Guild Wars 2

Hayashi.3416:

Poison Master will be worthless because poison, even in a full condition damage spec, only does 284 damage per second. So that trait adds 142 damage per second.

Out of 4543. So, a 3% increase in damage overall. Compared to that, 3 condition removal every 10 seconds is…

If they wanted to add more condition damage, they should instead make bleeds do 20% more damage, rather than making poison do 50% more damage.

Taking Poison Master for it’s additional damage output is meh, definitely not worthless though.
But on the other hand, taking Poison Master so you can reduce your opponents healing by 33% on a 90%+ up-time, is priceless.

jcbroe.4329:

Let’s just take a weaponset. Assume Axe/Dagger, 1200 condition damage, and you have Sun Spirit up for the burning. Now, you’re bleeds are going to do about 102-103 damage per tick (per stack), burning will do 628 damage per tick, and your poison without Poison Mastery is going to be doing 204 damage per tick.

So now, at maximum potential during a single skill rotation, you’re going to have 8 stacks of bleed, poison, and burning up. So that’s 816+204+628 = 1648 damage per second.

now, take Poison Mastery. Poison does 306 damage, which totals out to 1750 damage, which for this particular skill rotation is about a 6% damage increase to the maximum damage range. Obviously on just poison, it’s a 50% damage increase, and on 8 bleeds and a poison, it’s a 10% damage increase.

One thing I keep hearing people mention is that this new trait is only equal to 1 stack of bleed. So their argument is that it is a worthless trait.

I completely disagree. Here’s why:

• Don’t focus on the damage potential of Poison per say, but rather the passive affects it will cause. Ergo healing.
• Having the ability to be a “Poison Master” will allow us to whittle down our opponents.(Which we already can do easily). I am almost certain you will be able to keep an almost 90% Poison up time on your opponent.
• Remember the Queen’s Jubilee and the Master of gambits NPC? " I’ll try Hamstring. Even crippled, I wont be beaten." Gave you the cripple condition throughout the fight. Well imagine your opponent fighting you with the poison condition 90%+ of the fight..

Healing Signet Warriors will be cake(no need to take spiders).
Other Rangers using Troll Unguent will be a walk in the park.
Mesmers using Signet of Ether will be heavily affected.

Basically all healing on your opponent will be constantly reduced.

So one could argue that there is a “Passive DPS” increase by using this Trait(33% DPS increase?).

I used to play a game called Knight Online. One of the classes was a mage who at level cap could drop 4 AOE’s in less than 6 seconds. A group of 5 of us(all mages) would wreak havoc on camps(protected by guards). We would have the tank run up to the camp to agro all guards, then the 5 mages would run up and drop 20 Nova’s(AOE’s) in 6 seconds and decimate the camp. Was a lot of fun.

Durzlla.6295:

Fluffball.8307:

ItIsFinished.9462:

Rapid Fire is currently 10 arrows on a 4.5 second channel. Take Read the Wind Trait and it is now on a 2.25 second channel.

Durzlla.6295:

Jesus do you people read?

You misread his post Durzlla. He’s getting such a short channel because he thought RtW increased firing rate.

Aaaaaaaah, that’s how he did it, I was assuming he was saying it was 10 arrows within X time due to them flying faster (IE the target actually taking the damage faster instead of having 1-3 arrows in the air while using quickness).

Yeah, I had an incorrect understanding of how RtW trait is going to work. That was my fault.

Durzlla.6295:

@OP: Fix the build, it’s showing a 10/0/30/30/0 build instead of a 30/x/x/x/30 build.

Wow!, the link that I posted was way off…..I’ll fix it.

Edit: Fixed

We will have some nice burst potential with the new Read the Wind trait.

This is the first build I’ll be trying:

Edit: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQNAT8YjEq0yaFL+rw1aAZ9AQCEA49I9WPR0VYUK5TNB-z0BB4hCyUIwkIBKJtIas1NFRjVNjIqWnEjUAmpMC-w

Rapid Fire is currently 10 arrows on a 4.5 second channel. Take Read the Wind Trait and it is now on a 2.25 second channel. Add in Zephyrs Speed every 15 seconds for a Rapid Fire bust of 10 arrows on a 1.6875(1.7 seconds) second channel. That’s 1 arrow every .16875(.17 seconds) second.

Keep in mind this is just for the skill ‘Rapid Fire’. Can someone verify my math?

ImagoX.4718:

So from everything I can see about 2H weapons and the way stacks of Might will go away on-swap, it’s looking like my current build (using the black cat + stacks of Might for me and my pet from constant LB/SB swapping) is going away, yes?

Is there enough data yet to start considering alternatives to this build? I’m mainly PvE and really enjoyed the damage numbers I could put up in dungeons and other group activities once my Might had built up, but I do admit that constantly swapping back and forth between LB/SB was distracting (plus when my pet died – which tends to happen in dungeons, it lost the built-up Might stacks).

Thanks!

No, it’s not going away. I’m assuming you are referring to actual Might stacks(boon). The Sigil stacks(Bloodlust, Corruption, Perception etc) will go away if you unequip the weapon with the original Sigil.

awge.3852:

Manekk.6981:

awge.3852:

Manekk.6981:

awge.3852:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMUQNAV8fjEq0ya/KOsQ1agY9QQEaQtHcy8n/VIWnsiotC-zQCBofBGJURj8II0HRjABOPqIasVTFRjVJjIqWdDjQATWDA-e

This is the best 1 vs 1 build I’ve come up with and I feel that right now it’s quite optimal. I’ve used it in PvP and WvW conversely. Now, in 1 vs 1 regardless of your build you truly depend on your own skill + reaction time; that aside, what does my build bring to the table? An emphasis on damage matched with survival.

Survival factor: Signet of stone, bark skin, healing power, high toughness, a healthy amount of vitality, superior sigil of energy, lightning reflexes, signet of renewal, and don’t forget your pet!

Damage factor: Conditions + pet + well executed burst + your very own reflexes and battle intuition. My personal rotation depends on the enemy, but overall this ranger is quite tanky so I know I can lure enemies into a strong damage rotation.

A typical high damage rotation will be like this:
Entangle + wolf’s howl at the same time, bonfire on their location, plus serpent’s strike (for the poison) which will also place you behind them, followed by your wolf’s leap which should stun them, and some melee, swap weapons to concussion shot (from behind), followed by poison volley, swap to spider in case they want to escape the entangle’s immobilize so you snare them right away. By now your sharpened edges should kick in and you can set yourself at range in case your enemy decides to pull you into their own rotation somehow; this rotation (without entangle) should be available to you after 20 seconds, so if your enemy does catch you off guard and keeps you in melee range, swap weapons and drop bonfire, if you really need to you can use signet of stone and mitigate all the damage, or you can save it for an uh-oh situation, but I personally like to use troll unguent and mitigate most of the damage that way.

General advice as a ranger in a 1 vs 1? every action you take counts, don’t waste your skills in a useless rotation that your enemy can escape, you need to reel them into it, make them feel like they have a chance, be brave and risk some damage in order to force them to waste some skills on you, that’s how you add your flavor into the fray.

Disclaimer? heck yes, you’re fighting against some sturdy condition damage build? swap to Empatic bond, fighting that annoying hit and run warrior in a very open space? consider swapping your shortbow for axe/dagger, both your pets to spiders and your elite to RaO. The key of the build is in survival via signets, healing power, high toughness and decent condition removal; plus damage via a non stop stacking of conditions with a rotation with clever pet usage. I’ve had lots of success with it but success depends entirely on you, so best of luck!

Apothecary and healing power seems totally wasted on that though, no healing spring and no other regen application at all and not even signet of the wild so why the healing power? for troll? you gain 50h per tick for that might aswell go full dire or anything else than apothecary really.

Honestly that’s a good point, however given that full dire gear is a bit pricey for me to get, I haven’t had the chance to test with it other than in PvP. The benefit I get from this setup not only applies in 1 vs 1, I like to run with it in WvW and whenever I am in a group I benefit greatly from having higher healing power from the shared regen that you get in those situations, that’s truly the main reason I chose apothecary over dire. However if you do have full dire feel free to test my build and let me know how it rolls.

I’m pretty certain any regeneration you get from others is based on their healing power not yours, unless something changed.

Well then that’s news to me (and incredibly obvious now that I think about it). Now all I would need is to save up enough to get full dire gear and roll with it, but your suggestion as to use healing spring and signet of the hunt won’t be overlooked. After all this is the best condi-build I have and despite it being honed for 1 vs 1, it does really well in group situations added that I use more methods for healing power usage (shout build perhaps), I should be in a good spot with the apothecary gear.

I made a full Dire setup. I’d stick with your build. Full Dire for Ranger isn’t all that. I mean, it wrecks in 1vs1 when your opponent doesn’t bring any condi removal, but against any other class with on demand condi removal, its not as great as you think. The only problems I had was against Shout Warriors w/ Soldier Runes and some Necro’s(Corrupt boon and ability to transfer conditions to the Ranger. Maxed out I was at 2200 condition damage

Good info for those not familiar with Healing Spring’s potential. Thanks

Viking Jorun.5413:

Greatsword:

• While it may not appear the best for comboing into fields with, the greatsword is my all-time favorite weapon for use with Healing Spring. An anomaly with Swoop makes it act as two leap finishers rather than one, and standing outside of the field, or at the edge – even without a target – will allow dual leap finishers in your water field. This will heal you for 2640 without healing power on a single attack.

For Greatswords Leap Finisher, you get two combo finishers out of Swoop?

Kal Spiro.9745:

Aveneo.2068:

misterdevious.6482:

Aveneo.2068:

That’s a shame. Well, not the part about only owning 3 pets but the other things like only having one active pet, levelling (training) it and choosing its abilities sounds a lot more interesting. Sounds a bit like how pets behaved/evolved in GW1.

Yeah building your own pet sounded neat. You can see the old pet customization in action here (In German)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVvK7vqx-Vo&hd=1#t=0m17s

In addition to the skills the drakes have now, there was a passive regen skill, a shake that removed conditions, an evasion skill that made the drake back out of combat, and a roar that weakened enemies.

I WANT THAT!!

ANet, remove the Pet Swap in favor or a single pet and give us back skill customization for it so we can choose which skills our pets should use during a fight! And include passive ‘aura’ skills too! That way people that don’t like their pet can keep it on passive and have it radiate their passive abilities instead! Win-Win for everyone!

This really does seem like one of the best options. Why did they back out of this design in the first place?

The only difference between this video and what we have now is the option to select what skills our pets do. Now, that’s awesome and I’m all for that, but if the AI is crap, then the AI is crap. All those skills that we custom pick will work no different than our current pet system to which we can’t custom select skills.

Any word on if this is going to get fixed?

Allie Murdock.8152:

Hey all,

I just wanted to clarify since we saw some confusion about this, both in this thread and on Reddit. The summary I posted was a summary of feedback I took from you guys in this thread and sent to the devs. It is not a reflection of changes that are or will be made (necessarily).

That doesn’t mean we aren’t doing anything about the feedback in the summary, it just shouldn’t be considered “Balance update notes”.

Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion.

Hey Allie, what direction do you see our class mechanic going in terms of damage vs control vs assistance? Do you see our pets playing all 3 roles? Do you see our pets receiving the ability to cleave for AOE damage in z vs z situations?

What kind of ideas should we focus on in terms of our pets and their purpose?

Tyler Chapman.1832:

Here’s a bit more information to clear the air on this stuff coming in for this next patch:

What will be in the rank chests?
We are exchanging out the old rank up reward chests with three new rewards chests based on the level you are.

Here are the thresholds:

• Ranks 1-9: Players will earn 1 Small Reward Box each time they level in this tier
• Ranks 10-29: Players will earn 1 Medium Reward Box each time they level in this tier
• Ranks 30-80: Players will earn 1 Large Reward Box each time they level up in this tier

Loot table for rank up reward boxes:

• Small reward boxes will contain random crafting materials and stardard loot
• Medium reward boxes will contain 1 scroll of knowledge(skill point) and rewards similar to the small chest but in the next tier loot table above it.
• Large reward boxes will contain a tome of knowledge(1 PvE level/skillpoint), 5 champion bags, and 5 scrolls of knowledge (5 skillpoints) each. Tier 5 crafting mats included.

What are these guild tabards?
Sorry for the confusion but these are just the same items that were on the rank vendors. Tabards, banners, back pieces, regardless the name, they are NOT capes. The “back banners” will still be there until the feature build but the reason we put them on the glory vendor was because we planned to previously remove the rank vendors entirely for this build, meaning they would no longer be available. Having these vendors should give you all some more time to get anything you don’t have yet and help with inventory management. Both the rank vendors and glory vendor will be removed upon the feature build so make sure you do this. I suggest to open all your chests, don’t just leave them unopened as they will be deleted. Either way, don’t be too alarmed because tons of new rewards are coming. Even PvP specific ones!

What about salvage kits?
The salvage kits on the glory vendor have been changed to cost a small amount of copper instead of being sold for 100 glory. The salvage kits on the rank vendors will remain 100 glory until the vendors are removed themselves.

Hope that clears some questions up!

-Tyler

Forgive me if this has been answered, but lets say I have 30 or so Wolf Rank chests, about 10 Tiger rank chests and around 170 Tournament win chests. I’m saving them for when the Glory boosters are removed to open them. Is that safe to do or should open them now?

Thanks for the information by the way!

Allie Murdock.8152:

Angela Ranna.5638:

RoyHarmon.5398:

I think what he meant was that if you gave the ranger an appropriate stat boost only while the pet was stowed, then there would be no need to rebalance in the first place.

No, I think she got it. What she was saying was a straight stat boost would be hard to balance between pet vs non-pet vs other classes. On the other hand unique effects for stowing the pets (ie aspects) is more lateral power and thus easier to make competitive, each having its own niche.

And yeah, this ^

So I started thinking, why not keep everything the same with pets, except improve the AI of course(which is on the list anyways), keep attack mode, but change passive mode to guard mode. Add a few more skills to pets, skills for attack mode and skills for guard mode, when the pet is in guard mode it stays by your side, the F2 ability changes to a guard mode type utility, AND the pet absorbs 30% of the damage you take. that seems fair since it is 30% of your damage.

For your experimental builds, are they mainly for dueling?

Sup Runes of the Forge?

• Shouts
  • “Play Dead” – replaces – Search and Rescue
    • Revives allies from a downed state in XXX radius by sacrificing 25% of its health. The pet receives a 2 second Daze and 4 second Cripple.
  • “Heel” – replaces – Guard
    • Your pet returns to your side with a fiery vengance, causing ‘Fear’(Blast Finisher) at the initial location, then granting an AOE burning to enemy’s as it returns to your side. Breaks Stun

I’m working on the remaining two Shouts.

Isn’t working. On the Rangers Vigorous Training trait, the tool tip is correct, but when I actualy swap pets and mouse over the Vigor boon, it is only 4 seconds instead of the 7 seconds the tool tip says it should be.

mtpelion.4562:

In regard to the class mechanic utilization and its effectiveness across classes, I think the explanation is as follows:

If Class Mechanic is used correctly in a perfect scenario the DPS potential is:
Guardian – 100% DPS
Warrior – 100% DPS
Engineer – 100% DPS
Ranger – 100% DPS
Thief – 100% DPS
Elementalist – 100% DPS
Mesmer – 100% DPS
Necromancer – 100% DPS

If the Class Mechanic is completely ignored, the DPS potential becomes:
Guardian – 85% DPS
Warrior – 85% DPS
Engineer – 85% DPS
Ranger – 70% DPS
Thief – 85% DPS
Elementalist – 85% DPS
Mesmer – 85% DPS
Necromancer – 85% DPS

Now, we have to then look at the scenarios that are not optimal and the probability of the scenario being not optimal (this section is approximated based on my opinion and numbers do not reflect any type of measured value):

Guardian – 100% DPS (really doesn’t have a non-optimal situation since the class mechanic is a combination of invincibility, healing, and fire damage. Immune to burning enemies/objects would be the only limiting factor)

Warrior – 100% DPS (as adrenaline builds regardless of what you are hitting, DPS potential is never lost while in combat).

Engineer – ??% DPS (I don’t have a lot of experience with Engineer, but I have noticed that some F# abilities do not function when kits are equipped so that would be a limiting factor).

Ranger – 70% DPS (When you pet is dead or cannot attack your target because of the target type/location/etc.)

Thief – 85% DPS (can’t steal against some target types)

Elementalist – 100% DPS (can always change attunements)

Mesmer – 90% DPS (I’m not super experienced with Mesmers either, but with the ease at which clones/illusions are created the only limiting factor I can think of would be enemies that the clones/illusions cannot reach and since shattering is only part of the mechanic, I’ve given them a 90%)

Necromancer – 100% DPS (Life Force can always be generated).

You explained it better than I did, also, you are referring to just DPS situations, I was referring to all aspects of the game, including PvP.

Akisame.9508:

ItIsFinished.9462:

If each of these classes lost the ability to use their Class mechanic, here are the estimated results:

• Class mechanic/F1-F4 not used in all aspects of the game per class(% decreased)
  • Engineer 30%
  • Gaurdian 20%
  • Warrior 35%
  • Elementalist 65%
  • Mesmer 25%
  • Thief 40%
  • Necro 20%
  • Ranger 30%

Ranger isn’t in such a bad position if their pet dies compared to some of the other classes.

So your saying that if everyone’s class mechanic died, we would be one of the best damage dealers? A warrior doesn’t need his class mechanic to deal his 100% of his damage, he uses his class mechanic to get a boost to his overall damage. What your saying above is like saying that warriors start off doing 35% less damage then what they are suppose to do. hmmm, and Elementalist starts off by doing 65% less damage then they are suppose to do, WOW, I’d hate to see what they do at 100% because when I start a fight with one, they come out strong and hit hard!

First off, I’m referring to all aspects of gameplay, be it PvE, WvW, sPvP. If a warrior couldn’t use his Adrenaline, he would lose out on 300Hp per second regen, 3 condi clear every 5-10 seconds, and burst damage. Thats just a few things, so yeah I put him at about 35% effectiveness.

As for elementalist, they have 4 attunements, fire, water, air, earth. If they were stuck on one attunement, then yes 65% is reasonable estimation.

Angela Ranna.5638:

ItIsFinished.9462:

Thanks for the replies Allie. I’m not sure why the same people who keep harping on you about giving the ranger back their 100% damage arguments won’t concur. Keep in mind a few of them have admitted not stepping foot in PVP aspects of the game. Over on the Ranger forum, I can’t guarantee 90%+ of them want the pet to stay along with there mechanics, just on an improved AI level, which is what you stated a few pages back. The discussions should be about ideas on making this happen, rather than bringing up this stow pet 100% damage idea.

I think most people are fine with the pet staying, but especially in pvp where they’re kited just in normal play it’s awful being balanced around the pet doing so much of our damage. In pvp they can’t hit spit, so our dps is consistently lower.

There are two versions of people who want the pet to go – those who just want to play ranger without a pet, and those who just want to realize our damage by not relying on the busted pet AI (which we’ve been told won’t be fixed any time soon). The first is thematic and up for debate, but ANet has said they don’t agree with it. The second is a real problem with a real solution, at least until AI is fixed.

Can you imagine every new player starting GW2 for the first time picking a new class, they go through their options, “Oooh, clones! Wait, Stealth mechanic?? Attunements and summoned weapons!! Huh whats this, Ranger, wait whats its specialty/class mechanic?” Hops on ranger forums and asks community what makes it special, gets the answer of “5 people wanted there mechanic gone to do more damage”…..

I know poorly written, its lunch time…

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

ItIsFinished.9462:

Thanks for the replies Allie. I’m not sure why the same people who keep harping on you about giving the ranger back their 100% damage arguments won’t concur. Keep in mind a few of them have admitted not stepping foot in PVP aspects of the game. Over on the Ranger forum, I can’t guarantee 90%+ of them want the pet to stay along with there mechanics, just on an improved AI level, which is what you stated a few pages back. The discussions should be about ideas on making this happen, rather than bringing up this stow pet 100% damage idea.

So you are saying just because I’ve never played PvP, I shouldn’t be heard?
Man you’re weird. Stop these disgusting attempts to proof other players not beeing as equivalent as the “elitists”.

Don’t put words in my mouth. Everyone’s opinions are welcomed. It’s hard to accept an idea knowing that in other aspects of the game they simply wouldn’t work, especially since Anet said they aren’t going to do it anyways.

urdriel.8496:

Prysin.8542:

Akisame.9508:

Allie Murdock.8152:

I’m not saying this isn’t possible, but I want you to understand exactly what that suggestion means. It would mean completely rebalancing the Ranger.

The Ranger is designed to have a pet. If the pet was taken away or didn’t do damage, then it wouldn’t be a Ranger anymore. Does that make sense?

The only reason Rangers lose damage is because the AI is not currently what it ought to be. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we should completely redesign the Ranger and get rid of the pet.

Hi Allie, and thank you for your replies.

—i wrote a very long post—

You are misunderstanding the conscept of other professions; If they do not use their mechanics, they will not be able to achieve 100% potential. Saying a warrior can do 115% is absurd, because the rapid bursts is what produces those “15%”. Without bursts, a warrior’s damage is quite mediocre unless you built it to gain damage from some other mechanic, such as banner-buffs.
If you look at a warriors weapons, and the burst options, you see that certain weapons have lower base damage then you may expect, related directly to the damage that the burst can do. Axe mainhand is a good example of this. Its AA has lower damage then weapons of equal damage stats but since eviscerate does so much damage it makes up for the loss.

OMG, are you saying than Warrior Axe AA have less damage than other skills??
Warrior Axe AA autoattack is probably the best dps in this game for an AA, and eviscerate is a “if your opponent have 50% hp or less press f1 to win”.

You are either being ignorant on pourpose or simply misreading what he is saying. I’ll put it in lazy man terms:

If each of these classes lost the ability to use their Class mechanic, here are the estimated results:

• Class mechanic/F1-F4 not used in all aspects of the game per class(% decreased)
  • Engineer 30%
  • Gaurdian 20%
  • Warrior 35%
  • Elementalist 65%
  • Mesmer 25%
  • Thief 40%
  • Necro 20%
  • Ranger 30%

Ranger isn’t in such a bad position if their pet dies compared to some of the other classes.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Also, you guys can’t see this due to the limitations of formatting on our forums, but a lot of these points were made by many of you guys. As such, they are much more emphasized in the email threads and discussions we have internally.

First, thank you for your summary. What I think got missed in the pile was the idea that pet damage should be rebalanced so that they no longer draw 30% of our damage from us in the first place. All other classes core mechanics add to base damage where as rangers loose almost a third of our player damage in order to have an AI run around with us. If our pets hit every time and are never dead, we just get to 100% base damage of every other class capping us at 100% a warrior hits 115% with his/her core mechanic.

This does not take into account the loss of gear stats on the pet which is significant.

I’m not saying this isn’t possible, but I want you to understand exactly what that suggestion means. It would mean completely rebalancing the Ranger.

The Ranger is designed to have a pet. If the pet was taken away or didn’t do damage, then it wouldn’t be a Ranger anymore. Does that make sense?

The only reason Rangers lose damage is because the AI is not currently what it ought to be. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we should completely redesign the Ranger and get rid of the pet.

Think of it this way: You’re building a house and a 2×4 breaks while you’re trying to screw it in to something. Do you scrap the house and completely rebuild it because that one piece broke, or do you grab a new 2×4 and use that instead? Which do you think would be more efficient?

What I’ve been seeing a lot of is that you guys don’t necessarily dislike pets. What you dislike is how they act and how they are controlled. It seems to me that these are feelings that have been built up over time, and have culminated into “pets have to go” because you guys haven’t seen the improvements that should be made to pets to make them desirable. I certainly don’t blame you for getting to this point, but I do want to know the core of the problem before we start talking about rebalancing an entire class.

Thanks for the replies Allie. I’m not sure why the same people who keep harping on you about giving the ranger back their 100% damage arguments won’t concur. Keep in mind a few of them have admitted not stepping foot in PVP aspects of the game. Over on the Ranger forum, I can’t guarantee 90%+ of them want the pet to stay along with there mechanics, just on an improved AI level, which is what you stated a few pages back. The discussions should be about ideas on making this happen, rather than bringing up this stow pet 100% damage idea.

BeardRex.6739:

Pets need an option for “dodge when I dodge”, which would require additional animation work too.

Along with those two things, I really like the player ideas that pets should share consumables and share boons ( even if sharing boons is a beast mastery trait). Imagine a trait that’s something like “Every 5-10 seconds, one of your boons is copied to your pet”.

I just don’t think pets will ever be where I want them to be unless the changes made to them change their mechanics, and not just number changes.

How can we take your suggestion seriously if you don’t know the current Ranger mechanics. Look up Fortifying Bond.

Absorbing your Spirits to gain Spirit Weapons(Like Summoned Ele Weapons)

I wanted to further elaborate on my Absorbing Spirits Idea:

• Storm Spirit (Skill focus would be swiftness, stuns, and teleports)
  • When absorbed you are granted a new weapon(Lightning Longbow).
    • s1 could be lightning arrows.
    • s2 could be a ground targeting lightning strike, granting swiftness to the caster and dazing the enemy.
    • s3 could be a teleport of some sort Ride the lightning
    • s4 could be an Odin Strike – Pull up to 5 enemies towards the caster and explode the weapon for lots of damage.
    • s5 destroy the bow blinding everyone in a XXX radius.

• Stone Spirit (Skill focus would be Protection, cripples, blocks and reflects)
  • When absorbed you are granted a new weapon(Stone Greatsword)
    • s1 swinging launches pieces of your greatsword at an enemy
    • s2 summon up a boulder to block enemy projectiles
    • s3 stir up the ground around you into a quicksand pit causing cripple to enemies and protection to allies inside the radius
    • s4 strike your sword into the ground causing rocks to cover your body protecting you and granting Aegis.
    • s5 destroy your greatsword into tiny shards causing bleeding in an XXX radius

• Sun Spirit (Skill focus would be burning damage and blindness)
  • When absorbed you are granted a new weapon(Flame Sword?)
    • Still working on ideas for skills

• Frost Spirit (Skill focus would be chill and reflects)
  • When absorbed you are granted a new weapon(Dual Ice Daggers)
    • Still working on ideas for skills

thefantasticg.3984:

For the spirit absorbtion thing could it just be I cast the spirit (which those cast times are too long for my liking) and I immediately absorb without any further action? I.E. hitting F to absorb. IMO, that’d make it much more fast paced. Option #1 sounds like what I have read of preparations from GW1. Which I like the idea of. Option #2 definitely sounds like Ele elemental weapons.. which I do quite enjoying using on my Ele (except for the axe depsite the might stacks). Could be interesting depending on how it is implemented. Interesting would be definite if they made one of the spirits give us a staff for support that was a carbon copy of the guardian staff or a sun spirit that gave us a main hand axe that was carbon copy of the warrior axe…

For option #2, its totally up for interpretation. With the main idea being they can be used as normal, but at the last second before they die, they could be picked up and absorbed into a weapon. The weapons would focus more on CC, absorbs, reflects and evades rather than hard damage or burst damage. I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to having a burst option though.
Maybe to make it balanced, the remaining time on the original Spirit cast would be transferred when absorbed. So if a Spirit has 5 more seconds before dying, if you picked it up the weapon would have 5 seconds remaining.

thefantasticg.3984:

RoA and TU also disappear when you pet swap… which I kinda understand, but it sucks.

I wouldn’t mind trying out the spirit absortion thing.

I like the Guard thing. I would always have my pet in Guard. FOREVER. lol

Thanks for the input.

Another reason I wanted to post these ideas here is because I know that this subforum is going to have a good majority of experienced rangers who are familiar with there class and current mechanics. That way I can get honest feedback. It seems like the CDI thread has a lot of people that have never stepped foot in the Ranger forum.

(cont part 2)

Hunters Shot > Hunters Prey Change

Main Hand Axe 1-3 Triple Threat Idea

Master’s Bond Fix

Basically I put out some ideas that I believe are common sense changes. Nothing ground breaking, just ideas to help bring the Ranger a little closer to the other classes. These ideas got buried in the CDI thread and was hoping for other Rangers that actually play this class give some opinions on these ideas. You can comment on one idea or all. I just wanted to throw these out here. Thanks for your time.

Absorbing your Spirits to gain Spirit Weapons(Like Summoned Ele Weapons)

Rework of the pet system ~ A balanced approach

Poison Volley changed to Poison Slash

Yoh.8469:

Atherakhia.4086:

xallever.1874:

Tryxtr.6295:

General question to progress this discussion further:

In PvE, the pets do not generally die that quickly, except for in dungeons when stacking. Pets can tank mobs pretty well.

In WvW pets almost insta-die and can be easily ignored (ran past) due to the fact that they can’t hit a moving target.

How can Anet fix this issue to make it work in both game modes?

Can’t make the pet way tankier (for WvW survivability) because then they’d be basically OP in PvE and Anet doesn’t want to separate WvW from PvE. Could make them a little bit tankier, but that doesn’t really help WvW since they need a huge boost to keep them alive.

Maybe a pet’s vitality and toughness could scale with the number of enemies around them. Not sure if that would fix the issue.

How do you guys visualize the pet ought to perform in WvW?

In a zerg encounter for instance, what do you expect the pet ought to do for you?

The arguably better archers like thieves or warriors also don’t bring too much into the table during such encounters. The thieves can put a poison field, but also die quite easily if they are targeted.

The thing is that if the Rangers are meant for single encounters, they are better suited as roamers. Just that at this juncture, thieves and mesmers (and arguably eles too) perform much better than rangers.

I don’t see it problematic that certain professions bring more to the table in a zerg situations such as guardians, warriors and eles. Just that currently every other profession can do what the Ranger can do better.

There are 2 scenarios that work…

You either make pets highly survivable but remove the swap mechanic so players aren’t overwhelmed. Or you scale back the focus of the pet and make it an inconsequential part of the game overall.

The first would be ideal and simply making the pet take 75% less damage from AE’s that don’t have the pet targetted would solve almost all of the survivability issues. They aren’t like phantasms and clones that can be replaced almost immediately. Plus if you remove the swap mechanic from the game, players can choose to kill the pet quickly and the Ranger is then stuck with a 30% dps loss.

The alternate scenario is you just reduce the impact the pet has and you effectively turn it into a class specific DOT. All pets do the same damage, that damage is about what a 6 stack of bleed is capable of, and you call it a day. You then increase the Ranger’s damage and coefficients up to a competetive level and make the F2 functions spawn ‘sprites’ that do their pet specific abilities instead of worrying about the pet being alive or dead at the time of activation.

Neither is ideal, but both methods solve the problems players have with the pets.

Actually I can think of a third option.
A great deal of the problems with pets stem from the fact that they are both always on and non-optional. We don’t have these problems with Mesmer Illusions, even thou they are non-optional, but we do have similar problems with Necromancer Minions that are always on.

So what if the pet wasn’t always on, but rater a summon?
You summon them, they do their thing while also giving you a pet skill, then they go away. Sort of like a Phantasm that can change targets, and a great deal tougher.
You could have up to 4 pets this way bound to each of the F1-F4 keys, and once summoned the bar changes to what we have now, with F4 recalling your pet and putting it on cooldown so you can summon another pet.

Then the Power and Effectiveness of the Ranger vs the pets can be reworked, you can have pets that are very powerful, but don’t last long. And the Ranger isn’t as required to have a chunk of their power go towards having the pet around at all times.
They could share a similar relationship between a Mesmer and their Illusions.

This way they wouldn’t have to survive an AOE encounter, as they could be traited for on death effects, and you would have enough backup pets to fall back on, some of which might be better for dealing with that situation.
It would solve a whole lot of problems, and I think it’s a good compromise between permastow and not.

Please Anet, I don’t want to become a MM Necro or Spirit Ranger AI type class. Imagine a spirit Ranger which can have up to 5 spirits cluttering up the screen, + the 1 pet, adding 4 additional ‘weaker’ pets for a total 9 AI npcs cluttering up the screen..no thank you.

Specific Game Mode
All Aspects of the game

Proposal Overview
The ability to ‘absorb one of your spirits’ for an added affect to your attacks. Ex, Spirit Arrows, etc.

Goal of Proposal
Make it more viable in PvP/WvW/PvE

Proposal Functionality

• Option #1:
• The Ranger can now pickup/absorb one of there Spirits for an added affect. The Spirit would no longer have an AOE bonus affect for the Rangers allies, but instead it would absorb the affects and distribute them from attacks.

• Option #2:
• All of the Spirits can be picked up for a new set of 1-5 attacks/skills.
  • If you pick up Sun Spirit you are granted a new bow that has the design and look of the direct Sun Spirits color and aura that you picked up. You would be granted with new 1-5 skills that pertain to the Sun Spirits roots.
  • Maybe Stone Spirit represents a greatsword when picked up that offers hard CC/blocks etc.
  • It would be like an Elementalists and there summoned weapons.

Associated Risks
The Ranger will now have more options, and access to skills for CC, reflects etc.

My other propositions – All under 200 words:
Master’s Bond Fix
Main Hand Axe 1-3 Triple Threat Idea
Hunter’s Shot/Hunter’s Prey Change
Poison Volley Changed to Poison Slash
Rework of the Pet System – A balanced Approach

xallever.1874:

As Allie didn’t want this CDI to be all about the permastow option (or turning it into an aspect), I’d just like to come up with a poll:

http://poll.pollcode.com/38561745_result?v

Obviously, a significant majority will be telling factor (not close to 50-50), but even without the percentage, if there are enough participants, I think the numbers also will show some weight.

The point of this is to lessen speculative statements for future discussions.

I hope everyone who has an opinion would take part in this short ‘yes’ or ‘no’ poll. I’d also post this in the Aspect thread.

Correct link:

http://poll.pollcode.com/38561745

Atherakhia.4086:

ItIsFinished.9462:

Shiren.9532:

ItIsFinished.9462:

I think the whole argument about “pets dying to AOE damage” is moot. If the Rangers pet dies to an AOE, it’s because its supposed too.

What I mean is, whenever I’m in a dungeon fighting a boss, and lets say I’m standing back using a LB/SB and my pets is up in it’s face, the boss lets out an AOE, now, my pet is at 20% life…..well so are the other 4 characters in my group…they also have 20% life, the difference is that most rangers don’t pet swap or call back there pet so it can heal, which is what the other 4 party members would do if they got hit hard during a boss fight. So it really comes down to micro/pet management. I hardly have problems with my pets, and I often run birds as well which have low armor and semi low health. Now, I wouldn’t disagree with adding more HP and armor to them in PvE and WvW.

Now, lets say that an enemy zerg is coming your way and your pet gets run over, of course your pet is going to die, as any other class would too.

The difference between a pet and another party member is that party members can dodge.

Pet issues in dungeons come down to the basic design of the game. Guild Wars 2 wants to promote active combat. To do this it gives enemies powerful attacks that players can counter with a powerful mechanic – dodge. If a player fails to dodge, they are punished (usually downed). Pets can’t dodge. The same mechanic used to force players to dodge is used on pets but nothing about pets was designed to counter it. This resulted in lots of dead pets and a solid stigma was created for the ranger (and rangers themselves began to feel like pets were a burden). Since launch pets received not one but two vitality buffs and for many players this alleviated some of this issue, the increase vitality combined with the evolution of the dungeon meta to “stack and spank” meant not even players have to dodge now and dungeons are still completed easily. Pet issues are still evident when you are pushed outside of the easy mode meta or face mechanics that shouldn’t impact on pets at all (like the rotating electric wall in the Aetherblade fractal – pets can’t be saved from that).

Even if rangers could command pets to dodge, it would just be an increased burden on the player to micro manage. A warrior dodges just for himself but a ranger has to be aware of both his position and his pet’s position and dodge accordingly for both. The pet becomes a micro burden not to effectively play the class, but simply because it exists. The micro doesn’t offer you a bonus for your effort, it just makes your class mechanic live long enough to perform basic functionality.

There is only so much you can do with the current tools. At a certain point you run out of pet swaps or your pet is simply not contributing to the fight any more (either dead or on passive. I know some people want more micro over the pet but I would argue a pet should be self sufficient when it comes to surviving under most circumstances. Extra micro shouldn’t be required to survive, it should help utilise the strengths of the mechanic to your advantage.

As far as zergs go, rangers are going to be considerably hindered by fragile pets in zerg combat. There is good reason why many competitive guilds don’t like rangers and you don’t see them actively recruiting them or running rosters with large numbers of them. Not all of that is the fault of the pet, but it doesn’t help.

You are correct, pets can’t dodge, but you can use ‘Return to Me’ which is a mappable command on the pet bar. For example, use ‘Return to Me’ before Alpha uses Teeth of Primordus which is extremely predictable.

The problem with this is you’re in melee range using your 1h sword to kill Alpha so telling your pet to return isn’t going to resolve anything. Unless of course you’re fighting at Ranger where, pet alive or not, you’re not providing competitive damage in the first place and, despite the fact you may be providing spotter and spirit, you’re holding the group back.

And it’s still a very real issue in WvW where the pet is simply killed in seconds running next to you or not because of the sheer scope of how WvW works.

Now if a pet on passive was immune to all damage and could only be injured when it is actively attacking, that would certainly be true and would resolve a very large number of the problems.

First off, if you decide to face roll a boss and not slot a ranged weapon then you certainly must deal with the consequences, especially if you picked Ranger as your class. If you want to face roll bosses, choose Warrior. Second, you said earlier that you hardly play WvW. For someone who hardly plays WvW, how do you know Rangers pets die by running next to you? That statement doesn’t make sense.

Shiren.9532:

ItIsFinished.9462:

I think the whole argument about “pets dying to AOE damage” is moot. If the Rangers pet dies to an AOE, it’s because its supposed too.

What I mean is, whenever I’m in a dungeon fighting a boss, and lets say I’m standing back using a LB/SB and my pets is up in it’s face, the boss lets out an AOE, now, my pet is at 20% life…..well so are the other 4 characters in my group…they also have 20% life, the difference is that most rangers don’t pet swap or call back there pet so it can heal, which is what the other 4 party members would do if they got hit hard during a boss fight. So it really comes down to micro/pet management. I hardly have problems with my pets, and I often run birds as well which have low armor and semi low health. Now, I wouldn’t disagree with adding more HP and armor to them in PvE and WvW.

Now, lets say that an enemy zerg is coming your way and your pet gets run over, of course your pet is going to die, as any other class would too.

The difference between a pet and another party member is that party members can dodge.

Pet issues in dungeons come down to the basic design of the game. Guild Wars 2 wants to promote active combat. To do this it gives enemies powerful attacks that players can counter with a powerful mechanic – dodge. If a player fails to dodge, they are punished (usually downed). Pets can’t dodge. The same mechanic used to force players to dodge is used on pets but nothing about pets was designed to counter it. This resulted in lots of dead pets and a solid stigma was created for the ranger (and rangers themselves began to feel like pets were a burden). Since launch pets received not one but two vitality buffs and for many players this alleviated some of this issue, the increase vitality combined with the evolution of the dungeon meta to “stack and spank” meant not even players have to dodge now and dungeons are still completed easily. Pet issues are still evident when you are pushed outside of the easy mode meta or face mechanics that shouldn’t impact on pets at all (like the rotating electric wall in the Aetherblade fractal – pets can’t be saved from that).

Even if rangers could command pets to dodge, it would just be an increased burden on the player to micro manage. A warrior dodges just for himself but a ranger has to be aware of both his position and his pet’s position and dodge accordingly for both. The pet becomes a micro burden not to effectively play the class, but simply because it exists. The micro doesn’t offer you a bonus for your effort, it just makes your class mechanic live long enough to perform basic functionality.

There is only so much you can do with the current tools. At a certain point you run out of pet swaps or your pet is simply not contributing to the fight any more (either dead or on passive. I know some people want more micro over the pet but I would argue a pet should be self sufficient when it comes to surviving under most circumstances. Extra micro shouldn’t be required to survive, it should help utilise the strengths of the mechanic to your advantage.

As far as zergs go, rangers are going to be considerably hindered by fragile pets in zerg combat. There is good reason why many competitive guilds don’t like rangers and you don’t see them actively recruiting them or running rosters with large numbers of them. Not all of that is the fault of the pet, but it doesn’t help.

You are correct, pets can’t dodge, but you can use ‘Return to Me’ which is a mappable command on the pet bar. For example, use ‘Return to Me’ before Alpha uses Teeth of Primordus which is extremely predictable.

I think the whole argument about “pets dying to AOE damage” is moot. If the Rangers pet dies to an AOE, it’s because its supposed too.

What I mean is, whenever I’m in a dungeon fighting a boss, and lets say I’m standing back using a LB/SB and my pets is up in it’s face, the boss lets out an AOE, now, my pet is at 20% life…..well so are the other 4 characters in my group…they also have 20% life, the difference is that most rangers don’t pet swap or call back there pet so it can heal, which is what the other 4 party members would do if they got hit hard during a boss fight. So it really comes down to micro/pet management. I hardly have problems with my pets, and I often run birds as well which have low armor and semi low health. Now, I wouldn’t disagree with adding more HP and armor to them in PvE and WvW.

Now, lets say that an enemy zerg is coming your way and your pet gets run over, of course your pet is going to die, as any other class would too.

Specific Game Mode
All Aspects of the game

Proposal Overview
Rework of the Pet system(Impossible to explain in under 200 words btw)

Goal of Proposal
Make it more viable in PvP/WvW/PvE

Proposal Functionality
Take out Passive and Attack modes. Add a “Guard mode” and a “Attack mode”.

• Guard Mode
• When the Ranger puts his pet in “Guard Mode”, the pet will stay by the rangers side, granting various ‘Guard and protect your master’ type of boons or traps that aid in protecting the Ranger(dependent on pet class-Ursine, cats etc). Example, lets say I have a Bird slotted and is in Guard Mode, I want him to grant me swiftness or maybe fury when an enemy comes within “Guard Mode” range. Or let’s say I have my Reptile slotted and in Guard Mode, if an enemy comes withing guard mode range I want him to cast Confusion or even do his tail swipe. All the guard mode abilities are dependent on the pet class. Also in Guard mode, the Ranger will do 15% more damage, but the pet will do 15% less damage as well.

• Attack Mode
• When the Ranger puts the pet in “Attack Mode” it simply uses there normal attacks and skills but with improved precision and accuracy. Improved AI etc.

Associated Risks
The Ranger will now have more control over the pet and which skills are activated through the pet.

My other propositions – All under 200 words:
Master’s Bond Fix
Main Hand Axe 1-3 Triple Threat Idea
Hunter’s Shot/Hunter’s Prey Change
Poison Volley Changed to Poison Slash

Flytrap.8075:

SkiTz.4590:

Flytrap.8075:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

CrossFire.8037:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Abrilete.1439:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Abrilete.1439:

Regarding the 30% DPS lost becasuse our pets never hit…
It’s been tested by several players that the “30% faster pets trait” (Agility Training) helps a lot improving pet’s DPS.

Giving our pets that speed increase by default, and also increasing the range for their mele attacks, could be an easy-to-implement patch until ANet decides to fix pet’s AI.

Doesn’t make the pet any better.

At least, they would hit more consistently against moving targets (be it players or NPC’s). ANet has said many times that they don’t plan to fix pet’s AI soon, so until then (if they ever do, and I don’t think so) we must find ways to make them work within current constraints.

Delete them. If they can’t fix them I want them deleted.

But but…rangers are the pet class…even though the pet mechanic is broken, unreliable and an actual hindrance in most game modes, the pets must stay because we need a pet class! /anet

It’s pathetic at this point. If you want to stick with pets, either fix them or allow them to become an option through a beast-master trait.

Minor Trait: “You get a pet.”

I like how CrossFire’s post got deleted yet it speaks the truth.

I guess I just don’t understand why ANet is so fixated on keeping the pet mechanic. I mean, where is the logic behind trying to fix a broken class while at the same time remaining adamant that the very thing that is breaking it needs to stay?

So many interesting, innovative ideas have been suggested so far and all ANet has given us in the past few days is a post about signets. I’d love to see Ranger become the class that it should have been, but I can’t help but feel that the devs are being too narrow-minded.

It’s honestly more to blame with NCsoft since they command anet on how to spend their resources in terms of development.

I guess an entire broken class is OK with them so long as the others are somewhat stable

Maybe.

And to clarify, if they can make the pet mechanic work, then by all means keep it. But coming into this thread and essentially admitting that the pet mechanic as it stands has issues, that you don’t have the capabilities to fix it, and that you don’t have any current plans to change it is not acceptable.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Band-Aid buffs will not fix the Ranger profession. If ANet is serious about solving the issues that have plagued this class since before the game was released, then they need to take a completely different approach.

You ever watch those Debbie Downer episodes? You remind me of a few of them…

Specific Game Mode
PvP

Proposal Overview
Poison Volley is now Poison Slash

Goal of Proposal
Make it more viable in PvP/WvW

Proposal Functionality
The ranger Leaps forward slashing his bow in a 120 degree arc causing cleave damage and 5 seconds of poison. Kind of like Eviscerate animation.

Associated Risks
The Ranger becomes vulnerable in melee range but can combo it off by using Quick Shot

My other propositions – All under 200 words:
Master’s Bond Fix
Main Hand Axe 1-3 Triple Threat Idea
Hunter’s Shot/Hunter’s Prey Change

Specific Game Mode
PvP

Proposal Overview
Hunters Shot turns into a second skill when it’s been landed.

Goal of Proposal
Make it more viable in PvP/WvW

Proposal Functionality
When Hunter’s Shot has successfully landed and the Ranger is Stealthed, the skill becomes ’Hunter’s Prey’ which allows you to transfer your stealth boon to your pet for a surprise attack. Stealth would then be removed from the Ranger.

Associated Risks
None that I can think of.

My other propositions – All under 200 words:
Master’s Bond Fix
Main Hand Axe 1-3 Triple Threat Idea

I have a feeling a long post is being typed up. A post that has a summary of all the ideas that caught the devs eye’s and will be discussed further. It should be arriving any minute now…..

Aden Celeste.3650:

Eosaujii.5713:

Specific Game Mode

WvW

Proposal Overview

Pets are part of the Ranger’s heart and soul. The idiom, ‘whats mine is yours, whats yours is mine’ could be the fundamental game mechanic for a Ranger and her Pet.

In this regard, no distinction should be made in the traits between Ranger or Pet – all traits/signets, etc., should effect both the Ranger and the Pet equally. The Ranger and Pet should have full synergy.

Goal of Proposal

Balance the Ranger with her natural role as a Champion of Nature let her be as one with the wild animals she calls friend. The Pets will impart their strengths upon the Ranger and in turn, she imparts all of hers upon them.

This synergistic relationship will make the Ranger greater than the sum of its parts.

Proposal Functionality

Remove the traits from the Ranger’s lineup that are only for the Pet, and rework them so that what effects the Ranger now also effects the Pet.

Bring a new level of synergy between the Ranger and Pet by allowing the pooling of health, the sharing of all boons, and the ability of each animal to impart a mode of defense and/or offense to the Ranger – this relationship exists in harmony, and is in effect all of the time.

Some examples of this:

Bear defense: imparts a bonus to health pool (scalable depending on level)
Bear offense: imparts a terrifying instant roar (stance) causing weakness and fear

Spider defense: imparts a sticky residue, causing an attacker to be immobilized momentarily
Spider offense: increases the potency of all the Ranger’s poisons, along with durations

Hawk defense: imparts a special sight to the Ranger, allowing her to block some missiles
Hawk offense: increases the range of all missiles, with a bonus to crit on the initial shot

Each animal in turn, would offer to the Ranger something unique. These functions could replace the current pet-bar, and be accessible as a normal class function.

Associated Risks

There are no risks associated with this, as it will simply balance the game play of the Ranger, forever removing the handicap of having a class with reliance on an AI driven game mechanic.

By allowing the Pet itself to become part of what the Ranger is, the Ranger no longer has to rely on the game server for the other half of her abilities.

I really, REALLY liked this.

I like this too. I thought of an idea very similar to this about 5 months ago or so. Basically each pet has a set of offensive skills and defensive skills, The Ranger can put them into an offensive mode which pursues the enemy with attacks and offensive skills, or the Ranger could put the pet into a defensive mode so that the pet no longer pursues the enemy, instead it stays by the Rangers side offering defensive skills/abilities, like reflections or screens, etc.

And if having a set of skills per pet is too much, they can do it for a per pet classification example, cats, ursine, birds etc.

It would breathe new life into the ranger class.

Bran.7425:

You aren’t suppose to talk about that….

:P

Sorry could not help myself.

Lol, I knew someone was going to say it.

I’m seeing this aspect idea being thrown around a lot and am wondering why people are so focused on stowing their pet just to gain a small buff instead of spearheading a solution for when the pet is out. Well, this morning I started studying this ‘Aspect of’ idea a little more and after reading this:

The Ranger is a resilient profession that excels at skirmishing by drawing from nature to support themselves as well as their allies.

I thought to myself, why couldn’t the Aspect of idea be implemented while the pet is active? Not only that, but share the boon/buff/nature support to their allies. The class description has the idea in it. “drawing from nature to support themselves as well as their allies”.

So basically the Aspect of idea but applied when the pet is out, rather than stowed.

You can read about the original aspect idea is here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Aspect-of-the-Pet/3695827

I know there are a lot of Roamers out there that love to 1vs1 with their Rangers. As do I. So I joined Fight Club{FC}. It’s a huge growing community with nightly duels going on in the 1vs1 Silver FC server and some nights we do the 2vs2 Silver matches. It’s simply a no pressure duel system. You go until you are stomped. Once dead, you leave the match and anyone is welcome to jump in. Also, there are build restrictions and rules associated per server, so you won’t be fighting any cheese builds, PU Mesmer, Shout Healing Warriors, Thieves DS, etc. Because of these rules, I was a little reluctant to duel without using a Cleric’s or Settler’s Amulet, but after an hour or so trying to make a build that would work for 1vs1 against these pro players I found one.

Anyways, another reason I posted this is because I haven’t seen very many Rangers in the guild. Theirs Tany, Stunningstylez and one more, cant remember his name. Now there may be more but I have only seen those 3. It would be nice to see a few more familiar faces. Plus, you won’t have to deal with any trolls interrupting your duels. You can also Rep your normal guild, you just need to Rep FC before entering any of the duel servers, once inside you can go back to repping your normal guild.

Whisper me or send an in game mail to: ItIsFinished.9462 for an invite. I look forward to seeing more Rangers join FC.

First things first, we need to fix the current problems before we implement a new feature. Because, this idea is simply a new feature. Nothing more.

Why can’t the Rangers do adequate AOE damage in WvW zergs like other classes? Why can’t Rangers have ‘escape-ability" like most other classes(without being limited to the same weapon-set)? Why can’t Rangers offer group buffs or reflection type ability’s like most other classes can? We don’t offer much and that needs to change….not perma stow our pet. I don’t want a small 6 man group to focus me so I can survive 3% longer because of my Aspect of Bear buff….zzzzzzz.

By stowing our pet and gaining a buff/boon etc does nothing for the broken mechanics the Ranger has. Every class has it’s unique aspect that makes them desirable across all forms of game play, PvE, WvW etc. We simply only excel at 1vs1 skirmishes, and that’s only with a few select builds.

Please stop trying to push this idea. I don’t want to perma stow my pet for an extra “5s bleed”, I can do that with a Sigil!!! Smh…

• I want the ability to hide from a 6 man group, to give me a chance of escaping if i decide to not engage.
• I want to be able to port to my pet during a skirmish, or even switch places with me pet. An evasive switch.
• I want to set a trap, have it lockdown my opponent/opponents and have my Drake use his blast finisher on command.
• I want my Drake to breath out a pink laser and petrify enemies, so I can drop a Bonfire on their kitten.
• I want to shoot my bow into the air and drop flaming arrows on my enemies.
• I want the ability to charge up an arrow that does an insane amount of damage, but at the cost of channel time etc.
• I want my Axe to explode and cause AOE torment!
• I want to hop on my eagle and rain arrows down from above…..haha, just kidding. Well kind of kidding. Other classes would be able to ‘snatch’ us off our eagle…..Scorpion Wire, Necro and Warrior Fear Me….

I don’t want to perma-stow my pet…

Allie Murdock.8152:

To those asking how far we would redesign – I can’t really comment on this specifically, but I can say that you should share your ideas because sometimes they inspire things to happen. Does that make sense?

ItIsFinished.9462:

ItIsFinished.9462:

Elementalist: Ability to change Attunements.
Engineer: Wide array of kits and additional abilities dependent on equipped slots skills.
Necromancer: Death Shroud and Spectral Walk
Guardian: Virtues.
Thief: Steal/Initiative and most access to stealth.
Warrior: Adrenaline/Burst
Mesmer: Clones and Shatter abilities.
Ranger: Pets…

This is what makes the classes Unique.

But the funny thing is, every class can have a pet…..via racial skills but at the same time, they won’t suffer a damage loss for having a companion..go figure. They are on par with the rangers pets, especially if the rangers pet dies and is on a 1 min cooldown which is close to most racial elites….

I’m quoting myself because I brought this up a long time ago and it is still relevant. Us Rangers have a broken mechanic.

We need to have the ability to use ALL the pets skills on demand. Also, since we are a jack of all trades, we need to make the pets ability’s on par with the other classes.

What I mean is take thief for example, their class mechanic is stealth and mobility. Why not make a series of pets that offer/have access to stealth and mobility skills…just on a smaller scale. Or Mesmer, their mechanic is clones, can we have some pets that offer clone type abilities? Take Engineer, their class mechanic is kits. Lets make the Ursine pets dig up Ascalonian Rifles or Charr mines, allowing us to use a new weapon for a short period of time during combat. These suggestions are simply allowing the ranger to have a “unique” class mechanic.

After all, we are a “jack of all trades” kind of class, right?

I really hope you read this. I think it’s important to note that ALL CLASSES have access to pets. Whether it be racial elites, armor rune sets(ogre), or other various ways. BUT without the penalty of damage reduction like Rangers.

Our pets need more skills, more control, better AI and my suggestion above.

Specific Game Mode
All Modes
Proposal Overview
Master’s Bond needs to stack like weapon Sigils and stay on when you swap pets or go into water. The only time it should be removed is if the Ranger is downed, or the pet is downed.

Goal of Proposal
Makes it a useful skill.

Proposal Functionality
Right now it disappears when you swap your pet which goes against 95% of the Rangers traits like Zephyr’s Speed, Mighty Swap, Loud Whistle and Vigorous Renewal.

Associated Risks
A stronger pet.

Specific Game Mode
WvW – But this will work in all game modes.

Proposal Overview
Main hand axe skill 1 through 3 redone.

Goal of Proposal
Make it more viable in PvP/WvW

Proposal Functionality
Right now auto attack only benefits if there’s two or more targets. I think that the Axe should work like this:

• Skill #1: Triple Threat – Auto chain has 3 different axe throws. 1st throw does X amount of damage, 2nd throw does 30% more damage than the 1st throw and third throw causes the axe to shatter on target causing AOE torment damage. Maybe a trait can modify or add a boon on third throw as well.
• Skill #2: Chill Blade – Throws an axe at a target causing X amount of damage that can bounce up to 2 more times causing 1.5 seconds of chill per bounce.
• Skill #3: Severed Blades – Spin ferociously while throwing axes in a 360 degrees causing X amount of damage and crippling enemies for 3 seconds per hit.

Associated Risks
None that I can think of.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Collaborative-Development-Ranger-Profession/3682537

Heimdallr.7021:

Hi all,
I just want to know if i’m wasting my time testing other builds, i left the game for some time and i don’t know what changes underwent this class.

Thanks

No, you are not wasting your time trying other builds. There are a number of builds that people have discovered and use on a regular basis with great success. I would say about 60% of Spirit Rangers I see in tPvP are the typical S/D – SB Spirit Ranger that stand on a point and use SB auto…they don’t move/dodge. Just stand there. Spirit Ranger is easy mode, kind of like MM necros. Now, the other 40% of Spirit Rangers have skill and dodge properly, know how to alternate there skills and are that much better.

I would suggest starting with might stacking traits on the Ranger along with boon duration increased runes. It is possible to have a steady 13-17 stacks of constant might with the Ranger, I would suggest starting there for your testing.

Also, when you start playing people who are on the top 25 leaderboard, you will see a few Rangers that don’t use the typical Spirit build.