Guild Wars 2

You took what was a great skill and made it’s active really bad.

I understand that the change was made in preparation for soulbeast. For those who don’t know, using Sic Em in beastmode grants you the full 40% damage modifier. Stacking SotW with this would be some pretty overpowered damage.

I don’t really care that we lost the damage increase, what hurts most is the loss of stability. This is compounded by the fact that RaO was nerfed several times. I’m not asking for the skill to be reverted to what it once was, but I do request that you consider returning stability to it in some way.

Thanks

When will you guys release your balance changes for the new elite specs? We haven’t had as many beta weekends for PoF as HoT did for it’s launch.

shadowpass.4236:

The problem with longbow is that it doesn’t pierce baseline. This means that in order for it to be viable in large scale WvW fights, we almost always have to take Marksmanship for Lead the Wind.

• Making the arrows pierce 5 targets without having to trait for it would be an absolutely fantastic QoL change!

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Lead the Wind could then be changed to have an interesting effect like “Critical hits reduce all active cooldowns by 1/4 second. ICD: 1 second.”

While baseline piercing would be nice, Ranger is not, and never really was, viable for zerging. Druid was the exception for a few months. Even so, it was barely popular, as most guilds preferred tempest.

5 man groups and roaming is a different story of course.

I’ve always hated traits and skills that harm the pet.

Empathetic bond rework is better than the trait before it, but it still shouldn’t be reliant on the pet because we know that if it’s going to die, there’s nothing you can do unless you have a swap.

Signet of Renewal was a nice, but again it shouldn’t be based on the pet. Not only that, but the kitten skill won’t even work on you if your pet is out of range. That shouldn’t be. It should always take conditions from the ranger regardless of the range of his pet. But again, it shouldn’t even be giving conditions to your pet anyway. Why not just have the skill clear five condi’s from yourself and five allies?

Shared Anguish is in the same boat. Other classes usually have superior versions, but that is ok because of class differences. Warriors need to be able to be up close and brutal to be most effective. Their trait is suited and balanced for their purpose. Our trait needs to be worked, but certainly should not be as strong as the warrior version.

At this point in the game, I think it’s time we started treating conditions as almost on par as power. Remember, when this game launch, conditions were limited to 25 stacks, and only two of the damage conditions, bleeding and confusion, were able to be stacked at all. Confusion also only proc’d on skill usage instead doing both overtime damage and proc’s as well. In addition, might granted only power.

Toughness should reduce condition damage as much as does it power damage. Ironically enough, there is a new soulbeast trait which causes protection to reduce incoming condition damage by 33%. This is something that I think should be baseline in the game right now.

But if such changes were to come about, then cleanses would have to take a beating where appropriate.

Food for thought, if there were a Dire amulet in PvP, then you know it would be meta for possibly every class.

Is there going to be another demo of the elite specs? Sorry if this has been asked a lot but I could not find an answer.

Just Jeff.6235:

Just Jeff.6235:

Soulbeast is exciting, but there are so many traits and skills that could use tool tips to show if Beastmode benefits. Thank you!

In case that comment is too vague… What affect will traits like Shared Anguish and Natural Healing have while in Beastmode?

Both those traits affect you fully in beastmode. Shared Anguish let’s you ignore one CC for free every 60 seconds, and natural healing grants you the regeneration from your pet.

Believe it or not, most weapon skills/traits that have pet effects do indeed affect us in beastmode.

If you would like to see which ones do and do not affect us, browse my posting history as I posted a thread containing a full list of them.

The trait has granted the same amount of HPS since launch. Only the intervals changed.

On June 23, 2015, the trait was updated to grant healing power to your pet.

On August 8, 2017, the healing power bonus was removed from the trait.

Nice… Trait needs an update anyhow.

Soulbeast

Have to say I really like this spec and it is a good deal of fun. I cannot speak from a PvE perspective, but those saying that core ranger is better than SB in PvP or WvW are wrong. Soulbeast offers a lot of customization and variability. It is suitable to play as a condition, power, or support oriented character. Druid may outshine it, but they are different play styles.

The most important thing you guys can do at the moment is iron out some of the bugs (Doylak’s Stance doesn’t work, Smoke Assault doesn’t evade). Fixing the bugs alone will make the spec better than it was prior.

Some pet effects that were given to us need to be adjusted.

• Attack of Opportunity triggering on Maul is quite unfair. Retain the Attack of Opportunity but simply have it enabled after the attack has finished.
• Empathetic Bond should be a flat 20% condition reduction in Beastmode instead of doing nothing.
• Sic Em’ may be too strong as a 40% damage boost in Beastmode, but maybe not as well. If it proves too strong, do not increase the recharge of the skill. Reduce it’s damage bonus to 25% (Signet of the Wild had this, so we know it is balanced) at most.
• On Signet of the Wild, you made it’s active effect really bad. I understand why the change was made. Stacking Sic Em’, Doylak’s Stance (unbugged), and Signet of the Wild would make a soulbeast ranger upstoppable. Yet there’s no need for it’s active to be as bad as it is. Consider changing it to something better. It would be nice if it still granted stability since core ranger is pretty stabless at the moment. Perhaps instead of a damage increase as it once granted, have it reduce damage by 25% when active and lower the stability duration it used to have.
• Mainhand Dagger is not great. It is ok, but should be better. Evasion frames on #3 seems natural and balanced. I think the weapon overall needs a damage boost. The #2 skill is quite lame. It should’ve been more unique and done something different other than apply more conditions.
• Bear Stance – Great skill, with great healing potential. But that’s the thing, it’s potential is great, but often the healing output is not. If fighting a power oriented character, you cannot make use of the full healing for you will not be showered with conditions. Consider upping the base heal to ~7k, but in return, slash the healing per condition consumed by half.
• Vulture Stance – Might be lacking, might not be. I did not use it much because it seemed weak.
• Griffon Stance – I would say either leave the skill as is and reduce it’s recharge to 30s, OR keep its recharge the same and have it fully restore endurance on use.
• One Wolf Pack – Not too sure about this one. It will probably never see use considering how important Strength of the Pack is.
• Guard and Search and Rescue – These skills do nothing in beastmode aside from grant you boons if traited. Have them do something at the least.
• Predator’s Cunning – It’s a hit and miss trait. It has good potential, but it’s hard to make an effective build around. Consider significantly reducing the lifesteal, but instead have it trigger on all conditions. This would make it effective in many builds, especially those condition oriented.
• Worldly Impact – Good skill with a few changes I think should be made. Firstly, because you are immobile while casting, it’s radius should be buffed to 300 and it’s casting time reduced to 3/4s. Secondly, it should quite obviously be a blast finish.
• Photo Synthesize – Good skill, reduce its’ cast time to 1/2s.
• Spiritual Retrieve – Great skill, but reduce its’ cast time to 1s.
• Unflinching Fortitude – Great skill, but consider removing its’ cast time.
• Beast Skills don’t receive a reduced recharge from the beastmastery traitline. I don’t know if this is intended on your part or not but some clarity would be appreciated.

Overall I really enjoyed soulbeast and look foward to playing with it again.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Soilder.3607:

It’s a base heal of 182 I believe. However, what makes the trait good is that it has no ICD and triggers per stack of poison.

Take the trap Viper’s Nest for example. Each second the trap is active, it deals 3 stacks of poison to up to 5 enemies. You will siphon health three times from each of the five enemies. 3×5 = 15, 15×182 = 2730 HP gained per second.

That is an optimistic scenario, provided we assume five targets will stay in the AoE long enough. Nonetheless, it shows it’s potential, and it works on every skill which causes poison.

Then you can use Whirling Defenses to finish the poison field as well.

It’s a decent trait, but soulbeast needs another way to apply poison. Unless you build
around poison completely, it’s lacklustre and situational. Moving Fresh Reinforsement to a minor and then adding a trait that applies poison to Adept would improve the spec and give synergy imo.

Honestly, I think the trait from the start should’ve worked with every condition. To compensate, Nerf it’s lifesteal by ~50%. That right there would be a kitten good trait that is super useful for condition builds and remains somewhat useful for power.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Viper’s Nest has a target cap of 3 targets.

Woops, correcting that now.

It’s a base heal of 182 I believe. However, what makes the trait good is that it has no ICD and triggers per stack of poison.

Take the trap Viper’s Nest for example. Each second the trap is active, it deals 3 stacks of poison to up to 3 enemies. You will siphon health three times from each of the three enemies. 3×3 = 9, 9×182 = 1638 HP gained per second.

That is an optimistic scenario, provided we assume three targets will stay in the AoE long enough. Nonetheless, it shows it’s potential, and it works on every skill which causes poison.

Even so, if they were to rework the trait, it would be obvious to make it proc on every condition, which would necessitate a nerf to its lifesteal. Essentially, make it the opposite of the Guardian’s Altruistic Healing. This would be quite a fitting trait for the Soulbeast to have.

Wondrouswall.7169:

cafard.8953:

Is there an icd on Predator’s Cunning?

No ICD on it.

It goes by stack of poison too. Poison Volley for example triggers the trait five times.

ZhouX.8742:

Soulbeast was completely underwhelming, the new weapon is terrible and the functionality very clunky in general. Worldly Impact is decent, cancelling is nice and easy as well to bait defensives. Outside of that, not being able to swap pet in beast mode is a massive let down … Half of the stances don’t work… The heal , 2 condi removal and a 4k base heal? Really? WHO would take that over troll since you would need to run WS anyway for the immense amount of condi builds popping up. At this moment in time core is way better as well as druid. Massive let down overall.

Scourge is easily better in design and functionality, but I would say it isn’t like you can just pick up the class and be insanely godlike with it , it has some weakness against range but as a melee class without resistance you’re going to get your ass handed to you – the only way to win against that is to bait and cc and pop resistance at the right times to setup burst following CC.

Bear Stance has a 5k base heal and removes up to 8 conditions over 4 seconds for a maximum base heal of ~9k. It’s a good heal.

Mr Pin.6728:

Can someone help me understand how potent ally is applying might in beast form? I start an attack with no might, no sigils equipped and already in beastform. Might application will generally go 1 stack 3 stacks 4,5, 7, etc. Is it applying might for you and your pet or is boon duration affecting my stacks?

It applies a single stack of might every time you critical with an internal cooldown of 1 second. Were you using shortsword? If so it is possible for you to critical on the third swing of the auto chain, which will grant you might from the trait and might from the skill itself, resulting in two stacks of might.

I’m only going to list things that use pet interactivity for simplicity. These were all tested in sPvP. Anything that procs on pet swapping can’t be used in beastmode because you cannot swap pets in beastmode.

Shouts

• Sic Em’ – Grants damage/speed boost to yourself in BM.
• Protect me – Grants protection to yourself, taunts foes who hit you.
• Guard – Does not work. No might nor damage reduction on yourself nor allies.
• We Heal As One – Grants boons currently on you back to yourself. Lol.
• Search and Rescue – Does not work.
• Strength of the Pack – Grants might to you in Beastmode

Signets

• Signet of Renewal – Does not work.

Traits

• Natural Healing – Grants healing to you in Beastmode.
• Potent Ally – Grants might to you in Beastmode.
• Loud Whistle – Does not work. This one is likely intended however, as the other minor traits have blue information specifying what they do in Beastmode.
• Shared Anguish – Grants a free ignore to CC. It isn’t transferred to anything, you just ignore it.
• Empathetic Bond – Does not work.
• Search and Rescue – Will trigger the skill, granting you regeneration. Will also increase your revive speed. Your pet will not be summoned to help you however.

Weapon Skills

• Maul – Grants attack of opportunity to you. Will proc if maul lands.
• Crippling Shot – Grants your next three attacks bleeding.
• Precision Swipe – Grants might to you upon attack landing.
• Hunter’s Shot – Grants swiftness to you regardless of attack landing.
• Winter’s Bite – Grants your next attack weakness. Will proc upon Winter’s Bite landing.
• Call of the Wild – Unblockable portion does not work.
• Double Arc – Grants your next two strikes poison.

I might’ve missed some things. I didn’t have time to try underwater weapons as well. Feel free to test on your own.

lordbachus.6091:

Same with skills like sick em that require a pet, no use of them in beast mode

No, you’re wrong on that one. Sic em will effect you in beast mode.

Test it by auto attacking a golem, then use sick em, and watch your damage go up.

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

out of beastmode it is also very bad. transfers conditions around your pet. If you don’t stand next to your pet, you will lose not one condition -.-

I don’t understand the method behind what does and does not work in beastmode.

Protect Me works in beastmode. You gain protection and you taunt players who attack you.

Empathetic Bond does not work in beast mode.

Natural Healing will work in beast mode. Instead of healing your pet, it heals you.

It’s all a mixed bag.

Was testing this out in PvP today. When used in Beastmode, it will not transfer conditions from your allies to you, nor will it grant you resistance. Neither does it cleanse conditions from yourself for that matter.

The passive still works.

I saw that you guys released a quick bugfix addressing One Wolf Pack yesterday, which is great, but what is probably the best ranger skill released in this whole expac still doesn’t work.

We should definitely be given the chance to try this skill out on ourselves before the beta ends.

Spiritual Retrieve and Worldly impact both need shorter cast times. Wordly impact needs a larger AoE. 240 is too low for that type of skill.

I don’t know if these are intended or not but, Empathetic Bond does not work in Beast Mode, yet Shared Anguish does.

In the case of former, conditions receive no duration reduction. In the case of the latter, you will ignore any incoming Crowd Control and it is not transferred to anything since you have no active pet. It’s becomes free CC ignore.

Haven’t logged on in a while, did so just to comment on this post.

This game never had a PvP scene that was as large as, say, LoL or DotA, but it was still present and significant. I absolutely loved PvP and the flow of combat in the game. Dodging, attacking while moving, and actual mobility skills simply felt amazing.

Unfortunately, the amount of power creep in the game has pushed me away from it, just as it did to the OP. It started with the specialization and trait line update, continued with HoT, and has been steady since then. The game is not fun for me anymore, hence why I’ve stopped playing.

It’s not to say I haven’t got my money’s and times worth from the game, as I surely have, but it is sad to see something change so much from what it originally was.

Unfortunately, druid pre-patch was hard to justify in a zerg. Most pugmanders would accept healing druids when they reached the squad limit. Very few WvW guilds would accept healing druids; most wanted only healing ele’s.

This patch reduced the overall healing output of the druid significantly because of the CA recharge increase. Druid will still be good in roaming and havoc squads, but I don’t believe it will have any place left in zergs when the ele can simply do almost everything better at this point.

I’m not receiving any boon duration with the trait equipped. You can see in the screenshot that the recharge time of line of warding has been reduced, as per the trait, but I have no additional boon duration.

xeonage.1253:

Something you can see how crazy of their balance team

“Fading Twilight: The aftercast of this ability has been reduced by 0.11 seconds.”
“Chilling Scythe: The aftercast of this ability has been reduced by 0.06 seconds.”

0.11 sec?
what is that !!!???

0.06 sec?
Are they X-man?

Lol, .06 sec does strike me as a bit odd…

bloodpyrope.8630:

Soilder.3607:

bloodpyrope.8630:

Ok well, after trait changes in 2015, they cut the boon duration in half when they reduced the cooldown by half. From 20 seconds of boons at a 120 second cooldown to 10 seconds at 60 seconds.

If they’re changing the cooldowns again, shouldn’t the boon duration be adjusted to compensate? So the new duration for SotP should be 12.5 seconds of boons on a 75 sec cooldown.

Well, no, the point of a nerf is to make the skill less effective. If they increased the duration of the boons applied in addition to its’ recharge, that wouldn’t be as much of a nerf.

I just find it ridiculous that the skill’s CD to boon duration ratio was fine for 4 years of the game until suddenly they decided it was OP.

It’s not like WhaO where they changed the functionality of the skill (boon share) so it became OP in comparison with it’s CD. Rampage as One’s core functionality has not been changed at all.

If the druid traitline is what’s causing it to become unbalance, then nerf druids. Don’t nerf base skills that haven’t been changed since released.

To play devil’s advocate, when RaO was initially changed to a 60 second cooldown, it was also changed to a shout, which allowed you to further decrease its cooldown through trating. So, now if you have it traited, it’s boon to cd ratio is as it was at launch; if you have it untraited, it’s boon to cd ratio is worse than at launch. However, the functionality gained by WHaO, in conjunction with RaO and fortifying bond, allowed for incredibly easy might stacking, which is why it was nerfed.

I am not supporting these changes, just giving you perspective onto why they were done.

bloodpyrope.8630:

Ok well, after trait changes in 2015, they cut the boon duration in half when they reduced the cooldown by half. From 20 seconds of boons at a 120 second cooldown to 10 seconds at 60 seconds.

If they’re changing the cooldowns again, shouldn’t the boon duration be adjusted to compensate? So the new duration for SotP should be 12.5 seconds of boons on a 75 sec cooldown.

Well, no, the point of a nerf is to make the skill less effective. If they increased the duration of the boons applied in addition to its’ recharge, that wouldn’t be as much of a nerf.

You are good, I admit it.

Upon testing, it turns out that the bleeding duration applied is only the portion which is now supposed to be applied when you hit your target from the front.

Striking a golem with no condition modifiers nets me a total bleeding stack of 3, whether I’m attacking from the back, front, or sides.

This is the most significant nerf of them all, and probably what will the relegate us out of the meta should that occur.

I understand, in PvP, that bunker druid was an issue. They had high sustain, high mobility, and high damage. After this patch, they will retain much of it, yet the CA nerf significantly reduces our overall utility and synergy with many traits. I urge you to return to the 10s cooldown, or at least a lesser number, otherwise we may be made too weak, especially considering the nerf to healing. Remember, if healing had stayed the same and only the recharge duration of CA form had changed, that alone would be a 50% nerf to potential healing in a sustained fight. I have listed numbers regarding CA forms new and old healing values below, and it seems at 1225 healing power we still lose some healing.

In terms of WvW, CA form absolutely should not be further gated by a 15s recharge. Justifying a healing druid is difficult in many zerg comps. Many guilds do not allow healing druids, and for that matter, any druids at all. I understand, however, that they were an incredibly capable roamer, and very effective in havoc squads. The other nerfs recieved by Druid should be enough to satisfactorily reduce his efficiency in this aspect. CA recharge should be reduced or returned to it’s prior form with zerging and guild groups in mind.

As an aside, here are some updated CA heal numbers crossed with old values.

Old Values at 1225 HP:
CA 1: 1140
CA 2: 1113
CA 3: 3800
CA 4: 1239

New Values at 1225 HP:
CA 1: 1034
CA 2: 1102
CA 3: 3510
CA 4: 1175

Difference:

CA 1: -106
CA 2: -11
CA 3: -290
CA 4: -64

OGDeadHead.8326:

Updated with old and new values after patch:

CA healing values @ 676 healing power (unbuffed). New values in bold.

1. 920 – 783 (heals for 85% of previous value)
2. 838 – 810 (heals for 97% of previous value)
3. 3196 – 2837 (heals for 88% of previous value)
4: 1047 – 988 (heals for 94% of previous value)

Anyone found the break-even spot (if there is one)?

Very high, it seems.

Old Values at 1225 HP:
CA 1 – 1140
CA 2 – 1113
CA 3 – 3800
CA 4 – 1239

New Values at 1225 HP:
CA 1 – 1034
CA 2 – 1102
CA 3 -3510
CA 4 – 1175

We can infer the break even point to be around 1250-1300 healing power.

Justine.6351:

There isn’t another game like it where the monsters are actually under the same mechanics and rules as the player.

I think this is the most important part of the first Guild Wars. The nature of the combat in the game made it so monsters could literally be your equal, and as such, PvE was very engaging. In the early days, completing an UW or FoW run was a challenge, and felt very rewarding.

Of course, expansions added different strategies and some objectively more powerful skills, but not the likes of what HoT has added for this game, which never had PvE as challenging as GW1 to begin with.

Also worth mentioning, of course, was the excellent GvG scene.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Justine.6351:

I used to think it was player skill being the problem but I fought one this weekend where there was no doubt he was full celestial and knew how to abuse celestial avatar. It was like fighting a bunker scrapper before they got nerfed. The bs needs to die or something cause it’s moronic.

This might be half-true.
… But our weakness is a teamfight. Once it’s no longer a 1v1 or 2v2 but something with broader scale – Ranger is done.

We don’t have 3 immortality spells. We don’t magically get stability every 10 seconds. We don’t have even half the fighting potential any other class gets. We are only good at running. And yes, that’s the biggest feature and strength point in WvW. They can’t kill you if they can’t catch you.
But I don’t think nerfing the healing because of kiting potential is the way to go. Once we are able to face-tank a fight in a 5v5 scenario while being CC-focused, then we can talk healing nerfs.

This isn’t entirely true. In a 1vX scenario, Druid has it very hard due to a lack of stab, but the same can be said for many classes regardless of their stability potential. However, our escapability usually lets us run away, unless being chased by a faster opponent, such as a thief.

In a team scenario though, the Druid can excel, provided other classes are pulsing prot and stab. It is this reason alone as to why Druid has been so meta in PvP. Of course, and as you said, the Druid lacks invulns, which makes him susceptible to spikes. This proves to be the effective counter of the Druid in a team fight.

Thank you Gaile.

I don’t believe it will be a significant change, but probably more of a shave i.e 10% less base healing 10-15% more healing power contribution.

As it stands now, the issue people have with druids in PvP is that they are too bunkery. And what amulet do the bunker druids use? Mender’s. If they wanted to target that build specifically, then they would be nerfing the healing power contribution and not base healing.

However, in the post, Gaile states that while base healing will be nerfed, healing power contribution will be “enchanced significantly”. This implies overall healing will be increased for those who spec into healing, and therefore could end up making bunker druid stronger if we go on just these changes alone.

Electro.4173:

Mainhand Dagger is probably the most boring new weapon I could think of for Rangers, personally. There are already plenty of classes who can dual-wield Daggers as it is, and if the rumors are actually true then not only is Ranger going to be added to that list but Warrior as well (though I can’t see any elite spec getting two weapons, so Warrior having double daggers is probably one of the things about the leak I find the most dubious). Plus, Ranger sword already feels pretty “dagger-like” with all the movement involved with the skills.

For that reason as well as the fact that I already struggle to find decent dagger skins for my Ranger just with offhands, I’m hoping this ends up being either fake or something that’s preliminary and gets changed before release.

But I already like most of the Ranger weapons we currently have, so the new profession mechanics matter to me more than the weapon anyway, I suppose.

I’m assuming, if we do get a dagger, it will be condition damage oriented, since we don’t have any true melee condition weapons.

I do hope, though doubt, that we receive another off-hand weapon as well, preferably one with a leap skill or other sort of mobility.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Soilder.3607:

I think, if anything, Lingering Light should have it’s cooldown lowered to 10s, the time the effect remains on you increased to 4s, and either the base healing or healing scale increased. Remember, the trait used to have a 3s cooldown (which also affects players individually e.g if player one receives healing and the trait player two can too even before player ones CD is up) which honestly was far too low. The nerf quadrupled the cooldown but did not increase the healing to compensate.

If not this, then redesign it.

I’m not even sure how the trait works, since I almost never used it. Is the cooldown per ally healed, or will the cd trigger ‘on me’ as soon as I heal a single ally?

Also, what counts as heals in this game is not very straight forward. Will the healing from solarbeam trigger this trait? Will the trait Cultivated Synergy trigger this trait?

The cool down is seperate for each ally affected. Solar beam does work with the trait, as does any healing from staff, glyphs, or CA form.

I’m not sure if cultivated synergy will trigger the trait on you.

Draeyon.4392:

Lahmia.2193:

I’d be willing to be that Ancient Seeds is going to get a cooldown nerf.

And then all Druid GMs can be useless.

Seriously though,
I would like to see Celestial Shadow increased to 4 seconds in duration and swapped with Lingering Light

And for the poison traits in WS to be merged. If they create a Singal GM trait, the Master one could be something like using a heal skill grants x affect.
E.g. condition removal, pet revival, Boon application

Ancient seeds is barely great to begin with. Only two classes have a real vulnerability to it, those being Necromancer and (ironically) Ranger. Most classes will be able to unroot with either random clears, blocks, invluns, movement skills, or stealth.

I would like to see Ancient Seeds no longer summon roots, but instead give your opponent a static amount of immobilize along with bleeding. It would probably be more effective that way.

GotL is a good trait and obviously meta for most PvE content. The only GM which is lacking is Lingering Light, yet I find myself running it often when I want to max healing either for zerging or for PvP.

I think, if anything, Lingering Light should have it’s cooldown lowered to 10s, the time the effect remains on you increased to 4s, and either the base healing or healing scale increased. Remember, the trait used to have a 3s cooldown (which also affects players individually e.g if player one receives healing and the trait player two can too even before player ones CD is up) which honestly was far too low. The nerf quadrupled the cooldown but did not increase the healing to compensate.

If not this, then redesign it.

Can we please have the casting time and travel speed of Vine Surge be significantly increased? It’s a very necessary QoL change, since hitting moving targets is nearly impossible.

Also, I, along with many others, think Astral Wisp is a rather weak skill. I’m sure this is a shot in the dark, but I think a redesign of this skill to something that serves the staff great functionality wise would be great. If you don’t want to do that A-net then atleast double the radius of the Wisp.

That is all.

Personally, I think this game was at its most balanced prior to the trait system update that allowed everyone to spec three trait lines in.

That update alone was cause for significant power creep, and then HoT threw everything out the window.

In WvW, where I have 2646 power, the tooltip for natural convergence listed the damage numbers as 471 and 1257, respectively.

In PvP, where I have only 2225 power, the numbers listed are 652 and 1739.

Is this a bug? I don’t understand why they’re different, unless the skill received a nerf/buff pertaining to only one area of the game.

Napo.1230:

Ranger was never a door mat they just refused to not play longbow pew pew and got smashed when the gap was closed.
I loved melee ranger pre HoT it was my main wvw build. Remember using pets like wolf to fear and prevent stomps now it’s just let them run free and heal up so passive.

kitten , melee ranger pre-hot was so good and so much fun.

It’s a shame elite specs have outclassed it.

Namely in its casting time and the travel speed of it’s roots. It’s very hard to hit moving targets with the skill currently. Other than that, it’s effects are quite good.

If you’re immobilized in mid air you cannot use any skills until the immobilize has worn off.

If you’re immobilized in mid air you cannot use any skills until the immobilize has worn off. This bug has been in the game since launch.

If you are immobilized in mid air, often times the game bugs out and considers you airborne for the duration of the immobilize, disallowing you to use any skills.

StickerHappy.8052:

Soilder.3607:

StickerHappy.8052:

Warlord.9074:

StickerHappy.8052:

Warlord.9074:

You said chain stun not chain CC.

Where on earth did i mention stun?

Even if i take the stun argument, I can bet you 1000 gold right now and I can give other classes that can chain stun.

The point is stun is not the same as soft CC. And Druids/rangers do have plenty of access to stability compared to some other professions, Rangers druids have more. Nice edit by the way. But you can’t edit out your reasoning that their stability is short which is false. Stability only helps vs hard CC like stuns.

What?

2 sources is a lot for you? one is rooted and gated by astral force, the other one is an elite.

Can be corrupted, can be stripped, This is the whole problem with the forums, If you can’t beat a class, you deem it is OP.

CC the druid in astral form = no more heals

Again where did i mention soft CC here? immobilize cripple? where?

Just gonna leave this here:

PVP is 5v5 Conquest, you have a team

Warriors have an abundance of stab, mesmers, revenants, guardians, etc.

Not that I’m complaining about druid, but you’re wrong in regards to them having only two sources of stability.

There’s RaO, Celestial Avatar #5, Signet of the Wild, and Enlargement. Slotting all four of these amounts to an impressive amount of stability, and isn’t an unviable combination either.

Does the meta have that? No.

Noone will trait that in their right mind if you go Marksmanship, you will melt to conditions.

So you will have MM/Druid/x

Wilderness – no boonshare to pet, will not do any damage since you will be playing full bunker. No team support either. High Cd Shouts.

Nature Magic – No might stacking still, no BM. High Cd shouts

BM – 0 condition removal

Signet of the wild, so your utilities are? Daze glyph and signet of stone? 1 stun breaker? cannot see this happening. Solo q only.

But again the game is balanced around 5v5 team conquest.

PS: Noone will run enlargement in competitive play, Clarion Bond offers more esp for the team.

Signet of the wild has a long cast time. Easily interruptable

WS, Druid, and Marksmanship will not melt to conditions.

You run Empathetic Bond, Verdant Etching, Glyph of Rejuvenation, Glyph of Equality, Gylph of Alignment, Bristleback and Smokescale. You have three sources of 2 condition removals (glyphs), EB to proc every 10 seconds (your pets are tanky + you have healing from druid so they won’t melt) and you have #2 in celestial avatar form. You also have enlargement equipped along with Signet of the Wild and RaO, stuns are nothing to you. Oh, and I forgot to mention druids have that trait with removes all conditions upon entering CA form.

This is not an unviable setup at all and is commonly run. Often times the team does not need Clarion Bond as swiftness and fury are some of the most commonly produced boons in the game in a team setup.

Also, you can’t be claiming that this won’t fit against meta specs as the meta amulet, celestial, has only been gone for less than a week. No one knows what the new meta is yet.

StickerHappy.8052:

Warlord.9074:

StickerHappy.8052:

Warlord.9074:

You said chain stun not chain CC.

Where on earth did i mention stun?

Even if i take the stun argument, I can bet you 1000 gold right now and I can give other classes that can chain stun.

The point is stun is not the same as soft CC. And Druids/rangers do have plenty of access to stability compared to some other professions, Rangers druids have more. Nice edit by the way. But you can’t edit out your reasoning that their stability is short which is false. Stability only helps vs hard CC like stuns.

What?

2 sources is a lot for you? one is rooted and gated by astral force, the other one is an elite.

Can be corrupted, can be stripped, This is the whole problem with the forums, If you can’t beat a class, you deem it is OP.

CC the druid in astral form = no more heals

Again where did i mention soft CC here? immobilize cripple? where?

Just gonna leave this here:

PVP is 5v5 Conquest, you have a team

Warriors have an abundance of stab, mesmers, revenants, guardians, etc.

Not that I’m complaining about druid, but you’re wrong in regards to them having only two sources of stability.

There’s RaO, Celestial Avatar #5, Signet of the Wild, and Enlargement. Slotting all four of these amounts to an impressive amount of stability, and isn’t an unviable combination either.

Just some thoughts on these two skills.

1. Vine Surge, as I’m sure other people are aware, has too long a casting time and too slow a travel time. It misses too often because of this. I was hoping this would be addressed with the recent patch, but it wasn’t. I also think it’s immobilize duration is a bit too short. Two seconds would be perfect imo.

2. Astral Wisp is a bit weak to me. For one its heal radius is only 120, but having to stay within melee range to get the benefit of the heal seems counter-productive. I understand how the devs made that the point of the skill, thinking that you could provide healing to melee characters while being ranged yourself. Its not a bad idea, but I don’t think Astral Wisp is best to exemplify it. I was thinking, what if this skill was made similar to lighting surge? You charge up energy and blast an explosion of healing around your foe while blinding enemies around him too? It seems fitting to me and more useful then astral wisp.