Guild Wars 2

Lahmia.2193:

Going on your power themed trait, I want them to make Reaper’s Deathly Chill deal damage each time you chill a foe but make it scale from power. Since Condi will likely be getting its own elite spec, it would be good to turn Reaper into a pure power spec.

Yeah i really like this idea. Similar like the pulmonary impact trait from daredevil works just with chill. Together with sigil of ice and air you could hit a target trice in PvE.

The recent Revenant changes include the new trait: “abyssal chill”
Now why i like it and why such traits could be beneficial for the Game.
If you activate this trait it interacts with several swordskills on revenant and gives it a second condi weaponset.
I would also like to see other traits like this on other professions.

BUT: we all.know the condi meta has taken overhand. So i would also like to see a power alternative like: “When you apply poison stacks you do a bonuspackage of dmg that scales with power”

What kind of traits would you like to see that opens new weaponfunctionality?

To answer the Topics Question:
Ranger is worth leveling instead of boosting IMO.
In PvE you tame Pets all over tyria and leveling would give an additional purpose to do maps. In addition you get more exploration out of it than other classes.

Aldath.1275:

Yesterday I tried to start leveling up a Power Necro for general PVE while I can get him Viper for T4 Fracs and Raids. I started with Axe and read many people sayign Axe is strong for PVE but… well… I don’t think so.

I was leveling a Human and by level 7 I was doing the Centaur Camp destroying Renown Heart on Queensdale, and it took me forever and a million years to kill anything with Axe.
I know Power Necro hasn’t Thief or even Revenant killing times on melee but I’ve had faster kills with a Mesmer at that level…

I deleted him after the benchmarks came out yesterday but something inside me calls to try again.

So, is Axe the only option now? Dagger still better? How do I level him up?

Dagger is consistent dmg with cleave AA and some healing. Axe is slow on AA but has good burst on Axe 2. I use both atm and swap weapons frequently. I actually keep Axe/ focus in my backbar when i unlock the GS.

If you wanna play condi use staff and scepter/dagger. Gives good AoE dmg and strong DoTs.

Illusions should be permanent as long as you are in combat and many problems would be solved.
Increase dmg of Phantasms .
Improve mantra traits for better power mesmer play i.e. All triggered mantras also trigger on your illussion positions.
Reduce CD on some utilities i.e. Illusion of life with 90s CD would high enough instead of 120s.
Make arcane thievery a stunbreak and if you break stun with it your target get stunned/dazed/launched etc. instead.
Well of precognition: Instead of giving Aegis give block for all effected. (this can be counter played and a 3s block isnt that high).

Nullfield maybe attached to mesmer and moving with him (could be a little bit to strong but i am.not sure)
Phantasmal defender give Aegis in addition to protection for better defense while casting.

tgese are my ideas for improving Power mesmer/ anti condi gameplay.

Krispera.5087:

InsaneQR.7412:

I dont even notice it a lot, except that my might stacks are much lower-> which maybe the reason why they nerfed it.

It’s still very easy to stack 25 might with Nature Magic, WHaO and Axe. Then slap Sigil of Strength on the MH or OH and you’re back to square one. Also, it’s only a self buff. Meanwhile, other professions such as Ele, Rev and Warrior are farting might to others. Ranger can’t (I mean they can, but not as easily).

I tend to play lots of professions, so I’m always disappointed by the lack of AoE on the Ranger and, for me, the third bounce on Ricochet was the only way that was close to it.

Again, it’s mostly an open PvE request and for zerging purpose. Axe is meta only on the condi instance ranger and beside that, it’s hardly used.

Yeah i changed my build in the meanwhile and you are right you can easily keep your 25 stacks.
Axe AA should be like: First hit applies bleed, second and third give might to you and your pet (max stack of 8 ).
Wintersbite: Should hit 5 targets on default, applies torment instead if bleed for more diversity.
Path of scares: Ground target and work like Phoenix and Herold Shield 4.
Whirling defences: Let us move Anet.

And in addition because Sword has an identity crisis too:
Swap serpent strike with stalkers strike on dagger. Stalkers strike on sword is niw pure power based and does more dmg below 50% health.
Sword 2 consists of Monarchsleap (first part of chain) and stalkers strike (second part).
Hornet sting is standalone 3rd skill and has its activation time reduced.

messiah.1908:

you already have fragment and orb which heal, put regen and swiftness on you. so to add another mechanism should be easy i think

if the tablet only heal you why choose it as support. it might be bunkery but no dmg so like bunker chorno ppl hate which got deleted ….

It would be support but just point blank. Would give new frontline opportunities without losing sight of the tablet in the zerk. And yes, more survivability in solo PvE. In Raids and fractals or even Metaevents it would be better to use it with the mobile style because of bigger range.
With ventari you could bunker as ever, you just got less to manage and you lose support mobility over utility. Its a fair trade IMO.

I mean you could merge Selfless Amplification with Natural abundance. Now my new suggested GM has to compeed with Momentary pacification and improved Selfless Amplification. Momentary pacification should get the ICD to 30s. This way you would have a heavy supporty, a mobile and a Control choice.

You can use ventari skills when you are stunned but no weaponskills. If you get stunned with ventari (without invo line) you can heal your unconscious self while you get beaten which is kinda awful. The stunbreak could be an effect that works arround the tablet, so you can either stunbreak allies in range or yourself if you have the tablet near you.
The idea of condi cleanse on pickup sounds nice, the daze on pick up could be an interesting idea, but i am not that sure if it be applicable.

What if the bound tablet would be a GM trait? The heal would change in this case and only heal you, no teleport. This could be utterly sweet for solo play but would conpromise that you couldnt choose other GM trait and it wouldnt kill ventaris mechanic.
Btw they should change the alacrity visual effect provided from the tablet or just change it to a buff icon that appears. That pink glow looks horrible.

messiah.1908:

Two places at once can be op done you think
Don’t forget on self you got blind and protection
On ventari mainly heal abilities

This way ventari could hit 10 targets, would sound nice to raid players.
I would say that the tablet should not effect the player twice though because this would be OP.
In addition it would be kinda balanced (except the mentioned point) because you have to position the tablet and yourself very well for maximum potential.
The upkeep would maybe need some tweaking in PvP.
To improve ventari they should also improve the traits. Its kinda odd that a legend trait is a minor and half of the salvation traitline is healing power stuff.
I gladly would try put the new rooting trait of the GM section but i dont wanna use ventari in solo pve.

The resummoning mechanic of the tablet and a missing stunbreak is what holds this legend back tge most IMO. Automatic resummoning when activating the elite would be good. A stunbreak on purifying essence and a second PbAoE effect on the rev could make this legend great. It still would have pure support cappabbilities but could be used in solo and group content in PvE.

messiah.1908:

BlazeQ.1095:

I do play Ventari healer in WvW. Its very wonky to use if your trying to play front-line, however mid-line is a different thing. Being able to move it lets me react to healing both front-line and back-line very nicely. Takes time to get used to though.

that’s the idea . it takes time to get used to it even in pvp
in pvp most of the time the tablet will be close to you. point, small fight area etc..
but the ability to heal far from you is the benefit.
if you wanna be melee healer go ele.

I like the tablet mechanic myself and i like the idea of ventari as a legend sadly it is very annoying that it dies after elite and that you lose all benefits if not in range. The tablet as an extension of ventaris presence would be nice, so you can effect two places at once.

Caeledh.5437:

Levetty.1279:

You men the role that they sword up and down would never be in the game and is useful only in raids?

They sure did. Then they claimed they never did. And now healing is there.

Personally I think their original vision was a mistake and that’s one of the reasons the game’s popularity has waned. Everything being a melee DPS zerg fest is really boring.

Plenty of people, eg. me, actually like playing roles other than DPS. GW2 1.0 offered a nice story and world to play through but not much reason to stick around once you’d finished that.

Levetty.1279:

If you view it as an elite spec though its by far the worst designed one.

I don’t love the druid. The staff doesn’t impress and the whole astral force / celestial avatar thing doesn’t thrill me either. It’s just the same rotation of abilities for burst healing and AF build up. In other MMOs healing is much more strategic.

But IMO herald was by far the worst designed elite. The main selling point of the new revenant class was their abilities being fuelled by energy instead of limited by cooldowns.

They hyped everyone up about that and their elite spec – showing us the cool dragon stuff – then it emerged that the (non-buff) herald abilities would be limited by cooldowns instead of fuelled by energy.

Seriously.

Yeah i agree with this one herald is pretty much the worst designed. Its boon camping and the new F2 abbility should interact with the legends. I mean rev has not very much freedom in build diversity and still get only 1 upkeep as a special.
Druid should have more than just one aspect and thus variety in glyphs. The temporary restriction do not increase the glyph use in CAF at all.
Staff is kinda good weapon, just staff 2 is BS and they could made staff a ranged condi weapon (because we dont have a 1200 range condi weapon) instead of power.
The CA skills are useful for sustain in some regards and give us a place in harder content. I dont like the looks of the skills though.

I 2 thought of the immob on crippling talon. A leap that hits 3 target gor stalkersstrike that applies 3 stacks of poison each could be sweet. It could work well with fields, traps and weaponswap mechanics.

Krispera.5087:

Sword : Agree and I was disappointed the Sword trait evade wasn’t working on GS. Serpent’s Strike is your way to get evade with sword. What I hate with sword is all that animation wiggle (Losing damage, so must of time you just AA if you don’t need to evade). The evade backward of Hornet Sting/Monarch’s Leap and the evasive roll of Serpent’s Strike.

What annoys me, is that we need to evade to get the quickness. If you look how they changed the Warrior equivalent on Axe, it’s unfair. (Dual Strike : Strike your foe with both weapons. Gain quickness with each hit. This skill cleaves, hitting up to 6 times. Since quickness stacks only up to 5 times, it has a potential of 7.5 seconds of quickness without boon duration.). They don’t need to trait and just hit.

Axe : Axe is always problematic. I don’t believe it’s a pure condition weapon. Right now, it’s a hybrid weapon that excel better at condition, because of Splitblade and Winter’s Bite. When it comes to Ricochet, this thing is one of the highest damage AA we have (lol, ikr). To confuse even more, they make the trait gives 250 ferocity. So, which one is it really ? Ah, funny/sad thing, Warrior is throwing axes harder than Rangers now.

Yeah i forgot about the Axe trait: Wintersbite should be multitarget by default and axe attacks should give you an increasing precision buff everytime you hit with an axe equipped.

Sword could have better uses if serpent strike is the second chain of monarchsleap and hornetsting is a stand alone.

messiah.1908:

InsaneQR.7412:

messiah.1908:

InsaneQR.7412:

Still wish that the tablet mechanic will change. Its still wonky as hell and the resummoning is kinda dumb. I would like that the tablet would follow you arround and the elite would be the ground target for the tablet and upkeep. As long as the elite is active it could double its radius and make it immobile. After ractivation the tablet activates the KB and teleports back to you. The new condi cleanse mechanic isnt something for me really. A stunbreak is still missing on ventari, an AoE stunbreak would be fitting.

if it will follow you there wont be a need in a tablet . the idea is to control it and send it to heal if allies is far from you. the tablet move faster than you can can reach almost any location in range of 1500.

if you get used to it you will find it very unique and strong in some situation like

1v1 on far point. i see my ally in far needs help so i will go for him and mid way send my tablet to him heal him and come back to mid fight with no need to travel far on my own.

the only downside are thieves who see that and know you are vulnerable for few seconds. but thieves now are worst enemies to almost any class atm

either way strong build imo with good abilities

Sending the tablet arround wont go away, but it would make wvw and pve content better for ventari. At the moment this legend is mainly for bunkering in pvp and raids as a support. Some utility for PvE/WvW would be neat.
With my idea the elite is basically the “i am going to safe your kitten” button. The normal heal is just on cast an heals instant PbAoE without travelling.
This way you could travel arround with the tablet and fight against mobs without fidling arround and if stuff get ugly you can deploy the tablet to hold a specific location. This could be sweet backlining WvW support or awesome for meta events.

cant speak about raids. and wvw gvg long ago i stop with it. i do know the healing in a group is insane and can build yourself to 100% healing to allies.
in pvp which is more small area and contest war the traveling is very important as it take time. again your idea mainly used as an ele who move from one palce to another to heal.

Not quite what i ment. The Elite i proposed pretts much works like the old heal. The tablet teleports on the place and roots and the radius increases. An ele is a boon-healbot. With a bigger tablet radius you are a nightmare for projectiles with decent healing and cleanse but not a boonbot. After recasting the elite you have the KB and the tablet teleports back and you could replace it anywhere else instantly (an upkeep has no CD).
It was a concept i thought of, because if you want to play ventari in open PvE/ dungeons its a drag and clunky. In raids/High-fractals it needs more skill than just druid/ele support and provides less buffs. An easier mechanic could increase the potentcy of ventari healers and the openworld fun overall.

Torch dominates the condi builds even after the minor nerf it received recently.
the only other Condi OH we have is dagger which is underperforming in comparison to torch. The evade is good in PvP but it lacks in AoE which makes it inferior to all other offhand options.

I would like to see that Anet improves the cleave/AoE capabbilities of dagger OH.
I am still thinking about a decent solution.

Good proposals are welcome.

I play the game since Launch and it always seems odd to me that Axe and Sword do not have distinct dmg roles like the other Ranger weapon have.

Axe is meant to be a condi ranged weapon with pet involvement and sword is basically an evade-heavy melee power weapon, but both of them have skills in them that jump out of the weapon identity.

Serpentstrike: Has an awesome animation but the poison it provides basically contradicts the power weapon theme sword has and doesnt give any use to power builds.
Axe AA: It does raw dmg and stacks might. The might is useful but it does not provide any condi potential.

My idea for Sword 3:
The snake animation is cool and all but i would move it to dagger 5 and change the sword 3 to a pure power attack. Ramp up the number of targets hit from 1 to 3 and add an execution effect (do more dmg if target under 50% health).

My idea for Axe AA:
Axe bounce to 2 additional targets as it has before. First target bleeds 1 stack, second and third give you and your pet might (max 6 stacks each, instead of 9 only on ranger).
In addition Wintersbite does torment instead of bleed for some condi diversity.

Bonus Idea:
I thought that the GS AA has an evade frame but the sword (which is the evsive weapon) has not. What if the last chain of the Sword AA has the evade frame with the dmg of the current GS and the GS gets a might stack o the last hit with better dmg? Sword could still do decent dmg if traited (especcially now^^) and it would give an interesting aspect of survability.

Any feedback is welcome.

IMO there are two ways two improve spirit weapons.
1. The simple approach
Make them unkillable, reduce CD
Tweak passive effects to better match the current state of the game

2. The overhaul
Spiritweapons are now basically just an additional weaponskill on your utility bar.
The active skill is now a “weaponskill” with low cd.
Active stay the same.
The trait could be something like: As long as the Spiritweaponskill is on CD you get these effects:
Sword: Apply 1 additional stack of burning when appling burn
Hammer: Chance to daze target, target cannot be dazed twice within 1 second
Shield: Projectile destruction when under the effects of aegis.
Bow: Attacks heal if you have a condition on you.

Sword would give burn guardian an edge.
Hammer sweet cc.
Shield would give nice defenses against ranged enemies.
Bow would give good self sustain if you couldnt cleanse all conditions from you.

The clue on this GM trait is that the low cd if the weapons are basically the balancing of the trait.

This could even open up some E-Spec variety for other professions with other weapons.
It would be unique enough as a skill category and it would secure the controlabbility.

Its looking to me like a beastmaster E-Spec. I hipe this will open better options for power ranger, i would like to swap specs in the next expansion for more diversity.

messiah.1908:

InsaneQR.7412:

Still wish that the tablet mechanic will change. Its still wonky as hell and the resummoning is kinda dumb. I would like that the tablet would follow you arround and the elite would be the ground target for the tablet and upkeep. As long as the elite is active it could double its radius and make it immobile. After ractivation the tablet activates the KB and teleports back to you. The new condi cleanse mechanic isnt something for me really. A stunbreak is still missing on ventari, an AoE stunbreak would be fitting.

if it will follow you there wont be a need in a tablet . the idea is to control it and send it to heal if allies is far from you. the tablet move faster than you can can reach almost any location in range of 1500.

if you get used to it you will find it very unique and strong in some situation like

1v1 on far point. i see my ally in far needs help so i will go for him and mid way send my tablet to him heal him and come back to mid fight with no need to travel far on my own.

the only downside are thieves who see that and know you are vulnerable for few seconds. but thieves now are worst enemies to almost any class atm

either way strong build imo with good abilities

Sending the tablet arround wont go away, but it would make wvw and pve content better for ventari. At the moment this legend is mainly for bunkering in pvp and raids as a support. Some utility for PvE/WvW would be neat.
With my idea the elite is basically the “i am going to safe your kitten” button. The normal heal is just on cast an heals instant PbAoE without travelling.
This way you could travel arround with the tablet and fight against mobs without fidling arround and if stuff get ugly you can deploy the tablet to hold a specific location. This could be sweet backlining WvW support or awesome for meta events.

CrimeMaker.8612:

Why wasn’t this trait nerf? This trait is really broken in WvW. A solo necro can stack 30 stacks of bleeding AoE easily. Can we please do balance separation for this trait and bump the amount of bleeding down to 1 stack in WvW. Good epi change.

They actually should change the trait. As long as an enemy has chill they have a debuff that pulses dmg that scales with power and not condi. This would give the trait some decent punch and you cannot stack ridiculous amounts of condis, in addition it would remove the condi part from reaper which should be the power elite spec for this class.
Condi necro choose reaper just for this trait.

Still wish that the tablet mechanic will change. Its still wonky as hell and the resummoning is kinda dumb. I would like that the tablet would follow you arround and the elite would be the ground target for the tablet and upkeep. As long as the elite is active it could double its radius and make it immobile. After ractivation the tablet activates the KB and teleports back to you. The new condi cleanse mechanic isnt something for me really. A stunbreak is still missing on ventari, an AoE stunbreak would be fitting.

Lazze.9870:

InsaneQR.7412:

Still waiting on my melee poison ranger.

Refined Toxins buff is a decent start. At the cost of a stunbreak or off-hand dagger trait, unfortunately.

Yeah thats the whole problem with poison ranger. I would like if they would give dagger more cleave capabbilities. Its inferior to torch just because if the lacking AoE. Every OH has the abbility to do some AoE dmg and has a ranged attack. I would like to see some kind of spin-jump attack that can hit multiple targets and would close a little gap for melee engagement.
Posion master is a weird trait as a grand master. I would like to see that you place a poison field on your position and that of the pet. Field last 3 s and pulses 1 stack of poison per second.

I think the light on your feet trait works if you are flanking. You dont have to stand behind the target to trigger the specific corresponding effect. Dont tested it though.
I still wish for some useful dagger improvements and increased target cap on vipers nest. Still waiting on my melee poison ranger.

Euthymias.7984:

>Forced Engagement
Perhaps it should be a skillshot that can affect those who are in a 180~240 radius of the target or Pierce similarly to Banish Enchantment. (25~30 Energy)

>Inspiring Reinforcements
Change it from a Light Road to a Shout like skill. (self) Stun Break and provides a stack of Stability to those around you and the user for 3 seconds (30 Energy)

Vengeful Hammers
Make it pulse Retaliation (1s) (self) every 3 seconds. Increase Upkeep cost by 1.

>RotGD
Cost 35 energy. Reduces incoming Damage and Condition Damage by 50% for 4 seconds. Traited ver removes the auto-trigger and instead gives Legendary Dwarf skills a single condition cleanse on an ICD of 5~8 sec

In addition:

Steadfast Rejuvenation: Recover small amount of health (or Regeneration) and gain healing power (up to 200 or so) on successfully blocking attacks. (1~2 sec ICD)

Well sounds nice, i would like to see a blocking skill obn jalis skills but you nailed it man.

Good idea but something similar was suggested now several times. I doubt that it will ever be changed but keep it up.

How about this. Blocks 2-3s and taunts 3 targets. After block duration gain retaliation 5s.

Parktou.4263:

At least gives us both mh sword and oh sword. That is all.

You will not only get MH sword but also Dualwielding Skills so actually you get more than just 12 new skills.

Forced engagement should be the bread and butter skill for revenant to taunt and control.
Jalis itself should be a tank but sadly has no blocking skill.

My suggestion: It hits up to 5 target AoE, now with less range of course. After activation you block the next 5 attacks. Slow and taunt keep the same.
This would synergize well with vengeful hammers and beefs up jalis tanking capabbilities.

Opinions?

anduriell.6280:

Actually we need less pet’s and more skins.

at the end most of the pet’s are actually that and i wouldn’t mind to find some pet skin like the mist wolf for 400 gems.

Rework pets by families and give 1 of each to the ranger level 1. And let us choose the active from a selection defined by family. in F2

It would be good to be able to choose also a second F skill with a list of “utilities” based on the family, combo fields, knockbacks… in F3

attack my target should become a switch to rotate between attack my target and return to me, when hold should show a ground target to make the pet Guard that area. in F1

And the rest how it is now. I think if we as players could have this way more control over the pet such as path (using the guard function), or being able to call the knockbacks when needed would make them bearable.

But this has been said for hundred times from before even HoT and no changes were done.

*sigh sad but true
Still good idea though

EnderzShadow.2506:

You guys make me sick…. “OOOOH WE WANT NEW COLORS!”
Drooling pve fashionistas!

I want new pets, different abilities, something fun, something different, something that build can be adapted around.

Accept it or not but fashion wars 2 is kinda end game of gw2. For moas or other pets i would agree with OP that new skins would cool and a Petreskin function for PvE would be sweet. But i would like to see skaal, skelk, windriders and the basilisk (as a drake) as new pets on the game.

anduriell.6280:

InsaneQR.7412:

anduriell.6280:

Most ranger’s weapons are badly designed.
For example GS#1 chain, the last attack, where it evades it extremely clunky. I don’t think i’ve ever consciously try to use that attack.

All the Axe’s mainhand aftercast… Axe#4 projectile disappearances because terrain (not even walls) and now such a extreme small AoE.
Axe#5 being an static skill in a class that is not tank, thus needs to stay moving all the time….

Sword#3 not being able to hit anything. Gs#5 short range. Dagger in general is awful.

Shortbow still a pretty terrible weapon being used only for filling the gap between torch CDs.

Is like being the class designed as a middle ground between mobility and active deffenses from the thief and tankiness from the engie, but the weapon skills were designed with the devs feet for something as static as Guard with many passive block and deffenses.

SB is somewhat decent now i would say after the bleed on autoattack buff.
Warhorn is tge only ranger weapon that doesnt feel lachluster, just hasnt that much use.

I have to agree with dagger, especially the number of hittable targets are bugging me. I would give both daggerskills a cleave to hit multiple targets atleast. I would also like to see a shadowstep on dagger 5 but thats debatable ground.
Axe 4 could need a ground target like phoenix of ele has, with the same mechanic.
Axe 5 just needs movement like all other “spin” moves have, just to bring it on the same level.
Greatsword has even as a defensive power weapon dmg on the low site and dmg buff could have some uses. Hilt bash still bugged.
Make Axe 3 AoE on default and fix traits.

Weapons of ranger had an identy crisis till launch and are still on it. Actually i am.not sure if ranger has the most flawed weapon and utility skills that need some love, on the other hand we have a lot of pretty good ones.

IMO Sb is pretty terrible even with the testimonial condi buff. Nobody uses it unless is as a filled between torch CDs. It is better than before, sure, still damage is pretty low to be used in PvE and The weapon skills are so bad for pvp/wvw than almost seems to be designed with the feets. Range should be increased to 1200, although i begining to think 1500 should be the number as that weapon lacks any burst and the condition damage is coming almost exclusively from bleedings and needs time to build up (thus the range). Also another choice to fight thieves that burst and try to teleport away.

Sb#3 being a ground target 600 shadowstep that grants superspeed if hits so the ranger actually has some control about when to hit from the ide or the back would be very welcome. And some torment and confusion in some of the skills would be amazing so the player is not forced into SM traitline.

Dagger needs more than increase the targets, the Dagger#4 is a complete waste of skill, i can’t think of any replacement that actually could work.. I agree Dagger#5 needs the shadow step ground target.

Axe#4 needs also to pulls for the full range, not 300. The reflect in Axe#5 should increase to match the other reflection skills abide the mobility , not 150. Axe#1 needs t be replaced as the last nerf destroyed it’s utility (build might), i would make the axe to work as the guardians lootstick works (cleave 600, plus grant 1 might for each enemy hit up to 3) and remove the projectile from it. And Axe#2 needs to have no such as pre-cast animations, it looks like it want’s to throw a Frisbee. .

But yes, there are a lot of fantastic threads in this subforum with brillant ideas and none were taken.

Well i can understand some of your concerns. I my self am a fan if skill swapping. I would like to see that serpent strike of sword is swapped with dagger 4 and the old dagger 4 skill is now a pure dmg skill that immobs foes.
I would put monarchsleap as sword 2 and the new skill behind it. Hornet sting stays at 3.
Dagger together with the shadowstep could be an evasive condi weapon and sword an effective engage-disengage power weapon.

For your axe changes on OH i cannot say anything fir or against it because i dont know the numbers.
For axe auto attack they should just make a chai n instead of a single throwing skill. One of two does bleed the other one might. Wintersbite hits 3 targets and applies torment instead of bleed for more condi diversity.

SB just needs bigger numbers. Longer durations better base dmg etc.
The bigger range is demanded by a lot of PvP/WvW players i think, in PvE this isnt much of an issue as i have experienced.

I would also like to see that crippling shot would be similar to sword 4 of warrior. You shot an arrow into your enemy and it changes to a second skill. You can activate this skill and your pet rips the arrow out of your enemy and does extra dmg.

The last one is just an idea, nothing applicable i think.

After they improve the targeting of the pet it is somewhat useful now, they should reduce a lot of petskill cd. I am more aware of unused traits, weapon streamlining and altogether skills.

DeanBB.4268:

I’m not sure what you guys expect from a balance patch. Could ANet (or anyone) ever make every single trait line + weapon choice equivalent? I can’t see how players will not always gravitate to whatever becomes most efficient/powerful/meta. That perfect world will never exist.

Ofcourse it will not, but there are skills and traits out there which doesn’t have any practical application because they either are counter intuitive, not build friendly (e.g. Ranger axe trait, gives ferocity but buffs condi mainhand) or just have to long ICD (e.g. Revenant poison trait in corruption line.)

OriOri.8724:

We don’t even need an overhaul so much as just a proper balance patch. Give the balance team enough time, and enough devs, to balance all skills, all traitlines, in all classes, along with runes and sigils.

Basically what i mean, nothing more. They should just should concentrate on base specs. Elite specs are well thought through but base specs are currently lackluster in several regards (Including weapons, professionskills and traits).

A lot of players, with or without expansion, will have noticed that core specs are lacking behind E-Specs in a lot of ways.
I know Elite Specs should be in some way “Elite” but there are base profession traits and skills which are totally outdated in the current state they are.
Just improving QoL of skills and Traits to improve Build diversity of all kinds of professions would be fantastic.
I can live with the fact that E-Spec will still be meta but the core classes have to be a better foundation for the current and future E-Specs in this game.

I would gladly here some opinions.

I hope they get tgeir stuff together and improve core specs. It hurts the basegame player base and its gutting build diversity.
They need to streamline weapons or improve them mechanically wise (e.g. Rev sword).
We need a new trait overhaul as in 2015 to bring freah air into the meta and the casual PvE and PvP gameplay.

Weapon that have design issues:
Sword (is hybrid although it has only one condi skill which is only used for evasion)
Axe: Has a power autoattack and the 3rd skill only starts really to shine with its otherwise bad designed trait.
Dagger: Has a goid dmg identity, but one attack is ranged and the other one has pretty much no range at all
Torch: Has one skill that only hits one target in range and multiple ones in melee with the other.
Gs5 is still bugged.

Utilityskill issues:
Some signets have way to big cd or aechanic that is either outdated in the current balance or harm the pet. Stone is good though.
Traps: Frostrap is neglected and vipersnest is inferior to flame trap because of short combofield duration and only hits 3 targets.
Survival: Muddy terrain (sigh)
Spirits: Storm is basically useless in group content and earth is just protection bot (its trait is even doubling up on this, better basic effect would bring more diversity)

Shouts: Sick em is kinda bugged and outdated mechanically.

Did i forgot a skill?

anduriell.6280:

Most ranger’s weapons are badly designed.
For example GS#1 chain, the last attack, where it evades it extremely clunky. I don’t think i’ve ever consciously try to use that attack.

All the Axe’s mainhand aftercast… Axe#4 projectile disappearances because terrain (not even walls) and now such a extreme small AoE.
Axe#5 being an static skill in a class that is not tank, thus needs to stay moving all the time….

Sword#3 not being able to hit anything. Gs#5 short range. Dagger in general is awful.

Shortbow still a pretty terrible weapon being used only for filling the gap between torch CDs.

Is like being the class designed as a middle ground between mobility and active deffenses from the thief and tankiness from the engie, but the weapon skills were designed with the devs feet for something as static as Guard with many passive block and deffenses.

SB is somewhat decent now i would say after the bleed on autoattack buff.
Warhorn is tge only ranger weapon that doesnt feel lachluster, just hasnt that much use.

I have to agree with dagger, especially the number of hittable targets are bugging me. I would give both daggerskills a cleave to hit multiple targets atleast. I would also like to see a shadowstep on dagger 5 but thats debatable ground.
Axe 4 could need a ground target like phoenix of ele has, with the same mechanic.
Axe 5 just needs movement like all other “spin” moves have, just to bring it on the same level.
Greatsword has even as a defensive power weapon dmg on the low site and dmg buff could have some uses. Hilt bash still bugged.
Make Axe 3 AoE on default and fix traits.

Weapons of ranger had an identy crisis till launch and are still on it. Actually i am.not sure if ranger has the most flawed weapon and utility skills that need some love, on the other hand we have a lot of pretty good ones.

I dont know why everybody goes overboard, i mean he isnt just face tanking it. It is a decent amount of skill involved so nice job.

Agreeing with OP.
In addition i would put monarchs leap in first chain of serpent strike and put hornet sting as a stand alone evade skill.

Maybe a second steal mechanic that works on 1500 range would be more realistic.

linium.6042:

Position sword 5 to sword 2 and add some range.

This seems interesting.I would love to see this skill reworked.

Yeah i thought about it like: Pick a target and kill it with sword 3.
You could even immob with the new sword 5 and pull that off. This way you could pick one after another.

Exciton.8942:

Just by looking at the leaked spec picture, the soulbeast is the one I am quite curious but also a bit worried about.

The utility skill icons seem to indicate the soulbeast is getting minion skills. I don’t know if that is really an interesting addition to ranger class as they already get pets.

Then it is interesting what special mechanics soulbeast will get. Will it be ranger 2.0 this time? We all know druid is one of the few elite specs that had little interaction with the core class. Maybe they will focus on the synergy with core spec this time.

I would have said that the new utilities could be spectral skills and we get some kind of shroud which merges the ranger with its pet.

On the otherhand maybe it will be the opposite of berserker. The berserker mode counts as a rage skill, maybe the minion skills count as pet swap and activation skills. This could give awesome synergy and a real beastmaster feeling. I am generally excited on this E-spec and probably gonna play it over druid.

Generally i perceive Sword MH as a single target offensive weapon and the OH as a multitarget defensive weapon.

What i would change:
Change precision strike to a pure AoE attack similar to arc divider from warrior (dmg stays the same on a single target, can hit up to 5 target once).
Position precision strike to the second chain of sword 4.
Position sword 4 second chain to sword 5.
Position sword 5 to sword 2 and add some range.

Opinions?

Lily.1935:

InsaneQR.7412:

Best thing about the new E-Spec concept so far are the new F abbilities.
Looks like we get more options to pick boys.

I’m a bit curious about it because Kalla was a leader. So you think she might play into support once again a bit? Some of the Icons do suggest that.. Hmm. Although Condi support is never a bad thing.

Yeah and maybe the skills are varying depending on legends. This could give us more diversity. Maybe we could have some kind of range CC role and effects depending on the current legend using.

Personally i thibk hammer could benefit from a smoke field on hammer 4 (would give group utility and some utility in pvp). A leap finisher on hammer 3 would be nice indeed and is kinda missing on the skill.
I would also like the possibility to weaponswap during hammer 5, but this could be only in PvE because of cancelling in PvP.
Double hit on hammer 2 in PvE would be very nice indeed.
Mainly i think hammer is decent and sword is the only real lackluster weapon (this is off topic though) but still hammer could need some improvements.

Catastro.8410:

Cleaving hybrid weapon, that’s all I want from axe.

Cleaving condi would be even better, scepter is just to clunky, especially the block.

Best thing about the new E-Spec concept so far are the new F abbilities.
Looks like we get more options to pick boys.

BadSanta.6527:

We will see if the new e spec will ever replace Druid in teams and raises but I’m skeptical

Well it doesnt have to. Maybe this will be a E-Spec best suited for WvW and open world.
The concept of an E-Spec is actually to fill missing roles. Druid will alwaysbe a good support, question is if the new E-specs of other classes will provide the same amount of support or not.

Still would play a DH though, just because of the insane block uptime
But an artillery like condi bomber would be interesting to see in group content and wvw.
And i am.glad that guardian will finally get a pure condi spec.