Guild Wars 2

warriorjrd.8695:

Atherakhia.4086:

Morbridae.8607:

Atherakhia.4086:

Let me start by saying I’ll never be satisfied with the Ranger class until it’s a RANGEr.

I believe that the ranger got its name not because of its ranged attacks, but because they can do ranged missions, as in soloing into a jungle or another dangerous place, to scout or kill something.

That’s all well and good… also irrelevent.

Think of a park ranger rather than an archer. Just because we can wield two bows doesn’t mean we have to excel at range, hence the reason we can wield a sword and a greatsword and do great damage with both.

I followed where you were going… I’m saying I don’t care (in a good way)

I want the ranger to live up to the character class 20 years of MMO’s before it paved the way for. The same one I played for 20 years (Im old…). This doesn’t mean that melee for the class should be an afterthought like it was for WoW, but it certainly shouldn’t have bows being an afterthought either.

Since the range nerf for Shortbow, the whole weapon has become redundent. Once they buffed axe and fixed sharpenning stone last patch, I’d argue shortbow isn’t even on the same page as axe anymore (offensively anyway). Longbow is just lawlworthy.

Morbridae.8607:

Atherakhia.4086:

Let me start by saying I’ll never be satisfied with the Ranger class until it’s a RANGEr.

I believe that the ranger got its name not because of its ranged attacks, but because they can do ranged missions, as in soloing into a jungle or another dangerous place, to scout or kill something.

That’s all well and good… also irrelevent.

MANPOSSUM.4691:

I was building my ranger as a sb/axe+torch condition build, are those still viable or has something happened to that?

That’s the bunker build most run and is really the only truly viable build the class has. If you plan to run full apothecary/settler’s with condi spam you’ll be fine. I wouldn’t use both SB and Axe though. SB has been made mostly redundent with the recent nerfs/buffs. Go greatsword in your offslot for defensive utility and an escape and you’ll have a blast. There’s also sword+dagger/WH as an optional off-hand.

Still far inferior to engineers and necromancers, but it’s still effective.

Inverted.7439:

Longbow skill #3 reworked.

instead of shooting an arrow that stealths you upon hit, your ranger could do a very quick, sharp twist while becoming crouched then after that animation the ranger has 3 seconds of stealth, getting rid of needing a target for rangers to stealth. idk, just my .2 cents

(inspired by this photo)

Get some final fantasy action going on where you twirl real fast, leaves rustle all around you, you AE blind everyone, and the leaves disappear and you’re not there!

Then we can get rid of pets and get some capcom vs sf action going and you point at the target and spirit animals come leaping out of nowhere running over targets!

I’m only half kidding

Kain Francois.4328:

Atherakhia.4086:

Kain Francois.4328:

I thought Elementalist staff Autoattack has a higher activation time and less damage than the Ranger longbow Autoattack?

It has a longer cast time, but no after cast to my knowledge.
It has lower base damage too.

But the Fire trait has +5%, +10%, and actual skills that do damage (lava font does a lot of damage, burn does a lot of damage, meteor shower is a dps increase), and stacking might.

Don’t Rangers have the same damage boosts + Pet and higher skill damage?

Not the same multipliers and they can’t maintain might iirc?
The secondary skills don’t do good damage for ranged attacks.
I mentioned the pet iirc?

But like I said, if you’re having fun… have fun.

Let me start by saying I’ll never be satisfied with the Ranger class until it’s a RANGEr. So when I tell you my opinion of this class, keep that in mind as I can be a bit biased and not being completely fair since ranged options for this class are awful.

With that said, I would just go Thief. Both classes are about equal in overall utility for WvW, but the Thief is infinitely more versatile and powerful. I’d rank the Thief as 8th most useful class out of 8 whereas the Ranger would be 7th most useful class out of 8 simply because the water field is more valuable than the blast finishers on the Thief.

Thief is also a much more rewarding (fun) class to play. The vast majority of your time with the Ranger will be spent auto-attacking with a dead pet. Most of the skills aren’t that ‘fun’ to use because they’re all utility in nature and don’t really offer much damage benefit. This would be fine except the vast majority of the utility you gain is single target only so it’s only useful to the Ranger. The Thief on the other hand has a lot of the same utility minded attacks, but they all do a lot of damage and offer much more powerful utility overall.

I would agree somewhat with the first response that the Thief class does tend to be the target of a lot of nerfs, ut they’re still a very powerful class with a true identity and role. The ranger may have more specs to choose from, but they’re mostly ineffective when compared to a Thief too.

Until we get some basic quality of life adjustments to this class I wouldn’t bother playing a Ranger unless you’re a true fan of this type of class and can stomache always fighting an uphill battle without the tools to do it.

I’m been called the BS king on this very forum. I think you took my crown.

The weapon doesn’t ‘need’ the leap though. It has a cripple. that alone is enough to ensure there’s no issue staying in melee range for the ranger. No other class in the game needs this handicap… was it done because Rangers are supposed to be played by the kiddies and mentally handicapped?

It’s simply too much on the auto-attack. If we’re really supposed to be a noob friendly class, then increase the cripple duration.

Tengu would have been cool.

Dardamaniac.1295:

To much requirments…Warriors get it for only one skill slot

Well the pet is our burst skill so while it’s not ideal, it’s not too much to expect a pet to be alive when giving it commands. If you don’t like it, there’s always SoS for the same basic function, just no stun break.

Works fine for me :/

Protect me + signet of stone + GS#4 + RaO == dancing with the enemy commander in the middle of a zerg.

Never thought to try it if the pets not up. I think I’ve always just assumed it wouldn’t work

Was this fixed? Won’t be able to play for a few days.

Logged out last night with 51 of 10 mails. Logged in today with 10/10. Please say you’ll be restoring this crap!?

The issue is burn.

Since poison works the same way as burn mechanically (2x bleed damage and utility, duration increased with application instead of intensity for poison, burn is 6x damage) I say make burn do the same damage and put revealed on the target while they’re burning.

rumm.1932:

Not a direct ranger change but a buff to Valkyrie remorseless builds.

The rune of exuberance is vitality based the 2 piece is 3% of your vitality is converted to healing power, 4 piece is 3% of your vitaly is converted to precision 6 piece is 3% of your vitality is converted to power.

With the new rune set could Valkyrie builds could become more popular?

I would think more people would prefer the toughness of knights/cavalier over valkyrie. That’s the case for me anyway.

Kal Spiro.9745:

You say Axe is like Shortbow, but is that Axe/Axe, Axe/Dagger, Axe/Torch or Axe/Warhorn.

I like the versatility I get from Axe in that I run Torch and Dagger. I can’t run Shortbow and Shortbow and have different powers.

And that’s the problem…

Let me start by saying I’d like to pretend I reserve the daze for interrupts and clutch moments that really pay off. But when I really sit back and see how I play, I’d say I probably use concussive shot more for kiting purposes any given day than an actual interrupt (spend more time chasing runners from zergs these days as opposed to roaming where the interrupt is more useful).

So then with that out of the way… what does Shortbow really have? It has an auto attack with a directional bleed. An AE condition with a healing debuff that doesn’t work. An evasive leap backword (that doesn’t actually leap backward half the time) And it snares (twice).

What does Axe offer? An auto attack at the same range that does more damage. It’s an AE because it bounces to 3 targets. An AE condition that’s actually useful (especially now with sharpenning stone fixed!), and a better snare on a shorter (not by much without traits) cooldown. And that’s just the main hand.

So then you consider the offhand, which most offer something incredibly better than quickshot.

The 2 weapons are just too similar now and they really need to redo one of them completely.

Just up ranger damage and reduce pet damage so the ratio isn’t so out of what.
Increase the attack range of pets so they can actually hit things that are moving.
Allow all F2 abilities to fire off instantly with no cooldown/aftercast so they don’t interrupt anything else and don’t get delayed by anything else.

This isn’t that difficult. Once you get this far, if you want to give us control of a secondary skill, that would be great. If it’s really a system limitation through the AI because you can’t add a box, then simply remove the recall pet command and use a simple ‘IF’ statement so attack and recall are on the same command.

Kain Francois.4328:

I thought Elementalist staff Autoattack has a higher activation time and less damage than the Ranger longbow Autoattack?

It has a longer cast time, but no after cast to my knowledge.
It has lower base damage too.

But the Fire trait has +5%, +10%, and actual skills that do damage (lava font does a lot of damage, burn does a lot of damage, meteor shower is a dps increase), and stacking might.

Alright….

I’ll just start with the ranged damage. While Longbow isn’t necessarily the strongest weapon, it’s certainly up there. But that doesn’t really mean it’s good. Especially when you consider it’s predominately a single target weapon and most of the abilities for the weapon aren’t helping your DPS much when used.

Take Elementalists with Staff for example. Fire and Air are both very strong weapons that do roughly the same damage. The traits in Fire (lol) and Air increase the damage of the Staff considerably. The secondary skills for these weapons are very powerful as well. And they’re mostly all AE. Now of course this is offset by the fact that the Ranger has a pet on the target which obviously pushes things more in favor of the Ranger. But so do the other weapon sets which begs the question why use ranged instead of melee?

I would expect a class that is probably the worst of the condition classes, worst of the AE classes, and borders on worst in the utility department to offer more real upfront damage or something. It’s just all kinda meh with this class.

Kain Francois.4328:

Atherakhia.4086:

Congrats… so as not to ruin your thread, I’ll leave it at that.

Swut?

You don’t want my opinion.

This will be a happy place with rainbows, unicorns, and teddy bears.

Congrats… so as not to ruin your thread, I’ll leave it at that.

They’re near useless as it is.

Why do all spirits need 30 points in a tree to finally be as good as other class abilities?
Why do most signets need 30 points in a tree to finally be useful?

Does any class in the game need to invest 30 points in a tree before their skills earn their slot on the skill bar?

Right… all the F2 abilities should tigger instantly regardless of what’s going on. The vast majority of them (anything more than making your pets next melee attack do something like birds and cats have) are absolutely useless.

I just know I wouldn’t waste a dodge to save mysefl to dodge for my pet. I’d sooner swap the pet and send in a new one. At least if the thing gains an Aegis when we dodge, it may sitll be there in the future when the pet really does need to avoid something.

But in all reality, pets should just be changed to take 85% less damage from AE’s and can’t be specifically targetted by bosses in PvE. Especially since PvE/WvW/sPvP can be split.

It always doubled them didn’t it? It was just an issue with splitblade and consuming the charges but only granting 1 additional bleed.

They aren’t going to change anything until the tournament is over. Wait till later. Though I am surprised not to see the spirits changed as that’s very clearly a bug.

Chopps.5047:

Maybe, ranger is fastest at bursting down gate as far as I know. Also, another untraited frost spirit could be taken.

Well that’s cheating and will be fixed

Just use the axe. It’s a powerful ranged weapon. Better than the bows imo. I know you said you don’t like the bounce, but it’s more valuable than a positional bleed. With the sword, even when you get used to using it, it will never feel ‘right’. Just don’t have much of a choice.

Chopps.5047:

Atherakhia.4086:

Aeri.5738:

Chopps.5047:

This post is so last December. Ranger is in the current meta fastest dungeon runs as well as a top tPvP profession.

The first time I have to agree with you.
One exception: rangers are forced into defensive condition builds (BM/Spirits) and Power rangers are in most cases useless in high level tPvP (although a lot of fun in sPvP)

The problem with his comment is the fastest CoF run still had 3 Warriors and a single Ranger iirc (I didn’t watch the video, only read the thread). do you honestly think you could swap out a second warrior in favor of a second ranger and still maintain the same speed? Because I don’t think they could.

2 theives 1 ranger 1 warrior 1 mesmer :p

Yup, you’re right. So same question… second ranger over a thief then?

That’s the video for those who didn’t have it btw.

Aeri.5738:

Chopps.5047:

This post is so last December. Ranger is in the current meta fastest dungeon runs as well as a top tPvP profession.

The first time I have to agree with you.
One exception: rangers are forced into defensive condition builds (BM/Spirits) and Power rangers are in most cases useless in high level tPvP (although a lot of fun in sPvP)

The problem with his comment is the fastest CoF run still had 3 Warriors and a single Ranger iirc (I didn’t watch the video, only read the thread). do you honestly think you could swap out a second warrior in favor of a second ranger and still maintain the same speed? Because I don’t think they could.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Atherakhia.4086:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Define Viable.

I’m doing everything wrong as defined by those here who apparently consider themselves the authorities on how to play, but I do just fine. I’ve never impaired my group and am often more capable than those who appear to follow the common view. I will accept that I don’t necessarily do as much damage, so maybe the fight takes longer, but seriously, so kittening what? I don’t speed run. I find the very idea to be bull. I want to run the content because I enjoy the content, not to get the reward at the end and move on. What matters is that we succeed, consistently and on the first try.

I don’t, however, PvP nor WvW. I’m not good at it, so even in the “best” build I’m likely to be unviable because I just don’t do it well.

So please, define viable. It just makes life a lot easier to know what page someone is on.

If they replaced you with any other class would they miss anything besides your wit and humor? Would they have done better without you assuming similar gear and skill level?

So your definition of viable:
Adjective
Capable of working successfully; feasible

is Optimal:
Adjective
Best or most favorable

Which is the problem I have had with MMO players since Everquest.

If I changed out any of the people in the group with a Ranger, or any other class, of equal skill, I do not feel the outcome would have changed. The outcome being success without a wipe. So, in that regard, no I don’t think it would have made a difference if I were replaced either.

If the only outcome that matters to you is the fact that you beat something without a wipe then you really aren’t looking at the topic objectively.

jewishjoyride.4693:

Atherakhia.4086:

In MMO’s, the worth of a class is measured by what they bring to a group and how they bring it. Fact is, that even though there’s no reason to kick a ranger out of a group for anything, what they bring is of no real value because other classes bring much of the same, only better.

Part of the problem is no one can nail down just what this class SHOULD do. Another part of the problem is how disorganized the traits are. And a lot of the problem is how boring and shallow the class is.

As for things improving? Not that we’ve seen yet… the changes this class gets seems entirely random at times (shortbow nerf, longbow buffs, remorseless trait) and have limited/no real value overall.

Rangers bring FANTASTIC single target dps. We have ok aoe.

For dungeons, spotter and frost spirit turns you into a warrior banner. More importantly you’re a warrior banner that STACKS with warrior banners. Meaning a ranger and a warrior is higher group dps than a couple warriors. You also turn a 5 man party into a 6 man party. 6 sources of dps > 5 sources of dps.

Rangers are being brought more and more in to team comps in pvp because of spirits as well. Group protection is huge, as is group burning. Spirit of the sun basically turns your whole team into dhuumfire necros.

Don’t forget we also still have the BEST water field in the game. It hasn’t been nerfed. It’s a huge bonus to your team in every aspect of the game.

Do you actually have another class other than Ranger to form a real opinion on this? Or are we looking at the new CoF run that has a Ranger doing half the damage of a Warrior being considered ‘useful’ because of his spirt. Do you think the group could exchange the second or third warrior for a second or third ranger and have the same result? Because they couldn’t…

And conditions in PvE aren’t winning anything. Conditions are viable due to AE damage, not single target in this game unfortunately.

I personally couldn’t care less about the pet. If they want it out or if they allow us to stow it. That said, there’s no way in the world the pet should account for such a large portion of the class’ damage when it’s so difficult to control.

Obviously I would stow it permanently if given the chance, but if not, at least make its damage contribution more balanced. 50:50 is too much. 75:25 would probably be too much!

You think elementalists are unique?

Rangers don’t use range, are forced into conditions, and are the worst condition class in the game.

Warriors jump from gimmick to gimmick without ever finding any real lasting purpose.

Engineers still have grenades and that’s it.

The developers are spending too much time catering to the sPvP crowd and have thrown overall class balance out the window in order to maintain some consistency in sPvP and even at that, they’ve failed.

Reroll Guardian like most and count yourself lucky it’s only your sPvP char. Try playing the rest of the game that’s dragged around by their [censored] at your whim.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Define Viable.

I’m doing everything wrong as defined by those here who apparently consider themselves the authorities on how to play, but I do just fine. I’ve never impaired my group and am often more capable than those who appear to follow the common view. I will accept that I don’t necessarily do as much damage, so maybe the fight takes longer, but seriously, so kittening what? I don’t speed run. I find the very idea to be bull. I want to run the content because I enjoy the content, not to get the reward at the end and move on. What matters is that we succeed, consistently and on the first try.

I don’t, however, PvP nor WvW. I’m not good at it, so even in the “best” build I’m likely to be unviable because I just don’t do it well.

So please, define viable. It just makes life a lot easier to know what page someone is on.

If they replaced you with any other class would they miss anything besides your wit and humor? Would they have done better without you assuming similar gear and skill level?

In MMO’s, the worth of a class is measured by what they bring to a group and how they bring it. Fact is, that even though there’s no reason to kick a ranger out of a group for anything, what they bring is of no real value because other classes bring much of the same, only better.

Part of the problem is no one can nail down just what this class SHOULD do. Another part of the problem is how disorganized the traits are. And a lot of the problem is how boring and shallow the class is.

As for things improving? Not that we’ve seen yet… the changes this class gets seems entirely random at times (shortbow nerf, longbow buffs, remorseless trait) and have limited/no real value overall.

Deniara Devious.3948:

Mmm, more paper armor rangers. Our dear enemy servers have loads of them. Our roaming teams are wondering how their rangers always melt so fast. If they run with about 2k total armor and zero defensive traits, I can imagine why. No doubt that build packs a lot of offense, but to e.g. solo roam with it, oh my…

For comparison a full glass thief, with zerker ascended gear, scholar runes + 25 stacks of bloodlust can do 20k+ against 2.5k armor. Against above armor it would mean 25k+ crits = instant death, even if that character has 2.5k extra health from the WXP trait + consumable buffs.

Toughness is one of those all or nothing type things. Especially in WvW where Thieves are so plentiful. If you can’t get 3k armor, you may as well not get any because, as you said, a Thief will still end up 2shotting you.

Ranger damage is already pathetic. But when you factor in enough toughness to reach 3k armor (honestly not that much, but it’s still a hit) you lose so much damage that you’re almost better off going condition/regen spec like most of the Rangers in this game. But this is hardly unique to Rangers as a lot of classes deal with this. Of course other classes have things like 50% chance to crit when in shroud or when a target is stunned etc to help increase damage. A Ranger has a cat…

keenlam.4753:

Unholy Pillager.3791:

…
I think the biggest problem with pets in a PVE setting is survivability. The entire basis of the combat system, from the ground up, is avoiding the attacks that are sent at you. We have dodging, we have blocking, evades built into weapon and utility skills, distortion…and, because of this, major enemies can pretty much one-hit-kill anything in front of them that doesn’t avoid the hit. Into this combat system they introduce a profession that relies heavily on an AI NPC that utterly lacks each and every one of these vital abilities. It has no choice but to face tank every attack directed towards it.

^This.
Pets don’t have much damage mitigation. I would really like to change to protection on dodge roll trait to give pet evasion. That’s 100% dmg mitigation instead of 33%. Might need some balancing but would really have with pet survivability.

Allow the pet to evade when you do isn’t really going to solve any problems. There are scenarios when the Ranger may not need to evade because they’re ranged and the pet would. There are scenarios when the Ranger needs to evade and the pet wouldn’t.

If you were to give anything to the pet on dodge, I would prefer aegis. It’s not great because of all the AE and such so the pet may still get smashed, but blunting the first hit may be enough to keep it alive.

Alternatively, just give rangers a 1200 range pet :/

Quarktastic.1027:

Did you know that traited spirits only have a little more than 8000 health? Anyone who complains about spirit rangers being OP needs to learn how to focus fire their spirits immediately after they drop them.

That’s actually their primary complaint right now… that the timer for spirits starts once they’re summoned and not once they’re killed.

What is the spec on the rangers? I just joined. Both spirit I imagine?

Fomby.4295:

Anybody else wish that condition damage gets nerfed like our direct damage, and pet stats get buffed? I’m tired of all of our good builds having condi damage.

Uh, not really, no….

I’m fine with conditions being toned down in some fashion. Hopefully it’s done in a way that focuses more on the AE condition spam and not the single target spam as that way the Ranger won’t be collateral damage as Ranger condi is easily the weakest of them all.

But I’d love for non-pet areas of this class to be buffed. Power builds for this class, especially ranged ones, are awful in comparison to what other classes are capable of.

What I’d give if the ranger had withdraw. Of course then we would kitten people off in WvW.

Lorelei.3918:

Thief dagger 5 has to hit something to proc stealth. Why should we be any different. Oh btw yes shooting bunny rabbits and stuff will stealth you.

What makes our stealth mechanic clunky is that unlike thieves C&D our skill must: Be targeted, and the target must be in front of you. C&D hits a big area around the thief and inside the theif too, which means all they have to do is walk over a rabbit and press 5. Poof. We have to stop, turn and or back up, target and fire.

I still use it with great success but really it like many things about the ranger is VEXING.

The ranger’s skill is also on a cooldown.

Someone has to arm the arrow carts.

Seriously though… go ask on the WvW forums for anyone to list the classes in order from most to least useful. You will always find Rangers as #7 and Thieves as #8. This class is awful. It brings the greatest water field in the game and that’s apparently enough.

Knights armor with rubies/rangers/divinity/
Cav trinkets with rubies/beryls.
Berserker or Valk weapons with air/force/accuracy/bloodlust/precision

This is for toughness over health.

30/20/10/10
30/30/0/10
30/25/5/10

Honestly, I find the shortbow to be the less useful weapon over the axe. After the nerf to 900 range on the shortbow, the Axe and shortbow have almost identical weapon sets. While it’s nice to pretend I reserve the daze for an interrupt, I usually just use it as a snare to help kite or catch a runner. At that point, the weapon is practically identical to the Axe. An AE condition, a snare, and an auto attack.

You then have the longbow which is just an awful weapon overall. For damage, unless at absolute max range, the Shortbow actually makes a better choice for auto damage.

My main complaint about this class has to be the simple fact that it’s so unbelievably boring to play. All weapons but the greatsword are 90% auto attack and the remaining 10% is all utility with limited/no real damage benefit. It’s funny when you think about it… how much more fun it is to push another button and actually notice it do something for another class compared to the ranger where I push a button and it doesn’t do anything noticeable because the utility is so inconsequential it’s hardly worth using. Shortbow in particular you do nothing but run around in circles auto attacking all day long. Longbow isn’t much better. Axe mainhand is the same story.

Rangers are so strong they’re the second least useful class in WvW.
Rangers are so strong they’re not welcome in PvE groups.
Rangers are so strong they’re blowing up the sPvP charts.

While the Ranger may be fine for you, it’s not fine for everyone. And just because someone has a different opinion than you doesn’t magically invalidate their point.

Even in your own post you’re effectively saying “yes the ranger has problems, but so what… it could be worse”. Do you realize how stupid that argument sounds?

Go through the class and list what it is you bring to the current meta for WvW, sPvP, and PvE. If you aren’t bringing about as much as a Guardian, Elementalist, Mesmer, or Necromancer to the table I’ve got news for you… there’s a problem.

Go make a post in the Dungeons, WvW, and PvP forums right now… go ask them to order the classes in overall worth. Ranger will be bottom third on each one. If you don’t find fault with this class than it means you’re content being bottom tier. So be it. Don’t try and bash people who don’t agree with you.

Prysin.8542:

Atherakhia.4086:

nagymbear.5280:

Banal Hem.1635:

Chopps.5047. This thread isn’t dead. And you cant answer the question. Why is it that only Rangers can be “disarmed” and loose 30% of their damage with the killing of a forced game mechanic?

Answer that and this thread is dead.

I’m not complaining about damage or lack of spike.

I’m not whining about being beaten by some other class.

I’m talking about a forced game mechanic. Pets and their unusually inability to be the weapon they must have been designed to be.

/facepalm yourself boo boo.

Please look at Paundros first ranger vid and tell me with a straight face that you want to run around with a BM ranger with masters bond and a jaguar that consistently hits moving targets. Pets aren’t ok, and you need cc for them to land their attacks whether you like it or not. Its a very thin line to walk. If they would hit moving targets all the time they would become invincible flesh torpedos. While rangers would become almost invincible tanks in the right hands. It would result in even more pet damge nerf after just 1 month where everyone would pick up their BM ranger in pvp again.

Why is expecting people to attack the pet an unrealistic option in every MMO that has a pet class? And if you want to resolve the whole balance issue between bunker/regen rangers and their pets hitting like a truck, then why not just allow the pets to scale off a player’s gear? If the player has no power, the pet shouldn’t have much either.

that would imbalance things to such a degree that the game would break. Imagine someone running 23k build…

2x 23k first strike… even a full zerker would be invincible, as it could just sit back at 2k range and 1-shot every enemy before they even get into reach…

I have no idea what you’re talking about…

Staff:

#1: Shoot ghostly wolves at the target.
#2: Summon Sun Spirit.
#3: Summon Frost Spirit.
#4: Summon Storm Spirit.
#5: Summon Stone Spirit.

Sun Spirit: Drop a combo-field: fire at target location. If an enemy runs through the field it will collapse and spawn a sun spirit which attacks the target for 5 seconds. After 5 seconds, or once killed, the sun spirit explodes blinding everyone around it.

Frost Spirit: Drop a combo-field: ice at target location. If an enemy runs through the field it will collapse and spawn a frost spirit which attacks the target for 5 seconds chilling and weakening them. After 5 seconds, or once killed, the frost spirit explodes chilling all targets around it.

Storm Spirit: Drop a combo-field: Lightning at target location. If an enemy runs through the field it will collapse and summon a storm spirit for 5 seconds. Each hit will daze the target. If the spirit dies or after 5 seconds, it will explode stunning all targets for 1 second.

Stone Spirit: Place a Combo-Field Water at target location. If the field is triggered will summon an earth spirit for 5 seconds putting vulnerability on the target with each strike. After 5 seconds or when the Earth spirit dies, all friendly allies nearby gain protection and the earth spirit leaves behind a mud trap.

The fields alone are powerful, so they won’t deal any damage unless triggered. It would allow for the skills to be replaced with something else more AE/Burst oriented, and the timing on this weapon could be balanced to have about as much overall power as the spirits untraited.

Could introduce traits to increase the health and duration of spirits. Have one so when they explode they have a chance to summon a new spirit. Just random stuff.

Just want something to give this class more utility and this is probably too much in one place, but a year of having nothing will lead to overcompensating.

But like I said.. the main goal is to free up some skill slots to give this class much needed burst and AE. I think a perfect solution would be quivers. Where thieves have poisons that make their next few attacks do something, the Ranger could have quivers that make their next few attacks do something.

Flame Shot: Next 5 shots will cause 1 second of burning and explode on hit dealing AE damage (limited to first target struck).

Baited Shot: Next 2 attacks will grant opening strikes to your pet and allowing them to have a 100% chance to crit for the next 5 seconds.

Let me start off by saying it isn’t always fair to compare traits and skill from one class to the next. If traits are underpowered (which the majority of ranger traits are) is one thing, but asking a trait to be identical to another class is something else. Look at the greatsword itself. Can you imagine how amazing the Warrior would be if he had access to our greatsword? Can you imagine how absolutely awful we’d be with theirs?

Now that said, you’re still right about the general issue with this class. The traits are an absolute mess. Tons of them need to be merged, even more need to be moved to other trees, and most still would suck. Same with skills… the Ranger got the worst of the bunch for the overwhelming majority of them. Worst stun breaks, worst traps, no activated damage skills, signets that are dreadful without 30points in marks, etc etc.

They just haven’t given this class the attention it needs and it shows in how boring its gameplay is, the complete lack of depth, the limited way to play it, and how ineffective a lot of its traits, weapons, and skills are.

nagymbear.5280:

Banal Hem.1635:

Chopps.5047. This thread isn’t dead. And you cant answer the question. Why is it that only Rangers can be “disarmed” and loose 30% of their damage with the killing of a forced game mechanic?

Answer that and this thread is dead.

I’m not complaining about damage or lack of spike.

I’m not whining about being beaten by some other class.

I’m talking about a forced game mechanic. Pets and their unusually inability to be the weapon they must have been designed to be.

/facepalm yourself boo boo.

Please look at Paundros first ranger vid and tell me with a straight face that you want to run around with a BM ranger with masters bond and a jaguar that consistently hits moving targets. Pets aren’t ok, and you need cc for them to land their attacks whether you like it or not. Its a very thin line to walk. If they would hit moving targets all the time they would become invincible flesh torpedos. While rangers would become almost invincible tanks in the right hands. It would result in even more pet damge nerf after just 1 month where everyone would pick up their BM ranger in pvp again.

Why is expecting people to attack the pet an unrealistic option in every MMO that has a pet class? And if you want to resolve the whole balance issue between bunker/regen rangers and their pets hitting like a truck, then why not just allow the pets to scale off a player’s gear? If the player has no power, the pet shouldn’t have much either.