With the recent announcement of a third expansion I thought it would be fun for us GW2 rangers to speculate/make requests for what we want our next elite specialization to be.In my view this thread is for ranger players, not ranger haters. Everyone likes their own class and wants it to be more powerful, everyone hates classes that are too powerful when you don't play them. If you want to name your idea or theme that's fine, if you have multiple that's fine. Obviously it's up to the dev team to make it balanced but I figure this would be a way to show what we want for the future of our class. I am also operating of the assumption that a few new pets will be added so if you have ideas based on GW1 of what those should be go ahead and post that here as well. Last bit of general info, as a player I mostly play WvW (Go Yaks Bend) and play PVE. I know many people are into competitive PVP and Raids and they may be able to give more insight into what would benefit the class in those realms. Druid relates to nature magic. Soulbeast relates to beastmastery, although I know many will not agree with that statement as beastmode gets ride of your pet, I still believe that soulbeast is a pet focused elite specialization. Because of this I feel that the new spec should focus on marksmanship, skirmishing or wilderness survival. Personally I feel that a skirmishing or marksmanship based spec would be great. Maybe wilderness survival could be good too but I have no ideas for it personally. As far as weapons I would NOT want to see pistols in either hand or a rifle. I don't feel it would benefit the theme of the class nor add to the play style. I know many people have suggested rifle but I do not see how it would be different or better than the longbow but if you want to make an argument for it go ahead. I also tend to not enjoy the steampunk/futuristic elements so theme wise I am biased against the guns as well. I would also not want to see maces in either hand. Scepter and hammer I feel it could be okay but if the spec is going to lean towards magic I would rather have a focus. Hammer I simply have no ideas for, although i'm sure the dev team could make either work. I think a more magical ranger with a focus in the off hand would be a ton of fun. I also see potential in adding shield or off hand sword for a more melee focused ranger. So the weapons I would want to see are (in order) Focus, Shield, and off hand sword. I think each of these could bring an interesting element to the ranger, particularly a melee focused skirmishing ranger. Lastly on weapons, some threads have requested new weapons like nets, sling, crossbows, etc but as there is no precedent for adding new weapon types to GW2 I have ignored this idea, although you should feel free to use your creativity. Mechanics I can imagine are a class more focused on weapons or possibly on some sort of gear. If you lean towards a wilderness survival type the gear especially could be interesting, almost like engineer. Another mechanic I can imagine would be having multiple pets at once or sacrificing your pet for an additional third weapon swap. Adding a stealth option as some sort of hunter/stalker mechanic is another feature that could be interesting. I know some of these might be OP but that is for the devs to decide. Finally, as far as skills go the only type I can think of adding to ranger would be mantras or shouts. But I am unacquainted with some classes and there skill types that could make interesting ranger skills so feel free to make recommendations. I hope everyone enjoys adding to or critiquing my ideas and I look forward to reading your ideas. Stay positive.
