Guild Wars 2

I currently have 6, so I think there is more to it.

x/25 is just for that tier, all tiers together is x/100.

UnicornViolet.3081:

According to a thread I made around that time period, this seemed to be the general consensus of other players as well

It is more the consensus of a subsample of players on the forum (those who visit the forum, those who entered a thread titled “Game feels incredibly anti-melee,” and those who post in said thread). That’s practically a setup for filtering in people who agree with you.

Considering the prevalence of berserk gs warriors and the desire for them in every dungeon, I’m inclined to think melee is in a very good place and you just haven’t yet found your groove in that place.

Red Falcon.8257:

Poison/weakness can be done by everyone, condition control same and better, darkness fields are worse than water ones for healing and worse than smoke ones for team protection.

Not all classes can poison or apply weakeness; from what I can see 5/8 can do poison and 7/8 can do weakness. That being said its not just that necromancer can do it, they can do it rather well. Darkness fields might just be worse than water for healing and smoke for protection since it offers both.

Red Falcon.8257:

But hey, if you want to be the devil’s advocate and say Necro is on par with other I’m not really stopping you.
I have other, much better classes to fall back on… all I want is have necros on par with others.

I’m not really making that argument so much as I am stating that necro can offer a number of things if you happen to use it. It isn’t like necro’s can’t dungeon, or don’t offer anything to the team when in dungeons.

As for being ‘on par’, how you define that is going to define what classes look best to you. Not everyone has the same standards, so the list will vary.

Red Falcon.8257:

Necro = Low DPS, shallow support

Multiple darkness fields (lifesteal/blindness), poison, weakness, condition control…

Why would anyone choose any class other than zerker warrior? Perhaps because they don’t want the game to be boring as hell. Not everything is about min/maxing, and lots of classes have things to add if you look for it.

nerva.7940:

- pets cant hit much because theyre easily juked, even without swiftness up. if dodge roll twice, you pretty much nullify pet burst.

The ranger has access to cc that can allow the pet to hit more often. I would also point out that just about any burst in this game can be avoided by well timed dodges; that isn’t some issue unique to the ranger. One advantage the ranger has is that failure of that burst does not inherently put the ranger in danger. Furthermore, burst isn’t the only form of damage.

- pets dont really count as contribution. no one is dumb enough to ignore them and a few aoe’s will melt any pet, regardless of spec

It isn’t necessarily dumb for the enemy to ignore the pet if there are other targets to choose from and they happen to prioritize your pet lower than others. As for pet’s squishiness – while an opponent focusing it can certainly drop the hp of a pet fast, that isn’t really any different from them focusing on anything else. The difference is that a ranger pet has an instant 100% damage avoidance button (pet swap) and can be supported by you from well out of the pets range (moreso with fortifying bond).

nerva.7940:

- ranger has access to invulnerability, stability and quickness. okay, so you gonna pop all three to down one person?

Ranger has access to three different ways of supporting the stomping of an opponent; how and if someone uses any or all of those is their choice. I am talking about access to abilities, not making a statement about how those should be used.

Stealth/Invuln – you mention thief/ele have access to these – I explain how ranger can also do both.

Stability – I covered this as well, but you gave a specific criticism here so allow me to respond to it. In many circumstances you can have it up every time you want to stomp. For starters, it is a combat ability so there is a chance you already have it up the moment the enemy goes down. It is also on a relatively low cd, so I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect for it to be up for each engagement.

If having a single unique way of defending the completion of a stomp is an advantage, then I would think that a ranger having access to three would put ranger at least on the same page as everyone else. I will also reiterate that having three methods does not mean using all three every time; it just means the ranger has a number of choices.

nerva.7940:

- spirits provide one boon … BY RNG NOT ON DEMAND. assuming that your spirits are somehow ALIVE, youre getting swiftness, burning and protection once in a while. youre WASTING UTILITY SLOTS. therefore speccing for spirit only gimps you and everyone around you

At no point did I suggest slotting only spirits. Sorry if I wasn’t clear there. I mentioned two spirits; stone (protection) and SoN (healing/rez). One of those two is not on rng, so that portion of your argument applies to only one spirit. Does the rng on the stone spirit make placing it in a utility slot unjustified? Maybe. It is still an option for those who can accept its limitations though.

nerva.7940:

- smaller engagements are generally a huge waste of time (because youre not really putting any points on the board or doing anything significant) and just for fun.

I admittedly don’t play at a very high tier, so please correct me if I am totally off base here…but how would it not be significant to have small teams controlling/defending supply routes, as an example?

nerva.7940:

- rangers dont provide healing to anyone in an efficient manner. guards and eles can heal their group for 6k+ in a matter of seconds on a short CD. cripple meh, vigor meh, rest meh meh meh. try: [several forms of support listed], the list goes on. the only type of support by the ranger that makes a demonstrable difference is traps, which can ever so slightly slow down advancing zergs.

That is certainly a long list, but bear in mind no class has access to all of those abilities. some of the things you mention here require very specific trait and item builds. If we compare them 1:1 and remember that any given class probably only has a couple of the items mentioned depending on the build, I think ranger fits in a lot better.

Now you do have specific complaints about SoN; fair enough. I also think the timer is ridiculous and the lack of control is irritating and limiting. However the rangers ability to support isn’t limited to a single ability, nor a class of abilities such as traps.

A few points made in one particular post stuck out to me, so I figured I would like to address them. These are just observations about specific points, so I’m not sure how the translate to the big picture that is WvW.

nerva.7940:

pets cant hit much.

Sure they can, if you spec for it. The best part is you can build for durability while also maximizing pet dps, and/or stay completely out of enemy range while the pet does its thing.

nerva.7940:

fast stomps and long range pets contribute nothing.

They contribute fast downs and (as far as I know) the longest range harassment possible without siege. You could argue the value of those contributions, but they are there.

nerva.7940:

stability, stealth and invulnerability stomps (guard/warrior, thief, ele/mesmer, respectively) are much more powerful.

Ranger has access to all three, via RaO, Throw Feathers, and “Protect Me”.

nerva.7940:

explain. im not sure what you mean. spirits dont contribute to defense in any way.

There is a spirit that provides protection, and a spirit that provides aoe healing and resurrection. Pretty sure those are both considered forms of defense.

nerva.7940:

zerging is the way of WvW. 15, 20, 30 people it’s a zerg and it’s how people roll.

People also run in smaller teams and solo. Zergs surely exist and play a big role, but they aren’t the only thing that exist in wvw.

nerva.7940:

care to give some examples? the only way rangers can support is by using traps to to cripple and chill. it hardly makes a diff. rangers have no other viable ways of supporting a group.

Aoe regen, vigor, protection, healing, might, fear, cripple, etc. How you build and what pets you use will determine the final lineup, but I feel like there is a pretty huge selection available.

daimasei.4091:

Can we have WvW back plz. Even with the crashes every time a zerg appear or a total lack of skill is really easy to complete but dungeons? With all the segregation? With the policy of Guardian/Warrior only? C’mon

I completed it awhile ago on my ranger. Less time on the forums complaining, more time in dungeons completing, and you can get there too.

My ranger. T2 Human Cultural, Jormag’s Breath, Corrupted Shard.

So what is the middle ground alluded to in the title?

Bryzy.2719:

For example in the Asc. Catacombs, what if a player dies right in front of a fire trap?*

If the rest of the team isn’t in combat, they can still rez normally. If a player dies to the fire trap, that is likely the case.

Protection/dodge roll?

This has never happened to me. Could it possibly be lag on your end?

Agadar.4931:

Manekk.6981:

Are you sure on these numbers? pretty sure it’s 2000+ something in regen over 3 seconds however that is reapplied again after those 3 seconds expire if you are still in the field you get another 3 seconds etc etc making it 5 regeneration periods if you stayed in the field for the full duration resulting in a bigger but slower heal over time than troll, I still prefer troll myself but the spring’s full duration is more in total but over a longer period I’m quite sure of that.

No. I pulled those numbers straight from the official wiki.

I might be misunderstanding you, but I don’t see how those numbers stack up. The wiki says the same thing as the tooltip – 2340 over 3s. I could be mistaken but it seems reasonable to assume that if that regen is extended to 6s (whether from projectile finisher use or sitting in field long enough) then the heal would be 4680. Thus if you were to sit in the field and/or launch any number of ranged attacks, healing spring would easily outperform troll unguent over time.

Durzlla.6295:

That being said rangers are the ONLY prof that gets major damage increases when they play to the gimick of their ranged weapon (longbow = be far away, axe = be near a wall/second enemy shortbow = flank).

Is that really the case? Thief shortbow has the same gimmick as axe (more dmg if it can bounce back). I would also note that thieves have 2 traits that effect attacks on flanked targets vs rangers 1 (5% dmg/7% crit chance vs 10% dmg respectively). I’d be curious how thief pistol 1 compares to short bow 1 if both are traited for it and flanking.

I like the idea of letting commanders remove siege, gives a bit more value to that title.

If you get permanent swiftness using boon duration increases, it has practical applications well beyond just a speed boost.

A bit late, but I had the same issue come up a while ago, if it hasn’t been fixed I would like to reiterate the issue.

Stealth does not prevent all damage. In fact, it doesn’t prevent any damage. It prevents direct targeting. There is a very big difference between the two.

One problem I have with the op is that it rolls several builds into one complaint. Spike dps, condition, and perma-stealth aren’t all characteristics of one build; if they were I might agree that the class is op.

I’d also second what others have pointed out; if you build glass cannon, you ought not to whine about shattering.

PeterThomas.7243:

If I had at least been able to successfully cast my spell, I could’ve still laid some AOE down on his last location, landed some successful hits with my dagger, or at least done something to inflict some damage, but no.

No? Pretty sure you can still AOE and swing weapon around regardless of stealth. Both of which would do damage if they connected.

Just experienced this for the second time, won a 2v2 and we got no badge reward for our effort thanks to this. I’m already struggling to get the badges for the items I want, and if this catches on then I can see it significantly affecting game play.

I find that walking left or right at normal speed is effective in neutralizing 90% of karka damage.

Yes, I have not gone a single run so far without someone disconnecting. Frustrating enough I will not be doing runs past monthly requirement.

I think I feel comfortable siding with anet on this one, the problem is on your end.

Look up dulfy website, has visual gallery of many craftable, dungeon, and cultural armors. Not sure of any site that shows a number of dropped leather items.

I use pre/tough/condition armor from karma vendors in orr, undead runes, and carrion jewelry. I’m short two jewelry items, but my stats from those items so far is 1,549 pre, 1,557 toughness, 18.5k hp, and 1,425 condition damage.