Ok I had to stop reading this thread because my brain started hurting but am I the only one who noticed the thread was complaining about the lack of vuln on hunter’s shot now but turned into Zenith agreeing the change was crap and used the fact 2 Warriors can keep vuln up to the stack permanently as proof?
If the Warriors can keep the vuln up, who cares where it gets stuck on Rangers?
Or, you can take one ranger or one engi and keep up 25 vuln by them alone…. Logic, kitten it.
how did a ranger keep perma 25 vuln up?
perm 10 from hunters shot; sure
20 at the start of a fight (openeing trikes+hunters shot)
…
…
…
those rnadom pet skills?
…
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Swoop_ 1/2 vuln perm (theoretically)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Slash_ hmm… 10 in theory; but ive never seen my jaguar stack 10 vuln; likely do to aftercast/using other attacks… 4-6 would probably be more accurate
still not seeing it
(edited by Linguistically Inept.6583)
Ok I had to stop reading this thread because my brain started hurting but am I the only one who noticed the thread was complaining about the lack of vuln on hunter’s shot now but turned into Zenith agreeing the change was crap and used the fact 2 Warriors can keep vuln up to the stack permanently as proof?
If the Warriors can keep the vuln up, who cares where it gets stuck on Rangers?
Or, you can take one ranger or one engi and keep up 25 vuln by them alone…. Logic, kitten it.
how did a ranger keep perma 25 vuln up?
perm 10 from hunters shot; sure
20 at the start of a fight (openeing trikes+hunters shot)
…
…
…
those rnadom pet skills?…
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Swoop_ 1/2 vuln perm (theoretically)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Slash_ hmm… 10 in theory; but ive never seen my jaguar stack 10 vuln; likely do to aftercast/using other attacks… 4-6 would probably be more accurate
still not seeing it
Uh, post patch? Take remorseless, use a longbow, that’s 25 vuln at opening, 20 of which is super easy to maintain, and he was saying in his dungeon group nothing lived long enough for the 25 to fall off, so there ya have it.
Uh, post patch? Take remorseless, use a longbow, that’s 25 vuln at opening, 20 of which is super easy to maintain, and he was saying in his dungeon group nothing lived long enough for the 25 to fall off, so there ya have it.
That’s not accurate based on what I saw when I was testing on PvP heavy golem. You get 5 stacks from you and 5 more from pet in opening strike and 10 from the rapid fire if all 10 hits. Rapid fire channels for 4 and a half seconds, opening strike duration lasts for 5s, the 20 stacks of “insta vuln” lasts a very brief period of time. I even slotted my ranger with superior signet of frailty and I’ve never hit 25 stacks, 23 is as high as I was able to go.
Channeling rapid fire first will trigger opening strike from you and your pet for 5s, +10s of 10 stacks of vuln from rapidfire but by the time the channel finishes you’re down to 15 stacks and then eventually 10 stacks depending on when your pet initiated contact and his 5 stacks wear off. If you’ve taken remorseless, and you follow up rapid shot with hunter’s shot and then another attack (I used long range shot), you’re back to 20 stacks.
The nerf basically means rangers lose the insta 20 stacks of vuln they used to get with hunter’s shot + opening strike from you and pet. The drawback is that this was a 1 time thing and from this point on you could only do the insta 10 stacks every 12s (or 9.5s if traited).
The buff is that assuming all 10 shots of rapid fire hit (and PvE bosses aren’t known for their ability to dodge) and you follow up with stealth, you can reapply opening strike vuln every 12s (or 9.5s). So 15 stacks of vuln in every 12 second interval.
EDIT: I haven’t been able to test if your pet also gets opening strike when you come off of stealth, the heavy golems tend to die before I have a chance to set up a second volley. Anyone know for sure?
(edited by Silver.4798)
EDIT: I haven’t been able to test if your pet also gets opening strike when you come off of stealth, the heavy golems tend to die before I have a chance to set up a second volley. Anyone know for sure?
I checked this, the pet doesn’t reset the opening strike. Although I didn’t test it with Jag stealth or guard.
EDIT: no, it doesn’t reset for the pet. Actually it only speaks of the ranger in the tooltip.
(edited by nagymbear.5280)
Ok I had to stop reading this thread because my brain started hurting but am I the only one who noticed the thread was complaining about the lack of vuln on hunter’s shot now but turned into Zenith agreeing the change was crap and used the fact 2 Warriors can keep vuln up to the stack permanently as proof?
If the Warriors can keep the vuln up, who cares where it gets stuck on Rangers?
Or, you can take one ranger or one engi and keep up 25 vuln by them alone…. Logic, kitten it.
how did a ranger keep perma 25 vuln up?
perm 10 from hunters shot; sure
20 at the start of a fight (openeing trikes+hunters shot)
…
…
…
those rnadom pet skills?…
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Swoop_ 1/2 vuln perm (theoretically)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Slash_ hmm… 10 in theory; but ive never seen my jaguar stack 10 vuln; likely do to aftercast/using other attacks… 4-6 would probably be more accurate
still not seeing it
Uh, post patch? Take remorseless, use a longbow, that’s 25 vuln at opening, 20 of which is super easy to maintain, and he was saying in his dungeon group nothing lived long enough for the 25 to fall off, so there ya have it.
i thought you were referring to pre patch somehow… shrug i did a stupid
I seriously don’t understand all of these PvE players complaining that now the longbow isn’t as good for optimized dungeon groups…
If your dungeon-running group was already willing to invite a ranger at all, they probably won’t kick you out now if bosses take an extra 5 seconds to kill because you have to channel Rapid Fire a couple times.
Hunter’s Shot was a dull skill. It was a very weak attack that applied a single-target damage buff just barely strong enough to be noticeable. Combining its condition application functionality with Rapid Fire and putting an extremely useful PvP utility that rangers previously had zero access to in its place is an excellent change for the class in general and a negligible loss in performance for the handful of groups out there that were paradoxically trying to maximize their dungeon speedrunning efficiency with a ranger in the group.
Had some fun with hunter’s shot in WvW last night. Haven’t quite figured out how to best use it with the group I usually run with. I would not call it OP, but it helps as an equalizer.
I’m sure stealth is great for all you PvP and WvW players who run away at the first sign of resistance, but it came at the expense of a fantastic PvE skill which is now effectively dead space on the skill bar.
I’m sure stealth is great for all you PvP and WvW players who run away at the first sign of resistance, but it came at the expense of a fantastic PvE skill which is now effectively dead space on the skill bar.
stealth isnt only useful for running away…
being focused? stealth; pop; lost target
want to get close to someone without them seeing you? stealth; pop; maul
want to stomp someone? stealth; impale
I’m sure stealth is great for all you PvP and WvW players who run away at the first sign of resistance, but it came at the expense of a fantastic PvE skill which is now effectively dead space on the skill bar.
stealth isnt only useful for running away…
being focused? stealth; pop; lost target
want to get close to someone without them seeing you? stealth; pop; maul
want to stomp someone? stealth; impale
I know, that was a bit of hyperbole. Stealth certainly has its uses, but for the PvE ranger these uses are far outweighed by the value of an instant 20 stacks of vulnerability. That’s 20% more damage vs…what? What use is any half-decent PvE ranger going to get out of stealth?
With the announcement that new skills on their way, why didn’t they simply wait and add stealth to a new longbow skill and leave Hunter’s Shot as is? Why didn’t they add stealth to a new utility skill and leave Hunter’s Shot as is? Why mess up a skill that was useful to everyone for the sake of half the population (if even half the player play PvP/WvW)?
With the new HS we’ve spread the function of one skill to two skills and a trait. We’re doing twice the work and giving up a very valuable trait to get the same results.
This reply is to a post from another related thread that seems to have vanished.
I mean no disrespect, but the new skill also makes sense over PvE, which is 99% of what I do. I do not, however, favor 100% full power builds, and detest the flawed idea that GW2 is a DPS race ONLY. People should be able to choose whatever their playstyle should be, not force into direct damage (GW2 is not a speedrun.)
That’s the thing, you can choose your play style. That’s why different weapons have different functions. The longbow was supposed to be used for ranged dps. That’s the style the weapon was clearly designed for. But with the new Hunter’s Shot we’ve now got two of our five skills dedicated to defense. These skills are static, mind you; we cannot swap them out.
(Full DPS by itself is not good or bad-just a high risk/high reward playstyle.) New Hunter’s Shot gives Ranger an additional playstyle option for those who would take advantage of it, though I imagine you are not one of those people.
I also spend 99% of my time in PvE, and I can’t imagine a scenario in which I’ve ever needed stealth on my ranger. I’ve already got a pet, 1500 range, an aoe cripple, and a piercing knock back all from my weapon skills and a couple of traits.
And that doesn’t even account for the utility skills I can take for added defense, should I ever feel the aforementioned skills to be sufficient to keep me alive. So when would stealth ever benefit me as a PvE longbow ranger?
I didn’t like Maul’s change, and given your apparent mentality, I think you actually would profit from the change if you used Greatsword-it’s hard to please everyone’s possible playstyle and preferences out there.
It’s not about pleasing my play style, it’s about changing my play style. I think we can all agree the longbow was designed to be a ranged dps weapon. This change to longbow doesn’t enhance the weapon’s designed roll, it nerfs it. And it does so for the sake of utility that half the players (PvEers) will never need.
To put it in perspective, I took the warrior greatsword nerf without a word of complaint. I, in fact, defended the nerf as a good move (even if I was raked on the warrior sub-forum for it). I’ve done likewise with a lot of changes, both buffs and nerfs. I’ve never criticized the developers for the changes they’ve implemented – even those that haven’t panned out so well – because I’ve always seen the underlying rationale. Until now…
This reply is to a post from another related thread that seems to have vanished.
Thank you, and I agree completely. I love when things mysteriously vanish; my only hope is that they learn something before they delete it. People have a tendency to throw out a good dissenting opinion just because it ruffles some feathers.
I want a PvE viable single target power based bow. Where’s that option? Nowhere.
Where do we already have utility options? On every other weapon in our freaking arsenal.
(edited by Miflett.3472)
This reply is to a post from another related thread that seems to have vanished.
Thank you, and I agree completely. I love when things mysteriously vanish; my only hope is that they learn something before they delete it. People have a tendency to throw out a good dissenting opinion just because it ruffles some feathers.
I want a PvE viable single target power based bow. Where’s that option? Nowhere.
Where do we already have utility options? On every other weapon in our freaking arsenal.
A dissenting opinion? The OP is pretty clearly in the minority of people who are upset about the longbow buff.
As far as viable bows, are there any viable single target ranged weapons for any class in the game? Not really. Anet has the melee-should-do-more-dps mentality, and as long as their heads are stuffed into that hole, bows, staves, rifles, they will all be second rate.
This reply is to a post from another related thread that seems to have vanished.
Thank you, and I agree completely. I love when things mysteriously vanish; my only hope is that they learn something before they delete it. People have a tendency to throw out a good dissenting opinion just because it ruffles some feathers.
I want a PvE viable single target power based bow. Where’s that option? Nowhere.
Where do we already have utility options? On every other weapon in our freaking arsenal.
A dissenting opinion? The OP is pretty clearly in the minority of people who are upset about the longbow buff.
As far as viable bows, are there any viable single target ranged weapons for any class in the game? Not really. Anet has the melee-should-do-more-dps mentality, and as long as their heads are stuffed into that hole, bows, staves, rifles, they will all be second rate.
That was in the reply to the old thread not this one. And for the other point, every mmo should have a bow class. If the ranger can’t be that, I don’t think I can continue to find fun in the playstyles moving forward.
A dissenting opinion? The OP is pretty clearly in the minority of people who are upset about the longbow buff.
I’ll bet my opinion is shared by the majority of players who don’t PvP or WvW. While I’m sure a lot of PvP/WvW players are tickled pink at the prospect of using stealth as a ranger, it’s not such a great addition to the PvE player’s repertoire…especially since it comes at the expense of a fantastic weapon skill.
A dissenting opinion? The OP is pretty clearly in the minority of people who are upset about the longbow buff.
I’ll bet my opinion is shared by the majority of players who don’t PvP or WvW. While I’m sure a lot of PvP/WvW players are tickled pink at the prospect of using stealth as a ranger, it’s not such a great addition to the PvE player’s repertoire…especially since it comes at the expense of a fantastic weapon skill.
You’re right, it doesn’t benefit PvE players much at all. However, I think even dungeon players appreciate the change because of how much you can contribute to vulnerability stacking, and most other players have some crossover into different gametypes, which is why you don’t see as many people agreeing with you as you possibly would.
That being said, for those of us that like the update, we’re happy, and for those of us that don’t; do what you did when you didn’t like previous updates, deal with it however you have in the past.
Our old hunter’s shot would give an instant 10 stacks of vulnerability, so then you could follow that up with rapid fire or barrage to do massive damage.
Now, you have to use rapid fire to stack on vulnerability. Between people dodge rolling and the infamous “obstructed”, you will be lucky to get 4 stacks on a moving player. PvE it might be fine, but WvW, this is not good. Plus, 3 seconds of stealth? I can drop aggro from a mob, sure, but it won’t trick another human. 3 seconds of stealth does nothing for a ranger – we have no teleport like mesmers and thieves – we will become visible pretty darn close to where we first went invisible. Any idiot with an AoE or Greatsword can spam where we went invisible and rip us a new one. Plus, if the pet attacks during your invisibility, you become visible again. The stealth does NOT affect our pets either – they remain visible. Stealth is pointless for rangers in WvW.
I dont know, I personally felt the vulnerability on hunter’s shot was next to useless.. far better on rapid fire. Though I don’t think it belongs on rapid fire, but more so on our auto-shot. At least were getting closer to that #1 key.
Plus, 3 seconds of stealth? I can drop aggro from a mob, sure, but it won’t trick another human. 3 seconds of stealth does nothing for a ranger – we have no teleport like mesmers and thieves – we will become visible pretty darn close to where we first went invisible. Any idiot with an AoE or Greatsword can spam where we went invisible and rip us a new one. Plus, if the pet attacks during your invisibility, you become visible again. The stealth does NOT affect our pets either – they remain visible. Stealth is pointless for rangers in WvW.
Turn off Autotargeting. Target nearby enemy. Use Hunter’s Shot and switch to greatsword. Use swoop to close the gap or drop target and use it to escape. Profit.
Yes, the skill would be more useful if rangers had more gap closing/escape skills, but that is yet another general ranger class issue that needs to be addressed at some point.
(edited by Sentry.3691)
Plus, 3 seconds of stealth? I can drop aggro from a mob, sure, but it won’t trick another human. 3 seconds of stealth does nothing for a ranger – we have no teleport like mesmers and thieves – we will become visible pretty darn close to where we first went invisible. Any idiot with an AoE or Greatsword can spam where we went invisible and rip us a new one. Plus, if the pet attacks during your invisibility, you become visible again. The stealth does NOT affect our pets either – they remain visible. Stealth is pointless for rangers in WvW.
Turn off Autotargeting. Target nearby enemy. Use Hunter’s Shot and switch to greatsword. Use swoop to close the gap or drop target and use it to escape. Profit.
Yes, the skill would be more useful if rangers had more gap closing/escape skills, but that is yet another general ranger class issue that needs to be addressed at some point.
I have never had autotargetting on. I turned it off in the BWEs and kept it off ever since. It only gets you killed.
I run Greatsword/Longbow in WvW. I use swoop effectively for gap closers and for escapes. I can typically escape from massive zergs chasing me as well as run down escaping thieves, but the 3 second stealth has proven to be of very, very little help so far.
-Stealth + Stomp
-Stealth + Reliably get off barrage
-Stealth + Reliably get off entangle or maximize entangle
-Stealth + Maximize rapid fire (deadly with piercing shot)
-Point blank shot + Wolf’s Knock down + stealth = one frustrated enemy
If your relying on vulnerability in PvE, your doing something wrong. Most mobs are long dead before it’s even a thought. In dungeons, it’s not difficult to keep vulnerability up to begin with, so hunter’s shot was next to useless. The amount of scenario’s the old set up was beneficial was few and far between compared to this new option.
Played with it yesterday in wvw on my current LB/GS setup, and found it insanely good. It’s very very nice in 1v1 to regain distance and get that bit more time on regen, and it was incredible in open zerg fights to break target and move to the outskirts when i’d just have died otherwise. Traited, it’s a 9.5s cooldown “oh kitten” button.
All that said, and though i won’t refrain from using it, i find it sad that there’s one more stealth in this game. It’s a rather poor mechanic imho, and there wasn’t a need for yet another class having it as a tool to frustrate the other players…
All that said, and though i won’t refrain from using it, i find it sad that there’s one more stealth in this game. It’s a rather poor mechanic imho, and there wasn’t a need for yet another class having it as a tool to frustrate the other players…
Com’on, it’s only 3sec, it’s not like we gained a perma-stealth like some thieves have. I personally love this new ability, it’s adding a whole new perspective to the profession.
Our old hunter’s shot would give an instant 10 stacks of vulnerability, so then you could follow that up with rapid fire or barrage to do massive damage.
Now, you have to use rapid fire to stack on vulnerability. Between people dodge rolling and the infamous “obstructed”, you will be lucky to get 4 stacks on a moving player. PvE it might be fine, but WvW, this is not good. Plus, 3 seconds of stealth? I can drop aggro from a mob, sure, but it won’t trick another human. 3 seconds of stealth does nothing for a ranger – we have no teleport like mesmers and thieves – we will become visible pretty darn close to where we first went invisible. Any idiot with an AoE or Greatsword can spam where we went invisible and rip us a new one. Plus, if the pet attacks during your invisibility, you become visible again. The stealth does NOT affect our pets either – they remain visible. Stealth is pointless for rangers in WvW.
Between people dodge rolling and the infamous “obstructed”, you are guaranteed to get the 10 stacks out with hunter’s shot, but rapid fire will wiff and only hit 2 out of 10 shots?
Wtf did I just read?
…..
People…If you’re serious about PVE, please note that unless you’re doing speed runs (which you wouldn’t be using longbow anyway) this will not cause you any pain, Because the content in this game is so easy to do anyway you could be running chop sticks and still accomplish it.
Our old hunter’s shot would give an instant 10 stacks of vulnerability, so then you could follow that up with rapid fire or barrage to do massive damage.
Now, you have to use rapid fire to stack on vulnerability. Between people dodge rolling and the infamous “obstructed”, you will be lucky to get 4 stacks on a moving player. PvE it might be fine, but WvW, this is not good. Plus, 3 seconds of stealth? I can drop aggro from a mob, sure, but it won’t trick another human. 3 seconds of stealth does nothing for a ranger – we have no teleport like mesmers and thieves – we will become visible pretty darn close to where we first went invisible. Any idiot with an AoE or Greatsword can spam where we went invisible and rip us a new one. Plus, if the pet attacks during your invisibility, you become visible again. The stealth does NOT affect our pets either – they remain visible. Stealth is pointless for rangers in WvW.
Between people dodge rolling and the infamous “obstructed”, you are guaranteed to get the 10 stacks out with hunter’s shot, but rapid fire will wiff and only hit 2 out of 10 shots?
Wtf did I just read?
Get a little close, stick hunter’s shot – 10 vulnerability on them. They won’t see it coming so they won’t be dodge rolling, and since you’ll be slightly closer, it most likely will not be obstructed. Granted my method requires some tact and strategy, but it worked. I could slap 10 vuln on anybody, even the most sneakiest of thieves. Bring em on.
<3 the new hunter shot.
Sorry PvE’ers but honestly Ranger was never a great pve class. Our pets are insta gibbed and our max dps isn’t that great.
In WvW though it is amazing. I don’t care about vulnerability, it gets cleansed too quick to matter.
Instead of attacking you or telling you how wrong you are…let me say this
Your complaining makes me feel threatened my new skill might be changed. Stop it or I will be forced to argue with you.
<3 the new hunter shot.
Sorry PvE’ers but honestly Ranger was never a great pve class. Our pets are insta gibbed and our max dps isn’t that great.
In WvW though it is amazing. I don’t care about vulnerability, it gets cleansed too quick to matter.
Instead of attacking you or telling you how wrong you are…let me say this
Your complaining makes me feel threatened my new skill might be changed. Stop it or I will be forced to argue with you.
It’s really too bad that people who want to use bows in pve or pvp have to be forced between a defensive power bow or condition shortbow, neither of which lend greatly to maximizing dps. That’s why we are seeing so many pure melee rangers now.
I managed to shrug off the pet nerfs in the past but this time I can’t. They changed a perfectly good LB skill. Why? It worked in PvE/PvP/WvW just fine. If you wanted 10vuln stacks, you had it (plus the arrow flies like a bullet so the window of missing, invul, block, etc was very small). The 10sec pet swiftness worked with vuln cause then it could actually hit the target on the move while dealing more dmg.
Yes I understand the benefits of stealth. But the Ranger already had a passive “save me” trait (Hide In Plain Sight) which imo works wonderfully if you remember you have it traited. I don’t mind stealth for a Ranger. I DO mind stealth on my longbow.
Now I can say that most people would agree that stealth is more of a 0-900 range type of playstyle. Unless your running away and at that point you’ve messed up. So let me remind you all of the role of the LONGbow. clears throat….the LONGbow is a LONG RANGED BOW. Just look at the auto att, 1500 range if traited, AoE cripple, pet swiftness for it to do the up close dmg, and if you cant swap in time you have a very good knockback.
I say stealth should have been put on a shorter ranged weapon. Let’s say, gee idk…SHORTbow. Skill 2 maybe? It should give you and your pet 3s of stealth (pet doesnt lose stealth on attack, but you still do) on a successful hit. Oh and maybe swap out the poison with a couple sec of a boon for your pet depending on how many of the arrows actually hit (5 stacks or 5 sec if they all hit; something like that). And swap out the bleed effect of skill 4 with poison. This way it forces you to care about your pet more so it can poison with its next three attacks. Perfect combo would be skill 2 into skill 4 to apply the poison without the target knowing. Oh look at that! Synergy with LB and SB either together or separate.
Combined with the change to remorseless, plus the vuln on Rapid Fire, I actually like this change. The net effect is that Hunter’s Shot is now useful for more than just an occasional Vuln spike, it can now be used to improve survivability, regain range, and with remorseless, reset Opening Strike for additional vuln. Plus the vuln on rapid fire now means that we can maintain a higher level of vuln for better frequency than we could manage before. And considering we weren’t expecting much of anything until the late August patch, I’m happy to see them trying to make LB better without waiting.
This is still not good enough to really fix LB in my opinion, and some further improvement tweaks would be welcome, but I think it is a step in a good direction, and I do like the weapon better now.
I still want to see an improvement to trap direct damage for power builds though, like changing Trapper’s Expertise to boost both direct damage as well as condition duration. I really want to see power trapper build be effective for AoE like condi traps are (doesn’t even have to be that good, but close to that good would be nice).
The one thing I will say about the change to LB skills though, is that I now have to relearn the best opening combat sequence. Opening with Hunter’s Shot is now pointless. I’ve been opening with Rapid Fire instead, but I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be better to open with auto attack at max range, then Hunter’s Shot, then Rapid Fire. That would give 5 vuln from auto attack, reset opening strike and boost pet’s close speed, 15 vuln from Rapid fire (5 from the reset opening strike), and 5 vuln from pet attack. Time to experiment with rotations I guess.
Are you an idiot? The downtime of the signet is meaningless when Lupicus is killed in 46 secs-2 minutes by raw burst.
Obviously we’re talking with a kitten who’s done very little of PvE to claim that somehow remorseless will be useful to a group that can already stack vulnerability to begin with if you have 2 warriors in a group.
So all dps is relegated to 1 boss kill and 1 group comp now? The DPS sample time i used was 48 seconds just for that signet, which means Remorseless will STILL out dps SotW on a 46second Lupi kill. It would have to approach sub-40seconds to beat out remoresless by any significant amount.
Each warrior can maintain 10 stacks if using a greatsword. that leaves room for 5 stacks. 5 stacks that you can cover with Remorseless, if rapid fire is too much of a damage loss for you. Or you know, if your in a group that doesnt have have 2 greatsword warriors.
There are simply classes that do vulnerability much better than us, and if you’re using rapid fire on a boss to stack vulnerability you should be kicked from the group anyways as any competent group expects melee stacking for much better damage and boon stacking.
If you’re only considering melee ranger options the change to longbow is irrelevant to you.
On My mark, axe/mace, vuln on crit…. stop talking. On top of that you get vuln from the mesmer and guardian in your group.
And yes, I’m talking about specific group compositions. That’s the whole point of PvE, to optimize.
If you have any doubts that the current meta group can down most bosses in this game in less than 1.5 minutes, I’m going to drop this convo with you.
i dont quite understand what you want.
You are saying you want the old instant 10 stacks from hunter shot but at the same time you are saying that with your perfect meta pve group that push the limit, a warrior alone can cap 25 stacks of vulnerability by itself and doesnt need your help.
So since others do it so well, that you lost it on hunter shot or not doesnt matter, he didnt need your help anyway.
I like the change for the stealth and remorseless. Good way to stealth stomp someone with zephyr, stealth move away asap, drop aggro or even start a barrage/rapid fire without being interrupted right off the bat.
So far moving the 10 stacks from hunter shot to rapid fire didnt make the huge of a difference but then again, im not in deep fractal and doesnt really care for it.
Had some fun with hunter’s shot in WvW last night. Haven’t quite figured out how to best use it with the group I usually run with. I would not call it OP, but it helps as an equalizer.
Stealth stomping!!!! (and preferrably a thief xD)
Combined with the change to remorseless, plus the vuln on Rapid Fire, I actually like this change. The net effect is that Hunter’s Shot is now useful for more than just an occasional Vuln spike, it can now be used to improve survivability, regain range, and with remorseless, reset Opening Strike for additional vuln. Plus the vuln on rapid fire now means that we can maintain a higher level of vuln for better frequency than we could manage before. And considering we weren’t expecting much of anything until the late August patch, I’m happy to see them trying to make LB better without waiting.
This is still not good enough to really fix LB in my opinion, and some further improvement tweaks would be welcome, but I think it is a step in a good direction, and I do like the weapon better now.
I still want to see an improvement to trap direct damage for power builds though, like changing Trapper’s Expertise to boost both direct damage as well as condition duration. I really want to see power trapper build be effective for AoE like condi traps are (doesn’t even have to be that good, but close to that good would be nice).
The one thing I will say about the change to LB skills though, is that I now have to relearn the best opening combat sequence. Opening with Hunter’s Shot is now pointless. I’ve been opening with Rapid Fire instead, but I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be better to open with auto attack at max range, then Hunter’s Shot, then Rapid Fire. That would give 5 vuln from auto attack, reset opening strike and boost pet’s close speed, 15 vuln from Rapid fire (5 from the reset opening strike), and 5 vuln from pet attack. Time to experiment with rotations I guess.
I’ve been doing something like auto attack → rapid fire → hunters shot → knockback shot → auto attack → rapid fire. With the stealth, it seems like the most efficient cycle to play keep away while rotating the damage cycle well.
As an avid ranger player i HATED this update the first hour i played it. Then after a few more hours of roaming with a few guildies i found out how useful it actually is compared to the 10 stacks of vuln on hunters shot. I’m able to stealth, re position myself quickly and get a point blank shot off from behind my enemy. I wouldn’t mind some sort of opening shot eg. daze/stun when shooting from stealth, like a thief but less spike.
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