Guild Wars 2

Yes, most newly categorized skills aren’t working; Healing Spring doesnt work with Rune of Trapper, new shouts don’t work with Of the Trooper/Soldier (same for Warior Shout and Guardian Shouts)

Also the skill description doesn’t update yet when traited

I’ll edit that got confused with Skirmishing Minors. Replaced with GS effect

In PvP, when I don’t run Condi, I run GS/Sword Axe with Valkyrie and of Rage (or Wurm) Edit: Mentionned Build Here *Note that in this calculator, it’s not the updated Valkyrie Stats, so the overall stats are off.

We Heal as One

Either Sic Em or Signet of the Hunt
Lightning Reflexes
Quickening Zephyr

Strength of the Pack

GS – Sigil of Battle + Sigil of Intelligence
Sword/Axe – Sigil of Battle + Sigil of Fire

Pets: Dual Birds – HIGH burst and chill + blind are nice utilities. WIth Sic ’em, omnomnom

Marksmanship 3/3/2
Wilderness Survival 2/3/2
Beastmastery 3/2/2

Shouts grant regen and more swiftness, you get a LOT of fury (when entering combat, on pet swap, chance on GS hit (10s CD, 50% chance to proc for 3s), on Survival SKill use, on Elite skill use 4 times)

REMEMBER TO STOW PETS.
Once you enter combat, with Clarion Bond and Zephyr’s Speed you gain 4 might, quickness, swift and fury when you enter combat; so you gain 2 opening strikes. AND Zephyr’s Speed has no CD so you can swap right away for more quickness and might.

You also have a lot of evade and can put distance really fast (GS ³, Sword ²+², Lightning Reflexes, and now Super Speed from Quickening Zephyr, and mix that with Owl’s Chill + some shout’s Swiftness)

Healing Spring needs a lot of tweaking;
FIRST – It needs a trigger criteria.
Triggering whenever an ally steps on it is a huge waste… Make it trigger when ally has like 90% health or lower, but not at 100% health please.

Also, the burst heal being applied on trap arming is kinda weird, I’d hoped for a heal when the trap is triggered; played in Courtyard and prepared the HS in the back and was unpleasantly surprised it only applied regen and no burst heal.

I wonder how it’d fare if instead of regen, it was pulsing heals once its triggered? every second for 10s heals for 320 health or something, and last pulse giving 5s regen or something. Something something.

I DO love the sound effect and graphical effect ahahaha

Also yeah, please fix all skill categories and rune bugs (Shouts, Traps, etc etc, not just rangers but warrior shouts and guard shouts)

5 bleeds on a kitten CD is not too strong, but traited it can be viable. I mean it’s a master line afterall

Greatsword. Just… Greatsword. Evade on auto. Hell yeah. no need for precision anymore ahaha (PLUS trait grants fury with gs hits)

Maybe for balancing issues a CD should be implemented, a short one, 5-7s or else its almost perma 25 stacks of vuln

It could be overall condi damage reduction and/or duration, like the ‘Purging Flame’ effect (Condition duration is reduced by 33%.)

15% condi dmg reduced and 20% condi duration reduced

You’ll really want to stand on your traps

OS Refresh on Evade is a really nice suggestion; not too spammy and not too easily accessed – With now lower endurance regen and the fact you have to successfully evade, it could totally work

Yeah in terms of mechanics they’re very similar to Thief Venoms, but they were mostly limited to bows IIRC

I find ‘Sharpening Stone’ to be very preparation-ish, it causes its to have additionnal effect (much like venoms)

Yeah Minor traits should be

Minor Adept >> Player and Pet get Opening Strike
Minor Master >> Opening Strike is 100% Crit
Minor Grand Master >> An affect that refreshes it (On stun? On kill? Every 20s?)

and then you also have other Major Traits to refresh it or add other effects

It lasts 10s and the boons ‘pulse’ once on activation and then every 3s, you gain 4 pulses

Resistance on laying or when you stand on a trap you have like 50% damage reduction AGAINST that condition;
Standing on Viper’s nest poison is 50% less effective on you etc etc

‘Preparations’ would be interesting to re-add to rangers in GW2 as they were a skill type in GW1, maybe as a future specialisation, really. I love your suggestions but that would be almost an entire rework (but would be really interesting)

Opening strike by itself is perfect, 10 vuln + 100% crit; you don’t need to invest in PRECISION and still get solid damage output.

What I reaaaally want is getting it refreshed from Signet of the Hunt, either as a direct effect, or through Fury (Signet of Stone Active granting 8s of Fury would be super duper)

Edit: ANd like LughLongArm, I really hope they bring back the opening strike refresh on signet use. After all, traited, we get 24s, 48s, 48s and 64s CDs and as all signets, we sacrifice our signet’s passive (and active really)

Also the Storm Spirit Daze doesn’t even affect PVE mobs. The ‘Daze’ icon is there but they still attack and move…

Problem with making them a kit is then it’d get a bit too powerful at that point.

They should just rework the CDs and tweak the numbers and add something with player conditions (condition transfer to foe on trap trigger) and I’d be happy. Because they do feel lackluster and unbalanced.

They could rework the damage values, make them condi bombs:
Huge condi burst at trigger and then a lasting damaging AoE: In my head traps are like ‘holy crap I gotta quickly move from here’ type of things

Vipers >> 3 stacks of poison for 2.5s on trigger + 1 poison (and/or torment) for 3s per pulse (every 1.5s for 4s)

Flame >> 3 stacks of burning for 2.5s on trigger + 1 burning for 3s per pulse (every 1.5s for 4s)

Frost >> 5 stacks of vuln on trigger for 8s and 3s chill + chill for 2s every pulse (every 1.5s for 4s) or 4s Chill on trigger + chill and weak or vuln pulse

Spike >> 5 stacks of bleed for 4s on trigger + 2 bleeds for 2s per pulse (every 1.5s for 4s)

Traps become ‘condition bombs’: High Stacks on Trigger with Low Duration, but they also pulse Longer Lasting conditions on lower stacks. So it hurts a lot if you simply trigger it and dodge away, and hurts a lot more if you can’t escape.

Rangers are forced to use a specific trait line for condition management, don’t really like it. And SoR depends on pet’s life and Range, so its really not efficient. Warrior’s Condition Signet is 12 conditions cleared.

They should change either SoR or EB so that some of the condi if not all are transfered to pet, but then CONVERTED to Boons. How good is a pet when it’s always dead.

Signet of Renewal

Passive : Cleanse a condition every 10s (both player and pet)
Active : Pull all conditions from Player (remove the ‘from allies’ concept and the range) and convert them to Boons

Alternatively, instead of converting to boons, pet could get resistance.

Empathic Bond could also have reworked mechanics (…and a different line than WS, maybe Nature Magic)
Pull and convert a single condition every 4s (that would be the equivalent of 3 condition cleanse every 12s) or again, something with resistance, ‘Pet gains 3s of Resistance every 10s’ (sync’d with the condi pull)

With all the horrible condition management, or more specifically how TIED to traits condi management is, I’d thought I’d see a ‘cleanse condition on pet F2’ trait… Which brings me to…

Invigorating Bond
Your pet’s Command skill (F2) also heals allies in an area around them and removes 1 condition. This trait has a 20-second internal cooldown. (or again… Something with resistance.)

Most Rangers agree Traps need some improvement.
Making them a kit kinda sound weird though, even if its just in terms of mechanics.

I’ll just throw a bunch of suggestions because I’m tired of how rangers are ‘reworked’ and just in need of sleep overall.

What if…

…Traited Traps could transfer a condition from player to a foe? That would add some interesting utility. Especially since rangers HAVE TO INVEST in a SINGLE trait line for condi management. One condition per trigger per trap.

…The trap trait would add a specific condition to traps (and boon to healing spring), not just ‘cripple’ to all of them?

• Frost >> Vuln or Weakness (or heck, slow)
• Fire >> Blind
• Viper’s >> Torment
• Spike >> Immob
• Healing Spring >> Vigor (remember the old Vigorous Renewal trait) or Resistance

…The trap’s CD would get reduced by a % if said trap is triggered while the CD is in effect? Or maybe it could be a flat amount in seconds. kitten Spike Trap, what the f-hawk

Traps and Spirits. Man I miss them.

Sound travels 4.3 times faster underwater, you’d simply hear additionnal gurgling noises.
‘Feelblb Myblb Wrathblbl!’

My dream Signet of Courage would be

Signet of Courage

• 150s CD (untraited)
• 2s Cast time
• Passive: Periodically heal allies in the area around you while in combat.
• Active: Fully heal nearby allies.
• Active Heal: 100%
• Passive Heal: 404
• Number of Targets: 5
• Healing Interval: 5 s
• Passive Radius: 320
• Active Radius: 1,200
  (remove the Combat Only criteria)

Basically you half the passive pulse duration and the base healing value, reduce the cast time to 2s and the CD (untraited) to 150s, which becomes 120s traited. SLIGHTLY augment the passive radius and remove the ‘In Combat Only’ criteria.

30s 5 Stacks of Might with Jungle Stalker and
20s Fury with Red Moa

Yeah still optimal pets for Dungeons. I reaaaally love that now the pet boon durration isn’t active only when In Combat

Hidden barbs should stay 20% BUT also gain the old Keen Edge effect

This trait sounded really interesting but it got changed before being officially implemented.

What was initially proposed was

Hidden Barbs

• Bleeding you cause deals 33% more damage

and it’s currently standing in the Skirmishing Category.
It’s in the master line, competing with Spotter and Strider’s Defense, 2 very interesting and powerful traits.

What we got is a change from 33% bleed damage to 20%, which is underwhelming;
Bringing the damage modifier back to 33% could be very interesting, but another thread mentionned the absence of the old trait Keen Edge, now removed.

My suggestion would be to change the trait to

Hidden Barbs

• Bleeding you cause deal 20% more damage
• Cast ‘Sharpening Stone’ when your target reaches 75% health (45s CD, traitable with Wilderness Knowledge)

Basically a mix of current Hidden Barbs and old Keen Edge, The trait has synergy with itself, and has synergy with bleeds in general. And it’d also be traitable with Wilderness Knowledge, gaining a lower CD time and condition cleanse + fury on trigger.

With such changes, it’d be a very strong contender for Skirmishing line’s Master Traits.

New Suggestion:
Add the old ‘Keen Edge’ effect to the new skirmishing trait ‘Hidden Barbs’! It’s already bleed related (20% bleed damage, was initially proposed as 33% and got nerfed) but its a bit underwhelming as it as as a master tier; adding ‘Keen Edge’ to it could make it more interesting

Of course keen edge still traitable with Wilderness Knowledge, they’re 2 different spec lines.

Old Hidden Barbs

• Bleeds are 20% more potent

New Hidden Barbs

• Bleeds are 25% more potent
• Cast Sharpening Stone when your target reaches 75% health (45s CD, traitable with Wilderness Knowledge)

I mean with the condi changes and all, Sharpening Stone is pretty weak for a trait that has a kitten cooldown with a 7s bleed effect. It’s mechanic is similar to thief Venoms and those can be majorly traited and offer 2 effects instead of 1.

They should bring back the concept of fusing ‘Keen Edge’ with ‘Wilderness Knowledge’ like they proposed in the first livestream of the new trait system. What was proposed then was
Wilderness Knowledge

• Gain Fury on Survival Skill use
• Remove 2 conditions on Survival Skill use
• Survival Skills have 20% cooldown reduction
• Cast ‘Sharpening Stone’ when foe reaches 75% health

Now that’s a nice grandmaster.
In comparison, Warriors get an Adept Tier trait about signets that add the Signet reduction effect, a stacking precision effect, and a ‘free’ ‘Cast Signet of Power when target hits 50% health’ effect (next attacks unblockable for 6s) and that’s just an ADEPT tier.

Also, I really hoped to get the ‘Refresh Opening Strike on Signet use’ effect for the Signet trait on ranger. I understand we get a revised Remorseless but yeah… Would’ve been delicious. (Or maybe just add kitten fury on signet of the hunt heheheh I really want Signet of the Hunt to refresh Opening Strike for some nice bursts)

Healing Spring is currently bugged when used with Rune of the Trapper, hope for a quick fix.

Light on your Feet is potentially good, but the 4s duration is way too low. Maybe 6-10s, since they nerfed endurance regen too. The proposed effect in previous stream was a ‘permanent’ +10% dmg and condi duration while moving, which would’ve been really interesting.

The ranger Shortbow is still pretty much underwhelming. It has alright utilities I guess, but as far as damage is concerned, not exactly worth it.

Concussion Shot could apply 2 stacks of 3s confusion on top of its daze/stun effect, low tick damage but if the foe cleanses the stun/daze or is running stability, it could add a little more condition damage
Quick Shot could grant 3s of Super Speed instead of Swiftness to put emphasis on an evading/escaping skill, or maybe add some condition to target
Crossfire (the auto attack) is kinda weak, bleed on auto from anywhere for 2s and torment for 1s from side or back could be interesting to really make the shortbow a solid Condition Weapon

Deadly in WvW and PvP, obviously

Great synergy with Remorseless as Opening Strike is used but the in-combat with Clarion Bond grants Fury and instantly refreshes Opening Strike

With Windborne Notes its also Regen at start of combat

It seems Quickening Zephyr has no ICD so once you enter combat you can swap pet for a total of

6s Quickness
and 6 stacks of might

I think it’s fine as it is right now; Remember we get a Burst heal + 10s base Regen on 16s CD with traited ‘We Heal as One’

Still, if they revert back to how it was, that 59 health per second (177/3s) is a nice little bonus, especially considering it’s in the master tier.

Yeah Fury for Frost was my original suggestion, would have excellent synergy with ‘Remorseless’ as well.

Huge Tip:
Just like before, if you stow a pet and you enter combat, it’ll count as a Pet Activation/Pet Swap

Considering the nice amount of ‘on pet-swap/activation’ traits, you’ll DEFINITELY want to stow pets whenever you can.

For example, having Clarion Bond and Zephyr’s SPeed equipped, you’ll get

• 4 stacks of Might
• Fury
• Swiftness
• Quickness

Whenever you enter combat.

Remorseless

Fury on traited Wep Swap
Fury on traited GS use
Fury on 3s interval with SotP (and ON activation)
Fury on Dodge (with Rune of Evasion)
Fury on pet swap with the pet swap Call of the Wild trait
Fury on Call of the Wild
Fury on traited Survival Skill use
Fury on Red Moa F2

…I’m sure I’m missing some AHAHAHA
(I want fury on ‘Signet of the Hunt’ active just for that trait hehe)

The Rampage as One/Strength of the Pack effect lasted 10s in the stream, but it did look like some boons were refreshed on a 2s interval instead of 3s, we’ll see tomorrow.

But traited to 48s with Runes of Lyssa like someone suggested can be extremely interesting

EDIT: Fury was applied on SHOUT CAST and then 3 more times… so it really is every 3s for 3s + On SHOUT Cast

Sorry totally confused ’Guard’’s Protection on Pet effect and ‘Protect Me’, absolutely different shouts AHAHA

Most Dangerous Game was initially 3 stacks of might every 3s for a duration of 6s,
It is now 1 stack of might for 8s every second

Light on your Feet I believe it stacks in duration, but not entirely sure

Protect Me should also get the ‘Bark Skin’ effect as long as criteria is met as it transfer direct damage to pet (equivalent to getting hit really)

Natural Regeneration – nothing was mentionned about healing the player too, then again, same for the old trait and it did affect ranger every 3s, we’ll see

Beastly Warden – The taunt is INSTANT (ON F2) so what happened is foes were first forced towards the wolf, and then the Fear kicked in and ‘overwrote’ the taunt/taunt expired. ‘Terrifying Owl’ has a 1.50s cast time, during that cast time the taunt is already in effect.

Beastly Warden on Clones – Can’t remember if clones are affected by CC skills, if they do, act the same as foes; they’ll head towards source of Taunt.

Yeah I really hope they tweak the boon’s durations…

• Regen should be 3s (perma regen, look at traited Warrior Banners)

• Might should be 3s ( perma 1 stack with base boon duration, I mean even 1 stack of might is kinda weak… Again, look at Warrior Banners, the Banner of strength is 170 power and 170 condi damage, equivalent to 5 stacks of might. Also, move this boon to Sun Spirit to fit thematically)

• Vigor should be 2s (And please give it to frost spirit)

• Swiftness should be changed to 1s Quickness on a 4s interval OR changed to Fury, 1s every 3s interval

• Stability should be 2s, as it is one stack OR 1s Resistance every 3s interval

So based on the livestreams today

Water Spirit >> Regen

Sun Spirit >> Vigor

Storm Spirit >> Swiftness

Frost Spirit >> Might

Stone Spirit >> Protection

Spirit of the Wild >> Stability

I really wasnt too far off, but I do believe they should switch Sun and Frost spirit around, so it can thematically fit.

Also proc’ing the same boons as their passive effect is a but redundant, didn’t see if the passive changed. Also the streams showed 20s CD instead of 30s, is that final? It’d be great!

I understand why they decided against the On Signet Use OS Refresh, but man, I thought it was perfect. In my opinion, they could’ve put both the signet trait and the remorseless trait on the same Grandmaster tier (and switch the LB to master). You’d choose between either OS Refresh on Fury+25% more damage OR all the signet traits and OS Refresh on Signet Use (totally a GM tier trait me thinks) for more ‘build variety’ I guess.

Alternatively… Add a short ‘Fury’ effect on Signet of the Hunt active Perfect synergy with remorseless and a bit more utility on the Signet of the Hunt

Arming Time

It means you deploy one, and it takes 0.5s until the trap be ready to get triggered. In the once you deploy it, you’re free to do wht you please but the trap itself won’t trigger until it’s armed

Traps are no longer throwable

They were similar to engie Nades, and I have to say I kinda liked that really. Since there’s 3 professions (that we know as of now) that use traps, it wouldn’t be too fair to have one that has the ability to throw them, even at the cost of a trait. I both like and dislike the changes they’re bringing to ranger traps, but still feel they could get something more.

’Let’s not make spirits move and suck but not move and not suck’

or something like that… They got nerfed more than anything (overall)

Con’t

Finally, since the Spirits now die on active skill use, they could get tweaked on their ‘On Active’ effects, especially with the 30s cooldown (unless it is changed to a reasonable 25s)

An interesting concept could be to add a COMBO FIELD with a limited radius (200-240) at the spirit. Here we go.

SPIRITS AND THEIR ACTIVE EFFECT

• Water Spirit
  On Active: Player Heal + Burst AoE Heal (Keep it as it is now)
  Possible Field: Water 2s
  Reasoning: The active only needs some tweaks on its healing values since it can’t be casted more than one now, but the removal of the cast time is greatly appreciated. The water field is a no brainer

• Frost Spirit
  On Active: AoE Chill 3s (as it is)
  Possible Field: Ice for 2s
  Reasoning: Well balanced, the field fits with theme

• Stone Spirit
  On Active: AoE Cripple + Immob (as it is)
  Possible Field: N/A unless aNet introduces a new ‘earth field’ that is about bleeding (projectile/bolt) and protection (leap/blast)
  Reasoning: There aren’t any fields thematically fitting with it

• Storm Spirit
  On Active: AoE Thunderstorm + AoE daze (as it will be, thanks for the new ‘daze’ effect)
  Possible Field: Lightning Field for 2s
  Reasoning: Theme theme theme.

• Sun Spirit
  On Active: AoE Blind + Burn (as it will be, thanks for the new ‘burn’ effect)
  Possible Field: Fire Field for 2s
  Reasoning: Come’on… You know why…

• Spirit of Nature
  On Active: AoE revive + AoE condition cleanse (as it currently is, omnomnom)
  Possible Field: Light Field
  Reasoning: Light is about damage mitigation/condition management, as the Spirit of Nature is

Now, if they DO add combo fields, the 30s CD would be justified, as the utilities and effects would be absolutely

worth it. Combo Fields adds a lot of support, and as the spirits are supposed to be the support skills, it’s only fitting.

ArenaNet, I love the ranger spirits. But with the upcoming changes, I can’t exactly see how they’re worth using a skill spot on my skill bar.

Engineers have Turrets which have fields, varied traits, 2 ‘active’ skills ( skill bar + toolbelt)
Warriors have Banners which are indestructable bundles that can also be traited for boons (and offer excellent team support)
Rangers need something that’s a mix of both. Something that won’t die instantly (immobile on AoE = Super Quick Death) and offer something actually useful in relation to the effect and cooldown

Thanks for your time!

Con’t

The next concept is the more ‘offensive’ aspect of the spirits. While the previous suggestions were about the

Team/support aspect, this section is about the offensive aspect of the spirits.

This section will suggest changes to ‘On Hit’ Passive effects

SPIRITS AND THEIR ‘ON HIT’ EFFECTS

• Water Spirit
  On Hit: Heal
  Reasoning: Fits perfectly with the spirit’s theme/fine as it is

• Frost Spirit
  On Hit: either keep the current 10% dmg bonus, or change it to 2 stacks of vulnerability for 3-5s. In group, that can go up to 10%+ which is almost similar to the actual effect
  Reasoning: This spirit’s theme seems to be related to damage and/or making the enemy vulnerable

• Stone Spirit
  On Hit: either keep the current ‘Gain Protection’ effect or change it to 2 stacks of bleeds for 2-3s
  Reasoning: Similar to the previous spirit, if the protection boon aspect is changed, bleeds are often linked to earth/stones

• Storm Spirit
  On Hit: either change the swiftness effect to Quickness (and suggested boon on trait to swiftness) or apply 1-2s of weakness
  Reasoning: Seems to be on the defensive theme; one of the only reason to gain swiftness when in combat is to ‘evade’ the combat. Weakness on a foe is somewhat of a ‘defensive’ condition as the incoming damage is lowered.

• Sun Spirit
  On Hit: Perfect as it is (Burn on Hit)
  Reasoning: Perfect as it is and thematically fits

• Spirit of Nature
  On Hit: Grant a random damaging condition for 2-3s (Bleed, Burn, Poison) – I don’t feel this spirit absolutely needs an On Hit Passive effect as it is already PRETTY powerful. Heal ticks per seconds + condi cleanse + revive + suggested boons when traited make it very solid. Then again, the new ‘dies on active’ mechanics to spirits slightly nerfs this elite spirit.
  Reasoning: This spirit seems to be linked to conditions, so an offensive equivalent sounds fitting

To be Con’t

In a previous skill and traits change livestream, you guys mentionned ‘Not making them mobile but bad but make them static and good’ (or something along those lines)

Some changes, both core and traited are potentially interesting, but spirits as announced still don’t offer anything interesting enough to be part of most ranger’s skillbar.

The first pretty heavy nerf is the new cooldown: going from 20s to 30s (and untraitable)

That’s a 50% increase in CD, which is ENORMOUS. I know CD is always part of balance against the skill’s utility/effect, but at 30s CD, it’s just too high. 25s sounds reasonable OR spirits could have ‘unique’ CDs, then again all depends on how they’re tweaked.

Now on the rework, I really appreciate the boons granted by spirits when traited. I believe it was suggested a few times and it has enormous potential. The problem is, 1s boon on a 3s interval is not the best idea if it’s the same for ALL spirits.

I understand (and I hope) boons vary from spirit to another, and I believe the boon duration should vary from boon to boon. Here are a few suggestions about the boons, the spirits and the durations:

SPIRITS AND THEIR BOON (when traited)

• Water Spirit
  Boon: Regeneration
  Duration: 2s on 3s interval
  Reasoning: All about healing/life sustain. Downside is that paired with Spirit of Nature, the ‘healing/regeneration’ concept can get redundant. Or not.

• Frost Spirit
  Boon: Fury
  Duration: 1.5s on 3s interval
  Reasoning: Frost spirit seems to be about damage, and while might fits more with Sun, fury is another damage-related boon

• Stone Spirit
  Boon: Stability
  Duration: 1s on 3s Interval
  Reasoning: The ‘on hit’ passive effect is already protection, so it would’ve been redundant. Another concept would be to change the ‘on hit’ passive to a condition applying effect, such as 2 stacks of bleeds for 3s on target, and make the boon Protection for 1 every 3s

• Storm Spirit
  Boon: Quickness or Swiftness
  Duration 1s every 3s or 3s every 3
  Reasoning: Lightning is quick and deadly. Now the swiftness on hit passive effect is near useless in combat situation. The on hit effect could be switched to a condition applying effect, such as 2 stacks of vuln for 3s, and the boon effect could be quickness for more offense and utility or swiftness (to fit themativally)

• Sun Spirit
  Boon: Might
  Duration: 3s every 3s
  Reasoning: It’s pretty much a no brainer, as might is often associated with fire/sun. Also the duration would grant might for the duration of the spirit/when in range, which adds a bit more utility than 1s of might every 3s…

• Spirit of Nature
  Boon: Resistance or Stability
  Duration: 1.5s every 3s (for either boon suggestion)
  Reasoning: *IF Stone Spirit gets the protection boon (and new bleed condition as on hit passive effect) Stability is a good boon for this elite spirit, in theme with the Signet of the Wild which also grants stability. Alternatively, the new Resistance boon could be extremely interesting with this spirit, as it’s an alternate life sustain boon, and is thematically linked with the active effect of the spirit which removes conditions.

(to be con’t)

It’ll gain its ‘Stalk’ effect (unbreakable stealth)

and the enemy will walk towards something it can’t see >:D

I want a full shout squad. Oh boy.

Shoutbow Ranger
Shoutbow Warrior
Shoutbow Guardian
Shoutgreatsword Necro

Man shoutbows EVERYWHERE

Alternatively,

Shoutgreatsword Ranger
Shoutgreatsword Warrior
Shoutgreatsword Guardian
Shoutgreatsword Necro

Clarification:

The Rune of the Trooper affects Self and Allies No Matter The Nature/Effect of Shout Used.

That means ANY shout will trigger the Rune’s 6th Bonus, even if the shout itself affects allies or self only or pet only etc etc

Double confirmation from wiki: ’ The sixth bonus activates on any shout and applies to nearby allies, regardless of who is affected by the shout, e.g. “On My Mark!” triggers the condition removal for party members even though it targets a foe. ’

Will traps now trigger on downed enemies?
Excuse me if it has been answered already, I may be partially blind, deaf, mute and hungry.

I’ve been testing Zerk Shouts with Rune of the Trooper in WvW last few days with Longbow and Sword/Warhorn (warhorn with healing spring for Blast on Water and Sword with Leap on Water, planning on using Heal as One on final shout build) with current trait system, and it’s actually highly viable.

Running with a Bird (and of course a wolf) and against thieves, the ‘Sic ’Em!’ was a thief ender (thanks to the 6s revealed and Warhorn ’Hunter’s Call’ and LB ‘Rapid Fire’)

Also, ‘Protect Me!’ is an interesting alternative to ‘Signet of Stone’ as it has (traited) 48s CD, is a Stun Break and with rune of the trooper, it cleanses a condition.

Shoutbow Rangers on the rise

Oh and let’s not forget Rampage as One/‘Strength of the Pack’ becoming a shout too!

‘We Heal as One’
‘Guard’
‘Sic ’Em’
‘Protect Me’
‘Strength of the Pack’

With appropriate traits and runes, that’s

• Perma Swiftness
• Perma Regen
• Perma -5% Incoming Damage

• 6s Revealed and pet 40% Speed and Dmg every 32s
• 6s immunity to direct damage every 48s
• Stun Break every 48s
• Huge burst heal every 16s
• Stability, Fury, Might (on pet hit) for approx 20s every 96s

• Pet gains stealth for 10s every 12s
• Pet gains Protection for 10s every 12s

• 5 condition removal for self and allies under super low CD

Shield of Judgment

• Apply 4s of weakness to foes
• Apply 3 stacks of 5s vuln to burning foes
  or
• Destroy projectiles or deflect them

Shield of Absorption

• Remove 1 condition from you and allies on activation
  or
• Gain 2s of regen per projectiles absorbed or some other effect when absorbing projectiles

Elite Focus being baseline, I think it’s removed completely

No more tomes, doubt it’ll affect the new Signet and new Shout as they can both be traited with appropriate traits

and Renewed Focus is a meditation skill and can already be traited with Meditation Traits

And since it’s a trap, you can pop it, and while the trap is planted, the skill itself goes on CD, so you can pretty much double activate it

20s water field, HOLY SKRIIT!