Guild Wars 2

Okay this might be lengthy but I believe its important to give a bit of introduction to my questions. Also will write out my ideas out loud, so correct me if possible, dont wanna come across as someone who wants to be spoon fed.

As age catches up, and work and life becomes more stress and hectic, I would like to just wind down for the day and enjoy my game. I love pets in game so I dun really wanna use another class even though… quite a lot of complains call that Ranger sucks. I’ve just started 2 or 3 weeks ago, playing a bit by bit. Im currently a level 62 Ranger with only PvE SOLO experience (not even dungeons). I actually first started out as an engineer and, i strongly believe its user issue, I totally sucked @ it. The number of times I died as a lvl 15 engineer is more than my level 62 Ranger :p…
So can imagine how happy I felt when used my Ranger and I didn’t die as often.

Now, I would like to have a easy time playing a Ranger and yet be at least of some use in a group (dungeon??? ) setting. I know of course the more effort you put in, the better the class plays. So I would let to share my thoughts and let me know what can be tweaked and clear up some confusion for me

Throughout my leveling time I’ve tried various weapon combinations. Axe/WH, Sword/WH, GS, LB and SB… Currently my direction till end game and beyond should be mainly SB (flanking for bleeds) and secondary Sword/Torch (sword for DPS and torch for awesome burning). My secondary might change to Great sword as I do like that weapon very much… just that DPS is really lacking on it. So I mostly going to for condition build. But thing is, if everyone in the group applies conditions, max stack of 25 would make my build pretty… meh right?

Pets wise I mostly using would be devourers and drakes.

Now being lazy as I am, I would like to run with full signets… to minimize on skills :p haha… But here are my questions.
But if I were to activate signets, the passive ability will disappear during the entire CD of the signet?
I do like the active effects signets, so should i get em traited?
I find most signets are useful, cant imagine my life without them. Signet for toughness, signet for regen, for speed, for condition removal. But if i have to use only 2, which one should I keep?
And to add on, is signet of stone really useful for the toughness?

And in group play, I probably go full spirits for party buff. But I heard that it only buffs up to 5 players max, and if my pet is included, means one of the party members will not recieve the spirits buff?
As with signets, which spirit are really recommneded in group play? Frost seems to be pretty straight forward 10% dps for everyone… Stone only have 3secs protection for every 10 sec… is that even useful? Storm spirit can provide AOE dmg right?

Traits wise, this is where it gets REALLY REALLY headache.
If im going to activate signets and make them effective, I need to be traited in Marksmanship which doesnt really serve my build well… maybe for the condtion duration??
So i think its gonna mainly be Wildness survival and Nature Magic… But in the grand scheme of things, when i hit end game, those stats boost from traits dont really matter much right? which also means I dont really have to invest in Beastmastery to make my pet strong (I mean they will be stronger if i invest, but maybe those points are better serve elsewhere?)
Which I think i can also play a crit/condition build as I think there’s a trait that causes bleed whenever I crit or something…

Im not sure if this is normal, but im able to solo quite a few champion mobs by myself. Not sure if i can learn to be a good teamplayer that way. Usually my devourer tanks, i stand a bit further back and keep applying bleeds, moving in melee range to plant healing springs, dodge when i have to, change pet if i have to. I think thats how dungeon works?

I think that should be all I have to ask, im sure I’ve missed other questions but thats all I can think off anyway. Thank you all for reading and hope you guys can advise me accordingly?

P.S. If all else fails, how do you guys think a mesmer would work for me? :p

The short answer to your post is yes. Rangers, like any class can be average/good in majority of the content in GW2. without knowing if your interest lie in pve/dungion,WvW or sPvP its hard to give you a build or advice as what works well in WvW wont work well(or “as” well is the main point) as another build setup.

Where the ranger stands currently is strong in sPvP/roaming-small team fights . Good in average PvE content and leveling(pet makes early game easy as it sounds like you know) and average to bad in Dungeons and zergs/large scale fights.This is my view and i think the general feeling of the community when comparing the ranger to other classes

The ranger dose not get much love for a few reasons. 1st is the pet,pet AI and that our stats are “shared” with our pet. While the pet is not great its not as bad as alot of people might think . For a start if you think of your pet as passive damage and conditions instead of a ferocious beast you will be less dissapointed. But for level 80 content you will find your pet alot less useful then earlier. Mainly because 1.pets die alot easyer or are not noticeable in level 80 content..2 The poor AI makes the pet easy to avoid and not land hits) And because of these downfalls, people feel robed that the pet also takes “x%” of our base stats compared to outher classes that have better working class/f2 class mechanics and compaired to rangers that “x%” more base stats

The 2nd reason ranger gets little love is its lack or no need in dungeons OR GvG/big grp organized fights. While the ranger is fine in dungeons a party of warrior/guardians balling and and mashing melee skills on boss dose the same, if not better.

That being said i have run a ranger successfully roaming
And for that i run this

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQRAnf8YjEVN2BWKWoWCiVBB1ewJzjpniY1KXhRlymqgTPA-jUwA59ioxCA-w

A tanky condition/bunker/bm build that solo flips camps easy(start with the scouts) and take 1vx encounters, using sword eveade to buy time for healing spring recharg or escape
Muddy terrain hotkeys is a great skill in pvp(on that note, all 6,7,8,9,10 skills hotkeyed is good all round).
You also asked about signets. For a condition build you generally dont go for signet of the beastmaster(the share signet trait) the reason for signet of the wild is the passive health gain you get, and is popular for any build that has healing power. And signet of the hunt purely for the movespeed(real helpful for WvW). And when a signet is on cooldown you no longer get the passive effect untill it has recharged

Now while this build is fantastic for roaming in WvW. Its somewhere between bad and troll build for dungeons as far as other options/builds available.

All this being said though this is a game while it might lack the reliability and ease and power of other classes its a fun class and can hold its own in any game content

:EDIT: After about… *cough*800 hours*cough* of only having a ranger(other chars under level 20)i finally decided level a mesmer(level 80 last week yay). Like the engi, mesmers can be tough to level,especially early on with few traits/skills. But can bring more to a team/party then a ranger..mesmers can be squishier then ranger but clones and stealth can take agro/pressure off

Kedira, you’re probably going to get ripped for your post —- but try hard to ignore the morons. There is always a segment of gamers that take games far too seriously and as a result forget that others play games merely to play games. Also, you’re going to hear that Rangers are garbage in Dungeons blah blah, you also need to ignore that as well, as it’s simply untrue.

I will try and come-up with a build for you and post it later. Since my own build would not fill any of what your asking for in the slightest (as I am one of those that takes gaming a bit too seriously – but hopefully not to the total crazy no-lifer level – lol).

Best of luck.

PS: for what your looking for in a toon, forget Mesmer – it’s Ranger or Guardian for you.

Ision.3207:

Kedira, you’re probably going to get ripped for your post —- but try hard to ignore the morons. There is always a segment of gamers that take games far too seriously and as a result forget that others play games merely to play games. Also, you’re going to hear that Rangers are garbage in Dungeons blah blah, you also need to ignore that as well, as it’s simply untrue.

I will try and come-up with a build for you and post it later. Since my own build would not fill any of what your asking for in the slightest (as I am one of those that takes gaming a bit too seriously – but hopefully not to the total crazy no-lifer level – lol).

Best of luck.

PS: for what your looking for in a toon, forget Mesmer – it’s Ranger or Guardian for you.

LOL!!! Somehow ur post crack me up! Yea i knew the flak Im going to take so im prepared. Know why? Coz I used to be like those hardcore gamer, till i lost whats so important to me in life… that I shouldnt take games so seriously. If you ever played Lord Of The Rings Online, Im kitten good with my Warden back then… its the hardest class in game… thats how hardcore… but thats the past now…

And yes please do help me out here with ya special build Thanks a lot man.

Aww and i tot mesmers are very cool!!! Ranger or guardian… I love being a tank in previous MMO :p looks like even a complete stranger knows my style :p

If you want to relax, play warrior. This isn’t a rip or a troll. Despite what Durzlla might say, ranger is very difficult to play. You live on a razors edge in hard PvE content, must anticipate and queue weapon evades to survive, and must hit a lot of keys to accomplish maximum play.

Here’s a quote from Brazil (aka The Mexican Cookie) from Death and Taxes and now rT, one of the best pve guilds in the world (paraphrased): “Ranger is actually very difficult to play because you have to be so active. I actually stopped playing mine because I can’t relax while playing it. Every party can benefit from a good ranger but it’s so much work!”

I hope that helps.

I’ve yet tested this but here you go: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBlYDbkoqwOxSwC1OA0ekpkY+K0qnxodmxLj0aB-jwyA4MAkGMiDiEJInHLiGbZsIasqGMNakVqJVxC4CKiWNA-e

Overall, I was looking at boosting the condition damage and have as much healing as possible so it is possible to be more of a damage sink. You’ll still have to look after your pet and i’m unsure if that is enough healing but as the battle progresses you’ll definitely get stronger.

your role of this build is simple, the more you swap weapon, the more might you get. so swap weapons frequently. When your pet is dying, activate toughness signet and call the pet back.

the entangle and healing spring provides usefulness in the party, stand in the healing spring for as long as possible for the condition removals. With this build it should be possible to melt through enemies since you have poison and might on hand.

hunterkiller.5419:

I’ve yet tested this but here you go: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBlYDbkoqwOxSwC1OA0ekpkY+K0qnxodmxLj0aB-jwyA4MAkGMiDiEJInHLiGbZsIasqGMNakVqJVxC4CKiWNA-e

Overall, I was looking at boosting the condition damage and have as much healing as possible so it is possible to be more of a damage sink. You’ll still have to look after your pet and i’m unsure if that is enough healing but as the battle progresses you’ll definitely get stronger.

your role of this build is simple, the more you swap weapon, the more might you get. so swap weapons frequently. When your pet is dying, activate toughness signet and call the pet back.

the entangle and healing spring provides usefulness in the party, stand in the healing spring for as long as possible for the condition removals. With this build it should be possible to melt through enemies since you have poison and might on hand.

i might actually run this build in wvw. the damage after 15 stacks of might are in… is beautiful. ahah

Double sigil of battle works? I don’t think it works that way…

To be honest, I don’t like sigil of battle without fortifying bond. Only half of the pet/ranger combo gets might from that sigil without it. That’s typically an elementalist sigil. At least you have fortifying bond but I’d check those double sigils because I’m pretty sure there’s a CD such that both will not activate.

KedirakEvo.5719:

Ision.3207:

Kedira, you’re probably going to get ripped for your post —- but try hard to ignore the morons. There is always a segment of gamers that take games far too seriously and as a result forget that others play games merely to play games. Also, you’re going to hear that Rangers are garbage in Dungeons blah blah, you also need to ignore that as well, as it’s simply untrue.

I will try and come-up with a build for you and post it later. Since my own build would not fill any of what your asking for in the slightest (as I am one of those that takes gaming a bit too seriously – but hopefully not to the total crazy no-lifer level – lol).

Best of luck.

PS: for what your looking for in a toon, forget Mesmer – it’s Ranger or Guardian for you.

LOL!!! Somehow ur post crack me up! Yea i knew the flak Im going to take so im prepared. Know why? Coz I used to be like those hardcore gamer, till i lost whats so important to me in life… that I shouldnt take games so seriously. If you ever played Lord Of The Rings Online, Im kitten good with my Warden back then… its the hardest class in game… thats how hardcore… but thats the past now…

And yes please do help me out here with ya special build Thanks a lot man.

Aww and i tot mesmers are very cool!!! Ranger or guardian… I love being a tank in previous MMO :p looks like even a complete stranger knows my style :p

Small world: I had a Lore-Master in Lotro, and a rank 12 Warg Stalker

Chopps.5047:

Double sigil of battle works? I don’t think it works that way…

To be honest, I don’t like sigil of battle without fortifying bond. Only half of the pet/ranger combo gets might from that sigil without it. That’s typically an elementalist sigil. At least you have fortifying bond but I’d check those double sigils because I’m pretty sure there’s a CD such that both will not activate.

sorry, i’ve yet tested it. yea. doesn’t work though. Going to revise it for our friend eventhough he seems to be better off with a healing bunker warrior. no offense.

Lol ya I’m not offended. If you spent gold on that sigil, it’s another causality of gw2’s awful GUI, traits, skill, rune, and sigil descriptions. When it comes to tutorials, anet is like your classic calculus professor who’s talking about solving problems when the class is still trying to work out algebra. They just are not good at teaching while also keeping in mind where players—especially new players—get stuck or mislead. It’s infuriating, honestly.

ANET FIX YOUR TOOLTIPS PLEASE

Run 20/30/5/15/0 GS spec with knight’s gear and a drake or moa pet. That will put you at near-AFK levels of survivability while allowing you to bring decent support buffs and not-totally-useless levels of DPS to the party. What you basically want to avoid is becoming the stereotypical “bearbow” who just sits way in the back and fires arrows for nearly nothing then just runs in to claim loot after the dungeon is complete. A defensively-specced GS build is a good compromise in that regard.

I’d recommend 30/20/5/15/0, guanglai. Then he can get signet of the beastmaster for some true invulnerability with signet of stone. He would wear a few berserker pieces to make up for lost precision and crit damage. Overall, good advice though.

Revised:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAV8fjEVF2JWCWo2Bg2jMlEzXhW9MGtzMO6iVRA-jAzA4sIj0AIBwkoAl3jYSEIPqsW3KiGrGCTnuoa1KgPoIa1A-e

this time its focused on boon duration, toughness and healing power. our friend here’s going to get confirmed 10 might anyway and I’ve left out 5 points in trait so if he ever find the pet dying the ‘pet swapping’ should bring some survivability. if okay, go ahead and max out the spirit trait line so if there is opportunities to run spirit build.

reason to not trait for signet: only 6 seconds of invulnerability to damage, conditions will still kick the person around.
—-
If you find your conditions lacking, you’ll have to drop the toughness armour though.

Try this ….

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBjODbkoKxOwyvi1SQsKAoWBKxUcoE9eQL13+UGyXeCC-jQyAYLioZiSwILJmKAlALiGbZsIas6FMdJRUtHvIa1yAsMBA-e

This is a highly simplified Beast-Master build that focuses on your pet both surviving and doing a good half of your dps. The Runes and food choices are NON-optional, or the build breaks down (I gave you the cheaper more reasonable versions of the foods and Oils, and they will do just fine, you don’t need the rich mans top level versions).

Here was some of my reasoning:

1. Limit your need to pay attention to conditions with the runes, food and Signet of Renewel. Basically you just ignore any conditions you see on your toon unless there tons of them, then and only then you hit the signet. Also, given your lower reflexes, the runes help lower your stun time.

2. Pets: Devourers in Dungeons (they are almost fire and forget pets – ALMOST, not always lol), Drakes in open world PvE or DEs, and Dogs in WvW (but if you run dogs, you have to change the build slightly).

3. Longbow is your single target weapon, and your "I’m pretty safe here and don’t have aggro weapon), Axe/Warhorn is your, oh crap, they are on me weapon, and your keep Fury going for crits weapon. Make sure your switch between the two regularly.

4. Lots of folks go the Healing Power route for simple beast-master builds, but for your specific needs I think the Toughness/Vitality route is better. So that explains my Armor and trinket choices for you. I tried to give you just enough Precision so that with Fury up, you crit over 50% of the time (and your pet will too).

5. Your signets: basically you ignore them totally and live off the passives (more health, speed boost). The actives on the first 2 are basically pet burst damage skills that are used by people for a chance at a quick kill – you don’t need that. Only the last signet, SoR will you ever hit, but rarely – you will hit that one when/if you notice you are plastered with lots of conditions.

Bottom line: This build would get smashed and totally rolled over by any hardcore competitive player … but I got news for you, 95% of the players are not these people. The forums will give you a skewed perception of that because it’s populated by a very large percentage of these type of players. And yes, this includes WvW, were 95% of the time you will be facing people of your own approximate skill levels and with far less than optimal builds. With this build I believe you will do absolutely fine in every venue of the game, and you will be a solid contributing member of any PuG or casual guild. Now, would I want someone with this build in MY dungeon group: NO, – but I’m a min-maxer efficiency weirdo … but please try and remember, that folks like this are in the VAST minority.

PS: don’t even think of stepping foot in PvP with this build … lol ….

Oh, and don’t go anywhere near the Warrior class given your specific desires in gameplay – although strait forward and easy to learn, they require the very highly active play-style that you are trying to avoid.

Oh my… very informative… hmm i need time to digest all da post… Thanks everyone.. and do keep them coming so i can explore my options more…

So signet wise, just keep the regeneration signet? toughness is …. not worth a slot? the rest as spirits?

KedirakEvo.5719:

Oh my… very informative… hmm i need time to digest all da post… Thanks everyone.. and do keep them coming so i can explore my options more…

So signet wise, just keep the regeneration signet? toughness is …. not worth a slot? the rest as spirits?

The Toughness signet is wonderful, one of the best … but NOT for the build I gave you.

KedirakEvo.5719:

Oh my… very informative… hmm i need time to digest all da post… Thanks everyone.. and do keep them coming so i can explore my options more…

So signet wise, just keep the regeneration signet? toughness is …. not worth a slot? the rest as spirits?

I would stick with the toughness signet unless you have high healing power(higher healing power means more health per second) I also wouldn’t really take the healing signet into any PvE stuff as the passive regen is not useful as it is in PvP. As combat can be broken to regen or u can sidestep AI attacks. And as PvP fights can be long with no combat broken. This is the same with signet of the hunt, but the toughness signet normally finds its way onto my skill bar when i do dungeons/PvE. It is a good slot filler if you cant find anything else

Also i would suggest power builds over condition for PvE or dungeons..well dungeons anyway(most pve can be done with anything). Im sure you can find a build or two for whatever your after on the forums here. Not necessarily to use the build but to learn new things,what works and why it works(learnt about the usefulness of regeneration signet in PvP threw looking at builds)

Edit: a basic all round power build i use for general PvE(tho not in awhile because i WvW)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJAVRjEVV2RWGWs2Bgli9CszgTL5MUkxU2UFc6B-jgxAYsAlALiGrqMyqThUvRk9HCpA-e

Actually… I dont understand why would condition dmg be sucky in a dungeon?

And if I’m going for shortbow for bleeds and sun spirit for burns, shouldnt I be wearing condition dmg gear?

Oh, for those traits that say 20% faster weapon skill recharge… does it mean the auto attack is faster too? means my short bow can shoot faster? apply more bleed?

Edit: I’ve just started playing around with the build editor.. and learning armor sets… If i go for condition dmg… Why people are recommending Rabid sets? Why not carrion or dire… im actually looking at Dire sets as it has condition dmg and survivalbility…

KedirakEvo.5719:

Actually… I dont understand why would condition dmg be sucky in a dungeon?

And if I’m going for shortbow for bleeds and sun spirit for burns, shouldnt I be wearing condition dmg gear?

Oh, for those traits that say 20% faster weapon skill recharge… does it mean the auto attack is faster too? means my short bow can shoot faster? apply more bleed?

Its only sucky compaired to the DPS of power(and power DPS still on the lowend compaired to others). Judging by you post and interest though you should be ok no matter what you do.

But this is touching on ground im not as used too. I mainly WvW and do casual dungeon/Pve. So as far as dungeon builds/advice goes perhaps someone with more experience can post something. I do casual runs with guildies, not for speed or ease but just for fun.(because most things can be done regardless of build/team setup..it will just take more time)

I think you’ve got this all backwards by trying to pick utilities and then go into dungeons. Go into a dungeon and pick the best weapons and utilities for each fight. If you put down a useful spirit then use a spirit. If you can use a horn on a fire trap then do that. If you can cripple a bunch of advancing enemies with a longbow then do that. If you can melee with a greatsword in a healing spring then do that. As long as you know your skills you’ll see a play style develop as you go along. For now you might want to pick traits that have some choice and do not depend on utilities (such as piercing arrows or spotter).

Don’t take a condition build into dungeons. It’s far too easy for a group to hit the condition cap of 25 bleeds. Other conditions can stack duration beyond the end of a fight meaning their effect is also wasted.

Stooperdale.3560:

Don’t take a condition build into dungeons. It’s far too easy for a group to hit the condition cap of 25 bleeds. Other conditions can stack duration beyond the end of a fight meaning their effect is also wasted.

Aetherblade portion of TA says “Hi”. Conditions, tanks, and support are incredibly useful there while straight up zerkers are less than effective.

Hmm after researching out more here and there… I prolly will use this build… Its basically zerker with a bit of party support.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBlYDbkoKyOxyqi1OQ0UoJzzUkIG9eg+W1+C85B-jwxAYLBZiCAVIyJvioxWcLiGrqkIq2LQEVDA-e

Im convinced that conditions in dungeons is limited… so hence the change of idea… but of course, i might change again as i go along my way to 80…

And throughout all these tweaking, im pretty tempted to create a guardian toon… I’ve always been a tank in MMOs… I wanted to take a break from being a tank but… somehow Im rather drawn to it over @ GW2 :p hahahaha

Erm…. hello?………

Ahh, a beastmaster build. As a warning, you’ll have to micromanage your pet for this role, and your pet will have a low survival rate in certain dungeons due to boss mechanics (some bosses can one-shot them easily). In those circumstances, you may find this build lacking. But if you enjoy playing it, just play it, we shouldn’t be able to tell you differently.

Natural Healing is super weak. Don’t bother with it, just take Zephyr’s Speed instead. Also use GS instead of SB, there are very few situations where SB is actually preferable to GS.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Aetherblade portion of TA says “Hi”. Conditions, tanks, and support are incredibly useful there while straight up zerkers are less than effective.

When it first came out sure, people were still figuring out the mechanics, but right now it, along with the rest of the dungeons in the game, have fallen into the zerk trap.

Sparki and Slick – My group of friends and I literally stack both of these guys on top of eachother, drop a timewarp and go to town. We kill them before the fume stacks really even matter and the ooze has a very predictable attack animation that is easy to avoid. Zerker gear wins here outright.

Foreman Spur – Once again, predictable attacks, can down him very fast with a group of full zerkers. Zerker gear wins again on this fight.

Clockheart – No amount of tanking gear is going to save you from his kill shot. Also condition damage is bad when pulling as if you are a class that procs a burn (necro, engi) then the hologram generally dies before it gets anywhere near clockheart. Once again, dodge roll appropriately and DPS him down after exploding a hologram. Zerker gear once again wins out right.

So, with that said, I fail to see how Conditions, Tank, or Support are any better than a full group of five zerkers in any dungeon path anywhere; and that is just how the game is designed.

All professions have access to all of their utilities regardless of whether they spec for tank or condition or damage. Both a PVT Ranger and a Zerker Ranger can take frost spirit. Both A PVT warrior and a Zerker Warrior can take banners/shouts etc. Healing scales so poorly that it isn’t worth gearing for it (healing power), and when it did on a few skills (Engineers Elixir Gun) anet literally nerfed it in a month. Yes you heard it right, for one brief month there was actually a “cleric/healer” type profession in the game.

It’s almost as if they are extremely happy with 14 second Lupicus kills and 6 minute CM clears and new content just getting destroyed by groups of zerkers. If they wanted anything different they would make it so bosses couldn’t be critically hit, had unique mechanics with CC (for example what if one boss HAD to be blinded before a big move) had actual aggro tables and scaled healing power a lot better for support builds, but things like these just lead to balancing nightmares.

Just the simple change to healing power scaling would completely shift the entire pvp/wvw meta into unkillable healing bunkers where everyone would be required to slot sigil of doom and bring multiple sources of poison application.

Anyway, this is getting WAY off topic, so to summarize; Pure dps kills things faster and everything a boss tosses at you can be avoided by a simple dodge mechanic therefore it is more beneficial to go pure DPS in any dungeon in the game.

Yeah, decklan, they don’t care about fast boss kills. You’re right, of course. It’s not like every zerker group is killing lupicus in 15seconds, first of all. But more to the point, ANET designed a pvp game then added PvE to it. There is no trinity. This is more like an action RPG game. If you get hit, you die. That’s pretty much how it’s designed.

I think it’s a design problem overall, ya know? How do we incorporate conditions and tanky gear and still make pve fun? I haven’t seen a convincing proposal on how to do this. So, basically, it’s always going to be this way as far as I can tell.

Define Effective…
openworld PvE ? ….already is.

Everything else? No there is not a way.
And honestly I hope it stays that way.

(I’m only here for the Hardmode aspect … every little problem pointed out about this class makes me giddy with pride. I celebrate its continued dysfunction & impracticality)

Chopps.5047:

Yeah, decklan, they don’t care about fast boss kills. You’re right, of course. It’s not like every zerker group is killing lupicus in 15seconds, first of all. But more to the point, ANET designed a pvp game then added PvE to it. There is no trinity. This is more like an action RPG game. If you get hit, you die. That’s pretty much how it’s designed.

I think it’s a design problem overall, ya know? How do we incorporate conditions and tanky gear and still make pve fun? I haven’t seen a convincing proposal on how to do this. So, basically, it’s always going to be this way as far as I can tell.

Yes but the potential is there. I actually think players learn more in a dungeon pve setting when they completely max out their damage potential and apply it correctly with the multitude of free support their class might bring (by free support I mean you don’t have to invest in any specific type of gear to make something like For Great Justice apply it’s effects) instead of running around and range kiting lupicus for 15 minutes while dodge rolling everything.

What is more skillful in your eyes?
1 – Max toughness/vitality mesmer face tanking lupicus and dodge rolling his life drain OR a max DPS mesmer throwing down feedback at the right time and reflecting the life drain back onto his face? I tend to favor the latter.

In fact, I don’t even know if a mesmer can still feedback the life drain. It’s been a long time since I ran arah and forgot if they changed any of Lupi’s mechanics.

Decklan.7540:

…DPS mesmer throwing down feedback at the right time and reflecting the life drain back onto his face? I tend to favor the latter.

In fact, I don’t even know if a mesmer can still feedback the life drain. It’s been a long time since I ran arah and forgot if they changed any of Lupi’s mechanics.

It’s usually only the Snot missiles in Phase 2 and the “Shotgun blast” from his hand in Phase3 that gets reflected. Our whirling axe can reflect both, but the problem with doing that in Melee is that we have to run Offhand Training instead of martial b/c our reflect “globe” is no where near the size of a Mesmer’s so his projectiles tend to just path right through our normal sized whirling.

There’s also the fact that by positioning ahead of time for it, all we’re doing is inviting a double PukeBubble roll in the AI scripting which even some experienced teams can get caught off guard by. (Last time I melee’d Lupicus, we had no guardian, the mesmer died early, and I had 90% of his aggro … good thing I was running Dagger instead :p).

Don’t think you could ever Feedback the lifesteal. If you’re talking about the single-target cone AOE that is.

Decklan.7540:

Clockheart – No amount of tanking gear is going to save you from his kill shot. Also condition damage is bad when pulling as if you are a class that procs a burn (necro, engi) then the hologram generally dies before it gets anywhere near clockheart. Once again, dodge roll appropriately and DPS him down after exploding a hologram. Zerker gear once again wins out right.

Actually…I’ve survived his kill shot thing. Never went into down state despite taking all of the hits. Sure my HP was around 1000…but you get the point.

I do feel they need to fix this problem with DPS the best way I can think of…make enemies take crap damage from DPS but full damage from conditions, with the HP adjusted so conditions are the only real way you’re going to take down the creatures. Make half of the enemies DPS take-downs, and half condition take-downs. And then make it so the bosses switch ‘weakness’ constantly throughout the battles. There, you’ve made conditions worthwhile.

Yeah but then everyone will just run condi builds as that will be the “best” way to take down bosses.

They really messed up and it was a huge oversight on their part by adding in two ways to deal damage (power and conditions) yet only giving one of those sources an extra way to boost it’s potential through precision and crit damage.

Honestly, at this point, the only way they could fix things is if they made toughness reduce condition damage, removed most if not all condition removals (should only have a few per class) let conditions crit and add a new stat called condition crit damage. Bam problem fixed. Two sources of damage dealing, both effected by toughness so pvp/wvw doesn’t become grossly imbalanced, and remove most classes condition removal abilities to balance the whole, power damage is negated by block and reflect and condition damage is negated by condition removal. Both would be effected by toughness obviously.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Decklan.7540:

Clockheart – No amount of tanking gear is going to save you from his kill shot. Also condition damage is bad when pulling as if you are a class that procs a burn (necro, engi) then the hologram generally dies before it gets anywhere near clockheart. Once again, dodge roll appropriately and DPS him down after exploding a hologram. Zerker gear once again wins out right.

Actually…I’ve survived his kill shot thing. Never went into down state despite taking all of the hits. Sure my HP was around 1000…but you get the point.

I do feel they need to fix this problem with DPS the best way I can think of…make enemies take crap damage from DPS but full damage from conditions, with the HP adjusted so conditions are the only real way you’re going to take down the creatures. Make half of the enemies DPS take-downs, and half condition take-downs. And then make it so the bosses switch ‘weakness’ constantly throughout the battles. There, you’ve made conditions worthwhile.

A good idea in theory, but what about LFG? Assuming he had that change, now it has to make sure there’s a mix of condition and damage players in a pick up group (LFG is now designed into the game so they are trying to provide a level platform for everyone to play in).

Also, there’s the issue of people that only have berserker armor and now have to farm new armor. I’m sure they don’t want to hear those complaints either.

They can get over it if they want to QQ about getting new armor. I had to spend a ton of time getting my Dire equipment to replace the Carrion equipment, so it’s not like they’re the only ones who have had to do it.

Chopps.5047:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Decklan.7540:

Clockheart – No amount of tanking gear is going to save you from his kill shot. Also condition damage is bad when pulling as if you are a class that procs a burn (necro, engi) then the hologram generally dies before it gets anywhere near clockheart. Once again, dodge roll appropriately and DPS him down after exploding a hologram. Zerker gear once again wins out right.

Actually…I’ve survived his kill shot thing. Never went into down state despite taking all of the hits. Sure my HP was around 1000…but you get the point.

I do feel they need to fix this problem with DPS the best way I can think of…make enemies take crap damage from DPS but full damage from conditions, with the HP adjusted so conditions are the only real way you’re going to take down the creatures. Make half of the enemies DPS take-downs, and half condition take-downs. And then make it so the bosses switch ‘weakness’ constantly throughout the battles. There, you’ve made conditions worthwhile.

A good idea in theory, but what about LFG? Assuming he had that change, now it has to make sure there’s a mix of condition and damage players in a pick up group (LFG is now designed into the game so they are trying to provide a level platform for everyone to play in).

Also, there’s the issue of people that only have berserker armor and now have to farm new armor. I’m sure they don’t want to hear those complaints either.

If they do nothing but pve then they will have enough badges of honor to buy 2 sets of armor just from the achievement chests.

An easy fix would be to have an even spread of +vitality/-armor and +armor/-vitality enemies and mix them up in the dungeons and make the bosses less scripted. Just adding a randomly selected, exact clone with inverted defensive stats would go a long
way towards promoting a more spread out team composition instead of the “hit it with your great sword as fast as you can” meta we have now.

It wouldn’t be perfect but anet is all about easy fixes and this is about the simplest band-aid fix I can think of.

rangers are good in general pve but thats all. and not bad in pvp. if u want to play some serious game start a warrior or guardian, maybe mesmer.
or cross your fingers as i do and pray for a decent update

RyuDragnier.9476:

Stooperdale.3560:

Don’t take a condition build into dungeons. It’s far too easy for a group to hit the condition cap of 25 bleeds. Other conditions can stack duration beyond the end of a fight meaning their effect is also wasted.

Aetherblade portion of TA says “Hi”. Conditions, tanks, and support are incredibly useful there while straight up zerkers are less than effective.

my girlfriend and her zerk team kill every boss in half minute. sorry