Guild Wars 2

This is noting that you land it on someone already, there is a horrible weak point of the Entangle skill. That weakness is the availability of immunity moves, as this move is a pulsing 1 second ability it means that if you “evade” during this stage you can dodge roll right off it. Some of the ranger abilities that remove you once hit from this ability are Quick Shot (Short Bow), Monarch’s Leap(Short Sword), Hornet’s Sting(Short Sword), Stalker’s Strike (Knife), Serpent’s Strike (Short Sword) and many others from other classes, such as pistol whip (Thief) and Blurred Frenzy (Mesmer). The next thing that also does the same is condition removal (not saying this is an issue, this SHOULD be able to remove it).

Other ideas that I have not personally tested include a well timed blind(sync with dot tick, would be hard to time, I am also unsure if blinded at the right moment if all the people in the roots would be released, another idea is blind with a daze effect so that it goes off properly, or if the roots are treated as an independent entity just blind the root) and Aegis (groupwide immunity if popped by a guardian). I probably won’t test these for a few days just in case I sink into ranger depression.

As an ability that is practically encouraged to be used in a group, this does not have the strength to hold people that it should. I think this skill needs to be looked at as in its current state it is far too weak considering its cool-down. I had previously stopped using this quite a long time ago because I saw the after effects of everyone just crawling out of the roots, realizing it is not a good ability. The reason I made this post is so that it would bring more community attention to this ability, so it will be abused by everyone when they see it, and then force something to be done about it.

I would also like to hear what you guys think of the current ability and how well you think this ability is balanced, and perhaps post some of your own findings. The following mini-rant below is just venting after I abused it against another ranger and felt sick afterwards (after he called me a hacker, I just kind-of giggled when he didn’t close the distance).

(mini-rant because I didn’t want to make another thread/post again) Another thing that should be looked into is the slow travel of projectiles as most people at mid range can just tap strafe left, strafe right repeatedly and dodge all arrows. In its current state I would classify the shortbow as a two handed melee weapon, with a less than even a one handed weapons damage. I am not actually asking for a super buff of the ranged damage at all, what I am asking for is an increased projectile movement speed so that this becomes less of an issue, so the shortbow/longbow can more reliably hit their targets. (mini-rant over)

Hi, I play a trapper build and this Elite skill is the one that fits my play style/build, and I see many ppl abusing of skills that simply take them off the roots the sec I use the skill, so my Elite skill does like 1 secs bleed/root in best cases.
Have you tried to Entangle a thief spamming Heart seeker? does nothing to them, they are out of the root the sec you use the skill, so broken really.
In my opinion to leave the root you should destroy it and nothing else should work for that, at least this way you would be obligated to change target and lose sometime there, even if was for like 4 or 5 secs would give you the option to attack or run.
Another thing that i would like to add is the fact that condition builds take a lot of time to destroy the root if you try it.
If this skill is in fact working as intended then give us something great, I don’t mind have the 10 secs AOE Haste that mesmers have.

Taym.8326:

This is noting that you land it on someone already, there is a horrible weak point of the Entangle skill. That weakness is the availability of immunity moves, as this move is a pulsing 1 second ability it means that if you “evade” during this stage you can dodge roll right off it.

I am a Ranger and I use the Entangle ability more than any other Elite. However, I have to strongly disagree with your premise here. It is an attack. Therefore, doding an entangle is no different than doding out of the way of an arrow or gun shot, a melee attack, or a magic attack. It would be one thing to suggest that if the entangle actually hit them and they were able to dodge out of it before the duration completed that there was a problem. This is especially true since there is already a mechanic in place that lets you destroy the roots to get out of it. However, to suggest that it is a “glaring weakness” to follow the mechanics of all other attacks, I think, is a bit of a difficult sell. It is not intended to be a guaranteed hit.

One could reasonably argue that its cast time allows it to be dodged too easily. That could be a valid point to argue. However, considering that it can root multiple people and that you don’t have to target anyone, that it can be cast on the move, and that it can be cast when not even facing them, I think you would be hard pressed to not see the cast time as a balance issue.

Taym.8326:

(mini-rant because I didn’t want to make another thread/post again) Another thing that should be looked into is the slow travel of projectiles as most people at mid range can just tap strafe left, strafe right repeatedly and dodge all arrows. In its current state I would classify the shortbow as a two handed melee weapon, with a less than even a one handed weapons damage. I am not actually asking for a super buff of the ranged damage at all, what I am asking for is an increased projectile movement speed so that this becomes less of an issue, so the shortbow/longbow can more reliably hit their targets. (mini-rant over)

Being able to tap strafe left and right rapidly in order to avoid ranged attacks allows you to stand in one place and effectively dodge without using a skill and without expending endurance. The game mechanics cannot be meant to allow that. It is, therefore, in my opinion an exploit.

Movement should present a more difficult target; thus, trying to hit a running target should result in more misses than if they are standing still. But since this is not “DC Universe Online,” you are not “The Flash,” and you shouldn’t be able to stand in place vibrating rapidly to become unhitable.

Sotaudi: I am not meaning them dodging the ability itself, that would be working as intented, What I am meaning is due to the short pulse of 1 second and usually 1-1/4 second immobilize a person can use a skill with attached evade(see previous list) to then walk out of the roots. Test it yourself, have a friend use entangle on you and use an evade move followed by a dodge and walk out of an entangle that has landed (apparently has and hit cannot be placed together ) on you.

I can think of 2 fixes for the spell… 1) you make the roots solid objects, you can not run through them, but you can shoot and attack over them making it so even if they use and evade and dodge out on some of the bleed and immob they wont be able to just walk out of it and would still have to kill the roots in order to move.

2) You make it apply all the immob and bleed at once and say “Screw it!” from there

Personally i’d prefer the first… Until it gets fixed i’m just gonna stick with Natures Spirit he’s very sturdy, gives a very nice heal over time (~550 health per second with my healing power) not to mention that he removes conditions and rezzes all allies when you use his active skill, and the way i have it traited when he finally does die he rezes and removes all conditions from all allies!! It’s a win win!!

I kinda agree. By Anets own statement, they intended elite skills not to be spammable in gw2, but moreover, “A skill that when correctly timed can turn the course of a battle.” If you look at it as a game of paper, scissor, rock..too many utility, weapon evade skills, even just straight up dodge can get a person out of root fairly easily. This means conventional abilities can out do a elite ability. That is the same as saying paper beats scissor. I have used this elite many times in spvp and all too often my entangled target is out of it in mere seconds.