Guild Wars 2

Jon P in our balance thread just made an exciting post about this.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Since it’s a boon, it should be affected by +boon duration. If it’s not, that would be a bug I guess.

It is affected by boon duration it’s just that tooltips are still incorrect while they work out the underlying dynamic speadsheet. It’s 5s base duration if I remember right, despite what the tooltip may say.

On that topic, agility trainin is what you take for birds, cats, and any other pet that stops to attack. Using it with dogs or spiders makes only a tiny difference. Some traits are very pet dependent. I hope that helps you guys.

Wayfinder.8452:

Chopps.5047:

Wayfinder.8452:

Go to a world boss event with your bear use ‘Guard’ at the boss location. Go out of aggro range, alt tab and resume browsing the ranger forum.

I used it only for the perma regen and in dungeons where it can help your cat survive some random boss AoE.

It has a lot of utility on paper, but most of it is useless in all game modes. Seriously it’s only real use is toxic afking of any possible PvE event.

Frontline wvw with natures voice and spirits unbound after dec 10. Natures voice covers boons all the time makes it harder to rip or keep corrupted. And spirits are generally awesome. So, ya, there’s that in december.

Yeah, that has been popping here and there. It might be good, but we’ll see. I can hardly consider any spirit build frontline for WvW. Mid at best. The patch next month looks very solid for PvE and WvW.

OP stated that he doesn’t want the topic to be centered around perma boons though.

Spirit death isn’t nearly as penalizing as it used to be, they had a few patches that really increased average uptime without making it too OP.

JonPeters.5630:

I just had a wacky idea that might make some aspects of MH sword less frustrating. I’ll test it out when I get in to work and report back.

Jon

Jon, you are doing some great work. Keep it up! Rangers all over tyria will love you if ou pull it off.

Wayfinder.8452:

Go to a world boss event with your bear use ‘Guard’ at the boss location. Go out of aggro range, alt tab and resume browsing the ranger forum.

I used it only for the perma regen and in dungeons where it can help your cat survive some random boss AoE.

It has a lot of utility on paper, but most of it is useless in all game modes. Seriously it’s only real use is toxic afking of any possible PvE event.

Frontline wvw with natures voice and spirits unbound after dec 10. Natures voice covers boons all the time makes it harder to rip or keep corrupted. And spirits are generally awesome. So, ya, there’s that in december.

Remember this?

http://itstartsatdusk.bandcamp.com/album/hardcore-adventure-box-world-1

Music was awesome, can’t wait. Cool contest too. You guys rock!!!!

Vayne.8563:

There are several reasons why people complain about berserker.

Let’s pretend that you live in another country than then US which many players do…and even in the US not everyone has the same quality machine or connection. One guy in my guild is in Montana and has satelite. Sometimes the lag makes it impossible for him to time dodges. I’m in Tasmania. I have similar problems…not all the time but sometimes. Often enough to want a bit of toughness and vitality for the hits I might survive.

So now, you basically have a situation where I’m not helping the team enough if I don’t wear berserker, but I’m not helping myself enough if I do. The game won’t be as fun for me.

It’s not always about optimizing your build, because surviving as a berserker means that you have to have a certain level a skill, level of hardware, level of connection. What percentage of players have all three?

So if people then exclude others from their parties based on not having one or the other…how does that create a better game or better community?

Fortunately I’ve joined a guild that’s happy to take anyone into any dungeon with any build they have. And you know…we clear content just fine.

Maybe not as efficiently as the zerker warrior parties, but I’d wager we have as much fun as anyone.

Google, get some fiber up in Montana please. Oh wait wrong forum.

Nike.2631:

Dolphin!

(what? we could use more variety in underwater pets…)

Spirits underwater are dolphins already, dunno if you knew that

SubAce.9863:

“Natural Vigor
Starting here because I think it requires the most discussion. This, simply put, was a wildly overpowered trait. I tell people not to compare one profession to another, but Engineer has this trait as a major grandmaster. It was simply too easy to put 5 points in this line and then be able to dodge every 6.67 seconds. As it stands after the change this still allows you to splash 5 points and dodge every 8 seconds. I don’t think this will ruin survivability, and I think by buff other traits further down this line it will encourge rangers who are looking to survive to go further into this trait line.”

Wildly overpowered eh? Having said myself that Rangers do have access to quite a bit of endurance I do believe it is currently a great asset for Rangers. But wildly overpowered? As a class in general is there anything that a Ranger brings to WvW that gets people to go wild and say, “OMG here comes that Ranger yeehaw”, other than when it’s, “OMG Here comes that Ranger free bags!”

But like others have said. Move the trait instead of nerfing it? The class has few enough, “wildly overpowered”, traits as it is.

^_^

Ranger in wvw will be able to shout nature’s voice on the frontline with unbound spirits and a stability trained brown bear that was just more than doubled in effectiveness. Why are you complaining? Especially when endurance regen is getting reduced across the board.

It’s a golden dolyak from what I understand, distinct from any pvp finisher. Rather than reference rank, the yak simply is a symbol for the lifeblood of wvw: supply. So relax, open a can of your favorite beverage, kick back, and turn that frown upside down.

I love the decision on sword. I’m really looking forward to dec 10. Thanks anet, you guys rock!

This is a great day. Thank you for backing players like me up on this Jon P. Huge props—may you always stick to your guns, because we’re all wrong about stuff from time to time, myself more frequently than I’d like to admit.

The real discussion is that the “play how you want” builds took 3 minutes for these guys to win. That’s just orders of magnitude better than PUGs just in terms of pure skill. There’s a lot to learn if you just shut up and listen.

Dahkeus.8243:

Chopps.5047:

Dahkeus.8243:

Yea, I’be brought this up twice on the thread. This is one of the big reasons I re-rolled. I know they have a lot to respond to, but this has been an issue since day 1.

I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s kinda frustrating since ANet has become so open on balance changes recently, yet still hasn’t addressed this.

Do you not acknowledge that many in the community like the sword? We’re not all 100% on board to want to change it. I think it works to be honest. It sucks to learn but you can.

I acknowledge this, but, after following these forums and playing the game since release, I have found that these people are mostly in the minority and primarily argue for it on the basis of preferring difficult gameplay.

I’m all for difficult gameplay, but I think it can be accomplished without clunky mechanics that provide unnecessary hindrances.

Difficulty for the sake of difficulty is not why I want it to retain it’s current functionality. I want to keep the leap because of pvp. Unless they can change the engine such that dodges break leaps, the easy solution from a programming point of view is to remove the leap. And I don’t want that. That’s where I stand, I hope that’s clear.

Dina Van Heyr.3018:

major vigor regeneration nerf .. few useless buffs (little buff to lb1), seriously 100% stun bonus for what ? gs 5 and sb 5 ? from 1 to 2 second spend 30 points in mostly useless trait line ..
why warrior has LB dmg and range bonus in in 1 trait, skill Cd in second trait .. ? I need 3 master trait to make LB even little effective .. this is another dissapointment ..
still mess in trait lines ..
no even word about bugged LB out of range mess

lots of endurance regen nerfs in this balance patch across the board from what I hear and longbow is going to be awesome, you underestimate the impact of the this patch for rangers, its going to be huge for us if they stick with it

JohnRandom.1935:

ChioChip.5970:

Yeah you missing something!

1. The applied confusions last 10s base and 18s (+30% runes + 50%food/trait)
2. You get THREE stacks of confusion every 15 sec
3. LB4 interrupts easily…. (here you got your usual 8 stacks!)
4. LB4 -> swoop -> hilt bash combo can stack to 13 confusions
5. G4 interrupts aswell. (another 5 stacks)

Here is my rotation for max confusion stacks:

LB4 -> GS3 -> GS5 -> GS2 -> GS4 back to LB4

If you are timing right and you are lucky you can stack 20 stacks by this + 3 stack on cirt. = total of 23 stacks

But 8-13 stacks are way more common

This build works because people want to kill you or defend… they constantly use skills you just have to learn when to interrupt.

Ok, so you actually get more than one stack confusion every time the runes proc? I never used them so I don’t know. I kind of reads like one stack each time.. that sounds pretty amazing. I need to try that out.

3 to 8 i think with condi duration and not really trying. so its a bunch, as he or she describes, you can get much more too

I have a feeling it’s going to be very good.

You guys have all of my respect. Great vid, rock on

lordhelmos.7623:

During the developer livestream for ranger, Izzy stated that he recommends that ranger players stay away from knight gear because players with higher toughness will draw more aggro.

What are everyone’s thoughts on this?

I’ve been saying this for ages and ages.

Chokolata.1870:

more active condition removal …. MOAR

I don’t know choko. What do we have to give up to get that? All of our endurance regen? Conditions are on the way out already. I think all of us would be better off to drop the issue for now.

ChioChip.5970:

Faux Sheaux.6179:

Any chance you could make a video? I’m really interested in seeing this in action in WvW.

I planned to record something.

@chopps: Thought @ that aswell… but the damage from bleeds is higher

Damage from bleed is not only concern. You get two conditions on them instead of 1. Also, torment damage scales with motion. Finally, longbow shoots too slow to stack a ton of bleed anyways.

I do use earth on shortbow though for sure.

Dahkeus.8243:

Yea, I’be brought this up twice on the thread. This is one of the big reasons I re-rolled. I know they have a lot to respond to, but this has been an issue since day 1.

I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s kinda frustrating since ANet has become so open on balance changes recently, yet still hasn’t addressed this.

Do you not acknowledge that many in the community like the sword? We’re not all 100% on board to want to change it. I think it works to be honest. It sucks to learn but you can.

Sigil of torment on longbow, you’ll thank me later

Astewart.8415:

It’s ridiculous. But from the developer PVE live video on Friday, they think it is fine and working as intended.

I am not hopeful it will be changed at all. And therefore while it may be a great weapon, we aren’t going to see most rangers using it.

Yes! I love the sword. I don’t really want to see it changed.

Taushullu.6180:

While I can agree with some of the proposed changes (new Predator’s Instinct looks pretty good, Mighty Swap is change for the better and spirit nerfs are needed), they do nothing to improve ranger’s poor (active) condition removal.

I would like to suggest fusing Healer’s Celerity (and Trapper’s Defense) with Circle of Life.

• Circle of Life: Create a healing spring while reviving an ally. (30-60s cd). Increases revive speed by 10%

This would open up an adept trait slot in Wilderness Survival which could be used to give ranger more active condition removal. New adept WS trait suggestion:

• Symbiotic Bond: Remove a condition from you and your pet when you break stun.

Thoughts?

ANET buffs brown bear and make healing spring pulse faster: users think ANET does nothing for ranger condition removal

Holland.9351:

Shirk.6421:

How I love laughing about these kind of posts. grabs popcorn

And don’t forget the “5k dmg on storm-spirit is too op, nerf please” thread

JonPeters.5630:

• Storm Spirit. Reduced the damage from the Call Lightning skill by 33%.

(http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Dec-10th-Balance-Preview/first#post3133116)

Clearly I’m not an insider. I need a break from the forums. You guys are too quick for me.

Tricare.2946:

Chopps.5047:

I bet I could prove some of your statements wrong. I wish I could play with you. A lot of the drawbacks you point out can be made up for by superior skill.

Now you’re not even discussing the topic. Yes, you can beat a 10 year old kid playing the most-op-rofl-build ever. He doesn’t know how to play as well as you. When discussing builds, traits, and such, you leave out player skill.

Apparently you also leave out tact.

jcbroe.4329:

Chopps.5047:

I don’t know, dude, troll and signet is pretty good. Kill stuff faster. Stop bunkering down so hard. That’s what I do. I also make sure that through immobilization, the enemy cannot get close enough to be a threat until I tilt the battle in my favor and enter melee for the kill. Although you’re saying that won’t cut it and I’m a scrub basically? Lol

No not at all lol. Eurantien already said this though haha:

tanky condi ranger or full berzerker ranger are the only viable builds

Zerker builds don’t take Empathic Bond.

The main issue is that there is no in between. Without zerkers, you don’t kill quite fast enough and you need Empathic Bond for sustain against the massive amount of conditions being spammed, which in turn limits the build versatility because for a lot of the different gear setups available, Empathic Bond is still a necessity in order to have the required sustainability to win fights.

This also though is more of a metagame problem than a ranger problem, because if condition spam gets “shaved” enough to the point where sacrificing Empathic Bond isn’t as detrimental to as many builds as it is now, then it will open up quite a number of different options.

I bet I could prove some of your statements wrong. I wish I could play with you. A lot of the drawbacks you point out can be made up for by superior skill. Also, you underestimate other builds and playstyles you haven’t personally tested.

I don’t know, dude, troll and signet is pretty good. Kill stuff faster. Stop bunkering down so hard. That’s what I do. I also make sure that through immobilization, the enemy cannot get close enough to be a threat until I tilt the battle in my favor and enter melee for the kill. Although you’re saying that won’t cut it and I’m a scrub basically? Lol

Indoles.1467:

jcbroe.4329:

Yeah, I thought we decided long ago that Empathic Bond our only source of viable condition removal is the biggest thing that is killing build diversity.

I wish Karl would come back and comment on whether or not there is an internal discussion happening about this very problem (or perceived problem).

I agree it is. Without it, you rely on not taking any focus in a fight and that simply won’t happen. There are some decent changes here, but the only one I see that promotes any build diversity is the spirits unbound and nature’s vengeance swap. Otherwise, rangers are still stuck 30 deep in wilderness survival with 40 points to pick from for their respective build.

If you can’t rely on your team for condition removal and healing spring won’t cut it, why not go troll + signet of renewal? Now you’re a source of aoe cleanse. I must be missing something about tpvp gameplay at the top levels. You guys are talking top levels right?

Eurantien.4632:

Chopps.5047:

Eurantien.4632:

But you lose moment of clarity and crit damage and the fury from wep swap (which is usually 50% up time). And LB cooldowns.

But you have a lot more power. Look at strength of spirit.

So, good for WvW. But not tPvP. There will always be condi necros/engis on a team.

I agree it’s great in wvw. But, dude, you must not like critical hits.

Bark skin fairly worthless, indoles?? Needs empathic bond?? No way guys. Branch out. It’s ok to let go of empathic bond, it really is.

Eurantien.4632:

But you lose moment of clarity and crit damage and the fury from wep swap (which is usually 50% up time). And LB cooldowns.

But you have a lot more power. Look at strength of spirit.

Why you need empathic bond? I was thinking of all the times I went GS and LB and couldn’t get fury without a pet or a scarce 15 expended on skirmishing.

30 in marks and 30 in NM could be an interesting combination in my mind. You get the power and boon duration as well as a non-pet source of fury.

jcbroe.4329:

Eurantien.4632:

jcbroe.4329:

Depending on what a PvP team is using the ranger for, spirit builds may still be prevalent, but they could switch to a Settler’s setup with 0/0/30/20/20 and bring the strength of what the BM build used to bring to a fight with the team support the a spirit build has. Storm Spirit may or may not be dropped in this situation due to the lack of Nature’s Vengeance, and builds would probably run Sun/Stone/SotW with DPS pets, Mighty Swap, and Vigorous Training for more dodging, since vigor will likely be more important for rangers now with a decrease in the traited endurance regen.

0/0/30/30/10, nature’s voice instead of nature’s vengeance and swap storm spirit for guard to give AoE perma regen and swiftness with that settler’s healing power. As well as passive spirit buffs.

Good point. I hate using Nature’s Voice and Guard personally, but that looks really solid.

I’m still sad both of our ideas have to go 30 in WS though… that’s my only gripe right now.

Why not two handed training? Now you get fury on your greatsword. I actually kind of love the devs for this greatsword buff. It’s the coolest thing.

Quarktastic.1027:

Faux Sheaux.6179:

That’s because you’re smashing 11111111111111111111 instead of actually hitting it when you need to. Skills queue. The delay is there because of the way you are playing.

The less often you spam 1, the less damage you deal. No other weapon requires its user to refrain from attacking if they want to avoid getting killed. The sword 1 chain is a problem, and it has been a problem since launch. Just because people have found ways to deal with it doesn’t mean there’s nothing wrong with it.

Oh, I spam it. Just when I know it’s safe. I think the experienced players are probably adept at identifying boss animations and/or are just familiar with it. But I do spam it a lot, I don’t want you to get the impression that I don’t. I slow down on that third swing when I know there’s danger. I’ve got a pretty good feel for the tempo and pacing of gw2 bosses these days. They got a certain style you just get used to, believe me.

One key I’ve found is to stay behind the boss so he cannot cleave you. Many bosses in gw2 are extremely lethal from the front only. An exception to this rule is the Butcher or Mossman (mossman just says SCREW YOU and turns around and punches you in the face with an axe and it hurts). I rarely have trouble using serpent’s strike during the sword chain so try using that as your first dodge so you can keep up the spam. The great thing about this technique is that it puts you behind the boss.

Another thing I like to do is use signet of the beastmaster and signet of stone to get off a worry free burst. That’s usually very effective. But don’t waste it: sometimes you want to use that signet prior to a rez.

There is an art to it and it is rewarding just in terms of gameplay when you know you’re pulling it off.

Shinra.9348:

Also I feel like the change to Storm Spirit will make it less used in the long run in any serious game mode.

Ya I know jcbroe was arguing for this nerf just a few days ago. But I’m still confused as to why. I guess I never realized how strong a 3k attack to 3 enemies is on a 20s cooldown (just doesn’t seem that strong to me but I’m going to keep using it to try and see the level of OP. )

Lol they won’t let you stack swiftness ooc. That’s pretty funn to suggest though. Hey, caj mighty swap work ooc too? What about furious grip? It’s not OP to enter combat with 25 stacks might on pet and max stack of fury and swiftness, right? That’s totally not OP.

Karl McLain.5604:

Xsorus.2507:

I’m not understanding the Enlargement change, not sure what they mean by that information.

Mighty Swap granting Might to me also is interesting.

Makes Boon Duration more interesting.

Nature Magic X – Enlargement. This trait now uses Signet of the Wild to trigger. This reduces the cooldown to 60 seconds and allow it to interact with the Signet of the Beastmaster and Signet Mastery traits.

Harro Terravos! This trait is now basically the active portion of Signet of the Wild, meaning it can be reduced with Signet Mastery and will also apply to the ranger when Signet of the Beastmaster is equipped and Might if you have Beastmaster’s Might equipped.

-Karl

Karl, great change dude. Rock on!

Xsorus.2507:

Yea, part of the problem was his Condition Removal was tied completely to the pet…So I started targeting his pet after that in other fights.

once that was gone, it meant he died to condition overload.

He could go for 15 in Beast for the Weapon Swap, but then he’s giving up EB or his Regen Shout..

Just fyi, this is the very reason I followed players like durzlla and prysin in dropping empathic bond for bark skin. It’s either a great ability, does nothing, or screws you over. Lol

Lol fury on greatsword swings, I like

@ xsorsus
Indeed, enlargement is intriguing.

You guys have to be more aware of where you’re at on the sword chain (pounce is what’s hurting you guys, the third animation on the chain). Don’t be in the middle of that skill when you need to dodge a boss attack. You should only straight up spam sword when you know for a fact you can get away with it.

For a stationary boss, I like to take two swings then move a step THEN pounce and repeat. This creates space between yourself and the boss, the leap pulls you back to the boss when you step a little away, and you break up the chain enough to give yourself the time to dodge if you need to.

Lol the frequency of this topic. Every new ranger whines about the sword

Yes, they buffed those traits a while back.

KyreneZA.8617:

Chopps.5047:

But they are great nourishment for a 30/20/20/0/0 build.

Can you explain what trait you use the 20 in Survival for? I run 30/20/15/5/0 because none of the master traits are worthwhile IMO. Is there an adept trait that is worth running in the master slot?

I agree. Longbow needs a little bit of condition damage to augment it. I use a might stacking signet build, but gave up my 3rd signet for sharpening stones because I get so much more mileage out of it.

You can use celestial, rabid, or carrion armor. Take malicious training for your pets. Wolf was fun for me to experiment with given that I had access to torment. I like spiders and birds. Pets are mostly up to you though.

Marksmanship: malicious training, spotter, piercing arrows (you might prefer signet if beastmaster and signet of stone instead)

Skirmishing: companion’s might (this is probably up for debate), and quickdraw

Wilderness survival: wilderness knowledge (I was using sharpened stones utility and muddy terrain), and hide in plain sight (gives me a chance if I get ganked by a thief or warrior)

I like maxing out marksmanship for all the condition duration. I hope that helps.

Dardamaniac.1295:

Yes this would be wonderfull and very interesting.
Yes this would be a huge buff.

Spirit Rangers actually now are fine.They are still braindead and boring but not as much OP as it used to be.And it has to do with the counters they found on their way..I would like to use spirits in a way Mesmers use portal….Without needing to go all the way to 30 points and pick 4 of them.I dont understand why other classes can take skills without needing to trait em for 3 major traits to make em strong.While Rangers have to invest at least 60 points to make a build viable for pvp..First you take Empathetic bond for 30 and then if you want Signets you must go another 30 to affect you as well and if you want spirits you must take 30 to follow you..Ppl never played Ranger dont know this but most of the Rangers hate spirits but we are forced to take em to be effective in a spvp match, otherwise other classes can easily take Rangers place..Its a “bring aoe rezz or gtfo” situation

Empathic bond aint that good btw and in tpvp and dungeon its much easier to play w/o unbound than wvw.

durend.6237:

hybrid.5027:

Chopps.5047:

Why not use offhand training for a larger reflect bubble?

You have to.

All three videos you can see Call of the Wild on a 28 second CD over the normal 35. They all had the trait.

Ah ok, I watched once on mobile and never caught that.

Stream it live?