Guild Wars 2

It’s been quite some time. Any news on this? This still doesn’t work. You can’t auto-break the self-stun with the Last Stand trait, even though the description implies that it should work that way.

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

I don’t want to call out Ireino, since he is the only person we’ve had real commincation with on this forum. […]

Agreed, there’s no use in calling a single person out, when we don’t have any idea if and how said person is involved. Furthermore, the implementation of changes is team work, so it’s always a number of people messing up at the same time and not a singular person only.

I know everyone is looking for a scapegoat these days, but this won’t get us anywhere.

Wondrouswall.7169:

[…]
Would rather it apply an attack of opportunity and stealth to both the ranger and the pet, then have the pet shadow step to a target if selected.

That’s a great suggestion. The shadow stepping works only with melee pets though. Anyway, 3 seconds of stealth and an attack of opportunity on signet activation for you and your pet sounds great and actually offers real utility.

This would also combine nicely with the trait Brutish Seals.

“We’re awesome as one!”

This change alone outshines the entire Druid spec. lol, I love it.

Holy Trinity returns

I may get burned on a stack for suggesting this, but what if staff #1 attack changed to a 3-step melee chain-skill?

To me this kind of makes more sense in regards to Astral Wisp, Ancestral Grace and the Glyph range. Get in with Ancestral Grace, cast Astral Wisp and benefit from it yourself while you’re swinging away with your staff in melee.

Put Solar Beam on the Celestial Avatar, drop Cosmic Ray and improve visuals on Solar Beam, so it looks more like an outburst of concentrated sunlight. Maybe let it hit up to 3 adjacent foes (like ele fireball). Dare I ask for a short blind on top of this? lol

Solves 2 problems in my book:
1.) more self-synergy on the staff
2.) Damage while in Avatar Form.

Also, what if Ancient Seeds worked with taunt? That would be totally awesome.

borya.2964:

“Live Vicariously” is a good minor if you use traited shouts, even without healing power, “Druid Clarity” is a strong trait in every Druid builds, If you use more than one glypgh “Verdent Etching” is mandatory, Natural Stride is a great GM in every builds and “Ancient Seeds” is a very strong trait for LB, SB and GS. You’ll still have BM for pet’s synergy.

Nice ideas and of course only the live test can truely tell, but I believe this is not how these traits are going to interact.

Live Vicariously only works with healing applied by corresponding skills, not the regeneration boon and neither any other forms of regen, such as SotW. So, it does nothing for traited shouts.

Druidic Clarity seems to be a viable option, but we don’t know much about astral force generation yet and the percentage at which we’re allowed to enter Celestial Avatar. So yeah, might be you’re not allowed to enter CA when you need it. Can be tweaked though.

Verdant Etching seems to be the go to trait for those who want the glyphs and the condi removal on glyph usage is certainly a step in the right direction. This trait is ok, I guess, though it might be difficult to benefit from the condi removal when you’re moving. Seed of Life needs a punishing effect for foes, so that you have a reason to stay near it. (Poison was suggested somewhere above)

Ancient Seeds doesn’t work the way you think it does. It does not root on interrupt, but rather only when you strike a previously interrupted foe. This may work with GS if you’re quick enough, but probably not LB.

Anyway, it’s not the majors that are concerning me, but the minors, which are forcing the “heal others” concept on every druid. If you’re not invested in group healing, these minors are useless to your build.

That healers are not mandatory in this game is an extremely good thing, especially when party formation is concerned. Should this game change in a way where healers are suddenly necessary, we’re looking at “LFG super monster raid 8/10, need healers” and the party is waiting … and waiting … and waiting until someone fills these spots, just to have people shout at them “WTF, why didn’t you save my kitten”.

No, thanks.

Just to sum up my concerns and most likely repeat those raised by a couple others as well.

1.) Change the druid traitline in a way that allows multiple different variants.

2.) Celestial Avatar Form shouldn’t be about healing only.

3.) Involve our pet

Bryzy.2719:

I’ve said this before, now you may or may not agree with me here but -

You don’t have to be a dedicated healer. […]

Sorry to disagree Bryzy, but when you look at the traits (which are mandatory for every elite spec) you can’t help but notice that they’re mainly favoring heal specs only, especially the minor traits. You can’t choose Druid without putting a strong emphasis on healing. That’s a fact and as far as we know, intended.

Bryzy.2719:

[…] The Druid traitline opens up some great inter-build dynamics between current builds and weapons, as well as adding some brilliant self-sustain for the more squishy builds like LB power. You also do not have to wield a staff to be a Druid.

Maybe I’m suffering from Blindness and Confusion at the same time, but I don’t see these ominous inter-build dynamics. The Druid spec tree (traits) features no real synergy with the pet (except for this one trait), neither our other weapons, nor the other traitlines. It looks as if the druid traitline was created with only the staff and CAF in mind.

Dedicated healers shouldn’t exist in this game by Anet’s own definition and this also extends to content that would make a dedicated healer necessary. If raids require healbots, then their design is flawed. Besides, an elite spec that is designed to shine only in one narrow game aspect, isn’t exactly great either.

Edit: Would like to give an example
If the Natural Mender trait granted +300 Healing Power, I could say, yes, this is also useful to builds that don’t necessarily focus on party heals, but >increase outgoing healing effectiveness< only favors the monk role. Live Vicariously suffers from the same issue. There’s no real diversity possible, because I have to use the staff and CAF often in order to justify this trait. No other playstyles taken into account here.

Thanks, Atros. Your answer pretty much sums it up.

I’m not involved with the HoT betas, so it’s good to know that at least there Taunt seems to have the intended effect on NPCs as well.

I’m afraid I’m one of those who’re not too thrilled about the Druid.

I really wish they’d have improved on the pet mechanic, instead of adding this celestial form or at the very least ditched the pet in favor of the celestial avatar, if it’s a must. Why would a druid bring a pet? There’s no synergy, except for this one adept trait.

Secondly, I’m absolutely not happy with the druid’s intended role as a field medic. Too much emphasis on healing. Why can’t I play a druid that is supportive in a different way, besides healing? To me, being the healbot of the party is not a fun way to play and to my understanding it also contradicts the core concepts of GW2 in regards to the holy trinity.

The glyphs I’d like to give a try, but since the minor traits of the druid line only favor heavy healing specs, I don’t see how I could make a druid variant work, that’s a little less focused on healing. There’s not enough variation. Don’t force every druid to be a healer! Provide this option through selectable traits and the staff, but also put something into this traitline for druids who want to be more selfish or supportive in a different way.

Last but not least …

Solar Beam: Improve the visual effect (sun ray!) and allow it to hit up to 3 adjacent targets, like the fireball on ele staff. Maybe even add an effect that applies blind under certain conditions. I mean, it’s a concentrated ray of sunlight afterall.

TLDR: Didn’t pick Ranger to play a Monk :\

Thx for the input, Puck.

Anyone know whether this is intended behavior or a bug?

This probably sounds like a noob question, but I have to ask since the description on the wiki kinda clashes with what you experience ingame, at least in PvE mode.

“Taunt is a control effect that forces the affected target to run towards the source of taunt with all skills except stun breakers disabled while using their auto-attack skill.”

When you slot Beastly Warden und your pet interrupts i.e. a drake channelled skill with its F2, you get the interrupt prompt on your screen and a corresponding entry in the combat log, but the skill actually is not interrupted and completes as if no interrupt occured.

Is that normal?
If so, what’s the point of taunt in PvE?

Tbh, I couldn’t have been more disappointed.
They basically turned the druid into a monk with Death Shroud. So many recycled concepts patched together, it’s not even funny anymore.

Why put a strong focus on the trinity when GW2 is supposed to have none?

Not at all what I expected the druid to be like and I also don’t see the connection to the lore.

Forgotten Legend.9281:

another Natural Healing report:

Forgotten Legend.9281:

i just did Arah story mode, and decided to trait Natural Healing with the Signet of the Wild to double up on pet regen. however, i noticed there was no natural healing in my combat log. i tested by removing the signet from my skill bar, and sure enough, the pet no longer regened any health while traited (obviously after losing health to the “champions” i fought in the story instance.

to summarize: no heals from Natural Healing when traited.

i filed in in-game bug report and sent an in-combat screenshot for the above.

afterward, i fought some mobs in the straights of devestation, by taking Nautral Healing, and no SIgnet of the Wild, and told my pet to attack one mob at a time, while i kept my ranger from attacking, and my pet received no healing during combat. i fought mobs that would apply bleeding, so that i could compare timing of healing ticks with timing of bleeding ticks. there were bleeding tick floating numbers (which were recorded in combat log) and NO healing ticks.

Although there are no healing ticks, Natural Healing does heal the pet for a small amount. You can check this by letting your pet attack a foe all on its own, while maintaining a close look to its health bar. However, it appears that Natural Healing doesn’t heal every second, but rather every 2 or 3 seconds only.
————————————-
When you proc Beastly Warden through F2 while your opponent is using a skill, you will get the “interrupt” prompt, but your opponent still completes the skill as though he wasn’t interrupted. Might be a problem with Taunt in general. Intended?

to reproduce:
Let your pet attack a drake and wait for it to channel its breath attack. Hit F2. You get the interrupt notification, but the drake still completes the breath attack.

Edit:
I’m getting the impression that Taunt isn’t working as intended. I just brought a drake pet for Zephyrites Crystal event in Dry Top and ordered my pet to attack the quickly moving Inquest Asura with its F2 skill. My pet got in range, applied Taunt on the target and the Asura still kept bouncing all over the place. Neither got interrupted, nor ran towards my pet.

Toxsa.2701:

Major traits:

Adept:

1. Shared Anguish: (merged with soften the fall)
You take 50% less damage from falling.
When you get CCed, your pet take the CC instead. (CD30)
(Do note thief version: “hard to catch” auto breakstun at 30 CD, does not sacrifices their class mechanic (pet), and also refill endurance. It is reasonable for ranger to get the similar thing, instead of a vastly inferior version of “hard to catch”)

How about instead of merging Soften the Fall with Shared Anguish, we let Soften the Fall also trigger when you’re knocked down, knocked back or pulled? (not all CC). This would trigger Wilderness Knowledge. Kinda funny when I think about it.
I’d leave Shared Anguish in the Master spot, but reduce its cooldown to 30s, like Hard to Catch.

2. Ambidexterity: Gain 150 condition damage while wielding a torch or dagger. Torch and Dagger skills recharge 20% faster. Torch/dagger radius/range increased by 25%.

I agree here.

3. Expertise Training Pets deal 350 extra condition damage and have their condition durations increased by 20%. You gain 150 condition damage and 10% increased in condition duration. (Currently it’s just too weak that only pet gets the effect)

Sounds reasonable. I think I’d make a minor adjustment and bring the pet condi duration back to +50%, as it used to be. I’d remove the player condi dmg however. If you want to build for condi, you can easily do this via your gear, since there are many different condi specs to choose from.

Master:

1. Oakheart Salve:
Gain regeneration when you suffer from bleeding, poison, burning, torment, or confusion. While you have regeneration you take 5% reduced damage.

Yeah, this trait should trigger on all dmg inflicting conditions. Not sure what to think of the -5% dmg effect. Sounds pretty meh at first. Not sure whether -10% would be too strong or about right. Requires testing.

Grandmaster:

1. Empathic Bond:
Pets periodically take 3 condition from you (10s). Pet loses 2 condition every 10 seconds. (Again, sacrificing our class mechanic for cleanse is not reasonable)

How about …
Pets periodically take 3 conditions from you (ICD 10s).
Whenever pets transfer conditions from allies to themselves, they receive resistance for each unique condition transferred.
Resistance per condition: 2s
(resistance would also trigger on Signet of Renewal)

Sebrent.3625:

@Girion
Please go back to the discussin on how 300 and 450 Ferocity is too much for something that isn’t even a grandmaster trait.

For some perspective, Warriors only get +150 Ferocity per Axe with their Grandmaster trait in the new specialization system.

With the new system only 2 other professions get a ferocity trait and I think the best example to draw into comparisson would be the Ele Air Magic Master trait Aeromancer’s Training (+150 Ferocity while in Air, -20% Air skill recharge). Given this I do find it reasonable to give the Ranger a flat +150 Ferocity with Rending Attacks, even though it’s not connected to a certain condition, like the Air magic trait. 300 Ferocity is probably too much, but 150 equals +10%, which is less than a 10% dmg increase, depending on your crit chance. A sole +150 Ferocity isn’t exactly strong, which is why I don’t consider it problematic to give the pet +450 Ferocity alongside the player ferocity. Afterall, pets don’t have any other means of increasing crit dmg and account for a good amount of our damage.

So in essence, to me , …

Rending Attacks (master tier)
You and your pet deal more damage on critical hits. Your pet inflicts torment when it critically hits with its basic attack.
Pet Ferocity Increase: 450
Player Ferocity Increase: 150
1x Torment: 6s

… is not overpowered and it definitaely doesn’t have grandmaster quality, since it’s not build defining, which, according to Arenanet’s definition, grandmaster traits should be.

I changed the Rending Attacks version in the opening post, because multiple users preferred to have the pet ferocity increase on the minor traits.

Edit:
If you want to give the player ferocity a condition in order to balance it a bit more, you could say “+150 Ferocity while your pet is alive”, but I personally wouldn’t want to do that, as this trait would be next to useless in WvW then.

Yeah, it’s not like the developers would make any valuable changes here. I just would like to toss around ideas for the sake of discussion and to see whether we could reach a state where we’re able to say “Yes, if it were this way, I’d trait Beastmastery more often because I see good synergy for a couple of builds”. That’s pretty much all. ^^

Made the following adjustments …

Minor :

Pet’s Prowess
Pets deal more damage on critical hits and their base attributes are increased.
Attribute Increase: 300
Ferocity Increase: 450

Major:

—Adept—

Natural Resistance (change in progress …)
You and your pet gain resistance when you suffer from a number of conditions. Triggers for each individual respectively. (ICD 20s)
Conditions to trigger: 3
Resistance: 3s (?)

— Master —

Rending Attacks (change in progress …)
Edit: Your pet inflicts torment when it hits with its basic attack.
1x Torment: 5-6s (?)
(note: the pet can maintain about 3 stacks on the target. too strong?)

Would you agree? What else can you think of to fill the 3rd major Adept spot. Natural Resistance is really just another suggestion. Tried to play with the resistance boon here, but may be better incorporated into Empathic Bond from the Wilderness Survival specialization. Not sure here.

Hm, tbh I don’t know where I’d put it on the minors, because I’d really like to keep Fortifying Bond and Speed Training in their current spots. Could only try to stuff it into th above Instinctual Bond version.

Beastmastery minor #1
The base attributes of your pet are increased. Your pet also gains increased ferocity.
Attribute Increase: 300
Ferocity Increase: 450

Like that?
You as the player would miss out on the +5% dmg increase then. This kinda goes against my “ranger and pet are a union” philosophy, however. hm.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Why not just make rending attacks apply to every pet by making it all attacks and not just crits? Balance by ICD and condition duration.

Yeah, might be an idea. Just tested the present version of Rending Attacks in Heart of the Mists with a 90% crit chance pet. It maintained 3 stacks of bleeding with its auto-attacks, which isn’t game breaking. lol However, the pet can quickly reapply the stacks, so it certainly helps to provide some minor pressure.

So …
Your pet applies 1x torment (or bleeding?) when it hits with its basic attack. ?

Would you keep the ferocity effect then or should it be replaced with something else entirely?

Alright, putting Rending Attacks in a good spot isn’t as easy as I thought at first.
I envision it as giving Ferocity to the pet and the player. Values may be debatable and are subject to balance, but since Ranger and pet act as a union, I believe traits should affect both, whenever possible. I also replaced the bleeding on crit from the pet auto-attaks with torment, so it doesn’t mess with the player bleeds, but instead creates a separate instance of condition dmg.

Also, the reason why I merged Pet’s Prowess (+450 Ferocity for the pet) into Rending Attachs is, because Pet’s Prowess should not be a minor trait. Minor traits in the Beastmastery line should be beneficial to every pet family, yet not every pet family can take adavnatge of increased ferocity, due to lower crit chance. Rending Attacks should be a trait you want to pick for pets with moderate or high precision.

Btw, I too agree that player and pet stats should be separated, since this increases the variety of possible combinations. I wouldn’t mind to have secondary stats added to pet families though.

Sebrent, you’re right. Just realized myself, that this would be way over the top. Still, I’d like to have traits that affect both the ranger and the pet. Make it +150 Ferocity for the player then?

@ Heimskarl: added your proposed change as well

Edit:
btw, the condition effect on crit from the pet triggers only on the basic attack skill, not on skill 2 and 3. That’s also how Rending Attack currently works.

Edit2: In the above setup, Rending Attacks is a Master trait. Just wanted to point that out again, since there seems to be some confusion as to where I’d put it. Atm, (in Anets version) it is in the Adept tier tough. That’s right.

Alright, I edited the description of Companion’s Might and Rending Attacks.

Rending Attacks is now …
You and your pet have increased Ferocity. Your pet inflicts torment on a critical hit.
Pet Ferocity: +450
Player Ferocity: +300
1x Torment: 6s

Thought? better, worse or still the same?
Or do we need something else entirely here? Is there anything you’d like to see on the Beastmastery tree that isn’t even mentioned yet?

Thank you for your input, everyone.
I’ll agree that Rending Attacks isn’t exactly overwhelming and looks more like the evil twin of Sharpened Edges from Skirmishing. Valid point.

Regarding Blood Scent. Yeah, that’s really just something that crossed my mind when I tried to fill the gap. I agree that it’s a niche skill and has no use in PvE. Certainly interesting for WvW, but not sure how useful it would be for sPvP. The slow activation time for the majority of our pet commands is probably what defeats it in the end. Then again, I thought, hey if anything could track down stealthed foes, it would be the pet.

I was also thinking about tweaking Companion’s Might, but was a bit unsure as to whether it would be become easily overpowered then.

How about: “You and your pet grant each other might on a critical hit”?

This may already be too strong though. What do you think? Take into consideration that every might stack the pet puts on the player would be mirrored back to the pet through Fortifying Bond. Feels like it would somewhat replace RaO, which it shouldn’t do, imo.

All in all, I’d be pretty happy with these grandmasters though, since you have one for offensive playstyle (zephyrs), one for a more defensive build (Natural healing) and one for control setups (beastly). Whatever your playstyle, you can pick an appropriate grandmaster.

Well, you can combine Rending Attacks with Companion’s Might, if you want to push for more condition dmg or pick Expertise Training from Wilderness Survival. There are ways to increase your pet’s condi dmg output. Putting it all into one trait may be too strong.

Also, I prefer Ferocity over Precision for Rending Attacks, because feline and birds can have up to 90% crit chance already, whereas other pets (except pigs) can get up to 60%,. If I’m not mistaken, the +300 stat increase from my Instinctual Bond version should set cat and bird crit chance to 70% and 40% for other pets. Add Fury uptime into the equation and you don’t really need more added precision for the pet.

Ok, how about Hunters Call applies a 1 second blind with every strike?
… and I agree, I#d probably add a single 6s blind to the base skill. Any other ideas on what to do with Windborne Notes?

Ok, I would like to do a similar thing as with the Beastmastery thread. I took Anet’s trait spread as a basis and tried to improve things from there. Feel free to comment on my suggestions and propose own ideas. As always, please be constructive in your feedback. Thanks

Before we start:
I moved Fortifying Bond to Beastmastery minor, just in case you’re wondering where it suddenly disappeared to.

Minor:

Rejuvenation
You and your pet gain regeneration when your health drops below the threshold.
Health Threshold: 75%
Regeneration: 6s

Bountiful Hunter
You and your pet deal more damage when you have a boon and additional damage when striking foes with a boon.
Damage Increase: +5% each

Lingering Magic
Boons applied by you and your pet last longer.
Pet Boon Duration: +50%
Player Boon Duration: +20%

Major:

— Adept —

Healer’s Determination
Grant stability to yourself and your ally when you revive them. Your revive speed is increased.
3x Stability: 5s
Revive Speed: +20%

Nature’s Protection
You and your pet gain protection when you take damage greater than a percentage of your maximum health. This effect triggers for each individual respectively. (ICD 30s)
Protection: 6s
Health Threshold: 10%

Vigorous Training
Pets grant vigor to nearby allies when you swap pets during combat.
Vigor: 6s
Radius: 600

— Master —

Evasive Purity
Dodging removes blindness, poison and cripple from you and your pet. (ICD 10s)

Windborne Notes
Call of the Wild grants regeneration and Hunter’s Call applies blindness.
Warhorn skills recharge faster.
Regeneration: 18s
Blindness: 6s
Recharge: 20%

Stability Training
Pets grant stability to nearby allies when they execute a command [F2] ability. (ICD 30s)
Number of targets: 5
3x Stability: 5s

— Grandmaster —

Strength of Spirit
Activated abilities of spirits are larger and trigger when the spirit is killed.
Affected foes are slowed. Premature spirit death recharges the spirit skill.
Radius Increase: 240
Slow: 4s

Protective Ward
When you receive damage, nearby foes are crippled and weakened and your pet gains protection. (ICD 15s)
Weakness: 6s
Cripple: 3s
Protection: 8s
Radius: 360

Metamorphosis
When you or your pet apply regeneration to yourself or an ally, transform 1 condition into 1 boon.
(Healing Spring would have to be changed to apply regeneration before the intrinsic condi removal)
_______________________

Some proposed traits here may be a bit too strong. I’m open for tweaks.

Thx for your feedback.
Not sure whether I understood your ideas in regards to Fortifying Bond. Would you like to keep it in Nature Magic or move it to Beastmastery? Tbh, this is not an easy decision, but since this trait is a must have for pet focused builds, you’re essentially forced to trait both Beastmastery and Nature Magic, while if FB was in Beastmastery, you’d be more flexible on your other specialization choice. That’s the main reason why I put it there. One could also argue FB should be baseline, but I’m not sure how Anet thinks about that.

Also, to explain why I merged Pet’s Prowess into Rending Attacks is because not every pet family can take advantage of Pet’s Prowess, take pigs for example, which is why I don’t think it should be a minor trait. It however works fine with Rending Attacks.

On Natural Healing. I don’t think that 125hp/s + some more from healing power is op on the player, but if it turns out that it truely is, the player value could be a little bit lower. However, the way it is atm (125hp every 3 sec) is way too weak, which is why next to nobody runs it. And yeah, I merged Invigorating Bond into Natural Healing because they’re both addressing the same objective.

Btw, I left Companion’s Might and Wilting Strike unchanged for now. That’s what Anet came up with.

I kicked Honed Axes entirely, because this trait had zero synergy with the Beastmaster specialization. Imo, it’s better placed in Skirmishing or Wilderness Survival.

Based on the upcoming changes to the trait system, I’d like to make an attempt to improve the provided ideas by Arenanet even further.
Please be constructive in your feedback. When you agree or disagree with a made proposal, say why you do and elaborate on your ideas. Cheering and ranting alone won’t help anyone.

Definition of Beastmastery:
Players who choose this specialization want their pet to be an active part in combat, rather than just a distraction or passive utility box. Ranger and pet are a union and those specializing in Beastmastery seek to strengthen this bond even further.

Minor:

Pet’s Prowess
Edit: Pets deal more damage on critical hits and their base attributes are increased.
Attribute Increase: 300
Ferocity Increase: 450

Speed Training
Reduces recharge on pet skills and pet swapping.
Pets move faster (+30%).

Fortifying Bond
Any boon you get is shared with your pet. (Yes, even stability!)

Why FB in this line? When you think about it, those who want to grab FB do this in order to boost the pet, while not everybody traiting Nature Magic necessarily wants to be a Beastmaster. Yes, Nature Magic is the boon line, but FB first and foremost strengthens the pet and that’s why, to me, it belongs in the Beastmastery line.

Major:

— Adept —

Companion’s Might
Your critical hits grant might to your pet.
1x Might on pet: 6s

Natural Resistance (change in progress …)
Edit: You and your pet gain resistance when you suffer from a number of conditions. Triggers for each individual respectively. (ICD 20s)
Conditions to trigger: 3
Resistance: 3s (?)

Resounding Timbre
Shouts apply regeneration and swiftness to allies. Reduces recharge on shouts.
Swiftness: 10s
Regeneration: 10s
Recharge: 20%

— Master —

Two-Handed Training
Greatsword and spear damage is increased. Greatsword and spear attacks have a chance to grant fury on hit and skills recharge faster. (ICD 10s)
Damage Increase: 5%
Chance on hit: 50%
Fury: 3s
Recharge Reduced: 20%

Wilting Strike
Activated attack abilities for pets [F2] cause weakness. This effect will only occur once on each target affected by abilities.
Weakness: 5s

Rending Attacks (change in progress …)
Edit: Your pet inflicts torment when it hits with its basic attack.
1x Torment: 5-6s (?)
(note: the pet can maintain about 3 stacks on the target. too strong?)

— Grandmaster —

Beastly Warden (maybe Beastly Decoy?)
Your pet taunts nearby foes when executing a command [F2] ability. (ICD 15s).
When you are downed, your pet immediately taunts foes in an area. (ICD 50s)
Number of targets: 5
Duration: 2s (?)
Radius: 600 (?)

Natural Healing
While in combat, you and your pet have passive health regeneration and increased healing power.
Your pet heals allies in an area when executing a command [F2] ability (ICD 20s).
Health Regeneration: +125 (affected by healing power)
Healing Power: +350
F2 Healing: 1518 (affected by healing power)

Zephyr’s Speed
You and your pet gain quickness and might when you swap pets.
Quickness: 3s
3x Might: 15s

I’m fully aware this isn’t ideal yet. Help me refine it and let’s have a qualified discussion
What changes would you make?

naphack.9346:

wut? nobody said that…
spiders have an instant cast f2. That’s all, this thread was about.

Erm well, excuse my considering other pets as well. >.>

The F2 for spiders might be instant, but we don’t know whether the trait triggers on F2 activation (which I doubt) or whether it triggers the moment the spider actually uses one of those effect stacks with one of its auto-attacks, which I deem more likely.

I’m pretty sure this trait triggers on execution of the F2-skill and not immediately on clicking it. You need to factor in casting time and the time your pet needs to get in range for its F2. This can delay the trait effect and might make it hard to time as an interrupt.

But you got a good point there. In order to be usable by ranged pets the radius of this trait should be 900. Number of targets = 5? lol, that would be fun.

May sound a bit heretical at first, but since the Curse specialization focuses on critical hits and conditions, I fail to see what Banshee’s Wail is doing in there. Which condition spec runs warhorn?

I run a power death shroud build and from a PvE perspective, warhorn is a great offhand for DS builds, because you can activate Locust Swarm and then hop into DS, which allows you to stay in DS a bit longer, especially when there are multiple targets around.

Locust Swarm regenerates life force and has good synergy with DS, which is why I’d like to pick up Banshee’s Wail. IMO, this trait should be in the Death Magic line, since this is the specialization that deals with minions and also puts a strong emphasis on Death Shroud.

My suggestion: swap Banshee’s Wail with Greater Marks.
All the staff marks deal with conditions, so you might as well want to put the corresponding trait into the conditon specialization. 2 problems solved with one change. comments?

Heya fellow Rangers, I got a question.
Anyone know whether the new Remorseless trait, as revealed in yesterdays Ready Up show, replenishes opening strike on fury gain even when I’m already under the effect of fury or does it only trigger if I didn’t have fury before?

If it also applies when you’re already under the effect of fury, this would have some nice synergy with Rampage as One, since this elite reapplies fury every 3 seconds.

Btw, is the Opening srike for my pet recharged as well?

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I was thinking it will be that IF you specialise into beastmastery, you will automatically get the +300 attribute points for the pet […]

^This

Specializations, Part One: A Primer

Each profession’s attributes will be updated to have half of their functionality be part of a specialization and half of their functionality will be a baseline for that profession. For example, elementalists now have a base attunement recharge of 10 seconds, which is reduced to 8.7 seconds when the arcane specialization is equipped.

This also applies to every other trait line that increases a class-mechanic dependent stat. The moment you choose Beastmastery as one of your 3 core specializations, your pet will get +300 to its attributes. I’m even almost positive that the same is true in terms of condition and boon duration. As in, should you choose Marksmanship you gain +30% condi duration. Not sure here, since they didn’t mention it specifically.

When they said they’re going to separate stats from traits, they were referring to power, precision, crit dmg, toughness, condi dmg, vitality and healing power.

condi duration, boon duration and class-mechanic stats still seem to be connected to their respective trait line, aka core specialization.

~ howls with the pack ~

I’m a Ranger with heart and soul and am used to work a bit more for my class to be on par with others, so I did find a way for me personally to work around the recently increased pet aggressiveness in dungeons and fractals. I do understand that the devs must be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of bugs they introduced on March-16 patch. However, I can’t deny that my initial patience is wearing thin.

No doubt, this will be fixed. Still, it’s hard to understand how this and many other bugs could have made it into the game in the first place. 5 minutes of playing Ranger revealed this bug. I think it’s undeniable that the quality control team was hard at sleep here or went on a holiday trip or something.

In regards to future releases I truely hope they learn somehting from this disaster.
Another bug festival of this scale and they might as well shut down their game entirely.

Edit: Ok, just saw Jon’s post on the Ranger forums. There’s light at the end of the tunnel.

irishrose, allow me to point out that you’re in the wrong thread.
Granted, with all those people shouting at each other it’s easy to miss the actual topic.
This april fool’s joke was well prepared and executed and I personally believe that every person (full of age or not) can be expected to distinguish a video game world in a fantasy setting from the real world. If that’s not possible, there’s something to think about.

lol, thanks for this april fool’s day.
I currently play my main character in a sky pirate theme and I can’t stop flying around and enjoying the noises my character makes xD. Great idea, great sounds, great visuals, great stuff all around. Thx again.

So, we’re finally going to be back to where we used to be 7 months ago, with the exception that all the damage done over the past months isn’t going to be amended. Yay? No! Can’t say I’m exceptionally excited.

Though, I’m not personally affected by this, I know a few newer players who started playing GW2 within the past couple of months and aren’t going to delete their main characters and all the progress made. They’ll have to live with a botched personal story now. Well done.

Inoki.6048:

I don’t know if it’s because of the patch or it never worked, but the Ranger’s trait Concentration Training doesn’t work either. It was supposed to give an additional 50% boon duration to boons granted by pets, but nothing happens.[…]

Like other buff traits of this kind, they only function while in combat.
That’s intended behavior.

So, basically you’re saying that Destiny’s Edge should have slaughtered Glint, no matter what, because she was of the dragon? Maybe we should also slaughter all Zephyrites, because they’re clearly in cahoots with Glint.

Don’t you see where this logic fails?

Sylvari may stem from Mordremoth’s sphere of influence (though we don’t have any information on where the sylvari tree seeds actually come from), but they’re sentient beings with a free will until exposed to and taken over by the power of the plant dragon. However, as pointed out many times by now, this is different for Caledon Sylvari, because they’re freed from the dragon’s influence and shielded by the Pale Tree for as long as they maintain a strong connection to the Dream of Dreams, pretty much like Glint was freed from Kralkatorrik’s will by the Forgotten. How does that fit into your theory?

The thing is that they didn’t even bother to change conversations in order to go with the new arrangement of the story steps. They simply took the story missions as they were, hit the shuffle key and then nodded in satisfaction, completely oblivious to the fact that the entire story after “A Light in the Darkness” doesn’t make any sense anymore and even provides major story spoilers now, like Elli telling you that Zott is dead, even though you haven’t met either of them before. Or Sayeh pretending to know you and you’re just like “who the kitten are you?”. The best thing of all is that Trahearne requests your help in the cleansing of Orr, while the player simply facepalms and mumbles “Trahearne, we already did this like 8 missions ago”.

The display of incompetence in this matter is only excelled by the recent ‘patch.’

Poor soul. Your definition of “justice”, which you seem to confuse with vengeance, is mind staggering. I will include you in my meditations. May you eventually find a path to clarity.

It saddens my heart to know that some of our brothers and sisters, as well as many of our cousins from other Sylvari Trees are vulnerable to the dragon’s corruption. From Scarlet we know that those corrupted didn’t succumb willingly, but got possessed by the dragon’s will. It is not like they’re fighting for the dragon of their own accord, but rather because they’re forced to. The corrupted are slaves against their own will and in that the first victims of the dragon.

Still, our Mother and the teachings of Ventari root us to this world and will prevent Mordremoth from taking control of Sylvari of the Dream as well. I will fight for the freedom of all Sylvari.

All things have a right to grow. The blossom is brother to the weed.
But those who deny others this right, lose it for themselves.

Our Mother shields us from the powers of Mordremoth with all the force she can muster. In that she is a lot like Glint, a traitorous general to her former master. Would you blindly annihilate those who’re forming up a defense against one of the greatest threats to Tyria? They say we Sylvari are a naiv folk, yet it is you who’re threatening our people with ignorance and brute force, for the simple reason that you don’t understand the nature of Sylvari and don’t care to learn.

I will tell you this. Come to us in friendship and good intention and we’ll fight by your side to ward off the oppression of Mordremoth. Come to us with blades and fire and you won’t leave the forest alive. That, my friends, is a promise.

lol, this reference gave me a good laugh, because it’s so true.
We should all name our pets after Prince Rurik until this is fixed. xD

I main a ranger and I can still run dungeons, but yeah, it can be very annoying at times, like in TA, where my pet popped all blossoms and killed a team mate because I couldn’t keep him by my side.

Charr have a reputation for training war beasts.
Norn revere the spirits of the wild and are likely to run with their animal counterparts.
Sylvari are walking plants with a special interest in all other forms of life.
Humans train all kinds of pets. Nothing special there.
Asura may probably be the race with the lowest amount of rangers among their midst, except for those who study fauna or want to get away from the typical Asura society, which usually values technological solutions over a more natural approach.

Of course, this is just my point of view.
Many other views are likely to exist as well.

Ranger really works with all of the races, just like every other class.
I suggest creating a simple backstory for your ranger and then going with the race that suits you best.

Leablo.2651:

I saw the patch notes and the list crossed it off, but I wanted to note that guild chat still doesn’t work for some of us. I already filed an in-game report.

Same here. Despite them stating they fixed it with the March-18 patch, guild chat still doesn’t work for me. Same problem as before. When I type a message into guild chat, I just get the “You are not in a guild.” notification.

When you delete a character, the name will stay tied to your account for 24 hours, so you can easily pick it up again during this time frame without having to be afraid that someone else will snatch it from under your nose. After 24 hours this name is available to the entire player base.

You’re right. My character moves his lips, so it appears as if it’s definitely him saying it, but then why doesn’t he do that in instanced areas as well? My charatcer wears a mask, so I didn’t notice this before. weird, to say the least.