Guild Wars 2

Yep, pretty much mirroring everyone else’ comments. I pre-purchased this game after playing a lot in the BWEs, and simply couldn’t get enough of it. Come release my Ranger felt a little less reliably and/or powerful. And as time went on, things got harder, and with each patch things got a little worse. Doing Arah felt horrible. My crew ran a Mesmer, Warrior, Thief, Guardian and me. I went afk for 10 minutes and they didn’t even slow down.

Never the less, I was content to hold on and wait for changes. 2 months rolled by since I rolled the character during head start, still being plagued by issues it had since then. Now a third month goes by and this debacle about expecting changes and getting hopes up – to be given this patch. I guess the fact that I only patched it today shows that I didn’t believe your claims already. I was right not to.

This patch is a SLAP IN THE FACE to Rangers. You pigeon hole all of us into using a broken pet, a trap based DoT spec, and then NERF that spec. You don’t talk to us, you don’t acknowledge your problems or failures, you don’t apologise or make amends. This is pathetic. I never thought i’d see the day a company could fail their players worse than Mythic did to WAR players. Much like I did with that, i’ll come back in 6 months and look at the desolate wasteland that was the ‘Massively Multiplayer’ community. GJ putting a freaken Halloween event before class balance and bug fixes, i’m sure it was great, but I didn’t even bother logging in. Back next month.

So axe doesn’t cut it for ranged attacking? I’ve never really used it since level 2ish, lol. How do you find instances go with that many buffs flying around? Anyone else regularly run something similar?

So just for fun, I wanted to put together a fully support build for my Ranger.

So, for starters I’m thinking Sword/Warhorn, Axe/Axe. The idea being to provide a mix of range, evades, conditions and utility. Flexibility is the aim.

Trait lineup for a boon-style support doesn’t leave a great deal of room for debate, but i’d love to hear from you guys if you can improve on it! So 0/0/10/30/30 nets healing and boon duration, tougher, walking Spirits with higher proc rate, bigger pet heals, faster recharge, and swiftness for all on revive. Fern Hound and Red Moa for pets. Will post proper link to the build when I get home, using a phone atm, lol.

Using 3+1 Spirits as my skills since i’ve invested so much into them. Besides the obvious “Spirits are garbage”, any thoughts on a support playstyle that doesn’t use traps?

TGSlasher.1458:

In Guild Wars 2 my main is a Ranger. I find some of the pets useful but others not so useful. I would like to have a stow during combat option or a way of being a Ranger without the pet. Think Rangers of the North (minus the shield) from lotr. Rangers should be men/women of the wild, skilled hunters or trappers that know the all the deer paths like the back of their hand. The thief is an assassin or rouge, the warrior a front liner neither of these are suitable replacements for un-petted rangers.

This is exactly where i’m at. The pets mostly aren’t very good, if they were, i’d be happy to use them. But asking for a major upgrade to pet AI and control options, a few weeks after release, just isn’t realistic. So for the time being, a perma-stow would keep me smiling.

Lothair.8942:

Just building on some of the ideas here – adding secondary effects to Ranger Long Shot would be awesome:

Max Range Long Shot – Add a stack of vulnerability
Mid Range Long Shot – Cripple the target
Close Range Long Shot – Knock back (Small)

I like the sound of this, but I question how balanced and/or annoying a constant KB will be while at close range. That would also incentivise Longbow users to get up close in some circumstances, something that goes against the current flavour of the weapon. Totally agree it needs something though.

SpectacularYak.6518:

I think the option to permanently stow your pet should indeed be available. If people want to run around with a 30-40% DPS hit, more power to them.

While we’re at it, I want to be able to play as an Illusionless Mesmer. The bloody Illusions are breaking my immersion. Why should I have to play the class the way they imagined it? In my mind, Mesmers are consummate jugglers. If I want to play my Mesmer as a juggling class with no offensive potential whatsoever that’s my right.

Poor game design IMO.

Why would Anet put in a Stow Pet button if they didn’t feel that at least some of the time, Rangers could benefit from not having the pet on the screen? Having this option doesn’t hurt min/maxers one bit, offers a change of scenery for those who want it, allows any Ranger to complete jumping puzzles in peace, and already has the mechanic for it coded into the game – it just needs tweaking.

I suppose you also post in threads about our Spirits, with sarcastic posts implying that that’s the way Anet imagined them to be, and nothing should be changed. That’s why they never release patches or expansions after all.

While I understand people beeing turned off by pet AI, a perma stove will only accomplish the opposite effect. IF I could stove my pet for a damage boost I would do it permanently and never use the pet again for fighting – because in my oppinion pets will always have a subpar and inferiour AI / effect on your gameplay. Despite all that i chose ranger because i like pets (as having visual and gameplay influence).

Use the tools you have instead of making up new ones.

So you admit if you had the option, you’d use it, but you’re against having that option.
Is this because you like pets and don’t want to be tempted to stop using them? You think everyone should have pets cause they’re so great? I don’t understand your perspective here.

I do use the tools I have. I make do by ignoring the Beastmaster Trait line and spec for Survival and Conditions. I use an Eagle because of it’s Bleed and because it’s small. And whenever i’m not fighting something, I press Stow. Cause I hate having something follow me around constantly. You ever have someone put Auto-Follow on you in another game? Ever get annoyed by their character’s head bobbing at the bottom of your screen everytime you adjust your character’s position? Well I have, and did, and it’s the exact same with a pet – made worse by how awkward they are, cause I want it to die half the time to get vengeance for the stupid stuff it does that I can’t control.

Fluffycalico.2715:

Ranger with perm stow pet is already in game its called a warrior.

I must have missed the patch where Rangers got plate in exchange for losing all their dodges, counters, traps, Spirits and style. I can never understand why people want their class to have less options. This change would take 5 mins to implement.

Thanks everyone for your input so far. Just to clarify, I’m not asking for compensation for not using the pet (Not that i’d complain!), only for the stow to remain in effect during damage and combat. I’m perfectly happy to do less damage, etc.

erikwolff.2976:

While it’s not really what you’re looking for, just put the pet into non-aggressive mode and never worry about him again. Also, maybe look into finding a small pet like a Raven or something like that so the pet won’t take up much screen space.

Precisely what I have done, more or less. I tamed a Raven as soon as I spawned as a Norn [They’re literally right next to where you start] and aside from messing about with other pets as i’ve collected them, i’ve only ever really stuck with the Raven and the Eagle. Mostly due to screen space, and the fact that they do decent damage. Not to start a wishlist or anything, but I know of at least 2 games with pet classes that have had an option to play without a pet, for a commensurate buff to overall damage.

Ranger plays very differently to Warrior or Thief, and personally i’d love to see Rangers given the option to play without the pet. And for those that say that’s what makes us unique, we still have spirits, traps, and the worst signets of any class to set us apart.

Let me start by saying that I know this isn’t an original idea, I know pets are our designated class gimmick, I know that Thief is an Adventurer class without a pet, and all the other one liners people wanna spout cause they can’t think of a valid reason this doesn’t exist.

The argument is very simple; if we can choose to Trait into pets, why can’t we Trait out of them?

I love Rangers. The archery, the leather armour, the acrobatics, the solo PvE expertise. These are aspects common to most Rangers in most games. Some of these Rangers have pets. Some of these pets are a permanent fixture of the class. Most are not. Guild Wars 2 was marketed as a game that breaks the mold, and offers flexibility and a world without MMO stereotypes. The forced and in many aspects, poorly implemented pet design in GW2 is in stark contrast to that philosophy, and something I feel hamstrings an otherwise amazing Ranger experience.

This is about the stage people tell me to re-roll. Why should I have to? I like everything about the class [Bar a few minor gripes that i’m sure everyone has with their chosen class] except this flaccid, wet paper bag, permanently tethered to me on a horrid invisible yoyo string that I can never sever. It’s not just impractical without Trating it [Though now less so, since the revive change] and after a while, quite annoying to see bobbing around on the edges of my gameplay, but doesn’t appeal to me aesthetically or as a play style. The fact that Anet asumes I want to babysit a pet with frankly terrible AI, animations, cast times and reaction times, just because I want to play a Ranger is a little confronting. Dealing with that mess isn’t what a Ranger is meant to be about, historically, and even if the pets were fun and effective to use, and even if I liked them – if I want a change of pace, I can respec, but I still have to have a pet?

Thieves can choose to Steal or not, they can spec into it or not. Same goes for Virtues, Kits, Attunements, etc, etc. They’re still there, but if you don’t want to use them they’re basically invisible. They’re unintrusive and don’t affect your gameplay at all. Why isn’t Ranger afforded the same courtesy?

I’m not asking for a class rework. I’m not even asking for a Trait rework, or anything like that. Simply allow us to enter combat alone. [As a side note, my pet leaping out to defend me from a particularly high step on the stairs is a little annoying as well…] Some people have demanded Traits that buff you if the pet is stowed, or a boon that triggers from stowing particular pets, etc. I understand that pets account for a large portion of your DPS, particularly at high levels, and if I must put up with the pet during an instance run, I can. But when i’m doing map completion in a level 10 area, i’d like to go it solo.

If I could please ask that haters and flamers just move along, unless you have any real, valid and useful suggestions that might in some way help me enjoy the game more. Anyone who agrees with this idea, feel free to share your point of view. Thanks.

Completely agree with separating Pounce from the combo. Not only does it rarely do anything since they removed the KB from Kick, but as someone said above, when you dodge an AoE then your attack combo makes you leap straight back into it due to it’s auto-cast or you pressing it too soon before the dodge, that’s fail.

My idea was to replace Pounce with a simple evade, like Greatsword has, and make the backward evade on Hornet’s Sting optional via a second activate. Nothing like being locked out from using your second attack skill cause there’s another mob/cliff/AoE/trap behind you.