Guild Wars 2

I’ll keep this short.

Proposal: Add a small boost of damage to Read the Wind (I think 5% is fair).

Why make this change: The new Read the Wind trait has a lot of potential, but because the longbow is already a rather low DPS weapon and has many good competing traits in the Marks tree, I believe this new trait will need to do a bit more than just increase projectile speed.

Possible balance concerns: The biggest concern with adding a strait damage increase to a trait like this is, of course, the power creep. However, I think that the opportunity cost of taking this trait is enough of an offset to prevent this from becoming an issue. In other words, if you take this trait, you lose the potential benefit of traits that would otherwise give an equal or greater increase to DPS.

Please feel free to share your (constructive) thoughts. =)

I would have an X% chance to fire a second arrow (using the auto attack stats/damage) per attack (so multiple chances w rapid fire). Would NOT work on barrage.

% chance could be 15%

Still crap considering the trait only affects one of the worst weapon choices for the Ranger profession.

Bombsaway.7198:

I would have an X% chance to fire a second arrow (using the auto attack stats/damage) per attack (so multiple chances w rapid fire). Would NOT work on barrage.

% chance could be 15%

I think this is a good suggestion. Perhaps it should be a chance to fire an arrow faster? (Sort of like quickness, but not quite) Somehow that feels realistic.

Bombsaway.7198:

I would have an X% chance to fire a second arrow (using the auto attack stats/damage) per attack (so multiple chances w rapid fire). Would NOT work on barrage.

% chance could be 15%

I would be ok with this. I think the bottom line is that there needs to be more than just a projectile speed increase to be worthwhile over the other Marks options.

I’d PERSONALLY, rather have a “Your attacks with longbow have a 50% chance to apply Fury on hit.” tacked onto it, obviously slap an ICD on it, that or as you said a 5% damage boost. I feel like it’s a strong trait, but I feel like in PvE it’s absolutely useless, which no trait should be that way in 1/3 or more of the game.

At the very least make it so that our arrows have an increased chance to trigger fields or something…. my god would I cry tears of joy if my Long Range Shot had a 100% projectile finisher (or hell even 50%) from that trait…

This was my suggestion:

“I’m aware the traits are pretty much all but set in stone at this point as you (ANet) have already felt comfortable displaying them on twitch but I would like take a few moments to give my honest first impression feedback on the Ranger ones. I have not played with them at all but I do truly believe the feedback I will be giving in this post is not dependent upon having actually used the new traits or not. I urge, no, I beg you to take another look at these traits after reading this and ask yourself if this is really what you want to do with this profession. Please.

Marksmanship: Read the Wind- Longbow and Harpoon Gun projectile velocity is increased by 100%.
- I think this is a good idea for a trait. Honestly. I was so glad to read something like this. However I feel that this trait is really only aimed at Long Range Shot, a single skill on a single weapon. Not to say it won’t help with the other skills but lets be honest with ourselves, we know why it’s here. I strongly suggest merging this trait with Eagle Eye and increasing the damage gain from 5% to 10%. Why? Because this Grandmaster trait would now compress the some of the over abundance of bow traits available in this tree and provide a more meaningful boost that a Grandmaster trait should provide. What to do with the hole left by Eagle Eye? Keep it but change the functionality to “While wielding a Bow you gain 10% increased Critical chance.” But wait, doesn’t this just create another bow trait and undo that compression? Not if you look at it this way:
-Spotter: Not a strictly a bow trait, less effective in a large group or far away from group(using a bow).
-Piercing Arrows: Large group play bow trait, not needed in small groups or solo.
-Eagle Eye: Solo play skill. Greatly effective with both bows. Less important in large groups.
Why does this change anything? This makes you pick between 3 different situations instead of multiple bonuses effective in the same situation. Often one would take the slot of a Grandmaster trait just to bring the traits desired for a single situation. Yes, it’s still “cluttered” but with different choices for different situations and with the new trait system it will be easy to switch when needed.

Skirmishing: Strider’s Defense – You have a 15% chance to block ranged attacks while in melee.
*This is the absolute worst Grandmaster trait I have ever seen. Sorry to be so blunt about it. How was this even considered? This trait has absolutely no place in a skill based gameplay environment. None. This NEEDS, yes, “Needs” to be changed. You work on changing Sigils and Runes RNG procs to be more reliable then you go and introduce this? Really? I don’t mean to put you on the defensive but I expected more than this. If you need help I will gladly collaborate on this with you because I care deeply for this profession and frankly, it deserves more than….this hypocritical filler.

Wilderness Survival : Poison Master – Poison you apply deals 50% extra damage. Poison your pet’s first attack when they are swapped to.
I actually really liked this trait the first time I saw it. When I sat down and theorycrafted with it however I came to a completely opposite conclusion; I apply poison in so many different ways why do I need my pet to apply it and when I need my pet to apply it chances are I am not running conditions meaning the 50% damage on it is pretty much neglected or I’m not even bothering to spec into this trait line. Either way I’m losing a lot of effectiveness this trait might provide.

Nature Magic: Survival of the fittest – Remove two conditions and gain fury when using a survival skill.
One of the problems we have as Rangers is the sheer investments demanded of us for the most basic of condition removal. This just further exacerbates existing problems. A cool trait, yes. What we actually needed? No. I hope this isn’t the only condition removal help we are getting.

Beast Mastery: Invigorating Bond- Your pet heals in an area when executing command abilities (i.e. your F2 skill now heals in an area)
I love this idea. I hope the heal is decent. This could really help with the pet utility in large group play. My only problem is how limited the uses will be with how fast pets die in large groups and the huge recharge associated with pet swapping.

I have more to say but I’ll stop myself here. Sorry this post got much longer than I wanted. I gtg now, my fiance is giving me a death stare."

i havent play GW2 in a while and with this coming ranger changes (so far) i dont seem to be playing for even longer, Rangers are just bad deal with it. Dark Souls is coming, that is all im looking forward in april

This trait should be baseline. A GM trait yo make arrows work? It’s really unjust with an already poorly designed weapon.

Unfortunately Read the Wind is going to have to replace either Eagle Eye or Piercing Arrows in a pure Longbow build, since you can’t have all 3. Or replace Spotter or Signet of the Beastmaster or Remorseless in slightly different Longbow builds.

If it makes the hit-chance almost 100%, it could be worth the trade-off, but it’s really sad that there needs to be a trade-off for it at all. There will be 6 useful Longbow traits in the Marksmanship line, but only 2 slots to put them in.

Meanwhile, for a Longbow build it’s a struggle to pick useful traits in other lines (Apart from the 1 trait Quick Draw in Skirmishing).

The real fix should be in spreading the traits, or allowing traits from one line to be used in another, rather than increasing the competition even more on these 2 Marksmanship slots.

It has to replace Signets of the Beastmaster.

It’s a GM trait, not just a master.

DeceiverX.8361:

It has to replace Signets of the Beastmaster.

It’s a GM trait, not just a master.

Which means you have to give up active signet effects applying to the character as well as either Piercing Arrows or Eagle Eye. You can have fast arrows, long range arrows, or arrows that can hit more than one person — pick 2 and forget about Spotter and Signet of the Beastmaster. As discussed elsewhere, the solution is to combine Piercing Arrows and Eagle Eye, move Spotter down to Adept, or maybe move Piercing Arrows over to Skirmishing (preferably combined with Quickdraw).

it merging piercing arrows or eagle eye with read the wind as GM would make interesting.
flying longer or harder that they pierce the foe would still make sense.
so LB builds would get stronger and the problem with “which traits should i use” is lowered.