Guild Wars 2

I know Champ Farming is profitable.

I know TP power trading can earn you 100g/day easily.

But, why do you think some people wouldn’t do that kitten all day?

Because, I am not playing Atari Economy Simulator 2014.

Some people actually enjoy walking around in open world, killing monsters, helping low levels kill that tough veteran/ champ, witnessing the brilliant art direction in certain parts of the maps, or… oh I don’t know, playing the kittening game?

Some people enjoy gathering mats because it satisfies their desire to see more of the game in the way it was meant to be played. That intrinsic value has sentiment garnered to the individual – you have no right to define what other people enjoy, doing so makes you look so arrogant.

Sure, maybe I am wasting my time chopping for Soft Wood Logs instead of killing the champion rotations in Frostgorge Sound. And maybe you’re right in saying that people aren’t exactly earning those assets for free if they have to spend their time to get it. But there are a plethora of reasons as to why people do what they do, despite those actions being converse to making the most amount of money in a short interval of time. Maybe, some people in this game open their GW2 program to have a good time surrounded by people who care for them.

Hi Mr. Cartwright,

I am a avid Ranger from GW1 and GW2. Played in GvG midline Cripshot and Magebane, and in tPvP with BM Condi. Been playing religiously since beta weekend event 2.

I would like to address the concerns:

1. We were designed as a class to use our pet in any situation, as regarded in your design documents. If you refer to other MMO models, some adopt a intricate system of having a dedicated pet heal, more pet commands, immunity to AoE. Increasing the vitality of anything doesn’t offer sustain in the slightest – In PvE especially where monsters frequently uphold the classic dodge-or-die, it’s almost imperative that our pet either dodge when we dodge or gain Aegis of some kind whenever we make an effort to take evasive action; why is increasing the health threshold for pets an apparent fix for the glaring issue regarding pet sustain?

2. Why are our utilities so weak? Nothing, truly, stands out as identifiable in PvE. One reason why rangers have a difficult time finding viability is the fact that our utilities almost demand a heavy 30 point investment in order to bring out the most viability. For example, if I were to take Signet of Stone, I would need to spec into Marksmanship in order to facilitate it’s damage immunity clause. If I wanted my Spirit of Nature to res reliably, I would precast it and then walk to my ally to hit “0” again to res, but that requires me to invest 30 into Nature Magic for Spirits Unbound. Why is it, exactly, that I must cut corners in order to find lackluster viability? So many professions take their utilities’ potency for granted, but the Ranger, surely, cannot.

3. Somewhat linking to #1, Power-based Rangers clearly do not enjoy the full fledged damage capacities that other professions enjoy. It is a gigantic difference in DPS from a Sword Ranger to that of a Axe Warrior. Why, exactly, are our damage coefficients so much lower than all the other professions in this game? I’ve been listening to the forum posts of this section for quite some time, and read up on people’s intuitions of how it’s our apparent opportunity cost of having a pet that dulls our damage front. It still perplexes me, however. A Warrior can have Burst ,a large health pool, and more recently incredible sustain, and yet they have hardly opportunity cost equivalent to that of a Ranger. A Guardian has access to virtues, stability/regen/protection sharing, and some of the most brilliant group utility in the game, and yet they have viable power options on the table. I would like to understand why Rangers do not enjoy the damage that many other professions assume as a priori.

You know there’s a problem with Rangers when you feel nervous when they join your party. They simply don’t offer as much damage or support as a Warrior or Guardian could. And cmon,’ the potential is there (Spirit-wide buffs, return the GS damage from the beta). Please make Rangers useful. For once.

I know I hear alot of Rangers on these boards claim that there isn’t profession prejudice, but it’s clearly not true at all. Most pugs simply wont tolerate Rangers, because decent ones are few and far in-between.

And when a decently experienced Ranger joins a group it’s almost as if just the Ranger must prove his or her worth to the fullest extend humanly possible, and no one else; like kitten man, as if that Guardian or Warrior couldn’t be more of a screw up than me… way to completely judge someone based on their kittening exterior. Sometimes I wonder if the human race really is intellectually progressing.

I feel your pain. My solution was to stay with a loving guild for my entire time in the game since 3-day headstart. Most pugs suck anyways. I’d rather communicate and lead runs with my guild through SE2, Arah 1 and 4, CoF2, etc. than deal with self-righteous kittens.

My entire playtime since Armor crafting went live is basically this:

Daily for Laurel.

Daily Elonian Spool, Silk Weaving, Mithrilium, and Elder Spirit Residue.

NSP Dragonite Temple Farms.

So yeah. Playing the game like a job just for Ascended Armor? Hells yes, that’s kittening boring.

Turn off your team, map and say chats. If you’re aware, you’ll never need to coordinate and know when to go close/ mid when your allies bars are fluctuating. Life’s too short to deal with people who brag about being good in a fantasy video game.

If only Lightning Reflexes broke movement impairing conditions like Withdraw and Roll for Initiative…

It always perplexed me why Rangers have some of the worst condition removal options. No reliable active cleansing at all. Such a change from gw1…

A Ranger Anet dev appears in a low pop server!

Now, I don’t particularly mind the 250 ectos that are required to make the Beta Fractal Capacitor glow. I mean, much of the cosmetic assets of this game does rely on a large number of T6 mats and the likes – so I’m not surprised of the stack of ectos required to make them glow.

What irks me, ever since Ascended gear was released, was the price of adding on an additional +5 inherent Agony Resistance on your backslot. It seems a bit too extreme to ask players to invest some odd ~70g to get a single backslot item to it’s “(Infused)” status.

250 ectos is asking quite a bit, and seems rather out of place with all other assets in this game. I mean, let’s be frank, it does cost a good sum of money to get exotic gear, but never an instrumentally large sum of wealth for a single item.

Could you good folks in Anet please reconsider the recipe for the infusions of Quivers and Capacitors? Perhaps, involve the Shards that are obtained in the Fractals of the Mists so that the infuse status garners more respect (i.e. something earned and not bought)?

Thanks for reading.

Try using Hunter’s Call and cancelling it midway. Birds spawn, but no damage will apply.

Can’t begin to explain how many times my spirits canceled their own skills, active play for rangers seems almost like it’s purposefully kitten. So much for ressing someone with Spirit of Nature, cause’ it just decided to turn the other way instead of using Nature’s Renewal.

How many Splitblades have cancelled when enemies walk right through me, going on full cooldown without actually throwing any axes? Probably more than I’d be comfortable with.

It’d sure be nice to see Sic’ Em used with Raven’s F2 burst… oh wait.

I can do this all day, sadly.

Kilger.5490:

1) “READ THE WIND” LONGBOW AUTO-ATTACK WILL NOW HIT TARGETS (already announced)
2) “MASTERY OF DODGE” DODGE WILL NOW WORK WHILE USING SWORD
3) “BASIC TRAINING” AXE WILL NOW DO APPRECIABLE DPS
4) “CHANCE IN HELL” PETS WILL NOW SURVIVE ZERG AOE 10% OF THE TIME
5) “OBEDIENCE SCHOOL” PET ATTACKS WILL NOW HIT TARGETS

The sad thing is that Anet is probably going to do something like this.

It’s funny actually. One of my guildies needs his armor full Celestial, requested by his high-end WvW guild. He’s a Staff Ele.

I really don’t know why people seriously bother with celestial. If you wanted stat variance use a combination of different nomenclatures. No need to make this game any more of a job than it already is.

No.

We have so many weapon skills that allow our pet to perform unique abilities (Winter’s Bite on Axe, Sword Mainhand Might stacks). We have traits that provide unique properties for the pets (Malicious Training, Vigorous Training, Mighty Swap).

Unless Anet is willing to redesign the Ranger class entirely and allow Rangers to have a non-pet spec, I’m all for it. As of right now, trait and weapon-wise, we are too dependent on our pet to be with us all the time.

If the pet mechanic isn’t working, the solution isn’t to delete or stow it.

Nope, just Longbow.

Didn’t people used to do that with the pre-nerf “Guard!” back when the game came out?

I still don’t know why that was removed, Mesmers can still spawn Izerkers on towers…

We have weapon-based evades and some of the best passive condi-clenses in the game.

Plus, not the mention, a pistol thief is the least of a ranger’s worries.

No reason to fret about this.

I really like this change, it was really hard for me to read the numbers of the enemy team especially in solo queue where communication was lacking a bit. Make’s it alot easier for backpoint defenders.

As for the mesmer clones… isn’t that kind of the point though? I mean, they are meant to confuse you of the location of the real mesmer. I’m okay with mesmer peripherals being shown on the map, but like others in this thread it would, certainly, be rather alarming if Necromancer minions and Ranger spirits counted as red dots on the mini-map…

Allie Murdock.8152:

It’s not as simple as hitting a switch. This issue has been one that we have had several discussions over. The problem is that many of the solutions are either too complex, or they hurt a portion of our player base, etc.

Tough.

Just ban the most egregious offenders. End of.

It’s better to respect players who worked hard to get where they are now than to pretend like you care for the exploiters in this game. Please.

I’ll give ya’ an example.

Say a Guardian placed a Symbol of Swiftness on the ground.

The Symbol, a light field, can provide a standard 3 seconds of Area Retaliation if an individual used a blast finisher on the field. Now, the duration of that retaliation is based on the boon duration of the blast finisher user, not the field provider. So, if a thief happened to use a Cluster Bomb on the Symbol, and had 30% more boon duration via traits, the retaliation would last 4 seconds instead of 3 for all those near the field.

Specific Game Mode:

PvE

Proposal Overview:

Remove the Death Penalty from Pet Death.

Goal of Proposal:

I can understand the reasoning behind placing a minute death penalty for the pet, but I just simply cannot comply with it’s mechanics considering how lackluster the pet AI reacts to our F1-F3 commands. Not only are pets easily exploited via movement impairing conditions, but they lack any sense of urgency to rally back to it’s master’s cause with the F3 command – sometimes, they walk at a snails pace toward the Ranger when called back, which is completely counter-productive when concerning the longevity of the pet. The following change will address the largest concern regarding the Ranger profession: the overly heavy opportunity cost of having a pet.

Proposal Functionality:

Removing the Death Penalty from the pet would solve most, if not all, of the issues regarding pet sustain. Rangers can already suffer the cost of having their entire profession mechanic locked out, unique to all other professions in this game currently. This, alone, is a great, great cost. By allowing a stagnant 20 second cooldown on pet swaps, you will easily see pets applying themselves effectively in PvE and WvW play, the two gamemodes they suffer the most given the large-scale, hard hitting play.

Associated Risks:

Of course, the obvious concern would be that pets would be too strong when specialized into 30 points in the Beastmaster traitline. Having Natural healing, a large pet attribute bonus, and Loud Whistle’s cooldown reduction would provide the pet with too much sustain.

However, is this really a concern?

If a player specced entirely into their pet, isn’t that an opportunity cost enough? Consider, those 30 points could’ve been invested into Marksmanship or Skirmishing. Our damage is severely lacking as is, considering our weapon damage coefficients are lower than any other profession in the game. Taking those points in BM gimps the Ranger’s DPS applicability, so having a tanky, “perma-pet” isn’t quite “OP” as I would imagine.

The bottom line? The pet is a central figure for the Ranger. Remove the 1 minute death penalty and tone down Loud Whistle’s cooldown reduction, and you’ll immediately discover players enjoying the Ranger profession and, finally, granting them access to their well deserved profession mechanic.

^ Don’t use dual bow. Ever.

Sword/Torch pushes kills + excellent evades and disengage.

Use predatory birds (Eagle, Hawk, Raven, Owl) for dps.

Shared Anguish is a must since you’ll lack stun breaks. Offhand training to make your torch the best thing on cap point. Energy/Geomancy depending on whether or not you want the extra evade (which I think is completely necessary in this heavy stun meta) or push quicker kills. Oh, and don’t use Bark.

1. Ranger (Just read peoples post please, the entire profession is a mess)

2. Elementalist (sPvP)

3. Engineer (Similar problems to Rangers in many respects)

I find it somewhat amusing that the PvE’ers are talking kitten about Valentin. He’s a pretty well known tPvP’er.

At least be constructive instead of just spouting the “L2P” or “Get used to it” nonsense. Try not to get so personal about it for once, think objectively.

All the Spirits used to give boons pre-launch. Evasive Purity used to cleanse condis in a AoE. GS used to have a much larger damage coefficient. Signet of the Beastmaster used to be a minor trait.

Because Rangers were so strong in the betas, they were toned down quite a bit on release.

Well of course your DPS is low, don’t use conditions in PvE.

20 in Marksmanship for Spotter and at least 10 in nature Magic for Frost Spirit’s 70% proc rate. The rest of the points are up to you. Have either Sword/Warhorn or Greatsword on at least one of your weapon sets. The role of the Ranger in PvE is buffing allies, and if you use Sword main-hand your damage is comparable to a Warrior, and you’ll give decent fury uptime with Call of the Wild.

Don’t use Axe main-hand in dungeons. That weapon is okay for Dynamic Events for tagging mobs with Honed Axes, but in a organized setup main-hand axe is the worst DPS option available to you. Stick to melee weapons; keep a longbow in your inventory during some esoteric encounters, but if your team is good enough you’ll probably never need it.

Your pet choices are strange too.

Lynx bleeds over Jungle Stalkers’ might stacks?
Reef Drake over River Drakes’ immense bouncing F2 lighting breath?

It’s not a big deal so long as the 3 Stones > 1 Charge will sustain throughout the game’s longevity. I figure people will map complete and earn themselves charges, without dealing with the awful Gold > Gem ratio or real money.

Save your Stalker Strike, Serpent’s Strike, and Quickshot for when you’re rooted by Illusionary Leap > Swap. In your game options, uncheck show all Enemy/NPC names and check Show Players. When the PU mesmer hops in and out of stealth, it’ll be easier to find the real one. if you change your options so you won’t need to retarget with T every time. And, of course, save dodges only for Izerker.

I’m on the edge thinking that after their recent Spirit redesign, Anet is possibly planning to incorporate a redesign of Spirits for the Druid specialization as well?

All in all, I just want some group utility. I want other members of my party to mentally say “Oh great we have a Ranger!” just the same way we feel when a Guardian joined our party in nearly every gamemode…

I’m such a blind optimist. This dreaming isn’t healthy.

You can buy all the land-based weapons with karma from the WvW vendor yes, however the vendors do not offer the underwater weapons and thus it is required to craft/buy them via TP.

Those are pretty universal counters to… any class.

Stunned or stoned? Use a break stun? Isn’t that a no brainer?

Immobilized? Use a condition removal skill? Duh?

I’m pretty confidant in saying those aren’t the reasons thieves are considered “OP.”

The fact that thieves have constant access to a state of being (invisibility) that allows you, when traited, to gain health, initiative and condition removal, can make any battle a frustration. If anything, that state of being should provide some hindrance toward your defense, not a strength. The problem with stealth in this game is that there aren’t any hard counters to it.

Being a thief is just too easy: they have the capacity to make plenty of mistakes and have a plethora of safety nets.

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

Do you use sword as your primary weapon? Do have spotter and use frost spirit? Which pet do you use? Do you roll zerker?

I run Sword/Warhorn + Greatsword, Spotter, Frost Spirit, Full Ascended Zerker with crafted infusions for extra power, Crit Food w/ Skale Venom for weakness spam. I have 85 AR on land, 80 AR underwater.

I also have lv50 Fractals unlocked, Dungeon Master and still help people with difficult paths on any dungeon path in the game, mained Ranger since the second Beta event with currently around 5k hours, Champion Hunter, 270+ WvW rank, multiple ascended armor/ ascended weapon sets to explore build options and diversify + educate myself on the capabilities of the Ranger class.

Just face the fact. No one wants a ranger in their party unless they know the person personally. And the whole concept of pugging in general prevents that from even happening.

When certain professions have obvious acceptability in certain gamemodes and are left as pariahs in others, there’s a blatant problem with the game.

Wondrouswall.7169:

WilnerGW.3275:

Do we need to shout to get a simple fix on our kittening pets stats ?

Apparently.

The skill needs a longer cooldown, ~400s seems too short.

Also, I’m surprised Anet hasn’t repaired this yet. Thought pets would get SOMETHING from the compensation of the recent power spike classes have been earning lately.

Preperations were actually designed to be for the Ranger class initially, but was converted to Venoms and given to Thieves instead. To this day, I am still wondering why.

Yeah Zerker is the way to go for pretty much everything in PvE.

Problem with condi-pets is that they don’t scale off of your condi-dmg rating. You’d need to spec Malicious Training and Expertise Training in order to see “decent” damage, and even then it’s questionable considering you’re losing other valuable trait options (Beastmaster’s Bonds, namely).

Sword/Warhorn is, admittedly, annoying to play. My suggestion would be to only chew an enemy with Sword/Warhorn when you are safely flanking your foe, or weapon swap to Greatsword when you really need to dodge. There are several workarounds for the inability to dodge, like “Protect Me!” or Signet of Stone, but none really serve as a viable defense in the long run. Rangers need to be carried by Guardian’s Aegis from time to time, which is kinda’ shameful… but oh well. There’s a reason why we’re being considered for the CDI.

I still think Sic’ Em needs it’s functionality changed entirely. Instead of requiring a target, why doesn’t it just give a base damage/movement buff to our pet for any action it does? Why does the buff go away when I use F2? Why can’t the destealth occur in a AoE form 600 radius around the pet? Shouts are so lackluster right now, no self-respecting Ranger could possibly use it without some backlash involved.

That’s not the point. Ranger’s entire profession mechanic is literally unusable in some areas of this game. It even becomes more of a LIABILITY than a strength at times, since we are the ONLY class that has a tremendous penalty for having to wait a whole minute for the mechanic to kick in once the pet dies. Warriors miss their burst, their adrenaline isn’t consumed. Guardian virtues have potency whether or not you use them. Mesmers have 4 shatters, Mind Wrack having an incredibly short cd and illusions being capable of being spawned on a tower or keep unlike pets (for whatever reason).

I still don’t understand why we just don’t have a stagnant 20s cooldown on pet swap whether the pet dies or not. Having to burden ourselves with bad AI is bad enough. Every decent ranger I know understands that we need to press F3 -> F1 in order to smooth out the attack signatures of pets. We’ve been used to working around bugs for so long, it’s almost taken for granted… and that’s kind of sad.