Mighty Swap – More might for me! I like this change.
14. Sun Spirit – Good change but the visual effect remains quite flashy.
    Suggestion: Change Solar Flare’s effect into something smaller. It’s too big and bright.
15. Storm Spirit – Another good change but damage-only skills feel dull.
    Suggestion: I’d also like to see Call Lightning’s activation time reduced to quarter-second and making it stun nearby foes for 1 second.

Crossposting from ranger boards, as this might be the goto place.

The ones that concern me.

Long Range Shot. Increased the damage at 500 range by 20%.
Long Range Shot. Increased the damage at 500-1000 range by 15%.
While a step in the right direction it’s not enough. Currently it’s 56%:72%:100% and the change will place it at 67%:83%:100% I don’t think it should be any worse (and this is the lowest I’d accept) than 80%:90%100%. At least then you wouldn’t be completly hamstringed in close range, especially in a game were melee is king.

Wilderness 5 Natural Vigor. Reduced the increased endurance regeneration from 50% to 25%.
Just thank you.

Wilderness VIII – Oakheart Salve. Decreased the recharge of this trait from 20s->15s
The regen is like 5 seconds, even with this change there are far more interresting traits in that line.

Wilderness XII – Bark Skin Increased the damage reduction from 30% to 50%.
This is good. It’s still a bit overshadowed by Empathic Bond, but good non the less.

Nature Magic IX – Two Handed Training. Added the following functionality to this trait. Greatsword and Spear attacks have a chance to grant Fury on hit. 50% chance. 3s Fury. 10s cooldown.
On top of current functionality this is completly ok.

Nature Magic VII – Nature’s Vengeance. Moved to Grandmaster Tier.
Nature Magic XI – Spirits Unbound. Moved to Master Tier.
This ok, I can’t find any complaint on this.

Beastmastery VI – Mighty Swap. The might from this trait is now applied to you and your pet.
Good, we need more of this.

While the proposed changes are a step in the right direction it still feels very lackluster. I’m not very impressed and ultimately it’ll change nothing for me. And as other poeple have noted, still missing some love to pet AI, utilities, sword 1 etc that have been discussed for a months.

Ranger: Why aren’t you bringing rangers up to par with warriors via more trait compression and fixes to the class in general?

Trait Compression & Modifications:

• Piercing Arrow: Only Pierces yet Warriors get the same trait that also reduces cooldown of the same weapons. Suggestion: Merge Quick Shot into this skill from the Skirmish tree.
• Eagle Eye: This should be affecting shortbows too. It’s illogical that we can only increase longbow range and not our other bow too. Suggestion: Add shorbow to the skill for range and damage increase. Move to Adept Tier and move Trait V to Master tier.
• Quick Draw: (See Piercing Arrow above): Replace this skill with the following: Reduce cooldown on weapon swaps by 5 seconds. (same as warrior minor trait).
• 5 pt Natural Vigor: Seeing as you’re nerfing this skill, why not make the other 25% a chance on hit. 10% chance to grant Minor Vigor (25% end rec) on hit. It still won’t be perma vigor but it won’t be as crippled either.
• Signet of the Beastmaster: This never should have been a trait seeing as pets are intrinsic to the class and you can’t get rid of them. This should have been a natural class ability. Suggestion: Remove this trait and just roll it into the class. Add a new Trait “Active Signet effects, affect nearby allies”. This gives more party buff ability to a class that is sorely lacking in this department.
  *Nature Magic IX: This trait should be merged into the cooldown trait, Martial Mastery and left in Wilderness Survival.

Weapons:

• 1hs rooting not addressed. This weapon is terrible due to that and having to use kludgy dps killing workarounds in combat sucks (eg not attacking and turning auto attack off to try and prevent rooting so you can dodge when needed etc..)
• Longbow.. the “miss party buffs to do damage weapon”. the mid range boost is ok but the auto attack is too kitten slow. It should be a bit faster as you’re losing damage to flight time and range anyway.

Skills & Pets

• Spirits still have internal cooldown, can be killed, can’t be moved easily and don’t do damage on summons unlike Warrior Banners (w/traits). Suggestion; Remove the internal cooldown and on every 25% health lost give the buff to anyone in range.
  *Pets still die to AoEs from bosses in world events and dungeons. The health increase did little to nothing to remedy this situation. Pets should either be immune to boss aoe damage due to not being able to dodge or get out of red circles or have the damage taken drastically reduced from these things, otherwise in the fights that really matter you’re losing out on 1/3 your damage.

PvE of course. PvP needs to be split from PvE in most every way.
That’s enough for now….

(Continued)
Ranger- I play an apothecary beastmaster ranger focused on being very tanky and ablatively absorbing damage for my groupmates through my drake pet or my greatsword evasion/toughness. This character is map complete and 5 slot ascended.

Wilderness 5 Natural Vigor. Reduced the increased endurance regeneration from 50% to 25%.
This was way too much for far too little.

Wilderness XII – Bark Skin Increased the damage reduction from 30% to 50%.
Wow, what a buff when combined with the hp boost from recent patches. My pet will be a juggernaut.

General Spirit Nerfs:
I think this is warranted, but in light of this lost potential can we please consider making them easier to use for less investment?

Thief- I play a super-survivable cleric’s venom share/tank sword/pistol + shortbow thief in PVE and in PVP. This character is map complete and 5 slot ascended.

Anet let me first say that I am 100% aware of how survivable thieves can be with signet of malice, venom share and healing power.

Increased the base rate of initiative gain from .75/second to 1/second.
I don’t really rely on Initiative to accomplish much in my build, but I appreciate the implications. S/P could use an offensive initiative dump.

Shadow Return on Sword. Renamed to Infiltrator’s return. Added a 1/4s cast time.
Not really a fan of this. I think it should be unable to escape CC but as a tank thief with low vitality I rely on this as a condition cleaner. Please reconsider.

Pistol Whip. Reduced the after cast on the first half of this skill by .25 seconds.
Can we please get some kind of bonus for completing a pistol whip on an enemy? Extra damage perhaps?

Acrobatics X – Assassins Reward. Increased healing scaling by 35%. Moved to Grandmaster Tier.
This is cool. It actually makes straight tanking without venom share more viable. But the math must be done. At 1 ini/s this is still only 150 selfish hp/s for a thief. This just loses to venom share and would be more appropriate without the increased scaling and dropped a bit in tier.

Acrobatics in General:
Acrobatics is a line which rewards active fighting and that means visible fighting. This line needs a way to reward players who are not stealthing and instead relying on evasion, momentum, mobile attacks and initiative use for survivability. The problem is that you only need to be caught once to go down fast in both PVE and PVP. The line needs some mitigation.
As a cleric venom share I often suffer from similar issues due to not relying on stealth but instead combat prowess to survive.
Can you guys please look into adding some mechanics which -reward- thieves for not stealthing in this line? For example adding an Acrobatics trait like:

“Performer’s Swagger: Gain Level/2 Toughness for every 5s you are visible and in combat. Maximum 5 stacks Stacks expire when leaving combat or entering stealth.”
To really enforce “thriving on combat.”

“Rolling With the Punches (Adept Major): When an attack would do more than 25-50% (numbers for Anet) of your maximum health take 25-50% less damage (numbers for Anet), lose 50% endurance. 5-10s cooldown, requires 50% endurance to trigger.”

Thieves need help in PVE where a single hit can mean death. A 5-10 point Acrobatics trait that helps thieves stand their ground (but can not be used with stealth as an active defense) would go a long way to improving thief melee capability.
Also being the boon tree I’d really like to see a way to apply group regeneration to allies, potentially in the 5-10 point range to round out venom share.

Warrior- This is my 7th class and as of yet is still only in alpha stages.
As a PVP player I am just glad to see Hambow tweaked.