Guild Wars 2

Yoh.8469:

SkiTz.4590:

nagymbear.5280:

SkiTz.4590:

I think everyone in this forum and this game understands Rangers need an overhaul (absolutely broken class mechanic, see past 100 pages and threads on it in ranger forums)

The only problem is, Anet does NOT believe this class needs an overhaul lol.
Even if they do believe it does, they simply WON’T do it and CAN’T do it (priorities like LS and gemstore are bigger lol)

I don’t think ranger needs an overhaul. An overhaul would mean redesigning the pets completely, redesigning the traits, utilities. The pets don’t need an overhaul to be scary so that people start dealing with them, instead of just circlestrafing. If you have reliable control pets, you can force peoples defensive skills being played on your terms. If they defend against the pet you control them, if they defend themselves from you you control them with the pet. Same for damage. We don’t need an overhaul for that. We need more control over the pet. We also need some traits removed and some new traits introduced, but I don’t consider that an overhaul.

Respectfully disagree

They definitely need redesigned traits and utilities.
Everything about pet F2 is lack luster. ooo cool they can give me fury ever 30 secs or might
or immob someone for a few seconds every 40 seconds
You honestly believe that is worth 30% of my DPS?

They need an overhaul because
-They provide very little in a group setting which is what MMOs are all about (pets don’t do me any good in WvW/Dungs/Fracs and is pretty much dead weight in 95% of all game modes and will continue to be without overhaul)
-They hurt me more than they help ( 30% DPS taken from me, thieves just use it as an easy cloak and dagger target lol)
-Our class mechanic does not have 100% uptime – meaning when our pet is dead, we not only lose 30% dps, but we lose any kind of traits we could have associated with the pet, we lose abilities to perform any pet skill , etc etc. Every other class mechnanic in this game doesn’t “die”.
-We actively seek out killing our pet mechanic (you aren’t going to survive much without empathic bond, and thus, neither is your pet lol, shared anquish is another trait that further hurts pet.)

I don’t want to list more and more i’m tired, its almost 3 am.

But you get my point

The list is massive. And with a list this massive, it requires overhaul. You are simply suggesting that anet keep up with what they have been doing for the past 1.5 years. Bandaid fixes. I don’t want to see any more bandaids. No one does.

If you honest to god believe just making pets more responsive+ changing a few traits will make it poof, magically better, keep living in your dream world.

Well, idk about an overhaul, but I do agree that maybe switching directions and coming at this from another angle might be the way to go.

I’ve said this before, but all of the problems you listed stem from the fact that pets are always on. Which means they need to survive and do consistent damage, which they have a problem doing.
So if they were summons instead, that functioned a bit like a cross between Phantasms and Elementals, then it would go a long way to solving/working around these problems.
You can read what I already wrote about the subject here.

I like the idea as well and mentioned it somewhere in this mountain of suggestions. We are a pet class according to Anet and that could be make to work if what we captured when we tame a pet isn’t the pet, but it’s spirit. Make our pets ghostly like a phantasm.

I had this idea while using my PVP finisher:

PVX

RANGER SPIRITS PETS!

Rangers control animal sprits that grant the ranger boons based on each pet. The F2 for each pet unleashes an effect like the PVP wolf finisher and run over the target causing whichever effect is associated with that pet. They can still attack our targets and do minimal damage (just enough to allow agro) and are immune to control effects and AOE as they’re spirits. The majority of pet damage is reverted to the actual player.

nagymbear.5280:

SkiTz.4590:

I think everyone in this forum and this game understands Rangers need an overhaul (absolutely broken class mechanic, see past 100 pages and threads on it in ranger forums)

The only problem is, Anet does NOT believe this class needs an overhaul lol.
Even if they do believe it does, they simply WON’T do it and CAN’T do it (priorities like LS and gemstore are bigger lol)

I don’t think ranger needs an overhaul. An overhaul would mean redesigning the pets completely, redesigning the traits, utilities. The pets don’t need an overhaul to be scary so that people start dealing with them, instead of just circlestrafing. If you have reliable control pets, you can force peoples defensive skills being played on your terms. If they defend against the pet you control them, if they defend themselves from you you control them with the pet. Same for damage. We don’t need an overhaul for that. We need more control over the pet. We also need some traits removed and some new traits introduced, but I don’t consider that an overhaul.

Respectfully disagree

They definitely need redesigned traits and utilities.
Everything about pet F2 is lack luster. ooo cool they can give me fury ever 30 secs or might
or immob someone for a few seconds every 40 seconds
You honestly believe that is worth 30% of my DPS?

They need an overhaul because
-They provide very little in a group setting which is what MMOs are all about (pets don’t do me any good in WvW/Dungs/Fracs and is pretty much dead weight in 95% of all game modes and will continue to be without overhaul)
-They hurt me more than they help ( 30% DPS taken from me, thieves just use it as an easy cloak and dagger target lol)
-Our class mechanic does not have 100% uptime – meaning when our pet is dead, we not only lose 30% dps, but we lose any kind of traits we could have associated with the pet, we lose abilities to perform any pet skill , etc etc. Every other class mechnanic in this game doesn’t “die”.
-We actively seek out killing our pet mechanic (you aren’t going to survive much without empathic bond, and thus, neither is your pet lol, shared anquish is another trait that further hurts pet.)

I don’t want to list more and more i’m tired, its almost 3 am.

But you get my point

The list is massive. And with a list this massive, it requires overhaul. You are simply suggesting that anet keep up with what they have been doing for the past 1.5 years. Bandaid fixes. I don’t want to see any more bandaids. No one does.

If you honest to god believe just making pets more responsive+ changing a few traits will make it poof, magically better, keep living in your dream world.

I think everyone in this forum and this game understands Rangers need an overhaul (absolutely broken class mechanic, see past 100 pages and threads on it in ranger forums)

The only problem is, Anet does NOT believe this class needs an overhaul lol.
Even if they do believe it does, they simply WON’T do it and CAN’T do it (priorities like LS and gemstore are bigger lol)

The Ranger is a perfect example of why there should be trait splits between PvE/WvW/PvE. The devs have said they don’t want to go over 1200 Range because of AI aggro mechanics not being able to handle it. It’s unfair that PvE should fundamentally change what would make for good Ranger skirmishing PvP mechanics. Rangers should have the longest range of any of the classes IMO to make them unique. 1500 range would be good for longbow. They would sacrifice a quicker point cap for whittling a target down and then going for a point cap. Mechanically I think that would be unique to them from long range and would make other classes have to react to their tactics.

snow.8097:

i cant understand why People like to permastow the pet with no buff.
Okay i am against the idea of permastow for a dmg buff, then no one would like to use his pet because that buff would be probably too strong and most rangers will only run the “Aura” of one pet because its the strongest.
But i can understand when they dont like to fight with the pet but kitten it then let the pet on passive what is the Problem?
A permastow is a nerf for themselfes, EB cant Trigger, random benefits like a knockdown and conditions on foe are gone. Even when the pet is on passive Body blocking of projectiles are a nice benefit
I think some ranger here are overdramatic.

OFC, fight with pet in passive and lost 30% of your damage, THIS is the problem of this class, pet have 30% of our damage and is random, a “put any class here” will hit you with 100% of his damage in each hit, we hit with 70% of our damage because pet have the other 30%, so, if pet cant land a hit in your opponent we have a nice 30% damage lost, it is a BIG handicap, ofc you can outplay your opponent, but a Good player with ranger will be probably a GOD player with another class, because we must fight against our core mechanic each fight.

I was always wondering about the “Your pet gains X boons on crit hit”. Why do I want to trait for my pet getting boons (30% of my damage) if other classes getting those boons for themselfes (100% of their damage).

Taushullu.6180:

• Longbow could use a real burst skill. I’d suggest changing Rapid Fire to first fire 5 arrows rapidly (1½ second channel / 10s vulnerability per arrow) and then charge up a more powerful shot in the end (3/4 – 1s charge). Attack of Opportunity would synergize well with this last arrow.

Kinda like a ranged version of 100b…. not a bad idea…. 5 super fast shots, then one charge-up that does tremendous damage.

Perhaps, instead of vulnerability, the first five arrows apply cripple to “set up” the final deadly shot. This way, normal movement is less likely to work, and you have to dodge to avoid not just press ADADADADADAD

1. Unlocked all Armor’s into open skins without classification.
2. Farmville style growing and building in an Home instance. Proceeds/mats could be used to rebuild LA or build up a new zone?
3. More slider based character customization (Sims) so we can really go wild.
4. Mounts
5. Profession additions. I want to build a Warrior Ele or War Guard, etc.

1. Forum search function finally works.
2. Trading post search features enhanced to include search by armor type.
3. Potion that turns my character into a taco.
4. Human character model options to allow me to make a character that looks older than someone that looks like they are on their way to a Justin Biebers concert.
5. Champions that spawn at random times and in random map areas and rampage across the map killing everything until someone stops them. I’m looking for you giant mega troll champion (giant mega troll is my concept for an evil giant mega troll that runs around berserker style and rips off the heads of everything in its path and burninating the country side. Oh, I can’t wait to face you giant mega troll! https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Corrupt-a-Wish-GW2-Style-remake/first#post2844134)

nagymbear.5280:

mtpelion.4562:

nagymbear.5280:

I’d like to remind everyone who thinks that the Devs don’t listen to the ranger community that the devs did merge spirit traits as asked, they reduced the aftercast on longbow as asked, they inceased the short range damage of longbow autoattack as asked, they added pull to Axe #4 as asked, they adjusted GS#4 second skill to be usable while moving as asked, they increased pet toughness/vitalitiy as asked. And a long while back they also reduced cooldowns on signets as asked (noone remembers 120 second cooldowns?). They don’t give us everything that we ask for, but don’t tell me that Devs don’t listen. That doesn’t make ranger in its current state allright by a long shot, but lets be clear on this.

And for those that think ranger doesn’t need a band-aid solutions, it needs an overhaul, pls look at what 1 buffed skill and 2 changed traits did to warriors.

ArenaNet has already admitted that an overhaul of the pet is required. They’ve also stated that they don’t have the time to do it.

So now we are stuck in a situation where the class mechanic needs an overhaul but won’t get one. That’s like having a car that needs gas but having no gas money. Putting band-aids on the gas tank isn’t going to help the situation.

While I do appreciate your update on the state of the CDI thread, I didn’t mention class mechanic at all. And I am one of the people who thinks that ranger doesn’t need an overhaul. An overhaul will result in bug fixes that destroy more builds than come to life due to the overhaul. Some people have the misconception that Longbow autoattack needs more damage, or that permastow would solve anything. This is not aimed at you mtpelion, just sayin’ that rangers need to sort out their heads as well…

Well, considering a Ranger’s burst does 22K while a Warrior’s burst does 40K with the exact same stats…that alone should be the clue light, considering that means we do 45% less damage with our burst than a Warrior.

1.) They optimize the particles
2.) They fix particle scaling
3.) They optimize the engine so its relies on the GPU more then the CPU
4-5.) Any of the above.

That should about fix most of the performance issues people are having, and my only true wish. Its been more then a year, and the game is still running quite badly considering to how it looks.

Avelos.6798:

BLADE SHARD MINING NODE FOR HOME INSTANCE!

I would be surprised if this is not the meta of attack on lions arch

My Idea

Armor and Weapon ‘Swap-Slots’:

Ever struggled with over-cluttered bags, had problems finding the weapon you need for the next encounter or simply sold your gear because it slipped into the wrong bag?

The Swap-Slots could cure all of these problems. For the sweet price of 400 Gems you could get a Weapon-Swap-Slot or go all the way to 800 Gems for an ArmorSet-Swap-Slot.

How it would work:

If you buy a Slot a small arrow will appear next to your Weapons or Headpiece that will allow you to swap out your current gear with a second Set. The first time you do this you will be naked as these are practically new Equipment-Slots. But once your second Set is equipped you can switch back and forth between the 2 (or more) sets as long as you are out of combat. The Items of your 2nd set will appear in the left part of the character-window (so you don’t forget you have them) but not in your bags.

Your Gain:

*Easy and fast Role-Switches (Zerker to Soldier to Healing in no time)
*Free Bag-space
*Never accidentally sell your gear

Example:

Aioros.4862:

If you want high skill cap, you can go and play the class now, there are people out there who can make the class work. It’s just not for us common folk.

High skilled players can make ranger work, a ranger played by a high skilled player is as effective as an average warrior, guardian and so on.

[off tipic]your niki is from the anime Saint Seiya?

EDIT: Pets wont be fixed, so suggest that is pointless, we need to figure out ways to not be punished for that problem, ways of our class mechanic not be totally disabled when the pet is dead and so on.

Ok i have to jump in right now.

First i want to cc the description of Anet for the Ranger.

“Ranger
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.”

All of that sounds nice to me
Only question left is, when will this Class be integrated into the game?
I cant wait to play that class as described in the Anet text ^^

RoyalPredator.9163:

Oh the Stealth… Since it has no reveal-brake rules, its kind of a godmode when you know how to use it. Even in PVE when mobs still seeing you sometimes…
For us, “Reveal!” shouts/bonuses would be nice to help out the groups.
If we would be able to use pet to reveal and lock stealthing on foes, that would be a nice support – and when Dungeons are designed to have stealth using enemies, we would be welcome even there.

I think the idea of the Ranger being an anti-stealth class would be interesting to explore. At least it would define some sort of role and unique functionality in WvW. However, finding the right balance point would be tricky. I fear it would either be completely OP to stealth classes or almost completely useless (i.e. current Sic ’Em)

SafiMoyo.5130:

WatchTheShow.7203:

Tempus.9540:

Allie Murdock.8152:

To those asking how far we would redesign…

PvE Hat on
Out of interest, would you redesign it so Ranger’s long range weapons were nearer the DPS of other classes melee weapons. Across all classes we have that ranged weapons are much, much lower than the melee weapons (with the possible exception of Ele) which had lead to a complete melee dominant PvE Meta – bring melee or go home. If you say that you wouldn’t redesign it in this way, half of the posters here can go home now – bows are a big draw (HoHoHo) to the class, but if they are going to be suboptimal/unwanted for Dungeons, none of the changes to the Ranger will matter if we don’t get to play the archetype we’ve envisioned.

This, this, this, so much this. Is it possible for PvE bows to become just as strong as melee weapons? We already have bosses that have ranged AOE and can range one-shot hits, and mobs with defiance, making it impossible to kite, would it be reasonable to bring ranged weapons up to par with melee weapons? “Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows.” This is what I want.

It’s not just the damage though. If they (Anet) wanted rangers to be archers, then simply matching the damage wouldn’t be enough in PvE.

Melee/range weapons are balanced between risk and reward. There’s little risk with attacking from a distance. However, due to this, players have found another way of mitigating that risk while keeping that reward: by stacking, you can keep yourself and your team safe while also providing max damage.

If you decide to melee while you’re group stacks, you’re hurting them. They’re required to tank for 1/4 instead of 1/5 and if one person in the stack goes down, there’s only 3 instead of 4 people there to revive them. Just because you’ll be able to do comparable damage from a distance (assuming you’ll be able to recieve and share all the boons between the team somehow) you’ll be hurting the team regardless.

While I don’t think Anet intends rangers to be “the archers” in this game anymore, if they did, then it would take a lot more than just damage matching to make this play style viable.

See that’s the thing. I addressed this in my main post, but I will put my points in this one to address what you’re saying. Ranged is no “safer” than being melee anymore. Marionette event, revamped Tequatl, Mai Trin fractal, Molten Alliance fractal, mobs with defiance, mobs with one hit ranged AOE and one hit ranged attacks, mobs immune to range attacks (Maw fractal/collosus) are all perfect examples of rangers/ranged players being in more danger than melee players. Many ranged players get one-shot by the new mechanics that are being implemented, and in turn they are becoming better players by learning how to dodge and work with their party. It’s promoting synergy.

Obviously Claw of Jormag, Shatterer, and Inquest Golem Mark II need a rework, since 99% of the players just sit back out of mob range and DPS away. That is a problem with the boss encounter, not range weapons themselves.

If ranged weapons were just as powerful as melee weapons, rangers could stack on their fellow teammates, while using a shortbow to attack the target, and not suffer from “oh it’s a ranged weapon, therefore it must do less DPS”.

WvW is no different. With the enormous amount of gap closers, class mechanics such as stealth, dodge rolling, clones, teleports, etc. a ranged player can’t kite a melee player, therefore having the decreased range damage is unnecessary and just promotes not using range at all.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Yes, like I said about the sustained vs burst, it’s not necessarily fully functional in the game. This is one of those things that we would have to balance with bringing other classes down a bit as far as damage output. Burst damage needs to have risk involved, and we know that right now many classes don’t have that associated risk.

Let me ask you something simple Allie;
What is the most time consuming and difficult?
A; Rebalancing and shaving the burst of several other professions
B; Bringing a single profession up to the level of the others

The ranger has, for quite some time now, been keeping up but barely. It is not that others do everything we do, just better. They do it with less effort and specialization. Rangers are in need of a power creep. Not a huge one, but a specific power creep in certain areas.

Xaylin.1860:

I think you are mixing two things here: Interrupt and Lockdown.

The reason why is because in GW2, the two aren’t very distinct at all. Stability and stunbreakers pretty handily counter interrupts, so rather than trying to wait for your enemy to use a skill and interrupt it, it’s often more viable just to stun them and prevent them from doing anything at all.

Maybe I misspoke though. I’d like to see Ranger as a disrupter, whether that be lockdown or interrupt. My point is that neither playstyle is viable.

I do agree with the majority on here about rangers in WvW Allie. Sustained damage is not good in WvW. I spend a large amount in WvW, and I can say sustained damage will get you killed. Try to sustain damage on a thief who can go invisible and disappear, reset their health, come back and one shot you. Try to sustain damage on a warrior with healing signet traited who can outheal your sustained damage. Try to sustain damage on a pure bunker guardian who can deal out just as much sustained damage to yourself. Sustain damage on a mesmer? Which one?

Sustained damage gives the enemy too many chances to heal themselves, reset the fight, call backup or just plain run away.

If this is the developers mantra, then i have to say, YOU ARE SO WRONG ON THIS ONE!!!
Sustained damage is irrelevant in this game. It is all about the AOE burst be it PvE or PvP. No wonder the ranger works poorly in so many areas of the game if this is the design all tweaks go buy.

Guild wars 2, for better or for worse, is about min-maxing. PvE is about maxing out on damage dealt because you can completely sidestep any incoming damage by LoS stacking, reflecting or dodging.
Hybrid builds rarely work in competitive play, are absolutely frawned upon in PvE and are borderline useless in WvW. Maybe they can be used in solo WvW roaming, but that is niche as the server match ups that allow that kind of play are few and far in between. WvW is about the zerg.

I was very happy when this topic started and have posted a few sugestions myself. But i am very keen on seeing what are the developers changes and what are their EXACT plans that we can be expecting. It has been over a year since i have started playing GW2 and i want to know if i will be able to play my preferred fluff class properly in the near future or should i be looking for a new game that lets me.

ty, Vlad

Allie Murdock.8152:

I realize that many classes have high burst right now, but our intent is to limit power creep as much as possible. Just because the Ranger’s damage is more spread out, doesn’t mean it does less damage than the burst of other classes. Does that make sense?

For example: One class could, in the span of 30 seconds, do 15k damage in say 5-10 seconds, but then their burst skills go on cooldown so they have to wait out the rest of the time before they can try again. A sustained class should be able to do that same amount of damage in that same amount of time, but the damage is more spread out (hence sustained). This can be better in certain situations, and allows for the sustained class to fill a hole in a team comp.

I’m not saying this is a perfect system or that it’s even fully functional in the game, I’m just trying to explain why doing burst shouldn’t necessarily be better than doing sustained damage. It depends on the situation.

We also know that some classes right now are better at burst than others, and those are things that we look to address in balance patches so there isn’t a surplus of any one class.

The way this game is set up in pvp/wvw is that you want to down the opponent quickly as possible, especially so you avoid the chance of them calling in back up. Sustained doesn’t work for that.

Example:
You burst someone down to 30% in 5 seconds skills on cd for 15s, they heal to 60% you finish them off with second burst before they can heal again.

Sustained: you sustain them over 30 seconds they get to like 30% heal to 60% you sustain them and give them enough time to heal again because you took too long and now their buddy is there.

Sustain is a nonfactor outside of pve.

This is a ever changing wishlist, some will have (Voted Out) if a lot of feed back was given to it.

1.) Guild Wars (Possibly coming in spring/summer pvp patch)- A system that allows guilds to fight server or cross server with some sort of ladder system in place.

2.) Guild Halls- Guild halls (instants) Feel free to copy paste GW1 format on them.

3.) (VOTED OUT BY PEOPLES!) Cosmetic Mounts

4.) Lots of player events in WvW – WvW and WvWvW is a lot of fun, and I like the direction it is headed. Great thought and work are put into it and it shows. Some more events to cut down 24/7 zerging could be an event for uber Treb that is on map, char guy needs help blah blah story story, all the servers fight over are to control it, then escort it back to base, now that team has uber treb that shoots entire map for a day at home base. So things like this but at large scale.

5.) (VOTED OUT BY THE PEOPLES) WvW weapons and champs – Extremely high powered weapons that only last for a day (unlocked by guild). Guild can pay influence to have guild Champ (greatly improved stats) for a day.

6.) Mini Battles- Ability to battle other players with your minis. NO not PVP I am saying minni vs minni, think like a POKEMON battle but with minnis. How they do this could go many ways so I will just leave it at this for now it was to confusing with all the battle type suggestions.

7.) More Mini – Not enough, easily obtainable (unless they are now impossible.)

8.) Gambling – Casinos. black jack, poker, roulette wheal or GW2 custom card games, I don’t care as long as it is there. I mean the owner of Moa racing has to be rich enough for one now. I would SUGGEST for it making it like guild puzzles where a guild could unlock it temporally and go have fun.

9.) Build Templates – It would be nice to change builds in seconds rather than minutes, small change that would go a long way for me. I saw this on another post and wanted to add it here.

10.) Activities Tab- Adding a tab like the PVP one but for Activities. I do not do Activities as much as I would if they were easily accessible.

11.) Guild Capes – Guild Capes (or Tabards.. or both?) as an option for players. As back piece or not does not matter just want option.

12.) DC Reque for dungeons – You DC or crash and you have xx time to get back in.

13.) Story mode AI for dungeons

14.) Contested WP Fee – Pay extra silver to travel to a contested WP, or even a gold (Sometimes I am desperate.)

I thought this wasn’t suppose to be a grinding game?

Carighan.6758:

I don’t see the need for a no-pet Ranger, sorry. If they later want to add a separate class, the “Sniper”, sure. Who uses Pistols, Rifles, Bows, Staves, Scepters, whatever is ranged. Sure.

But as far as the Ranger goes, I really feel like all hinges on the pet AI and pet control.

• Pet AI needs to be fixed. This is a larger-than-ranger issue which also heavily affects Necromancers and Mesmers. This should be – and hopefully is – number 1 on the priority list for whoever is working on the engine itself. It’s really that big a deal, sorry devs. I’m a Mesmer, and the shoddy movement / attack AI is aggravating at best. :S
• Add more control. Pet controls should switch the pet between “modes”, one being defensive which makes the pet take ~75%-85% less AE damage and ignore AE conditions and CC (has to be targetted!).

No offence but you and a lot of others need to understand that a ranger is much more than a guy who has a pet and a bow. A ranger is a druid ,scout, tracker, beastmaster, hunter and so on. Because of this rangers are the most debated class in fantasy RP. They were almost completely removed because of this from D&D Next. So please stop with the “rangers are supposed to have pets if you don’t like this play something else”. I want to and will play a ranger but forcing a pet on me makes no sense. The same way they could force elementals, minions, turrets, spirit weapons on other classes. For them it’s a choice. Why can’t it be for us too?
This post is not targeted directly towards you, but the general idea that rangers must be beastmasters. We even have different trait lines. Why should a marksman/skirmisher have and rely on a pet? Or a druidic spirit ranger? Or a scout?

Sorry if I was a bit aggressive but people need to realise that everyone wants a different ranger and everyone is completely right. But rangers are much bigger than personal preferences. They are (should be) one of the most flexible classes able to fulfill a wide variety of roles and not just beastmasters.

Specific Game Mode
WvW, and PvE to an extent

Proposal Overview
General modification of traits and skills across the board

Goal of Proposal
Increase group utility of Rangers so that they are more useful in group engagements.

Proposal Functionality

Rangers are generally not welcomed because rangers bring nothing useful to a group. Or rather they can, but they fail in execution(spirits dying easily), are hardly noticable(aoe vigor on pet swap) or just plain useless(aoe swiftness and regen with shout).

I think one of the factors that contribute to this is that all the weapon skills on ranger are extremely self-centred/single target oriented. While this fits the new design philosophy, it pushes rangers even further away from being welcomed in groups, not to mention there is already a profession that perfoms better in such a role – Thieves, the king of single target dps.

For example,

Now this would be fine if our group utilities worked. They don’t. Spirits die at the drop of a hat, traps hardly make an impact(no, you’re not being useful because you cripple enemy players for 4~5 seconds), and these skills take up slots that should be used for stunbreakers/condition clearing which-oops, can’t take that because one trap/spirit/muddly terrain ain’t gonna do crap so you have to sacrifice personal survivablity by using at least two slots.

So why not change a few skills around to give rangers better group utility/AoE?

Weapons

Skills

I would add more AoE or CC suggestions, but they go against the design philosophy so I only include these adjustments.

[/end wall of text]

Hm. Let’s see what I can do, even though I know this will be ignored by devs. I’ll just take it as mental training.
It will concern Dungeons in PvE and I guess the open world, focusing on the 2 main issues I have with this class.

The sword
Weapon concept
The sword is seemingly meant to be the highest dps weapon and it currently is, because the other melee weapon is beyond lame. Evasive utilities. Hard to kite.

Overview
The only thing that prevents the ranger from being a great PvE class and not only viable, is its incredibly clunky way of delivering damage. From the CDI: “Alongside their pet, they have some of the best single target and sustained damage that will whittle their opponents down.”
The sword’s autoattack is frustrating and forbids the main thing this game should promote, mobility. It needs to deliver damage consistently, while allowing the player to dodge dangerous 1-hit attacks. Incoming changes on the aa chain and the 2nd skill.

Proposed functionality
Autoattack
1. I assume Slash to be an opening attack with a 1s cripple, that could help land the second skill more efficiently
2. No leap from the 2nd attack, let it retain the cripple→ 1s. An increased range from the traditional 130 of melee weapons is advisable. 180? 220? The ranger thrust the sword forward to hit the enemy.
3. Pounce. I feel like it’s supposed to be the big hit. Well, “big”… The might on the pet is great. To prevent the target from escaping, I was thinking of lowering the cast time of it. It’s currently slower than the others: a 1/2 cast time would help the ranger land its combo more easily. It would also improve the dps considerably. It needs number tweaking.
It could also retain its leap status, with a lower range (100? 150?). Better follow-up with “Kick”.
2nd skill, Hornet sting, Monarch’s leap
Invert the functionality of the 2 by making the first skill Monarch’s leap, so towards the opponent. I was thinking of a 3s cd, 180-200 range. The short cooldown fascinates me, because it opens up the possibility of comboing up with the autoattacks, instead of letting the sword’s leaps passively follow the enemy around. It’s active.
About Hornet sting, I’d just make it shorter range but a much faster and responsive evade.

Risks
Requires some effort on your part. Yes, I’m totally poking you. I tried to respect the weapon and the game modes, but as in all new things, it could be unbalanced. I still think number tweaks would suffice in this regard.

The pet
Overview of [only some of the] problems

1. Sloppy F1.
2. Sloppy damage against moving targets.
3. Pets that don’t dodge and choke the damage of rangers.

Proposed ideas/improvements
1. A few steps were made towards this, I’d just lower the cast times again a little, this could prevent the f1 attacks from missing a lot of times.
2. That isn’t too much of an issue in dungeons since the enemies are dumb as hell, but I’d lower the cast times on pets autoattacks and skills or give them a passive speed boost. Needs number tweaks.
3. Want the easy way out? Flat 15% damage reduction on single attacks, flat 50% on AoEs. Want the super cool way out that will make you look like demigods? 1/2-1/4s invul window on ranger’s dodge. It was said many, many times, and there’s a reason why so many yearn for it.

Risks
Requires mild-to-impressive effort on your part. Would be a PvE thing only, obv.

Notes

The torch could use some tweaking:
1. Have the 4th skill give blindness and/or a higher burst of damage
2. Have the 5th skill give 1stack of might every 2s while in the field. So 4 stacks
or
1. Have the 4th skill be an AoE and blast finisher.
Please, more active play and interesting combos/synergy and less dumb skills which do nothing.
Still, I love off-hands in general.

The suggestion of moving critdamage away from the precision line sent shivers down my spine. It would gut the power ranger’s (!) damage, and it’s not like it’s op right now.
Look for less drastic changes first. The ranger deserves to be on par, trait-wise, with mesmers, eles and warrs.

It would be nice to have some improvements to at least one of the problems rangers have, especially regarding pet’s survivability, without you chopping viable setups in PvE for the sake of PvP or some weird WvW setup. In brief, split skills.
I won’t expect anything good from this, but a man can dream.