Elric Galad

As I suspected Fire absorbing foes are immune to Light of Pure Zeal. I tested it with a Flame Naga (after removing the condition for LoPZ). Probably due to the "low fire AR" of the flame naga but still. I plan to change LoPZ this way : - 4 zeal (as already implemented by BPM) - 0.8s/4.s cast/recovery (no change) - 100 heal (no change) - 66-84 damages vs everything (equivalent to 3 Immolation ticks). So less damaging than currently but universal. I'm leaving the anti-vessels anti-spirit part altogether because I feel the spell might have been slightly too powerful vs them. Note that with Zeal cost down from 5 to 4 in BPM, this is roughly equivalent vs vessels and spirits as vanilla. - 10 PEN +4 intresic as Tier 9 ability (no change) - Cold/Shock damages for the reasons mentionned before. Pals need something not fire based. Call it "celestial" - Adding Frost and Electricity Keyword to the ability and attack for itemization. Now SC Chromoprismatic Pal could be a thing (style bonus point if Bleak Walker for using all elements) Indeed, it is a known hardcore bug when multiple sources of + duration. I left it because it honnestly doesn't break the game. That is worth reading. Personally, I find that LoH "does its job", as cheap pseudo-emergency healing (though as pointed, not as efficient as BDD to save someone). It heals in the 100ish in the scaling, which is in my experience sufficient. That said, I do understand the issue about okayish cost efficiency (although druid style - and Pain Block - healing over time with long duration are necessarily more cost efficient). It means that it translates also to the pseudo-upgrades. And since they costs 2 Zeals one can feel it even more. Hence the lack of enthusiasm for LoH pseudo-upgrades. Also something annoying about these pseudo-upgrades is that they are Tier 3 and scales as such with PL (since they are not upgrades. Upgrades would scale as the original ability). The pseudo-upgrades basically loose 2 PL for the "original Lay on Hand compoent" (20 health per 3s tick for 5s). And since Healing over Time get double benefit from PL, it is sensitive for both : GLoH isn't that much better healing and HoL heals less than LoH. That's why my proposal is the following : - Both pseudo-upgrades would be kept at 2 Zeals. Original LoH supposed to be used when "sufficient", improved version for better action economy efficiency or Courage utility. - Pseudo-upgrade base healing buffed to 30 health per 3s tick for 6s. That is 90 base healing over 53.33 for LoH (with +2 PL, so roughly in the 60ish). - Robust for 12s. I'm not trying to challenge Pain Block in its own way, but to add a layer of healing. GLoH will have great initial healing of 40 instant, 120 over 6s and 140 for total duration. - Courageous for 18s. Courageous is less good than Robust, but nice utility to support casters (especially since after Courageous, you will still have 1 Concentration with infinite duration from the Tier 2 part of Courageous, as for Resolute but guaranteed by previous Immunity). And HoL will still heals more over a short duration than any ability in the game... bar GLoH and LoPZ

As you say, the average value seems balanced. As it is : "x% chances of getting 1 zeal where x is the percentage of health lost every 12s". For 3s ticks "x% divided by 4 chances of getting 1 zeal where x is the percentage of health lost every 3s". The second one simply seemed more confusing. Summon killing requires some ressource dedication. Optimally 1 Chanter summoning skellies while doing only that, and some character having a way to kill them without too much dedication. 1 zeal per downed summon does not seem too much for doing all that. Compare this with a Cipher spamming Brilliant on a Paladin. And the Zeal for low health requires a bit of management to give good result. I think the ability will be very strong (less so than vanilla), but would only give great results only if playing around the 2 sides. If you can manage the 2 sides, you deserve to be rewarded (once more, it would certainly be less than in vanilla). Making the 2 sides mutually exclusive would be an option, but it would overcomplexifies the ability IMHO. Somehow Paladin is the martial class "expected" to have the more ressources (+1 Zeal, Zeal on Kill mid game, Divine Retribution). Divine Retribution would be still a "must pick", but the summon strategy would be less necessary to get at least some decent results. If really needed, it is still possible to reduce the percentage chance of Zeal (including for downed summon).

I was speaking about regular LoH. Many people do complain about the pseudo-upgrades.

Concentration is much weaker than the healing from LoH. Indeed, I remember now. That said, I don't recall anyone else complaning about it for all the years on this forum. LoH is fine IMHO, but that doesn't prevent from questionning the upgrade indeed. Well, I have no passion about the current HoL and GLoH values. GLoH healing twice more than LoH + Benefits and costing twice more seemed a good basis. Anyway, I would like to hear other people opinion about this. For 2 zeals : - Is 10s Robust on top of LoH OK for the community ? - Is 15s Courageous on top of LoH OK for the community ? Weird. I vaguely remember a display bug for very encapsulated effect. I rember also an issue with PL scaling for encapsulated effect, but no MIG saling sounds extremely surprising. Anyway, I will check this. It is not intentional and does not sound legit. It's a lantern in polish. It's also what happen when you type "later" with a poorly set auto-correction a mobile phone bought in Poland. Honnestly, you're quite unique in your view as far as I remember. SC Barb are usually described as great (in Vanilla as well), mostly because of Tier 9 shout upgrade, and a couple other feat. Note that they do unexpectedly more damages than their description would make you believe cause they count as intresic Tier 9 (so +16 Acc and + 4 PEN) and scale with PL as if they were Tier 1 (so + 8 Acc, + 2 PEN, +40% multiplicative damages and duration at 9 PL, and more with bonus PL). Even Dazing Shout does ok damages this way (and decrease PEN vs your whole party, something Wiz can't do as well). Driving Roar is extremely strong, cheap, fast to cast, interrupting. Cannon SC Barb is the most commonly spoken about build. Blood Thirst and Blood Surge complete the picture. HoF with dual mortar is great vs pick packs of foes (such as Splintered Reef). I guess Dazing Shout + Instruments of Boundless Rage (mostly for fast cast, prone on graze and severe damages vs single foes) could be an alternative, but AoE Daze seems mostly interesting with a party. On a general note, MC are ususally better for long term passive + self buff because of the greater variety they get. So it's no surprise they fit better your playstyle. SC being better for initial impact because of better abilities (sort of "ultimate") and better PL. Even then, SC should get a couple of great passive (retaliation plays this role here). So ultimately it's about how you value. Other stuff : - Probably going to set Abjuration to 2 Zeals for what it worths - Thinking about tweaking Healing Chain to 2m Bounces (so you can better control where it bounces) and buff 10->12 health gain.

I have a doubt how it works vs Fire absorbant foes. Fire Nagas have low Fire armor, so they might end up aborbing Fire instead of taking cold damages. I get why but this is the same question as Cipher buffs. They are somehow intended to be ally only. Note that There are mods that tweak Cipher and it should be easy to do for pal. Just not BPM purpose. Well, their ability adds up for free, dealing about as much damages as Steel Garotte can steal. Also Outworn Buckler works better on them. I think the sicken is nice. Reducing target health with a heavy hitting attack is neat. And it has great synergy with Spirit of Decay and that Void Hełm would grant them +10 acc for FoD. I think it is the strongest subclass with dual wield. 28 health Aoe on top of FoD is neat. I think pal subclasses are okay. They are not upgrades but different abilities (it can't be changed easily, so there will always be botg on the UI, which is an issue if one is strictly better). As Shadow Step for Escape. Different abilities need a drawback so extra cost is appropriate. Their power level can be questioned though (BPM already changed it) : if anything you may point that GLoH or HoL are too weak. BPM GLoH heals about twice as much as LoH, on top of +2 AR and some CON. It is worth the increase. No one complains about LoH being weak so GLoH isn't weak either IMHO. None of the abilities you de scribe here does something as strong as adding a Tier 3 inspiration on a 1 cost ability. That's why they are impossible to compare IMHO. It is Tier 7 but I agree Glorious beacon is indeed rather bad. The issue is that the upgrades are REALLY strong. I already rolled back from a 12s Glorious Beacon cause People complained the +40% damages upgrade was too strong. Upgrade might be tweaked if all other exho get better. I agree for charge upgrade (to 15%). Situational ability to pick. But can't really be better. Providence is a secret buff to Constitution. Sacred Sacrifice had a similar effect on vanilla and no one complained. 3 zeal is a lot, but appropriate for a rez and the wound drawback is still here. Anyway it is meant to be a strong advantage of SC. Not understood? +health what? Indeed, that is why I nerfed it to 1 zeal. Still work, but much less rewarding. I thought about it, but it is impossible to implement. That's why I came with health level. Sure but shining beacon is Will. Better to have different abilities target different defenses. I'll complete laterna about barb.

OK, now I'm turning my attention on Minor Intervention and Light of Eoathas. I've always thought about these ones as situational but useful abilities. However, their unique trait, reducing Hostile effects duration, feels a bit weak. -5s for a Tier 6 and -10s for a Tier 9 feel too low for their levels. I'm thinking about doubling them to -10s for Minor Intervention (basically dispels nasty harcd Crowd Control) and -20s for Light of Eoathas (purge a bit everything including most of Disintigrate). This would feel right. I think the healing value can stay as instant heals are always good even if the value isn't that high. Other topic is Single Class Paladin. Previously, I heavily nerfed Divine Retribution (to +1 Zeal per downed ally instead of 2) because I felt that SC Paladin raw power relied too heavily on spamming summons to have them killed. I lowered a couple of Zeal costs (sacred immolation behind paid on health mostly), but now I feel that they lack a bit of Ooomph. I propose to add a second effect (also Zeal regen) to Divine Retribution so it helps a bit Pals when they are on their own. Currently thinking about a 12s tick that gives x% chance of +1 Zeal, where x is the % of health loss : - an almost dead Paladin would gain almost 1 Zeal every 12s - a 50% health Paladin would gain 1 Zeal every 24s on average. These values seem reasonable and emphasize SC Paladin playing with their own health (with all the self damages and self resurrecting stuff). I'm also thinking about Light of Pure Zeal. The ability feels balanced on its own, but I'm meditating on its role on SC Paladin builds. I think SC Paladins really lack ability to deal non fire damages. I think the ability could use a tweak to become Shock / Cold damages instead of Shock / Burn (it isn't even keyworded, and the damages type feel a bit "magical" at the moment). I'm also wondering about a Tier 9 ability (supposed to be the pinacle of a build) being focused on a couple of enemy types. So what about making the damages universal ? Maybe less damages vs non-spirit non vessel, with current damages vs them, or maybe just get rid of this part for the sake of simplification (also easier to balance if all targets take the same damages ; I feel it is borderline too powerful vs Vessels and Spirits at the moment, especially considering the instant cast and no friendly fire parts). Or there could be some out of the box idea such as LoPZ affecting also Sworn targets (but on a technical side, I think it would affect all Sworn targets, including Sworn by other paladin) in addition to Spirits and Vessels. I like LoPZ being so costly and devastating so I would like at least to keep this aspect.

Cat is actually the lion. But yeah, it is probably the reason but... This bonus is comparable to cat's special in term of power. So it should have been listed. Or those two handed pets could have done damages more two-handedish. All their Attacks are aligned (bar Wolf who deals greater damages). So I'm pretty sure it is an oversight.

Yes I found it by comparing the values on your gamefaqs and @Shai Huludtesting. Something was wrong so I checked the game files, spotted something weird, checked in game and compared the results with gamefile again. Test it for yourself to be sure. As @MaxQuestwants. It will be include in next BPM version. He can pick the file for CP.

Ok, keep me updated. Also if you spot an unpredictable bug, please check if There is an easy work around, such as swapping weapon an additional time. I don't know exactly why Marked Prey didn't work in your context. My plans for next BPM version are implemented and tested. I'm going to wait a couple more days, just in case something else is pointed, but you can expect release soon.

After second thought, that is not what happens. There is no mislabel, the +10 you see is Hunter's claw line inner +10 accuracy (the attack itself is a full attack with +10 accuracy, such as Blinding Strike for example). Where the Marked prey has gone is the real question here. Same here. The +10 Beast claw has gone because you aren't attacking with a +10 acc attack anymore. Again the only question is where the Marked Prey bonus has gone. Which I can't reproduce... Here everything is fine. This is your first attack, you have no charge from Hunter's Claw. So you get the intresic +10, as well as Marked Prey bonus. This is normal behavior. Yep, it's weird but it seems that your Wanderer is the only one to get issues. What it means is beyond me. And since I can't reproduce the issue, it's hard to correct. I'm not saying there's nothing. Tell me if you find some clue. EDIT : OK, I think I have a new thesis. I actually think that Marked Prey on your wanderer is not working at all. What you considered to be a wrong label actually has nothing to do with Marked Prey, since it is the secondary effect of Hunter's Claw line. So you may have never spotted Marked Prey actually working on this character. You just believed you see it with a wrong label. Can you please check with this character, by just starting a battle, casting Marked Prey but no Hunter's Claw and checking the logs ? If Marked Prey does not work, it might be because you haven't acquired it normally by leveling. You might have consoled it to your character for test. But there are a couple of abilities in the game that work very wrong when Consoled : I think all pet passive Talents (including Pet + Ranger passive, and Marked Prey), Resonant Touch and Sworn Enemy. That's because they add passive abilities to your pet instead/in addition to your character, or a combination of active and passive. The console just add one component to your character, hence the trouble. (But there might be another cause for Marked Prey not working).

Basically, I'm suspecting a big mess when several accuracy bonuses are used (possibly conditional ones). Maybe there is a hard coded limit to what the game can manage. It seems that there is a priority rule. The latest effect applied (or refreshed) take the priority, potentially kicking out or messing up another effect (such as the mark). This could explain also why weapon swapping could mess up since weapons have their own acc bonuses. So equipping a new weapon add a new acc modifier, that kicks out Hunter's Claw until refreshed. First step would be to check if stacks and mark are properly applied (as they seem to appear on UI). The count of stacks and display of mark seem right all time. This would confirm the game messes up only with the final accuracy computing. On a funny note, when I have to test something in game, I use a console-summoned dummy drawned zombie that deals basically zero damages. You're probably the only one to test things versus Dorudugan

Excellent testing. Either There is something messed up in the gamedata (such as keyword reused) (EDIT : nothing obvious for the moment). Or the game has hardcoded trouble to manage mixed AllAccuracy Type bonus with conditions and stacking. I'll check later. I would recommand tests with Hunter's fang and some source of damages bonus (maybe that drugs that gives melee damages).

That's weird but I'll check. I quickly looked at gamefiles but I've seen no filter on weapon. That being said, hunter's claw is an active effect, even with infinite duration. So if you have any other active effect applied (arquebus modal??) , it might get replaced. Marked Prey accuracy is actually a Passive effect (conditionned by an active status) so it should stack with everything. Anyone else can confirm the issue? I'm going to check on my own as soon as I can. Mmm basically Multiclass happened. PoE1 style carnage would have led to overpowered combos probably. I tried to revive a bit PoE1 Carnage by adding crits (that synergizes with barb abilities) and ensuring Frenzy effects do apply, but I guess it is still not the same. Indeed Ranger was great in the end of PoE1.

You'll be happy finding Bull's Will available for SC Ciphers then (since MC Ciphers could get it from their other class tree and stack with Iron Will... didn't seem faire). Good point about TLK usual strategy. I'll leave this out of the equation. OK, maybe I haven't explained super well. Shadowed Hunters is a package with : - a 30s max invisibility - a 30s defensive buff - a 60s intuitive that starts only after invisibility. (I'm taking into account base duration to simplify, but using the real duration basically add a multiplicative factor to all durations). Let's say you attack right after a few positionning seconds (not significant). 30s after cast, the defensive part run out, but intuitive is still up. If you want to re-cast SH, when do you do it ? 1) You wait until intuitive runs out. This means your defensive buff won't be up. 2) You re-cast SH, meaning you waste 30s of intuitive. 3) At some point between 1) and 2) Having more Bond, means re-casting SH several times in a single battle more likely. Hence making the SH dilemna more annoying (minor annoyance maybe). It is basically the only buff in the game with these different durations. I made it this way because I wanted to give something strong for the price of 3 Bonds, so I rised Intuitive duration alone a bit artificially. That's why I think having all durations harmonized would be a good thing. (I can keep the Intuitive after invisibility since it is slightly more interesting gameplay wise and adds some flexibility). Now that TLK is out of the equation, I could consider : - a 45s max invisibility - a 45s defensive buff - a 45s intuitive that starts only after invisibility (but is likely to end about the same time as defensive part in most cases). It would feel more or less neutral in term of balance, with still a quite long Intuitive. I could increase healing to 12 hp per 3s tick to round things up. This would be a Robust equivalent you'll get on your road to Intuitive (granted that Bonded Fury provides the Hardy part). I have implemented up to +30% as reviewed by Bosmer. It seems fair. I would still consider +20 all defense better in raw power, but : - the damages bonus synergizes better with the acc bonus for DPS. - it is ideal for any hybrid melee / ranged build. Gather some charges in melee then focus on ranged DPS - bonus damages is a more rare buff than all defenses (which is still somewhat rare). I don't remember a party buff to damages. - bonus damages is relatively more efficient with spells (for MC Ranger / Caster). For weapons, I use the same metric as you : +X% damages bonus = +X/2% multiplicative factor (even less for Rogues). For for spell, it is close from +X% multiplicative (bar MIG and a couple other).

OK, I tried to correct the non scaling items on clones. The bad news is that I failed. Somehow the clones "don't die the same way as you" and the passive bonus that added the scaling gets evaporated even before the clones complete their attack. That's why they don't get the scaling. The good news is that the scaling problem is only about items that trigger their effects on knockdown. Other passive effect scales as for any characters. A bit sad since the KD items would have been very cool on clones.

That isn't false. But at least SC Ranger has a lots of ability point to spend on Ranger side (granted it is... well... their only side). So I would say it is a bit less an issue for SC. For MC, it might be a reason picking Ghost Heart since it requires a couple less talent (can ignore every defense and healing talents) I wouldn't pick Bear Fortitude over Predator's Bond, though. I think most pet talent are rather balanced, usually granting at least twice the benefit of what they would do for an actual character. Nice to hear. That being said I'm considering another change, to Shadowed Hunters. Shadowed Hunters is currently rather balanced on its own, but I see a potential issue and an opportunity : 1) now with more Bond regen, one might want to keep Shadowed Hunters up most of the time, even more than previously. But it feels suboptimal since Intuitive lasts much more than the other effects. Basically, by refreshing the regen/debuff reduction, one waste 30s of Intuitive. So I would like to set Intuitive to 30s too. It is not possible to rise the overall duration of Shadowed Hunters or lower the bond cost. - With 45s base duration and a lots of Intellect, one could reach the critical duration of 90s for Shadowed Hunters. Potion of Enlightenment would allow permanent invisibility. This + Lover's embrace means super slow auto-win. - 30s base duration and 2 Bonds cost would lead to the same consequence. I will probably simplify Shadowed Hunters to set all components to lasts 30s from the cast. The current mechanism where Intuitive only starts after invisibility can be fun, but might have been a bit obscure. 2) If I had to nerf Shadowed Hunters Intuitive, I would obviously have to add another effect (with regular 30s duration) to make it balanced. I was thinking about something defensive to synergize with the healing. Initially, I thought about adding some Deflection (as BPM Shadowing Beyond for Rogue which provides Deflection even after invisbility breaks). But maybe something that is harder to get with party buff would be better. Such as 25-50% Hit to Graze. I'm not set about the value. There would be an obvious synergy with Distracting Training. Could be also another defensive effect. I could also add a bit of healing (12 per tick instead of 10 maybe). I'm not suggesting more to avoid copying too much Savage Defiance. The idea is that SC Ranger could go perma Shadowed Hunters to endure in battle when necessary, sometimes throwing Heal/Hardy Companion in the mix. Thanks to regenerating bond, one could sustain this for quite a while. With Potion of Enligtenment and reasonable Intellect, it would already be half funded. I think it should do the trick of "extra healing for SC ranger" since it would encourage using Shadowed Hunters defensively. Thanks ! Just quote the post as usual, then go to the part you want to add your reply, and type twice on the Return Key. EDIT : Also, hunter's Fang seems a tad weak compared to Beast's Claw. Up +20 all defenses is huge. Up +20% damages... err less. I would probably set Hunter's Fang to up to +30% or +40% damages.

Thank you for desescalating, a break sometimes helps. Just quoting a post from someone else : So there are other people than me that consider Swift a bit redundant for Maia/GH and believe that SC Ranger already has too much healing. Hard to satisfy everyone But for me the statuts quo is ok (Shadowed Hunters would remain the extra SC Ranger heal) provided that Heal Companion is buffed because this one was a bit meh. Especially if SC Ranger gets more Bond, he could heal more than MC. Energized will be implemented on Bonded Fury. For the other 2, refer above. It was not my argument at least me neither. Actually thanks to you I have found a relevant glitch, see below about attack speed. That doesn't explain everything, but that should reduce the gap between our perception. Vastly, the ranger himself is king of accuracy so there's no surprise it comes on top (and you haven't even use Hunter's Claws, which can help vs bosses). That is why I'm comparing the pet to a Rogue, who doesn't have huge accuracy but high damages bonuses. And tenacious I guess. Because without, it would be 12. Well, it IS Pierce / Slash actually. They are all Pierce / Slash. I've checked once again. As I said they have the damages roll lof a Stiletto (actually better : 8-13 vs 8-12), minus 1 PEN but dual type damages. The base and attack speed are actually exactly the same as the stiletto, except for the glitch I found today. I'm not sure how you get so high with ranger. Maybe with unique items and Mythic Upgrade (which are limited). But that's quite expected from a well-equipped DPS build which indeed top a pet. That said, the pet has +50% from Predatory's Sense and +30% from Merciless Companion. That is above what ranger gets. But Ranger has way better accuracy. Indeed. Items and better starting stats are what gives Ranger an edge. Here we are. This is the Issue I just spotted. Some pets count as dual wielding while some other do not, with absolutely zero justifications. They all get 3s base attack recovery, but only Cat, Bear and Wolf counts as dual wielding (Cat gains a speed modifier on top of that). I've checked in game, then checked the game files and they are absolutely aligned with my observations (which makes it easy to correct). Basically Boar, Bird, Antelope and Stag all all gimped. They should get -30% recovery. That's a x1.42 multiplicative DPS factor that is missing on your particular pet DPS !!!!!! I will obviously correct this. Note that Car and Bear Aspects of Galawain (but not wolf) seem to have the same issue. Pet gets Predatory's Sense, Merciless, Marked Prey and (against about half of targets) Survival of the Fittest. That's comparable bonus damages, and only items can grant Rogue similar accuracy. Most of this results from higher stats and items. (and no armor I presume). But without unique items, pet damages are still comparable to a lvl 20 Rogue with DW Legendary Stiletto and Legendary Light Armor. The unique weapons / items do make a big difference though. Indeed. But Dorudugan is extreme and makes many builds suboptimal, because of its immunity to many things including interrupts. That thing is why I plan adding 50% attack speed on Vengeful Grief, granted that the Ranger would still do suboptimal damages with it, but less (counterbalanced by the utility of Heart Seeker making the fight less long, which is enough utility at least with a party). It's unlikely, if you pick the damage talents. But the speed factor glitch lead to this conclusion on a vanilla / current BPM Boar. Yet you seemed to discard the Bond Generation solutions. It is combat utility (especially because Rangers have quite varied abilities) but somehow you didn't like it. That's why you sounded a bit hard to satisfy to me I'm not set on what I'll do. Current plan for Bonded Fury : - 0.5s/0s cast/recovery - 0 bond, 60 cooldown (up more than half of the time). I want to make SC Bond pool more forgiving. - Energized and all other Tier 2 Inspirations - 15% chance of +1 Bond on Hit/Crit But I'm not completely decided. That said, from this point, I would prefer to tweak the values. Yes, I checked it, but seems a hard code bug and I can't correct it. +25% recovery. Basically a bit more than light armor, but the armor doesn't have a "weakness", so it isn't so bad. Basically a generic scaling light armor. Oh and Monastic Unarmed Training for everyone has been implemented and tested. All classes will get it in next version.

Aouch I meant Voiwheel indeed. And you're correct about Voidward

I won't personnaly recommand Helwalker with Zerker on a first run, even for an experience PoE1 Player. Edit : Voidwheel is great because its drawback is self damages, which basically allow for infinite uses of Monk wound abilities. And because it is among the very top DPS weapons with some crits. But maybe Zerker self damages are enough for fueling monk anyway.

I'm pretty sure they do (- 30% recovery). Granted that they also get an armor malus. They don't get the - 15% recovery talent, but their first offemsive talent grants them +15% damages on top of +2 Pen which is pretty much an equivalent of 2 hander talent. Yes, apart Nimble. An attack speed bonus could fit in the bonded fury new premium package Then you have won anyway. The same apply to any melee build. Yes, no denying that Ancient Weapons are among the strongest abilities in vanilla. BPM made other chanter summons closer. I won't pretend pet is on this level, but not having to summon it is great. BPM slighly reduced this by limiting them to 3x per cast. I won't dare comparing pet with chanter summon indeed. Not sure anything can compare in term of brute force. The fact that it is passive and instantly available is still a nice feat, and I will never discard an extra body. My point was that the Animal companion does compare with actual character passive DPS. Funny thing is that SC Ranger does help with that since at least Circle of Death is foe only.

Good point. I might go with a hard Interrupt on Crit + Tenacious to keep the thematic. It would also be slightly better in case of Might affliction. Heal Companion is going to be buffed (12s, with 12s of Hardy + 25% flat damage reduction for Hardy Companion). Play Dead is a full heal and Deadly Surprise applies a debuff. Revive is a rez. So I think the 4 are fine. Shadowed Hunters is powerful but very slow though. And has been the only Ranger self heal. I don't want to remove this option. I think I'm going to go with +50% attack speed with Vengeful Grief. As pointed recently, loosing the pet is really hurting the ranger. The goal is not to make dead pet builds viable, but to make Dead Pet strategy sometimes interesting, such as when keeping it alive is too tedious, when its claws can't penetrate or when hit and run is preferable. Having the ranger penetrating and running better while having their own DPS greatly improved does help this goal. Final note is that pet damages aren't that bad when thinking about it twice. When the +2PEN talent and +15% are picked they basically deal scaling stilettos damages (-1 Pen but dual Type). They have lots of +% damages talent too, so ultimately their damages is close to an endgame rogue with dual generic legendary stilettos. I start to suspect their bad reputation comes partly from their low damage per hit, but they have fast weapons and high PEN type (lowish damages but reliable). Granted they won't hit as hard as a party member with full custom weapons and better stats/build combination.

For Greatsword, the greatest one does self damages (which synergizes well with monks) and big damages spike on crits (which berzekers tend to do better - berzekers synergize greatly with monks). I would go monk/berzekers with high perception and lowish might (to mitigate self damages) and a couple of CON points. But yeah, bring a healer.

Still not too enthusiastic with Swift, but Energized has 2 great advantages : - Goes fairly well with Ranger interrupting theme - Reduces the anti synergy between Bonded Fury and Shadowed Hunters. Aware becomes useless but Intuitive and Energized synergizes which makes using both more neutral. Yeah! It costs 1 Bond. It involved a lot of maths to compare with accurate wounding shot as a benchmark DPS. Accurate wounding shot is still on top with single ranged weapons but isn't instant damages (through stacking with CP) and does not have the utility of double procs. Edit : another option for Bonded Fury would be 0 Bond, 0 recovery but a cooldown (as other signature abilities such as BPM spiritshift and radiance). With either 90s or 120s cooldown. With Energized and maybe 15% Bond or hit. Something like that.

@thelee mmm but if Swift becomes the "main reason" to go SC : - why would Maia herself go SC Ranger? - why would one go SC Ranger instead of Scout or Geomancer Maia (who get the engagement immunity and either better sustained DPS or caster utility)? Note that I have found no arguments against Energized. It remains a valid possibility even if it's not what I'm privilegiating right now.

Shadowed hunters cost bonds. My proposed version of Bonded Fury should generate bonds. This is the difference. Your proposed version of bonded fury would cost Bonds so it won't make sense to add recovery in this case. But I want to do it in another way. The reason why I'm pushing Bond generation is that ranger has a lots of nice Bond costing ability that makes it unique. So I want to reinforce this uniqueness. There could be other ways to buff SC Ranger, but I feel this would be the best. You said SC Ranger is Underpowered. And that my proposition with 30% Bond Regen on Hit is over the top. So there should be a number x between 0 and 30 that would feel balanced. By the way, - Swift on Bonded Fury would make Maia pet less unique. - Ghostheart summon is 30s, so Bonded Fury will always last less if cast right after it. Increase BF duration would be bad for this reason though. PS : I'm writing on a phone from holidays with 2 young children. So I try to Focus on what I feel to be the most important point. It costs me time and a bit of stress to provide answers the best I can. So next time you dismiss a written argument (that @Bosmerseemed to understand by the way) with such a familiar tone as "cuz reasons" be sure you'll be the first in 45 pages of thread that I will have to ignore.