Guild Wars 2

So, it’s been a while since anyone brought this trait up…

I really like the idea of it adding boons(s) on weapon swap, to continue the Skirmishing minor traits with a GM trait to suit. We already get 5/9s of swiftness and fury on swap, so why not give us access to defense in that line on the same condition too?

I’m thinking that since we get a lot of evades already, then Aegis is not really suitable (I originally did) so perhaps a short duration of both Protection AND retaliation. Sort of a combo of Spiked Armor on Warrior, the GM trait that gives Retaliation for 5/10s on being crit and Protective Shield on Engineer, the Adept trait that gives Protection for 3.5/20s on being crit, except that we would get it on weapon swap, so with a 9s CD, the same as the other minor traits.

So, it could be Strider’s Defense – Gain Protection (2s) and Retaliation (3s) when swapping weapons in Combat. 9s CD. I think that would be a great GM and add to an active playstyle, not rely on RNG kitten many things do.

You know what I think? I think no one is actually giving this trait a chance (WvW wise).

The meta is now and forever pew pew and will be turning into even more pew pew than it already is when HoT comes because of revenant ranged weapons, guardian longbow, thief rifle, warrior pistols possibly and this is ontop of the stability changes which discourage melee.

Ranger has rampage as one, a frigging evade on auto attack and you can couple that with strider’s defense for 20% chance to block projectiles (which there are a LOT of). 20% chance is a pretty good survivability trait as far as WvW goes.

I see the rise of the front line ranger with greatsword and staff (druid for healing) when HoT arrives. Even see the use of bears for condition clears/healing with invigorating bond and stability training.

Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll see, though.

Zefrost.3425:

You know what I think? I think no one is actually giving this trait a chance (WvW wise).

The meta is now and forever pew pew and will be turning into even more pew pew than it already is when HoT comes because of revenant ranged weapons, guardian longbow, thief rifle, warrior pistols possibly and this is ontop of the stability changes which discourage melee.

Ranger has rampage as one, a frigging evade on auto attack and you can couple that with strider’s defense for 20% chance to block projectiles (which there are a LOT of). 20% chance is a pretty good survivability trait as far as WvW goes.

I see the rise of the front line ranger with greatsword and staff (druid for healing) when HoT arrives. Even see the use of bears for condition clears/healing with invigorating bond and stability training.

Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll see, though.

I can’t help but think it needs more.

The OP’s suggestion doesn’t sound bad, but I don’t know if the balance team would allow it. There needs to be something added on top of what it does already.

Zefrost.3425:

You know what I think? I think no one is actually giving this trait a chance (WvW wise).

The meta is now and forever pew pew and will be turning into even more pew pew than it already is when HoT comes because of revenant ranged weapons, guardian longbow, thief rifle, warrior pistols possibly and this is ontop of the stability changes which discourage melee.

If the meta has become pew pew and not melee, wouldn’t that make this trait even worse, since it only works if you are executing a melee attack?

I have tried it quite a bit in WvW with dual melee Ranger and it is uselessly unreliable. RNG is bad. It needs to be active defense, when the player does something on purpose, not a 20% chance to give defense on something that happens to the player.

I have been in entire fights with other rangers, pistol thieves mesmers, bow wars etc and had this trait NEVER do ANYTHING because the rng never hit inside the 20%. To me, that is utterly pointless. Sure, you may get a lot of procs when you are in a zerg and 20 projectiles are flying at you, but then stopping maybe 1/5 isn’t going to save you anyway.

This should be more about, um, skirmishing…

Zefort makes a fair point, but I am still in favour of a change along the lines suggested.

I also wonder if giving Resistance might be a nice idea. Would give the skirmishing line some condition management options without adding a straight up cleanse on swap.

Resistance is a great idea instead of Protection as we already have methods of getting that.

Strider’s Defense was a garbage trait from the getgo and despite feedback they put it in and big surprise nobody uses this waste of a slot.

I think it’s time people realize that development in a game without a public test realm clearly signals a disregard for player feedback when implementations for a class are considered.

The developers come up what they think is cool, it’s their baby, and they don’t give a kitten if it works or not because they don’t play the game they just see it as a project to practice their development philosophies and skills with instead of the investment real players put in a class and character.