Guild Wars 2

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The number of strikes was reduced from 7 to 5 and the cooldown on Smoke Assault was reduced from 24s to 20s, the damage on the strikes was not reduced

That is great! Not a nerf at all. A reduction in burst total, but shorter CD F2s and #3 skills are far better. Time wise, it now aligns better with pet swapping.

Not a nerf at all? What do you mean?
The damage per hit wasn’t reduced , ok, but they are hitting less times now.
Before in 2 minutes you could use it 5 times (24*5=120) in a total of 35 hits, now you can use it 6 times in 2 minutes (20*6=120) in a total of 30 hits, it IS a DPS nerf.

Belzebu.3912:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The number of strikes was reduced from 7 to 5 and the cooldown on Smoke Assault was reduced from 24s to 20s, the damage on the strikes was not reduced

That is great! Not a nerf at all. A reduction in burst total, but shorter CD F2s and #3 skills are far better. Time wise, it now aligns better with pet swapping.

Not a nerf at all? What do you mean?
The damage per hit wasn’t reduced , ok, but they are hitting less times now.
Before in 2 minutes you could use it 5 times (24*5=120) in a total of 35 hits, now you can use it 6 times in 2 minutes (20*6=120) in a total of 30 hits, it IS a DPS nerf.

The pet is also autoattacking more in the meantime, since it no longer casts Smoke Field off cooldown. This helps make up some of the lost DPS from Smoke Assault.

Scrimschaw.5784:

The pet is also autoattacking more in the meantime, since it no longer casts Smoke Field off cooldown. This helps make up some of the lost DPS from Smoke Assault.

Pet is also missing 2 might stacks, but yeah, it may even out IF the target isn’t moving much, otherwise it is still a DPS loss.

Belzebu.3912:

Scrimschaw.5784:

The pet is also autoattacking more in the meantime, since it no longer casts Smoke Field off cooldown. This helps make up some of the lost DPS from Smoke Assault.

Pet is also missing 2 might stacks, but yeah, it may even out IF the target isn’t moving much, otherwise it is still a DPS loss.

Unfortunately, the pet AI is a separate issue entirely. There is another thread dedicated to this, if you haven’t taken a look.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The number of strikes was reduced from 7 to 5 and the cooldown on Smoke Assault was reduced from 24s to 20s, the damage on the strikes was not reduced

Thx for swapping back the F2, performance of pet did rise tremendously! <3
————————————————————————————————————————————————-
If you ask me assault changes were 65% nerf and 2 might loss is kind of a big nerf.
I did some tests:
On release day: 14.900 dmg average
Now: 3.750 dmg average

16 sec cooldown is a sweet change,
I still think pet could keep 16 sec CD, 7 hits and 50% nerf.

Cheers, Lex.

Can we get other pet abilities that are as responsive as smoke assault was? Because I miss it terribly.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The number of strikes was reduced from 7 to 5 and the cooldown on Smoke Assault was reduced from 24s to 20s, the damage on the strikes was not reduced

That is great! Not a nerf at all. A reduction in burst total, but shorter CD F2s and #3 skills are far better. Time wise, it now aligns better with pet swapping.

Nice work Irenio, Cheers!

Are you even serious ? Did you realize what you just wrote , do you even comprehend the basics of Ranger as a class ?

How was this not a nerf ? Smoke Assault now is hitting 2 less times from 7 to 5 which means that the evade duration got reduced from 2 secs to 1,5 – also Smokescale now gets 5 Might stacks instead of 7 which is quite a big nerf considering the fact that “We heal as One” is really good right now and you copy less Might stacks

Since Smokescale’s Assault duration is smaller now it can even be dodged easily , before the duration lasted for 2 seconds and you couldn’t dodge it properly unless you wasted all of your Endurance

Now its a child’s play. It didn’t lose the damage on the skill but the point wasn’t only the damage in the first place.

About the Cooldown getting reduced from 24 to 20… it doesn’t have any impact at all nor will have an effect to Smokescale’s performance. Pets get swapped all the time anyway and #3/#4 are activated randomly so the pet doesn’t even play around its cooldown , who cares about the 4 seconds ? They just rounded up the number to look less weird.

The old-new smoke F2 is total garbage right now and gutted the pet big time. I mean it may still be useful because of his knockdown but way less than it was pre-4/11 patch.

Smoke Cloud is just bleh. 240 radius are we even for real ? The enemy will simple move a little to the left and will be out of the smoke , no blindless via projectiles for him. You dont even need to dodge and you can’t instanly blind him in the first place its totally random since Ranger’s (longbow) physical projectiles have a 20% chance to proc (#1/#2 skills) how many procs are you even gonna get considering the fact that it only lasts 5 seconds and the enemy won’t stand there for 5 seconds ?

Taking this change as a positive one makes me think that you are one of the guys who just theorize everything in their fantasy with no real experience and decent performance.

In the end of the day the pet got nerfed , hard. Rip 25 easy might stacks back to bad AI pets.

Frostfang.5109:

In my opinion to the worse. Combofield blind sure, but most things on higher maps are immune to blind….. Better to have things that actually bites on the enemies as active skills.

use cats or birds

Belzebu.3912:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The number of strikes was reduced from 7 to 5 and the cooldown on Smoke Assault was reduced from 24s to 20s, the damage on the strikes was not reduced

That is great! Not a nerf at all. A reduction in burst total, but shorter CD F2s and #3 skills are far better. Time wise, it now aligns better with pet swapping.

Not a nerf at all? What do you mean?
The damage per hit wasn’t reduced , ok, but they are hitting less times now.
Before in 2 minutes you could use it 5 times (24*5=120) in a total of 35 hits, now you can use it 6 times in 2 minutes (20*6=120) in a total of 30 hits, it IS a DPS nerf.

Having the skill on a 20s untraited or traited 16s CD means it works better with pet swaps and all other pet traits that deal with swapping or F2 use. This is both SA and SC. Who cares about a small amount of damage, it really does not matter at all. Just get over it. They are not going to change it back again.

Angelos.4539:

Are you even serious ? Did you realize what you just wrote , do you even comprehend the basics of Ranger as a class ?

Greeting new player! Once you get some time up playing Ranger, you can come back and ask this again.

Please come again!

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Belzebu.3912:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The number of strikes was reduced from 7 to 5 and the cooldown on Smoke Assault was reduced from 24s to 20s, the damage on the strikes was not reduced

That is great! Not a nerf at all. A reduction in burst total, but shorter CD F2s and #3 skills are far better. Time wise, it now aligns better with pet swapping.

Not a nerf at all? What do you mean?
The damage per hit wasn’t reduced , ok, but they are hitting less times now.
Before in 2 minutes you could use it 5 times (24*5=120) in a total of 35 hits, now you can use it 6 times in 2 minutes (20*6=120) in a total of 30 hits, it IS a DPS nerf.

Having the skill on a 20s untraited or traited 16s CD means it works better with pet swaps and all other pet traits that deal with swapping or F2 use. This is both SA and SC. Who cares about a small amount of damage, it really does not matter at all. Just get over it. They are not going to change it back again.

And with 24sec traited it gets down to 19 sec, so what?
Also what got me is you saying “Not a nerf at all.” , yes it WAS a nerf to DPS, I agree the F2 with SC is better, I love the on demand smoke field, but you can’t say there wan’t a nerf at all.

Belzebu.3912:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Belzebu.3912:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The number of strikes was reduced from 7 to 5 and the cooldown on Smoke Assault was reduced from 24s to 20s, the damage on the strikes was not reduced

That is great! Not a nerf at all. A reduction in burst total, but shorter CD F2s and #3 skills are far better. Time wise, it now aligns better with pet swapping.

Not a nerf at all? What do you mean?
The damage per hit wasn’t reduced , ok, but they are hitting less times now.
Before in 2 minutes you could use it 5 times (24*5=120) in a total of 35 hits, now you can use it 6 times in 2 minutes (20*6=120) in a total of 30 hits, it IS a DPS nerf.

Having the skill on a 20s untraited or traited 16s CD means it works better with pet swaps and all other pet traits that deal with swapping or F2 use. This is both SA and SC. Who cares about a small amount of damage, it really does not matter at all. Just get over it. They are not going to change it back again.

And with 24sec traited it gets down to 19 sec, so what?
Also what got me is you saying “Not a nerf at all.” , yes it WAS a nerf to DPS, I agree the F2 with SC is better, I love the on demand smoke field, but you can’t say there wan’t a nerf at all.

Ok, so by definition, it is a nerf because the number of hits on SA is reduced. But I don’t see it as too much of a nerf because at 16s CD when traited, you can actually use BW, GFTE and WS with the SC F2 more often now. The CDs all align with the pet swap CD when taking BM now and that is a good thing.

Looks like it’s back to birds and cats for damage now. Go test the Damage out of Smokescale and do a dodge and you will see what I mean, Smokescale is now more of utilities pet rather than dps pet. Which isn’t a bad thing will be handy for Power/Burst builds being able to disengage and setup spikes with team mates.

I can’t see many teams taking a Power/Burst ranger over other burst classes, Thief and Mesmer I feel do the burst roll far better. I don’t really count DH it’s a gimmick build and Rev’s aren’t too hard to deal with once you learn what to dodge.

I wonder how it is possible for some people to not appreciate the DIRECT control of teleporting/attacking/stacking Might with Smoke Assault , which surprises the opponent and gives immediate Might stacks (and it used to be 7) which you could get back with “We Heal as One”.

And instead some people prefer Smoke Cloud with 240 radius ! The usage of this skill is pitiful the least , using it on the opponent in a real world scenario is bad since like I mentioned the game has so much mobility at this point a 240 cloud is nothing. It isn’t even instant to surprise the opponent

Use the smoke on yourself ? Not even worth with Physical Projectiles on Ranger having 20% chance (#1/#2 skills on LB) In the end you are doing this whole setup to just.. hit a single stack of Blind on the opponent which is just a single auto ? Other classes can get the same conclusion with a way easier approach.

Arenanet , since HoT Beta you have changed Smokescale’s F2 like 3 times so please reconsider changing it back to Smoke Assault. Was it too strong ? Maybe but it got nerfed anyway Evade lasting from 2s to 1,5s and 5 Might from 7.
So just bring it back. Waiting randomly for it to hit is anticlimactic and destroy the pace of combos , real combos which kill not pseudoscenariotheorycraft ones.

The true power of the smokescale is the shadowstep functionality, and that it sticks to a target like glue during smoke assault and actually lands its attacks. I would love that shadowstep being available for other pets through some of our shouts, for example.

As for the smokefield, nice utility, I don’t use it much. I try to get several seconds of stealth going by blasting it myself with warhorn, staff and Lunar impact, but it seems I really can’t get more time out of it. Not used to smokefields, I hope someone will put up a video of how to use it effectively.

Oh my … When i pair up with a ranger and he puts a smoke field down …. Think teamwise. I can fire a bunch of projectiles in or blast it three times in less then a second.

Wolfric.9380:

Oh my … When i pair up with a ranger and he puts a smoke field down …. Think teamwise. I can fire a bunch of projectiles in or blast it three times in less then a second.

Yeah, I don’t doubt the use when in a group/team. I was thinking more of how to utilize the field best by myself, solo.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The number of strikes was reduced from 7 to 5 and the cooldown on Smoke Assault was reduced from 24s to 20s, the damage on the strikes was not reduced

I wont bang out about nerfs etc, but can I ask why it appears that recent Ranger/Druid ‘adjustments’ are not mentioned in the patch notes? We are suffering as a class Irenio, and we hope you can turn us around.

And this poor pet is nerfed a second time… Breaking it even more. ( stowing it away )
I am not greatful for this change at all.

The shadowstepping made it actually hit its target like few other pets.

lame and lame.

Now my pet gets to choose at some random interval when he wants to aggro additional mobs. thanks for wrecking this pet. The kitten can’t we CHOOSE which ability we want on f2??

I loved smokescale from before this patch. Now I am struggling to replace it. The only demand burst damage was awesome.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Wolfric.9380:

Oh my … When i pair up with a ranger and he puts a smoke field down …. Think teamwise. I can fire a bunch of projectiles in or blast it three times in less then a second.

Yeah, I don’t doubt the use when in a group/team. I was thinking more of how to utilize the field best by myself, solo.

Wh 5 → Staff 3→ CAF 3 → leave CAF proc Celestial Shadow= profit

Should have reduced the damage and not the amount of Irenio attacks, this pet took me 8k damage only in an attack that is fading and giving several attacks, I think it is smoke assault the name. Before the coming of someone speaking it’s just dodge, know that I have infinite endurance

thx for listening to player feedback. it’s definitely a more interesting pet to play this way.

OGDeadHead.8326:

You do realise you have to combo a smokefield to get blinds out of it, right? As in projectile or whirl finishers.

This is the only smoke field in the game that doesn’t passively tick blindness. Every other smoke field blinds without any finisher being used. Also, in BWE3 the field destroyed projectiles and ticked blinds passively, as I recall (I’m certain about destroying projectiles, almost certain about the blinds). Now it’s just the weakest smoke field in the game…of course, that’s still far better than our previous state, which was almost no finishers or fields under our direct control, apart from projectiles.

Missing the old SS. Nerfed real good.