Guild Wars 2

Minardi.8276:

I want ranger to get a buff as well but I think that would be too op. Trust me. I know the pain you’re going through wanting a ranger buff. but that would be too strong.

I’m not looking for a buff ( while I do think Ranger could use some in other aspects ). I simply think that the way the Ranger sword is now is problematic.

The Current State of the Ranger Sword
Since Guild Wars 2 was released, the sword of the Ranger has been a source of much criticism in the community. Its auto-attack locks the player into place making it difficult to dodge on command. In addition, when attacking, movement from the enemy ( or the player ) can cause the player to jump forward unintentionally.

These issues cause frustration among many Ranger players. To others, the sword is seen as a weapon that must be “mastered” to be of full use. Indeed, there are ways to circumvent the above problems such as disabling auto-attacking. In addition, with practice one can utilize sword leaps to consciously.

While these ways to use the sword are present, it should be evident that they are only a band-aid covering up the broken nature of the weapon. In Guild Wars 2, a game with so much emphasis placed on dodging and active combat, why does there exist a weapon with and auto-attack chain which causes the player to be unable to do so? It can be assumed the answer to this was the byproduct of design and game mechanics not meshing.

A Call to Action
Whatever the reason may be, the fact that the Ranger sword has been ignored for so long is unsettling. The Ranger, a main profession in this game, has a weapon’s with an auto-attack that roots the player and can be the cause of unintended movement is ignored for more than 3 years the game has been out.

Shouldn’t fixing large problems which plague this games main professions be a main concern? I believe they should, and the Ranger sword is one such thing which should be of much higher priority than it currently is.

Fixing the Sword
In fixing the sword, I believe there are a number of approaches that could be taken. One possible approach, while drastic, could be the best for the Ranger as a whole and also appease the largest number of people. That would be a rework.

One of the main appeal points of the sword currently is the movement it provides from leaps in the auto-attack chain. I agree, these leaps can be very useful and when mastered, can allow for a great freedom of movement. However, the movement these leaps can provide to some are also chains that bind others.

The way Guild Wars 2 has programmed leaps does not allow dodges to occur during one. This means, having leaps in an auto-attack chain can inhibit a player from using dodges. As such, I believe leaps should be removed from the auto attack chain.

Now, I know this will cause those that enjoy the functionally the leaps currently provide to criticize this idea. However, I believe it is important to see the affect these leaps are having on the current state of the sword. They are what causes players to not be able to dodge and also at times jump to their deaths. For how Guild Wars 2 currently has leap skills programmed, it is best to remove this from the auto-attack chain.

However, I am not saying these should be removed from the sword. Rather, as I what I am suggesting here is a rework, I believe the leaps should be moved to a different skill number if they are to remain.

A Reworked Sword
For an auto-attack chain, it is important for it to be fluid and somewhat simple. I know this may sound bland, but from how Guild Wars 2 is designed, it is important. Thus, to replace the current auto-attack, a new one comparable to other professions should take its place.

As an example, here is a new sample skill 1.

Sample Skill 1:

• Slash – Deal damage.
• Poisoned Blade – Deal damage and poison your target.
• Called Strike – Unblockable.

If leaps are still desired in the Ranger’s sword skill set, they could be moved away from the current auto-attack into a new skill.

Here is a sample skill 2.

Sample Skill 2:

• Strike as One – Leap forward and cripple your target. Your pet’s next attack inflicts bleeding.

This skill could stay as a mid-range leap with a short cooldown. If the cooldown was an issue from people abusing it to move, it could have a longer cooldown but get reduced when a target is hit with it. This could allow a player to stick to their target as they can currently do with the sword.

The last skill could be something of a made from the current skill 2 and 3 or something new. For example, the current skill 2 has the player jumping away from their target, but the skill has an issue with having too long of a wind-up. This skill could be remade into a 3 skill.

Sample Skill 3:

• Hornet Strike – Jump backwards evading attacks and throw your sword at your target poisoning them.

• Serpent Strike – Jump at your foe evading attacks and poisoning them.

In Summary
Since release of the game, the Ranger sword’s auto-attack chain has had issues of locking the player in place and causing unintentional movement. These issues plaguing the sword are a large issue and should be addressed. There are many ways to fix this issue. One possible way would be a rework as suggested above.

I hope ANET can take a more urgent stance to fix problems like this that affect professions in the game. Also, I hope other players reading this can help think of ways to fix these problems.

To a brighter future for the Ranger~

For a lot of the content that is released, it doesn’t seem like pets are even considered. Consider Liandry where pets would just get one shotted nearly instantly unless one manages to overcome their limited controls. But even beyond that, in many dungeon fights and high level content, pets die instantly leaving ranger has half a class.

Whenever I come back to Guild Wars 2, I wish that class improvements and fixes would take precedent over new content.

Interesting ideas. I’m not sure if I am for them or not, but I have been wanting a ranger spirit revamp since the start of this game. In comparison to the first game and even to other support skills in gw2, spirits are weak. I would love for them to have a rework and more interesting effects.

I don’t think Ive used that heal since I unlocked my first alternative heal skill. It could use some improvements (along with utilities etc…)

I believe the greatsword only hits three targets as well.

I can’t remember, but I believe it was said before this is because the ranger has a pet, but I don’t think that should be a reason to kitten the whole class.

Josh Foreman.8250:

rfdarko.4639:

To further illustrate the point : http://youtu.be/J9-aUFHIt7c

It’s not difficulty, it’s not even lag, it’s terrible detection. If Josh can watch this and claim everything is fine with the hit detection and the player was at fault in each case, then I really don’t know what to say.

No. That is clearly a terrible experience. Something is obviously terribly wrong there. If I saw anything like this during testing we would have reworked everything. I’ve never claimed anywhere that anyone’s poor experience is because it’s the player’s fault. I don’t think that way. I like to make people happy, believe it or not.

Is this issue (dying randomly and getting pushed off rocks constantly) happening to you? If so, is it happening as frequently as this video shows? If this is anything more than an edge case than we have a serious problem that will necessitate some serious solution. Thanks for pointing it out.

I am having similar problems. It was painful trying to get through the rapids because of these issues constantly occurring . I was about ready to stop playing. I enjoyed the first SAB, but this one has been a horrible experience so far. I managed to do World 2 Zone 1, but I am done for now. Probably would have been a lot more enjoyable if it played correctly :/ Would love to see a fix for this.

One shot mechanics are frustrating, especially since I can’t even see the red circles (colorblind).

Yes, Liadri seems to be difficult even for people who can see the circles. However, at the moment, I am worried less about the difficulty of Liadri than I am of the issue of no color blind support.

In any case, hopefully Anet is working on some sort of color blind mode.

To begin, I am red-green color blind. For people unfamiliar with color blindness, it doesn’t mean that I can’t see those colors. Rather, I see those colors in a different way. As such, certain color combinations can be difficult for me to distinguish.

For the Liadri fight, or rather, for any fight in the gauntlet and in many other areas in the game, red circles for me are impossible to see. To be honest, I didn’t even know there were red circles for the Liadri fight until I looked up a guide on it. As it stands currently, this issue makes the Liadri fight nearly impossible for me to do.

I am rather disappointed that Guild Wars 2 has been released this long and there still has not been any color blind mode implemented. It is said that around 10% of people are color blind. That is quite a high number players for a game this large to ignore.

I would like to hear from Anet. Are there plans to implement a color blind mode or do you plan to continue leaving a large portion of your community in the dark?

I have the same problem. GW2 crashed my computer while I was in that area and now when I try to log into my ranger I get stuck on that loading screen.

Edit: After restarting my game it seems to have fixed the issue.

AlphaK.9486:

The 10% for Malicious Training is wrong, it is a 50% increase in duration. You can test it easy with axe 3 which will increase the weakness duration from 10 to 15 seconds when you pet strikes.

I must have made a mistake when I checked it first. I will edit it in my post.

jubskie.3152:

We arrived at the same conclusion with the traits that need reworking. I like the idea behind the rework, but additional Crit Chance seems to be off theme for Marksmanship (it would fit better as a Skirmishing trait). I think additional damage would be a better fit. Also, I like the addition of passive vulnerability to Remorseless to make it a more meaningful choice against Signet of the Beastmaster

I hope what ANet gives us is something like this.

That is true that critical chance does seem a little off from the marksmanship line. With the changes I made to the skills, I tried to stay close to their current design (critical hit on opening strike). However, I would have to agree. Changing the trait to something more marksmanship (power) suited could be looked at as well.

If I were to edit my current idea, a new trait could look something like this:

• Precise Strike - Attacks against vulnerable foes deal an additional 1% damage for each stack of vulnerability.

Although, I feel like this could be overpowered. When looking at other profession traits, it seems like many have deal X% more damage to foes suffering Z condition. For example:

Warriors have

• Attack of Opportunity - Increases damage to bleeding foes by 10%.

Elementalists have

• Burning Rage - Deal 5% more damage to burning foes.

Thieves have

• Exposed Weakness - Deal 10% more damage if your target has a condition.

Thus perhaps having rangers deal a flat 10% damage increase against vulnerable targets could be considered, but that seems less interactive as X% more something per stack. This is of course if a change to Precise Strike into such a manner is to be done. That was simply an initial idea that came to mind.

In any case, when evaluating the ranger’s marksmanship traits, it is important to make their opening strike mechanics fun to use and meaningful to the user. Whether the idea I listed is the best option or not, I can’t say, but I believe there are many other possibilities.

For example, opening strikes could do something totally different than applying vulnerability. They could deal extra damage. They could stun targets. They could cause an assortment of other conditions.

All in all, if a larger change to opening strikes were to be done, an evaluation of what the ranger should be as a whole could be applied to the new traits.

Reserved for future posts.

Possible New Marksmanship Line
Marksmanship
Power +10
Condition Duration +1%

Minor Traits
Adept

• Opening Strike - Cause vulnerability with your first strike when entering combat (5 stacks for 5 seconds).
  Master
• Alpha Training - Pets have Opening Strike.
  Grandmaster
• !Precise Strike - Attacks against vulnerable foes have an additional 1% chance to critical hit for each stack of vulnerability.

Major Traits
Adept

• Steady Focus - Damage increases by 10% when endurance is full.
• Malicious Training - Increases duration for conditions applied by your pets (50%).
• !Keen Edge - Use Sharpening Stone when your health reaches 75% (60 second recharge out of combat) (60 second recharge in combat).
• Signet Mastery - Signets recharge 20% faster.
• Predator’s Instinct - Apply cripple to foes you hit when they are below 25% health (2 seconds) (15-second cooldown).
• Beastmaster’s Bond - Gain fury and might when your pet’s health reaches 50% (Fury and 3 stacks of might for 9 seconds)(Recharge ?).

Master

• Spotter - Increases precision of nearby allies by up to 70 points.
• Piercing Arrows - All arrow attacks pierce targets.
• !Beastmaster’s Might - Activating a signet grants might (5 stacks for 10 seconds).
• Eagle Eye - Increases longbow and harpoon gun range. Increases longbow and harpoon gun damage by 5%.

Grandmaster

• Signet of the Beastmaster - Active effects of signets also affect you.
• !Remorseless - Regain Opening Strikes when you kill a foe. Critical hits against vulnerable foes have a 33% chance of applying vulnerability (1 stack for 5 seconds).

! = Revised Skills

Conclusion
All in all, I feel like the ranger’s marksmanship trait line is in an okay position currently. It has some powerful traits, but it also has many aspects the are dull or underpowered.

To approach this problem, I made a few key changes to a handful of these traits. The biggest change I made to was Precise Strike. In it’s current state, Precise Strike feels lackluster and useless. However, by giving it critical hit damage based on enemy vulnerability stacks, it still plays an important role with ranger opening strikes. Further more, it makes ranger opening strikes feel more impacting and meaningful by relating to a direct critical hit chance increase.

This also goes to address other concerns such as lack of ranger damage in groups and ranger weapons such as the longbow.

Beyond this change, there was one more large change I made to Remorseless. Opening strikes may feel more important with my change to Precise Strike, but as a whole, Remorseless is still left feeling useless in settings where enemies are limited (PvP / Boss Fights). Thus, Remorseless now has an added effect of being able to apply vulnerability to vulnerable foes. This change is also meant to follow through with the change to Precise Strike.

While I realize these changes may not be implemented in game, I hope my thoughts gives both players and Anet ideas about how ranger’s marksmanship trait line can be changed for a more interactive experience while also addressing other issues such as lack of ranger damage. I look forward to feedback and other ideas you may have.

Marksmanship Feedback
To begin, I feel like the current state of minor traits are underwhelming. One critical hit and 5 – 10 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds at beginning of combat is not that appealing. However, by making one simple change, these traits and the marksmanship trait line as a whole can feel more cohesive.

That change is to the Precise Strike skill. Currently, it causes opening strikes to critical. However, one critical at the beginning of battle and possibly one more free critical per enemy kill is not that appealing. Thus this is my proposition.

• Precise Strike - Attacks against vulnerable foes have an additional 1% chance to critical hit for each stack of vulnerability.

By doing this, Precise Strike retains its synergy with ranger’s opening strike mechanic, but also allows for more diversity. This could make make ranger builds with the longbow’s Hunter’s Shot or axe’s Whirling Defense more desirable. Furthermore, in a group setting, ranger could play off of other professions which provide vulnerability to boost its own critical hit chance. This could help address concerns with lack of ranger damage in groups.

Furthermore, in a PvP setting, I do not see this change affecting the ranger’s balance very much because the ranger has limited methods of applying vulnerability. Although, this could allow for more team coordination between rangers and professions that apply vulnerability.

Next, lets look at the Major Traits. Starting at the adept level, most traits seem to be in a good position, but there is one that seems to have an issue currently. That is Keen Edge. This might be a bug fix more than anything, but in combat it seems to have a 6 minute recharge. This should max its out of combat recharge of 1 minute.

As for the other adept traits, they seem fine for the most part. I would not complain about slightly further increased condition duration from Malicious Training or perhaps 3 seconds of cripple from Predator’s Instinct, but these are minor issues.

Moving onto master traits, all of them appear to be in a good position with the exception of Beastmaster’s Might. One stack of might for 5 seconds is just plain bad, especially considering the long recharge on all of ranger’s signets.

There are two possible fixes to this. The first would be for this trait to have signets give the player a small amount of might for a longer amount of time. The second option would be for the trait to give the player a larger amount of might for a short amount of time. I personally prefer the latter option. I feel it goes well with ranger’s signet’s actives which when traited right have powerful effects on a short time span.

I envision the reworked Beastmaster’s Might to look like this.

• Beastmaster’s Might - Activating a signet grants might (5 stacks for 5 (10?) seconds).

Finally, let’s turn our attention to the grandmaster traits. Signet of the Beastmaster is very strong, but I feel like Remorseless is slightly lacking. There are many possible fixes to make this trait more desirable. One idea I have been considering would be for Remorseless to have a chance of applying vulnerability against vulnerable foes.

For example, a changed Remorseless could look like this.

• Remorseless - Regain Opening Strikes when you kill a foe. Critical hits against vulnerable foes have a 33% chance of applying vulnerability (1 stack for 5 seconds).

This would synergize with my proposed change to Precise Strike from which vulnerability grants the ranger an increased critical hit chance. In PvP, condition removal counter play could halt a ranger from applying additional stacks of vulnerability.

Ranger Trait Rework [RTR]

The purpose of this thread is to look at ranger traits in their current state and explore how they can be fixed and improved. To keep the discussion focused, I chose to only look at the Marksmanship line to start.

To begin, I will list the current ranger traits and ideas I have to fix them.

Marksmanship
Power +10
Condition Duration +1%

Minor Traits
Adept

• Opening Strike - Cause vulnerability with your first strike when entering combat (5 stacks for 5 seconds).
  Master
• Alpha Training - Pets have Opening Strike.
  Grandmaster
• Precise Strike - Opening strike always critical hits.

Major Traits
Adept

• Steady Focus - Damage increases by 10% when endurance is full.
• Malicious Training - Increases duration for conditions applied by your pets (50%).
• Keen Edge - Use Sharpening Stone when your health reaches 75% (60 second recharge out of combat) (6 minute recharge in combat).
• Signet Mastery - Signets recharge 20% faster.
• Predator’s Instinct - Apply cripple to foes you hit when they are below 25% health (2 seconds) (15-second cooldown).
• Beastmaster’s Bond - Gain fury and might when your pet’s health reaches 50% (Fury and 3 stacks of might for 9 seconds)(Recharge ?).

Master

• Spotter - Increases precision of nearby allies by up to 70 points.
• Piercing Arrows - All arrow attacks pierce targets.
• Beastmaster’s Might - Activating a signet grants might (1 stack for 5 seconds).
• Eagle Eye - Increases longbow and harpoon gun range. Increases longbow and harpoon gun damage by 5%.

Grandmaster

• Signet of the Beastmaster - Active effects of signets also affect you.
• Remorseless - Regain Opening Strikes when you kill a foe.

Ah, perhaps that is the issue. I use fast cast or whatever. If there are circles, I didn’t see them.

I would much rather have Anet spend less time developing new content and just have one massive patch which fixes the core issues professions face inside their trait lines, utility skills, weapons, and features unique to each profession.

Rangers have been asking for fixes for numerous parts of our profession since game release, and all we do is get band-aids that don’t address the core issues. It is ridiculous. Look at spirits for example, Anet keeps on trying to adjust proc chance when that is not the issue. The issue is that spirits effects are rather useless, and even one’s that have some viability are not considered because of the fact spirits die in 1 hit in dungeons.

In conclusion, I whole heartily agree. This Whack-a-Mole balance philosophy has got to stop. More resources need to be shifted to balancing the professions in the game and fixing (not covering up) whats broken.

Wow, if they do this I hope they also put some resources to fixing numerous issues that the ranger face.

• Hall of Monument pet stats bugged
• Pet F2 skills unresponsive. (Skill doesn’t work, pet interrupts itself, skill takes 5 seconds to even activate, skill must be pressed or held for it to activate…)

And then outside of pets:

• Ranger traits need to be reworked.
• Ranger spirits need to be reworked (a complete redesign would be great…)
• Ranger shouts could still use improvements (Bugs and poor design)
• Ranger weapons could use improvements (Bows feel bland, and many of our weapons lack damage. Longbow, I’m looking at you…)

There are more issues that could be listed, but my point here is that if they are going to be nerfing pet damage from pvp qq, they need to fix issues of our class as a whole. I still remember the “animation fix” they did on the shortbow way back. Later they confessed it wasn’t an animation fix, but rather a nerf because rangers were using their auto-attack too much…. Seriously, I can’t grasp what they are thinking. If you think rangers are using shortbow auto-attack too much make the other skills less bland and fix the issue. Don’t just patch things up with lies. Same with the potential pet damage nerf. Don’t just nerf pet damage and leave everything as is. Fix the core issues

It seems like rangers weren’t even thought about when designing this fight. It felt like bad design to me.

Did anyone else have trouble getting mines to disarm in the solo-instance? I play ranger which means my pet will trigger traps most of the time anyway, but even when I would stand close to a trap, and attempt to disarm it, there were multiple times where nothing would happen. I was using the correct skill and was standing close to and pointing in the direction of the trap, but no response. Between my pet and traps not properly disarming most of the time (not to mention the annoying knock-downs) this instance was just frustrating. Not difficult, just frustrating.

I was having same issue. It seemed like over half the time the mine wouldn’t properly disarm no matter how many times I pressed the correct button in its vicinity. I would keep inching closer trying to disarm it and eventually it would just blow up in my face. I don’t know if it is lag or what, but it did not seem to be working correctly for me.

I won this twice and didn’t get daily or achievement

This is just ridiculous. Why has it taken 8 months for this to be even addressed in the first place. Having targeting and camera movements on the same button was a bad move from day one, but knowing of the problem and persistently choosing to ignore it simply doesn’t make sense.

Like everyone is saying. Add a toggle and fix this issue. Stop beating around the bush saying, “Oh, we know this is a problem, so we may think of doing something someday.”

I run into this issue nearly every time I play the game. It pains me that Anet won’t put the resources into fixing this.

Evan Lesh.3295:

We have not forgotten about this. Sometimes as certain features get used by more of the game, it reveals issues that lead to a redesign. For instance, now that you can right click on people in PvP while spectating to switch follow cameras, accidental right-clicks can be far more disorienting than selecting a new target.

This post makes it sound like before spectating was added, this wasn’t an issue. Yes, if I were to spectate in PvP, right click targeting would rather problematic. But it is no less problematic or disorienting than as it has been in PvE since launch. Do you understand how many times people lose targets, switch targets, or preform an action that was not desired because of a bad design choice to have targeting and camera movement on the same button?

Having an option to turn off right click targeting is most certainly one of the most important fixes this game needs. It is ridiculous that a thread over 8 months old with hundreds of replies can only get two responses, one half a year from the other. Furthermore, both these responses don’t even address the issue. Rather, all we do is get responses saying that, “They are aware of this suggestion,” and it may be an issue “now that you can right click on people in PvP while spectating.”

I have to agree with the opening poster. While the ranger bows are not awful, they feel very lacking. Using the shortbow can be effective, but it feels very dull. It usually just comes down to flanking and 1 spamming the enemy to death. The other skills have their uses, but they really lack the fun factor other weapon skills such as the thief’s shortbow has.

As for the longbow, it feels very sluggish. The lack of damage on the auto attack was a badly implemented, and the weapon as a whole needs its speed increased. Once again, when looking at fun factor, the warrior longbow wins out. It seems like Anet took a number of signature ranger skills and attack styles from the first game and decided to give them to warrior. I personally would love to have dual shot back on the ranger but it is not going to happen.

I think what really stands out when looking at the bows of other professions is that their weapons are a lot more stylistic and more concrete in design. Their skills stand out and are fun to use. In comparison, the ranger bows feel bland. The longbow skills point-blank shot and barrage are some of the better designed skills, but are unable to vitalize the ranger’s longbow to the level of the warrior’s.

I am critical of the ranger’s bows not because I do not like the ranger, but rather because I love the ranger. It was my favorite profession in the first game, and I felt like it could have been so much more in the Guild Wars 2. However, the building blocks for a revitalizing the ranger in Guild Wars 2 are in place, and fixing and reworking the the ranger’s bows so they have more flavor and style would be a great step in the right direction to doing so.

Not sure if this has been written again, but HoM pet stats are broken once again after the last Ranger patch. Hopefully they can be fixed faster than 7 months this time!

So many Ranger traits need to be fixed and reworked.

I really hope Anet steps up their game will class balancing and fixing. Although, it seems like Anet is ignoring or sidestepping many of the problems Rangers face altogether. For example, look at spirits, increasing their health doesnt matter because, A: They will still be killed in dungeons in one hit, and B: Most of the effects they have dont justify taking them as a utility slot even if they did stay alive.

This has been a problem since launch. Pet skills are just unresponsive in general with the ones that work being the exception.

I cant count how many times I need to press F2 to get my Drake to use its breath attack. I usually consider myself lucky if the Drake is then able to hit a target standing still without looking in the opposite direction. I suppose any pet in general has this problem, though. To get the pet to use F2 you need to press the button multiple times or almost hold it for a full second then release the button.

I have had times where moving caused the pet to interrupt itself and put the skill on full cooldown as well.

Its alright, though. Rangers arent that reliant on pets.

1. More Game Modes
==>As it currently stands, conquest is quite a bland game mode to base all of Guild Wars 2 pvp around. I would love to see a variety of game modes like those that were present in the first game.

2. Balance
==>Currently, most of the professions still are plagued by useless traits and broken skills. Beyond that, some professions skills pale in comparison to what other professions are capable of.

I play Ranger a lot and I would love to see the Longbow improved and Spirits reworked. Other professions as well are looking for the same thing.

If Anet wants Guild Wars 2 PvP to be popular and also wants to simply improve their game overall, they should work on class balances and trait/skill fixes and reworks.

3. Toggle Right Click Targeting
==>It took me a while to figure out why, but targeting in Guild Wars 2 felt clunky and broken. Then I discovered that by me simply trying to move the camera, I was inadvertently losing and changing targets.

This has been a problem countless people have faced since launch, and I cant believe it still exists. This is a key thing that needs to be looked at not only for Guild Wars 2 PvP, but for the quality of Guild Wars 2 gameplay in general.

With the last major Ranger update, Hall of Monument pets were left unchanged to the numerous stat buffs.

With this recent update, there has been a new skin released for the Rainbow Jellyfish, but has there been any fixes to HoM pets? Also, if these pets are still broken, has Anet acknowledged that they are once again broken and plan to fix them?

While I understand that there are countless number of things that need looking in this game, I am hopeful that the HoM pets are not left another 7 months without fixes.

I can’t even remember how many times I have targeted the wrong thing because I was adjusting my camera. This has been an issue since launch and needs to be addressed.

As with many people, Cantha was one of my favorite areas in the first game. Some of the city slums I found a little dull, but there were also many scenic and beautiful areas that I could only imagine would look even better in Guild Wars 2.

Overall, a lot of disappointment in hearing about the decision not to include Cantha in Guild Wars 2. Hopefully that design choice will change. (Along with it filling in the Great Collapse and actually adding a Cantha district!?)

I would prefer they fix some of the more core ranger issues. Many of the ranger weapons suffer from poor damage, greatsword and longbow come to mind. In addition, ranger pets are often unresponsive to ranger commands. That and the fact that pets get essily killed in wvw and dungeon settings makes pets more of a burden than a assest to rangers in many cases. Simply having pets gain invunerabilty when a ranger dodges would not be a good fix for this. Rangers should not be forced to waste their dodges on the pet. As for spirits, it wouldnt matter if there was a 1000% chance for their effects to trigger as long as an internal cooldown exists. Beyond that, spirits die way too easily, have horrible range, and one is forced to spec 30 points in to a tree to make them mediocrely effective. Spirits simply need a complete overhaul in my opinion.

Overall,the three things rangers need to have fixed are there weapons, utilities, and pets. Although, traits could use some changes as well…

HTech.8016:

Dahkeus.8243:

This is my #1 most anticipated bug fix by far. I really hope there’s a patch to address this soon…

What’s there to fix? The sword skill is working as intended. There is nothing to fix. The sword just requires you to have a more active playstyle.

With auto-attack off, I think the sword is working close to how it was envisioned, but I can’t see how the current auto-attack rooting the player is intended.

kesuh.3891:

Aethersong.5189:

The video does want to make me try using sword some more. I liked it in concept, but I would get frustrated finding myself unable to dodge.

You can dogde… You got skill 2 and 3 and you have lightning reflexes to get away and in some cases it is possible to spam dodge roll and you can roll away. The problem is that the sword is on auto attack, so it will grab target again. But you can dogde

Yeah, I know. I had difficulties using normal dodges as well as things such as finishers in pvp. In the end, I turned off auto attack on the sword and used it for quite a while, but I would occasionally lose target and go flying away somewhere else like he was doing in the video only I wasn’t doing it intentionally. Understanding the mechanics better, I might play around with it some more. I’ve used it quite a bit in Pvp and it can be fun with a dagger for lots of evasion. Also, the 2 skill can be used for movement as well if you turn around before using it and then turn back around for the second half.

The video does want to make me try using sword some more. I liked it in concept, but I would get frustrated finding myself unable to dodge.

Well, according to JonPeters, the sword is in a good position. According to people who play Rangers, however, this is a huge bug that makes the sword incredibly difficult to even use.If you do want to keep using it, though, turn off auto attack.

Here is a post from Reddit relating to these bows.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13ryxb/shortbow_vs_longbow_damage_outputs_ranger_data/

The short bow is overall better than the long bow because of its consistency. Also, when using long bow skills, you actually decrease your dps.

This is a somewhat tanky Ranger build with a balance between defense, support, and damage. It preforms well in general PvE and dungeons.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQJARVjEVR2JWGWs2Bi1DCFoB1eoJLdeXB/fyHuyK

Weapons

• Greatsword
• Short Bow

Pets

• Fern Wolf
• Brown Bear

Skills

• Healing Spring
• Quickening Zephyr
• Signet of the Wild
• Signet of Stone
• Rampage as One

Traits

• 30 – Marksmanship
• 0 – Skirmishing
• 30 – Wilderness Survival
• 10 – Nature Magic
• 0 – Beastmastery

Comments
One of the key traits for this build is Signet of the Beastmaster allowing one’s Ranger to gain the effects of Signets in addition to one’s pet. This grants one’s ranger the ability to gain 6 seconds of invulnerability from Signet of Stone as well as 10 seconds of stability and increased damage from Signet of the Wild.

The Wilderness Survival trait lines takes advantage of two defensive traits. Vigorous Renewal and Bark Sking. Vigorous Renewal turns one’s Healing Spring into an even more amazing supportive field by also granting vigor on each pulse.

If I were to switch any traits around, I would probably take the points from the Nature Magic line. Although, as the build currently stands, the points in there allows one to gain 5 seconds of protection upon taking more than 20% of one’s health in damage. This is great for dungeons by granting protection in clutch moments.

The choice of pets is for their supportive skill and tanking ability. The brown bear is naturally tanky and has the ability to remove conditions from allies. The fern wolf is able to grant 10 seconds of regeneration to one’s party to keep their health up. In addition, it has a knockdown leap for added CC.

As for weapons, I like the Greatsword as my melee weapon. It has an evade on every third attack as well as many useful utility skills such as a leap (which can be comboed with Healing Spring for health), a block (which can now be used while moving and to become invincible to ranged attacks), and a daze/stun. The cooldowns of all these skills are reduced by the Martial Mastery trait.

I chose the Short Bow because of the large amounts of damage, condition duration, and condition damage coming from traits. This has wonderful synergy with the Short Bow. Also, with the Piercing Arrows trait, one can position themselves to hit multiple enemies.

Closing Remarks
Overall, I am sure many people are running builds similar to this. Even so, I thought I would post my take on a tanky Ranger. Feel free to comment.

JonPeters.5630:

I see a lot of talk about ranger weapons, but I don’t think that is the real problem. I think sword and longbow are both good weapons…

Haven’t you heard? The sword is a great weapon! No problem with it.

On a serious note, does anyone at Anet even play ranger…? The sword definitely needs a fix. Longbow has a number of problems as well, but that is for a different thread.

It does seem like Anet is going against many of their design philosophies. Whether it is because of Nexon, it is hard to tell, but the cash shop is currently such a joke in many aspects. The horrible items one can get from chests is not even worth it, and Anet keeps playing on peoples gambling addictions to make money. Other items are ridiculously expensive such as dyes. This leads many to questions why dyes were changed from account bound to character bound in the first place. Most people believe it was an attempt by Anet to just make more money…

Introducing a Gear Treadmill and such is also very questionable… I have to say, I can’t agree with the way Anet has been managing their game recently.

Honestly, the warrior longbow in Guild Wars 2 reminded more of the Guild Wars 1 ranger than the ranger itself. I dont know what direction they were trying to take with many of The GW2 ranger skills but it seems like they just gave up halfway.I also miss ranger preperations somewhat. Also, useful spirits. How I miss useful spirits. Maybe someday Guild Wars 2 rangers will be fixed and play more like their counterparts in the first game.

I would love to have 25% speed boost and a useful active on that signet. Perhaps they could even make it where the active gives 10 seconds of swiftness. That way, if you really needed a speedboost to catch up to someone, it would be on demand from the signet.

First thing I noticed with the patch.

Angela Ranna.5638:

Seems to be related to uneven terrain. Already in the bug report thread at the top of the page.

I first thought that as well. But since then, I also have had it happen on flat ground.

Jaric.5679:

Aethersong.5189:

These concerns were raised during the first event and Anet has continued to ignore us… Even if they simply had these one time events on Saturday US time at least people on the other side of the world would be able to play. But, it seems like they simply don’t care if we can’t access the content.

Almost. Sadly, some people are not capable of being awake at times like 4am, and would still miss it. So it’s not a proper solution to a world-wide MMO.

I agree, the best solution would be for these events to repeat through out a day like they did in Guild Wars 1. To me, the is the correct way to do things. Although, as it is now, they seem quite fine not letting half the world participate in these events.

I was in a similar situation. I live in Japan, so it is difficult for me to make these one time events. However, I was able to get home early from work and join a server with the event still running.

First problem, I tried to go to a way point and got stuck on the loading screen.

Second problem, I finally managed to join another server with the event just to have
the game crash.

Third Problem, Managed to get back into the server I was in and continue on with the event only to be met with Anet’s wonderfully timed “maintenance”. I tried to log out and rush back to the same area, but the event no longer existed.

I would like to say the community was great, but Anet’s way of managing these things is abysmal. I am seriously disappointed in them.

It’s great fun talking to my friend who got a chest piece worth 40 gold, a 20 slot bag, an exotic accessory, etc, while all I can say is I got kicked out of the event by Anet…

These concerns were raised during the first event and Anet has continued to ignore us… Even if they simply had these one time events on Saturday US time at least people on the other side of the world would be able to play. But, it seems like they simply don’t care if we can’t access the content.

So, Anet. When people spend hours of their time trying to complete these events, and have multiple dc issues and such, the solution is not to make it worse by shutting down the servers when people are still trying to complete the event…