Guild Wars 2

Guard: Pets will no longer guard areas that should be inaccessible to them.
This has always felt like it was not working as intended, and it seems Anet felt the same. Cats climbing walls as if they are spider-hybrids is unrealistic, even for a fantasy game. A well deserved change, albeit a massive nerf to some playstyles. However, Guard now officially has lost the only good use it had, so I’m hoping that the next patch will buff it in some other way. Nobody will be using this shout now.

Crippling Talon: Cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
A very, very minor buff to an attack of an off-hand nobody uses, and to be honest this buff does not give me any more reason to use this weapon. It is still incredibly lackluster, overshadowed in mediocrity only by the off-hand axe. I’m hoping that our dagger will be receiving more well-deserved buffs in the future, because as of now it is still one of our worst weapons. Either way, it is a good beginning.

Empathic Bond: Fixed a bug that wouldn’t apply transferred conditions to pets. This trait now transfers three conditions to the ranger’s pet every 10 seconds rather than all of them.
Ouch. A double nerf and a massive blow to many different builds. The first part of the change was admittedly a bug, as is stated in the description above, but it is still a massive nerf to the 0/0/30/10/30 build. If you are suffering from weakness, cripple, immobilize, or chilled, and EB ticks, then your pet, who is your main source of damage, can no longer do any worthwhile damage. Painful indeed, but this change was necessary.

What was not necessary however is the second part: nerfing EB from transferring ALL conditions to only THREE conditions. This change has pretty much killed one of the few good traits we have. I can only guess as to what Anet’s reasons for nerfing EB like this is, but I feel like it was undeserved.

Hawk and Eagle now have their own unique icons instead of sharing one.
It’s something, I suppose. Not much to comment on this one, other than it being a good change.

Path of Scars: This ability’s damage has been normalized between traited and non-traited versions. Damage has been increased by 85% when not traited.
Though a bigger buff than the buff to the off-hand dagger, it still leaves the off-hand axe swimming in mediocrity. Path of Scar’s damage could have been increased by 170%, and I would still not be using it. Why? Because it’s just a bit of damage. It doesn’t do anything else. It doesn’t help me survive. It doesn’t slow my opponent down. It does nothing. And besides, Whirling Defense is still a horrible skill against anything other than rangers and the occasional rifle warrior/shortbow thief. All in all, the off-hand axe could definately use some more love.

Icy Screech: The White Moa activated ability now applies 3 seconds of Chill, and the skill fact has been updated appropriately.
I’m not entirely certain whether this is a buff or a nerf, but either way I doubt anyone will be using this moa anywhere anyway. They’re simply too weak.

So, what conclusion can we draw from this patch? Well, overall we have been hit by the nerfbat, and we got barely anything in return. Shouts are still lackluster, as are signets, spirits, and none have even been looked at this patch. Our weapons have also remained virtually unchanged.

All in all, quite a disappointment, especially when considering literally every other class received nothing but love. But I suppose we are, and always will be, the adopted red-haired stepchild.

Path of scars on my power/precision/crit damage armor set did 2000 per hit, and it hits twice. Now it gets to do 8000 on double crits. The dagger is hardly mediocre, it gives you a dodge, cripple and two long lasting strong condition damage.

Florgknight.1589:

Path of scars on my power/precision/crit damage armor set did 2000 per hit, and it hits twice. Now it gets to do 8000 on double crits. The dagger is hardly mediocre, it gives you a dodge, cripple and two long lasting strong condition damage.

I highly doubt your PoS does that much damage.

There is also no reason at all to take dagger over warhorn or torch. Dagger is just infinitely worse.

But this is not a thread to discuss which weapon is worse. This thread is dedicated to evaluating the latest patch.

Not much changed. It appears that I will no longer get insta-killed while using barrage on a zerg though, due to how retaliation is now handled.

Personally, I think path of scars is actually worth using now for increased damage and a different type of aoe IF you are running oh axe, and nobody is. However, one way to make this skill more useful would be instead of increasing the damage to add a 1s stun or daze (you are throwing the axe with enough force to go through enemies correct?) on hit. Still, I don’t think this will make up for the incredibly weak axe oh #5 skill that is entirely useless in any form of pvp since it grants no stability, movement, protection, or even real damage. If somebody sees you using this they will either melee you, drop aoe bombs/conditions, or simply stun/daze you and burst.

Overall, rangers took more nerfs than buffs in this patch.

Guard gives 8 seconds of Protection to your pet. I use it for that fact, personally.

Oh well… there is always March… April…. May…..Ju…. maybe within a 4 month block they can make some changes that are worth a crap to the class. But I doubt it, its become quite obvious they give 0 <insert you know what> about this class.

Warhorn still the better choice than axe.

I have a briefer evaluation:

Crap.

i’m glad the eagle and hawk icons were changed. i always though that was a bigger issue than the fact that they are the same kittening bird with the same kittening skills.

GG.

Well the value of each weapon is dependant on your play stlye, but a buff is a buff even if its doesn affect your normal build or play style (maybe some of use will learn to use more of what the ranger has to offer).

You can complain about the Empathic bond and call it a neft. But I really feel it was kind of cheating. The skill is fixed and you still complain (guess we just look at what we want and not whats fair).

The path of scar buff is big. Don’t just dismiss it. Play with it a bit.

You have to look at the bigger picture. There are two more globe buffs. Fire aura and Frost aura. If you dont know what it is you may know it by frost armor and fire armor.
Gained by doing a leap finisher in the respective fields.

Icy screech I sure most of you dont know if its a buff or a neft. so why view this as a negative. (If you want to cry then cry but dont act like it because of the patch some time you have got to cry/complain its ok but dont bring everyone down with you).

Guard has recieved a neft but it does have other uses.

So my count is:

1 True nerf =Guard

2 off-hand weapon buffs= dagger and axe

1 bug fix =empathic bond (transfering all the condtion to my pet would be a bad thing) So its equally bad and good 1/2 each

1 unknown.= icy screech

2 global buffs= frost aura and fire aura.

I am not counting hawk and eagle icon.

You can hate this patch all you want and you can make outragous claims of how ranger are totally screwed. With all things consider this was a good patch.

Guard was really abused in WvW. (in conjuction with mesmers) This Guard neft most likly had the least affect on overall wvw game play and still correct a problem.

@ Serraphin

yes the emp bond was a fix and a nerf at the same time. they fixed it to where the pet gets the conditions now but nerfed the number of conditions. However i think what is upsetting is that they will take the time to fix bugs that work in the rangers favor but don’t touch any of the bugs that are hurting the ranger.

85% increase to one ability of an offhand that is still sub par to other offhand items doesn’t help anything.

anet has even stated that rangers is the class that is in the most need of improvements. So a class that is in this state should not be receiving any kind of nerfs even if it is bug fixes until they fix some of the other stuff.

nerfing the weaker classes while buffing the already strong classes is just bad.

Agadar.4931:

Guard: Pets will no longer guard areas that should be inaccessible to them.
This has always felt like it was not working as intended, and it seems Anet felt the same. Cats climbing walls as if they are spider-hybrids is unrealistic, even for a fantasy game. A well deserved change, albeit a massive nerf to some playstyles. However, Guard now officially has lost the only good use it had, so I’m hoping that the next patch will buff it in some other way. Nobody will be using this shout now.

Crippling Talon: Cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
A very, very minor buff to an attack of an off-hand nobody uses, and to be honest this buff does not give me any more reason to use this weapon. It is still incredibly lackluster, overshadowed in mediocrity only by the off-hand axe. I’m hoping that our dagger will be receiving more well-deserved buffs in the future, because as of now it is still one of our worst weapons. Either way, it is a good beginning.

Empathic Bond: Fixed a bug that wouldn’t apply transferred conditions to pets. This trait now transfers three conditions to the ranger’s pet every 10 seconds rather than all of them.
Ouch. A double nerf and a massive blow to many different builds. The first part of the change was admittedly a bug, as is stated in the description above, but it is still a massive nerf to the 0/0/30/10/30 build. If you are suffering from weakness, cripple, immobilize, or chilled, and EB ticks, then your pet, who is your main source of damage, can no longer do any worthwhile damage. Painful indeed, but this change was necessary.

What was not necessary however is the second part: nerfing EB from transferring ALL conditions to only THREE conditions. This change has pretty much killed one of the few good traits we have. I can only guess as to what Anet’s reasons for nerfing EB like this is, but I feel like it was undeserved.

Hawk and Eagle now have their own unique icons instead of sharing one.
It’s something, I suppose. Not much to comment on this one, other than it being a good change.

Path of Scars: This ability’s damage has been normalized between traited and non-traited versions. Damage has been increased by 85% when not traited.
Though a bigger buff than the buff to the off-hand dagger, it still leaves the off-hand axe swimming in mediocrity. Path of Scar’s damage could have been increased by 170%, and I would still not be using it. Why? Because it’s just a bit of damage. It doesn’t do anything else. It doesn’t help me survive. It doesn’t slow my opponent down. It does nothing. And besides, Whirling Defense is still a horrible skill against anything other than rangers and the occasional rifle warrior/shortbow thief. All in all, the off-hand axe could definately use some more love.

Icy Screech: The White Moa activated ability now applies 3 seconds of Chill, and the skill fact has been updated appropriately.
I’m not entirely certain whether this is a buff or a nerf, but either way I doubt anyone will be using this moa anywhere anyway. They’re simply too weak.

So, what conclusion can we draw from this patch? Well, overall we have been hit by the nerfbat, and we got barely anything in return. Shouts are still lackluster, as are signets, spirits, and none have even been looked at this patch. Our weapons have also remained virtually unchanged.

All in all, quite a disappointment, especially when considering literally every other class received nothing but love. But I suppose we are, and always will be, the adopted red-haired stepchild.

Nothing but love? What?

The changes were garbage for most classes. Even though superficially necros seemed like they got something, they didn’t. They got more damage to the only ability on a crappy weapon with no sustained damage (#1 skill hits for nothing, almost as bad as Ricochet and it’s single target), and more boon stripping pigeonholing. Their minions are still crap and nothing was done, while the mesmer got a third of autoattack made multitarget the necro still remains the ONLY MELEE SINGLE TARGET class, and death shroud is still crappy for a mechanic.

Engineer didn’t get that much better, and neither did scepter eles (who are bad outside bunker specs). Mesmer scepter still sucks big time, nothing changed.

I think you people should not be fooled into thinking this is a balance patch despite what anet may say.

It isn’t this patch has no more balance, meaningful changes than the December one.

People, quit saying the Path of Scar change was a massive buff, It wasn’t….

It wasn’t a massive buff at all, Since if you’re using offhand axe, you’re going to be using the Off hand Training talent anyway.

Class balance patches keep making me die on the inside. The one before this one was okay, but not great. I was hoping for better this time, and it was worse.

Why have they still not ‘discovered’ that the Longbow firing animation slows down the attack speed of the Longbow too much, making it much slower and therefore much weaker than it’s obviously supposed to be? Why have they not done anything to address the issues with spirits, or pet survivability?

I haven’t been playing much the last couple months, but I came back to check out what kind of changes had been made to my beloved Ranger profession.

The nerf to Empathic Bond is ridiculous. Guess I’ll go back to playing M&B Warband for a couple more months.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

You can hate this patch all you want and you can make outragous claims of how ranger are totally screwed. With all things consider this was a good patch.

Guard was really abused in WvW. (in conjuction with mesmers) This Guard neft most likly had the least affect on overall wvw game play and still correct a problem.

It’s not so much about what was there as it is about what wasn’t there.

This really isn’t a difficult thing to understand. It’s the absence of meaningful improvements that has people so upset. We’ve been waiting since beta for them to fix the ranger.

Florgknight.1589:

Path of scars on my power/precision/crit damage armor set did 2000 per hit, and it hits twice. Now it gets to do 8000 on double crits. The dagger is hardly mediocre, it gives you a dodge, cripple and two long lasting strong condition damage.

Anet doesnt make big changes they make small changes. The last time they made a big change we lose the great sword.

Patch of scar can hit upto 5 targets twice at about 2k a pop for non crit. with a range of 1200 when traited.

Empathic bond was an error they fixed it. Tha’st like the bank depositing $10,000 in your acount instead of $1,000. It wasnt yours to keep so why are you getting bent out of shape when they take it back.

What so difficult to understand that you are really not promised anything. Anything that was said is subject to change. They have stated this over and over.

With this patch we took 2 steps back and 4 steps forward. We are slowly making improvements.

People expect stuff like pet aoe reduction. Who said they were even considering this.
Factal pet stablity is a concern but it’s not a quick fix.

If
My Kind asked me an Iphone5 for thier birthday And complained they got Samsung Galaxy Note II. I would take it away and give them a motorola star tac.

So with that said: Thank Anet for the improvement. (Secretly wishing Anet could remove the improvement for all those who an ungrateful yet keep them for those who are).

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Anet doesnt make big changes they make small changes. The last time they made a big change we lose the great sword.

Patch of scar can hit upto 5 targets twice at about 2k a pop for non crit. with a range of 1200 when traited.

Empathic bond was an error they fixed it. Tha’st like the bank depositing $10,000 in your acount instead of $1,000. It wasnt yours to keep so why are you getting bent out of shape when they take it back.

What so difficult to understand that you are really not promised anything. Anything that was said is subject to change. They have stated this over and over.

With this patch we took 2 steps back and 4 steps forward. We are slowly making improvements.

People expect stuff like pet aoe reduction. Who said they were even considering this.
Factal pet stablity is a concern but it’s not a quick fix.

If
My Kind asked me an Iphone5 for thier birthday And complained they got Samsung Galaxy Note II. I would take it away and give them a motorola star tac.

So with that said: Thank Anet for the improvement. (Secretly wishing Anet could remove the improvement for all those who an ungrateful yet keep them for those who are).

A. Path of Scars wasn’t changed to be more useful, If you used the Off hand Training Talent (and you should have been using it period) you receive nothing….This patch doesn’t improve the line at all…It’s still our worst off hand weapon by far.

B. Empathetic Bond went from removing all conditions, to removing 3, That’s a massive nerf, It also wasn’t a “fix” either… That was a flat nerf..The “fix” you’re talking about is our pets getting those conditions, Despite the fact that the Talent was never worded that way in the first place “It says the pet takes the conditions” It never said it Transferred the conditions.

C. We lost guard as an actual usable ability.

The only actual buff in the patch is Crippling Talon, and even that wasn’t much of a buff.

You people saying off hand axe is awful clearly don’t know how to use the off hand axe to its full potential… it hits twice and has a 100% projectile combo finisher… i’ll just let that sink in on the possibilities….

All in all, i think it was a good patch, got 2 bug fixes (granted both were being exploited by the majority of this forum), 2 buffs, and some minor changes that are just, well that, minor.

I know i’m not getting 8k dmg off my path of scars, but i’m sure as hell getting some nice damage from it, and the buff is SIGNIFICANTLY noticeable.

PS: Why would i be required to take off hand training for it? all it does is lower the already low CDs…

Durzlla.6295:

You people saying off hand axe is awful clearly don’t know how to use the off hand axe to its full potential… it hits twice and has a 100% projectile combo finisher… i’ll just let that sink in on the possibilities….

All in all, i think it was a good patch, got 2 bug fixes (granted both were being exploited by the majority of this forum), 2 buffs, and some minor changes that are just, well that, minor.

I know i’m not getting 8k dmg off my path of scars, but i’m sure as hell getting some nice damage from it, and the buff is SIGNIFICANTLY noticeable.

PS: Why would i be required to take off hand training for it? all it does is lower the already low CDs…

Offhand training increases Path of Scars damage….

All this patch did was buff its normal damage within 85% of Offhand Trainings current damage.

if you ran Offhand Training, you’re doing no more damage then you did before the patch.

Jarul.8635:

Increased range ^^ That’s why.

Yea also increased Range

iateacat.3874:

I have a briefer evaluation:

Crap.

And as a woman who has played MMOs since the beginning of MMOs, I will add another brief, one word term:

Tears

only word can explain this patch for all ranger
PATHETIC

Pets swap is back to normal out of combat.

Also something everyone seems to omit from this patch but affects rangers with wilderness survival traited is the nerf to the stealth not reseting aggro any more.

Now the IX skill Hide in Plain Sight is practically useless in pvE since the aggro doesn’t get off you when the stealth is applied. This might not make such a huge difference in killing normal mobs for grinding / daily achievements but it makes a huge difference in dungeons / champion soloing. Can’t count how many times this have saved my life when my pet was simply to stupid to hold on to the boss aggro and one stun / knockback put me in stealth and switched the aggro over to the pet / another group member.

Well played Anet….

This is me on my Thief….

yet they nerf Rangers

In my opinion, our beloved class is still BS @ effectiveness.
Some says, its ranged, so it don’t needs high damages when I has 101% crit dmg.
Fire Fire Fire Bang! The foe reached me already. Risens shadowstep in my face.
Avoid with Lightning reflexes quickly? It ruins 10% of my dmg then. Pets will no tank for you anymore…

Xsorus.2507:

Offhand training increases Path of Scars damage….

All this patch did was buff its normal damage within 85% of Offhand Trainings current damage.

if you ran Offhand Training, you’re doing no more damage then you did before the patch.

OK, so the damage buff to Path of Scars is an unlisted component of Offhand Training?

Hey guys, listen to this; we just got a huge buff versus thieves, no kidding :-) Why? Because of the fact their stealth now doesnt reset NPC’s (INCLUDING ranger PETS). Test it? Its like Benny Hill show intro last night. Thief stealth, pet runs around chasingf invisible thief, pouncing and stunning said thief, thief out of stealth, stunned, lol. Even whe the pet cant find the thief immediately, it jumps on him very fast again, because culling doesnt affect NPC’s :-) Maybe not a great patch specifically for the ranger class, but a huge buff versus thieves.

I’m finding comments like, dagger is one if our worse weapons, to be a little dumb and really it’s comments like that which don’t help with the issues that we do have.

capuchinseven.8395:

I’m finding comments like, dagger is one if our worse weapons, to be a little dumb and really it’s comments like that which don’t help with the issues that we do have.

Dagger is one of our best weapons

The only weapon that’s really just not super great is Offhand Axe, and this patch didn’t really improve it (The being to move while doing Whirling Axe would actually Make axe more viable as a weapon)

The Nerfing of things like Guard doesn’t help the class, That basically removes all that abilities use…There is zero reason now to really use it anymore.

Now I understand that Guard + Search And Rescue ressing a Mesmer is broken, and frankly needed a fix…But nerfing Guard wasn’t the solution, The solution should of been to put a bloody release timer on people in Towers/keeps…

But that might actually hurt “zergs” so they won’t do that.

Instead we lose an aspect of play in this game that made the Ranger somewhat fun to play.

Then they go and gut our best talent…

Now i wouldn’t be that annoyed if they’d actually bothered to actually do something with the classes flaws, and for example..Our Spirit line, but its been 5 bloody month’s or so and they’ve not freakin touched them…..or made them remotely viable in any way.

I don’t know..I just don’t see the point in continuing on waiting for them to do something remotely interesting with the class.

I agree dagger is awesome, which makes it silly when posts like this claim it’s useless (among other silly points). All it does is detract from actual valid issues that we are having, like the points you raised.

ANet is starting to confuse me and its getting tiring. No idea where they are going with balance.

i tested warpath…it’s kinda neat hitting someone for 4k at 1100. but #5 is so freaking bad that it totally kills the weapon. youre not even deflecting, youre blocking. and sitting still for 5 seconds is a recipe for getting owned.

no spirit buff makes me freaking sad and hopeless for the prof.

nerva.7940:

i tested warpath…it’s kinda neat hitting someone for 4k at 1100. but #5 is so freaking bad that it totally kills the weapon. youre not even deflecting, youre blocking. and sitting still for 5 seconds is a recipe for getting owned.

no spirit buff makes me freaking sad and hopeless for the prof.

Are you sure? Axe 5 used to reflect, in fact I used to love letting rifle warriors killshot themselves. It also would be useful in melee range with a pet swap as it would apply the vulnerability very quickly.

But it defiantly used to reflect, I loved off hand axe because of that. Still do from time to time.

it never reflected, only blocked.

It’s a proven fact that they don’t give a kitten about this class since the BWE is over.
Play one of the 5 classes that are left. Seriously. It will NEVER get buffed like we want.
Just play 100 babys warrior, perma regen ele or culling abusing thief, like everyone else, because HEY YOU CAN PLAY WHAT YOU WANT AM I RIGHT?!

nerva.7940:

it never reflected, only blocked.

It didn’t Nerva, the tooltip stated that it blocked projectiles but it 100% did reflect them. It’s been talked about here many times by many posters but the wiki also states that it reflects. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Whirling_Defense

I used to use it constantly in keep/tower defence, it was a great skill and only dropped it for the dagger evade and cripple.

Are you saying that it now only blocks the attacks?

nerva.7940:

it never reflected, only blocked.

Wrong. I used to let Karka’s kill themself with axe #5.

capuchinseven.8395:

nerva.7940:

it never reflected, only blocked.

It didn’t Nerva, the tooltip stated that it blocked projectiles but it 100% did reflect them. It’s been talked about here many times by many posters but the wiki also states that it reflects. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Whirling_Defense

I used to use it constantly in keep/tower defence, it was a great skill and only dropped it for the dagger evade and cripple.

Are you saying that it now only blocks the attacks?

It definetly still reflects projectiles, both before and after patch.

k good. still needs to be cast while moving.

nerva.7940:

k good. still needs to be cast while moving.

This I completly agree with. Only then will I consider using off-hand axe again.

Phew, was worried then, I love slotting an axe and using #5 in keep defence.

Xsorus.2507:

Durzlla.6295:

You people saying off hand axe is awful clearly don’t know how to use the off hand axe to its full potential… it hits twice and has a 100% projectile combo finisher… i’ll just let that sink in on the possibilities….

All in all, i think it was a good patch, got 2 bug fixes (granted both were being exploited by the majority of this forum), 2 buffs, and some minor changes that are just, well that, minor.

I know i’m not getting 8k dmg off my path of scars, but i’m sure as hell getting some nice damage from it, and the buff is SIGNIFICANTLY noticeable.

PS: Why would i be required to take off hand training for it? all it does is lower the already low CDs…

Offhand training increases Path of Scars damage….

All this patch did was buff its normal damage within 85% of Offhand Trainings current damage.

if you ran Offhand Training, you’re doing no more damage then you did before the patch.

Off-Hand Training doesn’t buff the damage, only range and reduces the CD (the range isn’t radius for the #4 just how far you throw it), so i don’t know what trait they were talking about and if it-does- buff the damage it’s widely unknown because even the wiki isn’t saying it does…

@Other people, i can confirm that Whirling Defense still reflects projectiles, used it last night in PvP where an idiot engi proceeded to use his pistol burst combo and kill himself…. oh i love stupid.

Off hand training, pre patch, did buff the damage of axe #4 even though it didn’t say so in the tooltip. I tested it myself just before the patch went live (notes went out before the patch). I tested it because I, like most of us, had no idea it buffed the damage as well and wanted to see what they were talking about.

There is one undocumented change:
When swapping/stowing pets out-of-combat the swap/stow won’t go on full recharge, but has 1 sec recharge (or something under 1 sec). So we can spam swap when out-of-combat just like it used to be.

My Sweet Lily.1952:

There is one undocumented change:
When swapping/stowing pets out-of-combat the swap/stow won’t go on full recharge, but has 1 sec recharge (or something under 1 sec). So we can spam swap when out-of-combat just like it used to be.

YES!! Bout time they reverted that change! Only reason it was changed was because pig pets forage at a point (items, items. Everywhere!) made it a bit OP…. Although if anyone can use the forage items now that’d kinda prevent that from being OP again…

killimandros.5087:

Hey guys, listen to this; we just got a huge buff versus thieves, no kidding :-) Why? Because of the fact their stealth now doesnt reset NPC’s (INCLUDING ranger PETS). Test it? Its like Benny Hill show intro last night. Thief stealth, pet runs around chasingf invisible thief, pouncing and stunning said thief, thief out of stealth, stunned, lol. Even whe the pet cant find the thief immediately, it jumps on him very fast again, because culling doesnt affect NPC’s :-) Maybe not a great patch specifically for the ranger class, but a huge buff versus thieves.

Haven’t had a chance to play anything since the patch went live, but if this is true, it sure sounds like a very good change. Probably too good, so they’ll most likely “fix” it somehow…

Its true. Target thief /dance before he enters combat, certain of an easy kill, go full evasive and profit from thief thinking why the culling god has left him. Now you really see what culling is, because yor pet now attacks an invisible target 4-5 secs before you see it. But, target pet and attack pets target now