Guild Wars 2

We all know how unviable the longbow is. However, quickness made it almost worthwhile since we could chaing 4 -> 3 -> 2 all with quickness and occasionally 5 -> 2. However, thanks to the quickness reduction this is no longer possible. GS update was nice but the weapon attacks so slow there is no longer any burst capability like 3 -> 5 -> 2 with moment of clarity for a gnasty fast maul crit. So now I have no choice but hang up my power/crit gear and grab some knights so I can be tanky because if I want to play ANY ranger build I have to make it an attrition fight now and just outlast my opponent since I will no longer be able to out damage them. Also, since I can no longer CC my opponent with pets F2 as often anymore I cannot keep them off of me. Anet kept saying they wanted to make glassy ranger more viable. Well I’ve run it very very successfully and it is safe to say any hope of a glassy LB or GS build are now dead.

Time to reroll condis + BM or an ele. Since eles are now gods.

My LB still works.

In my opinion, rangers are meant to co-work with their pets, mainly depending on your weapons disregarding your pet isn’t the way this class is meant to be played, so glass cannon ranger being less powerful is just pushing the rangers towards the right direction, also switching to an overpowered class such as elementalist isn’t something I’d agree with, I prefer playing what I enjoy, trying to be powerful with it.

i actually agree with Vaya, although i think the Marksmanship trait line should have an option to make the pet simply materialistic or a boon/condition conductor and nothing more.

however as i said i agree with Vaya and think he/she is spot on were meant to co-work with out pets, not co-working with our pet(s) no matter how dumb the AI is, is almost like saying to a mesmer ‘’dont use your clones’’ or ‘’dont use stealth’’ to a thief, they get hit hard by effectivness if you go that route.

Eurantien.4632:

We all know how unviable the longbow is. However, quickness made it almost worthwhile since we could chaing 4 -> 3 -> 2 all with quickness and occasionally 5 -> 2. However, thanks to the quickness reduction this is no longer possible. GS update was nice but the weapon attacks so slow there is no longer any burst capability like 3 -> 5 -> 2 with moment of clarity for a gnasty fast maul crit. So now I have no choice but hang up my power/crit gear and grab some knights so I can be tanky because if I want to play ANY ranger build I have to make it an attrition fight now and just outlast my opponent since I will no longer be able to out damage them. Also, since I can no longer CC my opponent with pets F2 as often anymore I cannot keep them off of me. Anet kept saying they wanted to make glassy ranger more viable. Well I’ve run it very very successfully and it is safe to say any hope of a glassy LB or GS build are now dead.

Time to reroll condis + BM or an ele. Since eles are now gods.

uhm, did you say you used to run glass cannon ranger?
Sir, are you barking mad?

Well… I haven’t given up. I am having a lot of trouble finding that sweet spot I had before though.

The longbow and the greatsword were always unviable. Even these updates didn’t help the greatsword, they need to buff the auto-attack’s damage, cause, after all, we’re sacrificing offhand for this. The sword’s auto attack alone already out dpses the greatsword’s by far, with torches, or any offhand actually, this difference becomes absurd.

IMO, if i were to fix the longbow, i’d decrease rapid fire’s duration by 2 seconds but keep the same damage, normalize damage from the auto attack, but giving bonus damage for 1000+ range, 3 is fine, increase point blank shot range, 5 is fine also. The core aspect of the fix however, would be signet of the hunt. Change it so, that instead of the NEXT attack you get 50% damage, make it so that in the next 3 attacks.

When you use the longbow, you sacrifice mobility for range and damage. The way it is now however, is you sacrifice mobility for your status because if anyone sees you using longbow they are going to laugh at you.

The pet mechanic would be more interesting if more things happened on swap, like blast finisher, as well as a better way to position pets. We talked pet dodge button before but I don’t honestly think that’s the answer and expecting one person to dodge for twp characters is a bit much. Another idea is shorter CD on pets but then this mut balance with the action on swap idea. Hmm. See how tricky this is? Gettig rid of the pet altogether isn’t a solution, although it’s often brought up. It’s just not the answer and moves away from the design of the game where having a pet is critical to the way ranger plays. Speaking of pets, many of them are bugged as it is (pigs) so I expect fixes soon at least on that stuff. But here’s the good part:

I’d like to see more control over pet positioning. That’s the problem in PvE in my opinion. Pets are really bad at figuring out where to stand, when to attack, and when to retreat. Most players are bad at this! And ANET’s AI isn’t where it needs to be for that: remember the cave troll vs kohler fights? It’s like two boxers just exchanging face punches without ducking, weaving, blocking, or anything.

One idea I had was a behavior key, sort of like what we have now except the AI behaviors are more interesting than passive/aggressive (before you guys point out all the flaws with the idea I will just say it’s a springboard for discussion). Ok so I was thinking a behavior defined by following rules (call this behavior ‘mirror mode’): there is a radius of a circle defined by the distance between you and the boss, right? Well the pet always stands on this circle but is 180 degrees from you. That way, you naturally position yourself to the side of a boss and the pet is on other side; when you dodge, the pet dodges, etc. This might not be the best idea in the world but what I’m trying to do is make positioning pets more approachable and possible for rangers.

Let’s see if ANET has something up their sleeves this month but I wouldn’t get my hopes up at the moment.

I am still a newbie ranger (level 22), but I feel like there needs to be more pet integration on the weapon bar. Give evasion on sword 2 & 3, or pet quickness on longbow 2. It would be nice to have something that made the pet actually complement your playstyle.

All they need to do is make it so that the pet and ranger dodge as one. If you are back with your bow and your pet is up on the enemy, when you see the enemy about to do something you dodge and so your pet does too.