Ranger trap update ideas

[Abyssisis.3971]

Playing a condi trap chucking ranger was my introduction to wowing, but these days, traps are not even worth slotting over stability or stunbreaks so have been tossing up some ideas to make traps a little more useful. What do you guys think?

Trap damage scales with condition power.

Trapper’s expertise (30 second cooldown)Traps gain 20% cooldown reductionTrap gain ammo system and gain 1 additional charge.Breakstun and drop a lesser spike trap when disabledLesser spike trap25 damageBleeding x2 for 3 secondsLaunch 0Radius 180Effective radius 240Unblockable

Water springBaseline the Regen to 5 secondsApply 3 seconds of protection

Flame trapRange 900Baseline burning to 4 seconds per pulseApply 3 seconds of blind per pulse

Vipers nestRange 900Change to 5 targetsBaseline poison to 6 seconds per pulseApply 3 seconds of weakness per pulse

Ice trapRange 900Change to 3 seconds of chill per pulse

Spike trapRange 900Change to 30 second cooldownApply 3 seconds of cripple

Add an elite trapRange 900Neural toxin trap (45 second cooldown)Add some damageApplies 5 stacks of torment for 5 secondsApplies fear for 3 seconds5 targets1 pulse240 radiusUnblockable

[Eleazar.9478]

You know what would help traps again? if we could throw them like launch. but on a real note your ideas sound cool but arena net wont read this post or do anything interesting with ranger. The only big change they did for ranger eneded up being a nerf or messing with modifiers. Clearly we're extremely low priority for them compared to other classes

[Halbarz.3854]

@Eleazar.9478 said:You know what would help traps again? if we could throw them like launch. but on a real note your ideas sound cool but arena net wont read this post or do anything interesting with ranger. The only big change they did for ranger eneded up being a nerf or messing with modifiers. Clearly we're extremely low priority for them compared to other classes

It is sad to say this but it does feel as ranger is the class they care the least about. There are so many great ideas on this forum but very little input from the devs!I actually wonder if a dev tested the longbow nerf or if they just did it because guardians and necro's complained

[Kolisch.4691]

Traps are just garbage outside of pve. Dropping traps has an obvious animation, you can just dodge into traps, and you have no pressure on enemies if they're ranged - - basically wasted utility slots as you go closing gaps with a pointless utility bar. Doesn't synergise with any power builds, and the traps scale badly with power. Wish we could send the pets to set up traps for us...

Pvp, wvw is dynamic. It's dumb to depend on enemies walking to that small tiny circle.

[Abyssisis.3971]

@Eleazar.9478 said:You know what would help traps again? if we could throw them like launch. but on a real note your ideas sound cool but arena net wont read this post or do anything interesting with ranger. The only big change they did for ranger eneded up being a nerf or messing with modifiers. Clearly we're extremely low priority for them compared to other classes

I know, I would love to have traps be throwable again, but then they would start to look a lot like Wells instead of traps.

@Halbarz.3854 said:

@Eleazar.9478 said:You know what would help traps again? if we could throw them like launch. but on a real note your ideas sound cool but arena net wont read this post or do anything interesting with ranger. The only big change they did for ranger eneded up being a nerf or messing with modifiers. Clearly we're extremely low priority for them compared to other classes

It is sad to say this but it does feel as ranger is the class they care the least about. There are so many great ideas on this forum but very little input from the devs!I actually wonder if a dev tested the longbow nerf or if they just did it because guardians and necro's complained

That’s because it’s true tho, rangers are an afterthought compared to other classes.

[Krispera.5087]

@Abyssisis.3971 said:I know, I would love to have traps be throwable again, but then they would start to look a lot like Wells instead of traps.

I wouldn't mind, as long they make it throwable.

@Abyssisis.3971 said:That’s because it’s true tho, rangers are an afterthought compared to other classes.

Soulbeast elite was a leftover from Spellbreaker.

[Abyssisis.3971]

@Krispera.5087 said:

@Abyssisis.3971 said:I know, I would love to have traps be throwable again, but then they would start to look a lot like Wells instead of traps.

I wouldn't mind, as long they make it throwable.

@Abyssisis.3971 said:That’s because it’s true tho, rangers are an afterthought compared to other classes.

Soulbeast elite was a leftover from Spellbreaker.

So would I, but I doubt we will ever see throwable traps again.

And yes I know, eternal bond is also a nerfed version of the berserker’s Dead or Alive trait.

@Kolisch.4691 said:Traps are just garbage outside of pve. Dropping traps has an obvious animation, you can just dodge into traps, and you have no pressure on enemies if they're ranged - - basically wasted utility slots as you go closing gaps with a pointless utility bar. Doesn't synergise with any power builds, and the traps scale badly with power. Wish we could send the pets to set up traps for us...

Pvp, wvw is dynamic. It's dumb to depend on enemies walking to that small tiny circle.

Not everything needs to synergise with power builds tho and I was thinking that perhaps traps should scale damage based on condition power, similar to how guardian had a trait to scale retaliation with condition power.

[TheSwede.9512]

So yeah, hear me out here.

1st: Ammo system for Ranger Traps. Reduce the radius of each offensive trap to 120/180 (from 180/240), but you now gain 2/3 charges for each trap (Except Healing Spring, which gives you 2 Charges but retains the larger radius).

Suddenly, going up against a Trapper Ranger on a point no longer means "Well he's dumped a bunch of traps on point", it means "Well he's got AT LEAST 3 traps hidden around the map somewhere, probably all around point." Even if they see you drop the traps, you can space them out in places where the enemy wants to kite, forcing him to dodge when he really wanted/needed to LoS you instead because Endurance is a precious resource. And what's worse than a Poison Field being snuck in exactly where you plan to heal up before re-engaging a fight on point?

Fighting at mid? Placing one of your Healing Springs at a kite spot is gonna make your Bunker so happy. Placing one at Close will make your Thief even happier. And you'll still have one for yourself when you need it.

2nd: Trapper's Expertise gets a slight change: Rather than increasing Condition Duration, it now causes Traps to pulse 1 additional time!

What? Not impressed? Well, Spike Trap is no longer useless, cause it's gonna pulse another Launch after the initial trigger. Even if they dodge into it they're gonna shoot high into the air. The Damaging traps take kind of a blow, but this is made up for by having 3 of them. Heck, Damage might need to be taken down a peg in PvE because of it, but that'd be left to see then.

[Abyssisis.3971]

I’d be all for having an ammo system for traps, or even, having trappers expertise also provide 1 additional charge for traps.

[InsaneQR.7412]

I'd say put entangle as an elite trap.Give trappers expertise the ability to throw traps at 600 range and lay down a spike trap when disabled.The increased condi duration could be made baseline because it would have a big impact on usage except PvE (and I think tagt would be fine IMO).Throwable traps would bring them back into other game modes.

[starlinvf.1358]

@Abyssisis.3971 said:

I know, I would love to have traps be throwable again, but then they would start to look a lot like Wells instead of traps.

I don't see how thats a problem since Marks are like Wells, but work like traps. Traps in this game suffer from the dramatic difference in effectiveness based on entirely on how attentive the other player is. I'm ok with the counter play of avoidance, and the arena denial aspect if they are detected.... but what I have an issue with is how poorly they punish players who fall into it. Individually they are too weak, so you have to stack traps to make dangerous. But when stacked, they run the risk of being way too powerful as a burst. I hate to say it.... but they need the kind of obvious threat level of Scourge shades, to make staying in them a gamble. But they also shouldn't have the kind of front loading damage we saw with DH trapper in PvP.

Unfortunately there too many other factors creating overlapping issues with Rangers damage. Ideally I'd like to push for Ranger utilities to be less damage focused, and letting the weapons carry that aspect.... but its weapon damage is mediocre without some convoluted, and very specific trait and rotation set ups.

[Abyssisis.3971]

A lot of good ideas being chucked around so I’ve taken the ones I agree with and added them to my initial post.

[Holland.9351]

traps are nice with trapper runes.

I just think the trap cooldowns are all over the place for no apparent reason. Just make them all 20 seconds or something (except healing spring).

With the trapper runes you want the traps with the lowest cooldown, which means the game picks them for me rather than giving me the choice.

Also, make Entangle a trap with 600 radius. that way you can still use it as you currently would, but it would also count as a trap in the elite slot. I don't think many people use traited entangle for the fury or condi removal anyway.

[doogal.9368]

Haven't looked at any runes yet. Just made vipers for a druid trapper. I have high hopes with skirmish/WS/druid.staff + LB (I'm desperately trying to find a more fun pve route for the longbow)Pets are looking like drake (marsh?) + spider or canine maybe

[Shagie.7612]

I don't think traps'll ever be satisfying or balanced so long as they have to compete with utility skills.Unlikely to ever happen but I think they would have worked better as a weapon set, or as a kit like Engis have. So that way they're competing against weapon skills rather than utilities.

Having to take either your trap or a stunbreak is going to be so hard to ever decide that the trap is worth it without them being extremely overloaded, given ranger vulnerability to CC.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Tbh ever since Warclaw Marks and Traps have both become pretty useless in WvW. I just stay mounted and run over them.

I think the big problem with both is that they're pathetic compared to Wells; the damage is worse, the duration is worse, the effects are worse. I get that this is to balance them being able to be laid down ahead of time, but it just doesn't work.

(Necro staff is in especially bad shape, but we won't talk about that here.)

Plus, they're so easy to avoid, enemy players should be punished severely for walking into a Trap skill. I think one thing that could help especially is to modify the trait that gives Cripple on trigger to give Immobilize instead. I'd say maybe even a 1sec Stun, but then people would complain about them constantly since they'd actually do something noticeable.

Another possibility is to make them apply their effects to anyone also leaving their area instead of just entering.

[Downstate.4697]

If they really want trapper builds to work they need to do a few things.

First remove the damage and condition duration from Light on your Feet.

Second change it so projectile finisher chance is doubled.

Third, give posion volley a projectile finisher chance like sevenshot.

Forth, give them all a flat 20s cd.

Fifth, better power scaling in viper and flame trap.

That's is all ty

[Downstate.4697]

Also, would it hurt to give spike trap a stun break or make entangle a trap instead of survival

[Murshid.9854]

I met a player in my team in sPvP who overwhelmed the opponents with his SB/SB condi trapper kiting soulbeast, as weird as it sound it was very successful at holding points and fighting under them, after the match I asked him for the build and he was nice enough to give me the entire build and tips of how to play it and its really fun and also so strong in 1v1 that in most of the matches I played the enemy team were forced to go 2v1 and cause of extra mobility with owl you can move easily between points.

Thats in sPvP, in PvE though its not good to play trapper build even though some traps are great on general like the snake trap but removing their throw mechanic hurt their PvE potential.

[Yasai.3549]

@Abyssisis.3971 said:

Traps gain 20% cooldown reductionTrap gain ammo system and gain 1 additional charge.

I don't even need to read the rest.This would be exceptionally broken/troll/toxic/unhealthy with Trapper runes.

[Revolution.5409]

Our traps are weak, they need to be able to put more pressure on our opponent, throwing something useless will not change anything.

1. Increasing their duration will be a good starting point.
2. Reduce the Spike Trap CD.
3. Add a second effect to the traps, Rangers use nature's magic, something like that would be in Theme.
4. Reworking Entangle as a trap.
5. Frost trap is our most useless trap, it would be nice if it could completely block the opponents (with a 45 seconds CD).

[Abyssisis.3971]

@Yasai.3549 said:

@Abyssisis.3971 said:

Traps gain 20% cooldown reductionTrap gain ammo system and gain 1 additional charge.

I don't even need to read the rest.This would be exceptionally broken/troll/toxic/unhealthy with Trapper runes.

You’d think so, but it really wouldn’t, not compared to the majority of toxic builds out there atm.

[Yasai.3549]

@Abyssisis.3971 said:

You’d think so, but it really wouldn’t, not compared to the majority of toxic builds out there atm.

And so, it's okay for this to be toxic when other toxic stuff exist?No thanks.

Game balance is supposed to bring toxic stuff down to a more controllable level, not buff everything to be just as toxic.

This is why we are having a massive nerf patch, because there has been crazy power creep across all professions over the years and Anet in their infinite wisdom never tackled them as problems arise, choosing only now to nerf everything in a massive patch hoping it won't break anything.

[Abyssisis.3971]

Traps need help plain and simple, they are going to need help after the balance patch hits. A lot of old skills and traits on ranger class needs buffs and reworks, not nerfs.