Guild Wars 2

forum bugs again…

Levetty.1279:

If Druids get Mantras I am going to be very sad. Very clunky mechanic with effects not really worth the charge time compared to other classes instant use skills.

I don’t think you’ve played a properly put together mantra build then. There’s a couple of mantra builds that are absolutely amazing. It’s a different playstyle than most mesmers are used to doing, and requires pre planning instead of furiously smashing buttons and endlessly dodging, which is why so many people dislike it. If rangers got something akin to mantras I would be happy with it assuming they balanced it out reasonably well

Aerathnor.8305:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

StickerHappy.8052:

WHY WOULD YOU COMPARE AN ELITE CLASS TO THE BASE CLASS?

/FACEPALM

Actually… given what they’ve said about power creep in the past… we should be able to compare elite specs to base specs.

Agreed.

Elite specs will have to be balanced with vanilla specs or else they will become mandatory. It’s not like we’re going to be shelving all other specs and running double staff with druid :/

Except in the case of necro…reaper outshines core necro by a million times. It has already ruined the core mechanics. If they ruin ranger like that, I’m quitting for good. Ranger is my last bastion for hope lol. It’s the only class I love almost as much as necro and the only one that I feel is mostly balanced with enough build diversity to keep me from getting bored.

@Nay of the Ether:
What exactly would count to you as “ruining” the Ranger?

While I have no problems enjoying my ranger in dungeons speed-runs, high level fractals, roaming in WvW, and playing sPvP … Ranger is not a part of the meta in any of these … so how would it be “ruined” ?

Sebrent.3625:

@Nay of the Ether:
What exactly would count to you as “ruining” the Ranger?

While I have no problems enjoying my ranger in dungeons speed-runs, high level fractals, roaming in WvW, and playing sPvP … Ranger is not a part of the meta in any of these … so how would it be “ruined” ?

By that I mean I hope they don’t make the specialization so much more powerful than any base mechanic that it overshadows Core to the point that there’s no point in playing anything but the specialization. Was speaking on class-specific terms, not meta stuff

Nay of the Ether.8913:

Sebrent.3625:

@Nay of the Ether:
What exactly would count to you as “ruining” the Ranger?

While I have no problems enjoying my ranger in dungeons speed-runs, high level fractals, roaming in WvW, and playing sPvP … Ranger is not a part of the meta in any of these … so how would it be “ruined” ?

By that I mean I hope they don’t make the specialization so much more powerful than any base mechanic that it overshadows Core to the point that there’s no point in playing anything but the specialization. Was speaking on class-specific terms, not meta stuff

If druid is fully support like Guardian’s staff, I wouldn’t bother touching it a single bit.
Hope it has some AOE damage like staff ele does.

@Nay of the Ether
I wouldn’t be too worried about that. In my opinion, the most powerful looking elite specialization of the three we’ve seen is the Mesmer’s Chronomancer. While it does look great, there are still several equally viable/competitive Mesmer builds I can think of that do not include the Chronomancer.

No, for Guardian … I think they did get stuck with another Specialization for PvE given that HUGE damage bonus that they can now easily combine with their other damage bonuses … because they needed more love for PvE ./eyeroll

Necromancer … I don’t see Reaper as being so powerful that it’s an auto-include anywhere, but I also am far less knowledgeable about Necro gameplay than I am most other classes. I simply don’t play it nearly as much as anything else.

Greatsword is painfully slow and requires the reaper be in melee range where they have no blocks or evades, so it will involve very different style of play. Im sure being as slow swinging as it is the GS will get some huge hits when it lands. But I think the main benefit of reaper isnt GS, its the new shroud abilities which adds much needed mobility and stability to the necro class.

While in melee the reaper will have to manage 2 bars so it will be interesting. Cant use GS while in shroud where all the defense is, and cant access defense abilities while GS is out. It will be complex play with bad timing costing heavily.

I hope it doesn’t resemble either staff guardian or staff ele because it needs to be unique… If it resembles either of those, then you would just go with guardian or ele. I’m pretty sure they would keep this in mind when creating the elite spec, but then looking at the record of what they’ve done with the ranger class since the beginning of game I wouldn’t hold it past them.

No, I want staff druid to be so unique not resemble any existing class that can do everything better. Staff ele has much more to it’s core trait system that would make it a much better alternative if you had to compare, same with guardian. If they make it to be just like those 2 , then there’s no point making it to begin with.

blitzkrieg.2451:

I hope it doesn’t resemble either staff guardian or staff ele because it needs to be unique… If it resembles either of those, then you would just go with guardian or ele. I’m pretty sure they would keep this in mind when creating the elite spec, but then looking at the record of what they’ve done with the ranger class since the beginning of game I wouldn’t hold it past them.

No, I want staff druid to be so unique not resemble any existing class that can do everything better. Staff ele has much more to it’s core trait system that would make it a much better alternative if you had to compare, same with guardian. If they make it to be just like those 2 , then there’s no point making it to begin with.

Take a close look of Dragon Hunter and you’d see it’s a pretty much mimic “improved ranger”. Even the animation is similar.

I wouldn’t be against Staff Elementalist … that is quite good in the various game modes … though I highly doubt we’ll get that since our Staff will have 5 skills, not 20.

Things I’d love to have on my Ranger:

• More good, solid AOE
• Good, reliable boon removal
• Condition damage on the auto without having to flank

Give me one of these and I’ll be happier

Staff ele isn’t that good in any game mode now. no dmg and you’d be playing a bunker role in supporting allies, again, goes back to what i was saying their core traits alone make them good support options, not the elite spec alone. this is why it would be bad design.. you would give us an elite spec that does half of what the core trait systems ele already does, and does better as you would need to use staff in order for it to work, you would prob lose dps. also no condi removal , which ele has group wide removal packed into their trait lines which also allows them to be good at staff ele (it’s really meant as a counter to condi builds and area denial) , ranger has only personal condi removal and it’s rng within a 10 second window or you can run all survival skills (all personal , selfish skills that benefit no team) and run SoTF. them designing to be LIKE anything that currently exists will be just dumb. it needs to be unique for it to work , or else people will just be staff eles/support guardians.

in order to survive as a ranger, and this has always been the case is to run completely selfish utilities just to keep the ranger alive in combat whereas most classes get groupwide defensive utilities to help keep themselves and their team alive. that’s one unfortunate flaw in the ranger’s design entirely and still will remain after the trait changes. there actually will be even more pigeon holing because now both condi removal options ranger has (outside of generosity, which again is still personal removal) will be GM’s in one defensive trait line, which also only consists of personal/selfish survival utility. Ranger will never be a good option for teams in terms of support for this reason, but dmg roles can exist.

healing spring can be used , and aoe shouts can be used, but again… staff ele does healing fields better, on less cooldowns and warriors have much better shouts and celestial dmg options with those shouts unlike ranger, which loses an incredible amount of dps going celestial as part of our dmg is slotted into the pets , which die in most group situations quickly, especially hard hitting pets like birds. canines are much better for this but still, also die really quickly fighting in groups.

really… ultimately, id like to see pets reworked in terms of AI , and better support options and traps reworked entirely (have them work like a kit , where you can hit one ‘trap kit’ and your trap options come up) so you can run utilities with traps and not be forced to run no defensive utilities jus to use traps , or if that’s not possible then you need to rework them so there’s more of a threat to walking on the traps to compensate for loss of defensive utilities. this is why engineers are so good with kits, traps should really work the same way, for all classes not just rangers (thieves/dragonhunters).

anyway, i’m curious to see how they do staff… will it be control + power , condi + control? how will this pan out? im hoping control + power but could be condi.

I’m sorry, but I see several “red flags” that make me dubious of your opinion …

First red flag … you think Staff Elementalist doesn’t do good damage and isn’t good in any game mode …

Second red flag … you are ignoring that with the new specializations we are gaining more ways to give our groups fury and regeneration … and we don’t know what changes are happening to spirits.

Third red flag … Staff Ele’s water field are on 20 second (Geyser) and 45 second (Healing Rain) cooldowns. The Geyser doesn’t clear conditions nor given Regeneration (just a straight heal) and the Healing Rain only lasts 6 seconds and only pulses 3 times. Actually compare that to Healing Spring which has a 30s cooldown, lasts 10 seconds, clears conditions, provides regeneration, and pulses more than 3 times.

Fourth red flag … your stats mean nothing when it comes to talking about us having pets. Pets and whatever stats you pick are independent.

Fifth red flag … you talk about how engineers are “so good” when they are only solidly in one meta (sPvP).

That being said, I too would like better pet AI and more ways to support not just the group but our party … but we’re already getting some more of those with the specialization changes and, as stated, we don’t know what the spirit changes are going to be.

Traps as kits doesn’t make much sense to be asking for. We saw how Dragonhunter traps work with the new arming time and were told that our traps would be getting an arming time and be compensated for that being added … so we should simply expect traps with arming times.

Ranger becoming druid will probably be about more group support, either increasing some stats upon casting, or immobilizing foes, but whatever happens, it will be mainly more about ‘support’.

For once, i’d like to see ppl on a boss like Jormag without ANY ranger present to activate healing spring…. that would be fun to watch.

The main problem is that now, rangers are indeed not a part of the “meta”, but depending on the fact if they change some instances/bosses or introduce a diff mechanism in the new HoT zone(s), rangers could become ‘needed’ as a support class.

My hope is that they will play a more prevalent role in group play as druids. We’ll have to w8 and see i guess.