Guild Wars 2

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

THIS!

Lithril Ashwalker.6230:

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

THIS!

THIS THIS!

can engineer’s RIFLE act like a rifle instead of a shotgun. nothing like running around with a sniper rifle looking weapon and having it act like a friggen shot gun.

Please halp the PvE phantasm mesmer. I have to go 20 into power to get the reduction of greatsword skills. 20 into precision for the reduction on pistol skills. 25 into vitality for the minor trait that gives 15 percent more phantasm damage (Not even sure why that trait is there). And 25 into the shatter tree for the minor trait that gives a reduction of illusion summon cool-downs, which previous was not there.

I mean you could probably give our illusion infinite health with no aggro pull and we still would have trouble topping wars on a dps meter. Some people want to just be pure damage, let us be damage without these silly hoops.

+1 for giving my flesh golem swimming lessons.

Nuka Cola.8520:

4- When attacking from stealth and the attack is missed/blocked, it should apply reveal and this goes to all classes

So much this. Skillfull blinding / blocking stealth attacks should counter stealth. Not the current risk free BS we have right now.

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

THIS IS IT…

Oxide.6134:

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

THIS IS IT…

Me, what, six? Please! (I have no depth perception and this makes guessing the correct distance difficult every time!)

Also, can you guys PLEASE make the minimap movable to the same side chat is on? I can’t see on my right side and have been begging for this since launch. T_T

Okay, as I see, everyone have some improvement except the Warrior. If I want to support as a Warrior, I really don’t care about where is my battlecry cooldown ! You want the Warrior to be supportive ? Give him more options to support than Battlecry only !

Seriously, you’re joking me ? Guardian wasn’t strong enough ? He can almost solo ascalonian catacombs !

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS!!!!

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

THIS would be a bigger buff to the Ele staff than whatever stupid support buffs it’s about to get.

havoc.6814:

If Ranger pets can sniff out a stealthed target, then you should add the same ability to the Norn beastie forms. It would be nice to see someone in PvP who is not an Asuran.

Good point! At least its a step towards to make it useful!
I wish I would use these transformations as a Human tho…

havoc.6814:

If Ranger pets can sniff out a stealthed target, then you should add the same ability to the Norn beastie forms. It would be nice to see someone in PvP who is not an Asuran.

I hope you know racial skills cannot be used in PvP… and I doubt people would use beast forms just for this.

Conncept.7638:

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

THIS would be a bigger buff to the Ele staff than whatever stupid support buffs it’s about to get.

The “stupid” ele staff buffs are needed, and I hope they consider water blast’s and lava font’s radius as well, alongside air attunement’s skills.

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

+1

Please This

Since you guys are looking at Thief Pistols

For pistol mainhand in general would you consider the following:

Pistol 1:
Fires at a rate close to that of ranger shortbow. It’s relatively low damage and single target unless traited. It should apply vulnerability instead of bleed at a duration which yields 8 stacks from autoattacking without duration buffs (P/D users please keep reading before saying no).

Pistol 1 stealth attack:
Increase the bleed duration by 1-2 seconds.

Pistol 2:
Put poison on it at 5 seconds base. This would allow for another damaging condition for P/D users as well as the healing reduction it would grant P/P users in fights against high regen classes like rangers and warriors. For power builds traited at least 15 into DA, this would allow for weakness to also be included on the pistol mainhand. (lotus poison should also be reduced to 15 sec ICD per target so at 25 in DA you have a 33% uptime, but that’s a different topic)

P/P 3:
Reduce number of shots by 2 decreasing channel time accordingly. Increase the remaining shots’ power so that the skill maintains the same overall damage but gets slightly more bursty while being slightly less susceptible to retal.

Why I think the above would be a good idea:
Condition builds would get one additional damaging condition without having to bring spider venom. It would help with against bunkering classes that currently exist in either a power build or a condition build.
Autoattack would work with P/P while constantly applying a cover condition for P/D users. To make up for the loss of the number of bleeds, each bleed would last longer from sneak attack. Since P/P rarely utilizes this attack anyway it seems fine to move the condition damage to the build already using it. Best of all, when you run out of initiative from unload spamming you’re still increasing your (and your team’s) direct damage output

Radical suggestion concerning Mesmers. Instead of wasting time worrying about lame mantras revamp Mesmers modus operandi to revolve more around their clones/phantasms.
1) The more illusions are up the mesmer’s HP, toughness goes up
2) The more illusions that are up the mesmer’s attack skills effectiveness goes up
3) The more illusions that are up the Mesmer’s boon adding and condition removal goes up for allies
4) Shattering changes to be non-offensive and becomes a heal and condition removal for mesmers.
5) Fix the horrible illusion AI (inability to handle uneven terrain, inability to hit moving targets)

This way fighting a Mesmer will be unique in both pve and pvp. Think of the Mesmer as a “soft” guardian!

Please add a visual pop up or something like that in skills with combo fields and combo finishers. Also expand the concept of combos.

Bring Hexes Back

Sina.9208:

Would be nice, if we could dodge mid-leap. (ranger sword#1)

Now that I think about it catching GS up in terms of dmg would be even better. (15% boost on maul won’t cut it) The current dungeon meta is very melee-centric…

Oxide.6134:

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

THIS IS IT…

I am all about this. Engie Rifle would benefit greatly from this. Heck, all ground casting would. The nice part about it is that it’s helpful to less skilled players. When I am trying to use my Rifle skill 5 this would be fantastic.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Conncept.7638:

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

THIS would be a bigger buff to the Ele staff than whatever stupid support buffs it’s about to get.

The “stupid” ele staff buffs are needed, and I hope they consider water blast’s and lava font’s radius as well, alongside air attunement’s skills.

No, they are not needed. Not going to refuse them either, but the staff needs buffs to damage, not support. It’s meant to be the archmage weapon; huge, impressive, weighty, high output effects offensive and defensive spells, with long recharge rates to compensate their power. They got the long recharge rates right, and nothing else. You can go full glass cannon with the staff as it currently sits, you’ll still never get a kill because not even AI are bad enough to ever get hit with anything but its basic attacks.

As for supporty staff in WvW, it was already decent. But buffing it now is pointless, seeing as WvW itself is pointless until they do something about mindless zerging outweighing all other methods of play.

Same goes with SPvP, the mode is the problem, no amount of buffs to support builds are going to outweigh the ridiculous amount of game-changing bunker builds running all through PvP right now. The last tournament didn’t have a single second without at least four bunker builds on the field, the winning team had three bunkers at all times in every match. And it’s always going to be that way because 90% of the win condition is ground control and defense. There’s no point in doing anything with PvP class balance so long as PvP itself is almost mechanically non-functional.

i realy hope dual pistol for thief will be viable. i dont need it to be over the top, but where it is compared to the other options thief has its quite poor. even with all the pistol related traits you wont be a threat to any player who know’s his/her skills. and even pve (especially in low levels) is 3-3 or 3-3-3 for the mob to die, there is hardly any interesting things you can do. please make this happen!

Magische Boek.2530:

i realy hope dual pistol for thief will be viable. i dont need it to be over the top, but where it is compared to the other options thief has its quite poor. even with all the pistol related traits you wont be a threat to any player who know’s his/her skills. and even pve (especially in low levels) is 3-3 or 3-3-3 for the mob to die, there is hardly any interesting things you can do. please make this happen!

I wish all the dual pistols were viable as standalones.

Even Engy D/D is kinda bleh, just because the auto is so weak. I wish it could stand on it’s own feet like Rifle can.

Dual Pistol is so nice cosmetically but it is bleh on both thief/engy.

So all classes get buffed in stead of thief which gets nerfed (again). Some thoughts:

-Venom share: this is just not worth it, since poison does not stack, making it one of the weakest conditions in the game. The only usefull scenario is when you massively can petrify a foe in PVE, but that would still be on a 45 sec CD.
-Nerf flanking strike?? Why, the whole community is crying about stealth thief play and you are willing to kill the alternative to a backstab build???
-Further nerf stealth by giving reveal skills? I agree only when the amount of reveal skills is limited to 1 (maybe 2) which are completely useless in other situations. You must realize that stealth is THE core mechanic of thief (like clones hinder targetting is core mesmer mechanic). Stealth is thiefs only good support option to save our squishy kitten. If all these update notes are true i see all classes getting better support unless thief which gets less. So please be carefull with the anti stealth skills to not destroy the class. Thanks for your attention

Knote.2904:

liefbread.9513:

tigirius.9014:

liefbread.9513:

and if “all pets get immunity to AOE” they will be broken in half in any pvp wvw scenario.

If I recall correctly, every single MLG team in the sPvP tourney was running a spirit ranger. “Mediocre at best.”

Come up with a better solution.

Nope they won’t because they are already weak. The last pet to be weakened were the Rangers.

This is exactly beside the point however, because this kind of thing has been done countless times in other games as the fixall for the heavy pet class system and it works! They know it’s a problem and you guys blew up the forums when they talked about nerfing AOEs well something has to be done and giving pets a 90% immunity to AOE damage across the board has been tested before.

But I predict mind you that instead of actually looking at the development history of these systems they’ll continue to delay this mechanism and continue to have cookie cutter non-pet heavy builds for at least another year before someone actually looks at it and says “hey you know what? why don’t we do this? it’s been done before” and poof it will be finally done but it will most likely be too late because people will have moved on to something else most likely having been tired of waiting on something so simple.

WoW has one of the most reputable/successful hunter/pet systems in MMO history, and to my knowledge, has never nerfed AOE for it.

What? I thought WoW was the first MMO I saw to give resistance to AoE dmg for pets…

WoW wasn’t the first to do this but they did do it. They gave a universal 90% resist to AOE damage on pets not only were pets instantly viable in PVP they also actually survived boss fights with ease.

Mathias.9657:

Atherakhia.4086:

liefbread.9513:

tigirius.9014:

liefbread.9513:

and if “all pets get immunity to AOE” they will be broken in half in any pvp wvw scenario.

If I recall correctly, every single MLG team in the sPvP tourney was running a spirit ranger. “Mediocre at best.”

Come up with a better solution.

Nope they won’t because they are already weak. The last pet to be weakened were the Rangers.

This is exactly beside the point however, because this kind of thing has been done countless times in other games as the fixall for the heavy pet class system and it works! They know it’s a problem and you guys blew up the forums when they talked about nerfing AOEs well something has to be done and giving pets a 90% immunity to AOE damage across the board has been tested before.

But I predict mind you that instead of actually looking at the development history of these systems they’ll continue to delay this mechanism and continue to have cookie cutter non-pet heavy builds for at least another year before someone actually looks at it and says “hey you know what? why don’t we do this? it’s been done before” and poof it will be finally done but it will most likely be too late because people will have moved on to something else most likely having been tired of waiting on something so simple.

WoW has one of the most reputable/successful hunter/pet systems in MMO history, and to my knowledge, has never nerfed AOE for it.

They made the pet ignore a large part of AE damage.
They also made the pet always attack from behind to help avoid cleaves.
The Hunter’s pet is only 15% of the class’s damage as opposed to 40% here.

I dunno, a BM hunter has a lot of damage from the pet, including some skills that require one being active including but not limited to their resource management.

That could even be baseline though, can’t remember.

If specced for beastmastery your pet did most of your damage (55-60%) and had even more defenses so they couldn’t just be snuffed aside by a warrior for example.

Which brings up yet another point. When speccing into a pet heavy build where is the extra defense and damage and why isn’t a non-pet spec making these pets only do 15% damage until someone specs into them heavily on rangers?

Hunters were my main in WoW that’s all I ever played the whole time I was there, but I also have a history of playing nothing but pet classes in every mmo I’ve ever played in until coming here and making my engineer first before the ranger.

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

Yes please. This change would make ground targeting that much more use friendly. Especially when you’re in the heat of battle.

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

Ideally what could happen is a “range circle” could appear while using ground target skills. Picture it like the circle that is shown to indicate a Banner’s area of effect. If you move your mouse outside of this circle while targeting, the green targeting circle simply stops at the edge. This would help players see how where they can hit with the AoE, how much closer (or further away) they should get, and it would help LOADS with any and all teleports.

Nova.8021:

Please halp the PvE phantasm mesmer. I have to go 20 into power to get the reduction of greatsword skills. 20 into precision for the reduction on pistol skills. 25 into vitality for the minor trait that gives 15 percent more phantasm damage (Not even sure why that trait is there). And 25 into the shatter tree for the minor trait that gives a reduction of illusion summon cool-downs, which previous was not there.

I mean you could probably give our illusion infinite health with no aggro pull and we still would have trouble topping wars on a dps meter. Some people want to just be pure damage, let us be damage without these silly hoops.

why would you put points into GS and pistol? thats like working backwards… Theres almost no reason to put points into GS unless youre a complete complete ranged build, then I kinda get it

So thats it? Few traits changes, fixes and improving tab targeting? It seems another pve big patch:/

Khallis.5708:

can engineer’s RIFLE act like a rifle instead of a shotgun. nothing like running around with a sniper rifle looking weapon and having it act like a friggen shot gun.

Suggestion: add shotgun, move current rifle skills to shotgun, give rifle some skills which allows to deal high damage from distance.

I cant help but wonder why you balance classes in SPVP and completely ignore class balance in WVW. Many skills are completely useless in WVW but they have been improved to a useful point in SPVP.

Half the class changes in the last 6 months only benefited people that do SPVP.

WVW is PVP too. And some people prefer it over the completely separate joke that is SPVP.

I’d like to see racial skills get looked at at some point – currently I rarely use them (and only occasionally see anyone else use them either). I know they’re not supposed to overshadow profession skills, but I presume they’re at least supposed to have a point…

Add “non-blockable” trait for mesmer phantasms (similar to necro marks unblockable). Tired of seeing a phantasm that’s critical to my DPS go on 30s c/d because of dodge/blind/etc.

Murderin.8269:

I cant help but wonder why you balance classes in SPVP and completely ignore class balance in WVW. Many skills are completely useless in WVW but they have been improved to a useful point in SPVP.

Half the class changes in the last 6 months only benefited people that do SPVP.

WVW is PVP too. And some people prefer it over the completely separate joke that is SPVP.

yeah its very frustrating. in spvp i can play my mesmer and usemany different builds. i have a hard time vs the condi spam and cc warrior, but i still feel like i can kill and be strong.

in wvw i feel up.
all u see is warriors, guardians to support the warriors and necros. statistics have already shown that mesmers are the least played class, but in wvw its even worse as all we can do right now is siting at the back line being support builds. veil/tw/porta bots. phantasms fail often. los is too much and we have little access to aoe. phantasms are pir aoe and shatters, but the clones die in 1 second, they never reach their target and very often phantasms are not hitting anything.
now anet is stating that they are happy with the mesers. wow sry, but i play this class everyday in wvw groupfights with other people playing mesmers and no i am not happy at all with the wvw mesmer and just giving us a mantra that is again support only is not what im looking for.
why is temportal curtain still nerfed? while warriors can spam ccc like crazy u nerfed our temporal curtain with a 1 second delay? if u allow this cc and condi spam them u might wanna unnerf many things u did to us.
tc, bb nerf, glamour builds, ic nerf, clone health. and how about improving our heals and survivability in zerg fight?

also eles need unnerfs in spvp and some stuff in wvw aswell. in wvw the ele is at a good spot and doesnt need a lot of buffs, but in spvp, they need help.

rangers are great roamers and good in spvp, but also lack builds for wvw zerg or large group fights.

guardians are in a good spot in spvp, but in wvw they boons are a little over the top. but at least they are killable and they do give up a great deal of dps to be tanky supports.

warriors needed help in spvp and yes its good to see them back in this gamemode, but the cc spam is even in spvp frustrating and the healing signet is a joke. in wvw they are op with almost no counter (unless again in a 1v1 roaming situation which is like spvp)
they have it all: huge health pool, massive cc, almost immune to conditions, too much stability, a lot of access to invulnerability, can rez with the banner which is a problem with keeplords being rezed over and over, and this is all made worse due to the fact that wvw allows consumables. they are godmode and close to be a broken class in wvw, forcing everyone to zerg up.

i would like to be able to run with my mesmer group again and actually be viable without having to bring at least 5 warriors.its not fun to be forced to play a support only. neither is it fun to see 1 class dominating the entire gamemode with very little effort while my class has to improvise and work 10 times as hard to get ta similar result.

More thief nerfs I see. Thanks! It really makes me want to play my class when all I can look forward to are nerfs, while other people get to be genuinely excited about the changes to the professions they play.

Where is the Mobility buff for thieves? I see only nervs….again.

Hey Anet, great stuff but i must propose one more thing: make an option so save trait builds so we can load them anytime we want. Of course we will still have to pay for it. It will allow us to change traits without having to return to LA.

If you really want to improve all the support component of the game take care about adding support for someone but warrior and guardian. Or it seems as though you’ve decided to concentrate all possable support within two most OP professions.

First about thiefs

• add a normal (not 0.2 omg) modifier to Leeching Venoms.
• make venomus aura stacks with leeching Venoms, so thiefs could heal allies such a fun way.
• make Shadow Protection stacks with already existing regeneration
• let Hiden Assassin to affect allies

That’s what engineers are REALY do not have enough – it is adequate condition removal. I know, it seems to be there. And when you read the trait, it’s even sounds good. But in fact, until throws all this bottles at your feet you will loose all your health.
So for engineers

• let Cleaning Formula 409 remove 2 conditions, or convert 1 condition into boon.
• add condition removing to some skills but elixirs. For example, let Fumigate to affect player too. Or Static Shield to transfer some conditions on enemy.
• Super Elixir water field
• upgrade elixir gun. Let tranquilizer darts heal players near enemy, mb?
• make Med Kit skills explode on contact, affecting all allies around. Mb after choosing Packeget Stimulants.
• spread rifle traits on different lines

Improving of staff looks promising for Elementalists. However, what is really needed is at least some significant damage in the water. At least some! Warriors and guard (well, who would have thought!) have good damage with good supporting at the same time. Elementalist must go deep into the arcane line to somehow get closer to it. From here one only build of 80% elements and one only tactic – frantically switch attunement and use best in slot skills. Not everybody likes it, you know.
So for eles

• Normal damage in water.
• Short aoe bleed to Stoning
• moove Powerfull Aura into Arcane line. In master. In place of Arcane Resurrection, i think.

For Mesmers.

• Let Restorative Illusions affect allies near purpose for which they explode. And near mesmer with Illusionary Persona.
• May be Mender’s Purity affect allies?
• Make Restorative Mantras prock on activation. Not on preparation. Reduce the amount healing but do so.
• I would like to see more boon opportunities for better synergy with Signet of Inspiration. Mb more different boons on Winds of Chaos or might stacking on Spatial Surge?
• Modify the illusions at last. Let them spawn from you at a maximum+minimum possable from the enemy raius if the enemy is not available for the attack. Within a certain maximum value, beyond which they can not be used at all on target at all. For example you use Illusionary Leap on target beyond 800. It jumps from you at 600 and trying reach the enemy.

Rangers have some support but don’t have any normal healing. And cond removal rather lame to. Healing Spring is good, but it force ranger to use it. Not because it’s too good. But because everything other is bad. In the previous balance patchyou were trying to spread stunbreaks and cond-removal between different skills. Apparently that hasn’t affect Rangers. Honestly, I have no idea how to make Ranger GOOD support without Healing Spring… But nonetheless

• Add the cond-removal on any shout. Protect me for example. What ever the spirit (in addition to high-end). And more on pets.
• Guard is useless yet again. It could be good if protection will apply on allies in zone guarded py pet.
• Let Fortifying Bound work in both directions at last.
• Beastmastery line still lame to. So improve “pet traits” at supporting direction.
• Let Natural Healing work in both directions too. Mb even on allies.
• M-H axe damage is pathetic. Increase it already pls.
• Reduce Ramgade As One CD to 100 or better 60 sec. Stupid thing. At pvp more harm than good. Does not work when pet dies. Well… you understand. It is not worth such CD
• Holy God, let signets give rangers FULL buff, not a half of it. PLEASE.
  
  Fo the necromancer, at first glance, everything seems fine. But in fact, there are serious flaws in the mechanics. All are artfully brought together in the vampiric line.
• Make Transfusion scale of heal power.
• Make Vampiric Precision scale of heal power.
• Make Vampiric Rituals scale of heal power.
• Make Deathly Invigoration scale of heal power.
  (omg, why the hell necro need heal power at all if it doesn’t affect anything?!)
• Make trait so Vampiric Rituals and Precision will affect allies.

Guard

• All is just perfect. Thank you. I love to walk in the dungeons with five guardians!

Warrior

• Remove condition immunity. No matter how. From stances. From traits. From Cleansing Ire.
  JUST
  DO
  IT
• Balance the damage. On sensations warrior is still ahead of any other class for 15-20% with GS or axes.
• Make hamstring cast 3/4 sec. Too cool and animation hurts the eyes.

I’m going to start with saying that it has been great to see this kind of communication from You, Jonathan. I’ve been very critical regarding the quality of communication between the ArenaNet and the players, but I’m willing to give the credit when it’s due. I hope it has not been the last post of its kind too.

Now, with the new patch being revealed, it has been emphasized even more that the main aim of this balance patch is to buff support builds. I like playing those, so it should make me happy. But I’m a Ranger player, and it makes me worried instead.

Our only set of skills aimed at support consists of spirits. And while spirits may be fine in sPvP, they aren’t nearly as good in large scale WvW or those parts of PvE content that rely heavily on AoEs. Even 70% more hp won’t help them. The core ideas behind spirits simply don’t work well with the mechanics GW2 utilizes, hence an overhaul would be the only thing that can possibly help those skills.

In theory, some of the pets offer support options. But if you’re going to buff those options, those buffs have to be quite significant if pets are to be viable, effective support tool. And even then, until problems the pet system is plagued with are fixed, it will still be only partially viable solution. Even with the band-aid hp increase.

If you really want to make support builds on Rangers effective and viable, you could for example rework the shouts. I’ve never understood why our shout have to be so vastly different than those of Guardians and Warriors. They should apply boons, not just serve as glitchy pet commands. But even if the rework is not possible, you could simply move Nature’s Voice to the master tier. Adept could probably be too much. Sure, swiftness and regen are not the most sought-after boons, but it’s a start.

There are of course other minor things, like moving Spotter to the adept tier. Both Empower Allies and Strength in Numbers are adept traits for their classes, so I see no reason why it should be any different for Rangers.

Playing support is not only about skills and traits, but also about weapons as well. I feel that Rangers still suffer from low number of meaningful finishers, such as blasts. Though I do understand reasoning of those who claim that blast finisher on Maul could be OP. Nevertheless, lack of those finishers is something that hampers viability of our class in some aspects of the game.

All in all, as much as I’m happy with the attention being given to support-based playstyles, I’m worried that Rangers may get the short end of the stick again, simply because how the class has been designed so far. We don’t have too many tools, and most of those we do have require much more than simple buffs.

selan.8354:

little example of the regen madness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VSMD3rmL2k

Yeah, how the hell can you justify the nerfs they’ve done to the light-armor classes after that.

Xillllix.3485:

selan.8354:

little example of the regen madness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VSMD3rmL2k

Yeah, how the hell can you justify the nerfs they’ve done to the light-armor classes after that.

yep they nerfed glamours to the ground, but allow warriors to cc spam which is way worse than glmours.

they nerfed temportal curtain which is important sometimes to get a warrior off your back, but u allow the warrior to mass cc with very little cooddowns.

u nerfed eles pretty hard, but u allow warriors to regen with the broken signet

u nerfed confusion to the bottom for mesmers but u allow necros to do the smae dmg with way shorter cd’s and way stronger dps

u nerfed eles mobility, but u still didnt fix permastealth

now u nerf thieves, but u still buff the warriors that are already brokenly op in wvw

u nerf phantasms and add broken los that even prevent u from spawning a phantasm if u are standing right below it, but u allow necros to hit us through walls and warriors and guardians to hit u through doors

seriously? stop balancing on spvp 1v1 situations. mesmers are not fine at all in wvw zergs or even larger groups. i say unnerf us to bring us back to being viable again. u allow condition spam? well unnerf confusion and glam builds and unnerf rtl.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

More thief nerfs I see. Thanks! It really makes me want to play my class when all I can look forward to are nerfs, while other people get to be genuinely excited about the changes to the professions they play.

those aren’t nerfs, lol

Searban.5984:

…
Playing support is not only about skills and traits, but also about weapons as well. I feel that Rangers still suffer from low number of meaningful finishers, such as blasts. Though I do understand reasoning of those who claim that blast finisher on Maul could be OP. Nevertheless, lack of those finishers is something that hampers viability of our class in some aspects of the game.

All in all, as much as I’m happy with the attention being given to support-based playstyles, I’m worried that Rangers may get the short end of the stick again, simply because how the class has been designed so far. We don’t have too many tools, and most of those we do have require much more than simple buffs.

Why. Guardians have blast each 4 sec. And could stack endless protection and retaliation to themselfs and allies. Why couldn’t rangers have something like this but with water fields? Given the fact that the support skills on ranger’s weapons are almost absent.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

More thief nerfs I see. Thanks! It really makes me want to play my class when all I can look forward to are nerfs, while other people get to be genuinely excited about the changes to the professions they play.

I think A-net want to make a game where you can do counter play. I mean what is a game with zero counter play? A boring game. (a sample is when quickness was at 100% and gave zero counter play)

I know the thief is suppose to be master of mobility, hence the amount of shadow steps and stealths. It is in its nature that in order for an assassin to work properly you need mobility. However what I can read out on this preview is fine tune the numbers and give the pistol option for thief a buff.

Ps. When I meant counter play it goes for warrior combo f1 mace (skull crush) to skills 2 on greatsword (one hundred blades), which needs a fix? or is ok? or its argument with we have enough stun breaker in the game to cope that.

And speaking of rumours… any confirmation that skill 4 on hammer warrior, staggering blow will be useable when on move instead of stop on one spot wait 1sec for it to activate then move?

MeGaZlo.9516:

Searban.5984:

…
Playing support is not only about skills and traits, but also about weapons as well. I feel that Rangers still suffer from low number of meaningful finishers, such as blasts. Though I do understand reasoning of those who claim that blast finisher on Maul could be OP. Nevertheless, lack of those finishers is something that hampers viability of our class in some aspects of the game.

All in all, as much as I’m happy with the attention being given to support-based playstyles, I’m worried that Rangers may get the short end of the stick again, simply because how the class has been designed so far. We don’t have too many tools, and most of those we do have require much more than simple buffs.

Why. Guardians have blast each 4 sec. And could stack endless protection and retaliation to themselfs and allies. Why couldn’t rangers have something like this but with water fields? Given the fact that the support skills on ranger’s weapons are almost absent.

That’s a harsh one, I do understand that this patch is all about supporting party members, but to think of the guardian… Guardian was designed to protect party member. Their whole system is built around that. ( Altruistic Healing, Pure of Voice, Shielded Mind etc.) Rangers however… I see them as a-net see them in the 112 collector edition booklet…

Ranger One would be forgiven for thinking of the ranger as a role-playing staple that would certainly be carried over to sequel, but as Jon Peters tells it, the ranger profession was not in the original plan. “There was a warden and marksman and a bunch of other professions that went away. Ultimately we were left with just marksman, but he only had this one aspect – ranged weaponry – and didn’t feel complete. So we rolled in aspects of the warden and a beast mater class, and decided to name him the ranger again. We try to keep the iconic stuff from the original game, even if just in name and spirit.”

They have to buff more pets in that case, which we already have seen in this tiny preview. Maybe add more effects to the pet skill (such as blast or projectile you name it…)

Your suggested Ranger changes are irrelevant and lackluster at best. So you reduce the pets hp in pvp and add a “i see you” debuff. That doesn’t do squat for the PvE player and as you’ve already increased the pets hp a few months ago it’s very unlikely that you’ll do that again….you then went and nerfed the pets damage by 25 to 50% without increasing ranger damage across the board to compensate.

The problem with Pets is that the AI can not compete with a player and thus the pet ends up being a liability in various ways because it’s dead in the fights that really matter (in pve) like all of your new dungeon/boss designs. Pets DO NOT DODGE. Pets DO NOT MOVE OUT OF RED CIRCLES. That is the Problem, so Fix it.

Spirits are another issue, though less of one. The internal cooldown needs to go and they need other buffs. They in no way compare to Warrior Banners which don’t get killed in aoes or by mobs, can be moved at will and give their buffs to everyone. Spirits are kitten sucky versions of banners. What would have been better was to have had the spirits circle the ranger as nebulous misty things that applied their buffs centered on the ranger as s/he moves around. That way they can’t be killed and are carried with the ranger at all times but limited by where the ranger is in regards to everyone else.

Traits are another issue. Why do so many ranger traits fall far below the same kind of trait that a warrior has?

Warriors get a major trait that reduces cooldown on rifle and harpoon AND gives those 2 weapons piercing. Rangers get just piercing as a major trait for their bows. Why haven’t you buffed piercing for rangers to reduce the cooldown on long and shorbows by 20% too?

Warriors get a major trait that reduces greatsword and spear cooldowns by 20% AND gives them might on a crit. Rangers major gets just the cooldown for greatsword, sword and spear. I’d rather it be just like the warrior trait and drop the extra weapon (sword). Why is the ranger version inferior to the warrior version?

Warriors are supposed to be your perfect class. So start making the other classes just as perfect and make their traits just as good as the warriors. If warriors get cooldown + something then every class should get cooldown + something and not just cooldown!

Myzaky.4962:

Lithril Ashwalker.6230:

Knote.2904:

An option I’d really like to see is smart ground targeting when targeting areas that are out of range.

Like if I use a 900 range teleport, but I cast it at 1000 range, then it still casts at it’s maximum 900 range in the direction of where I tried to cast it. Instead, right now it just fails until you target within range, which usually means you’ll waste like 100 range.

This would be a huge QOL change.

THIS!

THIS THIS!

THIS THIS THIS!!!

Please let thieves still play their characters, some people like to be different from mainstream Guardians, Warriors running with zergs and blobs.
every single patch in last year had nerf for thieves.

Stealth traps are already available now you adding another option for rangers.
On top of that you’re nerfing Flanking Strike which was thieves only viable chance to counter boon heavy opponents like guardians, … etc with ability of casting several boons every seconds, please note that we have no access to stability, protection and many other survival boon other classes have.
so without a hope of stealing enemies boons and stealth reveal debuffs how we suppose to survive back to back knockdowns.
Also S/D Flanking Strike maybe be one of few advantages we had fighting against heavy boon PVE bosses ex. dredge fractal.

Thank you in advance for considering this comment.

i now lvl up a warrior. at lvl 36 it was much much more better as my full exo/legendary/ascended ranger is on lvl 80 after a year of game.
in ac they let me to join with my litle warrior but they kicked a 80 ranger instantly after join.
a thief bring more in a team fight as a ranger. i play with ranger because im in live with the sylvari ranger theme but i feel my weakness every day.