Guild Wars 2

I am a returning player having been gone a year and a half.

Since returning, i have revisited all my toons, and i have a 80 of every class except thief (just dont like the playstyle) and have noticed something troubling, which i will explain in a second.

I play elementalist for wvw as support staff healer… but in my down time my wife suggested that i roll a ranger for silverwastes events.

Now here in lies the problem.

I loved my mesmer.. it was my first toon and i like the idea of the clones etc, but when playing in silver wastes, it takes him a full minute or more to down any mob (non elite etc.. just the random mobs)

My ranger however can use the longbow #2 skill and down any random mob in about 5 seconds (about how long it takes the skill to channel)

I tried some experiments with mesmer and gs damage scales when using mind wrack and on some mobs i can get up to 40,000 damage or higher before im forced to move thus resetting the tick. Yet with ranger i can get up to 24,000 damage on one skill and it almost downs the mob.

My question is… why does mesmer channeled dps stack (the numbers add up but the damage is still just 300 per tick) when #2 ranger longbow skill actually does the damage that it claims to on the skill per tick.

Is there a bug? Are my toons bugged??

I have tried this also with several other toons… especially my elementalist and the result is always the same.. my ranger FAR out dps’s any of my toons with just 1 skill.

I am not the only one to notice this either…

When doing events in siverwastes.. all i see are rangers, a few warriors, an occasional thief or even a mesmer trying to save the pack bull for example.. i run in, blow everything up with my #2 skill and #5 for tags, then they stand there looking at me like OMG… you killed everything!!

I know that mesmers are invaluable in WVW for portals and invis or veils… but come on… where is thier damage? What happened? What did i miss that made rangers GODS!???

oh almost forgot.. i have experimented with necro also.. only class that comes close to ranger in dps with DS on.. but still no where near 24k and 1 shotting mobs. I have also tried all weapon variations, skill trait lines, sigils and runes.. and ranger #2 skill still blows all of them out of the water.. 1 shot a kill.. or be forced to play another classs that takes 1 to 2 mins to kill something.. seriously…

Ranger damage at range is a bit intense atm. However, SW tagging isn’t as problematic because none of the mobs in the events actually have drops.

yes im aware of that.. but when my ranger can stand at range and down a champ solo… and my other toons get killed almost instantly and do very little dps.. im kind of wondering if i am bugged or if that’s just the way the game is now. If i am bugged.. i have been since i came back and my toon hit 80.. ranger demolishes everything in SW and almost never dies.. while every other classs that is forced to stand within the 600 to 1200 range takes a beating. ONE SINGLE CLASS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SOLO CHAMPS!!

look around in SWs almost ALL the toons there are rangers… the ones that are actually killing stuff fast. The rest are just people running through getting tags because they cant kill anything.

Hopefully, Anet will look into it. Either that or you’re a ranger super-amadeus.

if anyone has questions or wants to see what im talking about.. msg me in game

Ranger’s longbow 2 git buffed so the cast time came from 4ish seconds to 2ish seconds. Maybe thats what you’re looking for.
And also, ele kills stuff faster than ranger with more AoE, and necros dont even come close, not sure why you would say necros have high damage o.0

It’s not nearly as bad as you say, for two reasons. One, bear in mind that the damage does not accumulate on Rapid. So when you see those numbers that go 3000, 6000, 9000, 1200, you’ve actually only done 12,000, not 30,000. When you take into account that the skill takes 2 1/2 seconds to get to its highest damage, that damage really isn’t as bad as people seem to think. In fact it’s only a little better than the #1 skill, but it does apply vulnerability and isn’t dependent on distance, which is nice because mobs rarely like to stay far enough to get the full damage out of skill #1.

In my experience on a full zerker Ranger with ascended everything, I average between 10,000 and 15,000 on skill #2. That works out to be between 4000 and 6000 dps for a short burst with a ten second recharge, which isn’t game breaking. Skill #1 averages (assuming the best circumstances) around 3,000 dps, so not a huge difference unless you get lucky. Now bear in mind that can significantly change if you use piercing, which every Ranger should be, and you learn how to line up your shots correctly. Then every shot has the potential to hit two or three targets at once, which then will put your dps much higher, but that’s a separate issue (and ideal conditions are not consistent enough to really worry about it being overpowered).

Also a mesmer Gs has a Never ending Auto it will consitantly rack up big numbers since the chain does not reset so you could keep going forever to get 10000000k ect.

also some mobs in Silver wastes like the threshers hitting and shooting them in back leads to higher damage and the numbers can reach easly into the 17-24k’s on channeled attacks on Rangers Burst skill. key word Burst/spike attack not Auto.

this is just how Ranger does its damage compaired to one hit high numbers of warroirs or multi high damage shatters.

unfortunatly AA attacks like Gs mesmer auto / engi flame thrower will keep tally and only reset if you stop auto attacking, so it looks like 30k damage when in reality its more like 3k per Gs channel so in 2.5secs for a gs mesmer Auto> 6.5k-7.5k not including other damage sources if you do shatter or use a Phantasm your going to hit 8-10 maybe 12k in those 2.5secs even more if you hit a thresher from behind.

main most important to take from this is " unfortunatly AA attacks like Gs mesmer auto / engi flame thrower will keep tally and only reset if you stop auto attacking " because AA channel attacks with no cooldown never end.

trueanimus.4085:

ONE SINGLE CLASS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SOLO CHAMPS!!

Every class is capable of this.

Perhaps you’re not quite the mesmer you thought you were ?

Hmm I dunno I solo champs pretty easily on my Mesmer? Just don’t use GS attacks, use a staff for kiting. Have to learn to use other weapons beyond the laser beam

I took off for 2 years. When I left, I just had managed to put together a tanky ranger build for dungeons that was actually performing very well, all while the forums were full of people saying the ranger class was hopeless, the devs secretly hated the actor who played Aragorn in Lord of the Rings so were punishing all ranger players, ranger toons needed to be deleted or people with them ought to lose their accounts for being that bad, and all the usual forum sillyness…

Now… is it time for Turnabout and we’re all supposed to bring rangers while everyone else has to delete their toons?

Or are we still just in the land of anecdotes != evidence?

My ranger build BTW, still does great in dungeons, but… rangers can use bows?

If you were to ask me and I were to answer based on biased anecdotes… the only class that “sucks” right now is elementalist… But then again, if I were to answer based on thinking: I would just say that I forgot how to use my elementalist properly…

I can do big numbers too.

I have an 80 of each class too. And the only class I’m having DPS issues with, is the engineer. Jack of all trades, master of none. The mesmer does just fine when specced right.

Keep in mind, a ranger is a party of two. A smart ranger, who uses the right pet in the right combination of traits and the like, can do some amazing things.

A pet also guarantees some safety. A longbow increases your chances of living through a battle because of range. This combination, more than anything, allows players to pick and choose their tactics better.

In other words, a ranger is more likely to live if the target is beating on the pet.

Rangers aren’t gods, but players have realized that life is easier when a pet takes the hits instead of them.

If you look at the new traits, projectile reflection is becoming far more easily available than it was before. Given that their major edge is in physical ranged weapons, that should end up being an indirect nerf to them.

ok.. people seem to be missing the point so let me rephrase my statement…

My ranger can 1 shot a regular mob with #2 skill in 5 seconds…

This is not the same as the stacking damage from mesmer sword for example..

This is not “burst” damage with all signets popped.

This is a single shot that will down almost any regular mob before my pet even gets to it.

Now.. as for mesmers.. to get any high numbers.. you have to channel GS 1 skill.. and even on a regular mob, you can reach 10,000 damage.. but it takes FOREVER to kill the mob that way.

The damage is not the same, yet Anet claims that all classes are capable of the same dps/tank/heal roles and should be equal.

Someone said that it is stacking damage… if that is so, they both should be downing the mob with just the mesmer a few seconds longer for the inital build up of mind wrack.

This is not the case.

Even warrior GS skill 2 or whatever it is wont down a mob that fast.

Anet said that when they “fixed” mesmers they would retain thier damage.. this is clearly not the case and after a year and a half i thought something would have been done to level the playing field.

trueanimus.4085:

ok.. people seem to be missing the point so let me rephrase my statement…

My ranger can 1 shot a regular mob with #2 skill in 5 seconds…

This is not the same as the stacking damage from mesmer sword for example..

This is not “burst” damage with all signets popped.

This is a single shot that will down almost any regular mob before my pet even gets to it.

Now.. as for mesmers.. to get any high numbers.. you have to channel GS 1 skill.. and even on a regular mob, you can reach 10,000 damage.. but it takes FOREVER to kill the mob that way.

The damage is not the same, yet Anet claims that all classes are capable of the same dps/tank/heal roles and should be equal.

Someone said that it is stacking damage… if that is so, they both should be downing the mob with just the mesmer a few seconds longer for the inital build up of mind wrack.

This is not the case.

Even warrior GS skill 2 or whatever it is wont down a mob that fast.

Anet said that when they “fixed” mesmers they would retain thier damage.. this is clearly not the case and after a year and a half i thought something would have been done to level the playing field.

You DO realize that most of your damage on a mesmer comes from your phantasms, right?

Also, you really should try a thief sometimes if you think a ranger kills fast…

trueanimus.4085:

Now.. as for mesmers.. to get any high numbers.. you have to channel GS 1 skill.. and even on a regular mob, you can reach 10,000 damage.. but it takes FOREVER to kill the mob that way.

So many words typed, so much time spent, and the OP still fails to realize that mesmer GS auto damage floater is bugged (as it is for many frequent auto skills).

If you do 10000 damage on GS auto over 10 seconds, it means you’ve been doing 1000, 1000, 1000… damage per second. And not 1000, 2000, 3000… 9000, 10000 per second.

And if you’re getting 5000 damage on a Rapid Fire in 2 seconds, unsurprisingly, it means you dealt 2500 damage per second.

Lishtenbird.2814:

So many words typed, so much time spent, and the OP still fails to realize that mesmer GS auto damage floater is bugged (as it is for many frequent auto skills).

If you do 10000 damage on GS auto over 10 seconds, it means you’ve been doing 1000, 1000, 1000… damage per second. And not 1000, 2000, 3000… 9000, 10000 per second.

And if you’re getting 5000 damage on a Rapid Fire in 2 seconds, unsurprisingly, it means you dealt 2500 damage per second.

I think you’re the one that is confused. The op is complaining that it takes too long for a mesmer to deal 10,000 damage, when compared to ranger. Not what you are trying to say.

rainpool.7189:

Lishtenbird.2814:

So many words typed, so much time spent, and the OP still fails to realize that mesmer GS auto damage floater is bugged (as it is for many frequent auto skills).

If you do 10000 damage on GS auto over 10 seconds, it means you’ve been doing 1000, 1000, 1000… damage per second. And not 1000, 2000, 3000… 9000, 10000 per second.

And if you’re getting 5000 damage on a Rapid Fire in 2 seconds, unsurprisingly, it means you dealt 2500 damage per second.

I think you’re the one that is confused. The op is complaining that it takes too long for a mesmer to deal 10,000 damage, when compared to ranger. Not what you are trying to say.

Look here:

trueanimus.4085:

I tried some experiments with mesmer and gs damage scales when using mind wrack and on some mobs i can get up to 40,000 damage or higher before im forced to move thus resetting the tick. Yet with ranger i can get up to 24,000 damage on one skill and it almost downs the mob.

My question is… why does mesmer channeled dps stack (the numbers add up but the damage is still just 300 per tick) when #2 ranger longbow skill actually does the damage that it claims to on the skill per tick.

There are multiple things I do not understand in OP’s post and they do not actually make sense. Most likely it’s just total confusion over different mechanics of the game, flavoured with a floater bug.

Maybe you shouldn’t compare classes when you’re not even playing them properly.

Ignoring everything else (gear, traits, utilities, etc.), I’ll just go ahead and say your mesmer can do just as much if not more damage than the ranger. Use Greatsword 4, the healing signet to reset your phantasm cooldowns, use it again, Greatsword 3 and 2 and the trashmob should be pretty much dead.
Of course it’s a lot easier to just spam Longbow 2 on the ranger, but there’s a reason Mesmer DPS in PvE is really just meh most of the time (hint: it’s because Mesmers need their Phantasms to do deal decent damage and they either die, take forever to be deployed and / or the battle is over too quickly to get them all out).

Secondly, as it was pointed out multiple times, the Mesmer Greatsword auto damage display is bugged, such as the Engi Flamethrower auto, letting the numbers go higher, but that’s just total damage, not damage per second, so it’s actually pretty low.

But all of that was laid out, so I don’t know what’s not to get.

Lastly, Ranger damage is decent at range but overall not great. As it was also pointed out, Elementalist outclasses Ranger damage at range, even though max range is ~1200 and not ~1500.

If your problem is dying to the SW mobs then, and that’s a neutral statement here, you should learn to play your class or check your build. It will always be easier on Ranger due to max range and pets, but as it was pointed out, every class can solo a champion. Some better than others.

Lastly, it’s true that any class can deal out decent damage (not that it matters much in open world PVE anyway). Just use the right gear and learn to dodge / interrupt enemies.

rainpool.7189:

Ranger’s longbow 2 git buffed so the cast time came from 4ish seconds to 2ish seconds. Maybe thats what you’re looking for.
And also, ele kills stuff faster than ranger with more AoE, and necros dont even come close, not sure why you would say necros have high damage o.0

My necro can trash mobs in seconds with d/d and wells. People can say what they want about necro dps, it’s always seemed to be pretty good IMO.

3k hrs as Ranger: To the OP, Rangers are maybe 4th on the current class DPS list, but they still have the stigma of no one really wanting them in dungeons, as well as necros. Ele’s are tops for DPS currently, and can solo champs quite quickly. Sure, rangers have great single mob burst damage with the #2 LB skill, preceded by #5, followed up with sword. but we really lack on multiple mob damage . And like Sourde Noir said, every class can solo Champs, some will take longer and many can do it better.

trueanimus.4085:

ok.. people seem to be missing the point so let me rephrase my statement…

My ranger can 1 shot a regular mob with #2 skill in 5 seconds…

This is not the same as the stacking damage from mesmer sword for example..

This is not “burst” damage with all signets popped.

This is a single shot that will down almost any regular mob before my pet even gets to it.

Now.. as for mesmers.. to get any high numbers.. you have to channel GS 1 skill.. and even on a regular mob, you can reach 10,000 damage.. but it takes FOREVER to kill the mob that way.

The damage is not the same, yet Anet claims that all classes are capable of the same dps/tank/heal roles and should be equal.

Someone said that it is stacking damage… if that is so, they both should be downing the mob with just the mesmer a few seconds longer for the inital build up of mind wrack.

This is not the case.

Even warrior GS skill 2 or whatever it is wont down a mob that fast.

Anet said that when they “fixed” mesmers they would retain thier damage.. this is clearly not the case and after a year and a half i thought something would have been done to level the playing field.

May I introduce you to :

http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/13274266-mesmerino-dpserino-no-copypastarino

Mesmer are primarily a utility class (with medium to low damage), ranger a damage class (with almost no group utility). Comparing the 2 is like comparing apples to Orange juice. They have very little in common, except maybe that they both taste good.

BIGHARSHNESS.3510:

rainpool.7189:

Ranger’s longbow 2 git buffed so the cast time came from 4ish seconds to 2ish seconds. Maybe thats what you’re looking for.
And also, ele kills stuff faster than ranger with more AoE, and necros dont even come close, not sure why you would say necros have high damage o.0

My necro can trash mobs in seconds with d/d and wells. People can say what they want about necro dps, it’s always seemed to be pretty good IMO.

It’s unfortunate that few people realize necro’s do good damage. But the reason they are avoided is due to the fact that they have near no group support and big parts of their damage is over time. Why bring a necro who might not be able to do his full damage when a Warrior or Thief can do the same amount of damage instantly with group utility.

I play my ranger out in SW a lot, but I don’t seem to notice that much of a difference in mob slaying between it and say…my ele. I also do pretty decently on my warrior (except when I’m facing off with more than 2 teragriffs). My necro holds her own pretty well too, though she isn’t quite as fast (she’s not insanely slow either). The only class I tend to have an issue on is my mesmer sadly, so she doesn’t see much play out there.

shrug

BIGHARSHNESS.3510:

rainpool.7189:

Ranger’s longbow 2 git buffed so the cast time came from 4ish seconds to 2ish seconds. Maybe thats what you’re looking for.
And also, ele kills stuff faster than ranger with more AoE, and necros dont even come close, not sure why you would say necros have high damage o.0

My necro can trash mobs in seconds with d/d and wells. People can say what they want about necro dps, it’s always seemed to be pretty good IMO.

D/D necro DPS is mid-tier in PvE and on the high end in PvP and WvW.. A lot of necro QQ about the damage comes from condi staff players.

@OP: Sorry, but your Rapid Fire is not dealing 24k. Please, screenshot it. I’d love to know your build. Unless you’re Morellow + RaO/might-stacking with scholar runes, boosters, and getting real lucky on the crits, you’re simply not hitting for that much damage. At that point, however, anything will hit that high.

The mesmer will offer better burst damage by a very large margin, again, by build. You’re not going to kill a mob every 8s because shatter won’t be available, but the mesmer strictly has better damage coefficients on MW.

Also, D/D thief kills trash around 3x faster than any ranger build in existence, and eles kitted out properly melt bosses and balled trash mobs faster than anything else in the game.

All they changed on the ranger was Rapid Fire’s casting duration. It was compressed to deal the damage quicker, as before the change, it used to channel so slowly that the auto attack dealt better DPS. Otherwise, nothing has changed. It’s why the longbow is still considered a bad DPS weapon (MUCH lower than sword/axe). The damage itself on RF was not increased.