Guild Wars 2

I find this trait unexciting in terms of it fitting with the marksmanship trait line theme.

Marksmanship is the pure damage trait line for the ranger, and it should stay like that, now, what opening strike does right is the 5 stacks of vulnerability part, what’s not very right imo is the minor Grandmaster addition to it, which makes opening strike always crit.

If a player need crit chance and crit based effects, Skirmishing exists for that reason.

My suggested modification is to make the minor grandmaster trait inclict 3x base damage (or 3x damage in general if it’s more suitable) of the first attack that hits.

I disagree. The “always crit” trait allows me to really open up on an “opening strike” because it not only guarantees a large opener but it also gives me a high chance to proc my Sigil AND it guarantees a crit from my pet which can have its own effects (bleed on cats and drakes for example).

3x damage is A) brokenly overpowerful and B ) way more unexciting. Where’s the synergy and thought in “3x damage”. You call a guaranteed crit “unexciting”, how is 3x damage more exciting? At least there are strategies at play with a crit. You can use it to proc bleeds, life-steal, lightning, fireball etc.

Also, the guaranteed crit means that a Marksmanship Ranger doesn’t have to spec Skirmishing if he doesn’t want to. He can still get reliable crits from opening strikes even with very little precision.

There are so many broken or poorly designed traits in the Ranger pool, and yet you’re complaining about one that’s actually pretty decent and can play into different strategies.

EDIT: had to fix auto emoticon….

There’s nothing remotely interesting about Opening Strike. We can already get vulnerability from the longbow and the off-hand axe, plus several pets. The 100% chance to gain a critical hit can be obtained from a simply weapon swap sigil. Like many other Ranger traits, Opening Strike is just plain out boring..

They should just redesign the whole Ranger trait tree in my opinion.

Kasama.8941:

We can already get vulnerability from the longbow and the off-hand axe, plus several pets.

If you open with Hunter’s Shot, using a pet that can also cause vulnerability, you basically start the fight by giving whatever you’re attacking 20-25 vulnerability. While if you’re soloing, that is fine and all, if you’re in a group, that’s giving the entire group +20-25% damage for the first few seconds of the fight. Not really something to scoff at.

Paken Kai.5970:

If you open with Hunter’s Shot, using a pet that can also cause vulnerability, you basically start the fight by giving whatever you’re attacking 20-25 vulnerability. While if you’re soloing, that is fine and all, if you’re in a group, that’s giving the entire group +20-25% damage for the first few seconds of the fight. Not really something to scoff at.

Exactly this.

Don’t underestimate the effect that an OS Hunter’s Shot + Bird opener can have for an entire team’s damage. You can routinely start a fight with 21% extra damage on the target. Follow that with a QZ + Rapid Fire + Blinding Slash and you can do some solid burst damage…basically the only ranged burst damage the Ranger has.

Compared to other trait lines, I find opening strikes to be a pretty pathetic. 10 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds and a critical if you have 25 points in the tree, and that’s only if you and your pet connect with your first attack. Unless traited the only way to revive opening strikes is to exit combat for a moderate duration meaning you can only use it once per fight.

The only place where I’ve found this to be useful is in WvW where I use hit-and-run tactics often consisting of QZ, sharpening stones, hunters shot, then rapid fire to burst someone down. Anywhere else it just isn’t that helpful as it only applies once every fight.

I think its an interesting mechanic, but it really needs some work. Maybe instead of that guaranteed critical it could give something like 5 stacks of might for 5 seconds and/or should reapply upon a kill by default.

Paken Kai.5970:

that’s giving the entire group +20-25% damage for the first few seconds of the fight

…and this is why this traitline sucks. Vs anything but trash in pve, it’s utterly useless, and that trash dies so easy anyway, this hardly makes a difference to be worth mentioning.

In fights were it would really make a difference, ie boss mobs, the traitline is utter rubbish in its current implementation.

Opening strike is fine where it is. While some traits seem like they belong in other lines having them spread out a bit give you the oppurtunity to have more divers builds.

It also tones down some of the more powerful lines so they are not to op.

OGDeadHead.8326:

In fights were it would really make a difference, ie boss mobs, the traitline is utter rubbish in its current implementation.

I agree that it would be nice to be able to refresh the OS on larger enemies. I have to disagree about it only being useful against trash mobs. Even against a boss (Gold or Purple), if you coordinate your team, you’ll do a significant amount of damage in those first few seconds (a +20-25% spike is a +20-25% spike no matter what you’re team is spiking).

Sure, you’re constantly applying vulnerability over the course of a boss fight, but the higher you can get it for any given spike the better.

Opening strikes is actually very powerful for power based builds (although its ability to be re-applied is lackluster). However it synergizes well with the tree as a power line with that increases your damage. I believe its only issue is that it should recharge in long PvE encounters and in PvP (and not “on kill”).

Taym.8326:

Opening strikes is actually very powerful for power based builds (although its ability to be re-applied is lackluster). However it synergizes well with the tree as a power line with that increases your damage. I believe its only issue is that it should recharge in long PvE encounters and in PvP (and not “on kill”).

This I agree with. In combat, it should have a 30-45 sec cooldown so in prolonged fights you can reapply it.

True, it does go against the name of the trait, but I think that it would be a valid buff, unlike other suggestions in this thread.