Guild Wars 2

I will not talk about general impressions, but only refer to last Twitch podcast on new trait system. When you watch it and different classes are discussed Devs stayed on topic and were mostly professional. When Ranger part came up there was a lot of joking around, not sticking to topic at hand, and mostly avoiding any issues. I was enjoying podcast till Ranger part. Ranger is only one of the classes I play so I am not full vested in it like some of you might be, but what happened in that Twitch kittened me off. So you wanted to know what gives impression that they do not give kitten about Ranger, well, their unprofessional display during last Twitch sure is good indication of it.

I can see what you are saying and on one level I agree, but the way GW2 introduced ranger and animations they use, they imply at least for some types of rangers that we channel nature. Not all times .

Other type rangers are skirmishers like you said and those are bow users, trap users, using tricks, but when you look at animation of melee weapons ans some the names, and powers like spirits, spring of renewal, even signets those imply channeling power of the nature. those at least how GW2 presents are not just things someone picked up and learned by living in nature and surviving there.

Did not read everything, but comment about aoe and tagging caught my eye. If you Double axes tagging is breeze. Properly done better then any other form. First on large groups pop Splitblade it is 6 sec cone aoe. It will tag up to 25 targets (5 axes in spread each axe up to 5 targets). As was said use 1 for bouncing axe to tag stuff which might be missed or not in tight group. Also do not forget Path of Scars, very good liner tag with trait only 12 sec cd. Plus if full berserker build with high Ferocity you hit kitten hard. Might not be as good as longbow (for now), but over 9k Path of Scars is not bad.

What are rangers?

Everyone has their idea, but if we want to generalize, it is warrior who channels power of the nature. In GW1 this concept was realized better since you could specialize in different ways, in GW2 being tied in to Beastmaster is a major flaw , but this issue was beat to death already so I will move on.

Since ranger is reflecting aspect and power of nature in some ways we see this in design of weapon styles and skills. I will focus on weapon styles and propose my idea how I see them defined now and you guys can then comment on how you interpret them yourself.

Without looking at warhorn and torch secondary (you guys post your ideas about them), we can see following styles: Longbow, Short bow, Sword and Dagger, Greatsword, Dual Axes. Yes I generalize a bit since we can mix off-hands with main hands, but I am talking more about themes then all combinations available to ranger.

So when looking at these styles, what type of ranger do I see based on current design of weapon styles? Here is some of my ideas (again comment based on your views please):

Longbow – Warden ranger he defends or hunts for people in settled areas. He or she is barrier between civilized and the Wild.

Short bow – quincential hunter. Using speed and deception (conditions) to take out their enemies.

Greatsword – Another version of the Warden type, but this one closer to the Wild. Power of spirits of animals flows through his blood and is released during combat.

Longsword and Dagger – between warden and hunter types. If you want reference, think of Aragon from LotR. Wanderer through the wild who uses guile in combat.

Dual Axe – Wild man. Channels power of nature by reflecting seasons.

Now you might not agree with my assessment and that is ok, but based on this view of rangers I have some idea on how to fix axes. I like axes so will talk about that , I leave to rest of weapon styles to all of you to comment on and post here.

When you look at abilities of axes you can see already emergence of wild man but it is half finished. Lets look at specific abilities and see what they have and what are my ideas about how to make them better thematically. Also before I start I like to point out that axes are power based weapons and since rangers like to hybrid stuff they mix range with melee. I also will talk about seasons since this is theme with 2 out of 5 axe abilities, so I will stick with this reflection of nature in use of the dual axes.

Ricochet – it is already designed to be reflection of this wild man ranger. As you close in with enemies you pump your self up (you gain might). More enemies you hit and close in with stronger you get. I like this ability as it is.

Splitblade – as it currently stands it is half finished idea. It just does not fit. The concept of cone aoe is great, but in power weapon set applying weak bleeds is just silly and makes no sense. It also does nothing to reflect power of nature which ranger should embody. My idea is to link it to season of Spring. For this to work you need 2 things. You need to improve damage a little to make it reflect the power which this set is . Also instead of bleed, put in its place small life steal per target hit to reflect renewal power of Spring.

Winter’s Bite – it reflects power of winter. Upcoming addition of aoe component will put this skill where it should be.

Path of Scars – some argue that is not good ability. It is good nuke but it is missing some elements to make it fit ranger better. For one it is again not linked to concept of the power of nature. My idea is to link it to Summer. To polish this skill off not sure if damage has to be increased (considering I can crit with dual hit for over 9k now). I defiantly needs increase on speed of flight of axe to show power not only through damage but through sheer force of axe, as it is at the moment it is too slow (usual complain on the forums). Also adding possibly short duration weakness debuff to reflect heat of summer draining strength. Name might need then modifying

Whirling Defnese – do not like the name but a decent skill. Not sure if it needs changes, but if you look at it closely enough you can see it already channeling Autumn in semblance of winds and leaves swirling around ranger. If anything needs better name.

I did not focus purely on damage and such but should be closer to longbow since it is power weapon, but I am not looking to make this OP set. The proposed changes also focus on power and debuffing enemies. Which I think fits with concept of crazy Wild Man image of this type of ranger.

While some of you will argue that this is crazy or stupid, it is just my idea on how to make axes more thematically more of the “ranger” weapon. Others can post ob how they see other weapons need to if they do to be modified to fit image of ranger better.

As it is ranger is just to generic and feels half finished.

I also forgot to add What does any weapon have to do with beast mastery. Not sure but seems beasts have nothing to do with weapons use.

It seems compared to other weapons axes are getting “shafted”. It is now grand master trait compared to greatsword, also there is nothing for axe offhand. While axe offhand before could at least have CD reduction now there is nothing for axes offhand. There was lot of giggling and banter during pod cast, but little focus was given to fact that rangers are being pushed into using bows. Personally I think this is too stereotypical approach to class. Other classes seems at least invite using various weapons use.

Maybe instead of trying to sound like you are cleaver, real balance of weapons should be thought on and worked out instead of just moving stuff around and patting each other on the backs.

PS besides seeing very few axe using rangers longsword rangers are also rare. Maybe if you made those weapons more interesting people would use them more. Hearing about machine gun rangers sounds like you love “Lord of the Rings” elves too much instead of focusing on making rangers better overall on different choice of play.

I usually do not post on forums, but last night patch shows flaw with Anet’s approach to patching. You do not release major mechanic change while having it coded in 24 hours, because you introduce unforeseen problem that people overlooked. The point and case for last night patch was how buff works in the knights’ fights.

Before mechanic change armor on knights was adjusted so if you did not get buff you did 40% (or so) damage less then your normal damage for opponent of that level. When mechanic changed to provide knight immunity to damage from players without buff, it effectively increased armor of knight by 40%. If you ask how, consider that before you were doing 100% damage when you had buff and 40% less when you had no buff. Now you do no damage when unbuffed, and you can do damage when you get buff. Since buff changed, but armor stayed the same on knight. Now when you attack knight you doing 40% less damage since once you get buff you attacking with same power as you did when you did before getting buff pre-patch.

Instead of releasing such a major change to mechanic if fight it would have been better to introduce minor change for loot and give it few days to test patch for mechanic change. Now instead of making players happy the patch just made more players unsatisfied by creating even more significant problems.