Guild Wars 2

Actually, I like the fact that the “bigger” server of a couple is full.
In terms of population balance this is the best and only method to create a complete population balance in the long run.

An Example:
Server X is already big and gets a small partner server y.
Server X+Y is really strong and al the bandwagoners want to go to that party to join the hype train (as happend to piken, sfr, fsp, kodash,… before).
If server X wasn’t full, they would join it, so they would not have to transfer in 3 months again.
As server X is full, they join server Y.
Because there are so many people in servers X and Y now, some leave server X because of queues.
After 3 months both servers get new partners according to their new population. Server X lost playes, server Y gained players.

In the long run this prohibits server stacking and causes population balance.

The problem is: Unlike in NA, in EU we have servers without partners. That is a problem, because they will never be part of that balancing system. If bandwagoners were clever and coordinated (fortunately they aren’t) they would stack on single servers to safe some money.

Unfortunately they cannot close three servers and put all others in pairs, because they won’t mix national and international servers.

We will see, if high coverage full single servers can compete with douplet servers in the future. It is possible that server douplets of both equal sized population can become the strongest setups in the ranking.

Sakulos.7963:

It’s simply not possible (being suddenly full) since servers with better coverage that are not linked (host only) are very high at best. I’ve said 17th place world is full and that must be wrong.

You picked the worst example. I can easily imagine Drakkar being full. They had some huge masses before. Miller’s doesn’t even make a quater of their population. That after playing against them for several moths being one position below them.

Their low position in ranking results definitely not from the lack of population.

Btw. I will never understand why a good guild shoult transfer to a server that is good or has other good guilds. I would always choose to be the enemy of good guilds and having an impact on the results of my server, but I think that is just me…

I mostly do premade games with my guild. Valkyrie works really good in combinatin with a herald in teamfights. With the amunt of burst you can one-hit eles and thieves. Also reapers are a good target when they leave the shroud.

Remorseles Burst build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARWjUqQFL2wC+rAXLW+DslX3CIA8kG+BHN4zac9uei098D-TpBFABxs/w6HCgDOCAUVGAgLAgAPAAA

Either on Valkyrie or Cavalier (mostly Valkyrie, because of Condi-Meta).
Works good in combination with a herald in teamfights to burst down targets.

Has 3 massive condi removes against nekro bombs – Signet of Renewal, Avatar and elite with Lyssa Rune.

River Drake for the cleave on enemy downstates. Pets with some survivability needed for condition remove.

Lots of stability and mobility.

next match. same error

same here
whole premade team had a game crash at the start of the match
couldn’t enter the match afterwards
2 min we could queue again

Waypoints only in upgraded keeps. All upgraded keeps no matter whom the keep belonged to on reset..

1) Reverse stability stacking patch (or give more classes access to group stability).

2) Make Waypoints available for every server in each keep but only when it is fully upgraded.

3) Rework center of the desert borderland map (flat terrain for fighting/ remove canon).

4) Get rid of all bugs and glitches (e.g. invisible dragonhunter fences, …).

5) Build up a Network of players from each WvW-Server that communicates in a small team with ArenaNet and helps to improve this game mode (help banning trolls, cheaters and bugusers, give advice for future balance patches, communicate about major concerns from WvW players). There are people willing to do that without payment.

Well, they do it for rangers. Without a blink. Even without trying it out. Announced by staff members that are not even responsible for the class (funny sidefact: person announcing the change on twitter is responsible for revenant).

I did sPvP reward track Kryta and got 3 heavy supply bags from the third chest. Haven’t reached #23 yet.

There are many good reasons to have the smoke field on the F2.

1. Random combo fields can harm your gameplay when they mix with intended combo fields
2. With the smoke field on F2 you can determine the area where the smokeskale gets reduced damage
3. Your DPS is higher when the burst skill is in the auto attack rotation of the pet, because average players do not use the skill directly on CD
4. You can still control the burstskill with swapping pets
5. On F2 smoke field can be casted out of fight
6. The burst skill is a perfect encounter for the pet to start a fight, because it it most likely to hit

There are some reasons for the burst on F2:
1. You can better time your burst and use it to down enemies that would escape otherwise
2. You can use it perfecly for the pet to switch targets
3. You can better combine it with damage buffs (except sick ’em)

For me and many other players the smoke field is the much better option for the F2.

See strawpoll:
Smokescale F2 preference Poll

There is no reason to have a combo field on the auto chain of the pet!
Either leave the combofield away or put it in the controllable F2 command. Please.

Everything else is a huge nerve. It is already hard enough to blast the right fields in mid scale WvW fights. Random fields make the situation much harder.

My favourite pet is still the murrelow. So much build synergy <3

I’m sorry, that you are disappointed about the new content. I find it great. I mostly hated old PvE content because it was all soloable while facerolling on the keyboard. There was no challenge at all. When I did map completion I hated the hearts, because it was such a wast of time doing easy content over and over again to get the achievement.

Now on the new map I finally get a challenge. When I run around, I can choose what I want to do next and I am not forced to spam autoattack to finish off unchallenging content.
I ran around in WvW with one class for years, because I didn’t want to repeat the PvE content with another class once again to level up.

In my opinion the new content is casual friendly and mostly soloable, but there are some points you have to keep in mind, if you want to run solo.

1. New enemies, new mechanics: You have to adjust your playstyle on the enemies you are about to meet. You can no longer run full berserker damage builds all the time and you have to learn the skills of the new enemies. Look at the enemies you are facing. What are they doing? Which ones are the most dangerous for you and therefore need to be eliminated first. What is the best way to kill them.

2. New Options: Some harder content can be more easily managed, if you make use of the new options. I know this is kind of a conflict, because you have to finish new content to be able to use the new options. But there are easy parts in the new content to help you advance in the new options.

3. Go slow: If you have trouble with big enemy groups, then go slow. Take out the mobs one by one while advancing slowly. Try to focus less on damage and more on survival (in build and style of play).

4. Take it easy: Do not envy players who are able to advance faster because they run in organized groups or have adjusted their style of play much faster to the new content. It will probably take another three years until the next add on. So there is plenty of time to explore all the maps. Failure allowed.

5. Have a break: If things get frustrating, try other things. Go back to the old maps. Take a break. Wait for a map with more players on it. Look at the details. Especially in the night things are difficult on the map. Come back later and explore in the daytime of the map.

My advice to players that find the new content too difficult:
Please go slow. Do not try the new content in the same manner as the old. Adjust your build to the new content. Try out other things. You probably have another three years time to finish the new content. Don’t try to do it in three days.

My advice to Arenanet:
Please be patient. Those who are pleased about the new content and enjoy it are playing the game and don’t come to the forums to discuss about the new content. Give it time to get a feedback that is more substantial than what you get by now.

Is there a possibility to use this effect on combo-fields or fields that are continously ticking damage from players as well?

For example:
Necro wells → damage reduction for minions
Guard symbols → damage reduction for minions
Ranger traps → damage reduction for minions

Ele meteor → no damage reduction for minions

This would help a lot to break the current stupid boring meta in WvW.
There would finally be a counter to mindless aoe spamming.
This would improve the build diversity in PvP as well, making minion master necros, ranger spirits and turrent engis a little more viable again .

There would be a counter (not a debuff!) to ranged AoE spamming!

I would love to see that. <3

hobotnicax.7918:

To really understand Rangers as a viable zerg superstar contenders one must first understand the basics of zerg combat. Gone are the days of simply doing the “stack, veil push, bomb, restack” (although it still works), since today we can see a myriad of other tactics that win fights. And the Ranger plays a big part in all of this.

Yes, there are other tactics like reflection, focus parties and retaliation all of which counter your build pretty hard.
A. Reflection as the hardest counter to rojectile damage from axe or longbow makes you hit your allies. Because of piercing arrows you do not hit one but several allies with your bow.
B. Focus parties made up fo mesmers, thieves and sometimes ingis take out enemy backline. After signet of stone ran out a ranger has no escape and lacks mobility. Longbow-rangers are easy targets for focus groups because they stay outside the zerg to avoid damage.
C. Retaliation is a problem to every berserker build. Stacking retaliation helps alot against rangers and eles on enemy backline.

hobotnicax.7918:

1. Support:
Rangers can be a great support class even when running completely glass builds thanks to their pets.
- 2 blasts on short cooldowns (Call of the wild from horn & trait)
- AoE fury, might, regen, swiftness (horn, shouts, F2 skills)
- AoE spike healing (traited pet F2, water field blasting, fern hound)
- AoE CC: knockback (line), muddy terrain immo, entangle immo, pet F2 immo & fear, AoE chill with Winter’s bite when traited

Yes. And you forgot the 24s cooldown 10s lasting condition removing water field. Problem with your build is: Using close range support on a long range class is not worthwile. Either you go tanky with the greatsword and make use of your support or you stay glassy in the back and don’t give any. There is a reason why rangers staying on longbow are not wanted in dungeos.

Your glassy pet will die in no time anyway. So no support there.

hobotnicax.7918:

2. Damage:
Sure rangers are not the most prolific of AoE damage dealers compared to Elementalists or Necromancers, but they can hold their own in most situations when positioned correctly.
- Massive AoE spike (line) from Rapid fire, Barrage on chokes, auto attack on #1 axe etc.
- Good for focused damage, pushing flanks, covering backline
- Very good sustained range AoE (line) damage in any situation when positioned correctly

One reflection wall in the choke and all your damage is negated. The best you can do is stop fire so you do not hit your allies. Wow. Tere is a reason why AOE damage is far superior to projectiles.

hobotnicax.7918:

3. Survivability:
Most of the people will simply say Rangers are easy pickings, but that seriously is not the case. Again, positioning is key as a good Ranger must know and predict what to do in all situations.
- Signet of stone, we all know this gem with 6s damage invul 64s CD traited.
- Lightning reflexes, one of the best skills a ranger has
- Traited with condition removal on survival skills a Ranger can remove a lot of conditions while still being useful with the skills used to do this

Two escapes on a very high cooldown. Zero Stability. If you get focused for more than 8s you are dead.

Sorry for my destructive critisism. I am playing WvW for over two years now and I didn’t like your onesided description of the build. This is little critisizm compare to what you would get if you posted this in the wvw section of the forum

Yes it can work against other unskilled pug groups. No, it won’t work against well organized enemy zergs of the same size or skilled guild groups. Therefore I would declare the build as medicore at best (unfortunately there are players playing far worse builds).

A good range damage build needs more stability, survivability and mobility.

A good support build needs frontline focus and much more survivability and support.

Even though there are some good ranger WvW builds, unfortunately all of them are inferior to guards, eles and necros in the current meta. At best they can compete with warriors, but most players would even disagree about that point because warrior has battle standard.

Last evening we hat 10 players from our guild doing the stress test. So we decided to test the new guild claiming system. First we took a camp and upgraded it and tested the buffs. Later we held the fire keep for some hours and tested the claiming system there.

Feedback on camps:

Positive:

• camps can easily be captured by small groups and single players with the right build and skill
• the buff to escorted dolyaks (90% damage reduction) is great for escorting
• speeding dolyaks or giving other buffs (steath, regeneration, …) to them still works
• you can only have one charr bike per camp
• charr bikes can be healed and get buffs
• you can exchange guild buffs in a camp from everywhere on the map
• buffs can only be activated with the levers in the camp
• the guild claiming the camp can enable and disable the public activation of buffs any time from anywhere on the map
• it takes some time to activate the buffs on the camp, so there is a reason to defend them
• there are shortway passages to get back to the camp and escort the next dolyak
• on certain points around the camp enemies get tagged by NPCs and revealed on the map so you need to be careful if you want to sneak into a camp
• camps can be emptied automatically, if captured by enemy team – the perfect buff when being outnumbered on the map to drain the enemy from supplies

Uncertain (I don’t know if that is good or bad):

• charr bikes do more dps on walls than catapults

Bugs:

• the guild buff for 5 extra supllies didn’t work
• after some time spend in the camp the amount of supplies was not properly displayed on the screen anymore – don’t know why and when this happened

Things we didn’t test enough:

• We didn’t activate the coolness buff. So no feedback on that one.

Summary for camps:
I like the new design of the camps. The buffs are good for defending and escorting but not overpowered. When outnumbering the defenders, the camp can still be captured. Activation time forces a guild to defend the camp to benefit from the buffs. The new design demands more tactical gameplay.

Feedback on the fire keep:

Positive:

• automatic updates benefit a lot from the time reduction by incoming dolyaks
• there are some guild buffs that support active defending and some that make it harder to capture the keep even when there are no scouts
• holding the shrines can be the key element to defend or being able to capture the keep
• I like most that there are guild upgrades that allow gates and siege only to be destroyed by other siege
• banners give new tactitics in fighting enemy teams
• dropped banners cannot be taken away by enemies
• banners can be passed on to other players
• the bridge in front of the lordroom is another spot to defend the keep when inner gates are open
• there are several mechanics that help against mindless blobbing
• scouting doesn’t get too boring with the shrines close to the keep
• the terrain allows multiple tactics and strategies – I already have some in mind
• defending is easier
• the emergency waypoint must be activated from within the keep and has a 20 min cooldown – it can also be used directly from other maps – it stays open for about one minute
• there are good spots to defend against huge amounts of golems

Negative:

• the effect of the shrine goes away instantly without warning which makes it a very high risk to run through lava – a 10 sec. delay and a warning on the screen would be better
• there is still no map for the underground in the fire keep
• banners have no internal cooldown so you can pass them around for repetitively using the same skill for a massive effekt
• banners may need some balance – some skills are way too strong

Summary for the fire keep:
The keeps allow much more tactical gameplay. A siege will become more difficult because there will be less cheesy tactics like mindless blobbing and auto attacking the gate to capture a keep once it is held long enough to activate guild buffs. These changes will bring back long sieges and tactical gameplay. Some things will need balance. We will see how they will work out. Time will also show how many glitches and buguses there are once the map is in daily use.

I like the map and most of the new stuff. For a WvW-player who likes all aspects of the game mode (fights, siege, tactics, smallscale, 1v1, roaming) this map ist fun. It will bring some change to the game that became too much daily routine.

Dear moderators, please sticky this thread…

The only thing I like about the skill is the long channeling time. When fighting against someone, who is aware of the damage he can take and has utility to escape just in time, this skill becomes very important.
E.g. the enemy starts invisibility and cleanses conditions and dies from the Hunter’s Calls damage in invisibility. So I only use Hunters Call if my enemy is low life.
Also be carefull with retaliation

Anyway the damage of the skill is way too low. But please don’t lower channeling time of this skill. Horn is not a weapon for a burst build.

I would like to see benifits for guilds claiming a camp/tower/keep/castle. For example regular gold gifts in the guild bank for every tick the structure is being held. The guild looses claim when no player from that guild is on the map.

The benifits should be big enouth to make it worth defending for that guild claiming the structure. It should be more more attractive to capture and defend a structure than to capture it, then loose it and recapture it later again.

Those guilds not owning a structure should be eager to capture a structure so they can benifit from it.

On reset every structure should be neutral.

Pro:

• On overstacked servers it will be harder for guilds to get a structure for themselves so they might move to lower tiers.
• Defending and attacking become equally benificial.
• Guilds might participate more in the upgrade and defence of structures
• Arrangements between guilds become essential for the success of a server

Con

• Bad arrangements between guilds can easily lead to disharmony.
• Small guilds have disadvantages against larger guilds.
• Structures may become easy targets when claimed by small/unpopular guilds
• Trolling potential

WvW zerg frontline build

Build editor link

Remorseless version of a zerg build. Frontline damage support with permanent fury, spotter and long lasting water fields on low cooldown.

Huge burst against berserker backline meta. Potential one shots with maul on thieves, mesmer, eles and nekros in the enemy backline. Overall great damage/survival relation. Huge amount of stability. Good survival with gs aa and block as well as mobility with swoop.

I can even use this build as a commander.

PS: Can you distinguish between WvW roaming and WvW zerg in your build list as these two are completely different game modes buildwise.

No metabuild on metabattle.com, yet. Still for insiders only.

@blitzkrieg and FrownyClown:
You cannot compare PvP and WvW. There is much more freedom and variety in the open world. That is why there are different demands to a good WvW build than to a good PvP build.
Skillwise there is no difference. The percentage of good players will be about the same in WvW and PvP. The best roamers will beat the best PvP-players in roaming and vice versa. Being prejudiced in this topic is stupid.

@Topic
The melee also works great in a zerg. Damage + Support + Tankyness.

I love the new possibilities for frontline ranger. I’ve been playing ranger as frontline support now for a long time and the damage of my build was buffed by a huge amount.

It is great to see how good a melee ranger build works while boarding the enemy pirate ship. With a good build you can kill an enemy berserker ele with one maul while being tanky at the same time.

Today we had a discussion in our guild. We came to the conclusion that many players would pay gems for AFK-Anymations. People standing in the cities doing nothing are boring.

How do you like:

• Juggling while AFK
• Sitting and Smoking Pipe while AFK
• Meditating while AFK
• Running in circles while AFK
• Talking gibberish while AFK
• Sharpening weapons while AFK
• Twiddling Thumbs while AFK
• …

Do you have more Ideas?
How do you like it?
Would you pay Gems for personal AFK-Animations?

Signet frontline WvW ranger

Frontline waterfield lasts 10sec!!
Roots split up enemies for damage spikes or RaO for long stability
Stability, invulnerability, group-condi-cleanse on signets active
evade/burst/leap/block/stun on gs
might/frost/blast on a/h
poison field (murrelow) and blast (riverdrake) as pet
tanky armor (soldier/knight/berserk) but still good damage (frontline AOE)

In my opinion this build has the same support, damage and survival as a meta-warrior or meta-guard. I know that eles supply the waterfield in meta. But they too often get too busy surviving to provide a proper waterfield. The frontline ranger can provide and blast it right where it is needed.

How I love people in WvW underestimating rangers and think in their little boxes about the guy with the longbow ^^

Btw: no need to reduce the cooldown of the horn: It has the same cd as your waterfield so it will always be ready to blast

Jim Hunter.6821:

I ran with Bark skin last night but since it kicks in around 6k health it loses its effectiveness in larger fights.

Huh?
You will never get hits > 3000 with this build and with bark skin those hits will never be >1500 so there is no problem it triggers this late.

I would change the wulf for a more tanky pet (bear/drake) and use entangle for the immobilize. It’s the most effective immobilze there is. : )

Drake is superior to bear because of the blast finisher, but sometimes it is neccessary to have a bear ready to keep both of your pets alive.

I am going for signets only:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhFakRlKWbYxfFqWDQIULDg3tdMUCHrzkYHS5VfgtVA-TFCEABJcCAKUJoN7P0i6PRp8zgHBQH6DA4IAEAABgbezbezbezSBskQL-w

Main weapon is the greatsword for the 50% damage reduce because of evades and the higher damage output with maul. Axe/horn is for regroup and might stacking.

I can do Frontline commander with this build and have higher damage output than warriors and guards in raid build. And the frontline waterfield is amazing for your team. Ranger: Most underestimated frontline class.

Carighan.6758:

4s Protection on Blast sounds interesting. It’d basically cut all damage received in WvW and PvE by 33%, replace interesting with “ludicrous” in the previous sentence.

Loosing blasts for water, fire, ice or ethereal fields… You will not get the protection on top but instead of other boons/effects which for you have used the blasts before.

Shanks.2907:

Ele and Ranger don’t need any more protection. Ele has a bit too much as it is.

Combo fields are not about having it, but giving it to others. Thats why combo fields are often given to classes that already have a good amount of it.
Also rangers wouldn’t use their 1 1/2 blast finishers for protection and ele has enough protection that he doesn’t need to blast this field for himself.

Aye, combo with magnetic aura/protection would be nice.
4s protection on blast is a good number, as protection is not as strong as retaliation.
Immobilize on whirl would be too strong, I think. Weakness or cripple is the way to go. But those maybe for 2s or more as they don’t deal damage.

The skills I would suggest to use this combo field:
Eles (Unsteady Ground and Ring of Earth)
Rangers (Muddy Terrain and Spike Trap)
Nercro (Grasping Dead)
Ingi (Glue Shot)
Warrior (Hammer Shock)
Guardian (Symbol of Protection / instead of the light field)
Mesmer (Mind Stab)

Ele Earthquake is a blast finisher and also the amount of direct damage it does, doesn’t fit a combo field.

Let’s think about the opposite solution:

How about exhaustion be applied upon using supplies instead of dropping the siege? I can pretty much drop 3 trebs and waste 300 supplies under the 3 minute frame.

1. Negative issues for the community?
The negative effect is found in repairing and building good defence. For repairing a Wall/Gate a huge group of players has to stay in the building because it will take ages for one player to repair. On the oppsite side the attackers have no pressure and can restart their attack. For building good defence a huge group has to come as well, because it will take ages for single players. Result: Attacking will be much easier than defending comparing the time to be invested in building siege. This measure will change the way this game is played completely.

2. Possible abuse by trolls?
Dropping siege on top of legitimate siege build sites will become a bigger issue, but mainly for defending. Placing a ram on top of an arrowcart site causes defence to be built much slower. Because building defensive siege is seldom a thing that needs to hurry, this is not as much of an issue.

3. Problems solved?
Problems no 1, 2 and 3 can be declined with this measure because a site despawns faster if no supplies are put into it. Problem no 4 can become a bigger issue for building defensive siege as well, because defensive siege needs to be built with a bigger group.

My conclusion:
Repairing walls and building siege/golems will become a problem for smaller groups. This will shift the game, but this will not be gamebreaking. Some people will be complaining. Thinking about a limit of 50 supplies within 2 minutes, it would take 68 minutes to drain a garrison with 1700 supplies. One player can not take out more supplies than 2 dolyaks are bringing in. Commanders have to take care about defensive siege and repairing as well and can no longer delegate this work to single players. This solution would give attacks from range on a fully spplied tower or garrison a higher success rate. Repairing walls in small groups until the supplies are drained would be no longer possible.

this may be a solution fo building siege and draining structures from supllies, but it is not a solution for placing wrong siege

How can placing the wrong siege be addressed?

I found no good quote, but the idea was already mentioned: Give a limit to the amount of siege a player can throw within a time period depending on the players that support him.
For example:

• One siege every five minutes for sigle players
• For small groups adding one siege per five minutes for every group member
• A commander can throw as many sieges as he has squad members within five minutes

1. Negative issues for the community?
The issues are very similar to the issues of reduces materials spent within a timeframe. A sigle player can no longes build either a good or a bad defence within a short period of time. He will need the support of a group or the commander to build up the defence. This means more control by other players, but also more time/players invested in building up defence.

2. Possible abuse by trolls?
Act as a troll commander and get as many people in your squad as possible and you can still throw wrong siege. Or join a group with the lfg and throw up to 5 wrong sieges within 5 minues. But it will be easier to find out who is trolling, because there are always people who can see where the troll is and have a look what he is doing an report it.

3. Problems solved?
This solution effects mainly players who act on their own. They will be limited in their effectiveness. Problems no 1-4 are all being solved or at least reduced. Trolling by single players will decline a lot. There will still be problems with bigger groups of players that are trolling.

How can small groups that are trolling the community be addressed?

The bigger the group that is trolling the more it becomes a problem. They throw more sieges, they build them faster, they comunicate with each other and celebrate their trolling. The more the marrier.

I can’t think of a solution for this issue.

John Corpening.9847:

Let’s talk about Siege Trolls and what we can do about them.

Thank you! As you can see this is a big problem in WvW and has been from the beginning. After four hours already so much feedback.

John Corpening.9847:

Can we come up with a system that doesn’t involve constant policing from GMs?

This is the biggest issue we have. Trolls make only use of the game mechanics. They act inside the rules while doing things that offend most other players. Solutions based on the game mechanics will in almost every case have a bad effect for the “regular” players as well.

Example: Your first attempt to solve the problem was, to make all siege disappear after 30 min. This also effected the regular players because one had to check for the defence every 25 min while defending. There was some support from the player base for this solution, but the timer was too short and was increased to 60 min. (except rams). Still this solution has a bad effect on the regular players because good defence can despawn in times of inactivity. This causes the need of a player restting the timers regularly and getting no rewards for it. (Scouting is one of the most important jobs in WvW and is not rewarded at all. In contrast it is the most pricy and boring way of playing the game.)

Almost every tecnical solution can be misused by trolls as well. Some solutions mentioned here have an additional democratic aspect to their tecnical function. As trolling is a community issue this is maybe where we have to search for a final solution. When thinking of solutions, always try to think about:

1. How does this solution effect regular players in a negative way?
2. How can this solution be misused by trolls?
3. How will the solution help with the issues caused by trolls?

Threfore let’s give the problems you mentioned a nuber:

1. Creating Siege to hit the siege cap
2. Creating the wrong type of siege to hit area siege caps
3. Spending supply on needless siege to drain supply depots
4. Dropping siege on top of legitimate siege build sites

Assigning this way of thinking to your solution:

To kick off the brainstorm I’ll throw out this idea:

1. When a player places a piece of siege they receive a stack of “Exhaustion”
2. A stack of “Exhaustion” expires after three minutes
3. If a player has three stacks of “Exhaustion” they can no longer place siege

1. Negative issues for the community?
Offensively a commander places siege. He has info about the supplys in his squad and knows how many supplies he can spend. With this solution he can only place 3 sieges within 3 minites. When attacking a garrison in higher tier during prime time, 3 rams are a joke. The community would probably have to apply ram throwers within the zerg. maybe this would work, but it would add some additional organization needed for running in larger groups.
Defensively mostly one player is dedicated for building defensive siege while upgrading a tower. If he wants to build some arrowcarts for defending he has to wait some time to place all of them, but three defensive sieges within three minutes is ok, I think.

2. Possible abuse by trolls?
Trolls can not force someone to throw a siege. Therefore there is no misuse possible.

3. Problems solved?
This solution may decline the effect of problems no 1, 2 and 3, but not neglect it as it takes time to drain a supply depot anyway. It will result in unfirable trebouchtes rather than bad placed ballistas, but it won’t solve the problem 2 and 3 completely. Problem 4 can not be solved with this at all as 3 sieges every 3 minutes is enough to troll the others.

My conclusion: Your solution will not solve the problem and the negative offensive effect neglects the small positive effect by far.

warriorjrd.8695:

Pet’s don’t actually do anything to the AOE damage you take, they simply take up one of the 5 slots that specific AOE can hit. However it will still do full damage if it hits you and your pet.

I personally see that ranger can be viable as a frontliner but a periphery fighter seems to be a much better suited role for it. But whatever you like to play, ranger can do both, but it can do periphery better imo, especially after patch.

In a zerg there will always be more than 5 people running through the AOE. Therefore everytime your pet gets damage from AOE someone else doesn’t. If you switch the pet before it dies the damage is simply neglected.

Ranger can do both – frontline and periphery. Which one is better depends on the playstile and the team composition.

If you like to play with the longbow then you are a periphery player. You need to be cautious and aware of thieves and the enemy frontline. If your positioning or reflexes are not good enough you will be an easy target. You will do more damage than the frontline, but in fights against superior numbers the periphery player will have a lot of trouble to survive.

If you prefer to go melee, you should play in the frontline. Doing this is much more forgiving. You will stick to your commander and give a water field if needed. You can survive as long as warriors. You have less life, but you are doing a lot of evasion on gs aa. You can survive as long as guards. You have less healing skills and blocks, but you are always there when the water field gets many blasts within its long lasting duration. When you get lowlife you get auto-stability and a huge damage reduction on you, letting you survive tough fights much easier.

If you switch a pet, the new pet has full health.
If you switch the pet before it dies the CD for the next swich is much lower than if you switch it after it dies.
If both of your pets are dead and your skill for switching is on CD you will loose some utility as the signet of renewal becomes useless and you loose part of your damage as well as the use of the active F2-skill.

Fluffball.8307:

I totally disagree with every thing you wrote Oak.

LB isn’t used as the primary weapon. Barrage is DoT, so it compliments the melee encounter perfectly. What advantage does sword have in a zerg? Almost zero, and the WH utility is extremely small compared to having a very long ranged option. I’m sure you’ve already seen this video, but if not check it out. It’s the build the (now sort of outdated) ranger zerg meta build came from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lej85Rb3fMU

At the end of the video he shows how LB is used for support in zerg encounters.

RaO vs entangle, like I said it’s situational. RaO doesn’t do you any good if you’re already getting the heavies spamming might, fury, swiftness and stability, which I find to almost always be the case. Snaring people for even a fraction of a second will result in their death most of the time. You won’t kill any warriors with a cripple, but you will kill people by unstacking them. You will also wreck back lines with MT and entangle.

On the other hand, if you’re in a PUG zerg going up against a guild zerg, no way I would not have RaO up at the start of the fight. Get ready for like 400 static fields!

Edit: For clarification, I disagree with your second post. Totally agree with your first post. Your build will definitely work, but mine will too!

Your build will work, but it is not the best build supportwise. And playing in zergs is mainly about support, kill and not get killed. Your allies will drop, if you cannot blast a waterfield for them or if you cannot finish of enemies because you lack stability. A good build works in a fight against superior numbers and makes you become the winner because of better support and therefore better overall damage and survivability. Ranger is seledom used in frontline because it lacks support compared to other classes. You need to bring all the support you can, to be any useful.
If you bring in one ranger your group gets:

• 150 Precision from spotter
• Waterfield with vigor and condition remove
• Fury, swiftnes, might and explo from warhorn
• Mass condi remove from SoR if needed
• Pet support from bear (condi remove), murrelow (poison field) or drake (blast finisher)
• AOE damage reduction by 16,7 percent as long as the pet lives (it shold survive most fights if not totally outmanned)
• Highest stability uptime that allows you to access every position on the battlefield to finish of enemies or keep allies alive.

The video you posted is old. I know, he is one of the best players from one of the best guilds, but he is not good at playing a ranger. His pet dies away with no need. He could have easily switched it right before it died, but he didn’t care. It might be resignation, but because of that he lost part of his damage and decreased the survivability of his group.

Also a good commander wouldn’t have left him cast barrage that easily. A ranger casting barrage at midrage would be an easy target for a hammerstun or an immobilize because of the routing. Also damagewise the Longbow is not very good. Using the greasword in meleetrain gives you bigger damage on targets that already have damage and therefore will drop more likely than random targets somewhere else you drop your barrage on. Rapid Fire hardly hit more than one or two targets when he used it. Therefore piercing arrows is a wasted trait in this case. These trait points can better be spent in spotter.

Of course you would be playing like one of the heavies. If you already have too many heavies on your side and you don’t need the buffs from RaO you shouldn’t play frontline ranger, but backline ranger. There you can benefit from your bow, the immobilizes and a lot of stunbreakers. You can fully focus on damage and don’t need to care much about the support. But that would be a completely different build.

Fluffball.8307:

If you want to use a Longbow, you should make a completely different build. longbow/greatsword synergy doesn’t work in zerg-play. You can go either frontline with gs/s+h or gs/a+h or backline with lb/a+h or lb/s+h. Blast-finishers are a must. It is all about combo fields: Might stacking, healing, chaos armor, frost armor, retaliation. Also horn is a good group support with swiftness, might and fury for the group. The worst build for zergs is the most selfish build.

Entangle is quite situational. Immobilize is no problem for a warrior or a guardian. Within a fight the immobilize on the enemy is gone within seconds. Also you will miss your elite when blind is casted on you. Stability is something that gives you mobility and mobility grants survivability in a lake of fields and enemies. Therefore RaO is much stronger with the 25 might stacks it can give additionally to stability, swiftness and fury. For the use of entangle in a zerg fight I would use a completely different build that is more based on survival skills and some condition damage.

Your build is good and quite similar to what I use sometimes in a zerg. Though some improvements could easily be made:
Use Spotter instead of Beastmaster’s Might for better group support. Healing Spring is a must in a zerg build. Safe your healing spring for regroup, if you can. Your ranger will survive a hard fight much longer than an ele and your team will be greatful for your water field. Also healing spring already heals more than heal as one when combined with one blast or leap finisher and staying inside for one second. Additionally you can give vigor to your group with the healing spring and Vigorous Renewal. Shared Anguish is not a good skill because it seldomly triggers and you have a good stability uptime anyway.

Use only drakes and bears. With good movement and pet control your pets will survive even hard fights because they benefit from your signets as well. Also use one mass damage pet for your RaO and might stacking. I would advice you to murrelow or river drake. Murrelow has a poison field wich is perfect to be placed in enemy regroups and water fields to reduce their healing. River drake has a blast finisher directly after switching pets and Lightning Breath hits 15 targets within 1 1/2 sec which is also a good burst damage to be used after using SotW.

As runes, I would advice to take Melandru and as food Lemongrass Poultry Soup because you have little condition remove. Otherwise you are dependant on having a good guard in your group.

After the patch the build will change to have even mote Stability uptime:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhYDbkRtU1wWsrYHW+r/Ku2rdAChaZA8utbhS4YdmE7QK/4KvRC-TVjDwAyvgAyUnA3+D9Uq8SllBHJAgKrAcQECY+DxDIYkGBQ6aSoEkUAMpMC-w

Edit: I also changed some other traits to improve your build.

I give this thread a [+1] so there might be a chance to be seen by a developer.

I have hardly ever seen anyone using spirits for their active effects. Players were mostly relying on the passive effect. Healing, burning and protection uptime increase are quite helpful and often used. Only elite spirit and water spirit are used also for their active effects. Spirit builds seldom use Natures Vengance because of that.

Spirit is the best soucer for ranger to support, but they are too damageable to be used in lagers scale. They die easily in AoE and therefore loose their major effect in a bigger fight. Making the active effect become combo fields increases the ability of a ranger to support in larger scale.

Nercos and mesmers are already benifiting of this effect and make a good support in large scale fights by using combo fields. Thieves and rangers are very much dependant on selfish builds and therefore not very welcomed in large scale fights.

I know rangers already have many opportunities to make combo fields, but traps are used passively and can only be used, when triggered by the enemy. Also they are in the wrong trait line to be used effectively. Smoke and etherial field only work under water with the right pet traitet. This leaves fire, water and poison fields for large scale fights. Water fields are combined with the selfheal trait and is therefore less realiable for group demand. Firefield is competing with the only blast finisher and poison field needs a good pet control.

I don’t want to give the ranger many new fields, but opportunities to cast them actively. The active effect of the spirit would be reduced with an addition of a combo field that fits to it and has the same radius as the active effect:

• Water spirit: Water field for 5s
• Frost spirit: Ice field for 5s
• Stone spirit: No combo field or inventing a new combo earth field*
• Storm Spirit: Lightning field for 3s
• Sun Spirit: Smoke field for 4s
• Spirit of Nature: Water field 2s

These changes would make a spirit ranger in larger scale possible. They would make a grandmaster become really useseful as the radius of a combo field is very inportant and the effect on death is very benificial. Also this would not make the ranger become outstanding but give a higher build variety as spirit build is still competing with survival builds and shout builds.

*Earth field – this idea came up very often. Inventing a new field that uses the effect of cripple, protection and torment as elements of the earth. Classes using this combo could be eles (Unstedy Ground and Dust Devil), rangers (Muddy Terrain and active Stone Spirit), nercro (Grasping Dead), ingi (Glue Shot) and warrior (Hammer Shock). Effects:

• Blast finisher – Protection for 3s for 5 players
• Leap finisher – Protection for 5s for 1 player
• Physical projectile – Torment for 5s on a foe
• Whirl finisher – Cripple for 3s on target enemies

Hopefully they lift the damage increase at least from 10% to 100% with the next patch so this trait makes sense again. Otherwise this is the second trait rangers have that was nerved to death.
Anyone still using “search and rescue” in any game mode???

kta.6502:

Oak da Vite.9054:

Great topic!

Now it is important to know how the CDI will work. The last CDI’s were partly horrible because…

1. In many CDIs there was no feedback on the ideas. Everybody posted his/her idea without reading the forums wheather this topic was alredy mentioned or discussed before.

I understand where you’re coming from. I think we have to be a bit more realistic about this.

Sometimes there is feedback, but the feedback is negative. I don’t mean constructive criticism either.

Sometimes the CDIs get so large that people can’t go through 10 or 20 pages of ideas. I remember that this happened with the last Fractal CDI months ago. In a thread that is 2 pages long, it’s easier to read all the posts and respond. Not so in a giant thread.

Many of us have real life obligations outside this game. There are lots of folks who don’t have several hours to devote to reading every comment in a giant 20 page thread. For example: I’m an animator in real life. I’m not a teen with gobs of time to waste. I’ve got to concentrate on my drawing, family, job search, school, and writing. I take time out of my day to come onto these forums, share ideas, point out problems, and come up with possible solutions. There are days when I only have time to respond to a couple threads.

Just something to consider and think about.

I did. That is why I asked for a different structure. I am not blaming the people not reading. These forums are not made for this kind of discussion. Nobody has the time to read 50+ pages with 50 posts each page most being more than 100 words long (ranger CDI). No player and not even a developer who is doing this at work. The result was the same ideas over and over again in different words. Hard to filter the good thoughts out of this.

Great topic!

Now it is important to know how the CDI will work. The last CDI’s were partly horrible because…

1. In many CDIs there was no feedback on the ideas. Everybody posted his/her idea without reading the forums wheather this topic was alredy mentioned or discussed before. As a result the input for the developers were the most obvios ideas, but not at all the best ideas. It was some kind of brainstorming allowing repetition of ideas.
2. Many ideas mentioned in the CDIs had beed widely discussed in the forum before. But because many people who posted there were new to the forums, the discussion was about the same ideas again and again.
3. Ideas came up unfiltered. Some of them were so stupid, everybody, who would have thought about it twice, would have abandoned them “without a thought”. Like some people talk faster than they think – some can even write faster.

All this caused the discussion to be very dump, repetitive and unsatisfying.

What I would like to see:

1. Let the people vote to support ideas. Also put the best voted ideas at the top, so that everybody sees that this one was already mentioned.
2. Allow a subdiscussion for every idea. Though critic in forums can be really destructive, ideas that occure should get feedback. Even if an idea gets high support, it doesn’t neccissarily mean, it is a good idea. Sometimes there is an argument against that is not obvious for everyone but discounts many points in favour of the idea.
3. Make reaccuring ideas being linked to existing ideas. Some people are lazy or not able to read or to compare their ideas to others. A link to an existing idea and a friendly advice to continue the discussion there can help a lot.
4. Be consequent with people that do not use the structure you predetermined for the form of a post. When there are rules, you must be consequent to assert these. Otherwise nobody will follow these rules.
5. Ask the people how the idea came up: Own idea/discussion in guild/ingame experience? Not everybody will be honest there, but it brings the idea in a context and makes everybody think about their ideas twice.

A reddit-like forum structure could help a lot to make the discussion become a positive and open discussion where people like to participate. Nobody wants a linear collection of repeating ideas.

Also give an advice to make a prediscussion within the guilds. Prefiltered ideas can accelerate a discussion a lot. Announce the discussion on the frontpage and ask the guilds to collect ideas before the CDI starts. You will be surprised how elaborate the input for you can be when you ask for it.

I am hoping for a well structured and supervised debate in the CDI. The better the debate, the better the result.

Sorry, but your build would only work against up to 5 enemies.

1. Squishy pets don’t work in zergs: Use bears, drakes or devourers. Only with beastmastery frontline builds (support) you can use hounds or moas. Cats, spiders and birds are instantly dead in the zerg. Boars can be used right before a fight to search for plasma or other good stuff and be switched out afterwards.
2. Your healing power ist not woth it: Allies only benefit from you healing power from your signet and one blast you can make in the waterfield. Also the blast needs no healing power, because when a ranger puts down a waterfielt, it lasts long enough to get all players back to 100% life easily. These points can be spent much better in damage-stats. If you want to make a support build, use shouts and Nature’s Voice for it. That works as well.
3. Axe is not a good choice for a primary weapon: In the beginning of the fight and after regroup you will not lack might, following a good commander. Additionally you can easily stack 25 might with RaO and murrelow. You can use it as a secondary weapon for tagging enemies while regrouping and keeping your might staks up. Primary weapon should be either greatsword (defensive weapon with evade on aa-chain) or sword/axe (damage weapon with evades on #2 and #3 and reflection and retaliation on #5).

A good build is already playable before the patch with Signet of the Beastmaster. This one is dependant on having a guard in your group for condi-remove:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhODbkRlKWbYxfFuWDMIUrHg4NAa+CHrzloHS5HZhtGA-TViDABHqEEn9HeR9npU+BwFQAhHQwH6eE4IBExBFIAACA38mD9mD9mlCoflRA-w

This build has good condi-remove but less stability:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhODbkRlKWbYxfFuWDMIUrHg4NAa/CH7K4aJS5HZhtGA-TViDABHqEEn9HeR9npU+BwFQAhHQwH6eE4IBExBFIAACA38mD9mD9mlCoflRA-w

After the patch this build gets buffed because of the buffs for axe, greatsword and Signet of the Bestmaster. Then you can either use Empathic Bond for condi-remove or Bark Skin for survivability:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhODbkRlKWbYxfFuWDQIULDg3tdLUsHrzkYHS5HZhtGA-TViDABHqEEn9HeR9npU+BwFQAhHQwH6eE4IBExBFIAACA38mD9mD9mlCoflRA-w

If you want a good support build, use shouts. There is a build with more support:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhOD7kRF6F0aBxiF4axAaCVrA49MUqnq7O4Ae4U+xNYrB-TVSDABOchAwR9HDVCe8RQgp9HyS5HAHkgAegApo7JAACA/8m/8m/8nlCoflRA-w

And a build with better survivability:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhOD7kRF6F0aBxiF4axAaCV7AIT30Xzg7O4Ae4U+xVYrB-TVSDABOchAwR9HDVCe8RQgp9HyS5HAHkgAegApo7JAACA/8m/8m/8nlCoflRA-w

Ranger have a huge build variety

WvW:

• High damage melee – with lots of stability and still tanky enough
• High range sniper – with good mobility and damage evasion
• Condi bunker – with lots of evasion and healing
• Regen group support – with perma regen and swiftness
• Beastmaster bunker – with lots of evasion and healing
• Smallscale spirit support – with damage and survival support
• Hybrid bleeding – with huge bleed stacks and many crits
• Condi trapper – with good control and hybrid damage
• Control build – with lots of stun and immobilize
• Some more viable builds I forgot

PvP (Ranger is not meta in tPvP, but in solo-q they can fill almost every position in a decent way and make you have a good team setup more often):

• Midpoint spirit support
• Homepoint regen bunker
• Roaming berserk sniper

Builds can also be adapted very well on the enemy team (e.g. “Sick ’Em” against thieves or Entangle against necros)

PvE:
In PvE there is no build variety needed. Its all about berserker.

Other advantages of the Ranger

PvE:

• Easiest class for leveling
• Unique support for dungeon runs (spotter, frost spirit)
• Easy champion farming from range
• Additional motivation for map scouting (pets)
• Soloing content is easy (but takes long)

PvP:

• High build flexibility
• Good group support
• There is a couter-build for almost every enemy build

WvW:

• High build flexibility
• Viable in all positions (even melee frontline)
• Long-lasting Waterfield
• Logest invulnerability (6s + extra up to 6s with sustainable pet)
• Longest stability (28s plus boon duration)
• Perma swiftness and regen possible
• Evasion and vigor-support possible
• Good mobility on sword and greatsword
• Good AOE damage possible
• Reduces damage on your team by switching the pet regularly before it dies
  (e.g. 1/6 less damage if 1/5 of your team is rangers)
• Control by Immobilize and stuns
• Damage reduction with high protection uptime or bark skin
• Many Poison fields
• Access to many different conditions
• Very good access to vulnerability, cripple, bleeding and poison
• Great roaming support class
• Soloing against superior numbers of enemies with bunker-builds possible
• Access to passive (EB/SoR/KE) and active (SotF/SoR/HS) condition remove
• Best of all boon spells: Plasma of the Siamoth

Major disadvantages

• Sometimes unreliable Pets
• No high-end burst damage
• No meta t-PvP class
• Jack of all trades, master of none
• Easy leveling results in unskilled players
• More efford needed to become a really good player (pet-management, sword skills)
• Little access to support in large scale fights – only water-field, fire-field, horn#5 and spotter (assuming the pet is dead most of the time and spirits die too fast)

“Protect Me” is great in combination with retaliation.
Sometimes when I use my shout build I take my murellow, use RaO, jump right in the enemy group, fire the F2 poison field, use “Protect Me” and Whirling defense. Before the pet dies I cleanse my conditions and pull myself out with the sword #2.

This woldn’t be as good with SoS. It works best right before a fight starts when the enemy is stacking might and the allies are pushing into enemy group in the moment you pull out safely.

It’s pretty simple:
Short fights: Vitality – If you are doing high damage and want to burst down the enemy, but don’t want to be one-hitted by thieves or warriors or die on a condition bomb of a necro or engie, take some vitality.
Long fights: Tougness + Healing Power – The longer the fight lasts the more effective becomes Healing Power. In combination with high Tougness and good Condi Remove you can outlast most enemies with a ranger easily.

Don’t invest too much in both. To have more than 20000 hit points or have much more armor than 3000 is not worth the investment. The scaling becomes pretty bad for defensive stats when they are high already. This is also the case for Healing Power. Also you might lack damage to bring down your enemy. The ranger needs less defensive stats than the warriors for example because he has good access to protection and evades. Also he has access to passive condition remove which allows a more passive gameplay. It’s all about timing.

I like the challenge of coordinating two living beings at the same time. I didn’t even manage to level other characters because it is such a no-brainer in open world PvE to control just one living being. I simply lost interest.

Also I love the evasive playstile. Sword/Dagger is so incredibly funny in PvP. Some sort of dancing around while the enemy can’t hit you.

Well bows… I don’t use them anymore since I saw how little damage they are doing to me. I can pass a longbow ranger in WvW shooting at me without even recognizing it…

Because of the adrenalin changes warriors will need more adrenaline for their burst skills and their healing. Just wait until you have played with the new changes. Maybe you will learn to love the passive effect. Just think of your condition remove and your overall damage.

Fluffball.8307:

I’d ditch the boar and moa for better CC pets. It’s really hard to impossible to land the CC those two have. Take a wolf and a spider/drakehound/alpine wolf/snow leopard/whatevs.

Well the F2 of the boar has a 50% chance on a 4s stun and a Knockdown on passive. The stun of the moa is also increased to 4s. Of course the timing is very important, but simply the amount of stuns and immobilize you have increases the possibility to land further CCs.

DeceiverX.8361:

There’s your problem, though. Most good players will run these, as immobilize is a general condi (removed by all cleanses), and a stunbreaker/immobilize is a pretty standard thing to have on most builds. Even stealth will cancel your shortbow damage, which frankly won’t even really be that high since you have both low power and condition damage.

Well, they will run these, but many classes have only 2 or 3 stunbreakers on a high cd. This build has more stuns which also last for a long time. Also the shortbow is not for the damage. It is used to put some bleeding and poison to make the enemy use his condition remove to land your immobilze afterwards. The lack power will be compensated by the high crit chance making you crit almost permanently on greatsword with the possibility of gaining attack opportunities for even more damage.

I know this is all theory crafting. I will have to try it out. Thanks for your advise.

Has anyone ever tried a build like this while roaming?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRjEq0xaLLmsQ1aADhqVLwOAagFwdREDXdKzJIs9A-TVTAABpq+DFXABbVC2kyPHM/NjOEi2foiDJAAPAgBOSAwohgFNBPcACIEg5FA-w

• Near 100% crit-chance (100% with knight armor instead of cavalier).
• Lots of stuns with increased duration using greatsword, shortbow, pink moa and the boar F2.
• Some immobilize with entangle and muddy terrain.
• Lots of bleeding on shortbow which hardly does any damage but might pull some condition removes.
• Nice condition remove on survival skills.
• Massremove on elite with Lyssa-runes.
• Good amount of armor and a solid health base.
• 2 stunbreakers

Enemies without stability / stunbreakers / immobilze remove will suffer very hard, won’t they?

Well, longbow is a power weapon. Therefore they are traited with power stats. This is good, but not perfect.

Be happy that the bow traits are not traited with a completely wrong tradeline like traps are at the moment, which makes them hardly useful except for hybrid bulds. Imagine all bow-traits in WS, NM or BM. You wouldn’t be happy with that either.

Of the 6 traits you metioned only 3 are dedicated for bow/longbow. The others could be used for any power builds. You just cannot have all the good stuff, as bringing a conflict about which trait to choose is the basic of a good build variety for a class.
I prefer build variety instead of boring meta builds that excel other builds by far!

Maybe one could switch the bow-traits in Marksmanship with the trap traits in Skirmishing. Condition duration with traps is the most useful combination and longbow builds work perfectly well with precision/ferocity. This could allow you to combine more of the traits you like without damaging other builds too much.

Has anyone tried reveal on a leopard elite of the norn? This stealth also has a different icon and even was able to capture and guard points while in stealth until last patch.

Maybe anet should make this clear. Does it work as intended or should reveal effect other forms of stealth as well?