Guild Wars 2

As they said, traits are still subject to change. Some of the mergers, deletions, additions, and placements were questionable – but from what was shown – there is more synergy between traits and trait lines than before.

I’m not completely satisfied with the Ranger portion and how it was handled, but I’m not completely dissatisfied either.

^ This. Not only your opponent knowing they can land their attack during the 2/3 AA, but the ranger themselves knowing that they are screwed during that frame.

I’m hoping each pet gets looked at and they have more base attributes rather than the power, precision, toughness, vitality. Would be nice if spiders had their own base condition damage while something like the Fern Hound is the only canine with healing power to have some diversity among pets in the same family besides the skin and F2.

Just waiting on people data-mining skills of the staff

All of this seems like good news. This change is a nice breath of fresh air and a chance for everyone to take things into a new direction and opens up more opportunities to experiment. Can’t wait.

Thank you Anet for finally going with a “less is more” approach. I’m hoping they’re smart about merging some of the current traits for more synergy. A few that I speculate that will be merged:

• Opening Strike & Alpha Training
• Precise Strike & Remorseless
• Signet Mastery & Beastmaster’s Might
• Tail Wind & Furious Grip
• Trapper’s Defense & Trapper’s Expertise
• Shared Anguish & Hide In Plain Sight
• Rejuvenation & Nature’s Bounty
• Zephyr’s Speed & Instinctual Bond
• Speed Training & Commanding Voice
• Master’s Bond & Mighty Swap – How it resets currently, they might as well give us the Might when we swap pets and lose our stacks.

Speculate to be deleted:

• Circle of Life
• Healer’s Celerity

Updated the list.

It’s only speculation, but seeing unique dodging animations when you use tonics to transform into a Wolf or Cat makes me think Anet might have had plans to allow pets to dodge at some point – which is why Vigor is shared with Fortifying Bond.

Standard Dungeon Build for Ranger. If you choose to do otherwise, at the very least, bring Spotter and a traited Frost Spirit. Good luck and have fun running dungeons, mate.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_S/A_LB_Spotter

There are some pretty good suggestions on these forums. Below is a compilation of the more reasonable and realistic (low-hanging fruit) QoL improvements the Ranger community seem to agree on (for the most part). No specific numbers, overhauls, or anything like that. Just general and small QoL suggestions.

Disclaimer: The list has been adjusted post-Ready Up! reveal of the new Ranger specialization (which are a work-in-progress).

• Hornet’s Sting: Reduce or remove the cast time for a more reliable dodge.
• Spirit Passives: Base % of benefits are increased or guaranteed.
• Pet Survivability: Damage reduction against AOE attacks in PvE & WvW only.
• Fortifying Bond: Stability is shared. +
• Greatsword: Auto-attack damage increase.
• “Guard!”: Remove the cast time.
• Maul: Becomes a Blast Finisher.
• Stability Training: Merge function into Vigorous Training. +
• Master’s Bond: Resets only when the Ranger is downed or defeated.
• Forage: Items are automatically equipped instead of lying on the floor.
• Pet Names are remembered. +
• Hide In Plain Sight: Merge function into Shared Anguish. +
• Healer’s Celerity: Merge function into Trapper’s Defense. +
• Circle of Life: Merge function into Instinctual Bond. +
• Carnivorous Appetite: Merge function into Rending Attacks. +
• Rending Attacks: Boon removal on hit instead of bleed on crit. +
• Winter’s Bite: AOE from Honed Axes is baseline. +
• Protective Ward: 4 seconds of Protection to both the Ranger and Pet instead of 8 seconds of Protection for only the Pet. +
• Concussion Shot: Applies Confusion on interrupt.

Notable Suggestions:

• Hunter’s Shot: Also grants the pet stealth or the pet shadowsteps to the target.
• Pet Evade: Dodging grants the Pet ¾ seconds of Evade. Will not apply when using weapon skills or utilities that evade.

Any to add or that were missed?

+ Indicates it was edited or added based on community feedback.

Oh, that sounds good actually. Would give more functionality to Spirits Unbound. Nature’s Vengeance definitely needs some improvement. Swapping it’s place from Master to Grandmaster without some sort of compensation was lazy.

Let’s hope so. They seem set on it. If they do go through with it, I doubt Spirits will ever have a chance to earn some immunity by default. The only possible stretch of Anet considering giving Spirits an immunity would be to have a trait for it – which would be reasonable imo.

Turrets are not going to keep their immunities for long. Devs have considered making turrets susceptible to critical hits and conditions. So, there soon goes our comparisons between Spirit and Turret as far as defenses are concerned.

Should have given quick notes and feedback for each trait and for each mode.

Water Spirit cleansing conditions is a fantastic idea, the issue there is that the Initial Self Heal casts faster than the Spirit can smash the ground for the active. Having to cast Water Spirit, only to activate Aqua Surge for yet another cast time to heal yourself is pathetic.

Sure, it would be great for the people around you to get healed and have conditions cleansed, but the Ranger suffers. Even if Water Spirit’s active could cleanse conditions, if you’re poisoned, your self heal is reduced before it can cleanse it.

The toolbelt is a nice idea. If you suggested it also being a stun breaker, it would be even nicer.

Hopefully, turrets will get something in return when the nerf happens, but I don’t see anything drastic. Might see a band-aid compensation such as more armor or hp for turrets.

With the speculated mobile turrets shown in the expansion trailer, Torment and cripple would work then.

Now how about making Warrior banners destructible, too? I’d love to burn a banner with fire.

A straight up Tier 4 vendor would only mean higher gold sinks, which is probably why Anet vouched against it. However, Anet could implement the acquisition as the OP suggested and it would be a win-win. New armor, provides optional quest content, and no hefty costs of gold.

Made a few edits based on suggestions. I agree, some of the previous suggestions in the original post were too strong.

People haven’t forgotten, they are sad that they can’t get “free kills/loot bags” much anymore. Learning to play and adapt is hard for some people. So when mashing the keyboard in-game doesn’t work anymore, they mash the keyboard on forums, mostly hitting “Q” repeatedly, often times, twice in succession.

Won’t know until we get more info. But as it stands, Colin J. mentioned in an interview with Angry Joe that players will be able to swap between specializations (in this case, Ranger and Druid) while out of combat. So, there’s no reason to NOT become a Druid when you get HoT.

What was also mentioned is that base classes, like Ranger, are getting looked at to be on par/equal with specializations. So, there’s a strong chance Rangers might become “more useful.”

The pet mechanics (F1-F4) are decent and can serve well in open world content or when the Ranger is just feeling lazy. However, there are those that want more control. Here is my suggestion for giving Rangers the OPTION to switch between the Traditional (current) pet system to a more controlled version (Manual Mode) as well as a few interface tweaks.

• Mode Swap button on the left side of the mechanics panel (similar to a player’s Weapon Swap) to switch between Traditional and Manual mode.
• F1&F3 are replaced with pet skills other than their auto-attack. F2 (unique pet utility) and F4 (pet swap) will remain the same on both modes for familiarity.
• Key-bind options for Manual Mode to compensate for assigning the pet to attack a separate target, returning to the player, attacking the player’s current target, attacking a team targeted enemy (red target marker), and for swapping modes to reduce time finding your mouse cursor and clicking the icon.
• Access to manually command pets to execute other attacks.
• Ability to view cooldowns on pet skills.
• Visual representation of the 2nd selected pet that is currently not in use.
• 1-second cooldown swapping between modes to reduce double-click mishaps.

Pet Behavior when in Manual Mode

• Pet’s attacking targets will use their auto-attack until commanded otherwise.
• Any pet skill used (F1-F3), even if the skill is on cooldown, on a selected target will assign the pet to continuously attack that target.
• If the assigned target dies, pet will automatically attack the current player’s target while on “Guard” or return to the player’s position and remain passive if placed to “Avoid Combat.”

If no key-binds are assigned or used while in Manual Mode

• Pet will attack the player’s current target while on “Guard.”
• Pet will be passive while on “Avoid Combat” until commanded to execute an attack or when placed to “Guard.”

Again, this suggestion is for the OPTION to have it for those that want it. That way, for Rangers that are comfortable and content with the current system can still use it, and for those that want more control over our pets, we can have it.

Thoughts?

Your PvE “*Ranger – GS/LB Variant (Jack of all Trades)” build is on PvP mode. Wrong category?

I run SW on my Engie using 66002 as well. No issues for having the standard rifle, healing turret, supply crate, and triple kits (grenades/tool/elixir). Only thing dangerous are the Charging Terragriffs, and for those: Net Shot, Freeze Grenades, Overcharged Shot, and Supply Crate (if it’s a veteran event). Elixir Gun toolbelt to stun break out of it.

Tool kit’s Gear Shield alone is invaluable. Flamethrower is mediocre there and Bombs will get you killed often since you’ll in up close to things that can hit hard. Setup bursts with Flash Grenades on mobs, rifle 3 & 5, then Acid Bomb out of there and go back to tossing Grenades.

If you need extra help against Charging Terragriffs, play smarter – not harder, and buy Frost Guns. They’re cheap and can permanently lock down charging terragriffs by instantly applying up to 40secs of chill with a couple of uses.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Frost_Gun

If people ask what kit you’re using, just tell them, “It’s with the new specialization.” :P

They already have things such as “Remorseless” that refresh once a target has been killed. If they apply that to traits such as Predator’s Instinct, things could be so much better…

Too hard to fix the glitch. Easier patch: “There are now invulnerable champion sharks in the water on the way towards the Mossman path.”

Could be better, but not that short. Just cut it in half. 5sec Cripple / 15sec CD

1. Cause the one there didn’t have one…
2. Post for heavies only. Starter not a heavy. Gets only non-heavies.
3. Stacking Guards new dps meta.
4. Pew pew pew

Many thanks for the spreadsheet!

Given what we have, I would like to see the sword tweaked slightly in some aspects. What does the community think if the sword received these improvements?

• Kick: Hits 2 targets instead of 1.
• Hornet Sting: Cast time reduced to ¼ seconds instead of ½ seconds for quicker access to the evade.
• Hornet Sting/Monarch’s Leap: Can pierce up to 3 targets.
• Serpent’s Strike: Can cleave up to 3 targets.

Kick hitting only 1 target has always somewhat been bothering, but having it cleave 3 targets with the cripple it can provide might be too much without adjusting the duration since it’s part of the auto attack chain. 2 seems like a fair compromise, especially when Ascalonian Archers can kick up to 3 players around (granted it’s also a knockback).

Hornet Sting reduced cast time for a faster evade since using it for the evade feels slow and clunky at times. Also, giving sword 2 and 3 the ability to hit multiple targets seems fitting, especially Serpent’s Strike, which has a large snake head accompanying the animation.

Thoughts?

This sounds vaguely similar to something I recall the devs were interested in the community discussing and expanding on at one point during the Ranger CDI a year ago. Again, “vaguely” similar (to me).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/cdi/Collaborative-Development-Ranger-Profession/page/10

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

As an aside, anyone know the base health of spirits?

At Lv80:

Spirit Base HP: 7,415
Spirit HP with Vigorous Spirits: 14,832

Fun Fact: Base Spirit HP used to be 4,635 before it was buffed 60% and 3,708 before a 25% buff long ago.

I agree that Spirits are, on a whole, bad. Their active abilities could be better, though. Changing spirits survivability is another issue, so I didn’t comment on that part, only the actives and the GM trait which doesn’t “feel” necessarily worth the GM slot it retains because of the switch with Spirits Unbound.

Though, it would be nice (survivability-wise) if Spirits were like GW1 Spirits and were immune to all conditions except burning.

EDIT: Activated spirit ability range is horrid, but what if the Ranger was able to ground target them from their position? Added it to the original post. Seems like it should help a bit if they could be ground targeted and placed by the player.

Activated Spirit abilities are decent in my opinion. They are neither bad or good, with some lacking more than others. Toying around more with Spirits, what are the community’s thoughts if Spirits received these tweaks?

Active Changes

• Activated abilities apply up to 5 targets instead of 3
• Call Lightning: Additionally applies 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds
• Cold Snap: Is considered an Ice Field
• Aqua Surge: Additionally cleanses 2 conditions

Spirits Unbound

• Spirits can move and follow you. Activated Spirit skills can be ground targeted.
• Range: 600

Radius for Spirit actives are not great, so, with the suggestions given below, I think that ground targeting the actives would be all right and make sense if Spirits Unbound was taken (since they will always be nearby). A short range similar to traps seems tame.

Nature’s Vengeance

• Activated skills of Spirits are stronger and trigger when killed.

What this means when Nature’s Vengeance is taken:

• Aqua Surge: Converts 2 conditions into boons
• Call Lightning: Additionally inflicts Weakness for 5 seconds
• Solar Flare: Additionally inflicts 2 stacks of Confusion for 6 seconds
• Cold Snap: Chill duration per pulse increased from 1 to 2 seconds
• Quicksand: Cripple duration per pulse increased from 1 to 2 seconds
• Nature’s Renewal: Revives downed allies to full health

atheria.2837:

Apparently you don’t read your own links…

Apparently you didn’t read the entire thread the link went to :^)

atheria.2837:

Rangers aren’t the only ones “broken” but we are the only ones with a “mouse only click” to control any of our actions

No keybind, no way to control our pet to put it on permanent do not attack.

We still aren’t being listened to. Why no keybind?

If you’re talking about “Avoid Combat/Guard” toggle, the keybind was added awhile ago. They just never added it to the patch notes.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Pet-Combat-Toggle-in-Control-Options/first#post4970558

Pets sometimes die from fall damage instead of teleporting beside me when I fall down various elevations.

Pet dies, stays dead, and does not regenerate health when out of combat. Current work around is to swap pets or stow and then activate it.

Ah, okay. Figured they didn’t add it to the patch notes. Hoping the stow/unstow gets a keybind option as well. Cheers~

Taking into account other players and sources that can apply vulnerability, + 2% crit chance is still on the high side. One way to keep it in check though is " + 2% crit chance for every time you apply vulnerability" and each stack of vulnerability applied provides the buff for a limited time that can be stacked up to 25.

Changes sound reasonable, except Remorseless. Tone down to 1% critical chance per vulnerability stack and it’ll be all right.

Maybe go as far as having the 1st minor point for both the ranger and the pet. Same for remorseless applying the crit chance to the pet as well for each vuln stack.

McWolfy.5924:

I hope we lose beast mastety

I’d love for that traitline to be replaced for the specialization, seeing how it has the least amount of redeeming traits. However, knowing Ranger luck, we’ll probably get Marksman replaced ¬_¬

Pet raccoon with an F2 that latches onto your opponent and gnaws on their face. I’d be all like…

Yeah. The option showed up as a keybind (finally) around the time we saw all the HoT stuff added in, like the Rev profession during character creation and the F5 profession function added to the list of keybinding options.

Most rangers don’t even know about it since it’s listed at the very bottom and I believe the devs skipped out on adding it to the patch notes (I could be wrong here).

Sebrent.3625:

You simply have to do what I do in “mindless” 49 fractals … keep telling your pet to get its butt back here. I find that sometimes it listens to the fact I want it to be passive and I don’t have to spam it.

Thought I was the only one that noticed Passive (“Avoid Combat”) working sometimes. This sounds crazy, but the more this issue continues, the more I’ve become accustomed to it.

It’s growing on me how the pet only attacks what I’m attacking when set to Avoid Combat then doesn’t attack anything else, even when it’s being attacked, until I engage combat another target. Really liking it…

Yes to Torment for the Pet’s next attacks on Crippling Shot. I like zapv’s suggestion on adding confusion with concussion shot if you were to interrupt a foe.

As for replacing Swiftness with a Blind on Storm Spirit, I have been wanting that for the longest time… So, yes.

As StickerHappy mentioned, some pets would not benefit from yielding certain traits as much as others due to their initial base stats.

Though, a simple tweak like what AEFA suggested would control overall stat points, capping out power, precision, vitality, and toughness at 600 with only 2 of those being able to reach the cap, while other stats remain at 300/30% cap before traits are figured in.

AEFA.9035:

Marksmanship should have the same Power + Condition duration etc… then for Beastmastery for every point invested should reduce pet cooldowns instead and healing power.

At that point, a Ranger would have to invest fully into their own BM traitline to reach the cap for 2 pet stats while integrating the speed training trait on the pet’s BM tree.

Electro.4173:

Having “free” traits / stats for pets independent of the Ranger’s would be broken and completely out of line with every other profession in the game. You want to buff Death Shroud, you spend trait points. You want to buff Illusions / Shatters, you spend trait points. You want to buff Virtues, you spend trait points. Pets are no different, nor should they be.

Yes, we get it. People don’t like pets, they can die, they want to be powerful on their own without relying on pets, yada yada yada. None of that justifies free boosts to a profession mechanic that everyone else has to trait for.

Would not be broken at all. Other games have done it, Anet could do it as well and balance it. Also, yes, some rangers don’t like pets, but adding separate traits for pets would open up more possibilities for the class than a permanent stow.

Ehecatl.9172:

A River Drake with zerker stats and Pet’s Prowess would be legitimately overpowered. With my BM build it’s F2 already hits for around 4-6K damage with a 3K Tail Swipe. All multi-target skills. With zerker stats I could see it breaking 10K with it’s F2 easily, then following up with a 7K Tail Swipe.

Yes… God forbid a Drake’s F2 and Tail Swipe hit harder with a 25/30 second cooldown if traited for.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I knew I shouldn’t have included minions as someone would point out they are not a class mechanic… Forget those then, think on clones. If you want better clones for your Mesmer, they require traits and compromise in the build. If you could build your Mesmer as a zerk shatter burst build, then get a whole bunch of other traits to freely add to make the clones and shatters better at applying conditions as well, imagine the QQ that would happen as it is totally OP and unbalanced. Same goes for every other class mechanic. Imagine Death Shroud having its own trait tree or guard getting to use virtue traits not as part of their build, or thief getting the steal traits as well as a separate build it would be absurd.

Can’t think of illusions when discussing the pet, since Mesmers have their mechanics built into their weapons and utilities. If we could summon a pet by using a weapon skill or utility, then you could compare pets to illusions, but that is not the case.

Rangers have a handful of weapon moves (such as Axe 3 which the grants the pet’s next attack to inflict weakness) and utilities that augment the pet, yet those bonuses mean nothing if the pet has been defeated. The pet is a separate entity, not bound by weapon skills or created upon utility usage.

Pets having their own trait menu will allow flexibility and build diversity. I understand your concern about constantly adjusting traits and opting for a build save. People have wanted build saving and sharing from GW1 in GW2 for the longest time, as do I. However, I don’t see that as an option until Anet implements it, thus, why it never crossed my mind to even suggest it.