Guild Wars 2

I’m a Guardian.

If I use binding blade on 5 targets and draw them into a field then please don’t knock them all over the place.

It’s inconvenient for everyone and annoying as hell.

If things are grouped up they are easier to kill.

Thank you.

You are just jealous of classes like the ranger who do optimal damage by sticking to their longbow from a distance and cycling through all their skills, including point blank shot.

Oh Wait… Nvm, listen to this Templar, he seems to be on to something.

Same for Rangers and Engineers knocking enemies away when I’m about to Backstab or 100b.

The players that do that are likely the players that don’t read the forums, so if it is truly annoying you, type something in say chat when it occurs or whisper the player(s).

They can’t be banned for it, but if you explain to them exactly why pulling the mobs into the field is useful, then they will likely learn something and not do it as often.

For every stack of AoEs, there’s a chucklehead to knock mobs out of it.

I always let the knockbackers know in game just how they are affecting play in a negative way during a group event. Usually they change their play style, except for the few griefers that do it on purpose. BTW my main is a ranger and their are times to use it and it doesn’t affect others damage/attact.

As an engie in SW I knock back teragriffs and leechers to interrupt their abilities, as well as husk slingers to get their attacks out of range of the fort walls.

Other than that, yeah I don’t use knockbacks when a friendly melee is whacking enemy mobs. It’s just not good form imo.

liberal use of Big Ol’ Bomb/Air Blast and especially PB Shot are just brutal.

in the early days of the game, Banish was a problem too….but you just don’t see many hammer guardians in open world evens for it to matter now.

Right but you need to remember sometimes people can’t help it. When you level this this big AoE knockback effect so anyone in the dog pile that levels…BAM!

indeed while im trying to maintain targets on symbol on gs, some necro will fear them or ranger kb them…hate that on spvp…

Bring sanctuary and cast it behind the target, but u might loose some precious time by doing it.

I was hoping that the PSA was simply, “Please don’t.”

I cast Meteor to destroy the ground. Who needs enemies?

scorekeeper.6524:

As an engie in SW I knock back teragriffs and leechers to interrupt their abilities,

Yeah, blame Anet for not giving those classes interrupts which don’t move the target. Also the thrashers – when they start summoning those tendrils where you’re standing, you can stop that with an interrupt.

A group of 15 of us on an elite/vet… it’s ok, it’s not dangerous. No one’s going to die… I’m about to pop my 100 blades when a wild ranger knockback appears!

fifteen. Fifteen. FIFTEEN OF US. WE ARE OKAY. NO ONE’S GONNA DIE. WE GOT THIS… UNTIL SOME WOOPTY-DOO NO BRAIN KNOCK BACK COMES OUT OF NO WHERE.

• Why? Why? Why?
• We had consistent DPS
• I wasted something I could’ve added to the table because of someone else’s brainless action

It’s annoying and wastes everyone’s time. Please think before you press that button, or better still, don’t press it at all ever unless something major needs to be inturrupted or it’s actually coming towards YOU and YOU NEED to make distance.

PB Shot is a skill with several applications, not the least of which is moving the target back to a range where LB1 does more damage. So, I shale my head at the LB Rangers who use it, then run forward into melee range of the target and continue plinking away with LB1.

I have had my AoE or melee attacks thwarted once by a guardian with a hammer, once by a necro using fear, never by an engi bomb, and countless times by a ranger with a longbow. It’s gotten to the point where if I see a ranger coming in my direction, I head in some other direction. Even when I’m playing on my ranger and even if I’m in the middle of an event. (My ranger mostly prefers shortbow and axe/torch, so a knockback will likely mean I have to chase after the baddie to get back in range, and certainly means my pet will have to chase it.)

I’ve seen some try to excuse this by claiming it’s a reflex developed during solo PvE play. Baloney. You may need it more often when you’re alone, but spamming it is never optimal. If your pet is busy chasing after something that you’ve knocked back just because the skill is off CD, then your pet isn’t doing damage during that time, so you’ve just reduced the effectiveness of the team.

Next time you see a ranger using a longbow badly, suggest the shortbow. It has a nice little stun shot for an interrupt and an evade that moves the ranger instead of the target. The autoattack is almost as fast as Rapid Fire and, of course, has no cool down.

Ironically, the only time I’ve been yelled at for this was with Three-Toed Tootsie. Of course, I got yelled at for letting it run away after I stopped.

I kind of take joy in watching the longbow lowbie rangers die or run away from EotM veterans. After the firts knockback, I usually just watch and let them deal with it. Yes, I do get some angry whispers about me not helping but I usually just reply with “use your KB more” or “i was killing the flowers”. Some people get it, some don’t.

If I’m on my thief, I equip Scorpion Wire and pull them back, preferably as close to the KB source as possible. If I’m on my ranger, I try to position myself so I can knock it back to where it came from. Honestly though, that gets old really quick so I usually just go back to watch the fight.

scorekeeper.6524:

As an engie in SW I knock back teragriffs and leechers to interrupt their abilities, as well as husk slingers to get their attacks out of range of the fort walls.

Other than that, yeah I don’t use knockbacks when a friendly melee is whacking enemy mobs. It’s just not good form imo.

Stop knocking back the leechers please. That’s one of the knockbacks that bugs the most. When you knock them out of my aoe that would have otherwise killed them in a couple seconds, they immediately use their skill again which has no cooldown… unlike my skills, which ARE on cooldown. The only time you should use knockback on them is when they are in the leeching puddle, to get them out so people can melee.

The tendrils only touch you if you are at range. Get in close, and it turns into a harmless bag of hp.

Indeed. All Rangers should fight with one hand tied behind their backs and take their medium level armor right up where close where their weapons are less effective. Heaven forbid they should fight in the way their skills force them. And those annoying pets they are forced to drag around just get in the way. They are almost as annoying as those silly cosmetic wings some people insist on wearing that constantly block everyone’s view. Perhaps Anet should consider removing the Ranger profession from the game because it annoys the glass tanks and AoE bombers who bring a nuke to a knife fight.

Jimson.5168:

Indeed. All Rangers should fight with one hand tied behind their backs and take their medium level armor right up where close where their weapons are less effective. Heaven forbid they should fight in the way their skills force them. And those annoying pets they are forced to drag around just get in the way. They are almost as annoying as those silly cosmetic wings some people insist on wearing that constantly block everyone’s view. Perhaps Anet should consider removing the Ranger profession from the game because it annoys the glass tanks and AoE bombers who bring a nuke to a knife fight.

Here’s a thought… if you want distance between you and the enemy, back away from it. Walking backward is a great ability that’s never on cooldown.

Knockbacks are for solo play only period. You knock an enemy back because you are prepared to follow up on that.

Doing knockbacks in a group setting is poor form. You’re basically saying; ’I’m more important than everyone else here, look what I can do!’ You can followup on your knockback, everyone else has to scramble. It’s a reduction to overall dps of the group and sometimes costs people loot drops because they couldn’t deal enough damage or couldn’t even get a tag in when a champ is knocked away.

Knockbacks are meant to put distance between your target and yourself. It’s not meant to save an enemy from a group of people attacking it.

Propably caused by ANet’s poor choice in mob design, it is atleast partially to blame on skill spammers, since foes die as long as they just punch each skill button, with no need to worry about anything else.

Well, it’d make people more aware of proper skill use and combat…

It’s unfortunate that the main interrupt a Ranger can use is a knockback. Rangers have no choice but to have this skill if they equip a LB. Many times you are getting clobbered, your health is down to double digits, and every other skill is recharging and #4 is the only skill left as an enemy is tangling you up in vines or get ready to drop a hammer on you. Rangers who really know how to skillfully fight with finesse when “ranging” about solo do refrain from using a knockback in group/melee situations but in the heat of a desperate fight tend to use #4 as a last ditch effort to survive. This, of course does not excuse the inexperienced/lazy Ranger who simply button mashes the skills because they do not care enough to learn to fight intelligently. I would suggest if you don’t care to learn how to use a particular profession’s skill effectively, go roll some other char where button mashing might be sloppy but effective.

Rangers are not easy to play at the higher levels of the game, but this does make it more challenging. At least the GW2 Ranger is a lot more viable that GW1’s Ranger which I had to abandon because it was so weak. I don’t think Rangers are suitable for dungons, WvW, or PvP but that’s just my opinion so I don’t expect others to agree. They are fine for puttering around PvE and for farming (and rezzing the occasional downed caster or tank one finds who thought they could solo PvE).

Bad players are just bad players. Blaming it on their choice of profession or skill set is not appropriate IMO. Blame the player who’s driving.

So much ranger hate …

#blametheranger

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started an ice storm with frost bow, or am about to do a backstab with thief, only to have some other player knock them out of the area and nullify most or all of the damage.

It doesn’t just happen with rangers either. Even greatsword mesmers for some reason feel the need to hit skill 5 every time they see five enemies clumped together, or necros will sometimes randomly fear enemies out of damage zones, etc. It’s just that ranger knockbacks are on a shorter cooldown, so they tend to use them more often, but a lot of players are guilty of spamming knockback skills when they’re off cooldown.

It’s about knockbacks, not just rangers. When I’m beating on things with my greatsword, along comes the engineer with his flamethrower knockback.

-Signed,
Ranger

PS, Longbow 4 has one use: Dredge Fractal. (I blame bad mob AI for that one.)

Jimson.5168:

Indeed. All Rangers should fight with one hand tied behind their backs and take their medium level armor right up where close where their weapons are less effective. Heaven forbid they should fight in the way their skills force them. And those annoying pets they are forced to drag around just get in the way. They are almost as annoying as those silly cosmetic wings some people insist on wearing that constantly block everyone’s view. Perhaps Anet should consider removing the Ranger profession from the game because it annoys the glass tanks and AoE bombers who bring a nuke to a knife fight.

It might amaze you to learn this, but rangers can fight from a distance without having to spam knockbacks, you know. In most group battles, rangers that are max ranging will usually not pull agro and can happily snipe from a distance without having to resort to knockbacks. And if they do pull agro, longbow offers a stealth skill that allows them to lose aggro without having to resort to knockbacks either.

No-one’s telling you not to fight at range. They’re just telling you not to knockback enemies in situations where it is unnecessary, or in particular, in situations where it actually hurts group dps. If you’re solo roaming then sure, go ahead and spam knockbacks to your hearts content. Just learn to be a bit more careful with certain skills in group content, that’s all.

I just find it kinda sad that rangers who do use their skills smartly and who can adapt to different situations, are put in a bad light by other rangers who simply hit 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 whenever they are on cooldown without thought.

Relshdan.6854:

liberal use of Big Ol’ Bomb/Air Blast and especially PB Shot are just brutal.

in the early days of the game, Banish was a problem too….but you just don’t see many hammer guardians in open world evens for it to matter now.

you do see some, but the people this threadis aimed at usually use skills in order, and that mean banishing an immobilized target.

Shining One.1635:

Ironically, the only time I’ve been yelled at for this was with Three-Toed Tootsie. Of course, I got yelled at for letting it run away after I stopped.

It weird actually, when fighting Three-Toed Tootsie, there is rarely any knockbacks! Even with several rangers with longbows shooting at it.

I have four lvl 80 Rangers. I love Rangers. My best friend is a Ranger.

It’s not about Rangers. It’s about knockbacks. And not just any knockbacks. Inappropriate knockbacks.

Knockbacks are like sex. At the right time, in the right place, they’re awesome.

At the wrong time, in the wrong place, they get you arrested.

As well they should.

I main both a ranger and an ele. I understand the frustration here.

My ranger is a trap ranger who uses LB and SB. I actually know when to use and not to use my knockback on the LB. Even with the LB equipped I often find others using KB skills frustrating.

I set up my traps. Lure them to the area where players are standing to AOE as a group and before they get there another ranger or KB profession flings them away. Grrrr.

There are a couple of places in group play where a knockback/interrupt can work in a group. When you are knocking an enemy TOWARD the group to kill or when an enemy is against a wall and the knockback will only act as an interrupt and nothing more.

I get the frustration with knockbacks. I do. I don’t like it when someone knocks enemies out of my Barrage AOE either. But the hate for the Ranger and other classes that do it, especially in map chat is horrible. Not all players of rangers and KB professions use KB’s wrong and don’t deserve the general hate. I’m sure we can find something to hate on ALL professions. I have been playing my D/D ele and some idiot Warrior with “Fear Me!” makes the mob we are fighting scatter. I never see these guys called out because they are warriors. Hypocritical.

My point is, don’t hate the profession or the people that play them. It is players with little skill or poor fighting etiquette that use ANY skill detrimentally. Don’t hate on these people either. Be kind or at least helpful. You don’t know if they are new or are just playing the way they like to play, the same as the rest of us. Not being hateful gets you much further with these people.

There was one guy playing a warrior in map chat yesterday that was being crude and inappropriate and being hateful to any toon he saw that was a ranger. So I watched this one ranger follow him around in SW and KB’d every thing he was fighting. He finally got so mad that he left the map. I wasn’t the only one glad to see him gone!

Zephyra.4709:

A group of 15 of us on an elite/vet… it’s ok, it’s not dangerous. No one’s going to die… I’m about to pop my 100 blades when a wild ranger knockback appears!

But that’s the most fun time to use LB4. >.>

If it’s an elite/vet/lesser mob…what does it matter? It’s annoying, sure, but not life threatening. But for super cereal times, yeah don’t knock back if most folks are meleeing.

jheryn.8390:

There was one guy playing a warrior in map chat yesterday that was being crude and inappropriate and being hateful to any toon he saw that was a ranger. So I watched this one ranger follow him around in SW and KB’d every thing he was fighting. He finally got so mad that he left the map. I wasn’t the only one glad to see him gone!

That’s the spirit! The only solution for griefing is more griefing.

Now he knows how wrong he was to think Rangers are a bunch of jerks.

I’m a Necro, stop wasting my wells, please… -_-

Lalocat.6793:

scorekeeper.6524:

As an engie in SW I knock back teragriffs and leechers to interrupt their abilities, as well as husk slingers to get their attacks out of range of the fort walls.

Other than that, yeah I don’t use knockbacks when a friendly melee is whacking enemy mobs. It’s just not good form imo.

Stop knocking back the leechers please. That’s one of the knockbacks that bugs the most. When you knock them out of my aoe that would have otherwise killed them in a couple seconds, they immediately use their skill again which has no cooldown… unlike my skills, which ARE on cooldown. The only time you should use knockback on them is when they are in the leeching puddle, to get them out so people can melee.

The tendrils only touch you if you are at range. Get in close, and it turns into a harmless bag of hp.

The problem is the leeching thrashers share the same model as the vile thrashers. The latter have a whirl attack making them immune to knockbacks (but not the interrupt), making knockbacks a perfect way to interrupt their whirl. Their animation before using these skills is similar, and it’s easy to fire a preventative interrupting knockback before realizing it’s actually a leeching thrasher.

And the skill has a 6 sec cooldown.

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started an ice storm with frost bow, or am about to do a backstab with thief, only to have some other player knock them out of the area and nullify most or all of the damage.

Worth nothing that ranger longbow skill 5 (barrage) is also a static time-delayed AOE. So any LB ranger who’s actually paying attention will know the pain of having a target knocked out of their AOE.

What’s ironic is that if you play melee ranger and get tired of the target being knocked out of melee range (happened a lot during the revenant beta test), you switch to a ranged weapon like longbow out of frustration. And LB’s knockback is your only interrupt… It’s a vicious circle…

When a player moves a mob for positioning, that Mob needs a debuff against Knockback for 3-5 seconds. When I play my guard and I use binding blade to drag the mobs in on my symbol so that we can mass AOE 2-3 Elites, 2 Vets and a horrible normal Mob (Grub…You know where I am talking about here), Knockback needs to be stopped.

So add in protections to players abilities from other players who are too stupid to NOT knockback.

xD this always happens when I’m following the k-train in EoTM. I waste so many aoes and it ends up taking longer than it’s supposed to. I don’t really mind though. It’s kinda funny imo.

When first started playing not that long ago I clicked anything off cooldown. Everyone’s gotta learn sometime.

Now if they never learn <_< well then. Yeaaah. xD

…Rangers.

Nobody likes them. Even rangers feel bad about playing rangers. :P

Firebaall.5127:

…Rangers.

Nobody likes them. Even rangers feel bad about playing rangers. :P

No I don-…

No, wait, I do. ;_;

I kid, I kid. They ended up on my bottom two classes (even though I normally play pet classes in other MMOs) because I just couldn’t figure out what to do with them. Spirits feel very “Eh”, Traps are nifty but not so powerful, the pet/shout mechanics are terrible, so sometimes I just get so ticked I run full signet and blow raspberries at my screen. >_>"

But none of that excuses using Longbow 4!

While rangers might be the most problematic, don’t forget mesmer’s GS #5!

When playing my ranger, I keep my finger off the LB #4 key when in a group. It is not necessary to use it when zerging.

I love my LB4. I call it my Lootskill.

Classic ranger scenario: you run around, because that’s what rangers do. Suddenly your bear stops and points in the distance: OMG a random assortment of non-rangers are ganging up on a mob! The mob is going to die! And you didn’t DPS it! No DPS, no loot! So you’re all like “WTF ammigonnado? non-rangers OP DPS! even pewpew LB2 too slow, mob dead before arrow! me no loot! :’-(”.

Enter the Lootskill.

You hit LB4, and instantly the mob is safely knocked out of harm’s way, giving you plenty of time for a full LB2 channel, ensuring a precious lootbag that may even contain a green. Even more time as half the people previously on the mob are still channeling their 100B or whatever other classes do. And the other half is too busy insulting you on map chat to DPS. Chances are, you even get the killing blow. Points for style. \o/

I love the Lootskill.

SirDrygan.1823:

It weird actually, when fighting Three-Toed Tootsie, there is rarely any knockbacks! Even with several rangers with longbows shooting at it.

Tootsie is immune to knockback except during the brief window when it’s trying to run away. If someone else interrupts Tootsie before the knockback shot connects, it won’t knock it back.

cafard.8953:

I love the Lootskill.

Clearly, you are not alone.

I play my Ranger main almost exclusively. I had the luck of playing with my husband whose main is a well based necro. I learned quite early not to use LB4, ever! As an interrupt, it has some use on certain targets, but otherwise, there is little point in that button even being present. And, I rage when some kitten knocks something away when I am using my GS the same as everyone else.

I just should let you know, I tell all noob rangers to change their lb auto attack to #4

Lalocat.6793:

scorekeeper.6524:

As an engie in SW I knock back teragriffs and leechers to interrupt their abilities, as well as husk slingers to get their attacks out of range of the fort walls.

Other than that, yeah I don’t use knockbacks when a friendly melee is whacking enemy mobs. It’s just not good form imo.

Stop knocking back the leechers please. That’s one of the knockbacks that bugs the most. When you knock them out of my aoe that would have otherwise killed them in a couple seconds, they immediately use their skill again which has no cooldown… unlike my skills, which ARE on cooldown. The only time you should use knockback on them is when they are in the leeching puddle, to get them out so people can melee.

The tendrils only touch you if you are at range. Get in close, and it turns into a harmless bag of hp.

I’m sorry, I misspoke- I meant the teragriffs that use a ranged attack, not leeching thrashers. I do move in close to those mobs in order to avoid being hit by their vines.

And trust me, as an engie, I have multiple fields that I am laying down as well- I don’t like it when any other class knocks mobs out of my fields either.

I would also say that thrasher leechers take a second or two in their leeching animation before they actually leech, unlike the teragriffs with vines- they seem to waste no time in getting their attacks off again after being interrupted.

lol @ all the people complaining that they have to deal with occasional disruptions to their attempts at effortlessly evaporating enemies.

1st world GW2 problems…

Is it bad that the first thought I had was “wait til dragonhunter so other guardians start doing it”?

You think knockbacks are bad now wait till the dawn of the Revenant.