Region (NA/EU): NA

Details: At her core, Awakening Ranger has always had limited capabilities. She requires CCs as a result of having no passive damage ability, she cannot deal damage when anyone is around her due to being unprotected, she cannot apply pressure due to having no movement or stamina, and she cannot linger in fights due to having no sustainability, the lowest health pool in the game, and extremely weak Super Armor. This has been the problem with her kit from the very beginning, and yet she has only received nerfs since I first picked her up around three or four years ago. 

Now, I agree that classes should have shortcomings. However, it truly feels like a case of "rules for thee but not for me." In this sense, it has always simply been rules for Awakening Ranger. One instance noted is how most classes now have the capacity to regenerate stamina while moving. We've lost all of our abilities for regenerating stamina except for Extreme Charging Wind (a split second frontal guard that flows out of our movement skills to swap us to preawakening), Wind Explosion Shot (a 20 second cooldown Super Armor rabam with an incredibly outdated hitbox, causing us to get grabbed from 20 feet away), Waltz of the Wind (unprotected unless using Super Armor core, does not move us very far, unprotected in the beginning if using Super Armor core and subject to hit stutter), and C-Swapping to Awakening for a quick forward guard. As of this most recent Global Labs, however, we will no longer be able to flow into Extreme Charging Wind to regenerate stamina, leaving us with only three insignificant methods for stamina. We aren't even allowed to test this change on Global Labs. How unfair is that? In the same patch (correct me if I misinterpreted this), Ninja can now regain stamina in a protected movement skill. So can many other classes. At this point, our shortcomings have made the game unplayable because no other class has as many shortcomings as us. 

Our kit has been butchered so terribly, we cannot properly control our movement due to camera lock on our movement skills. Mouse movement was the only way that we could somewhat control it, and it was removed. We additionally lost an entire movement chain as a result of Rushing Wind being locked behind Breezy Blade. Who received compensation? Not Awakening Ranger! Our kit has also always been centered around our grab. We quite literally are useless without it because we do not possess any ability to deal passive damage. We must land a CC to be able to damage people, and even then we need to be safe in order to do so as a result of our lack of protected damage skills. Now, with the grab change, people can walk up to us unpunished because we are unable to CC them. We even lost our stiffen on Evasive Explosive Shot, which was used to punish people for trying to grab us. Who received compensation? Not Awakening Ranger! We can't even try to deal passive damage because we have no movement thanks to our stamina, and we die in Super Armor when we try. The class is a literal rug. 

It's hard not to believe that the developers want all Awakening Ranger mains to quit the game. If you want to prove me wrong, take my suggestions:

HOW TO FIX AWAKENING RANGER:

1. Revert the change for Evasive Landing Shot from August 8, 2025 Global Labs. The Extreme Charging Wind flow is necessary and we cannot be forced to rely on a skill with a longer cooldown length. We never had problems using Evasive Landing Shot before, so we should not be losing access to another skill we previously had access to for it. I also find the two different inputs to be very convoluted and the reliance on it, rather than the ability to sit still in a Frontal Guard for a second to block damage instead, results in unnecessary repositioning.

2. Undo the Breezy Blade and Rushing Wind changes. Allow Rushing Wind to be activated independently from Breezy Blade, and do not camera lock the skills. The locking of Rushing Wind has resulted in less versatility for our movement and changed the class from comfortable and flowing to very rigid. 

3. Return the Stiffen on Evasive Explosive Shot. It is extremely small and only serves defensive purposes. This would not increase offensive ability.

4. Allow us to cancel the fail animation on our grab. Our grab is necessary for our kit, we have no passive damage. THIS IS NECESSARY FOR THE CLASS'S VIABILITY. We are completely built around our grab, it is not fair to force us to avoid using it. This has made the game incredibly unenjoyable.

5. Allow us to regenerate stamina in Rushing Wind. It would require us to sit still in Super Armor, therefore also creating an opportunity for enemies to pressure us, but still giving us the chance to actually play and enjoy the game. 

6. Reduce the stamina cost of Breezy Blade and Wind Step. We require more stamina than Lahn for a tenth of the movement, it's unplayable. Again, it's so unfun to be forced to S block because we have no stamina. 

7. Increase the travel distance of Rushing Wind by 20%, increase the travel distance of Waltz of Wind by 40% when used through inputs (leave it stationary when used from the hotbar for the purpose of combo damage), and increase the travel distance of Wind Step by 15% to allow us to have some mobility. This puts less strain on our stamina bar overall.

8. Increase the damage of Guardian Wind and make it Frontal Guard. This provides a little bit of passive damage ability and the skill itself is a long uncancellable animation allowing enemies an opportunity to punish Awakening Ranger.

9. Add +25 Ranged AP on Guardian (our E-buff) since all other classes of our nature have an offense E-buff and +1000 HP recovery for sustainability. At the moment, our E-buff is only used for regrouping. It's disappointing.

10. Reduce the stamina cost of Vine Knot or make it cost MP. If you're going to allow us to regenerate stamina on it, let it be a net positive. It would additionally create an opportunity for enemies to punish us since we sit still in the skill. Without allowing us to gain stamina from this skill, the change has no positive impact on the class.

IF YOU TRULY CARE ABOUT OUR CLASS, THIS IS HOW TO FIX IT. 

Please note that I also kept balance in mind when creating this list. I do not want to become an overpowered class, I simply want to be able to play the game like everybody else on the class that I enjoy.

If you continue to disregard what we say, you might as well just delete our class from the game. Why only listen to Flavor of the Month mains and not your dedicated playerbase?

If you will not revert changes done to the class:

1. Consider making Vine Knot have travel distance. If you do not want to revert the Breezy Blade and Rushing Wind changes, please give us an alternative movement skill since we lost an entire movement chain as a result of those changes.

2. Consider creating an RMB flow out of Winds of Prairie, Waltz of Wind, and Spirit's Haven for a new movement skill, same reasoning above. 

3. Make Core: Waltz of Wind a default for the Waltz of Wind skill so we can actually have choices with which Core skill we would like to use. Consider replacing it with Core: Regeneration or Core: Wind Blade to make it Super Armor.

4. Reduce the unprotected gap on our grab. We rely on our grab's utility. At the moment, our grab feels like something that's a last resort. It's not something we actively use, despite it supposedly being the redeeming trait of our class, because we can't use it in 90% of situations now. 

Please note that the changes in this section will likely NOT be enough to fix the class. You should still consider the changes listed in the previous section. 

QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES:

1. Consider making our hitboxes dynamic in our skills like the new classes. It feels like our hitboxes are not synced with the animations, as in they don't move until the end of the animation unlike new classes. I find myself getting grabbed despite my animations showing me far away from the person grabbing me, and I know that it isn't my ping because I have tried newer classes as well. It may also fix the hit stutter we are subjected to. 

2. Consider making our protections flow better. We have a lot of micro gaps on skills like Waltz of the Wind and Spirit's Haven as a result of how old our class is as well as the constant direction changes from our inconsistent movement, causing us to get CC'd when we should not be. I truly do think that if our protections functioned as intended, it would make the game feel 50% better.

3. Make Rushing Wind follow our camera. In its current state, it makes the class feel uncontrollable. 

EDIT: A lot of people who do not play the class seem to think this is simply an issue of Awakening Ranger mains not adapting to changes in our combos. This is incorrect, as you can see I have listed all the perpetually worsening issues with the class above and why fixes are necessary for the health of the class. There's a reason why the population of people maining Awakening Ranger has declined so much over the years. 

PEARL ABYSS, PLEASE IMPLEMENT THE CHANGES ABOVE BEFORE ENDING THIS ROUND OF CLASS BALANCE. IT IS NOT FAIR TO LEAVE US IN A DESOLATE STATE, SOMEHOW WORSE THAN WE WERE WHEN WE WERE SIMPLY JUST NEGLECTED. 

It's not fair that we have been nerfed to the point where you can't even recognize what our class's identity was. I want to have fun when I play this game. Every time I log into the game, I am so incredibly disappointed by how far we've fallen, and I miss how much fun I used to have.

the biggest ranger buff last year was pa not touching the class

LOL True 

The funniest thing is that players still complaning about Ranger even if she is a dead class 

I really is true too like people will take the time to learn how to fight all the other classes but AWK ranger nah to unskilled to figure out how to fight us I guess before. but now in the state that were in litterally all they have to do is just off screen gapclose us and thats it they win. or block jump when we stop dancing in "protections" or we run out of stam because unlike Sorc who litterally has it easy af now after the grab nerfs  we cant just infinitely iframe. The fact sorc can is still crazy AF to me dancing in a crowd of like 30 people just iframing never being unprotected is insane ya most classes can just ignore the sorc now due to them not being to chase that much but were a class that litterally cant because we are slower then what should be the slowest class in the game in my eyes......

the logic makes zero sense with how balance is right now  we have unkillable tanks, borderline uncatchable off screen warping classes, and we have Weak grabs unable to even stop them now.......    at this point the solution is either slow down the warping classes or reintroduce the stacking slows we use to have so we can actually catch them! or buff the classes that litterally cant play the game in this terrible META game they have created.

The State of PVP is very bad and for some reason a primarly melee damage frontal guard ranged CC fishing  support class is the one taking the biggest blows the logic just makes zero sense!

The Devs could litterally revert us before the rushing wind force with breezy patch and we would still be sub par overall but at least playable!!!

nerf awak ranger wth

some classes have dev privilege, its that simple

L troll

At worst, other classes are just neglected. We, on the other hand, aren't even allowed to test our own changes and have repeatedly had our kit destroyed by PA. It's beyond favoritism, it's a matter of the developers legitimately hating our community and trying to force us to reroll. I'm honestly expecting PA to just hand all Awakening Rangers a free character slot and equilibrium scroll at this rate. 

and just as expected, developers went through with this awful patch changing Evasive Landing Shot / Extreme Charging Wind flow and FORGOT TO MAKE IT ACTIVATE EXTREME CHARGING WIND IF EVASIVE LANDING SHOT IS ON COOLDOWN. 

Someone PLEASE prove to me that Pearl Abyss DOESN'T hate Awakening Ranger. I have NEVER seen this level of bias in ANY GAME I've ever played.