Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone!
I would like to present you with the latest work from ATTK! This week we recieve Eurantien, a NA Tpvp experienced Ranger on our show, setting the perfect scenario for Battosai to finally get the chance to chase down his favorite subject: TPVP. The long awaited topic is finally upon us.
So, why not simply unleash Battosai and Eurantien on you, dear listeners, as they furiously compare notes about the current state of the Ranger in the meta game?
I thought it was a pretty good ideia myself, thank you.
And yet, the plot thickens… The Spirit Ranger lives! And by the looks of it, he might actually stand his own ground, renewing faith in a more team supportive build for the profession. The cast takes a rundown of how they see the Ranger and some of his main assets, touching base on several points of interest (i.e. good team compositions for the ranger, role/map/strategy analysis per build, survivability tips, and even some general pvp need to know basics).
Have fun and hope you enjoy this one!
Jindrake
Warning!
No bears were harmed during the recording of this show. Though this is true, they currently seem affected by some sort of ursidae flu, causing them to yeld severely poor results in pvp.

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-ranger-podcast-arrow-to-the-knee-e05/

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Arrow to the Knee: Fridays 8:30am PST/GMT-8

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If you have any comments or questions please let me know.

If you would like your videos added to our playlists please let us know we would be glad to link to your youtube.

Will you be updating this thread regularly? I’ll add it to the compilation thread!

jubskie.3152:

Will you be updating this thread regularly? I’ll add it to the compilation thread!

Yep, this will be the regular thread update so I don’t spam the forums with any videos we have.

Welcome to the 2nd episode of the Ranger podcast, Arrow to the knee.

In this episode, Chopps joins us for a discussion about the Ranger and it’s performance in dungeon type play. We start out by adressins general considerations for dungeons overall. We had planned on focusing all the dungeons currently in existence, but since we dished out so much specific information and strategy on how to play your Ranger, that an hour was simply not enough. In the future, we will endevour to talk about the remaining dungeons we did not cover on this episode. We did talk about Ascalonian Catacombs, Caudecus Manor and Twilight Arbor, mainly. Chopps also shared with us the secret behind pet swapping in Lupicus (The Ruined City of Arah) to avoid grub spawns on your pets.

We hope you will enjoy this episode and also benefit from it.

Next week we’ll have Xsorus on for a discussion about the Ranger’s performance in WvWvW type content and we will also be discussing the Beastmaster build.

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-ranger-podcast-arrow-to-the-knee-episode-2/

Thanks for having me, folks. You have a fine show and I wish you the best.

If Chopps is giving advice, I’m down for a listen.

SOACGaming has hit 315 subscribers on youtube. Thank you to everyone who has helped us grow as a podcast, and helped us become what we are today.

Thank you!

We are making some changes as to how we do things on our youtube to better assist Rangers who are doing guides, videos, and amazing things. We want to give someone to see what everyone is doing, and not just things we do.

AT SOACGaming we never want to forget that it’ snot about us, but about the players and fans. Stay tuned for more information.

I aways like Chopps! If you have any Ranger Videos that you want us to feature. Please let us know!

Nice podcast. Some cool info there.

Liked the podcast.
Now to ask which one of you guys has the baby raccoon?
I saw a reddit post on the front page. When asked if the Animal control came to take it what would the person do… they said they’d get an “arrow to the knee”
Lol
Where did I hear that before? To confirm the poster admitted to playing ranger in GW2.
Coincidence?

Nice podcast, although I noticed you kept going all over the place. Not that it’s a bad thing, I can definitely feel your enthusiasm to get out as much info as you can.

You might want to draft out an agenda to keep you on topic or to keep the discussion going

jubskie.3152:

Nice podcast, although I noticed you kept going all over the place. Not that it’s a bad thing, I can definitely feel your enthusiasm to get out as much info as you can.

You might want to draft out an agenda to keep you on topic or to keep the discussion going

I’ll take the blame for that. There’s so much depth to the profession that I love and it just kind of pours out when I speak. If they decide to have me back I will be much more organized. Thank you for the constructive criticism.

This was a great listen, and nice to hear people talk about the ranger so enthusiastically! I learnt some new things about my favourite class as well, which is always good and hopefully it’ll improve my own gameplay and knowledge. Thank you for this!

Chopps.5047:

jubskie.3152:

Nice podcast, although I noticed you kept going all over the place. Not that it’s a bad thing, I can definitely feel your enthusiasm to get out as much info as you can.

You might want to draft out an agenda to keep you on topic or to keep the discussion going

I’ll take the blame for that. There’s so much depth to the profession that I love and it just kind of pours out when I speak. If they decide to have me back I will be much more organized. Thank you for the constructive criticism.

Actually Chopps, I think you did great. No offence to Bas, but there were a few times he said, “let me interrupt you for a minute there” in the middle of your dialogue, lol. Wanted to hear more from you!

Bas, I love your podcasts. If I could make a suggestion: could you lead the conversation at a guided and steadier pace? I’ve noticed a few spots where you would ramble on, and I got a little antsy when a few moments went by without Chopps’ input (“God, when will he let Chopps talk?” went through my head a few times). Granted, this was just in the beginning, and then I think nearing the end of the episode everyone started to chime in equal amounts, which is great. This is your podcast, so take this with a grain of salt.

Looking forward to your talk with Xsorus!

matenji.3809:

Actually Chopps, I think you did great. No offence to Bas, but there were a few times he said, “let me interrupt you for a minute there” in the middle of your dialogue, lol. Wanted to hear more from you!

Bas, I love your podcasts. If I could make a suggestion: could you lead the conversation at a guided and steadier pace? I’ve noticed a few spots where you would ramble on, and I got a little antsy when a few moments went by without Chopps’ input (“God, when will he let Chopps talk?” went through my head a few times). Granted, this was just in the beginning, and then I think nearing the end of the episode everyone started to chime in equal amounts, which is great. This is your podcast, so take this with a grain of salt.

Looking forward to your talk with Xsorus!

While I appreciate the kind words, I don’t host this podcast :P. Jin Drake and Battosai do. I will definitely let him know that he has picked up my rambling way of asking questions. It’s definitely something they are working on.

I thought that it was a fantastic step in the right direction from their first episode. We are so proud of both the hosts. They are absolutely amazing.

In further news, we have revamped our website and would love to get Ranger videos and guides to link to. Our goal is to help all of our fans find your videos and guides so if you ahve a great guide or video pm me with the link or email podcast@sittingonacouch.com and i would be glad to look through it and link to it from our page!

First off, I’d like to thank everyone for listening to our work!
And the constructive criticism is awesome!
As a host of the podcast, I can promise you that we are slowly, but steadily getting the hang of it, and your comments allow us to set a path to become better and better.

As to the rambling ways of the Bas, well guilty as charged I guess (rofl), but since he’s sort of a mentor to us all in SOAC, I guess it was bound to happen.

On a final note, I’d like to thank Chopps for being there, awesome job man, I really enjoyed our talks leading up to and the show itself.

[edit]
Oh shoot kitten Don’t forget to check on our next episode this tuesday, Xsorus will be dropping some nice thoughts on the Roaming ways of the WvW Ranger!
[/edit]

I am totally pumped about hearing from Xsorus. Battosai and Jin Drake are doing a fantastic job. Maybe someday when schedules work out we can start doing a live stream for the fans. But of Corpse and the new thief podcast are moving to live shows!

Once again, it is my pleasure to welcome you to another episode of your favorite Ranger podcast.

In this episode we recieve Xsorus, who will help us understand a bit more on how the WvWvW Ranger can wreak havoc with his roaming ways. We also talk about the currently most feared of Ranger builds, the gut wrenching, panic inducing, BeastMaster Ranger!

The choice to combine subjects, in this post, like WvW roaming and the BeastMaster build, is not fortuitous at all. The BeastMaster seems specificly designed for this type of gameplay, since he boasts both great survival and massive condition pressure. Of course, let us not forget our trusty sidekick, that can, with 30% more stats, be one of the ultimate poking and harassing tools in the game. Even more so after the last patch, where our endeared little friends have recieved substancial survival stats (vitality across the board and toughness to some of the families).

In this podcast, there is so much information flying around, we literally had to interrupt the recording, to stop the onslaught. The idea remains, the podcast could’ve actually have gone for another hour %)

We hope you enjoy this podcast, as it is extremely fun making them. See you on the next episode.
And remember, our pets can beat up the World. And if you’re going player hunting, please leave the bears at home.

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-ranger-podcast-arrow-to-the-knee-episode-3/

@ May 21 podcast

I have been doing WvW zerging on my Ranger since launch and I have been theory-crafting zerging builds as well as roaming builds. I like Xsorus for his creative builds especially with the Pain Converter racial skills and he is an excellent roamer but I do not think Xsorus focuses on zerging. I find it sad that no one wants to talk about zerg strategies. All I see over the forums and YouTube videos are Beast Master Regeneration (BMR) builds in small team fighting and soloing, which is great and all but WvW is all about large group engagement (zergs), BMR Rangers only bring High survivability to the zerg with few/no tools to help your side win. Believe it or not the Ranger is probably the 2nd or 3rd best bunker in this game (without being BMR) and can fight in the front line if the player understands the mechanics of the Ranger bunker.

In this video, illustrates 3 different zerg encounters.

The first fight I am playing very conservatively so I don’t enter the AoE kill zone because the enemy outnumbered us and if I died, I could rally the fallen enemies allowing them to get the advantage.

The second fight I am dancing around the front line just spamming the 1 skill because of the evade on the third swing and finding opportunities to CC when possible.

The last fight, I use Signet of the Wild and Stone to pass the enemy’s CC and AoE zone to entangle on the stacked back line.

There is more to this game then 1v1 or 1vX or Spvp. Its fun theory-crafting and testing builds in WvW. Some work, some don’t, some are ok and some are great. There are arguments ATM about Ranger relevance in WvW zerging and I believe they have a place once WvW commander’s understand their potential: bunker builds plus, front line combo field placements, AoE crowd control and condition removal.

If you are interest in my build in this video, you can find 2 different setups at:

http://www.anook.com/topic/1186

I plan on dumping as much information as I can to my blog about different Ranger zerging builds that have worked for me.

Anyway, good podcast. I enjoyed the conversation. Keep it up.

The only times I could successfully zerg very well with BM Bunker build was when I had PI (Bonfire/Entangle/PI) in the middle of a large group was pretty decent..

and when Guard allowed me to send my pets into keeps (I was actually very useful for taking out Siege and Wall Defenders)

You can do alright with Healing Spring/SoR/the Spirit Elite or Entangle, but its not super great

30% more stats

I’m not sure where this number is coming from. Unless something has changed, max BM only adds 300 to each of the pets primary attributes. I mean, maybe I’m approaching the math narrow-mindedly, but adding 300 to the primary stats does not come out to a 30% increase.

Thanks for the podcasts!

Cool stuff, Xsorsus, as always.

@Ayden: That’s a lot like how I play in strikeforce. Zerg players, take note.

Chopps.5047:

Cool stuff, Xsorsus, as always.

@Ayden: That’s a lot like how I play in strikeforce. Zerg players, take note.

I really need to get back into some more wvwvw!

@Jcbroe aka Jroh
I thought that didn’t sound right when I wrote it, can’t believe i forgot to change it from the original text. I have corrected my error, and left a mention.
Thanks for noticing, major oversight on my part.

@Ayden
All good points. Thanks for bringing it up.
And thanks for the support.

@Everyone
Thank you very much for the continued support, for paying attention and taking the time to listen to us. Thanks for pitching in also and keeping it respectful and constructive.
We appreciate it!

it’s been bugging me for a while but it finally struck me:

Jindrake totally sounds like Steve Buscemi!

Jindrake.2851:

@Jcbroe aka Jroh
I thought that didn’t sound right when I wrote it, can’t believe i forgot to change it from the original text. I have corrected my error, and left a mention.
Thanks for noticing, major oversight on my part.

@Ayden
All good points. Thanks for bringing it up.
And thanks for the support.

@Everyone
Thank you very much for the continued support, for paying attention and taking the time to listen to us. Thanks for pitching in also and keeping it respectful and constructive.
We appreciate it!

It just bugged me more than anything because it reminded me of a conversation that was happening on the spvp forum a while back where some guy was claiming rangers were OP because pets got 30% additional stat bonuses and had a 6k DPS. And no amount of referenced wikis and basic arithmetic could change that persons mind lol. So trolls will be trolls is the moral of that I guess.

But thanks for changing that. Rangers been my main since beta (and 7 years prior to that in gw1), so I love the class and just want to make sure the info is correct lol.

Gorath.5076:

it’s been bugging me for a while but it finally struck me:

Jindrake totally sounds like Steve Buscemi!

Dude, I couldn’t put my finger on it before but you’re right.

Yet again, it is my proudest pleasure to unveil the 4th episode of the podcast Arrow To The Knee.
In today’s episode, me and Battosai welcome Jubskie, an EU All-around Ranger player with some very strong notions on one of the most hardest versions of the Ranger game play – The Power Ranger.
In this podcast you will find a very long and informative journey into what defines this build, as we touch base with what I have proudly named (with Jubskie’s help of course) the Dirty Dirty 505 build (30-30-5-0-5) which is the definition of the glass like power based Ranger.
From this point onward we run down every detail, we go down every rabbit hole. We talk about weapons and pets, combos, skills and traits. We even managed to talk about one the most unexpected things to find in the Ranger – Bursting ability.
We tried to cover this build type in depth, as you will find situational info on most contexts (pvp/wvw/pve).

It is our hope that you find this episode worth your while. Jubskie as done an invaluable job in helping us to present this Ranger type build. Definitely a “must listen to”.
As always, thanks for taking the time to listen to our work and remember, leave the bears at home, when out headhunting, they will appreciate it(and so will you, trust us).

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-ranger-podcast-arrow-to-the-knee-episode-4/

woot finally out! <3 I’ve been waiting all week XD

I had to come here and say congrats for the podcast, and thank you.

It was the first time I’ve listened to a full podcast about this (or any other) game. I even went back a few parts to take note.
Really nice ideas and points talked here. Some things I’ve knew, some I’ve think about before but never tested, some were completely new to me.

Good jobs… will check out for more!

lLobo.7960:

I had to come here and say congrats for the podcast, and thank you.

It was the first time I’ve listened to a full podcast about this (or any other) game. I even went back a few parts to take note.
Really nice ideas and points talked here. Some things I’ve knew, some I’ve think about before but never tested, some were completely new to me.

Good jobs… will check out for more!

Thanks, that’s a really big compliment! Glad you learned something new

I am about halfway through this most recent podcast, and it is absolutely amazing. I want to send it out to every single tournament ranger and possible ranger player and say listen to this it’s awesome.

Though I must say the fact that the current highlight is whenever Jin aka Buscemi says power ranger someone in the background starts humming the theme song to Go Go power rangers, and I almost fall over because Jin never catches on.

Fantastic Podcast Guys!

I find my biggest gripe with the longbow (besides the speed of the autoattack vs how poor the damage is below 1000 range) is that rapid fire does equal to less damage as the shortbow autoattack until around gaining ~3000 attack rating(and even then, it isn’t much more damage), which to me gives it a pseudo-burst feeling; it isn’t truly a stronger burst weapon than the shortbow, but the function of its skills give it the feel that it is a burst weapon.
Just my thoughts on that bit from the beginning (basically, adding stronger role distinction would increase weapon viability/versatility).

Overall, nice podcast, though I’ll never be convinced of going glass cannon on any class. Why play risk-reward when I can survive and thrive? haha.

Keep up the good work on the podcasts. I wish there was a more tpvp oriented podcast with a ranger from a high ranked team (other than just Battosai) to discuss rangers, although ultimately that would just be another BM bunker discussion, and would probably delve more into why BM bunker is such an effective/optimized build at what it does.
Still, seeing some top players discuss why some current high tier ranger justifies a shortbow on a BM bunker while another disagrees, and discussions of those natures (pvp weapon/build optimization) would be and extremely interesting podcast.

jcbroe.4329:

I find my biggest gripe with the longbow (besides the speed of the autoattack vs how poor the damage is below 1000 range) is that rapid fire does equal to less damage as the shortbow autoattack until around gaining ~3000 attack rating(and even then, it isn’t much more damage), which to me gives it a pseudo-burst feeling; it isn’t truly a stronger burst weapon than the shortbow, but the function of its skills give it the feel that it is a burst weapon.
Just my thoughts on that bit from the beginning (basically, adding stronger role distinction would increase weapon viability/versatility).

Overall, nice podcast, though I’ll never be convinced of going glass cannon on any class. Why play risk-reward when I can survive and thrive? haha.

Keep up the good work on the podcasts. I wish there was a more tpvp oriented podcast with a ranger from a high ranked team (other than just Battosai) to discuss rangers, although ultimately that would just be another BM bunker discussion, and would probably delve more into why BM bunker is such an effective/optimized build at what it does.
Still, seeing some top players discuss why some current high tier ranger justifies a shortbow on a BM bunker while another disagrees, and discussions of those natures (pvp weapon/build optimization) would be and extremely interesting podcast.

I think we first have to get a high ranked tpvp ranger besides Battosai. The only other Ranger I really know that’s really good is Eura. I am sure Vyndetta and maybe one other guy I can’t think of the name who is in the tournaments regularly.

Bas.7406:

jcbroe.4329:

I find my biggest gripe with the longbow (besides the speed of the autoattack vs how poor the damage is below 1000 range) is that rapid fire does equal to less damage as the shortbow autoattack until around gaining ~3000 attack rating(and even then, it isn’t much more damage), which to me gives it a pseudo-burst feeling; it isn’t truly a stronger burst weapon than the shortbow, but the function of its skills give it the feel that it is a burst weapon.
Just my thoughts on that bit from the beginning (basically, adding stronger role distinction would increase weapon viability/versatility).

Overall, nice podcast, though I’ll never be convinced of going glass cannon on any class. Why play risk-reward when I can survive and thrive? haha.

Keep up the good work on the podcasts. I wish there was a more tpvp oriented podcast with a ranger from a high ranked team (other than just Battosai) to discuss rangers, although ultimately that would just be another BM bunker discussion, and would probably delve more into why BM bunker is such an effective/optimized build at what it does.
Still, seeing some top players discuss why some current high tier ranger justifies a shortbow on a BM bunker while another disagrees, and discussions of those natures (pvp weapon/build optimization) would be and extremely interesting podcast.

I think we first have to get a high ranked tpvp ranger besides Battosai. The only other Ranger I really know that’s really good is Eura. I am sure Vyndetta and maybe one other guy I can’t think of the name who is in the tournaments regularly.

Follidus from zZz was playing Ranger on one of the last NA tournys, and the team has been fairing pretty well in their scrimmages, or Symbolic. Not that I’m the best judge of player skill for rangers, since 99% of the time, trying to watch these shoutcasters, there is never a focus on anything other than midfight, and the majority of the time gets spent sitting on guardian players.

I’m not sure what the criteria is for you guys on how many EU versus NA players you try to get for the show or anything though. I would have suggested Ovi, but I have my personal reservations about decisions that are made, the choice of using shortbow being one of those. Then again, maybe Ovi would be a good compliment to Battosai for that very reason, since most people have generally decided the most optimal setup, and Ovi differs in weapon selection compared to them.

You guys run the show, I’m just an avid listener/supporter than enjoys a portion of the community being focused towards the positive development of the ranger. Anything beyond that is just icing on the cake for me lol.

Edit: this is the reddit link to the teams that played with the builds, in case it helps clarify who I’m referring to: http://www.reddit.com/r/gw2esports/comments/1f4m43/builds_used_in_mmorpg_guild_wars_2_na_invitational/

Ovi is on our list as is Eura, I did forget about Follidus, but we will add him to our list. Our guest list is over 15-20 people long right now so we are doing what we can to get everyone in. I will give these names to Jin Drake and Battosai.

Awesome, no rush lol. You guys have your schedule and are doing your thing and it’s great so far, so keep it up.

Having an “Esports” or pvp directed conversation with top players from top teams might not be as popular as it could be around next balance patch, for instance. Shoutcasting is still in it’s infancy and the metagame hasn’t changed in awhile. If the next patch goes well, the pvp in the game could see a popularity spike, and build versatility could increase for every class, making such a conversation much MUCH more relevant.

Just my thoughts, so in order to not derail for others reading, definitely check out the podcasts. They are great and informative.

jcbroe.4329:

Awesome, no rush lol. You guys have your schedule and are doing your thing and it’s great so far, so keep it up.

Having an “Esports” or pvp directed conversation with top players from top teams might not be as popular as it could be around next balance patch, for instance. Shoutcasting is still in it’s infancy and the metagame hasn’t changed in awhile. If the next patch goes well, the pvp in the game could see a popularity spike, and build versatility could increase for every class, making such a conversation much MUCH more relevant.

Just my thoughts, so in order to not derail for others reading, definitely check out the podcasts. They are great and informative.

pretty decent view on the things going on – i’d actually love some more build diversity and conversations solely about the pvp aspect of the game.
quick update on my current view of rangers, bm rangers especially :
- just taking a quick look at the traitlines kinda forces you into wilderness survival / beastmastery, which are both either doing too much if compared to other traitlines or the others do to less respectively, partly caused due to buggy/ineffective traits
- rangers are imo lacking active control – of the pet and of conditions. it might be easier for newer players but it feels limiting and you’ll get a lot of guys hopping onto the fotm bandwagon that is bm rangers. furthermore it’s getting somewhat boring.
changing it to a more active playstyle would do good to both ends – the fotm guys would drop while it would feel/be more rewarding and clutch to pull bm ranger with active control off, as you can seriously outplay someone and don’t have to rely on too much passive stuff going on.
- regarding trap hybrid builds ( i can provide one i’m using to some fairly good extent ) is something that was kinda dropped/never really in the meta game but it’s pretty good at everything it does. it gets outshined in every single aspect of the game though, by a more specialized profession – needless to say people kind of shy away from actually trying some things in spvp and stick to the much safer bm ranger, as a change of playstyle and a different view of the game is needed – it can be played differently on pretty much every map, ranging from a homepoint defender, to far point assaulting over to putting down the hurt in teamfights or peeling for your burst dps.
- if you really want to be great at ranger, try to think outside the box and use the many tools that are provided to the ranger – there’s a lot of situational stuff going on, if you think about it in the right moment it’s going to be clutch and really rewarding to pull off.
oh and don’t forget about the many combo fields the ranger has access to, and the various types of finishers that are given to the ranger and the synergy between them in certain situations.

sidenote – dagger offhand > all atm.

cheers for listening guys – and thanks to all the guests we had so far!

Awesome, love the response and the views Battosai.

For awhile now, I’ve been thinking rangers biggest issue is the source of cleansing. Empathic Bond, while having a great function, is so alone (for lack of a better word) at what it does and how effectively it does it, that it is basically imperative to take it if you want any sort of strong cleansing source.
Without it, you’re left with Signet of Renewal and Healing Spring, and both of which have outside functions that may take some priority over cleansing (Healing Spring being the heal, and SoR being the stun break).

That means that if a person chooses to not run Empathic Bond, but still wants cleanses, they are forced into a heal and utility option, and if they want a reliable stun break on top of that, they are going to be forced into taking Lightning Reflexes as well in case their SoR is on cooldown because it was used as a cleanse over a stun break.

Fortunately for rangers, Empathic Bond is in one of the most useful trait families at our dispense. But for other classes, their cleanses are in trait lines that serve little to no offensive and defensive use beyond picking up a single trait and whatever passive stats are added.

Beyond that, it’s just an issue of trait and utility cleanup, with weapon versatility. There are SO MANY traits in this game that are literally never used because of how bad their function is, or in what trait line they are placed. Same type of argument for utilities.

And by far my largest issue with weapons is how evenly matched the shortbows damage output is with the longbows. There needs to be some better role distinction, and there is no justification for Rapid Fire doing the same damage as Crossfire.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Those are the things that I personally think hinder the ranger class the most, and pigeonhole rangers into many similar but ultimately same builds. Lots of those issues, on a broader scale, are what plague every class though, and trait changes is probably the easiest way to handle that.
In fact, the best quick fix is Grandmaster Trait selection. Grandmaster Traits should be cornerstone selections that make or break builds. Rangers have such good examples of that, Signet of the Beastmaster, Trap Potency, Empathic Bond, and Spirits Unbound. They define utility choices and/or enhance the capabilities of rangers to a degree where entire builds are built around how those traits function.

If other grandmaster traits could be as defining or as game changing as some of those listed, build versatility, while still existent without utility fixes, would be a much more miniscule problem for the metagame than it currently is.

Sorry for all that, I don’t have a podcast lol.

I finally finished the Jubskie Podcast. I thought the Xsorus one was the best podcast until this one. I seriously am going to have to listen to it again when I am on my ranger just to do some fun testing and try everything out.

I am blown away by how detailed and intricate the gameplay of rangers are. I think the last two ranger episodes should be mandatory to every single player who thinks rangers don’t have variety or are interesting. If I can ever convince Jin and Battosai to take the show live I think it will be incredible. I would love to hear if Hrouda listened to the last few episodes.

Jin Drake has been rolling on his Buscemi impersonations :P. Battosai is incredible to listen to with the way he talks about testing builds. I had no idea anyone did the amount of testing on just pets alone as Jubskie did.

Thank you guys for a fantastic podcast, and even if I had nothing to do with this show I would listen to it. The last two episodes have made fans of several Mesmer players who figured they would check it out.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks for the kind words, I’m getting all warm and fuzzy :P I’m really passionate about the Ranger class and the Pet mechanic, add to that I’m an avid theory crafter and this is the result. It feels great to be recognized for my work, and it feels even better that I get to share the knowledge that I’ve accumulated these past 8 months

I hope the mesmer players that try out the ranger enjoys it as much I do.

jcbroe.4329:

Awesome, love the response and the views Battosai.

For awhile now, I’ve been thinking rangers biggest issue is the source of cleansing. Empathic Bond, while having a great function, is so alone (for lack of a better word) at what it does and how effectively it does it, that it is basically imperative to take it if you want any sort of strong cleansing source.
Without it, you’re left with Signet of Renewal and Healing Spring, and both of which have outside functions that may take some priority over cleansing (Healing Spring being the heal, and SoR being the stun break).

That means that if a person chooses to not run Empathic Bond, but still wants cleanses, they are forced into a heal and utility option, and if they want a reliable stun break on top of that, they are going to be forced into taking Lightning Reflexes as well in case their SoR is on cooldown because it was used as a cleanse over a stun break.

Fortunately for rangers, Empathic Bond is in one of the most useful trait families at our dispense. But for other classes, their cleanses are in trait lines that serve little to no offensive and defensive use beyond picking up a single trait and whatever passive stats are added.

Beyond that, it’s just an issue of trait and utility cleanup, with weapon versatility. There are SO MANY traits in this game that are literally never used because of how bad their function is, or in what trait line they are placed. Same type of argument for utilities.

And by far my largest issue with weapons is how evenly matched the shortbows damage output is with the longbows. There needs to be some better role distinction, and there is no justification for Rapid Fire doing the same damage as Crossfire.
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Those are the things that I personally think hinder the ranger class the most, and pigeonhole rangers into many similar but ultimately same builds. Lots of those issues, on a broader scale, are what plague every class though, and trait changes is probably the easiest way to handle that.
In fact, the best quick fix is Grandmaster Trait selection. Grandmaster Traits should be cornerstone selections that make or break builds. Rangers have such good examples of that, Signet of the Beastmaster, Trap Potency, Empathic Bond, and Spirits Unbound. They define utility choices and/or enhance the capabilities of rangers to a degree where entire builds are built around how those traits function.

If other grandmaster traits could be as defining or as game changing as some of those listed, build versatility, while still existent without utility fixes, would be a much more miniscule problem for the metagame than it currently is.

Sorry for all that, I don’t have a podcast lol.

i agree with it for the most part.
but i see spirits unbound more of a bad trade off as you can’t really keep the spirits out of harms way, with aoe beeing one of the dominant factors in this game.
also evasive purity doesn’t seem to be worth a grandmaster trait f.e. – it was arguably too good in beta, when it cleansed 1 condition aoe on dodge role with 10 sec cd, but now if you compare it to the master trait elementalists get in water f.e. ( dodging removes chill and burning) it seems to be kind of lackluster.
emphatic bond being mandatory in most builds and the minor traits in wilderness being so strong as well, really force you to invest points into wilderness survival.
traits overall in wilderness survival are awesome.
50% passive increased endurance reg, 2 seconds of protection after dodge – only the grandmaster minor trait seems to be lacking.
i’d like to see the pet more as a tool that supplements your build – thus making them more control/supportish while gaining more active control of them.
a major trait overhaul, more distinction in weapon roles ( and their scaling with power f.e.) and rebalancing the pets would be necessary though.
the ranger has so much potential build wise as the ideas behind each traitline are pretty great and would always be played differently and increase the one factor that stands out the most while playing ranger – versatility.
yet what i mentioned above is kinda in the way.
not easy to pull off i guess – but the ranger community has some great ideas, even though some of them are a bit over the top.

sorry for the late response – had a flooding and the river is right next to the house, so i was kinda busy this weekend.

@Battosai, That’s no problem, real life definitely comes first.

With Spirits Unbound. I was examining it more from a function as a trait than how spirits function. By that I mean, I don’t think it’s that trait that’s making it a bad choice, it’s the implementation of how spirits are.

Also, with how you said pets could be more supplementary so they could be more control/support, I’ve been wishing that for awhile.

Unfortunately, and it may just be bias, but I think the devs have such a point of pride with what they’ve done so far that they aren’t willing to scrap the ideas they launched the game with in favor of ideas the community comes up with. I would love to be proven wrong on that though.

My idea on pets, which a lot of people seemed to hate and I’m not sure why, was something like this:

-Pets do a static damage number with no possible crit chance. This number would increase statically by adding points into beastmastery.

-Current pet actives are replaced with much stronger utilities, that can be made even better through traiting (F2 gives boons, trait doubles the duration of the boon, another trait gives a boon everytime an F2 is used, another F2 shares damage incoming damage between you and your pet, but reduces damage taken to both of you by xx%, etc)

-For people wanting to go damage with their pets, there will be damage specific pets with no active abilities, and a grandmaster trait that adds a crit chance/damage multiplier (I was thinking it could either be static with the skill, or based off of the stats of the player).

-Pets survivability brought in line with the new changes to have enough survival, particularly in PvE, to be useful, but not so much from a PvP standpoint that the pet is unkillable. The survivability should be based on how strong the pets utility is, or if the pet is a damage pet (damage pets easier to kill)

-To compensate for the drastic change, all potential DPS on the pet that is lost to the change is added back to the ranger player through damage values and coefficients

Of course, that would require an extreme polishing of the game, and right now, the devs haven’t gotten around to trait polishing for all of the classes yet. But it’s nice to hope/dream lol.

Battosai.5620:

—badly implemented trait—
—badly implemented trait—
—blatantly OP traits by comparison—

but the ranger has so much potential… as the ideas behind it are pretty great..

Welcome to GW2… seems like you just stumbled upon the theme of the game…

We had a technical difficulty which caused the Arrow to the knee guys to be delayed. We will try and get them doing a live show though :P

Hello everyone!
I would like to present you with the latest work from ATTK! This week we recieve Eurantien, a NA Tpvp experienced Ranger on our show, setting the perfect scenario for Battosai to finally get the chance to chase down his favorite subject: TPVP. The long awaited topic is finally upon us.
So, why not simply unleash Battosai and Eurantien on you, dear listeners, as they furiously compare notes about the current state of the Ranger in the meta game?
I thought it was a pretty good ideia myself, thank you.
And yet, the plot thickens… The Spirit Ranger lives! And by the looks of it, he might actually stand his own ground, renewing faith in a more team supportive build for the profession. The cast takes a rundown of how they see the Ranger and some of his main assets, touching base on several points of interest (i.e. good team compositions for the ranger, role/map/strategy analysis per build, survivability tips, and even some general pvp need to know basics).

Have fun and hope you enjoy this one!
Jindrake

Warning!
No bears were harmed during the recording of this show. Though this is true, they currently seem affected by some sort of ursidae flu, causing them to yeld severely poor results in pvp.

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-ranger-podcast-arrow-to-the-knee-e05/