Guild Wars 2

Thanks for the change!

Cheers for this Irenio Just know that I love you and I think you’re doing a great job.

Just a little reminder: Sword AA and Shouts.

luv you <3

tbh this is more like a nerf than a change I don’t care about stealth tactics or opener or stuff, people will not die from any burst combo you do in this bunker meta unless you have thief/mes in your comp.

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Well I don’t even care at this point whatever glhf whoever wanted this.

The combo field doesn’t even blind lol.

Thanks for all your hard work Irenio!

Thanks you very much.

Elxdark.9702:

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Pet swap → F1 = Smoke assault.

How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?

Of course it was a damage nerf. This pet gives Rangers easy access to stealth and blinds.
If you want a timed burst, use a different pet.

~ Kovu

Honestly, most people were getting used to having smoke assault on f2 and enjoying it. Now the f2 is kind of a waste of a skill to have on demand.

Eurantien.4632:

Elxdark.9702:

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Pet swap -> F1 = Smoke assault.

How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?

Because you can’t control it, thus it isn’t instant.

A smokefield that doesn’t even blind, a damage nerf completely uncalled for, yep, sounds like ranger updates alright.

Elxdark.9702:

Eurantien.4632:

Elxdark.9702:

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Pet swap -> F1 = Smoke assault.

How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?

Because you can’t control it thus it isn’t instant.

I don’t understand, you can control it though…

Not a fan of these changes. Can you fix Bristleback to actually hit its target? That way we might still have a new pet that has some burst damage.

The field does not blast via Clarion Bond, or any blast produced after pet swap while the field is still active.
Not sure if this is intentional.

~ Kovu

Elxdark.9702:

tbh this is more like a nerf than a change I don’t care about stealth tactics or opener or stuff, people will not die from any burst combo you do in this bunker meta unless you have thief/mes in your comp.

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Well I don’t even care at this point whatever glhf whoever wanted this.

The combo field doesn’t even blind lol.

1. YOU don’t care about stealth tactics. Others do. (game isn’t tailored for YOUR needs only)

2. If you want Burst, Use another pet, with the previous 50% damage nerf they got if you are using it for the burst you are not doing as much damage as you could be doing with other pets. (aka. wrong pet bro)

SqualZell.7813:

Elxdark.9702:

tbh this is more like a nerf than a change I don’t care about stealth tactics or opener or stuff, people will not die from any burst combo you do in this bunker meta unless you have thief/mes in your comp.

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Well I don’t even care at this point whatever glhf whoever wanted this.

The combo field doesn’t even blind lol.

1. YOU don’t care about stealth tactics. Others do. (game isn’t tailored for YOUR needs only)

2. If you want Burst, Use another pet, with the previous 50% damage nerf they got if you are using it for the burst you are not doing as much damage as you could be doing with other pets. (aka. wrong pet bro)

tell me why would I need kitteneless smokefield instead of a HUGE burst spike when I could get a thief and get perma stealth with my team?

Cause you can combo through it for blinds now since you can drop it on yourself + you can still burst spike with smoke assault not on the F2?

I think those are pretty solid reasons.

Kovu.7560:

The field does not blast via Clarion Bond, or any blast produced after pet swap while the field is still active.
Not sure if this is intentional.

~ Kovu

Hard to say.
If you change a pet – it’s fields disappear. Which makes sense in terms of your pet not being there. From game-play point of view it doesn’t make sense, though.

It has been working this way for Murellow for ages now. It might just as well be intentional.

Same with like fern hound, yeah? You swap away the regen ticks go to like 2hp/s

Thanks for sharing. It’s not as bad as it looked then.

So smoke assault really did end up getting nerfed. Irenio I have to say this hurts shout rangers quite a bit. I know there aren’t many of us but we do still exist haha.

Smokescale was good with out build because we could use it to build might and then copy it through heal as one. This however means 2 less hits so 2 less might stacks for me. 6 less might stacks for my pet (2 from its own generation 4 from the heal as one copy) and another 4 from strength of the patch (hit generates might for me which generates might for pet through nature magic minor)

All in all we lose alot of potential might. Which we rather badly need in the current meta.

Thanks for the update.

Can we talk about Lingering Light’s overkill adjustment now?

I will miss the smoke scale. Smoke assault F2 was like the only pet ability that actually felt responsive.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Smokescale F2 ability is now Smoke Cloud.

YAY

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The Smokescale Smoke Assault skill had its cooldown reduced from 24s to 20s

YAY

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

and the number of attacks from 7 to 5.

Of course … there must be a cost, lets reduce the number of attacks in 29%, taking the CD reduction buff this is a total of ~25% nerf after the 50% nerf
Why … just, why?

EDIT: math failure, now fixed

Eurantien.4632:

Cause you can combo through it for blinds now since you can drop it on yourself + you can still burst spike with smoke assault not on the F2?

I think those are pretty solid reasons.

you could do the same before but we clearly have different opinions here.

You cried about how you couldn’t control the smoke field and now I cry about how I can’t control the burst spike, same concept different ways.

What I’m trying to say that it was better to have the control of the spike instead of this “support” maybe if they add blind to the field it could be decent.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The Smokescale Smoke Assault skill had its cooldown reduced from 24s to 20s and the number of attacks from 7 to 5.

Why are dragon hunters allowed to one shot people with their traps but our best burst skill needs to be changed?

Also, why reduce the amount of hits instead of the damage? Might stacking wasn’t a problem.

Photinous.4628:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The Smokescale Smoke Assault skill had its cooldown reduced from 24s to 20s and the number of attacks from 7 to 5.

Why are dragon hunters allowed to one shot people with their traps but our best burst skill needs to be changed?

Because Dragon Hunters are not Rangers.

That’s their logic, basically.

F2 back to smoke cloud, yay!

Though, I’m perplexed by the Smoke Assault damage nerf. I mean, at first, I saw the cooldown reduction as a way to mitigate that 50% damage nerf Smoke Assault had already received… and now it’s getting yet another ~30% damage reduction.

That makes Smoke Assault do 35% of its original damage as it was introduced at launch of the Hearts of Thorns expansion back when it wasn’t even an F2 skill (as Irenio once said, F2 skills are meant to hit like a truck). Am I the only one to find this baffling?

Elxdark.9702:

Eurantien.4632:

Cause you can combo through it for blinds now since you can drop it on yourself + you can still burst spike with smoke assault not on the F2?

I think those are pretty solid reasons.

you could do the same before but we clearly have different opinions here.

You cried about how you couldn’t control the smoke field and now I cry about how I can’t control the burst spike, same concept different ways.

What I’m trying to say that it was better to have the control of the spike instead of this “support” maybe if they add blind to the field it could be decent.

You can control the 1st use of the smoke assault and if it uses again during a fight it is just an uncontrollable DPS gain, while you can also control the smoke field before BUT if it uses again in the middle of the fight you can be covering important fields and be an uncontrollable DPS loss.

Belzebu.3912:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Smokescale F2 ability is now Smoke Cloud.

YAY

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The Smokescale Smoke Assault skill had its cooldown reduced from 24s to 20s

YAY

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

and the number of attacks from 7 to 5.

Of course … there must be a cost, lets reduce the number of attacks in 29%, taking the CD reduction buff this is a total of ~25% nerf after the 50% nerf
Why … just, why?

EDIT: math failure, now fixed

Just wondering as I stopped following ranger for a while, where/when did the 50% nerf come from?

ChillyChinaman.6057:

Just wondering as I stopped following ranger for a while, where/when did the 50% nerf come from?

Here
Ranger—Smokescale: Smoke Assault: This skill has switched places with Smoke Cloud so that it will now be the F2 skill for this pet. Fixed an issue in which this skill dealt higher than intended damage; it has been reduced by 50%.

Zoberraz.2694:

F2 back to smoke cloud, yay!

Though, I’m perplexed by the Smoke Assault damage nerf. I mean, at first, I saw the cooldown reduction as a way to mitigate that 50% damage nerf Smoke Assault had already received… and now it’s getting yet another damage reduction by an additional 71%

That makes Smoke Assault do 35% of its original damage as it was introduced at launch of the Hearts of Thorns expansion back when it wasn’t even an F2 skill (as Irenio once said, F2 skills are meant to hit like a truck). Am I the only one to find this baffling?

We can’t act suprised that smoke assault got nerfed. Irenio warned us that would happen. I just feel this nerf is gonna hurt some builds harder than other.

This change massively benefits druids. Who usually have both a blast and a leap finisher.

But for non druids the most we can get is a leap finisher unless were taking warhorn or clarion bond. In other words some builds (namely shout rangers) relied on the smoke scale as an executioner proc. However its VERY likely now that at hte point in the fight where the former f2 will be useful it will be A:On cooldown. Or B: Not damaging enough to pressure a low enemy down. It having lost 2 of its attacks is NOT a good sign. Especially ironically…against druids.

This is a pretty big buff for druids. But for other ranger specs…maybe not so much. Especially self might builds that used smoke assault to generate might. The amount of might we can get just got nerfed pretty well.

Eurantien.4632:

Elxdark.9702:

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Pet swap -> F1 = Smoke assault.

How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?

Wrong Eura, its Pet swap = smoke assault lol, so not sure why people complaining you don’t even need to press a key after pet swap lol. So maybe rangers will start using avoid combat now rather then letting them pets do all damage.

Sol.4310:

Eurantien.4632:

Elxdark.9702:

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Pet swap -> F1 = Smoke assault.

How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?

Wrong Eura, its Pet swap = smoke assault lol, so not sure why people complaining you don’t even need to press a key after pet swap lol. So maybe rangers will start using avoid combat now rather then letting them pets do all damage.

Except this tactic only works if your Smokescale is not already out. Therefore, your suggestion is to never keep it out until you need smoke assault and then swap back ASAP or pray to the RNG gods.

Irenio, you made the right choice. I believe in you.

Elxdark.9702:

…You cried about how you couldn’t control the smoke field and now I cry about how I can’t control the burst spike, same concept different ways.

What I’m trying to say that it was better to have the control of the spike instead of this “support”…

But you can use it on demand.

Zoberraz.2694:

…That makes Smoke Assault do 35% of its original damage as it was introduced at launch of the Hearts of Thorns expansion back when it wasn’t even an F2 skill (as Irenio once said, F2 skills are meant to hit like a truck). Am I the only one to find this baffling?

So, it will still be able to hit a light armor class for at least a maximum of 9625 every 16s when traited. Wow, that’s terrible.

I can live with those changes. Thank you for bringing us the specifics and clarifying that base damage nerf speculation in an earlier thread!

Shadelang.3012:

So smoke assault really did end up getting nerfed. Irenio I have to say this hurts shout rangers quite a bit. I know there aren’t many of us but we do still exist haha.

I was one of them so far.
Actually, you might want to play around with Bristleback. Having it on passive (or as a secondary pet), coming into melee, F2 (taunting) hurts just as much and offers potential 15 might from SotP on the spot.

It feels really satisfying.
I actually like it much more than I liked SmokeScale (but it was simply more reliable). Now having it as a utility pet might just make me play the blinding hybrid that I always wanted for so long.

Wait…. people still use Guard mode and not Passive?

@Irenio;
If you ever get around to it, the guard/passive feature is archaic. Pets should be placed in what is called passive mode permanently, and doing so would open up more UI space AND have the added benefit of a class mechanic that always feels interactive and educates players at an early stage in the game. Not to mention…

…getting around to turning the F1 and F3 into a single button toggle (F1 locks the target, toggles to return, which on use performs the current F3. No cooldown except whatever may be necessary to process server commands so it functions exactly the same). Performing the above change opens up UI space to add a second controllable pet skill.

Just think, we could have both Smoke Assault AND the smoke field on demand (and every other pet would get 2 controllable skills of course. Would love to control the Spider’s poison field, for example, or the birds swiftness, or the moas heal). The players would be happy, the mods would be happy because every other topic wouldn’t be this ridiculous tug of war over what skill should be controlled, and you would be happy because it would be one less highly requested and desperately needed feature off your checklist.

I know that it might be difficult to get around to though, but if you ever have the time or the motivation, we’d all love it

Photinous.4628:

Sol.4310:

Eurantien.4632:

Elxdark.9702:

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Pet swap -> F1 = Smoke assault.

How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?

Wrong Eura, its Pet swap = smoke assault lol, so not sure why people complaining you don’t even need to press a key after pet swap lol. So maybe rangers will start using avoid combat now rather then letting them pets do all damage.

Except this tactic only works if your Smokescale is not already out. Therefore, your suggestion is to never keep it out until you need smoke assault and then swap back ASAP or pray to the RNG gods.

It works if your Smokescale is already out (and preferably on passive), since the first attack your Smokescale uses in a fight is Smoke Assault. Simply press f1 on your target when you wish for the Smokescale to start the engagement (with Smoke Assault).

And now, since Smoke Assault has a lower cooldown and you are no longer losing time and DPS from your Smokescale autocasting its smoke field, you can start a fight with Smoke Assault, swap to a higher sustained damage pet (Smokescale has relatively low sustained damage compared to some other pets), then swap to Smokescale again after 16 seconds and your burst will be off cooldown, with more reliable damage (and 5 seconds of on-demand tankiness/possible blind or stealth combos if need be) for the remainder of the petswap cooldown.

So long as a fight lasts more than ~20 seconds, you can utilize Smokescale very effectively with less punishment for camping it during the petswap cooldown.

Photinous.4628:

Sol.4310:

Eurantien.4632:

Elxdark.9702:

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Pet swap -> F1 = Smoke assault.

How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?

Wrong Eura, its Pet swap = smoke assault lol, so not sure why people complaining you don’t even need to press a key after pet swap lol. So maybe rangers will start using avoid combat now rather then letting them pets do all damage.

Except this tactic only works if your Smokescale is not already out. Therefore, your suggestion is to never keep it out until you need smoke assault and then swap back ASAP or pray to the RNG gods.

Works if you keep the pet out if you use F3 and F1, but most rangers refuse to learn how to use pets.

Works allot better if you keep it on swap, you want the QZ so they have less time to react and dodge, 1 dodge will mitigate the damage by allot. It works same as Rev’s you dodge there Teleport burst and it does stuff all damage.

Like the pet is new so was only matter of time before players started learning the tricks to counter Smokescale burst skill.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Ancestral Grace placing you in combat was blatantly unintended. I should have a fix in for that to go out… hopefully sometime soon.

Irenio?

Sol.4310:

Photinous.4628:

Sol.4310:

Eurantien.4632:

Elxdark.9702:

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Pet swap -> F1 = Smoke assault.

How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?

Wrong Eura, its Pet swap = smoke assault lol, so not sure why people complaining you don’t even need to press a key after pet swap lol. So maybe rangers will start using avoid combat now rather then letting them pets do all damage.

Except this tactic only works if your Smokescale is not already out. Therefore, your suggestion is to never keep it out until you need smoke assault and then swap back ASAP or pray to the RNG gods.

Works if you keep the pet out if you use F3 and F1, but most rangers refuse to learn how to use pets.

Works allot better if you keep it on swap, you want the QZ so they have less time to react and dodge, 1 dodge will mitigate the damage by allot. It works same as Rev’s you dodge there Teleport burst and it does stuff all damage.

Like the pet is new so was only matter of time before players started learning the tricks to counter Smokescale burst skill.

The f3 f1 trick only works if your pet has a skill animation you can watch out for to cancel and recast. Smoke assault is an instant cast skill. You are suggesting to keep your pet afk with f3 until you want to use smoke assault or keep it hidden until you need it.

Photinous.4628:

Sol.4310:

Photinous.4628:

Sol.4310:

Eurantien.4632:

Elxdark.9702:

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Pet swap -> F1 = Smoke assault.

How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?

Wrong Eura, its Pet swap = smoke assault lol, so not sure why people complaining you don’t even need to press a key after pet swap lol. So maybe rangers will start using avoid combat now rather then letting them pets do all damage.

Except this tactic only works if your Smokescale is not already out. Therefore, your suggestion is to never keep it out until you need smoke assault and then swap back ASAP or pray to the RNG gods.

Works if you keep the pet out if you use F3 and F1, but most rangers refuse to learn how to use pets.

Works allot better if you keep it on swap, you want the QZ so they have less time to react and dodge, 1 dodge will mitigate the damage by allot. It works same as Rev’s you dodge there Teleport burst and it does stuff all damage.

Like the pet is new so was only matter of time before players started learning the tricks to counter Smokescale burst skill.

The f3 f1 trick only works if your pet has a skill animation you can watch out for to cancel and recast. Smoke assault is an instant cast skill. You are suggesting to keep your pet afk with f3 until you want to use smoke assault or keep it hidden until you need it.

I honestly think Smokescale isn’t as great anymore, not because of F2 change but the damage is worthless now. Just dodge once and you shouldn’t take anymore then 1-2k damage from his burst skill.

Maybe I’m just good at keeping track of internal timers but I often will F3 my smoke scale right before smoke assault is back up so I can burst with it like a second later just by reengaging the smoke scale with the F1. That’s just from being aware from my pet swap CD since 20s = 20s and 16s is pretty close to 15s. Which I believe is something everybody can do!

Therefore, with smoke field on F2 you get way more control than ever before!

Thank you for the change!

Elxdark.9702:

SqualZell.7813:

Elxdark.9702:

tbh this is more like a nerf than a change I don’t care about stealth tactics or opener or stuff, people will not die from any burst combo you do in this bunker meta unless you have thief/mes in your comp.

now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).

Well I don’t even care at this point whatever glhf whoever wanted this.

The combo field doesn’t even blind lol.

1. YOU don’t care about stealth tactics. Others do. (game isn’t tailored for YOUR needs only)

2. If you want Burst, Use another pet, with the previous 50% damage nerf they got if you are using it for the burst you are not doing as much damage as you could be doing with other pets. (aka. wrong pet bro)

tell me why would I need kitteneless smokefield instead of a HUGE burst spike when I could get a thief and get perma stealth with my team?

I don’t want to play a thief, what do i do then?

HUGE? LOL WHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH use another pet for “HUGE” (also unreliable) burst, besides other pets can do better at burst. we don’t need another.

Yay! ty.
We now have our on demand stealth/blind/pet invuln. (blind from projectile finishers, we have plenty of them).
For future reference, better control of utility from pets (combo field prime example) along with some decent defense or offense makes a good pet. And please fix the bristleback F2 bug.

Edit: decent damage is more to do with damage that hits the target, not just a high damage skill (if it can’t land the hit, there’s no point).

Thank you Irenio, much appreciated.

nice nice

but as you say irenio,
the active skills of pets are supposed to be stronger.

so i guess it would be nice/fair to add some blind to this field.
when you nerf the assault in the other hand you should think about make the field more then just a combo field for the player.