Guild Wars 2

So, the weekly Guild Wars 2 Guru’s Master of the Mists tPvP Tournament is going on right now and there are several devs in the livestream chat, and they have given us a bit of a spoiler regarding the upcoming balance patch – I’ve copied and pasted the related quotes here:

Mod jon_peters: the one after that will be fairly sizable balance wise

Mod khalija_: If you have feedback or suggestions for future tournaments, you can email us at tournament@guildwarsguru.net

Mod jon_peters: This is a big game

Mod jon_peters: as you can see

Mod jon_peters: lots of things interact

Mod jon_peters: so 1

Mod jon_peters: 1) we dont rush because testing is hard

Mod jon_peters: 2) we dont rush because balance should be slow moving

Mod jon_peters: or you just keep overshooting your target

Mod khalija_: Sent you a msg Karl!

Mod khalija_: Pm’d you on Twitch

Mod jon_peters: I will say the late june patch is a fairly sizable balance patch

Mod jon_peters: as Karl can attest to

Mod jon_peters: the fx will be replaced with lower detail versions first

Mod jon_peters: but I will say lot of trait diversity incoming for late June

Mod jon_peters: trying to improve many bad traits

Mod jon_peters: to bring up new builds

Mod jon_peters: hmm example….

Mod jon_peters: should I give an example…

Mod jon_peters: Karl do you have a good example of a trait change?

Mod jon_peters: some merging going on

Mod chaplan_: back

Mod jon_peters: yeah

Mod jon_peters: chap

Mod jon_peters: Chap you mind if Karl and I spoiler some of the trait changes incoming?

Mod chaplan_: I thought about doing in SOTG…but played it safe.

Mod chaplan_: I did mention Necro burning.

Mod jon_peters: We can give away like 1 or 2 I think

Mod jon_peters: ok

Mod jon_peters: I think Ele air is a good spoiler…

Mod jon_peters: I will say this

Mod jon_peters: every single trait line is seeing at least 1 change

Mod jon_peters: some I think are getting as many as five changes

Mod khalija_: official site says we’ll get some new info on June 4th

Mod chaplan_: Overall idea: look at bad/unused traits and improve them, or just rework them.

Who knows what form these changes will take for us Rangers, but knowing there are SOME changes is good I think!

yeah I saw that looking forward to the next few patches hopefully a lot of new builds will become viable.

I want my warr changes =)

Well it looks like you’ll be getting some!

Come on Ranger Crackshot.

Piercing and cool down in one.

Better yet, piecing and eagle eye in one so we can run beastmastery with it.

stopped reading when i saw the name Jon Peters, nothing good will come out of it.

He gave you a new jellyfish skin, didn’t he?

It would be pretty nice if they made every trait useful and made us give up some for others.

E.g. Should I take empathic bond or Bark skin on bm ranger? How much conditions will I face and how much direct damage?
Should I use 30% pet speed or 30% pet crit damage? 30% speed for catching mesmers or 30% crit damage to take down that guardian faster?

Interesting and definetly needed so so many completely useless traits across classes not the least among rangers.

All the other trait trees should be like Wilderness Survival. Where there are many things you would like to take but can only choose 3.

Edit: …and I have still yet to understand how all the trap traits are put into skirmishing…which increases crit chance and crit damage.

Tbh I wouldn’t hope for much. Merging piercing arrows with eagle eye or with 20% cd reduction on bows would be great, but I rather expect things like replacing 1 useless trait with another that isn’t any more useful.

solrik.6028:

It would be pretty nice if they made every trait useful and made us give up some for others.

E.g. Should I take empathic bond or Bark skin on bm ranger? How much conditions will I face and how much direct damage?
Should I use 30% pet speed or 30% pet crit damage? 30% speed for catching mesmers or 30% crit damage to take down that guardian faster?

The funny thing to me about agility training is that you need it to run cats. But aren’t cats inherently agile? I never understood that.

I’m sorry, but I just can’t take their word for anything relate to balance, until I see it with my own eyes. This whole scenario has been the exact same for many months now. They promise some changes, people get their hopes up, we end up getting sub-par balance changes, and everyone complains. Next month, it starts all over again..

NemesiS.6749:

stopped reading when i saw the name Jon Peters, nothing good will come out of it.

This. No credibility whatsoever from this developer.

Well let’s assume their credibility shines light this time around and they finally make Nature Magic trait line good enough for spirit builds. I would love to see them giving the ranger options to share boons via the use of this trait line, since us rangers have pretty much no boon sharing in our builds other than using horn 5 or shooting through AoE fields. I bet a lot of support rangers will look into this option. So everyone get on your knees and start praying!

I can see the patchnotes already.

- All ranger traits now work only underwater

I bet 5 gold that patch day will come and the Ranger’s won’t even be mentioned on the patch. Then the following day we’ll see a post that looks like this:

JonPeters:

Poof! Someone called and I am here. We made some ranger changes this patch, but had to go back on them because of risk factor. There are some bugs being fixed and quality of life improvements coming in the next patch, as well as some other significant ranger improvements. I would Literally tell you but I think it would be considered a bit of a spoiler so you will have to be patient.

While we work hard to keep updates going on all professions, not very build us going to contain fixes for everyone due to the nature of software development. One problem with rangers is the lack of build diversity created by a number of sub par utility skills. Many signets, a shout or two, and spirits are all a bit lackluster. That is the first place to expect improvements. Second is trying to improve the feel/ pacing on some weapons.

Then we’ll sit around and talk about how great it would be to have that stuff fixed and wait another 7 months without seeing any of them being fixed.

Sorry to be negative, but their track record for the ranger profession has not been very good, so I refuse to get my hopes high again.

Useless traits will be replaces by brand new hot hot hot useless traits /yay can’t wait.

If they are going to create viable builds, and then shift/adjust/improve traits to make them viable, then it might “MIGHT” work. But so far, we know there’s a pet dps nerf incoming… no word on pet AI improvements… no word on pet AoE survivability… And most (if not all) of the discussion on traits is coming from the PvP sector to affect ALL gameplay. So if a Ranger pet becomes an actual threat in PvP, then it means nerfs for everyone.

On a stationary target dummy, my pet had a hit rating of only 45%. And that’s with the improved pathing. On paper, I’m sure the pet looks great. In practice, the pet isn’t making constant contact with a STATIONARY target, let alone one that runs around. Pet nerfs should only be applied AFTER the pet can actually hit the target (instead of players running the wrong way and getting hit by the pet more than if they just stood still).

I am not optimistic about the proposed trait changes. As stated by many others above, their track record hasn’t been very good for the Ranger.

Forzani.2584:

All the other trait trees should be like Wilderness Survival. Where there are many things you would like to take but can only choose 3.

Edit: …and I have still yet to understand how all the trap traits are put into skirmishing…which increases crit chance and crit damage.

Look up the definition of skirmish, it makes more sense why they’re there when you read it.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Forzani.2584:

All the other trait trees should be like Wilderness Survival. Where there are many things you would like to take but can only choose 3.

Edit: …and I have still yet to understand how all the trap traits are put into skirmishing…which increases crit chance and crit damage.

Look up the definition of skirmish, it makes more sense why they’re there when you read it.

I am familiar with the word skirmish. The part I don’t understand…and correct me if I am wrong. Trap damage isn’t effected by crit/crit damage ? If that is true, and traps are condition damage, then 30 points into a line that increases crit+ crit damage doesn’t help a lot.

Seeing as more than the traits, it’s the ranger’s weapons and their numbers that suck, I have moderate reservations.

A couple of merged traits won’t fix anything for the class.

Here’s a trait suggestion for the Marksmanship line…

Safety Off: Increases projectile weapon efficiency by 100%.

(so far, it feels like the ‘range’ in Ranger keeps the safety on, leaving Rangers forced to club their opponents in melee for moderate dps rather than shoot them.)

A full pass at traits is something I’ve been hoping to see for quite some time. What are the chances we see a longbow change/fix at the same time?

Khayoss.2019:

A full pass at traits is something I’ve been hoping to see for quite some time. What are the chances we see a longbow change/fix at the same time?

Slim and none

Don’t expect too much, you’ll just set yourself up for disappointment. It will probably be tool tip fixes more than actual revamps. Personally, I’d love to see the cooldowns on traits that are triggered on 75% hp.

That said, we can still dream to get something big like getting Eagle Eye and Piercing arrows merged, or better yet, Quick Shot and Piercing Arrows My other dream trait update would be replacing the 2 second protection on pets on dodge to “give 2 seconds of invulnerability on dodge to pets and spirits”

if we are lucky, our traits may get nerfed even further. This way, we can hope that we can only get buffed in the future (however, that’s just a trick, there is always a way to nerf something)

If past performance is any prediction, they will end up further nerfing Rangers in pvp and absolutely gutting them in PVE dungeons.

I will give them credit for at least making a stab at pets drawing less unwanted aggro, but that simply makes them less annoying to team with, it does nothing to close the huge gap between what the class brings to dungeons in comparison to the new trinity (Warrior, Guardian, Mesmer.)

They are obsessed with making Warriors OP in pvp and really could care less if those buffs make them even more OP in dungeons. The are also obsessed with nerfing Rangers in Pvp where they obviously think the class is way OP. They seem totally oblivious to how this plays out in PVE dungeons. They have paid lip service to splitting skills but in practice we have seen almost no such thing happen.

It obvious none of the principles play rangers outside of their little bubble of associates and elites. If they do, it’s most likely only in pvp, which seems to be the only topic on their minds other than the constant stream of fluff content designed to sell new cash shop items.

As pessamistic as I am, I would be surprised if we don’t see some kind of merge of eagle eye, piercing arrows or quick draw.

More than likely we will see Harpoon Gun added to the Piercing Arrows or Quick Draw.

Hopefully the beast mastery traits get cleaned up. There is only 1 or 2 good traits there and I am being liberal with the word good.

Mod khalija_: official site says we’ll get some new info on June 4th

The 4th has come and gone, is this info out someplace?

Levetty.1279:

Hopefully the beast mastery traits get cleaned up. There is only 1 or 2 good traits there and I am being liberal with the word good.

What, you don’t think stability training is an excellent trait for your amazing pet pig?

Xsorus.2507:

Levetty.1279:

Hopefully the beast mastery traits get cleaned up. There is only 1 or 2 good traits there and I am being liberal with the word good.

What, you don’t think stability training is an excellent trait for your amazing pet pig?

>.<

Xsorus.2507:

Levetty.1279:

Hopefully the beast mastery traits get cleaned up. There is only 1 or 2 good traits there and I am being liberal with the word good.

What, you don’t think stability training is an excellent trait for your amazing pet pig?

That is the one trait I actually hope stays. It is so good that changing it would result in the game just not being Guild Wars anymore.

is this jon peters the one that disappeared before?
if yes, i won’t take his word seriously.