(Core) Ranger Profession Skill upgrade suggestion

[xXxOrcaxXx.9328]

Oh boy, time to shill my Ranger profession skill update suggestion again, featuring the first skill for the game that would behave differently, based on whether you hold or tap the key:

The F1 skill/key will get most of the love, but other skills will get important complementary changes as well.

 

F1 tap - Attack

• Changes based on what the player has targetted

1. Enemy targetted - pet will attack as normal
2. Ally targetted - pet will follow the ally as if that ally was its new master, attacking and disengaging from the same enemies as the ally 
3. Nothing targetted - pet will return to player, same as current F3

 

F1 hold - Ground Target

• The ground target will have an outer and an inner indicator circle, denoting the range in which the pet will act for the outer circle, and the range in which the ground target will emulate the F1 tap action 

1. If nothing is within the inner circle, the pet will go to the location and stay there until given a different command or until the leash range kicks in
2. If an ally is within the inner circle, the pet will follow the ally, as laid out previously. Unless...
3. If an enemy is within the inner circle, the pet will attack that enemy, as laid out previously. Unless...
4. If the player is within the inner circle, the pet will return to the player.

 

F2 and F3 - Pet Skills

• F3 now acts as a means to control the use of a second pet skill
• The pet UI (shortcut 'K') gets reworked to emulate the right side of the players skill bar; being able to move the pet skills of your choosing onto the F2 and F3 slots
• The third pet skill is left on auto-cast. F2 and F3 can be set to auto-cast as well.
• The current F3 mechanic, recalling the pet, is removed (or moved to F7, similar to the mech controlls, idc)

 

Next up, pet behaviours! We are adding a third

• Agressive - same as current, pet attacks what the player attacks, or if the player or the pet is attacked
• Defensive - the pet only attacks what the player attacks, ignoring being attacked
• Passive - same as current, only attacking if told so

 

Now to another juicy tidbit, elite spec integration! Mainly Druid though.

Druid

• When toggling into Celestial Avatar, the pet turns into a wisp, stopping to attack and instead copying the skills used by the player
• The skills will be targetted on the position of the pet, have a smaller radius, can't double up with the players' skills, but do have their own target-cap

1. The player can use the wisped pet to heal and support 5 additional players
2. Making the pet follow an ally will (and is supposed to) support that ally and any sufficiently stacked other allies
   • Note to the devs: Make sure the copied skills the pet is using are NOT that short ranged that they'd miss the ally the pet is following, especially if the ally starts to move.
   • Maybe have the pet cast its skills on top or in the path of the ally the pet currently follows instead.
   • Or make the pet in celestial avatar form work similar to how Yuumi of Leage of Legends works.

 

Soulbeast

• When unmerging (F5), allow the player to control where the unmerged pet will end up, by giving the player a ground target
•  When merging, allow the Soulbeast to 'teleport' to the pet's position when holding the merge key. This can be offset by only allowing the player to teleport only every X seconds or by giving the merge skill a longer cooldown when the Soulbeast teleports..

 

Untamed

• No idea
• Side note: The new-found ability of the core Ranger class to not only actively control two pet skills, but also choose which two skills to control of each pet, is NOT an issue with the capabilities of the core Ranger or my suggestion, but the issue of the Untameds' profession skill upgrade being not distinct enough from the Core Ranger's mechanics.
• One idea I had was that maybe, when unleashing the pet or ranger, a projectile travels between the previously unleashed to the now unleashed part, doing damage/conditions/dazes, etc.
  This would make the positioning of both important, a good reason to use the ground target F1 skill to make sure the enemy is in between the ranger and the pet.

 

Command Skill integration

• Search and Rescue
  • The search radius can be changed to be around the ally the pet is currently following, or around the pet if it has been sent to a location
• Protect Me
  • The radius in which allies are stun broken can be centered around the ally the pet is currently following.
  • Similarly, the barrier could be applied to the ally the pet is following
• Sic 'Em
  • The target getting revealed and debuffed could take the pet's target first and only if the pet has nothing targetted, take the ranger's target

 

A couple of notes before I'm done:

• When following an ally, the leash range should be increased (significantly), so the pet can stay with the ally longer, even out of sight of the player
• When following an ally, the pet could alert the player to going into combat by playing the Warclaw - Sniff alert, letting the player know that now could be the time to use pet skills to support the player-targeted ally
•  
• The ground target active range could also denote the range within which the pet starts to proactively attack enemies when behavior is set to 'Agressive' and the pet is either following an ally or standing on a ground target
• An easy way under the new system to recall the pet, if F7 isn't used, would be to hold F1 for the ground target and moving the cursor over the UI, snapping the ground target to the players position and letting go of the F1 key
• More keybinds to better control the pet would be appreciated as well. Modifier keys (so keys that modify behaviour for as long as they are pressed) to allow the following behaviours:
  • A keybind to force a ground target when using the F1
  • A keybind to force an ally target when using the F1
  • A keybind to call the pet back, so basically the current F3, but without UI representation

Edited June 28 by xXxOrcaxXx.9328
Add Soulbeast suggestion

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

A bit too complex for my taste, but the ally following sounds great!

 

Druid changes are 10/10. Maybe instead of having the pet CA skills be affected by traits, they give a bonus effect based on archetype (ferocious-might bursts, stout-protection, etc)?

 

Soulbeast I think is unneeded, if you unmerge in combat they'll get in combat anyways and when not in combat that'd be kinda pointless.

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

A bit too complex for my taste, but the ally following sounds great!

 

Druid changes are 10/10. Maybe instead of having the pet CA skills be affected by traits, they give a bonus effect based on archetype (ferocious-might bursts, stout-protection, etc)?

 

Soulbeast I think is unneeded, if you unmerge in combat they'll get in combat anyways and when not in combat that'd be kinda pointless.

[anduriell.6280]

No need to overcomplicate things: 

* Untamed F1-F3 mechanic should be baseline. Now that we can set up any as an Auto there is no reason not to do it. Basic pet management should not be the defining trait of a new specialization. That elite needs a full rework. 

* I always though the trade of of the Druid should be the lost of those F1-F3 utilities. I like the idea of wisp thou, but it should be always like this. And replace F1-F3 with 3 different Druidic aspects which cause those wisps to provide different passive buffs to ally and Druid. They could still have HP bars with some immunities  and such but it would make druid better suited for WvW and less for PvP as it would not have the pets to do damage for them. 

* Soulbeast just needs untamed F1-F3s while not merged and being able to swap pet while merged. With that soulbeast would be more fun to play with and jump in and out. This elite has enough trade off by losing the pet (or at least it should if the pets would come close to what mechanist marionette can do) 

[xXxOrcaxXx.9328]

While it might be more complicated, giving the player more control over the pet is a very much needed upgrade to the Ranger. There are countless small examples you'd want to use deliberate pet positioning. To give just two examples, if you fight with your wolf as pet and you want to fear the enemy into a certain position, you can use the groud target first to position your pet so that the subsequent fear has the enemy run off in the desired direction. Another example would be when your pet is drawing agro from an enemy that is using AoE attacks, you can use the ground target to position your pet away from you and any potential allies standing next to you.

As for your point about the Druid losing his pet completely, I don't think that'd ever happen. Druids' core mechanic is that they have to toggle into Celestial Avatar first, having the pet be only a whisp would leave it useless for whenever you are not in Celestial Avatar. It also would remove a lot of support options, since you'd lose your pet skills. Love it or hate it, Ranger is the pet class. They will never not have their pet at all.
And to your point of Soulbeast swapping pets while merged, that is out of the scope of my suggestion, as I was specifically focussing on the basic pet mechanics, but something similar was just announced in the balance update: A Soulbeast trait will allow you to swap pets every 20 seconds while merged.

 

But I do agree with your point that the main draw of Untamed shouldn't be more control over the pet, as that should be base line.

[xXxOrcaxXx.9328]

Here's another situation, whrere my suggestion would come in handy. I was clearing wing 4 today as Druid with my Iboga and at Samarog the team forgot to take pulls or pushes for Rigom. If I, as Ranger would've been able to tell my Iboga to stand next to Samarog and the pull in Rigom, that would have spared my group a lot of headaches that fight.

Edit 2024: Just encountered another situation where a ground target F1 would've helped me. I was fighting against a "surfboard" Kryptis champion, one of his attacks spawn tracking aoes under players, which they will need to dodge. I, as an Untamed, tried to disengage after dropping to low health, when the champ spawned those tracking aoes on me and my pet. And because my pet is so very loyal, it dilligently followed me with the tracking aoe. I had no dodges left, and while I would've survived my own explosion, I didn't survive both. I went downstate, because my pet was following me and I had no way of making it leave my side.

Edited June 28 by xXxOrcaxXx.9328