ideas to make ranger and especs more viable in zergs

remorseless: allies gain opening strike and opening strike makes other allies next attack unblockable, remove +25% dmgfarsighted: granted to nearby alliesempathic bond: reduce condition duration and damage on yourself and nearby allies by 20%refined toxins: apply to nearby allies, remove pet partinvigorating bond: reduce cd and up base healslb - leader of the pack: remove duration nonsense and make stances 10 targetunstoppable union - apply to nearby alliesdrood - druidic clarity - apply to nearby alliesgrace of the land - might and heals apply to 10 allies

staff 4 - 10 targetstaff 5 - add protglyph of the stars - remove channel

basically a boost to number of allies/ shares a lot of ranger traits with allies. kind of lazy but I think these would go a long way.

Don’t you think sharing remorseless with allies is a little OPed?

the class needs AoE damage to be zerg material, not support

We already failed twice in that regard with Druid heals and SB stance share and aren't unseating Firebrand or healbot scrappers with their anti projectile skills

A far easier way would be to change up our axe skills in wvw.

1. Make all 1200 range
2. Add extra bounces to axe 1 (at least the default 3), make the damage multiply based on bounces to balance 1v1 combat if necessary (possible alternate change to just make it a splash aoe like the Staff Ele fireball)
3. Remove the projectile status of path of scars so it can't be negated, increase the target cap to 5 or more (reduce cooldown to maximize CC spam and adjust damage as needed)
4. Make whirling defenses a mobile skill. Increase cooldown if proven to be too powerful in small scale combat

The only other hope for the class is Anet to roll out a 3rd espec where we just fart out easy massive damage AoE's like the necro which is almost certainly never going to happen.

Ultimately, these are all just pipe dreams to be honest. All the ranger's gonna get for the forseeable future is our longbow damage nerfed into the ground so people can zip around on mounts with 0 risk

@"Stand The Wall.6987"I don't think you should propose a bunch of seemingly random AoE buffs which as you mentioned are lazy but also won't fix the problem. I think it's better to first think about at baseline, what is the closest ranger currently has to a meta build, why it doesn't work and then propose the minimum number of buffs that would push it into at least being viable in zergs without breaking other game modes.

What builds do we have that are closest to viable?1) Druid as a healer.2) Group stability front line SB3) Back line DPS with longbow

What is lacking/how to buff them in WvW without breaking PvP?1.1) Rather than have Druid try to beat FB or scrapper at their own game, I think Druid needs its own niche which could be a CC healer as Druid does have decent amount of CC on glyphs, CA and the staff trait. Aside from generic boon removal/corruption, there is currently only 1 anti-stability trait in the game: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Brutality  What if you could move while casting CA5 and it stripped 1-2 stack of stability per pulse? Druid doesn't completely steal scourge or spell breakers spot for boon removal but it fills an anti-stability niche which would allow it to utilize a lot of the CC built into Druid. It also enables your zerg to time CC spikes in specific areas.

1.2) Explosive seeds (Ancient seeds rework): (Lesser) seeds of life now instantly detonates. + When you interrupt a foe, immobilize them and drop a lesser seed of life (no ICD). Nobody has time to wait for a seed to blossom in mobile zerg fights after already waiting for a glyph cast time. It removes the ability to blast light fields via CA 2/3. Interrupts with glyph tides/equality, CA3 or primal echo, give bonus heals.

1.3) Changing staff 1 to heal independent of a target would help a lot on the heal side in zergs when not in CA.

2.1) Group stab is extremely rare for not guardians. Shared Dolyak stance is actually really good. Only 1 change is "required." Rework unflinching fortitude to group stability instead of personal damage reduction. Having two abilities that share stability and also make your allies immune to cripple, chill and immob is a niche that SB could fill. Alternatively, if that's too scary for the balance team to change unflinching fortitude, add a new pet family to the game. Have a merged F2 skill from that new pet give AoE stability. 

@"Substance E.4852" said:We already failed twice in that regard with Druid heals and SB stance share and aren't unseating Firebrand or healbot scrappers with their anti projectile skills

Fail sure, but I don't think Druid and SB are not salvageable for zerg support. Salvaging would be easier than a new 3rd elite spec for sure. See above.

the class needs AoE damage to be zerg material, not supportThe only other hope for the class is Anet to roll out a 3rd espec where we just fart out easy massive damage AoE's like the necro which is almost certainly never going to happen.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POgAMNlRw2YasHmJOyLWPxSWwcA-zVJYiRF/h0kCoCRQMTBbNLTssB-wMM/Skrim/SB quick draw Double longbow with jacaranda. This is an idea I've had in the back of my head after the longbow 5 buff that I haven't tested yet. I think it's the closest to a viable back line DPS build that avoids projectile hate.

Longbow is a coeff of 6 on a 9 second CD in this build at 1500 range. Merged jacaranda F1 is a coeff of 2.5 on a 15 second CD at 1200 range. Neither of these is stopped by projectile hate. For comparison, well of suffering is a coeff of 6 on a 30 second CD at 900 range. Well of corruption is a coeff of 3 on a 40 second CD at 900 range. I would say that SB has that easy massive damage AoEs like necro. In fact, SB have better damage, cool downs and range than power scourge.

Is there a reason why scourge is meta? Yeah! Barrier and boon corruption on top of those wells. Barrage procs retal 60 times instead of 30 times per cast. If needed Necros also have life steal to negate retal.

How to fix this:3.1 Make barrage a 1.0 x 6 instead of 0.5 x 12 coeff. Both yield a final coeff of 6. One might actually be viable in zergs!3.2 Make vulture stance apply AoE poison. This+predators cunning could negate a lot of the damage retal would do. It's an ideal oh shit button. Cast barrage. Realize retal is too much. Activate vulture stance.

1. Add to traits to make longbow & axe auto attack not a projectile (adjust damage if needed)
2. Make whirling defense hit 5 targets, can move mid cast (adjust damage if needed)
3. Extend the radius on soulbeast F1-3 skills by 30-40%, up target count to 5
4. Stance share up to 10 targets with 100% duration
5. Change Hilt bash so it's a 5 target 360 range AOE daze + high damage on a longer cd
6. Add Rune of commanding - to go with our "new" command skills:
   • Rune grants: 100 power, 100 toughness, 100 vitality, command skills grant 3s resistance, 2s protection and 5 stacks of might for 8s to the caster and 5 allies within 400 range, ICD 25s, 6th bonus on using elite command skill - turn yourself into Inferno hound for 15s, ICD 60s.

And happy days for rangers.

@Abyssisis.3971 said:Don’t you think sharing remorseless with allies is a little OPed?

The commanders in WvW want Boon Sharing and high profile DPS AoE's to hit as many targets as possible. Anything less, in their eyes, makes the ranger completely useless.

@KeyOrion.9506 said:

@Abyssisis.3971 said:Don’t you think sharing remorseless with allies is a little OPed?

I’m all for buffing rangers, but sharing a 25% damage increases for an attack in a Zergball with the amount of fury flying around is just alittle too much.

@"hobotnicax.7918" said:

1. Add to traits to make longbow & axe auto attack not a projectile (adjust damage if needed)
2. Make whirling defense hit 5 targets, can move mid cast (adjust damage if needed)
3. Extend the radius on soulbeast F1-3 skills by 30-40%, up target count to 5
4. Stance share up to 10 targets with 100% duration
5. Change Hilt bash so it's a 5 target 360 range AOE daze + high damage on a longer cd
6. Add Rune of commanding - to go with our "new" command skills:
   • Rune grants: 100 power, 100 toughness, 100 vitality, command skills grant 3s resistance, 2s protection and 5 stacks of might for 8s to the caster and 5 allies within 400 range, ICD 25s, 6th bonus on using elite command skill - turn yourself into Inferno hound for 15s, ICD 60s.

And happy days for rangers.

To add:Staff:

• Staff 5 = effect should apply to any kind of damage going through the shield
• Staff 4 (roots) = make it wider granting protection to allies it travels through and immobilizing foes.
• Staff 2 = Make the aoe range of it bigger and let it do more damage.
• Staff 1 = Increase it damage by 30% and should damage and heal targets around your target.

Warhorn:

• Skill 4 = make it Aoe up to 5 targets (reduce vun effect)
• Skill 5 = stays the same + dazes nearby foes for 1 sec

Sup. rune of the warden:25 power35 vitality50 power65 vitality100 toughnessGlyph's give you additional effects (up to 5 targets for 3 sec) While in celestial form this is increased to 5 seconds.

• G of Rejuvenation = additionally gives protection and regeneration to you and your allies.
• G of Alignment = '' '' provides stability
• G of Unity = '' '' provides retaliation
• G of Equality = '' '' grants 3 stacks of might
• G of Tides = '' '' provides Swiftness
• G of the stars = '' '' gives quickness