Guild Wars 2

Anyone else noticed after base specialization revamp our only two strongest condi removals are now both grandmaster survival tier? Meaning you can’t have Emphatic Bond and the new Wildreness Knowledge on at the same time?

I say that pretty much kills build diversity, making tanky melee oriented builds (that will deal with a lot more attacks then ranged ones) less viable…

You are right, but not only that, they also kill the possibility of ever taking Poison Master for any PvP.

Really good condition removal in the form of TWO GM traits was kinda our thing, but that is likely gone now and its a big shame.

I feel the same. At the same time, i always hated Emphatic Bond so i’m happy that i won’t run it anymore, but yeah now wilderness knowledge feel way more stronger than poison master. However, we saw some poison stacking (same as the burning stacks) in a rdy up video that i can’t remember… So maybe poison master will be super powerfull with that change so it’ll be a more offensive alternative to WK. I always felt like emphatic bond would have more it’s place in BM traitline, due to the fact that it involve the pet, and maybe trade it with with honed axes or another trait.

While I agree with survival condi remove being in survival line (should’ve been from day one!) Empathic bond does not belong there indeed. It should indeed be either in beastmastery line or nature magic, since it’s quite “pety” and both of these lines deal a lot with master-pet helping eachother.

Well, maybe the druid will get weapon skills and utilities that remove conditions. But the survivalist ranger condition build might be dead

So we gotta yell out to a-net just as they said – if a build is threatened, yell out so they can fix that.

i agree with you guys wouldn’t you rather wait. and see what druid might give us?
but like i said i agree i liked my dual condi remove as melee ranger.
but nothing is final atm i am waiting for the druid see what i will bring us as well as the new skills. but pure ranger wise its pain in the kitten .
but so far nothing is final.

If you are survival ranger you have no worries, you now have TU as a condi removal and Keen degde for free(also condi removal), you realy dont need EB. The problem is with other builds that doesnt want to build around WS trait line, like we had to do for years(until SOTF came). Our condi removal capabilities doesnt get butchered – our build diversity does. I agree with solutuon of moving EB To NM and perheps change the skill somehow.

They should make empathic bond BM grandmaster and buff it while they do aswell making these things give and effect, could be that your pet gains a boon for every condi it gets.

Am I the only one who cares that its not called Survival of the Fittest anymore?

I don’t mind EB and SotF (that name is much better (so is Read the Wind in MM for us gw1 rangers aswell)) being in the same trait line as much as I hate having to give up Poison Master from my condi build. I never ran double condi clear in the later versions of the meta anways.

What the current trait setup does however is pretty much forcing every ranger pvp build into Wilderness Survival, picking Wilderness Knowledge or EB depending on your utilities, just like pretty much every warrior build spec into Defense for Cleansing Ire.

I’m on the fence at the moment.

Am I the only one that thinks the rng of EB doesn’t qualify it to be a GM trait?

I think they should swap wilderness knowledge with protective ward in the nature line and move EB to a master trait.

Unless jamming them all into one line was a complete oversight, the only reason I can think of that they would do this is that we are finally getting our antidote signet back http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Antidote_Signet

Why is Anet completely incapable of doing anything for ranger properly? Empathic Bond has always been garbage and completely situational so whatever. But why the kitten did they put poison master and wilderness knowledge in the same line…

Poison master is fantastic and was awesome with survival of the fittest but I guess our options now are to have poison master or zero condition removal. sounds really rad.

I guess even after two years Anet hasn’t learned kitten, or maybe they’re too busy buffing the hell out of mesmer and guard while simultaneously kittening rangers and still not giving necros the things they’ve needed either.

this could have been their chance to fix things but instead they are simply breaking them more.

vespers.1759:

I guess even after two years Anet hasn’t learned kitten, or maybe they’re too busy buffing the hell out of mesmer and guard while simultaneously kittening rangers and still not giving necros the things they’ve needed either.

The Ranger changes are much better then the Mesmer changes. The placement of our two condi traits are the only major problem. The Axe/GS traits and a couple of useless ones are more minor.

DH is rediculously over the top though.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Am I the only one that thinks the rng of EB doesn’t qualify it to be a GM trait?

I think they should swap wilderness knowledge with protective ward in the nature line and move EB to a master trait.

Unless jamming them all into one line was a complete oversight, the only reason I can think of that they would do this is that we are finally getting our antidote signet back http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Antidote_Signet

How is EB rng? It is the very definition of NOT rng, you can rely on it to transfer 3 conditions every 10s as long as your pet is alive. It is however very passive, but that is not necessarily a bad thing since if we didn’t have it, we would also be forced to bring survival skills. That said, it could be a lot better, for instance if it were 1 condition every 3s and merged with something else like Carnivorous Appetite(on hit instead of crit) or even Invigorating Bond.

I would LOVE to see Antidote signet back, especially with that CD combined with Beastmaster’s Might hahaha. But it would be a great ACTIVE condi cleanse.

Levetty.1279:

The Ranger changes are much better then the Mesmer changes. The placement of our two condi traits are the only major problem. The Axe/GS traits and a couple of useless ones are more minor.

I don’t think the placement of 2HT is a problem at all, in fact, it is very intuitive to me to have it in BM where it synergizes perfectly with the MM traits, leaving one line open for utility etc.

Axe placement is also pretty nice, since in builds that use your axe, you are generally buffing the pet and dealing condi damage, not using MM or Skirm. Leaving WS, NM and BM, making for lots of survival but buffing your pet to the hilt. I like the placement.

There are a couple of useless ones though and some of ours have been left out that could have been merged.

As for Dragon Hunter let’s not compare apples…to an empty shelf. We’ve yet to see what druid can do. Then we can compare.

But yeah. I’m also quite uncomfortable with moment of clairty being moved to marksmanship. I’m very happy to see it become master tier (i love this trait), but what is it doing there? Longbow doesn’t have any dazes or stuns. Shortbow and greatsword benefit from that trait, also downed state (thunderclap) and pet (boar forage items). Any traitline would fit but marksmanship…

I would very much like some sort of cleanse in the BM line. Perhaps a trait that clears 1-2 condition(s) per ally (and the ranger of course) in a 360 radius around the pet and/or the ranger when you swap pet. It would hardly be overpowered, but a decent support skill.

I can’t imagine playing pvp without ways to clear conditions. More options, that are good in different ways would be welcome.

PBS, PoS, Hiltbash and Counterattack all have good synergy with MoC and Remorseless, GS in particular with 2HT. LB is better than SB for MoC because of the much shorter CD on PBS, imo.

Perhaps they could move it back to Skirm and swap with Spotter, putting it back to Marks. Would be fitting.

I really hope the druid specialization will have some condition cleansing on the staff skills or in their new utilities, because otherwise every druid build will only be able to pick a single trait line for variety. Druidism/Wilderness Survival/ X.

Levetty.1279:

Am I the only one who cares that its not called Survival of the Fittest anymore?

I care, cause that was a cool name.

Chokolata.1870:

Well, maybe the druid will get weapon skills and utilities that remove conditions. But the survivalist ranger condition build might be dead

I admit, I play a SotF condi Ranger and also take EB. But with the new scheme, all is not lost. Troll Unguent becomes a Wilderness skill and Evasive Purity gets better. So maybe you go from crazy strong vs condis to just strong, but you gain in other areas. For ex, without EB hurting your pet and some pretty awesome procs on F2 skills, birds might be making a come back. We’ll be fine.