Guild Wars 2

One thing that has always bothered me is how warriors get a very high damage burst ranged attack and rangers do not have anything remotely close.

I propose changing LB 5 from an aoe to a direct damage single target attack. Could possibly have other effects besides direct damage (maybe applies vulnerability or something of that nature) if the cooldown is long enough.

Anyone who has ever used meteor shower knows how underwhelming the damage on LB 5 is even on full zerker rangers. Just an idea that I think would improve the class (albeit in a minor way).

If we could use it while moving I’d be extremely thrilled with it the way it is. It’s nice to have one AoE, I’d hate to lose even that.

I’m still hoping to see something closer to what Barrage was in GW1. Was always a bit more believable to have a spammable target-based AOE, for a bow. It became a much more effective group clearing skill in PvE that way.

a sort of “targeted” Explosive Arrow with aoe damage??

Yes, if we could move while channeling and a reduced cooldown would make it a great attack skill. Yes, great. Not just good, but great.

Rangers deserve some great AOE attacks. And it wouldn’t even be great damage, just great control. As it is now, it’s far too situational to be of general use in WvW large scale fights.

If Barrage hit the same way Frost Bow’s AOE did, then that would be nice. Dreams on

Guys, keep in mind 2 things:
- completely redesigning skills (making new ones/removing old ones) is a TONS of work.
- Weapons/Classes/Builds are about ‘concept’. The longbow has its own concept of a slow yet powerful weapon, that reaches its maximum potential in long range. You can’t just make all ranged weapons into the same thing and ruin the concept.

Instead of completely redesigning our LB skills we should just have the dmg on #2 and @5 buffed-up, because at the moment they are very weak.
That’s it, no need to make into Warrior’s Rifle or Longbow.

DanSH.6143:

Guys, keep in mind 2 things:
- completely redesigning skills (making new ones/removing old ones) is a TONS of work.
- Weapons/Classes/Builds are about ‘concept’. The longbow has its own concept of a slow yet powerful weapon, that reaches its maximum potential in long range. You can’t just make all ranged weapons into the same thing and ruin the concept.

Instead of completely redesigning our LB skills we should just have the dmg on #2 and @5 buffed-up, because at the moment they are very weak.
That’s it, no need to make into Warrior’s Rifle or Longbow.

Anet stealth NERFED LB #5 2-3 months ago….

Why does barrage show hundreds of arrows falling in the same area, but, only 5 people get hit by it? Remove the 5 target limit on the skill, and turn Barrage into a true area denial skill, then it’ll be good for large scale use against zergs in WvW as well as against smaller groups of enemies in PvP and PvE.

Buffing the damage makes it too powerful against smaller groups, buffing the conditions it gives also makes it too powerful for the same reason. Turning it into a single target damage spike isn’t going to suddenly make the skill better than what our autoattack can do by itself.

I like Barrage. All it needs is the ability to move while casting. Then Barrage will be much more versatile and it will make Ranger longbow stronger.

barrage cripples, though.

1. applies 0 pressure for ranger lb. its not damage threatning, and the cripple is mostly avoidable or easy to remove. They should change the cripple to something more or up the damage. Like meteor you have to sit there and channel it, and its a long cooldown. Add weakness or change to immobilize or vulerability (basically a necro well). That or up the attacks per second over the same duration, so on-hit affects can benefit greatly from it.

I don’t think that Barrage should be a pressure weapon. It should be a area control skill. Use it on chokepoints to slow down an enemy.

To be able to use it on the fly, Rangers can use Barrage and slow a chasing enemy or Rangers can also use this to close escape routes. They can also use Barrage as a barrier skill. In roaming, Barrage will be a vital skill for small squads to flee.

Just add remove stability to barrage >:D

Chrispy.5641:

Why does barrage show hundreds of arrows falling in the same area, but, only 5 people get hit by it? Remove the 5 target limit on the skill, and turn Barrage into a true area denial skill, then it’ll be good for large scale use against zergs in WvW as well as against smaller groups of enemies in PvP and PvE.

Buffing the damage makes it too powerful against smaller groups, buffing the conditions it gives also makes it too powerful for the same reason. Turning it into a single target damage spike isn’t going to suddenly make the skill better than what our autoattack can do by itself.

The dotal dps of Barrage is considerably low.

urdriel.8496:

DanSH.6143:

Guys, keep in mind 2 things:
- completely redesigning skills (making new ones/removing old ones) is a TONS of work.
- Weapons/Classes/Builds are about ‘concept’. The longbow has its own concept of a slow yet powerful weapon, that reaches its maximum potential in long range. You can’t just make all ranged weapons into the same thing and ruin the concept.

Instead of completely redesigning our LB skills we should just have the dmg on #2 and @5 buffed-up, because at the moment they are very weak.
That’s it, no need to make into Warrior’s Rifle or Longbow.

Anet stealth NERFED LB #5 2-3 months ago….

Yeah I’ve heard about that. I know they decreased damage per tic by 50% but I’m not sure if they haven’t doudble the tics. If they did it’s supposed to have the same total dps.

DanSH.6143:

urdriel.8496:

DanSH.6143:

Guys, keep in mind 2 things:
- completely redesigning skills (making new ones/removing old ones) is a TONS of work.
- Weapons/Classes/Builds are about ‘concept’. The longbow has its own concept of a slow yet powerful weapon, that reaches its maximum potential in long range. You can’t just make all ranged weapons into the same thing and ruin the concept.

Instead of completely redesigning our LB skills we should just have the dmg on #2 and @5 buffed-up, because at the moment they are very weak.
That’s it, no need to make into Warrior’s Rifle or Longbow.

Anet stealth NERFED LB #5 2-3 months ago….

Yeah I’ve heard about that. I know they decreased damage per tic by 50% but I’m not sure if they haven’t doudble the tics. If they did it’s supposed to have the same total dps.

same ticks, -50% damage each tick.

No please. The aoe is very badly needed and the only good one rangers have.

The thing is… the damage from barrage SUCKS. I am honestly convinced 90% of rangers only play rangers and have no experience other classes… If I take a full zerker ranger to a zerg and use barrage, the damage will be barely noticeable. Every time we see the barrage animation we are like “OH kitten IS THAT AN ARROW CART…. oh haha it’s just barrage” zerg walks through with no worries

Now if I take a full zerker ele and meteor shower on a zerg… THAT is damage. A couple glass eles can destroy an entire zerg, rangers will barely make a dent.

What I’m saying is just because “it’s our only aoe” outside of traps doesn’t mean it’s either 1. good or 2. worth keeping. So if people are generally in favor of barrage, let’s talk about ways in which it could be improved.

Possible improvements:
-add a pulsing aoe immob that gets applied with each tick, much more effective that just cripple (since most “zerg” specs have a ton of condi cleanse that just shrugs off cripple) immob would help fragment a zerg and break up a melee train
-add torment stacks to each tick, this would fit in with how rangers can benefit from mixing power/condi damage
-or just a straight up increase in damage

I would be in favor of making ranger’s “thing” pulsing aoe immob, which would be incredibly useful in zergs and (maybe) make rangers wanted.

less ticks , more damage and less channel time would be a nice solution

urdriel.8496:

less ticks , more damage and less channel time would be a nice solution

As it’s much simpler to simply change the damage numbers, I’d rather have them do that.
I always thought barrage have 100% more dps, and turns out it used to have it. so yeah, double the damage, that would be a start.

a stealth nerf on barrage?
never heard about it
the only thing i read was 50% longer cripple duration

I would go in the opposite direction and even say that Longbow needs one more aoe skill aside from #5 to be more functional, there are so many occasions when I pop #5, and find myself desperately wishing I had another aoe to drop on a group instead of pew-pew from far away and having the arrows miss 50% of the time. Each skill on the longbow is extremely useful in its own situation so I am not sure I would make drastic changes to any of the longbow skills, but maybe a new skill that allows “splash damage” when wielding a bow would be nice.

Something similar to splinter shot from gw1: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Splinter_Shot

Paz Shadow.9715:

when I pop #5, and find myself desperately wishing I had another aoe to drop on a group instead of pew-pew from far away and having the arrows miss 50% of the time.

Each time i pop LB #5 i pray to not be killed by retaliation xDDD

Another solution, less ticks more damage.

^ seriously, zerker ranger getting downed by retaliation #rangerproblems

DanSH.6143:

Chrispy.5641:

Why does barrage show hundreds of arrows falling in the same area, but, only 5 people get hit by it? Remove the 5 target limit on the skill, and turn Barrage into a true area denial skill, then it’ll be good for large scale use against zergs in WvW as well as against smaller groups of enemies in PvP and PvE.

Buffing the damage makes it too powerful against smaller groups, buffing the conditions it gives also makes it too powerful for the same reason. Turning it into a single target damage spike isn’t going to suddenly make the skill better than what our autoattack can do by itself.

The dotal dps of Barrage is considerably low.

Its not too hard to deal over 2000 damage per tick in Valkyrie gear. Infact, its not hard at all. 24,000 damage that you can fire and forget while pulling out your sword or other weapons is considrably low total dps?

While that is not as much damage as Meteor shower and similar skills you also need to remember that Barrage has a lower casting time, and it cripples in addition to the damage. While I agree that the damage is a little low (as is all our damage because of our class mechanic), I would not consider Barrage useless in its current form. The only problem I see with it is that it hits the 5 people closest to the center of the AOE, which makes no sense.

Paz Shadow.9715:

^ seriously, zerker ranger getting downed by retaliation #rangerproblems

12 tics ,each tic 5 target, each target 350 ret damage, 12*5=60 , 60*350 , 19500, zerker ranger hp 15-16k (17k with WvW buffs), congrats on your zerker ranger with more than 19k hp in full zerker gear, /clap.

urdriel.8496:

congrats on your zerker ranger with more than 19k hp in full zerker gear, /clap.

I run around with a little over 20k. I am in full ascended berserker, have the guard buffs though. Not that any of this is relevant, I just wanted my congrats!

Fluffball.8307:

urdriel.8496:

congrats on your zerker ranger with more than 19k hp in full zerker gear, /clap.

I run around with a little over 20k. I am in full ascended berserker, have the guard buffs though. Not that any of this is relevant, I just wanted my congrats!

guards buff, +2500 hp, you have 17,5k hp, so, if you eat all the retaliation and your heal is in CD, you are dead.

retaliation punishes ranger LB too hard.

30/25/0/15/0

It’s the PvE build, and I just swap traits for WvW. And then watch wars rage when I beat them with a PvE build. :-P