Guild Wars 2

Trevor Boyer.6524:

Trap Ranger was great pre 6/23/2015. Post 6/23/2015 it doesn’t work anymore. You have a handful of players who want to try and make it work but it just doesn’t. The only viable Ranger spec now is Power LB/GS when it is played as Peeler +1’er.

This is WRONG. Horribly wrong (no offense).
It’s all in how you play it.
All I run now is traps and I have great success.
Trap ranger is all about your pets and weapon choices, and the pre fight setup.
I rarely loose a 1v1.
If I loose a 1v1 it’s usually because I guessed wrong on their build. Some classes have to be “trapped” differently.
For example: You play thieves and warriors totally differently than you play engis, rangers and mesmers. Thieves you trap heavily pre-fight and stand in them. This is SO important that if you’re NOT standing on your traps and get that bonfire down, you will die fast vs experienced thieves. (healing spring is a trap too btw )
Eles (diamondskin) are the opposite. Dont waste your traps at beginning of fight against diamondskin eles. You will loose if you do. LB and sword 1 are your friend
Know the meta or the player and you can win with traps and have a lot of fun.
I have no stun breakers and very little condi clear but I know when to use RAO vs entangle or cc pets vs damage pets.
In group fights your traps will melt people standing on the point. Just dont stand in their stuff. Spike traps prevents invis stomps. Poison trap is underated If you get focused, use LB 3 and 4

The key to running a great trap build is having a lot of condi dmg and haveing a way to manipulate the enemy into your traps. Tip: longbow makes them come to you… unless they got a better longbow In that case you take the traps to them. Trapper ranger is NOT about plopping traps down and hoping they walk on them!!!

Again, this is hands down my favorite and most successful build on any character.

Durzlla.6295:

Spirits are actually pretty kitten good at the moment, you just have to place them intelligently now…

Also, it seems no one else has noticed this, but when your spirit dies it continues to pulse its passive buff (not just the buff lingering, it will flat out refresh it and grant it to people) as long as the spirits “corpse” is still around, which is about another 10s after you activate it.

This effectively makes it so spirits only have a 10s CD not a 20s CD, this has been around since beta, and it’s amazed me no ones mentioned this…

Wow. This is news to me. That would essentially make them like signets with different buffs. I will have to experiment with this as soon as I get home
My concern use to be that they die so easily. If the effect remains for 10 seconds then that might not be so bad. And, it’s even better if you place them “intelligently”.
The one thing I really do hate is that the active skill doesnt auto-activate when they die.
Good stuff though.

I never noticed that. The jaguar stays invisible the entire 6 seconds. Perhaps his stealth wore off by the time he got a hit on the target so it appears that the attack broke stealth?
This happens alot. You have to consider the amount of time it takes for the jaguar to catch the target and hit it. The 6 seconds may be up by then.
You’ll see what I mean if you use stealth when the jaguar is close to the target and doesnt have to chase.
I’ve watched my invisible jaguar chew up many opponents while they just stood there wondering what was making their health go down.
-Karnac

Raven.9603:

Just drop the spirits all together and make them aura’s that radiate from the ranger (basically what the OP and many others have suggested), or make them damage immune and follow the ranger (the latter is a worse choice, because it still looks like a ridiculous zoo and means execution of the actives becomes dependent on sloppy AI pathing bull___, but its better than nothing).

I AM the OP That’s what i said…make them “possess” the ranger. Spirits are pointless in their current state.

I think Anet wont do that because they are afraid they would be too powerful. They wont a chance for them to be killed. You’d have necros and engis wanting their stuff to be unkillable too
I guess they could make their duration limited if they make them unkillable. It would serve the same purpose. I think they dont want them to be like banners or turrents. They wanted to go for variety. Besides, my way is funner

Kolisch.4691:

Gorilla.

#needstohappen2015

^^ This.

Ok…. I’m sure it’s been said before and it’s quite obvious that spirits need reworking in all phases of the game. I just came up with the thought of what I think would be a nice re-work:
Remove the squishy beast thingies that can’t follow you around anymore, and make the spirit “infuse” itself into the ranger once the utility is clicked.
Everything else works as before. (The passive buff icon is applied). The activated portion of the spirit utilities would also be the same except the ranger has them activated where ever they are at the time. The radius should be the same as traps.

The animation should be similar to the bear animation that happens on great sword 2. The ranger would shout something cool and glow in the respective spirit color for a half second then the buff icon is applied.
The frost spirit would be either a polar bear or arctic wolf,
The Sun spirit – Phoenix
The Storm Spirt – Air elemental
Stone Spirit – Earth elemental
Water Spirit – Shark
Nature Spirit – Oak heart (same as it is now)
The key think is to infuse the ranger with the spirit rather than having a spirit follow them around. This would make them viable as they provide buffs to the ranger and his pet as well as teammates without the chance of being killed.
They wouldn’t be OP because you still have to sacrifice utility slots to use them. Anet could adjust stats if needed for balance. Again, I don’t think the ranger should “become” the spirit; just get buffed by it.
The activated portion of the spirits should all involve the spirit being sacrificed. The spirit should leave the ranger’s body and use its attack on the target. For example: Make the Elite, nature spirit’s activated skill place a large radius “rez circle” on the ground. The spirit leaves the ranger and walks over to a random (or closest) downed opponent in the circle and revives them! The Sun spirit should fly to the opponent and meld into him causing the blindess.This should be dodge-able, and the spirit should “chase” the target for x seconds then disappear, to be fair.
Sorry if someone already came up with a similar idea. Just my thoughts
-Karnac

Tragic Positive.9356:

@Karnac
Range is a double edged weapon.
It also means they cannot help you, neither can you help them with anything else than damage. And if damage is the only thing you bring – it should be higher than others.

The truth is that Ranger’s DPS is stable without any true burst – is easy to avoid and you have literally zero boon strip. Also, your pet cannot attack from 1500 range. Verdict: insufficient.

That being said – a pure-DPS specialization that cannot prevent stomps, help safe-stomp enemies or revive allies is a hard joke of a support you want to make him sound.

I agree with some of that
They really should have rangers do more damage at range. The problem is though, that they have to keep it balanced. Rangers would be OP if damaged is increase like it should be.
I still think the idea Anet has is for your damage to not be the highest damage. The range part is a factor. That warrior you’re pew pewing down has to disengage and come to you (or die). No other classess range should be able to reach a ranger with a bow IMO. What we give up in other areas is replaced by that dynamic.
I do think they could so better with pets and spirits though. Like you said, pet range should be just as long to supplement the ranged dps. Spirits should provide better support but that support should be to the rangers dps. In turn, he can better support the group.

All those saying trap ranger is easy or ineffective either dont run a trap build or dont run it the right way.
You dont put traps down where they are predictable (like directly on the point, or in a doorway). Smart players who know what you’re running wont fall for that. Instead, put traps where they like to stand and range from while you pew pew them from the point. Mix it up and have them guessing. Many times I’ve had traps melt a player running away from the point to get their heal or regen off. And they die because they ran across a 9k spike trap right as they thought they was in the clear and could heal.
More often than not, they will kill themselves. That’s what traps are for. And they do require a lot of skill to master. You have to know your opponent, know their weaknesses and know how to anticipate their combate strategies.
And NO, you dont have to be squishy in a trap build and still be effective.
Trap Ranger is so much more than button smashing. If you play it right, you’ll have fun…and win.

Ranger is already a powerful support. It’s just a different type of support. Not all classes are designed to support by providing buffs. If you want to play support, take your pew pew, find a high sniper perch away from the fight, and pressure the enemy from there. Your “support” is the dd you do to a target thats engaged by your teammates. Longbow is about using range and terrain to your advantage while doing high damage. Your teamates dont have to heal you or rez you cuz you are safely picking off the enemy before they know you’re there. If you spec right and play to support, you can be powerful support.
Again, it’s just a different type of support. Your teammates dont need heals or buffs if the stuff they’re fighting is dead.

Crapgame.6519:

I actually like the traps as they are today.

^^ This.

Traps are in a good place right now. Why would traps be a shortbow skill? Makes no sense to me.
A trap kit sounds like a good idea but only in addition to traps as individual utilities. There are builds which use 1 or 2 traps only. Having the option to use what you want is important. Another downside of an elite trap kit is the cool down. It would either be OP with a short cooldown or UP with a long cool down because you’d loose the utility that having individual traps with varying cooldowns bring.
The one thing i’d like to see happen with traps is offer more of them. Rangers need DD traps for significant burst damage, not the paltry damage on the condi traps we have now. There should be an option…maybe a trait that makes traps do dd damage instead of condi. Would be cool to have that option.

Traps are all about the set-up. If you are predictable, and always put your traps where mesmers, necros and rangers can range you while their pets trigger your traps, then yes, you will be easy pickings. Dont just plop traps on a point, stand on top of them, and expect every class to rush you and melt.
I place traps out in the field around the point where range classes like to stand. Once they engage, I stay on them and move around dropping traps as they refresh. Some longbow pressure keeps them hopping around right into your traps.
As someone metioned, you have very little condi removal and stun breakers so you have to play smart and let your traps and the element of surprise make up for the lack of survival utilities.
Yes, traps are OP against some classes/builds but takes some skill to beat anti-condi builds. They are far from being “not viable”. Again, it’s how you prepare and how you play verses the opponent.
It’s a fun build that I’m enjoying and having a lot of sucess with in sPVP atm.

Zatoichi.1049:

Karnac.2574:

mistsim.2748:

it depends where one’s MMR is, Karnac. certain builds just don’t work well against better players. but I do agree that we’re better off now than we were before patch, even relative to other professions except Mesmer, which shames everyone else atm.

im seeing a lot of ineffective power builds, people still trying to pew pew with LB and nothing else. these are the people complaining generally.

Good point. I guess i dont get it because I dont use Pew Pew LB builds. In fact, I am usually estatic when i see a LB ranger on the other team cuz i know I can whip him with no trouble (depending on what build im running).
I also agree to your point about mesmers. I loose to them more now after the patch but I only lost to very very good ones pre-patch. Now I have to run an axe/axe power build or trap build to deal with them and keep their illusions down.
I think all builds an classes have the same complaint when their main build gets nerfed. This game forces you to to adapt and be flexible but most people want to just mash buttons and watch stuff die.
I even adapt on the fly during matches, switching skills and traits and pets depending on whose on the other team or whose on the point i’m running up to take.

Pretty sure if u went up against eura and his pew pew u may not whip him

All depends on the build being ran vs his pew pew. Sure, i’d get owned on some builds but pew pew vs well timed evades and Sig of stone, whirling defense, strong regen and nasty pet management goes down quick. I have a trap build that melts pew pew rangers and most other classes that are not spec’d for on demand condi removal. Eles own me on that build with diamondskin though. That’s the fun of playing ranger – the veratility.
You will loose some…you’ll win most if played right. Sometimes you gotta know that you cant dance with that ele 1v1 on the point given your build…so kite till teammates arive or get out of dodge. Heck, sometimes depending on the situation, a no win battle is just as fun if it holds the point even for a small bit. No easy mode vs all other classes is all im saying.
Be willing to be flexible and understand who youre facing and Ranger is an awesome class.

Eurantien.4632:

Karnac, hotjoin counts for nothing.

They count for fun. Why else do you play a game??

mistsim.2748:

it depends where one’s MMR is, Karnac. certain builds just don’t work well against better players. but I do agree that we’re better off now than we were before patch, even relative to other professions except Mesmer, which shames everyone else atm.

im seeing a lot of ineffective power builds, people still trying to pew pew with LB and nothing else. these are the people complaining generally.

Good point. I guess i dont get it because I dont use Pew Pew LB builds. In fact, I am usually estatic when i see a LB ranger on the other team cuz i know I can whip him with no trouble (depending on what build im running).
I also agree to your point about mesmers. I loose to them more now after the patch but I only lost to very very good ones pre-patch. Now I have to run an axe/axe power build or trap build to deal with them and keep their illusions down.
I think all builds an classes have the same complaint when their main build gets nerfed. This game forces you to to adapt and be flexible but most people want to just mash buttons and watch stuff die.
I even adapt on the fly during matches, switching skills and traits and pets depending on whose on the other team or whose on the point i’m running up to take.

FlawlezZ.3178:

Ranger is too weak in PVP imo (aside from 1v1). When I see ranger in my team and the opposing team has none I know we will lose. 90% i’m right. It’s very unfortunate.

I think Ranger absolutely needs more survivability aside from the signet and I really hope the new ranger specialization adresses the lack of AoE Ranger currently has.

That is sad. I play sPvP exclusively and I almost always “carry” my team. I’m almost always the highest scorer also, as I capture the objectives and get the most kills. There are several other rangers that are even better than me that owns in sPvP. I’ve been on teams recently with 3 – 5 rangers and we owned the other team which had none. When I join a match and I see them on the team, I feel “guaranted win”.
I’d say the rangers you play with are either incompetent or dont care about winning the match.
Also, I switch my builds up often but I never use a LB power build. In fact, I only use combos of axe,dagger, horn and torch.
A lot has to do with the builds and skills of the rangers. The nerfs are dissapointing but not class-breaking to the point that “rangers suck”. I still enjoy my ranger. I had to tweak my builds and playstyle a little since the patch but it’s no big deal for me cuz i never was stuck on 1 meta build. I play builds that I find fun and I still am very sucessful in 1v1 and group fights on my ranger.