May 2021 Poll: Are you happy about the current state of ranger?

[Lazze.9870]

10 hours ago, AlexndrTheGreat.8310 said:

An idea I personally had for a future mechanic that would be similar to Scourge shades would be using an Animal Totem in place of a pet, essentially pets in a non-persistent form (something that is out temporarily when choose we summon it) and lasts for a set duration based on time or resource. Something functioning like Scourge Shades or Revenant Tablet.

 

I have seen similar suggestions floating around, but I'm not a big fan of the totem idea. Not at all really.  Scourge is annoying to play against, Revenant tablet is annoying to.. well, play. I generally don't think placing resource based "items" around for lingering AoE effects is that much fun.

 

I'd rather have a big, petless (physically, at least - maybe have them represented through invulernable spirits so the trait interactions make sense) druid rework with some nature magic buffs and rework to create better synergy, still leaning towards the support angle. Push it 120 % into nature/celestial magic and leave the beastmaster side of ranger completely. The crazy people that want a beastmaster spec (which will inherit all the flaws of the core mechanic) can have the EoD spec at that point, I wouldn't care.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Lazze.9870

[Dami.5046]

I just wish they would allow pet swop in PvE.  But they're been laughing at ranger for years so i can't see much changing.

[Kodama.6453]

6 hours ago, Dami.5046 said:

I just wish they would allow pet swop in PvE.  But they're been laughing at ranger for years so i can't see much changing.

Then they would go back on their design philosophy to give elite specs trade offs and soulbeast would be a direct upgrade of ranger once again...

[Dami.5046]

14 minutes ago, Kodama.6453 said:

Then they would go back on their design philosophy to give elite specs trade offs and soulbeast would be a direct upgrade of ranger once again...

in wvw and pvp sure if they must..but pve? c'mon. I'm sure it was only meant for those game modes anyway?

[Kodama.6453]

7 minutes ago, Dami.5046 said:

in wvw and pvp sure if they must..but pve? c'mon. I'm sure it was only meant for those game modes anyway?

No, trade offs are supposed to be installed in all game modes?

 

Would be kinda kitten if some elite specs just have a trade off in PvP like your suggested southeast while other elite specs have to always deal with their trade off because of mechanical reasons (reaper losing base shroud, scrapper losing elite toolbelts, etc.).

[Dami.5046]

5 minutes ago, Kodama.6453 said:

No, trade offs are supposed to be installed in all game modes?

 

Would be kinda kitten if some elite specs just have a trade off in PvP like your suggested southeast while other elite specs have to always deal with their trade off because of mechanical reasons (reaper losing base shroud, scrapper losing elite toolbelts, etc.).

are you speaking as a ranger player or a spectator? 

[Kodama.6453]

2 minutes ago, Dami.5046 said:

are you speaking as a ranger player or a spectator? 

Don't know why this really matters, but mostly as a spectator. Played a bit of ranger here and there but are mostly an engineer main.

 

But this is an overarching principle for this game. Why should soulbeast get a free pass of it's trade off in PvE and other classes don't? Should we advocate then that reaper gets access to both shroud forms (base and reaper's shroud) on f1 and f2 respectively?

 

Soulbeast was doing fine after the change that disabled pet swap for them. If the spec is in need of buffs, they can buff it elsewhere (like reverting the one wolf pack CD NERF for example, read that it messes up quite some stuff for soulbeasts).

[Lazze.9870]

2 hours ago, Kodama.6453 said:

No, trade offs are supposed to be installed in all game modes?

 

Would be kinda kitten if some elite specs just have a trade off in PvP like your suggested southeast while other elite specs have to always deal with their trade off because of mechanical reasons (reaper losing base shroud, scrapper losing elite toolbelts, etc.).

 

Just to be clear, I'm fine with soulbeast not being able to swap pets in-combat. The druid trade-off is worse, mostly because of how they handled it and not the existence of a trade-off. If they want to keep the pet, why not let the trade-off be less offensive stats, but boost their healing power and concentration so that the pets can somewhat contribute to the support role druid is supposed to have? Druid obviously had design problems from day one, adding CA while keeping the pet mechanic as is was one of them, but they could have been more thoughtful when adding the trade-off.

 

But lets be real. Losing the elite toolbelt skill is hardly a comparable trade-off. The entire reason an elite toolbelt slot was added was because of scrapper to begin with. The gyro is better than any of the elite toolbelt skills, and holoform is an entire weaponset of new skills at the cost of one skill. And reaper shroud is a sidegrade of core shroud, it replaces a mechanic, it doesn't break the knees of a co-existing mechanic. That is one of the reasons I'm fine with the SB trade-off, pet merge is pretty close to a sidegrade of pet swap, but as a bonus it retains the benefit of deciding which pet you want to use before going into combat - even in pvp. Celestial avatar on the other hand is completely seperate from the pet, which is kinda unique to ranger as far as elite spec mechanics go (you could make arguments about Daredevil's Swipe and Spellbreaker losing the third level on burst skills, but Swipe is unblockable and Full Counter still feeds off adrenaline, so they aren't 1 to 1 comparisons imo).

Edited May 28, 2021 by Lazze.9870

[RedAvenged.5217]

I got exactly what I wanted for ranger for pvp. Ranger finally has a shot at being meta now

[Thornwolf.9721]

1. Soul-beast should not be the only solid option for the class (Druid is a meme and annoyance, core is hardmode essentially.)
2. The pet families need a rework, ALL PETS should be good at the very least for fighting beside you and having useful skills.
3. The pets need reworked combat, Bears should not be trash as in real-life they are very good combatants and are not only massive but can dish some serious damage to foes.
4. Some weapons just feel bleh compared to the few that work, warhorn for example will only be taken by those who like the weapon but otherwise people stick to longbow-greatsword.
5. Our traitlines are alright, albeit some could use some updates as they really feel lacking (Beastmastery in particular is passable but I'd like it to actually make my pet feel... I dunno... better?)
6. Pets need better stats for both core and druid, soulbeast can have the reduced pet-stats and then merge with them to get a huge oomf of power. But the other two forms of ranger suffer vastly more due to the reduced power of their companions, Needs to be fixed.

[Lazze.9870]

The fact of the matter is, ranger doesn't get significant reworks, with the one exception being the pre-Hot patch where everyone got it. While a class like guardian even gets new icons and kitten if they rework a skill. What did Glyph of the Star get? The binned icon from Glyph of Empowerement. "It somewhat looks like a star, good enough". It took them three years to update the skill icons on the sword auto chain. The second skill in the chain STILL doesn't cleave for whatever reason.

 

Pretty much every class except ranger has had significant reworks to an elite spec or at least a core traitline. Every now and then they will give us bread crumbs if a skill or trait remain pure trash for long enough, but the list of skills and traits that remain pure trash is still huge. Empathic and Invigorating Bond, Cosmic Ray.. Ughhhhhh.... They're quick on the nerf hammer, though.

Edited May 31, 2021 by Lazze.9870

[anduriell.6280]

On 5/28/2021 at 11:20 PM, Lazze.9870 said:

 

The druid trade-off is worse, mostly because of how they handled it and not the existence of a trade-off. If they want to keep the pet, why not let the trade-off be less offensive stats, but boost their healing power and concentration so that the pets can somewhat contribute to the support role druid is supposed to have? Druid obviously had design problems from day one, adding CA while keeping the pet mechanic as is was one of them, but they could have been more thoughtful when adding the trade-off.

Druid needs a tradeoff but the way Anet picked wasn't any good, that feels it was a very lazy way to do that.

 

Idea: 

What about Druid pets lose the access to the F2 skill and that skill is replaced in all the pets by a AoE around the pet healing/cleansing skill with some resolution boon application. Same skill for every pet as it comes from the Druid using the pet as a conduit.  Give a it a nice CD so it can't be spammed and done. 

 

"Druids because of the focus on the natural order lose contact with their pets, as they grow undisciplined and rebellious"

 

And once we do that, Anet devs can add some additional traits using chanelling effects thru the pet, like  

 

Cultivated Synergy: 

Using your heal skill, heals allies around you and your pet. Using Celestial Avatar skills will cast a Lesser Seed of Life on the pet position (Verdant Etching would trigger this trait too)  

 

 

 

[Thornwolf.9721]

On 5/31/2021 at 1:35 AM, anduriell.6280 said:

Druid needs a tradeoff but the way Anet picked wasn't any good, that feels it was a very lazy way to do that.

 

Idea: 

What about Druid pets lose the access to the F2 skill and that skill is replaced in all the pets by a AoE around the pet healing/cleansing skill with some resolution boon application. Same skill for every pet as it comes from the Druid using the pet as a conduit.  Give a it a nice CD so it can't be spammed and done. 

 

"Druids because of the focus on the natural order lose contact with their pets, as they grow undisciplined and rebellious"

 

And once we do that, Anet devs can add some additional traits using chanelling effects thru the pet, like  

 

Cultivated Synergy: 

Using your heal skill, heals allies around you and your pet. Using Celestial Avatar skills will cast a Lesser Seed of Life on the pet position (Verdant Etching would trigger this trait too)  

 

 

 

Or what if druid looses the traditional pet and its replaced with a spirit, then remove the spirit utilities and tie them into the druid in some way? Then replace the spirits with something else, anything else so that those can be useful in all game modes and it bakes the druid as that natural mender. Hell make it that the Elite spirit is your companion, it fights alongside you but once you go into CA it infuses you with the power of the maguuma druids and fires projectiles as it appears hovering behind you. 

This way the druid is doing damage and healing, just like firebrand and scourge. Without the pet (I know a lot like soul-beast) you could have some actual utility because pets on druids are memes. Let us choose via the pet options if you're a druid between a few different spirits that do different things of which we can still swap between two out of like five or something. Each one offering different benefits. Roll in the spirits changing shape in land or sea, and then give us some form of willow-wisp Utility perhaps a variant of minion/Turret? Totems? Little Willow-wisps that function like gyros? Anything.

This would then pull all of druid together, while I like the idea of it retaining its pet I feel it should change the class more than it does. Druid should be rangers firebrand, and should functionally be a completely different beast than core or Soulbeast. Soulbeast you merge with pet, Druid you trade the pet in for spirits and then core retains the pet. This then makes room for a Pet focused melee beastmaster of some sort for the canthan E-spec which gives us a super pet in exchange for us not being able to pet swap. Which would be for those like myself who love the concept of a pet, but hate how Im stuck with a dang baby animal all the time. (I want a big monster.)

It would be a significant undertaking, but worthwhile because they can then bring druid into the modern era of guild wars 2. Because its rendition as it is remains to be a lazily slopped together mess of memes and salt. CA also needs to functionally be turned into something more beneficial and fun to use, building energy and expending it should feel like a benefit not a punishment.

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

The actual state of Ranger/Soulbeast is in the best place it's ever been actually. Druid needs buffing and updating for the times though. CA Kit has not only been seriously neglected for QOL updates like other classes get, but it has been way over-nerfed in recent years.

 

Ranger/Soulbeast traits, weapon skills, utilities, are all really really functional and viable for different reasons in all the game modes. The class feels great to play and to design different specs around. I won't elaborate too much, but I will say that I like the way it all feels right now, and any problems related to Ranger/Soulbeast are because other classes are too kitten strong right now and need slight nerfs. The actual design & mechanics behind Ranger/Soulbeast are spot on really. That can't be said for many classes.

 

People responding in threads like this though, need to understand the different between discussing/complaining about design & mechanics, and discussing/complaining about intra-class dynamic concerning when things have numbers tuned too low or too high.

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

Add me to the ‘no’ column. I played ranger since Open Beta. Couldn’t take anymore nerfs to my Druid and quit for years. When I returned, with the expansion’s announcement, I started a new toon.

 

Night and day.

 

No matter what happens, my wife and I will never return to our rangers. It’s too far gone. And I wish now I never chose it.

Edited June 3, 2021 by Ardenwolfe.8590

[Tinkerer.2167]

This class could be so much better if you gave ranger complete control over the pet abilities on f skills and made druid viable and not a cheese ancient seeds gimmick.

 

Also not tying every important condi defensive into only wilderness survival and specializations. Nature magic is just bad in all aspects.

 

There's too much to post and too much that has been posted, so many good suggestions, but they ignore it all and only listen to a handful of partnered streaming PvP individuals for balance suggestions in their balance discord, it's just useless to even try to ask for things that have been ignored for years now.

 

Only thing i can say is enjoy sic em ranger in PvP as a decent roamer even though it's a shell of what it once was. 

[Dami.5046]

I'm actually wondering who was playing a druid in wvw to find out that glyph was being god like. And why it wasn't common knowledge?

Just putting it out there.

Another 'useful' ranger thing nerfed.

Edited June 9, 2021 by Dami.5046

[Myror.7521]

@UmbraNoctis.1907 I agree it*s not even close to evade spam..... BUT Greatsword on ranger is still a pretty broken weapon for pvp. It is simply 2 weapons in 1 weapon. It got 2 evades (Greatsword 3 (Yes it is an evade even if its not listed as some) and the kick skill 4 after the block), got some cc (the kick after block 4 and 5 skill) plus for a weapon that got this mutch defence it got insane damage since you could reactivade the 2 skill with that cc. Its basicly like greatsword and shield of warrior but in just one weapon xD.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Pati.2438

[WindBlade.8749]

sure make druid viable for pvp and wvw since it's kinda trash thre but just dont butcher the spec for pve, currently druid is amazing in pve content.

[Zyreva.1078]

On 6/9/2021 at 12:20 PM, Pati.2438 said:

@UmbraNoctis.1907 I agree it*s not even close to evade spam..... BUT Greatsword on ranger is still a pretty broken weapon for pvp. It is simply 2 weapons in 1 weapon. It got 2 evades (Greatsword 2 (Yes it is an evade even if its not listed as some) and the kick skill 4 after the block), got some cc (the kick after block 4 and 5 skill) plus for a weapon that got this mutch defence it got insane damage since you could reactivade the 2 skill with that cc. Its basicly like greatsword and shield of warrior but in just one weapon xD.

I don't think GS is broken, because  - while it offers an overall decent array of skills - it also has a lot of counterplay and some downsides (pure melee, rather slow and telegraphed, evades not aviable on demand). A strong but fair weapon imo.
 

 

 

 

 

[anduriell.6280]

3 minutes ago, UmbraNoctis.1907 said:

I don't think GS is broken, because  - while it offers an overall decent array of skills - it also has a lot of counterplay and some downsides (pure melee, rather slow and telegraphed, evades not aviable on demand). A strong but fair weapon imo.

GS is not broken and in my opinion more ranger weapons should follow the philosophy of greatsword.

 

Axe and dagger mainhand and all the offhand weapons could benefit from a combined utility set as gs has the same as shortbow needs to a similar utility set as LB.

[aymnad.9023]

I would say it is around average. It is something you can play by yourself and do decent. It has a low skill floor but is hard or situational to reach the level of some professions. People only look at the pet or the skill floor and give it a bad press despite other professions having similar if not more "toxic" / easier mechanics / builds. In pvp being self sufficient and not benefiting to the team directly also does not help to make others appreciate when you do something good.

 

After the last furious strength buff in PvE it is good with both power and condi slb. Druid is still raid focused because it is slow to react and needs to be close to its allies.

 

In sPvP it is average. Not bad and not great. Not a team player by any means. Has a good variety of builds for ranked (if solo queue) which all have some weaknesses / strengths. 

 

I do not care that much about WvW because I find the mode leading to things too gimmicky but it is similar to the pvp situation. Ranger is better for small scale.

Edited June 10, 2021 by aymnad.9023

[Lazze.9870]

On 6/9/2021 at 4:56 PM, WindBlade.8749 said:

sure make druid viable for pvp and wvw since it's kinda trash thre but just dont butcher the spec for pve, currently druid is amazing in pve content.

 

It's "amazing" because you get Grace of the Land and can babysit a full utility bar of CORE spirits to buff your squad.

 

As long as it remains a healer and it keeps Grace of the Land, they can change just about everything else and it would still be "amazing" in PvE.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Lazze.9870

[WindBlade.8749]

On 6/12/2021 at 12:08 PM, Lazze.9870 said:

 

It's "amazing" because you get Grace of the Land and can babysit a full utility bar of CORE spirits to buff your squad.

 

As long as it remains a healer and it keeps Grace of the Land, they can change just about everything else and it would still be "amazing" in PvE.

yes that what keep it meta, but the way it's healing is algo good in pve and a nice gameplay, must suck in pvp in another end.

 

[reddie.5861]

SLB good at everything, dont come at me we arent allowed in WvW blobs, no and thats your choice.

Core ranger, very good dueler.

 

but druid is just a god forgotten thing im trying to play it but it just lacks something that makes core a better choice and obviously slb is already good choice..

 

if i wouldnt take druid in here i would say yes ranger is in a great state.