Guild Wars 2

This is sad, but hardly surprising.

Nightmare Hound for Torment.
Basilisk for Petrification.

As I’ve said since the release of the game, I’d love to have a Nightmare Court Hound.

Cenile.8340:

When ranger pets are dead/no health, it still heals the ranger but you can’t even knock it away. If you do knock it back before it loses all its health, it just runs back and continues to res the ranger. Is this working as intended?

What are your thoughts?

This must be a bug, because I am a ranger and dead pets never resurrect me.

One of the ranger’s downed skill is to resurrect the pet and then it proceeds to heal you. But if the pet is interrupted, it stops healing the ranger.

Juba.8406:

Abrilete.1439:

Cool, let’s add more facts to the list:

• Even a small step in the terrain can obstruct it.
• Will hit only one target unless traited, so it may not hit the intended target.
• Won’t hit a thing if you don’t have a target.
• Can be reflected.

hmm so you want a wallhack, an autotarget and an Unblockable Rapid Fire ?

cool.

Maybe you should polish your reading skills, as I was just stating more plain facts about Longbow and how it compares with melee weapons:
- melee isn’t obstructed by small steps in the terrain
- melee (usually) hits more than one target
- melee can hit without having a target
- melee can’t be reflected

Am I wrong?

Juba.8406:

STRanger.5120:

Juba.8406:

jcbroe.4329:

How would you redesign the weapons in this game that have “1 button burst” mechanics, like Warrior Greatsword and Ranger Longbow, to suit where you think gameplay needs to go to be balanced?

dude don’t you even dare to compare 100b to Rapid fire, realms and ages can be fit between the two, 100b feels so Stone Age to this new Rapid fire and it actually requires skill to setup properly.

i don’t have anything against rangers but putting these two skills in the same line is wrong.

Comparing melee skill with ranged is not ideal, that’s true. But saying that RF doesn’t need a setup to be landed is wrong too….

Take the facts, both are channeled abilities – check
Both are multi-hit abilities – check
Both can be easily countered when not set up properly – check
Both easily kill bad players – check
Melee does more dmg than ranged – check

Where’s the problem then?

here ill make it easier for you :

• ranged can get it to 1500 range
• almost same cd
• faster cast time
• Combo Finisher
• 10 hits
• 10 stacks of Vulnerability
• can Pierce when traited
• it keeps tracking target
• does not root you while channeling
• easy to spam
• ZERO risk unlike setting 100b

Cool, let’s add more facts to the list:

• Even a small step in the terrain can obstruct it.
• Will hit only one target unless traited, so it may not hit the intended target.
• Won’t hit a thing if you don’t have a target.
• Can be reflected.

Muchacho.2390:

Josh Davis.6015:

The point about warrior low/high mobility was actually community feedback that we were relaying, in that you would like to see the warrior have less access to mobility skills – not more. We don’t think warrior should have more mobility.

I think it would be enough to give most warrior mobility skills a target reqirement. So they could go in a fight an stay on thier targets but not leave at will.

Nice idea!

shadowpass.4236:

they said melee not utility

Then, as far as I know, we only have bonfire and whirling defense.

Sarision.6347:

Sustained melee AoE

So does that mean we don’t cleave with our melee weapons, but actually AoE (five targets instead of three)?

Maybe they were talking about traps and bonfire.

As a ranger, first of all I’d like to know if something’s being made with all the ideas and opinions given by the Comunity in the Ranger CDI.

Then, regarding your questions…
Rangers, as a “Nature-atuned class”, should be great at Control, Mobility, Support and Pet management. But all these aspects are not effective right now:
- Control is not usefull when nearly all clases have easy access to stability, teleports, blocks…
- Mobility doesn’t work because we lack habilities to escape/pursue, have to use skills that root us (barrage, whirling defense) or have clunky mechanics (sword).
- Support should be provided with spirits, but they don’t work in many scenarios, even if fully traited.
- Pets still have lots problems with pathing and surviability (plus vey long cooldowns).

At the same time, Rangers still have to deal with erratic trait placement, very low damage coeficients and lots of bow bugs (missed, missed, obstructed, missed, out of range…).

Latest patches helped a lot with pets responsiveness and condition cleaning, but there are still many problems to address.

rabidsmiles.5926:

Abrilete.1439:

I you were lucky enought, you could heal from 0 to max when fighting inside a Healing Spring just autoatacking. I’d say that’s a little bit OP.

And if you aren’t paying attention enough to the ranger who is stabbing you with their sword to actually stand IN the healing spring and allow him to get the finisher…I say you deserve to die and he deserves the healing. Just because something could be OP in 1 situation doesn’t make it always OP in ALL situations.

That’s true in PVP and WvW, but not in PvE.
A group with 3 rangers using sword and healing spring would be nearly unkillable, and all they would have to do is activate autoattack and alternate the activation of the healing spring.

All that said, I’d love to have a leap finisher on auto because it would sinergize with traps very nicely. But I still think it could be OP in some situations.

Sigmoid.7082:

• sword #1 Should be leap finisher (20%)
  e

I you were lucky enought, you could heal from 0 to max when fighting inside a Healing Spring just autoatacking. I’d say that’s a little bit OP.

DiamondMeteor.8345:

Didn’t people used to do that with the pre-nerf “Guard!” back when the game came out?

I did that many times, with Jaguar and Quickening Zephyr, but I used it to force Eles and Mesmers to retreat off the walls. Jaguars used to hit really hard those days… I miss it…

I love to see that no one finds ranger broken.
And still no news from the devs regarding the CDI.

Nightmare Hound. I would be happy just with that one.

I used to use them for the high critical damage, but not anymore.

Carighan.6758:

the heavier armour makes it more difficult to catch your breath because you have to constantly exert the effort of lugging it around.

Tell that to those “Usain Bolt” warriors that even thieves can’t catch.

Sigmoid.7082:

I Run something similar and people always seem to target me because i am a ranger.

THIS!

Sometimes I think that my character has some kind of magnet attached because in small fights (WvW), no matter what, as soon as they see me everyone focuses on me and I have to spend the rest of the fight just dodging.

It has happened to me several times lately. I thought it was just bad positioning, but if this is happening to more people…

I think the last (and few) responses regarding Ranger go back to the CDI, months ago.

ANet mostly ignored their own Really-Official Ranger CDI… good luck with this one.

Drakes have a good balance between damage and durability. Also, they provide a Blast Finisher to combo with your fields (Healing Spring and Traps).

Jim Hunter.6821:

Abrilete.1439:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Abrilete.1439:

Omnitek.3876:

Only thing I can say is the drakehound immobilize > any bird by far for roaming.

THIS.

As an average/bad player that roams a lot, I can tell you all that I NEED dual dogs to survive (dog and wolf): 2x cripple, 2x knockdown, fear and inmobilize. Priceless.

Sadly, I need to spend two traits to make all that CC really usefull (faster movement and longer condition duration).

I ran the drakehound in place of the wolf for a couple days, I prefer the wolf’s fear. When encountering other roamers I like having 1 pet for control and 1 for damage, so far the bird seems to do the best damage on a moving target. I know cats are supposed to be better but they seem to hit less often. Has anyone done the math on that vs. a player? I don’t care what the golems show, golems don’t move.

I remember that someone made the tests with both static and moving golems and, thanks to the cripple and short attack animation, the canines had the best DPS against moving targets.

That’s really surprising. I wonder if the speed buff is making up the difference because my bird does way more damage than the wolf.

I think so, that’s why I like using the “plus 30% speed” trait, to make pets more reliable.
Also, your build gives 100% swiftness uptime, and that makes birds and cats very reliable.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Abrilete.1439:

Omnitek.3876:

Only thing I can say is the drakehound immobilize > any bird by far for roaming.

THIS.

As an average/bad player that roams a lot, I can tell you all that I NEED dual dogs to survive (dog and wolf): 2x cripple, 2x knockdown, fear and inmobilize. Priceless.

Sadly, I need to spend two traits to make all that CC really usefull (faster movement and longer condition duration).

I ran the drakehound in place of the wolf for a couple days, I prefer the wolf’s fear. When encountering other roamers I like having 1 pet for control and 1 for damage, so far the bird seems to do the best damage on a moving target. I know cats are supposed to be better but they seem to hit less often. Has anyone done the math on that vs. a player? I don’t care what the golems show, golems don’t move.

I remember that someone made the tests with both static and moving golems and, thanks to the cripple and short attack animation, the canines had the best DPS against moving targets.

Omnitek.3876:

Only thing I can say is the drakehound immobilize > any bird by far for roaming.

THIS.

As an average/bad player that roams a lot, I can tell you all that I NEED dual dogs to survive (dog and wolf): 2x cripple, 2x knockdown, fear and inmobilize. Priceless.

Sadly, I need to spend two traits to make all that CC really usefull (faster movement and longer condition duration).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Nightmare_Hound
Nightmare Hound with Torment, please.

arkealia.2713:

Dunno if you guys saw this but while we already know about it, I think it’s pretty revelant.
Anet please watch this :
Two pets trying to hit each other

LOL.
I’m going to save it and re-post it to anyone who says in a forum that ranger pets are too strong and you can’t escape from them.

jcbroe.4329:

So I personally still think that the best way to handle it is to turn the number 3 skill into a toggle, so that you don’t need your arrow to hit anything to go stealth. You go into a stealth, and then the part 2 of the skill is debatable, though I’d make a push for some sort of soft CC (cripple, chill, immobilize from stealth even, similar to a thief but nowhere near the duration?).

At this point, due to the nature of Moment of Clarity, I would also like to see either Rapid Fire or Barrage be turned into a single hit, bit damage style skill, in order to have so play off of moment of clarity and be able to combo LB4 into the damage skill. I wouldn’t begin to have a suggestion, other than single hit damage, and please no holding a key to charge a skill, the controls can already be clunky to those of us keyboard warriors as it is without trying to strafe around AND hold ANOTHER button down while trying to strafe. I only have so many fingers and a thumb, and I already actively use all of them when I’m playing.

I completly support this changes: having LB#3 as an on-demand stealth would improve A LOT surviability and would combine very nicely with Moment of Clarity and Remorseless, without having to rely on you hitting a target.

And yes, as a power weapon LB needs a burst skill, so Rapid Fire nedds to be changed/improved because right now its best use is as “stealth-tracker” thanks to stupid game mechanic.

FrouFrou.4958:

Expiatus.4210:

Do not use LB#4 on cooldown!

Only use when:
Creating distance from and enemy.
Knocking-off rezes or stomps.
Disrupting formations. (Wolf fear is better for this but, hey.)

Having multiple rangers in WvW knocking enemies around like pinball is amusing just once. Control, and they will love you.

This. Millions times this. When I see a friendly longbow ranger entering the fight, I can’t help but wish that there was friendly fire enabled so I could take the ranger down before he knocks every single enemy out of my melee range. Only use it when you really need it.

Well, sometimes, when you catch someone distracted and alone, it’s not bad to open with Lb#4 to chain it with a pet’s inmobilize/knockdown/fear, entagle, mud… unless it’s a warrior with lots of vit/armor you are putting a lot of preassure in a few seconds.

My problem with conditions is the combat log.
Seriously, as I don’t know all the skills of every profession and what conditions they apply many times I don’t know what killed me.

OP, have you seen this series?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzQpiBmG6tA

Guys, if you check previous OP’s posts you’ll see he thinks a 13K backstabing stealthed thief is fine. And now he’s complaining because an AI controlled, elephant-sized, slow bear pet, with more-than-obvious animations hurt him bad…

ClaraFee.2579:

Abrilete.1439:

Yesterday in WvW during a fight a LB ranger tagged me while I was trying to run away. He pooped QZ and, at the same time, I used Whirling Defense. It hurt him. A lot.

That has nothing to do with Read the Wind or arrow speed.

Well, the arrows go and come back faster. No more sidestepping and all that.

Kilger.5490:

nagymbear.5280:

Autoattack that cannot be reflected? While tht would be fun, why would reflect be a thing then?

Additionally… reflection is also a thorn in this traits side, that punishes you for having it. With “slow” arrows, if i see a reflection I can dodge, with this skill probably no chance.
.

Yesterday in WvW during a fight a LB ranger tagged me while I was trying to run away. He pooped QZ and, at the same time, I used Whirling Defense. It hurt him. A lot.

I’d love to have a Nightmare Hound.
It’d be a nice pet to give us access to Torment :p

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Abrilete.1439:

Regarding the 30% DPS lost becasuse our pets never hit…
It’s been tested by several players that the “30% faster pets trait” (Agility Training) helps a lot improving pet’s DPS.

Giving our pets that speed increase by default, and also increasing the range for their mele attacks, could be an easy-to-implement patch until ANet decides to fix pet’s AI.

Doesn’t make the pet any better.

At least, they would hit more consistently against moving targets (be it players or NPC’s). ANet has said many times that they don’t plan to fix pet’s AI soon, so until then (if they ever do, and I don’t think so) we must find ways to make them work within current constraints.

Regarding the 30% DPS lost becasuse our pets never hit…
It’s been tested by several players that the “30% faster pets trait” (Agility Training) helps a lot improving pet’s DPS.

Giving our pets that speed increase by default, and also increasing the range for their mele attacks, could be an easy-to-implement patch until ANet decides to fix pet’s AI.

Chrispy.5641:

Abrilete.1439:

Just one small correction… Rangers have two bursts, not only one: Maul and Path of Scars.

Another small correction…Rangers have three bursts, not only two: Maul, Path of Scars, and Counterattack.

(A well timed counter attack used with Signet of the Hunt will deal almost as much damage as Maul will, and more often than not catches everyone off guard when they get hit by it.)

Lol, never tried that, thanks for sharing it.

Antalore.4206:

Abrilete.1439:

If you want to use lots of evades, you should consider Sword/Dagger (3 built-in evades).
For swiftness, Warhorn and Bird pets are great.

Thanks and what about the skills? are lighting reflex and zephyr are good?

I love them :p
One gives more evade and vigor, the other burst, and both are stunbreakers.

If you want to use lots of evades, you should consider Sword/Dagger (3 built-in evades).
For swiftness, Warhorn and Bird pets are great.

Just one small correction… Rangers have two bursts, not only one: Maul and Path of Scars.

bri.2359:

Durzlla.6295:

Actually, the logical thing is doing exactly what they want to do and nerf everyone else’s damage.

No.

This might work in WvW/PvP, but most certainly not in PvE.

Explain how doing a world boss like the 3-headed wurm will go if every class has burst damage nerfed ??

I can tell you this event will never succeed if that happens.

But then, the Devs would only need to nerf the newest world bosses.
Old world bosses and dungeon bosses are already out of date because of the power creep, and it’s doubtful that the “Ferocity patch” will fix that. Nerfing every class burst capabilities would lessen the need to remake those bosses.

This is a difficult matter because PvE has many different scenarios: open PvE, World Bosses, Dungeons, Fractals…

I think that we all agree that right now, considering all the gap-closers, escape habilities, teleports and stealths, the game rewards powerful bursts and Hit’n Run tactics.
That’s why sustained damage is not very effective.

It would be nice to see the Devs opinion on this matter.

Specific Game Mode
All
Proposal Overview
Swap Trap traits with others from Wilderness Survival.
Goal of Proposal
Rearrange some traits to improve their benefits.
Proposal Functionality
Swap Shared Anguish, Martial Mastery and Hide in Plain Sight with Trapper’s Defense, Trapper’s Expertise and Trap Potency.
Associated Risks
Could make tank-trappers too effective.

————————————————————————————-

Specific Game Mode
All
Proposal Overview
Change Hide in Plain Sight to give Stealth, not Camouflage.
Goal of Proposal
Get rid of camouflage. Give Rangers more synergy between traits (Remorseless).
Associated Risks
None.

And that’s all folks, sorry for flooding this thread with my messages :p
I hope it gives you (players and Devs) some useful ideas.

Specific Game Mode
All
Proposal Overview
Add evasion to Swoop.
Goal of Proposal
Add an “on-demand” evade to Greatsword to use as gap-closer or escape skill.
Proposal Functionality
Swoop would evade for the duration of the skill.
Associated Risks
Would combo too well with Hilt Bash → Maul and other “Hit’n Run” burst tactics.

————————————————————————————-

Specific Game Mode
sPvP and WvW
Proposal Overview
Increase mele pets attacks range to 240.
Goal of Proposal
Improve DPS for mele pets against moving players.
Associated Risks
Huge DPS increase for burst pets.

Specific Game Mode
sPvP and WvW
Proposal Overview
Hunter’s Shot stealths pet.
Goal of Proposal
Improve the use of Hunter’s Shot as an escape skill.
Proposal Functionality
Right now, this skill only stealths the Ranger, not the pet, and if you are trying to run away or reposition yourself and your pet is on passive, the enemy players are able to guess your position looking at the pet. If Hunter’s Shot would stealth the pet, this problem would disappear.
Associated Risks
Would also improve the pet’s damage output

————————————————————————————-

Specific Game Mode
All
Proposal Overview
Add some kind of animation to pets when they appear/disappear.
Goal of Proposal
Improve Ranger’s “Cool Factor”. Make players more aware of pets and it’s switching.
Proposal Functionality
When a pet appears or disappears, it should have a distinct animation so teammates and enemy players are aware of the change in their surroundings.
Associated Risks
Would make less viable the “surprise knockdown” of canines.

Specific Game Mode
PvE and WvW
Proposal Overview
Resurrect dead pets on F3.
Goal of Proposal
Right now, pets easly die in some PvE events, dungeons and WvW Zerging because the love to be showered with AOE’s. Giving the ranger the ability to resurrect them without the long cooldown associated, would help them in those areas.
Proposal Functionality
If the press is dead and the Ranger presses F3, the pet moves close to the Ranger and it’s quickly resurrected. Only available if both pets are dead and you are on the 1 minute cooldown. Also, successfully resurrecting the pet puts the cooldown again at 1 minute.
Associated Risks
The tame it takes to resurrect should be carefully considered: too fast and there is no penality for killing your pet if you don’t manage it correctly; too slow and it makes no point and it’s better to wait for the 1 minute cooldown.

————————————————————————————-

Specific Game Mode
sPvP and WvW
Proposal Overview
Lighting Reflexes and Evasive Purity removes Immobilization.
Goal of Proposal
Improve Ranger’s condition removal against Immobilization, a condition used a lot in the current meta.
Associated Risks
It would make more difficult to pin down a Ranger.

Specific Game Mode
All.
Proposal Overview
Redesign Winter’s Bite to make it AOE ground targeted and Blast finisher.
Goal of Proposal
Ranger is in dire need of weapon AOE’s and Blast Finishers. This could help with both problems.
Proposal Functionality
Now, Winter’s Bite is an AOE ground target skill and also a Blast finisher. CD is increased to 18 seconds to compensate.
Associated Risks
Nobody would use Frost Trap unless it’s also improved somehow.

————————————————————————————-

Specific Game Mode
PvE
Proposal Overview
Pets stay stowed if suffering fall damage.
Goal of Proposal
While doing jump puzzles, is bothersome to stow the pet each time you suffer fall damage. This would fix this issue.
Associated Risks
None.

Specific Game Mode
WvW
Proposal Overview
Eagle Eye should improve Shortbow and increase its range.
Goal of Proposal
Punish fleeing enemies as it’s very easy right now to escape out of a Ranger’s range if Longbow it’s not equipped.
Proposal Functionality
Eagle Eye should affect Shortbow. To compensate, make it a Grandmaster trait.
Associated Risks
Longbow could be even less used as it would be a worse power weapon than Shortbow.

————————————————————————————-

Specific Game Mode
All.
Proposal Overview
Signet actives affect Ranger by default.
Goal of Proposal
Making signets useful without requiring huge trait investment.
Proposal Functionality
Signet actives affect Ranger by default. If Signet of the Beastmaster is traited, actives also affect pets. Signet of the Beastmaster moves down as a Master trait.
Associated Risks
Should require careful balancing, because this affects many builds a lot. Signet actives Could be tonned down a little bit.

Specific Game Mode
All
Proposal Overview
Heal as One revives pet.
Goal of Proposal
Make Heal as One more useful for both veteran and new players.
Proposal Functionality
If pet is dead when casting Heal as One, the skill revives it a 33% health.
Associated Risks
Combined with Loud Whistle, it would be easy for a “Ranger-only” party to constantly use the pets for tanking while keeping themselves at range.

————————————————————————————-

Specific Game Mode
All
Proposal Overview
Add more conditions to shortbow.
Goal of Proposal
Give a clear differentiation between Longbow (long-range power weapon) and shortbow (long-range condition weapon). Also, promote more dynamic game-play without relying only in shortbow’s AA.
Proposal Functionality
Right now, shorbow is as effective as longbow as a power weapon. The following changes would discourage it’s use as an AA machinegun power weapon and favor applying different conditions depending on the situation.
- Crossfire damage reduced by 25%. Always applies Bleed.
- Poison volley also applies Weakness.
- Quick shot also applies Confusion.
- Crippling shot also applies Torment.
Associated Risks
Should be carefully balanced as the current ranger sPvP meta already favours conditions.