Guild Wars 2

Fix the unresponsiveness of wolf howl and other F2 skills. Please. Please. Please. Please. This is what drives me to stop playing ranger. Not the problems other people fabricate for something to whine about, like sword (turn off auto), bad pet AI (Learn to micro) or anything you see in this forums. I go back to ranger every now and again, and get turned off by the F2 skills still being kittening broken. Nothing else.

Anecdote time: I was just on skyhammer, trying to get the wolf howl to work on the cannon room so I could get a bit of breathing space to get off entangle and maybe knock one or two off. Two warriors were up there. Do you know how long I dodged two warriors for while desperately trying to use the wolf howl? 35 seconds. For 35 kittening seconds, the simple concept of “I press F2 and F2 happens” goes over the concept of my stupid dog’s head. Often he doesn’t even start the animation, he just walks back and forth. For

This seems like a pretty simple logic sequence: When F2 is pressed>stop wolf>howl. But no, he goes back and forth and all about, even when you do the F3>F2 trick it still seems like a kittening lottery as to whether he does it or not. But this is still an issue after a whole year for some reason.

This is not just the wolf by the way, several pet F2 skills are iffy at best, which is curious because the ability to use an on demand interrupt seems kind of vital no?

Please. Please. Please. I beg of you, anet. Fix the wolf howl. Don’t give us rainbow fish or whatever that thing a while back was about. Hell, personally I’d prefer an F2 skill fix to the sick em revealed thing considering thieves are cake on ranger anyway. It’s so godkitten infuriating to know what needs to be done but be fighting the interface more than you’re fighting the enemy.

bad pet AI this is answer to your problem ..

Dina Van Heyr.3018:

bad pet AI this is answer to your problem ..

No

This is not an issue with the rest of the pets, you control them as much as you need to if you micro well. Except this. You can’t control it because whether it works or not is seemingly RNG.

I hear you… And now that I’ve leveled up a true ranger, (warrior), to 80 and wvwvw’d some with him, I won’t be on my Ranger much anymore.

Shoot and forget AoE’s, powerful AoE bombs, great Condition ticks that actually mean something with 1/2 a dozen ways to apply them…. Survivability, na.. I’m not looking back, no pet to worry about, no pet chasing something on the other side of the map, or f2’s not working.

NargofWoV.4267:

I hear you… And now that I’ve leveled up a true ranger, (warrior), to 80 and wvwvw’d some with him, I won’t be on my Ranger much anymore.

Shoot and forget AoE’s, powerful AoE bombs, great Condition ticks that actually mean something with 1/2 a dozen ways to apply them…. Survivability, na.. I’m not looking back, no pet to worry about, no pet chasing something on the other side of the map, or f2’s not working.

I respectfully disagree, the class is fine and perfectly capable of holding it’s own in all of those fields. This thread is about the F2 glitch, please don’t bring the naive complaints from the rest of the ranger forums here and derail the topic. The F2 skill is such a major part of the ranger as a class and it being so broken is a major turnoff though, so I don’t blame you for swapping classes.

Pet F2 responsiveness has been bad since launch. I am amazed a-net hasn’t fixed it yet.

just goes to show how much they don’t care about the ranger.

So this happened to me just recently: I’m hotjoining it up for some fun, trying out a rendition of a build that would be used in WvW if it worked out.

I’m on the walkways surrounding midpoint on Khylo, and I have 4 people chasing me. I call back my Wolf, I detarget my previous target, and I hit F2 to get the fear off so I can escape. Nothing. I hit it again. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Wolf cancels itself to keep moving with me instead of executing the skill I told it to. Then nothing.

This lead to a 3 minute longer than intended chase around the map until my wolf FINALLY decided it was ready to execute its fear, finally allowing me to disengage far enough to out LoS, heal up, and support my team somewhere else.

Still though. My pet wasn’t attacking and I didn’t have a target, and it was on passive and returned, therefore, not attacking an opponent. Why won’t it use the skill I told it to?

No idea. Probably because I didn’t have any Scooby Snacks.

I can’t even remember when was the last time Terrifying howl worked when i wanted it to…

I never have this problem, because of my old fingers.

From day one, I’ve just hardly ever used F2 because there’s only so many buttons my stupid left-hand can mash on rotation.

Those Warriors weren’t by any chance trying to stun lock you?

Kasama, do you think stability training should apply to all pets and just be 5 in beastmastery?

Also @ OP: wolf howl isn’t going to save you from two stunlock warriors unless it lets you run. You need muddy terrain to face them.

Chopps.5047:

Kasama, do you think stability training should apply to all pets and just be 5 in beastmastery?

Sounds good to me.

Moa fury buff was always 50/50 for me, but never had a problem with wolf fear for some reason. Maybe because the wolf was aggroed already and the moa was passive and prioritized keeping up with me… ? Hard to say but yea, I gave up on the moa fury nuff said.

I’ve seen amateur Hl1 modders perform better AI programming feats than Anet, it’s a little embarrassing. Look at Sven Coop and how well Sniper managed to blend the movement and attack sequences of the aliens and hgrunts, it’s astounding. And these aren’t kittening professionals doing it – just passionate mod developers.

Seirously, is it asking too much from Anet to make our pets stop what they are doing, remove the aftercast delay, and just perform the F2? It’s not bloody rocket science anymore, it’s 2013. Get with the times for Christ’s sake. So many times would I have killed downed players with the finish in Tpvp if my Raven just blinded the target when I demand and not 4 seconds later.

NargofWoV.4267:

I hear you… And now that I’ve leveled up a true ranger, (warrior), to 80 and wvwvw’d some with him, I won’t be on my Ranger much anymore.

Shoot and forget AoE’s, powerful AoE bombs, great Condition ticks that actually mean something with 1/2 a dozen ways to apply them…. Survivability, na.. I’m not looking back, no pet to worry about, no pet chasing something on the other side of the map, or f2’s not working.

Just yesterday I had a 1vs1 in WvW against a Warrior, me being a “power” ranger (with Armaggedon gear, I just love the buuuurning effect on heal). LB and Axe/Horn. Only one stun breaker. Not a regen/tank build (30/20/10/10/0, IIRC..0 in beast mastery). And after 8 minutes. I misdodged, got stunned twice, and it went downhill from there.

8 minutes. A misdodge. With a build not geared for PvP. You really need to reevaluate Rangers in WvW.

And no, the warrior was not a noob.

Soronthar.7236:

NargofWoV.4267:

I hear you… And now that I’ve leveled up a true ranger, (warrior), to 80 and wvwvw’d some with him, I won’t be on my Ranger much anymore.

Shoot and forget AoE’s, powerful AoE bombs, great Condition ticks that actually mean something with 1/2 a dozen ways to apply them…. Survivability, na.. I’m not looking back, no pet to worry about, no pet chasing something on the other side of the map, or f2’s not working.

Just yesterday I had a 1vs1 in WvW against a Warrior, me being a “power” ranger (with Armaggedon gear, I just love the buuuurning effect on heal). LB and Axe/Horn. Only one stun breaker. Not a regen/tank build (30/20/10/10/0, IIRC..0 in beast mastery). And after 8 minutes. I misdodged, got stunned twice, and it went downhill from there.

8 minutes. A misdodge. With a build not geared for PvP. You really need to reevaluate Rangers in WvW.

And no, the warrior was not a noob.

You should have used more cripple and immobilzation to keep him at a distance.

Chopps, how does your build fair against a warrior with Mobile Strikes?

Chopps.5047:

You should have used more cripple and immobilzation to keep him at a distance.

Totally. I jumped into WvW to help a friend kill dollys, without changing anything. That’s my point: I lasted against a warrior using a PvE build.

If I had my shortbow, entangle as elite and another stun breaker, maybe things would have gone differently.

DiamondMeteor.8345:

I’ve seen amateur Hl1 modders perform better AI programming feats than Anet, it’s a little embarrassing. Look at Sven Coop and how well Sniper managed to blend the movement and attack sequences of the aliens and hgrunts, it’s astounding. And these aren’t kittening professionals doing it – just passionate mod developers.

Seirously, is it asking too much from Anet to make our pets stop what they are doing, remove the aftercast delay, and just perform the F2? It’s not bloody rocket science anymore, it’s 2013. Get with the times for Christ’s sake. So many times would I have killed downed players with the finish in Tpvp if my Raven just blinded the target when I demand and not 4 seconds later.

Haha I liked sven coop. I made the spaceviking1 & spaceviking2 maps for it

Decklan.7540:

Chopps, how does your build fair against a warrior with Mobile Strikes?

Well obviously I’d have more trouble.

Soronthar.7236:

Chopps.5047:

You should have used more cripple and immobilzation to keep him at a distance.

Totally. I jumped into WvW to help a friend kill dollys, without changing anything. That’s my point: I lasted against a warrior using a PvE build.

If I had my shortbow, entangle as elite and another stun breaker, maybe things would have gone differently.

I use the same weapons out of preference and would love to see your build. Would that be possible?

KyreneZA.8617:

I use the same weapons out of preference and would love to see your build. Would that be possible?

Sure

This was the build i was using at the time (what I use for PvE):

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-H;4wEku-d2ZEV-0;9F-a;1TJ99-17B17-1;02;36NX4;2jxqQjxqQv-kP-f57;3QVSWXXe224n_5cV0-6N-9Z;9;9;7VVVh

I usually go full sigil. I change SoR or SotB for a trap depending of what I’m doing.

This is what I use for WvW:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-H;4wEku-p2kDF-0;9F-a;1TJ99-37B17-0;02;36wV4;2jxqQjxqQv-kP-f57;3QVSWXXe224n_5cV0-6N-9Z;9;9;7VVV;9;9;7V3k3Q

Depending on how lucky I feel, I change Quick reflexes for a trap.

Pets vary, for WvW I use Jaguar and Eagle, for PvE Reef Drake and Lashtail for open world, and whatever is needed for dungeons, fractals and champs.

Also take note that I always have a Short Bow and a GreatSword in my inventory, and I change weapons depending on the situation: Killing Boar? GS. Killing Jormag? LB. Killing Troll? SB. Axe/Horn is equipped most of the time, the usual cycle is Healing Spring, 5, target, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, swap.

Decklan.7540:

Chopps, how does your build fair against a warrior with Mobile Strikes?

To be honest, if you take a look at recent warrior builds…None, literally none of them runs Mobile Strikes anymore. Only Warrior’s Sprint.

Pets have been and will always be the mechanic that holds the ranger back from ever being a solid class.

A year later and Anet still can’t get them right.

In saying that one would assume what we have is all we will get.

I truly don’t know why anyone bothers to complain anymore as it’s a waste of time.

Rym.1469:

Decklan.7540:

Chopps, how does your build fair against a warrior with Mobile Strikes?

To be honest, if you take a look at recent warrior builds…None, literally none of them runs Mobile Strikes anymore. Only Warrior’s Sprint.

I dunno, there’s kind of an option between warrior’s sprint or signet cooldown + SoR (As swiftness is pretty vital) and DotE or Mobile Strikes on the second slot. Mobile Strikes works with Earthshaker but I feel if you’re running that hammer/lb build it’s not worth it just for that. GS or sword builds though, definitely.

Pets have been and will always be the mechanic that holds the ranger back from ever being a solid class.

A year later and Anet still can’t get them right.

In saying that one would assume what we have is all we will get.

I truly don’t know why anyone bothers to complain anymore as it’s a waste of time.

It has nothing to do with pet AI. Pets are great. If you micro them well you can turn a fight. It has everything to do with the F2 skills being extremely unresponsive. There are hundreds of other pet complaint threads, don’t infect this thread and turn it into one please. I just want anet to see this and maybe do something so I can play the kitten class properly.

Writetyper.1985:

Pets have been and will always be the mechanic that holds the ranger back from ever being a solid class.

A year later and Anet still can’t get them right.

In saying that one would assume what we have is all we will get.

I truly don’t know why anyone bothers to complain anymore as it’s a waste of time.

It has nothing to do with pet AI. Pets are great. If you micro them well you can turn a fight. It has everything to do with the F2 skills being extremely unresponsive. There are hundreds of other pet complaint threads, don’t infect this thread and turn it into one please. I just want anet to see this and maybe do something so I can play the kitten class properly.

No. Sorry. There are problems with the AI as well. Yes F2 isn’t responsive enough, but there are major issues with pets responsiveness to AoEs. As in they don’t have any responsiveness to them. Combine that with their tendancy, even when pulled back with F3, to still stand a good distance from you, oftentimes in the AoE you’re trying to pull them out of. And their inability to dodge the heavy attacks (and our inability to tell them to dodge). And while, yes, you can swap pets to avoid damage, some damage sources occur more than every 20s (16s traited) so you can’t always use that for your pet to avoid the damage.

The bird is so a pain with his swiftness buff, 1 sec cast and he cant move he never stick the target, if at least it should be a instant cast…

ranger need love :/

just play a standard apothecary build and use birds cause they are more bursty. gg no re warriors

Writetyper.1985:

Rym.1469:

Decklan.7540:

Chopps, how does your build fair against a warrior with Mobile Strikes?

To be honest, if you take a look at recent warrior builds…None, literally none of them runs Mobile Strikes anymore. Only Warrior’s Sprint.

I dunno, there’s kind of an option between warrior’s sprint or signet cooldown + SoR (As swiftness is pretty vital) and DotE or Mobile Strikes on the second slot. Mobile Strikes works with Earthshaker but I feel if you’re running that hammer/lb build it’s not worth it just for that. GS or sword builds though, definitely.

Pets have been and will always be the mechanic that holds the ranger back from ever being a solid class.

A year later and Anet still can’t get them right.

In saying that one would assume what we have is all we will get.

I truly don’t know why anyone bothers to complain anymore as it’s a waste of time.

It has nothing to do with pet AI. Pets are great. If you micro them well you can turn a fight. It has everything to do with the F2 skills being extremely unresponsive. There are hundreds of other pet complaint threads, don’t infect this thread and turn it into one please. I just want anet to see this and maybe do something so I can play the kitten class properly.

The pet pathing isn’t quite there yet either. I was watching an engi circle strafe my wolf earlier and my wolf couldn’t deal with it because it was basically moving in a 4 point direction system instead of an 8 point. Basically, the Engi was making a circle around my pet, who was on the inside of that circle making a box, trying to meet the engi at certain points.

It looked as though the AI was interpreting and predicting the next logical place the player was going to be based on the last place the pet intercepted (or near intercepted) that player, but that the player was out-maneuvering the AI’s “thinking” process and being out paced by the player because of it.

That, and uneven terrain still “confuses” pets, and makes them run out to obscure places in order to get around terrain that players can travel with no problem.

Now, it isn’t a 100% persistent problem (meaning that it doesn’t happen every time), but the inconsistency is part of the problem; sometimes pets work perfectly, sometimes, you’re yelling at your computer screen and wanting to put down whatever sorry excuse for a pet your using.

jcbroe.4329:

That, and uneven terrain still “confuses” pets, and makes them run out to obscure places in order to get around terrain that players can travel with no problem.

Now, it isn’t a 100% persistent problem (meaning that it doesn’t happen every time), but the inconsistency is part of the problem; sometimes pets work perfectly, sometimes, you’re yelling at your computer screen and wanting to put down whatever sorry excuse for a pet your using.

JPs or just general traversing of vertical areas with ledges being another example. My ranger is a Norn, so I don’t stow my pet for JPs (my Norn’s big kitten in front of the brain-dead camera is much more of a hindrance than the pet could ever be). My pet is often and consistently “showing” me where to jump next, being somehow told by the pathing AI to jump/appear on the next valid accessible piece of terrain. My group of playing friends have even started saying, “Yeah, so-and-so is just showing off again,” due to this.

AI programming is not for sissies. As a developer myself, I know that. However, our pet AI is some of the worst I have seen in the current generation of games I have played.

+1
Iv think the same way 100%. the ranger is generally ok at the moment, pet AI is not the best..but iv said this before. I want to press F2 as a tactical choice and not a lucky press and see..
i think it would give rangers a touch of “blue mage” feel. Being able to work F2 skills into spikes or reliable play..
And the wolf howl? theres not many times in my life iv talked to a game..but there’s been a few times in the past. I pressed F2, evade, wait for it..15 seconds later yell “COME ON”

while the sword 1 attack sucks, it seems to work as intended

While having our stats shared with our pets may not be to everyones liking..it is what it is and mostly works as intended(that is the stats balance shared to pet. this dose not include the usefulness of the pet)

But pressing F2 and watching my pet spaz out? i dont think that was intended…

my wolf should stop in his tracks and howl when i tell him. dispite what my pet thinks I know better IM the master..dont get in melee range to howl, i want you to stop and howl NOW, fearing a guy of a ledge, or making a barrier between me, your master and the enemy

Drake? i want you to stop running at the enemy and start charging your breath attack NOW, the enemy is immobilized and crippeled!..no..dont run there…noooo dont shoot now sigh