Guild Wars 2

UPDATE:

Anet – So I figured out something. One time in the past I purchased your 8000 gem pack. It will not let me buy it again. I was just successful in buying a 4000 gem pack…However, it will not let me buy an 8000 or 4000 pack now.

It will allow me to buy the 2800 pack if I wanted it though (Which actually is less efficient than the other two packages.)

Please help me fix this.

Still no buying Gems for me Anet? Help?

Good Morning;

For the last 5+ hours I have been trying to purchase gems at the gem store section of the Black Lion trading tab. I entered the relevant information and payment options. [I have tried both Credit Card and Paypal] I confirmed the terms and conditions and clicked “Submit” only to get an error message:

Unfortunately an error has occurred. Please try again later!

This is quite frustrating, and I did shut down the game and restart it, and the problem is still present.

Good Day Adventurers!

I have recently returned to Guild Wars 2 from an adventure that took me far from the shores of Lions Arch! Only to return to find I no longer remember how to play this game! lol. I started chatting to some players in map-chat but I was getting trolled all over the place, people telling me my ectos were worthless now etc.

I am looking for a bit of hand-holding. Someone to ease my transition and guide me through this somewhat overwhelming period of “getting back into the game”. Ideally this person would be attached to an equally accommodating and friendly guild of decent size and activity. (I have both Ventrillo and Teamspeak3). I am currently on STORMBLUFF ISLE (NA) and I have a level 80 Ranger, a level 80 Guardian, and some other miscellaneous characters.

Hoping to hear from someone soon and get into a voice chat. I like a more “real time” conversation.

Cole Winters

Chopps.5047:

Relax, why so mad? Cof 1 is just a DPS test. Of course it’s easy (unless you can’t frogger!) Ranger is useful everywhere—dungeons, fractals, jubilee. The point is that rangers main gripe, the lack of group buffs, has gone away now ghat vigorous spirits and spiritual knowledge were combined into a single adept trait, making spirits incredibly useful. Along with the spotter buff to 150 aoe precision, ranger is basically a good choice. Don’t take my word, just play spirits yourself.

It bothers me that you still troll the forums all day everyday, trying to say that there isn’t anything wrong with the Ranger class. I know you are entitled to your opinion…but come on man…even the people who were ADAMANT that the world was flat EVENTUALLY admitted they were full of it.

Good job OP! Said it very well.

OP.

The Ranger Class is a jack of all trades. He is capable of doing everything moderately well. However, unless you are content being that casual player, who isn’t all that interested in doing anything"great"…I would recommend another class.

The Pet mechanic is garbage currently, the weakest and poorest designed mechanic of all the classes in my opinion [and I have played them all]. We don’t stand out in dungeons, WvW, and every viable build we have in PvP usually gets nerfhammered in the face.

My ranger is my main, I have 100% World completion on him, and I love him to pieces…but I can’t recommend anyone having Ranger as their main unless they don’t care about being “strong/effective” in most end game arenas.

Spirits [While strong in PvP apparently] are weak and non-usable in PVE. Meaning that most Rangers are running around with Sharpening Stone and Quickening Zephyr [because everything else is a bit lackluster].

I think you need to take a good look at yourself and ask “What do I want to do when I get to level 80?” Then unless your answer is “Complain on the Ranger forum because Anet developers won’t fix the numerous problems with the Ranger Class”……Re-Roll mate.

-Cole Winters
Stormbluff Isle
Level 80 Sylvari Ranger.
Arctodus = Bearly Useful
Brown Bear = Unbearable

Nothing wrong with reanimating threads if the issues identified in them are -still- a problem.

I don’t like PvP I doubt the bunker Spirit build works in PvE

I love how it’s been 8 months since these issues were identified, and still no sign of the light at the end of the tunnel

I’m sad that they still haven’t fixed pets

Chopps.5047:

It’s not the pet’s responsibility to dodge from AoE. It’s your responsibility to recognize that and call your pet back. If you cannot micro, do not play ranger. Warrior or thief (noob/beginners classes) are better for you then because all you have to do is spam your basic attacks.

You sir, are everything that is wrong with forum comments.

You ignore 90% of the OP^ and focus on one small part of it, as if pointing out one flaw will cause the entire OP^ to crumble down around it. You happen to be correct that micromanaging pets is the way the Ranger Excels. However, the responsiveness to the F1-F4 commands are poor, so that “split second/clutch” repositioning is impossible. Like on the Fractal where you are a charr fighting that ascalonian ghost. Even your ranged pets [who fight at 900 range] are within the radius of his agony AOE circle. Even when the warning animation plays if you hit F3 to return your pet to you…by the time the command is recieved and their current attack animation ends and they turn around to jog over to you…they are already dead as a doornob because it WASN’T FAST ENOUGH!.

Would it make the Ranger ridiculously overpowered if the pet was given 2-seconds of evasion when the Ranger Dodgerolled? Would it? NO. It encourages Ranger players to use skill, to time their dodgerolls perfectly to help their pet live through boss aoes’ and big attacks.

Don’t come into the Ranger forum and tell Ranger players who legitimately love the class to roll something else just because it’s easier. There are those of us who want ANet to notice that more and more people are leaving the Ranger class behind in favor of a “noob/begginer” class like the warrior or thief. Make the Ranger better so that even “Begginer players” can enjoy it and feel USEFULL, like their presence in a dungeon with 4 friends actually MAKES A DIFFERENCE.

So Chopps, if I ever see you out there in PVP…I hope you are ready to learn who is the better Ranger…because you probably have 30 points in Beastmastery and do I have a surprise for you.

-CW

Pets are not useless.

They are just clunky, poorly programmed, and sorely lacking in AOE resistance, dodge/evasion and Agony Resistance. They sometimes aggro adds your party didn’t intend to fight…stand in lava like it isn’t killing them slowly…and pretty much waste time on Jade Maw because they get targeted a crap ton by that beam of death. They lick wounds as intended almost 60% of the time and they only miss 33% of their autoattacks because their target moved! Last but not least…they can’t seem to smell the invisible thief, don’t always hear you calling for them to use their F2 ability [causing you to pound on it/hold it down] and there is a delay in the “return to me” function that makes “split second/clutch” positioning impossible.

Not useless at all. Myth busted.

Level 80 Ranger
Brown Bear – “Bearly Usefull”
Arctodus – “Bearly Bearable”

I am really hoping to get a developer comment on this – Perhaps one that is on the “Ranger balancing team”…that is assuming there is one…

I honestly don’t know if the Ranger is the worst class;

I will say that the Ranger is sorely lacking in the “usefulness” department when it comes to high level PVE content. [Fractals/Dungeons.]

You cannot use spirits, because they die too quickly and have no durability to last any real length of time in fights. A trap/condition build Ranger might be “max-stacking” low duration bleeds and preventing an allied necromancer from landing any of their -MUCH MORE POTENT- bleeds.

Your pet….which represents “30%” or more of your damage potential, is weak to aoe’s, has no built in evasion, is incapable of dodging, and has 0 Agony Resistance….meaning in all fractal bossfights…he is pretty much going to die. It’s even more annoying when your pet gets “eaten” by the jellyfish boss….because your pet can’t hit “1” to escape. Or your pet gets the attention of the Dredge/Ice elemental boss and makes it more difficult to kite him properly. In the cliffside fractal, when your party is clumped up to avoid the “Giant red circles of flaming death”…your pet will stand in the fire without even thinking about moving….and you can’t even put him away because stow doesnt work when you are taking damage or making attacks.

You bring subpar utility, and subpar damage to your team, so at high level fractals, you may even have difficulty finding groups! So is Ranger the worst class? Maybe? Maybe Not? Is it worth leveling to 80 to see if you like it? Sure…Why Not!

Is your primary goal to play dungeons and Fractals and other high skill requirement max level content? – ROLL A DIFFERENT CLASS.

DancinPuppeh.8421:

Most people who hate Ranger don’t know how to play it correctly. It’s all about preference as with all professions. You either love it or hate it. Personally I think it’s one of the strongest professions. The only downside I see is it can get boring at times with a bow. As you’re never really in much danger of death. But I’ve tried Thief also, and people say Thief is the “Fun” profession but personally I find Ranger a lot more fun to play. As you can relax a bit more and play

Also, about the Melee, I don’t think most Rangers prefur melee, the problem is Rangers who use the Longbow like myself. At close ranger the Longbow does awful awful damamge, so when a mob gets close I swap out to a Sword and Horn, or a Greatsword since it’ll deal more damamge close range than a Longbow will

First off OP. Go here for a summarized version of the real problem with the Ranger class.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/PVE-Monster-Lackluster-Endgame/first#post1106349

Now as far as I am concerned Puppeh – To say that the Ranger is one of the strongest classes, makes me believe that you have not yet gotten to level 80, and if you have…you have not spent much time in Fractals or High level dungeons.

More and more fights I am participating in at high level play require me to keep my pet on passive. In fights where positioning is important….or when there are additional “adds” around it is too dangerous to have the pet running around. In other instances…like climbing the tower of the “Catastrophe” fractal, my pet is useless to help me against the harpies, unless I get on the same platform as one of them…That’s 30% of my damage output “admiring the view” for half the fractal.

Don’t delude others into thinking that the only problem with the ranger is the fact that the “bow” can be boring.

Please Read Here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/PVE-Monster-Lackluster-Endgame/first#post1184604

For a synopsis of issues regarding the Ranger, and their poor current performance in end game content.

I have also finally put my Ranger in Southsun Shore, and I log in once per day to mine the rich orichalcum node. Now that my guardian has hit level 80…why use my Ranger for anything else until ANet makes some changes to make the Ranger more useful in level 80 PVE Content.

Our evasiveness and control options might be?!?

I think you’ve been eating a few too many questionable mushrooms if you think that the Ranger kit is the best evasive and controlling kit available. Thief and Mesmer both have the ability to drop our pet’s aggro, and despite being a scout/ranger we have some of the worst/least effective escape options in the game.

I expected more of a community reaction to this. Thank you to the people who supported my views!

I don’t know if any of these have already been listed I only read page 1.

I name any Moa pet I have out – Lawn Moa
and any Bear I have out – Bearly Legal/Bearly Eighteen

1. It certainly feels the slowest, especially when you have swiftness activated, but your pet [who trails behind you] is still in range of enemy abilities and in the course of being struck – forces you into “combat” which then slows you down to a crawl regardless of swiftness. If a foe can strike your pet, they can prevent your escape.

2. No argument here!

3. I can’t catch people I am trying to chase, and I can’t escape people who want to chase me. This results in a “wtf” moment, staring at my defeated corpse on the ground…wondering why I can’t outrun anything.

4. I don’t have a huge problem with the traits, with the exception that with the current End-game Meta, many of the traits are not viable. You have to chose from a narrow scope of “acceptable” traits if you want to be -remotely- effective.

5. The Spirits.
Storm Spirit, Sun Spirit, Frost Spirit, Stone Spirit, Spirit of Nature[Elite], Summon Druid Spirit[Elite]

Spirits are rarely used at level 80 play, because they are weak and lack durability. They melt to AOE, and a dead spirit is a wasted utility. Furthermore, it forces you to trait specifically with them in mind, or they are stationary, and do not move with you. In this way, they are worse than even the Necromancers minions, with AOE actives that are insignifigant.

The Pet Shouts.
“Sick Em”, “Protect Me”, “Guard”, “Search and Rescue”

Besides a buggy/poor AI system for the pets in general, these abilties really don’t do enough to justify taking up a slot on the bar. Especially considering the range limitations on some of them. The pet is such an unreliable source of damage for the ranger in Fractals/Dungeon boss fights, these skills cannot be relied upon.

The Signets.
Signets of Renewal, The Hunt, The Wild, of Stone.

Though recently buffed, these signets provide a passive perk to the ranger [which isn’t terrible in some cases] but is still somewhat bland. The actives apply to your pet, which again poor Ai aside, can be nice…especially if you use the trait tree to make the active’s apply to you as well. As such, these are not “unusable”..but not the best.

The Traps:
Flame, Snake, Frost, Spike, Mud

These are playable in the condition build, and can be used in the right situations. Really great in PVE, but useless against fights like Jade Maw.

The Bread and Butter for Rangers [Most valuable/Earn their place.]
Lightning Reflexes [Our only real Stun breaker]
Quickening Zephyr [If only we had more skills like this one.]
Sharpening Stone [It’s better than most alternatives!]

Our Only Real Elite options:
Rampage as One
Entangle

Dear ANet.

I am a devoted “Ranger” player. In every MMORPG/RPG game I play where possible I gravitate toward the “Ranger/Hunter” class. Lots of games have different takes on "What makes a “Ranger” a “Ranger”.

Objectively speaking, some of the first things that come to mind when you think “Ranger” are nature, bow/arrow, growth, mobility, agility, swiftness, stealthy, animal affinity, primal affinity, living off the land/outdoorsy, Druidic [etc.]. Therefore as long as you touch on some of these elements you can keep a “Ranger-Lover” like myself happy as a clam….However

For the first time I am really having a difficult time “Loving” my Ranger in GW2. How can this be when you’ve done such a great job making the ranger “Feel like a Ranger”? Well to be honest, It’s the end-game feeling of the ranger that makes it a dissappointment. From level 1-79 I experimented with all the weapons, and different combinations. I tested and spent time learning each and every pet and their quirks. I got 100% world completion on my ranger and enjoyed almost every second of it! This is because the Ranger is one of your most PVE-leveling content completion friendly classes. Utilizing pets, the Ranger has the ability to easily coast through most PVE environments, and feels effective and balanced [if not a little bit too easy]. However, when I hit level 80, and I ran out of world to explore…I began to feel the burden of “lacklusterness” that a lot of rangers feel when our class clearly doesn’t mesh well with the current “Endgame Meta”. It is difficult to get a group for Fractals and high level dungeons because the Ranger class while “Good at everything – is great at nothing!”

Who wants a condition build Ranger, who is constantly hitting 25 stacks of low duration bleed on an opponent so that other “more potent” bleeds like the necromancers can’t get through? Who wants a Ranger in melee mode, who puts out less damage overall than a thief, guardian, or Warrior…and goes down quicker too? Who wants a Ranger on Jade Maw, with their dumb un-stowable pets being targeted by the beam over and over again? Your development team has stated that the Rangers damage output is based largely upon their ability to micro-manage their pet…but then you gave pets the most unsatisfying excuse for an AI system that they spend half the time swinging at air! Half of the weapons you’ve given my Ranger the ability to use aren’t viable for high level play! Spirits are useless minions, with no survivability and pathetic activated abilities. I look at my trait trees and I wonder….why did they go to the trouble of making so many different traits…and then make a class that can only afford to be built 1-2 different ways if they want to be even remotely efficient at endgame play? I feel consistently outmatched in PVP/WvW, and I honestly beg ANet to consider making it an option [like in GW1] for a Ranger to forgo having a pet in exchange for higher damage output on their weapons.

I am sure, that people are going to say that “I need to learn to play” and that my complaints have no merit to them. However, It has come to the point that “Why play my ranger, when one of the other classes can do whatever my ranger can do…better.” I am sick and tired of people seeing that I am a ranger and refusing to invite me to a party because they need a “Guardian/Warrior/Mesmer”. I am tired of pounding my F2 key/holding it down until the pet AI “figures out what I want”. I am tired of “Lick Wounds” not working for no reason. I am tired of my pet “trailing behind me being hit by enemy abilities….which then forces me to walk super slow even if I am out of range/not being hit.”

Seriously ANet…You went to the trouble of making the Ranger one of your playable classes….now put some effort into making them viable for level 80 content. There should be perks to the ranger that will make groups WANT a ranger in party! Make the spirits better! make the pet smarter?! Make Duel-wielding axes a viable weapon combination! ANYTHING! Just do something! Something to help a “Ranger Lover” like me actually feel useful/beneficial to the parties I play with.

-Cole Winters

4. Poor Responce to the “F2” command. When I click the F2 button, often times…the command is not recieved [The skill doesn’t begin blinking to indicate that my pet is performing his special move.] As such I find that I have to hold/rapidly pound the key until my pet decides he “feels like” using his “roar/spit/rend/howl” etc…

5. Poor Pathing – Pet unable to follow you off even the smallest of ledges, even if your pet is winged [like an owl/raven], and then looks for the shortest way down from the ledge which often aggros groups unintentionally. In addition, the pet won’t/is unable to enter combat if your foe is seperated from you by a gap. [Ie: Fighting Harpies in the Catastrophe Fractal]

I really am dissappointed with how inefficient and “dumb” the AI for my pets is. I chose Ranger in GW2 because I was a Ranger in GW1 and I love the class…but the pet AI feels sloppy and careless. I don’t know if it should be a priority to fix because it doesn’t make the class “impossible to play”…but it certainly [in my opinion] makes the pets and Beastmastery side of the class “Impossible to Love”.

-Cole Winters
[Stormbluff Isle]

There are several issues that ANet could easily deal with to improve the AI of the pet to reduce the stress some rangers feel. I have been playing my Ranger since Launch and I have explored several builds including a Beastmaster build. I own all the pets available [except the ones from GW1] and have given ample time to explore them and their uses. Some of the key areas of concern with pets are:

1. Putting the Pet Away.
– In Some Cases, it serves you and your party much better if there isn’t a “stupid” pet doing “stupid things” like “accidentally standing in lava” or "aggroing adds/mobs the party isn’t expecting. For that purpose, ANet included the “Store Pet” function. HOWEVER, the store pet command only works as long as you do not a] Make an attack b] Take damage of any kind. This becomes an issue even when doing things like jump puzzles, as your pet can be a distracting and unwelcome guest teetering on a narrow beam with you 100 feet above the ground. [Keep in mind you can sometimes take fall damage from jump puzzles which of course has them leaping back into the fray] ANet could easily make a lot of rangers happy if they included a setting on the store function.

Example: Passive Storage/Active Storage. When a pet is “Passively” stored, the AI would function as it currently does, with the pet returning to your side if you attack or take damage. However, You could choose to “Actively” store your pet which UNTIL REMOVED your pet will not return regardless of how often you atack or how much damage you take.

2. Positioning.
– It is so frustrating to me that I cannot predict where my pets stand or move. I cannot begin to fathom at how many countless times I have my pet set on"Avoid combat", because I am not wanting him to roam off on his own and aggro mobs, and he is standing 20 yards away from me [In avoid combat mode]. It makes no sense how pets can stand so far away even if they are set to “avoid combat”!

Example: In twilight arbor[dungeon] there are poisonous aoe flowers that are set off by proximity. I cannot tell you how many of these flowers my pet has run over/stumbled across [even in avoid combat mode]. and Remember! it’s not like you can put your pet away during these areas because YOU ARE FIGHTING! One time I had my pet stored and I was fighting through the first hall in Twilight arbor, when a flower spawned beside me and went off. I dodge rolled, but not before taking damage! Then leaping into action [sensing my imminent peril] my pet came out and tromped on two more flowers…which downed my Elementalist friend.

3. Lick Wounds / Search and Rescue
– I tried using Search and Rescue for awhile, but the skill rarely works as intended…it is quicker and more reliable just to rez my friend myself because the range is terrible, the cooldown is long, and it’s not exactly a “Fast-rez” technique like the Warriors Banner. Lick Wounds is by far the most unreliable downed Skill I have experienced. Assuming your pet is alive, the skill is supposed to call him to your side to “help you bandage yourself quicker” Sounds Legit right? WRONG.

First when you go down, the Lick wounds skill is on an 8 second “cooldown” meaning all you can do is try to rally with a weak lightning bolt and a few rocks, or bandage yourself for 8 seconds and try to outlast the damage you are probably taking from whatever downed you. If you manage to last for 8 seconds channeling bandage, you are suddenly able to use “Lick Wounds” but the 8 seconds doesn’t account for the time it takes for your pet to jog back over to your body from wherever he was fighting. [If you didn’t already push F3 – Not that some people know you still have control of the pet even though the pet control bar is absent from the downed screen -.-] Finally 11 seconds after you’ve been downed your pet arrives at your body and then the AI derps. 50% of the time he starts giving you a tongue bath and you gain health rapidly. The other 50% of the time he decides you smell funny, and he’d rather not bother with licking at all.

BTW – Choosing to activate lick wounds INTERRUPTS/CANCELS the bandage channel….so now you have to wait for a cooldown on bandage as well. Classy right? Especially when you stop bandaging yourself only to have your pet stand ontop of you -NOT- Licking you…while your healthbar drains. Seriously if anyone from ANet is reading this..PLEASE look into this! Can’t the skill be fixed so that it works ALL the time as intended?