Guild Wars 2

I’ve decided to take the time to open a post to make clear how bad the ranger class needs work in terms of traits. The best way to do that, is to give a quick note and feedback on all ranger traits, so here we go.
Your reactions are welcome.

Marksmanship
Minor traits

• Opening Strike 2/5 5 stacks of vulnerability is good, but you have to go OOC to recharge it, and that’s really bad.
• Alpha Training 1/5 Pretty disappointing trait to have to wait for your pet to do the exact same thing you get in an Adept trait. Highly unreliable and pretty random.
• Precise Strike 4/5 The trait itself is great, in practice you don’t see it very often considering how rare it is to land an opening strike.

Adept

• Steady Focus 3/5 This trait gets that many points because it’s good in PvE where the only objective is to do more damage (and who dodges in PvE anyway ?). In most PvP/WvW circumstances, it’s bad.
• Malicious Training 1/5 Conditions from pets are worthless, with the exceptions of soft CCs (Immobilize/Fear/Chill). Is that worth traiting into ? I don’t think so.
• Keen Edge 2/5 At least you have something to do with 2 extra trait points for condi builds, but how good are 5 bleed stacks every 45 seconds, in all honesty ?
• Signet Mastery 4/5 A good Adept trait, especially now some signets are fairly useful.
• Predator’s Instinct 0/5 No use.
• Beastmaster’s Bond 0/5 Idiotic cooldown on such a heavily limited access to 3 might for 10 seconds.

Master

• Spotter 4/5 Another one that gets its points thanks to PvE, where it’s really good. Nobody cares about this in PvP/WvW.
• Piercing Arrow 2/5 Pretty good trait in many open-world PvE situtations, giving you access to powerful AoEs. The problem is that the “path” of the arrows is a bit unreliable, especially on uneven terrain or very close to the target.
• Beastmaster’s Might 1/5 The recently buffed ranger signets are good now, the active effects are worth considering now. The problem is that the recharge time of those signets are so big that you won’t “waste” their effect “on cooldown” to artificially stack 3 might.
• Eagle Eye 5/5 This is the first trait that defines longbow rangers. Added damage AND range ? Yes please !

Grandmaster

• Predator’s Onslaught 2/5 Situational and unimpressive, but can see some use in PvE.
• Remorseless 0/5 Trash tier, opening strikes aren’t worth a grandmaster dedication. On top of this, your only reliable access to stealth is on longbow, and in that case the other two traits are better.
• Read the wind 4/5 This trait made longbow ranger viable in PvP/WvW. Your arrow finally hit your targets. Why does a weapon need a trait to work, i don’t know, but at least now it does.

Overall
Average : 2,18/5.
I think the Marksmanship line is a good line for rangers, even if it’s only useful for longbow users and PvE players. More usage & synergy for opening strikes would be good.
The score is a bit low but is brought down by utter trash traits nobody will ever touch. The other traits though, are worth traiting into, which is already something.

Skirmishing
Minor traits

• Tail Wind 1/5 If that would work out of combat, like all engy traits you know, it would actually help the poor access to swiftness for rangers, which is pretty infuriating.
• Furious Grip 4/5 5+ seconds of Fury just by swapping weapon, pretty good.
• Hunter’s Tactics 4/5 A pretty good damage increase trait as you will get it as soon as you’re not in front of the enemy, which is pretty easy to achieve.

Adept

• Pet’s Prowess 0/5 Trash trait now that no one traits into pets anymore.
• Sharpening Edges 3/5 Cool trait for Rabid builds (precision + condition), but the bleed is weak and it only activates 66% of the time …
• Trapper’s Defense 0/5 Wrong trait line ? And the trap is useless to help a rez anyway.
• Primal Reflexes 2/5 Not a bad trait, still rarely used.
• Companion’s Might 1/5 As in many pet traits, it would be good if it went in both directions. Ok-ish in PvE on static mobs.
• Agility Training 0/5 Garbage.

Master

• Carnivorous Apetite 0/5 Garbage.
• Trapper’s Expertise 4/5 This trait would probably define a trap build, but traps are a bit UP and lack synergy overall.
• Honed Axes 1/5 Pretty bad for a “hybrid” weapon, and for a Master trait, but at least it’s not “garbage”.
• Quick Draw 4/5 Really cool for bow users, especially for the big cool downs of longbow (#3/#4/#5).

Grandmaster

• Trap Potency 4/5 See Trapper’s Expertise above.
• Moment of clarity 1/5 This trait would be cool if Rangers had more accesses to interrupts, dazes and stuns. But only SB#5 and GS#5 inflicts dazes/stuns, and you never use both of them in the same build.
• Strider’s Defense 0/5 Weak projectile deflection on during CC attacks ? Not even worth a spot in adept tier.

Overall
Average : 1.81/5
The skirmishing line is the second worst trait line and needs help. It lacks :

1. a good, defensive, adept trait to build a cool trap build.
2. more pet <=> ranger synergy on pet traits. This is the case for almost all pet traits, but it is particularly the case here.
3. usable adept & grandmaster traits.

Wilderness Survival
Minor traits

• Natural Vigor 4/5 +25% passive endurance regeneration is great, and fits the ranger archetype very well.
• Companion’s Defense 4/5 Really useful in PvP situations where the enemies have a tendency to unleash their spike at the end of your dodge rolls.
• Peak Strength 3/5 Cool trait, rewards dodging damage and playing safe. Probably not worth a grandmaster trait, or need more damage buff.

Adept

• Soften the Fall 2/5 Certainly not the best fall damage trait, but at least it’s there.
• Healer’s Celerity 0/5 Not worth traiting into.
• Shared Anguish 3/5 This trait is fantastic, but the cool down is insane.
• Vigorous Renewal 1/5 The vigor gained is short compared to the healing skills cooldown.
• Expertise Training 0/5 Pets’ condition damage is abysmal, this trait will not help.
• Wilderness Knowledge 4/5 Survival skills are amongst the best utility skills for rangers, lowering their cooldown is thus that good.

Master

• Off-hand Training 3/5 Pretty good in double dual-wield situations or for torch.
• Oakheart Salve 3/5 This will proc almost on cool down in PvP fights, so it actually helps quite a bit. With just a Celestial Amulet, that’s +925 health every 15s.
• Hide in Plain Sight 2/5 Went from trash to okay with the camouflage rework, as you now can move after being CC’d. The cooldown is still big though.
• Martial Mastery 1/5 This trait is oddly placed, and the cooldown on most SW/GS skills are pretty low anyway. Not that useful.

Grandmaster

• Empathic Bond 3/5 Unreliable but powerful condition cleaning trait. The poor pet will suffer though.
• Bark Skin 3/5 This trait makes you really hard to kill if you go full defensive. The problem is that it competes with Empathic Bond, and the Ranger’s first weakness is conditions, not direct damage.
• Poison Master 3/5 Pretty unique trait, it will make Poison make almost half the damage of burning, which is insane considering the fact you can apply pretty much 100% poison uptime with some builds.

Overall
Average : 2.44/5
Probably the best trait line for rangers, lots of choices and options in this line. The Grandmaster traits still probably need a bit more punch to be build defining.

Nature Magic
Minor traits

• Rejuvenation 2/5 The cooldown really is too high for 5s of regeneration.
• Fortifying Bond 1/5 Cool in theory, in practice it won’t benefit you or your pet that often.
• Bountiful Hunter 4/5 Cool trait, probably 100% uptime.

Adept

• Circle of Life 0/5 Not really useful, you’ll still need help.
• Concentration Training 0/5 Crap tier, boons from pets are negligible.
• Nature’s Bounty 1/5 There is a very niche possibility of making a 100% regeneration uptime with this trait, but it’s not that good.
• Vigorous Spirits 4/5 Very useful trait for spirit users, although not absolutely mandatory.
• Strength of Spirit 2/5 This trait would be good if there was a good Carrion (power+condition) build around, unfortunately there is none.
• Nature’s Protection 1/5 5s of protection is great, but the condition to receive it is harsh AND the cooldown is really big.

Master

• Spirits Unbound 5/5 Obvioulsy mandatory for spirits builds.
• Evasive Purity 3/5 “Free” removal of poison every 10s, a pretty strong trait if you don’t run spirit.
• Two-handed Training 1/5 A very weird place for such a trait, probably not worth the investment.
• Enlargement 1/5 Gaining stability and damage increase when you are under 25% health is probably not the most useful help you can get. But the effect is strong, so … maybe ?

Grandmaster

• Nature’s Vengeance 4/5 Really good trait to have in spirit builds, especially for Spirit of Nature.
• Nature’s Voice 3/5 People will be shocked with the 3/5, but this trait would be good if rangers could make a shout build. I can already see a shout ranger build with this + Rune of the Trooper (Soldier in PvP) working. The problem is : ranger’s shouts are amongst the worst utility skills in the game.
• Survival of the Fittest 5/5 The utility buff to the already good Survival skills is immense. One of the best ranger traits overall.

Overall
Average : 2.3/5
I have mixed feeling about this one. The Grandmaster traits are all pretty good (too bad rangers’ shouts are terrible). The problem is the Adept/Master part where there are many bad traits, with the exception of Spirit traits and Evasive Purity.

Beastmastery
Minor traits

• Instinctual Bond 0/5 Useless trait, the pet won’t even have it for Lick Wounds.
• Loud Whistle 0/5 Completely underpowered trait, Warriors gets weapon swap cuts in half which gives insane synergies with sigils, here 20% on pet swap with low synergy is meaningless.
• Nature’s Wrath 1/5 I guess it could work, but Healing Power is arguably the worst stat in the game as many healing skills/effects scale badly with it.

Adept

• Speed Training 1/5 The problem with normal pet skills is that you don’t control them. The recharge is, for the most part, meaningless.
• Master’s Bond 0/5 The trait is completely bugged and the stacks are reset on pet swap. Seriously…
• Shout Master 3/5 Would be good, but shouts are almost unplayable.
• Compassion Training 0/5 Who cares about pet’s healing ?
• Commanding Voice 2/5 That trait is okay-ish as there are some useful F2 skills out there (like wolves, or even freeze abilities.
• Mighty Swap 2/5 With Loud Whistle this equates to almost perma 3 stacks of Might, which is decent.

Master

• Rending Attacks 1/5 With the attack rate of most pets, this trait is almost irrelevant.
• Stability Training 2/5 With its slow recharge, pets can be pretty much immuned to a lot of CCs with this trait. If pets could still represent a force to be reckoned with, this trait would be really good.
• Intimidation Training 0/5 Cripple is good but the weakest CC of all, and it’s only 5s. Most of the time, if we want to control enemies using pets, we’ll chose specific pets for that (spides, canines).
• Vigorous Training 1/5 5s of vigor for all nearby allies every 16s is decent, but is that really worth a Master trait ?

Grandmaster

• Zephyr’s Speed 2/5 3s of quicknes is too short to really represent much. Though a good swap at a crucial moment could be used in some circumstances (like a rez).
• Natural Healing 1/5 If bunkering was a thing in GW2, or if pets would be powerful, this trait could be used.
• Invigorating Bond 1/5 Two problems with this trait : 1. The cooldown of this trait is huge for a ~1k8 heal. 2. The range of the effect is small and you might miss it yourself.

Overall
Average : 1.06/5.
I have only found one single build (PvE/WvW/PvP) that uses a single Beastmastery traits on Metabattle.com, and it’s pretty obscure anyway.
This trait line is horrible. Rangers arguably have the worst “profession mechanic” specific trait line of all, as buffing pets is irrelevant since the massive pet nerf months ago, and with the persistant AI problems. Most of the traits are unimpressive at best and have never received a well-deserved compensation for the aforementioned nerf. Let us all hope Druids replace this trait line with something usable, and Anet realizes how badly Rangers “beastmaster” builds need help.

I only bothered reading your marksmanship section.

Opening strike is good.

Steady focus is lame
Malicious training is great
Keen edge is good, great if you have -20% survival skills
Signet mastery is boring but good
Predators instinct, tailored well with horrible recharge, too many other good options
Beastmasters bond, can be good for camping if too lazy to activate a fury skill

Spotter is boring but decent if not longbow focus
Piercing arrows, great on flat surfaces, possibly great for sb?
Beastmasters might, signets are boring
Eagle eye, must have for lb

Predators onslaught, boring
Remorseless, waiting to see a trapper rune power build abuse this with maul
Read the wind, must have for lb

Agree with almost all of this, though i’d probably rate Survival of the Fittest among the best ranger traits. You also can’t talk about trap traits without pointing out the sheer silliness of condition skill traits being found in the precision/crit line.

The most annoying thing about ranger traits though (besides traps being in the wrong place and the 600 range) is that basically every build has to include Survival of the Fittest for condition removal. The Brown bear pet and renewal signet don’t cut the mustard, and the 10 sec period of empathic bond can’t be relied upon.

I’ve been meaning to do something like this myself but you beat me to it it seems.

I agree with most of what you have said there’s just a few things I disagree with.

1) “Read the wind 4/5 This trait made longbow ranger viable in PvP/WvW.” I disagree with giving a trait a highscore because it makes something viable. A grandmaster trait shouldn’t be required to make a weapon viable. If the weapon was viable to begin with this trait would be bad. I’m not going to praise the band-aid.

2) “Trapper’s Expertise 4/5 This trait would probably define a trap build, but traps are a bit UP and lack synergy overall.” This and Trap Potency are a pet-peeve of mine and have been since beta. They simply don’t belong in Skirmishing and should be in Wilderness Survival. Frost Trap can’t even crit. This is also a case of needing a trait to make a bad skill useable. Traps without traits are terrible. The only way traps are even moderately viable is taking at least one of the 2 traits, both is preferred and a rune set (trapper) is needed to make them something really great and build defining. If I’m going to invest a Master and a Grandmaster major trait into something it should make it great not merely viable.

Obviously given the rangers current choices the trait I highlighted here are good by comparison but I have a real problem with the fact that 3 of the traits you (rightfully) gave high marks to are band-aids to deficient skills. That’s more of a problem with rangers than with your assessment though.

Should have given quick notes and feedback for each trait and for each mode.

Unspecified.9142:

Stuff

I mostly agree with your remarks.

Though I think traps (and shouts !) are more in need of a SKILL rebalance than a TRAIT rebalance. Traits would be OK if the skills were actually good.

I’ve decided to buff Survival of the Fittest to 5/5, as I think this is exactly what a Grandmaster should provide.

A lot of your explanations of why particular traits are bad makes it as though you have no imagination when creating builds. A LOT of them are very good when used in the right build, you just need to know when to use them. Stay away from Metabattle.com and invent some of your own builds and you will find uses/niches for these “useless” traits.

I’m sorry, but when I read some of these and see your descriptions of them, I get the feeling that you aren’t applying the context of what other classes have available for their traits as well.

That being said … that would probably change depending on which class you compared them to. Compared to a Mesmer, several of these traits look a bit more average. Compared to something like a Warrior or Ele … yeah, several are pretty darn sub-par.

Fortifying Bond is one of our best minor traits. I’m shocked you have it rated so low.

Any build that uses mainhand axe, which is a large chunk of our condition or hybrid builds, can benefit from the excellent synergy with this trait. It lets you keep huge stacks of long lasting might on your pet, often between 15-25 stacks, for the entire duration of the fight. Even with zero points in beastmastery that’s enough to make your pet hit hard, adding even more pressure to your opponent for very little investment. Often no investment as Nature Magic is one of our two major trait lines that has one of our best grandmaster traits, so it’s not like you have no other reason to go into that trait line. Because it’s only a minor trait means we don’t even need to choose it over something else, which lets it fit into any build comfortably.

It also increases the up time of regen on our pet to make them survive longer, fury and swiftness up time to make them crit and hit their target more often, and gives the pet a little more protection to weather the large AoE hits.

I understand that only a few of us try to run pet-centric builds anymore but that doesn’t make everything pet related trash tier. There is no build that can’t benefit from sharing the boons they get with their pet, and this trait’s synergy with mainhand axe is phenomenal.

My biggest issue with stacking Might on my pet is that if I want to get the most out of our pet mechanic, I often need to be swapping pets often. The new pet doesn’t have the Might I just stacked on the old pet.

That being said … I have 16+s between each pet swap when running a Beastmaster build, so you can usually quickly get the Might back up.

It’s hard for me to take this list seriously when you rate so many good traits so low…

Predators onslaught is a huge boost to damage its 15% combined and it only needs a mobility CC , in a well build team or a duo you’ll never be short of CC , in my books this is a 4/5 since the requirements are already included regardless of the build your running, the class has easy options over all Weapons to make this trait usefull and deserves higher than 2/5.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Predators onslaught is a huge boost to damage its 15% combined and it only needs a mobility CC

That’s not how math works.

If you do 1,000 damage and your pet does 400 damage then:

1,000 * 1.1 = 1,100
400 * 1.05 = 420
1,100 + 420 = 1,520
1,520 / 1,400 = (1.0857 -1) * 100 = 8.57%

It’s an 8.57% damage increase in that example.

Unspecified.9142:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Predators onslaught is a huge boost to damage its 15% combined and it only needs a mobility CC

That’s not how math works.

If you do 1,000 damage and your pet does 400 damage then:

1,000 * 1.1 = 1,100
400 * 1.05 = 420
1,100 + 420 = 1,520
1,520 / 1,400 = (1.0857 -1) * 100 = 8.57%

It’s an 8.57% damage increase in that example.

those are total Dps sums worked with coefficient of variations are not included , and i said a total of 15% combined not a per skill per attack or power damage ect , you can quote 8.57% all you like its still 10% and 5% for the pet and the numbers VASTLY scale according the amount of damage dealt 0./

and i highly doubt every attack will be hitting 1k consistantly then go factoring in protection ect ect .

as long as there is enough Power stat and Critical damage stat the 10% personal fron the onslaught is more than the 10% attack speed increase of RTW ect , because this skill simply inflates critical spike damage not Dps . also YOU DO NOT ADD THE PETS STATS TOGETHER WITH YOUR OWN FOR A % TOTAL THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS FOR CALCUALTING TOTAL DAMAGE.

in the end the trait still increases pet damage by 5% and your own by 10% working on how many attack over a period of time rather than a one attack calcuation it also depends on attack speed too and how fast the weapon is so in any case it is still not 8.57% because that is the Mean.

it is a % boost based up on Power / critical damage and weapon coefficient the 1000 damage you quoted means nothing , it is still a 10% boost regardness of what the end % of dps boost is.

then also don’t forget about combining that with other % damage boosts like bountiful hunter all it does is increase the % that the base damage does then critical damage is applied.

forget all this dps % boost per second crap its irrelevant if you can’t consistantly hit your target and that Formula is only useful for PVE.

Damage multipliers are combined multiplicatively.
For example the Superior Sigil of Force (5%), Superior Sigil of the Night (10%), a 10% trait, a 20% trait and the (6) bonus of the Superior Rune of the Scholar (10%)

combine to roughly 68% more damage (1.05 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.1 ? 1.677),
not only 55% (the summation). Consequently, combining a lot of multipliers is exponentially effective (“the multipliers increase/affect each other”).

on its own it maybe 8.57% but it still contributes 15% combined and since 5% of that Multiplier is not the rangers damage it should be Exempt from the Calculation and treated individually.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Snip because long.

No.

You can’t evaluate a trait based on all that other stuff. Just with trait and without trait. All those other damage multipliers exist with or without the trait.

If you have everything except Predator’s Onslaught you are doing 10% less ranger damage and 5% less pet damage than you would with it IF the opponent is CC’ed. None of the other stuff matters when assessing the change of PO itself.

Also your 15% number is seemingly pulled out of nowhere. I assumed you were just adding 10% and 5% which is just wrong. Nothing you said explains where you are getting this 15% number from.

The example I gave was a short example to illustrate the way it works out all other things being equal. Nothing you said changes that. I made up a couple numbers for simplicity but they are reasonable numbers for a Power Ranger.

Even if you start getting into crits it still works out exactly the same 10% more ranger damage with than without and 5% more pet damage.

The only argument worth mentioning, which you didn’t even make, is that if a larger percentage of your damage is coming from the ranger the net benefit of the trait shifts further towards 10% and if a larger % of you damage if from the pet it shifts further towards 5%.

If you want REAL numbers you would have to figure out the effective DPS of the ranger and the effective DPS of the pet in a given build then add those numbers to get the effective DPS of the two combined. Next determine what percentage of the total effective DPS is from the ranger and what percentage is from the pet. Finally calculate the 10% increase on the ranger effective DPS and the 5% on the pet DPS add the totals together and figure out the net increase on the total effective DPS over the effective DPS without the trait.

You will get a number between 7% and 9% most likely but nowhere close to 15%.

This assumes 100% uptime on CC which may be reasonable in PvE but it is not reasonable in WvW or PvP.

Edit: I feel like I should address this part:

combine to roughly 68% more damage (1.05 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.1 ? 1.677), not only 55% (the summation). Consequently, combining a lot of multipliers is exponentially effective (“the multipliers increase/affect each other”).

Yes that is the way damage multipliers work. However, that doesn’t “increase” the effectiveness of each multiplier it actually just maintains the effectiveness of each multiplier. An additive model would suffer from diminishing returns.

Example:
You hit for 1000 damage
Add a 10% multiplier and you do 1,100 (10% more)
Add another 10% multiplier (1,100 *1.1) and you do 1,210 (10% more)
Add another 10% multiplier (1,210 * 1.1) and you do 1,331 (10% more)
etc….

In an additive model it looks like this:
1,000 * 1.1 = 1,100 (10% more)
(1,000 * 1.1) + (1,000 * 1.1) = 1,200 (9% more than 1,100)
(1,000 * 1.1) + (1,000 * 1.1) + (1,000 * 1.1) = 1,300 (8.33% more than 1,200)

The multiplicative nature of of the damage multipliers in this game means that you also do X% more with the multiplier than you would without it. It’s some magical thing that makes a 10% turn into a 15% increase. You just still do 10% more with it than you would without instead of having a diminishing return where a tooltip say 10% more and you actually only get 7% more damage than you had without it.

Unspecified.9142:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Snip because long.

No.

You can’t evaluate a trait based on all that other stuff. Just with trait and without trait. All those other damage multipliers exist with or without the trait.

If you have everything except Predator’s Onslaught you are doing 10% less ranger damage and 5% less pet damage than you would with it IF the opponent is CC’ed. None of the other stuff matters when assessing the change of PO itself.

Also your 15% number is seemingly pulled out of nowhere. I assumed you were just adding 10% and 5% which is just wrong. Nothing you said explains where you are getting this 15% number from.

The example I gave was a short example to illustrate the way it works out all other things being equal. Nothing you said changes that. I made up a couple numbers for simplicity but they are reasonable numbers for a Power Ranger.

Even if you start getting into crits it still works out exactly the same 10% more ranger damage with than without and 5% more pet damage.

The only argument worth mentioning, which you didn’t even make, is that if a larger percentage of your damage is coming from the ranger the net benefit of the trait shifts further towards 10% and if a larger % of you damage if from the pet it shifts further towards 5%.

If you want REAL numbers you would have to figure out the effective DPS of the ranger and the effective DPS of the pet in a given build then add those numbers to get the effective DPS of the two combined. Next determine what percentage of the total effective DPS is from the ranger and what percentage is from the pet. Finally calculate the 10% increase on the ranger effective DPS and the 5% on the pet DPS add the totals together and figure out the net increase on the total effective DPS over the effective DPS without the trait.

You will get a number between 7% and 9% most likely but nowhere close to 15%.

This assumes 100% uptime on CC which may be reasonable in PvE but it is not reasonable in WvW or PvP.

your talkign about effective dps boost , im talking about the % multiplier effect.
just leave it at that , because i know in a group there is always CC now since the Stability changes.

zenos and unspecified just killed this thread. gg

Justine.6351:

zenos and unspecified just killed this thread. gg

If you, and anyone else, doesn’t want the thread to die posting something actually constructive or that leads to discussion would be far more useful.

Most of the responses to date have been lacking anything approaching the effort the OP put in to generating discussion. So far Zenos and I are the only ones who have actually discussed anything with specifics or detail.

If actual discussion kills a thread it’s no wonder the Devs have ignored rangers for 2 years. Yes we disagreed but I don’t think we were actually arguing in a detrimental way merely disagreeing and hashing it out, which we did.

“Trapper’s Defense 0/5 Wrong trait line ? And the trap is useless to help a rez anyway.”

Very harsh on that one. Since the advent of Trapper Runes, i like this trait a lot in wvw as initiating a rez procs the rune, granting you stealth and speed. It’s a great source of mobility when hunting around the zergs as there’s always someone downed, and it’s very neat in small group roaming when a friend goes down (stealth rez, and trap-protected body).

Martial Mastery too, i like more than you seem to, maybe because i spend most of my time in wvw. The decreased cooldown on GS3/4 is often a life-saver for me. I’d pick it too for sword mobility/evasion, but there it conflicts too much with off-hand training unfortunately.

Finally, Piercing Arrows is huge in wvw. Don’t think ‘hitting multiple targets’, think ‘hitting your target no matter who gets in the way’. In a focus group, this is the trait that means that you will nuke the target even when it runs back into the zerg.

I think OP underrated a lot of traits, should probably experiment with more builds.

Also
Predator’s onslaught is definitely not a 15% total dps increase. Its around 8.5% give or take.

cafard.8953

Martial Mastery too, i like more than you seem to, maybe because i spend most of my time in wvw. The decreased cooldown on GS3/4 is often a life-saver for me. I’d pick it too for sword mobility/evasion, but there it conflicts too much with off-hand training unfortunately.

And yet cooldown reduction for bows is must have in his grading lol…says much right?

Thanx for the replies. This list is obviously subjective and biased and I welcome any thoughts or disagreements, just please leave sarcasms and personal attacks out of this. I welcome any list of scores which gives another opinion than mine.

For example yes, I find that a master trait just to lower cooldowns on weapon skills pretty average, if not bad. Most professions get utility from their weapon traits, like warrior horns which turn conditions into boons when traited, or mesmer focus which reflect projectiles when traited.

In my eyes (opinion) bow define ranger builds more than swords (eg power ranger in pvp and wvw), so the cooldowns are naturally more important than those on swords. Also the trait is placed in a trait line that seems more natural than the one for swords.