Guild Wars 2

Fellow rangers,

I make no claim to be the epitome of ranger skill – I learn as I go along, as we all do. What I did want to do is share what I’ve learned so far. I’ve personally found the ranger a capable and enjoyable class, especially so in structured PvP.

Check out Seraiea’s Lament on Youtube!

I do my share of complaining about the reneging on ranger changes, but truth be told, the number of issues rangers have is greatly exaggerated. Especially on these boards.

While you do have to do some extra work to perform well in PvP, the ranger is a perfectly viable class. With a number of specs, even. In PvE, there simply is no fight that would require greater sustained or burst damage output than what the ranger can provide, and as for group utility, the ranger has that in spades.

The few things that cause the requirement for extra work are the pet portion of our damage/utility not function as expected, a number of unused utility skills and a few hiccups with weapons and synergies. Other than that, it’s bug fixes, as with other classes.

I think the main gripe people have with the ranger is that it actually takes a lot of effort to perform at the same level as certain other classes, and so you feel that you’re “paying more for less.” While this may be true, it doesn’t diminish the fact that you can perform well.

As for Arenanet being an ideological traitor – the game’s been out for less than three months, and they’re overworked. They’re also human. Give the poor comrades a chance.

I’m fairly certain that none of the “on-switch” skill work out of combat. As far as I can remember, Zephyr’s Speed never did either.

Ethics.4519:

The only issue with this math is that the bug with QZ is that the 40ms addition stays at 40ms, it does not get reduce to 20ms with QZ. Therefore if you assume you shoot 100 arrows in 4 secs (I wish) you would expect QZ to make it 200 arrows in 4 secs. However, people have tested it, and in reality it would shoot about 180 in 4 secs.

I’m just rolling with the numbers you provided, so obviously they aren’t accurate. It’s supposed to shoot AROUND 16 arrows in that 4 seconds, but it tends to be around 12-13 because of the 40ms staying 40ms.

This is true. Because it wasn’t an actual 7% speed reduction but rather a static delay they implemented, QZ would be hit harder than it should. Thanks for providing the reminder!

Hmm.. Very interesting indeed. I just tested the Lynx on heavy target dummies as well.

F2 ability:
- normal hit average 753
- normal crit average 1132 (150%)
- traited +30% crit average 1131 (150%)

Autoattack:
- normal hit average 620
- normal crit average 928 (150%)
- traited +30% crit average 1155 (186%)

The same stats for the Raven:

F2 ability (on light target golems):
- normal hit average 1808
- normal crit average 2663 (147%)
- traited +30% crit average 2690 (149%)

Autoattack (on heavy target golems):
- normal hit average 569
- normal crit average 857 (150%)
- traited +30% crit average 1048 (184%)

So for at least these two pets, the 30% increased crit damage works on autoattack abilities, but *NOT* on the F2 ability. That’s a kitten shame, to be honest.

Samfisher.7942:

QZ hasn’t been on my bars since the “fix”.

Quickening Zephyr still has a very warranted place in the selection of utilities, due to the fact that it also affects your pet. Pick a DPS pet and check the damage output with QZ – you’ll be positively surprised. Which is always nice these days!

dekou.6012:

Seraiea.1298:

math

Oh no, I meant a failure on my part. I know how percentages work. I’m actually quite amazed I could even make that mistake. You’d think that a guy who can solve nonlinear differential equations wouldn’t fail at math that badly. So, uh, you didn’t have to write all that

Ooh, my bad entirely – I guess I’m used to the good ol’ intrawebs equation “people + anonymity = ???” and interpreted your message as such. My apologies!

We all have our “how did that happen” maths days. Yours is over now; rejoice!

After a brief experimental session, here are some results from testing the first trait in the Skirmishing line (“Pet’s Prowess: Pets do 30% more damage on critical strikes”):

NORMAL HITS

1731
1733
1743
1750
1762
1763
1782
1846
1856
1874
1877
1877
1885

average hit: 1808

CRITS (non-traited)

2620
2631
2646
2662
2691
2696
2697

average crit: 2663

CRITS (traited)

2609
2610
2650
2732
2738
2748
2749

average crit: 2690

Given that crits do 150% of normal hit damage by default, one would expect the crit for non-traited 1800 hits to be at around 2700 damage, and depending on how the trait works (whether it increases crit damage to 180% of normal, or increases the overall damage by 30%), traited crits should be either slightly over 3200 damage or, in the latter case, around 3500 damage.

Anyone have more information on this?

dekou.6012:

Seraiea.1298:

dekou.6012:

Fate.8673:

khadorian.6417:

They felt shortbow did to much damage with QS so they nerfed the damage.

Whats the big deal, get over it allready, is not like the class changed.

Rather play my ranger than my mesmer, and yes im shortbow.

I can live with a 7% nerf, I can BARELY live with the craptastic way they handled the nerf and telling us about it.

Can you sit there and honestly say the new SB+QZ is only SEVEN PERCENT slower than the new SB+QZ? People did testing in the mega thread, IIRC its about 15% slower or more than the old

The shortbow is 7% slower, so it attacks at 93% of its original speed. QZ doubles your attack speed. 93%*2 = 186%, 14% slower than it was before the nerf.

Unless they said it’s 7% slower with QZ, of course.

Except not quite – attack speed doesn’t affect the fact that it’s 7% either way.

Suppose that before the change you attack 100 times in 4 seconds, and with QZ 200 times in 4 seconds. After the nerf, 93 times in 4 seconds versus 186 with QZ.

93/100 = 186/200 = 93%.

Whatever people in the “megathread” said, I’d take with a grain of salt. It is not at all guaranteed that most/any of them had data from before the change to compare with.

Oh dear. I think I’ll have to add this to my “epic math failures” booklet.

Not sure if you’re trolling, playing the devil’s advocate or actually are serious with your statement, but here’s nevertheless a simple explanation on the mechanics of the mathematics involved in calculating percentual change.

Let x(1) be the original value of attack speed without QZ, and x(2) the post-change value

x(1) = x(1)
x(2) = (1 – 0.07) * x(1) = 0.93x(1)

Let x(QZ1) be the original value of attack speed with QZ, and x(QZ2) the post-change value

x(QZ1) = 2x(1)
x(QZ2) = 2 * 0.93x(1) = 1.86x(1)

To calculate change in attack speed, divide the post-change value with the pre-change one and subtract the result from 1. What you end up with is the following:

delta[x(non-QZ)] = 1 – [x(2) / x(1)] = 1- [0.93x(1) / x(1)] = 1 – 0.93 = 0.07 = 7%.
delta[x(QZ)] = 1 – [x(QZ2) / x(QZ1)] = 1 – [1.86x(1) / 2x(1)] = 1 – 0.93 = 0.07 = 7%

delta[x(non-QZ)] = delta[x(QZ)] = 7%.

I almost decided to not post this explanation, but as an educator by profession, I felt disinclined to shy away from my moral obligation to share knowledge.

I hope the explanation helps!

Edit: clarity.

dekou.6012:

Fate.8673:

khadorian.6417:

They felt shortbow did to much damage with QS so they nerfed the damage.

Whats the big deal, get over it allready, is not like the class changed.

Rather play my ranger than my mesmer, and yes im shortbow.

I can live with a 7% nerf, I can BARELY live with the craptastic way they handled the nerf and telling us about it.

Can you sit there and honestly say the new SB+QZ is only SEVEN PERCENT slower than the new SB+QZ? People did testing in the mega thread, IIRC its about 15% slower or more than the old

The shortbow is 7% slower, so it attacks at 93% of its original speed. QZ doubles your attack speed. 93%*2 = 186%, 14% slower than it was before the nerf.

Unless they said it’s 7% slower with QZ, of course.

Except not quite – attack speed doesn’t affect the fact that it’s 7% either way.

Suppose that before the change you attack 100 times in 4 seconds, and with QZ 200 times in 4 seconds. After the nerf, 93 times in 4 seconds versus 186 with QZ.

93/100 = 186/200 = 93%.

Whatever people in the “megathread” said, I’d take with a grain of salt. It is not at all guaranteed that most/any of them had data from before the change to compare with.

Yasha.5963:

How do you test for the internal CDs? I would like to do this as well, could you give me a methodology please?

General method for testing things: eliminate external variables (remove all other sources of whatever your testing), make sure your gear doesn’t have anything that might interfere, remove traits if applicable, and so on.

Specific method: take the Sun Spirit, for instance. Summon it and start auto-attacking golems at the DPS trials area. Start your timer when the first instance of the proc (in this case, burning) shows up. From now on, write down as precisely as possible the time when the next proc occurs.

The list will look something like this:

1. burning proc – 0 sec
2. burning proc – 9,5 sec
3. burning proc – 19,5 sec
4. burning proc – 21 sec
5. burning proc – 33 sec
etc.

The variance in times can be attributed to the “chance on hit” attribute, lag, whatever else may influence the results. You’ll get a rough idea of what the ICD is, if any.