Guild Wars 2

Likely the gazelle and the cheetah. Both offer decent personal abilities. One gives good CC/mobility. The other HAS high mobility and good damage. WIth soulbeast cats become more popular for me because its a bit easier to keep them alive.

Edit: And having a pet that can shadowstep after that thief on command would be REALLY nice.

jcbroe.4329:

We’re very much on the same page.

Like, I made that thread a few days before the beta weekend annoyed that Fresh Reinforcements isn’t a minor trait.

After playing it? Just give me some Stability and Quickness going into Beastmode.

Give me some condi cleanse for entering/leaving Beastmode.

But yeah, I could go on and on. You understand lol.

I definitely do hahaha

JohnnyJHB.7360:

Finally, rational posts taking into account what beastmode really is (a temporary cc/damage/healing boost) and speculating on how to make it work best for the player, instead of irrational whiney posts based on what players thought beastmode was going to be (perma petless mode) and a list of demands about how anet should achieve that.
With hindsight, anet should probably have managed player expectations a little more clearly as most of the whining and gnashing of teeth resulted from the considerable difference between the expectation and reality of this elite spec. The way I played this spec on Friday and the way I did on Sunday was completely different. Once you start stance dancing with soulbeast it becomes a helluva lot of fun

I really did enjoy soulbeast alot. But it definitely needs atleast SOME more work before I can really call it an elite spec. Keep in mind the things like the rock gazelles charge is almost guaranteed to get fixed. Im not sure how well it will do in PvP once people get used to everythings capabilities. Soulbeast fills alot of gaps for me. Which is why I will definitely be using it. But as it is its likely many will still stick with druid. Since it seems just a little bit more reliable if that makes sense.

Soulbeast is absolutely fun. But it lacks a few things.

@jcbroe sorry for not quoting but I don’t want clock the page too much and I just woke up and don’t trust my ability to mess with the commands atm.

Aye. I can agree with alot of what you said. I don’t know if soulbeast will become meta. Its vulnerable to being locked down in a big way without dolyak stance due to us losing druidic clarity. And the loss of celestial shadow HURTS our survival.

Soulbeast needs some buffs. Just not quite in the ways alot of people are demanding IMO.

One thing I do agree with others about though is a reduced cooldown on beastmode or the ability to swap pets in it would help ALOT. Especially if your taking a support off pet.

The jaccaranda feels great for pvp to me. (But its auto attack NEEDS a lunge to it…or maybe have it be a 500 range thing where it streches its roots out at people) But getting access to its beastmode skills when you need them can suck. Its almost chained to a reactionary roll. (Oh I got bursted let me disengage THEN swap pets THEN heal) which if your condi loaded isn’t that great. The cast time on those heal skills also needs to be toned down…alot… Soulbeast gets so much quickness and there is so much corrupt going around that your almost guaranteed to get slow on you when you try to cast those. And they take a LONG time to go off.

Its things like that which cause me to worry about soulbeasts future in PvP. Some key aspects just take too long to get too. Or they don’t have enough impact.

Id like dagger to get buffed significantly. A cast time reduction at LEAST. And many of the traits ARE lackluster.

I liked some of them. But many of them are just downright boring from a playstyle standpoint. Like..I was able to look at them and think (Yeah that makes sense) I understood why they were the way they were, I understood the numbers, and I understood the mechanics, but i had zero urge to CHANGE how I play to work with them. Except for the 1xx which I just switched how I rolled my boons to make the most of it and went on with my day.

The way the stances work its like it wants to be a brawler spec. But the cooldowns are either too long or the affects aren’t reliable enough to quite nail it.

Im really hoping it gets its own identity by launch. But if not ill just use it as an augment to my own.

Id like to be able to master playing as a soulbeast however. And not just as “A ranger” or “A Ranger just happening to take druid” seeing as how I never played healer >.<.

Mr Pin.6728:

Nope. I see where you are coming from.

As to your play I find it refreshing to see your thoughts on engagements. Its exactly what you did to me a while back, some months ago. I was defending Hills with my guild, I burst you to 5 ish % you buffed smokescale, burst me while I was in skill deficit and I screwed up by portal dancing at north gate while you reset. You kept pressure on me and pet swapped to put your pet outside and forced me in or out. The result didn’t work out in my favor.

The reason I remember it other then checking your name afterwards was that I examined what you did and used the same strategy on someone else a few weeks later. So I’ve always remembered simply because you taught me a different way to approach an encounter. I like getting views from people who think sideways from me.

:O Well im glad I was able to help you in a way even if in I imagine a rather annoying fashion. And kitten 5% Thats one HELL of an opening burst you got on me o.o Nice! Im not exactly glass.

Ranys.4028:

Remember only one stack of stability can be stripped every .75 seconds. It was implemented to stop the Pirateship Meta in WvW.
That basically meas with your suggested version of OWP with the current interval of .5 seconds a group of 5 with one Soulbeast can go in and wreck, as long as they survive the initial CC they will now have constant stability and resistance for the next 4 seconds on the joining players and the next 8 seconds on the soulbeast, all they need to do is hit stuff, and there are plenty of targets in a zerg fight.

I like your concept, but with the way stabi works currently you’d have people roll into your group unless the first CC they get hit with strips more stacks then what’s currently on the group.
And if that happens there is still Dolly stance(If it would work)
So let’s say the opposing side actually has a CC that blasts through the stacks, the Soulbeast only has to open up with dolly stance. You basically get a safe engage through Dolly Stance + OWP. I think 2 Soulbeasts could turn zergfights in their favor with these 2 skills if used right.

There needs to be a way for the enemies to break through that constant stabi application, otherwise they’re kittened.

Hmm. The main thing for me was the 1 stack of stab means that it takes time for it to build up to that safe value. I was trying to take into account boonstrips and corrupts as well. Though your probably right in that I underestimated the delay on stab loss. But that re applicability on strike is what kept it thematic with playing aggressively.

The One Wolf Pack was an idea similar to my Idea for Moa Stance. Where as Moa Stance provides short immunity to being corrupted/stolen. Wolf Stance makes you resistant to the random CCs being thrown around.

A single stack of stab Can be blown through in a heartbeat. And all following CCs can land. Its one of the reasons why I didn’t go for the standard minimum of 2. The rapid reaplication is what would make it strong enough to be considered a stab source but it doesnt make you immune to CC on its own.

My hope was to provide synergy between the stances. Dolyak Stance+ the reworked Moa stance provides reliable freedom of movement for a short time. The Oh kitten buttons when your being caught in an enemies burst or an enemy zergs bomb.

One Wolf Pack is that engage skill when your chasing or enaging. As a shared elite it would be the Opener. Wanted to get through the initial random CCs . But it might be a bit much in ideal circumstances. Ill consider it and try to think of a better method. I feel like the concept itself is sound however. Thank you for your input.

Mr Pin.6728:

I had a question for you Shadelang. I know from first hand experience you can dish out a considerable amount of damage in a short span but I was wondering if you thought the soulbeast would be as attractive if things like the sic ‘em buff affecting rangers or maul consuming its own AOO are removed from play. I like the concept of the soulbeast. ( I really do, I like how it could potentially allow build diversity and playstyle enhancements to players who like core ranger through pet synergies) but I feel the current execution of the spec is exceedingly weak. In short I feel I’d have more flexibility in builds if I drop soulbeast for, say wilderness survival, which would free up rune choices to allocate more stat points then soulbeast provides.

I’m trying to get a feel for players who have had success with the spec to fully understand how its working for their builds and playstyles. Mainly because I haven’t found a sweet spot for playing aggressively. I always feel like I’m missing… something. Although I’m primarily in WvW and the loss of the new pets and the fact some stances aren’t working as intended right now may be coloring my perceptions a bit. That and all the new icons and tells is a bit much to digest in a weekend.

Mmm I sort of understand what you were saying. Thats how it was for me before I started playing my normal build just with soulbeast.

Its true that the sic em damage buff and maul consuming its own AOO are very attractive. And losing those would DEFINITELY hurt. But I feel that the biggest thing for me is having access to that additional CC. and the increased flow of boons.

My playstyle with base ranger and druid is very much about punishment. I bait someone into attacking and sort of roll with them into a burst/cc combo the problem I had was down time. When I was simply out of high impact skills and I was just sort of dodging/runnign around trying to wait for it to come back.. or attempting to get them to over commit into a CA#3 CA#5 combo to try and finish them off.

Soubleast offers me things like separate take down and wing buffet ccsc on relatively low cooldowns that I can access very quickly. So I can roll from a damage combo almost seamlessly into a cc conbo between me and my pet. Gathering boons to recopy into a pet burst combo while im ccing them. The individual skills have less impact than say a full on CA5. But it prevents me from reaching that “Dead Zone” in my cycle I often experienced.

So in a sense soulbeast is great for me just due to covering that gap. But it is true that if thats not what your looking for it can seem a bit hollow. And I flat out agree with others that some of the traits can feel flavorless and the stances themselves can seem….meh…

Im hoping they buff the aspects of soulbeast that are lacking. So it does a better job of opening up those multiple playstyles.

But for me in my current build with my current playstyle. I enjoy it. Even if druid might still be a little bit stronger.

Edit: I realize after rereading I rambled a bit. My apologies. If I didn’t answer your question let me know and ill try to be more specific.

Ranys.4028:

Your version of One Wolf Pack would be too strong if shared btw. Imagine that in WvW zergs.

The thing is in WvW there is alot more boon strip than ever before. Especially with the spellbreaker in affect. And it would be fairly balanced I feel due to the very short shared duration. 4 seconds of resistance ot CC and it only works if they are also attacking. Due to it being conditonal AND slightly delayed AND on a short duration I feel it merits being quite strong when it does work. But of course im not a balanced expert. This is just what I personally would like to see and what would have me honestly considering its use over what I currently have.

Edit; if you still feel its too strong however. What would you recommend?

Wulf.5431:

Good read. The thing that soulbeasts seem to have the most trouble with is all the condi bombs, especially scourge. How you holding up against them?

With my playstyle its largely counter CC or just not being in the area for them I do have longbow. I can pet swap Whao then combine with the pet to hyberboon myself. Use sic em and then rapid fire whoevers coming at me because condi builds are TYPICALLY slow. (Scourge has good burst mobility but they’re more vulnerable than reaper was to i individual projecitle attacks unless they take CPC.)

I will say condi is by greatest weakness. Part of why I run soldier runes and evasive purity. But I havn’t fealt it be a critical weakness so far.

Once I can use the rock gazelle in wvw ill have more mobility with the copied charge. So itl be harder to lock me down cause if they start to get close turn and charge off turn around and go back to shooting.

If its something that can be ccd its largely a CC war. If I can kill them before I run out of lockdown im golden. If not im vulnerable.

The new pets.

Cheetah SHADOWSTEPPING PETS ARE COOOOOOOOOOOOL. I wish the attack portion was faster though. It should be coming out of that shadowstep with the claws coming down.

Jaccaranda Nice… Love the lightning. Wish its aoe was slightly bigger. The heals are very nice to have. Could use a lunge on its auto attack.

Sand Lion. Decent. I don’t really feel excited by this pet one way or the other but I can see how others may like it. Maybe a larger radius on the F2 would make this more popular with me.

Rock Gazelle. Very interesting design. The charge we know is going to have its damage fixed. When it does i hope they increase the speed of the charge. This needs to be a bit more reliable seeing as how it will probably be capped at around 6-7k damage buffed eventually if our previous interactions are any sign. The F2 also needs to be faster.

Power reaper is a key sign that slow skills that hit hard while cool inevitably end up useless if they can’t land.

Ibolga. Very interesting design. Probably going to be meta in PvE.

Edit: Fixed a few of the more outstanding grammatical errors. Im honestly not sure why my grammar seems to be getting WORSE the more I work to improve it.

Onto the stances.

Bear felt like it could last longer and I would enjoy it. Though I used 1xx so I feel that WHaO would still be my core preference.

Vulture had nothing I desired.

Dolyak was bugged. It seems cool. I would probably use this in WvW if it worked.

Gryphons cooldown felt too long. I understand ranger has really annoying evasion/regen builds in it. And I understand why you wouldn’t want to make those stronger. But while gryphon stance is strong I felt better served taking something I could use more reliably. Even if the effects were a little less impactful.

Moa stance is an interesting skill. But much like gryphon stance I felt like taking something a bit more reliable felt better for me. The boon duration on it is NICE but required to many things in the flow of the fight to go right. There are ALOT of things it could synergise with. But if your using a build with great synergy. Theres the question of how much you actually need it.

IF I MAY MAKE A SUGGESTION ON MOA STANCE.

Moa Stance: Grants you a set of boons, Prevents boons from being corrupted or stripped from you.

This would make it good as a method of combating the spellbreaker boon strip elite and traits. As well as giving your zerg short term protection from the plethora of corrupts in the game.

One Wolf Pack. Again felt like a cool idea. But just not enough at the moment to be worth sacrificing.

Again a Suggestion

One Wolf Pack: You begin hunting with unmatched focus. Strikes against a target are followed by a secondary strike shortly after. Upon landing the secondary strike gain a stack of stability (2 seconds) and two seconds of resistance.

The idea is to encourage and reward you for playing aggressively for the duration of that stance. Making the best of it offers you the most protection and damage. As it is trying to go aggressive with this skill just opens you up to being locked down.

Re-Posting Here. Posted originaly in the wrong forum.

Alrighty. I said id make one and hear it is.

The build I was using. Smokescale Lightning Wyvern Commander/Marauders gear or Paladins amulet. Soldier runes. Longbow Gs.

NM 112 BM 322 SB 123 Full shouts No S&R

For those of you that know me you probably know that I am largely a PvPer and WvWlder. I run mostly solo in PvP and as part of a decent guild in WvW so that should give you an idae of where I am coming from.

In General: I like soulbeast but not as an archetypal playstyle. What I mean by that is soulbeast worked EXTREMELY WELL FOR ME. Better than druid ever did. But where as druid had its own playtsyle that you could attach ranger onto to make dps druid builds. Soulbeast is the opposite.

It did not feel that soulbeast had a SET playstyle. Or if it did (With the daggers) it did not feel effective enough to have its own identity. Soulbeast feels like something used to augment the various ranger playstyles. And it does that vary well. Ranger is a jack of all trades. Soulbeast lets you pick one or two aspects to further specialize in for periods of itme as you need them.

Want a bit more support? Theres a pet for that. Want to enhance your control capabilities? there are pets for that. Same with power/condi damage as well as sheer ability to soak damage.

At first I attempted to force myself to use soulbeast as a soulbeast. I immediately fealt it was clunky and weak like many others do. But once I started using it naturally as a part of my already existing build. It became alot more effective for me

. I could roll skills much more naturally for example, rapid fire as I close into gs3 while pet CCs into meld into maul into hilt bash into maul into melded cc into worldy impact then seperating swapping pets and starting a completely different cycle.

Where as ranger had significant gaps in its pressure with access to the soulbeast I was able to maintain that pressure and keep myself from having to go completely on the defensive. Which I feel is super important if someone wants to play an aggressive build.

In other words. I love beast mode. I love how it interacts with the player. I love how SKILLS swap function. (Sic Em and WHAO affecting the player for example…as well as interesting adaptations from protect me and SoTP. I do NOT want guard to function in beastmode people hahaha. It generating might on us when were struck is enough)

There are parts of the elite spec im not so much a fond of.

Dagger felt off to me. But I am not experienced enough with condi weapons to put it down. If condi ranger remains meta in PvE and takes the dagger I will likely finally cave and make the armor set for it just for raids and the like. But I was hoping dagger would feel a bit less sluggish. Or a bit more feral I suppose.

Like others I was hoping this would be a hybrid weapon. But it doesnt seem to quite have the punch to warrant it. Unless there is an interaction I am not getting.

Some of the traits felt a bit weak. Like the grandmasters xx1 and xx2. XX3 felt decent for me. Though I was hoping it would be something that would require a bit more thought to use if that makes sense. Its just a mindless dps increase. Which is something im not a major fan of.

Realised I Posted in the wrong forum. My apologies. I must be more tired than I thought.

I thought similarly at first. But actually after I stopped trying to force myself to play like a soulbeast and simply used the tools as I desired it worked out. I actually really enjoy it now. It was similar to druid for me. I didn’t use druid for almost a full year till I began simply playing it as an extension instead of AS a druid.

Soulbeast seems to be pretty similar. Try using it to augment your already existing playstyle. I was running it with smokescale and electric wyvern in WvW today to high success. The extra CC is awesome and its pretty fast to activate. And the damage boosts when I wanted them were there for me.

It took me awhile but I started learning how to open with the pets combine mid maul for the heavy damage boost lock them down with a following CC unmeld swap pets while hilt bashing into another CC while mauling them again.

Theres alot of stuff you can do like that and once you get used to it its pretty intuitive. Combining with smokescale while my longbow was out let me knock down someone long enough to teleport to an enemy who wasnt targeting me. Gave me time to heal and for my weapon swap to come off cooldown.

Theres alot of options here. Id caution you not to give up on it just yet.

Ill make my own post with my opinions atm by my short version is

Dagger can’t be a hybrid weapon yet. Not enough power damage yet…its also a bit too slow for the smooth use a mainhand weapon demands. (Its condition damage isn’t enough for it to be a pure condi weapon)

Some of the pet skills could use a small damage increase and smoke assault NEEDS to get its evade fixed (currently does not evade)

The beastmode is actually well designed to me. Im fully okay with how its set up and its interactions with most traits. Using full shouts I felt very comfortable moving in and out of beast mode. Even as a BM NM SB combo I never fealt punished by combining/uncombining. Each had its perks. And the dual interaction of Sic Em and WHaO(It copies off YOURSELF when you are in beastmode) was nice to have and fealt intuitive. I had to make a real choice when to use what.

Stances: Dolyak stance is very bugged. The cooldown on gryphon stance felt too long. Bear Stance could use another 2 seconds on its duration. Vulture stance didn’t feel significant. One Wolf Pack didn’t feel significant. Moe Stance on its own didnt feel significant. Required the use of other skills with it to make it worth the slot. Which means on its own its NOT worth the slot.

Traits. Most of them I understood why they were the way they were. Soulbeast has alot more CC access than base ranger or druid doe most of which were easy to land. Meaning popping that damage boost on interrupt was pretty common.

I do feel the damage increases could stand to be a little greater. Maybe instead of raw damage increase it increased attack speed by 10% for the same duration?

You..you have to be alot more proactive when kiting a scourge. They have alot easier time locking you down than a reaper seemed to. But that may be because i havn’t learned the proper tells and dolyak stance doesn’t affect the ranger yet.

Mmm. I like and can agree with most of the changes you suggested. While not what I would have stated it fits the same theme my thoughts were going along. And if the changes you suggested made it in. i woud be pretty kitten happy.

@pitviper it almost looks like ONLY the ferocity from pets prowess is applying. It rises by 150 for me. I think that ferocity/concentration/expertise etc. are not included in the pack alpha stat bonus. So 150 SHOULD be correct

Alright guys. We know there are going to be some. So lets put them in an easy to reach place.

So far

GS 2 Maul. Can be used to buff personal damage in beastmode. However seems to be bugged at the moment. I can easily apply it OUT of combat (prebuffing with it) but in combat does not seem to trigger AOO. Strangely enough I was getting AOO off of hilt bash. May possibly be using pre gs reword code?

Edit: Unless..is it consuming the AOO ON THE MAUL?! Cause if so thats… ridiculously strong.

Dolyak Stance. Does not seem to give boons or affect the ranger. When traited to share it does affect allies normally.

All other stances SEEM to be working normally.

Post em as you find em people.

Allowing the ranger to operate in areas where it was heavily punished before? Like frontline in WvW or condi melee balls in PvP. Seems like it can fulfill a similar roll to dps warrior in WvW. It has the sustain and damage options for it now and it can combine with the pet when it gets hot and bring it back out to down leave hwen its no longer necessary.

Having your usefulness cut out at random times is rather painful. And the nature of pets dieing forces rangers to choose specific pets in PvP environments. Ones that are naturally more likely to survive assuming the player isnt running the 1 shot build.

But you probably already new this. Soulbeast for me seems like a fairly PvP based elite spec. Similar to the spellbreaker

As for not offering control options. Your flat out wrong. Being able to double up on wing buffet for breakbars as well as double canine leaps on top of our own hard CC makes soulbeast potentially a CC monster. There is also prelude lash which is an aoe pull. Offering another form of CC there.

From how you worded your post I have to assume your talking from a PvE perspective so lets go with that.

As said before soulbeast might as well be named controlbeast. Its got alot of it on near instant cast times which can be weaved in an out of combat rotations as necessary.

Soulbeast also has very high quickness uptime. Making it less reliant on a chronomancer for its damage which is nice. Especially if your pugging.

Soulbeast can also provide high burst healing. When combined with say a Jaccaranda. And all with near 0 healing power due to the flat 25% bonus to healing. Its not a healer. But it offers these tools with minimal loss on there offpet.

But lets look at damage. Currently the rangers main weapon is sword. Despite sword being a power weapon and our highest dps build being condi.

Its likely that having a condi mainhand weapon will offer a signifcant damage boost. Keep in mind the numbers we saw in the livestream were NOT from a condi build which I fealt was a little strange. Dagger will also be our first aggressive mainhand weapon. (All others this point are rather defensive in nature. A Ranged axe as well as evade heavy swords and greatswords.)

If your asking if it will replace druid? No. But its not supposed to. Well have to wait on numbers to see what SOULBEAST is actually able to do. But the pure versatility of it makes me doubt itl be useless.

Its a solid way to make loot more valuable /shrug fewer people identifying means rares and exotics are more valuable as well as the ectos,runes, sigils they generate. Making them worth more over time so the people that DO find them get more of a reward.

So at first sure it may not be worth it too much. But as time passes I wouldnt be surprised if just salvaging is the “safe way” and identifying is what you do for larger long term profit.

Edit: that would involve them spreading the system across ALL maps however. Or making it so that you can only get those newer runes and sigils FROM unidentified gear or crafting.

Im gonna have to disagree with some people here. I like the identified gear. I understand why some people may not like it. But i feel like it helps to address one of the biggest problems with loot in gw2.

That its largely worth extremely little. Lets face it no one is excited to see loot if its not a precursor. Exotic? Salvage. Rare? Salvage.

But with this people kind of have to choose whether or not they want to go for exotics or rares and even precursors.

You can just salvage for safe reliable profit. Or go for that larger reward. Now alot of people will just salvage. But that heavily reduces the number of rares and exotics floating around. Including sigils and runes, as well as ectos. This might make them more worth getting.

As the prices on those items increase. The reward for GOING for those items goes up. Atleast that is what I am hoping will happen.

At the moment loot on an individual basis is largely pointless. I feel like this might be one of the best ways the change that over time.

At the moment crafting is largely pointless as well for many items. After all you can just buy that item often for less than the materials would cost you. Maybe as rare and exotics get rarer crafting will have more of a place. Where as now its mostly for spamming the daily patterns for quick profit.

As for the rest of the Beta. I was pretty happy with what I saw though I was kind of sad to only get to mess with one of the new pets against the new enemies.

I really want to see what a legendary hydra boss fight would be like. As well as some larger scale battles against those forged. (The one that puts up the walls? That would be REALLY cool in bigger battles. Imagine a boss version that puts up a labyrinth around him you have to navigate to get around when you get him to x% health and you have to make it to him and break his bar to get rid of it)

Its…really hard for me to give a good opinion here. On the one hand. Easy access to 100% boon duration+ a cat pet = nearly 100% quickness uptime self buffed. With the cat on a low cooldown.

On the other. Without trait interactions the pet skills seem bound entirely to there utility unless you are a condition build.

I think the big kicker for me will be how the pet mechanics (things like GS2) interact with the beast skills. As well as traits like the 20% reduced cooldown on pet abilities from Pack Alpha.

I can see it being a really strong and fun spec. But I can agree that at face value it doesn’t quite have that same OMG SOULBEAST SO COOL. It seems like a good…solid…E-Spec. But until I can see those other machanics. It almost looks….normal.

GS is great in WvW and PvP and can be solid in some fractal fights if you want to maintain scholar bonuses. Its just not an endgame raiding weapon yet.

Also we don’t know how Maul operates with spiritbeast yet.

I feel like out of all the options they could have chosen this is probably the best.

Hope for good quality items. Or simply salvage it all for a RELIABLE profit. Because you will be able to get more in a trip (you can fill up disturbingly fast) youl be able to stay out of towns longer as well if thats your thing. And when you DO go back you should be getting more per hall.

Lets remember the new maps you can’t get around as quickly do to there size. So its quite possible with the old system your bags would fill up you’d look at the map and realize how far you have to ride back to get to your spot. With the new system the odds of you filling seem alot less likely.

Also there will probably still be SOME kind of champ bag and the like. So we will probably still have other sources for those chances at rares and precursors.

As for the “salvaging a precursor” thats honestly not as big a deal as it would have been at launch. Sure the THEORETICAL salvaged precursor would suck. But larger hauls= more mats = more ability to just MAKE precursors if we so choose.

At least that is how im viewing it so far. I guess worrying about exotics that have been falling in price and precursors I can never count on seeing just isn’t as big a deal for me than it is for others though.

Furthermore. If they need to, they can increase the likelyhood of rares and exotics from unidentified gear compared to random loot. Due to it having an opportunity cost (the cost and time to identify)

Ive also noticed a wierd behavior. When something goes behind them ive sometimes seen it actively TURNING. Basically rooting it in place doing nothing for a few seconds while it adjusts then starts moving again. Havnt seen this behavior in other pets.

Currently looking at the ice drake + Jaccuranda myself. The two together should let me be pretty glassy and deal heavy damage while having some nice fall backs when im feeling the pressure.

Nothing has really seemed all that weird to me though? I mean nothing really caught my eye this patch as strange as far as ranger is concerned.

They can indeed travel slightly further. Where as the deadeyes skills will be LOCKED at there max range (the porjectile actually dissapears at teh set range) longbow projectiles can extend farther based on elevation. If your above your target you can reach quite close to 2000 range. Depends entire on the situation though.

I can agree with the previous posts. There does still seem to be a small delay after swapping pets. Not game breaking but enough to throw off some of the stronger swap based combos.

Thanks to you and Irenio for bringing us this information by the way. We really do appreciate it.

DeceiverX.8361:

I haven’t had many issues dueling with it. Only warriors have really given me issues, but I also picked up my ranger for the first time in close to three years since quitting my thief and reaper from this last patch, so I don’t exactly have a ton of experience with the kit.

Well The old sniper builds greatest enemy was typically the sword mainhand thief. And now that said weapon works so well with condi thief it can be a bit of a harsh matchup (you get nailed you die) kind of thing. But that just means its an engagement that you want to be the aggressor on. Hit him before he realises your there kind of thing. Or from a location where if he goes up to fight you your pet can whack him. That all goes into that positioning thing though.

Just need to be careful of other pick style builds mostly. But for WvW. Sniper ranger is definitely possible and will SHRED its targets.

Mhmm. Ive even adopted my shout build for WvW to make use of htis. Giving up sic em (Normally a staple for me) for the unblockable and spiking up long duration quickness with swaps and a rage sigil. Self boost to 25 stacks of might 6-10 of quickness and perma fury then rapid fire through a frontline for heavy damage.

Its…interesting. VERY prone to getting ganked. But definitely worth the risk if you have hte positioning to pull it off.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Merged about half a dozen threads, and I’m hoping that this thread will give you all the info you need on two significant bugs for the Ranger.

If I missed anything, please note it in this thread, but rest assured that the devs are reading this forum, and are actively working on any issues that you point out.

Thanks for letting us know about the situations!

Thank You for relaying this back to us. And for putting up with our forum habits ;P

I remember a certain shout rework thread that someone might have helped saved from obliteration by merging at one point.

I hope so too. I still havn’t been able to test the majority of the things I desired too due to this bug. I really want to be able to play my main class in the new map. But..ive got my reaper ready just in case that goes south I suppose.

jcbroe.4329:

Yeah this is unacceptable, the game is actually unplayable right now because of how horrible the gameplay quality is right now.

Somebody screwed up the code on the back end big time more than likely, in preparation for the Soulbeast (other backend changes that can be been through tooltips are things like traits referring to beast skills, which is the pet F2, but is also present in Soulbeast tooltips).

They were probably trying to make the pet swap function compatible with the Beastmode form and in doing so changed some sort of delay option or even networking option. Pet AI is inherited from PvE AI, and as you’ll notice, when PvE AI objects are created they “stall” too. So somebody messed up the code that differentiated ranger pet object behavior from the inherited behavior.

That or the super class is overwriting the pet class since it may have been slightly altered for PoF changes.

Regardless, how this didn’t get caught by a QA person with 3 seconds of testing their changes…. Unacceptable. ANet, there is no way your employees did their job on this one. Somebody on one of the teams said “eff it, I’m sure it works fine” when they pushed their changes or when the QA decided it didn’t need testing.

Its likely a conflict that didn’t show until it hit live appeared. From what I remember talking to game devs this can happen. QA doesn’t catch everything because not everything appears until the real thing gets turned on.

Im in contact with someone solo developing his own game. He frequently mentions things that seem to work perfectly breaking at a later date for “reasons”. Lets also remember that hindsight is 20/20.

Also as I said above. Lets keep this on topic a bit. I don’t mind discussing or theory-crafting how this may have happened. But going off on tangets about Arena Net does NOTHING except further lowers the morale of anyone who has to read it. Getting everyone riled up at arena net isn’t going to change anything. And making them out to be the bad guy or incompotent at their jobs when ignoring everything they do RIGHT isn’t going to help fix the issue.

Edit: Im not attempting to white knight or make excuses for arena net here. Just attempting to put forth an alternative possibility and try to keep us from going further into a tangent.

atheria.2837:

Shadelang.3012:

So I was testing out a new build when I realized that the pet was completely unresponsive for several seconds after pet swapping. I then left the match I was in and tried to see if it would respond by taking off the new zephyr’s speed trait thinking maybe the super speed bugged the pets AI. No change. Pet is still unresponsive for 3-5 seconds.

I attempted it on other maps as well and no change. PLEASE test and see if you are having this is as well. If this is a thing we need to get it reported asap.

I’ve been saying the same thing for months but never get any traction in forums.

They stand there and do little, maybe jerking forward, sometimes not, but not always and intermittent without a pattern I can even discern.

Hmm. Ill be blunt. I don’t apprecaite using this thread as an attempt to kitten about anet. What you are describing is how game development happens. People just like to ignore it due to individual things that bother them. Lets take this patch. This patch is setup for an expansion. And probably changed ALOT of things we don’t know about.

THIS THREAD was not meant to be a tool to rage at arena net for daring to make a mistake. kitten happens. It happens in EVERY GAME. To someone. Frequently. You can make a different thread if you want to complain. If your going to post here. Please do so in a way thats relevant to the topic. I.E. Providing information and video to further help arena net fix this one specific issue thats plaguing rangers at the moment.

Please do not use this as your place to vent if you can’t provide meaningful feedback with it.

Thank you for the footage. The more information we can provide the better.

Really hoping we can get some word on this. Logged back in to see if there was any change and It was still occuring. The patch looks super good for ranger! But I can’t bring myself try any of the changes yet u.u

Let us know if you get a response in that thread*.

Its game breaking in every game mode hahaha. I just hope the devs have noticed

TO EVERY RANGER READING THIS. PLEASE FILE AN INGAME REPORT IF YOU HAVE THE BUG.

Also feel free to post in this thread with any new info you get on the subject.

Lets keep the snark out of the thread if we can >.< does anyone else have any more info on this. Anyone else getting this affect? Any places/situations/pets that seem to have it worse than others if so. Is anyone not getting this AT ALL (test please0

I rather like the empathic bond change. Another 340 base healing per second with protection (which we have a kittenload of) is intersting. It reduces our base burst resistnace. but lets be honest we fall out of that threshold pretty fast if were fighting someone competent. Atleast this version will keep ticking.

And were forgetting to mention the buffs in this thread. Signet of the hunt now gives 6 seconds of unblockable for both you AND the pet on a 32 second cooldown when traited. while ALSO giving you fury for the duration of that unblockable. Thats pretty good for a burst setup.

Hunters gaze is also a rather powerful source of might. And stoneform is a cool concept that goes under a minute in cooldown once traited while also giving still more fury.

Im fairly satisfied with how this all turned out except for the pet bug. But hopefuly theyl have the fixed soon and I can actually start testing the changes.

It actually seems to affect differnet pets different for me. Smokescale was unresponsive for 4ish seconds. Drake was only unresponsive for 2. Seems fairly reliable on there time too.

So I was testing out a new build when I realized that the pet was completely unresponsive for several seconds after pet swapping. I then left the match I was in and tried to see if it would respond by taking off the new zephyr’s speed trait thinking maybe the super speed bugged the pets AI. No change. Pet is still unresponsive for 3-5 seconds.

I attempted it on other maps as well and no change. PLEASE test and see if you are having this is as well. If this is a thing we need to get it reported asap.

Druid Isn’t hated because its druid. Druid is hated because its attached to ranger. Which has a very bad reputation in WvW (and in the game in general)

Rangers are a fairly easy class to pick up. This makes it pretty common for newer players to choose it as there first character. But very few rangers take the time to actually master it. Causing a very large number of “Mediocre” rangers to be around.

These rangers are often caught out and killed. Or seen plinking away from walls when they could be off flipping a camp or in the field outside of the wall trying to snipe off singles.

This combined with a class mechanic that is rather poorly suited for WvW’s primary combat (Our pet dies and can’t dodge) caused ranger to have limited effectiveness in some aspects of WvW.

There is also the general stigma against any pet based classes. Pet classes in general are an easy target for salt. As its easier to dismiss someones skill level if they are a player “being carried by A.I”.

Druid Healing is also a little bit less reliable compared to say a frontline ele. As we don’t synergise as well with the typical frontline party comp. And many people aren’t willing to give up there spot in a frontline party for a druid. Regardless of how good the druid is. So the druid is often confined to a backline,random party where they receive limited boon support and are MUCH More likely to get caught by soft CC and killed. Offering further “proof” of there uselesness.

These all combined cause people to look down on rangers and druids respectively.

The funny part is. Spiritbeast (the upcoming elite spec) addresses many of these flaws in ways that may allow us to operate WITHOUT a frontline party. So the hope is opinions will start to change.

But ranger will always be the “go too” class for new players alongside warrior. So the stigma will probably always be there to some degree.

To put it simply. There is a lot of separate factors contributing to a stereotype that rangers and by extension druids are inherently bad players. Many people are incapable of thinking for themselves so they see a ranger/druid and think "oh god a kittenter’ and as soon as the player dies regardless of HOW they die they feel vindicated in there opinion and thus get to enjoy there .025 cm kitten boost.

Ignore them. Play what you want. But play it to the limit of its effectiveness. Get good enough at what you decide to do that you can do it RELIABLY in nearly any situation. And eventually the opinions of the people that actually matter will change.

Regardless just play and enjoy the game. kitten da haters.

Malernasam.4327:

I shortened your quote, not to cherry pick it, but just to find the right demonstrations that we are certainly NOT speaking the same language. Gliding in WvW has no chance of enhancing my fun. Strangely, though you speak about doing PvP and being in an organized guild, almost everything you described disproportionately affects the PvE components of WvW (defending objectives). Where is any mention of what this will do for players learning builds, and rotations? How about positioning with commander? How to play backline? Anything? Because if the answer is that this does nothing for that, then we don’t need it. And no, I am not talking about gliding off to regroup with commander.

Almost every addition during past year or two has been PvE elements…the air shrine buff so you don’t take falling damage when you jump, or whatever, is a great example. I use it because it’s there…if tomorrow Anet took that away, it would do NOTHING to my game.

You know what changes were made that I thought were pretty brilliant? Capping how many people could rally off of a down. Stability changes that ended the hammer train as we knew it. Those were tweaks to battle mechanics directly related to making fights be better decided by skill.

And I do not PvP, by the way. I am sure I am terrible at PvP. What I like about WvW is that it is PvP in a PvE environment. Taking or defending an objective is a means of getting a fight, as a group. That is the game mode I complain is being ruined when the changes made are about siege and objectives and…gliding.

Alright. I can see a bit more where you are coming from. I suppose I still don’t see why your upset that they are adding gliding. They aren’t taking away anything that you have enjoyed. There adding something that someone other than you may enjoy sure. But that may be the thing that convinces people to try wvw. I know one person who constantly gets annoyed when he goes to glide and it just isn’t there for him. Its become an integral part of his skill set.

As for what this will do for people learning builds and rotations? It won’t. But that isn’t arena nets job is it? Its not there responsibility to force players onto specific builds or rolls. We the community decide what is meta and isn’t. And if we want people to play the way we decide its up to us to convince them to. (Note i said convince not FORCE…screaming at people to get off x class or on x build is how you get people to LEAVE wvw not join it)

You say everything I talk about refers to pve elements. I disagree. A mechanic isn’t inherently pve or pvp…sorry. Its how its implemented and how the playerbase uses it.

Lets use the lords. The best example of PvE in WvW. But they AREN’T PvE. A fight in a lord room rotates around the lord. It adds to the dynamic and pressure of the fight. It gives both sides an objective to fight for.

As for positioning with a commander. Hell yes you have to take gliding into account. Commanders are going to have to remember that they are running with people who may not have HoT. So they need to take routes that are accessible to both. However people with HoT can cross terrain more easily. Making it easier to get BACK to the commander.

Gliding will play a roll in scouting. Especially in DBL. Speading up travel across the map and making it easier for someone to follow an enemy zerg in territory they own depending on the map.

that isn’t PvE. Thats a core aspect of WvW. The windfall buff? You had better BELIEVE that is WvW based. Ive seen smaller forces push larger forces ENTIRELY because they know if it starts to go bad they can retreat off that cliff. Otherwise they would have run back to air keep and started setting up siege. Does it work out for them? Not always but if gives them something to TRY. And the knowledge that htey have windfall and the enemy doesn’t makes them much more willing to push along that cliff edge.

WvW Isn’t just PvP in a PvE environment. Its both combined. Aspects of both merged into a new whole. Taking/Defending objectives can be used to get fights yes but they are also GOALS if you want your server to win or lose a matchup.

I agree the stab changes and rally changes were good. And I would like to see more changes. But those are the kind of changes that can only be made RARELY. Because they cause huge sweeping changes in how the game mode is made. Not all of which are for the better. They had to rebuff stability later due to how changes had affected things. Allowing hammer trains to reform because those trains were what allowed groups to function in an organized fashion. Hammer trains give both sides something to orient around. Where at the height of the pirate ship meta it was simply two clouds swinging around eachother until one lost enough people they bailed.

You say the game mode is being ruined by changes made about siege, objectives, and gliding.

I say thats your opinion man…and I also say that its a very narrow minded one. Siege and objectives for example are core aspects of WvW. They are what your fights orient around. Like it or not. Believe me I HATE grinding into a keep filled to the brim with ACs. But gods below when we do and we hunt down and crush every single AC and there operator into paste before slaughtering there zerg it is SATISFYING. It feels GOOD and makes that stress worth it.

As for gliding. How in the hell is gliding going to ruin your game mode. You still havn’t answered that. What is gliding going to do that is going to damage WvW so badly.

GD Life steal either doubled or shifted to build life force.

Reapers Onslaught affects GS as well.

Bleed on chill changed to “Targets affected by your chill take 5% more damage from conditions. Apply one stack of bleed on chill.” (Grp Support option you can take in a condi heavy comp. While taking reapers onslaught in a power heavy comp)

Signet of spite changed to a stacking passive power buff reliant on hitting targets. Lower initial and requires maintenance but ends up around 50% stronger when fully charged. Can only build one stack per second. Fades if you do not strike a target within 3 seconds. I.E. a buildup passive that requires you to maintain attack distance.

GS3 Vuln Duration increased by another 2 seconds.

Malernasam.4327:

Shadelang.3012:

On this I can’t really say. It depends on how they use the territory system from now on for example.

My current reaction to the gliding is a solid Head Nod and me thinking “Cool thatl be nice to try out” and moving on.

I mean honestly guys the fact that they are willing to try this is COOL. And I want to see what clever commanders/teams can do with this on the various maps.

Ill say one thing. Chasing that mesmer with snowfall runes who trololol off the side of a fall you can’t follow him down will be nice. Though the thought of getting magic bulleted on the way down is terrifying.

Seen my attitude about this described as “anti fun” elsewhere on this thread. And that response, and yours, show we are not even speaking the same language when it comes to the game mode. You say it will be nice to chase a troll Mesmer…why? People saying it will be nice to shake up the game mode and fly around instead of doing the same thing also leave me with the same question…why? My fun in WvW has nothing to do with anything you guys are thinking will be cool, interesting, nice, or fun, and all of those things you are advocating for you have in PvE. There is a massive world in which you can glide, and chase people who roll off cliffs with snowfall runes…why does that need to be in the WvW environment? What is it adding for people who like the game mode? Because it seems to be adding things for people who wish they were doing PvE…so, go do PvE.

We are speaking the same language. The thing is gliding does nothing to inhibit your fun. At all. And it has a small chance of enhancing it.

Do you think people are gonna be running around doing nothing but gliding when people are hitting garrison? Not likely. Atleast no more than already exists.

Im a PvX player. But I spend most of my time in PvP. The next chunk is in WvW. And a VERY small amount of my time is in PvE. usually a fractal run here and there. Or when a new story mode comes out.

As for what its adding? New ways to defend some objectives for one. Lets look at garrison. Its currently a common tactic to build arrow carts above the lord room. But when the enemy force starts to push up there you can get shafted pretty hard if they make it.

If your force up there is getting pushed by a larger force. They “before” could jump to the floor below. But the other force could just keep pushing. Now those 4-5 people on top can glide off likely all the way to the inner wall or even to some parts of outer in order to escape and then regrp with there commander. As it is its normal for those 4-5 people to die.

Lets look at red keep in ebg next. It is in a position to facilitate fast movement through gliding between the keep and some of the side towers. Say ogre-watch assuming they own those towers. It makes TAKING those towers more difficult true. But a ballista sitting between the tower and the lower cliff can use the new 4 skill to kill incoming defenders. It creates another thing to watch out for.

SMC If you know a large force is going to push into inner shortly you can glide off the third floor in order to flank in behind the force. Repair the gate behind them and destroy the siege before they realize its happening. Yes this could bed one before. But this again offers another option.

Im not saying your anti-fun. Obviously your not your here talking on a forum about a video game. If you didn’t want to have fun you wouldn’t BE here. Im just saying the two point of views aren’t mutually exclusive.

I am CERTAIN you can think of an interesting way to use this feature to your advantage. If you want to. But if you don’t thats fine too. Thats how opinions ARE.

Try it and if you decide you actively hate it after a couple weeks then I hope to see you here on the forums stating your opinion clearly as well as putting forth what you consider a FUN alternative would be for them to work on. Something that fits your vision of wvw. Hell when you do send me a message and ill make sure to look and leave my own opinion for you to consider/dismiss at your leisure.

We could play the “Why is this fun” game all day. The truth is if you have decided flat out that it won’t be fun there is nothing I can do to convince you except state what I would have fun doing with this tool. There is no reasonable way to force someone else to see something as “fun” as the concept of fun as arbitrary and varies wildly from person to person.

Even as a PvPer I consider myself a wvwlder. I am in there for 3+ hours 5 days a week with a reasonably organized guild. So Im not just talking from no experience either. Nor am I a non wvwlder trying to ruin the game mode by bringing loads of PvE into it.

I enjoy wvw. And I want to enjoy it more. And to me, this is an interesting way of doing that.

Malernasam.4327:

Shadelang.3012:

MadameS.3582:

MadMan.5109:

Dear anet can you please stop kittening up wvw. People like it just the way it is right now. When you guys look back at the release of the desert bl map. Was that a great succes? No. But u guys kittened up wvw then and this will be the same. Stop putting pve crap into wvw. We the hardcore wvw players dont play pve. So please stop messing up our content. I know for a fact that lost of players will be leaving the game because of these things. They only game back when its back to normaal.

Gliding for wvw is actually going to be super fun, I don’t know how gliding offends you so much, and if someone is running away from you in your territory, they wont exactly be able to glide off, so youll probably have a better chance at catching them than before. Stop crying about something that hasnt even happened yet. xoxo

Gliding offends because certain people didn’t bother to read the whole post before they started typing.

No, I read. I honestly believe that people that go into a WvW map and want to explore it, and glide in it 1) don’t have enough to do in WvW, 2) should get their exploration and pointless mechanic fix in PvE, and 3) should not be driving content in a game mode they clearly don’t understand or appreciate. It’s been true since launch, WvW players feel ignored by Anet, but then any time Anet pays attention this kind of stuff happens…golem rush week, deployable canons, dragon banners. PvE content will never be a plus for someone that really plays WvW.

Then tell me. What are they doing thats going to harm WvW with this? Is it a massive be all change? No. But its new and fairly fun.

And many of the arguments against it involve things that were addressed. Showing that people didn’t read the part concerning that or they just assumed it wouldn’t do anything to solve the problem (I.E. They decided it was wrong before even trying it)

As for “Why are you spending time on this when you should be fixing the balance of the game and improve server stability” that im seeing from some people.

As others have said it might not be the WvW teams job to do this directly. It may be there roll to provide feedback to the people whos job it IS. And I am sure they do that. But screaming at the WvW team for daring to do something ELSE seems kinda sad. Especially when they are trying to add something that might be fun.

As far as balance and server lag goes.

Arguing about balance right now is pointless. Were about to have 9 elite specs thrown into the mix. And theres supposedly a heavy balance patch coming up. Rumor has it that this balance patch may even include a nerf to the ever terrifying condi reaper. Potentially curbing some of the condition spam currently going on..

Honestly if anything things like the Spellbreaker might actually help. As it looks like it would be cutting down on the number of calculations for boons in zerg fights significantly. Which its been theorized that boon and condi calculations are a big part of what induces server lag.

But I obviously can’t say for certain. Im not an expert in the field nor would I claim to be. Just saying that maybe we should see how the balance pass and incoming elite specs change things before giving in to THAT argument.

The only other argument ive seen that sounds reasonable at first is the “Use of recources on kitten that doesn’t really matter”

On this I can’t really say. It depends on how they use the territory system from now on for example.

My current reaction to the gliding is a solid Head Nod and me thinking “Cool thatl be nice to try out” and moving on.

I mean honestly guys the fact that they are willing to try this is COOL. And I want to see what clever commanders/teams can do with this on the various maps.

Ill say one thing. Chasing that mesmer with snowfall runes who trololol off the side of a fall you can’t follow him down will be nice. Though the thought of getting magic bulleted on the way down is terrifying.

For PvP and WvW it isn’t as easy an awnser. You want a reliable pet that can survive cleave? Smokescale with its evading F2 and smoke asasult.

You want a pet thats a bit more offensive…packs a wallop but can still survive a little burst? Fire Wyvern has powerful attacks, solid cc, and a kitten good evading f2.

You want something just designed to kitten something up with a little setup? Electric Wyverns. Same as the fire wyvern except that electric wyvern has an f2 that can double tap if the enemy is pushed up against a wall. Talking SOLID burst and heavy CC here. Electric wyvern when combined with the speed boost of sic em can also shaft someone try to run away sometimes.

Bristlebacks are a solid ranged pet depending on what your fighting. Staying safely out of harms way while applying steady pressure.

If your feeling lucky and want to run a 1 shot build. The tiger is a key part of that build providing a VERY hard fitting f2 on a low cooldown. Perfect for combining with maul/sic em for heavy damage. But its basically Wet Paper.

Moa’s are solid if you want to run with a zerg and aren’t worried about doing damage so much as being helpful directly. Both red and blue moa give out strong boons and aoe healing.

For now though those are the only ones that really stand out to me. The hope is that basic pets get more of a buff. But atm pets that do similar jobs (like drakes and wyverns) are heavily disproportionate in terms of strengths. Wyverns for example do ALOT more damage with alot more CC and nearly the same survivability.

Similarly bristleback massively outperforms spiders and devourers for ranged combat. Seeing as not only does the birstleback hit alot harder. Its projectiles are far more reliable due to there speed of travel and there built in tracking.

Its just an unfortunate fact that so far all of the HoT pets outperform there counterparts. The hope is that either the other pets are brought up to the level. Or the new pets fulfill the rolls we are currently lacking in. A healing pet, a heavily control oriented pet, and a solid condition based pet. The good news is that at this time it sounds like we will be getting two of those atleast.

Hmm I wouldnt be suprised if they wait a little while before unlocking it for wvw. They probably want people to go out into the world and experience the new content. They even added lore for the elite specs from the looks of it.

Im not saying they wont immediately make it gain-able for proof of heroics. But I would absolutely understand if they put like a 2 week delay on it just to get people out there.