Guild Wars 2

@Zenos Osgorma.

Oh kitten , profession busted.

Sorry for the arrogant sounding post. I will level with you. Yes, please post a video and time to get it around is not an issue. We all have lifes to live and we shouldn’t spend so much time arguing over the internet.

But honestly, all that aggressiveness aside, the real purpose of this is to raise awareness. Some people insist on defending the pet to its utmost saying its purely a L2P issue. It is not, sure as you improve your gameplay you can improve your abilities with the class, but the pet mechanic has intrinsic flaws that no mastery of the game can compesate.

In some situations – granted not all – the pet is a loss to the ranger and that is faulty design. The class needs something to fix that. The ranger should not have to suffer in some cases due to purely its class mechanic – it should suffer from bad play from the player, not from intrinsic game design.

Azel.4786:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

you seriously took those videos for Ranger game play Solori is clearly trolling you.
I’ll record a video for you , it will be Crude 480p maybe 720p if it don’t become too blurred , i use a lot of Camra postioning.

Please do, it can be PVE World Boss Events, Fractal Runs (20+ to keep it interesting), WvW zerg fights. I welcome anyone to show case their ranger skills and how the ranger does not lose efficiency in several of those situations by having a poorly construed class mechanic.

Due to people like Solori I have to speak in plain simple English to make sure people of all ages and capabilities can understand my argument:

“The Ranger is the only class that takes a loss because of its class mechanic due to the fact that, as it is designed, the ranger loses around 25%-30% of its effeciency in several situations (World Bosses, Zerg fights, Fractals) whilst, for other classes, the class mechanic either is a plus or a neutral effect.”

Also keep in mind that keeping your pet alive is different than compensating that loss of efficiency – something Solori didn’t seem to grasp – your pet must actually compensate for the 25%-30% efficiency or even contribute to improve your class. But I will settle for now for a net effect of 0.

Preferably post your video with log battle for your damage and your pet damage. I gave Solori some handicap by going easy on him on the analysis when he used the ranged pets, but that is only because it was just fun jabs with him. For next videos I hope its something to contribute more to my argument.

You keep talking, but you’re not actually putting anything out.

YOU
go make a vid-
bandicam is free

YOU
do a fractals 20+

YOU
try and run what ever optimal build you think works

YOU
during this vid, explain why you are at a loss of efficiency compared to the other 4 pugs you are playing with.

I want to see what could have possibly have been different.
I want to see how you could contribute more to a group and if you think you are failing at contributing, during the vid, explain why in that situation a better mechanic for you would have helped.

Come on.

Show us your Gosu skills

This guy really upset that ranger got “nerfed” and thief got “buffed”?

Want to trade seats in the September FP? My ride never showed up…..

(remembering the days of 22k Wolf charge crits) before Pet nurfs . sigh.
ya sure no worries.

though a simple solution would just be to buff pets again or atleast make them ascended to close the balance gap between different class machanics.

since pets don’t benifit from the ascended stats.

Solori.6025:

You keep talking, but you’re not actually putting anything out.

YOU
go make a vid-
bandicam is free

YOU
do a fractals 20+

YOU
try and run what ever optimal build you think works

YOU
during this vid, explain why you are at a loss of efficiency compared to the other 4 pugs you are playing with.

I want to see what could have possibly have been different.
I want to see how you could contribute more to a group and if you think you are failing at contributing, during the vid, explain why in that situation a better mechanic for you would have helped.

Come on.

Show us your Gosu skills

Sigh…. once again we are back to this.

I just explained from your video how in many situations you lose 25%-30% damage efficiency from your class mechanic despite having it alive and doing something. Granted you used it to great effect in one battle, but that was one of them and in several others the effect of having a pet was negative to you in comparison to say running another warrior there.

What could have been done differently? Again, as I say, the problem is not with Gosu skills buddy, the problem is that the pet mechanic is intrisically faulty. It is not a matter of L2P it is a matter of faulty game design – and we are not in an SAO universe where we can just will it to correct it.

You want me to run a video for what? My argument is against yours. Your video contributes to my argument – hence I do not need to make a video to contribute to mine as well – End result is in some cases having a pet is loss to the ranger as in many of those cases you could be doing 25%-30% more damage if you didn’t have a pet – like the other players in your party did the 25%-30% more damage because their class mechanic isn’t designed in a faulty way.

But you touch an important subject. What could be done to improve it? After all this is the point of this Profession Balance forum.

In my opinion, the ranger should have an option besides having an active pet, I for one am in favor of the passive pet option giving a boost to the ranger – this sadly involves substantial game redesign of the class to implement. But some of those suggestions that have roamed the forums such as “spirit of the pet” posts should definetly be looked into.

Then the whole trait line for the pet should be adjusted to support these two paths – having an active pet that does damage or a passive pet that buffs you (making both interesting and appealing for different situations – those that pets are intrinsically bad would definetly favor the pet passive buffs, whilst the others could favor the active pet).

Now I haven’t gathered a clear and precise idea on this, still thinking how many things from the ranger could be improved or fixed, but the infighting in those that main ranger in favor of the pet and in denial of the intrinsic class mechanic flaws contribute to the forums never forming a good idea to fix this that can be clearly shown to ANET in favor of improving the class – not making it OP (no one with a serious thought would want that), but making it not intrinsically faulty.

Azel.4786:

Solori.6025:

You keep talking, but you’re not actually putting anything out.

YOU
go make a vid-
bandicam is free

YOU
do a fractals 20+

YOU
try and run what ever optimal build you think works

YOU
during this vid, explain why you are at a loss of efficiency compared to the other 4 pugs you are playing with.

I want to see what could have possibly have been different.
I want to see how you could contribute more to a group and if you think you are failing at contributing, during the vid, explain why in that situation a better mechanic for you would have helped.

Come on.

Show us your Gosu skills

Sigh…. once again we are back to this.

I just explained from your video how in many situations you lose 25%-30% damage efficiency from your class mechanic despite having it alive and doing something. Granted you used it to great effect in one battle, but that was one of them and in several others the effect of having a pet was negative to you in comparison to say running another warrior there.

What could have been done differently? Again, as I say, the problem is not with Gosu skills buddy, the problem is that the pet mechanic is intrisically faulty. It is not a matter of L2P it is a matter of faulty game design – and we are not in an SAO universe where we can just will it to correct it.

You want me to run a video for what? My argument is against yours. Your video contributes to my argument – hence I do not need to make a video to contribute to mine as well – End result is in some cases having a pet is loss to the ranger as in many of those cases you could be doing 25%-30% more damage if you didn’t have a pet – like the other players in your party did the 25%-30% more damage because their class mechanic isn’t designed in a faulty way.

But you touch an important subject. What could be done to improve it? After all this is the point of this Profession Balance forum.

In my opinion, the ranger should have an option besides having an active pet, I for one am in favor of the passive pet option giving a boost to the ranger – this sadly involves substantial game redesign of the class to implement. But some of those suggestions that have roamed the forums such as “spirit of the pet” posts should definetly be looked into.

Then the whole trait line for the pet should be adjusted to support these two paths – having an active pet that does damage or a passive pet that buffs you (making both interesting and appealing for different situations – those that pets are intrinsically bad would definetly favor the pet passive buffs, whilst the others could favor the active pet).

Now I haven’t gathered a clear and precise idea on this, still thinking how many things from the ranger could be improved or fixed, but the infighting in those that main ranger in favor of the pet and in denial of the intrinsic class mechanic flaws contribute to the forums never forming a good idea to fix this that can be clearly shown to ANET in favor of improving the class – not making it OP (no one with a serious thought would want that), but making it not intrinsically faulty.

No need to repeat yourself , people new to the thread can read it through.
best thing for you to do , is grab a pen and paper , provide solid evidence to support your Debate.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

(remembering the days of 22k Wolf charge crits) before Pet nurfs . sigh.
ya sure no worries.

though a simple solution would just be to buff pets again or atleast make them ascended to close the balance gap between different class machanics.

since pets don’t benifit from the ascended stats.

And also, it is great you touch on this. That is the awareness I want out of all those that play ranger.

I laughed at the 22k cri wolf charge, but that was seriously op and needed fixing.

But the pet being fixed to ascended stats is an important change that still hasn’t been done to the pets and is a way to help fix it – not entirely – but is a start for us to head into a good direction to improve the faulty class mechanic (either if we stick with only active or have both a passive and active mechanic).

Azel.4786:

What could have been done differently? Again, as I say, the problem is not with Gosu skills buddy, the problem is that the pet mechanic is intrisically faulty. It is not a matter of L2P it is a matter of faulty game design – and we are not in an SAO universe where we can just will it to correct it.

AI is faulty, I agreed with this already, but it is faulty for everyone.
No what I am asking is what could be done differently to increase the efficiency of a class who has to have a pet out at all times.

In my experience, mostly inWvW and roaming, this pet is more a buff than a hindrance.

You want me to run a video for what? My argument is against yours. Your video contributes to my argument – hence I do not need to make a video to contribute to mine as well – End result is in some cases having a pet is loss to the ranger as in many of those cases you could be doing 25%-30% more damage if you didn’t have a pet – like the other players in your party did the 25%-30% more damage because their class mechanic isn’t designed in a faulty way.

I want you to provide evidence.
My arguement is that I did everything I could to contribute using the tools I was given.
Even when my teammates went down before me my dps did not stop, because I had a pet there.
Show me why that doesnt matter.
Show me in comparison what you think should happen and what could be done to be more efficient.

But you touch an important subject. What could be done to improve it? After all this is the point of this Profession Balance forum

Improved AI pathing
Reworking the behavior of pet skills
Update to traits that are useless
Fix the freaking pigs
Speed up birds attack chain-which loops back to
Improved AI pathing

IF this entire thread would have started with AI sucks.
Instead of
PBS nerf ranger is now useless.
then I would (and others) have agreed.
That isn’t what the OP started as.

In my opinion, the ranger should have an option besides having an active pet, I for one am in favor of the passive pet option giving a boost to the ranger – this sadly involves substantial game redesign of the class to implement. But some of those suggestions that have roamed the forums such as “spirit of the pet” posts should definetly be looked into.

We know that any substantial updates and reworkings to the system most likely wont happen.
Realistically, we need to accept the fact the pet is here to stay.
Period.

Now I haven’t gathered a clear and precise idea on this, still thinking how many things from the ranger could be improved or fixed, but the infighting in those that main ranger in favor of the pet and in denial of the intrinsic class mechanic flaws contribute to the forums never forming a good idea to fix this that can be clearly shown to ANET in favor of improving the class – not making it OP (no one with a serious thought would want that), but making it not intrinsically faulty.

The ranger has one of the trickiest professions to balance because of the pet.
but we cant remove the pet.

Some thing that would help that was mentioned in this thread.
Recall- put it on a 3s CD
When a ranger recalls it’s pet the pet does an evasive leap back towards the ranger

1500r

Solves the problem of red circles and gives the pet an evasion.

Updating the sword auto would be wonderful

reverting the nerfs to shortbow now that LB has been buffed I think is neccessary, because compared to what Axe has going for it now, the shortbow isn’t as useful ( speaking from a 1v1 perspective)

Ranger pets with long activation skills need to have that attack heatseak the target.
Engineers got this buff on the rocket turrent, this should be how all long, drawn out AI attacks work.

FIX AI PATHING

honestly, its been 2yrs, Anet wants rangers to have a pet, or they would have changed it a long time ago.
The AI needs an upgrade, the behavior of AI attacks needs an upgrade.
I think fixing the AI and pet attack behavior should be priority.

But on that note.
I think all the ranger mains have been saying that since beta
Go go vid

Solori.6025:

AI is faulty, I agreed with this already, but it is faulty for everyone. No what I am asking is what could be done differently to increase the efficiency of a class who has to have a pet out at all times. In my experience, mostly in WvW and roaming, this pet is more a buff than a hindrance.

I will level with you so as to help more productive talk. You did well in the videos, in some situations you could have used a different pet, could have send it to attack more, etc, but in general you didn’t play poorly.

The fact remains though that you took a more conservative approach in your play and, although it reduces the chances of you losing your pet, it also reduces the effectiveness of the pet – but you generally have little other option.

End result is: Ranger class, by design, has its DPS split 70%-75% on Ranger and 25%-30% on Pet – and, as a result of this, by design, in the situations you played, except for one in which your pet contributed heavily to the fight, your potential in those videos were lower than if you played any other class in the game – thus they were a loss to you and your team – something no other class mechanic causes to its players.

No video I can make, either I play better or worse than you, will change that fact.

Solori.6025:

Improved AI pathing
Reworking the behavior of pet skills
Update to traits that are useless
Fix the freaking pigs
Speed up birds attack chain-which loops back to
Improved AI pathing

IF this entire thread would have started with AI sucks.
Instead of
PBS nerf ranger is now useless.
then I would (and others) have agreed.
That isn’t what the OP started as.

Well I read this thread differently, and decided to gear it towards a more productive discussion – the OP mentioned the PBS almost as “the last drop” and then ranted on the various other points. Maybe the best way then would be for us to start a new thread and tackle some real issues for the ranger.

Solori.6025:

Realistically, we need to accept the fact the pet is here to stay.

I agree with you. 2 years and a few months into the game and ANET still struggles with the Pet and, in my opinion, they have not kitten clue what to do with it. It was an initially faulty design and after all this time it has improved only slightly.

I do think however, that if they allowed the ranger to pick between a passive and an active pet option this issue with the class mechanic could be greatly improved.

For instance, I agree, many times I have won 1v1 duels while solo roaming in WvW thanks to my bird pet doing a nice 4k double hit – not something that hits consistently due to the poor AI, but still it is nice when it happens.

However we go into those scenarios I described (PVE world events, Fractals/dungeons, Zerg fights) your pet usually hinders your play instead of helping you and it is not just dumb AI or pathing issues. You are in a disadvantage by design.

The general idea I struggle is why can’t the pet also work to be a group support? The reason for this is that, if we went and made so people could choose between having a pet or having a 25%-30% damage increase, it is obvious what people would choose even in scenarios that having a pet could be useful. But if you make it so to get that effectiveness back (in buff to damage, defense, utility or what have you) you would only get the full extent of it with a party of 5 ppl (i.e., passive pet option buffs the group and not just the ranger), then it turns into a matter of choice for the situation.

And it is not even something hard to make, ANET has various templates of ghost animals they can use or they could even just have some of those glowing balls next to the ranger when the pet goes into passive mode.

Solori.6025:

Some thing that would help that was mentioned in this thread.
Recall- put it on a 3s CD
When a ranger recalls it’s pet the pet does an evasive leap back towards the ranger

1500r

Solves the problem of red circles and gives the pet an evasion.

Yes that is indeed a good idea. It really baffles me every year when I see those Hallowen spiders dodging and my 2 years and some months old pet still hasn’t learned that trick….

Solori.6025:

Updating the sword auto would be wonderful

And I would raise you the swap the Sword #2 skills.

Solori.6025:

reverting the nerfs to shortbow now that LB has been buffed I think is neccessary, because compared to what Axe has going for it now, the shortbow isn’t as useful ( speaking from a 1v1 perspective)

I love the SB despite the heavy nerfs it took and always remembering ANET stealth nerf to it 2 years back when I use it – ANET still owes and apology for that in my book.

I would change it differently though, I believe that #1 is not bad, it just needs to remove that position requirement. At least Eagle Eye should also affect the SB, extending its range and buffing its damage, it would be a nice change – SB needs some traits for it.

SB #2, in my opinion, should change to a single arrow that consolidates the Poison duration and a buffed damage due to the single shot, and #4 should have a longer cripple duration and/or have a short duration immobilize as well. #5 is good in my opinion.

Solori.6025:

Ranger pets with long activation skills need to have that attack heatseak the target.
Engineers got this buff on the rocket turrent, this should be how all long, drawn out AI attacks work.
FIX AI PATHING

Indeed, long activiation skills should be more homing, not to mention that, in my opinion, we should be granted the option to provide instructions to how the pet uses its skills – e.g., use skill X when Y happens. Or at least give us some more control over the other skills of the pet. I get angry everytime my Wolf does not use its knockdown for two-three fights in a row and then I target a random PVE moob and it tackles it.

Azel.4786:

Indeed, long activiation skills should be more homing, not to mention that, in my opinion, we should be granted the option to provide instructions to how the pet uses its skills – e.g., use skill X when Y happens. Or at least give us some more control over the other skills of the pet. I get angry everytime my Wolf does not use its knockdown for two-three fights in a row and then I target a random PVE moob and it tackles it.

Pet priority assignment
I cant remember what game had this system (may have been a console game), but basically, you assigned a moves priority and if that move was on cooldown, the AI used the next one in the priority list until and went down the line.

For example

between A B C D

if A is on cooldown the chain continues through
B C D

if A came off cooldown in between B and C, then C is skipped and A starts, then goes back through the chain.
Just an idea ( I am aware of the imperfections but it is a rough idea)

Azel.4786:

Solori.6025:

AI is faulty, I agreed with this already, but it is faulty for everyone. No what I am asking is what could be done differently to increase the efficiency of a class who has to have a pet out at all times. In my experience, mostly in WvW and roaming, this pet is more a buff than a hindrance.

I will level with you so as to help more productive talk. You did well in the videos, in some situations you could have used a different pet, could have send it to attack more, etc, but in general you didn’t play poorly.

The fact remains though that you took a more conservative approach in your play and, although it reduces the chances of you losing your pet, it also reduces the effectiveness of the pet – but you generally have little other option.

End result is: Ranger class, by design, has its DPS split 70%-75% on Ranger and 25%-30% on Pet – and, as a result of this, by design, in the situations you played, except for one in which your pet contributed heavily to the fight, your potential in those videos were lower than if you played any other class in the game – thus they were a loss to you and your team – something no other class mechanic causes to its players.

I feel like you have an unhealthy obsession with this 25-30% you put in every one of your posts. My zerker ranger is built in a way that my damage from my pet is only meant to be maybe 10% of my total output. So keeping my pet by my side for utility purposes in zerg fights is not costing me 25% damage. If it is, then my god would my ranger be overpowered if I were doing 25% more damage than 3.5k autos. Yeah I’m glassy as kitten, and I know it. But you keep saying 25-30% like every single ranger build has 30 points in BM, and that is not the case. A BM build loses 30% of its damage by having the pet on passive. But your standard meta sword forst spirit spotter dungeon crawler build does not.

Black Scoutsman.5830:

Azel.4786:

Solori.6025:

AI is faulty, I agreed with this already, but it is faulty for everyone. No what I am asking is what could be done differently to increase the efficiency of a class who has to have a pet out at all times. In my experience, mostly in WvW and roaming, this pet is more a buff than a hindrance.

I will level with you so as to help more productive talk. You did well in the videos, in some situations you could have used a different pet, could have send it to attack more, etc, but in general you didn’t play poorly.

The fact remains though that you took a more conservative approach in your play and, although it reduces the chances of you losing your pet, it also reduces the effectiveness of the pet – but you generally have little other option.

End result is: Ranger class, by design, has its DPS split 70%-75% on Ranger and 25%-30% on Pet – and, as a result of this, by design, in the situations you played, except for one in which your pet contributed heavily to the fight, your potential in those videos were lower than if you played any other class in the game – thus they were a loss to you and your team – something no other class mechanic causes to its players.

I feel like you have an unhealthy obsession with this 25-30% you put in every one of your posts. My zerker ranger is built in a way that my damage from my pet is only meant to be maybe 10% of my total output. So keeping my pet by my side for utility purposes in zerg fights is not costing me 25% damage. If it is, then my god would my ranger be overpowered if I were doing 25% more damage than 3.5k autos. Yeah I’m glassy as kitten, and I know it. But you keep saying 25-30% like every single ranger build has 30 points in BM, and that is not the case. A BM build loses 30% of its damage by having the pet on passive. But your standard meta sword forst spirit spotter dungeon crawler build does not.

That’s not possible. The reason a Ranger’s weapon coefficients are lower than that of its competitors is because of the pet mechanic. It’s not something you can build around or avoid.

As to the 30% amount, that’s up for debate

Atherakhia.4086:

Black Scoutsman.5830:

Azel.4786:

Solori.6025:

AI is faulty, I agreed with this already, but it is faulty for everyone. No what I am asking is what could be done differently to increase the efficiency of a class who has to have a pet out at all times. In my experience, mostly in WvW and roaming, this pet is more a buff than a hindrance.

I will level with you so as to help more productive talk. You did well in the videos, in some situations you could have used a different pet, could have send it to attack more, etc, but in general you didn’t play poorly.

The fact remains though that you took a more conservative approach in your play and, although it reduces the chances of you losing your pet, it also reduces the effectiveness of the pet – but you generally have little other option.

End result is: Ranger class, by design, has its DPS split 70%-75% on Ranger and 25%-30% on Pet – and, as a result of this, by design, in the situations you played, except for one in which your pet contributed heavily to the fight, your potential in those videos were lower than if you played any other class in the game – thus they were a loss to you and your team – something no other class mechanic causes to its players.

I feel like you have an unhealthy obsession with this 25-30% you put in every one of your posts. My zerker ranger is built in a way that my damage from my pet is only meant to be maybe 10% of my total output. So keeping my pet by my side for utility purposes in zerg fights is not costing me 25% damage. If it is, then my god would my ranger be overpowered if I were doing 25% more damage than 3.5k autos. Yeah I’m glassy as kitten, and I know it. But you keep saying 25-30% like every single ranger build has 30 points in BM, and that is not the case. A BM build loses 30% of its damage by having the pet on passive. But your standard meta sword forst spirit spotter dungeon crawler build does not.

That’s not possible. The reason a Ranger’s weapon coefficients are lower than that of its competitors is because of the pet mechanic. It’s not something you can build around or avoid.

As to the 30% amount, that’s up for debate

Exactly. I do not have the precise number, so I used numbers from various sources which indicated a number between the range I mentioned, but the exact math is not that relevant at this juncture.

What you mentioned is another prime example on how the pet works to the disadvantage of the ranger. In your case, say you are running a build that tries to get every inch of power, a 6,6,0,2,0 build. What is happening, by the fact the coefficient of the ranger is low as it is balanced around the pet, the increase you get in damage is also lower – so every trait point to get power or that +x% damage has in fact a lower effect on you than for any other class. Because you are raising only part of your class full potential and not 100%.

Does that mean you have to go beastmaster? No, because again the same loss of efficiency per point happens – you raise only the stats of your pet and not of the ranger (except for healing power).

Just thinking out loud here, what about then changing how pet stat increases work? How about the pet stats increasing equal with the ranger by points in other trait lines and the boost in the BM line becomes a reduction on pet skills cooldown?

Azel.4786:

Just thinking out loud here, what about then changing how pet stat increases work? How about the pet stats increasing equal with the ranger by points in other trait lines and the boost in the BM line becomes a reduction on pet skills cooldown?

That was suggest countless times and I think if done right could make much more sense than the courrent state.

I would also take the equip into consideration

Azel.4786:

Solori.6025:

Updating the sword auto would be wonderful

And I would raise you the swap the Sword #2 skills.

Solori.6025:

reverting the nerfs to shortbow now that LB has been buffed I think is neccessary, because compared to what Axe has going for it now, the shortbow isn’t as useful ( speaking from a 1v1 perspective)

I love the SB despite the heavy nerfs it took and always remembering ANET stealth nerf to it 2 years back when I use it – ANET still owes and apology for that in my book.

I would change it differently though, I believe that #1 is not bad, it just needs to remove that position requirement. At least Eagle Eye should also affect the SB, extending its range and buffing its damage, it would be a nice change – SB needs some traits for it.

SB #2, in my opinion, should change to a single arrow that consolidates the Poison duration and a buffed damage due to the single shot, and #4 should have a longer cripple duration and/or have a short duration immobilize as well. #5 is good in my opinion.

You mean swap the withdraw-leap to leap-withdraw? Hell yeah! Would be a huge QoL fix to sword imo although it’s not a bad weapon.

As for shortbow, I think all condition auto attacks should be adjusted to follow crossfire. Mindless cover up condition pressure should not be in this game, skills like engineer pistol aa and crossfire are imo the best designed because they either A) keep that 1 little variety condition in there or require some thought and can be countered.

Now I know ranger sb isn’t the best condi weapon but the 2-5 skills should be utility and condition spikes. Some weapon sets in addition to being on sets that can kite well let the aa just put out too much for little effort. For example, you can’t exactly clear a whole lot of conditions when the auto attack is putting out a damaging one every time, you’re just back to square one unless you wipe the slate clean with skills like contemplation of purity or consume conditions. Immobilized for long? Hard to get it off w/o a skill specifically removing it because of that auto attack bleed or burn or w/e.

I’m kind of surprised eagle eye doesn’t touch sb yet quickdraw and piercing arrows effect both. SB 2 is nice because it pierces and works great when shot gunned but it does seem odd to have an aoe skill on a single target weapon set. #4 is fine imo, just needs a little better bleed duration like 7 seconds (currently 5 despite tooltip, hopefully they don’t just fix the tooltip again…).

Shanks.2907:

-snip-

Warriors got a tell on their LB #5 for the same reason.

A 600 damage knockback that looks no different from an auto attack is more often than not a free knockback.

No free knockbacks. Set things up like the rest of us.

NinjaEd.3946:

Azel.4786:

Solori.6025:

Updating the sword auto would be wonderful

And I would raise you the swap the Sword #2 skills.

Solori.6025:

reverting the nerfs to shortbow now that LB has been buffed I think is neccessary, because compared to what Axe has going for it now, the shortbow isn’t as useful ( speaking from a 1v1 perspective)

I love the SB despite the heavy nerfs it took and always remembering ANET stealth nerf to it 2 years back when I use it – ANET still owes and apology for that in my book.

I would change it differently though, I believe that #1 is not bad, it just needs to remove that position requirement. At least Eagle Eye should also affect the SB, extending its range and buffing its damage, it would be a nice change – SB needs some traits for it.

SB #2, in my opinion, should change to a single arrow that consolidates the Poison duration and a buffed damage due to the single shot, and #4 should have a longer cripple duration and/or have a short duration immobilize as well. #5 is good in my opinion.

You mean swap the withdraw-leap to leap-withdraw? Hell yeah! Would be a huge QoL fix to sword imo although it’s not a bad weapon.

As for shortbow, I think all condition auto attacks should be adjusted to follow crossfire. Mindless cover up condition pressure should not be in this game, skills like engineer pistol aa and crossfire are imo the best designed because they either A) keep that 1 little variety condition in there or require some thought and can be countered.

Now I know ranger sb isn’t the best condi weapon but the 2-5 skills should be utility and condition spikes. Some weapon sets in addition to being on sets that can kite well let the aa just put out too much for little effort. For example, you can’t exactly clear a whole lot of conditions when the auto attack is putting out a damaging one every time, you’re just back to square one unless you wipe the slate clean with skills like contemplation of purity or consume conditions. Immobilized for long? Hard to get it off w/o a skill specifically removing it because of that auto attack bleed or burn or w/e.

I’m kind of surprised eagle eye doesn’t touch sb yet quickdraw and piercing arrows effect both. SB 2 is nice because it pierces and works great when shot gunned but it does seem odd to have an aoe skill on a single target weapon set. #4 is fine imo, just needs a little better bleed duration like 7 seconds (currently 5 despite tooltip, hopefully they don’t just fix the tooltip again…).

I’d rather they didn’t make Shortbow a pure condi weapon. Model it after pistol for Thief. While a powerful condi weapon, it actually has pretty strong burst skills as well. If Shortbow saw a small burst option added to one skill, torment added to another, and perhaps the stun duration increased or the cooldown reduced, it would be a great weapon for power or condi builds.

Atherakhia.4086:

Black Scoutsman.5830:

Azel.4786:

Solori.6025:

AI is faulty, I agreed with this already, but it is faulty for everyone. No what I am asking is what could be done differently to increase the efficiency of a class who has to have a pet out at all times. In my experience, mostly in WvW and roaming, this pet is more a buff than a hindrance.

I will level with you so as to help more productive talk. You did well in the videos, in some situations you could have used a different pet, could have send it to attack more, etc, but in general you didn’t play poorly.

The fact remains though that you took a more conservative approach in your play and, although it reduces the chances of you losing your pet, it also reduces the effectiveness of the pet – but you generally have little other option.

End result is: Ranger class, by design, has its DPS split 70%-75% on Ranger and 25%-30% on Pet – and, as a result of this, by design, in the situations you played, except for one in which your pet contributed heavily to the fight, your potential in those videos were lower than if you played any other class in the game – thus they were a loss to you and your team – something no other class mechanic causes to its players.

I feel like you have an unhealthy obsession with this 25-30% you put in every one of your posts. My zerker ranger is built in a way that my damage from my pet is only meant to be maybe 10% of my total output. So keeping my pet by my side for utility purposes in zerg fights is not costing me 25% damage. If it is, then my god would my ranger be overpowered if I were doing 25% more damage than 3.5k autos. Yeah I’m glassy as kitten, and I know it. But you keep saying 25-30% like every single ranger build has 30 points in BM, and that is not the case. A BM build loses 30% of its damage by having the pet on passive. But your standard meta sword forst spirit spotter dungeon crawler build does not.

That’s not possible. The reason a Ranger’s weapon coefficients are lower than that of its competitors is because of the pet mechanic. It’s not something you can build around or avoid.

As to the 30% amount, that’s up for debate

It is possible though. When I play wvw, I only count on getting a minimal amount of damage from my pet which i why I use pets that help me in ways other than damage. Spiders, Canines, etc. And dont tell me about damage coefficients being too low when I can three shot AA any zerker character less than heavy armor. If my damage coefficients are offset 25% to account for my pet then Zerker ranger is in fact, OP.

Having played both as and against Rangers a lot lately, I feel as follows:

• PBShot should have play and counterplay.
• The added cast time was a step in the right direction.
• I think the cast time should be longer by 1/4 second.

Having a noticeable cast time helps give some counterplay to it, but I think 1/2 is a bit too quick. I really like where Warrior LB 5’s cast time is at right now, and I think PBShot should get that 3/4 second treatment as well.

PBs is not a hard CC by hard CC i mean Pbs don’t Immobilse or apply Cripples .

it only Pushes back and it don’t knock you down , it is an interruption skill / Gap widen skill.

in no cases it is counted as Hard CC or Soft CC but its own Unique Interruption+distance control.

thats the difference between a Warroirs LB and a Rangers LB , Warroirs is for Crowd control.

a Rangers is a Damage Utility weapon that can be used as a Main or Second weapon providing Ranged damage and Minimal CC .

and this little tip for people trying to counter Pbs. sentence below.

The damage and push count as separate strikes; single-attack block skills such as Counterblow will prevent the damage, but not the push.

you ether need to Los or Dodge / use a Shield or Stability , many choice as the Ranger Longbow itself Lacks Hard CC , that CC everyone is suffering with , is most likely Muddy terrains , not seeing the pets Knockdown that starts the chain in the first place.

Pet KD , Ranger RF>barrage>Pbs>huntershot just like any combo set up just avoiding the Pet KD can save you the trouble of taking that chain of spikes , just like avoiding the first Hammer strike.

the point here is the weapon has Massive Flexability with the amount of combos it can do , dodges are vital to avoid the high damage attacks, RF>pet f2s (depending on pet Take notice)

pbs is the least of your worries , if you have enough HP take it , don’t waste your Stability as it only Pushes back , save it for the pet KD (i normaly try to time it , to hit at the same time as PBS)
If this is the case one dodge > then proceed to Los or Block RF or dodge>Stealth or Dodge Blink closer , at this point the ranger won’t have PBS or a pet kd , or even a RF to use , only Barrage is left or weapon swap .

If you want PBS to have a 3/4 cast and some sort of Tell/Animation , I would want it to Push back AND knockdown + increase its cooldown to 20sec , currently it only pushes and doesn’t have any CC on the skill hence why its 15secs , compaired to a Hard CC’s 25secs. immoblise is a strong condition and boy do we ranger know about it , its one of the best things we can do and adding onther source As someone in a different thread said add Immobile to PBS instead of Push back Erm no , we don’t need more Immobilise so Currently the Active / counter play of PBS is Good many options are Aviliable and it doesn’t take any options away.

if someone suggesrs they add immobilie to Push backs , then that would remove the use Of breaking the Push back with a stun break as the target is Immobilised and that would take away from the counter play , so this idea is out of the window.

the interruption is key to playing LB effectively and increasing its cast time to that of a Hard CC (immobilse)+Pieces and deals bleeds there is no compairing these two skills.

the only thing I think PBS needs is a Better Animation changing the arrow is too small for (low spec computers to notice) and is easly covered for by Shiny Aoes.

in small groups fights , its easy to notice if you keep your Eye out for it, if you haven’t seen the new PBS get a friend to show case it to you , so you know what it looks like.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Solori.6025:

A simple recall and passive setting would fix your issue, something any good player has hotkeyed

Having the pet on passive = a good player? Oooh, alrighty then.

Stupid question but how do you hotkey the passive/agressive function on pets? Because i have looked it up so many times in options but cant find it anywhere. Or im just blind.

But yea in order to keep your pet alive in WvW its better to have it on passive and manually send it in and out of fights with F1 and F3. So it does not get killed in an aoe spam.

Point Blank Shot had no tell what-so-ever. For a skill that can launch you quite some distance and a skill that 90% of Ranger’s abuse in group content by knocking NPC’s all over the place, I think this change was completely deserved. And this is coming from a Ranger. It’s not a nerf, it’s a change. Having a wind up gives it counterplay and although there hasn’t been much of a change with Ranger’s abusing it in group content, the frequency does seem to have decreased a bit.

tldr; STOP SLAPPING NPC’S AROUND ALL THE GODkitten TIME WITH PBS AND MAYBE IT WON’T GET CHANGED. As a Ranger myself, that crap annoys me beyond belief. Same goes for Mesmer greatsword pushes. If you’re not interrupting something DON’T USE THE SKILL.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Solori.6025:

A simple recall and passive setting would fix your issue, something any good player has hotkeyed

Having the pet on passive = a good player? Oooh, alrighty then.

I wouldn’t say = good player but knowing when to have your pet on passive is definitely a sign of someone who’s using their pets properly. A perfect example is all the Rangers in WvW who don’t have their pets set to passive when in zergs, then complain that their pets die too fast. Of course it’s going to die within 5 seconds if it’s trying to attack someone at the back of an enemy zerg when it doesn’t even know how to dodge. Put it on passive and it’ll stay alive longer, it won’t necessarily stay alive for the entire fight but at least it won’t be chasing a squirrel somewhere across the map.