Guild Wars 2

With all the whining and raging we are starting to run out of breath. Lets be realistic, more pet control will not happen, better AI will not happen, shortbow will stay at range 900 for a while now, and pet damage will stay as is for a while as well. So how about taking some deep breaths and coming up with New Ways To Buff Ranger.

First idea, tweaking Rampage as One. I must admit I didn’t try all the builds on ranger, but I’ve seen a few, and most of the time Rampage as One is used in Beastmaster builds. Even though it gives 20 secs of fury without traiting for it, the application of Might from pet attacks is not the quickest to say the least, not even on standing targets. I just tried this out and with birds having one of the quickest attacks (after they are done giving us swiftness), and having double attacks even with Quckening Zephyr the most I manged was 9-11 stacks of might.

The idea: It would help out power builds a lot if pet attacks would give 2 stacks of might per attack (such as bird auto attack would give 2+2).

Pros:
- easy to implement
- a 20 stack might spike for 10 seconds doesn’t seem OP on a 120 second cooldown
- would give more options for condition and hybrid builds as well

Cons:
- the best pets to stack might through autoattack alone via RaO are pets that deal good damage anyways i.e. felines, birds, so this might put ANet off. I would love to see devourers having their attack speed increased even with taking some more reduction on their not so awesome damage. It would compliment a lonbow build too, as they are ranged, so have better chance of hitting moving targets, and already were utilized as meatshields in some builds.
- the ranger received new ways of getting might only recently
- would compliment condition builds as well, which are already having good condition damage and a wide array of condition application options

Feel free to discuss, and add pros, cons even. And be so kind and leave your hatred for the balance team at the door, semantic arguments about what the ranger name are also not welcome.

Well, I almost always take RaO because stability is so important. Personally, I think the issue with elites is

1. Stability is too strong in GW2
2. Entangle is very situational in that if you use it at slightly the wrong time it’s useless
3. Spirit elite doesn’t revive pets

What builds did you use RaO in? I presume that it is not so common in trap builds, or other condi builds with less emphasis on pets. I mostly run entangle on my trapper, although I don’t sPvP much, in WvW its great for harassing people on walls, and can be traited to have a lowered cooldown. RaO seem to have a skill group as well being a Pet skill, but didn’t come across anything Pet skill related.

In wve and pve I take it in every build. In pvp I always take it unless I have a role to play (be the spirit reviver or come into a fight a little late to pop the entangle). RaO is just so much better precisely because of stability. You don’t agree that stability is one of if not the best boon in the game?

Stability is awesome but I’m usually solo roaming in wvw, and don’t have much trouble with not having stability. I usually harass players on walls, or take camps, and entangle is just much better for that. I usually take RaO when I try to enter a tower under siege, and even then it doesn’t always work due to immobilize. I’m playing on a laptop and it can’t handle large zerg fights where it would be most useful.

I usually don’t spend elites on harassment because an elite could save your life. Also, ranger cannot harass walls without axe. The arc of the axe allows it to hit enemies. A bow has a difficult time both shooting up to (and for some reason down from) tower walls.

Basically you get obstructed if you shoot up with arrow.

If you are ON a keep wall and try to shoot down, you can’t (obstructed). You have to get stability and stand on the lip of the wall. Why stability? Because that mesmer or necro going to pull you with their awesome pull that works up to walls (our Hunters call doesn’t even work like that and those are flying birds dude! Makes no sense).

So again RaO. But I’d only burn it if I know we can push them back. Otherwise that stability is too important of a trump card to hold. Stuns and dazes and really strong and all you have to mitigate are dodges and stability. And guess which one works when there’s 5 enemies on your tail all trying to stun /daze/snare? You dodge the snares and use stability to negate the hard CCs.

You should play more wvw and get a real computer. Laptop? Seriously? Carpel tunnel syndrome GG

Well I usually get aoed down instead of being pulled off. Maybe its the servers we face, not sure.

RaO I use with a beserker build, you can all imagine how that works amazing with that build type. Fury, Might, and Stability… not much more you can ask for lol

Paz Shadow.9715:

RaO I use with a beserker build, you can all imagine how that works amazing with that build type. Fury, Might, and Stability… not much more you can ask for lol

Yeah and don’t forget that RaO might stacks quickly and increases condition damage as well as power. So it’s useful for any style, all the time, especially because of the stability. Fury is “meh” because everyone brings it, of course, it’s nice to have a long duration fury on the elite. But the stability…unless you have a guardian around, where else can you reliably get that? Signet of the beastmaster/SotW? And siamoth’s plasma rare drop? “Meh” The lack of stability combined with how many disables are thrown around in this game makes it pretty obvious how good that boon is.

Chopps.5047:

Yeah and don’t forget that RaO might stacks quickly and increases condition damage as well as power.

Can you explain this a bit? Maybe I was doing something wrong, but the might stacking on the ranger, which are coming from pet attacks are not what I would call quick.

You have to use pets that land hits. Devourer and spiders are good choices. Devourer the best if you’re really worried about stacking the might (2 projectiles so each attack is giving you 2 stacks). I usually don’t worry about capping it out though, again, I mainly use RaO for stability. The might is a nice bonus and I’ll probably get like 10 stacks or maybe a few more using spider/dog type pets and more if I take a devourer, drake is also a probably good option due to the cleave but I can’t remember how it does with drake at the moment.

I think Rampage as One is one of, if not the strongest elites any class has access to. With only certain classes being able to rip boons, versus the amount of classes that require control to get off their burst, the stability alone is the best tool that can be had in small fights/skirmishes.
On a side note, I don’t understand why its the only “Pet” skill in the game, and I wish the shouts would be reworked to be pet skills, and then the beastmastery trait line could take a heavier focus on improving them.

All of that being said, I like entangle much better if I’m solo roaming in WvW (usually with Outmanned on) as I generally am soloing supply camps and I feel like entangle can drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to get all of the guards down since I’m not running traps.

Chopps.5047:

You have to use pets that land hits. Devourer and spiders are good choices. Devourer the best if you’re really worried about stacking the might (2 projectiles so each attack is giving you 2 stacks). I usually don’t worry about capping it out though, again, I mainly use RaO for stability. The might is a nice bonus and I’ll probably get like 10 stacks or maybe a few more using spider/dog type pets and more if I take a devourer, drake is also a probably good option due to the cleave but I can’t remember how it does with drake at the moment.

Drakes are fantastic with RaO, if you have multiple opponents their F2 will give you 25mightstacks in notime other good things to remember is all the fast channels like hunter’s call hawks etc will do the same for your pet, 25 mightstacks in 2seconds (well 16 from that alone but combined with other attacks… you get the picture)

It’s my favorite methoed of quickcapping a camp when alone in wvw, RaO then hunter’s call when drake has 25mightstacks a second later burn his F2 on the entire camp and watch them melt, not as strong now after patch but still a very strong and fast way to do it.

If you truly want to be realistic, the only viable builds are melee and there’s very little interest by Rangers in playing melee. The other classes simply do it better. I expect Rangers to gradually disappear until the Devs read in another class forum that the Rangers are gone. That’s pretty much the only way our class might become viable at range. Sad but very likely. Still, if you enjoy the melee Ranger build, good for you.

Tumult.2578:

If you truly want to be realistic, the only viable builds are melee and there’s very little interest by Rangers in playing melee. The other classes simply do it better. I expect Rangers to gradually disappear until the Devs read in another class forum that the Rangers are gone. That’s pretty much the only way our class might become viable at range. Sad but very likely. Still, if you enjoy the melee Ranger build, good for you.

Complete horsekitten, melee might be the best when done right in terms of dps, but ranged builds are most certainly viable especially shortbow is not far behind at all.

jcbroe.4329:

On a side note, I don’t understand why its the only “Pet” skill in the game, and I wish the shouts would be reworked to be pet skills, and then the beastmastery trait line could take a heavier focus on improving them.

I noticed this as well. I was just talking to another ranger and he thought that RaO was a shout because of how similar in theme it was to the other shouts. It really should be turned into a shout so Shout Mastery can affect it.

@topic
I was about to say that “2 stacks of might per attack” already exists with devourers, but Chopps beat me to it! Also, the poison field from murellow, carrion devourer and spider pets count as “hits” from the pet so if you catch 3 enemies, you get a lot of stacks of might really quick.

I haven’t tested with lightning breath and insect swarm yet, but I believe those bounces would count too. That would be 5 shots x 3 bounces each = 15 stacks of might with one F2 press.

Personally, I think making it a shout and affected by Shout Mastery would already improve the elite by a lot if we can access it every 96 seconds, and it would give players a reason to invest 10 in BM. I badly need a reason to invest in BM when 10 in Wilderness Survival is a far superior choice both stat-wise and trait selection-wise.

jubskie.3152:

jcbroe.4329:

On a side note, I don’t understand why its the only “Pet” skill in the game, and I wish the shouts would be reworked to be pet skills, and then the beastmastery trait line could take a heavier focus on improving them.

I noticed this as well. I was just talking to another ranger and he thought that RaO was a shout because of how similar in theme it was to the other shouts. It really should be turned into a shout so Shout Mastery can affect it.

@topic
I was about to say that “2 stacks of might per attack” already exists with devourers, but Chopps beat me to it! Also, the poison field from murellow, carrion devourer and spider pets count as “hits” from the pet so if you catch 3 enemies, you get a lot of stacks of might really quick.

I haven’t tested with lightning breath and insect swarm yet, but I believe those bounces would count too. That would be 5 shots x 3 bounces each = 15 stacks of might with one F2 press.

Personally, I think making it a shout and affected by Shout Mastery would already improve the elite by a lot if we can access it every 96 seconds, and it would give players a reason to invest 10 in BM. I badly need a reason to invest in BM when 10 in Wilderness Survival is a far superior choice both stat-wise and trait selection-wise.

River and march drake F2 on 2+ targets is pretty much an instant 25 stack. It’s even easier since they have cleave attacks.

Substance E.4852:

River and march drake F2 on 2+ targets is pretty much an instant 25 stack. It’s even easier since they have cleave attacks.

I’ve been doing this for months now. It’s a shame they had to nerf drakes so hard though.

Well, since this thread has run its course, can a Moderator please close this thread.

Thank you.