Guild Wars 2

YES, OH MY DAYS. SWITCH THE SMOKE BACK TO F2!!!! The damage was never what I wanted from the pet anyway. That control over the smoke fields was SO kitten useful.

This will destroy so many of my plans :’(.

Yes please.

Smoke cloud as F2 made it a tactical choice, I would use it when I wanted it to be more tanky.

In the present iteration, it’s a Press-F2-for-better-damage tax. I hate pets like those, where I have to pay attention to their cooldown on an ability that purely damages that I only need to maintain its uptime. I forget it most of the time. Because it’s not fun.

It was far more satisfying play to have it do its own thing and then command it to use the smoke field (which, I think, I could also use while meleeing at its side). I can forgive the damage nerf, but this, I’m going to protest.

Irenio, during the druid livestream, clearly knew what good the Smokescale’s F2 was for. It’s what I sought it out to have. Changing this is a disheartening mistake. Please change it back.

Just need to bump this. The F2 absolutely has got to be the smoke field.

Switch it back, and STOP making skills like this something we can’t control on our own.

kitten it.

While I’m not a ranger player, I can only agree with this. The smoke field is the tactical option that the ranger should have control over rather than the damage spike.

I complained about the damage but the F2 swap is pretty dumb, but then again there is a ton of other pet skills I wish I could activate instead of relying on A.I. luck.

smokescale only ranger pet to have Smokefiled , only smokefield on the class Should be Accessable on f2!

not fussed about the 50% damage reduction.

+1000

Seriously, who thought this swap was a good idea?

Why the kitten would I want a smokefield randomly put down on the ground, possibly interfering with other combo fields, instead of having an on demand smokefield from my F2?

Like someone else said, inb4 merge so they can “listen”.
Honestly, complaining about this is kittening pointless, there hasn’t even been a red tag comment on the AF degen outside of combat.
They’ll remain silent.
This is just another check mark of their list of “things done” and they won’t come back to it anytime soon.
So sad.

Man this “anet just nonstop kittens all over ranger” campaign is getting old. SURELY SOMEONE at anet realizes this isn’t just ranger mains whining and can see why this is BS.

Lazze.9870:

Why the kitten would I want a smokefield randomly put down on the ground, possibly interfering with other combo fields, instead of having an on demand smokefield from my F2?

THIS. Seriously, this needs to be reverted ASAP.

personally, id prefer to have the on-demand might stacks and extra burst. I know u wanted the smoke field for your opener, but try to see the bright side – good for might-stacking (theyre practically giving us easy access to 25 stacks), and for on-demand burst. if your smokescale has 25 stacks (very easy), he hits for 8k. that’s easy for me to argue though, because I don’t have a team depending on me for the smoke field. I prefer the extra offense over the tactical.

we can still use the smoke tactically when the pet drops it. almost always, he’ll drop it right after u cast Smoke Assault. so it’s still kind of on-demand. I tested this about 10 times in the mists just now.

again I know ure highly biased because u wanted to have it for your “team’s” opener, but you’ll just have to use the thief. or maybe this change is wrecking your guys’ comp? i feel the change is overall better for the profession.

again, I’m asking the devs (voting) to leave the smokescale as it is now. I will say that you also have to be a little bit more sensitive toward the ranger community. you keep taking things away from people, without buffing other aspecs and fixing our bugs. this is making for a ton of extremely unhappy customers…so just be careful here.

Yeah, I understand the damage was way high for something so tanky but getting rid of the smoke field is just silly.

If their answer was that so the skill was more reliable, would have to say it is about the same to be honest. The pet AI would choose whichever skill had the longest range to engage, so the Smokescale would always open with Smoke Assault because of the port function. Was astonished how reliable the pet was due to its burst and its utility at the same time. The change to the damage on Smoke Assault is understable, although the reasoning behind swapping the two skills I don’t…. and I guess I will continue to not know due to Anet’s amazing track record so far.

mistsim.2748:

personally, id prefer to have the on-demand might stacks and extra burst. I know u wanted the smoke field for your opener, but try to see the bright side – good for might-stacking (theyre practically giving us easy access to 25 stacks), and for on-demand burst. if your smokescale has 25 stacks (very easy), he hits for 8k. that’s easy for me to argue though, because I don’t have a team depending on me for the smoke field. I prefer the extra offense over the tactical.

we can still use the smoke tactically when the pet drops it. almost always, he’ll drop it right after u cast Smoke Assault. so it’s still kind of on-demand. again I know ure highly biased because u wanted to have it for your “team’s” opener, but you’ll just have to use the thief. or maybe this change is wrecking your guys’ comp? i feel the change is overall better for the profession.

again, I’m asking the devs (voting) to leave the smokescale as it is now. I will say that you also have to be a little bit more sensitive toward the ranger community. you keep taking things away from people, without buffing other aspecs and fixing our bugs. this is making for a ton of extremely unhappy customers…so just be careful here.

Newsflash. The devs aren’t listening. Or reading.

Or, really, caring.

Unless it concerns a situation where rangers might be effective.

THEN they react.

mistsim.2748:

personally, id prefer to have the on-demand might stacks and extra burst. I know u wanted the smoke field for your opener, but try to see the bright side – good for might-stacking (theyre practically giving us easy access to 25 stacks), and for on-demand burst. if your smokescale has 25 stacks (very easy), he hits for 8k.

we can still use the smoke tactically when the pet drops it. almost always, he’ll drop it right after u cast Smoke Assault. so it’s still kind of on-demand. again I know ure highly biased because u wanted to have it for your “team’s” opener, but you’ll just have to use the thief. or maybe this change is wrecking your guys’ comp? either way, the change is overall better for the profession.

again, I’m asking the devs (voting) to leave the smokescale as it is now. I will say that you also have to be a little bit more sensitive toward the ranger community. you keep taking things away from people, without buffing other aspecs and fixing our bugs. this is making for a ton of extremely unhappy customers…so just be careful here.

No.

The access to smoke WAS the best thing for the professions viability, as it gave us a reliable way to access smoke fields (an incredibly small club).

Having the smoke on an auto is absolutely terrible because it will interfere with other crucial fields being placed on a target (i.e water fields). This means that people are gonna hate on Rangers who bring Smokescale pets to fights (PVE/PVP/WvW).

This change annihilates the Smokescale. Despite its damage, it will interfere with group play significantly.

I’m biased towards a potential game with the most options available. Being able to control the damage is the lowest amount of skillful play. The smoke field should be the F2, no doubt about it.

Anything as strong (or inconvenient) as a smoke field must have better control than might stacking. You can’t just use smoke fields all willy nilly and get good results

Even if they use it most of the time after such and such skill, I’m tired of trying to plan around the AI decisions.

I leave for 2 hours….

Anet, I’m in a small wvw roaming guild. An extra smokefield was great to get past your new sentries. Nerf the smokescale’s damage if you must (ugh), but please put the smokefield back as the f2. I don’t need more damage, I need more utility.

if it stays as is , the smokescale will always be on passive to reliability use the smoke cloud and it makes it a usless dps pet (aka can not use it Actively in combat out side of f2 or cloud.)

combat wise Terrible change.

Pls swap it back!!!!!

mistsim.2748:

the change is overall better for the profession. .

An uncontrolled smoke field is not better than a controlled one.

As long as Anet won’t let us control more than one skill, utility skills like this should NOT be one of the skills that pets do automatically on a rotation. Especially not when its a combo field.

Vaelkyr.4786:

I leave for 2 hours….

Anet, I’m in a small wvw roaming guild. An extra smokefield was great to get past your new sentries. Nerf the smokescale’s damage if you must (ugh), but please put the smokefield back as the f2. I don’t need more damage, I need more utility.

WvW new maps = garbage. Size is fine, but did we really need 3 of the same map? Next time please swap out EBG with the new map – leave smaller borderland maps for resupply…

EDIT: On topic – good thing I never found the new pet to experience it in all of its pre-nerf glory. Just about ready to go back to my Guardian since the Ranger is in such a bad place right now.

Fluffball.8307:

Anything as strong (or inconvenient) as a smoke field must have better control than might stacking. You can’t just use smoke fields all willy nilly and get good results

Even if they use it most of the time after such and such skill, I’m tired of trying to plan around the AI decisions.

the smoke field is controllable, that’s what I’m telling u guys. it comes right after the Smoke Assault. test it out for yourself. if you don’t want the smoke field there and then, don’t cast Smoke Assault. it’s very easy for people to pick up on this as they start seeing more smokescales in pvp.

Lazze.9870:

mistsim.2748:

the change is overall better for the profession. .

An uncontrolled smoke field is not better than a controlled one.

id rather be hitting hard with the smokescale when I want, and getting 7 stacks of might when i want, than having an on-demand smoke field. the field is good for the team, sure. but there are thieves for that. and we still get the smoke field, just not as instantly. but it does very little for the ranger. you can blast it twice, and leap through it once before it expires, which is like 4s of stealth. but I can get this with Celestial Avatar and traps if I really want stealth for myself.

there are both sides to the argument, I get it, and no one is really on my side. I’m just expressing my opinion and preference

The attack is NO different than the canine knockdown! It’s the first thing it goes for when swapped and off cooldown! I ALREADY KNOW when it’s going to do the assault, in the meantime, I need to control when and where it will drop the smokefield!

mistsim.2748:

Fluffball.8307:

Anything as strong (or inconvenient) as a smoke field must have better control than might stacking. You can’t just use smoke fields all willy nilly and get good results

Even if they use it most of the time after such and such skill, I’m tired of trying to plan around the AI decisions.

the smoke field is controllable, that’s what I’m telling u guys. it comes right after the Smoke Assault. test it out for yourself. if you don’t want the smoke field there and then, don’t cast Smoke Assault. it’s very easy for people to pick up on this as they start seeing more smokescales in pvp.

So your solution is to recall the pet so that it doesn’t use 1 skill? That is a perfect example of bad design.

mistsim.2748:

Fluffball.8307:

Anything as strong (or inconvenient) as a smoke field must have better control than might stacking. You can’t just use smoke fields all willy nilly and get good results

Even if they use it most of the time after such and such skill, I’m tired of trying to plan around the AI decisions.

the smoke field is controllable, that’s what I’m telling u guys. it comes right after the Smoke Assault. test it out for yourself. if you don’t want the smoke field there and then, don’t cast Smoke Assault. it’s very easy for people to pick up on this as they start seeing more smokescales in pvp.

and doing so means you’ll need pet on passive at all times and Tell it to attack to reliability use the smokecloud , removes its ability to activelity apply damage between f2’s and cloud. it’ll be a lump of meat sat waiting for only cloud or f2 , let alone if you actively use it the uncontrolable use of cloud during high combat will overwrite fields.

for combat use its a not a good change, because i want to Actively use the pet between f2’s and cloud not leaving it on passive just to control the cloud.

mistsim.2748:

Fluffball.8307:

Anything as strong (or inconvenient) as a smoke field must have better control than might stacking. You can’t just use smoke fields all willy nilly and get good results

Even if they use it most of the time after such and such skill, I’m tired of trying to plan around the AI decisions.

the smoke field is controllable, that’s what I’m telling u guys. it comes right after the Smoke Assault. test it out for yourself. if you don’t want the smoke field there and then, don’t cast Smoke Assault. it’s very easy for people to pick up on this as they start seeing more smokescales in pvp.

No, it isn’t. It’s dependent on the Smokescale’s AI. And for a skill like this, that’s horrible.

/signed

The F2 should be the smoke field so we have control over it. Random smoke field is useless

mistsim.2748:

id rather be hitting hard with the smokescale when I want, and getting 7 stacks of might when i want, than having an on-demand smoke field. the field is good for the team, sure. but there are thieves for that. and we still get the smoke field, just not as instantly. but it does very little for the ranger. you can blast it twice, and leap through it once before it expires, which is like 4s of stealth. but I can get this with Celestial Avatar and traps if I really want stealth for myself.

Stop using thieves as a part of your argument! Seriously. I won’t give a crap about what thieves can do for me whenever I’m in a situation where I want stealth, wether I’m in combat or not. More often than not I’m going to want the stealth when I’m not in the middle of a fight.

What I don’t want is a field appearing the middle of the fight, screwing up other combo finishers. It’s like the swiftness from the birds, only 10 times worse. I want to be able to CONTROL THESE THINGS.

And what I don’t need instead of that utility is another pet burst that we already got access to in various ways. And the might stacking? I don’t care. There are other ways to get might, and I don’t need to call a thief for it.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

and doing so means you’ll need pet on passive at all times .

do you know how to animation cancel? would this be too difficult for you to learn?

come on you guys, you are turning in to a bunch of divas. 90% of you honestly haven’t a clue about what exactly youre complaining. Eura wanted to use this for his team comp in competitive pvp, and hes basically throwing a fit about it. for the rest if you, it doesn’t matter one bit. youre just getting on board the negativity train, because it’s cool to complain about the ranger. youre getting so caught up in it that youre failing to see what we do have.

ive said everything I needed to say on the smokescale. /exists thread and never comes back.

mistsim.2748:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

and doing so means you’ll need pet on passive at all times .

do you know how to animation cancel? would this be too difficult for you to learn?

come on you guys, you are turning in to a bunch of divas. 90% of you honestly haven’t a clue about what exactly youre complaining. Eura wanted to use this for his team comp in competitive pvp, and hes basically throwing a fit about it. for the rest if you, it doesn’t matter one bit. youre just getting on board the negativity train, because it’s cool to complain about the ranger. youre getting so caught up in it that youre failing to see what we do have.

ive said everything I needed to say on the smokescale. /exists thread and never comes back.

And what DO we have, exactly?

A gutted elite spec.
A pet that was really good nerfed into the ground.
And nerfs that just seem to keep on coming.

So… tell me… what do we have?

ranger should stay selfish and useless in teamplay terms, I believe ;D

mistsim.2748:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

and doing so means you’ll need pet on passive at all times .

do you know how to animation cancel? would this be too difficult for you to learn?

come on you guys, you are turning in to a bunch of divas. 90% of you honestly haven’t a clue about what exactly youre complaining. Eura wanted to use this for his team comp in competitive pvp, and hes basically throwing a fit about it. for the rest if you, it doesn’t matter one bit. youre just getting on board the negativity train, because it’s cool to complain about the ranger. youre getting so caught up in it that youre failing to see what we do have.

ive said everything I needed to say on the smokescale. /exists thread and never comes back.

Look, literally everyone here is disagreeing with you. It takes a special kind of ignorance (that you seem to claim we have, funny) to disagree so wholeheartedly with every other experienced ranger here.

It is fine for you to have your own opinion, but what you’re doing now is the exact opposite of what you think you’re doing.

The argument of Smoke Assault vs Smoke Field F2 is HEAVILY weighted towards Smoke Field. There is WAY more utility from Smoke Field F2 than Smoke Assault. If you want to save Smoke Assault you swap, F3, buff pet then F1 and it uses it. If you want that on demand Smoke Field for stealth or for blind combo finishers? Good luck, can’t control it anymore.

oshilator.4681:

mistsim.2748:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

and doing so means you’ll need pet on passive at all times .

do you know how to animation cancel? would this be too difficult for you to learn?

come on you guys, you are turning in to a bunch of divas. 90% of you honestly haven’t a clue about what exactly youre complaining. Eura wanted to use this for his team comp in competitive pvp, and hes basically throwing a fit about it. for the rest if you, it doesn’t matter one bit. youre just getting on board the negativity train, because it’s cool to complain about the ranger. youre getting so caught up in it that youre failing to see what we do have.

ive said everything I needed to say on the smokescale. /exists thread and never comes back.

And what DO we have, exactly?

A gutted elite spec.
A pet that was really good nerfed into the ground.
And nerfs that just seem to keep on coming.

So… tell me… what do we have?

I do know how but with the action cam and Movements , trying to press a Recall when needed Might just be that situation where you “JUST CAN’T” do it and to reliably control somthing like a Smokefield you’d need to keep it on passive untill needed and having to Cast cancel everytime its not needed is again onther thing to keep track of , let alone pet movements other classes don’t contend with this as they are the focus point of thier mechanics and don’t have to keep track of two sets of Ranges/distances or having to Cancel cast every pet swap.

ps they Fixed the lighting whip on ele due to Cancel Casting! and repeating for faster damage.

mistsim.2748:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

and doing so means you’ll need pet on passive at all times .

do you know how to animation cancel? would this be too difficult for you to learn?

come on you guys, you are turning in to a bunch of divas. 90% of you honestly haven’t a clue about what exactly youre complaining. Eura wanted to use this for his team comp in competitive pvp, and hes basically throwing a fit about it. for the rest if you, it doesn’t matter one bit. youre just getting on board the negativity train, because it’s cool to complain about the ranger. youre getting so caught up in it that youre failing to see what we do have.

ive said everything I needed to say on the smokescale. /exists thread and never comes back.

You’re advocating a lot of work and effort for something that is still reliant on pet AI and was perfect as a utility F2 pet skill. It is shortsighted to believe that only Eura can use a smoke field in a competitive team comp. An on demand smoke field is extremely valuable for disengaging, stealth engaging, stopping stomps/stealth stomps.

Furthermore, it was useful in pve for skipping things and reviving. Invaluable in havoc groups in wvw and any 1vX when ganked. It was a lot more than just something used to stack stealth at the beginning of pvp matches.

I would argue that Smokescale F2 was a significant factor in re-considering the rangers place in the meta. Not because the F2 was OP, but because it opened up new utility value for the class.

mistsim.2748:

come on you guys, you are turning in to a bunch of divas. 90% of you honestly haven’t a clue about what exactly youre complaining.

We all know exactly what we want. Direct control of an utility skill in and outside of combat.

Stealth openers/team stealth in pvp, disengages, skipping thrash mobs in PvE, WvW skirm parties, combos for blinds. Among other things. Yeah, I will take that over your burst, that I reliably can get after swapping my pet anyways.

On demand smoke field gave me the ability to res allies getting stomped in clutch situations. F2, staff 3 , res. Gave me control over my own protection when I needed to gtfo. Please revert it back, it was way too valuable to have been given up. I genuinely have a headache just thinking about this horrible decision sad part is, it just a game.

Pnoi.8903:

On demand smoke field gave me the ability to res allies getting stomped in clutch situations. F2, staff 3 , res. Gave me control over my own protection when I needed to gtfo. Please revert it back, it was way too valuable to have been given up. I genuinely have a headache just thinking about this horrible decision sad part is, it just a game.

I feel you, brother/sister. I wasn’t exactly happy about the other changes we’ve witnessed, but this F2 change breaks my heart a little. The Smokescale F2 was one of the defining strengths of Rangers in HoT.

You can also stop thinking in PvP terms. It hurts other aspects too. A random smoke field will screw up fire fields. And what if I want a field to blind Lupi during his phase? Do I just sit around waiting for my pet to drop the field just in time?

And before, you could drop smoke field without being in combat. It was great for skipping mobs in certain areas of VB, and you could just stow your pet afterwards.

bloodpyrope.8630:

You can also stop thinking in PvP terms. It hurts other aspects too. A random smoke field will screw up fire fields. And what if I want a field to blind Lupi during his phase? Do I just sit around waiting for my pet to drop the field just in time?

And before, you could drop smoke field without being in combat. It was great for skipping mobs in certain areas of VB, and you could just stop your pet afterwards.

Well, as already mentioned, this swap doesn’t make any sense regardless of game mode. You don’t want random combo fields in a fight, and you don’t want the loss of an on-demand utility skills.

The only explanation I have is there is some intern that snuck in this change and has no idea what balance is.

Lazze.9870:

bloodpyrope.8630:

You can also stop thinking in PvP terms. It hurts other aspects too. A random smoke field will screw up fire fields. And what if I want a field to blind Lupi during his phase? Do I just sit around waiting for my pet to drop the field just in time?

And before, you could drop smoke field without being in combat. It was great for skipping mobs in certain areas of VB, and you could just stop your pet afterwards.

Well, as already mentioned, this swap doesn’t make any sense regardless of game mode. You don’t want random combo fields in a fight, and you don’t want the loss of an on-demand utility skills.

Yea I know, but I’m hoping it people complain about how it’s wrecked in all game modes, they’ll see the error of their ways. If we get too PvP centric about the complaints, it’ll probably go over the majority of their heads since no one at Anet knows (or cares) anything about PvP.

Nothing to add, just throwing in my agreement that the ability should be switched back.

I’m half-wondering if some developer at ArenaNet was just giggling with a coworker going “wanna watch the Ranger players flip their lids? Watch this”.

Toolbox.9375:

I’m half-wondering if some developer at ArenaNet was just giggling with a coworker going “wanna watch the Ranger players flip their lids? Watch this”.

Well, it’s either that, or they are clueless about their own game’s mechanics.