What about Command skills. Some ideas. Vol 1

[anduriell.6280]

Commands were used to be defined as shouts and although the denomination changed and thus losing any interactions with external mechanics like runes their effects didn't. On the same level the profession lacks any real control over the pet having as unique commands the ability to send and retrieve the companion. 

 

As means to give more granular control without over bloating the UI i though about this changes. This will require to rework the command skills so they become statutes over the pets. Some key point about this rework.

Key points

• Pet will have the icon of the command in their status bar so enemy players can see it. Pet's can only have one command active at a time. 
• Activating a command place the pet into passive mode as such it will not attack unless commanded directly with the F1 ability (Attack my target) 
• Commands are aimed to work over the pet role while providing bonuses to enforce such actions. As such those will not work while the soulbeast is in beast mode. 
• The commands are always cancelled and go into CD if the command is activated again, the pet is swapped, the pet is defeated or used another command (F1/F2/F3)(3).

 

Shouts

We Heal as One: Pet behaves like the skill lesser Lick_Wounds, as such the pet goes into passive mode and always try to stay close to the ranger. Once both stay immobile the healing starts. The healing is interrupted every time the ranger moves, the pet moves or the pet is CC'ed.  The idea of this skill is to have a similar effect as Warrior's Healing_Signet but due the additional requirement of being immobile and require the pet the actual healing could be a bit higher. This heal may prove not to be useful in PvP modes (as the requirement to stay in one place to take effect) but it could shine in PvE environments like raids.

 

Sic'em!: Pet  gain additional movement speed and additional damage. This command would not be cancelled by the use of F1 command and it is required to mark a target. Once  pet is given a target by using the F1 command it will attack such selected target until a new enemy is selected by the same F1 command. Even if the enemy goes into invisibility / stealth the companion will be able to follow and attack the target as long as it stays in the leash of the pet. This will not reveal the target thou. 

 

Search and Rescue: Pet will try to apply lesser Lick_Wounds (1)   into any downed friendlies within the leash of the pet. Once it is finished with one it will go to the next until no downed allies are in the area. 

 

Guard: This command will set the pet to guard an small area around the pet. The pet is not rooted and can move around the ranger as usually when in passive. This means that in an small radius around the  pet (it could be 600 units) any stealthed / invisible targets will be revealed for a very short duration (around 1 second would be fine). This pet could pulse the reveals to allow additional counterplay, a pulse every 3 seconds for example. 

 

Protect me: While in this command pet will take a part of the damage done to the ranger. Additionally could apply an small barrier to both when the pet receives damage.

 

Strength of the pack: While this command is active F2/F3 will call up the second pet and perform such actions against the same target. After performing the action the second pet disappear. All strike and condition damage done to the active companion is reduced by 50% as it is shared with the other pet. When the Elite is deactivated (by casting the command a second time, swapping pets or the pet being defeated) the pet swap will go into an additional cooldown(2) as well the elite.

 

(1) Lesser Lick Wounds. This skill is similar to Lick Wounds just the healing effect is reduced to heal around 500hp / s . 

(2) The cooldown is increased in +20 seconds over the current one. This means if the pet swap was in cooldown because the pet was defeated or swap while the command was active the CD will be extended for those additional 20 seconds. 

(3) Not all commands are cancelled by using the special (F1/F2/F3) abilities, commands impacted by this limitation are We Heal as One, Search and Rescue, Guard Protect me. Other commands would not disabled by the use of those special abilities. 

 

Old text:

On 5/3/2021 at 4:23 PM, anduriell.6280 said:

Commands use actively the pet, something like old skill guard used to work. Commands are active status effects, once active the pet behaves acordingly to the command until the command is cancelled. 

Pet will have the icon of the command in their status bar so enemy players can see it. Pet's can only have one command active at a time. 

 

Commands will  not work while the soulbeast is in soulbeast mode, this skills are for empowerment of the pet. Pet skills (F2) will not interrupt Commands. 

 

The commands are always cancelled and go into CD if the command is activated again, the pet is swapped, the pet is defeated  or used another command. 

 

Heal as One: Pet behaves like the downed skill "Lick Wounds". If the ranger moves while the pet is trying to heal the ranger it will take longer as the pet has to follow the ranger.  The command is additionaly stopped if the pet is CC'ed (stun, daze, fear,etc..) or the ranger reach 100% hp. 

 

Protect me: Pet will not attack enemies and go close to ranger. While in this command pet will take a part of the damage done to the ranger. Addtionaly could apply barrier or protection to both.

 

Search an Rescue: Allies around the pet will be monitored. If one ally  is downed the pet will arrive to the  ally location and begin reviving them by using the downed ability "Lick wounds". 

 

Sic'em: Pet will prioritize to target steathed targets, the pet will not reveal them but it will keep following and attacking stealthed targets. The pet will also gain a bonus to damage against invisible targets. Pet could have pulsing swiftness too. 

 

Strength of the Pack: T

 

Guard: I dunno about this one. I don't have any new idea for this but this skill needs a rework too. 

 

To balance the new skills increase  the CD as needed and reduce the healing effect for lick wounds. 

 

Other miscelaneous changes to keep all of them toghether: 

 

Current Sicem! and Streght of the pack! effects can go to a reworked survival elite and a replacement for muddy terrain.

 

For Streght of the pack!  a survival elite could provide the pulsing boons (survival of the fittest) some sort of mixed bag of deffensive and offensive boons.

 

For Sicem an utility survival skill (hunting grounds) replacing muddy terrain, could provide the reveal, additional speed and additional damage to revealed targets (afflicted by debuff reveal)  . 

 

Spike trap could replace the current bleeds for the muddy terrain effects. 

 

Moa Stance would benefit from replacing Fury by the new boon Resolution, to be consistent in  the sustain/support theme on the stance. 

 

Signet of the Hunt passive apply a 10% increase over current speed instead current effect. Thus a ranger with swiftness and this signet would move at 40% speed instead 30%. The active could apply additionaly  Fury. 

 

Brutish Seals to reworked in Reduce signets CD. Additonaly double the passive effects of the signets.

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by anduriell.6280
Reiteration of the idea. Added additional details to Guard command

[enkeny.6937]

If an elite specialization can't use the skill, than it is wrong.

some more idea:
Heal as one:  it also revive your pet.

weapon skills and command do damage and condition using the highest value of your or your pet stats. (basically if your pet has better stat, it is the same as now, if you have better stats, it is the same as merge mod)

use some gw1 beast master skill idea: Brutal Strike, Melandru's Assault. So the pet next attack, maybe triggered immediately by this skill, do a fix damage. Brutal Strike deals additional damage it the target under 50% health, Melandru's Assault deal AoE damage.
Streght of the pack! rename it Rampage as One ad ad quickness instead of might.
Call of Protection instead of Protect me! - give us protection, resolution, You and your pet grant to each other when you attack. (with icd)
 S&R is good now. Ground targeting will be helpful for selecting target. (go there and in the next 5 second it will use the shadowstep/revive part. if no downed player, it will go back attacking or what it did)

Poisonous Bite apply poison with your pet's next attack
Scavenger Strike: deals damage with the pet's next attack. more damage for each condition on target
Strike as One: you and your pet shadowstep to target, both hit it, your pet will apply bleeding and you apply crippple. 

Each skill interact with the pet, use your stats (or your pets if it is better) , boon stacking may be better with fast hitting/aoe pets/weapons, so it may need some change.

[Gotejjeken.1267]

On 5/3/2021 at 1:23 PM, enkeny.6937 said:

If an elite specialization can't use the skill, than it is wrong.

some more idea:
Heal as one:  it also revive your pet.

weapon skills and command do damage and condition using the highest value of your or your pet stats. (basically if your pet has better stat, it is the same as now, if you have better stats, it is the same as merge mod)

use some gw1 beast master skill idea: Brutal Strike, Melandru's Assault. So the pet next attack, maybe triggered immediately by this skill, do a fix damage. Brutal Strike deals additional damage it the target under 50% health, Melandru's Assault deal AoE damage.
Streght of the pack! rename it Rampage as One ad ad quickness instead of might.
Call of Protection instead of Protect me! - give us protection, resolution, You and your pet grant to each other when you attack. (with icd)
 S&R is good now. Ground targeting will be helpful for selecting target. (go there and in the next 5 second it will use the shadowstep/revive part. if no downed player, it will go back attacking or what it did)

Poisonous Bite apply poison with your pet's next attack
Scavenger Strike: deals damage with the pet's next attack. more damage for each condition on target
Strike as One: you and your pet shadowstep to target, both hit it, your pet will apply bleeding and you apply crippple. 

Each skill interact with the pet, use your stats (or your pets if it is better) , boon stacking may be better with fast hitting/aoe pets/weapons, so it may need some change.

 

The funny part about this, is this is how things pretty much originally were (down to SotP being named RaO).  Pets had a specific synergy--giving swiftness, causing conditions, or other things like big burst from pet stealth.  It worked because pets were faster, leash ranger longer, and players didn't have access to the boon spam or AoE spam that is now present.

 

Then PvP and other competitive scenes started complaining, and pets were nerfed practically each year.  

 

My main issues with these ideas are twofold:

 

1. Currently the pet is far too slow for any meaningful following (of player, ally, or enemy)

2. Currently the pet is far too fragile for anything like reviving or healing 

 

Essentially, they need to just apply BM stats as standard to the pet and rework the entire BM line with Commands in mind.  At least with BM the pet can sort of hit and the CD reduction makes management far more tolerable. 

 

They could adjust the now default stats as appropriate so as not to make SB even more powerful, but Druid, Core and potentially the new spec should not have to suffer because of awful pet mechanics.  

[Kodama.6453]

On 5/3/2021 at 7:23 PM, enkeny.6937 said:

If an elite specialization can't use the skill, than it is wrong.

Then it's a good thing that soulbeast would still work with his suggestion.

 

People have to stop acting like a soulbeast is forced to stay fused all the time. Want to use his command version as a soulbeast? Stop the beast mode, now you have a pet again and you can use the command skill. It is that simple.

[enkeny.6937]

2 hours ago, Kodama.6453 said:

Then it's a good thing that soulbeast would still work with his suggestion.

 

People have to stop acting like a soulbeast is forced to stay fused all the time. Want to use his command version as a soulbeast? Stop the beast mode, now you have a pet again and you can use the command skill. It is that simple.

True, thanks for correcting! 
But it is still feels wrong an entire skill line not working while you use your class (or elite specialization) mechanics. 
And I think overperforming in an specialization isn't healthy either.
It is like using Hyena. As soon as you merge, the summoned hyena also disappears. (btw, don't use hyena. it's power is halved!)
So if the new elite specialization gets similar skills, that's ok. 

[Kodama.6453]

6 hours ago, enkeny.6937 said:

True, thanks for correcting! 
But it is still feels wrong an entire skill line not working while you use your class (or elite specialization) mechanics.  

Stuff like this already exists and it is considered fine:

• Holosmith: using photon forge disables usage of all kits on your skill bar for 5 seconds
• Core Necro / Reaper: literally all utility skills are unavailable during shroud, while scourges are allowed to use utility skills when using their class mechanic

 

Not to mention that this also already exists in soulbeast itself. There are many ranger traits and skills which just work outside of beast mode.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Kodama.6453

[enkeny.6937]

I sense a bit difference here. 
And it is the timing and the way.
Time: Transformations (shroud, photon forge, Celestial Avatar, tornado, etc) has a time interval. basically they are like: enter form, do thing, time out, exit form, do utility/weapon skills, repeat.
Beast mod has no time out.
way: can't use skill with mechanics vs can't use mechanics with skill. 

Well, we still don't need to always be in beast mode, like you said. And we're not forced to use commands either. 
But now I think the problem here is: Merging still too potent for the soulbeast. 

And maybe if we had potential skills outside beast mode, working pets or a time limit for beast mode, it will change things. As I write this, it sounds like a good idea not letting a merge version of the skill. (but make it like: you can't activate it without a pet).

[anduriell.6280]

On 5/5/2021 at 12:17 PM, enkeny.6937 said:

Well, we still don't need to always be in beast mode, like you said. And we're not forced to use commands either. 
But now I think the problem here is: Merging still too potent for the soulbeast. 

And maybe if we had potential skills outside beast mode, working pets or a time limit for beast mode, it will change things. As I write this, it sounds like a good idea not letting a merge version of the skill. (but make it like: you can't activate it without a pet).

Also the original intentions for the soulbeast wasn't to camp all the time in beastmode. This has happened because the design is all over the place and players have searched of ways of making this work. 

The same as somebody would think the soulbeast is a condi / hybrid brawler  spec while in reality everybody plays the class as power burst because it what the spec allows you to build.  

[enkeny.6937]

On 5/20/2021 at 6:54 PM, anduriell.6280 said:

Also the original intentions for the soulbeast wasn't to camp all the time in beastmode

And that's why celestial avatar form has a time limit while beastmode hasn't... 😄 

[The Boz.2038]

Back to being orders. Affects pet with primary effect. Provides minor buff to allies.

[anduriell.6280]

On 5/25/2021 at 6:23 PM, enkeny.6937 said:

And that's why celestial avatar form has a time limit while beastmode hasn't... 😄 

I am just paraphrasing what Anet devs said when pressenting the specialization. That's why you had traits like Unstoppable Union which only worked when you are merging. 

Which proves my point further that the specialitation feels all over the place and the players are making it by with what is offered. 

 

Edited June 10, 2021 by anduriell.6280

[swifti.2590]

More interaction, I love it

[Lazze.9870]

On 5/5/2021 at 9:57 AM, Kodama.6453 said:

Stuff like this already exists and it is considered fine:

• Holosmith: using photon forge disables usage of all kits on your skill bar for 5 seconds
•  

 

Imagine implying there is any drawback to holosmith at all. Kits disabled for 5 seconds? Poor you. Almost as bad as having the elite toolbelt skill replaced by photon forge and an entire new weapon bar.

 

The problem here is that command skills currently DO work with beastmode. Suggesting anything that doesn't work is a step backwards in terms of functionality.

 

The main problem with these suggestions in general is that OP wants skills to rely on terrible AI. No thanks. Replace Search and Rescue with something useful (we don't need 2 revival skills, 3 with druid) and put a lesser Healing Spring on the revive trait.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Lazze.9870

[Za Shaloc.3908]

Honestly I don't think command skills need some massive rework. They are quite good, with skills like Guard and SnR being fair candidates for a little bump up. I would rather see skills with more pet interaction via new e-spec weapon skills and/or F-skills to allow space for greater AI improvements.

[Lazze.9870]

On 6/23/2021 at 2:25 AM, Za Shaloc.3908 said:

I would rather see skills with more pet interaction via new e-spec weapon skills and/or F-skills to allow space for greater AI improvements.

 

I'd rather see them keep that stuff for core ranger and make the elite specs give us something that is actually useful and not AI dependent, but whatever floats your boat and all that.

[Za Shaloc.3908]

3 hours ago, Lazze.9870 said:

 

I'd rather see them keep that stuff for core ranger and make the elite specs give us something that is actually useful and not AI dependent, but whatever floats your boat and all that.

 

Yeah and that is fair given their track record with keeping pet AI up to date. Realistically I suppose you have a point, but in an ideal world I would love to have a spec that allows for much more complex control as well as "intra-interaction" between the player and the pet. More than just "using this skill applies X buff to your pet." 

[anduriell.6280]

4 hours ago, Za Shaloc.3908 said:

 

Yeah and that is fair given their track record with keeping pet AI up to date. Realistically I suppose you have a point, but in an ideal world I would love to have a spec that allows for much more complex control as well as "intra-interaction" between the player and the pet. More than just "using this skill applies X buff to your pet." 

thats a missconception i dont understand. More control over the pet should be on core and baseline, with no traitline involved. Skills at most as i suggested.

 

Is like asking the mesmer to have removed all the F skills and ask them for an new Spec. Or thief to have the steal or stacking stealth under an specialitation,

 

 

[anduriell.6280]

I have re-edited the main post with a refined ideas about how the commands could work. 

[Ehecatl.9172]

I like most of these though I feel Heal as One should stay a burst heal. Having the pet follow you around trying to lick you sounds kind of clunky, and Heal as One being our main "heal the pet" skill seems like it adds more to the beastmaster theme. I like the idea of Enkeny to have it revive your pet if they are downed as this would give us a way to circumvent the downed cooldown if we blow a heal for it.

 

Also some suggestions:

 

Sic 'Em: Have this teleport the pet to the ranger's current target. Also have it act as an attack command when triggered. It is literally an attack command so needing to hit F1 in addition to this utility seems like wasted time, just keep the ability to change its target with F1. Making it a teleport means this would be a way to circumvent terrain navigation limitations inherent in the AI and give rangers some capacity to get people out of sniper positions. Requires line of sight for obvious reasons.

 

Guard: Have this be a ground targeted ability that teleports the pet to the area. This would just give the ranger more control over where their pet ends up and potentially make the reveal trigger faster. I'd also like it to possibly give protection or other forms of damage reduction to allies in the radius.

 

Protect Me: Have this teleport the pet to the ranger's side before triggering a barrier and soaking incoming damage for the ranger. The pet sticks to your side for the duration or until you give it an attack command.

 

A ranger who went heavy on Commands would be able to get their pet to move around the field much more reliably, which would go a long way to making sure it doesn't stand in death.

[anduriell.6280]

12 hours ago, Ehecatl.9172 said:

I like most of these though I feel Heal as One should stay a burst heal. Having the pet follow you around trying to lick you sounds kind of clunky, and Heal as One being our main "heal the pet" skill seems like it adds more to the beastmaster theme. I like the idea of Enkeny to have it revive your pet if they are downed as this would give us a way to circumvent the downed cooldown if we blow a heal for it.

Um i am of the idea Ranger (Core and Druid) should not have access to a burst heal. It simply doesn't work balance wise with projectiles attacks. As you can see also skills like Troll_Unguent are preferred over WHaO because it works better with the ranger skills. So i think  Water_Spirit and Healing_Spring should also work in a similar fashion, healing over time instead burst healing.

 

Quote

Sic 'Em: Have this teleport the pet to the ranger's current target. Also have it act as an attack command when triggered. It is literally an attack command so needing to hit F1 in addition to this utility seems like wasted time, just keep the ability to change its target with F1. Making it a teleport means this would be a way to circumvent terrain navigation limitations inherent in the AI and give rangers some capacity to get people out of sniper positions. Requires line of sight for obvious reasons.

I like the idea activating the command would work automatically as F1, but i don't think the shadowstep would be needed or even fair. In any case keep in mind command may have a longer cast time, something like 1-2s to balance the skill. This is done because commands aren't to be used instantly but as status where your pet is already prepared . Something closer to the mantras design philosophy. 

 

Keep in mind if Anet also would rework the pets using this suggestions the pets would have already close gaps to keep up with the target albeit less damage (thus the extra damage in this command), for example birds would have access to a sort of  Lesser_Quickening_Zephyr  on their F3 so if you were looking into a pet with great chase potential you would pick that one. As it should be able to chase and attack invisible targets (although not revealing them) it should not be a problem if the target goes into stealth. 

Quote

Guard: Have this be a ground targeted ability that teleports the pet to the area. This would just give the ranger more control over where their pet ends up and potentially make the reveal trigger faster. I'd also like it to possibly give protection or other forms of damage reduction to allies in the radius.

Actually i was thinking about not rooting the pet to any area. I guess i did not explained myself properly.

Rooting the ranger or pet even if it's for a few seconds does not work very well with the profession as it lacks defenses against damage spikes.  The pet simply pulses 1 second reveal every few seconds (every 3 would be fine to allow some counterplay) in a 600 radius around the companion  while this command is active. The area would be a bit random because on how the pet moves around while in passive but it would be fine. Then you control the area by moving yourself around. 

 

Quote

 

Protect Me: Have this teleport the pet to the ranger's side before triggering a barrier and soaking incoming damage for the ranger. The pet sticks to your side for the duration or until you give it an attack command.

 

A ranger who went heavy on Commands would be able to get their pet to move around the field much more reliably, which would go a long way to making sure it doesn't stand in death.

Yeh i like it all, it would improve greatly the pet management. 

Edited August 24, 2021 by anduriell.6280

[Ehecatl.9172]

12 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Um i am of the idea Ranger (Core and Druid) should not have access to a burst heal. It simply doesn't work balance wise with projectiles attacks. As you can see also skills like Troll_Unguent are preferred over WHaO because it works better with the ranger skills. So i think  Water_Spirit and Healing_Spring should also work in a similar fashion, healing over time instead burst healing.

 

I don't see why a burst heal fundamentally doesn't work with the ranger toolkit. I use We Heal as One quite a lot because of its short cooldown when traited and solid health recovery. My most used heal is Healing Spring because of the smaller burst coupled with its AoE and ability to be comboed as well.

 

Changing ALL ranger heals to be heal over time would just be limiting our options, I feel. Let players choose for themselves whether they want a burst heal or a heal over time.

 

Quote

I like the idea activating the command would work automatically as F1, but i don't think the shadowstep would be needed or even fair. In any case keep in mind command may have a longer cast time, something like 1-2s to balance the skill. This is done because commands aren't to be used instantly but as status where your pet is already prepared . Something closer to the mantras design philosophy. 

 

Given that our pets can be potentially shut down by small ledges and significantly hindered by obstacles a human player could casually navigate I feel teleports are only fair. If it has a telegraph like a cast time then it only becomes more fair. Keep in mind that right now if a player is standing on a pillar the AI has zero ability to ever reach them, which in turn means the ranger's core mechanic has just been hard countered by positioning.

 

Sacrificing a utility slot for the ability to circumvent a key limitation of the AI seems like a worthy trade off to me.

 

Quote

Keep in mind if Anet also would rework the pets using this suggestions the pets would have already close gaps to keep up with the target albeit less damage (thus the extra damage in this command), for example birds would have access to a sort of  Lesser_Quickening_Zephyr  on their F3 so if you were looking into a pet with great chase potential you would pick that one. As it should be able to chase and attack invisible targets (although not revealing them) it should not be a problem if the target goes into stealth. 

 

This is true, and this would dramatically increase the pet's ability to stick to the target and remain a constant hinderance. But it doesn't solve the AI's issues with navigating terrain or dealing with heights. Even wyverns and birds are helpless against the might of the Y axis.

 

Commands being tools that let the ranger overcome the stupidity of the AI would make a lot of thematic sense and improve pet gameplay a lot.

 

Quote

 

Actually i was thinking about not rooting the pet to any area. I guess i did not explained myself properly.

Rooting the ranger or pet even if it's for a few seconds does not work very well with the profession as it lacks defenses against damage spikes.  The pet simply pulses 1 second reveal every few seconds (every 3 would be fine to allow some counterplay) in a 600 radius around the companion  while this command is active. The area would be a bit random because on how the pet moves around while in passive but it would be fine. Then you control the area by moving yourself around. 

 

 

I don't know if I'd want to use a utility skill that only functions as a counter to stealth. Especially one that kind of requires you to stop using your pet for the duration since if the pet isn't on top of you because it is fighting another target the anti-stealth pulse wouldn't be on the ranger. You could still get backstabbed.

 

In my mind Guard works best thematically if it sets the pet to.. Well. Guard an area. More or less changing where the pet leashes to so it can be further away from the ranger than is otherwise possible.

 

Making that utility useful though? That is kind of tricky. There's a lot of overlap in theme between Guard and Protect Me and having two defensive commands is a little redundant. 

[anduriell.6280]

Burst heals in combination with the ranged burst damage and the addional damage source from the pet do not work very well  balance wise in GW2. We already have had 9 years of experimenting and the result was the tank druid build, the main reason why the especialization is in it's current state and also the reason why all of our heals are now in a 30s CD when other classes still enjoy their very short CD burst heals. .But this thread is not about that.

If you feel like discuss it a bit more please open a thread as that is a very interesting conversation to be had but has nothing to do in how commands could work.

 

I am  personally against giving the pet any kind shadow steps unless from their own skills (like the cheeta or smokescale)  thus i even removed the teleport from search and rescue.

This is because balance purpouses again, it would feel unfair if the ranger could teleport around the pet by using commands, avoiding all the damage or setting up the pet on their targets location not giving time to any counterplay. 

 

About Guard command. Revealing a target is a very powerful mechanic as it does not only allow you to attack that target but any friendly that may be with you. Think stealth is another profession main mechanic, As such Gard is fine with just the reveal.

 

If you want to be able to attack an stealthed target  with the pet you have the choice of Sicem, it will allow you to use f1/f2/f3. It wil not reveal the target but the pet companion will stick to it. Inded you would need to mark him with F1 first. A nice compromise between utility and trade offs. But all this describex in the text wall, please read it and you would have all this questions answered.

 

Pathing is not remotely perfect but to mitigate that  pet could receive working close gaps. If the close gaps works with the same internal mechanics as the tiger's Furious_Pounce pets should not have much trouble sticking to the target. But that topic would be better treated in the propper thread about the pets rework.

 

1 hour ago, Ehecatl.9172 said:

Making that utility useful though? That is kind of tricky. There's a lot of overlap in theme between Guard and Protect Me and having two defensive commands is a little redundant. 

 

Not with my suggestions, every command fulfills an specific role.

[Lazze.9870]

On 5/3/2021 at 4:23 PM, anduriell.6280 said:

Search and Rescue

 

The best solution to this skill after the range nerf is to delete it. Why on earth does ranger need TWO core skills with revive potential? And a third one with druid? The answer is it doesn't. So, that gives us complete freedom to add something interesting instead.

 

The allies' aid trait now gives Healing Spring a tiny revive percentage on each pulse (in line with similar skills) and casts a lesser healing spring. You know, instead of casting a skill where half the functionality of that skills disappears because you can no longer port the downed allied.

 

If any of the devs actually had any passion for ranger, they would had  implemented a change like this years ago. It's such an obvious one.

 

As for the other ideas, I don't agree with any of them. They should just finish what they started when they reworked Protect me and Guard - make these skills the primary "support" utilites of core ranger outside of spirits, and revert the change that made them command skills instead of shouts. Bonus if Sic' em get axed so that they buff ranger weapons without worrying about a busted modifier on soulbeast.

Edited August 26, 2021 by Lazze.9870

[anduriell.6280]

32 minutes ago, Lazze.9870 said:

The best solution to this skill after the range nerf is to delete it. Why on earth does ranger need TWO core skills with revive potential? And a third one with druid? The answer it doesn't. So, that gives us complete freedom to add something interesting instead.

i do agree with your point, But what about changing the Spirit_of_Nature to cast roots like the skill Entangle instead reviving allies. Even if the actives are changed to be a ranged ground AoE target i dont see why it could not work. That if we get back the mobility in the spirits that is. 

 

And then  replacing entangle for another elite which  gives a boon pulsing elite (Survival of the fittest) providing a bunch of different pulsing boons for short time as we lost current "Strength_of_the_Pack!" effects with this rework. By removing tne might generation from this skill maybe pulsing boons would be some aceptable in game, i dont remeber why it was removed in the first place.

 

Thematically it makes more sense to me the Nature Spirit has some effects related to the wild and plants while survival skills are more selfish and focused in keeping themranger alive.

 

I do think an additional reviving skill from Druid is fine thou, just the current glyph of stars design is not ideal.

[Lazze.9870]

22 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

i do agree with your point, But what about changing the Spirit_of_Nature to cast roots like the skill Entangle instead reviving allies.

 

Why do you want change a spirit which heals on its passive to something completely unrelated on its active?

 

Don't suggest changes just for sake of changing them. Make it simple. Instead of reworking Search and Rescue, you want an entire chain of reworks that changes all our elites? That's so out of scope it's not even worth talking about.

Edited August 26, 2021 by Lazze.9870