Guild Wars 2

I’m getting increasingly worried about people’s attitudes with this. I’ve seen many people saying things similar to ‘finally, something that tells us who is knocking back so we can call rangers out on bad play’ and stuff, i.e. an excuse for verbal abuse.

My question is this: Is ArenaNet’s intention for this projectile to call players out who use this skill so-called ‘badly’ or is it ArenaNet’s intention for this skill to let enemy players have a chance to dodge the projectile in PvP & WvW?

I hope the answer is obvious.

It is done simply for pvp purposes.

ArenaNet doesn’t care one bit about pve balance/problems.

Taku.6352:

It is done simply for pvp purposes.

ArenaNet doesn’t care one bit about pve balance/problems.

Hello Taku

I’m 100% certain that ArenaNet care about all aspects of the game, especially since I’ve heard both theories that ArenaNet only care for PvP and only for PvE, so it stands to reason they actually care about both, but can’t cater to every single player.

My question is mostly aimed at players though. I am hoping that after the November 4 update, we won’t see a torrent of verbal abuse that we have never had before the purple arrows was even mentioned. People have only starting to talk about ‘calling rangers out’ since the twitch.tv video, and calling out is wrong.

In my opinion, there’s no such thing as a bad player. Only bad attitudes.

Well, technically I think it was implemented because it was deemed too powerful in combination with the Ranger’s other longbow skills. In that respect the “tell” is perfectly fine and fits in with lots of other skills in this game that have a tell.

From the aspect of verbally abusing Rangers for using the longbow knockback…. No, I don’t think ArenaNet considered that when implementing this.

BUT, why are we worried about the Ranger players being verbally abused in chat for using knockback? The perfectly honest answer is they only get “in trouble” for it when it’s detrimental to what the group is doing so they SHOULD be called out for it. LB knockback is great for 1v1s, pushing players off cliffs, keeping the Abominations off the east battery at Tequatl, and a variety of other circumstances, but honestly, players need to learn when to use it and when not to. Don’t just spam all your skills because you don’t know what else to do and you can’t help yourself.

If you’re a longbow Ranger and you’re with a group that wants to fight the enemy where they already are, or they’re trying to melee this enemy, don’t knock it back. It screws with the whole group and you deserve to be called out for doing it, but probably not in quite the mean way that everybody seems to do.

That being said, it’s bound to happen eventually because you forget. Own up to it in the chat and people are usually less likely to attack you.

But it’s not just longbow Ranger knockback that causes problems. Sometimes you don’t want people to use CCs either and of course they do, which is just as annoying.

If you see people using skills that are detrimental to the fight, politely mention in chat why the skills are not helpful and people will usually comply.

Just my $0.02

Hi Penelope

The design was solely intended for PvP so that players have easier tells to deal with so counter play is more accessible. The change was announced prior by the PvP balance team and the justification behind it.

To reiterate on the “calling out bad rangers” comment. We can state it is a fair change since it is blatantly obvious when a guardian decides to push everything back inconveniently when he is in downed state, or if a necromancer fears everything into another pile of mobs in the ascalon fractal. I am being sarcastic with this paragraph.

I recommend not playing with those people who constantly hate on rangers or other professions for the sake of hating them. There are many guilds available who do not tolerate that level of discrimination.

penelopehannibal.8947:

I’m 100% certain that ArenaNet care about all aspects of the game, especially since I’ve heard both theories that ArenaNet only care for PvP and only for PvE, so it stands to reason they actually care about both, but can’t cater to every single player.

I would argue that it usually sounds more like “ANet doesn’t care about PvE (when working on profession balance)” and “ANet doesn’t care about PvP (when working on content)”.

As far as the purple projectile itself is concerned, I believe it was done to add counterplay to the recently introduced popular knockback+rapid fire combo which can one-shot people while the player stays at safe distance.

The tell was implemented to give players facing rangers a fighting chance to dodge the pushback if they need to get in melee range to do damage or are on precarious terrain. Has nothing to do with exposing bad rangers, those are already apparent.

penelopehannibal.8947:

In my opinion, there’s no such thing as a bad player. Only bad attitudes.

Lol well you are wrong. Totally and factually wrong. It’s a nice sentiment though.

And people already blamed rangers, now people will have the ability to tell which particular ranger it is. Better for one poor individual to be blamed than the entire class.

penelopehannibal.8947:

an excuse for verbal abuse.

Whenever I see a boss get knockbacked when the zerg is going melee, a little part of me dies on the inside, and then I kindly type into chat “Whoever keeps using knockback, please stop. It’s annoying for the melee players who have to chase the boss.”. If I saw the player who did it, I’ll type “[Name here] please stop using knockback. It’s annoying for the melee players who have to chase the boss”. Then they can know I’m talking to them and, hopefully, stop moving the enemy around.

calyx.9086:

penelopehannibal.8947:

In my opinion, there’s no such thing as a bad player. Only bad attitudes.

Lol well you are wrong. Totally and factually wrong. It’s a nice sentiment though.

And people already blamed rangers, now people will have the ability to tell which particular ranger it is. Better for one poor individual to be blamed than the entire class.

In the kindest way you can, please could you explain how it is better to single out a player personally, than an entire class that is not a personal matter?

Morsus.5106:

penelopehannibal.8947:

an excuse for verbal abuse.

Whenever I see a boss get knockbacked when the zerg is going melee, a little part of me dies on the inside, and then I kindly type into chat “Whoever keeps using knockback, please stop. It’s annoying for the melee players who have to chase the boss.”. If I saw the player who did it, I’ll type “[Name here] please stop using knockback. It’s annoying for the melee players who have to chase the boss”. Then they can know I’m talking to them and, hopefully, stop moving the enemy around.

Champions have the buff ‘Unshakeable’ which basically means that CC (Crowd Control) skills do not affect them. The buff comes in stacks, starting with 3 stacks plus at least one more stack per player around the champion, meaning that no matter how many players are attacking the champion, there’s only a certain number of knock backs that can happen against the Champion in question, so the number of knock backs is still limited.

At the end of the day (and by the way, I generally don’t play Ranger, though I do have 20 characters) it’s not the end of the world if melee players have to press W for a second or two to move towards the enemy in question, especially when the Ranger who used the knock back skill to interrupt an enemy that might have harmed the melee player in the first place.

Too long? Didn’t read? Don’t hate on ranger players – they are most probably helping you, even if they are new.

penelopehannibal.8947:

I’m getting increasingly worried about people’s attitudes with this. I’ve seen many people saying things similar to ‘finally, something that tells us who is knocking back so we can call rangers out on bad play’ and stuff, i.e. an excuse for verbal abuse.

My question is this: Is ArenaNet’s intention for this projectile to call players out who use this skill so-called ‘badly’ or is it ArenaNet’s intention for this skill to let enemy players have a chance to dodge the projectile in PvP & WvW?

I hope the answer is obvious.

I take that verbal abuse from melee blobs with a smile, and could care less if they don’t get their kill a fraction of a second faster w/o my knockback.

I suppose it’s some what nostalgic, I used to love using misdirection on mouthy players on my WoW Hunter, pretty funny watching Vanndar Stormpike one shot them.

GS ranger hates it just as much when a LB ranger knocks their target back. Happens to me all the time.