Guild Wars 2

Wuselknusel.4082:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Kui was who presented on the Engineer on the POI, and IIRC, the Ranger last time there was a POI about the Ranger.

You mean the POI where they joked about buffing bearbow instead of presenting some actual improvements?

To be fair, most, if not all bearbow jokes are made by Josh aka “Grouch.” Even during the Ready-Up where the 2nd iteration of the core specialization changes were presented (all slideshow), Kui never added anything to those bearbow comments.

Here’s hoping the Druid presentation has Ruby and Kui only.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Here’s hoping the Druid presentation has Ruby and Kui only.

Ruby is just as annoying as those bearbow comments.

I am almost positive that engineer will be the last reveal.

Imo its feels kinda sad that they seem to use druid as a way to fix Ranger instead of fixing the class and THEN giving them an elite spec

well who am I kidding they probably wont even bother fixing druid aswell considering the abuse us Ranger has had to live with for the last 3 years

I wouldn’t mind being last if it wasn’t for the fact that we don’t get to play as much around with the druid in the betas as we do with the other classes and give the devs feedback while at it. They have already done dozen of changes to other elite specs.

It’s just not fair.

Lazze.9870:

I wouldn’t mind being last if it wasn’t for the fact that we don’t get to play as much around with the druid in the betas as we do with the other classes and give the devs feedback while at it. They have already done dozen of changes to other elite specs.

It’s just not fair.

well we have basicly been ignored for the last 3 years anyway

SkiTz.4590:

Hepatolith.6389:

anduriell.6280:

In all this years i’ve learnt to don’t expect anything good.
The last patch just nerf the ranger so bad that now i don’t even try to go to wvw anymore. Unless you play pewpew from 1500 and run as soon as someone notices you you won’t stand a chance. Also forget to get any kill, you will be lucky if you can finish a downed player without stomping.

You serious? If there is anything ranger really excells at, it’s WvW roaming / dueling…
I mean… you can basically play 1-handed and still win most duels and it’s actually quite easy to just run from an heavily outnumbered situation (given you are Aware of People coming, you won’t run from a 5 man gank… noone would)… We may not bring much to a team or anything… but if we can do anything, then it is suriving on our own in WvW.

Solo roaming/1v1ing is all about individual skill… any class can beat another class so long as they are adequately skilled. (not just mechanical skills, but knowledge)

Most classes can WvW roam just fine so this example is not good… every class has the tools to escape and make it alive out of outnumbered scenarios if they know what they are doing… except necros lol (dat mobility is junk)

My norn necro disagrees. Snow leopard= best disengage skill in the game.

Redemer.2601:

Imo its feels kinda sad that they seem to use druid as a way to fix Ranger instead of fixing the class and THEN giving them an elite spec

well who am I kidding they probably wont even bother fixing druid aswell considering the abuse us Ranger has had to live with for the last 3 years

Got a feeling it goes one of two ways, we’ve seen our spirits decimated so they step in like a saviour and bam! Druid / Spirits! Rejoice… -.- (Now thank us peasants!)

Or oh those pets are awful, can’t hit anything always die etc, here have some tools that make it a little better for you, maybe roots or protection for him on 60 second cds. (Now thank us peasants!)

It will be a giant band aid, you’re completely right, the class needed to be in the right place before adding to it and I feel they’ll use this as the opportunity to just patch things up adding new bugs along the way.

News of the day: Druid has been canceled and ranger will be deleted after hot patch

Seeing how awesome staff daredevil looks has me worried that druid staff will be absolutely terrible just to make sure we are different. Can’t have 2 highly evasive, medium armored, melee staff wielders. Pretty sure ours will involve something stupid like rooting ourselves in place for 5 second channels to make plants grow.

Puck.9612:

Seeing how awesome staff daredevil looks has me worried that druid staff will be absolutely terrible just to make sure we are different. Can’t have 2 highly evasive, medium armored, melee staff wielders. Pretty sure ours will involve something stupid like rooting ourselves in place for 5 second channels to make plants grow.

Hopefully its atunement based or something unique… I agree anet wouldnt make similar staff professions…we have enough dodge/evades imo… It’s gotta have something to do with pets/aspect/spirits or w/e…because that needs the most help by far

What we know: druid will get something called aspects and a staff.
What we want to know: how will the mechanic change.

The overwhelming trend so far is for the weapons and utilities to be usable without being mandatory.

The most important thing we are all dying to know is how the mechanic will change, and it needs to change in a major way, either with druid changing what it is or with an update to the core pet ai, or both.

If it remains unchanged or unaltered in any major way, the simple truth is that ranger will be left behind by the other classes in HoT.

A new weapon and utility family alone is not enough.

What we know (based on old information that may not be true anymore):
The staff will be a caster weapon.
What we also know: The Ranger is no caster class.
What we can conclude: The staff will not be a damage centered weapon.
What we can conclude from that:

Wuselknusel.4082:

The staff will be a caster weapon.

Ok I agree.

Wuselknusel.4082:

What we also know: The Ranger is no caster class.

Ok, so far so good.

Wuselknusel.4082:

What we can conclude: The staff will not be a damage centered weapon.

Wait, what !? How you came to that conclusion?
Ele is a caster with a staff and deal tons of damage with it.
Mesmer is a caster and it isn’t damage oriented.
Guard is not a caster and staff is not damage oriented
Daredevil is not a caster and staff is damage oriented.
We have no pattern to follow.

Belzebu.3912:

Wuselknusel.4082:

The staff will be a caster weapon.

Ok I agree.

Wuselknusel.4082:

What we also know: The Ranger is no caster class.

Ok, so far so good.

Wuselknusel.4082:

What we can conclude: The staff will not be a damage centered weapon.

Wait, what !? How you came to that conclusion?
Ele is a caster with a staff and deal tons of damage with it.

Wuselknusel.4082:

What we also know: The Ranger is no caster class.

The Ranger doesn’t use magic to damage his enemies.

I edited my post for more examples.
But yeah, we don’t have much of a pattern to follow when we deal with staff

Belzebu.3912:

I edited my post for more examples.
But yeah, we don’t have much of a pattern to follow when we deal with staff

True, but it’s almost certainly going to be some kind of ranged weapon. We already have 3 damage focused ranged weapons with 1 being the longest and hardest hitting option in the game currently.

Unless it ends up being an AoE dispenser like the Necro staff, I don’t see it being a damage focused weapon.

The Ele is a caster and uses the staff as a caster weapon. The Ele deals high damage.
The Mesmer is a caster and uses the staff as caster weapon. The Mesmer deals considerable condi damage.
The Necro is a caster and uses the staff as catser weapon. The Necro deals good damage.
The Guardian is no caster and uses the staff as caster weapon. The Guardian deals no damage.
The Revenant is no caster and is not using the staff as caster weapon. The Revenant heals with staff (because kitten logic).
The Thief get the staff as non-caster version and is no caster himself. The Tief will deal tons of damage with his staff.

There is a pattern.

Puck.9612:

Pretty sure ours will involve something stupid like rooting ourselves in place for 5 second channels to make plants grow.

Lol. That actually made me laugh.

Wuselknusel.4082:

The Ele is a caster and uses the staff as a caster weapon. The Ele deals high damage.
The Mesmer is a caster and uses the staff as caster weapon. The Mesmer deals considerable condi damage.
The Necro is a caster and uses the staff as catser weapon. The Necro deals good damage.
The Guardian is no caster and uses the staff as caster weapon. The Guardian deals no damage.
The Revenant is no caster and is not using the staff as caster weapon. The Revenant heals with staff (because kitten logic).
The Thief get the staff as non-caster version and is no caster himself. The Tief will deal tons of damage with his staff.

There is a pattern.

Pattern has me concerned. At least we’ll have a 1¼ sec vine shot. That’s gotta be OP right? Right?! shrug

The staff will surely have ground targeted skills on it, surely. I think it will be hybrid too.

I think engi will be the enxt reveal. They’ve just done thieves with staffs so they might want a break between that and the other staff elite.

Wuselknusel.4082:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Kui was who presented on the Engineer on the POI, and IIRC, the Ranger last time there was a POI about the Ranger.

You mean the POI where they joked about buffing bearbow instead of presenting some actual improvements?

I believe that’s the one.

With the anouncement for 23 October release start being afraid because the feedback opportunities we will have will be very limited and the chances on Anet getting it right on their own is unexisting :/

It makes me think that druid is about as polished as they feel it needs to be and are not really interested in reworking it. But experience has taught the ranger community to have low expectations and then be surprised that they weren’t low enough.

I really hope we hear more soon so I can decided if I want to buy the expansion or quit the game.

That doesn’t say all that much. They also kept the order on this page:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/
But skipped Ranger.

In fact, the order on your list is incorrect

Doesnt matter anyway, only one opportunity to test druid, my hope for ranger spec is at an all time low.

There will only be 1 more BWE after the one next week.

Yep only 1 beta weekend for Ranger and Engineer.

Actually don’t feature in the Raid trailer either.

I’m not surprised a Ranger/Druid was absent from the Raid trailer. I didn’t play a Ranger in the last BWE in the new map, so I’m unfamiliar with how pets functioned when you leaped off to glide.

Would suck in that one part where the kill-shot ground stomp if you glided away and your pet was left behind on the land, dies, and your pet cd was on full 48/60 because… well, oversight?

I’m under the impression that Druids may have hit a snag design-wise.

Like how Eles were originally supposed to get a sword, but wound up with a warhorn.

Perhaps they just haven’t figured out how to make the Druid spec complement what the Ranger already does. (I’m expecting it to be a lot of CC and party support.)

Wondrouswall.7169:

I’m not surprised a Ranger/Druid was absent from the Raid trailer. I didn’t play a Ranger in the last BWE in the new map, so I’m unfamiliar with how pets functioned when you leaped off to glide.

Would suck in that one part where the kill-shot ground stomp if you glided away and your pet was left behind on the land, dies, and your pet cd was on full 48/60 because… well, oversight?

Also pets insta-dying has been in the game for a while when it comes to big encounters or WvW… might of been an oversight back then, now it’s just sad.

Wonder if it keeps you in combat, stops you gliding maybe? Rangers falling to their death in the trailer would be funny.

Sicarius.4639:

Wondrouswall.7169:

I’m not surprised a Ranger/Druid was absent from the Raid trailer. I didn’t play a Ranger in the last BWE in the new map, so I’m unfamiliar with how pets functioned when you leaped off to glide.

Would suck in that one part where the kill-shot ground stomp if you glided away and your pet was left behind on the land, dies, and your pet cd was on full 48/60 because… well, oversight?

Also pets insta-dying has been in the game for a while when it comes to big encounters or WvW… might of been an oversight back then, now it’s just sad.

Wonder if it keeps you in combat, stops you gliding maybe? Rangers falling to their death in the trailer would be funny.

As far as I know it didn’t, but due to oversight on their part beta rangers only have one pet and during the wyvern fight you had to you the glider to reset your pet as the differing phase of the fight would cause the pet to be unable to attack/path to the wvyern.

Don’t know how long these will be up but leaving this here, some artwork for druid is shown: https://marius.im/u/202sH4.jpg

jcbroe.4329:

Don’t know how long these will be up but leaving this here, some artwork for druid is shown: https://marius.im/u/202sH4.jpg

There is no pet in that artwork…

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

jcbroe.4329:

Don’t know how long these will be up but leaving this here, some artwork for druid is shown: https://marius.im/u/202sH4.jpg

There is no pet in that artwork…

Shaman confirmed.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

jcbroe.4329:

Don’t know how long these will be up but leaving this here, some artwork for druid is shown: https://marius.im/u/202sH4.jpg

There is no pet in that artwork…

Hopefully just an oversight.

I feel the point of the works was to display the new weapons as a way of showing the new specs. Druid is more “hey you can use a staff and more magic now” than anything else. A pet in there would just distract from it in the same way the engi’s new copter turrets would distract from the hammer.

If it is intentional then I am even more dubious of the new spec. Pets are a pile of meh at best right now but trying to circumvent them without actually removing them is going to be disastrous and please no one.

Substance E.4852:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

jcbroe.4329:

Don’t know how long these will be up but leaving this here, some artwork for druid is shown: https://marius.im/u/202sH4.jpg

There is no pet in that artwork…

Hopefully just an oversight.

I feel the point of the works was to display the new weapons as a way of showing the new specs. Druid is more “hey you can use a staff and more magic now” than anything else. A pet in there would just distract from it in the same way the engi’s new copter turrets would distract from the hammer.

If it is intentional then I am even more dubious of the new spec. Pets are a pile of meh at best right now but trying to circumvent them without actually removing them is going to be disastrous and please no one.

What if the pet is gone, the pet swap is replaced by aspect swapping, the F2 became an aspect utility skill and the BM traits affected us? Dunno if that would be disastrous. Actually, it would be quite OP.

After today’s announcements, and given the amount of bugs still present with the class after the class updates, I’m more than inclined to think it’s all a wash. Time will tell eventually, but I’m not expecting miracles either.

Definitely not after today.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Substance E.4852:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

jcbroe.4329:

Don’t know how long these will be up but leaving this here, some artwork for druid is shown: https://marius.im/u/202sH4.jpg

There is no pet in that artwork…

Hopefully just an oversight.

I feel the point of the works was to display the new weapons as a way of showing the new specs. Druid is more “hey you can use a staff and more magic now” than anything else. A pet in there would just distract from it in the same way the engi’s new copter turrets would distract from the hammer.

If it is intentional then I am even more dubious of the new spec. Pets are a pile of meh at best right now but trying to circumvent them without actually removing them is going to be disastrous and please no one.

What if the pet is gone, the pet swap is replaced by aspect swapping, the F2 became an aspect utility skill and the BM traits affected us? Dunno if that would be disastrous. Actually, it would be quite OP.

This would be a really interesting way to play but I honestly can’t see then ever doing it.

What I’m afraid of is they will give us new Fs that involve aspect rotation and we will lose the pet control. It will be like sub lvl 10 or w/e Ranger pet control, but all the time.

The pet will still be there but obviously functionally weaker and it’s continued presence will mean we get weaker than necessary effects on aspects and our glyphs in the same vein as our current skills. They’ll either have weak effects or be limited in the foes effected.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

jcbroe.4329:

Don’t know how long these will be up but leaving this here, some artwork for druid is shown: https://marius.im/u/202sH4.jpg

There is no pet in that artwork…

I seriously doubt that the pet mechanic will even be a persistent creature on the field, and if it is then it definitely either won’t be “permanently out.”

If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. But I’d be expecting the Druid to be one of the more drastic elite specs, and if it isn’t, it won’t bother me in the slightest as long as their is something positive to gain by speccing druid lol.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

After today’s announcements, and given the amount of bugs still present with the class after the class updates, I’m more than inclined to think it’s all a wash. Time will tell eventually, but I’m not expecting miracles either.

Definitely not after today.

What announcements and what do you mean by ‘wash’?

Substance E.4852:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Substance E.4852:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

jcbroe.4329:

Don’t know how long these will be up but leaving this here, some artwork for druid is shown: https://marius.im/u/202sH4.jpg

There is no pet in that artwork…

Hopefully just an oversight.

I feel the point of the works was to display the new weapons as a way of showing the new specs. Druid is more “hey you can use a staff and more magic now” than anything else. A pet in there would just distract from it in the same way the engi’s new copter turrets would distract from the hammer.

If it is intentional then I am even more dubious of the new spec. Pets are a pile of meh at best right now but trying to circumvent them without actually removing them is going to be disastrous and please no one.

What if the pet is gone, the pet swap is replaced by aspect swapping, the F2 became an aspect utility skill and the BM traits affected us? Dunno if that would be disastrous. Actually, it would be quite OP.

This would be a really interesting way to play but I honestly can’t see then ever doing it.

What I’m afraid of is they will give us new Fs that involve aspect rotation and we will lose the pet control. It will be like sub lvl 10 or w/e Ranger pet control, but all the time.

The pet will still be there but obviously functionally weaker and it’s continued presence will mean we get weaker than necessary effects on aspects and our glyphs in the same vein as our current skills. They’ll either have weak effects or be limited in the foes effected.

I think it will be this way also, seems the easiest way to go about it.

jcbroe.4329:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

jcbroe.4329:

Don’t know how long these will be up but leaving this here, some artwork for druid is shown: https://marius.im/u/202sH4.jpg

There is no pet in that artwork…

I seriously doubt that the pet mechanic will even be a persistent creature on the field, and if it is then it definitely either won’t be “permanently out.”

If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. But I’d be expecting the Druid to be one of the more drastic elite specs, and if it isn’t, it won’t bother me in the slightest as long as their is something positive to gain by speccing druid lol.

I too think the Druid will be the most drastic change and not bothered either way if the pet goes or if it stays without controls etc, assuming the rest of the mechanics and skills are decent and synergize with our other traitlines.

Maybe it’s just because the pet is the only profession mechanic you have to work against, rather than to work with, but I’m very pessimistic when it comes to the Ranger. I found Nike in the post stream particulary funny, having almost no clue how the pet really works. And it’s pitiful to say atleast how he was talking about raising the boon cap to 10 players, so that atleast one Ranger and one Necro would have a place in raids.

I also find the pet to be too broken to stay at it is right now, but I fear that by coming up with an entirely new mechanic, this mechanic could be less effective than other profession mechanics. Other professions get an upgraded mechanic. which makes them better, while we get a new mechanic, which is just good. It would stand representative for the entire Ranger.

Anyways, I’m not going to get my hopes up until we heard more details. But, just like I wrote in the OP, I somehow doubt that I will be super happy with the outcome.

Looks like it might be a melee weapon.

Holland.9351:

Looks like it might be a melee weapon.

We saw in the first trailer for HOT The druid using range attack. Also we have 2 melee staves already in HoT so my guess is, its going to be range(I mostly talk about the AA, we might get ground targeting for some of the weapon skills).

The problem I have with seeing a melee staff is that at this point with thief and Rev both getting a melee staff, it might start to be an overused concept. For thief and rev, it’s unique in a sense because they lack 2 handed melee weapons without staff.

Ranger, on the other hand, has greatsword already. So what would a melee staff that’s different from thief and revenant act without overlapping with Ranger GS at all? That would be my question/concern from a design point of view.

A caster staff for the druid on the other hand has tons of design potential that isn’t present on either the ranger class or in the theme/function of other classes. It doesn’t even have to necessarily be a “ranged” weapon, it just has to avoid being a martial weapon (aka it could be similar to guardians staff and have shorter ranges or even no range, but still thematically use magic to attack).

I doubt that anything will be revealed until after the next BWE though ANet is cutting it close

I REALLY want a staff, I just think asura ranger with staff would look absolutely aWEsOmE. But it’ll probably be something dumb and boring like warrior. sigh.. my classes get the kitten stuff. May have to Reroll revenant in hot..! Rolled monk main in MoP and that paid off 110% so maybe I should mimic it here!

Holland.9351:

Looks like it might be a melee weapon.

Druids in most if not all fantasy archetypes have been spell casters. The Druids in GW2 were humans who went into the jungle and meditated until their spirits became one with said jungle.

It’s going to be a ranged magic weapon. The staff they have shown for the druid also does not lend itself to being used as a melee weapon at all when compared to the DD bo staff and the 2 datamined battlestaffs.

jcbroe.4329:

The problem I have with seeing a melee staff is that at this point with thief and Rev both getting a melee staff, it might start to be an overused concept. For thief and rev, it’s unique in a sense because they lack 2 handed melee weapons without staff.

Ranger, on the other hand, has greatsword already. So what would a melee staff that’s different from thief and revenant act without overlapping with Ranger GS at all? That would be my question/concern from a design point of view.

A caster staff for the druid on the other hand has tons of design potential that isn’t present on either the ranger class or in the theme/function of other classes. It doesn’t even have to necessarily be a “ranged” weapon, it just has to avoid being a martial weapon (aka it could be similar to guardians staff and have shorter ranges or even no range, but still thematically use magic to attack).

I doubt that anything will be revealed until after the next BWE though ANet is cutting it close

But I want to beat up bad guys with a stick. Also, having a melee staff does increase the chance of the staff being a damage focussed weapon, something I want to see. I don’t want the first elite specialization to be some sort of tank or support centered specialization, I want to play through HoT with my Druid and I want to be able to kill stuff, as fast as the Berserker or the Daredavil can at best.