Showing Posts For Musph.6109:
I understand the concept of overall balance > individual class, similarly, there is a very vocal minority who do complain and cry about the death of the ranger. Sure, there are people who will defend a class, and rightfully so, especially if it’s a class they ejoy playing.
My issue is that as a Ranger, I now feel pigeonholed. I love my GS, and I love the new buffs to it (would have loved a Blast Finished on Maul, but eh), however the utilities rangers have do not compliment play styles – SoH is characteristically a staple (especially in WvW), so that’s one slot down, I’m now left with;
- Shouts – More or less useless unless you are heavily pet focused, with the possiblility of Protect Me and Search and Rescue (both very niche abilities, and in the case of S&R, a long CD). It is also worth noting the state of pets and their current AI, which, honestly, has been discussed to death. /paragraph here about how ‘static’ pets create a dichotomy between an ‘action’ mmo with dodging and pets who eat AoEs with vehement zeal.
- Signets – Once again, Signet of the Hunt is a staple, however the rest, unless used in conjunction with Signet of the Beastmaster are fairly bland, and usually not worth activating, and do not offer much utility to your group.
- Spirits – As much as I do not want to beat a dead horse, this horse deserves the beating, rightfully so. Spirits are a fantastic idea, it’s a shame they don’t live up to their potential. Internal cooldowns, flimsy spirits that die as soon as an enemy so much as looks at them (all while being out shined, outclassed and outdone by Banners), effects (both passive and active) which scale poorly at 80, all while losing other possible utilities make Spirits, unfortunately, something rangers will overlook, and who could blame them.
- Survival – The sole utility type which I have always found to be a Ranger’s best friend – outshining pretty much all the other utility types. Muddy Terrain, pre-26th QZ, LR and of course, the ultimate of Entangle all provide fantastic utility function and benefit from Wilderness Knowledge. I have always been iffy about Sharpening Stone, however it may have its place.
- Traps – These abilities are probably the only thing worthwhile (currently), picking up on a ranger, however in doing this, you lose out other utility abilities which define the ranger as a “skirmisher”. The other issue I have with traps (aside from the meta it locks you into, is that you are basically required to throw 30 points into Skirmishing in order to maximize the potential of traps, sadly the secondary characteristic of this tree doesn’t seem to synergise well with the concept of traps (especially given as +condition damage or duration would be much, much better).
I, myself have played a GS ranger since BWE1; I’ve adjusted to the changes up until now; I’ve tried plenty of builds, plenty of gear combinations, and despite all that, I am feeling the effects of the quickness nerf.
I do understand why the nerf was implimented, and needed to be done, I just think rangers may not have gotten enough consideration/remuneration for what they’ve lost. QZ was one of the the most flexible, versatile and useful utilities – not only could it help squeeze out a little more damage, but also quickness res allies in dungeons, gather a little quicker when under attack and allow some pets (I’m looking at you Drake), to actually hit things with their F2 abilities. (I will ignore the sPvP ramifications such as quickness stomp because I believe that is a different meta, and there are many skills/effects which differ between pvp and pve. Along those lines, dungeons and PvP should never, ever, ever, ever, ever be used as a ‘testing’ ground for classes, especially considering that open world content is a very, very different kettle of fish).
The gimping of Swiftness, especially with no change being made to Zephyr’s Speed, hurt many rangers who found this a fantastic trait and utility.
I am curious as to what build the Developers play – no offence, it’s easy to say “I played my ranger, and Tyria quaked underneath my power – my enemies absconded as soon as I cast a glance in their direction, I ran dungeons with a group of fellow developers without a hitch”, link your builds, explain your play style, the choices you made, what you believe your ranger brings to any situation. Then let the community – the people loving your game, supporting you and your creation and consuming your product be the judge – let us understand what the kitten you’re thinking.
I loved my Ranger, I loved that I could be a melee ranger, perhaps I wanted it to be too much like a White Lion from WAR – synergy between yourself and your pet, being in the thick of the action with a pet who supports you as much as you support it. However, on the flip side I am now finding much more enjoyment with another class.
(edited by Musph.6109)
I’m an Aussie and this is my favorite thread in the citadel.
On a serious note, I would love to see more SEA players on TC; I originally came here for the community (not the RP), however I was surprised to find a strong WvW force and fantastic communication.
Our oceanic prime-time presence is sadly lacking, however I have had a great deal of fun with insomniacs and oceanics alike sticking around WvW and causing some mayhem.
Come for the WvW, stay for the awesome community.
An honest answer rather than “engineers are best class ever, you just don’t play them right” or “engineers suck”.
Stand in towers/keeps. Throw grenades.
You have people swearing by their engineer – they may be the greatest engineer player to exist, or they may be full of kitten. Either way, you’ll typically have to work twice as hard to be on par with any class in terms of damage/support/control. Sure, you’re flexible and can do it all, doesn’t mean you can do it all well.
I’ve played against all sorts of engineers in WvW/sPvP across 5/6 characters (engineer, ranger, mesmer, warrior, guardian, thief) and the most trouble I’ve ever had with any engineer, ever, playing from beta (ignoring how amazing Explosive Shot was in beta) is Elixir S.
Kitten all.
I’ve gotten my hopes up for the last few patches that engineers and rangers will get some much needed love. While I still play, because I do enjoy GW2 – I no longer play the two classes I fell in love with at beta.
I’m hoping they make turrets similar to everything else an engineer has – ‘eh, could be bettter, could be worse’.
You know what I remember.
When Explosive Shot didn’t suck kitten in Beta.
Even bumping it up to the same level as Vital Shot would be nice.
As someone who’s pvp’d and WvW with a d/d ele for a long while; we’re a kitten plague, I’ve shelved my ele until we have more viable options than the absurdity that is D/D.
Most of us will defend the weapon set because we know how sweet we have it.
It has always felt like playing GW2 in easy mode.
Mobility? I don’t think I have enough sir. Wait, what, I can outrun anything? Fine, I’ll take it. Satisfaction guaranteed you say? Deal.
Survivability? Can I have more cantrips? Auras? No? Fine, I’ll make do with tanking a single zerg.
DPS? Kitten it, sure, I’ll have some that too.
Buffs? All of them? Well, why not. Does it come in strawberry flavor? No? Just tears. Fine, i’ll take it in tear flavour.
People complain about thieves, warriors etc; but they usually have an easy enough weakness to exploit. D/D eles? Lawl. how2weakness? Wait. Wait. Strip my boons? Pardon me, I’m late to polish my staff. /RtL
How about some of us eles hang out with the engineers, our silly amount of flexibility may just rub off. Please?
The other thing people need to keep in mind is that pets are not a factor when discussing inter-ranger weapons and their respective damage.
The claim “ranger’s pets do our damage” doesn’t hold water when comparing any of the ranger’s weapons to one another; both due to our pets being a volatile externality, as well as the fact that they are a ‘constant’ (using the term loosely) – that is, your pet is out regardless of what weapon you are using (y’know, If if didn’t die in AoE or something) – it does not negate the dismal damage of the greatsword.
If anything, mentioning pets should be a moot point.
On a side/related note – I’ve spent all day today tinkering around with my own and my missus’ ranger (spvp, dungeons and events, mostly); seemed regardless of what combination of traits, gear, pets or builds that the greatsword was lackluster regardless of the roll I tried to fill with it. Even in terms of the apparent defensive capabilities, I found that a x/x/30/30/x S/D ranger felt a lot more defensive, while managing to keep the dps similar or higher (the evades on Hornet Sting (w/ cripple!), Serpent’s Strike (with poison!) and Stalker’s Strike (more poison!), especially when traited). Though that does not mean that I won’t continue to use the greatsword.
However changing Maul to a blast finisher would be more than welcome – it wouldn’t fix all the problems, but the utility function? yespls.
(edited by Musph.6109)
Usually I avoid official forums like the plague, or at best, just lurk.
However having sunk just over 280 hours into my ranger, all of that wielding a GS, I reckon I care enough about this to post.
I remember my Pow/Prec build in the betas; as others have pointed out, RaO was insanely powerful and was the primary reason for a majority of the big numbers that rangers managed to pump out. When nerfs hit, they hit hard brah.
I’ve tried many builds and gear combinations to make GS feel like it doesn’t blow, frankly, no matter how much I love the aesthetics and mechanics of the GS, part of me is aware that the weapon blows, and blows hard. The utility? Yeah, it is amazing; evade on auto, block, cripple, knockback, interrupt, daze, stun, escape and gap close. Easily the best weapon in terms of utility function.
Utility doesn’t mean much if you’re slapping your target with a wet noodle.
Somewhere down the track (~120ish hours into my ranger), I decided to level a warrior, once again, with a greatsword – hitting 80 at a breakneck speed (thank you signets), I decided to trait defensively for a change (tweaked the ‘Sonic Boon’ build a little). Even focused on defense and utility, with defensive gear, my warrior managed to pump out more damage, consistently, WHILE supporting my team mates with shouts and condition-removal than my full ’zerker ranger. P/V/T gear ranger? Warrior still out damaged, out-utilityed and out-meetshieleded my ranger.
I do keep my ranger as my main – I love my pet, I love the mechanics and the aesthetics. However all this time, part of me always knows that I could, and should be doing so much more
I am largely speaking of PvE content here; simply because the balance would be easier that sPvP (I say this, having the Champion Hunter title).
To sum up the above ramble-y mess. The greatsword is an amazing weapon that received an unreasonable and overzealous nerf. Will I keep using my GS regardless? Absolutely. Will it continue being a swiss-army knife noodle? For awhile.
Quick edit:
Having re-read the thread, I reckon I should mention pets. The primary issue I see with saying “don’t worry, you swing your noodle around, your pet will do hardcore deeps” is the volatile nature of AI controlled allies. I digress. Pets affect all rangers; we all have them. Pets have little to do with the issue of the Greatnoodle.
(edited by Musph.6109)
Happy holidays to everyone.
My missus and I are currently looking for an active, medium sized PvX guild in which to make a new start. We have both been part of a few guilds (notably some ex-AA and ex-TA guilds), as well as large and small servers.
Due to the state of the game, many of our old guild mates had left the guild or the game; leaving it mostly inactive and pointless. We decided to leave and find ourselves a new server. We transferred to SoS hoping that the large oceanic community will provide a new place we can enjoy, however we mostly found bloated PvX guilds or inactive/directionless guilds – though this seems to reflect the state of the game more than anything else.
We live together and game fairly often; the missus enjoys exploration, gathering, crafting and other PvE content, I enjoy pretty much the same things with the addition of sPvP and some small-scale (5-10 man) WvW fun. We both enjoy doing dungeons. We’re both fairly experienced with a majority of the content. Currently we’re just enjoying slowly leveling more alts together, exploration and lots of dungeons.
We are looking for a mature, friendly and casual guild with fairly active members – a guild you can log into, knowing most of the people and enjoy their company. Being able to find a group or a few guild mates to do some content with is always a great bonus. While an Oceanic guild is preferred, we are willing to travel abroad if a guild has fairly active members at around GMT +10 (or aussie-peak time). We are currently on Sorrow’s Furnace and will be here for another few days until we can transfer again, and are willing to transfer to a majority of servers.
If your guild sounds like the kind of place that can offer us the aforementioned, we would both be more than happy to hear from you.
Time for another bump.
We’re well on our way to more banners and a guild bank soon.
Bumping.
Hope you are all enjoying your holiday!
[Tea] is currently researching a plethora of banners and buffs, and has recently finished our emblem.
Happy holidays to all of you and thank you for taking an interest in [Tea], while we are a very small guild right now, we do have plans to grow and expand.
About
Teaparty [Tea] is a brand new PvX Oceanic Guild Wars 2 guild on Sea of Sorrows with a focus on enjoying the many things Guild Wars 2 has to offer. We aim to build a community of mature, friendly members who understand that video games are better enjoyed with good company.
While we are an Oceanic guild, we aim to build a well-balanced member base, and as such we welcome members from anywhere and everywhere. Ultimately, we wish to become a medium sized guild, this is primarily due to the fact that we wish for our members to know one another fairly well and and not just be another face in the crowd.
Guild Philosophy
The leadership has been part of numerous guilds during their time in Guild Wars 2; formally of an ex-AA guild, and more recently, an ex-TA guild and a few in-between. With experience in all aspects of the game (from way back in BWE 1), and in many communities, we wish to establish a guild for players who want to find a home for themselves within Guild Wars 2, among like-minded gamers and enjoy everything this amazing game has to offer.
We wish to provide a mature, friendly and helpful environment. We understand that drama is sometimes unavoidable, we aim to keep it lighthearted and hope to make sure that all members feel comfortable without feeling obligated.
Focus
We’ve seen many guilds promise many things and often fall short of what they sought to accomplish; with that in mind, we aim to create an environment which facilitates community and camaraderie. Guild Wars 2 has much to offer and we would like to foster an environment in which players can find friends and allies and explore Tyria.
What we need
We are looking for similarly minded people; be they veterans who have experience much the game has to offer and just want a community to enjoy the game with, or newcomers who are seeking a guild which is able to guide and help them on their new journey. Ultimately, if you understand the value of good company and that at the end of the day it’s just a game, you’re more than welcome. While 18+ is preferred, we understand that age is by no means a measure of maturity, and as such anyone is welcome if they are willing to respect their fellow members and show a level of maturity which reflects Teaparty’s values.
If Teaparty seems like something you would be interested in, feel free to visit our website and learn more about us, otherwise feel free to PM me if you have any further questions.