Guild Wars 2

According to the ready up:

Ranger – Too many rangers using Longbow – We are adding a tell of the animation for the Point Blank skill and the projectile has a purple color to distinguish it from autoattacks.

http://dulfy.net/2014/10/17/gw2-ready-up-pvp-changes-and-class-balance-notes/

What do you guys think? im just happy for once rangers are actually good, but this will obviously wont last long since, for some reason, most players feel rangers should be free kills and are astonished that now they can actually fight back.

While I am a Ranger, I agree that PBS should have some sort of tell. At least enough of a tell so the opponent can have a chance to react if their skill is high enough. Just as Pin-Down for Warriors should have a tell.

Anet don;t balance games around What should be or what players think they want.

they balance according to a set of rules , they learnt at uni for games Desgin, it would not be in their interests to make a class Just for the purpose of free loot..thats idoitic so any reasoning from those players that want the class to be free kills or think they are free kills can end that dream right now.

All good changes, though the increased time on bane signet i can’t wait to see what a zerker Guardian’s Bane>burst can do, bit sceptical on that one.

Well the problem here is that Anet gave in to the “average” pvp’er cries. That’s okay, because most players are “average”.

I’m okay with it to be honest, but the whole change is because people can’t predict it when getting in close or slot a stun breaker. That doesn’t surprise me by much because I’ve had people calling me a stupid longbow noob while using a/d and s/t.

I don’t mind as long as it’s not changed to an absurd long cast time.

There is one thing I don’t like, though;
Necro – Grasp (#1 skill on your staff) – Velocity of the projectile increased by 50% so players no longer escape from it when you cast it at max range

Now I’m asking “Why could you not do that with longbow’s Long Range Shot?”

I can’t watch the video, but someone in another thread said they demo’d the new skill and the skill was still instant cast? It just had a animation when you activated it and the projectil is purple? I’ll be amazed if a change like that honestly quiets down all the QQ if that’s really all there was.

I’m also curious how ANet will approach the ‘too many LBs’ comment. Will they do what they did in the past and tone down the longbow to make the other weapons stand out more? Or will they realize the other weapons aren’t productive and need improvements on their own? Surely they must know why the majority of Rangers ran condition builds in the past.

I’m also annoyed we’re pushing the 2 year mark and still have such a long way to go till pets are functional in WvW and the class as a whole has a chance to fit into the meta.

Better animations are always welcome for all classes. All in all the changes were good quality of life changes. I wouldn’t call it a balance update when these changes buff the 3 strongest classes atm (engi, ele, necro) and still leave others (ranger, guardian, warrior) in the bottom of the pool.

na its not instant cast, the animation just covers it up , new effects draws the eyes and you don’t pay attention to the amount of time the animation took to cast..if it was instant cast the added animation would be pointless as it would be over in a flash.

Eurantien.4632:

I wouldn’t call it a balance update when these changes buff the 3 strongest classes atm (engi, ele, necro) and still leave others (ranger, guardian, warrior) in the bottom of the pool.

+1

Try too many longbows = buff great sword then

I’ve already said that I’d like a tell on Point Blank Shot, so I’m fine with this change. Hard crowd control should have tells in general, to be honest.

i think PBS could do with a 0.5 (1/2) second cast time. Making it just about enough time to dodge it even in close range. I may even agree to reducing knockback at min range from 600 to 500. But that would be the longest i’d stretch before screaming “YOU NURF TOO MUCH”.

This is worse than I hoped but faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar better than I feared. Hopefully Anet will slap this on and never, ever touch the LB again.

Hunter’s shot could maybe use a rework (removing the stealth and making it shadowstep the pet to the target would be amazing) but that’s pretty much it.

PBS has a 0.5 seconds cast time. Not many people will be able to act that fast in the heat of battle. In case they do evade it, they will have 1 evade less for the actual hit they were meant to evade in the first place. (RF)

The way I see it, the change is just an animation change for the ranger. He mentioned something about white lions (kinda like bear maul) and purple arrow.

So yes, thanks, I’ll take the look cooler option

Prysin.8542:

i think PBS could do with a 0.5 (1/2) second cast time. Making it just about enough time to dodge it even in close range. I may even agree to reducing knockback at min range from 600 to 500. But that would be the longest i’d stretch before screaming “YOU NURF TOO MUCH”.

It is… 0.5s cast time…

sorry, meant to say “added”.

I will applaud if PBS makes the ranger shoot a giant “L2P” at the target.

Wow seriously? After all the buff talks Anet almost forgets about the ranger class (typical Anet stuff), and then the only thing they got to say is a nerf? Seriously? That is all the quality of life change or the small changes our class needs? A nerf? Wow….

Seriously hope their solution to “Rangers using LB too much” isn’t to nerf it back to the ground but actually bring the other weapons to the same level… SB needs some love..

And while we are in the topic of “quality of life improvements” and they are already going through the work of improving the elementalist pet skill they could put at least an intern to try and fix our class mechanic a bit (its been more than 2 years already…) I always get annoyed at how I can’t do anything but pray my pet hits the other player or that the dog/wolf will use its knockdown at least once in the fight….

What kind of dumb argument is that! “Rangers use lb too much” lol; Warriors use gs too much or hammer?? This is utterly nonsense.

They said they gonna use the Pin Down animation + purple glow, which means the windup-time will increase.

Zoef.2761:

What kind of dumb argument is that! “Rangers use lb too much” lol; Warriors use gs too much or hammer?? This is utterly nonsense.

Yeah, guess next patch will be something like:

“We are very pleased with the latest ranger changes, but think there was too much gain for too little cost in the LB, so now we are introducing:

- PB now has a cast duration of 3/4s. We also included an exclamation point on top of the ranger and the target player will receive a message saying “Dodge now!”. This message may be disabled or replaced with the new “auto evade ranger attacks” feature added to the settings menu.

- Staying with the LB will also trigger LB charges (similar to fractal Chaos Hammer charges), if the ranger stays with the LB for a long period of time (20s) he will be stunned (2s), if he stays with it 30s he gets instantly downed.

- We are evaluating how these changes will affect build diversity and may consider including the LB charges feature to other ranger weapons or if the ranger simply stays in combat for an extended duration of time.

People are not all playing Longbow just because Longbow got buffed. While I myself played glass longbow long before the weapon was buffed, many players have been waiting to play Longbow for a long time because of its status as the quintessential ranger weapon, purely from the aesthetic (non-gameplay) standpoint. A poorly-played zerkbow ranger is still a free loot bag in WvW.

The point blank shot behavior and timing should not change. Only the graphic should change, as it does need to look different from an auto-attack.

A long time ago, Anet nerfed Shortbow range because they said they wanted more rangers to use Longbow. Perhaps in hindsight they can now see it was not a wise choice, and may consider buffing the Shortbow rather than nerfing the Longbow in order to make Shortbow an attractive choice to power-based or lightly armored rangers again.

keen to see how this “Purple effect” is going to go with Kudzu

Wish they’d put a little effort into it. Would it kill them to give the longbow a cool animal aspect attack animation like nearly every other weapon has :/

Atherakhia.4086:

Wish they’d put a little effort into it. Would it kill them to give the longbow a cool animal aspect attack animation like nearly every other weapon has :/

+1 for this, A cool animation on Longbow would be amazing.

ArchonWing.9480:

I will applaud if PBS makes the ranger shoot a giant “L2P” at the target.

give this guy more thumbs

It doesn’t really fix the issue with PBS. It is too spammable and hurts teams far more than it helps.

DaShi.1368:

It doesn’t really fix the issue with PBS. It is too spammable and hurts teams far more than it helps.

it may have 15sec cooldown and only a bad Ranger would Spam it.

it will only hurt teams from Poor use , and if you use the common Dam you ranger i can’t hit it now you pushed him back , is just greedy team play you’ll never be a good team if you think this way.

learning to work with a Good ranger is worth its weight in gold (interrptions ,stopping the channel of a large attack or stopping a team mate from getting hammered in the face.

IF Pbs is used correctly, you’ll be bowing down thanking the stars the ranger is on your team.

solrik.6028:

There is one thing I don’t like, though;
Necro – Grasp (#1 skill on your staff) – Velocity of the projectile increased by 50% so players no longer escape from it when you cast it at max range

Now I’m asking “Why could you not do that with longbow’s Long Range Shot?”

That would have made sense and we all know how much anet hate’s making sense when “Balancing” the ranger…

I mean, why would they choose to buff unused skills for the Ranger in a patch designed to buff unused skills for the other 7/8ths of the game? That’d be just weird…

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

DaShi.1368:

It doesn’t really fix the issue with PBS. It is too spammable and hurts teams far more than it helps.

it may have 15sec cooldown and only a bad Ranger would Spam it.

it will only hurt teams from Poor use , and if you use the common Dam you ranger i can’t hit it now you pushed him back , is just greedy team play you’ll never be a good team if you think this way.

learning to work with a Good ranger is worth its weight in gold (interrptions ,stopping the channel of a large attack or stopping a team mate from getting hammered in the face.

IF Pbs is used correctly, you’ll be bowing down thanking the stars the ranger is on your team.

I would always prefer a block, blind, daze, or stun to PBS any day. PBS is why you don’t want a ranger on your team, never why you would want one. A ranger that thinks he’s helping his team with PBS is not a good ranger.

Bunch of buffs to other classes, slight nerf to the worst competitive class. Ok…? I do agree with the change though; tells for important skills are awesome.

Anybody suggesting a change to the cast time is nuts though, PBS is useful as a (historical) ranger interrupt because it is one of the few interrupts that is relatively instant. It’s important the skill is used to interrupt, or just kitten LB rangers.

Actually PBS is really good if you are going to interupt a stomp, or if you are going for a decap in PVP. There are times where you shouldn’t use the skill and there are times like these where the knockback can mean in the end winning a fight. But of course a lot of LB rangers don’t realize that and will use it randomly because of bad habit.

DaShi.1368:

I would always prefer a block, blind, daze, or stun to PBS any day. PBS is why you don’t want a ranger on your team, never why you would want one. A ranger that thinks he’s helping his team with PBS is not a good ranger.

A well-aimed point blank shot, because of the varying degrees of knockback at different ranges, can actually stack up mobs more closely when using piercing arrows. If you have a wall to push them against, it’s even more effective. In the hands of a good ranger, Point Blank Shot can be a help to a team in PvE. In PvP, Point Blank Shot provides a much needed gap opener to the Longbow ranger as well as a way to peel for allies and prevent stomps.

The instant use of point blank shot is where a lot of its strength is, so If they increase the cast time they’ll need to give it something valuable to compensate.

Hopefully all we will see if a change in its animation and trail effect.

i think they did not say “Too many rangers”
When i remember Grouch said a lot of Rangers using LB recently.
Hugh was happy about that and said how cool it is to hear that. So I think the Devs are happy to see that the LB has more use for it.

I as a casual player and most of the time playing serk ranger can dodge it now, I don’t get all the QQ.. L2p issue or surprising that more rangers can fight back now..

Point blank shot is a perfect candidate for a charged skill instead of the current function the knockback and damage could be increased the longer you hold the skill before releasing it.

shadowpass.4236:

Eurantien.4632:

I wouldn’t call it a balance update when these changes buff the 3 strongest classes atm (engi, ele, necro) and still leave others (ranger, guardian, warrior) in the bottom of the pool.

+1

Lol, agreed. +1

They can remove LB #4 if they want. I don’t care and I don’t use it anyway.
The only viable way to make LB zerker work against somehwat decent players is as a sneaky sniper in WvW where the enemy does not see you comming.

Thats the only way this build should be played and in such a scenario you dont want to point blank shot anyway, its slows your killing speed down. Rather use it at point blank (duh) together with stealth and 1800unit leaps in the opposite direction to gain distance.

Anyway, I guess it helps against all those casuals dying to rapid fire in Spvp, so thats good. Still, has no real effect to the purpose of this build in WvW

Its an interrupt. That’s probably its best use. The knock back is more a side effect in my opinion. They can up its recharge to 20 seconds, remove its knock back, and just have it cause a 1/4 second daze for the interrupt for all I care. Although I’m sure all us lb rangers have had that random funny pbs land while fighting near cliffs for that 1 shot 1 kill ;-)

Justine.6351:

Although I’m sure all us lb rangers have had that random funny pbs land while fighting near cliffs for that 1 shot 1 kill ;-)

Random ones, and intended ones

Prysin.8542:

sorry, meant to say “added”.

A 1 second cast time? That would feel very slow. Apparently they’ll be adding something to the animation of the skill, that ought to be enough I think.

I like the fact that the “Long range shot” had the same damage since ever and nobody complained about it before, people got so used to free kills rangers that now when they actually get killed by a ranger they start crying, why don`t you guys complain when you get one shot from a power necro`s lich form, Thief D/d,Shatter mesmer,zerk warrior,Greatsword Guardian.
Ranger has been in the trashcan for so long now, i`ve been playing it since i got in the game and all WvW guilds/PvE guilds/PvP teams refused me before and told me to reroll, and now when it is finally in line with other characters everybody complain about it.
Deal with it ranger finally got in line with all the proffesions, no longer kitteneless class.

.. Tip for PBS while zerg surfing , Get down the kitten flank pick a Target (DON’T pew pew) Drawing attention to yourself , Pbs that person out of the zerg side ways , not deeper into the zerg , well done you have Succesfully removed a threat from his Cotten ball of saftey.

now repeat.

Kaybosh.5183:

Deal with it ranger finally got in line with all the proffesions, no longer kitteneless class.

I agree with your comments that ranger was often shunned upon. I remember having to sit through a dungeon listening to so much kitten from ppl for playing a ranger and how I was bringing the team down. Same goes for WvW and same goes for guild recruiting.

But don’t get too ahead otherwise Anet going to bring the nerf hammer to us again, ranger are now no longer easy/free kills all the time, but in no way have we finally gotten in line with other classes. I will only say that when our other weapons are brought to a decent level and we don’t have a class mechanic that barely, if ever, works.

Rangers are still told to alt-F4 in WvW unless you’re roaming. Spirits have been indirectly nerfed by hordes of engis and eles everywhere. I really, really hope anet doesn’t start listening to the incompetent players that struggle with LB rangers. And I don’t think they will; adding a tell to a critical skill is a good thing for everybody.

the PBS cast time and tell should be implemented. Seriously. As someone before mentioned, hard CC needs a tell.

ArchonWing.9480:

I will applaud if PBS makes the ranger shoot a giant “L2P” at the target.

That is exactly what it is attempting to do. The animation postures on Ranger all start the same. P.B.S will now be differentiated by colour..this means people will ‘learn to play’ against it.

Substance E.4852:

solrik.6028:

There is one thing I don’t like, though;
Necro – Grasp (#1 skill on your staff) – Velocity of the projectile increased by 50% so players no longer escape from it when you cast it at max range

Now I’m asking “Why could you not do that with longbow’s Long Range Shot?”

That would have made sense and we all know how much anet hate’s making sense when “Balancing” the ranger…

I mean, why would they choose to buff unused skills for the Ranger in a patch designed to buff unused skills for the other 7/8ths of the game? That’d be just weird…

The velocity speed to grasp will now be on par with the former velocity of longbow AA under the old read the wind trait. So in other words, Grasp has been buffed to 2012 beta weekend standard now. Which is to say, it is still slow..just not super slow anymore. Like they said, it didn’t require dodging..just simply move left or right and it is nullified.

Archon.6480:

shadowpass.4236:

Eurantien.4632:

I wouldn’t call it a balance update when these changes buff the 3 strongest classes atm (engi, ele, necro) and still leave others (ranger, guardian, warrior) in the bottom of the pool.

+1

Lol, agreed. +1

Celestial might stacking ele.
Celestial might stacking engineer
Terrormancer.

These are specific builds, not professions in general that any build can be played and achieve top tier play. It is difficult to simply put it as , “The top tier got more and the bottom tier got less.” The aphex meta builds got more, the diversity/hybrid builds got less. Also in the tournament of legends and tournament of glory, no necro’s were featured in the semi finals and above. Terrormancer is a soloQ fan favourite due to skyhammer and it’s decap abilities. Much the same as decap engi excelled in soloQ, but totally lacked in any higher tier play.

“Engineer – Magnetic Shield (#4 skill on the shield, immobilize you and reflect). The immobilize on it was kinda weird so this ability can now be used while moving so it will act similar as the #5 skill.”
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http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Whirling_Defense

Yeaaaaahhhh….weird…Anet…Weird