Guild Wars 2

What is the point of a skill meant to reveal invisible when it needs a target?

And the reveal is much too short.

Really there is no point in taking this. remove the target requirement and allow the pet to reveal in an area.

Does anybody use the rest of the ranger shouts, except maybe for “Search and Rescue!”?

Would be nice if most of these got replaced with something actually useful. Please feel free to give suggestions.

Would be good if traps could be traited to reveal too.

I don’t get how a simple command, like F2, just removes the whole damage/movement speed part…

Id really like something like this instead:

“Sniff Out!”
Your pet sniffs out the surrounding, revealing all enemies within 900 range for 3 seconds. Your next hit is a suprise attack that overwhelms the enemy, knocking him down for 2 seconds.

25 seconds cooldown

That would actually give it a use when fighting classes without stealth to combo things like maul, splitblade or entangle. Also we could reveal when we need it, not just prohibit stealthing.

You don’t use it randomly, use it when a you’ve hurt a thief or mesmer and they’re about to stealth. It usually scores you the kill. I almost never roam in WvW without it.

It does need the F2 bug fixed, but it’s a good skill.

Sic em is actually really strong vs stealth if you use it properly. It completely kittens all over thieves and mesmers when they don’t see it coming. otherwise though the skill is alright. Some pet builds use it, but pet builds are pretty rare.

That being said I thought the loss of the effect when commanding the pet was a bug?

back in the day you could pop it and guard with a jaguar and rack up crits on people up on top of walls. Good times.

When was sic em about the reveal? It is one of the only stackable damage modifiers available to the pet. Why nerf beastmaster builds?

Daniel Handler.4816:

When was sic em about the reveal? It is one of the only stackable damage modifiers available to the pet. Why nerf beastmaster builds?

It’s so bad you give any command to your pet and it’s cancelled.
And sometimes it has a small lag before applying reveal.

the reveal is meant to deny stealth not remove it. If you want to remove stealth use a Stealth Disrupter Trap.

It’s cool class design!!!

When you use Sick’Em! and use one of pet commands, SIck’Em will be canceled and goes on Cooldown.
When you use F2 and hit “Guard!”, f2 will be canceled and goes on cooldown.

Ranger are best interrupt class in game, because he have best mechanic to interrupt himself and cancel his abilities! xD

IT’s like if Thief stealth was something like: If you press W, then you’ll be revealed, or warrior: If you press 1, then you lose all boons and “Endure pain” will be canceled.

But devs don’t care… these bug was in 1,2,3 BWE before game launch and nothing was changed.

Rizo.9534:

Ranger are best interrupt class in game, because he have best mechanic to interrupt himself and cancel his abilities! xD

Lol! Pretty much, +1!

Rizo.9534:

Ranger are best interrupt class in game… …xD

Hehe, I wish it were like this. Like GW1.

It’s far from useless. On the contrary it can be pretty OP depending on your timing. It can be in the meta pve as well since it boosts your burst even more. I don’t see any reason to take QZ anymore since guards/mesms quickness is enough to melt any boss in seconds with the right group.

Serious.7083:

Does anybody use the rest of the ranger shouts, except maybe for "Search and Rescue!

Is this a joke or are you playing survival builds in pve? Strenth of pact, heal as one, sic em are shouts and are very powerful. Not sure where exactly you use one of the most useless skills in game (search and rescue)…

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Is this a joke or are you…

Serious.7083:

Does anybody use … "Search and Rescue!

Yes, he IS Serious.

Remember when Search and Rescue was a viable skill to take in some instances? I am starting to forget it was so long ago.

Although someone did use it on my during Teq yesterday and it actually worked which was nice.

vespers.1759:

Remember when Search and Rescue was a viable skill to take in some instances?

No.

Poor “Search and Rescue”. I was excited about a pet build until I tried to use it once. . .

That was 3 years ago. . . .

Since then I have moved on to Guardian, but Druid has me excited to play my ranger again!

I’ve been running a melee/crit shout build in WvW the last few weeks and have been doing surprisingly well. I run “Sic Em” and use it regularly with very good success. Just save it until you have the advantage and they are preparing to go on the defensive. Pop it after using a CC on your pet or a cripple to guarantee you can close the gap. Once you get used to the mechanic and know you can seal the deal, it’s a near guaranteed win. It’s also great for guaranteeing kills on sneaky mesmers that try to hide in keeps.

This might be stupid but…does Sic Em’ apply reveal at your location, or the pets?

Gotejjeken.1267:

This might be stupid but…does Sic Em’ apply reveal at your location, or the pets?

Neither, it applies it only to a the target you have selected. You can’t even use the skill without a target.

It’s a preemptive tool to prevent a target from stealthing. It is completely useless against a target that is already stealthed.

Sic’em is really strong when used in the right circumstances, and as people have said, it’s designed to deny stealth, not remove stealth.

After pvp-ing for long enough, you’ll just get a feel for when it should be used, e.g. right before a thief uses shadow refuge, or on a downed mesmer for a free stomp (or, as before, to use it on a downed body so a thieve can’t SR it!)

Unless you’re referring to pve, in which it’s actually currently a optional meta utility, the 40% damage buff can be really strong for an opening burst.

I do agree though, F2 should not remove shout effects.

edit: and fyi, I currently use WHaO, Guard, Sic ‘em, and Strength of the Pack on my current pvp build (with a high50’s/low60’s% win rate)

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

Sic’em is really strong when used in the right circumstances

you can argue this for every useless ability in the game. “when used in the right circumstances.” the thing is, for a utility to be useful, it really need to be useful under various circumstances!

secondly, u shouldn’t need reveal to kill a Mesmer or a thief. this is really the crucial point.

the truth about Sic ‘Em is that it sucks. no stun break, no condi cleanse, no damage boost (pet isn’t reliable damage, and when it is, the bonus tends to bug out), no invuln, no escape, no boons. luckily the devs are aware of shouts being really bad right now and I’m looking forward to the reworks.

Substance E.4852:

Gotejjeken.1267:

This might be stupid but…does Sic Em’ apply reveal at your location, or the pets?

Neither, it applies it only to a the target you have selected. You can’t even use the skill without a target.

It’s a preemptive tool to prevent a target from stealthing. It is completely useless against a target that is already stealthed.

Interesting. I usually slot MT over it due to the condition cleanse / cripple / immob, but this is useful to know. Mostly because I run Resounding Timbre, so I may try it out for the regen aspect.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

vespers.1759:

Remember when Search and Rescue was a viable skill to take in some instances?

No.

Funny, because I do.

A skill that could revive not just downed, but defeated players on a 30 second cooldown? I felt like a hero every time I used it to revive someone in the middle of a heated battle.

Gotejjeken.1267:

Substance E.4852:

Gotejjeken.1267:

This might be stupid but…does Sic Em’ apply reveal at your location, or the pets?

Neither, it applies it only to a the target you have selected. You can’t even use the skill without a target.

It’s a preemptive tool to prevent a target from stealthing. It is completely useless against a target that is already stealthed.

Interesting. I usually slot MT over it due to the condition cleanse / cripple / immob, but this is useful to know. Mostly because I run Resounding Timbre, so I may try it out for the regen aspect.

If it’s one or the other I would pick MT.

Sic ‘Em is decent against mesmers as many don’t have the ability to avoid damage on builds that are stealth heavy but most good thieves will know how to kite the 6s and will then push you after.

It might be different in Spvp but that’s been my experience in wvw.

I actually prefer sic ‘em in WvW over PvP. In PvP thieves won’t fight you. Also the CD is a bit too long for PvP where it’s non-stop combat.

In WvW, it’s like an autowin button every 32 seconds, which is roughly how long in between finding a new condi thieves or mesmers when you’re roaming.

I have a decent amount of healing power, so the regen is actually pretty substantial with no cast time, and a BM bird with sic ’em hits quite hard. Overall, a very solid skill.

I actually like that you need a target to use Sic ‘Em. If it just revealed any invisible enemy in the area there’d be no real skill in it’s use. You’d just use it to react to stealth after it happens, which takes a lot less effort than anticipating when the thief is about to enter stealth and activating it at a critical moment.

That being said it needs to not break after using F2. That’s silly and clearly a programming issue. In another thread that was discussing how to make shouts better there was a suggestion that Sic ‘Em resets the pet’s attack cycle the way Guard does so that the pet would always lead with their heaviest hitting move. It would make Sic ’Em a lot more deadly.

vespers.1759:

Sic em is actually really strong vs stealth if you use it properly. It completely kittens all over thieves and mesmers when they don’t see it coming. otherwise though the skill is alright. Some pet builds use it, but pet builds are pretty rare.

That being said I thought the loss of the effect when commanding the pet was a bug?

back in the day you could pop it and guard with a jaguar and rack up crits on people up on top of walls. Good times.

It is trash tier compared to Sneak Gyro reveal/Glint reveal/Trap reveal/Reveal on attack engi trait.

Again why are people commenting in the revealed and not the 40 damage modifiers that stacks with other pet modifiers? And as far as I can tell sic em is not interrupted by anything other than guard which makes sense. Do people want reveal, which isn’t a role, so much that they would nerf beastmaster builds?

Daniel Handler.4816:

Again why are people commenting in the revealed and not the 40 damage modifiers that stacks with other pet modifiers? And as far as I can tell sic em is not interrupted by anything other than guard which makes sense. Do people want reveal, which isn’t a role, so much that they would nerf beastmaster builds?

it’s interrupted by ANY shout(except heal) and by ANY button from f1 to f4.
So sick’em will be interrupted by F2 and as you know, whole BM tree are based on F2, F4 skill and shouts. So you can’t use ANY advantage of BM tree when you use Sick’Em.
That’s why it’s bad and wrong design.

Rizo.9534:

Daniel Handler.4816:

Again why are people commenting in the revealed and not the 40 damage modifiers that stacks with other pet modifiers? And as far as I can tell sic em is not interrupted by anything other than guard which makes sense. Do people want reveal, which isn’t a role, so much that they would nerf beastmaster builds?

it’s interrupted by ANY shout(except heal) and by ANY button from f1 to f4.
So sick’em will be interrupted by F2 and as you know, whole BM tree are based on F2, F4 skill and shouts. So you can’t use ANY advantage of BM tree when you use Sick’Em.
That’s why it’s bad and wrong design.

That’s why you use it AFTER F2, to stick the pet to the enemy (who, if a thief or mesmer, is likely to want to escape to stealth after being hit by a BM F2). Sic ‘Em is a pet command shout, all pet commands override each other, it’s nothing specific to Sic ’Em.

Tuomir.1830:

That’s why you use it AFTER F2, to stick the pet to the enemy (who, if a thief or mesmer, is likely to want to escape to stealth after being hit by a BM F2). Sic ‘Em is a pet command shout, all pet commands override each other, it’s nothing specific to Sic ’Em.

I want to empower birds, cats, drakes, spiders F2, not their autoattack, but i can’t.

Rizo.9534:

Tuomir.1830:

That’s why you use it AFTER F2, to stick the pet to the enemy (who, if a thief or mesmer, is likely to want to escape to stealth after being hit by a BM F2). Sic ‘Em is a pet command shout, all pet commands override each other, it’s nothing specific to Sic ’Em.

I want to empower birds, cats, drakes, spiders F2, not their autoattack, but i can’t.

I was under the impression that shouts and commands interrupted sic em but sic em did not interrupt commands. Is this not true? Would your bird not receive benefit if you simply commanded it and then used sick mid animation?

Daniel Handler.4816:

Rizo.9534:

Tuomir.1830:

That’s why you use it AFTER F2, to stick the pet to the enemy (who, if a thief or mesmer, is likely to want to escape to stealth after being hit by a BM F2). Sic ‘Em is a pet command shout, all pet commands override each other, it’s nothing specific to Sic ’Em.

I want to empower birds, cats, drakes, spiders F2, not their autoattack, but i can’t.

I was under the impression that shouts and commands interrupted sic em but sic em did not interrupt commands. Is this not true? Would your bird not receive benefit if you simply commanded it and then used sick mid animation?

If I remember correctly, sic em interrupts F2 as well as the opposite. Works good with jaguar, but that’s about the only animal. Been a while since I used it, so will have to test.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Rizo.9534:

Tuomir.1830:

That’s why you use it AFTER F2, to stick the pet to the enemy (who, if a thief or mesmer, is likely to want to escape to stealth after being hit by a BM F2). Sic ‘Em is a pet command shout, all pet commands override each other, it’s nothing specific to Sic ’Em.

I want to empower birds, cats, drakes, spiders F2, not their autoattack, but i can’t.

I was under the impression that shouts and commands interrupted sic em but sic em did not interrupt commands. Is this not true? Would your bird not receive benefit if you simply commanded it and then used sick mid animation?

No, any command stops whatever the pet is doing and starts executing the new command immediately. In fact, you can cut the aftercast off a pet’s attack by timing F2 or Sic ’Em right after the pet hits with an attack.

Sic em is by far one of the most viable shouts in WvW.
Currently playing for a Hardcore WvW Guild.
Its really powerfull against other Focusparties who stealth up permanently. Just catch them in the 2-3 secs while they are not stealthed. Use that 2k range to reveal them, 1600 range Rapid Fire. gg rekt thief. As a Longbow Ranguh u almost kill him yourself.

kitten PvE.

Fille.1325:

Sic em is by far one of the most viable shouts in WvW.
Currently playing for a Hardcore WvW Guild.
Its really powerfull against other Focusparties who stealth up permanently. Just catch them in the 2-3 secs while they are not stealthed. Use that 2k range to reveal them, 1600 range Rapid Fire. gg rekt thief. As a Longbow Ranguh u almost kill him yourself.

kitten PvE.

more for that, you can apply Sick’em, then shoot 3-4 autoattacks, then shoot rapidfire, or if you use QuickDraw, then switch rappidFire +SickEm, then 2 AA and 1 more rapidFire, so you can use 2 rapids in 1 sickEm.

Daniel Handler.4816:

I was under the impression that shouts and commands interrupted sic em but sic em did not interrupt commands. Is this not true? Would your bird not receive benefit if you simply commanded it and then used sick mid animation?

it will interrupt animation and put skill on full cooldown.
If action did not started yet, then it will put it on 5 sec cooldown.
same with drake.
Just tested.
If you cast Sick’em tn the middle on F2 animation, then it will be canceled and goes on full cooldown.

Honestly, I feel like “Sic, Em” is really awesome! Yea, it’s bugged (I think) where command skills interrupt it’s overall dmg multiplier, but there are ways around it. Just f2 to to deal dmg and/or force enemy to attack pet with taunt and then pop “Sic, Em” for easy dmg.

Usually, I save “Sic, Em” for mesmers and thieves who are running low on health. For mesmer is pretty obvious when they are going to pop a stealth via Mass Invisibility (which is usually their go to final escape/reset stealth). Look for them raising their arm up with a distorted aura around them. Pop “Sic, Em” and see how confused they look when they realized you just stopped their stealth and eff up their entire rotation. This usually results in their death. For thieves, it’s a bit tricky considering its tough to anticipate their stealth. If I ever see a Shadow Refuge, I swap pets and use f2 on top of the SR to forge the thief to hit my pet and get out of stealth (via taunt). I wait for their reveal to go away, and then “Sic, Em” again to stop another stealth. OR I just wait till their running a bit low on health and just “Sic, Em” for good measures.

As for “Search and Rescue” I ONLY run this trait in fractals or when teaching people how to run dungeons. It’s a great tool to maintain dps while also providing support to a teammate who downed. This is also helpful in the sense that it keeps you our of harms way while rezing a downed ally.

Overall, the shouts really got a much needed buff with the “Resounding Timber” trait. I usually run full shouts + 1 signet (depending on the situation).

PvP: WHaO, Signet of Renewal, Protect Me, Guard, Strength of the Pack
PvE: WHaO, Signet of Stone/The Wild (or Search and Rescue), Sic Em, Quickening Zephyr, Strength of the Pack
WvW: WHaO, Signet of Stone/Renewal, Sic Em, Guard, Strength of the Pack

Combine these shouts with Trooper Runes and Resound Timber and you can deal with almost any condi build out there plus have constant regen and swiftness.

Don’t knock the shouts till you REALLY try them.