Guild Wars 2

elprimo.4398:

tracking training: canines porcines and felines reveal stealth enemies for 10 seconds(90 seconds cd)

I actually had a similar thought about having a trait to reveal stealth. It would’ve been a bonus effect on Spotter (Marksmanship, master level) and it would’ve revealed foes in a small radius around the ranger. I decided to drop it as it seemed to provide too direct counter vs. thieves. It never occurred to me that it might have some usage on pets too. Nice suggestion in any case!

In my opinion, we simply need more control to unleash pet’s full effectiveness. This might increase class complexity a bit, but is required if we ever want to be a truly viable class focusing on a pet as our profession mechanic. Here’s few (most likely already mentioned) changes to current pet controls.

• F1 – Attack My Target. No changes.
• F2 – Pet specific skill. Responsiveness and reliability must be tweaked to meet player expectations.
• F3 – Pet family skill. Harmonic Cry for Moas, Tail Spin for Drakes etc…
• F4 – Pet Swap. No changes
• Unspecified – Pet Stance: Guard/Avoid Combat. Return to Me is merged to stances. Automatically changes to Guard when pet is told to attack, stays this way until pet is called back. Calls pet back to ranger with Avoid Combat.
• Unspecified – Stow/Activate Pet. No changes.

More dramatic alternative would be to get rid of Pet Swap mechanism and make Pet Stance F4, but that would require a complete overhaul to current system.

Nice to see some criticism (not sure if this is directed towards my suggestions or current ranger traits, though). I like it.

Updated my dream traits (maybe one last time considering the lack of feedback) in an attempt to hone them to perfection. Here’s a short list of what was changed:

• Grandmaster Trait from marksmanship Remorseless was moved to Master level minor trait replacing Alpha Training and had it’s effect reverted back to original. Grandmaster trait that only affects minor trait’s cooldown?! That doesn’t feel right. Basically this trait was forcing people to spend 30 points to Marksmanship to get ANY reward from tree’s minor traits.
• Opening Strike had it’s vulnerability duration increased to 10 seconds to reflect the missing stacks from Alpha Training.
• Added a new Grandmaster Trait to Marksmanship: Splinter Weapon. Ranger’s lack of AoE damage (apart from traps) is often cried on forums and is one of the very reasons why ranger is left out of dungeon groups. So I took maybe THE most iconic skill from ranger AoE spike from GW1 (barrage+splinter weapon=big numbers) and transformed it into a new Grandmaster trait to Marksmanship.
• Trapper’s Expertise and Trap Potency was moved to Wilderness Survival tree. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. So i moved them.
• Offhand Training was moved to Skirmishing to fill the space Trapper’s Expertise left. Basically this could’ve been any of the WS Master level traits.
• New Grandmaster Trait was added to Skirmishing: Cleansing Accuracy. This is basically Emphatic Bond reworked to proc on critical hits instead of proccing on a 10s timer.
• tinkered with some of the cooldowns/alternatives.
• now removed GM trait suggestion to WS for those interested. Dryder’s Defense: Apply 5 seconds of stability and protection to you and your nearby allies when you use a stun break. You take 50% less damage while stunned.

That’s about it. More updates might come if I still feel like theorycrafting. you may leave your feedback or ideas of ranger traits if you dare!

Changed the thread’s title to open up more discussion and to collect ranger trait suggestions under one title. And to celebrate 1500 viewers on this thread! Thanks a lot guys!

Nice to see ranger suggestions still alive and kicking.

Just wanted to make a quick announcement for anyone that became even remotely interested in theorizing new and/or improved ranger traits. I’ve been updating my own Dream Traits here at the ranger forums little by little and having a lot of fun with it. So I’d like to encourage everyone to share your own “dream trait” suggestions either here at the suggestions section or feel free to post them in my Ranger Dream Traits thread behind the link above. I’d really like to see some discussion surfacing from the ranger community. If something doesn’t feel right… you should leave feedback!

I’ve made few changes and adjustments to my Dream Traits. Be sure to check them out and/or leave your own suggestions and feedback in the comments!

If someone happens to wonder what has changed here’s a short list:

• Alternative versions added to many of the trait suggestions.
• Alternative GM trait to WS: Dryder’s Defense was added in case we might get more active condition cleansing through weapon/utility skills or pets.
• Evasive Purity now removes 1 condition on a dodge roll. The old version (removes poison, blind etc.) would have been very powerful in some situations and very weak in others. So to make the trait more “safe” to pick I removed the type limitation. Now in combination with the current Emphatic Bond and Signet of renewal it would create some serious passive cleansing but future updates might change that. This trait should also include some sort of indicator when it’s off-cooldown in the UI, most likely in the dodge bar.
• Symbiosis was (forced) changed to convert conditions when using a heal skill to promote more of an active play instead of relying on passive condition cleansing. Self nerfing so to say. Something similiar should happen with Remorseless if I still feel like theorycrafting.

I really do wish to hear your versions of ranger traits so feel free to post them.

jcbroe.4329:

In a build with 0/0/30/30/0, I could trait Symbiotic Bond, Oakheart Salve, Empathic Bond, Nature’s Bounty, Evasive Purity, Symbiosis

Then I could take Signet of Renewal and Healing Spring, and if I wanted to go overboard, 6x Runes of Melandru.

Conditions literally would not be able to stick to that build long enough to do anything but tickle the ranger, and in a healing spec, rangers with the right weapon set (axe/dagger sword/torch and in pvp, shamans amulet) would also be able to take on burst specs with ease too.

It would make rangers easily the best bunker in the game, and the defense against conditions would just be too much, virtually eliminating any threat from a person running a condition build against you.

Perfect, just the kind of feedback I was hoping for. At this point I’d like to remind everyone that while I try to achieve some kind of “mock balance” with my dream traits, I’m still no balance team and OP combinations like this anti-condition-tank are bound to appear. Also numbers are evil, don’t trust them.

As I see it it’s more of a problem with Emphatic Bond providing such a powerful passive condition cleanse every 10 seconds. I actually hate traits like this that do something on a timer, encouraging more of a passive play instead of making traits proc when actually doing something (when using a heal skill, for example). This is why I’m forcing a maybe an unnessessary change here. Much to my embarrassment traits like these still appear in my dream setup due to my incompetence to actually make them work otherwise. And Emphatic Bond being such a popular trait, I’m little scared to completely revamp it.

So how about something like this: Emphatic Bond and Trap Potency trade places. Same thing would happen with Trapper’s Expertise and Offhand Training/Martial Mastery or other Master level WS trait. Traps being in the “wrong” tree is probably one of the most common complaints when it comes to ranger traits. After playing trapper for such a long time it didn’t really occur to me how wrong it felt back when I started playing ranger. This would fix the condition cleansing overload in defensive trees, while further providing some relief to crit-based-builds. It might also make traps OP but, as always, numbers can be tweaked. Is it right? Is it wrong? Feedback, my friends, feedback is the answer.

edit: Feedback and suggestions. Keep posting your dream traits!

Awesome to see more feedback appearing! I really appreciate it. And keep those suggestions rolling.

jcbroe.4329:

I like all of them, and in the context of the perceived power creep of the game, I don’t really think any of them are over the top except one:

Symbiosis.

Your effect is fine but that cooldown is much, much too short for its effect. It would essentially make Guardian shout builds obsolete if it wasn’t for the RNG nature, but every 5s for you AND allies is too much imo. It should be more like 15-20s, as to not break the game entirely. I agree that condis are strong, but passive mitigation on a large scale level isn’t the answer because damage and survival shouldn’t stalemate each other, damage has to eventually be able to win, so that people wanting to go full defensive still have to worry about killing other players or they will eventually lose the fight.

I totally see your points and I totally agree on them. I originally wanted Symbiosis to be something equally powerful compared to Emphatic Bond since so many of the current ranger builds rely heavily on it’s condition removal. Now in this “dream setup” Emphatic Bond is “nerfed” to remove only 2 conditions from you and your pet (why?!, because rangers should love their pets, not hate and torture them) thus making the Symbiosis strong in comparison. Especially strong considering the new suggested boonsharing mechanism. This could at least create some almost OP 0/0/30/30/0 bunkers (as no ranger could possibly be OP).

So maybe the ICD should go up or maybe the effect could be tied to “when using a heal skill” and increasing the amount of conditions converted to 2-3 making it something less rng based but still viable. This would make the first tick of Healing Spring act as a some sort of condition cleansing wave (from yourself) and maybe even Heal as One would become something more frequently used due it’s shorter cooldown. Making it work with proposed Circle of Life -trait, ressing might just become a pleasant experience. Or maybe it’s still, after all these complains and reasonings, perfectly fine as it is. You decide… with your feedback.

Good, good. Nice to see some suggestions appearing. Awesome job.

We need more ways to add retaliation and stack might on ourselves and allies.

Do away with any ‘on swap’ traits unless the benefit is directly related to that weapon or simply adds might or retaliation to self and allies.

Give might or retaliation for most trait benefits not, boon stripping, swiftness, vulnerablity, etc. and make it for self and allies.

This got me thinking what kind of boons would appropriate for ranger. Mightstacking would be very nice indeed (25 stacks of might is just INSANE damage) and I agree that there should be ways to achieve some nice sweet might stacks with relative ease. In general, however, I think these two boons are more appropriate to Heavy armor class professions.

I’d like to share few of my observations on ranger as a profession. I see ranger being more of a precision type of class, PvP ranger runes increase precision and crit dmg after all. This is why I’d like to see some vulnerability in the mix. This would also make fury an appropriate choice for boonsharing. Being medium armor class with adventurous feel stamped to it, I’d also include swiftness and vigor to shareable boons. One of rangers strengths has always been (prior to latest patch atleast) it’s fast access to quickness. I also try to boost quickness effects with my dream grandmaster trait Serpent’s Quickness. So quickness, eh…

And this leads me to improved version of Moment of Clarity grandmaster trait in Skrimishing tree!

Moment of Clarity: Gain an attack of opportunity for you and your pet on interrupting a foe. Interrupted skill is disabled for +5 seconds. You apply 1 second of quickness to nearby allies. (15 seconds cooldown)

I originally wanted to take ranger’s role as an interrupter in GW1 and bring it to GW2 aswell. After some further thinking, 5 second increased cooldown on interrupted skill would have very little to no effect in PvE environment. Combined with Serpent’s Quickness this new version would result in whooping 1,5 seconds of supporting quickness. Just to note that this quickness effect would ONLY affect allies and not the ranger itself. What do you think? Do you want to jump on the “OP train” or just silently express your agreement/disagreement or go “Best change ever!” with your fingers crossed behind your back? Please do leave your comments below and keep those “dream trait” suggestions rolling!

Edit: Added the new suggestion to OP. Old effect for those who are interested:
Moment of Clarity: Gain an attack of opportunity for you and your pet on interrupting a foe. Interrupted skill is disabled for +5 seconds. (5 seconds cooldown)

Feedback, my friends, feedback is what keeps me and the ranger “DREAM TRAITS” alive. So share your minds, fellow rangers. Keep those trait suggestions/trait discussion/whatever going!

Wholeheartedly agree on changing shortbow range back to 1200 (and increasing untraited longbow range to 1500). Sorry for the bit of a rant below.

This is the THIRD TIME I’m forced to adapt to out of the blue shortbow nerfs. First was the quite hefty damage nerf it received back in the early days of GW2. I recovered from that no problems since I always thought the damage was bit too much. “Balance update” I thought back then. The second was the infamous “animation fix”. This one really hurt since the difference in firing speed was something noticeable especially as it broke quickness at the same time (if I remember correctly). I cried some tears and bit my lip, but i survived. Number 2½ came in form of quickness nerf. This hit the shortbow’s burst capacity significantly but I recovered from that too since quickness was always considered something OP. I came pretty close to reroll at that time but I resisted the temptation. And now they are making me to face this range nerf, maybe the most significant of all the nerfs so far.

Not the most significant nerf in the terms of damage output or ranger effectiveness as a whole, but in something that changes the nature of the weapon so drastically. Because, really, bows are weapons that shoot targets at distance. Distance far greater you can throw your axe or torch with your bare hands. And the ranger is the master of that range. At this point someone is bound to remind that " aha, rangers are not archers and so you can’t have that long range you’re asking for". Don’t give me that. As long as there’s no profession called “Archer” in GW2, Ranger is the profession you turn towards when you’re looking for some bow&arrow action. Ranger fills that niche, it always has. In GW1 ranger’s only weapon of choice (defined by something you could call “traitlines”) was bow and accompanied with it, came pet (which no-one ever used). Together you formed something what was called Ranger.

Shortbow has always been my weapon of choice because it’s the 1 weapon that made me really feel like a ranger. But gradually with each nerf they’ve been taking the “fun” out of the weapon and at the same time out of the ranger class. And now, almost year in the game, they want to take that class defining range away from us (me)! This is borderline too much for my poor ranger to handle. No i won’t be rerolling for this but I won’t be spending much time on my ranger either, for sure. Hope they come to their senses and revert shortbow changes, asap. Please, Anet, please…

Please do share your own “dream traits” and/or offer some “constructive feedback” on given trait changes or current ranger traits in general. I’d also like to hear some opinions on what kind of mechanics you’d like to see ranger traits providing.

Raven.9603:

I love the spirit changes, especially your GM trait, though with their current health and the need to trait just for them to move with they are still terribad.

I do admit spirits need some tinkering with but I wouldn’t throw them away just yet. I’d like to see spirits providing more powerful passive and active effects while still being something you can kill if you focus on them. Their untraited survivability should go up however, especially in PvE scenarios. Maybe make them immune to AoE/cleave damage and increase their toughness little? That way you would have to directly target the spirit to get rid of it (which should happen rarely in PvE if done correctly). Oh and I still feel that they should be stationary when untraited.

Now that I have some time, I’d like to bring up few points about the choices i made.

• On a high level I tried to both separate and still at the same time tie together the two pieces that are the ranger and the pet. What this means is that strictly pet related traits such as Pet’s Prowess (which translates to Feral Aggression because GW1 > anything else) is put in the Beastmastery tree. At the same time pet related traits still exist outside Beastmastery but which work in synergy with the ranger providing different kinds of effects. This connects us nicely to the next topic that is…

• …Master’s Bond which now acts as a Minor Grandmaster Trait. With Master’s bond I try to further strengthen the synergy between ranger and the pet by allowing the pet to gain stat points from rangers traitlines. For example with the traitcomp 30/10/0/0/30 pet would gain 300 healing power, 300 power, 30% condition duration, 100 precision and 10% critical damage from rangers stats as a bonus to already existing 300 base bonus from the beastmastery line. “OP!” I hear someone scream? Well as Anet seems to be so keen to nerf pet’s damage output I’ve been HEAVILY relying on that untraited pet is max 20% of the total ranger+pet damage output. This is why so many of the traits in Beastmastery have such extreme effects. In my perfect gameworld full gc beastmaster would have it’s damage split 50/50 with ranger and the pet. But moving on to last big change…

• …which is support. This game and especially ranger as a class is truly so very lacking on viable support builds. So I tried to shove it everywhere I could because I feel that this game needs a shift towards supporting traits. @starlessk This is why you see so much boons/heals/effects shared with nearby allies.

I hope this clarifies some parts which would otherwise seem INCREDIBLY OP. OP ranger? there’s no such thing… :P

Wilderness Survival:

Adept Minor Trait – Natural Vigor: Increases endurance regeneration by 50%.
Master Minor Trait – Companion´s Defense: You and your pet gain 2 seconds of protection when you dodge roll.
Grandmaster Minor Trait – Peak Strength: Deal 10% extra damage when your health is above 90%.

1. Soften the Fall: Create Muddy Terrain when you take falling damage. You take 50% less damage from falling.
2. Symbiotic Bond: You and your pet convert a condition into a random boon when afftected by incoming disables (stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, sink, float, fear, launch). (30 second cooldown)
3. Toxicity: Apply 5 seconds of weakness when you apply poison. (15 second cooldown)
4. Vigorous Renewal: Gain vigor when using a heal skill.
5. Dust cloak: Blind nearby foes for 5 seconds at the end of a dodge roll. (15 second cooldown)
6. Wilderness Knowledge: Survival skills recharge 20% faster.
7. Off-Hand Training: Offhand skills have a longer range and 20% quicker recharge.
8. Oakheart Salve: Gain regeneration for 5s when you suffer from bleeding, poison, burning. (20 second cooldown)
9. Hide In Plain Sight: Applies camouflage to you and nearby allies when your health reaches 25%. (60 second cooldown)
10. Martial Mastery: Sword, greatsword, and spear skills recharge 20% faster.
11. Empathetic Bond: Remove 2 conditions from you and your pet every 10 seconds.
12. Bark Skin: You and your pet take 30% less damage when under 25% health.

Nature Magic:

Adept Minor Trait – Rejuvenation: Gain regeneration when your health reaches 75%.
Master Minor Trait – Fortifying Bond: Any boon you get is shared with your pet.
Grandmaster Minor Trait – Bountiful Hunter: You and your pet deal 5% more damage while you have a boon.

1. Circle of Life: Creates healing spring when you revive someone (30 second cooldown). Increases revive speed by 10%.
2. Otyugh’s Cry: Activated pet skills (F2) grant a random boon to you and allies near your pet.
3. Nature’s Bounty: Regeneration you apply lasts 33% longer.
4. Vigorous Spirits: Spirits have twice as much health. Spirit bonuses have a 35% better chance of providing their benefits.
5. Spirits Unbound: Spirits can move and follow you.
6. Nature’s Protection: Receive protection for 5 seconds when you take more than 10% damage in a single strike. (30 second cooldown)
7. Tranquillity: Activated skills of spirits apply 5 seconds of stability and regeneration to allies within spirit’s range.
8. Evasive Purity: Dodging removes blind, poison, weakness and chill from you (10 second cooldown).
9. Two-Handed Training: Greatsword and spear damage is increased by 5%. Blocking removes a condition from you and your allies. (15 second cooldown)
10. Frozen Soil: Freeze nearby foes for 5 seconds when you suffer from cripple, chill or immobilize. (20 second cooldown)
11. Symbiosis: Convert a condition into a random boon to you and your nearby allies. (5 second cooldown)
12. Nature’s Vengeance: Activated skills of spirits create a combo field (fire, ice, poison, lightning or water) in addition to spirit’s usual effect. Activated skills are larger and trigger when the spirit is killed.

Beastmastery:

Adept Minor Trait – Zephyr’s Speed: You and your pet gain 2 seconds of quickness when you swap pets.
Master Minor Trait – Loud Whistle: Pet swapping recharges 20% faster.
Grandmaster Minor Trait – Master’s Bond: Your pet has a bond with you that increases its attributes based of your trait lines.

1. Speed Training: Pets recharge their skills 20% faster. Pet skills (F2) recharge 20% faster.
2. Call of Haste: Pets move and attack 25% faster.
3. Call of Protection: Pets gain 3 stacks of defiant and have 20% damage reduction.
4. Commanding Voice: Shouts recharge 20% faster. Pets gain 5 seconds of swiftness when activating a shout.
5. Feral Aggression: Pets do 30% more damage on critical hits.
6. Mighty Swap: Pets gain fury and 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds when they are activated.
7. Compassion Training: Pets heal for more. Boons applied by your pets last longer.
8. Malicious Training: Increases duration for conditions applied by your pets. Pets deal extra condition damage.
9. Rending Attacks: Pets have 33% chance to strip boons on critical hits with their basic attacks.
10. Predatory Bond: Pets heal you on successful attacks.
11. Serpent’s Quickness: Quickness you apply lasts 50% longer.
12. Natural Healing: Your pets have natural health regeneration. Shouts heal nearby allies.

I could comment on some points but after writing all this i just can’t.
edit: few things commented here below

Discuss!

tl;dr: I didn’t like the current ranger traits so i remade them.

Little late for the party but here I am, delivering delicious copypasta from ranger forums!

After the latest patch it finally came to me; If they can’t do it, i must do it myself! After hours of hard work and wikisurfing it’s finally done. Ladies and gentlemen, may i present you, THE REAL RANGER TRAITS! Hope you enjoy (laughing)!

Few notes before we start:

Don’t pay too much attention on numbers given below. I’m no balance team. Most of the stuff is just plain OP or UP. This is just how I picture the ranger traits should look like. My DREAM TRAITS you could call them. Feel free to share your own dream traits or opinions or whatever below. Moving on…

Shortbow has 1200 range and Longbow 1500 range by default.

Why, you ask! Because it feels more like a RANGER that way. And also:

Signet passives affect ranger only. Signet actives affect both ranger and pet.

WHY!? Because i hate the current signets. Please continue!

Marksmanship:

Adept Minor Trait – Sundering Strike: Apply 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds when you strike a foe. This effect recharges every 60 seconds or when you reset combat.
Master Minor Trait – Alpha Training: Your pets have Sundering Strike.
Grandmaster Minor Trait – Precise Strike: You and your pet deal 5% more damage to vulnerable foes.

1. Steady Focus: Damage increased by 10% when endurance is full.
2. Keen Edge: Use Sharpening Stone when your foes health reaches 50%. (45 second cooldown)
3. Spotter: Increases precision of nearby allies by up to 150 points.
4. Beastmasters Bond: Gain fury and 3 stacks of might for 9 seconds when your pet’s health reaches 50%. Your pet gains retaliation for 5 seconds. (60 seconds cooldown or pet swap)
5. Predator’s instinct: Apply cripple and weakness to foes you hit when they are below 25% health (15 second cooldown).
6. Signet of the Beastmaster: Passive effects of signets also affect your pet.
7. Signet Mastery: Signets recharge 20% faster. Activating a signet grants 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds.
8. Piercing Arrows: All arrows pierce targets. Arrows cause 3 seconds of vulnerability.
9. Beastmasters Might: You and your pet have 50% chance to grant 5 seconds of might to each other when you attack.
10. Favourable Winds: Projectile speed increased by 15%. Damage increased by 10% when hitting foes further than 1200 units away, 5% damage increase otherwise.
11. Primal Echoes: Active effects of signets also affect nearby allies. This effect’s duration/intensity is halved on allies.
12. Remorseless: Regain Sundering Strikes when you kill a foe or every 20 seconds.

Skrimishing:

Adept Minor Trait – Tail Wind: Gain swiftness when swapping weapons in combat.
Master Minor Trait – Furious Grip: Gain fury when swapping weapons in combat.
Grandmaster Minor Trait – Hunter’s Tactics: Deal 10% more damage while flanking.

1. Sharpened Edges: 66% chance to cause 1s of bleeding on critical hits.
2. Trapper’s Defense: Create a spike trap when your health reaches 50%. (60 second cooldown)
3. Primal Reflexes: You gain 5s of vigor and swiftness when you are struck by a critical hit. (15 second cooldown)
4. Beastial Fury: You and your pet gain 2 seconds of fury and quickness when you take more than 20% damage in a single strike. (20 second cooldown)
5. Natural Stride: You and your pet move 10% faster when affected by swiftness.
6. Edge of Extinction: Increases damage by 33% while downed. Your pet gains quickness for 5 seconds.
7. Trapper’s Expertise: Trap skills are 50% larger and use ground targeting.
8. Honed Axes: Your axes do 15% more critical damage. (per axe, dual axes -> 30%)
9. Predatory Season: You and your pet apply 2 seconds of fury and swiftness to you and nearby allies on critical hits. (10 second cooldown)
10. Quick Draw: Shortbow and longbow skills recharge 20% faster.
11. Trap Potency: Conditions caused by traps last twice as long. Traps skills recharge 20% faster.
12. Moment of Clarity: Gain an attack of opportunity for you and your pet on interrupting a foe. Interrupted skill is disabled for +5 seconds. (5 seconds cooldown)

jubskie.3152:

What happened to the “Training” traits though? No more additional condition duration for pets? I really like that trait.

All of the “Training” traits are put in the Beastmastery tree and merged to have stronger effects, you can find Malicious Training at Master level. Basically every trait that had anything to do with pet only is either removed, merged or put in the Beastmastery tree.

glad you like them

Now that I have some time, I’d like to bring up few points about the choices i made.

• On a high level I tried to both separate and still at the same time tie together the two pieces that are the ranger and the pet. What this means is that strictly pet related traits such as Pet’s Prowess (which translates to Feral Aggression because GW1 > anything else) is put in the Beastmastery tree. At the same time pet related traits still exist outside Beastmastery but which work in synergy with the ranger providing different kinds of effects. This connects us nicely to the next topic that is…

• …Master’s Bond which now acts as a Minor Grandmaster Trait. With Master’s bond I try to further strengthen the synergy between ranger and the pet by allowing the pet to gain stat points from rangers traitlines. For example with the traitcomp 30/10/0/0/30 pet would gain 300 healing power, 300 power, 30% condition duration, 100 precision and 10% critical damage from rangers stats as a bonus to already existing 300 base bonus from the beastmastery line. “OP!” I hear someone scream? Well as Anet seems to be so keen to nerf pet’s damage output I’ve been HEAVILY relying on that untraited pet is max 20% of the total ranger+pet damage output. This is why so many of the traits in Beastmastery have such extreme effects. In my perfect gameworld full gc beastmaster would have it’s damage split 50/50 with ranger and the pet. But moving on to last big change…

• …which is support. This game and especially ranger as a class is truly so very lacking on viable support builds. So I tried to shove it everywhere I could because I feel that this game needs a shift towards supporting traits. @starlessk This is why you see so much boons/heals/effects shared with nearby allies.

I hope this clarifies some parts which would otherwise seem INCREDIBLY OP. OP ranger? there’s no such thing… :P

Wilderness Survival:

Minor Traits:
Adept – Natural Vigor: Increases endurance regeneration by 50%.
Master – Companions Defense: You and your pet gain 2 seconds of protection when you dodge roll.
Grandmaster – Peak Strength: Deal 10% extra damage when your health is above 90%.

Major Traits:

1. Soften the Fall: Create Muddy Terrain when you take falling damage. You take 50% less damage from falling.
2. Symbiotic Bond: You and your pet convert a condition into a random boon (10s) when afftected by incoming disables. (30 second cooldown)
3. Toxicity: Apply 5 seconds of weakness when you apply poison. (15 second cooldown)
4. Vigorous Renewal: Gain vigor when using a heal skill.
5. Dust cloak: Blind nearby foes for 5 seconds at the end of a dodge roll. (15 second cooldown)
6. Wilderness Knowledge: Survival skills recharge 20% faster.
7. Off-Hand Training: Offhand skills have a longer range and 20% quicker recharge.
8. Oakheart Salve: Gain regeneration for 5s when you suffer from bleeding, poison, burning. (20 second cooldown)
9. Hide In Plain Sight: Applies camouflage to you and nearby allies when your health reaches 25%. (60 second cooldown)
10. Martial Mastery: Sword, greatsword, and spear skills recharge 20% faster.
11. Dryder’s Defenses: Apply 5 seconds of stability and protection to you and your nearby allies when you use a stun break. You take 50% less damage when suffering from disables.
12. Bark Skin: You and your pet take 30% less damage when under 25% health.

Nature Magic:

Minor Traits:
Adept – Rejuvenation: Gain regeneration when your health reaches 75%.
Master – Fortifying Bond: Any boon you get is shared with your pet.
Grandmaster – Bountiful Hunter: You and your pet deal 5% more damage while you have a boon.

Major Traits:

1. Circle of Life: Creates healing spring when you revive someone (30 second cooldown). Increases revive speed by 10%.
2. Otyugh’s Cry: Activated pet skills (F2) grant a random boon to you and allies near your pet.
3. Nature’s Bounty: Regeneration you apply lasts 33% longer.
4. Vigorous Spirits: Spirits have twice as much health. Spirit bonuses have a 35% better chance of providing their benefits.
5. Spirits Unbound: Spirits can move and follow you.
6. Nature’s Protection: Receive protection for 5 seconds when you take more than 10% damage in a single strike. (30 second cooldown)
7. Tranquillity: Activated skills of spirits apply 5 seconds of stability and regeneration to allies within spirit’s range.
8. Evasive Purity: Dodging removes 1 condition from you. (10 second cooldown).
9. Two-Handed Training: Greatsword and spear damage is increased by 5%. Blocking removes a condition from you and your allies. (2 second cooldown)
10. Frozen Soil: Freeze nearby foes for 5 seconds when you suffer from cripple, chill or immobilize. (20 second cooldown)
11. Symbiosis: Convert 2 conditions into 2 random boons (10s) to you and your nearby allies when you use a heal skill. (procs with Circle of Life)
12. Nature’s Vengeance: Activated skills of spirits create a combo field (fire, ice, poison, lightning or water) in addition to spirit’s usual effect. Activated skills are larger and trigger when the spirit is killed.

Beastmastery:

Minor Traits:
Adept – Zephyr’s Speed: You and your pet gain 2 seconds of quickness when you swap pets.
Master – Loud Whistle: Pet swapping recharges 20% faster.
Grandmaster – Master’s Bond: Your pet has a bond with you that increases its attributes based of your trait lines.

Major Traits:

1. Speed Training: Pets recharge their skills 20% faster. Pet skills (F2) recharge 20% faster.
2. Call of Haste: Pets move and attack 25% faster.
3. Call of Protection: Pets gain 3 stacks of defiant and have 20% damage reduction.
4. Commanding Voice: Shouts recharge 20% faster. Pets gain 5 seconds of swiftness when activating a shout.
5. Feral Aggression: Pets do 30% more damage on critical hits.
6. Mighty Swap: Pets gain fury and 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds when they are activated.
7. Compassion Training: Pets heal for more. Boons applied by your pets last longer.
8. Malicious Training: Increases duration for conditions applied by your pets. Pets deal extra condition damage.
9. Rending Attacks: Pets have 33% chance to strip boons on critical hits with their basic attacks.
10. Predatory Bond: Pets heal you on successful attacks.
11. Serpent’s Quickness: Quickness you apply lasts 50% longer.
12. Natural Healing: Your pets have natural health regeneration. Shouts heal nearby allies.

I’ve commented a few things down in the comments. Check them out!

tl;dr: I didn’t like the current ranger traits so i remade them.

After seeing so many ranger (trait) redesign threads popping here and there, I’m trying to encourage people to post their ideas under single post for better readability. Therefore, I’ve modified the thread’s title into something more appropriate. So, feel free to share your suggestions/opinions/whatever concerning ranger traits down below. On to the original post…
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I’ve always felt ranger traits were a bit lacking, so I made my own! After hours of hard work and some wikisurfing it’s finally done. Hope you enjoy!

Few notes before we start:

Don’t pay too much attention on numbers given below. I’m no balance team. Most of the stuff is just op or OP! This is just how I picture the ranger traits should look like. My dream traits you could call them. Moving on…

Shortbow has 1200 range and Longbow 1500 range by default.

Why? Because I prefer bows to slingshots. And also:

Signet passives affect ranger only. Signet actives affect both ranger and pet.

WHY!? Because i hate the current signets. Please continue!

Marksmanship:

Minor Traits:
Adept – Opening Strike: Apply 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds with your first strike when entering combat. This effect recharges when you kill a foe or reset combat. (10 second cooldown while in combat)
Master – Remorseless: Regain Opening Strikes when you gain stealth or use a heal skill. (Shares cooldown with OS.)
Grandmaster – Sundering Strike: You and your pet deal 5% more damage to vulnerable foes.

Major Traits:

1. Steady Focus: Damage increased by 10% when endurance is full.
2. Keen Edge: Use Sharpening Stone when your foes health reaches 50%. (45 second cooldown)
3. Spotter: Increases precision of nearby allies by up to 150 points.
4. Beastmasters Bond: Gain fury and 3 stacks of might for 9 seconds when your pet’s health reaches 50%. Your pet gains retaliation for 5 seconds. (60 seconds cooldown or pet swap)
5. Predator’s instinct: Apply 1 second immobilize and 3 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds to foes you hit when they are below 25% health (15 second cooldown).
6. Signet of the Beastmaster: Passive effects of signets also affect your pet.
7. Signet Mastery: Signets recharge 20% faster. Activating a signet grants 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds.
8. Piercing Arrows: All arrows pierce targets. Arrows cause 3 seconds of vulnerability.
9. Beastmasters Might: You and your pet have 50% chance to grant 5 seconds of might to each other when you attack.
10. Favourable Winds: Projectile speed increased by 15%. Damage increased by 10% when hitting foes further than 1200 units away, 5% damage increase otherwise. (Alternative: Eagle Eye: Increases longbow, shortbow and harpoon gun range. + same damage bonuses as above)
11. Primal Echoes: Active effects of signets also affect nearby allies. This effect’s duration/intensity is halved on allies.
12. Splinter Weapon: Your strikes from behind (100% chance) or from the sides (25% chance) have a chance to fragment on impact damaging your target and adjacent foes. These splinters inflict bleeding and vulnerability for 3 seconds. This effect can trigger maximum of 5 times every 10 seconds.

Skirmishing:

Minor Traits:
Adept – Tail Wind: Gain swiftness when swapping weapons in combat.
Master – Furious Grip: Gain fury when swapping weapons in combat.
Grandmaster – Hunter’s Tactics: Deal 10% more damage while flanking.

Major Traits:

1. Sharpened Edges: 66% chance to cause 1s of bleeding on critical hits.
2. Trapper’s Defense: Create a spike trap when your health reaches 50%. (60 second cooldown)
3. Beastial Fury: Gain 2 seconds of fury and quickness when you are struck by a critical hit. (20 second cooldown)
4. Scavenger Strike: Increases critical damage to foes suffering from condition by 10%.
5. Natural Stride: You and your pet move 10% faster when affected by swiftness. (Alternative: Gain 1s of vigor whenever you get swiftness)
6. Edge of Extinction: Increases damage by 33% while downed. Your pet gains quickness for 5 seconds.
7. Trapper’s Expertise: Trap skills are 50% larger and use ground targeting.
8. Honed Axes: Your axes increase critical damage by 10%.
9. Predatory Season: You apply 2 seconds of fury and swiftness to you and nearby allies on critical hits. (10 second cooldown)
10. Quick Draw: Shortbow and longbow skills recharge 20% faster.
11. Trap Potency: Conditions caused by traps last twice as long. Traps skills recharge 20% faster.
12. Moment of Clarity: Remove a condition from yourself and nearby allies when interrupting a foe. Apply 1 second of quickness to you and nearby allies on successful interrupt.