Guild Wars 2

“Reduced quickness from 100% attack speed to 50%.
-As we push to improve balance in both PvE and PvP, a few mechanics in the game will be receiving updates to promote fun and balanced play. In the past, quickness has granted double the action speed normally available to players. In PvP, this speed gives most players almost no chance to react to incoming abilities and allows for massive spike damage in extremely short periods of time. In PvE, the increased attack speed can trivialize a lot of content that would otherwise provide a good challenge. Therefore, we are reducing the speed that quickness allows by half of its current potential while slightly increasing the duration on player-activated skills.”

My build revolves around having QZ slotted, reduced QZ cool-down, and quickness on pet swap. So now this skill does half the damage as before? I rely on ranger quickness for burst. It’s pretty much my main damage dealer.

Thoughts?

Short answer, yes. However, Anet feels that we shouldn’t feel bad because it was mainly aimed at curving Mesmer and Warrior spikes, we just got caught by a stray arrow lol.

i tried QZ now with my ranger LMAO, if this is no reason to reroll or quit i dont know what is. It feels so slow now, my whole build is garbage now. what to do?

Yes. Enough of this.

Well I am done with this game. The devs are just so out of touch with the ranger profession. At least ESO beta is starting soon.

I don’t see an issue to this… I mean, c’mon, warriors completely relied on this for their only -real- sPvP build, which this patch just absolutely destroyed, we are still competitive, and weren’t hurt (OVERALL) that badly by it.

I mean c’mon, the BM swiftness trait was REALLY strong, now it’s more or less in line with other 5pt traits…

You -may- need to alter your build because of how much you relied on QZ, but I’d try sticking with it for now, QZ is still good for burst, they just flat out nerfed burst all around though.

Faolchu.1629:

Short answer, yes. However, Anet feels that we shouldn’t feel bad because it was mainly aimed at curving Mesmer and Warrior spikes, we just got caught by a stray arrow lol.

In the knee of all places too!

Most ranger weapons lack any sort of burst damage so quickness was the only form of burst damage many rangers had. Rangers also were able to apply more quickness on themselves than any other class. This has a pretty large impact on us because of that.

I’m using QZ since the beginning, but I always agreed Quickness buff was OP.
It’s a totally fair change.

I relied solely on quickness for damage. Our longbow does such kitten poor damage it’s laughable. Quickness made us at least somewhat competitive against other classes. Now LB is just a joke of a weapon. I am a GS/LB build in wvw. I guess I will try and change some traits/skills around but I’m pretty much done with this game. I will check back on update days but that’s it.

Sadly my LB/GS Ranger will be shelved for awhile. It was my main too. The only reliable dmg with a longbow was using QZ. Couple this with pets still lacking, she’s no longer a viable competitor in WvW.
Someday the Rangers will get more love. Until then I can’t stomach using that character as it just gets more and more crippled and lags behind.

They want us to switch over to Greatsword so we can be more like Warriors. The logic is astounding; ‘hey guys, we made a balance change to promote ’fun’ and diversity, so time to switch all of your traits and weapons to the ‘fun’ ones!’

Otherwise you are going to be left out of the party, and shockingly be even more useless than before!

Durzlla.6295:

I don’t see an issue to this… I mean, c’mon, warriors completely relied on this for their only -real- sPvP build, which this patch just absolutely destroyed, we are still competitive, and weren’t hurt (OVERALL) that badly by it.

I mean c’mon, the BM swiftness trait was REALLY strong, now it’s more or less in line with other 5pt traits…

You -may- need to alter your build because of how much you relied on QZ, but I’d try sticking with it for now, QZ is still good for burst, they just flat out nerfed burst all around though.

Warriors didn’t need any help in PvE. They were kings and it wasn’t off of the strength of quickness (although we might see some increased challenge for CoF players who relied on mesmer Time Warps). Ranger great sword was buffed, but they still can’t auto-attack their way to 25 stacks of might and maintain near permanent fury without swapping weapons.

Rangers are not competitive in PvE. They were already underperforming and with the hardest hit (aside from mesmers) from this nerf, I’m looking at all of my builds and I don’t know if they are viable any more. One thing to note about the ranger is that they have very few good skills worth bringing. Nerfing Quickening Zephyr is just making one of them that much worse.

Stun Breaks are awesome in PvP but they are mostly unecessary in PvE. Adding it to Quickening Zephyr means very little for PvE players, they have to accept it’s limited power in other ways because it now has a niche in PvP (it was also primarily an offensive skill, now it’s and awkward defensive skill).

Let’s not forget the pet swap cooldown change. This is a massive nerf – TO PETS!!!! Of all things in the game, they nerfed pets! If you are going to nerf pets, do it at the same time as fixing the issues they have so you don’t make a bad situation worse.

As a trap ranger, I can say without a doubt that this doesn’t effect me much at all. I stick with shortbow most of the time while throwing traps, so my DPS won’t really be effected much.

Shiren.9532:

Durzlla.6295:

I don’t see an issue to this… I mean, c’mon, warriors completely relied on this for their only -real- sPvP build, which this patch just absolutely destroyed, we are still competitive, and weren’t hurt (OVERALL) that badly by it.

I mean c’mon, the BM swiftness trait was REALLY strong, now it’s more or less in line with other 5pt traits…

You -may- need to alter your build because of how much you relied on QZ, but I’d try sticking with it for now, QZ is still good for burst, they just flat out nerfed burst all around though.

Warriors didn’t need any help in PvE. They were kings and it wasn’t off of the strength of quickness (although we might see some increased challenge for CoF players who relied on mesmer Time Warps). Ranger great sword was buffed, but they still can’t auto-attack their way to 25 stacks of might and maintain near permanent fury without swapping weapons.

Rangers are not competitive in PvE. They were already underperforming and with the hardest hit (aside from mesmers) from this nerf, I’m looking at all of my builds and I don’t know if they are viable any more. One thing to note about the ranger is that they have very few good skills worth bringing. Nerfing Quickening Zephyr is just making one of them that much worse.

Stun Breaks are awesome in PvP but they are mostly unecessary in PvE. Adding it to Quickening Zephyr means very little for PvE players, they have to accept it’s limited power in other ways because it now has a niche in PvP (it was also primarily an offensive skill, now it’s and awkward defensive skill).

Let’s not forget the pet swap cooldown change. This is a massive nerf – TO PETS!!!! Of all things in the game, they nerfed pets! If you are going to nerf pets, do it at the same time as fixing the issues they have so you don’t make a bad situation worse.

Well at no point did i mention PvE, so i don’t know why you’re bringing this up… warriors got hit hard in PvE too because of this, but i feel quickness was nerfed more due to mesmer timewarp stacking making a lot of fights meaningless and trivial….

That being said, howd they nerf pets? I’ve barely played since the patch came live, so i’m really curious as to what they did there…

Why does this game feel more about play how Anet wants you to play or don’t play at all…

I dunno why i made a ranger its terrible..

They really need to look at the trait sources of quickness across the board now. All could really use a buff.

“As we push to improve balance in both PvE and PvP, a few mechanics in the game will be receiving updates to promote fun and balanced play.”

i’m just wondering how anet will balance pve and pvp when there is not a hard separation between the two coding wise? also, i’m puzzled as to how changing a couple of general profession mechanics will promote fun and balanced gameplay when there are gaping holes and extremes in performance between professions?

help me understand!

Bri.8354:

Faolchu.1629:

Short answer, yes. However, Anet feels that we shouldn’t feel bad because it was mainly aimed at curving Mesmer and Warrior spikes, we just got caught by a stray arrow lol.

In the knee of all places too!

Suppose we could all become guards in Skyrim hangs lampshade

Broken class and a waste of time to play in spvp with that nerf

BroScientist.9875:

Well I am done with this game. The devs are just so out of touch with the ranger profession. At least ESO beta is starting soon.

Love these arguments, I’ll put money on ESO having a crap load of people (maybe even you, wouldn’t shock me) saying “<insert game name here> beta is starting soon”.

Those of us willing to ride the balance wave up and down in the first 6 months to a year of a new MMO stick around and ultimately get more out of it.

capuchinseven.8395:

BroScientist.9875:

Well I am done with this game. The devs are just so out of touch with the ranger profession. At least ESO beta is starting soon.

Love these arguments, I’ll put money on ESO having a crap load of people (maybe even you, wouldn’t shock me) saying “<insert game name here> beta is starting soon”.

Those of us willing to ride the balance wave up and down in the first 6 months to a year of a new MMO stick around and ultimately get more out of it.

This. Plus well…there are quite a few builds that don’t get hit by this quickness nerf, trap rangers (which I am) among them. It may be time to just start thinking up new setups.

Obviously it was a massive nerf and how it was re-balanced was a nerf in itself.

I don’t really have any problem with the change myself. It is still usefull and longbow still hits very hard in berserker gear. I never get left out of groups either because I am in a guild and run all guild groups. You should try that sometimes it works wonders not having to rely on pugs.

RyuDragnier.9476:

capuchinseven.8395:

BroScientist.9875:

Well I am done with this game. The devs are just so out of touch with the ranger profession. At least ESO beta is starting soon.

Love these arguments, I’ll put money on ESO having a crap load of people (maybe even you, wouldn’t shock me) saying “<insert game name here> beta is starting soon”.

Those of us willing to ride the balance wave up and down in the first 6 months to a year of a new MMO stick around and ultimately get more out of it.

This. Plus well…there are quite a few builds that don’t get hit by this quickness nerf, trap rangers (which I am) among them. It may be time to just start thinking up new setups.

Eh, how are trap rangers unaffected by this? Unless you run some kind of ‘low condition’ trap build and refuse to use a shortbow or an axe, your DPS just tanked.

Also, don’t fall into the slippery slope. A general nerf is not a great reason to start changing your setup, or you might as well roll warrior and go flavor of the month.

I dont really care lol I quit using QZ long long time ago(forty milliseconds)

Gotejjeken.1267:

Eh, how are trap rangers unaffected by this? Unless you run some kind of ‘low condition’ trap build and refuse to use a shortbow or an axe, your DPS just tanked.

My DPS comes from the condition damage. By myself, without the conditions coming into effect, I do 50 damage every hit on a veteran enemy in Diessa Plateau. Add in the bleed, flame, and poison CD, and I’m doing more damage each second with the conditions than I will ever do with just a regular attack from the SB. I use Healing Spring, Signet of the Hunt, Flame Trap, Spike Trap, and Entangle as my skills, btw.

The problem is, this nerf hits us two-fold. Our QZ affects our pet, and reducing it to 50% pretty much has axed our ability to burst with both our character and our pet. Pretty much QZ is garbage… 5 pnts into BM is garbage… and the ranger with it.

Durzlla.6295:

That being said, howd they nerf pets? I’ve barely played since the patch came live, so i’m really curious as to what they did there…

“Ranger pet cooldowns are now properly preserved when stabled.” Basically now when pet swapping the pet cds are still where they were prior to the swap. For example Wolf/Drakehound/Hyena pounce knockdown will not be available immediately when swapping. you have to wait the full 40 seconds.

Infernia.9847:

I can’t stomach using that character as it just gets more and more crippled and lags behind.

qft

Really annoyed with this change. Whomever is in charge of Ranger at Anet is completely out to lunch. Ranger may be the worst class in GW2. Quickness nerf is a huge dps hit and unless Anet buffs weapon damage/skills to even things out Ranger is in big trouble.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Gotejjeken.1267:

Eh, how are trap rangers unaffected by this? Unless you run some kind of ‘low condition’ trap build and refuse to use a shortbow or an axe, your DPS just tanked.

My DPS comes from the condition damage. By myself, without the conditions coming into effect, I do 50 damage every hit on a veteran enemy in Diessa Plateau. Add in the bleed, flame, and poison CD, and I’m doing more damage each second with the conditions than I will ever do with just a regular attack from the SB. I use Healing Spring, Signet of the Hunt, Flame Trap, Spike Trap, and Entangle as my skills, btw.

The very fact that you run condition damage build shows us that you run a sub-optimal build already and this is compared to power crit builds. This also tells us that you have little to no experience running efficient dungeon and fractal groups. Regardless of what you say your “condition” build is kitten aside from open world.

The very fact that you don’t know condition builds are largely wasted DPS in groups tells me that you don’t know the class or the game mechanics very well. Hence, you opinion is rather moot you don’t even know how to play properly.

I’ve ran dungeon and fractal groups more than a few times, and the party almost always welcomes the CD, because they know that it’s one of the only things that can keep a ranger doing actual useful damage in said areas. Plus well, combos for the party, and they love a good longlasting burn condition. Plus I’ve tried a critical build before…it was pretty meh IMO, and didn’t fit my tastes.

RyuDragnier.9476:

I’ve ran dungeon and fractal groups more than a few times, and the party almost always welcomes the CD, because they know that it’s one of the only things that can keep a ranger doing actual useful damage in said areas. Plus well, combos for the party, and they love a good longlasting burn condition.

That right there is so wrong. You are that bad useless ranger everyone always refers to in groups and always wants to kick for a more useful class.

Bullkitten. I’ve never gotten kicked once from ANY party, and my conditions are what help take down enemies faster. The only way I’m doing any decent damage in dungeons or fractals is by using conditions, and with the exclusions of a few enemies or parts (where traps are useless due to things that can’t activate them), I have had 0 problems pulling my own weight.

Precision/Crit is based off the base damage of the weapon, the base damage of Ranger Weapons are low because our damage is split with our pet. Therefore you get less out of Precision/Crit than any other class.

Conditions don’t have this issue, so bang for buck they give you more than Precision Crit. A Condition Ranger may not quite do as much DPS than a full Bezerker (though it’s close), but they will have FAR more survivability and can bring useful things to the table like healing, as they are not using as many stats to get the same DPS results.

Since leveling a Ranger, I’m more interested in different build. I had teamed with a lot of bad Rangers before and I was wondering what the issue most Rangers had was. It feels like the Condition ones seem to be giving more to the team than the Power ones. But this might be due to mind set rather than anything else. The Power ones definitely seem to die more.

@Grimvar

geez, elitist much? So anyone not running your build “doesn’t know how to play”?

Trap condition rangers, while they might lack burst, is actually very viable. What trap rangers excel in is multi-target sustained damage and survivability (high toughness). You can argue about the stack cap or w/e, but in 5 man dungeons that will not come into the picture that often unless you run with >3 other people who are also condition built. The aoe capabilities that comes with this build is pretty sweet. Whats a squishy power crit ranger gonna do when swarmed? barrage? and when that is on CD, then what? in tight space you’ll never have the range to play LB properly. I was power crit but I got kinda sick of having to kite all the time. Trap rangers excel in that kind of environment. Throw 10, 15 mobs at him and he’ll eat everything up with traps.

another point to add: power crit rangers HAVE to stay on target to do their dps. In sticky situations, a condition ranger can just lay out many traps and aoe condition stacks and kite the swarm of mobs, letting the ticks eat away. Coupled with frost traps, healing and high toughness skirmishing is not an issue.

alemfi.5107:

The problem is, this nerf hits us two-fold. Our QZ affects our pet, and reducing it to 50% pretty much has axed our ability to burst with both our character and our pet. Pretty much QZ is garbage… 5 pnts into BM is garbage… and the ranger with it.

Durzlla.6295:

That being said, howd they nerf pets? I’ve barely played since the patch came live, so i’m really curious as to what they did there…

“Ranger pet cooldowns are now properly preserved when stabled.” Basically now when pet swapping the pet cds are still where they were prior to the swap. For example Wolf/Drakehound/Hyena pounce knockdown will not be available immediately when swapping. you have to wait the full 40 seconds.

Well it’s a good thing I, unlike every other ranger I encounter, do not swap my pets on CD, so my second canines Brutal Charge will always be off CD, I did some testing and the skills are on CD per pet not per skill like a lot of people seem to think…

IE: I can double brutal charge every 36s by immediately swapping to my other canine after the first one uses their KD.

Thanks for testing durZ !