Guild Wars 2

I am using Core Ranger. MM, WS and BM. It might not be top level but is a lot of fun.

Something has been bothering me for a long time, even if the latest balance patch made attempts at lessening the issue.

The Marksmanship minor traits seem incomplete without Remorseless GM trait. And quite honestly, the Longbow builds seem incomplete without both Remorseless and Lead the Wind. Also, consider that Ranger power damage is sub par compared to other classes in ALL game modes.

My proposal would be thus:
- Merge the current Master and GM minor traits into a single Master trait
- Move remorseless as it is to GM minor trait spot
- Introduce a new Defensive minded GM trait. Keen eye – Ranger and pet receive 20% less damage from foes beyond 600 range

Well, if intended, Soulbeast with auto buffing Mauls and Sick ’em shout is a PvP melee spike machine. It also comes with innate sustain via built in extra heal or invulnerability.

If only Opening strike was not so terrible still, perhaps Core ranger would be viable as a high level PvP build.

The problem with core ranger is the vast amount of reflects out there. Remorseless should definitely be a Grand master minor trait so we can complete a Longbow build.

From my experience after the 8th august patch, Core ranger is pretty solid with MM, WS and BM and has a lot of damage and sustain.

I play Core ranger in PvP and use MM, WS and BM. Double stone signet is great too

The Renegade is a PvE spec. It is mostly for raiding I think with all the personal and party damage buffs.

I do not think its crap. It is under tuned and it has some bugs.

But quite honestly, I think that Druid is the best spec when we look across the whole game. It makes us relevant in Raids, Fractals, PvE open world, PvP and WvW.

It also covers the support/utility and bruiser roles quite well. What we need the SB to be is the DPS class

In PvE I believe that the Soulbeast will replace the Core Condition ranger, which has fallen off due to pet bleed proc nerfs.

Furious strength needs to improve condition damage as well, unless it already does. Other then that the spec gives us ideally for this PvE condi build:
- 5% damage and condition damage
- 10% damage and 10% condition duration
- 200 condition damage stat
- 100 precision stat
- weapon skills self buff.

Perhaps this will happen.

SotW provides 180 ferocity now. And he is talking about Open World so..

If you are playing longbow I would suggest using Marksmanship and Skirmishing lines. Steady aim, Lead the wind, spotter and vicious quarry being mandatory traits.

I would suggest taking the healing spring heal with the trap trait and clarion bond as well in the Marksmanship line.

Signet of the wild, signet of the hunt as two of your utilities.

The sword does sub par damage on all three skills. While no2 might not need a damage buff, both the auto chain and the serpent strike need buffs.

- auto attack chain damage buff 15-20%
- serpent strike buff 100%

Marksmanship – Glass cannon line
Skirmishing – versatile DPS line
Wilderness Survival – Durability line
Nature Magic – Utility line

It is a good thing that you need to decide what you want to take. Considering that most Elite gen 1 specs have fallen off a bit, I think it will not be that uncommon to see Core specs competing for slots as well.

So:
- throw torch (torch 4)
- crippling talon (dagger 5)
- evasive shot (SB 3)
- hunters shot (LB 3)

Hello everyone,

It seemed to me that we ended up on the short end of the stick when it comes to the distribution of the ammo system. From what I can tell we did not get any skill on core ranger on druid that is using it.

Perhaps doing a pass through the weaker end of the skill spectrum and adding ammo to them would make them more interesting to use and overall better.

The skills that I would propose be bumped up through ammo (and precedence exists on those skill types) would be throws.

Crippling talon
- the dagger 5 skill is weak at best and pointless at worst. It is 3 seconds of bleed and some cripple on a 15s CD.
- Perhaps introducing it to the AMMO, and placing it at 2 stacks would make it more worthwhile

Path of Scars
- similar logic as with crippling talon, although this skill is better then the before mentioned skill.
- However, this might not need to be a default state, perhaps a secondary bullet would be introduced via Honed Axes trait

My pet seemed to die pretty quickly fighting camp guards compared to the last time, but it might be placebo.

I think thats the whole point of the change, to reduce its impact on CA.

Honestly guys, the only things we need to mad about are the bugs. The Staff 3 stowing pets and pets being idle after swap.

Everything else is pure gold:
- lesser signet of stone is amazing
- the new signet trait is better then the old one
- Clarion bond perfectly applies itself with every pet swap
- Zephyr swap actually gives super speed and can be traited to grant fury and clear conditions
- The pets actually did not JUST lose stats, they gained some and WE gain some via those traits.

But my favorite three changes:
- new bark skin healing under protection
- new Skirmishing GM trait providing extra 10% crit chance while under fury along with 250 ferocity
- Soften the fall being casted with heal AND using the trait

Do not fuss too much about losing 1 clear every 10 seconds. It was good a long time ago in sustained condi application meta, but now we are getting bombed and pets were dying outright on Renewal usage or EB procs.

This is better. It works with Druid better as it clears up a utility slot. We lost some auto might spam but we also got some of it back.

Also keep in mind!!

• PoF is going to be ANTI BOON meta** and even though we lost some of them, in PvP it will not matter as we have a lot of non-removable effects

I think it will though. Soulbeast gives some innate sustain by Merging with your pet. Heals, Condi cleanses, etc. Also, stances seem very solid combined with power specs. It also depends on the next balance patch to see if core lines get some love.

Evasive Shot needs to be a leap forward unless you have a target, when it should be a leap away.
Also they should up all Short bow skills range from 900 to 1050.

But the biggest reason why condi builds do not work is that traps, beside healing spring, offer no utility (condi cleanse, boons or stun break) and skirmishing minor traits are bad.

So to sum it up:
- SB range is kind of bad
- Evasive shot needs to leap you forward if you do not have an enemy targeted
- Spike trap, Viper nest, Flame trap and Ice trap needs some utility. Boons, stun break and condition cleanse distributed
- Skirmishing minor traits need a fix: Furious grip and tailwind merged into one minor trait and Sharpened edges moved onto the other minor trait. Then add a new major trait like circle of life was, that would proc HS when below 50% life on a big CD.

Hey everyone, just wanted to put this out there. Has anyone used the Invigorating bond nature magic grandmaster trait?

Ass it stands it heals for 2500 every 20 seconds when a pet uses its F2 attack. And that is it.

Given the core ranger severe lack of condition removal and in line with giving more control on special skills proc, i suggest the following:

- Invigorating bond procs on pet swap with an ICD of 15 seconds (to be in line with the traited pet swap CD)
- Invigorating bond additionally removes 2 conditions in an AOE

Thoughts? Opinions?

The reason why condi builds do not work in PvP is the same as it ever was. While the SB has been buffed significantly, there are simply no utilities that complete the build.

Traps offer zero utility. Traps have no stun breaker and only 1 condition cleanse in the form of healing spring. Furthermore, condi druid is a no no because your astral force regen is so bad without staff or mass healing ticks from regeneration or dolyak runes.

Also, for core ranger to have sufficient condition clear, he needs to take both wilderness mastery and emphatic bond, and he can’t do that anymore.

Guys you misunderstood this.

2 and 4 now always behave with the bonus on behind OR flanking. The LOYF just buffs all skills flanking OR behind bonus.

So basically the vanilla shortbow skills got buffed. Last patch the 2 and 4 just had a bonus on behind, not the flanking one is default as well.

Guys, Druid was an amazing elite spec. It added a whole new type of role in the game that was not there before, a pure healer + support. It has also had great synergy with core utilities and traits that provided support.

While I understand that the bowman fantasy is not viable at the moment, it does not mean that the Druid missed its mark.

Currently we have a viable support/healer build and condition DPS build. We are missing a power melee/ranged build. Here is hoping that the next elite fills that role.

There are a couple of things that the Ranger is currently lacking:
- base condition removal
- utility on traps
- sub par weapon skills

Base condition removal can be fixed through tweaks to some existing traits and skills.
For example, Emphatic bond could be made to convert 3 conditions from self to 3 boons to pet to promote a healthy and positive relationship between ranger and pet.

Signet of renewal could be a simple remove conditions instead of transfer to pet. Perhaps even adjust the CD from 60s to 30s and limit the conditions removed to 4-5.

Traps sorely need a stun breaker and some defensive perks if they are to become viable, especially in PvP. I would suggest:
- Spike trap becomes instant cast and a stun breaker
- Flame trap pulses 2 stacks of 10s of might
- Vipers nest pulses weakness and vulnerability on top of poison
- Ice trap pulses protection, and also stuns the enemy for 2 seconds on activation.

As far as weapons go, sure some cast times could be reduced, but what we are lacking in spades is melee weapon DPS, and not burst, but sustained damage. It is simply not competitive.
- Sword auto attack buffed by 20%
- Great sword auto attack buffed by 20%
- Serpent strike (sword 3) damage increased by 100%, poison stacks from 2 to 4
- Stalkers strike (dagger 4) poison stacks increased from 2 to 4
- Crippling talon (dagger 5) slows for a few seconds on top of current effects

This was something i made a year ago

New Legend – Pyre trueshot
Theme – mid ranged skirmisher and condition applier
Special F2 skill – Mist arrow
- Fire a line targeted (similar to deflecting shot) arrow from the mists that does damage and knockbacks foes. Max 5 targets. CD 30s.
Special weapon – Shortbow
- The theme of the weapon would be mid ranged combat, of 900-1000, considering there already exists a long ranged power weapon. Short bow would apply single target condition pressure.
Skill 1 – flanking attacks inflict 3 seconds of Torment. Fire rate same as Ranger SB
Skill 2 – Rapid fire poison arrows for 2 seconds while gaining blur. CD 12 seconds. Attacks 5, poison stacks applied 5, duration 3 seconds.
Skill 3 – Shoot a frozen arrow onto your target chilling and crippling them, while appearing on the opposite side of them. Evade during it. CD 15 seconds
Skill 4 – Swing your bow in an AOE knocking down everyone for 1 second in an 180 AoE. CD 25 seconds
Skill 5 – Reatreat into the mists gaining invulnerability for 3 seconds and removing 3 conditions. Prevents cap contribution. CD 35 seconds
Utilities – Mix of Traps and Survival skills
Heal skill – Blink to an area while removing 3 conditions and healing for a small amount. Gain stealth for 2 seconds. CD 35 seconds
Utility 1 – mist infused trap Place a trap that immobilizes and slows enemies for 2 seconds and applies 6 stacks of bleeds for 10 seconds on activation. 35 energy cost
Utility 2 – resist Break stun and gain 2 stacks of stability for 3 seconds while converting 1 condition into a boon. Energy cost 30
Utility 3 – infused torment Apply 1 stack of torment for 3 seconds onto your next 5 attacks while gaining fury. Cost 35 energy
Elite – Maelstrom Lay down a trap that upon activation pulses blind and weakness to enemies and 2 stacks of might for 10 seconds to allies per pulse. 5 pulses. 10 second CD and 50 energy cost.
TRAITS
Minor traits:
- enable SB and Pyre skills
- gain 2 seconds of stealth when swapping legends
- gain 2 seconds of super speed when swapping legends
Adept traits:
- Gain 20% condition duration and 25% movement speed when wielding a Short bow
- Mist arrow transfers 3 conditions to the first enemy it hits
- Deal 10% extra damage to enemies beyond 600 range
Master traits:
- cast resist when stunned. 40 seconds ICD
- gain 2 stacks of stability for 3 seconds when casting mist arrow
- your trap skills apply 3 seconds of chill and cripple when activated
Grandmaster traits:
- heal 1000 hp/sec when in stealth. When exiting stealth gain 5 seconds of swiftness and regeneration. Only self cast stealth applies. ICD for boons 5 seconds.
- Mist arrow corrupts 2 boons on each enemy hit
- Condition damage taken is decreased by 25% when channeling Pyre. Toughness is increased by 150 when channeling Pyre

For PvE, yes Skirmishing is important. Power and healer builds take Spotter and Quick Draw. Condition DPS takes sharpened edges, hidden barbs and Quick Draw.

For PvP on the other hand, people usually take Nature Magic, Beastmastery and Druid.

Hopefully we get a coherent condition build in the near future. As much as I am enjoying condition DPS ranger in PvE, it is simply not possible in PvP. The traits simply do not work well with utilities, and the utilities themselves have no utility. Talking mainly about traps here.

Honestly, we should be able to take Sharpened edges, Hidden barbs, Trappers expertise and Light on your feet in a single build.

So like, move sharpened edges into a minor and merge the two boon minors into one minor trait. Swiftness on weapon swap is a waste of space.

And when we are at it, give traps some utility like a stun break or condi clear or some boons

My biggest gripe is that it conflicts with trappers expertise. Those should complement each other not be either/or.

Please remember that pets also benefits from sharpened edges, so all builds would benefit due to that fact.

Honestly I would move both hidden barbs and sharpened edges to the minor slots. And hunters tactics to have 10% increased crit chance on bleeding foes instead of the flanking requirement.

They totally need to make this Adept major trait a minor one. There is no reason not to as it is a 33% down from 66% now.

Ranger:
- nerf to Grace of the Land
- possible CD increase to ancient seeds
- possible small buff to traps

we are missing main hand weapons. We only have two. So dagger

I would rather see the following:

- Class trait – F5 is another utility slot
- New skills – physical type

Entangle:
- 2 stacks of 2 seconds of stability when cast
- cool down reduced to 40 seconds

Muddy terrain:
- each pulse applies 1 second of slow

Sharpening stone:
- you gain 6 seconds of un-blockable

It is not just that the matchmaking is bad. The overall quality of players is pretty low as well. I really do not think that in prior seasons the players were actually so clueless as they are now. Fighting off points, not rotating, playing curve ball builds.

The worst part is that rarely people communicate.

The overall feel of the episode is great and the sheer amount of content is as well. The only annoying thing is the meta achievement.

The final boss needs a reset mote and we should be given a choice of what achievements to complete.

They need to make sharpened edges and hidden barbs Skirmishing minor traits. It is quite silly that they conflict with other condition traits like Trap mastery or Striders defense/Spotter.

Quite honestly the 10sec recharge was OTT. So was the stealth and full condi clear. However, rangers other condition clear options are bad.

Signet of Renewal is abysmal. 60 secs full transfer to kill your pet. Warrior for example has a signet on a 40s CD that just fully clears. No natural condition clears on weapon sets either.

Overall Core ranger is so inferior to the Druid line that anything that nerfs the druid heavily affects core as well.
Hopefully when they add a new Elite spec it will allow us other builds then bunker.

The people that complain about a class too such a degree are usually the ones in the lower brackets. Not saying that the Druid did not deserve nerfs, but the hype was way bigger then the actual OP-ness.

The sword DPS got nerfed when they changed the animation.

Actually I do not think that the PvP build will suffer as much. I mean, we are using menders amulet after all. Sure, WHaO and SotP are pure nerfs, but it is not that big of a deal.

Call of the Wild giving unblockable to pets gives new weight to Marksmanship in PvP:
- start off with pet X
- swap to Smokescale and send it to attack with unblockable and remorseless
- profit

Now that the healing values have been “normalized” it is high time a a look is taken at ranger DPS, both condition and power based.

Honestly guys, the druid is still the best healer in the game. It is just that now you actually need Healing Power.

Our issue is that our dps is bad. Both condi and power. That is the next item on the fix list i suppose.

Actually It would be quite cool to reintroduce the dwarfs as a Stone Dwarf race. They do not have to reproduce by normal means. hell, they might have found a way to carve statues and imbue pieces of their souls into the rock thus making new dwarfs

What are everyone’s thoughts about making Gift of Battle only obtainable through the reward track?

I have hit a wall in my legendary making and it is the only thing missing. Thought I could buy it with 500 tokens and was excited to finish the weapon, but then realized that I had to play a lot of WvW to get it.

The Druid is a great specialization that fulfills a certain niche the game was sorely lacking. And , for the most part, the Druid is very much viable and/or meta in most areas of the game.

Having said that, we do need a proper competitive DPS and condition build. Preferably one that is not necessarily tied to the Druid.

As far as DPS goes, and I mean POWER DPS, the core of the issue lies with our melee power weapons lacking damage, both base values and scaling, and some of our trait lines being kind of meh.
For Example, Marksman line offers a lot of damage modifiers, but the three minor traits are pretty much worthless without Remorseless.

As far as Conditions go, the Skirmishing line is something that should be necessary for a proper build, but it is also the reason why Ranger condition builds are sub par. Trappers expertise conflicts with sharpened edges. Spotter conflicts Hidden Barbs. Also, Shortbow is still kind of bad.

So, in order to push the DPS part of the ranger, I would suggest thus (some of the ideas are actually from earlier posts in the topic from other people):

Marksman:
- Opening and Alpha strike merged into adept minor
- Remorseless made into a grand master minor
- new Grand master major: something centered around defense/sustain
- Predators instinct (Adept Major) changed to cripple and 5 stacks of vulnerability for 3 seconds every 5 seconds when scoring a critical hit.

Skirmishing:
- tailwind and furious grip merged into one minor trait
- sharpened edges new minor trait
- hidden barbs merged into hunters tactics as a minor trait – 33% more bleeding damage, 10% extra critical chance vs bleeding foes
- New adept minor : Carnivorous appetite – You and your pet steal health when using basic attacks.
- New master trait – cast a spike trap when dazed/stunned/feared/etc (look at DH trait and trap changes below)

Traps:
- Trait now gives HS 1 second of vigor pulses
- Spike trap is now a stun breaker. CD reduced from 45 to 35 seconds
- Frost trap pulses slow as well as providing 3 seconds of resistance to party on activation. CD reduced from 30 to 25 seconds
- Flame trap pulses 3 seconds of blind on top of bleeding
- Vipers nest pulses 3 seconds of weakness and 3 stacks vulnerability

Shortbow:
- auto attack base damage increased
- auto attack flanking for bleeding req removed
- Poison volley stacks 2 poison per arrow up from 1
- Evasive shot clears 2 conditions
- Crippling shot inflicts 1.5s of immob if flanking
- Concussive shot inflicts 2 confusion, 4 if flanking

Wilderness survival:
- Poison master and the other poison trait merged into one
- new Master major trait: TBD

Nature magic:
- Vigorous training provides 2 stacks of might on top of vigor when pet swapping to the party
- Evasive purity ICD removed or reduced to 3-5s (its a very niche condition clear. Really do not think it needs a 10s ICD)

Warhorn:
- Hunters call damage increased considerably. 100-200% It is just so bad. Alternativelly allow it to transfer 2-3 conditions to target.

Beastmastery:
- Honed axes – If using axe in main hand condition damage is increased by 150, If using axe in off hand, ferocity is increased by 250. AoE winters bite is now baseline

Axes:
- auto attack base damage increased. Scaling coefficient increased. Damage redistributed to the first hit being the strongest and dropping off per target

Sword:
- auto attack damage and scaling increased
- Hornets sting either removed cast time or evasive frames starting right away

Great sword:
- auto attack damage increased

Let us not forget (oh how could we… xD) that we need our damage brought up to par.

With that in mind I would suggest:

- Great Sword auto attack chain damage buffed by 20% ( it is so bad its funny)

- Sword auto attack chain damage buffed by 15%, all parts of the combo now splash to 3 targets

- Serpent strike damage increased significantly (at least 100%) and poison stacks increased from 2 to 4

- Hornets sting cast time decreased to 1/4 or removed

- Axe auto attack damage buffed to be able to bounce off friendlies. The idea is that if a pet is on the target the attack will hit the foe, bounce to a pet and then back to the foe, effectively hitting him two times. The Friendly bounce would do no damage but count towards the might stacks.

- Shortbow auto attack bleed requirement removed. Confusion added to no5, immob added to number 4

@Wondr: I love those suggestions, was thinking something similar. The marksmanship line is burdened at the moment with 3 minors that really do not do much unless you take Remorseless.