I Love Ranger Spirits, but...

[Bastrii.3047]

I love the Ranger Spirit system overall, but I do have some issues with it. Nothing big, but I just have a few wants, and I was wondering if others would agree with me.

Storm Spirit is a nice, chunky DPS spirit that is "decent" overall. It has a 2.0 power modifier on top of a decent base damage, so it can inflict up to 10k crit with Celestial gear. It throws down 10 vuln on 5 targets in radius. And its pound deals 2 seconds of daze. It also gives Fury for 8 seconds (or 16 seconds with full Concentration). With double slam, it deals an additional 2 seconds of daze, but the second strike has less than half damage for some reason - dealing the original 4-5k damage on hit. This is probably an oversight by the devs, as the second hit should be identical to the first. It has a 20 second cooldown (fine) in PvE, but in WvW/PvP, its damage is nerfed (1.275 Power Mod) and its cooldown is massive (20 > 30 Seconds). Also, the Fury duration is flat out decreased (2x4 pulses to 1.25x4 pulses, max of 10 seconds) leaving it very weak Especially since it can be entirely avoided.

What it needs: In PvP/WvW, the cooldown should be lowered slightly to 24 seconds, the power modifier needs to be brought up to at least 1.5, and the fury duration should be brought up to 1.5x4 (12 seconds). In PvE, the second slam needs to be fixed to deal similar damage to the first swing, or the tooltip should note that the followup swing is weaker. On a successful Lightning Strike Slam, the Storm Spirit should grant 2 Seconds of Quickness to the Ranger (ONLY the Ranger) to make use of the Daze. That's 8 total seconds of Quickness if both attacks hit with max Concentration. Heck, make this a trait in Skirmishing, and combine the two major bleeding traits into one; instead, give the second major trait in Skirmishing +2 seconds of Quickness every time the Ranger interrupts a target. Or make this a trait in Marksmanship so people actually use Marks for a change.

Sun Spirit is a great Condi DPS option with Might Generation and Blindness. It also inflicts 3 stacks of Burning for a decently long duration, and in full Celestial gear, this ticks up to 10k damage or so. The 8 stacks of Might last a very long time, basically infinite if the Ranger is wearing Boon gear. With Double slam, both slams deal the correct applications of Burning, totaling 20k Condi damage. It has a 20 second cooldown (again, fine) in PvE, but in WvW/PvP, it has the same issues. Less damage, longer cooldown, a non-threat due to how easy it is to avoid, and Condis run the risk of being eaten by any cleanse out there.

What it needs: In PvP/WvW, bring the cooldown down to 24 seconds, double the stacks but keep the lower duration so it actually inflicts some noticable condi damage. The Might isn't bad overall. Make the slam happen a little faster, so there's less of a chance to easily react to it. Overall, I feel like Sun Spirit is probably the best Spirit out of Ranger's arsenal atm.

Frost Spirit: The only true Anti-Condi that Ranger has that isn't Healing Spring, as the others Core choices are waaay too situational to be of any benefit. Cleanses conditions, gives Resist and Resolution (for... not long enough), and cleanses condis on slam. Even in max boon gear, you get at most 10 seconds out of both of these Boons, which makes the spirit feel less like a "giver" and more like a "contributor", you'll need someone else to pump out these boons too. I don't think this Spirit has any changes in PvP/WvW, because no one would use them. They apply no debuffs, just boons and 1-2 condi cleanses.

What it needs: Its slam should deal a moderate amount of Power damage on slam (less than Frost Trap), inflict Slowed for a short duration on slam (1-2 seconds base duration), and give a little more boon potential. Like, even 12 seconds of each is fine.  The cooldown could be 24 seconds in WvW/PvP to fit in line with the others. Might see some actual use outside of group play.

Stone Spirit: Applies Aegis for 5 seconds and Protection for 8 seconds on allies (10/16 seconds max) and applies Cripple/Weakness to enemies for 6 seconds. 20 second cooldown. It's moderately useful but doesn't have much potential outside of a purely defensive spirit. The only time I see people run this is if they're running a pure Healer/Boon pumping Druid or something.

What it needs: Just make this an AoE stunbreak as well, and grant 1 Stability for 4 seconds on summon. Suddenly, people would have a reason to use this in PvE/PvP/WvW. 24 Second cooldown in PvP/WvW.

Water Spirit: Heals and grants Vigor for 8-16 seconds. Applies an initial heal of 3k to the Ranger, a slam heal of 3k AoE, and if you have double slam, an extra 3k AoE. 20 Second cooldown.

What it needs: Nothing. I think this is actually close to perfect. Just lower the Cooldown in WvW/PvP to 24 seconds (instead of 25) to make it fit in line with the others, and slightly raise the healing potential just a little to make it more chunky in WvW/PvP. Otherwise it's fine.

Thoughts?

[Beddo.1907]

1 hour ago, Bastrii.3047 said:

Heck, make this a trait in Skirmishing, and combine the two major bleeding traits into one; instead, give the second major trait in Skirmishing +2 seconds of Quickness every time the Ranger interrupts a target.

That's already a trait Ranger has and it has 3s too.
Number changes to Storm spirit are fine, but it already has too many effects to add more.

1 hour ago, Bastrii.3047 said:

What it needs: Its slam should deal a moderate amount of Power damage on slam (less than Frost Trap), inflict Slowed for a short duration on slam (1-2 seconds base duration), and give a little more boon potential. Like, even 12 seconds of each is fine.  The cooldown could be 24 seconds in WvW/PvP to fit in line with the others. Might see some actual use outside of group play.

Same as Storm, no need for more effects. Buff what it has.

1 hour ago, Bastrii.3047 said:

What it needs: Just make this an AoE stunbreak as well, and grant 1 Stability for 4 seconds on summon. Suddenly, people would have a reason to use this in PvE/PvP/WvW. 24 Second cooldown in PvP/WvW.

Again, too many effects in one skill, not to mention you are adding really powerful ones.
Protect me does half of what you want the spirit to do at higher cooldown.

[anduriell.6280]

What the spirits need is to undo all the nobody asked changes and rework them from the original design: Minions which follow the ranger around and offer a unique passive and active skill and are limited by their hp bar . 

I get Anet devs may be pushing this AoE well things instead minions because they are taxing on the servers, but that was one of the unique skills ranger had to sepparate itself from other classes and not to feel like a bland warrior class #3. 

Even if they limit the number of active spirits a ranger can deploy  at the same time to one it would be still great if they could bring the mobile sprits back. They would need some tweaks to make them inline with 2024 Gw2 but still better than current pulsing AoE wells they are now. 

[frazazel.7501]

Current spirits are not weak. Storm Spirit, for example is one of the best power dps utilities that also CCs, applies vulnerability to the enemey, and applies group fury, and it can be traited to slam a second time. I don't want to go back to having to babysit my spirits and have them die to enemy AoEs, making them useless in some encounters. Rangers have a lot of bad utility skills, but spirits aren't.

You already have a pet. If you want a whole menagerie that follows you around, you can play a minionmancer.

[Beddo.1907]

HP spirits were just annoying to use on a lot of encounters, from forced despawns to mechanic melting them.
Also the gameplay of 6...7...8...9... play the game 6...7...8...9...

[Gotejjeken.1267]

5 hours ago, frazazel.7501 said:

Current spirits are not weak. Storm Spirit, for example is one of the best power dps utilities that also CCs, applies vulnerability to the enemey, and applies group fury, and it can be traited to slam a second time. 

This I can agree with.  

Any power adjustments won't fly for sPvP as it already can crit for like 5k on 5 people at once, and you can hide it in all the other visual puke, so they won't dodge it.  

Just make that second slam slightly faster and we're golden.