Well this would require some more tweaking i suppose. For example making the spirit untouchable, like guardian spirit wepons at gw2 start. You would then have guarantee it stays up for you no matter what. Something to match the rampage as one guarantee of happy mayham with stability.
And that’s why it needs buffing, least PvE. Giving its passive heal 1000 range and 120 sec cooldown (given its cd starts after it dies) would be a good start.
Anyone get a feeling topic opener is a warrior? Just checking;)
I mustered up pretty awesome norn ranger and am quite happy with him:3
If you’re gonna ask which races are best for ranger, then i guess i would have to say sylvari (binding roots, take root), asura (radiation field is always epic!, golems don’t hurt either), or norn (transformations giving some spike damage, stealth, bleeds or long dazes). I guess charr and summon warband would make sense too (not to mention their deep voice when commanding pets!). Human? i really see nothing great there for ranger.
If you’re gonna ask which profession is best for a norn, then hands down a ranger:) You accuallly ARE the “hunter of the wild”, and feel like a real norn with ranger’s survivability, rather then play a towering legend that gets downed every few secs when choosing mesmer, elementalist or thief (least in early stages). Trust me playing a norn on a squishy profession is a total buzzkill.
It’s 5.25% damage boost if traited. Remember it has 20 sec cd after it dies, so it’s 60 secs with it, then forced 20 secs without it. 75% uptime, so end result is 7% * 0.75 in prologed fights. yeah i know, kick in the nuts but had to set it straight.
I’m underwhelemed by the spirit of nature elite. Small radius of healing, doesn’t seem to scale with healing (if wiki is right), 25% uptime, and all that is supposed to take a slot reserved for rampage as one or entangle. I expected better.
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
If you’re no fan of having a pet then that’s settled. Warrior for you.
That aside – here’s how answers to your questions look like:
- survivalability - glassy warrior is glassy. Tanky bear is still tanky despite ranger being glassy. Bad luck and got downed? No problem, ranger can call his pet to revive him, ignoring minor setback such as pet being dead (it’s insta-revived just to revive you:), low on hp (even when downed you can swap to 2nd, healthy pet) or getting hit (“Thank you sir, may i have another!”) as it revives my ranger.
And if you’re bit unconfortable when downed, there’s a trait to pop a nice 12 sec healing spring for you when you get downed, just your simple aoe heal, regen pulses, condition clenses and longest water combo field ingame. The usual deal for a ranger:)
- utility in dungeons - it’s a tie. Warrior is slightly above ranger (banners!), but then again if you got 4 warriors in a party anything non warrior is extra ulitlity. That scenario aside, it’s a fierce battle.
Warriors are racking up the damage with banners (crit damage buffs, precision and power buffs, even small stability casts), grant great party vigor with warhorn, and are known for abusive might and fury stacking.
Ranger on the other hand likes to go straight for the warrior’s jugular and provide protection that warriors lack and party healing that can make even water eles think twice if they’re the top dog in that department. When it comes to giving party swiftness, fury or regeneration, rangers can match a warrior anyday, however they lack a solid source of might stacking and easy to use source of party vigor.
Combo field wise…well just about anything trumps a warrios for obvious reasons. And having fire, ice and water field, sure doesn’t hurt ranger’s combo game.
Condition and control wise it’s a bit of draw yet again – both professions are great at crippling and immobilizing. Ranger has the advantage of chilling a lot and using different conditions or control effects via pets.
Warrior has the lead in immobilizing, and definite lead in crowd control – hammer burst, “stomp” or “fear me” utilities.
Despite that ranger has one card warrior can’t play – his pet. Street smart ranger can send in pet to draw in aggro, while his party stays unscathed, then have it fight there, go pest another mob, or return, bringing the party to him.
World bosses if they’re not that lethal, then warrior with his simple and hard hitting burst is the dish of the day. If they’re something really nasty that doesn’t like being approached, then it’s a tie between ranger’s bows and warrior’s bow & rifle.
I disagree with this idea. Given how the skill works, and short supply of blast finishers on gurdian, you’re asking for long lasting water combo field. Anything shorter would be wasted, because people first would have to notice it appeared, then move to it (even you’re not sure where you’re gonna land with it), and then have a sec or two at least to pop their finisher on it.
Long lasting water combo fields are specialties of ranger, engi and elementalist, especially ranger. And given how powerful they can get, for most pugs that’s 50% reason to take a ranger into dungeon. If guardian, who’s already full of meaningful party support would get that, the ranger would be down to “take him, cause his bear tanks and we feel sorry for him” in most pugs.
That would be redundant – healing spring already has that functionality and stronger. What would rock for me is putting some mights on it, since that’s one boon ranger himself is a bit short on. Or protection.
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
I disagree on pets stats being tied to ranger ones. Least the primary ones.
Pet having separate stats from ranger is what makes up for diveristy and ability to do things others can’t like being both dps and tank (bear pets), or condition applier and dps (melee ranger, condition pet).
However it’s another issue with secondary stats. Pets with 0 healing, crit damage, condition duration, boon duration etc are no fun. While traits aim to fix that a bit they for most part fail miserably. Traits giving healing and condi damage are a joke (350 or so?) compared to what healing and condi damage a ranger may get himself (2k if he wants to).
50% more boon duration is best of the bunch, but pet buffs themselves need some love. Fury moa is great, but moa’s protection is laughably short even with every possible buff to it, also i don’t like that bird pets casts swiftness without my control – i pick bird for a fast kill, not to see it dance around in air casting swiftness while my rear gets sniped. Some work is needed there to make them matter.
50% condi duration is great for non damaging conditions (immobilize, fear, cripple, chilled etc), but not so hot for bleeds because of the pathetic condi damage for pets. I would say work on those traits, or make them semi tied to ranger for example 800 condition damage + 0.5 of ranger’s condi damage.
Another bone i got to pick with pets is the return command and offhand axe. when i use whirling axe i expect to protect anything that’s right next to me from projectiles. Least when traited with offhand training for reflection bubble size increment. Needless to say in such a scenario when my ranger orders his pet to return i want to it to HEEL right at my HEEL. Not 5 meters in front of me. It’s supposed to stand 10 centimeters next to me, so i can protect it, or so it won’t pull any aggro that i myself wouldn’t.
First off ranger has absolutely no manners and doesn’t know when to die. He just doesn’t want to take his leave like a man. He trows down healing fields, that heal, give regen, clense conditions and are waterfields for the blasty party members like it was free candy. You think downing him would shut him up? he has a trait to drop even longer one when he’s downed, and his own drooling, unvaccinated beast..erm i mean “pet” can revive him far better then he himself.
As if running around with a rabid, slobering, smelly fleabag wasn’t enough, he’s obviously taken into some occultism and started summoning spirits for buffs! One of them, stone spirit lets people get protection while their attacking. kittene to get that buff, but the damage one (frost spirit) is also not every day occurance. Probs that’s why he sold his soul (and gets visits from exortists)!
And some of them might even reach him if it wasn’t for his horde of abominations from hell better known as pets. Mother nature must be full of love, cause half of those “pets” got looks not even a mother could love. For those adversaries that looks and smell alone didn’t do the trick, the “pets” bring a variety of nasty surprises, that are independent from ranger himself!
While that sissy with bow polishes his nails, wondering if berserker’s gear is better then assasin’s or other way around, his pets can still have defence of a german sherman tank with a forcefield, taking heat off him, or cast boons, inflict nasty long conditions, or just scratch the innards from enemies faster then your ex scrached your face off when you answered the question “Do i look fat in that dress?”. And probs just like you with your ex, he always has an alternative around, just swapping from one pet to the other once he feels it’s time to maul you in a new, uglier way.
Of course as if abusing poor horrors found in nearby cav..erm i mean using pets wasn’t enough, he himself also comes decked with lots of utilities. They say that there’s two way to tell a ranger apart from a snake in melee combat. If it’s uglier of the two, or wiggles more, then it’s the ranger.
Thieves have officialy filed a lawsuit vs ranger for abusive use of evades as well as sic’ing their pets on them. Sadly due to their own charges no thief came to present his case in court personally.
Ranger’s stability is also stuff of hate. 20 secs stability from rampage as one that does not get shut off with elite itself, means that with boon duration, he’s not gonna be out of the game any time soon. There’s a reason it’s called “Rampage” – the hp bars of poor vic..adversaries of ranger rage tell the whole story. It’s not uncommon to see genius norn rangers such as Panther Slash use that to advantage while leading parties through dangerous mobs – mobs go for ranger who cannot be stunned, knocked down etc, while rest follows not far behind avoiding needless attention. Circus level bear abuses are also not unheard off, where bear gets sent to draw aggro while party just sneaks past the animal attack scene.
Every certifiable psychopath must be a proficient axe user. Does it come as a shock to you that ranger can use it both main and offhand? Offhand one is especially the loving side of ranger, that says, come here, or i’ll just pull you myself, then get sliced to bits with my whirling axe, that will add free 12 stacks of vulnerability asides 5 sec missle reflection and self retalliation. Best things in life come in melee;)
But nothing wrong with going about it in an old fahion way, and run around with a pitchfork and torch. Sadly they didn’t give ranger a pitchfork..kitten EU agriculture regulations! But we do have the torch! And a fire combo field on it (8 sec one, nice cd). Speaking of fields rangers seem to get the best deals – ice one from ice trap, looooong water one from healing spring, and said fire one from torch’s bonfire. More should be on their way via traps. Regardless, while not many, they definitely hit the spot for any combo aware party!
To sum it up i remember an old metal plate on the fence with picture showing a dog and a gun, and saying “If he won’t bite you, then i’ll shoot you”. Kinda like the ranger and his pet:)
Leaving pets aside (least for this post), i just realized it would be epic if we could trigger our traps manually, especially given they’re supposed to get more combo fields on them.
Imagine i place a fire trap and activate it for fire combo field, then my party starts blasting it. Sure there’s bonfire, but not everyone wants a torch in their offhand for every dungeon.
Or an ice field from frost trap. I set up the trap, party stands in it, i pop it and we start spamming chilling bolts or using blasts for ice aura on us.
Would sure make traps a lot more useful in pve, i say!
I’m not fond of idea of having cooldown attached to “return” command. I like the “always there for you” functionality.
That asides another useless trait i hunted down is in wilderness survival master tier:
“Hide in plain sight” – Applies camouflage when you are dazed, knocked down, launched, pushed back, or stunned. 30 sec cooldown.
So i get invisible for 3 secs but without ability to move while cloaked and most likely without ability to act since it’s not a stunbreaker.
This should be either 6-8 sec camouflage, given for 2-3 secs you’ll be disabled one way or another, or 3 sec stealth, but with insta stun break – so you can run outta heat, while popping a heal.
Then again with martial training and offhand training in the same tier, that trait might have to do better then that still.
You guys are going waaaaay over the top with this. Armor value difference on light vs heavy isn’t really big, and your defence is sum of that and toughness which is not favouring heavies. Simple protection boon on light character makes it far more tanky then heavy one without.
They key here is that warriors got natural 18k+ hp on lvl 80 ,with really big hp regen from healing signet, while eles squishy 10k+. You should look more at guards – they got just as bad hp as ele, but live thanks to lots of healing, protection, blinds and projectile deflection/absorption, and easy vigor. Asides blind maybe all of those are areas where ele can do just as well (for himself at least) if not better in some (healing).
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
Well you could mix up the ideas – Moment of Clarity giving attack of opportunity on successful evade and doubling the daze stun durations anyway. As for Interrupts – either:
- also granting moment of clarity on interrupt (they don’t come easy for a ranger),
- giving a solid heal to you and your pet on interrupt (let’s say around 1.5k base with 1.0 coefficient). That’s something grandmaster and once per 10-13 sec worthy to me.
- transferring those 3 conditions – though it’s a bit of a gamble in departament that should be rather reliable if you ask me.
Well jaysin, it’s gonna be a lot more fun when you evade for that moment of clarity, rather then wait on two 25 sec cd or so skills:) 1 hit per 10-13 secs being 50% more power is not what i call grandmaster trait worthy.
Well while i was away from this thread i had a new idea for signet of hunt active. that is – “recharge all pet skill cooldowns”. Signet cd let’s say 60 secs. Traited with signet of beastmaster it would recharge ranger’s weapon skills as well.
Point to it is simple – occasional abuse of skills on cd, plus given how ranger doesn’t have any “Ultra damage on long cd” weapon skills, it wouldn’t hurt that much. On the other hand he has a lot going on defense wise there, for example whirling axe. That could be a small panic button.
As for moment of clarity – a simple change from “on interrupt” to “on succesfful block/evade” would rack it up in ranger’s favour.
Man this company shuld hire me pronto, i’m a clear genius;)
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
I noticed two bugs tied to ranger’s pets and their condition duration.
1. The tooltip for pet’s condition duration takes into account ranger’s own condition duration which is not used by the pet at all
2. malicious training trait does not work on pet’s first skill quequed after entering combat.
Example – malicious training was on. I hit a target with longbow and my snow leopard is running to it. I trigger it’s F2 icy pounce – it works as it should – 12 sec chill. That is probably because pet automatically quequed another attack when i initiated combat myself, and then my F2 command overwrote that.
If i however let pet start battle, by selecting a target and pressing F2, the same leopard with same trait setup did only 8 sec chill – malicious training did not work.
Ranger issues as well as threads are a ton & plenty.
This one is to keep it all organized and comprihensive, with first post being updated to show new issues as they get posted and possible solutions, with links where applicable.
It’s simple – you post your beef and/or solution, i put it (or reference to it) in first post in organized way.
The Ranger Balance
PvE
I. Profession mechanic – the pet.
II. Weapons.
III. Slot skills.
IV. Traits.
V. General professon issues.
1. (Example) – weak ranged damage on ranged oriented profession.
Description here.
Solutions
* bigger bow damage modifier solution by Forum Member X [link here]
sPvP
I. Profession mechanic – the pet.
II. Weapons.
III. Slot skills.
IV. Traits.
V. General professon issues.
WvWvW
I. Profession mechanic – the pet.
II. Weapons.
III. Slot skills.
IV. Traits.
V. General professon issues.
If you like the idea, post below and help fill it up:)
I disagree on the topic starter idea.
If ferocity affected everything, not just critical damage, then all stat combos without it would be null and void.
It would butcher stat diveristy, and the original idea behind it is to make critical builds bit less viable, to open up other builds and drag them from out of the shadow.
Good observation there Akisame!
Oh and i made obvious mistake in my last post – that signet active benefits those who are not zerks, while zerks wouldn’t get much of it (fixed that already in original post). It would also give rangers (unless devs think otherwise) an edge in destroying any structures – 50% damage buff that works vs structures.
I also believe that attacks of opportunity we have now (trait one, hilt bash one) should work with crits and the signet one multiplicatively – so ranger, his pet or both, can get a big juicy hit once in a while if they work for it with hilt bash, or interrupt a foe with that grandmaster trait on.
Speaking of which – it’s terrible. Moment of clarity is some sort of mistake. Ranger has got to have one of the worst if not the worst interrupt moves of all professions:
1. greatsword 5: hilt bash – one of the few usable ones…but it already gives attack of opportunity
2. offhand axe – #4: path of scars (pull) – not gonna happen – pull activates waaayy to late to sucessfully react with it to anything that does not have few seconds wind-up.
3. greatsword 4: counerattack – not an interrupt. It pushes back after blocking the attack, so the attack is already done and not interrupted.
4. wolf pet skill – once every 45 secs, and one and a half second windup.
5 hyena knockdown – it’s not under player’s direct control, just gotta hope it happens.
6. bow interrupts are fine…but do they have anything meaningful to take advantage of that attack of opportunity save longbow auto?
Long story short – it sucks.
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
Ok, after little brainstorming i had few ideas, but they were already in traits in one form or the other…so why not just alter signet of hunt active a bit:
For next 10 seconds all your pet’s non critical attacks do 50% more damage.
I think that would be epic and non game breaking. If your pet is a zerker (or you with signet of beastmater trait) you won’t get much, because crits will not get the boost and by default each crit will be at least as strong as attack of opportunity.
But less critical oriented builds would get a nice damage boost, one that would earn a place in their skillbar, where zerks would normally put some defensive skill. Plus i feel rangers should get more crit buffs then most. This not being one, but a nice way to have damage without going balls to the wall on precision and critical damage (or soon to replacement).
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
@jcbroe – yeah that was a bit overboard, but in general i mean “give us something meaningful on that active”. I myself wonder what it should be. Once i brainstorm something meaningful i’ll drop suggestions here. for now i’m brainstorming;)
I can understand what devs are saying. One of the funnest things on thief is to take a fire combo field from another class, drop refuge on it (dark field) and then blast the underlying fire field for mights, while everyone is stealthed. A nice and safe buffstation before moving out in not so friendly sorroundings.
Listen Detharos, i can understand your rage, little makes a man more furious then inability to solve problem via his skill and ingeniuity. But if you click my idea you will notice that:
a) it has [PvE] in title. I don’t do pvp and don’t like WvW much and don’t assume to fix things there
b) nowhere do i say pets should be slow or not have ability to pursue target
c) i posted a separate idea to give rangers torment, though for bows. You’re more experienced in PvP area feel free to suggest if you find the idea good.
My pet ward idea is build around giving melee ranger’s pet a meaningful defence that will greatly boost it’s survivial & damage (pet stays on enemy, as you deal with the hit), at the price of player’s skill to make it happen. Unskilled player will get himself killed fast, but that’s fine, since i belive ranger should be a demanding class to play, and greatly rewarding one to those that pick up the gauntlet.
I don’t mind pets running faster, reacting faster to commands, having protection on dodge or even aegis on dodge. But i do feel that giving them ranger level defense under player’s full control, along with full consequences for failing is a great way to go, especially given how devs state then can’t mess with their AI guts.
As for skill, my ranger is lvl 42, so yeah i’m a ranger in training. Still i got my screwes together to know using call of the wild after healing spring means a nice aoe heal for myself and my pet + condition remowal, popping rampage as one for stability (especially with extra boon duration) is a great idea, as it using hunter’s call right after to make your pet into petinator:> Epic was the time when i did ac at lvl 36, and asked ele to drop the lightning hammer, then rampage, healing spring and lighthining+ blast ownage on those burrows. I sure didn’t fail at my end of sending those burrows to obllivion;)
And that’s just a small part of fun i’ll have with my awesome ranger:)
That aside, on the topic – signet of hunt active is utter garbage. One pet hit being 50% stronger once every 30 secs?? For a precious utility slot?? What the?
Greatsword hilt strike offers same for less cooldown, with damage and daze/stun in the package, without taking up any utility slots! And swiftness is not that hard to get for a ranger!
Make that active: 10 seconds of 50% stronger pet attacks, or something near that. Something that makes me think about accually using that active and not wondering why signet like this exists at all…
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
oh and yeah, livestream did confirm they will fix ranger sword #1 problem with dodges.
The only suggestions around lately to help the pet survive certain pve aoe rich encounters and the aoe rich environment that the devs are likely to entertain are those suggesting adding skills that work like a reverse protect me so that we can redirect its damage to us to make our evades have an affect on it.. which is a HORRIBLE IDEA. We should not have to sacrifice a skill slot just to make the pet do something it needs to be able to do without cost to the player.
Only horrible thing here is your core belief that your defenses sit monstly on utility slot bar, and not weapon skills.
That being said it’s my idea and here’s clear and common logic behind it:
your melee weapons (sword, greatsword, offhand dagger, offhand axe) offer lots of build in evades and other defenses. regular dodging doesn’t take up any slot skills either. Nor does the command for you to guard your pet (it’s to be a profession mechanic under F3 button, not slot skill).
If you use the bow or axe? Then you’re most likely miles away from your pet and you can call it back to you to evade aoe, or swap it if that’s impossible. Or still use my “pet ward” mechanic with regular dodge or shortbow #3 evade.
All of the above without taking up a single utility slot. If you wanna know more then do some real reading on it – link in my signature.
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
Well i’m the guy from one of the 3 linked in top post ideas to improve pets (pet ward idea in my case). Sooo, take a look at it and post there if you like;)
As for discussion in this thread i disagree with pet skills being useless or the need for one pet only. Pet skills in some cases are awesome, not all but enough to care. Also having two swappable pets means i have access to two skills and two types of pet ally (for example the tanky bear when things get hot, and vicious feline or bird for dealing big damage for the rest of the time).
Not to mention strategic uses of pet swap – like having a pet take aggro i don’t want, and once i’m in the clear – fast swap to save the pet and have my 2nd pet right next to me just in case.
or taking conditions with pet, then a swap, saving me trouble of taking them off it.
Getting downed usually means your pet isn’t in best shape either – not exactly what you want given it’s to revive you in few secs. Swapping to fresh, full of hp pet for the job is a livesaver!
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
Jackalope!! With bloodied horns!!
trolling aside…looking at just every post aside my first one.
If there’s a new condition there should be professions with access to it. And i see warriors getting access to it (surprise, surprise), necros (that is fair, conditions are their game), even thieves (what?) but not ranger who’s all about messing with opponent’s legs in painful brutal ways? (spike trap, muddy terrain, longbow #5, shortbow #4 and so on and so forth).
why not just find buddy #4 and buddy #5? Just write "LF non “pro zerk lvl 80 warriors” for constant dungeon raids" and you should find a good person…or few thousand;)
i prefer pressing #4 on my greatsword, and #4 and #5 on my warhorn;)
I must admit that i made a ranger about 2 weeks ago, and i’m loving it so far. What i fail to understand is why he doesn’t have torment? As far as i know torment is the movement punishing condition, and if any class is about restricting enemy movement it’s the ranger (well that and necro). So some torment ownage should rain down on the ranger (especially bows).
I would agree some classes would need less while some more. When i looked at warrior warhorn my jaw dropped. 50% party vigor base uptime, without any traits or boon duration in it yet. With those it can easily get close to 100% or over.
Critting guardian gets practically 100% vigor, but seeing how squishy guardian hp is that is understandable.
My ranger on the other hand has to either go for pet swapping trait for much shorter vigor to my party, get critically hit himself, heal himself for self vigor only, or use skill on quite the cooldown. None of those giving anywhere near 50% vigor uptime and each quite apart from another in trait lines. Not that great. Well i got lotsa evades, but then again warrior has lotsa counters and blocks.
Valor
Mace of justice : Mace is trash.
Mace owns – the aoe block, great regen symbol on very short cd and cleaving, healing auto attack
Honorable shield : Our shield is rubbish. With some tweaks the projectile block could be useful.
Our shield is one of the very few good, non gimmecky sources of protection for self and party. The shield of absorption may pale in comparison to shield of avenger, but it’s a good panic button when all else in on cd (absorption and pushback)[/b]
Honor
Writ of exaltion : 60 radius is too small even for symbol builds. Have it turn symbols into mobile auras.
Either something changed, or i’m missing something here, cause last time i checked traited symbols were huge
Virtues
Improved spirit weapon duration : Enough with the small army of spirit weapon traits. I’m going to go copy paste what I wrote for the last several spirit weapon traits : they are trash!
I dare you to say that after fractals with and then without shield of avenger. For shield alone that trait is DIAMONDS. And it’s whooping 50% at adept tier!
Elite focus : I don’t know if many people use our tomes any more. Removing our utilities and weapon skills is a bit rubbish. Most of the time I see them used it’s for a quick zealot’s fervor (quickness) or 100% heal and then cancelled. I think tomes need a rework.
I agree this trait has very powerful competition on it’s tier, and thus is ommited most of the time. Still tome of courage is pretty sweet. Saved many lifes with it and also it’s a good aggro pull with toughness increase
Anything i did not mention i agree upon.
Zeal
Binding Jeopardy : 5 vulnerability for 8 seconds on immobilize.
We have 2 immobs on a 15 and 20 second cooldown. This trait isn’t awful but if it’s damage you’re after, Fiery Wrath is much better.
Unless you’re sylvari. Then this traits is easy 25 stacks with binding roots, yahoo!!
Spirit weapon mastery : Spirit weapons are garbage except the shield, which isn’t worth traiting.
Shield is worth 10x it’s weight in gold. Anything that shortens downtime for shield of avenger is a blessing and a most valuble trait to me. I have that trait on for most of my dungeon/fractal runs.
Eternal spirit : See above comment on spirit weapons.
Wrathful spirit : See above comment on spirit weapons.
Trait idea is good, it’s the offensive spirit weapons that aren’t cutting the cake (too low rate of attack, going into coma after being commanded with this trait on.
Radiance
Radiant fire : Nobody uses the torch.
I use the torch. It’s pretty powerful on both attacks and clensing fire is a good condi removal without taking up utility slots
Inscribed removal : 2/4 of our utility signets have awful passives, none of the on-use effects are great either. Possibly the knockdown in pvp.
Perfect inscriptions : 20% extra of 180 stats = 36. 36 stat points for a grandmaster trait? What a joke.
OBJECTION! Signet of resolve’s valuable passive gets upped to 200% efficiency. Other then that, yeah, just sad
Invulnerability when ranger dodges sounds sweet, but it’s very limited. Dodge means just the endurance eating regular dodges. Will it work? Sure!
But it’s very shallow. There’s no depth, no challenge and no risk vs reward in it.
If regular dodges provided by endurance were all it takes for those biggest, baddest fights, then that would be fine. But in some cases (lupi for one), it’s not. And Ranger and his pet fight as one. If you need many more “saves” then just regular dodge, then so does your pet.
On top of that, ranger dodging because his pet is about to get hit feels unnatural. Dodging because the damage is directly threatening you (activated pet ward) makes much more sense.
Pet Ward is also a tool to optimize your hp levels with pet. Suppose you have 80% hp, pet’s not doing so well – 30%. Given next few hits to pet won’t be killer 1hko, but regular hits, you could turn pet ward on, and tank a bit for you furry friend to keep you both in combat, then turn off when it’s gets to hot. The end result might be you both being at 30% hp, and healing skill ready to heal you both.
Without pet ward you’d have one ranger who doesn’t need healing just yet, and one dead pet for which it’s too late.
Unlike those stiff “dodge for invul/protect/pet dodge” solutions, pet ward is the much higher level of defense, because it gives you the full control you need, offering much broader defense options and tactical opportunities, while posing a fair amount of challenge to the ranger.
And hey if you want pet evade on dodge, just activate pet ward, dodge, deactivate. All done. Maybe bit more fuss, but that’s just tip of the iceberg, unlike a fixed solution.
As for better shout response – i’ll buy that for a dollar!
Pet power scaling – i’m totally not familiar with that subject so i’ll zip it on that one.
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
If 100 people have one idea and one genius has another i’d go with the genius’ one.
All posts shouting “OP OP OP,” or “this idea is stupid” aren’t worth considering unless a solid, logical reason is provided why given idea is bad.
I’d hate to live in a world where something new and creative gets butchered cause of few loudmouth naysayers that can’t even muster some decent counter-arguments.
If the pet is broken, then you fix the pet, not the traits. Besides any trai that would fix the pet, would become “one to rule them all”, and any builds that would not include it, would be "vastly subpar, dead weight, bad move etc.
Also solving pet issues with traits is not my idea. I proposed a new profession mechanic in the first post:)
Ranger is supposed to be about skilled and challenging gameplay by managing two characters (you and pet), not just one. And pet ward is as simple to activate and deactivate as tapping one button.
Aegis on the other hand might sound simple, but offers far to little protection to be meaningful. It protects only from one single hit! How will that protect your pet against:
- big aoe that rather then hit once, hit few times but too fast to walk out of it on time anyway
- Killer damage 1 hit aoe rings, but with tendency to overlap way too much
- unblockable skills, or multihit targetted skills, such as risen illusionist’s mesmer beam
To name a few things where aegis just doesn’t get the job done.
@Castaliea.3156
Glad you see the aegis shortcomings, but your idea also has major hole. Were a trait like that put in there, then there would be no flexability. You’d have rangers who took it, and “pet corpse providers” that did not. Any build without it would be considered “idiot’s choice” without a right to exist.
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
Hi all, especially balance team of arena.net! As we all know ranger’s pets are awesome fun, until they come face to face with red circle of death that just cannot be facetanked. To allevate the problem in a flexible and adaptive way i thought of the following solution:
Pet ward command - when activated it would act in reverse way to “protect me” shout. Pet would take no damage, instead it’s master would take the brunt of any hits that the pet would otherwise receive. However unlike the pet, the ranger has many ways to mitigate or completely negate that damage, such as:
- any form of evasion
- any form of blocking
- any form of reflection
- any form of damage reduction
In short rather then giving pet some sort of poor man’s defeses such as aegis or a dodge when ranger dodges, it could get the full package by letting ranger himself handle those hits.
Being a command the skill would have no cooldown and instant cast, and it would be a toggle skill – use it once to initiate pet ward, use it again to cancel it and have pet deal with it’s own hits.
WIth that in place a ranger and hit pet would get significant advantages in battle as long as the ranger is willing to up his pet micromanagement game.
Here are the clear advantages of pet ward:
- ability to use all evasion granting skills to protect your pet, not just regular dodge.
- that gs counter attack too
- no loss of pet’s damage – it stays there and hits, you handle the defense when needed
- you decide when to protect it and for how long – what if pet is dying of condition and pet swap is on cooldown? With pet ward you have control and can take some pain until swap is possible
- and when to not – what if dodging with you would cause the pet to dodge off a cliff? Once again here you decide, and nothing is left to luck.
- freedom of builds for ranger – “bearbow” worked because being away from pet you can call it out of AoE damage range. Now you can go in any configuration, getting up close and personal with a champ will not spell sure death of your pet when he casts AoE.
- a player skill based solution – this defense is as good as the player using it. Death for the unskilled, blessing for skilled rangers.
Additional ideas that would support pet survivability in tough battles
- pet getting aegis on dodge trait - alone it would be terribad, due to aegis shortcomings, but if used as a trait that would support pet survival and not replace pet ward, it would be great. [that idea is not mine, mine is to put it in along with pet ward not instead of it]
- “Guard” shout being insta-cast and not 1 sec cast - 10 seconds protection for pet with short cd talks. But 1 sec cast time kills any chances of using is a response to incoming aoe attack without getting pulverized yourself. Plus shouts are supposed to be instant by default.
Post with your support or criticism below i will ofc defend my ideas with logic and examples where possible;) Also to bump this thread so a dev can take a look at it and post what they think, and confirm they know about the ideas:)
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)
How about new profession mechanics?
Ranger
- Guard pet - you take the hits your pet would normally take yourself. This would be a command skill without any cooldowns, set on/off by pressing the F3 key.
Idea here is that if you take those hits on yourself, then you can evade/block/reflect them – something your pet can’t. And you have full control over when you’re being protective of your pet, or it’s gotta take it’s own damage.
That way if there’s powerful attack coming your way you won’t have to feel like semi-winner and half the success, cause when others including yourself dodged, your pet didn’t and you lost your companion..
Necromancer:
- F2 class mechanic – “Realm of the mists”.
Enter into the realm of the dead, gaining damage protection and new skill set, but staying too long in it will kill you.
Unlike death shroud your hp would not be shielded by secondary hp pool, instead you would gain an exclusive damage reducing buff that grows over time to a breaking point of absorption of enemy attacks. However as it grows, so does the death corruption count, where max stacks = deafeated state. Corruption stacks would wear off as you’re not in “Realm of the Mists state”.
This state would also provide it’s own 5 skills just like death shroud, though much less control and survival oriented, and much more damage and negative status oriented.
“Kill them before it kills you” is the message of the day for this mechanic.
Pet:
1. F1 button used for both attacking and calling pet back. (another player’s suggestion)
2. F3 button given guard command (any damage to pet goes to you, you can evade/block/reflect it with your own skills). On/off command, no cooldowns
3. faster F2 skill execution.
4. visible other skill cooldowns (so for example i can see when combo finisher that is not under F2 willl be used)
5. a way to order pet to go to specific spot, no questions asked, with immediate execution (“guard” shout is close, but pet will attack anything in range ignoring original “move to this spot” command)
Weapon:
1. easier normal dodging when doing #1 chain on sword
2. dagger mainhand – condition and 1v1 melee weapon
3. more 100% projectile finishers – i mean come on, he is the RANGEr, who else is supposed to do it if not him?
utility skills:
1. “guard” shout instant cast not 1sec, like a shout should.
2. “rampage as one” giving 2 stacks of might to ranger with each pet attack, given how pet attacks are much less frequent then ranger ones.
3. lower cd on lighting reflexes?
4. “Sic’em” made stronger or shorter cd, but buffed. There’s a lot of strong competition for those precious 3 slots, make this skill worth it.
5. “Protect me” shout should have shorter cd. It’s a live saver but not op one – you risk losing your pet.
It’s not the profession, it’s the people. Especially the ones who are too pro for anything out of warrior/guard/mesmer setup and use the pirate tactics #16 – stacking.
Ranger has a lot to bring to the table, for example the famous healing spring – condition clensing, heal, pulsing regeneration and 10 sec water combo field? yes please! And unless we’re dealing with a bad ranger, then the last one to fall is the ranger and his infamous bear. Which can be swapped for attacking pet for those who don’t know ranger has 2 available in combat.
Mine is level 30 with sword + warhorn setup and feline/bear companions, and while i’m just touching the tip of ranger iceberg i’m already experiencing survival beyond any other profession i played, and awesome tag team action with my pet. There’s a lot more to do and i won’t say more since i’m just 30, but i see the potential there, a lot of it.
One gripe i have with the sword for ranger is how it’s completely not working with regullar dodge. Normally when on other character i press dodge, it interrupts curremt action and dodges, not questions asked.
With the ranger however it seems the sword just won’t let it go and either i time it in between chain hits or i got a problem.
Whiners aside. It means there is no uber gear advantage ingame, it’s not the sword you hold, but how you use it. Sucess depends on your build and proper and timely use of the right skills, which requires knowing the enemy, the skills, and other things to watch out for.
While gear matters as far as giving stats, nobody gets unfair advantage of having “+20 cash shop sword of imminent doom”. They gotta play better then you, since they can’t wield bigger sword then you.
be a guardian then. Pop protective fields and there you go. Rather then party healing (which guard can do also), you become party damage preventer. It’s better to prevent then to treat;)
This idea is dumb. I already have to heal myself in order to heal my pet who is taking damage. Now I also have to evade, wasting my endurance, for my pet.
No, thank you.
However kyubi’s idea is neat. Upon your dodge your pet gains an aegis. If this aegis gets pope , your pet gains protection and/or regen for several seconds.
Let’s see…when you dodge roll (which is endurance waste, is it not?) pet gains one measly block vs AoEs that usually do few nasty hits in very short time. Some defense! Since i main a guardian i should know!
My idea let’s you choose if you wanna cover it’s rear or not. You’re not forced to “waste endurance” if you don’t like.
Accually it gets better. You don’t have to waste it if you do too. If damage is directed to you, then evade does not have to mean using dodge at all! There are quite a few weapon skills with build in evade, that need no endurance:
Sword: #2 & #3 skill
Dagger: #4 skill
Shortbow: #3 skill
GS #1 – third hit of chain gives 1 sec evade
GS: #4 – block & counter or 3 sec block vs projectiles
offhand Axe – #5 – projectile reflection
ulitlity: Lightning Reflexes – a dodge in a can.
All of those defensive moves now available to save your pet, most of them evades without even looking at your endurance bar. Now you wanna trade all that defense capability for measly aegis?
As for protection for pet – simply equip “Guard” skill. 10 sec protection + stealth for it, with 15 sec cd. 2/3 protection time right off the bat. And you can make cd shorter with beastmastery making it 10 outta 12 secs. Any boon duration onboard and it can get near 100% uptime.
Because evade protects from any number of blows for it’s duration, while aegis blocks just one single hit, given it’s not ublockable.
My idea offers protection for pet by having you deal with it, and with that the reflection/blocking and evades that you have and pet doesn’t. All that under your full control. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.