[The most lore-friendly ranger race?]

Charr make for an excellent ranger choice. It can be easy to forget with all the war machines and industrialization but they do also still use warbeasts in their military and as such have ranches where they tame and train devourers, drakes, and other beasts. My own charr ranger's backstory has him as a drake breeder for the Iron legion before he went his own way.

 

They also still make use of archers as we see with Rox. Likely because ranging requires stealth and ammo you can make from the environment is useful on extremely long ranges. Your typical ranger in the Legions will be long ranged scouts, foresters, and trackers who use a combination of the charr's natural senses and a tamed animal companion to hunt down enemies of their legion.

 

Now that we have the Olmakhan charr might actually be the best ranger option. Charr who worship nature and who's NPCs are the only ones in the entire game that use the druid staff animations.

[Can ranger get a rifle in EoD?]

6 hours ago, Mahou.3924 said:

Gameplay-wise: Yes, hammers are slow (and clunky), but it's not the fault of the e-spec concept. Maybe Anet gives us a rapid-hit hammer like whack-a-mole or super mario with hammer  :P.

 

I am hoping for a more Revenant style hammer that is used to rouse nature spirits from their slumber by striking the ground. Give it a mid to long range non-projectile auto attack that summons piercing vines from below and a bunch of AoE damage attacks and it'd fill a very unique niche in our arsenal.

 

12 hours ago, Esorono.1039 said:

Though I feel like if rifle is released, it won't be a long ranged weapon, it would most likely be a mid-ranged shotgun, so AoE with more damage the closer you are, as that would fit the theme a bit more.

 

This is what I imagine too. It could have a 1,200 range but maximizes its damage at 300ish range and has a skill set revolving around ensnaring enemies in nets, pulling enemies with harpoons, and closing the distance rather than creating distance like the longbow does. Longbow is better at kiting while the rifle would be a pursuit weapon to stop enemies from escaping that can pair up nicely with greatsword, sword, or axes.

 

If the pull works like Scorpion Wire it'd give rangers a new value in sieges if nothing else. Maybe if we can make it unblockable through some utility skill we could have a niche of pulling people out of the enemy zerg.

[Pvp does not reward skilled player]

On 9/2/2021 at 12:47 PM, SevlisBavles.3059 said:

You really aren't reading. It's PvP. PLAYER. versus. PLAYER. Evading an NPC during a fight should never play a role in PLAYER vs PLAYER matchups. The fact that you keep hammering on about HAVING to evade a pet only supports my argument. 

 

So you basically just don't want rangers in your game then, right?

 

Because you know the ranger's core mechanic is having a pet and that the entire class is built around working in tandem with their pet to be able to win fights. It is literally impossible to play without a pet.

 

So you are quite literally arguing every ranger should be a free kill by virtue of their class's core design.

[[Spoilers] What is your Favorite Elder Dragon?]

Modremoth definitely. I feel like he was the most unique take on an elemental dragon creature I've seen. He wasn't just some big dragon at the heart of the jungle. By the time we arrive he WAS the jungle, and he was spreading.

 

He was able to creep across all of Tyria and reach the far side of of the continent many, many miles away from him that made him a threat to enemies that weren't geographically close, something we'd only really seen Primordus do and that was because his geographic location was just "down".

 

He was also smart enough to target out waypoints and destroy our means of easily traversing Tyria to stop him. His understanding of our methods of war culminated in what is probably the most memorable and iconic moment in GW2 so far; the total destruction of the Pact in a single coordinated strike.

 

Fighting through Maguuma really felt like Modremoth was around every corner every step of the way. Every root and every tree was potentially a part of him and his minions were omnipresent. We had to make quick allies of the forest's native creatures (of which I desperately wish Itzl or Nuhoch were playable, love those guys) and fight a truly uphill battle through what is easily the deadliest jungle on Tyria.

 

His minions were also really cool. The Sylvari obviously, but also the entangled dinosaurs and massive plant creatures. I also liked how he basically had cloning facilities for his minions that allowed him a steady stream of his most powerful champions. His champions were even harder to permanently put down than the Dragon of Death's because whenever we destroyed one he could just make another with the same knowledge and experience if given time.

 

His fight in Dragonstand is also the first time I truly felt tiny compared to an enemy in GW2. They did a good job making him feel absolutely massive and deadly and I really bought that it'd take a full military force to bring him down. But even that wouldn't have been successful without Trahearne, first of the Firstborn, sacrificing himself to give a small but elite team a chance at taking Modremoth's mind.

 

There were a lot of things in HoT I felt was rushed and I really wish we'd gotten to explore more of Modremoth and the Sylvari while we had a chance (like Malyck's tree and its fate) but overall I really liked what we did get from him. He's a great example of what the power of nature can be if wielded by an amoral creature that wants only to grow its influence across the entire world.

[ranger elite spec icon speculate and theme]

14 hours ago, Crackmonster.2790 said:

The fact remains that unless someone just wanted absolutely to do it, there is no one travelling the lands the forest and protecting the land over great distances who does so with a huge hammer. It is simply not a ranger weapon from all logical angles. It is too heavy to carry around, too destructive in the way it works on the environment around and also its impractical to use in forests and tight spaces as it requires room to swing. Also, when you are wearing medium armor you rely on mobility much more, a hammer which work against you there as well. There are just so many illogical things about rangers and hammer.

 

Garruk here seems perfectly happy carrying his massive bardiche around as his primary weapon and he's one of the most iconic and recognizable nature wizards in Magic the Gathering.

 

In the same setting this is Borborygmos, the cylopean ruler of the Gruul Clans, an ancient order of druids and shamans who seeks to return the world of Ravnica to a more natural state by waging war against the civilization that has paved over it.

 

How about Rexxar, the famous Mok'Nathal Beastmaster from Warcraft who is known for his powerful bond with his animal companions and his love for the wilds.

 

Or even Broll Bearmantle who, despite being an elf, prefers to fight by ripping people a part with his bear hands or beating them with the blunt force of his staff.

 

Here is a Pathfinder figure of a half-orc druid using a spiked cudgel as his go-to weapon.

 

None of these characters operate with the "grace and elegance" of an evlish warrior, but they are all nature warriors that can fall under the umbrella of a GW2 ranger.

[ranger elite spec icon speculate and theme]

There is definitely more to the nature wanderer theme than elves, which I think is the crux of the argument. Crackmonster seems to have a very narrow view of ranger that doesn't account for non-finesse approaches to the nature warrior motif.

 

I've already pointed toward my own ranger. A max height charr wielding a fantasy version of the macuahuitl, one of the most brutal melee weapons devised in history. It is a large, wooden club with a serrated edge and, in this particular case, thick metal spikes.

 

It isn't a weapon he would hunt with, but it IS a weapon he'd use to rip into his enemies with the spikes and serrated edges mimicking the fangs and teeth of the wild animals he venerates. Ranger greatsword is evasive, but I'd never call it an elegant weapon. It is fast, powerful, and mauls the enemy to death like a great bear or tiger coming down on its prey.

 

Using weapons to mimic the killing strategies of venerated animals is a perfectly acceptable flavor of ranger that differentiates from the "graceful elegance" of the elven fantasy.

 

Given that two of the three most prolific ranger races in GW2 are charr (giant, horned felines with claws the length of a person's forearm) and norn (huge, hulking giants with unmatched physical strength and hardiness) I think it is safe to say that not all rangers are meant to be quick, dexterous, and elegant. That falls in line with Sylvari, but doesn't suit charr or norn as well. For them picking up a huge greatsword and imitating their preferred predator or grabbing a warhammer and reminding their foes what an avalanche or falling tree feels like is perfectly naturey.

[ranger elite spec icon speculate and theme]

On 8/30/2021 at 4:20 PM, Crackmonster.2790 said:

Imagine a druid with a hammer smash style?

 

Well I mean... My tauren druid in World of Warcraft wielded a warhammer and it still felt perfectly druidic. He used it to crush the enemies of nature before using his magic to heal the harm they did to the land.

 

I've also played a Lizardfolk druid with a cudgel and a half-orc druid with a battleaxe in DnD before. Not exactly hammers but thematically similar.

 

For that matter this is my ranger currently...

 

His weapon choice isn't exactly elegant.

[End of Dragons Expansion Pets]

I would be shocked if we don't get phoenixes. They were such a popular pet in GW1. I had one myself.

[Possibly the new Rev Silhouette]

I gotta say, the idea of Rytlock channeling Adelbern is hilarious to me. The pose definitely screams "Foefire" and while Magdaer wasn't a greatsword it was at least a sword.

 

It would also be nice for Rytlock's story with the Foefire to actually progress. He hasn't done anything since becoming a Revenant. 

[Can ranger get a rifle in EoD?]

12 hours ago, Touchme.1097 said:

Hunters and Rangers are two different things, and I hope they stay separated in the future. You already have 2 bows and 1 staff in your arsenal, that's plenty enough.

"Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled survivalists with traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation."

 

They might be two different things but there is a massive amount of overlap. More than enough for hunter to be an elite specialization of the ranger.

 

A ranger is a keeper of a park, forest, or countryside or someone attached to a military or police force that patrols a large area either as a scout or a bringer of law.

 

A hunter can absolutely be any of the above in addition to being a skilled hunter. If we go back to the origins of the fantasy ranger in LOTR the Dunedain policed the former kingdom of Arnor by stalking the wilderness and slaying all sorts of minions of Sauron. If we go to DnD it becomes someone who lives on the edges of civilization that HUNTS and kills monsters that are a threat to local towns, keeping the wilderness safe for travelers.

 

I mean Heck you yourself literally linked the skill Hunter's Shot on our longbow and are trying to argue the ranger has absolutely no hunter themes in it at all.

 

10 hours ago, Kodama.6453 said:

The bigger problem for rifle I see is that the weapon is thematically associated with industrialisation and therefore exploitation of nature, which is a thematical opposite to what ranger is supposed to represent in the game.

 

I could point towards popular other media examples, like Princess Mononoke, in which the newly invented guns started to make people raid nature to get the needed metal and gunpowder.

 

But I can also point at Tyria itself.

Guns are most commonly used by Charr in the game, which are basically the driving force behind industrialisation in Tyria with their war machines and general steampunk thematic.

 

Charr are also the inventors of the engineer profession (hence why the class is always represented as a Charr for promotional purposes), it is no coincidence that engineer is the only class in the game which has access to both firearms in core (thief gets access to both after the deadeye elite spec, warrior is likely to get access with the next elite spec) and they even have a trait line which is called firearms.

 

These are the reasons why I don't see rifles fitting for ranger thematically. Nature and technological advancement are oftenly pictured as opposing forces in media, with firearms representing the latter.

 

While I see where you're coming from I also don't really agree. A rifle doesn't require that much more industrialization than forging a greatsword does, and while it can be seen as a symbol of the coming of technology it fits pretty easily into the hands of an outdoorsman who lives off the land through their mastery of nature.

 

The charr do use guns, but do you know who else does? The centaur, who live in rugged tribal camps and are otherwise wholly low-tech. Likely because they stole them from the humans and recognized their value. Guns can be seen as another tool in one's arsenal to be used by a keen eyed survivalist, and that is exactly what a ranger is.

 

If a ranger is someone who roams the wilderness keeping the wilds safe for travelers and saving towns from dangerous fauna then a firearm fits their theme just fine. If the elite spec doubles down on the "safeguarding the people from the dangers of the wild" side of the class a rifle makes perfect sense.

 

But it can also be thematic of the spec leans to the other extreme. We don't fight poachers with bows and arrows. We fight them with firearms. A game warden who is set to defend an exotic, endangered species is going to be using a rifle because it is the most efficient tool for the job.

 

And besides all this... Isn't that what an elite spec is supposed to be for? Exploring avenues of a class' fantasy that aren't always a traditional expression of that class? I mean Heck the new mesmer elite spec is a knife summoner rather than an illusionist.

[Can ranger get a rifle in EoD?]

2 hours ago, Touchme.1097 said:

The point is this is not WoW where big game hunters are common in the lore, GW2 rangers are attuned to nature. 

You already have Soulbeast as a ranged DPS, you can actually press a button and hit harder than a rifle DE. Oh the irony...One button killers in WvW are still broken. This will continue until soulbeast gets nerfed of course.

Guild Wars 2 Sic Em Soulbeast Solo Roaming: Absolutely Disgusting Oneshots - YouTube

As it is right now, Ranger can both burst from range Rapid Fire - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W) and stealth Hunter's Shot - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W)

It doesn't need another ranged weapon like rifle.

 

Who ever mentioned WoW? And do you think hunters aren't "attuned to nature"? They spend most of their time out in dangerous wildernesses hunting animals that can normally kill humans. That requires knowledge of both the animals they hunt and the environment they are hunting in. Oftentimes it requires tamed animals to hunt alongside too. This especially translates to Tyria where some animals are a threat to entire squads of human soldiers. A specialist in taking down major threats like wyrms, wyverns, and other massive super creatures would fit in with the lore of Tyria very well.

 

Also if you think Hunter's Shot is equal to an elite spec focused on having multiple ways to access stealth you're sorely mistaken.

 

You also seem to have not even read my suggestion about how rifle could be different from longbow if you think the Sic Em Soulbeast build is exactly that playstyle. If you're going to try and argue with me you can at least read what I wrote.

[Can ranger get a rifle in EoD?]

4 hours ago, Touchme.1097 said:

I feel pistol and rifles don't belong to Ranger, black powder suits Warriors and Thieves best

 

Eh, I think there's enough design space on ranger to include a rifle at the very least. A big game hunter on a safari would be a type of ranger if translated into GW2. Maybe make it a stealth heavy elite spec that plays a bit like a Deadeye but with a nature theme.

 

A mechanic that might make the rifle unique from longbow; It has the same range as the longbow but does less damage the further the target is from you, so the goal of the weapon is to engage and try to balance getting closer to your target for more damage while retaining enough distance to keep yourself safe.

 

Pistols though I'd have a hard time coming up with a good justification for. You don't really hunt with a pistol.

 

My dream weapon is a land spear but at this point I don't think Anet is ever going to give us one.

[What about Command skills. Some ideas. Vol 1]

7 hours ago, Lazze.9870 said:

 

No, the other way around. Using the skill and then pressing F to revive them will put the trait on cooldown. If you let the pet do it all by itself it won't, but most of the time you'd probably want to help it out. Which means you basically just add some additional aoe regen, as opposed to most other revive traits which would stack with whatever skill is being used (like casting Well of Blood and then reviving, procing the trait for a second well).

 

Using SnR, then casting a lesser healing spring via the trait to help sustain and add some additional rez pulses would be so much better. Ranger used to have a trait that proced a healing spring on self-down, shame they didn't move that to the revive trait instead.

 

Ahhh, I see. Because it basically uses a non-stacking buff twice. I gotcha.

 

An easy fix to that would just be to make it so the trait doesn't trigger if the pet is already reviving someone.

 

Though if it had to be changed dropping a Healing Spring wouldn't be a bad choice either.

[What about Command skills. Some ideas. Vol 1]

11 hours ago, Lazze.9870 said:

 

The problem with the spirit imo is the cast times, less so its functionality. The health drain is also a tad too much.

 

Either way, I think the revive trait should be changed even if SnR stays as it is. Basically, running SnR on your bar means the trait is dead because it overlaps and goes on cooldown. I don't think any other class has that isse with their revive trait. I also just generally think dropping a Healing Spring is much more thematically fitting for Nature Magic than using a shout..er.. command.

 

I agree. The spirit's cast time means you can't drop it in an emergency to bring your allies back up all at once. Health degeneration is also pointless since they aren't really that tanky to begin with. I'd absolutely love it if spirits were good enough support options to take 1-2 of them on my bar for the utility because I love their flavor. Unfortunately they just aren't very good outside very specific content.

 

Does the trait make the utility go on cooldown? I just jumped into the game and tested this. I was able to activate the trait on one downed ally and then still cast it to pull a second downed ally to me to start reviving directly after.

[What about Command skills. Some ideas. Vol 1]

9 hours ago, Lazze.9870 said:

 

That's pretty niche. I mean, I'm assuming this is just regular PvE?

 

In typical Anet clunkiness fashion they have given rangers three utilities with revival skills, and none of them is as effective as a some of the singular skills on other classes, and as an added result, our revive trait is also among the least effective in teamfights (where they matter the most).

 

Generally yah. They aren't the strongest players so my main running around build is made to support them and our party. I realize any build can do Open World so it doesn't matter from a balance perspective but pulling peoples' bodies out of AoE death zones or away from the big boss is a huge part of the utility of Search and Rescue and part of what makes it one of my favorite ranger skills. Removing the teleport wouldn't make it better, it'd just be a harsh nerf on an already overnerfed skill.

 

That said I don't disagree that we have too many skills that get people off the ground. Personally I'd rather change the spirit if we had to. It doesn't live long enough to be out entire fights from my experience and a lot of the time it is dead and on cooldown when someone does go down. For a skill that requires surviving long enough for its ability to come into play I'd rather its active skill be something like dropping a Healing Spring effect or something that can be immediately useful, but that is just me.

 

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A bit of streamlining where SnR was axed for something different, our revive trait dropped a healing spring and gave the skill a revive % on each pulse, and our two remaining revive skills were updated a bit? That's the kind of QoL changes ranger needs. Not giant overhauls like command changes. The only overall change commands should have is to be reverted back to shouts (hell, the statement they made about the SnR nerf was to normalize the range to match the range of other shout skills (which was just an excuse for deleting it in PvP, but oh well)).

 

I don't disagree with this. A lot of the ranger's tools could work really well if they were just adjusted a little bit in the right direction. Changing our shouts to commands made no sense thematically and didn't really change them mechanically beyond a straight nerf due to losing synergy with certain runes.

 

Changing them into command should have come with more significant mechanical changes but it really didn't. They don't even "command" your pet. You just... Shout at your pet to trigger buffs.

[Did Joko look at Zhaitan and thought to himself: "lmao noob"?]

19 hours ago, Hannelore.8153 said:

We.. did permanently cut him off from access to magic. Besides his reliance on specialised minions which provided sustenance, its made pretty clear in the game that cleansing The Artesian Waters (which is likely a massive ley-line hub) Zhaitan was cut off from his magic completely and extremely weakened in the Battle of Arah.

 

Oh, I know. On paper it makes sense given we starved Zhaitan before engaging him so any tricks he might've had probably weren't available.

 

I am just saying it would've been better presented if we had an attempt on Zhaitan that failed before finding the solution that put an end to him. One thing I loved about the Kralkatorrik fight was how he kept enduring even through our carefully laid plans. Every time we got close to killing him he pulled out a new trick to keep himself alive. It felt like a real struggle where there were points we could've actually lost and by the time that final blow came it felt like an immense undertaking.

 

Zhaitan's fight is notoriously underwhelming largely because by the time we face him head on we already have the strategy to kill him. If there was more of a give-and-take and the reveal of Zhaitan having abilities we didn't know about yet like with Kralkatorrik it would've felt more hard fought.

[What about Command skills. Some ideas. Vol 1]

22 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

I am  personally against giving the pet any kind shadow steps unless from their own skills (like the cheeta or smokescale)  thus i even removed the teleport from search and rescue.

This is because balance purpouses again, it would feel unfair if the ranger could teleport around the pet by using commands, avoiding all the damage or setting up the pet on their targets location not giving time to any counterplay. 

 

Given other classes can teleport their entire bodies around I just don't see how the pet having a player-commanded teleport would be unfair. It isn't functionally different from dropping a ground targeted spell on the area. The counter-play would be to use your own teleport to escape the pet or just kite it with slows and dodges. Needing to use your own resources to counter the ranger's resources is fair play.

 

It isn't like our pets don't all have telegraphs on their strongest skills. Nobody is in danger of getting burst down before they can react.

 

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thus i even removed the teleport from search and rescue.

 

Given I actually use Search and Rescue as part of my main build to pull my friends' bodies out of AoEs all the time this would pretty much ruin the utility for me.

 

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About Guard command. Revealing a target is a very powerful mechanic as it does not only allow you to attack that target but any friendly that may be with you. Think stealth is another profession main mechanic, As such Gard is fine with just the reveal.

 

I suppose so. It just makes this a skill I'd never use outside of PVP and makes it mostly wasted in certain match-ups. Especially when you have Sic 'Em that counters stealth while also providing other benefits in case you get attacked by someone that isn't playing thief, mesmer, or engineer.

 

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Pathing is not remotely perfect but to mitigate that  pet could receive working close gaps. If the close gaps works with the same internal mechanics as the tiger's Furious_Pounce pets should not have much trouble sticking to the target. But that topic would be better treated in the propper thread about the pets rework.

Potentially, but I am leery of giving all the responsibility of overcoming pathing issues to the AI. Maybe I'm just too used to pet skills being janky and not working right all the time.

[What about Command skills. Some ideas. Vol 1]

12 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Um i am of the idea Ranger (Core and Druid) should not have access to a burst heal. It simply doesn't work balance wise with projectiles attacks. As you can see also skills like Troll_Unguent are preferred over WHaO because it works better with the ranger skills. So i think  Water_Spirit and Healing_Spring should also work in a similar fashion, healing over time instead burst healing.

 

I don't see why a burst heal fundamentally doesn't work with the ranger toolkit. I use We Heal as One quite a lot because of its short cooldown when traited and solid health recovery. My most used heal is Healing Spring because of the smaller burst coupled with its AoE and ability to be comboed as well.

 

Changing ALL ranger heals to be heal over time would just be limiting our options, I feel. Let players choose for themselves whether they want a burst heal or a heal over time.

 

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I like the idea activating the command would work automatically as F1, but i don't think the shadowstep would be needed or even fair. In any case keep in mind command may have a longer cast time, something like 1-2s to balance the skill. This is done because commands aren't to be used instantly but as status where your pet is already prepared . Something closer to the mantras design philosophy. 

 

Given that our pets can be potentially shut down by small ledges and significantly hindered by obstacles a human player could casually navigate I feel teleports are only fair. If it has a telegraph like a cast time then it only becomes more fair. Keep in mind that right now if a player is standing on a pillar the AI has zero ability to ever reach them, which in turn means the ranger's core mechanic has just been hard countered by positioning.

 

Sacrificing a utility slot for the ability to circumvent a key limitation of the AI seems like a worthy trade off to me.

 

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Keep in mind if Anet also would rework the pets using this suggestions the pets would have already close gaps to keep up with the target albeit less damage (thus the extra damage in this command), for example birds would have access to a sort of  Lesser_Quickening_Zephyr  on their F3 so if you were looking into a pet with great chase potential you would pick that one. As it should be able to chase and attack invisible targets (although not revealing them) it should not be a problem if the target goes into stealth. 

 

This is true, and this would dramatically increase the pet's ability to stick to the target and remain a constant hinderance. But it doesn't solve the AI's issues with navigating terrain or dealing with heights. Even wyverns and birds are helpless against the might of the Y axis.

 

Commands being tools that let the ranger overcome the stupidity of the AI would make a lot of thematic sense and improve pet gameplay a lot.

 

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Actually i was thinking about not rooting the pet to any area. I guess i did not explained myself properly.

Rooting the ranger or pet even if it's for a few seconds does not work very well with the profession as it lacks defenses against damage spikes.  The pet simply pulses 1 second reveal every few seconds (every 3 would be fine to allow some counterplay) in a 600 radius around the companion  while this command is active. The area would be a bit random because on how the pet moves around while in passive but it would be fine. Then you control the area by moving yourself around. 

 

 

I don't know if I'd want to use a utility skill that only functions as a counter to stealth. Especially one that kind of requires you to stop using your pet for the duration since if the pet isn't on top of you because it is fighting another target the anti-stealth pulse wouldn't be on the ranger. You could still get backstabbed.

 

In my mind Guard works best thematically if it sets the pet to.. Well. Guard an area. More or less changing where the pet leashes to so it can be further away from the ranger than is otherwise possible.

 

Making that utility useful though? That is kind of tricky. There's a lot of overlap in theme between Guard and Protect Me and having two defensive commands is a little redundant. 

[Easy way to fix the pets vol. 2]

14 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

I was thinking more on if you have your pet stowed you can not bring it back during combat. This is to avoid any undesired interactions with traits like continuously stowing/show pet to trigger certain traits or outplay other players burst damage by making the pet disappear. 

 

That might be a bit too punishing. Imagine leaving a zerg to go back to re-supply and getting caught with your pet in storage. You'd have almost no chance of winning.

 

Not being able to stow them in combat makes sense and makes it a strategic choice you make before a fight begins. It also prevents the ranger from being cheeky and stowing the pet just before they go down. But I feel the ranger should always be able to call their pet into action just because of how crippled they are without them. Just make taking a pet out of stowing not trigger as if it were a pet swap and I think it'd be fine.

[What about Command skills. Some ideas. Vol 1]

I like most of these though I feel Heal as One should stay a burst heal. Having the pet follow you around trying to lick you sounds kind of clunky, and Heal as One being our main "heal the pet" skill seems like it adds more to the beastmaster theme. I like the idea of Enkeny to have it revive your pet if they are downed as this would give us a way to circumvent the downed cooldown if we blow a heal for it.

 

Also some suggestions:

 

Sic 'Em: Have this teleport the pet to the ranger's current target. Also have it act as an attack command when triggered. It is literally an attack command so needing to hit F1 in addition to this utility seems like wasted time, just keep the ability to change its target with F1. Making it a teleport means this would be a way to circumvent terrain navigation limitations inherent in the AI and give rangers some capacity to get people out of sniper positions. Requires line of sight for obvious reasons.

 

Guard: Have this be a ground targeted ability that teleports the pet to the area. This would just give the ranger more control over where their pet ends up and potentially make the reveal trigger faster. I'd also like it to possibly give protection or other forms of damage reduction to allies in the radius.

 

Protect Me: Have this teleport the pet to the ranger's side before triggering a barrier and soaking incoming damage for the ranger. The pet sticks to your side for the duration or until you give it an attack command.

 

A ranger who went heavy on Commands would be able to get their pet to move around the field much more reliably, which would go a long way to making sure it doesn't stand in death.

[Easy way to fix the pets vol. 2]

You seem to have completely forgotten about the drakes and wyverns. Very unfortunate!

 

I don't necessarily agree pets need to lose their ability to crit, but I do agree that it'd make pet damage easier to balance if nothing else.

 

I like basically everything else though. We need more control of the other high impact skills our pets have. Using pet swap to activate them works but is a little clunky. I've also LONG said that rangers need to be able to perma stow their pet if they so choose. There are just activities in the game where the pet is a detriment. Let the ranger make the choice to stow their pet knowing they're missing out on the pet's damage and utility if they think the pet is more of a liability than an asset in that situation.

 

As an addition: Just make the pet swap button summon your stowed pet so the ranger can whip it out on command the second they need to. Pet swap doesn't need to go on cooldown for this. It just acts as a command to un-stow the pet then returns to being the normal pet swap as long as you have an active pet.

[Did Joko look at Zhaitan and thought to himself: "lmao noob"?]

It is worth noting that Aurene seemed to take longer and had a harder time returning to life than Joko did. It could be a lack of experience with the magic, but it could also be that it takes a greater effort to resurrect something that is larger and more powerful.

 

If that is true then it is possible Zhaitan did have this power but that by the time we deal the final blow we'd been starving him of magic for months cutting down his champions and preventing him from feeding. When he finally died he may have just not had enough magic left to resurrect.

 

Ultimately Zhaitan suffers from having been the first elder dragon we faced when the game was still young. Modremoth and Kralkatorrik were done much better.

 

It would've been awesome if after cutting Zhaitan down with asuran lasers he came back to life and we had to find some way of permanently cutting him off from access to magic to keep him dead.

[WHAT RACES WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD TO THE GAME?]

1 hour ago, Rognik.2579 said:

All that may be true, but you forget that the first two chapters of the personal story is directly affected by the race of the character, all of which would need to be created for each race.

I literally mentioned this fact in my post. I understand why it'd be a lot of work for Anet to do, I just disagree that it wouldn't add value to the game or be worth doing.

 

Also you're kind of forgetting that Anet straight up ignores timeline inconsistencies already. Canonically it is impossible for the PC to be a revenant because Rytlock was the first, yet the Pact Commander can be a revenant while fighting Zhaitan before the class even existed yet. So that argument against a new race being Pact Commander doesn't work.

 

The Commander is a narrative void. If the player makes a Tengu the game will just treat the PC as having always been a tengu because the lore around the Commander already is inconsistent and paradoxical. 

[WHAT RACES WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD TO THE GAME?]

On 7/21/2021 at 4:05 AM, firedragon.8953 said:

Playable race?

Honestly, none.

Race adds nothing substantial in terms of gameplay mechanics in GW2. It would be a lot of work for a few moments of novelty. 

I feel like you're vastly underestimating how much a new race adds to the gaming experience for players like me. When WoW came out with the Zandalari I re-subbed and made multiple new characters and leveled them all to max level even though I already had characters using the same class as the new Zandalari were using.

 

Race adds a lot more than just novelty. It adds a whole new flavor of roleplay and a new culture to deeply invest in on top of new aesthetics to play around with in relation to gear and weapons. A new GW2 race would add even more since it'd come with a new level 1-10 experience and potentially a new racial capital.

 

I understand why Anet doesn't want to do it because of the workload but it kind of bugs me when people insist adding a new race wouldn't add anything of value to the game. New races are one of those big hooks that can get me coming back to a game and the range of playable races is a deal breaker for me if they don't have anything suitable to my preferences. GW2 has charr and sylvari who are my go-to choices here but the pickings are pretty slim otherwise. The game could use another option or two for the sake of variety.

 

... At the very least give Norn a racial battle tonic for their forms so they don't play like larger humans 99% of the time.

 

As for MY preferences. Tengu and Largos seem the most likely but have already been talked about a ton.

 

Personally I'd love playable nagas or krait even though I am fully aware it'll never happen. Same with centaurs. Though I think they could manage a sort of springing animation for the snake people the centaurs just wouldn't have good looking dodge animations.

 

I'd also love hylek even though they were a minor race in the personal story. Maybe one of the unique tribes from Maguuma instead?

 

Basically the further from human the better. Another true beast race like the charr but with a different flavor would make me so very happy.

[i love Asura gameplay personal story wise not so much]

To be fair the difference in size between an asura and a charr is a lot smaller than the difference between a charr and a giant or hydra and yet nobody bats an eye at the charr hero taking those things on with skill and determination.

 

This is an odd sort of double standard I see a lot of. People are more accepting of a human-sized fighter taking on a 50ft long dragon but if you drop just two feet off that human's height suddenly it is no longer realistic.

 

If we're going with gritty realism no playable race should survive a single hit from a giant or a sandshark aside from maybe the norn, and that is only because they're supernaturally strong and resilient for their size.

 

Also keep in mind all classes use magic to varying degrees. Your asura isn't just a mundane, every day asura if you go with warrior. They'll be enhancing their physical abilities through a passive use of the ambient magical energies in the air and in their bodies. So roleplay your asura as more of a super-asura. One that can smash the ground so hard they create shockwaves or can swing their sword so fast as to become a living blender.

 

Combine that with enchanted armor and weapons and I really don't see why an asuran warrior can't compete with humans or even the norn. After a certain point the edge the larger races get from pure biological athleticism becomes too marginal to matter.