Guild Wars 2

Unpopular opinion here but are you aware that the smokefield does not blind? All it does was enable stealth combos and from playing ranger with this pet the last few days I found this VERY situational.

Being able to control the burst on the other side seems like a mayor improvement. I am sure it can be used a lot more frequently now aswell. You can succefully combo it with Sic’Em (would stop the attack before if you just use it when Smoke Scale started the mist walk) and you can stack 7 might with WHAO.

So unless they would also change the smokefield to actually pulse blind I MUCH prefer the new installment. You can hate me now.

Dojo.1867:

Unpopular opinion here but are you aware that the smokefield does not blind? All it does was enable stealth combos and from playing ranger with this pet the last few days I found this VERY situational.

Being able to control the burst on the other side seems like a mayor improvement. I am sure it can be used a lot more frequently now aswell.

So unless they would also change the smokefield to actually pulse blind I MUCH prefer the new installment. You can hate me now.

Except the burst damage are gutted into half, that it’s can barely be called a burst?

Around 4k damage is like auto-attack twice with your main character.

This is not what I discuss here. I also would have prefered the dmg nerf to be less massive but I talk about the swap of both skills here that seems to upset so many people. I like it.

You can still combo this exactly the same way when it was the #3 pet skill. When you swap pets, they use the #3 skill if they are in range. So you could have just swapped pets, used SoTW and Sic Em and achieved the same result. In fact it would probably be better, because you could have hidden the fact that you were using a Smoke Scale until you needed it to burst. The AA damage is not amazing, so you would be far better off with a pet that does good AA damage, then swapping to the smokey for burst. You can do the same thing now, but you lose the massive utility of an on-demand smoke field.

I felt it was perfect the way it was, because I had control over both. You still do, but smoke field in combat is not as good as on-demand ooc.

Aomine.5012:

Dojo.1867:

Unpopular opinion here but are you aware that the smokefield does not blind? All it does was enable stealth combos and from playing ranger with this pet the last few days I found this VERY situational.

Being able to control the burst on the other side seems like a mayor improvement. I am sure it can be used a lot more frequently now aswell.

So unless they would also change the smokefield to actually pulse blind I MUCH prefer the new installment. You can hate me now.

Except the burst damage are gutted into half, that it’s can barely be called a burst?

Around 4k damage is like auto-attack twice with your main character.

try 8k with 25 stacks of might, which is super easy to achieve.

I agree that having that burst on f2 is effective. my preference as well. i’ll bet you anything that 90% of the people complaining about this haven’t used the smoke field once effectively in pvp. not once.

a few of the esports rangers raise some noise because, apparently, them being on some team all depended on this bloody smoke field. lmao. yeah, right. then the entire forum loses its freaking mind because now their “teams” cant blast finish the smoke to open up on the opposing team.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You can still combo this exactly the same way when it was the #3 pet skill. When you swap pets, they use the #3 skill if they are in range. So you could have just swapped pets, used SoTW and Sic Em and achieved the same result. In fact it would probably be better, because you could have hidden the fact that you were using a Smoke Scale until you needed it to burst. The AA damage is not amazing, so you would be far better off with a pet that does good AA damage, then swapping to the smokey for burst. You can do the same thing now, but you lose the massive utility of an on-demand smoke field.

I felt it was perfect the way it was, because I had control over both. You still do, but smoke field in combat is not as good as on-demand ooc.

Yes it used to work on pet swap but after that it is random. If smokescale ever stayed in rotation for a second cast the new implementation is superior control by a large margin.

Also what you describe perfectly applies to the smoke field now. You get it when you swap to Smoke Scale “on demand”.

mistsim.2748:

a few of the esports rangers raise some noise because, apparently, them being on some team all depended on this bloody smoke field. lmao. yeah, right. then the entire forum loses its freaking mind because now their “teams” cant blast finish the smoke to open up on the opposing team.

Describes the situation very well.

well if you like f2 burst just use birds.
they even offer burst + blind or chill on f2.

smokescale was made for heave a active smoke field.
and it was amazing for pvp and pve.

don’t need to be an “esports ranger” for that to make it verry useful on active play!
pretty easy to stealth with that when ever you want.

guess you don’t thought about what all you can do with this in pvp aswell?
stealth downed players for one example!

and for pve it was a dream for al lot of rangers to heave a field to blast stealth i guess

I have to agree I also like burst on F2, the amount of times I will be in team fight see low target and just F2 him and watch him die is great.

The burst as an auto cast skill was predicable. It would be used as soon as you entered combat and the pet would be put on the target. F2 right after for the taunt. Now the pet will rarely hit anything and you cant deliver the taunt with it. The smoke field brought us insane utility and it gave us an opportunity to stack stealth before a team fight or in PvE.

The pet is 100% worthless now.

Chokolata.1870:

The burst as an auto cast skill was predicable. It would be used as soon as you entered combat and the pet would be put on the target. F2 right after for the taunt. Now the pet will rarely hit anything and you cant deliver the taunt with it. The smoke field brought us insane utility and it gave us an opportunity to stack stealth before a team fight or in PvE.

The pet is 100% worthless now.

I normally count there dodge or wait for their block to run out before I cast my F2, Taunt was useless with this pet from the start so no change there.

Pet works well not sure what your on about.

Chokolata.1870:

The pet is 100% worthless now.

This is exactly the type of bullkitten comment that I hope would finally vanish from this forum.

While it might be a decent change for pvp folks it just completely guts it in pve since it finally gave rangers an on demand smoke field.

sry but how can you like the f2 change.

you ever thought about what amzing things you could do with an active smoke field in pvp? in pve it was anyways clearly better.
guess not.

take your birds if you want to time bursts.
thy are anyways now better again if you focus on that.

some short examples of verry useful smoke field use:
a player is down you switch to smoke scale and stealth him by using the pet f2 ability and blast from yourself or time it with a blast from team mates, guardian focus 5 could work for example.
you could stealth your downed team mate and get him up, this could decide the win of a teamfight and thief will be not the only one who can do that.

you can also stealth your team before enter a teamfight.

or switch to the pet use the f2 fast and leap trhow to disengage.
so much skilled easy gameplay with that.

and NOW, wow you can use the f2 to “burst” what a joke you are talking about

I like to use the f2 to stack might with WHaO.

Ragnar.3916:

a player is down you switch to smoke scale and stealth him by using the pet f2 ability and blast from yourself or time it with a blast from team mates, guardian focus 5 could work for example.

this is completely unrealistic in a real pvp scenario. completely. the only use for this field is blasting it before the fight so the team doesn’t have to run a thief (they got deleted from pvp apparently, Karl has some ’splainin to do).

Why do people keep saying I am supposed to take birds if I like to time my burst?

You are aware that bird f2 don’t really do any burst dps, right? They are about same dmg as just normal attacking.

at least making a second smoke scale like
Gilgalas says in his topic would be the perfect step.

everybody would be happy.

Ragnar.3916:

at least making a second smoke scale like
Gilgalas says in his topic would be the perfect step.

everybody would be happy.

Agreed.

mistsim.2748:

I like to use the f2 to stack might with WHaO.

Ragnar.3916:

a player is down you switch to smoke scale and stealth him by using the pet f2 ability and blast from yourself or time it with a blast from team mates, guardian focus 5 could work for example.

this is completely unrealistic in a real pvp scenario. completely. the only use for this field is blasting it before the fight so the team doesn’t have to run a thief (they got deleted from pvp apparently, Karl has some ’splainin to do).

haha why is that unrealistic, we managed to do that

Dojo.1867:

Why do people keep saying I am supposed to take birds if I like to time my burst?

You are aware that bird f2 don’t really do any burst dps, right? They are about same dmg as just normal attacking.

Before the smokescale, birds (owl/raven) were the pets with the best (reliable) burst. And i think, they are now the best dps/burst pets again …

Dojo.1867:

Yes it used to work on pet swap but after that it is random. If smokescale ever stayed in rotation for a second cast the new implementation is superior control by a large margin.

Also what you describe perfectly applies to the smoke field now. You get it when you swap to Smoke Scale “on demand”.

mistsim.2748:

a few of the esports rangers raise some noise because, apparently, them being on some team all depended on this bloody smoke field. lmao. yeah, right. then the entire forum loses its freaking mind because now their “teams” cant blast finish the smoke to open up on the opposing team.

Describes the situation very well.

There is no reason to keep the Smokey out after it has completed its SA skill, you are far better off swapping to something else that deals better AA damage or so you can trigger a KD from a dog or Drake tail swipe. Unless you feel you need to wait for the semi-random smoke field to finish for stealth.

The real utility of the skill was having it able to be used OOC.

We were going to be able to use it to skip in PvE, stealth around WvW and also for openers or escape in PvP. Having it in combat only and only reliable after a pet swap is pretty crap by comparison.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Dojo.1867:

Why do people keep saying I am supposed to take birds if I like to time my burst?

You are aware that bird f2 don’t really do any burst dps, right? They are about same dmg as just normal attacking.

Before the smokescale, birds (owl/raven) were the pets with the best (reliable) burst. And i think, they are now the best dps/burst pets again …

Bristleback does more than double the burst of owls and ravens almost 3times actually, of course that is a channeled attack so it’s abit like comparing rapid fire with maul but even so…

Manekk.6981:

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Dojo.1867:

Why do people keep saying I am supposed to take birds if I like to time my burst?

You are aware that bird f2 don’t really do any burst dps, right? They are about same dmg as just normal attacking.

Before the smokescale, birds (owl/raven) were the pets with the best (reliable) burst. And i think, they are now the best dps/burst pets again …

Bristleback does more than double the burst of owls and ravens almost 3times actually, of course that is a channeled attack so it’s abit like comparing rapid fire with maul but even so…

dude….I just brought out the bristle in the mists and put 25 stack of might on it. it took a heavy golem down to 10% HP by the end of the cast, lmfao. takes 1s with quickness. o.O

Dojo.1867:

Unpopular opinion here but are you aware that the smokefield does not blind? All it does was enable stealth combos and from playing ranger with this pet the last few days I found this VERY situational.

Being able to control the burst on the other side seems like a mayor improvement. I am sure it can be used a lot more frequently now aswell. You can succefully combo it with Sic’Em (would stop the attack before if you just use it when Smoke Scale started the mist walk) and you can stack 7 might with WHAO.

So unless they would also change the smokefield to actually pulse blind I MUCH prefer the new installment. You can hate me now.

The smoke field are far from situational in any party based PvE content. While controlling the burst is very easy: swap pet. This pet is useless out of its burst and (before nerf) smoke field. So the smart way to handle it is use another pet and, when burst is required, swap to it. It will instantly use the burst followed by the CC => powerful combo. Saying that you need the burst as active ability equates to saying you don’t understand the inner workings of your pet.

But with the burst as its F2, what does Smokescale really bring to the table that a bunch of the other pets don’t? The smoke field being an uncontrolled ability makes it unreliable and even detrimental at times. As an F2, it was most certainly not an ability you wanted to use immediately off cooldown.

With Smoke Assault as an F2, you get… Damage. Same as many Felines, same as many Birds, same as Bristleback, etc. And when would you use this F2? Immediately off cooldown, just as the pet would do on its own. Instances where you truly need to hold off on using the burst are relatively rare, compared to instances where you need to hold off on laying the smoke field.

Is it good to have control over the Smokescale’s burst damage? Absolutely. But when the cost is losing control over the high-utility smoke field, it’s far less of a good thing. Especially when it turns the Smokescale into just another DPS pet with disruptive time-wasting abilities wedged into its AI. Pet utility abilities being in the wrong place is what makes Birds a rough choice, as their Swiftness ability throws a wrench into their primary role. Don’t encourage the same to happen with another pet that could potentially have fantastic utility.

mistsim.2748:

Manekk.6981:

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Dojo.1867:

Why do people keep saying I am supposed to take birds if I like to time my burst?

You are aware that bird f2 don’t really do any burst dps, right? They are about same dmg as just normal attacking.

Before the smokescale, birds (owl/raven) were the pets with the best (reliable) burst. And i think, they are now the best dps/burst pets again …

Bristleback does more than double the burst of owls and ravens almost 3times actually, of course that is a channeled attack so it’s abit like comparing rapid fire with maul but even so…

dude….I just brought out the bristle in the mists and put 25 stack of might on it. it took a heavy golem down to 10% HP by the end of the cast, lmfao. takes 1.5s with quickness. o.O

Try it with signet of the wild+sic em+25might , I managed to get a 30k spine barrage with that last night on the unkillable golem (dunno what armorclass he counts as) by comparison my raven did 12k on his blinding slash with the same although should be said he also follows that instantly with a 6,5k swoop with those modifiers.

Taku.6352:

While it might be a decent change for pvp folks it just completely guts it in pve since it finally gave rangers an on demand smoke field.

It isn’t a decent change for PvP folks, you can’t use it out of combat to say set up a stealth bomb or cover yourselves as you cross over to far point, the using it “on demand” aspect of using it on pet swap is crappy, because again you have to be in combat and of course the pet runs to the target and then activates it there, rather than where you actually want it, so before for example if you suddenly come under focus fire and you need to leave you could begin to disengage and then if you got a little space between yourself and those pursuing you, you could use the smoke field staff 3 into it, and stealth on the run as it were, now you can’t do that.

Furthermore you now have to deal with the hassle of calling the pet back to interrupt the field if you don’t want it, which will be a needless pain in the kitten on the initial pet swap and if you have the pet out long enough for it to cast again, you will likely miss interrupting the field many times, which occasionally is going to result in you losing a cap in PvP as no doubt at some point the pet is going to cast smokefield, as someone is blasting and you’ll lose that last tick on the node with everyone in stealth.

They may as well scrap the pet, the whole point of it was the utility of smokefield, the clue is in the name, now you just have another burst pet, with the actual utility hamstrung by being moved off f2.

This sort of dumb decision is why Anet gets criticism, and example of why after 3 years and money thrown at it, their “e-sport” peaked at about 9k viewers last WTS, less than some kid gets streaming from their bedroom in many games.

If you actually wanted to burst you would use a bird and spam f2 non stop or any other pet really.

A uncontrollable smoke screen which will smoke you and your party when it feels like it makes it effective baggage.

With the f2 change there is absolutely no reason to use it over any other pets.

mistsim.2748:

Aomine.5012:

Dojo.1867:

Unpopular opinion here but are you aware that the smokefield does not blind? All it does was enable stealth combos and from playing ranger with this pet the last few days I found this VERY situational.

Being able to control the burst on the other side seems like a mayor improvement. I am sure it can be used a lot more frequently now aswell.

So unless they would also change the smokefield to actually pulse blind I MUCH prefer the new installment. You can hate me now.

Except the burst damage are gutted into half, that it’s can barely be called a burst?

Around 4k damage is like auto-attack twice with your main character.

try 8k with 25 stacks of might, which is super easy to achieve.

I agree that having that burst on f2 is effective. my preference as well. i’ll bet you anything that 90% of the people complaining about this haven’t used the smoke field once effectively in pvp. not once.

a few of the esports rangers raise some noise because, apparently, them being on some team all depended on this bloody smoke field. lmao. yeah, right. then the entire forum loses its freaking mind because now their “teams” cant blast finish the smoke to open up on the opposing team.

I didn’t even notice Eura made the thread, I thought it was just another sane human who saw how bullkitten the change was, now I am losing faith in humanity finding people who like the change

The other issue with it being semi-random now is that it can mistakenly stealth thief team mates who were +1ing and will then be revealed, preventing them from entering stealth again.

zinkz.7045:

Taku.6352:

While it might be a decent change for pvp folks it just completely guts it in pve since it finally gave rangers an on demand smoke field.

It isn’t a decent change for PvP folks, you can’t use it out of combat to say set up a stealth bomb or cover yourselves as you cross over to far point, the using it “on demand” aspect of using it on pet swap is crappy, because again you have to be in combat and of course the pet runs to the target and then activates it there, rather than where you actually want it, so before for example if you suddenly come under focus fire and you need to leave you could begin to disengage and then if you got a little space between yourself and those pursuing you, you could use the smoke field staff 3 into it, and stealth on the run as it were, now you can’t do that.

Furthermore you now have to deal with the hassle of calling the pet back to interrupt the field if you don’t want it, which will be a needless pain in the kitten on the initial pet swap and if you have the pet long enough for it to cast again, you like likely miss many times, which occasionally is going to result in you losing a cap in PvP as no doubt at some point the pet is going to cast smokefield, as someone is blasting and you’ll lose that last tick on the node with everyone in stealth.

They may as well scrap the pet, the whole point of it was the utility of smokefield, the clue is in the name, now you just have another burst pet, with the actual utility hamstrung by being moved off f2.

This sort of dumb decision is why Anet gets criticism, and example of why after 3 years and money thrown at it, their “e-sport” peaked at about 9k viewers last WTS, less than some kid gets streaming from their bedroom in many games.

Happy to see that even profficient PvP players dislike the change.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

The other issue with it being semi-random now is that it can mistakenly stealth thief team mates who were +1ing and will then be revealed, preventing them from entering stealth again.

Good point.

I think the smokefield is better on F2.

• make pet invulnerable on-demand when he most needs it
• smoke field on-demand, which you can combo.

The pet can burst fine on its own. It’s just another attack.

Dojo, I agree that there’s a way of making it work.

With the change in place, while I was unhappy with it, I did try to make it work. I can trigger sic’em, signet of rejuvenation and and Strength of the Pack, trigger We Heal as One seconds later and I’ll often hit 15-to-25 might stacks on my ranger.

And then I can go hit F2, and it does a fair amount of damage. 10k-ish, I think?

However, it still doesn’t change my opinion of what I valued more from the Smokescale, which was its tankiness and how it could share it with me at whim, without requiring me to come up with a 4-buff-combo to make its F2 impressive it.

Smoke Cloud as F2 remains what I feel was much more tactically rewarding, and it also is more independent from my skills – meaning I could be playing a non-beastmastery-focused build and it would still be useful.

If I wished for damage rather than the smokescale’s smoke cloud, then, I’d use a different pet. The change made the smokescale lose its uniqueness to us, since other pets can fill the “I-do-a-lot-of-damage-on-trigger-for-a-short-time” role.

Dojo.1867:

Unpopular opinion here but are you aware that the smokefield does not blind? All it does was enable stealth combos and from playing ranger with this pet the last few days I found this VERY situational.

Being able to control the burst on the other side seems like a mayor improvement. I am sure it can be used a lot more frequently now aswell. You can succefully combo it with Sic’Em (would stop the attack before if you just use it when Smoke Scale started the mist walk) and you can stack 7 might with WHAO.

So unless they would also change the smokefield to actually pulse blind I MUCH prefer the new installment. You can hate me now.

You are unskilled player sharing oppinion about something that was already possible with existing pet mechanics. Before you share you opinion you should have constructive knowledge about ranger pets.

You are able to control the burst if you get in range with pet, just press F1, and you’ll perform smoke assault, don’t be surprised it works with all other pets as well. That’s what makes difference between a POOOOOP ranger and a dedicated ranger.

Active smoke filed enables players to perform stealth for them with combo finisher, and the situational is your spam, not a stealth. You just claimed that you bursted target to get 7 might stacks. IIF they dont dodge or block it so i can imagine rangers like you wasting WHAO for 3 stacks of might, and then you get burst by ranger who knows what to do with 25 might stacks…

The smoke field was bugged that’s why it didnt apply blindness.

On the bright side, Smoke Assault seems to be very responsive. F2 and it happens pretty much -right away-.

Would like to point out that having the smoke field on f2 also provided an on demand pet invuln and that is not the case now. This was mega useful when doing content solo or in small man groups as it allowed the pet to tank for longer. Just my thoughts from using it in Maguuma.

Dojo.1867:

You can hate me now.

Thank you.

The burst is easily controlled as an automatic skill. The smokefield isn’t, and they gutted more half of the situational uses this skill had while adding the annoyance of now having a smokefield automatically added to the field (unless you cancel it every single kittening time) when you don’t necessarily want one.

It’s that easy. I hate you.

I was informed that as well as nerfing the damage and swapping Smoke Assault to F2, that Smoke Assault is not affected by GFTE, Wilting Strike or Loud Whistle and the tooltip states as much, is that the case?

If so, can you please take a screen shot and post it.

Oh no, they nerfed it and swapped the activable? That’s so sad, on-demand smoke field was much more valuable to me.

I love the way they mess with us though haha, it’s like every patch they give us a fantastic new toy and then mercilessly tear off its head like a mean big brother. They tried to sugarcoat it with a “fixed a bug” this time though.

The smoke scale is not really a PvE pet in its current form. If it gets its smoke field back it will be. But currently the burst it does, even with 25 might, isn’t very good compared to a cat. Cats are DPS monsters, they just don’t have the flashy skill to show it.

Manekk.6981:

mistsim.2748:

Manekk.6981:

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Dojo.1867:

Why do people keep saying I am supposed to take birds if I like to time my burst?

You are aware that bird f2 don’t really do any burst dps, right? They are about same dmg as just normal attacking.

Before the smokescale, birds (owl/raven) were the pets with the best (reliable) burst. And i think, they are now the best dps/burst pets again …

Bristleback does more than double the burst of owls and ravens almost 3times actually, of course that is a channeled attack so it’s abit like comparing rapid fire with maul but even so…

dude….I just brought out the bristle in the mists and put 25 stack of might on it. it took a heavy golem down to 10% HP by the end of the cast, lmfao. takes 1.5s with quickness. o.O

Try it with signet of the wild+sic em+25might , I managed to get a 30k spine barrage with that last night on the unkillable golem (dunno what armorclass he counts as) by comparison my raven did 12k on his blinding slash with the same although should be said he also follows that instantly with a 6,5k swoop with those modifiers.

Pre-Smokeskale nerf I was using Bristleback and Smokeskale. I’ve gone back to Jaguar (until I get my Tiger…) with Bristleback still as my on swap.

Bristleback is a lot like a spider but with slightly better AA damage and no immobilize. Their Rain of Spikes can do some really great damage as well.

I’m obviously sad the Smokeskale got nerfed… I was looking forward to trying out Trapper runes with a Warhorn so I could have a ton of stealth but… Bristleback is pretty great still even if it doesn’t have the same kind of fun utility Smokey did.

I always thought the Bristleback was cuter anyway, lol.

Also, I’m sure many others have thought of it already but just incase: remember to use things like Sharpening Stone or Shortbow Crippling Shot the same time you activate Bristlebacks F2 for fast bleed stacks.

Dojo.1867:

Unpopular opinion here but are you aware that the smokefield does not blind? All it does was enable stealth combos and from playing ranger with this pet the last few days I found this VERY situational.

Being able to control the burst on the other side seems like a mayor improvement. I am sure it can be used a lot more frequently now aswell. You can succefully combo it with Sic’Em (would stop the attack before if you just use it when Smoke Scale started the mist walk) and you can stack 7 might with WHAO.

So unless they would also change the smokefield to actually pulse blind I MUCH prefer the new installment. You can hate me now.

Unpopular to the extreme because the F2 smoke field was the ONLY reason to choose the pet for me.

an uncontrolable smoke filed is kittened………and the burst is no longer strong enough to be called a burst.

the pet is more a liability in group play now than anything else.

my guess is it is to serve our pvp overlords’ complaints…..these devs serve the interests of the incredibly few to the detriment of the masses simply because they will not split all skills. so lame

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Manekk.6981:

mistsim.2748:

Manekk.6981:

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Dojo.1867:

Why do people keep saying I am supposed to take birds if I like to time my burst?

You are aware that bird f2 don’t really do any burst dps, right? They are about same dmg as just normal attacking.

Before the smokescale, birds (owl/raven) were the pets with the best (reliable) burst. And i think, they are now the best dps/burst pets again …

Bristleback does more than double the burst of owls and ravens almost 3times actually, of course that is a channeled attack so it’s abit like comparing rapid fire with maul but even so…

dude….I just brought out the bristle in the mists and put 25 stack of might on it. it took a heavy golem down to 10% HP by the end of the cast, lmfao. takes 1.5s with quickness. o.O

Try it with signet of the wild+sic em+25might , I managed to get a 30k spine barrage with that last night on the unkillable golem (dunno what armorclass he counts as) by comparison my raven did 12k on his blinding slash with the same although should be said he also follows that instantly with a 6,5k swoop with those modifiers.

Pre-Smokeskale nerf I was using Bristleback and Smokeskale. I’ve gone back to Jaguar (until I get my Tiger…) with Bristleback still as my on swap.

Bristleback is a lot like a spider but with slightly better AA damage and no immobilize. Their Rain of Spikes can do some really great damage as well.

I’m obviously sad the Smokeskale got nerfed… I was looking forward to trying out Trapper runes with a Warhorn so I could have a ton of stealth but… Bristleback is pretty great still even if it doesn’t have the same kind of fun utility Smokey did.

I always thought the Bristleback was cuter anyway, lol.

Also, I’m sure many others have thought of it already but just incase: remember to use things like Sharpening Stone or Shortbow Crippling Shot the same time you activate Bristlebacks F2 for fast bleed stacks.

sharpening stone now does bleeds also when the pets attack?? :o

Tested it out. Sharpening Stone does NOT bleed with your pet.

Also, WTF is wrong with Smokescale? It has a horrid autoattack, and barely, if ever critical hits.

Is Jaguar still the only semi-viable pet?

As others have brought up before, PvP is not the end all of this game. PvE still exists and having an accessible smoke field outside of combat for rangers was great.

During beta, I had a pretty clutch moment soloing a boss in VB by stealthing myself with the smoke field and a leap. Right now that’s impossible with the unpredictable smokefield drops.

I love smoke field, but to be honest its not as useble as it could be, becouse of a one of many base ranger problem – lack of blust finishers.

IMO give ranger an option to choose F2 ability and make Mual and Entangle as a blust finishers – that would make us forget about Druid disaster for a while…

Just tamed a Smokescale.

Kind of disappointed – or, I would have been, if I had actually believed everything I had heard.

I heard it was supposed to provide actual stealth, on demand, which is what I want a lot more of, on Ranger.

Oh well, fortunately I didn’t really hold out much hope for Ranger, anyway.

For some reason, Anet just seem to dislike the class and want to keep it down.

Maybe because the devs play other classes and/or because they mistakenly misread people rolling lots of Rangers, for innocent reasons (because they just love pets and/or the romantic notion of running through a wood with a bow, or whatever), as a sign that it must be OP.

If they want to lose a ton of potential Hunter/Ranger business to Blizzard, for the rest of eternity, I guess that is up to them.

Not that Hunters are even a great class (relatively speaking) in PVP, in WoW.

Just less bad than they are in this game.