Guild Wars 2

So lets do this. I’ll try to note all skill changes and the pros and cons, aswell as a short statement by the players. If you want anything to add, just leave a comment.
Patchnotes have been pulled from dulfy.net.
I will not go over the trait changes (just yet).

Traps
Changes

• All Ranger Traps now have a 0.5s arming time.
• All Ranger Traps now have a 180 trigger radius and a 240 effect radius.
• Frost Trap: Trap duration once triggered has been decreased from 5s to 3s. The chill duration per pulse has been increased to 3s. This skill has gained a pulse damage component.
• Spike Trap: Now has a knockdown component on initial trap trigger. Bleed stacks increased to 6 and duration increased to 6.25s. Cripple duration increased to 2.66s.
• Flame Trap: Increased the duration from 1 seconds to 2.5 seconds per pulse.
• Viper’s Nest: This skill now applies 3 stacks of poison for 5 seconds every pulse. The pulse strike damage on this skill has been increased.
• Healing Spring is now a trap (unconfirmed!)

Traits

• Skirmishing Adept, Trapper’s Expertise: Boons and conditions caused by your traps last 60% longer. Your traps recharge 20% faster and your offensive traps cause 2s of cripple.

Pros

• Traps being larger is now baseline
• Traps have been buffed individually, Spike Trap the most

Cons

• Traps can’t be thrown anymore

Opinions

Not being able to throw traps will kill a current build, limit the use of traps and will make Trapper Runes for the Ranger obsolete

Spirits
Changes

• All Ranger Spirits have had their chance on hit buffs increased to 75%.
• All Ranger Spirits now have a 30s cooldown.
• All Ranger Spirit active abilities have had their maximum targets increased to 5.
• All Ranger Spirit active abilities are more potent and sacrifice the spirit.
• Water Spirit: The cast time from the water spirit’s active ability has been removed.
• Sun Spirit: This spirit’s buff now applies 2 stacks of burning for 3 seconds. The activate ability now inflicts 3 stacks of burning for 5s and its blind duration has been increased to 8s.
• Frost Spirit: The activate ability now inflicts 3s of chill initially.
• Storm Spirit: This spirit’s buff now applies 9.5s of swiftness. The activate ability now inflicts a 3s daze.

Traits

• Nature Magic Grandmaster, Nature’s Vengeance: Each of your spirits pulses 1s of a particular boon every 3s. Your spirits gain 100% increased health. The range of spirit activated abilities is increased by 50%.

Pros

• Passive buff trigger chance incrased to 75%
• Active now affects 5 targets

Cons

• Spirits can’t be traited to move anymore

Opinions

I expected the spirits to have a more active playstyle. I can’t see more than one spirit in a build being viable, if at all, and only the Frost Spirit being viable in PvE. So in my opinion, spirits haven’t gotten much of an upgrade

Shouts
Changes

• “Guard!” no longer has a cast time
• Healing as One is now a shout (unconfirmed!)
• Rampage as One is now a shout (unconfirmed!)

Traits

• Beastmastery Adept, Resounding Timbre: Your shouts apply 10s of Regeneration and 10s of Swiftness to nearby allies. You shouts recharge 20% faster.

Pros

• The one build ever using Guard! got buffed

Cons

Opinions

Shouts have not gotten much of an upgrade, let alone rework. They still will be fillinf niches at best, or simply being useless at worst.

Survival Skills
Changes

• Quickening Zephyr: No longer reduces healing by 50%. Gain Super Speed in addition to quickness when activating this ability.
• Lightning Reflexes: Movement speed adjustments no longer affect the intended travel distance.
• Troll Ungent is now a Survival Skill (unconfirmed!)

Traits

• Wilderness Survival Grandmaster, Wilderness Knowledge: Survival skills have 20% reduced recharge, grant 6s of fury and remove 2 conditions.

Pros

• Quickening Zephyr now grants Super Speed

Cons

Opinions

QZ got a neat little update, but other than that, nothing has changed

Signets
Changes

Traits

• Marksman Master, Brutish Seals: Activating a signet grants 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds to you and your pet. Your signets gain 20% recharge reduction.

Pros

Cons

Opinions

Thieves get the trait in a slightly less effective form as minor trait.

[Reserved for weapon changes]

I have never used traps and after these changes I’m sure I never will.

This not World of Warcraft. Traps arent as powerful here as in that game. Why take away their only advantage?

you know throwing traps is a gw2 addition traps in gw1 use to KD , apply lots of bleeds / cripple and Even Freeze a target.

traps are stronger than before since you can Garrentee spike trap will allow the pulses of other traps to do all their damage it.

spike trap will also interrupt a target leaping into or out of the trap means he will waste his leap giving you more space to build a wider gap.

now just imagine running sun spirit + spike trap and trait for bleeds and wilderness , ambidextrous off hand with poison master using a 0,6,6,6,0 set up.
75% chance to cause burning , it has perma poison and bleeds stacks from both sources and a KD trap defence.

its opened up new more effective builds and its not so Trait line restricted so not being able to throw a trap is of little concern.

Old traps were not.

We’ll have to see about new traps. They are all going to pulse direct damage now too … we’ll need to see how much that damage is before we can be 100% sure about them.

Sadly, no Sharpened Edges with trap trait now though… Was nice with high crit chance you could stack a lot more bleeds in there.

True enough, but I don’t think it breaks the bank. Instead, in some cases it gives you choices that are actual choices (unlike some other sets of traits for Ranger and other classes where on trait is much more powerful than the alternatives).

Have low crit chance with Settler/Carrion/etc. … you’d not be well-served by Sharpened Edges so if taking traps the choice is simple.

Have a high crit chance and are taking traps … well do you want more re-application from you and your pets’ attacks or longer duration from trap conditions and more use of traps? It’s a fair question that I’ll likely end up doing math on in the future ;-)

High a high crit chance and aren’t taking traps … pretty obvious choice.