I love unfogging all the maps super fast. I found my favorite points to start from on each map and send a alt there to swoop the whole thing in a few minutes.
I went ahead and collected all the new Ranger pets tonight. Out of all the new specs, I think Soulbest is my favorite because it offers the most improvement to Ranger's fighting ability. Base Ranger's utilities were never that great for offense, and I really like some of these stances you get. Beast mode adds a nice touch offering new and useful F1-3 abilities the class never has had since the pet occupied that area. The Jacaranda is great for beast mode because it gives ranger a second heal much like Guardian's F2. Outside of beastmode tho, the little tree monster is a bit too aggressive. Holy cow, it chases things down way far off putting me into combat undesirably. I don't know if its a bug just for it, but it seems to want to just fight non stop.
There is no reason not to be DD still. I took my thief into Crystal Oasis and ROTFLstomped every forged raiding party I found in seconds, and then melted some Vet Hydras like jokes. Sometimes those Forged Assemblers can do some damage with those spinning blade attacks, but my DD never even gave them a chance to perform it. The Hydra barely could get off one meteor strike attempt before its heads went flying off. With no pocket raptors to mow me down when I'm not paying attention, PoF enemies can't touch me on this character. I may have gone down once, but instantly rallied because everything was almost dead already when it happened. I mean Staff DD does more damage spamming 1, while spamming 5 off initiative regen, than 2 DH traps, and the GS4-2 combo. So much DPS.