Ranger's Wishlist of changes. (everyone's wishlist input is welcomed)

[Oahkahmewolf.6210]

A simple wish-list hoping that Anet would glanced at and take to consideration of the changes rangers should get in the future.
This is taken to consideration for all game modes including open world.
Simple rule is be respectful and analytic we don't need a kitten show between people arguing what should and shouldn't be. 

So I'll be the first to add one to the wish-list.

Whirling Defense

Please allow us to move Whirling Defense (Axe 5) and give us something else other than Resolution. Even though 33% condition damage reduction is nice an all we have other ways to get it more reliably.

 

Path of Scars

Please can you make this not a skill-shot and have it home back to us so it can actually act like a boomerang rather then it going off to the oblivion never returning.  This skill really needs the rework love.

 

Throw Torch

please make this more than just an ability to throw a torch to do damage. Give us some form of utility like the ability to add Fire damage to our autos or have old Sun-Spirit buff where you can add fire damage to autos :c (I really miss Old Sun Spirit)

[DarkFlopy.8197]

Correct me if I am wrong but Path of Scars is a projectile, I do remember if I threw it into a fire field it would catch fire and in addition any projectile blockers destroyed it (made it go poof).

Therefore they will have to change it completely to not act as a projectile at all, most likely being a projectile is the main reason why sometimes it bugs out and never returns.

And about Whirling Defense they will need to change the animation or create a new one since part of the animation is grounding yourself which will cause you to look weird (you will slide) if they will allow us to move with it, that's why for Mace offhand #5 they made a new animation.

Edited February 13 by DarkFlopy.8197

[Beddo.1907]

Whirling defence having resolution doesn't make sense anymore. In the past the boon was called retaliation and it reflected damage, which made sense flavour wise. Now it just doesn't. Either rework the skill to allow movement or at least add self stab and prot for the duration.

Path of Scars can't really be changed much in how it works mechanically. It has to be a projectile since that's how the logic of the skill works, a physical weapon with no magic or technology to make some leeway in design. Until they fix projectiles, all we can do is improve the projectile speed.

Throw torch should get removed for a new skill. Sharpening stone, but fire stacks sounds easy to do and should also be effective. We could also get some mobility on it to make Bonfire easier to set up or other utility (changing Bonfire to add some more use into the weapon isn't a bad idea either).

[frazazel.7501]

I want more access to group stability and aegis, especially on Untamed. I would accept it being added to existing ranger skills (maybe replace the Signet of the Wild active effect with group stability, add group aegis to "Guard", or share the boons granted by untamed's cantrips with a new non-grandmaster trait?)

I want longbow to not be garbage in PvE. It's long range, but that barely matters at all. Balance its damage around being in melee range, not on being 1200-1500 range away. Make longbow 3 give something more useful than stealth in PvE. Make all longbow attacks pierce one target without traiting for it.

[kharmin.7683]

Well, since everyone's input is welcome, I want the old MH sword back.  Keep the buffs, but return the movement.  I know, it won't happen but it's on my wish list.

[Dadnir.5038]

Can we remove the damage component on Lightning reflexes? It proc shocking aura and that defeat the main purpose of the skill.

Can we get some work on Untamed Nature's binding and Mutate conditions? I mean, beside being a quickness source, Nature's binding feel extremly lacking as a skill and I hardly get why one would take Mutate conditions with it's self harm over another cleanse.

Can we just remove the cast time and animation on the bird's skill Quickening screech? Or better, could you please allow us to block the pet's automatic use of some skills?

[frazazel.7501]

2 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

Can we get some work on Untamed Nature's binding and Mutate conditions? I mean, beside being a quickness source, Nature's binding feel extremly lacking as a skill and I hardly get why one would take Mutate conditions with it's self harm over another cleanse.

These are both have their place in WvW, but I agree that they're not great in PvE.

The self-harm on Mutate Conditions is actually pretty minor. If it wipes out 12 bleed, 5 poison, and 8 torment, it leaves you with a stack of 3 vulnerability (1 per condition, regardless of how many stacks it had). And given that it's a stunbreak that also hits you with some fury, it has a lot of utility. I just can never justify using it over "Protect Me" which offers AoE stunbreak and barrier, and on a lower cooldown than Mutate Conditions. If they brought it down from a 30s cooldown to a 20s cooldown, I'd make the switch.

I think Untamed cantrips were probably designed for PvP or WvW play, and they mostly feel bad in PvE. They have tend to have effects that are not very impactful during PvE. Unnatural traversal is a 900 range teleport that has a 20s cooldown (double cooldown if you don't hit anything). It does 0 damage, but inflicts 2(!) stacks of vulnerability in a small AoE, and grants you 8 stacks of might for 10s. It's bad for exploration (cooldown doubles). It's terrible for combat effectiveness (it's the same might as Exploding Spores, but with no damage or knockdown). It uses up a whole utility slot to be a gap closer on a 20s cooldown, when every melee weapon we have access to carries a gap closer already. It might have applications in PvP or WvW (I don't play either of these game modes at a high level), but what are PvE players supposed to do with this skill??

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Path of Scars needs to be ground target AoE like rev's road.  

Add blind to throw torch and add some kind of boon removal to bonfire (on entry or exit works).

Whirling defense should allow movement, like they did with Glyph of Stars.  If not, it needs more added to it--agree with stab and / or protection so you can't just get cc'd out of it.  

[aymnad.9023]

Well I am going to dust off some old suggestions. 

• Path of scar (axe 4) in PvP : hard to land for a minimal reward -> add some damage in PvP based on the distance
• Vine surge (staff 4) : hard to land stay  for a small effect : -> it stays and pulses resistance like rev road (immob + 1s of resistance on cast + 2 pulses of 1s of resistance)
• Glyph of unity (nomal mode) : You need to have many enemies hitting you + you need to survive -> I often suggested to give barrier to allies but if it should not provide defense then giving a unique effect that inflicts bleed to enemies hitting your allies? Still a bit weak but it sounds better.

New suggestions:

• Whirling defense (axe 5) in PvP : Great skill in Pve (so I do not want to make it break the benchmarks) but too hard to land in PvP  -> I thought of multiple mechanics. Increase aoe over time like necro gs4 (but smaller)? Add different effect other time like a 1s immob after 2s of cast? Have a flip skill to make it “explode” and deal some effect?
• Natures binding : Almost broken for how small the ring is and how quickly it appears yet hard to slot because you need dps or sustain -> Maybe make a single ring larger + range (like necro) that has immob + corrupts when enemies cross and gives resistance to allies inside to have more utility?
• Unnatural traversal : Cast time + almost no effect -> add a damaging skill or utility (unblockables) to follow the blink like they did on rev and guard offhand swords / shiro

I am still looking for ways to improve

• Guard : Often kills your pet + the range makes it hard to use on allies. Outside of the river of soul I have not managed to make it work.

 

Edited February 15 by aymnad.9023

[anninke.7469]

On 2/14/2024 at 2:00 PM, kharmin.7683 said:

Well, since everyone's input is welcome, I want the old MH sword back.  Keep the buffs, but return the movement.  I know, it won't happen but it's on my wish list.

Yes.

Or maybe give back those movement options with a new weapon.

[Sansar.1302]

I want ranger to be a meta top choice for WvW roaming so we atleast have 1 spot for WvW where we are meta. 

[Beddo.1907]

7 hours ago, Sansar.1302 said:

I want ranger to be a meta top choice for WvW roaming so we atleast have 1 spot for WvW where we are meta. 

Ranger is already meta in WvW zerg. (at least till next patch)

[Arrow Blade of El Elyon.9341]

Druid CA 5 to no longer root the player.

Torch 5 to either move in a circle around you as you move, or to be able to place it in a place of your choosing with a 900-1200 range.

Rework path of Scars.

Barrage to no longer root the player.

The issues of F2 to be fixed with pets.

A ranged (900-1200) non projectile weapon

[Oahkahmewolf.6210]

I wish ICE/WHITE Moa wouldn't run to the target to apply the Ice Aura.

This should actually be fixed.

Edited February 19 by Oahkahmewolf.6210

[Bluberi Len.8342]

I shall inhale an ocean's worth of copium, and here we go (pve only coz that's all I take ranger to):

Better astral force generation from damage OR remove AF penalty from early leave and/or allow entering CA without a full gauge,

remove ground target and speed up shortbow ambush,

underwater glyphs,

more stability stacks on the 2 glyphs that currently have it (I suck at names sorry),

shorten elite spirit's cooldown,

F2 being priority/queueable,

Grace of the Land allowing Druid to apply Alac on entering and leaving CA OR pulse alac from the caster (on top of its current effect),

Less opaque staff ambush.

 

Edited February 19 by Bluberi Len.8342
added linebreaks and a wee clarification

[Iustitian.9176]

Axe skill 1 should inflict bleeding instead of granting might. So axe skill 2 could get a little nerf for it's bleeding duration. 

Axe skill 3 should give the pet a buff that inflict vulnerability instead of weakness (there is a trait for weakness already). 

Axe skill 4 should change to target an enemy instead of a ground position.

Axe skill 5 shouldn't give resolution and instead grant barrier or protection.

Hammer skill 3 should give the pet a buff that inflict slowness or grant quickness to it. 

Longbow skill 3 should do much more damage and cripple for 5 seconds instead of giving stealth. So longbow skill 2 could be nerfed a little bit.

Staff skill 3 should get flowers after 1/2 second and heal one condition from allies.

The beastmaster traits that add effects to the beast skills should reset their cooldown after switching the pet or they should improve the pet (adept: precision, master: power and grandmaster: vitality).

The whole marksman traitline should be reworked. 1/3 of the traits are useless in comparison to the other traits in the traitline or whole other traitlines. The traitline should focus on power damage, cripple and cc.

The whole soulbeast traitline should be reworked. 1/3 of the traits are useless in comparison to the other traits and there are not many synergies. There could be a trait that improve the merged beast skills or a trait that reduce the cooldown to merge down by 50 % + give quickness to the pet after demerge.

Edited February 25 by Iustitian.9176

[aymnad.9023]

Improve the pet selection screen. For example separate them into families or add a new text search bar to filter pet by : 

• orginal name (juvenile fern hound)
• nickname (good boy)
• family (canine)
• archetype (supportive)

Edited February 26 by aymnad.9023

[Zenos Osgorma.2936]

CA skill 1 : apply Regen

CA skill 4 : should apply Protection or resilience

 

CA currently isn't any good with concentration , in fact CA doesn't provide much at all aside from rapid healing (and only if you are kitted for healing power) CA should at least have some Base line Protection and Regen , which means you can free up a Trait line instead of having to use Healing spring or Shouts for Regen CA generation.

adding regen to CA would free up Utility/traits to make using glyphs worthwhile. (maybe merg glyphs relable them to count as Signet , then Overhaul the Signet traits.

 

CA should apply some sort of boons even if they moved Alacrity to CA skill 4 and edit Grace of the Land trait that makes CA apply boons on each CA application, that way at least CA applies Alacrity (1second) on skill 4 as a base apply the boon during the normal rotation and at will not being stuck to CA activation to apply Alacrity)

Grace of land could look like this

Skill 1 : Regen 2seconds

skill 2 : Resistance 2seconds

skill 3 : 10% additional Healing

Skill 4 : Alacrity already applied (increase Alacrity application by 2 seconds to a maximum of 5 seconds , if you add boon duration to it to max it out)

skill 5 : apply 5 Might 10seconds Aoe , to 5 Targets.

 

currently, in my condi dsp set up I am fully reliant on the superior sigil of Ruthlessness combined with Blood Moon for any sort of might application, to reach max stacks it takes heal as one , stacking the pet and Guard, which is self-applied might only.. 

Ranger has no form to apply might outside of Warhorn/bonfire blast.

 

would be nice if Druid had a little bit more Boon utility in exchange for lower DPS.

Edited February 26 by Zenos Osgorma.2936

[Zyreva.1078]

More boon spam is the last thing the game (and druid) need and ranger has plenty of (aoe) might application. Iin fact, WS is the only trait line that does not provide any might.

Druid is very strong in every single game mode right now and doesn't need any buffs (at most pet fixes, but that's ranger in general). The spec that could need some help the most is Untamed. And pet fixes would be a good start ...

Edited February 26 by Zyreva.1078

[Oahkahmewolf.6210]

2 hours ago, Zyreva.1078 said:

And pet fixes would be a good start ...

I agree and personally, I wish the family pet ability have some variety between each other.

example I can give is look the ability between White tiger in the feline family vs the rest of the average Feline pets. 
White tiger gets phase pounce as it's F3 while the other feline gets the generic maul.

They should really try to change the one ability for the family pet to fit the theme or role of the pet.

I know why they wouldn't want to dedicate their time doing this as to them could ether be too much work/effort to balance and change.

Edited February 26 by Oahkahmewolf.6210

[Oahkahmewolf.6210]

They need to make the Aether Hunter Ley-line vortex not be stationary and allow it to move around. I'd think that would make that pet amazing use if it had that freedom.

[CETheLucid.3964]

Ranger's pretty great where it is.

I kind of resent the nerfs to lesser used pets in PvP but it's whatever at the end of the day. Every single pet was buffed in PvE and WvW to a lesser extent (for what little it's worth in the later, still fun for roaming). If I would add anything it's to make staff a stronger weapon for healing for druid in particular and/or increase the celestial gain/lower the CD for coming in and out of it. Maybe let Whirling Defense move around or change the buff(s) it gives on proc like other posters have said.

A big one would be adding the ammo thing for Barrage to PvE. That'd be nice. Don't really have much to add. Maces put out a great show during the beta test and the changes look promising. Should be able to freely use both or either in a mixed weapon set to proc Force of Nature in any scenario. Pretty satisfied all things considered.

But the proofs in the pudding. It'll be real fun to have at it on our actual characters tomorrow.

[Zenos Osgorma.2936]

lol Ranger plenty of Aoe might application xd there's only warhorn and Torch 5 with blast.  (what other Might AoE is there aside from jungle stalker) theres plenty of ways to apply Might to ourselves but hardly anything when it comes to group support.   

asking for a Trait to apply Might and update Grace of land to be more flexible than just one boon for 2 seconds.  Grace of land is very Poor for a grandmaster other classes do a better job applying Alacrity as its only effect on CA activation is increasing the healing Spam, with Eclipse contesting the grandmaster slot (that is the only way Druid is getting consistent dps damage) don't forget while in CA using Grace of land is a Direct massive Dps loss for the druid and asking for a bit more group Utility on grace of land is an Equal trade off.  (especially for builds that don't use glyphs)

if you call CA spam strong (damage wise its not strong at all) , the only thing it has going for it is maxing out the spam via massive cooldown reduction, if your spec for support it should also come with the added boon support not just rapidly spamming CA skills to heal of which you spend 70% of the time in CA if you are a Support healer.  it's a given that the Boon support just lacks.

 

what other ways can you apply Resistance etc Soul beast Stance sharing? when soul beast is a damage spec and untamed is a bunny hammer spec for Agro. it seems to me these two have better Boon acess than druid currently which at a core only has Protection via glyphs or Regen/swiftness  that effect group play and only if you add in beastmastery , At least soul beast and untamed have leader of the pack and Let loose.   (grace of the land should have Equalivant strength of utility but in this case only applied Via CA skills rather than Stances / unleashed attacks)

In my opinion Unleased and soul beast don't need anything more and it is only Grace of land that is lacking Hardly Worthy of the Grandmaster slot.

 

Edited February 27 by Zenos Osgorma.2936

[Zyreva.1078]

15 hours ago, Zenos Osgorma.2936 said:

lol Ranger plenty of Aoe might application xd there's only warhorn and Torch 5 with blast.  (what other Might AoE is there aside from jungle stalker) theres plenty of ways to apply Might to ourselves but hardly anything when it comes to group support.  

You didn't specify aoe and even mentioned relying on a sigil that applies self might only.

But even if we limit our options to aoe might only, there is still more than warhorn and jungle stalker. Namely sun spirit, clarion bond, spirited arrival, CA 4+5. That's for druid. Slb and untamed have their own options too.

16 hours ago, Zenos Osgorma.2936 said:

Grace of land is very Poor for a grandmaster other classes do a better job applying Alacrity as its only effect on CA activation is increasing the healing Spam,

Look, i don't disagree that the way alac is implemented is not great. Having to spam heal skills to provide an unrelated boon is dumb and it's further limited by the rather small radius of CA skills and the sometimes unreliable af generation. That being said, after the alac duration has been buffed, it is fairly easy to keep up, at least as long people are stacked, and you don't actually have to spend THAT much time spamming CA skills. Certainly not 70% of the time.

And nothing in your suggestions would change anything about the mentioned downsides - you'd still have to spam CA skills for boons while having to deal with the low radius and AF generation.

16 hours ago, Zenos Osgorma.2936 said:

what other ways can you apply Resistance

Frost Spirit.

16 hours ago, Zenos Osgorma.2936 said:

druid [...]  which at a core only has Protection via glyphs or Regen/swiftness 

Support druid can apply every single boon but quickness to allies. And BM is not needed (usually you'd want to run NM + either skirm or marks).

And also has plenty of additional utility (such as good hard and soft cc, projectile denial, and aoe stealth).

Again - druid is in a very good spot in every single game mode right now. It does not need any buffs.

[Zenos Osgorma.2936]

Spirits are Bad , now it can't move and die to general AA even by mobs. Now if Damage reduction from druid applied to spirits too and then buff the spirits HP then maybe it might be worth taking as it stands Spirits stand no chance in any game format, plus it takes up a entire utility slot while other classes have ways to apply Resistance via weapons and Utility, aka Better Flexibility. 

Druid doesn't apply protection on AoE etc the majority of druid skills are self-application only , the only thing it does for the group is blast and Heal AoE with a delayed condition clear, adding Protection AoE to CA via a redesigned Grace of land is not asking for much at all , if Eclipse turns it into a condi bomb , grace of land should be the opposite.

and yes you do need to be in CA 70% of the time considering Alac is 1 second duration and it will never reach 2seconds without the flexibility to make use of Concentration so you can spend a bit more time not in CA form.   btw Alac didn't get buffed this patch.