Guild Wars 2

As a veteran WvW roamer, I’ve got 6 80s, Ranger clearly being one of them. Fighting rangers is a joke. Granted, I’m aware of what they’re capable of and how to respond, but one thing that I’ve never understood is why the base damage on the greatsword 1 ability is so low. The final attack is an evade, which is amazing, but fighting glass roamer rangers (as few of them as you encounter) you don’t have to worry about being 1 spammed. The base damage, if increased by ~250 on all of the attacks, would be wonderful. Put on full berserker gear and run power food with full bloodlust stacks, you’ll be lucky to hit 2k on an uplevel. Maul helps make up for this, but not nearly enough. It’s easily dodgeable and is the entire DPS of the greatsword. I feel this change would help Rangers in not only WvW, sPvP, but even allow for greatsword cleave in PvE on groups of mobs rather than summoning frost spirit, pulling out the sword, pushing 1 and grabbing a drink while the boss dies.

Just food for thought, let me know what you guys think.

(Apologies in advance if this has been brought up previously)

The most interesting poster in the world:

I don’t normally complain on the forums, however when I do, I do it about Rangers.

Well, Poliswag, you may be in luck. Anet mentioned they’re taking a look at the Ranger Weapon numbers for the Oct. patch.

Back in the betas gs ranger was considered op as the damage was around double what it is now, so that’s why it got the nerf hammer so hard. I’d like to see it go up as well, but I just don’t see it happening.

Indoles.1467:

Back in the betas gs ranger was considered op as the damage was around double what it is now, so that’s why it got the nerf hammer so hard. I’d like to see it go up as well, but I just don’t see it happening.

Yeah. Back in beta the ranger GS was excessively OP. As were spirits. Unfortunately, they nerfed both hard. Now that the spirits have gotten a bit more attention and have become more viable, I’d like to see the same happen with the GS. We are the only class in the game, after all, whose two-handed melee option is not their strongest offensive melee weapon.

It’s doubtful that any autoattack is going to receive much improvement, as last time balance devs were communicating to players (I believe it was in a twitch chat during the last tourny), they said that they were already in the stages of discussion reducing the effectiveness of autoattacks where it’s needed across the board, and improving cooldown skills, in order to promote skill rotations and gameplay that doesn’t involve running around and autoattacking.

Whether they go through with that change remains to be seen, however, if it was something that was already on the table, it’s doubtful that autoattacks are going to see many damage increases, for the most part.

jcbroe.4329:

It’s doubtful that any autoattack is going to receive much improvement, as last time balance devs were communicating to players (I believe it was in a twitch chat during the last tourny), they said that they were already in the stages of discussion reducing the effectiveness of autoattacks where it’s needed across the board, and improving cooldown skills, in order to promote skill rotations and gameplay that doesn’t involve running around and autoattacking.

Whether they go through with that change remains to be seen, however, if it was something that was already on the table, it’s doubtful that autoattacks are going to see many damage increases, for the most part.

Yeah. It does surprise me that they’re so shocked that people auto-attack so much. Maybe is because all the weapon skills have decently high cooldowns. And the utilities, by and large, have very large cooldowns. I want to use more skills. But with so few skills with decent cooldowns that really does put a damper on it.

Hmm I think the only ranger weapons I auto-attack with are sword and shortbow which makes sense.

I would also like a buff, but if they nerf every other classes auto I guess that would be ok too.

SynfulChaot.3169:

jcbroe.4329:

It’s doubtful that any autoattack is going to receive much improvement, as last time balance devs were communicating to players (I believe it was in a twitch chat during the last tourny), they said that they were already in the stages of discussion reducing the effectiveness of autoattacks where it’s needed across the board, and improving cooldown skills, in order to promote skill rotations and gameplay that doesn’t involve running around and autoattacking.

Whether they go through with that change remains to be seen, however, if it was something that was already on the table, it’s doubtful that autoattacks are going to see many damage increases, for the most part.

Yeah. It does surprise me that they’re so shocked that people auto-attack so much. Maybe is because all the weapon skills have decently high cooldowns. And the utilities, by and large, have very large cooldowns. I want to use more skills. But with so few skills with decent cooldowns that really does put a damper on it.

I mean, it’s fine if the goal is to slow down the pace of combat across the board. The game actually needs a slower paced combat in a competitive atmosphere.

The problem is changing content and mechanics to go along with those changes. Entire builds would need reworking, like perma-stealth and boon heavy guardian builds, which need fast counters to balance out the speed at which those builds can function.

Boss encounters would have to be reworked and time-gated events would have to be recalculated to allow for a greater variance in skill level between characters capable of rotating their skills and maximizing DPS, and players new to or incapable of adapting to the situation, particularly in open world combat and dungeons.

Personally though, I would love this to be the direction the game takes; slowing down combat.

jcbroe.4329:

SynfulChaot.3169:

jcbroe.4329:

It’s doubtful that any autoattack is going to receive much improvement, as last time balance devs were communicating to players (I believe it was in a twitch chat during the last tourny), they said that they were already in the stages of discussion reducing the effectiveness of autoattacks where it’s needed across the board, and improving cooldown skills, in order to promote skill rotations and gameplay that doesn’t involve running around and autoattacking.

Whether they go through with that change remains to be seen, however, if it was something that was already on the table, it’s doubtful that autoattacks are going to see many damage increases, for the most part.

Yeah. It does surprise me that they’re so shocked that people auto-attack so much. Maybe is because all the weapon skills have decently high cooldowns. And the utilities, by and large, have very large cooldowns. I want to use more skills. But with so few skills with decent cooldowns that really does put a damper on it.

I mean, it’s fine if the goal is to slow down the pace of combat across the board. The game actually needs a slower paced combat in a competitive atmosphere.

The problem is changing content and mechanics to go along with those changes. Entire builds would need reworking, like perma-stealth and boon heavy guardian builds, which need fast counters to balance out the speed at which those builds can function.

Boss encounters would have to be reworked and time-gated events would have to be recalculated to allow for a greater variance in skill level between characters capable of rotating their skills and maximizing DPS, and players new to or incapable of adapting to the situation, particularly in open world combat and dungeons.

Personally though, I would love this to be the direction the game takes; slowing down combat.

Sorry, I couldn’t disagree more. The fast paced combat allows more experienced players to respond quicker and skill as well as reaction timing come up ahead.

I actually heard earlier today that supposedly they were discussing increasing Maul damage, which I would be okay with, too. I don’t have a source though as I just heard it from a friend. Let’s hope for the best.

Poliswag.8240:

jcbroe.4329:

SynfulChaot.3169:

jcbroe.4329:

It’s doubtful that any autoattack is going to receive much improvement, as last time balance devs were communicating to players (I believe it was in a twitch chat during the last tourny), they said that they were already in the stages of discussion reducing the effectiveness of autoattacks where it’s needed across the board, and improving cooldown skills, in order to promote skill rotations and gameplay that doesn’t involve running around and autoattacking.

Whether they go through with that change remains to be seen, however, if it was something that was already on the table, it’s doubtful that autoattacks are going to see many damage increases, for the most part.

Yeah. It does surprise me that they’re so shocked that people auto-attack so much. Maybe is because all the weapon skills have decently high cooldowns. And the utilities, by and large, have very large cooldowns. I want to use more skills. But with so few skills with decent cooldowns that really does put a damper on it.

I mean, it’s fine if the goal is to slow down the pace of combat across the board. The game actually needs a slower paced combat in a competitive atmosphere.

The problem is changing content and mechanics to go along with those changes. Entire builds would need reworking, like perma-stealth and boon heavy guardian builds, which need fast counters to balance out the speed at which those builds can function.

Boss encounters would have to be reworked and time-gated events would have to be recalculated to allow for a greater variance in skill level between characters capable of rotating their skills and maximizing DPS, and players new to or incapable of adapting to the situation, particularly in open world combat and dungeons.

Personally though, I would love this to be the direction the game takes; slowing down combat.

Sorry, I couldn’t disagree more. The fast paced combat allows more experienced players to respond quicker and skill as well as reaction timing come up ahead.

I actually heard earlier today that supposedly they were discussing increasing Maul damage, which I would be okay with, too. I don’t have a source though as I just heard it from a friend. Let’s hope for the best.

Slow paced combat would allow make skill rotations more valuable and important, while creating an atmosphere that punished players more for spamming then the skilled and experienced players capable of saving their rotations, bursts, and important skills, waiting for the perfect moment to land them.

“Feinting” would also make a more important appearance in the game; faking a burst setup to make your opponent waste dodges or a heal, to then unload on them.

As it stands right now, the game can be so fast paced that players aren’t rewarded for performing feats that require that much skill, and instead the game is much more rewarding to players who just autoattack and use skills on cooldown until a target dies.

Slowing it down creates a skill gap between players who can actually choose to use their skills at the best possible time for the best output versus players who just try to use their skills on cooldown to do as much damage as they hope they can.

The game right now has 7 classes that can be played with your face on the keyboard, rolling it around, and the 8th is the elementalist.

jcbroe.4329:

The game right now has 7 classes that can be played with your face on the keyboard, rolling it around, and the 8th is the elementalist.

Sorry. Gotta strongly disagree here. You try that on a ranger and you’re dead. Same goes for thief and mesmer. True for most of the others, though.

SynfulChaot.3169:

jcbroe.4329:

The game right now has 7 classes that can be played with your face on the keyboard, rolling it around, and the 8th is the elementalist.

Sorry. Gotta strongly disagree here. You try that on a ranger and you’re dead. Same goes for thief and mesmer. True for most of the others, though.

It’s an exaggeration that stems from my experience with multiple other games that are much more punishing for whiffing and/or playing badly versus guild wars 2, including guild wars 1.

Mostly because the game decided to remove valuable support roles, like interrupter (this is what I played in guild wars 1) or supporter (like a prot monk or a ritualist) in favor of being an entirely offense, damage versus defense game.

The skills for most classes are just simple, easy to use, and don’t require much setup. I say elementalist is the highest because they require the most memorized attunement rotations and skill usages to be effective.

I’m not blaming the game, I’m blaming myself for expecting something more challenging.

I’d say where the skill comes in in the game right now comes from 3 different aspects; recognizing on the fly what your opponent is using and calculating in your head whether it is advantageous or disadvantageous to engage them based on build wars; rotating and controlling maps effectively with a team of people, and seeing through the jumble of animations on screen to interpret what your opponents actions are to outplay them accordingly.

I’d argue that actually playing the classes and using the skills are just about the easiest thing in the game.

You clearly haven’t played an Engineer if you discount it, jcbroe. Perplexity is trash and simplifies the class, try playing a three kit engineer and winning 1v3s then come back and tell me you can roll your face on the keyboard. Engi and Ele are at the top of the skill tree undoubtedly.

And it isn’t everybody who spams 1. Try finding an experienced roamer and he’ll teach you about that. Zerging, on the other hand, is majority 1 spam. It’s a filler between rotations for anybody with half a brain.

Combat in no way shape or form needs to be slowed down.

Poliswag.8240:

You clearly haven’t played an Engineer if you discount it, jcbroe. Perplexity is trash and simplifies the class, try playing a three kit engineer and winning 1v3s then come back and tell me you can roll your face on the keyboard. Engi and Ele are at the top of the skill tree undoubtedly.

And it isn’t everybody who spams 1. Try finding an experienced roamer and he’ll teach you about that. Zerging, on the other hand, is majority 1 spam. It’s a filler between rotations for anybody with half a brain.

Combat in no way shape or form needs to be slowed down.

I have a roaming, 2 kit engi, with the 3rd as rocket boots for mobility. And, while it requires more actions per minute than other classes, the skills themselves are quite easy to use. And I don’t have runes yet, I can’t afford them haha, I’ve already fully exotic’d out my other classes, so I’m definitely not playing perpexity.

Engineers undoubtedly have some of the harder skillshots in the game, Grenades for their slow and easily avoidable travel time, and bombs for the need to land a glue shot/glue bomb to keep them in place. Same with the Toolkit because people have become savvy to how nasty those confusion stacks can be, or how getting pulled can result in a near instant stack of every condi in the game.

So fair enough, 6 classes that for the most part have very simple-to-use effectively playstyles.

We don’t have to crucify each other over our opinions lol, I was just explaining my previous statement. We can respectfully disagree with each other. There is more than one solution to every problem.

I’m starting to think Melandru in this meta is one of the strongest sets, personally – I’d look into it. Fair enough, though, no crucifying necessary Just from browsing the forums you get used to the mob mentality specific to each class in thinking that it’s underpowered and the hardest to play, etc etc – kinda got a little into my head with it, the idea of someone not listing THE micro class as the most difficult, was preparing for the “But Rangers are harder because..” statement. On a different note, I’ve temporarily moved away from the greatsword; hoping oct 15th yields a positive for it so that I’ve got a reason to equip that badboy lightsaber. Cheers.

Combat should be turn based like it was in the old days! Chess before reaction speed. Darn kids changed everything we created with their darn new technologies. (Pulls up socks to knees with sandals and goes back to complaining about government and prostates).

Melandru is the set I should be running on my Ranger and Warrior, and I would run it on my Necro too if I didn’t like the Travelers runes so much.

And, I would actually argue that, even though I main ranger and love the class, that it is probably one of the easier classes to play in the game lol. Which actually leads me into my thoughts about the greatsword:

Take vulnerability off of Maul and put it on Swoop. I hate that the best damage rotation for the GS is using Maul on cooldown. I would love to see Swoop apply the the vulnerability for Maul to benefit from (right now, your chain is literally to just use Maul to make the next Maul better), and I would love to see the thrown Greatsword 4 do something more than just cripple. Like, if the activated GS 4 was an immobilize, the ranger Greatsword would immediately be a much scarier weapon.

It would also allow for some more front line utility. The lack of damage would be justifiable because swoop combined with an immobilize, AND GS 5 would make the ranger GS one of the best chase-down weapons in the game.

jcbroe.4329:

Melandru is the set I should be running on my Ranger and Warrior, and I would run it on my Necro too if I didn’t like the Travelers runes so much.

I know what you mean about Traveler runes. Now that they don’t have Magifind I feel able to proudly say I’ve been using them for nearly a year. I’m actually a bit saddened as to the change in the effect for the sixth rune. It used to give a flat +5% speed boost on top of Signet of the Hunt, which is what I ran it for. I miss my perma +30% speed boost. Well at least I have one more utility slot to use, I guess.

SynfulChaot.3169:

jcbroe.4329:

Melandru is the set I should be running on my Ranger and Warrior, and I would run it on my Necro too if I didn’t like the Travelers runes so much.

I know what you mean about Traveler runes. Now that they don’t have Magifind I feel able to proudly say I’ve been using them for nearly a year. I’m actually a bit saddened as to the change in the effect for the sixth rune. It used to give a flat +5% speed boost on top of Signet of the Hunt, which is what I ran it for. I miss my perma +30% speed boost. Well at least I have one more utility slot to use, I guess.

i dont think speed stacks like that… u prolly jus run 25% cuz gw2 takes the higher of the two and ignores the lower one

idevourwater.3149:

SynfulChaot.3169:

I know what you mean about Traveler runes. Now that they don’t have Magifind I feel able to proudly say I’ve been using them for nearly a year. I’m actually a bit saddened as to the change in the effect for the sixth rune. It used to give a flat +5% speed boost on top of Signet of the Hunt, which is what I ran it for. I miss my perma +30% speed boost. Well at least I have one more utility slot to use, I guess.

i dont think speed stacks like that… u prolly jus run 25% cuz gw2 takes the higher of the two and ignores the lower one

No. It did. I tested it. It was glorious! ^.^

You could get to a +33% speed boost if you also had the ascended utility infusion. I had better uses for my infusion, though, so I was only at +30%.

NargofWoV.4267:

Well, Poliswag, you may be in luck. Anet mentioned they’re taking a look at the Ranger Weapon numbers for the Oct. patch.

95% of the time, given their track record, that implies a nerf…