Guild Wars 2

Lets face it guys,
The only time we use the other skills is when the time calls for it.

2 When the target isnt looking at you so you dont waste the evade
3 When you need to get to the next enemy fast
4 when you need to block a high powered attack
-4 when you messed up your timing for the block and dont wanna waste the skill
5 to interrupt a foe.

So mostly on a ranger, you just let the Auto attack do the job

And according to a Game Designer on the Shortbow Nerf

" It was also encouraging just spamming 1 which isn’t the most fun gameplay."

And the greatsword fits the bill of a mostly not fun gameplay.

Nerf something that the player base has all bu written off?

Oh boy, believe it or not my first ranger spec was a greatword axe/axe spec… yeah…
What a surprise I had when I found out entire weapon sets aren’t even on the same level in PvP and I happened to go 2 for 3 in choosing the worst weapons in the game…

“It was also encouraging just spamming 1 which isn’t the most fun gameplay.”

Where did he say that?

The thing is other four SB abilities are so poorly designed that we have to spam 1 to do any damage.

2 isn’t used for DPS, because it is unreliable and have noticeable after-cast delay, the best use of it is to make a point-blank shot straight into the face/rear of the enemy
3 isn’t used for DPS, but for evading/escaping purposes
4 isn’t used for DPS, but for escaping and catching down enemies running away
5 isn’t used for DPS, but for escaping, interrupting key abilities and catching down enemies running away.

I would very like to have a ranger that is fun to play, but I don’t understand how nerfing an ability – which is already flawed in terms of design by the way, will contribute to it.

Drau, the idea of the shortbow was never to be a dmaage dealing bow, atleast not the way it is. It was meant as a control/skirmishing condition weapon, hence why no other attacks do damage but control the fight instead. The nerf isnt noticeable, its all in everyones head, spamming 1 for the damage it can do is bad design since you just sit there auto attacking till you need to use the other skills to control your target.

I dont believe GS is worse than longbow tho, while GS doesnt have the burst it used to be able to do, Ive seen some players use it effectively. Problem is, longbow and GS are kind of in the same boat atm, damage is mediocre unless you use signet builds and then you are only scary when your cds are up. In pvp I feel forced to take a signet build to be effective and to avoid being melted by burst. Protect me blows so that leaves signet of stone.

>It was meant as a control/skirmishing condition weapon
A condition weapon with no reliable means to steadily apply condition damage. Ultimate irony.

>In pvp I feel forced to take a signet build to be effective and to avoid being melted by burst.
Try using condition build with 2 traps and Protect Me. The most effective way to do spvp I have found so far.

Drau.8695:

>It was meant as a control/skirmishing condition weapon
A condition weapon with no reliable means to steadily apply condition damage. Ultimate irony.

>In pvp I feel forced to take a signet build to be effective and to avoid being melted by burst.
Try using condition build with 2 traps and Protect Me. The most effective way to do spvp I have found so far.

But see, thats my point, I dont want to be pigeon holed into a condi build, and protect me blows, pet dies in 2-3 secs after using it. I want to be a longbow ranger but atm we all know the state of longbow is gruesome. Im just gonna play another class till they buff it but I love archery, and I wanna play an archer, I dont feel shortbow acts like an archer tho, Im not a fan of spamming auto attack for my damage. I do think they should change the bleed on flank hit to just bleed on hit and make the flanking bleed last longer.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

But see, thats my point, I dont want to be pigeon holed into a condi build, and protect me blows, pet dies in 2-3 secs after using it. I want to be a longbow ranger but atm we all know the state of longbow is gruesome. Im just gonna play another class till they buff it but I love archery, and I wanna play an archer, I dont feel shortbow acts like an archer tho, Im not a fan of spamming auto attack for my damage. I do think they should change the bleed on flank hit to just bleed on hit and make the flanking bleed last longer.

If they made it so bleed applied regardless of direction, the auto-attack is still the only/highest damaging move.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Drau.8695:

>It was meant as a control/skirmishing condition weapon
A condition weapon with no reliable means to steadily apply condition damage. Ultimate irony.

>In pvp I feel forced to take a signet build to be effective and to avoid being melted by burst.
Try using condition build with 2 traps and Protect Me. The most effective way to do spvp I have found so far.

But see, thats my point, I dont want to be pigeon holed into a condi build, and protect me blows, pet dies in 2-3 secs after using it. I want to be a longbow ranger but atm we all know the state of longbow is gruesome. Im just gonna play another class till they buff it but I love archery, and I wanna play an archer, I dont feel shortbow acts like an archer tho, Im not a fan of spamming auto attack for my damage. I do think they should change the bleed on flank hit to just bleed on hit and make the flanking bleed last longer.

protect me is actually really awesome, i use high hp pets and alot of times the pet is actually still alive unless i just sit there and eat damage for the heck of it, if you dodge properly protect me is a great way to survive burst damage specs like thieves and warriors.

no its not a huge you cant kill me button for 6 seconds( yes it is ) if your pet dies in less than 6 seconds while you are using this ability you were going to die anyway.

if your pet dies in 2 seconds because he just saved your kitten from a 10k backstab or the 3 heartseekers you forgot to dodge. it did its job and the thief has spent its burst on your pet and you still have all of your tools and your hp to counter/kill him. this alone makes protect me an insanely powerful tool.

if it doesnt work well for you perhaps your playstyle is more of a turret survival style and there are no turrets in this game, but elementalists are speccing in to builds where some of them can stand there and take damage for a bit. guardians i have seen stand without dodging for long periods of time and survive. i personally dodge alot and use protect me if i get into a bad situation and use the full 6 seconds to get out of a situation and attack from a different angle or whatever.

ok sorry to derail the post abit but protect em is one of the greates abilities we have for survival imho

and to get on topic they wont nerf GS next hoepfully they are done nerfing for awhile and go back to fixing pet AI!!

If anything they need to look at improving GS, not nerfing it.

To me, I don’t see anything else they can adjust downward for the Ranger. It’s all going to be improvements from here on out right?

Rizzy.8293:

Lets face it guys,
The only time we use the other skills is when the time calls for it.

I got the joke at least, and I laughed.

@Lobo
To infinity and beyond!!
Rangers still do nominal damage no? They can take that.
We still apply conditions right? Not anymore.
We can still move right?
We can still log in right?

In all seriousness though. The rangers are still a PLAYABLE class, ie can and does exist in the game. I play pvp and I can get in a couple kills, even in dueling 1v1 situations. So unless I have the good fortune of only playing against complete idiots. The class still works.

However, there is almost always a more efficient alternative to a ranger. Ranged DPS? Rifles. Spiking? Thieves. Tanking? Eles and Guardians. Rangers are severely the jack of all trades, master of none syndrome. It’s a shame we don’t/barely have the jack of all trades part.

spamming hundred blades is no fun also..

they better not. greatsword is one of my fav weapons. im running around pure melee and it’s soooo much fun and so devastating. the aoe, the dps the goodness! i’ve fought side by side with warriors and my quickening zephyr + greatsword has same dps as hundred blades. LOL. when i do that, almost always the mob aggros me… like champs… i do that and they immediately start coming after me and then ppl are asking why xD its sooo amazing XD

in terms of skills i almost always use other skills. i use the swoop to open and gap close to target. second i immediately throw down my second maul skill to put on bleed and help me kill it faster. then i do my usual chain until the other skills CD

however, if its a tough boss or player this is what i do, swoop, daze immediately so they can’t run, entangle so they’re rooted, maul, and then QZ auto attack and keep the block for when i need. i also have a sword/torch set so i switch to that if i need more evasion and condition.

i dont ever just auto attack… on any weapon at all. im always using my skills…. seriously like many ppl think ranger is just auto attack SB… which is stupid, thres alot more u can do with the ranger, and its more effective… dont get stuck on the autoattack

Whats the CD on 100b and whats the CD and duration on Zephyr! GS is not a DPS weapon, it is designed to put out lower damage because it is defensive in nature! Even when traited you are MUCH better off using a 1h Sword.

If you want to melee go play Warrior, Ranger can use melee weapons but is much more effective with ranged primary weapon.

Lol I use 1h sword as well. 1h sword and gs when compared deal the same amount of damage over time. I don’t have the math but I timed how long it takes to kill a specific target with either weapon. Same time. As well, u can say its not designed for dps, but that’s up to how i play. When I need it to do burst, it does burst and does it well. I love the gs for its defensive and evasion abilities. Same as 1h sword. Thats the main reason I love them. But that doesn’t mean u can’t go and put some heavy damage too. I have plenty of evasion and defensive skills for after I’m done with my qz burst. Why not? I use it when I need it. It’s also saved me countless times in Orr. I get swarmed by six mobs and I qz them all and they’re downed much faster and I can survive no problem

As well I wouldn’t go warrior. I’ve tried it and warriors DIE EASIER than ranger in melee. Warriors drop in battle around me whereas I can remain standing. Often last standing in dungeons and champs as well. Probably bc of all the defensive stuff in the sword sets. I love ranger melee. IMO its more effective than warrior in a practical sense. Im not going for pure dps I’m going for smart melee

That said, I do switch to bows when I need to for example with dungeon bosses or whatnot

According to the OP I must be using my GS wrong then. I spam 2 and 5 constantly for DPS (bleed on the 2 and the 50% pet damage boost from 5) and on stronger enemies / groups I’ll throw down a Fire / Poison / Frost trap and use 3 for the combo. Or use Lightning Reflexes + 3 for a quick evade / dash in.

Greatsword isn’t that powerful, so I doubt it’d get nerfed.

Don’t think the OP actually believes Greatsword deserves a nerf. They are just trying to show the broken reasoning behind Anet’s nerf of the Shortbow.

The GS was actually a little bit OP in beta so they hit it out of the park with the Nerf bat pre-launch.

If they actually increased the GS damage a bit it might become viable. As it is, it isn’t that great (no pun intended) except against weak enemies or compensate with traps etc.

And for the person who says Ranger GS is as good as Warrior GS, ROLFMAO.

I have noticed a graphical glitch on the auto attack which seems to be making me evade every three hits. Hopefully that is fixed.

Lol depends on ur build. With my build my gs with qz indeed steals aggro immediately and is approx the same as 100b on a berserker warrior. But the cd on qz is a lot of course so the gs ISN’T as “good” as the warriors. But is quite good enough, ESP with the smart evasions defensive tricks. For my build the gs is extremely powerful. So is 1h sword for that matter lol

Btw, some numbers to look at. 100 blades base damage is 1624+406? something like that which is 2030 total. ranger greatsword auto attack is 203 + 203 +240 for one chain. with QZ i have around 4 full chains, which totals 2584. its around the same.

when talking to warriors, they have like 14k crit damage from 100b. I also get the same numbers from my build. Each hit of my greatsword auto attack is usually crit-ing around at least 1100-1200 on any given target. the chain has three strikes. hence x 3 = 3,600. Then i land 4 chains. = 14,400. Around there. And this is minus my pet damage. This is in 4 seconds of the QZ burst. The only reason warriors seem to have such amazing 100b attacks is that the numbers add up. But you see, I have the same amount of damage and from what my warrior friends i fight alongside tell me, i have the same dps as them when i do that.

That said, of course our sword isn’t made only for dps… so theres a lot of defensive stuff, the burst dps only lasts for 4 seconds and then needs a 48 second CD…. but hey, 14k damage is good enough for taking down an enemy if given the chance.

If you can pop your daze, immobilize with entangle (and it doesn’t bug out), protect me and stone signet for 6 seconds. and burst for 14k…. you’re good to go huh? XD switch back to bow and finish it off. but i stay too safe to try that XD maybe I shall.

I know it’s no comparison, but I tried out the GS against Utahein, Svanir and the Keep Guards in the Heart of the Mists, it actually wasn’t that bad……the only catch is that you have to build the rest of your skillset around it.
By that I mean, using traps for the combos and speccing for the sword traits.

GS is a HORRIBLE weapon in PvP. The only reason I use a GS in PvP is because it’s an incredibly fun weapon to use. The gap closer is really useful in WvW where you must cover long distances. But the damage? It’s pretty bad.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

The nerf isnt noticeable, its all in everyones head,

You are out of your mind. It’s a base 7.7% damage nerf and 25% when used with Quickening Zephyr. The math has been done. There are videos comparing pre-nerf shortbow fire rates with post nerf rates. Pre-nerf was 16 arrows with QZ, now it’s 12 arrows meaning that QZ is only increasing crossfire by a rate of 1.56 and not 2X like the tooltip claims.

If you don’t see the difference you are sleeping, or trolling.