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How would you redesign the ranger?


Lonami.2987

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Pets absolutely need to be crunched up into the five Soulbeast archetypes. Within an archetype, all pets are identical; they're just skins for you to pick, with the same stats, skills, Soulbeast boosts, etc. Also, Legendary Pets! Yay!

I dislike how the Druid is designed about team content, and is really, truly painful to play outside it. Any redisign of it is welcome.

 

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Start by improving the pet mechanic. Specifically:

 

F1 Attack/(Toggle)Heel

and

F3 Move To (Ground targeted)

 

It would make pet controls more intuitive and allow the option to path pets out of harm's way, without requiring too many button presses and overcoming the fact that Guard/Avoid Combat cannot be hotkeyed, which would be a welcome QoL update if it did.

 

Axe (Mostly OH #4)

Dagger (MH lacks cleave)

Short Bow (Lacks damage potential on flanking which is hard enough to pull off in any competitive environment, and is still outclassed in PvE.)

Staff

Sword

 

All need love. So does Druid and I wish pets were an optional mechanic for them, too. Stowing a pet for skill effects and attribute increases would even improve core.

 

And give Soulbeast the second pet back, but instead design the drawback that your pet appears with the same hitpoints as it had before when leaving Beastmode, and when you switch into Beastmode, if your pet's health % is lower than yours, lose health equal to 50% of the difference.

Losing the second pet lowered the skill ceiling by so much, it's not even funny.

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> @"The Boz.2038" said:

> I dislike how the Druid is designed about team content, and is really, truly painful to play outside it. Any redisign of it is welcome.

Agreed. I think that pretty much all of the elite specs released at that time were group-oriented as Raids were to be a thing.

 

 

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> @"Lonami.2987" said:

> It's been quite a while. Going for a soft redesign this time:

>

> ---

>

> ##Mechanic bar redesign

>

> Ranger mechanic bar redesign idea.

>

> An image is worth a thousand words, but just in case:

>

> * **F1:** [swap Pets](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pet_swap) (formerly at F4, second pet is now displayed on screen).

> * **F2:** Attack My Target (formerly at F1).

> * **F3:** [beast skill #1](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Beast) (formerly at F2).

> * **F4:** Return to Me (formerly at F3).

> * **F5:** Beast skill #2 (new skill).

> * Stow Pet / Activate Pet (no hotkey on default, can be assigned one manually).

> * Guard / Avoid Combat (no hotkey on default, can be assigned one manually).

>

> ---

>

> ##Changes to the pet mechanic

>

> Pets are the central part of the ranger's playstyle, but they have quite a few problems:

>

> * There's way too many pets, 55 in total. Pets are divided in 18 families, and members of the same families are almost identical.

> * Pet skins are connected to specific beast skills, and you can't choose their skins freely. There's dozen of unavailable pet skins in the game as well.

> * Pets aren't very engaging, having only one [beast skill](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Beast) rangers can activate manually.

>

> And this is my take on how to solve those issues:

>

> * Unify beast skills and take the amount of pets down to 18, one per family. Redistribute [archetypes](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Archetype) across the new pets.

> * Transform the different pet models into cosmetic skins you can equip freely. Transform the missing NPC models into pet skins as well.

> * Make beast skills more useful, and give each pet a second beast skill.

>

> ---

>

> ##Elite specialization mechanics and tradeoffs

>

> The addition of a second beast skill changes the tradeoff situation, letting us take a new approach. This is what we have now:

>

> * **Druid:** Gain **Celestial Avatar**, but your pet's attributes are weaker. Transform into a [Celestial Avatar](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Celestial_Avatar) to gain alternate weapon skills.

> * **Soulbeast:** Gain **Beastmode**, but you cannot swap pets in combat. Activate [beastmode](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Beastmode) to gain alternate mechanic skills.

>

> And this would be the new version:

>

> * **Druid:** Gain **Celestial Avatar** instead of **Beast skill #2**. Transform into a Celestial Avatar to gain alternate weapon skills and an alternate **Beast skill #1**.

> * **Soulbeast:** Gain **Beastmode** instead of **Beast skill #2**. Activate Beastmode to gain alternate mechanic skills.

>

> ---

>

> ##Other changes

>

> Few extra notes worth mentioning:

>

> * Activating [Celestial Avatar](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Celestial_Avatar) will change your pet's appearance as well, turning it into an [astral creature](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Astral_creature). Internal pet skills mechanics and attributes won't be affected by this transformation.

> * Swapping pets is now possible while [beastmode](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Beastmode) is on. Beastmode's visual effect will change its color depending on the active archetype.

> * Replace off-hand dagger with off-hand sword. Soulbeasts now gain the ability to wield daggers in both hands. Daggers will gain alternate weapon skills upon activation of Beastmode.

> * Replace shortbow with rifle. Rename the Longbow weapon type back into just Bow. Remove the Shortbow weapon type, and integrate the orphaned weapons and skins into the Bow. [More on weapon type changes here.](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/1074/new-weapon-types-study-knuckles-polearms-spears-relics-and-more/p1)

>

> ---

>

> That's it, thanks for reading!

 

Few elite specialization ideas, based on the previous mechanic bar redesign:

 

---

 

New ranger elite specialization mechanic bar ideas.

 

---

 

##Elite specialization ideas

 

* **Bloodhound:** Gain **Pet Focus** instead of **Pet Swap**. Both pets are deployed in combat simultaneously, pet focus letting you command one pet at a time. **Beast skill #2** will be tied to the secondary pet.

* **Waywatcher:** Gain **Wild Flash** instead of **Beast skill #2**, and **Wild Vault** instead of **dodge rolling**. Use Wild Flash to instantly swap positions with your pet. **Wild Strike** skills become available for a short time right after using Wild Flash.

* **Treesinger:** Gain **Hatchlings** instead of **Pets**. Hatchlings are smaller versions of your own pets, weaker individually, but stronger in numbers.

 

Not getting into other details, only the mechanics.

 

> @"InsaneQR.7412" said:

> @"Lonami.2987" nope. I stopped working on it due to IRL occupation and new project revolving arround Gw2 tabletop.

>

> But i really like your suggestions. Solid ideas, lots of streamlining and way easier to function with E-specs.

 

Glad you liked them. I would love to do something like this for every other profession, but I don't know if I'll ever get to it lol.

 

> @"JorneMormel.9850" said:

> Start by improving the pet mechanic. Specifically:

>

> F1 Attack/(Toggle)Heel

> and

> F3 Move To (Ground targeted)

>

> It would make pet controls more intuitive and allow the option to path pets out of harm's way, without requiring too many button presses and overcoming the fact that Guard/Avoid Combat cannot be hotkeyed, which would be a welcome QoL update if it did.

>

> Axe (Mostly OH #4)

> Dagger (MH lacks cleave)

> Short Bow (Lacks damage potential on flanking which is hard enough to pull off in any competitive environment, and is still outclassed in PvE.)

> Staff

> Sword

>

> All need love. So does Druid and I wish pets were an optional mechanic for them, too. Stowing a pet for skill effects and attribute increases would even improve core.

>

> And give Soulbeast the second pet back, but instead design the drawback that your pet appears with the same hitpoints as it had before when leaving Beastmode, and when you switch into Beastmode, if your pet's health % is lower than yours, lose health equal to 50% of the difference.

> Losing the second pet lowered the skill ceiling by so much, it's not even funny.

 

I think the best approach is to make pets more vulnerable, but faster to swap as well. Make pet rotation faster, kinda like elementalist attunements and revenant legends.

 

After all, the less time they stay around, the fewer problems the AI will give.

 

> @"The Boz.2038" said:

> Pets absolutely need to be crunched up into the five Soulbeast archetypes. Within an archetype, all pets are identical; they're just skins for you to pick, with the same stats, skills, Soulbeast boosts, etc. Also, Legendary Pets! Yay!

> I dislike how the Druid is designed about team content, and is really, truly painful to play outside it. Any redisign of it is welcome.

>

 

Indeed, they definitely need to update traits to make solo druid viable.

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