sPvP Ranger Balance/QoL Suggestions

[Vombs.5917]

Core:Stalker’s Strike - Range increased to 550. ( Off-Hand Training )Predator's Onslaught - Only activates while in combat. Swapping pets teleports you to your pets location. [15s ICD]Druid:Celestial Avatar - Activation threshold & duration removed. Celestial Avatar abilities consume astral force. Cool down decreased to 15 seconds.Glyph of Unity - Outside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & take 33% of their incoming damage.(Inside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & heal allies 33% of incoming self-healing)Druidic Clarity - Transfers 2 conditions from allies to pet on entrance. Exiting copies 3 conditions from pet to foes. (360 radius)Celestial Shadow - Grants quickness (3s) to allies on entrance. Exiting grants protection (3s) to allies. (360 radius)Soulbeast:Vulture Stance - Grants regeneration instead of might.Bear Stance - Conditions removed per interval decreased to 1.Live Fast - Activates off pets F2 beast ability. Beast abilities remove 2 boons.

[anduriell.6280]

@"Vombs.5917" said:Core:Stalker’s Strike - Range increased to 550. ( Off-Hand Training )Predator's Onslaught - Only activates while in combat. Swapping pets teleports you to your pets location. [15s ICD]Druid:Celestial Avatar - Activation threshold & duration removed. Celestial Avatar abilities consume astral force. Cool down decreased to 15 seconds.Glyph of Unity - Outside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & take 33% of their incoming damage.(Inside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & heal allies 33% of incoming self-healing)Druidic Clarity - Transfers 2 conditions from allies to pet on entrance. Exiting copies 3 conditions from pet to foes. (360 radius)Celestial Shadow - Grants quickness (3s) to allies on entrance. Exiting grants protection (3s) to allies. (360 radius)Soulbeast:Vulture Stance - Grants regeneration instead of might.Bear Stance - Conditions removed per interval decreased to 1.Live Fast - Activates off pets F2 beast ability. Beast abilities remove 2 boons.

I love them all.Live Fast by the description should already activate for F2 beast abilities thou.

[Sandzibar.5134]

Bear Stance - Conditions removed per interval decreased to 1.

You want to go from 5k base + 8 x 400 = 8.2k healTo5k + 4 x 400 = 6.6k heal

on a 30sec CD, that requires you to be loaded by condi to even be fully effective.

Why?

[Leonidrex.5649]

@"Vombs.5917" said:Core:Stalker’s Strike - Range increased to 550. ( Off-Hand Training )Predator's Onslaught - Only activates while in combat. Swapping pets teleports you to your pets location. [15s ICD]Druid:Celestial Avatar - Activation threshold & duration removed. Celestial Avatar abilities consume astral force. Cool down decreased to 15 seconds.Glyph of Unity - Outside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & take 33% of their incoming damage.(Inside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & heal allies 33% of incoming self-healing)Druidic Clarity - Transfers 2 conditions from allies to pet on entrance. Exiting copies 3 conditions from pet to foes. (360 radius)Celestial Shadow - Grants quickness (3s) to allies on entrance. Exiting grants protection (3s) to allies. (360 radius)Soulbeast:Vulture Stance - Grants regeneration instead of might.Bear Stance - Conditions removed per interval decreased to 1.Live Fast - Activates off pets F2 beast ability. Beast abilities remove 2 boons.

1 Predator's Onslaught is already a good trait, adding instant teleport to ranger seems stupid IMO, ranger doesnt need more mobility.2 Live fast -> could be OP if it worked off pet F2 too, honestly ranger has loads of quickness already, with its addition we would be reaching a place where soulbeast has near-permanent quickness.Instead how about actual QoL ?1 add a proper cast time to longbow 3, often times its cast gets canceled, due to targeting something behind or starting other skills and it goes on full cd. It also makes it impossible to stow-cancel, it always goes on full cd.as for buffs, I would look for things that go unused, like mainhand axe, axe 2 is a joke for example.various pet qol fixes ( mainly ai )mainhand sword hit detection increase etc.

[Abyssisis.3971]

I’d like to see...

Main hand axeAutoattack speed increased to 1/2 from .88 attack speedAutoattack to get a 3 attack chain. 1st hit gives might, 2nd hit inflicts bleed, 3rd hit gives might and inflicts bleed.

Honed Axes trait to provide 60/60 power/condition damage, 120/120 power/condition damage instead of ferocity.

Sword AA chain 2 to hit 3 targets as well.

Primal cry to inflicts damage/conditions in 1 hit instead of 3 as well as become a blast finisher.

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

@"Vombs.5917" said:Core:Stalker’s Strike - Range increased to 550. ( Off-Hand Training )Predator's Onslaught - Only activates while in combat. Swapping pets teleports you to your pets location. [15s ICD]Druid:Celestial Avatar - Activation threshold & duration removed. Celestial Avatar abilities consume astral force. Cool down decreased to 15 seconds.Glyph of Unity - Outside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & take 33% of their incoming damage.(Inside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & heal allies 33% of incoming self-healing)Druidic Clarity - Transfers 2 conditions from allies to pet on entrance. Exiting copies 3 conditions from pet to foes. (360 radius)Celestial Shadow - Grants quickness (3s) to allies on entrance. Exiting grants protection (3s) to allies. (360 radius)Soulbeast:Vulture Stance - Grants regeneration instead of might.Bear Stance - Conditions removed per interval decreased to 1.Live Fast - Activates off pets F2 beast ability. Beast abilities remove 2 boons.

These ideas are terrible and would bury any build that needed to use the original versions of these traits/skills.

[CroTiger.7819]

Amazing ideas but some of them would be op like second part of druidic clarity and bear stance is very bad idea to remove 1 condi since its long cd and heal amount is already bad (it is good vs condis but it is only 6 sec and thats what is meant to do and reason to take it). Predators onslaught is amazing idea and i would like that with cheetah pet which have port and i already play it with beastly warden for taunt on port f2 and is rly fun. That change would be amazing and i dont think that trait is used right now in current state but maybe what you suggest will be too strong but not sure. Stalker strike should go back with old version when traited and even mainhand dagger should get same treatment for dagger 3 (i think dagger 3 should also give 2 second of superspeed for pet so in beastmode it would be nice utility skill). Live fast idea on beast skill is very nice but in same time making it work for f2 same way would be broken tbh because of low cd on f2 for some pets like hawk and eagle.

[Leonidrex.5649]

As someone who started ranger recently I will give you some of my thoughts on the matter, maybe there are work-arounds maybe not.But loads of ranger skills feel sluggish to use.LB 3 in theory doesnt have a cast time but in practice its not instant, if you use it with your back it doesnt fire and goes on FULL cooldown, this needs fixing.GS 5, locks you in place and does that small dash thingy, just let us move during cast and remove the dash, Give the hit itself 160 range and call it a day. ( it lets us land it more consistently, makes it get bugged on terrain less and makes it easier for ranger to position for the stun instead of giving the enemy or the dice gods the choice.Sword 2/3 evades feel shit. I Feel like im spamming evades and HOPING I evade something instead off actually evading what I need, sword 2 has problems with landing hits, and the skills themselves leave you open for attack.Axe mainhand looks like it tries to be hybrid between power and condi, but fails at both. It has no defensive capabilities whatsoever, and the damage is not good enough to justify it. Give axe 1 some condi damage, and axe 2 damage buff and it might be usable.

[anduriell.6280]

@Leonidrex.5649 said:As someone who started ranger recently I will give you some of my thoughts on the matter, maybe there are work-arounds maybe not.But loads of ranger skills feel sluggish to use.LB 3 in theory doesnt have a cast time but in practice its not instant, if you use it with your back it doesnt fire and goes on FULL cooldown, this needs fixing.GS 5, locks you in place and does that small dash thingy, just let us move during cast and remove the dash, Give the hit itself 160 range and call it a day. ( it lets us land it more consistently, makes it get bugged on terrain less and makes it easier for ranger to position for the stun instead of giving the enemy or the dice gods the choice.Sword 2/3 evades feel kitten. I Feel like im spamming evades and HOPING I evade something instead off actually evading what I need, sword 2 has problems with landing hits, and the skills themselves leave you open for attack.Axe mainhand looks like it tries to be hybrid between power and condi, but fails at both. It has no defensive capabilities whatsoever, and the damage is not good enough to justify it. Give axe 1 some condi damage, and axe 2 damage buff and it might be usable.

Fantastic Ideas all of them. Feels like a shame anet doesn't read this forums. Axe mainhand wouldn't need defensive if offhand weapons would provide something.

[Arheundel.6451]

@anduriell.6280 said:

@Leonidrex.5649 said:As someone who started ranger recently I will give you some of my thoughts on the matter, maybe there are work-arounds maybe not.But loads of ranger skills feel sluggish to use.LB 3 in theory doesnt have a cast time but in practice its not instant, if you use it with your back it doesnt fire and goes on FULL cooldown, this needs fixing.GS 5, locks you in place and does that small dash thingy, just let us move during cast and remove the dash, Give the hit itself 160 range and call it a day. ( it lets us land it more consistently, makes it get bugged on terrain less and makes it easier for ranger to position for the stun instead of giving the enemy or the dice gods the choice.Sword 2/3 evades feel kitten. I Feel like im spamming evades and HOPING I evade something instead off actually evading what I need, sword 2 has problems with landing hits, and the skills themselves leave you open for attack.Axe mainhand looks like it tries to be hybrid between power and condi, but fails at both. It has no defensive capabilities whatsoever, and the damage is not good enough to justify it. Give axe 1 some condi damage, and axe 2 damage buff and it might be usable.

Fantastic Ideas all of them. Feels like a shame anet doesn't read this forums. Axe mainhand wouldn't need defensive if offhand weapons would provide something.

And it's good it doesn't

1- Axe main hand applies : weakness-chill-bleed and good might stacking, a set up I used several times against power build with great success, the weapon needs no improvements if anything Axe off hand 4 ( path of scars ) needs a little more - for Axe mainhand the defense is in the weakness/chill application

2- LB3...dunno why it would make sense for a skill to work when you give your back to the target...when many skills before had that same aspect removed

3- The trick with sword is the camera flipping...a really common strategy, it offers great mobility and evasion especially when paired with dagger off hand, a staple of condi builds

4- Ranger GS is an amazing weapon overall...there should be zero complaints about it

All weapons on this class range from decent to very good, there is nothing underpowered on this class except 2-3 pet families and some aspects of the druid ; people should really play more than a couple professions and for more than a few thousand hours, it would help understand what each profession get for how much and in what quantity

[NorthernRedStar.3054]

So in other words, remove trade-offs and weaknesses from select skills completely upon traiting? No thanks.

That Vulture Stance change might be good, but would potentially enable a condi bunker trapper build, hard. Unless Trapper Rune gets changed, I don't ever wanna see that happen.

[Arheundel.6451]

@"Vombs.5917" said:Core:Stalker’s Strike - Range increased to 550. ( Off-Hand Training )

NO- It has already an evade, decent dmg on power builds, applies great deal of poison for condi build....no need to overload skills up to the stars

Predator's Onslaught - Only activates while in combat. Swapping pets teleports you to your pets location. [15s ICD]

NO - How that would even work with pets like smokescale and the cheetah ?.....The "cheap teleport" burst is already a known feature of soulbeast, we should be all glad it's there...we're rangers not thieves

Druid:Celestial Avatar - Activation threshold & duration removed. Celestial Avatar abilities consume astral force. Cool down decreased to 15 seconds.

??

Glyph of Unity - Outside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & take 33% of their incoming damage.(Inside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & heal allies 33% of incoming self-healing)

This doesn't solve the issue of Druid don't be good for front heal because of the dieing pet

Druidic Clarity - Transfers 2 conditions from allies to pet on entrance. Exiting copies 3 conditions from pet to foes. (360 radius)

NO - it's the only worthwhile trait on druid and one of the two only way to get rid of insta condi burst from multiple sources

Celestial Shadow - Grants quickness (3s) to allies on entrance. Exiting grants protection (3s) to allies. (360 radius)

Why? Overlapping druid with Chrono and Firebrand or Renegade...way too much quickness uptime already

Soulbeast:Vulture Stance - Grants regeneration instead of might.

NO- Ranger has already an amazing access to regeneration....amazing is not even the right word

Bear Stance - Conditions removed per interval decreased to 1.

Only if you reduce the CD to 20s

Live Fast - Activates off pets F2 beast ability. Beast abilities remove 2 boons.

NO - boon removal is not the theme of Soulbeast, something which should be left to another elite

Overall these ideas are awful and would ruin the class tremendeously

[Vombs.5917]

@"Arheundel.6451" said:

Stalker’s Strike

- Range increased to

550

. (

Off-Hand Training

)

NO- It has already an evade, decent dmg on power builds, applies great deal of poison for condi build....no need to overload skills up to the stars

The skill used to be 550 range back before they removed this trait, they gave the increased range baseline to other off-hand skills . It used to land a lot more often and felt way better to use..

Predator's Onslaught

-

Only activates while in combat

. Swapping pets teleports you to your pets location.

[15s ICD]

NO - How that would even work with pets like smokescale and the cheetah ?.....The "cheap teleport" burst is already a known feature of soulbeast, we should be all glad it's there...we're rangers not thieves

You would have 2 teleports when using soulbeast if using those pets. Mesmer, Necro, Guardian, and Revenant also have multiple teleports, none of which are thieves..

Druid:

Celestial Avatar

- Activation threshold & duration removed. Celestial Avatar abilities consume astral force. Cool down decreased to

15

seconds.

??

It would work similar to Necromancer shroud..

Glyph of Unity

- Outside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & take

33%

of their incoming damage.(Inside Celestial Avatar Tether yourself to allies & heal allies

33%

of incoming self-healing)

This doesn't solve the issue of Druid don't be good for front heal because of the dieing pet

I'm not sure what this has to do with the pet but okay?.

Druidic Clarity

- Transfers

2

conditions from allies to pet on entrance. Exiting

copies

3

conditions from pet to foes. (

360

radius)

NO - it's the only worthwhile trait on druid and one of the two only way to get rid of insta condi burst from multiple sources

The reason for nerfing this and celestial shadow is because you'd be buffing celestial avatar by making it similar to shroud..

Celestial Shadow

- Grants quickness

(3s)

to allies on entrance. Exiting grants protection

(3s)

to allies. (

360

radius)

Why? Overlapping druid with Chrono and Firebrand or Renegade...way too much quickness uptime already

I listed these specifically as Spvp changes. You would be able to go into avatar and be able to cast your heals 50% faster..Overall these ideas are awful and would ruin the class tremendously.Only thing I see this ruining is side-node druid and pushing it towards a support role. I guess If your goal is to fall asleep these changes are pretty garbage

[Leonidrex.5649]

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@anduriell.6280 said:

@Leonidrex.5649 said:As someone who started ranger recently I will give you some of my thoughts on the matter, maybe there are work-arounds maybe not.But loads of ranger skills feel sluggish to use.LB 3 in theory doesnt have a cast time but in practice its not instant, if you use it with your back it doesnt fire and goes on FULL cooldown, this needs fixing.GS 5, locks you in place and does that small dash thingy, just let us move during cast and remove the dash, Give the hit itself 160 range and call it a day. ( it lets us land it more consistently, makes it get bugged on terrain less and makes it easier for ranger to position for the stun instead of giving the enemy or the dice gods the choice.Sword 2/3 evades feel kitten. I Feel like im spamming evades and HOPING I evade something instead off actually evading what I need, sword 2 has problems with landing hits, and the skills themselves leave you open for attack.Axe mainhand looks like it tries to be hybrid between power and condi, but fails at both. It has no defensive capabilities whatsoever, and the damage is not good enough to justify it. Give axe 1 some condi damage, and axe 2 damage buff and it might be usable.

Fantastic Ideas all of them. Feels like a shame anet doesn't read this forums. Axe mainhand wouldn't need defensive if offhand weapons would provide something.

And it's good it doesn't

1- Axe main hand applies : weakness-chill-bleed and good might stacking, a set up I used several times against power build with great success, the weapon needs no improvements if anything Axe off hand 4 ( path of scars ) needs a little more - for Axe mainhand the

defense is in the weakness/chill application

2- LB3...dunno why it would make sense for a skill to work when you give your back to the target...when many skills before had that same aspect removed

3- The trick with sword is the camera flipping...a really common strategy, it offers great mobility and evasion especially when paired with dagger off hand, a staple of condi builds

4- Ranger GS is an amazing weapon overall...there should be zero complaints about it

All weapons on this class range from decent to very good,

there is nothing underpowered on this class except 2-3 pet families and some aspects of the druid

; people should really play more than a couple professions and for more than a few thousand hours, it would help understand what each profession get for how much and in what quantity

1 axe main-hand offers less damage and less survivability then LB, this is why lb is used and axe is not, extra range and actual hard CC combined with stealth offers more then axe + X can do. Axe 2 is a dead skill, and ranger cant afford to have dead skills due to unreliability of pets.When you think about axe vs lb, you will quickly realize that winters bite offers slightly over 1/3 the dmg off rapid fire, no hard CC. and auto from axe has half the range from LB while retaining the same damage, and that 1 stack off might wont carry half the range and 1/3 the dmg from main damage source AND a dead skill.

2 lb 3 is bugged, Im not proposing to making it shoot behind me through my back. If I do the same thing with lb 4 it goes on stow-cancel cd off ~4s. but lb 3 goes on full cd without activating which is just bizarre. It also has a cast time, doesnt state that it does and is impossible to stow-cancel. Which just feels weird to use.

3 I know that I can position myself to dash where I need to go, doesnt change the fact that evades are delayed, dont cover entire animation and sword itself has problem with even connecting the hits.

4 rangers GS is a very good all around weapon and I agree, but there is always room for improvement, it will make the weapon more pleasant and skillfull to use. being able to actually position the skill should be a given

all in all has PLENTY of things that need improving. from basics like pets being stupid as one hell, to condi builds dealing all its damage SLOWLY with 1 condition and thus being easy to cleans, to weapons that try to do 2 things and fail at both.ranger right now is OK but IMO OK is not good enough. Every class should be good and solid

[Arheundel.6451]

@Leonidrex.5649 said:

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@anduriell.6280 said:

@Leonidrex.5649 said:As someone who started ranger recently I will give you some of my thoughts on the matter, maybe there are work-arounds maybe not.But loads of ranger skills feel sluggish to use.LB 3 in theory doesnt have a cast time but in practice its not instant, if you use it with your back it doesnt fire and goes on FULL cooldown, this needs fixing.GS 5, locks you in place and does that small dash thingy, just let us move during cast and remove the dash, Give the hit itself 160 range and call it a day. ( it lets us land it more consistently, makes it get bugged on terrain less and makes it easier for ranger to position for the stun instead of giving the enemy or the dice gods the choice.Sword 2/3 evades feel kitten. I Feel like im spamming evades and HOPING I evade something instead off actually evading what I need, sword 2 has problems with landing hits, and the skills themselves leave you open for attack.Axe mainhand looks like it tries to be hybrid between power and condi, but fails at both. It has no defensive capabilities whatsoever, and the damage is not good enough to justify it. Give axe 1 some condi damage, and axe 2 damage buff and it might be usable.

Fantastic Ideas all of them. Feels like a shame anet doesn't read this forums. Axe mainhand wouldn't need defensive if offhand weapons would provide something.

And it's good it doesn't

1- Axe main hand applies : weakness-chill-bleed and good might stacking, a set up I used several times against power build with great success, the weapon needs no improvements if anything Axe off hand 4 ( path of scars ) needs a little more - for Axe mainhand the

defense is in the weakness/chill application

2- LB3...dunno why it would make sense for a skill to work when you give your back to the target...when many skills before had that same aspect removed

3- The trick with sword is the camera flipping...a really common strategy, it offers great mobility and evasion especially when paired with dagger off hand, a staple of condi builds

4- Ranger GS is an amazing weapon overall...there should be zero complaints about it

All weapons on this class range from decent to very good,

there is nothing underpowered on this class except 2-3 pet families and some aspects of the druid

; people should really play more than a couple professions and for more than a few thousand hours, it would help understand what each profession get for how much and in what quantity

1 axe main-hand offers less damage and less survivability then LB, this is why lb is used and axe is not, extra range and actual hard CC combined with stealth offers more then axe + X can do. Axe 2 is a dead skill, and ranger cant afford to have dead skills due to unreliability of pets.When you think about axe vs lb, you will quickly realize that winters bite offers slightly over 1/3 the dmg off rapid fire, no hard CC. and auto from axe has half the range from LB while retaining the same damage, and that 1 stack off might wont carry half the range and 1/3 the dmg from main damage source AND a dead skill.

2 lb 3 is bugged, Im not proposing to making it shoot behind me through my back. If I do the same thing with lb 4 it goes on stow-cancel cd off ~4s. but lb 3 goes on full cd without activating which is just bizarre. It also has a cast time, doesnt state that it does and is impossible to stow-cancel. Which just feels weird to use.

3 I know that I can position myself to dash where I need to go, doesnt change the fact that evades are delayed, dont cover entire animation and sword itself has problem with even connecting the hits.

4 rangers GS is a very good all around weapon and I agree, but there is always room for improvement, it will make the weapon more pleasant and skillfull to use. being able to actually position the skill should be a given

all in all has PLENTY of things that need improving. from basics like pets being stupid as one hell, to condi builds dealing all its damage SLOWLY with 1 condition and thus being easy to cleans, to weapons that try to do 2 things and fail at both.ranger right now is OK but IMO OK is not good enough. Every class should be good and solid

-Axe main hand is a hybrid weapon and it's single handed, which means it can be paired with an off hand, it was not too long ago nerfed for doing too much power dmg for that same reason, it was doing too much for what it was offering and is supposed to do : a hybrid playstyle for short-range fights, it still offers grinding dmg against high toughness enemies, it offers weakness/chill against power dmg (something which is extremely huge as I personally still use the gameplay option..as others as well)How can you compare a weapon that get stronger the farthest you are from the target with a weapon that gets stronger the closer you are?

-Ok I misunderstood then , yes its usuage requires perfect timing and distance otherwise it goes on full CD, whether intended or a Bug I don't know and people can go ahead and request its removal so that you can cancel cast it...even if I don't know why you would do that, if you're playing typical MM power ranger and I am on a burn DH playing around Spear of Justice.....you're pretty much screwed once I land the Spear ( unless you play a different build from the meta)

-The delayed evade should be considered really a "use and keep it" tool, I often use this tactis to throw off pursuers or the likes, overall I love current sword and wouldn't change anything about it

-GS5 works similarly to skills like shield bash and no changes necessary, the skill difference between users can be seen when the ranger has either paid attention to the opponent stunbreaks count or not...in one instance GS5 will be wastead as the enemy stunbreaks out of it, in another instance GS5 open the scene for GS2 burst

-The only useless pet families are Moas and Devourers, then few others like : spiders-canine-drakes need some QoL changes on F2 ( like reduced CD or increased dmg), rest of the pets are balanced right now

-Condi rangers really are sub division of the class, not really meant to be the main character on this class( maybe next elite), still for now the class has access to powerful traits like poison master and hidden barbs which require "sacrifices" in the build to function properly but yeah they do work wonderfully, if still required the ranger has access to burning with torch and flame trap , plus : chill on axe and few pets, confusion and torment on the Iboga...and there is slow also if really we need to extend it. There are ways to make condi ranger work in PvP and especially WvW so I really wouldn't say that your statement is true

The class is more than OK, it has working specs from core to soulbeast, druid would need some help indeed but other than that , the class feels great, amazingly great to play and really only need a better "teamplay" build, here hoping with next elite not being another duellist spec