Guild Wars 2

They showed the new “sic em”. You have to cast it before the targets stealths, and its a 4 second reveal.

They showed the new “Companions Defense”. It gives 2 second of protection to your pet as soon as you roll, and it gives you 2 second of protection after the roll.

They also showed the heal on the Fern Hound. About 1k + regen.

Mentioned increase pet health across all pets/minions.

All in all pretty boring, and nothing with actual pet mechanics, f2 pet skill delay, 1h sword wonky root, or anything else. Also the Ranger preview lasted about 2 mins.

Lets hope patch notes are better than what was in the preview.

I guess I never really understood though: why does Anet care so much about buffing pet utilities? None of it scales off our gear so it’s pretty meaningless to have a 300 healing power regen via Fern Hound with the trait. Still doesn’t beat Malicious Trained wolf or drakehound.

At least the health buff will be coveted. I sure am looking forward to tomorrow’s update!

I’m not. We still have 0 condition removals we have control over. It’s stupid and kitten es me off because we’re the only class that has this problem.

Rofl, 4 Second Reveal will not make Sic’Em any better..

I WANT Break immob!!!!

why cant we have reliable immob break!?!?!?!

Lets wait, but still the preview changes were alrdy known, if these are the only ones im gonna cry..Ive waited for 4 months for this?Seriously?

I already have sic em slotted for my owl dps. I welcome this change. Throw that on a downed enemy and their ally thief cant refuge res them. Pretty huge change if you ask me.

Not to mention downing thieves will just be easier overall now. With my ranger build I would spike them down to around 30% hp but they would always get a stealth off due to them blinding my interrupt. Now I can use sic em to finish them off.

Come on rangers…

idevourwater.3149:

I WANT Break immob!!!!

why cant we have reliable immob break!?!?!?!

LOL roll a thief. They basically fixed it so roll for initiative functions how lightning reflex is suppose to function, that it’ll cleanse before disengaging.

The only way Sic’Em will ever be useful, is if it didn’t drop randomly (which it does), and could be used at the same time I actually use my pets abilities (Owl for Example, I can’t use the F2 of the Owl while Sic’Em is going or it will end Sic’Em)

Xsorus.2507:

The only way Sic’Em will ever be useful, is if it didn’t drop randomly (which it does), and could be used at the same time I actually use my pets abilities (Owl for Example, I can’t use the F2 of the Owl while Sic’Em is going or it will end Sic’Em)

I did not know that…Good thing my owl skill NEVER goes off lolz. Hope this is something they can look into soon. Even so, if your build has a interchangeable utility slot like mine, sic em is still worth it for just the reveal imo. Tons of thieves out there in WvW when I’m roaming.

I run with Traveler Runes, I’ve pretty much stuck with SoTW,SoR,Lightning Reflex as my utilities, The only one i’ll even consider switching out after the patch is LR for Protect Me (Since Pets might Survive fights now)

Wow 4 sec reveal hahahaha, seriously Anet? hope is a cumulative debuff.

Give a10sec atleast. You dont realise what shadowstep, blind/clone, combind with stealth is… wow 4 sec…

Can I have a new sloth for my reroll? I mean all time I put on my ranger and cant do pvp better play a other class.

I was really hoping they’d make some changes to increase the group value of this class. Right now it’s a strong 1v1 class and goes down hill exponentially from there. Given some of the changes they mentioned for the other classes and how they felt they didn’t offer enough group utility I can’t believe nothing was mentioned on the Ranger.

It’s been months since any balance changes at all in this game. Tomorrow’s notes had better have a lot more instore for this class.

Yea the hp increase is sweet. I use owl/wolf so I use protect me on the wolf. it already has nice toughness and hp since i’m 30 in BM so it never dies on me. Though a trick i do is using protect me when pet swap is off cooldown. So I can swap pet out if it is taking too much damage.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha realy is that the groud braking changes for ranger u can get pet 500% hp they still cant dodge or atack moving targets i nead more to return to the game

playing the video really slow i notice some more changes when he moves mouse over some traits….at 24:44 instictual bond moved to 5 trait again

Dardamaniac.1295:

playing the video really slow i notice some more changes when he moves mouse over some traits….at 24:44 instictual bond move to 5 trait again

That trait is already the 5pt minor trait though. Are you thinking of Zephyr’s Speed?

Nothing on fixing the mainhand axe animation or the root from the sword one…

Joey.3928:

Dardamaniac.1295:

playing the video really slow i notice some more changes when he moves mouse over some traits….at 24:44 instictual bond move to 5 trait again

That trait is already the 5pt minor trait though. Are you thinking of Zephyr’s Speed?

Yes, it says that gives haste..i wonder tho

I hope there will be more changes as they told about (especially the numerous weapon skill changes they told about in the preview in this Forum last week^^). They only showed changes we already knew.
Let’s see the update notes tomorrow and hope…

Well if the sic’em change is true I won’t have to worry about changing any skills.

losmuertes.7285:

Nothing on fixing the mainhand axe animation or the root from the sword one…

If you are referring to the fact that it causes our back item to blink on and off they said they are going to fix back items disappearing when our handheld weapons are supposed to look like they left our hands aka when you “throw” your axe.

I like that we aren’t wasting a second of protection when we dodge roll and are already immune to attacks. It should give 2 seconds of invulnerable to the pet, 2 secs of protection isn’t going to do kitten in a wvw zerg or against champ/legendary attacks.

But, ya, typical anet. Move along folks, literally nothing to see here…

I also went over the ranger section of the video very carefully, and found the following differences from live:

• Barrage radius increased from 240 to 360 [edit: radius apparently not changed, just a tooltip fix]
• Mighty Swap granted might increased from 10s to 15s
• “Sic ’Em” range reduced from 3000 to 2000 (shouldn’t make a difference, considering we can’t send our pets out past 2000 anymore)

PvE side: Pet health increase: it’s needed, although it needs to be a big one in order to be viable.

PvP side: Sic ’em change is sad. It would be better if nothing changed. A 4 second reveal will not be enough for anything other than zerging a thief with 5 people. And even in that situation, there should be at least three people with ranged dps…

It seems that Anet’s idea about countering perma stealth, is giving ONE class a 4 second reveal… just lol…

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

PvE side: Pet health increase: it’s needed, although it needs to be a big one in order to be viable.

PvP side: Sic ’em change is sad. It would be better if nothing changed. A 4 second reveal will not be enough for anything other than zerging a thief with 5 people. And even in that situation, there should be at least three people with ranged dps…

It seems that Anet’s idea about countering perma stealth, is giving ONE class a 4 second reveal… just lol…

It’ll be a cold day in Hell when anet decides that being able to spam 3-4 leap finishers in quick succession is really over powered.

is sic’ em going to be single or aoe reveal?

pho.9412:

is sic’ em going to be single or aoe reveal?

They said it requires a target. So likely single.

stick a fork in it folks

…think I’ll definitely be making Ascended Armor for my Guardian first now even though my ranger was the one who really really really needed it….

I still didn’t watch the video, anyone can tell if the reveal will be applied on cast or on pet hit in the target?

Belzebu.3912:

I still didn’t watch the video, anyone can tell if the reveal will be applied on cast or on pet hit in the target?

It’s applied on cast.

Barrage radius increased from 240 to 360

Bejesus.

I know it doesn’t sound like alot, but, that’s more than doubling the circle’s area.
That’s going from Healing Spring size to….well most of our AOEs don’t get much bigger than that.

Vox Hollow.2736:

Barrage radius increased from 240 to 360

Bejesus. I know it doesn’t sound like alot, but, that’s more than doubling the circle’s area.

Doesn’t it already have a radius of 360?

Yes it does … and don’t forget it’s damage was stealth nerfed in half this summer

RWinter.1680:

Belzebu.3912:

I still didn’t watch the video, anyone can tell if the reveal will be applied on cast or on pet hit in the target?

It’s applied on cast.

What this means, is if the target is already stealthed, you waited too long.
You have to use sic’em before they stealth like it’s a debuff … a pointless … 4 second … debuff

ilr.9675:

Yes it does … and don’t forget it’s damage was stealth nerfed in half this summer

RWinter.1680:

Belzebu.3912:

I still didn’t watch the video, anyone can tell if the reveal will be applied on cast or on pet hit in the target?

It’s applied on cast.

What this means, is if the target is already stealthed, you waited too long.
You have to use sic’em before they stealth like it’s a debuff … a pointless … 4 second … debuff

The skill isn’t useless. It was pretty good for people running BM and now is even better, even if the change is underwhelming.

Substance E.4852:

losmuertes.7285:

Nothing on fixing the mainhand axe animation or the root from the sword one…

If you are referring to the fact that it causes our back item to blink on and off they said they are going to fix back items disappearing when our handheld weapons are supposed to look like they left our hands aka when you “throw” your axe.

Really? I missed that part. I’m concerned about the offhand weapon disappearing too. I’m days from completing rodgort.

Soilder.3607:

ilr.9675:

Yes it does … and don’t forget it’s damage was stealth nerfed in half this summer

RWinter.1680:

Belzebu.3912:

I still didn’t watch the video, anyone can tell if the reveal will be applied on cast or on pet hit in the target?

It’s applied on cast.

What this means, is if the target is already stealthed, you waited too long.
You have to use sic’em before they stealth like it’s a debuff … a pointless … 4 second … debuff

The skill isn’t useless. It was pretty good for people running BM and now is even better, even if the change is underwhelming.

The skill itself isn’t but what they said they wanted to accomplish with the change is. People who used it before will keep taking it as long as the cooldown remains the same and people who didn’t use it will be hard pressed to sub out another skill for it. Nothing’s really changed.

ilr.9675:

Yes it does … and don’t forget it’s damage was stealth nerfed in half this summer

I don’t know about you, but my barrage tooltip says 240 radius… Maybe I have better aim?

It’s not THAT bad. They also said they didn’t go through everything, so expect more changes, but they did go over most main changes.

- Pet and spirit health is increased by 71%. This is a pretty big thing.
- Sic ’em reveal… seems alright, for a start anyway.
- Protection at end of dodge is a great change.

But there are some great general changes:
- skill and trait tooltips are much more informative
- new condition damage floaters that aren’t chaotic
- new AoE targetting mode that looks perfect

I think they did a good job overal. There are some nice changes to the engineer too for example. Turrets assist on your target and some of their skills don’t have a random effect anymore. They didn’t spend much time on several of the classes, so it’s not such a big deal.

But really, those 3 changes are good for Ranger and I like the 3 general changes on top of it too.

losmuertes.7285:

Substance E.4852:

losmuertes.7285:

Nothing on fixing the mainhand axe animation or the root from the sword one…

If you are referring to the fact that it causes our back item to blink on and off they said they are going to fix back items disappearing when our handheld weapons are supposed to look like they left our hands aka when you “throw” your axe.

Really? I missed that part. I’m concerned about the offhand weapon disappearing too. I’m days from completing rodgort.

I’m sure that is part of it as well though they specifically mentioned back items. I can’t rightly remember where I had read this though to be honest but I do recall something written along these lines.

Personally, I think “Sic’ Em” will be a nice change. When solo roaming in wuvwuv the most annoying things are d/d thieves. If they are about to cloak and dagger I can hit them with revealed and they waste 6 initiative and should die from that.

The biggest change is PvP. In a team fight if we can get someone down then I can drop revealed on them so if they have a thief try to shadow refuge It will fail guaranteeing our stomp. Sure, warrior banner and ranger spirit and other skills will have to be worried about but those are much easier to interrupt than shadow refuge.

over all, it is better to get something then to be nerf. Not hoping for more tmr, even though they said there will be. I don’t expect much from the dev in future updates either. I will still keep playing my ranger tho.

It is? My bad! Must of been part of the longbow revision that somehow never made it’s way to the tooltip.
….Not exactly surprising. >.>;

Holland.9351:

- Pet and spirit health is increased by 71%. This is a pretty big thing.

No it’s not because their exact words were “ALL minions” increased by that amount.
…mostly to put them all on par with Mes Phantasms who got that buffs months ago

We’re exactly where we always were with every other class that has minions/turrets/etc

And let’s not forget their “Support skills for Pets”…. Sylvan Hound pathetic 1K heal to go with its pathetic +regen. WHY would I EVER take that over Wolf howl that easily prevents a 20K damage spike by fearing their Midline?? (usually right into my guild’s Heavies who then Hammer cleave them for 20K instead) …. and before anyone even asks how I got the wolf back there …. GUARD … it stealths AND protects it and is pretty much on Permanent activation b/c unlike terrible Sic’em, it’s only got a 15 sec C/D

I bet that outside of W3, nobody will choose “Sick Em’!” for new reveal. I mean, that’s good for people already using it but I can easily fill up my utility with something more helpful.

We’re exactly where we always were with every other class that has minions/turrets/etc

Not sure I understand this point.
Wouldn’t we be in a better position because 71% of a pet’s health > 71% of a spirit/turret/minion/spirit weapon’s health?

Rym.1469:

I bet that outside of W3, nobody will choose “Sick Em’!” for new reveal. I mean, that’s good for people already using it but I can easily fill up my utility with something more helpful.

I wouldn’t expect many to choose it in WvW either. It’s a dueling/roaming skill and won’t have any use 90% of the time.

Maybe it’s only my build, but I don’t have trouble with many classes in WvW. Currently running 30/0/30/10/0 with dire gear, signets, bird pets, SB/A+W and Svanir’s. It feels good to take chip damage from players in berserker’s gear. Mesmers and necromancers still give me trouble—could be an issue of skill or inexperience on my part—but I’ve never found the profession wanting.

Again, perhaps it’s just my build. I’ll admit that I’ve invested heavily in this one, and haven’t really given much thought to anything other than a regeneration build (and only fleetingly at that).

The same goes for sPvP, though I tend to resort to rabid there.

I’ll agree that it’d be nice to have some of the profession’s more basic functionality (F2) addressed and fixed. And, as always, new content is welcome. I’ve just never felt as if I were down and out as a class.

RWinter.1680:

ilr.9675:

Yes it does … and don’t forget it’s damage was stealth nerfed in half this summer

I don’t know about you, but my barrage tooltip says 240 radius… Maybe I have better aim?

Barrage is 360 radius, the tooltip has been wrong since the start of the game. Use ele meteor shower (with ground targeting), then compare to barrage. You’ll see the same very big aoe circle. Healing spring (clearly visible after cast) that’s what a TRUE 240 radius is, a lot smaller thus then barrage.

^That (is exactly what I was referring to…. If it was only 240, I would never have made an Ascended LB in the first place).

Offtopic: Anet should hire Swiftpaw & Phoebe to come in and do all the emergency repairs on Ranger that the current devs don’t know how to do. They probably wouldn’t make the class accessible to all the facerollers who play Warrior & wvw-thief, but it would be a huge improvement for the rest of us who understand the fundamentals of the class better than Anet does: The time it took for Karl to find Companion’s Defense = LULZ

Merill al Ghuraab.1209:

Maybe it’s only my build, but I don’t have trouble with many classes in WvW. Currently running 30/0/30/10/0 with dire gear, signets, bird pets, SB/A+W and Svanir’s. It feels good to take chip damage from players in berserker’s gear. Mesmers and necromancers still give me trouble—could be an issue of skill or inexperience on my part

Even stungank Bunker warriors are still having problems with those 2 so it’s not just you

Necros get a numerical life force bar but our pet doesnt? wth? We’ve been pushing for a numerical pet hp bar for agesssss.

All in all~ yea, a little disappointed at the preview. The time it took for Karl to find Companion’s Defense… ugh, the balance team needs to start actually playing rangers themselves.