Guild Wars 2

OGDeadHead.8326:

If you want to control Wolfs knockdown, maybe you don’t want it to autocast fear, for example. Same with smokescale, I don’t want to have it autocast smokefield whenever it feels like it like it was before. Surely you can see the potential issues with this?

Either they open up the whole ai for allowing us to disable skills and/or allow us to control every skill (or at least two of them), or they leave the current system as it is.

Too bad they won’t allow skill disabling on pets as we already deal with this, in particular, a pet automatically Fearing a foe: The Shark. Don’t forget that the entire issue came with the Smokescale’s F2 being changed out, and believe it or not, there were Rangers that preferred control over Smoke Assault and did not mind the automatic Smokefield, as it did not interfere with their playstyle.

Anet would probably see more issues with disabling pet skills since the pet selection as its memory is already in a wonky state. Would they be able to or care to implement saving disabled pet skills on every pet selected? If not, pet skill disabling would have to reset each new pet selection in each game mode. The like can be said about a selectable F2, but there are less drawbacks as its 1 skill of a potential 3 and can be done cleanly without opening another interface (the selection panel).

They, and I, also realize that there are Rangers out there that do not change their pet selections at all or very little: and that doesn’t matter in the wider scope of what problems can emit with a variety of players.

Until they realize that a Ranger controlling the other 3 pet skills (excluding auto attack) on F1-F3 is reasonable ala Engineer, Elementalist, and to an extent Mesmer; a selectable F2 is about the closest (and realistic) compromise to reaching a satisfaction between both parties (advanced Ranger players and the developers).

I can’t even promote/side with slotting cleric trinkets as there are plenty of groups where the tank barely stacks enough toughness (1 Knight’s amulet) and could interfere with aggro.

Budget & overall-group friendly raiding gear is full exotic Magi equipment with Exquisite Sapphire (Cleric) Jewels slotted into your Magi trinkets & backpiece. Both armor & trinkets are available thru Orr Temple Karma vendors, which saves plenty on coin.

That said, what gold you do save goes into buying a Sigil of Transference for each Staff. The cost is worth it since the alternative is Water & Renewal. The difference in cost is roughly 10g between the sigils, which isn’t too bad, all things considered.

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

Would prefer having full access to all the skills of the pet, rather than selecting a single one from its skill list, then havingto leave the rest of the skills up to AI when to decide to use it. But of course, that would be too confusing for new players would it -looks at ele attunements and engi tool belt-

Yeah, I would love to have that instead. I even made a suggestion topic for it in the past. One that would allow an option for more control over pets for advanced players or retain the current interface for beginners/people that like it as it is. Unfortunately, it didn’t receive any traction except for an incoherent response, then was buried in the sub-forum.

Optional Manual Pet Control

I’m still waiting to see a more organized pet selection panel, as that actually received a developer response when it was posted by a fellow Ranger on Reddit.

I believe Search & Rescue’s duration remains the same as it was before, which is an 8s effect.

Not as good as it can be. More brash ideas incoming.

[Heal]
Signet of Nature
Passive: Your attacks heal your pet. Your pet’s attacks heal you.
Active: You and your pet heal. For 3s, any damage you receive heals your pet and damage your pet receives heals you.
Cooldown: 25s

[Elite]
Signet of the Beastmaster (ala old trait of the same name)
Passive: Your pet deals 10% more damage and takes 10% less damage.
Active: Calls out your second pet to aid you in combat for 60s (ala formerly planned Ranger elite).
Pet swap cooldown not affected if secondary pet is defeated. Pet swap ends active effect. Pet swapping leaves the secondary pet in its current status (health, boons, conditions, etc.).
Cooldown: 180s

Yeah… no.

You literally could have gone about this proposal in smarter ways:

1) Have “Go For The Eyes” and “Beastly Warden” function like Wilting Strike, so foes that are affected by or within range of the pet’s F2 are blinded or taunted, respectively.

At least then, there’s no ICD restrictions to contend with since only a handful of pet F2 cooldowns with Beastmastery fall below 12-15s. Pets can also be more strategically taken if the user needs a single-target, low cooldown pet, or a higher cooldown pet with an AOE skill to taunt/blind/weaken.

2) Reduce the cooldown of various, older pets or have their effectiveness increased to justify large cooldowns (such as the Polar Bear’s).

These traits are meant as augments. You are not only reducing effectiveness of Wilting Strikes on low cooldown pets such as the Eagle, Hawk, and Tiger, but you are also placing the CD on a much more variable level.

Think about it. A 12s and a 15s ICD on these traits doesn’t sound so bad when you are looking at a 16s CD with a forced pet swap, and worse, a 48s CD because your pet was defeated, which can erratically happen depending on the situation, pet, and game mode.

Really, think about it.

Should send an invite to Irenio. Who better to have in an intel-sharing, theory-crafting Ranger guild than the man in charge of profession’s balance? Just sayin’.

>:}

Have a feeling this might not be corrected until the next balance update since, ya know, it benefits everyone else besides Ranger.

I posted about this last month. From what I could gather from some tests are posted in the link below.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Water-Spirit-Broken-Need-More-Testers/first#post5921822

It looks like when they changed Spirit of Nature to scale with the player’s healing power, something happened in which Water Spirit acts like the old Spirit of Nature. This meaning Water Spirit does not scale with the player’s healing power and has a healing power of its own that is not correctly displayed on our tooltip.

Just in case you don’t want to click on the link below, assuming Water Spirit still has a scaling of 0.09, it leads to speculation that it has its own healing power of 1220. The healing on the passive proc is 915 (or so), regardless of the player’s healing power.

On a side note: I guess this is OK for now since the heal is pretty nice for Rangers that do not invest at all in healing power. On the flip side, the passive is still horrid, those that do invest moderately-heavy to heavy into healing power are screwed, and the current heal that is fixed at 915 feels like it should be the base amount with the scaling adjusted to compensate.

Just tossin’ that out there… Irenio.

No worries about being new to non DPS roles. One thing that is very forgiving is providing over-healing vs stacking up self-toughness. Again, there is already plenty of it in a Nomad, Minstrel, and to an extent, a Cleric setup.

As long as you can keep everyone, including yourself, topped off on health, mistakes are rather flexible. On that note, give us an update on how some of these suggestions, as well as your own tweaks on a heal-tank, are working out.

Bristleback toughness is not going to affect the aggro in raids. It’s safe to bring one. Also, there was no mention of whether or not your group runs with a Herald. That said, below are the suggestions on a group with one that is providing +50% boon duration for you, and one without.

• Without a Herald
• With a Herald

Also, slot rune of the Monk. The extra toughness and 5% boon duration from Herald runes doesn’t beat the usefulness of extra healing power and 10% outgoing healing in the role you are going for.

Drop toughness infusions for healing power ones, too. Nomad’s or Minstrel’s tops you off with enough toughness already. I’d also personally recommend taking a full Spirit Ranger setup on utilities. With that much healing output and defenses, you should be able to heal allies through seeker orb damage.

Eh, don’t like the build setup OP. I read “Healer Tank” and its more like a heal, tank, condition build that tries to do all three, and because of that, is mediocre to decent at best.

As others said above, you want to be the tank AND healer, your personal DPS doesn’t matter since your party can slot in an additional DPS person because you’ve taken 2 roles.

Try out [THIS] instead. You can also substitute in Minstrel’s for Nomad’s as a more-expensive alternative if you have the coin. Trinkets can be Cleric’s if you need more healing power, or Nomad’s if you need to be tankier.

For VG as the above setup, I suggest keeping Stone Spirit and just healing your melee team through Seeker Orbs. Use Lunar Impact for break bar phases and healing peeps through the AOE fields.

Would rather have Poison Volley be reworked like off-hand Warrior sword “Impale.” A single-target arrow that leaves a lingering effect on the enemy and pulses 4s of poison every second for 5s. It can additionally pulse 1s of weakness per second if the target is struck from the flank.

At least then, it would be much more effective at any distance instead of at point-blank, and the piercing feature on “Light on Your Feet” would make the pay-off of lining it up to inflict the effect on multiple targets significantly meaningful.

Yeah, too late on the swap, you’re screwed. It’s fun to inventory-weapon swap skills to get the most out of stuff at times. Ranger has some fun inventory-weapon swap combos.

Tragic Positive.9356:

But what you can do is take Torch and use bonfire > Swap to Warhorn and blast #5 > Swap to Axe and engage combat.

Listen to that OP. Except I’d change things around on the LB weapon slot to avoid having to choose axe for off-hand so swaps are simple double-clicks. Could even have a bit of fun with it (like I do) when you’re bored.

Torch > Bonfire > Swap to Warhorn > Call of the Wild > Hunter’s Call > Swap to Longbow before Hunter’s Call hits mid-cast > start S/A+LB rotation or whatever.

It would, but I don’t know anymore with what Anet for the past 2 years or so. I’m on the side that wants SB to have 1200 range by default to match their profession description about being proficient with bows (all of them) and have its projectile speed match LB.

I’d be fine though if they did the above changes + projectile speed instead of the above changes + longer range.

StickerHappy.8052:

Don’t you think Crossfire needs a but more than 0.6 coefficient?

Nah. The coefficient increase is, more-or-less, compensation for the firing-speed “fix” from long ago. Crossfire, on a whole, is all right in terms of SB and its unique flanking criteria.

Overall, suggestions are going in the right direction adding more flanking bonuses. Strip it down a bit, though. Multiple flanking bonuses are unnecessary and slow doesn’t fit the core Ranger, or shortbow.

• Crossfire – Remains the same.
• Poison Volley – Apply 1s of Weakness per arrow when flanking.
• Quick Shot – Gain swiftness if the arrow misses. Gain super speed if the arrow hits.
• Crippling Shot – Immobilize for 2s when flanking.
• Concussion Shot – 3 stacks of Confusion for 5s if foe is interrupted.

Would probably bump the scaling for all skills from 0.4 (0.5 on Poison Volley) to 0.6 and reduce Concussion Shot’s cooldown to 20s so it can be accessed a bit more frequently.

Tragic Positive.9356:

The design of the trait is not bad. The numbers are.
I’d be fine if the trait had CD of 12 seconds. But I want it heal for more. The amount is really low.

^ This. If the scaling or base heal (or both) were increased, it would be a fine trait. Right now, it’s just lacking that competitive edge vs the other two GM traits. I would even be fine if they increased the healing and lowered the blind duration down to 3s as a trade.

Most Dangerous Game
Gain might & fury when under the health threshold.

Honed Axes
Axe skills recharge faster and are more powerful.
- Ricochet might duration doubled.
- Splitblades are 100% projectile finishers.
- Winter’s Bite explodes on impact.
- Path of Scars dazes on the first, outgoing strike.
- Whirling Defense grants stability for 4s and retaliation is shared with nearby allies.

Refined Toxins
When you or your pet applies poison, also apply Torment (3s) – 1s ICD.

Changing a trait, and not the weapon, is not a way to make a weapon viable. Just rename your topic to a Light on Your Feet suggestion.

Eh, seems fine imo. It’s a trait that looks like it was designed with Longbow in mind since back in the day Rangers could pick this up with Piercing Arrows and Eagle Eye. It hasn’t changed and I don’t think it will since Primal Reflexes received a duration buff.

There’s also synergy with it in (3) other trait lines. Unlike the Engineer which has the same trait as a minor with a GM trait that offers 50% endurance regeneration within the same line, but we have evasions on weapon skills which make up for that.

I could only agree with the second part of your suggestion of having the trait also affect the pet if the player meets the criteria. However, that sort of falls with all the other traits that I personally feel should affect the pet as well, such as Hunter’s Tactics and Oakheart Salve.

I’d like to see Anet make it available as a reward for completing an (insane) achievement as an alternative.

Complete the Chak Gerent meta event successfully 1,000 times.
“If you didn’t get it by now, well… here you go.”
Reward: Chak Egg Sac

>x}

Might want to run those tests again, as I just re-tested the new pets with Go For the Eyes and Invigorating Bond (since the recent patch) and was still able to get the blind and heal from all the new pets.

Jocksy.3415:

entangle IS unblockable…

Right, forgot it’s unblockable by default. Seems like the OP, and both of us forgot the Glyph elite is Unity, not Equality.

They aren’t completely bad, but could use some tightening up. “Strength of the Pack!” for example could have the cooldown or cast time reduced, but not both. The might duration could use a slight bump from 8s to 10s.

Entangled could use a bit more potency. I’ve seen suggestions of increasing the initial immobilization to increase the snare strength against opponents that stack -% condition duration. Maybe go as far as having the vines be unblockable since it is an elite.

Glyph of Equality needs to have the initial range be the same as the tethering range, which is 600. Similar to the Necromancer’s Tainted Shackles, which has the initial and tether range both at 600, and less clunky to use. 200 extra range does wonders, believe it or not.

Not sure about Spirit of Nature, though. I think its one of the few Spirits done correctly. I would like it if the active range was 900 by default and the active range increase be removed from Nature’s Vengeance.

Maybe have Nature’s Vengeance increase the range of the passive effects by 50% instead as an option to provide greater coverage as compensation for the removal of Spirits Unbound. 1500 range on the passives would be nice, especially with the pulsing boons.

OtterPaws.2036:

I feel like they dont work underwater cause of seeds.

Sadly, they can’t even use this as an excuse since CAF and all its skills work underwater.

I’d rather have Allies’ Aid work similar to the Function Gyro on the Scrapper. If the trait is slotted, you have the option to use it on a downed ally you have selected within range by pressing F / “Interact” when available, and the pet will then teleport said ally to you and start reviving them.

So should Glyphs… but it’s underwater combat.

Do you people even read what others write before you reply? kitten .

Edit: To answer the OP. As nice as it would for some buffs on our auto attacks, this patch, Rangers received more party-support via shout reworks while Thieves had their sustain between bursts increased.

Maybe wait until the next update to see where things such as sword, axe, or even greatsword go.

You should quote the other person as I never mentioned Condition Engineers. Competition in Raids on the condition spot is against Condition Reapers since their rotation is much easier, provide natural boon corruption for fights like Vale Guardian, and in pairs, are much deadlier bouncing Epidemic.

Ranger can compete with Condition Engineer all it wants, everything that you said makes not a lick of difference in the PUG reality the OP was asking for because when PUGs see a condition Ranger, they will never take one unless they’re tired of waiting for that condition Reaper.

Also, yes, I realize Condition Ranger is more situational, hence why I said it thrives at those 2 fights. As for being painful for playing it correctly, Condition Engineer greets everyone.

The profession updates were underwhelming. Small adjustments scattered about with a few major ones such as Ranger Shouts and to an extent, Warrior Rifle. Plenty of weaker traits, utilities, and other aspects were left alone and are now weaker than ever.

Much of the old weapons and skills are not being updated to match what came with the new ones presented in the elite specializations of Heart of Thorns. The state of the game posted about focusing on more depth and not breadth, and all the balance update did was go after more low-hanging fruit, which has been done since launch.

Update the old and make it new. All that new tech that keeps being mentioned over-and-over on the live streams doesn’t seem to be used on updating the past to making the professions worthwhile as a whole.

No. Not in PUG reality. Condition Ranger will only be seen in a PUG on two conditions:

1) PUGs are desperate for a(nother) condition player and are growing impatient waiting.
2) You are friends with some of the PUGs and they vouch for you.

Shortbow won’t be getting anywhere either. A/T only and it thrives best with Sab and to an extent, Gors, if doing the method to phase him rather than use updrafts. Only buff we received condition-wise was Hidden Barbs, and that isn’t quite enough to compete with a Condition Reaper, which are now more powerful and flexible, especially in pairs.

I’d suggest a lot… Most are small adjustments, but still a lot.

Traits

• Predator’s Instinct interval added so it can apply to multiple enemies.
• Light on Your Feet +10% condition duration replaced with +10% condition damage.
• Most Dangerous Game pulses 1s of Fury with the current boons.
• Quick Draw activates on skill use instead of after a skill completes its cast.
• Empathic Bond interval changed to 1 condition transferred every 3 seconds.
• Natural Healing applies to the player as long as the pet is active/alive.
• Honed Axes changed to augment all axe skills instead of one.

Weapons

• Shortbow Concussion Shot applies confusion when interrupting an enemy.
• Reduced after-casts for main-hand axe skills.
• Staff Solar Beam use without requiring a target.
• Cast time of Hornet’s Sting removed or reduced to ¼s.
• Sword Kick can hit up to 3 targets. Reduce cripple duration for compensation.
• Axe Path of Scars to be a ground-target skill to reduce the chances of it disappearing when it travels beyond the target and into a wall or over a cliff. Similar to Herald’s Shield skill Envoy of Exuberance.

Utilities

• Reduced cooldown for Sharpening Stone.
• Glyph of Unity’s initial and leash range uniformed to 600 range.
• Spirit actives such as Cold Snap, Call Lighting, and Solar Flare are combo fields.

Pets

• Pet conditions and boons are visible on the player UI.

Last but not least…

• Bug fixes.

It also works now with Electric Wyvern’s Lightning Assault.

Funny since the F2 cooldown is still tied to the Pet vs the player which controls it. Meaning the pet requires the alacrity for the F2 to go off earlier than indicated, but in those situations where the pet gains alacrity and not the player, we still can’t fire the F2 earlier because on our UI, it’s still on cooldown.

In cases like this, I really wish buffs would just be shared with the pet…

How the heck are you getting 4s exactly? I just tested it in game and I can’t get the 4s cooldown when blocking projectiles, let alone blocking and countering regular melee attacks, or just letting the block duration phase out.

Forum Bug.

Saw that coming.

Still no fix with the new build. Ofc…

Yup, already posted on the bug section subforum. Hope it gets patched quickly as HS is still my go-to heal.

</3

Othayuni.7369:

What was this even fixing? What was wrong with being able to grace in the air?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/accidently-posted-multiple-threads/first#post5945470

I’ll start by saying what changes there were for the Ranger were great. Good on you, Irenio for some of the Shout reworks and buffs to traits. I’m not sure about other Rangers, but I felt as though other small adjustments could have been made elsewhere that would have had a significant, and beneficial impact. I’ll elaborate.

Main-Hand Axe After-Casts
I was surprised “Throw Axe” on Warrior had the after-cast delay reduced by 0.5s while the Ranger main-hand axe received not a single after-cast delay reduction, even though both the Warrior “Throw Axe” and Ranger “Ricochet” (A1) & “Winter’s Bite” (A3) [used] to share the same drawbacks.

I would propose equal treatment for Quality of Life of having Ricochet, Splitblade, and Winter’s Bite have the same amount of after-cast delay reduced, or some after-cast if not 0.5s of it.

Light On Your Feet
Is there a reason why evasion will not be added in order to proc this effect? There is built in evasion for many of our weapons (sword, greatsword, shortbow) that would have further synergy with this trait.

On a side note, the extra condition duration is weak. Could that be changed to condition damage instead so it can further rival Quickdraw to amplify the Ranger playstyle of constant damage vs a utility/burst trait?

Shortbow
Nothing on Shortbow was touched. This is one of the most, if not the most, under-powered weapons of the Ranger. For years, there was a suggestion by the Ranger community on countless occasions of adding smart, and active play to “Concussion Shot” (SB5) by inflicting Confusion when successfully interrupting a foe.

This, in turn, would add to the utility and damage of the Shortbow’s skirmishing playstyle, alongside the already unique flanking criteria of certain moves within the set. I would hope that this would be considered in the next balance update to place Shortbow in a higher relevance in the future, even if it is just a hair higher than it is currently.

Sic ’Em! Unchanged
With the shout reworks, I was hoping “Sic ’Em!” could use some improvement. There were some fine suggestions in the past for this shout, ranging from the pet shadow-stepping to the target (like a skill in GW1) or having the pet reveal enemies around it if the utility were to trigger on activation or reveal enemies in an area if changed to be a ground-target.

However, Sic ‘Em! remains unchanged and the only utility skill across all professions that is a preventative measure against stealth vs an active reveal. Why wasn’t this looked at or changed for something more practical? Even if it was to apply an AOE reveal, the reveal duration could be reduced from 6s down to 4s to compensate depending on the radius and potency.

Some of the Less Used Traits are Hurting More
I’m grateful for the buffs on some traits. Increases to Predator’s Onslaught, Hidden Barbs, and even Primal Reflexes were a nice touch. I cannot thank you enough for those. However, the already weak traits are now even weaker in comparison.

I’m surprised that traits such as Predator’s Instinct wasn’t touched at all. Not even an interval added to ensure it can apply on multiple opponents with their own ICD to make this effective in group fights. What’s even more daunting is the push to make Most Dangerous Game relevant with the change to “Guard!” and its cooldown.

So, now the combo of killing your pet for more Might and being able to linger under 50% (along with any of the other health threshold traits) is a potential combo. It’s interesting, I’ll give it that much, but why wasn’t the simple and effective solution of pulsing Fury (even for 1s) added to this formerly-planned Adept trait knee-jerked into the GM tier?

There was and still is, so much talk of synergy, and for a trait placed so high, there is so little of it. Having synergy with Remorseless would truly make it Most Dangerous during a Game (match).

Again, I really like and appreciate the current changes. You’re our (Ranger) guy, Irenio. Thanks for the work you have done. Hopefully, these points may be touched upon later balance updates. Cheers.

/rant

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I’d rather this change though vs requiring correct pathing like blinks/teleports (which I thought Anet was going to do to really screw with Ranger).

2nd buff to SD. Was hoping a little something else would have been added to it like a damage modifier or maybe some unique thing like gaining a boon such as Might or Fury when we have Vigor to synergize with Primal Reflexes.

Still bummed Light On Your Feet hasn’t been changed to proc on evade and is still left tied to only dodges. That and I wish the condition duration was changed to condition damage.

Healing Spring fails to activate when triggered for later use. The only time Healing Spring activates is upon immediate use.

Please, fix this issue soon. Video attached to display above description.

https://youtu.be/8GsI1B6PJrI

Tragic Positive.9356:

Did they break Healing Spring … Again?
Can anyone second this?

I’ve had Healing Spring fail to trigger the Water Field and everything associated with it. Happened especially if I triggered it after some delay (entering the already spawned trap).

I can confirm that Healing Spring just GOES AWAY if you lay it down and attempt to trigger it AFTERWARDS. The only time it works is when triggering it immediately after casting it.

How the hell did they break it…

Edit: Made a topic for it in the bugs section. Here’s a video of how borked healing spring is if you decide to use it for later instead of immediately.

https://youtu.be/8GsI1B6PJrI

I’m having different results, granted they seem to be the same results as before the patch. Wilting Strike still does not apply to the new pets, as does the bleed when auto attacks critically strike of Companion’s Might.

I’m able to proc the Blind from Go for the Eyes and Heal from Invigorating Bond from the new pets though. I’ll add that the radius of Go for the Eyes seems to be smaller than what it actually lists, but I’ll do more testing to confirm. Tooltip lists 240 radius but sometimes it fails to apply when using Fire Wyvern’s F2 maybe due to distance or something. Might be a 180 radius.

Yeah, maybe when stacked with Beastly Warden. I dunno, yet. It’s just a feeling. Give it a day or two before Thieves enter this forum and complain that we have too much Taunt access.

Yeah, nothing for Ranger weapon love, even though others got them. Shortbow is still lackluster. I thought maybe Anet would consider adding Confusion when interrupting an enemy with Concussion shot, as it synergizes well with the theme of the weapon (disrupt, skirmish, and conditions).

So many after-casts reduced between 0.35-0.6s (that’s quite hefty) on plenty of already used weapons such as Thief Sword and Warrior Axe, but Ranger Axe retains these after-casts. Then we have Strider’s Defense which went back up to Irenio’s original number of 50% trigger chance from the IMA balance preview stream in Sept. 2015.

I guess that’s fine, but no coding work done on breaking that leap or maybe reducing cast times so the damage is higher and evasions could be accessed sooner, or maybe, I dunno, slap a ¾s evade on Pounce to cover it or even a ¼s evade in the middle of the animation during the high-point of the leap so it has some coverage?

Not to say there wasn’t any good changes and buffs, because there were plenty of those. I guess we’ll have to wait until the end of this season for other things to catch up. Still hope, right?