Guild Wars 2

Rune of the Ranger:
+175 Precision (8.33% Crit-Chance)
+100 Ferocity
+7% damage while you have an active companion.
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Since the patch to fix the minipet bug, the runes effect of +7% damage while you have an active companion, doesn’t work with the Mesmer’s illusions. Neither clones nor phantasms. This is an obvious issue that is hurting the Mesmer in dungeons and fractals for a long time. A profession that isn’t in a good place is these areas to begin with. A fix to this bug is long overdue.

However, the rune still works perfectly with the other professions’ companions. The Necromancer’s minions, the Ranger’s pets and even the Guardian’s Spirit Weapons. I’m not sure about the Elementalist’s elementals. All of which, are classes that don’t use this rune. As there’re other runes that fit their needs better.

Out of all of the professions, the Mesmer needs this rune the most. Evident to that, is the Mesmer’s gear choice. It’s the only profession to use Assassin gear in dungeons and fractals. It’s because the Mesmer needs the extra critical chance to maximize its damage potential. Which is achieved through reflects. The Mesmer also lacks reliable damage modifiers. The Rune of The Ranger would meet theses needs, if it weren’t bugged for the Mesmer.

The Mesmer competes for the role of providing reflects to the party with the Guardian. A profession with superior DPS and superior party wide support. The main offender is the Guardian’s Wall of Reflection. It’s easy to use, both for the Guardian and rest of his party. It can be placed manually, it’s easy to see for the rest of the team, it has a long duration, and a short cooldown. As such, the Mesmer needs to utilize all the tools available to him in order to compete.

Mesmer isn’t one of the top desired professions in dungeons and fractals. It may not even be the best profession to provide reflects to the group. As such, it sorely needs the mechanics which already exist in the game, to work properly for him. In this case, the Rune of the Ranger. I think that it’s high time Anet has addressed this blatant bug. What do you think?

Edit Reasoning: People are distracted from the main issue of this thread. The only issue of this thread. Rune of the Ranger

Rune of the Eagle is the weaker brother of the Rune of the Ranger. You can just go with this. Or simply go a full kitten equip and use Rune of the Scholar. I know what you mean by “good stats the rune provides”, but in the end, every class is best with scholar runes if you look at the dps, even mes.

It WAS a bug, now it is fixed, not vice versa! I don’t think they should add Illusions to the companions list again, since it honestly makes sense that they aren’t companions.

I’d rather like to see new rune ideas like “precision, ferocity and 6th bonus 20% more dmg on reflected projectiles” or just fix old weak runes to be better. Right now everything is about power, precision or ferocity and a high dmg modifier.

Mesmer not one of the top desired professions? Yea, the same reason why engis aren’t either – the average player.

I always prefer a really good mesmer, so he / she can replace the guardian. Except for long uptime stability (and aegis / protection, but this isn’t really needed for dungeons anyway, neither for fractals if you got a thief / engi), the mes does everything else better than the guard, especially reflect thx to mimic now. It’s just much much harder.

Much has changed since the spec patch and I love it. Also I think most ppl don’t see the full potential of power block against certain champs yet. Especially since it works with frost bow. There are many things that haven’t come to the meta, since everything is about a wanna be old school phantasm build. Ever tried a pve oriented shatter build? Really love the vuln, blinds and boonstrips against ascalonian monks and dredges (fractals). Against trash mobs, phantasms have always been terrible anyway. be creative I say!

Thank you for thoughtful response.

Why do you think that it’s okay for the rune not to work with the mesmer’s companions but it’s okay for every other profession’s spawned companion? The guardian spirit weapons come to mind.
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Wall of Reflection
40 Recharge time
Duration:10s
Ground-targeted

Feedback
32 Recharge time
Duration: 6s

The mesmer doesn’t outclass the guardian where it come to support through healing, protection and aegis. Not even when it comes down to DPS. I don’t understand what it does better than the guardian.

Moreover, the guardian may utilize reflects better than a mesmer, since they’ve a longer duration reflect skill on a bit longer cooldown. Feedback upkeep is 0.1875s, while WoR is 0.25s. Resulting in an positive upkeep of 0.0625s for WoR.

The mesmer may has more reflect skills and even traits. But they’re mostly 1 second duration. And you need to choose them over other traits that may increase your dps.

Or even acrifice a utility slot. So with Mimic and Feedback I reflect for 2 more seconds than a guardian, but one of my utility skills is on a 72 seconds CD.
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However, this issue is for another thread. I know it’s an important issue to us mesmers. But let’s try to stay on point. Which is the Rune of the Ranger not working with our illusions.

Standard Mesmer traits will include Glamour traits, increasing the uptime of Feedback by 2s to 8s on a 32s recharge.

The actual cooldown of Feedback reflect is 24s reflection for a 72s cooldown. (8s + Mimic + 8s, actual cooldown goes off, 32s later, you get 8s of reflect, 32s later, Mimic is off cooldown). This ends up with a 0.33s uptime. Since you’re traited for Glamours, you probably also have the trait on Focus and maybe the trait on Medic’s Feedback. If an NPC is dead (or an ally goes down) you get another 8s on 32s cooldown, which you can drop at least twice during the 72s of reflection, totaling to up to 40s of reflect on a 72s cooldown, which is over 0.5 or 50% reflection. Then you add in 1x Warden (or 2x with Signet of the Ether), which eventually becomes 3x Warden (100% reflection uptime). And also Temporal Curtain which is another 5s reflection on a 20s cooldown (0.25s upkeep).

Aka, a Mesmer, in an instant, has 21s reflection upkeep (2x Feedback + TC) in addition to 2 Wardens (20s cooldown) or 3 with Signet of the Ether.

If you start with TC, you end up with 26s of reflection.

Esplen, thank you for your input. This thread however is about Rune of the Ranger. As the title displays. I’m sorry if a paragraph on the original post was taking your, and anybody elses, attention from the reason I made this thread in the first place. I edited it accordingly.

Mesmer reflects are an important subject and as such deserves its own thread. This isn’t it however.

Each other companion you have mentioned are permanent that stay around out of combat. Mesmer clones are clearly not the same as the others and therefore not considered a companion. Don’t know why that doesn’t make sense to you…

They don’t even work with guardian spirits, only with ranger pets now. So this whole thing is irrelevant. Tested dps on guardian with and without spirits in HOTM, no change whatsoever but works with ranger who has a pet.

Hence, why it’s called rune of the ranger.

With that logic, Runes of the Mesmer should increase daze duration on mesmer only?

Frifox has a point, if the rune is supposed to work only with pets, it wouldn’t make sense at all. Afaik the rune works with thief guilds, necro pets, spirit weapons and elementals, since they are following you around, they are COMPANIONS, unlike illusions who are bound to the enemy and are rather a dot like feature.

I know somone tested it with guard, but I’m not sure if you tested precise enough. I’m pretty sure it works with spirit weapons, but if it doesn’t, the whole thing doesn’t make any sense at all …

We’re not basing it on the name of the rune, we’re basing on what you define as a companion. If it were up to me I would allow illusions/clones to be counted as companions. But , really there’s much better runes than ranger for mesmer in terms of damage even if they did work with clones.

And are you sure you tested enough to make sure they do work with mesmer? Raw DPS tests with steady weapons?

blitzkrieg.2451:

We’re not basing it on the name of the rune, we’re basing on what you define as a companion. If it were up to me I would allow illusions/clones to be counted as companions. But , really there’s much better runes than ranger for mesmer in terms of damage even if they did work with clones.

Only the rune of the scholar is “better” than the rune of the ranger but only in raw damage. It’s weaker for reflected projectiles and even weaker for wardens reflection. So no – there aren’t much better rune*S* than ranger – there is only one and only for speedruns.

blitzkrieg.2451:

And are you sure you tested enough to make sure they do work with mesmer? Raw DPS tests with steady weapons?

Everyone says they don’t.

stamps.4089:

Each other companion you have mentioned are permanent that stay around out of combat. Mesmer clones are clearly not the same as the others and therefore not considered a companion. Don’t know why that doesn’t make sense to you…

Don’t you think it’s weird that the Rune of The Ranger is the only rune that’s limited by profession? Only 2 out of currently 8 professions (soon to be 9) can use it. It not working is the bug, rather than the other way around.

Moreover, your definition of “permanent” is severely lacking. All companions can die. All have other conditions as well. Conditions that wouldn’t meet the 6th effect of the rune. Pets can be stowed. Minions can be ordered to explode or be sacrificed. Turrets can be picked up. Spirit Weapons and Elementals have a limited time duration. And Illusions dissipate when their enemy dies.

Rune of The Ranger should work with any AI spawned by the player:
Ranger’s Pets.
Necromancer’s Minions.
Engineer’s Turrets.
Guardian’s Spirit Weapons.
Elementalist’s Elementals.
Thief’s Thieves Guild.
Mesmer’s Illusions.
-It seems the Warrior is the only one without a companion mechanic :P.-

The profession that is the easiest to maintain an active companion for, is the Ranger. Hence, the runes name.

That’s why, at its current state, it doesn’t make sense to me. Although, it has before. When it worked as I pointed above. Unfortunately it had a bug of also working with a mini-pet out. Which led to a crude fix that crippled this rune original intention.

Well … I bet most so called “handsome” norn warriors out there get drunk every evening and make out with their banners … sooooo we could call those “companions” too

Companion mechanically seems to be defined as summoned AI’s that follow the player: pets, Elementals, Thief broskies, etc.

Mesmer Illusions are different in that they don’t follow the player but rather the target that they were summoned against.

Personally I’m okay with Rune of the Ranger not applies to Mesmers as Illusions don’t act as companions. I agree that originally it was a bug and that it was rightfully corrected.

I can now see why some may not see a thematic fit. That being said, I don’t see a harm in the Rune of The Ranger working for the Mesmer’s Illusions. On the contrary, I think it can help mesmers pugging in dungeons and fractals. Which in my opinion, could use the help.

I thought, and still do, that mesmers could benefit from using this rune the most, out of any other profession. It has the precision to increase the crit-chance for our reflects. It also has a damage modifier that could’ve been used to enhance said reflects even more. It would’ve been a close to perfect fit. And for some time, it was.

Can anyone negate including Illusions in the Companion close? With only gameplay in mind.

Here’s why an Illusion doesn’t follow the companion model:

• Doesn’t follow player, follows its target
• Cannot be summoned out of battle
• Most attributes are mirrored to that of the player’s
• Disappear once their target is destroyed

Companions follow practically the opposite of the above list

• Follows player or will at least leash back to player if target is beyond a certain range
• Can be ‘summoned’ at-will so long as the skill/item is off cooldown.
• Companions have base attributes independent of the player’s*
• Remain summoned until they are defeated, their timer runs out, or the skill used to summon them is slotted out.

*Ranger pets still have base attributes of their own but are augmented with certian Ranger traits.

Interesting! My best guess is Illusions and other Companions use different AI models. You can certainly “command” your Companions (turrets/ spirit weapons/ elementals/ pets), but you can only destroy (i.e. shatter) your illusions instead of commanding them.

Illusions are not pets/companions, they are HEXes in physical form.

Hex spells require a target, Illusions require a target.
Hex’s only affect the target, Illusions only attack their target.
Hex’s remain on the target until the Hex is removed, is timed out(triggered) or the target dies.
Illusions remain on a target until the Illusion is killed, is shattered or the target dies.

Illusions are NOT re-animated flesh and bones summoned by the dark arts.
Illusions are NOT fallen hero’s called forth to do battle again.
Illusions are NOT wild beasts that have been trained to fight along side their master.

Illusions are glass, a trick of the light, a mirage, they are ILLUSION.