Guild Wars 2

Tested the new faster arrows in wvw today- because every other class can now pretty much move faster too, it’s just resulted in EVEN MORE misses, obstructions, blocks, etc than before the patch, with a much increased tendency for my targetting to switch for some ungodly reason over to my pet??
No extra damage, and now when you fire off barrage rooted to the spot they close the gap even faster meaning you’re MORE likely to die than before.
Pets- just as fail as before, send in your melee pet it MIGHT reach the target before it dies but don’t count on it. Flying pets die in 3/4 hits from a rifle wielding warrior.

Class needs a serious rethink not the minor tinkering at the edges that this patch is- even being able to actually have a pet survive for more then 10 seconds would be a start.

Actually as the devs seem to think pets are a good proportion of our dps and ‘we should always have a pet out’ how about making them damn near impossible to kill so they actually contribute to damage in wvw in anything other than very small smirmishes.

Interesting, I found the opposite to be true. With 1 death and over 200 kills last night in WvWvW, my pet and I were hitting much more often (though still getting the occasional obstructed on still and moving targets). Afterwards I went into PvP training against golems and found melee pets do in fact hit much more often than before. A wolf prepatch took an average of 50s to kill the moving golem, now it takes 37s. A jaguar averaged 26s and I managed to get it to kill the golem in 19s twice. Birds however, only saw about a 3-5s improvement due to their delay after attacking and random swiftness boon period. As for pets dieing, you just need to micro them better. Don’t send them into a zerg and hope they can do anything. I am very pleased with this patch, but improvements can still be made for sure.

My main issue is pets in pve Dungeons. I feel like I am forced to use bears more often than not, or use ranged pets. Sure on trash I can get away with cats now and again, and I am switching every 16s for quickness, using “my” heal for my pet more often than not and yet it still drops dead from random frontal cleaves from trash.

Would be nice if pets that had low health would try to stay behind mobs, would also be fantastic if pets took reduced aoe damage in dungeons. So that way I could have a choice and play the way I want to play, to some extent anyway.

Kellie.3687:

My main issue is pets in pve Dungeons. I feel like I am forced to use bears more often than not, or use ranged pets. Sure on trash I can get away with cats now and again, and I am switching every 16s for quickness, using “my” heal for my pet more often than not and yet it still drops dead from random frontal cleaves from trash.

Would be nice if pets that had low health would try to stay behind mobs, would also be fantastic if pets took reduced aoe damage in dungeons. So that way I could have a choice and play the way I want to play, to some extent anyway.

While I agree with what you are saying, I disagree with you (and many others) with how you use your pet. Swapping it every 16s for 2s of quickness is a terrible waste (If the pet dies the cooldown go up to 60s or if traited, 48s anyway). Try and utilize the pet to it’s fullest potential and take pets that complement your build. Why? When you swap pets, your new pet comes out beside you, which is rarely near any enemies, making the 2s of quickness on it nearly worthless. With your build, I assume base damage is terrible so quickness on you results in a chance at quicker condition application and skill activation. Problem is, if you get interrupted, that quickness was wasted. If you opponent evades, quickness was wasted. The way I see it, 2s of quickness is so meager that having a dysfunctional pet out far surpasses it in usefulness unless the pet is dead. With the recent patch, melee pets aren’t nearly as bad at hitting moving targets.

Skyrant Kangaroomouse.7458:

Developers never played this class and they are to busy jerking each other off on their thieves and mesmers.

LOL

I would disagree. We as a profession probably got the biggest improvement out of this patch. My pet hits much more often. If your pet can’t catch people, increase its movement speed (easiest way is the major trait in skirmishing). Arrows are faster and we are faster. No complaints here, I think they improved as much as they could for the time being, a major overhaul for any class would unfairly unbalance the game.

There are still some problems, but hey that’s with every class, at least we got the most love this round, and are improving. For instance: Necro staff autoattack is still slow enough to run and dodge at 600 range, not to mention condition damage being lackluster compared to power. Engineer kits can now use sigils, but kits to begin with have all some weak flaw.

With regards to pets, if you dont want them to die, dont send them into a moshpit of damage. In dungeons or zerging, best option may be to keep them by you and use the buffs or heal, or use ranged attacks. Pet control takes time to master, but it isnt too difficult.

All in all, I am becoming better at my ranger, who is my main. The more you master it, the less you feel the class needs a huge improvement. I can 1v1 any class and win. Some matchups are harder and some players skill outmatch mine, but I feel even in my chances. I don’t feel like we need improvement so much as other OP builds in certain professions need nerfs. If ranger continues to disappoint, re-roll or try another class, maybe it doesn’t fit your playstyle.

The patch was good. Nothing groundbreaking but good nonetheless

There’s still the obstructed issue but i only hope that they are close to resolving the issue. Overall I think ranger shouldn’t be too much of an issue for Anet, and by saying that, I feel that they have laid a good foundation for the future. Going forward there should be nice improvements for the Ranger.

The only thing is that I hope they either do away with spirits or reconstruct the spirits in a more efficient manner.