Shoe-horned into Defensive Playstyle

Shoe-horned into Defensive Playstyle

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Posted by: lordhelmos.7623

lordhelmos.7623

I’ve been away from Guildwars 2 for awhile now, although I barely log on to the game I do keep track of the changes to see if ranger is worth playing.

Looking at the new traits, I can see that the ranger is being shoe-horned into a defensive playstyle. It seems that the devs are terrified to give the class any kind of damage and through flawed design, damage is the gold source of Gw2.

Everything revolves around damage, from mob tagging, loot rewards, effectiveness, etc.

While the ranger is being developed as a defensive attrition class, the problem is that there is no reward for this kind of playstyle.

No players want defensive classes because you can just dodge most attacks and all the content is designed around max damage and 1 shot kills from boss mobs that none of the toughness in the world will save you against.

WvW contribution and player tagging is based on damage done and how much AE you can drop.

SPVP point holding is the only gametype that doesn’t punish defensive play but is only touched by a small community.

Based on the class description, I rolled my ranger as an archer. High ranged damage is something that really has no place in guildwars 2. Even if it was, the ranger is overshadowed by rifle warriors and burst killshot.

We have access to 3 different kinds of ranged weapons (axe, sbow, lbow) and there is absolute no appreciation in the game for the ranged damage dealer type.

To utilize the effectiveness of the longbow you have to plunge into a world filled with teleporting/Low-CD gap closer classes and permastealth backstab thieves while you sacrifice everything you have just to get decent damage out of the longbow (which requires just about all your traits).

I for one thought this would be a game with options and varying playstyles. But this seems far from the case with the ranger.

Everynow and then I check back to see if the stale playstyle of the ranger has changed, but it doesn’t seem to be going that way.

I’ve lost my interest on checking back on it anymore.

(edited by lordhelmos.7623)

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Posted by: Antisceptic.9174

Antisceptic.9174

My sentiments exactly.

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Posted by: Fairytayl.1035

Fairytayl.1035

I totally agree with you, especially wwith that new skirmishing trait wich give 15% chance to block incoming projectiles. 15% chance isn’t something we can rely on, hell even 100% chance for 2 sec when dropping under 50% would have been better but that’s another discussion. I feel skirmishing is our " go in for damage option " since the stat are precision and critical damage, however except for the minor traits, which are actually better than then major traits by the way, we don’t get any self damage improvement.

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Posted by: solrik.6028

solrik.6028

To utilize the effectiveness of ranged weapons you have to plunge into a world filled with teleporting/Low-CD gap closer classes and permastealth backstab thieves.

That’s my main problem with this game.
Rangers should imo be the ones who can deal as much ranged damage as anyone else’s melee damage.

(edited by solrik.6028)

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Posted by: Swagger.1459

Swagger.1459

I’ve been away from Guildwars 2 for awhile now, although I barely log on to the game I do keep track of the changes to see if ranger is worth playing.

Looking at the new traits, I can see that the ranger is being shoe-horned into a defensive playstyle. It seems that the devs are terrified to give the class any kind of damage and through flawed design, damage is the gold source of Gw2.

Everything revolves around damage, from mob tagging, loot rewards, effectiveness, etc.

While the ranger is being developed as a defensive attrition class, the problem is that there is no reward for this kind of playstyle.

No players want defensive classes because you can just dodge most attacks and all the content is designed around max damage and 1 shot kills from boss mobs that none of the toughness in the world will save you against.

WvW contribution and player tagging is based on damage done and how much AE you can drop.

SPVP point holding is the only gametype that doesn’t punish defensive play but is only touched by a small community.

Based on the class description, I rolled my ranger as an archer. High ranged damage is something that really has no place in guildwars 2. Even if it was, the ranger is overshadowed by rifle warriors and burst killshot.

We have access to 3 different kinds of ranged weapons (axe, sbow, lbow) and there is absolute no appreciation in the game for the ranged damage dealer type.

To utilize the effectiveness of the longbow you have to plunge into a world filled with teleporting/Low-CD gap closer classes and permastealth backstab thieves while you sacrifice everything you have just to get decent damage out of the longbow (which requires just about all your traits).

I for one thought this would be a game with options and varying playstyles. But this seems far from the case with the ranger.

Everynow and then I check back to see if the stale playstyle of the ranger has changed, but it doesn’t seem to be going that way.

I’ve lost my interest on checking back on it anymore.

great post!

New Main- 80 Thief – P/P- Vault Spam Pro

221 hours over 1,581 days of bank space/hot pve/lion’s arch afk and some wvw.

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Posted by: Rym.1469

Rym.1469

Nailed it.

In fact, same thing I’ve been talking about for more than a year of playing Ranger now.
A MMO without Archer archetype/aspect class goes against the very first rules of all RPGs and D&D precursors, successfully losing about 12.5-33% (First one considering only Ranger profession, second lack of third part of D&D system) playerbase.

[rude]Antagonistka – Revenant, EU.
[SALT]Natchniony – Necromancer, EU.
Streams: http://www.twitch.tv/rym144

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Posted by: Sarision.6347

Sarision.6347

They shoehorn us into a defensive playstyle because that’s what the design philosophy is about.

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Posted by: Prysin.8542

Prysin.8542

They shoehorn us into a defensive playstyle because that’s what the design philosophy is about.

yup. To avoid power creeps they make NPC’kitten harder, in less easily dodged ways (see the most recent LA events). They force the players to slowly gravitate away from berserker by punishing mindless DPS play.

Every profession, from warrior to thief to ranger to guard to ele to necro to engi and finally mesmer are all slowly forced to move away from pure damage and into more sustain oriented gear.
They did leave us some options for hybrid setups, such as Zealots gear. The next, say half year, will show whether or not they will effectively rescale the PvE side to encompass a more challenging play that is much less “casual solo player should effortlessly conquer this area”.

Lv 80 Guard, Ranger, Ele, Thief, warr, engi
Currently @ some T1 server in EU

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Posted by: lordhelmos.7623

lordhelmos.7623

I don’t see how other classes (namely the warrior) are being herded in that direction. An example being the might factory trait for warriors, 100% burst crits, and the insane dual wield damage they are about to get.

I suppose then the community is right about the other classes simply being there to hold stage props for the warrior.

I mean hell, just by STANDING NEAR a warrior and basking in their awesomeness you get more buffs than your primary class traits can give you.

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Posted by: Azreell.1568

Azreell.1568

In fairness guys – It’s been a year.

Did you really expect anything else.

The definition of insanity in doing the same action over and over and expecting different results.

That above statement pretty much sums up my feelings on the ranger class and Anet’s balance team.

Azreell – Mesmer
Loyalty To None

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Posted by: mzt.3270

mzt.3270

I’ve been away from Guildwars 2 for awhile now, although I barely log on to the game I do keep track of the changes to see if ranger is worth playing.

Looking at the new traits, I can see that the ranger is being shoe-horned into a defensive playstyle. It seems that the devs are terrified to give the class any kind of damage and through flawed design, damage is the gold source of Gw2.

Everything revolves around damage, from mob tagging, loot rewards, effectiveness, etc.

While the ranger is being developed as a defensive attrition class, the problem is that there is no reward for this kind of playstyle.

No players want defensive classes because you can just dodge most attacks and all the content is designed around max damage and 1 shot kills from boss mobs that none of the toughness in the world will save you against.

WvW contribution and player tagging is based on damage done and how much AE you can drop.

SPVP point holding is the only gametype that doesn’t punish defensive play but is only touched by a small community.

Based on the class description, I rolled my ranger as an archer. High ranged damage is something that really has no place in guildwars 2. Even if it was, the ranger is overshadowed by rifle warriors and burst killshot.

We have access to 3 different kinds of ranged weapons (axe, sbow, lbow) and there is absolute no appreciation in the game for the ranged damage dealer type.

To utilize the effectiveness of the longbow you have to plunge into a world filled with teleporting/Low-CD gap closer classes and permastealth backstab thieves while you sacrifice everything you have just to get decent damage out of the longbow (which requires just about all your traits).

I for one thought this would be a game with options and varying playstyles. But this seems far from the case with the ranger.

Everynow and then I check back to see if the stale playstyle of the ranger has changed, but it doesn’t seem to be going that way.

I’ve lost my interest on checking back on it anymore.

First Class Post. The fact that ranged weapons are lacklustre to melee, yet melee can have as much aoe damage hits even when swinging aimlessly. Yet ranged can pew peww away doing very little damage , have to deal with losing targets to stealth players, auto targets hitting every NPC bird, wolf, everything but the player opponant (in WVW) is enough to cope with without low damage. Not saying that melee cannot have this but considering medium “ranged based classes” are already suffering with super low damage and that damage is king for the lions share on loot, it makes you wonder why Anet are not making ranged weapon damage on par to melee, considering many melee classes have so many gap closer to enable them to get into close range, it makes me wonder why they bother with having medium ranged weapon classes in the first place. Instead of all this new fangled traits doing very little, what about giving us ranged damage on par to melee, then maybe we have a case to look at regarding “class balance”

Happiness is finding an Omnomberry in your Grumble Cake

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Posted by: arkealia.2713

arkealia.2713

I don’t see how other classes (namely the warrior) are being herded in that direction. An example being the might factory trait for warriors, 100% burst crits, and the insane dual wield damage they are about to get.

I suppose then the community is right about the other classes simply being there to hold stage props for the warrior.

I mean hell, just by STANDING NEAR a warrior and basking in their awesomeness you get more buffs than your primary class traits can give you.

Sigil of Intelligence seems better than 100% burst crit, the only downside of the sigil is that when you’ll switch weapon people will see it coming.

And about ranged damage, Anet philosophy is simple:
melee = more risk so more damages
ranged = safer, less damages
Except that with the mobility many class have ranged is not so safe in PvP, plus it’s indered by obstacles.

(edited by arkealia.2713)

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Posted by: Rym.1469

Rym.1469

Ranged is not really safer at all.
It can be in PvE because of failed mechanics/AI design.
But going to PvP will show you that Ranged weapons (not trict secondary-swap like Warrior LB Thief SB) are terrible.
Not only you don’t have any way to prevent people from sitting on you (no constant slows) or disengage, but you also can’t shoot in normal 180 like in all MMOs, All Channel/Cast skills are “breaking” constanty, strafe speed is laughable.
Your weapon doesn’t impress anyone, you have to pack/spec in tons of various utilities/runes/traits just to make some things even work (or not) when a melee can virtually take anything he desires.

I’ve said this in before – If ANet doesn’t want Bows and Rangers, erase them both and make something else.

[rude]Antagonistka – Revenant, EU.
[SALT]Natchniony – Necromancer, EU.
Streams: http://www.twitch.tv/rym144

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Posted by: geogyf.5087

geogyf.5087

exactly. and as long as they dont fix it, they will keep losing some players.

(including me who i am a relatively new player)