Guild Wars 2

Hidden barbs: 20->33% bleed damage increase
Predator’s onslaught: 10->15% dmg increase
Protect me: AoE stun break and protection, pet taunt the next enemy that attacks you
Search and rescue: 1200 range regeneration and pet drags downed ally to you and the rezzes

Cool changes to shouts, hoping for a good stuff happening to guard and sic em.
Condi trap builds will be a fair bit stronger, nice
I doubt the Predator’s onslaught buff will change much

Are these confirmed?

Dulfy wrote up the live stream notes. That was posted on Reddit and somewhat in real-time. So yeah, good chance of being accurate.

Although most notable was the change to Alacrity. About time really so now it is dropped to 33%.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Are these confirmed?

Yep

Keep in mind that these are not all the changes, we do not know how many changes are in the 26th patch.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Are these confirmed?

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/v/35627270

They said they are buffing some less used traits… I thought they would change Strider’s Defense. Hidden Barbs is already awesome and I use it on my condi build, but I don’t mind some extra damage.

But condi rangers are pretty rare so maybe they want to encourage ppl to go down that road.

That’s actually some good news.

I’m especially surprised about the Predator’s Onslaught buff. In a nice way. They might have actually used Math when thinking about the PvE balance.
… And I mean …

Well okay, this changes quite a bit about the perspective. Now let’s wait for the rest and then see whether it was worth putting some faith into them.

So, just as I thought. Minor boons added to some shouts, no changes on weak traits such as Most Dangerous Game, and utility skills like Sharpening Stone are left mediocre.

Protect Me! added Taunt is nice, though, but the description seems it will work on only the next target to attack you when it would be nice if it could affect multiple targets 1 time during the duration of the shout effect.

Predator’s onslaught is such a boring trait, I wish they would just rework it.

Eh, Predator’s Onslaught’s fine. It’s boring, but I’d rather it be a boring, straight-forward trait, than creative and sloppy. And Anet has been known to create unpractical traits while trying to be creative many of times before.

At this point, I’d probably go the route of previous suggestions I’ve seen people have and just marge Predator’s Instinct into Predator’s Onslaught just so it does something else for the sake of doing something else.

Wondrouswall.7169:

So, just as I thought. Minor boons added to some shouts, no changes on weak traits such as Most Dangerous Game, and utility skills like Sharpening Stone are left mediocre.

MDG has its own niche, not every trait needs to be viable imo, as long as it fits the playstyle of some people.

Nope. It can be niche if it has synergy. Currently, there is very little/extremely weak synergy for MDG to be useful in its own niche. A bunch of traits procing under 50% hp also doesn’t count as synergy.

Every trait needs to be somewhat competitive within their respective tier while augmenting a person’s playstyle. MDG does nothing to be not only a decent GM status trait, but feels as though it was a shoe-horned idea, and then witnessed during the specialization patch in Sep, to be knee-jerked as more powerful than it is.

It was mentioned before that if Fury was added as a pulsing boon to it would make a significant difference and add towards a certain playstyle. To think it’s fine currently and saying that not every trait needs to be viable is exactly why there are unused traits that remain useless and/or have very little impact even towards niche builds.

New Protect Me looks amazing, thinking a NM/BM/Druid shout master will work now?

I don’t see the point on putting regeneration on Search and Rescue since who is going to use the shouts without the trait?

Levetty.1279:

I don’t see the point on putting regeneration on Search and Rescue since who is going to use the shouts without the trait?

It’s got a bigger area of effect than the trait, so better for healing allies,

I wonder if it’s in addition to regen, like natural healing-ish? Even if the trait didn’t already give the boon regen, no one GaF about regen. If you played the game blind folded on heroin while in a medically induced coma you’d still have regen. Probly just regular regen.

I would have preferred like, 2s of Resistance when casting Search and Rescue instead. Paired with Resounding Timbre, it will just be even more Regeneration…

Related, the new amulets are up in the PvP forum.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Upcoming-Changes-to-PvP-Runes-Sigils-Amulets/

Adrian Guardian.9480:

Hidden barbs: 20->33% bleed damage increase
Predator’s onslaught: 10->15% dmg increase
Protect me: AoE stun break and protection, pet taunt the next enemy that attacks you
Search and rescue: 1200 range regeneration and pet drags downed ally to you and the rezzes

---

Cool changes to shouts, hoping for a good stuff happening to guard and sic em.
Condi trap builds will be a fair bit stronger, nice
I doubt the Predator’s onslaught buff will change much

Impressive set of changes…

They will have to adjust the trait Allie’s Aid however.

Not impressed so far. Nothing that makes me rethink or change my current setup. Hope more and better are coming down the path.

Swagger.1459:

Impressive set of changes…

He only picked out 4 changes per non-thief/warrior class to announce, so it should be more impressive later.

Swagger.1459:

Adrian Guardian.9480:

Hidden barbs: 20->33% bleed damage increase
Predator’s onslaught: 10->15% dmg increase
Protect me: AoE stun break and protection, pet taunt the next enemy that attacks you
Search and rescue: 1200 range regeneration and pet drags downed ally to you and the rezzes

---

Cool changes to shouts, hoping for a good stuff happening to guard and sic em.
Condi trap builds will be a fair bit stronger, nice
I doubt the Predator’s onslaught buff will change much

Impressive set of changes…

This, Sir, is exactly hat I was thinking.

Astonishing changes. So relevant also.

anduriell.6280:

They will have to adjust the trait Allie’s Aid however.

Yeah, but at the same time, I don’t know. I guess Allie’s Aid trait would be useful in terms of multiple downed allies within the area. You start reviving an ally and there’s another downed ally a bit further away, your pet teleports them to you and revives them, so a 2-for-1?

Again, nice point to bring up, but I’m on the fence.

anduriell.6280:

They will have to adjust the trait Allie’s Aid however.

I can already see it, you start rezing a friend and your pet starts to drag him towards the enemy…through dragon hunter traps and necromancer wells.

Adrian Guardian.9480:

Levetty.1279:

I don’t see the point on putting regeneration on Search and Rescue since who is going to use the shouts without the trait?

It’s got a bigger area of effect than the trait, so better for healing allies,

If you don’t trait for shouts, the cooldown is whooping 85 seconds. 85 seconds for a little bit of regen? Sounds a bit silly really.

Sic ’Em would be pretty nice if the reveal was aoe to compensate with all the mad stealth spam that is going on.

FrouFrou.4958:

..snip…

Sic ’Em would be pretty nice if the reveal was aoe to compensate with all the mad stealth spam that is going on.

Actually i could be very happy if they just could make it work as the mastery Nuhoc Stealth Detection.

So although the enemy is not revealed you can still see and attack him.

You know… this is actually funny. We’re going to end up doing Jump Puzzles and then S&R’ing people to the reward chest like a ghetto mesmer.

Predator’s Onslaught needs to boost the duration of soft CC in addition to what it already does to be GM worthy.

Hidden Barb’s should stay at 20% and sharpened edges be merged with it, and a new t1 trait added.

I don’t get why people are hating on PM. Most PvP rangers and druids already trait for shouts so it’s a 48 second AoE stunbreak in the biggest CC spam meta of GW2 history, and it’s more CC on our part. And some AoE prot, regen and swiftness for fun. Trooper runes are looking like a solid choice for a more bunkery druid with no access to cele (and with chrono bunker getting nerfed). All that combined makes it a pretty clear rival to GoE or LR (or even used in combo).

We just need to see the actual numbers. Is the CD changed, what taunt duration and range (infinite?), etc. But so far I am pretty happy with what they told us.

Edit: Apparently there is no longer a rune of the trooper in PvP? I swear there used to be, but it doesn’t show up when I search the runes.

I’m probably reading things wrong but I see more concern for S&R than Protect Me. So far, my concern is what was told about the Taunt aspect of the shout seems as though it may be limited to just the next target that strikes the player.

On a 1v1 basis, that’s fine, but I would hope it will be able to Taunt each foe that strikes the player at least once during the duration of the Shout, rather than just a single enemy, especially in group-fight scenarios.

The AOE stun break is icing on the cake to the change.

Adrian Guardian.9480:

Swagger.1459:

Impressive set of changes…

He only picked out 4 changes per non-thief/warrior class to announce, so it should be more impressive later.

Won’t be more impressive because anything not mentioned in today’s video has to be minor stuff that don’t make much of a difference.

SpreadCheese.5208:

Adrian Guardian.9480:

Swagger.1459:

Impressive set of changes…

He only picked out 4 changes per non-thief/warrior class to announce, so it should be more impressive later.

Won’t be more impressive because anything not mentioned in today’s video has to be minor stuff that don’t make much of a difference.

I still keep my hope up for a “Guard!” rework, they did fix “Protect Me!” to the point that it’s now just a numbers issue.

Fluffball.8307:

Edit: Apparently there is no longer a rune of the trooper in PvP? I swear there used to be, but it doesn’t show up when I search the runes.

In PvP it’s called Rune of the Soldier.

These are probably it which is a bit sad if truth be told. As Cheese said anything else will probably be minor or small. I just don’t see these changes doing much with regards to the overall power or cc creep. And nothing about WvW worth a kitten .

Those shout changes are really cool and long overdue. I’m happy they’re finally here, however.

Holland.9351:

Taunt on Protect Me is a nerf. The pet is already taking all the damage from the Ranger, so there is no need to get the pet focused down even more. Maybe the person you attack is someone else and now he is also helping with killing the pet because of the taunt.

You are way off the picture.
Taunt prevents the target from using any abilities except stun-breakers.
It also reduced the attack speed of affected enemy.
Which means it reduces the damage the pet takes by a huge lot.

I don’t know where your opinion comes from but it’s needlessly salty and totally incorrect. Taunt is 30 times more useful than the former damage transfer that lasted for a second and half and you died afterwards anyway.
If you want the former mechanic, take SoS.

If you are so concerned about the pet’s HP instead of yours and you still haven’t realized that Protect Me is currently a death penalty in a blink of an eye than you are playing a wrong game.
Same goes if you use Protect Me for PvE.

Might have to test out a shout build when these come in.

As @Tragic Positive.9356 mentioned, the new protect me is much superior to the old one while getting a different defesne mechanic to SoS, like it alot. I also like the change to SAR, I wounder how the trait allie’s aid will work now as it trrigers while you start to revive(will it cancel the pet blinking thing?)
Waiting for the “guard” change, as it is the most useless shout ATM.

LughLongArm.5460:

As @Tragic Positive.9356 mentioned, the new protect me is much superior to the old one while getting a different defesne mechanic to SoS, like it alot. I also like the change to SAR, I wounder how the trait allie’s aid will work now as it trrigers while you start to revive(will it cancel the pet blinking thing?)
Waiting for the “guard” change, as it is the most useless shout ATM.

I believe since it’s already in melee range – it will basically just keep the same functionality as it currently has.

Congratz to your ranger pet that can rez players at distance and porting them back.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rebirth

Interesting. Hidden Barbs nice little increase. Predator’s Onslaught is better, nice little pve buff. Will be interesting to see interaction between Search and Rescue and Allies Aid. But the regen seems redundant with Resounding Timbre.

If you look at the major buffs the thief is getting you have to wonder if ANeT loves thieves. Thieves are gonna one shot even more players after Jan 26.

Adrian Guardian.9480:

Hidden barbs: 20->33% bleed damage increase
Predator’s onslaught: 10->15% dmg increase
Protect me: AoE stun break and protection, pet taunt the next enemy that attacks you
Search and rescue: 1200 range regeneration and pet drags downed ally to you and the rezzes

>Hidden Barbs boosted

Neat. I use this on my Viper setup over Spotter when not doing Fractals. Making it stronger has no downside.

>Predator Onslaught boosted
Eh. Unless it boosts Cripple duration at the same time, its still not worth it. Especially with how bad that one trait that applies it @ 50% HP is.

>Protect Me
Not bad. A Stun Break Shout means less need for going into Wilderness Knowledge for non-glyph builds, and the protection/taunt’s an added bonus. Curious about the Cooldown on it once traited, though.

>Search and Rescue
So this applies AoE regen and then drags an ally to you? Do they drag corpses or the downed or both? I’m also curious as to how it’ll affect Allies’ Aid and how it’ll work on a close and distant pair of downed players (wouldn’t want the pet to drag the one I’m already on top of over and such)

Overall, its not a bad start, but I really hope they look into Shortbow, Axes, Sword, and a few other traits before I’m sold on looking forward to all of this.

Heibi.4251:

If you look at the major buffs the thief is getting you have to wonder if ANeT loves thieves. Thieves are gonna one shot even more players after Jan 26.

Anet thinks that’s what people want to see, so coming meta have a fair chance of becoming the worst one shotting meta ever.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Heibi.4251:

If you look at the major buffs the thief is getting you have to wonder if ANeT loves thieves. Thieves are gonna one shot even more players after Jan 26.

Anet thinks that’s what people want to see, so coming meta have a fair chance of becoming the worst one shotting meta ever.

It’s all for the eSports. x)

OGDeadHead.8326:

Heibi.4251:

If you look at the major buffs the thief is getting you have to wonder if ANeT loves thieves. Thieves are gonna one shot even more players after Jan 26.

Anet thinks that’s what people want to see, so coming meta have a fair chance of becoming the worst one shotting meta ever.

And we are the only class without burst.
…
And Thieves were among the best. Now getting immense buffs.
I can’t possibly wait.

Tragic Positive.9356:

OGDeadHead.8326:

Heibi.4251:

If you look at the major buffs the thief is getting you have to wonder if ANeT loves thieves. Thieves are gonna one shot even more players after Jan 26.

Anet thinks that’s what people want to see, so coming meta have a fair chance of becoming the worst one shotting meta ever.

And we are the only class without burst.
…
And Thieves were among the best. Now getting immense buffs.
I can’t possibly wait.

I disagree. We have good burst now with pets. The problem however like you mentioned, is that thieves might be difficult to deal with. We will have to see as glass ranger has a few new mechanics thanks to hot to deal with thief, namely Celestial Shadow, an on demand smoke field, and now the new PM.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Heibi.4251:

If you look at the major buffs the thief is getting you have to wonder if ANeT loves thieves. Thieves are gonna one shot even more players after Jan 26.

Anet thinks that’s what people want to see, so coming meta have a fair chance of becoming the worst one shotting meta ever.

I don’t see the damage increase like a real buff. Yes they will be able to attack more often, but thief is not a class that can stay at the target in AA, they are not revenants.

Although let’s see what they do to acrobatics, to see they became the new Blur 2.0

Now if we get more resources to fight the stealth that buff shouldn’t change much the actual state. I mean, we have only one block so basilisk venom won’t change much to become unblockable.

Let’s see what Anet has prepared for us. The two shouts they spoke of show as the Devs have listen some of the forum post.
The protect me in paper seems a really fun skill to play, i hope they don’t kitten up with long CDs (the actual ones for the shouts are the one that make them unusable).

I think that ranger is one of the professions that is most suited to deal with thives burst rotations. Thives atack style is very “in and out” oriented with fair intervals. Even pre HoT, thives had big issues to break through bark skin+ protective ward as they both activates on the initail attack, and while on the thief combo points charging intervals, we used to re-heal for full hp and grind the thief down. Evasive purity also is superb vs thives as it clease all of the thives main 3 condis(poison/blind/cripple), vs thives Evasive purity is probably one the most efficient condi removals.( I’m not even talking about the druid defensive capabilities and other active defences).
We have anti-stealth mechanics like Sic’em/taunt/rapid fire/spike barrage(brist F2).

So if you ask me, thives despreitly needed a buff, and you can be sure that if rangers will suffer hard from thives, many of the other professions are insta dying.