Guild Wars 2

Cuddlepie.8109:

Ryan.8367:

Cuddlepie.8109:

Ahhh … you PvF like you roam. Three against one, still playing the meta copied from a few months ago, and utterly ineffective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtxVh1D0E1g

Classy, a link to a video with the title “Ultimate (insert word referring to non-hetro orientation) Fighter OFFICIAL TRAILER”.

What’s next Ryan.8367, AoN and the Mag community? “Ironic” links to race-inspired videos or a game about domestic violence?

Well played.

Thanks

While endurance regeneration is capped at 100%, the food does not stack with our current 5 trait in Wilderness Survival and probably won’t after the patch. They want less regen not more. In other words it’s not a matter of the them both being under the cap, it’s a matter of them simply not being programmed to stack with each other.

sminkiottone.6972:

you forget one thing :

5 points in wilderness survival + Bowl of orrian truffle and meat stew grant you +90% endurance regen, now combine it with s/d + sb evades + lightning reflex…

They don’t stack by the way

Man, those were very bad players in that video, like all of them.

o.O

FinalPatriot.8034:

While in WvW tonight I had a couple of duels against what I think is some sort of BM Ranger but to be honest, I’m not certain. She used a dog for a pet but then spawned a couple other pets as well. Anyways, she appeared to have a massive amount of regen and condi removal and just made me look stupid on both my Mesmer and my Warrior. I wish I could tell you more but I’ve not a clue as to what build this was.

I’ve heard since I started playing this game that Rangers are terrible in WvW but she defeated everyone she dueled against. Clearly, your class is underestimated.

It could have been spirit build as well, what server was this ranger on?

Andele.1306:

Ryan.8367:

the necro class is so lucky that their op bullkitten got overshadowed by warrior’s op bullkitten or else you guys would have seen much more needed nerfs yet the condition spam is still encouraged obviously by anet ..i really cannot wait for this kittening burst condition/tank condition spam meta to be over with. it’s so kittening digusting.

Or you just need to learn to play.

what does learning to play have to do with this game being plagued with condition spam?

i think you fail to realize im not JUST talking about necros here, it extends into engis / spirit rangers, necros and now bunker regen condi warriors as well. necromancers just have the most access to it. its a kittening stupid meta overall and promotes very low skill gameplay.

jpersson.7368:

Ryan.8367:

1 bleed off one skill on the most condition spam class in the game next to engineers is your version of ‘leveling the playing field’? Oh geez…

I’ve never been much for details, but yeah, in overall I feel they are leveling the playing field with this patch. Toning down warriors a bit, and polishing some other classes.

I understand if others view this patch differently, and I think that’s a good thing.

what other classes got polished besides mesmers who already didn’t need 1on1 build polishes in the first place? please explain

the necro class is so lucky that their op bullkitten got overshadowed by warrior’s op bullkitten or else you guys would have seen much more needed nerfs yet the condition spam is still encouraged obviously by anet ..i really cannot wait for this kittening burst condition/tank condition spam meta to be over with. it’s so kittening digusting.

jpersson.7368:

I feel they are leveling the playing field with this patch. Sure, I hoped for more specifically for necromancers, but I can understand if they don’t want major changes to one profession when they are trying to level the others.

On the other hand.. I’m running an aggressive wvw build for solo/small party roaming, and I can see this patch hitting other necromancer harder than me.

1 bleed off one skill on the most condition spam class in the game next to engineers is your version of ‘leveling the playing field’? Oh geez…

Xaylin.1860:

skcamow.3527:

• Domination XII – Confounding Suggestions. Changed to increase daze duration by 25%.
  I don’t like it. Dazes on Mesmers are so short it does not make any difference. Make it 50% or even 100% so it is worth the Grandmaster slot

• Dueling VI – Protected Mantras. Moved to Master Tier. Increase Toughness from 400 to 600.
  Wow. Fail. While perma-stability while recasting might be too strong they really should have thought about something else. The toughness does not help at all. Maybe projectile absorbtion or even reflection to reduce the interrupt sources?

• Dueling VII – Mantra Mastery. Moved to Adept Tier.
  I don’t care. This change is reasonable but it does not improve the viablity of Mantras.

• Chaos 25 – Chaotic Transference. Increased conversion from 5% to 10%.
  Nice.

• Chaos I – Chaotic Revival. Reduced cooldown from 35s to 10s.
  I couldn’t care less. Most downed or rally related traits are totally useless.

• Chaos VII – Mirror of Anguish. Reduced cooldown from 90s to 60s.
  I don’t care.

• Inspiration IV – Mender’s Purity. Now removes 2 conditions.
  Very nice and probably the best buff for Mantras in this whole patch.

• Inspiration XI – Shattered Conditions. Increased radius from 240 to 600.
  Very nice.

• Illusions VI – Illusionary Invigoration. Recharge reduced from 90s to 60s. Moved to Master Tier.
  Nice for shatter builds.

• Illusions VIII – Dazzling Galmours. Moved to Adept Tier.
  As Pyro said, doesn’t change anything. Glamour traits need to be re-designed regarding their functionality to make them useful again.

• Illusions 15 – Shattered Strength – Moved to Grandmaster tier.
• Illusions 25 – Illusionist’s Celerity – Moved to Master tier.
  Nice but I personally get along without it.

Regarding Vigor: They better don’t nerf our Vigor trait. Dodging is so important for Mesmers (damage mitigation and DE). Besides that, almost every class got this kind of trait. I don’t think they are going to nerf it.

Regarding Diamond Skin: Considering the small health pool of Elementalists it should not be that bad. I also think that condition Mesmers might be better of than Necros because of Scepter #3. However, Bunker Eles might become very very annoying for condition builds.

Uhm, Dodges are important for every class the problem is not every class gets access to: Distortion, decoy, blink, torch #4 , veil , mass invis, blurred frenzy , phase retreat, chaos armor , high aegis uptime as defensives and/or ways to avoid taking damage.

If you don’t think it’s just a little kittened up that every class got vigor/endurance regen nerfed except for guardians and mesmers, then I really don’t know what to say.

CETheLucid.3964:

WatchTheShow.7203:

Why are thieves allowed to have 8 dodges (when traited correctly) at their disposal, but that is completely fair? Some thieves can keep up a perma dodge. Yeah they can’t hit for anything, but they sure aren’t getting hit either.

I know exactly the build you’re talking about because I faced it today in WvW, three of em’ VS me and my partner.

It’s a troll build, exactly as you said; they can’t hit worth beans.

You’ll be hard pressed to nail them ever, but they can’t get you either. After about 10 mins of this, we did finally root and take down two of em’. Third one ran.

With this patch thieves shouldn’t be able to do that as effectively.

Instead of 8 rolls they’ll have like 4 or 5 and still be unable to hurt anything except field animals, so yes, Anet’s listening.

Good riddance to the end of that. :P

It sucks we’re getting a nerf there to the endurance trait, and I hope they reconsider that number (35% plz Anet?), but we’re not being picked on in particular about it.

Every class in the game seems to be getting major nerfs to vigor and endurance regen options.

You can guess those foods are about to go up. Prepare.

Mesmer and guardian didnt get nerfs to endurance/vigor regeneration. But yea, it’s not a death of anything because we have to go 30 into WS anyway for any condition removal (still, no active removal anet? really?) so now it’s just ‘kind of a trait that is there’ as opposed to a benefit to the build.

I would have really liked to have seen like 2 conditions removed attached to heal as one, considering that heal barely gets any play at all.

mini.6018:

Ryan.8367:

mini.6018:

List to do in december :

Salvage mace
Salvage hammer
Hmm maybe salvage bow
Make a spirit ranger or a necro

Well at least i will have more mats for craftleveling ^^

I wouldn’t roll a spirit ranger bud, they got nerfed as well, mainly endurance regeneration from 50% to 25%, lightning spirit dmg drop by 33%, burning passive on the sun spirit from 3s to 2s, etc…. Please don’t type like other classes didn’t receive nerfs. I think the only class that benefited this patch is mesmer, maybe guardian too.

You need to realize that with hammer 20% dps loss in zerk,40%ish lost in soldier and with mace being DELETED literally warrior is back to square one.The most non viable class in spvp EVER.So any other class would be better and necro and ranger still seem viable atm.

Gs is not realiable.sword is ok but lacks stuns blocks and without them the class lacks survavibility again.Rifle ? lmao.All warriors weapons are now nerfed into oblivion or broken as hell.The only semi viable build would be condi shout healer wich is pure kitten for team play aswell,easily replacable by any other class since lacks cc and extended survavibility except pure facetanking wich is the worst way of tanking possible.A zerker with acces to blocks,evades,stealth.teleports and such is way better at even 10k hp and everyone knows it by now.

i understand, i think its dumb to nerf both in one run. Ranger is only viable because it fills a role as being a team kitten bunker point holder. If you want to spend your time sitting on a point on the offchance youll catch a fight every 5 minutes then by all means , roll ranger. if you want to do anything other than that (there are rangers that do btw) then you will find the class is very underpowered. Ranger has been plagued by the shadow of OP ever since this stupid spirit build has seen publicity in tPvP games while the people calling it OP NERF NERF don’t stop and realize that that is literally the only build that’s viable in all game modes, especially WvW and even then it’s terrible there because one aoe from a group kills them but again, I’m sorry for putting the focus on rangers, this is about warriors and for that I agree , UF move up a trait + the dmg % nerfs is kinda over the top but you’ll have to see how it plays out I guess.

d/p was broken

a bunch of classes got flat hard nerfs to vigor/endurance regen too, except mesmer/guardian

mini.6018:

List to do in december :

Salvage mace
Salvage hammer
Hmm maybe salvage bow
Make a spirit ranger or a necro

Well at least i will have more mats for craftleveling ^^

I wouldn’t roll a spirit ranger bud, they got nerfed as well, mainly endurance regeneration from 50% to 25%, lightning spirit dmg drop by 33%, burning passive on the sun spirit from 3s to 2s, etc…. Please don’t type like other classes didn’t receive nerfs. I think the only class that benefited this patch is mesmer, maybe guardian too.

hihey.1075:

Please reroll ranger in WvW. Even after the upcoming buffs they will still be a free, quick and easy kill.

He’s actually right :<

WatchTheShow.7203:

Ryan.8367:

Wilderness 5 Natural Vigor. Reduced the increased endurance regeneration from 50% to 25%.

ouch

This infuriates me to no end. My survivability comes from my reflexes to dodge at the correct time. I am a master of dodging and this endurance reduction is going to kill me because I rely heavily on my dodges. I don’t want to have to rely on eating +50% endurance regen food every hour and spending all my spare silver buying them either. The whole reason I traited into those dodges was to avoid buying pots. I always forget to use potions and by the time I remember them, I am already dead or finished with the dungeon/instance.

I run longbow/sword dagger in WvW. If we’re zerging then I will go with longbow/greatsword. Sword dagger is an amazing combo because of its built in evades. However, it can’t save me every time, hence why that dodge from endurance regen is so crucial. Plus, every time I dodge, both me and my pet get reduced incoming damage. This helped my pet in so many ways. I use a wolf/jaguar combo. Since they are not amazingly tanky like the bear, this protection they got from my dodge made their survivability acceptable. With this nerf, I will not be able to dodge as much, therefore my pet will not be protected as much. Meaning, my pet will be back to being dead half of the fights. I am great at using f3/f1 to get my pet away from AOE, but as we all know that isn’t enough.

Why are thieves allowed to have 8 dodges (when traited correctly) at their disposal, but that is completely fair? Some thieves can keep up a perma dodge. Yeah they can’t hit for anything, but they sure aren’t getting hit either. It already stinks that we barely have active condition removal (if my pet is dead or too far away then I have no active condition removal), so the fallback was to avoid conditions altogether by dodge rolling their attack. Now that our dodge has been nerfed, it is going to be extremely hard to stay alive in WvW. Please, please reconsider this decision Arenanet.

Yea I honestly wouldn’t have an issue if EVERY Class received the same nerfs, and most did, except for guardian and mesmer. Now, mesmers if any class need it, they have so much defensive survivability options it’s ridiculous. It baffles me how they did not get touched by this, guardian I can let get away as their mobility is terrible. Mesmers have blinks, distortion, decoy , veil, mass invis , torch invis , staff phase retreat, chaos armor, plenty of aegis uptime, i mean really anet?

divine faithborn.8365:

If moment of clarity truly increases a boor fear stun (and it’s not simply improved by your condition duration from marksmanship) then that is a bug. As a bug, it should be reported because it is not the intended mechanic of the trait.

And if it is a bug, and you knowingly use it, then you are exploiting a bug.

So tell me, are you exploiting?

He was testing it… He doesn’t regularly use it, he was proving a point to the guy.

Gasoline.2570:

p/d does need a lot of ini if you want to spam stealth 1 skill, but if you arent doing that then how else do you suppose you get the stacks of bleed that allow you to do any damage, because everytime I keep using pistol 1, the bleeds just disappear instantly, no matter of condition duration food or traits. You know how silly it feels in wvw when you try to damage anyone whos running away from you and basically not get damaged at all? It is beyond ridiculous. And yes, bleed duration needs and increase and aftercast needs to be shorter, but also pistol 2 is in a terrible situation with p/d, the vulnerability is a waste, it should be another damaging condition. Who uses 2 for vuln with a pistol? Really? Pistol main hand will never be used for direct damage, not even for trying to boost the crappy p/p burst that does very little damage.

But it’s been like this ages, what gives? I don’t see condition thieves touched, like, ever. Since anet obviously wants to keep nerfing the most common builds, which are power based, why is it that condition is ignored.

Just run perplexity like every bad condi thief does, you’ll do fine.

Tricare.2946:

I thought about trying a might build as well. Have you looked at the runes of noble? You lose the 20% condition duration, but gain condition damage, and 40% might duration.

How is fighting 1v2+ situations with no healing power?

I think superior rune of noble actually is probably a better runeset for this build after looking at it however i do like the condition duration, but I think you’ve made a good suggestion with the noble runs. Time to farm some dungeon and get them and check it out.

As for 1v2+ situations, i dont seem to have an issue doing 1v2’s as long as i know what im up against and a majority of that awareness comes from simply avoiding the cc. I would probably say though that having healing power would help alot.

When the next patch drops I’m already looking at a 0/0/30/20/20 spirit hybrid with even more might (might swap) and the endurance regeneration to make up for the loss in traited endurance regen. There’s also a 0/0/30/30/10 with shouts + sun spirit im going to be utilizing as well which would grant more passive defensives, so this build may change a bit.

But overall it’s pretty decent, especially in 1on1/duel situations. Think my only weakness would be a condition mesmer / good played condi engi but I personally have issues with those classes in general so maybe it’s just a L2P issue, who knows.

Thanks for the shoutout Deathtouch appreciate it man. Thanks Sir feather sword, yea i remember you man some kitten good fights in spvp duel arena. If you want to roll ranger just hit me in whispers and let me know if you need help with anything and I can try my best to help.

Thanks Faux Shaux, appreciate it man.

stop stressing out

Nike.2631:

pho.9412:

endurance nerf e.e’ wtf… a big one at that.

Its global – ALL classes are seeing less endurance/vigor.

If I had to guess, the PvE content designers had a little talk with the class designers that players have so much ready-to-dodge uptime they largely IGNORE all damage spikes which leads to berserker-uber-alles gearing because your actual defensive attributes and traits are MEANINGLESS compared to the power of dodging.

In a funny way, its a backdoor fix to our pets. When players can no longer dodge every single hit (like out pets), we might see start to encounters with less dodge-or-die design.

Except mesmers, their vigor uptime didn’t get touched, but yea, im glad theyre nerfing classes based on PvE in PvP environments because that makes sense…

Karl McLain.5604:

Ryan.8367:

Nike.2631:

For those not familiar, Nature Magic X – Hulk Out (pardon, Enlargement) will now give a Beastmaster’s Signet Ranger 8 second of +25% damage, +50% speed, and stability when your drop below 25% health (along with Fluffy going similarly super-seiyan) on a 60 second or potentially 48 second internal cooldown. And if you’re running that trait combo odds are good you’ve got the signet too, so you’ve got a 16 out of 48 second uptime in seriously pitched fights.

That’s got all kinds of clutch potential.

Keep in mind you still can’t stomp players while this is activated.

It’s in the works that this is changing as well, so that you’ll be able to interact with downed entities while under the signet’s active effects.

Edit: clarification :P

Thanks for the clarification, that helps alot

Nike.2631:

For those not familiar, Nature Magic X – Hulk Out (pardon, Enlargement) will now give a Beastmaster’s Signet Ranger 8 second of +25% damage, +50% speed, and stability when your drop below 25% health (along with Fluffy going similarly super-seiyan) on a 60 second or potentially 48 second internal cooldown. And if you’re running that trait combo odds are good you’ve got the signet too, so you’ve got a 16 out of 48 second uptime in seriously pitched fights.

That’s got all kinds of clutch potential.

Keep in mind you still can’t stomp players while this is activated.

jcbroe.4329:

Nike.2631:

Indoles.1467:

jcbroe.4329:

Yeah, I thought we decided long ago that Empathic Bond our only source of viable condition removal is the biggest thing that is killing build diversity.

I wish Karl would come back and comment on whether or not there is an internal discussion happening about this very problem (or perceived problem).

I agree it is. Without it, you rely on not taking any focus in a fight and that simply won’t happen. There are some decent changes here, but the only one I see that promotes any build diversity is the spirits unbound and nature’s vengeance swap. Otherwise, rangers are still stuck 30 deep in wilderness survival with 40 points to pick from for their respective build.

I’m not going to disagree with you directly, but for what environment are you talking about (…’cause I rarely ever build for Empathic Bond…)?

PvP and arguably WvW (there are those of the mindset that WvW is all about zerging, in which case if that’s the role you take, then no, because you’ll already be so glassy a breeze will kill you, let alone conditions). In general, any place you can think of that will relentlessly spam conditions at you on a very short cooldown.

WvW is a place where with stat stacking with both ascended gear and individual stat gear, classes like mesmer and engi are able to make some of the most op 1on1 builds out there and are probably the best in terms of that due to both skill ceiling + utility availability and like i said, stat combination.

Wilderness 5 Natural Vigor. Reduced the increased endurance regeneration from 50% to 25%.

ouch

Alissah.9281:

Ryan.8367:

Mesmer just became godlike in 1on1s

Sigh =[

We always were.

And why the long face?

because mesmers still won’t be used in tpvp and their roaming/1on1 builds just got insanely stronger and they honestly did not need a buff in the roaming/1on1 department, they needed buffs exclusively for tpvp and zerg situations in wvw.

Mesmer just became godlike in 1on1s

Sigh =[

Yea agreed, still need to go 30 deep in WS for any viable build against top level/competitive players. Still no active condition removal.

Longbow still will be used by people running bear pets and nothing else because it’s utter garbage. Some changes to traits never used before, and not even after the patch.

Spirit builds will still be strong in tPvP and still dictate the class being OP in every aspect of the game even though that build and playstyle only works in PvP because your job is to hold a point.

Etc Etc

Nothing really impressive overall

Karl McLain.5604:

Xsorus.2507:

I’m not understanding the Enlargement change, not sure what they mean by that information.

Mighty Swap granting Might to me also is interesting.

Makes Boon Duration more interesting.

Nature Magic X – Enlargement. This trait now uses Signet of the Wild to trigger. This reduces the cooldown to 60 seconds and allow it to interact with the Signet of the Beastmaster and Signet Mastery traits.

Harro Terravos! This trait is now basically the active portion of Signet of the Wild, meaning it can be reduced with Signet Mastery and will also apply to the ranger when Signet of the Beastmaster is equipped and Might if you have Beastmaster’s Might equipped.

-Karl

Interesting, thanks for the clarification

mini.6018:

Ryan.8367:

Dec Patch

Strength 5 – Reckless Dodge. Increased Damage by 25%
Strength III – Great Fortitude. Increased conversion rate from 5% to 7%.
Arms IV – Unsuspecting Foe. Moved to Master Tier.
Arms VII – Crack Shot. Moved to Adept Tier.
Arms XII – Last Chance. Increased the threshold form 25% to 50%. Reduced the cooldown from 45 seconds to 40seconds.
Defense 25 – Armored Attack. Increased conversion rate from 5% to 10%.
Defense XII – Spiked Armor. Reduced the recharge from 15s to 10s.
Tactics 5 – Determined Revival. Now correctly displays the amount of toughness.
Tactics 25 – Reviver’s Might. Now applies 3 stacks of Might instead of 1.
Discipline II – Thrill of the Kill. Increased Adrenaline gain from 1 to 10.
Discipline XI – Burst Mastery. Reduced damage increase from 10% to 7%. Removed erroneous adrenaline gain fact.
Earthshaker. Reduced damage by 20%.
Staggering Blow. Reduced damage by 23%.
Skull Crack. Increased the cast time from 1/4s to 1/2s. Updated the animation and effects of this skill to be more clear.
Combustive Shot – Increased pulse duration to 3s. Increased burn duration per pulse to 3s. Normalized damage per pulse. Updated pulses per tier to 2, 3,and 4 respectively for tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3.

source pls ?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Dec-10th-Balance-Preview/

No offense, but if you intend to buff mesmer, it has to be for zerg situations only while also dropping some of the 1on1 viability of the mesmer too. Mesmer is like the best 1on1 class in wvw at the moment, it has some of the most build diversity as well with condi and burst builds. I just think that if you were to buff alot of the things for zerg situations only, you’re just making 1on1 stronger (as i think alot of mesmers want anyway) and they simply don’t need to be stronger in 1on1.

Dec Patch

Strength 5 – Reckless Dodge. Increased Damage by 25%
Strength III – Great Fortitude. Increased conversion rate from 5% to 7%.
Arms IV – Unsuspecting Foe. Moved to Master Tier.
Arms VII – Crack Shot. Moved to Adept Tier.
Arms XII – Last Chance. Increased the threshold form 25% to 50%. Reduced the cooldown from 45 seconds to 40seconds.
Defense 25 – Armored Attack. Increased conversion rate from 5% to 10%.
Defense XII – Spiked Armor. Reduced the recharge from 15s to 10s.
Tactics 5 – Determined Revival. Now correctly displays the amount of toughness.
Tactics 25 – Reviver’s Might. Now applies 3 stacks of Might instead of 1.
Discipline II – Thrill of the Kill. Increased Adrenaline gain from 1 to 10.
Discipline XI – Burst Mastery. Reduced damage increase from 10% to 7%. Removed erroneous adrenaline gain fact.
Earthshaker. Reduced damage by 20%.
Staggering Blow. Reduced damage by 23%.
Skull Crack. Increased the cast time from 1/4s to 1/2s. Updated the animation and effects of this skill to be more clear.
Combustive Shot – Increased pulse duration to 3s. Increased burn duration per pulse to 3s. Normalized damage per pulse. Updated pulses per tier to 2, 3,and 4 respectively for tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3.

I like how rangers have been attacked the 2nd most in this thread. In WvW against top level players rangers don’t stand a chance against: mesmer, engi, necro, thief and even d/d ele if played right. Spare me the tPvP ranger is op and trying to pass it off like ranger is like this in every other game mode. I’m so sick and tired of the ranger being judged based on tPvP performance as a POINT BUNKER HOLDER and deemed op as an entire class because it has ONE role in PvP.

I didn’t think warrior was OP , I just think other classes need to be brought up and destroy this condi-meta that has plagued GW2 which coincidentally was why warrior was given the buffs it got in the first place.

This class is broken and fixing traps won’t fix it. The direction anet has taken with this class and the mere fact it is completely judged based on tPvP performance alone disgusts me really. I’m kinda done with this class in general but get on it from time to time, engi is much better , mesmer is much better, warrior is much better, thief is much better, even ele is much better … Just about every class is much better than the ranger atm in both 1on1s and in team situations. I play WvW , not PvP so the divide in playerbase truly shows as ranger is probably the most split in terms of performance between those game modes, which is also why I really hate when builds get nerfed in WvW based on PvP performance.

I’ve moved on to smite / dota and playing other random games on steam , this game is just not balanced especially for ranger.

I’ve come up with just about any build you can imagine , i was rocking the 0/0/30/10/30 back when the game first came out and was using that before it was even a thing on the forums. I’ve done might stacking builds, condi traps, power traps, spirit builds, bm hybrids, gc builds, precision builds, you name it. Other classes have much better kitten, and it’s more easily and readily available, it is the way it is with this class. Keep in mind too, I duel top players of their class, not roamers and the brick walls I’ve hit as a ranger against some of the builds they can come up with specifically on mesmer, warriors, engi and even thief are astonishing to me and it’s made me realize one thing, we get balanced primarily based on PvP performance and that alone or else BM / Spirits would have never been touched in WvW.

Xsorus.2507:

RubiBayer.8134:

Isaiah Cartwright is back with another PvE profession guide in tomorrow’s Guild Wars 2 developer livestream. He’s focusing on the ranger this time, offering a beginner’s guide to ranger setup and strategy. The livestream begins tomorrow, November 1st, at noon Pacific time on http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2

Do you have questions about the specifics of ranger PvE play for Isaiah? Post them here, and he’ll choose some to answer during tomorrow’s livestream. We’ll see you then!

lolol

The point they’re both making is that if you’re running a settler’s amulet and bunkering down, you shouldn’t be able to get those numbers with any utility on any class.

Here’s a few things I suggest need nerfs along with storm spirit since they deal way too much damage for being a bunker spec and can be achieved with settler’s amulet:

1. Jag still hits for enormous crits when bunkered down.jungle stalker as well
2. The canine can knock down for 2.5k/3k damage as well when critting, this should be dropped by atleast 30-40% in damage to scale with bunker
3. Lightning drake hits a static number 5 (correct me if im wrong on this number) base damage of 875, this is way too high for a bunker BM spec , and needs to be nerfed
4. Raven f2 deals way too much damage still for a BM specand thus should also be nerfed as well , probably 30% dmg would work well for this
5. Storm spirit , which is being discussed here, after knowing it doesn’t depend on stats at all and deals 3k noncrit and upwards to 9k with crit, this needs to be dropped considerably to fit in line with the bunker spec
6. The drake tailswipe can do about 1.5/2k dmg non crit and upwards to 5k on glass cannon thieves with a bunker spec , this neds to be nerfed considerably to go in line with the stats of bunker

I think that would just about do it for pet nerf/spirit nerf skills that hit way too hard for bunker specs options. Am I missing anything?

Eurantien.4632:

Show me a picture of a settler ammy mesmer, warrior, or guardian doing 3-9k with one utility on 20 sec CD (that could potentially trigger twice).

Storm spirit is not balanced at the moment.

Neither is canine knockdowns, lightning drake f2, jag f2 , raven f2 as well. I think we should nerf these as well as the storm spirit since no stat investment.

jcbroe.4329:

Again, the problem isn’t the amount of damage, it’s the lack of stat investment needed to achieve the amount of damage.

If the Storm Spirit had to have Power investment in order to do that type of damage, it would be balanced.

I agree, but you actually kind of do in a sense it’s just with trait allocation and what you’re losing by going 30 in NM. You’re not running spirits without 30 in NM, that’s just a fact because there’s no point of a spirit sitting there without the trait buffs or it will A. die without the twice health trait, B. die because it’s not moving which means as a ranger with torch i can go and put bonfire on it and then move along, and C. without the master trait it’s not producing an on-death effect either – this makes the spirit essentially useless.. I do agree with you that you don’t need stat investment, but you do need to blow 30 points into a vitality/boon duration tree to get the spirit itself to be viable and work, which could be spent going more offensive direct damage like the skirmishing tree/marksmanship tree. I do agree though, since there is no investment it’s not fair that it hits for a considerable amount. I guess we can nerf a number of pets (lightning drake f2, jag still hits hard, etc) too since they hit for a considerable amount on a BM bunker still.

Hey folks,

Been running a spirit build I built up over some time now that I’ve been using for WvW roaming and figured I’d share it:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQRAnY8fjAV91lVOVs2BiVBB1eoJzjJ3DRRqTdxKnMB-jECB4iDimkOQkIhOTqIaslhDRrKKsKZER1qbYSBAz0I-w

—

It’s condition/condition duration heavy with burst forms from pet and storm spirit active.

70% Condition duration
45% Boon Duration
11 Might consistently in a fight, up to 20ish or so with Rampage as one and 13-15 with fire aura running.

I run wolf as off-pet because i generally like it’s CC , but you can run lightning drake as well.

It’s built around might stacking with jungle stalker pet -> swapping with battle sigils. This is quite effective as with concentration training you’re able to get 22s of 5 might every 25 seconds (if you were to drop 10 in marks for 10 in BM and get f2 reduction that could put it at 20seconds cooldown which I’ve done and is also nice but I like 10 in marks both for the condi duration and more offensive condi with Keen edge). I can maintain usually around 11 might stacks on top of 1661 condition damage. With sun spirit passive you’re getting about 5 seconds of burning every 10 sec ICD and with storm 11 1/2 secs of swiftness every 10 sec ICD with both spirits up.

Since you have offhand training you can get fire aura rather consistently with sword/torch which produces even more might.

This build also shares the might you’re generating to your pet which can make jungle stalker quite nasty in terms of damage.

It seems pretty effective overall and can swap out spirit elite for rampage depending on who you’d face.

Anyhow, hope you guys enjoy, I’m working on video footage of the build in action so please give me some time for that as it would be my first video.

Eurantien.4632:

Ranger still a fine roamer similar to a thief or a shatter mesmer. Sure we don’t have team utilities atm but skill > cheez utility.

Condi mesmer > any ranger build when played right atm , its utterly broken. Hammer/longbow warrior decimates any ranger build when played right atm, s/d shortbow thief decimates any ranger build atm when played right.

jcbroe.4329:

Ryan.8367:

jcbroe.4329:

Chopps.5047:

Two things: I gave you a level headed response and the spirit A) needs fury to crit 3k and needs 25 stack might to hit 8k, not to mention be in range

This is on a ability that the enemy can kill, launch, stun, daze, or interrupt on a 20s cooldown.

In light of these facts, jcbroe, why does it need a nerf? Because it killed you one time? I need more substance. I bet that’s why you’re getting knuckleheaded responses. Where’s the actual argument again? It’s not a free 8k, not even a free 3k.

Chopps, it doesn’t need fury to hit for 3k. It hits for a base 3k. Its crits for 5k.

And the argument is that it shouldn’t be doing that kind of damage without any power investment. It would be no problem if it hit for the amount of damage from a person built glass cannon, or semi glass cannon, the way thieves/mesmers/warriors HAVE to in order to be able to do the amount of damage they do.

For the purposes of what I’m trying to get at, I’ll post a bunch of pics.

Actually mesmers doesn’t need to spec burst for their swordsman to hit high numbers, nor their warlock

Same situation, no traits, no amulet, swordsman damage. Doesn’t look anywhere close to storm spirit:

I missed this for some reason,

Now go do it in WvW with zerker armor + cavalier trinkets + cav weapons where you max out toughness and keep critical damage and let me know what the # is.

Eurantien.4632:

This build is not balanced. No spec in the game can hit for a 3k base hit wearing a settler’s amulet. Also, if you’re taking spirit and the spirit dies you get another burst. Therefore, in a 21 sec CD you are potentially getting a 6k burst (non crit) out of a tanky condi class. That is not ok. Every ranger in PvP plays spirit ranger because this one spirit is too strong. Spirit ranger IS a bunker/support class and is not balanced to have the ability to do a power burst. Yes, BM was nerfed, and for relatively good reasons (pets should’ve just been changed to scale off of ranger stats a little to compensate for power rangers) but it was not balanced to have a tanky/condi class hitting for obscene amounts of power damage (like 10k raven f2s or in this case storm spirits 3-12k). I don’t care how OP you say other classes are, it doesn’t matter. From an objective stand point the storm spirit NEEDS to scale with power and deserves to be “nerfed”. Nothing in the game can take a settler’s amulet and hit for this much damage. Not balanced = needs to be changed.

With this change:

• Spirit build still viable.
• BM still viable (yes it is, 0/0/30/10/30 put the sun spirit nearby and it is WAY strong).
• Condi signets (30/x/30/x/x) viable.
• Power ranger still viable.
• Power spirits might be viable.
• Traps still might be considered viable to some.

Fine nerf/fix it, whatever. Who gives a kitten anyway, ranger will still be a subpar class safe for being a point bunker holder so like I said before it doesn’t change much at all.

jcbroe.4329:

Ryan.8367:

Nerf it, doesn’t matter to us… Ranger is a class that has been nerfed so much in the past year, it really won’t even affect much honestly, still kittenty subpar spirit build that’s only used in PvP for a specific role which is a minute percentage of the entire Gw2 playerbase, it really won’t make much of a difference.

Oh yea , while you’re complaining to them, can you ask anet to give us some viable power builds too? We have none, if you haven’t noticed.

From my own OP:

“I am going to put out there ahead of time though that I would prefer not to see the build nerfed without other positive changes for the ranger class, because the ranger could use a good few changes to kill the “Apex Predator” build problem we suffer from (at least in a pvp setting). But this definitely needs to be fixed as soon as possible, along with many, many other balance issues that plague the game of course.”

I would LOVE to see power builds become more viable. Ranger is my main, I want to be able to play as many builds on it as humanly possible.

Mhm

Nerf it, doesn’t matter to us… Ranger is a class that has been nerfed so much in the past year, it really won’t even affect much honestly, still kittenty subpar spirit build that’s only used in PvP for a specific role which is a minute percentage of the entire Gw2 playerbase, it really won’t make much of a difference.

Oh yea , while you’re complaining to them, can you ask anet to give us some viable power builds too? We have none, if you haven’t noticed.

jcbroe.4329:

Chopps.5047:

Two things: I gave you a level headed response and the spirit A) needs fury to crit 3k and needs 25 stack might to hit 8k, not to mention be in range

This is on a ability that the enemy can kill, launch, stun, daze, or interrupt on a 20s cooldown.

In light of these facts, jcbroe, why does it need a nerf? Because it killed you one time? I need more substance. I bet that’s why you’re getting knuckleheaded responses. Where’s the actual argument again? It’s not a free 8k, not even a free 3k.

Chopps, it doesn’t need fury to hit for 3k. It hits for a base 3k. Its crits for 5k.

And the argument is that it shouldn’t be doing that kind of damage without any power investment. It would be no problem if it hit for the amount of damage from a person built glass cannon, or semi glass cannon, the way thieves/mesmers/warriors HAVE to in order to be able to do the amount of damage they do.

For the purposes of what I’m trying to get at, I’ll post a bunch of pics.

Actually mesmers doesn’t need to spec burst for their swordsman to hit high numbers, nor their warlock

jcbroe.4329:

Clearly there are people out there who are just being rude to be rude, and would rather try to debate my experience with the game (I probably have much more play time and experience, especially competitive experience, with this game than they do) than actually try to be constructive.

But that’s okay, I’m not here to argue with them.

The issue that people are missing, is that even if the storm spirit DOESN’T crit, it still hits for about 3k damage.

Now, this isn’t a huge issue in itself, until we acknowledge the fact that you don’t even have to build any stats towards power damage or crit damage or etc. You can build full bunker and have a utility doing very high spike damage (very high for being a full toughness/healing power/condition damage, for example) on a decent AoE radius with a fairly short cooldown.

And for all of the “obviously you don’t play warrior/thief/etc” posts, please, show me a screen shot of a warrior/thief with a settler’s amulet, or even no amulet, hitting for 3k in one hit.

So no, the issue isn’t necessarily that the storm spirit can hit for a good amount of damage, it’s the conditions in which the storm spirit can hit for that amount of damage, aka, not having to build for any amount of direct damage stats whatsoever.

And for the people just attacking my opinion and disagreeing because it is a ranger nerf, I’m sorry to say this, but if you can’t approach an issue with a level head and remove your bias when assessing something about your class, and would rather just scream “buff buff buff,” then you will never see a level of balance that you like in this game.

Not sure who is screaming buff buff buff on spirits. They were nerfed and seem to be in a pretty good spot. You forgot there’s a huge animation on spirits for a reason, it’s an indicator to get away from it or you can also kill it and then move away to avoid it’s death effect. People are more interested in facerolling than actually using tactics and then look so confused when they took damage from a spirit due to said facerolling without looking at your surroundings. People forgot that spirits don’t have alot of hit points also, so downing the spirit should be the first thing on your agenda against a spirit ranger so it doesn’t keep happening. Just my thoughts until it’s nerfed, then you can proceed to ignore the spirit and faceroll the ranger like you would already with their pets against a ranger, don’t worry bud – everything will be alright in the end.

Note: There’s also a big difference and a fine line between screaming ‘buff buff buff’ with ‘fix fix fix’. Most of the ranger stuff is broke, not underpowered.

Seveleniumus.5973:

Ryan.8367:

Seveleniumus.5973:

Hammer :

has no mobility
does a lot less dps than gs
skill casting takes forever, making it almost useless in 1 vs 1 situations

yea, truly broken beyond belief.

Actually hammer is pretty kitten good in 1on1, not op, but it’s prettttty kitten good when used right. Hammer/longbow is a kitten sick combo to 1on1 with.

If your opponent has vigor or any other way to regain endurance you’re screwed, no matter how good you are. The only viable tactic I see is to not miss your immobilize and pray, that your opponent doesn’t have condi removal and even then you don’t really have that much damage to put anyone aside from zerkers down. I personally find rifle being more viable in 1 vs 1, with 10k+ triple shot. Situation changes, when you start adding more people into the fight, but as 1 vs 1 warrior with hammer is not scary at all, when compared to thiefs and eles f.e.

If you find rifle more viable in 1on1s then I’m sorry, you’re simply not fighting good players in 1on1 situations. Hammer is much more viable when bunkered correctly.

I get what Eurantien is saying though, no class should be able to bunker down and deal that much damage, but some can and do, and sad enough the ranger will always be looked at first in this regard because of it’s role in sPvP. I just hate the fact so much of the ranger in all aspects of the game are looked at because of performance in PvP because spirits are much different in WvW than in PvP by far.

Yes, play ele, I have a feeling they’re gonna get buffs in the near future and will be good buffs as they’ve needed it for a bit of time.

You could bandwagon as well and roll warrior , thief, mesmer – I hear condi mesmer is strong and FOTM these days.

Either way, ranger is not the class you want to be playing nowadays, the skill ceiling is that of a hobbit house. Looks fancy, but it’s low as kitten.

Yes, you’re right, BM did get nerfed , and it’s only a matter of time before spirit gets nerfed again too yet mesmer will still walk around with a bunker condi spec pushing 3k’s on the swordsman every 3seconds and never get looked at. Guess that’s the price rangers pay for being over-tweaked. The sad part is after that nerfing, pets will still never be looked at and traits still won’t synergize properly to allow for more power builds. Everybody looks at the one thing that stands out that’s good for the ranger but ignores the 100 things that is blatantly wrong with it, well the dev team atleast does and that’s obvious proof.

Overthrust.2659:

5k crit dmg lol that is what? asingle swing of a hammer warrior?

Sad but actually true lol… With 100% crit dmg and roughly 1900 power if built up might before it , you can easily stun the opponent and deal that almost that much dmg with 3 of the hammer skills as you would have roughly 100% crit chance with the stun and that’s if the even had melandru and lemongrass.