Ranger is getting Alacrity in June patch

[AlexndrTheGreat.8310]

48 minutes ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

Finally for core, maybe.  Core is hit or miss and niche really anyway, so who knows.   

 

2 hours ago, RainbowTurtle.3542 said:

Soulbeast loses too much. It can't afford to take much of anything from the nature magic traitline over skirmishing, wilderness survival, or beastmastery.

 

Condi druid doesn't provide enough to justify spirits and alac, and even then I think the loss to dps from taking nature magic isn't worth doing. Same with core.

 

Untamed is so bad as of right now that it might actually work, but why bring an untamed when you could have a druid?

 

It's definetly going to become a 'druid alac' thing and not really a 'Ranger alac' thing, especially since spirits do not exist outside of pve.

(Didn’t say it but yea I was primarily thinking in regards to PvE).

Yea I kinda agree that SB might be losing too much in exchange for spirits.

Untamed maybe? It’s still Untamed so I have my doubts unless they get significant changes in that patch.

I can see base Ranger actually working. CRanger was a very solid build when HoT came out and I can actually see them replacing BM with NM to take them. We still have some utility like pets CC, white Tiger aegis, and siege turtle bubble, not much else in terms of other boons though and we’d be sacrificing Iboga for more utility pets.

I feel that dps Alac support will be very dependent on what other specialization changes occur.

[Ehecatl.9172]

Huh, that's interesting. Alacrity doesn't really suit ranger in my opinion, but given we can already produce a lot of selfish quickness at least it won't be redundant.

 

I wonder how far back they decided ranger was getting alacrity. It might explain a fair bit about why Untamed was designed the way it was if we were meant to double down in cooldown reduction from multiple sources.

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

1 hour ago, Ehecatl.9172 said:

Huh, that's interesting. Alacrity doesn't really suit ranger in my opinion, but given we can already produce a lot of selfish quickness at least it won't be redundant.

 

I wonder how far back they decided ranger was getting alacrity. It might explain a fair bit about why Untamed was designed the way it was if we were meant to double down in cooldown reduction from multiple sources.

If rangers are taking selfish quick in pve (which is where the spirit change matters as far as we can tell), there's a problem.

 

Alacrity honestly makes as much sense as quickness, since plants have a lot of time on their roots.

[Mell.4873]

7 hours ago, Ehecatl.9172 said:

Huh, that's interesting. Alacrity doesn't really suit ranger in my opinion, but given we can already produce a lot of selfish quickness at least it won't be redundant.

 

I wonder how far back they decided ranger was getting alacrity. It might explain a fair bit about why Untamed was designed the way it was if we were meant to double down in cooldown reduction from multiple sources.

I agree but look on the bright side we might see a alacrity druid healer for fractals, strike and raids. 

It already was a good healer now we have another reason to take it. 

[enkeny.6937]

11 hours ago, Ehecatl.9172 said:

Huh, that's interesting. Alacrity doesn't really suit ranger in my opinion, but given we can already produce a lot of selfish quickness at least it won't be redundant.

 

I wonder how far back they decided ranger was getting alacrity. It might explain a fair bit about why Untamed was designed the way it was if we were meant to double down in cooldown reduction from multiple sources.

Guild wars 1: Quickening Zephyr 

[RabbitUp.8294]

Alacrity being part of core ranger will mean that there won't be a quickness e-spec for ranger down the line, unless they want another chrono situation.

[aymnad.9023]

2 hours ago, RabbitUp.8294 said:

Alacrity being part of core ranger will mean that there won't be a quickness e-spec for ranger down the line, unless they want another chrono situation.

Since alacrity will be tied to spirits and maybe even a trait,  I do not see what can stop them from adding quickness. If the quickness is also tied to some utilities and traits there will be no way to pick up both and maintain full time boons.

[enkeny.6937]

3 hours ago, RabbitUp.8294 said:

Alacrity being part of core ranger will mean that there won't be a quickness e-spec for ranger down the line, unless they want another chrono situation.

It depends, If you need 5 spirit for permanent alacrity, then why not make a quickness elite spec. You can't use both. 

[AlexndrTheGreat.8310]

46 minutes ago, enkeny.6937 said:

It depends, If you need 5 spirit for permanent alacrity, then why not make a quickness elite spec. You can't use both. 

If you need 5 utilities to maintain alacrity that would be absolute kitten to play. Ranger alacrity would go back to being something that only Druid can provide and we won’t be allowed to take any other utility. Would basically be useless compared to all other alacrity sources which don’t have to invest every utility slot into filling that role.

Edited April 20, 2022 by AlexndrTheGreat.8310

[RabbitUp.8294]

1 hour ago, enkeny.6937 said:

It depends, If you need 5 spirit for permanent alacrity, then why not make a quickness elite spec. You can't use both. 

Chances are you won't need multiple spirits, let alone 5. I doubt they are tying alacrity to a trait, they are probably changing Frost Spirit to give alacrity, and the trait will double the boon duration or something.

[aymnad.9023]

1 hour ago, RabbitUp.8294 said:

Chances are you won't need multiple spirits, let alone 5. I doubt they are tying alacrity to a trait, they are probably changing Frost Spirit to give alacrity, and the trait will double the boon duration or something.

I would guess the opposite. I think a ranger will need 3 spirits with some boon duration and the trait to have somewhere between 80%-100% uptime. This means going 3 spirits + moa on viper soulbeast (or 3 spirits and ritualist gear) or taking 3-4 spirits on druid.

Only 1 spirit seems very unlikely to me as it would make any ranger spec provide insane value without much investment.

edit : I might test how much damage this configuration does this week end to see how it compares with the other condi alac prodivers. I am more concerned about the "survivability / mobility" of the spirit on non druid builds  (if they stay the same) than their damage.

Edited April 20, 2022 by aymnad.9023

[RabbitUp.8294]

42 minutes ago, aymnad.9023 said:

I would guess the opposite. I think a ranger will need 3 spirits with some boon duration and the trait to have somewhere between 80%-100% uptime. This means going 3 spirits + moa on viper soulbeast (or 3 spirits and ritualist gear) or taking 3-4 spirits on druid.

Only 1 spirit seems very unlikely to me as it would make any ranger spec provide insane value without much investment.

edit : I might test how much damage this configuration does this week end to see how the damage compares with the other condi alac prodivers.

I think ultimately having 100% uptime is a given. But if you are forced to invest into 50% boon duration or more, you are looking at diviner gear at best, or harrier in case of druid, so you'd be losing a lot of damage. Or maybe something like condiSB with ritualist gear.  We already have alacrity hybrid builds doing 30k or more, so an alacrity SB doing the same wouldn't be out of line.

We are both certain that taking nature magic is going to be a factor, now the number of spirits is up there. SB can already take 3 spirits as is, so if it's 3 or less, the problem with future elite specs remains the same.

[enkeny.6937]

12 hours ago, aymnad.9023 said:

Only 1 spirit seems very unlikely to me as it would make any ranger spec provide insane value without much investment.

Sounds like quick firebrand... 

ok, qfb is elite specialization, but ranger would be less and less supportive because fury and might will be more common. Ok we can give alacrity and... what else? cc maybe. Damage?

 

11 hours ago, RabbitUp.8294 said:

We already have alacrity hybrid builds doing 30k or more, so an alacrity SB doing the same wouldn't be out of line.

just like this. We have dps builds but fragile. every skill or trait will reduce the damage significantly. 

I will wait the patch, but I'm not optimist. Still, Rangers had worse times. 

[Lazze.9870]

On 4/19/2022 at 2:34 AM, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

Not sure you're replacing a FB or the like for support, so going to just simplify that to 'druid builds' in general. 

Nothing competes with the ageis and stab from FB.

The support competition for druid other than an off-hand niche role like immob druid would be scrapper. It's not happening with the superspeed uptime scrapper has, tempest is also stronger. You can support on druid even in its current state and make it work, but it's a classic case of 10 times the work/hassle and even at its best its not gonna reward you the same way.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Lazze.9870

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

On 4/20/2022 at 11:58 AM, RabbitUp.8294 said:

Alacrity being part of core ranger will mean that there won't be a quickness e-spec for ranger down the line, unless they want another chrono situation.

Depends on what the quickness is on. If you need multiple utilities to keep quickness up on the supposed espec, spirits might not be able to keep up alacrity (or even be viable at all if it's a dps quick).

[aymnad.9023]

8 hours ago, enkeny.6937 said:

Sounds like quick firebrand... 

ok, qfb is elite specialization, but ranger would be less and less supportive because fury and might will be more common. Ok we can give alacrity and... what else? cc maybe. Damage?

That’s a good question. Maybe alacrity and filling some boons will be enough? I am not sure we will see more than 2/5 players provide them.

Right now I have a hard time seeing builds like mirage (damage + might), renegade (cc / stab / projectile block) or specter (off support) being left for a ranger but the different especs have some interesting options.

There is some damage + stance share (it could be longer imo but is not bad) on soulbeast, some boon removal / projectile block on untamed. The effects of spirits just need to be easier to maintain. When I am not on druid checking their hp they just die alone (bye bye boon uptime).

Edited April 21, 2022 by aymnad.9023

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

2 hours ago, aymnad.9023 said:

That’s a good question. Maybe alacrity and filling some boons will be enough? I am not sure we will see more than 2/5 players provide them.

Right now I have a hard time seeing builds like mirage (damage + might), renegade (cc / stab / projectile block) or specter (off support) being left for a ranger but the different especs have some interesting options.

There is some damage + stance share (it could be longer imo but is not bad) on soulbeast, some boon removal / projectile block on untamed. The effects of spirits just need to be easier to maintain. When I am not on druid checking their hp they just die alone (bye bye boon uptime).

For druid, are you running Nature Magic? The trait Nature's Vengance helps keep them alive big time. You do enough healing that you often should be spilling over to the spirits.

[aymnad.9023]

1 hour ago, RainbowTurtle.3542 said:

For druid, are you running Nature Magic? The trait Nature's Vengance helps keep them alive big time. You do enough healing that you often should be spilling over to the spirits.

Yes I am using it on druid. Even with the trait on druid you still have to throw a heal once in a while to make sure they will stay alive once the squad starts to move or before a mechanic (like before the gliding at xera, split in vale gardian). The survivability / mobility is something I feel a lot on soulbeast in fractals where there is a lot of movement, they are not kept alive and you do not have the trait. Even with the trait it will be painfull to maintain buffs in fractals.

Edited April 21, 2022 by aymnad.9023