Untamed Feedback Thread

[Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582]

I just tested the Mechanist against the Untamed in the special forces training area and the mechanist golem does far better damage with no stats than Ranger pets. Purely because it has a ranged attack though, mostly.

[Rinaldhi.9826]

8 minutes ago, Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582 said:

 

Oh, was that intentional? I think they should reconsider since its lacking synergy with the other trait lines. It feels that the unleashed mode is nerfing the one that currently has it.

[Lazze.9870]

I said it before and I will say it again: if they wanted a teamfight bruiser for pvp and wvw, it shouldn't have been on a pet spec. Rather the complete opposite and entirely petless (by petless I basically mean not having something with a healthbar that does damage "passively"). And yes, I get it, some of you like the pet, some of you argue that it was time for a pet spec... well, in that case, it shouldn't have been the bruiser spec.

Traits could also have been much more focused on the CC aspect of it, not just do a condi on CC or gain a boon on CC (the latter is allright considering its quickness and stab, but still). The GM trait that reduce the cooldowns is fine. Boon removal could also have been more focused, instead of adding it to a random hammer skill and one of the unleashed pet skills. I get that it might step on the spellbreaker toes to add boon removal related traits and have it interact with the CC, but why not at this point. Instead we have this random trait that makes the unleash rip a corrupt instead. That's just pointless.

Most of my more specific problems with the spec have already been mentioned by other people. This is ultimately not what I wanted for a spec that aims to be ranger's teamfight bruiser, so in the end I will never be completely happy with it anyways. I will find a use for it, but this is ultimately a "could have been" for me, and that won't change unless they re-build most of it from the ground up.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Lazze.9870

[Lazze.9870]

2 minutes ago, Rinaldhi.9826 said:

Oh, was that intentional? I think they should reconsider since its lacking synergy with the other trait lines. It feels that the unleashed mode is nerfing the one that currently has it.

 

None of the skills are labeled Beast skills, so..

I mean, they gave us a trait to modify the F1 to blind, when we literally have a blind on Beast skills in Beastmastery.

Classic Anet as far as ranger goes.

[Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582]

3 minutes ago, Rinaldhi.9826 said:

Oh, was that intentional? I think they should reconsider since its lacking synergy with the other trait lines. It feels that the unleashed mode is nerfing the one that currently has it.

kitten, I hope not because the spec is dead in the water otherwise.

[kiwituatara.6053]

Pet mechanic is broken and this elite spec just amplifies it. Pet is dying faster due to lack of control. Pet manual skills and unleashed skills don't really land properly besides the teleport skill.

 

Switching between un/leashed hammer skills feels terrible.

 

Traits are boring.

 

Heal skill is terrible. Kills your class mechanic.

 

Utility skills are okay except for "Exploding Spores". Hit all 6 targets for knockdown? No.

 

Elite skill is good, but doesn't really synergise well with hammer since its a slow attacking weapon. Just feels off.

 

Summary: I don't think tweaking the numbers can fix a lot of the problems Untamed has. Really needs a lot of work before launch and I don't really see it happening.

 

Rating: 1/10 - Untamed is so bad I don't even want to touch the expansion anymore. 😢

[Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582]

Feels like Core Ranger, with extra steps.

[HotHit.6783]

I've played around with the Untamed for a couple hours in PvE to try and learn the skills. The hammer somehow has too many options for me to understand the proper flow yet, while also feeling like it has 2 only skills that it flips between on a ten second cooldown. Most of the hammer animations feel very samey, skill 1 is a slap > slap > overhead slam, skill 2 is a spin, then skill 3, 4 and 5 are all overhead slams. Only 4 feels really distinct, since it has the floaty jump followed by the cascade. This is an okay Warrior or Guardian weapon, but it needs an animal spirit channeled during two of its weapon skills to look like a Ranger melee and have any kind of defensive skill to behave like a Ranger melee. Thump should have a rabbit spirit at least.

To compare with Greatsword, that has the evade endurance gain on its basic combo, an evade and gap closer via Swoop, a block via Counterattack and a stun via Hilt Bash, and of course Maul for the weapon's key attack. While with the Hammer the only variety from a 180 range weapon swing is the cascade from skill 4. 

Overbearing Smash is what I'd look to change most. At present it has a somewhat pointless leap connected to it that will be interrupted if you press any new movement commands, it should lock you into the attack like the old sword skills. That way, you can queue movement skills like with any other leap. As is, I think I cancelled the attack every time I used it until now where I take my hand of the keyboard when I press the button (and then react to the skill hitting to take further actions). If the first hit was ranged (even just 400 units), the second attack being a cancellable leap would make sense, but as is it's just crap to use.

Edited October 27, 2021 by HotHit.6783

[Psy.7823]

PvP feedback:

So i am mainly a PvP player so that is what i will talk about. I'm not top tier but am decent enough (P2 and regularly play ATs/mATs). Here are my early thoughts:

1) Pet commands need to come back. At minimum we need return to have a dedicated keybind (like passive/aggressive mode does). A good example of why is fighting against Full Counter or Glint Heal, typically i would recall my pet to stop triggering these, can no longer reliably do this.

2) Honestly, the pet skills being f1-3 should just be a core mechanic... I really don't see why it is not if the tech is there. Unleashing is the real 'new' mechanic anyway.

3) Hammer is.... underwhelming. It offers no real active defence (evade, invuln, block, leaps),  but equally doesn't offer enough damage to make up for it.  Not only is the damage low, there is no snare/chase potential when the ranger is unleashed. The CC on hammer with pet unleashed is nice but lacks reliable follow up. If you CC someone  you have v limited follow up damage, you don't have access to your pet skills (tail swipe), or any decent damage hammer skills without unleashing yourself. And having to do this this means the window for follow up is tiny, and makes dealing damage high effort/skill for mediocre reward. I may as well just stick with GS Hilt Bash + Maul, LB knock + Rapid fire, or Axe 3 + Dagger 4. There is of course some l2p here, and I like the idea of a higher skill floor to do damage on ranger, but only if the damage is actually better than what we already have...

I don't know how much sense this makes for other gamemodes or more generally for balance. But i wouldn't hate the idea of the hammer CC kit to be active when i also have access to my normal pet skills, at least then i could use the CCs to line up pet damage (Tail Swipe, Jacaranda Burst, Tiger etc). Either that or make the unleashed pet skills be better damage, right now it feels we go in defensive mode with hammer at the same time as utility mode for pet. 

Overall with the ranger unleashed I feel the hammer kit needs more damage, some chase potential ,and/or some active defense for staying power.

4) Traits/ utilities. The traits are decent enough but we still have the same problem as before. Beastmastery, Wilderness Survival and Marksmanship are v strong for power/damage builds, and the new traitline simply feels like you're downgrading either damage or sustain, depending which you sacrifice. Soulbeast offered enough damage that marksmanship was ok to give up, we don't really have something similar here. [Will probably update more here after more playing around]

5) Small thing- the pet unleashed and ranger unleashed icons need to be different colours or something. Can barely tell them apart, and with all the visual clutter in PvP looking at the character animation is not reliable.

 

:)

Edited October 27, 2021 by Psy.7823
reformatted

[Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582]

15 minutes ago, Psy.7823 said:

PvP feedback:

So i am mainly a PvP player so that is what i will talk about. I'm not top tier but am decent enough (P2 and regularly play ATs/mATs). Here are my early thoughts:

1) Pet commands need to come back. At minimum we need return to have a dedicated keybind (like passive/aggressive mode does). A good example of why is fighting against Full Counter or Glint Heal, typically i would recall my pet to stop triggering these, can no longer reliably do this.

2) Honestly, the pet skills being f1-3 should just be a core mechanic... I really don't see why it is not if the tech is there. Unleashing is the real 'new' mechanic anyway.

3) Hammer is.... underwhelming. It offers no real active defence (evade, invuln, block, leaps),  but equally doesn't offer enough damage to make up for it.  Not only is the damage low, there is no snare/chase potential when the ranger is unleashed. The CC on hammer with pet unleashed is nice but lacks reliable follow up. If you CC someone  you have v limited follow up damage, you don't have access to your pet skills (tail swipe), or any decent damage hammer skills without unleashing yourself. And having to do this this means the window for follow up is tiny, and makes dealing damage high effort/skill for mediocre reward. I may as well just stick with GS Hilt Bash + Maul, LB Rapid fire, or Axe 3 + Dagger 4. There is of course some l2p here, and I like the idea of a higher skill floor to do damage on ranger, but only if the damage is actually better than what we already have...

I don't know how much sense this makes for other gamemodes or more generally for balance. But i wouldn't hate the idea of the hammer CC kit to be active when i also have access to my normal pet skills, at least then i could use the CCs to line up pet damage (Tail Swipe, Jacaranda Burst, Tiger etc). Either that or make the unleashed pet skills be better damage, right now it feels we go in defensive mode with hammer at the same time as utility mode for pet. Again that would be decent if the aggressive mode for hammer actually had some aggressive potential.

Overall with the ranger unleashed I feel the hammer kit needs more damage, some chase potential ,and/or some active defense for staying power.

4) Traits/ utilities. The traits are decent enough but we still have the same problem as before. Beastmastery, Wilderness Survival and Marksmanship are v strong for power/damage builds, and the new traitline simply feels like you're downgrading either damage or sustain, depending which you sacrifice. Soulbeast offered enough damage that marksmanship was ok to give up, we don't really have something similar here. 

5) Small thing- the pet unleashed and ranger unleashed icons need to be different colours or something. Can barely tell them apart, and with all the visual clutter in PvP looking at the character animation is not reliable.

 

🙂

Hear hear, well said!!

[Melian.5368]

Ranger Main since beta. Mainly WvW player.

• We must get the pet controls back. Commanding to attack and retreat are big parts of pet mechanics.
• Unleashing should trigger Zephyr's Speed if traited (beastmastery grandmaster 2) (In my opinion).
• There are no "beast" skills as described above. Why throw a mechanic away? Give us beast skills back.
• Pet's abilities are done lazily. We should get family specific and pet specific skills instead, like soulbeast. Current Pet skills are underwhelming and are of little consequence.
• Hammer skills are very slow, and the removal of CC when ranger is unleashed actually makes things worse. Allow untamed to CC and damage at the same time as an exception to the "no damage with CC" rule so that there will be a reason to choose untamed over soulbeast.
• Since there are no traits that modify or improve the new cantrips, I expect runes and sigils to support using cantrips. Otherwise they are not good other than the elite. Or make Resounding Timbre (Beastmastery minor 3) trigger on cantrips too in addition to commands.
• Also there are no "tanks" in WvW, stop trying to make it happen. Shout Spellbreakers are the only frontliners and their CC and boonrip is better. Untamed will still have no place in squads unless the pet gets the same boons and status effects (like stealth) as the ranger, which would be OP. 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Melian.5368

[Kilrik.6320]

Point of clarification....

 

I think I am either reading this wrong or many others are...

Vow of the Untamed: your outgoing damage and incoming damage are increased while you are unleashed. Your outgoing damage and your incoming damage are decreased while your pet is unleashed.

Outgoing 15%

Incoming 10%

If core=100% does that mean the player unleashed= 115% dmg given and  110%  dmg taken while pet is at 85% dmg given and 90% dmg taken.  With the reverse being true on switch.

OR

since there is no neutral base point since untamed is either on or off for pet/player that the player unleashed= 115% dmg given, 110% dmg taken while pet is at 100% dmg given and 100% dmg taken.  With the reverse being true on switch. Consequently, it could be stated in reverse. Player unleashed= 100% dmg given 100% taken pet 85% dmg given 90% dmg taken.

One is compared to a neutral/core while the other is only compared to itself.  Either way, the damage variation favors the player remaining in unleashed, since pets do not do nearly the damage a player does.  Additionally, pets die so easily in pvp/wvw with reduced health pools from pve and all others stats constant.  Untamed does not buff the pet beyond the simple unleash/leash concept.  Therefore, imo for pet survivability it makes more sense to keep it leashed, so it at least takes less or normal damage. Funny doesn't Druid already reduce pet stats while Soulbeast only increases player stats with pet merge,  it's basically variations of the same concept.

 

It will  be harder to test for dmg taken so I am going to try same stats core vs untamed leashed/unleashed for dmg against golems  to compare the numbers using no precision to get a sampling of say 10 hits for the 3 diff variants.  One problem I see is I still have to fill the third traitline in core so would/should I min/max it for a reliable score? I'll be back for findings.....

 

[Sifolstour.3210]

We need changes on this spec; some of those changes are a MUST like the unleashed skills that i'll explain later and some minor tweaks that are less important but also needed.

 

Tweaks on hammer:

-Autoattack should have different effects on the third attack chain; unleashed - maybe add some extra damage/condi or boon effect like might // and while not unleashed - some kind of deffensive option like endurance gain.

-Would be nice having a whirl finisher on skill number 2 of hammer.

-Skill number 3 while unleashed could be a gap closer/teleport.

 

About other weapon sets:

-At least we MUST get 1 unleashed skill for every mainhand weapon, skill number 2 of any weapon  fits perfectly for this.

 

Pets:

-F3 Enveloping Haze is a pretty nice/good skill. F1 and F2 should be ok for Feline/Canine archetype.

-F1 and F2 MUST be different based on pet archetype, we dont need a gap closer neither an aoe effect on a ranged pet.

-F2 Unleashed pet should be named as a beast ability for better trait sinergy, this let us to remove 2 unnecesary traits

(Blinding Outburst/Corrupting Vines) and in exchange we can get some condi stuff for those that ill explain

later on the trait section.

-Keybind keys to command your pet like ranger ones.

 

Cantrips:

-Mutate conditions should be also a stun break making it less punishing for the vulnerability aplied to ourselfs on condi removal (we havent a single one on those cantrip skills).

-Combine exploding spores and nature binding into 1 skill; for example make the spores explode on cast aplying the damage and slow and if the target persist on the field after a delay inmobilize them.

-Having 1 utility skill slot free cause the combination of exploding spores and nature binding you could add some kind of skill more condi focused being able to create more builds around the untamed spec.

 

Traits:

- Delete Blinding Outburst/Corrupting Vines traits (they are weak and naming f2 of unleashed pet skill a beast skill will be better) and instead of those add as an example:

* Condi aplication when you disable the target instead of Blinding Outburst.

* When you or your pet unleashes create a Fire/Smoke field (Depending on who is unleashed) that last 3s instead of Corrupting Vines.

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Sifolstour.3210
error

[aetemes.2603]

Ok...as a victim of trying out Catalyst...this spec is not that bad...(I feel like someone grateful for not sleeping on a bed of nails). 

My opinions.

I really find the name "Untamed" even more offputting and nonsensical given that now you can control the pet's abilities more than all of Ranger's specs?? 

I hate the fungal thing animation..please taking druids spore and putting green slime ontop of it and copy pasting 6 times...I beg you reconsider just use some different mushrooms even I dunno :s.

Unleashed - as many have mentioned the fact it's an only hammer mechanic is...meh but at this point to me the theme of the especs is meh so at least it's not plainly worse than playing other ranger specs. 

Hammer...it's a...ok weapon feels like a way to have a "second boring greatsword" meleeing weapon kinda of boring vibe nothing too exciting but has usefull skills I suppose. Again boring weapons have been consistent so far so (spectre is an exception I guess)....whatever. The fact that unleashed removes everything and gives you 5 buttons to do just damage...I mean..what can I say.

Pets - now I am someone who actually really likes that I can control what/when skill should the pet use I feel in theory this will allow me to use a lot of different pets that their f2s were meh but they have some pretty good other skills that now can be a skill on my bar rather than who knows what is the pet doing.

Unleashed pet - again mentioned by many..this whole all ofem regardless which species get weirdly generic abilities yet very "themed" (vines?? Green bubble?? Blinks??) Is...to me tacky..I mean you could've just morphed the pet to some nature entity when it is unleashed to make it less...I dunno flavorless maybe that entity is the "untamed spirit and soul of petonomia oooo spoooky". That way it'd also be more consistent predicting wheres the abilities going to land as pets behave differently but...moving on.

The upet abilities..I mean...meh...and having to be disabled when it lands even more meh maybe if f2 had immobilize as well?. F3 being a straight up bubble is kinda tacky everyone gets a bubble with ur class color is tacky but useful so...moving on.

Utilities

First of all that the utilities have no pet unleashed/you unleashed anything unleashed..is...boring..nothing new here though. Zero stunbreaks..ow ok.

Fungal knockdown- my main issue with this skill is the animation it's so ugly and tacky (green turds combine with muddy terrain for full rp). The fact that it does "nothing" unless you land all ofem is boring but at least it knocksdown..and the blink I guess helps landing it.

The blink skill - I just feel it's tacky that everything gets a straight up blink/shadowstep and no flavor is put up to cover the fact it is the case...wish it just felt rangery untamey...unleashy...maybe animate it more or something anyways usefull so..I'll take it. It's also tacky to keep using the word tacky.

Convert all conditions - decent...boring..but decent.

Plant cage - aoe "cc". I dunno really.

Elite..this elite makes Strength of the Pack feel like..lol...? Like if there was an unleashed vs...leashed this the leashed..I mean usefull and a seperate damage reduction modifier so...ok..but..the fact it feels so close to SotP..copy paste but again nothing new there especs wise. I agree that it should affect your pet.

The heal...I really don't know how good is this we heal as one is pretty strong..50% pet health is strong..but costly..then this whole sudden I am grabbing my pet and using it as meat shield theme..I mean ok...I'll take it.

 

The talents - tier 1 talents are too weak..1 condition?? 3 sec weakness?? Just a blind???. Ok.

3 sec 1 stab charge per cc?? I mean quickness...maybe but...stab?. 5 might is a joke why not alacrity 'haha'..you're giving it to every other class (that's another joke). Corrupting vine is ok..random necro theme..but...ok. Grandmasters all are cool I mean 1 ofem mesmer direct ripoff but k.

Overall...it's a spec I see myself playing actually albeit I will feel like I'm not really...into it like that you know it's a bunch of skills/talents that fills certain needs but fantasy and theme wise feels lacking and incoherent??? It's a I wanna tankier ranger spec..k there you go I guess?. I'll take it (pathetic xD)...if I buy the expac that is lol.

Edited October 27, 2021 by aetemes.2603

[jonesy.1470]

Just going to keep it short.

I've mained ranger since launch. over 6000 hours on ranger.

Ive always wanted to have better pet control but dont remove attack my target and return to me and i feel like having a quality of life like more access to your pet skills is very cheap for a new spec.

hammer feels bit slow but i love the skills shame they hit like a wet noodle in all modes, also the hammer synergy between unleashed is just bad having the same cool down means you are forced to drop damage trait to take cc trait if you can land cc ..... and that's the other problem the range on the hammer skills suck. unleashed savage shock wave should be 360 range on all hits. it's a shockwave. look at the new rev great sword 5 that got 900 range and 360  for its multihit attack.  The cool downs on hammer are too high if you don't change the shared cooldown.

 

Untamed traits are boring as hell. No synergy with other traitlines. also 3 minor trait should be in the first minor and give us something that helps with this mess.

the unleashed pet skills are very underwhelming. 0 damage on all 3 skills and even the condis are weak on them. Only one set aswell ? no family of pet ones ? very lazy.

What happened to the other weapon sets ? 

 

On the bright side at least we get new pets for Soul beast. But im sure they wont have new skills they are can use because its very clear the quilty of these new specs are very Rushed/low.

I feel like whoever was in charged of giving the anet quality stamp of approval is long gone.

[Kilrik.6320]

3 hours ago, Kilrik.6320 said:

Point of clarification....

 

I think I am either reading this wrong or many others are...

Vow of the Untamed: your outgoing damage and incoming damage are increased while you are unleashed. Your outgoing damage and your incoming damage are decreased while your pet is unleashed.

Outgoing 15%

Incoming 10%

If core=100% does that mean the player unleashed= 115% dmg given and  110%  dmg taken while pet is at 85% dmg given and 90% dmg taken.  With the reverse being true on switch.

OR

since there is no neutral base point since untamed is either on or off for pet/player that the player unleashed= 115% dmg given, 110% dmg taken while pet is at 100% dmg given and 100% dmg taken.  With the reverse being true on switch. Consequently, it could be stated in reverse. Player unleashed= 100% dmg given 100% taken pet 85% dmg given 90% dmg taken.

One is compared to a neutral/core while the other is only compared to itself.  Either way, the damage variation favors the player remaining in unleashed, since pets do not do nearly the damage a player does.  Additionally, pets die so easily in pvp/wvw with reduced health pools from pve and all others stats constant.  Untamed does not buff the pet beyond the simple unleash/leash concept.  Therefore, imo for pet survivability it makes more sense to keep it leashed, so it at least takes less or normal damage. Funny doesn't Druid already reduce pet stats while Soulbeast only increases player stats with pet merge,  it's basically variations of the same concept.

 

It will  be harder to test for dmg taken so I am going to try same stats core vs untamed leashed/unleashed for dmg against golems  to compare the numbers using no precision to get a sampling of say 10 hits for the 3 diff variants.  One problem I see is I still have to fill the third traitline in core so would/should I min/max it for a reliable score? I'll be back for findings.....

 

  So got my answer or at least I'm satisfied with my findings....

 

Went to pvp tested on Indestructible golem with greatsword using only slash for 20 hits.  I used basic 5% precision 209.9%, critical damage and 2,200 power using amulet of the valkyrie and dwayna rune to reduce rates of critical hits and gauge a more nominal physical damage.  I did 3 tests- core, untamed leashed, untamed unleashed testing only the player damage.

 

Builds were WS and BM all 2's for all 3.   Core 3rd was skirmishing all 2's.  Untamed all 2's for both scenarios.

 

Core hits were: all 425 with one crit at 892 for an average of 448.35 damage per hit of slash.

 

Untamed leashed player hits were: all 361 with 2x 758 crit for an avg of 400.7 damage per hit of slash (380.85 if only one crit and other hit was again 361-given probability of 1 in 20 being a crit)          

 

Untamed unleashed player hits were: 498, 503, 503, 508, 508, 508, 498, 488, 1026, 488, 498, 488, 488, 488, 488, 488, 488, 488, 488, 488 for an avg of 520.9 per hit of slash.

 

Not much I can say to these results only that unleashed>core>leashed.  If core is 100% baseline it would round to 116% unleash>100% core > 85% leashed (using the 380.85 avg dmg - 89% if 2nd crit in mix)

 

SO THERE IS AN ACTUAL 30% DIFFERENCE IN PLAYER DAMAGE LEASHED VS UNLEASHED FOR UNTAMED! I ASSUME THE DAMAGE TAKEN MODIFIERS ARE LIKEWISE TRUE!

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Kilrik.6320
grammar

[Legionnaire.9478]

Played it for a little bit. I will have to do more testing, but here are things that need to be improved: 

 

1. Please fix the keybinding, I loss access to some keybinds I have on my pet. 

 

2. Why does every pet have the same unleash skills? They should follow the route you did with Soulbeast: each type of Pet: Deadly, Versastile, Strout, the last one I can't remember. With each group doing something different. 

 

3. The hammer is way too slow, while I get the point, a hammer is supposed to be slow and you need to use your CC to keep your opponent down, then swap to your Unleash Ranger hammer skills, the wind up for #5 takes way too long, and easily able to dodge in pvp/wvw.  We have no way to keep generating quickness as well as other classes so this is a big disadvantage. It kinda reminds of the condi berserker/warrior where you just knock down your opponent, cc them to death, and throw as many condis as you can on them before they get back up. Definitely benefits the trapper playstyle. 

 

4.  Why are you shoehorning us rangers into only playing hammer to fully enjoy this specialization? No other elite spec suffers from not using their new weapons. There is literally no synergy with any of the core ranger  weapons to use with this elite specs. That's just poor design from a game that allows you to weapon swap on the fly.  I think each of our weapons outside of hammer should be given at least 1 or 2 unleash skills. You basically made us base Ele, but way worse because eles can at least have access to 20 different skills among the 4 elements. While we get 10..... (16 if you count the pet skills, but I am talking about weapons).  And only benefit from using hammer.

5. Hammer also gives no benefit besides CC and Damage. We lack any sustain to really be a melee bruiser using this spec. We get no blocks, no protection, no quickness, nothing but CCs and damage using a hammer. For a specialization that is based on a "Bruiser" Design we should at least be able to stay in melee range and do some damage, but as it stands now we lack sustain to do that. 

6. The healing skill is also not good, it needs to be reworked. We heal on hit, and then we drain half our pet life force to heal ourselves. Putting out pet at risk of dying which pretty much kills the whole "unleash mode" while when you do pop it, it heals them back up to full. It still won't matter in wvw or heavy aoe areas. Also once again as with core ranger, when we lose our pet, we lose our damage capabilities. And none of the skills seem to offer any type of buff to our pet to keep them alive long enough. 

 

7. Auto-attack enable for 1 pet skill please that we get to choose. Having to constantly hit the lowest cooldown for my pet to do something besides auto-attack sucks. 

 

I'll keep playing it some more and really zone in on the traitlines, but right now this elite spec is underwhelming.

Edited October 27, 2021 by Legionnaire.9478

[novas.1845]

8 hours ago, Arshay Duskbrow.1306 said:

Finally, the green aura is absolutely hideous and ruins the fashion that is the main  monetization of your game.

 

I said this elsewhere but it makes me feel like I'm playing The Sims and my sim hasn't showered in days so they're just walking around with a nasty green cloud that you can imagine the smell without actually smelling it.

Edited October 27, 2021 by novas.1845

[kharmin.7683]

14 hours ago, Drakonhammer.2148 said:

At a glance: 1. I think the increased control over pet skill activations should be given to at the very least to core ranger, if not all specs, as it'd go a long way to improving the usability of the underlying class (while obviously keeping the Unleashed skills on Untamed and Untamed alone).

 

Please.... yes.

12 hours ago, Bealis.6023 said:

 

Lock weapon swap during combat.

 

Please.... no.

[CreepingDeath.8396]

Going through this thread it's pretty clear this spec is a big misstep. I honestly don't see, regardless of gamemode, when I'd ever use this spec on my ranger. Fundamentally it has 2 big issues with it, the pet and unleashed mode itself. I'll try and make this as clear as possible, but I do struggle at explaining myself so... here goes!

 

Let's start with the pet. Ostensibly what this spec is meant to be all about. Unfortunately, the thing is still dumb as bricks, only now it feels worse because I have to tell it to keep doing basic attacks to keep it's dps up. It's like spoon feeding a baby. I like the idea of having more control over pet abilities, but it's baseline dps should come from it's auto attack and not something I have to micro alongside everything else. The 3 new pet skills should then basically work like utility skills for pets. This is where you'd see the howl for fear, next 3 attacks are poison, might sharing, healing, swiftness etc etc. You know, all the abilities that rangers have desperately wanted control over for years. Have the pet families share the same 3 skills, so all bears have the same 3 skills, all dogs etc. if the idea of doing this per pet is too much work.

 

Now for the Unleashed mechanic. Oh boy.

 

The buff you receive, 15% damage/defense, is not enough to offset the 10% damage/defense debuff that you now have to live with permanently. It's just not a worthwhile tradeoff. There's a few ways to deal with this. Either increase the buff, I want to say to 25% but let's be conservative and say 20%, or just remove the debuff entirely. And as others have said, unleashed only affecting hammer and the green goo effect are just... terrible.

 

So I have an alternative. Instead of the toggle-able state, that's always on someone and thus always buffing/debuffing, the unleashed mode should be something you have to build a meter for. Building said meter should be done through co-operative actions with your pet, either attacking the same target, casting their skills, healing them etc. Essentially it'd feel like building the meter is building a bond between the two. When it's full and you activate it, you enter what would basically be a shroud style mode. Flat buffs to you and your pet for a limted time (say 30 seconds or whatever), unleashed skills on your pet (unique per family), maybe even a unique bar of unleashed skills on your ranger as well, that replaces the weapon entirely. Have your ranger go in and fight, tooth and claw, side by side with your pet. Create some skills that sell the idea of fighting in tandem with your pet (in an ideal world, this is where the unique animations would be). I feel like this sells the idea of what the Untamed is meant to be more than we have now. It also solves the problem of the green goo (because just appearing for 30ish seconds would be fine) and removes the issue of Unleashed only working in tandem with the hammer.

 

Sadly, with 3 months until release, I'm expecting nothing is going to change with any of the elite specs outside of some number tweaking, and nothing as radical as what I feel the Untamed needs to make me want to use it. This was quite a wall of text, if you've made it this far well done! Have a cookie. I'm done.

[Neva Eilhart.5347]

After having played Mechanist, please put a breakbar on all pets regardless of their un/leashed state.

[Leo.5829]

The overall idea off an pet centered idea is great but the pet dies to fast in a wvw Zerg vs Zerg setting, losing much of your spec power when your pet dies. Even in duels and small scale roaming the pet dies to fast and you end up losing much of your kit. Especially essentially losing your heal skill when your pet dies feels very bad. Also your heal skill damaging your pet doesn't help. Considering this elite spec is centered around your pet it should actually make said pet useful. But even with unleashed buff the pet is not exerting enough pressure. The heal skill shouldn't damage your pet but also heal it and resurrect it if its dead.
Traits have counterintuitive effects. It is great that you can now control your Pet skills but without F1 "Attack my target" the pets become clunkier to use. Your pet being unleashed does not make up for 15% of your outgoing damage being deleted. Also receiving 10 % more damage is counterintuitive to the whole desired bruiser aspect. The utility skill "Mutate Conditions" has to much cooldown to be useful same goes for the teleport which also has to little range.
Pets sometimes refuse to attack at all even when the F1 skill is used and the enemy is bombarded with clicks.
Connecting with the hammer skills is unreliable in competitive environment. The range is very small and even with the teleport this spec is very slow and lacks mobility compared to other classes. The damage numbers on hammer are to low for the weapon to be interesting and actually hitting enemies is hard. In PvE the hammer damage is straight up to low.
If you play any other weapon then hammer it is better to stay unleashed all the time because you want that outgoing damage buff and your pet doesn't make up for the reduced outgoing damage when you do not have the unleashed bonus and you're not going to play hammer because it is unreliable.
It is disappointing that other weapons see no effect from the unleashed mechanic.
In its current form you're going to stay permanently unleashed for the outgoing damage buff, making you essentially an awkward core ranger. It's also disappointing that unleashing your pet doesn't cause it to deal more damage or buff it's movement speed ? Also a missed opportunity to not make the pet bigger when unleashed.
So far this elite spec is to fragile (especially for a supposed bruiser spec) , to immobile, lacking in ability to actually hit anything with the hammer and deals no damage.

[kharmin.7683]

So many "we want hammer for bunny thumper" threads, and this is what we got.  Should have been more careful of what was wished for.

[OGDeadHead.8326]

19 hours ago, Psy.7823 said:

Hammer is.... underwhelming. It offers no real active defence (evade, invuln, block, leaps),  but equally doesn't offer enough damage to make up for it.  Not only is the damage low, there is no snare/chase potential when the ranger is unleashed. The CC on hammer with pet unleashed is nice but lacks reliable follow up. If you CC someone  you have v limited follow up damage, you don't have access to your pet skills (tail swipe), or any decent damage hammer skills without unleashing yourself.

Indeed. For all I care, they could get rid of the hammer unleashed skills altogether, and keep only the "normal" skills (damage needs to improve then). Honestly, I think the whole Unleashed mechanic needs to go back to the drawing board, or remove the cooldown when switching (balance/remove switch traits).

 

The mechanic feels counterproductive towards itself with the current implementation.

Edited October 28, 2021 by OGDeadHead.8326

[OGDeadHead.8326]

15 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

So many "we want hammer for bunny thumper" threads, and this is what we got.  Should have been more careful of what was wished for.

Anet should be better at implementing what was wished for.

Edited October 28, 2021 by OGDeadHead.8326
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