Guild Wars 2

This pet was completely ruined, so sad.

Now it does less burst damage than a cat, and you don’t even get the on-demand smoke field.

Back to the shelf with this one.

I guess during their tests some of the devs were getting rekt by it lol

Please don’t. The permablind builds that it made possible were not skilled and were not fun, just a bunch of F2 spam.

SolarDragon.7063:

Please don’t. The permablind builds that it made possible were not skilled and were not fun, just a bunch of F2 spam.

The field does not blind. You’d need to combo it for that. It is not like Black Powder Shot or Smoke Screen.

Please learn what you are talking about before posting nonsense.

SolarDragon.7063:

Please don’t. The permablind builds that it made possible were not skilled and were not fun, just a bunch of F2 spam.

There was that bug where you could spam F2 and it would blind every time you pressed it, but that was fixed in like 12 hours WELL before HoT. The smokescale causes all attacks on it to miss with smokefield, but the field itself does nothing but act as a combo field. You can stand in the field and hit the ranger just fine. Good try though!

Norrath.5910:

SolarDragon.7063:

Please don’t. The permablind builds that it made possible were not skilled and were not fun, just a bunch of F2 spam.

There was that bug where you could spam F2 and it would blind every time you pressed it, but that was fixed in like 12 hours WELL before HoT. The smokescale causes all attacks on it to miss with smokefield, but the field itself does nothing but act as a combo field. You can stand in the field and hit the ranger just fine. Good try though!

Except it wasn’t, it was in the release as well.
Also, no shortage of projectile finishers on Ranger. Not like it’s hard to combo a field when you’ve got shortbow spam or LB 2. Blind is cool but not when it’s applied every 2 seconds. That was what was happening on release.

question: why can’t we decide which skill is on F2?

I would like to chime in once again to vote AGAINST reverting. having an on-demand burst and the ability to might stack is a much better package for us.

I would also like to emphasize that 95% of the people posting here would never even use the smoke field tactically because it requires a) a team, and b) coordination. secondly, you can still blast the smoke field when the smokescale drops it after his Smoke Assault. lastly, with the Smoke Assault damage nerf, not having it on-demand would make it extremely subpar.

druids already bring more than enough team support and we could use a bit of on-demand spike. I implore the devs to leave smokescale as is right now, it’s perfect. please don’t always concede to mass whining because like the masses IRL, many players don’t have a good grasp on the tools theyre being given.

Methal.9045:

question: why can’t we decide which skill is on F2?

this would be a very nice addition to pet customization. but I imagine they don’t have the resources and the time to implement this.

mistsim.2748:

this would be a very nice addition to pet customization. but I imagine they don’t have the resources and the time to implement this.

They have resources to nerf but none for meaningful changes?!

Y’know what? I think the devs do have a vision for ranger, and it’s one where ranger is a brainless class to play.

a lot of vision went into the druid and I feel ashamed the ranger community doesn’t recognize this. the smokescale f2 nerf was needed, everyone rational knows it.

mistsim.2748:

a lot of vision went into the druid and I feel ashamed the ranger community doesn’t recognize this. the smokescale f2 nerf was needed, everyone rational knows it.

a lot of vision do develop a healbot with bad mechanics and no synnergy with core ranger? I beg to differ.
the smokescale was much better before because you could combo the smoke field when you wanted. and smoke assault on autocast is great. besides using it to stack might is not that crucial since the WHaO shares all might stacks

mistsim.2748:

I would like to chime in once again to vote AGAINST reverting. having an on-demand burst and the ability to might stack is a much better package for us.

I would also like to emphasize that 95% of the people posting here would never even use the smoke field tactically because it requires a) a team, and b) coordination. secondly, you can still blast the smoke field when the smokescale drops it after his Smoke Assault. lastly, with the Smoke Assault damage nerf, not having it on-demand would make it extremely subpar.

druids already bring more than enough team support and we could use a bit of on-demand spike. I implore the devs to leave smokescale as is right now, it’s perfect. please don’t always concede to mass whining because like the masses IRL, many players don’t have a good grasp on the tools theyre being given.

Methal.9045:

question: why can’t we decide which skill is on F2?

this would be a very nice addition to pet customization. but I imagine they don’t have the resources and the time to implement this.

Mate, we already had on-demand burst with Smokey, merely by swapping to it when we wanted it. The same way you swap to a Drake for Tail Swipe. Not hard.

We also have might stacking in the exact same way. Serious, if you cannot use your pet like that as yet, how is it you are in the MMR bracket you keep mentioning?

As it was, you could have kept the smokey on swap so it would be less expected, swapped to it when you wanted the burst, activated F2, Ancestral grace into teh field, swap to GS with intel sigil and Crit Maul from stealth, every 16s. Or leap it to escape in stealth etc etc.

That would have been a million times better. And you would still have the burst when you wanted it, you just have it on swap.

Plus, smokey would have been perfect for PvE as well because of the on-demand smoke field making Ranger a viable option for skipping.

The other issue in PvE and WvW is it will overwrite fire fields, therefore be undesirable.

As well as being highly valued for havok groups in WvW. It is the best smoke field in the game and now its totally random and in combat only.

Also, how do you know that 95% of the people asking for the revert would not use it tactically? That is just ridiculous. Even if you are right, if you don’t give people different tools, they will never improve or do anything differently.

Honestly, it sounds like you don’t have a good grasp of what tools have been taken away. Many pages of people asking for a revert and you are the only guy saying it should remain as is.

Pet choices are largely dependent on F2 abilities and smoke field is what we needed; not another DPS oriented F2 ability.

/signed please change back to smoke screen

revert the f2 changes pls

mistsim.2748:

I would like to chime in once again to vote AGAINST reverting. having an on-demand burst and the ability to might stack is a much better package for us.

Go away. On demand assault is usable but not as much as on demand smoke field. I will say why below.

secondly, you can still blast the smoke field when the smokescale drops it after his Smoke Assault.

Why the hell would anyone want to use assault, then combo blast the smoke field? It would put us in combat and stealth? For what? Did we have a stealth attack like Thieves? And how? Most of the time the pet will be next to the enemy so the blast will immediately reveal us. That is in no way ideal. If you mean combo projectile for blinds, that’s understandable, but still on demand smoke field will allow more strategic use of stealth or blinds against the enemy, unlike right now where we’d have to use projectile blinds at the beginning and that would be it.

I would also like to emphasize that 95% of the people posting here would never even use the smoke field tactically because it requires a) a team, and b) coordination.

You should read what you write before signing it off, it will do you good in real life. 95%? That’s very biased and way too opinionated to even hold value as an emphasis. I didn’t realize that you made a poll and came up with that number somehow. What are you, a mind reader? And guess what? I and others WILL use it tactically with 3 blasts – Warhorn #5, Staff #3 and CF #3 assuming the degen will be reworked. How is that not tactical? And when I am with friends and in party, they can blast as easily as pressing a button or two. It’s not rocket science. You’re intentionally making it sound unworkable and impractical just to make your nonsense point of having assault as F2.

please don’t always concede to mass whining because like the masses IRL, many players don’t have a good grasp on the tools theyre being given.*

For the love of my life, learn your godkitten grammar. It hurts my brain and I rarely say this when correcting others. Mass whining? If that’s how you wish to perceive, fine. But it’s not mass whining when most of their arguments to form this request is sound, structured and practical. Tools? The assault is deemed more of a tool than a smoke field that allows more strategic use? Press F2 for more damage is more of a tool? The kitten are you on? Must be some real good stuff because all I see is nonsense pouted with biased opinions to nullify a mass’s structural arguments all because of your weird personal obsession for ‘Press F2 for dps’ mentality.

Just go away and stop humiliating yourself.

Back to point, the F2 needs to be returned into smoke field because of its strategic use when on demand for blinds/stealth/smokescale’s survival when in the field and because it is an unintentional backfiring mechanism to be left to and taken control by the pet’s AI as it is right now.

mistsim.2748:

I would like to chime in once again to vote AGAINST reverting. having an on-demand burst and the ability to might stack is a much better package for us.

Blast finisher is nice but its not as nice as a smoke field which offers more utility/strategic use. As mentioned already, you should be using swap for the blast finisher though (same as Drake) and F2 for the smoke field instead so your point is moot.

We have an endless supply of pets that do damage for F2. Smokescale is the only one that offers a smoke field and you want to shove the smoke field (which is a very useful field) to the back in favor of another DPS oriented F2 ability?

^ people, for the record he’s using smoke assault to stack might so he can transfer it over to himself. Not really as a burst.

bloodpyrope.8630:

^ people, for the record he’s using smoke assault to stack might so he can transfer it over to himself. Not really as a burst.

Sorry for the confusion.

So a user wants to keep the current Smokescale because it offers advantages to a build that takes WHaO? Fair enough…

I’d rather it be a smoke field for general use/utility though and because I don’t want random smoke fields randomly overwriting other fields.

Leodon.1564:

Sorry for the confusion.

So a user wants to keep the current Smokescale because it offers advantages to a build that takes WHaO? Fair enough…

I’d rather it be a smoke field for general use/utility.

Yup. And that’s where things get complicated.

I think Anet can solve this problem by giving us a second smokescale. Call it a Juvenile White Smokescale or whatever, but make it’s F2 Smokefield then.

:D

bloodpyrope.8630:

Leodon.1564:

Sorry for the confusion.

So a user wants to keep the current Smokescale because it offers advantages to a build that takes WHaO? Fair enough…

I’d rather it be a smoke field for general use/utility.

Yup. And that’s where things get complicated.

I think Anet can solve this problem by giving us a second smokescale. Call it a Juvenile White Smokescale or whatever, but make it’s F2 Smokefield then.

:D

Anet could actually change it by finally letting us choose which skill is the F2 skill on pets but that will never happen.

mistsim.2748:

a lot of vision went into the druid and I feel ashamed the ranger community doesn’t recognize this. the smokescale f2 nerf was needed, everyone rational knows it.

At least partly, because they’re Rangers, not Druids.

Druids are cool too, but they have nothing at all to do with Rangers.

I don’t want to sound totally ungrateful, but it’s almost like a comedy sketch to give one familiar, well-established class a spec that, essentially, turns it into another, again familiar, well established class (although, admittedly, not in this game).

Just bizarre, really.

Almost like that person doesn’t really understand what Rangers, or Druids, are (or were).

Like they didn’t even read up on their history…

…and no, everyone “rational” does not know that.

When I was complaining, on here, about Ranger being sub-par to pretty much everything else, in WvW and was saying I thought it needed far more sustained, untargeted stealth (because, if any class should have an ability to blend into its surroundings, it’s Ranger), I was told “Don’t worry, you will have that from Smokescale, in HoT.”.

Well, I’m very glad I took that with a HUGE pinch of salt, didn’t “count my chickens” (to mix my metaphors) and went back to my Mesmer; because, otherwise I would be extremely disappointed.

Not that I think it would be enough to save Ranger, anyway.

We need proper stealth in our own utility choices; not just tied to some poor AI pet with, quite possibly, too small a range to make it practical.

Not only that, but the Smokescale is not a “pretty” pet – it will not appeal to everyone.

So, even if they revert it and it (amazingly) works as intended, it will still not be ideal, as people will feel obliged to use it.

But, it would at least be a start.

Disappointed this wasn’t just changed back in the patch. Please revert this stupid change.

Wait. This didn’t get fixed? After a dev was on our forum. So was the dev like a robot or something? Fix this kittening garbage

please do not change smokescale F2. it is the pet along with bristleback that makes up for the dps loss of a druid. and more stealth for rangers are just too much. for the OP please just learn how to play better because if you only think that this is the way to make your class more interesting then I will tell you now that you are mistaken. use your brain and wait for the moment the pet use the smokefield then decide if you should use it or not to add challenges.

lxghostxl.5097:

please do not change smokescale F2. it is the pet along with bristleback that makes up for the dps loss of a druid. and more stealth for rangers are just too much. for the OP please just learn how to play better because if you only think that this is the way to make your class more interesting then I will tell you now that you are mistaken. use your brain and wait for the moment the pet use the smokefield then decide if you should use it or not to add challenges.

You’re suggesting we wait for our already unreliable NPC ally to decide if when to use the ability instead of utilizing it when we need it to get out of a bind. It’s not a matter of learn to play, it’s a matter of utilizing class mechanics effectively. F2 skills need to matter.

I haven’t posted here yet, so I would be in favor of a revert. THOUGH I DON’T THINK ALL CAPS IS GOING!!!! TO GET DEV ATTENTION!!!

~ Kovu

Post to hit 180. Also, why are people still using this pet in PvP?

Hammerguard.9834:

Post to hit 180. Also, why are people still using this pet in PvP?

It actually has a good chance of hitting people with the F2?

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Hammerguard.9834:

Post to hit 180. Also, why are people still using this pet in PvP?

It actually has a good chance of hitting people with the F2?

And now this is why they won’t change it back. Dear Lord, why ….
The druid fix doesn’t soften the blow too much, does it?

edit: Just played a pvp game with the new smokescole, whilst I think the f2 works I’m not convinced to take this over my usual owl or other bird pet.

lxghostxl.5097:

please do not change smokescale F2. it is the pet along with bristleback that makes up for the dps loss of a druid. and more stealth for rangers are just too much. for the OP please just learn how to play better because if you only think that this is the way to make your class more interesting then I will tell you now that you are mistaken. use your brain and wait for the moment the pet use the smokefield then decide if you should use it or not to add challenges.

lxghostxl.5097:

it is the pet along with bristleback that makes up for the dps loss of a druid.

lxghostxl.5097:

bristleback dps

lxghostxl.5097:

bristleback

…

mistsim.2748:

I would like to chime in once again to vote AGAINST reverting. having an on-demand burst and the ability to might stack is a much better package for us.

I would also like to emphasize that 95% of the people posting here would never even use the smoke field tactically because it requires a) a team, and b) coordination. secondly, you can still blast the smoke field when the smokescale drops it after his Smoke Assault. lastly, with the Smoke Assault damage nerf, not having it on-demand would make it extremely subpar.

druids already bring more than enough team support and we could use a bit of on-demand spike. I implore the devs to leave smokescale as is right now, it’s perfect. please don’t always concede to mass whining because like the masses IRL, many players don’t have a good grasp on the tools theyre being given.

It doesn’t requires a team nor coordination with anyone besides yourself to utilize a smoke field. How man times do people need to repeat themselves for you to understand that there are uses of this on-demand smoke field that people know of and will utlize?

Stop assuming things about other ranger players and their uses of the smokescale to front your own little campaign about this pet. It quite frankly makes you look like a sack of kitten.

The smokescale isnt a druid pet, it’s a ranger pet. The damage the druid brings is completely irrelevent to anything about the smokescale. And it’s not perfect. No pet with a combo field as one of its automatic rotation attacks will ever be perfect. It will remain as a token of why this profession sorely needs more control of our pet skill. But until they adress that, if ever; smoke field over burst any day.

need to bring it up.

please give us the active use of a smoke field back. it opens such nice tactics.
there is three good ideas around in this forum which would solve this issue…

1.) make f1 and f3 to attack and come back on one button so we can use f3 as second pet ability, problem on nearly all pets solved.

2.) let us choose between the two pet abilitys which one we want to use on f2 .
as example smokescale between the revenant attack or the smokefield.

3.) create a second smokescale pet, so one can heave the old f2 ability.

smokescale was the best pet ever created, don’t leave it this way.

Ragnar.3916:

need to bring it up.

please give us the active use of a smoke field back. it opens such nice tactics.
there is three good ideas around in this forum which would solve this issue…

1.) make f1 and f3 to attack and come back on one button so we can use f3 as second pet ability, problem on nearly all pets solved.

2.) let us choose between the two pet abilitys which one we want to use on f2 .
as example smokescale between the revenant attack or the smokefield.

3.) create a second smokescale pet, so one can heave the old f2 ability.

smokescale was the best pet ever created, don’t leave it this way.

We have a special command that is unique to rangers, “toggle pet passive/aggressive” and it can be bound to any key. It can function as what you described in 1.) Technically we can free up 3 keys for pet skills.

Excellent ideas, this needs to be reverted.

@Irenio, if you care for rangers, revert Smoke with Assault, or even better bring us two active skills. We really need that smoke field, please understand us that utility adds the quality of the game, not the pure burst damage, which can be controlled anyways, smoke fields cannot be without forcing the attack!

I WONDER, why do we even have to explain WHY to revert F2 skills? That’s they key question for me.

mistsim.2748:

I would like to chime in once again to vote AGAINST reverting. having an on-demand burst and the ability to might stack is a much better package for us.

I would also like to emphasize that 95% of the people posting here would never even use the smoke field tactically because it requires a) a team, and b) coordination. secondly, you can still blast the smoke field when the smokescale drops it after his Smoke Assault. lastly, with the Smoke Assault damage nerf, not having it on-demand would make it extremely subpar.

druids already bring more than enough team support and we could use a bit of on-demand spike. I implore the devs to leave smokescale as is right now, it’s perfect. please don’t always concede to mass whining because like the masses IRL, many players don’t have a good grasp on the tools theyre being given.

Methal.9045:

question: why can’t we decide which skill is on F2?

this would be a very nice addition to pet customization. but I imagine they don’t have the resources and the time to implement this.

• How about solo roaming?
• How about duo roaming?
• How about enjoying utility more then burst, because we already have enough ways to get might now?
• How about bursting other ways then on demand while you can burst fairly enough now?
• Did i mantion how about diversity to the builds ?
• And How about my pet stopping each time it comes to the target, and starts performing smoke field on location where enemy left long time ago ?
• How about structural viability for ranger in sPvP with an on demand smoke field?
• How about having less damage then a bird?
• How about druing have nothing to do with pet at all?
• How about ranger support not being desired by true rangers, but by people that wanted rangers around?
• How about making our pets decent, rather then semi-desperate-sack-of-rice?
• How about that?

You like your burst, just like every mesmer, and warriors, but we lack utility, survivability and chance to survive with lighter builds without going full dire or soldier regen ranger.

But what you don’t know, that the base smokescale damage is very undercut compared to other pets, all the burst and damage is in F2 skill now, and after that, this pet is useless, because of the smoke field which interrupts itself makes this pet unviable to chase/they are to easy to kite around.

How about making right call for once and giving ranger utility that actually matters, my friend?

Still waiting for a bullkitten revert!

Just going to leave this here, in case anyone has not voted yet

Smokescale F2 preference Poll

The ranger class needs the smoke field, because it always competes with engi & thief for fractal spots. That’s what I think anyways. Arena Net could argue that now that dungeons aren’t relevant anymore who cares, right?

But it is not just the fact that the on demand smoke field is usefull. Having the pet autocast the smokefield can be deterimental by overlapping more important fields during a battle. Having control over a field skill is essential for team coordination and for self combos.

kzar.3079:

But it is not just the fact that the on demand smoke field is usefull. Having the pet autocast the smokefield can be deterimental by overlapping more important fields during a battle. Having control over a field skill is essential for team coordination and for self combos.

This.

I can honestly care less about the damage nerf, hell they could have flat out removed the skill and I would’ve been fine with it if they kept the smoke field, since that’s the #1 reason I brought the pet anyway, the damage is just a small perk. They really need to swap this back, never have I wanted to control an uncontrollable pet skill this much…

They should nerf Sic ’Em damage, so people who don’t use it don’t get their pets nerfed.

It’s always those pet buff burst builds that ruin it. Signet of the Wild + Sic ’Em and you get 25%+40% more damage on your pet. Then they make a video about how OP it is (because it is), but the problem is not the pet, but Sic’ Em damage. So they have to balance pets based on the idea that you WILL run it with Signet of the Wild + Sic ’Em and burst people down.

Now running Smokescale barely does any damage without Beastmastery, Signet of the Wild and Sic ’Em.

Holland.9351:

They should nerf Sic ’Em damage, so people who don’t use it don’t get their pets nerfed.

It’s always those pet buff burst builds that ruin it. Signet of the Wild + Sic ’Em and you get 25%+40% more damage on your pet. Then they make a video about how OP it is (because it is), but the problem is not the pet, but Sic’ Em damage. So they have to balance pets based on the idea that you WILL run it with Signet of the Wild + Sic ’Em and burst people down.

Now running Smokescale barely does any damage without Beastmastery, Signet of the Wild and Sic ’Em.

I don’t know about that, I think the burst opener it did was crazy, even without any additional boost. I just don’t get the ridiculous skill swap …

Bump for smoke field on f2.
Let us have nice things!

Just dropping by to vote again to reverse this change & give us back the smoke field as the smokescale’s F2.

Again, the swap made no sense. And it still makes no sense.

So then can the smoke field also be buffed? A blind field? You can take out pet immunity if you want. :P

Edit: Or atleast a one time blind application at the start.

Smoke assault makes sense to be on auto cast because it is a damage/mobility skill. The smoke field has much more uses and thus deserves to be player controlled. If left on auto cast it will overwrite combo fields, keep the pet out of melee and generally be a DPS loss.

Gah im not sure I want them swapped back anymore. As a shout ranger having the burst skill as something I can control as a massive part of my dmg. Before I agreed that they needed to be swapped back. But after playing with it. I find I like it as it is far more.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Going to be investigating this. It may require some change to Smoke Assault, since the active skills are intended to be a little stronger than the passive skills.

Assault was fine, good, interesting, and satisfying, if you intend to change any of smoke assault mechanics, i’m bagging you let us know what plans are you having for this, and don’t destroy the pet.

Also how come “Active are stronger then passive?”
Moa skills?
Drake skills?
Pig skills?
Bear skills?

You don’t have to do anything about the smokescale except swap them around and it’s perfect! This pet needs mobility, not just that. Please take a look on my topic, how weak our pets are. I’ll also make moving data today, and point out how importent is that pets are buffed to smokescale level. Keep an eye on ranger forum.