Guild Wars 2

Just looking at my old BM bunker build; Its a hard sell on picking that third line….All the lines have some really good choices…..

Might have to pick up the expansions just to try Soulbeast out….

Could see it being really good.

Might have to come back and play this expansion a bit to see how it works.

I was wondering why I got a surge of new subscribers rofl ;o)

I don’t really play anymore; but wouldn’t the easiest solution to this, and to keep with variety….

Have Alpine/Desert/Edge of the Mists be the Borderland Maps?

“Go for the Eyes: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to trigger blindness at an incredibly fast rate. This trait now has a 12-second internal cooldown.”

Like…the only reason to use this trait really was using it with Birds…

and that’s pretty much out the window now.

Its doubled

Go look at my old technobabble videos

Changes like this are kind of the reason i don’t play this game anymore..

heh, I could run my old Technobabble Build, would have a 6 Second instant Cast Daze, and a 4 second Insta Cast Daze.

To go along with 2 stuns…

Talk about ruining someones day.

There is something hilarious about certain players arguing that Pet classes require no skill in PVP and thus shouldn’t exist…

Its like they’re completely oblivious to over a decade of PvP in MMO’s

Lack of Conditions seems to be the biggest problem with Druid Staff line… Seems to be pushed more into Cleric vs Apothecary for example

Been looking at the the spec to see if there was anything interesting far as traits.

the Two traits that I like are Natural Stride (This is very useful in my opinion) and Ancient Seeds

Ancient Seeds depends on what it means by striking… If its just hitting something while dazed you can setup up some interesting combos with that.

Adept Traits..While I think the Staff Swap one mine be interesting..I’m not sure using Staff over Axe/Torch Or Sword/Dagger would be worth it…..

The Celestial Condition removal one could be interesting as that’s a lot of Condition and depending on how quickly ya build up that form it could be useful for an Ocrap button.

Pets we get access to some interesting ones… Not sure how they’ll compete with Birds tough…

Skill wise we get a second heal..That’s always nice to have…

There should be very little difference between skill levels when it comes to spvp be roaming WvW. For example the talk of food and buffs, while this is present in WvW vs spvp pretty much most good WvW players will have them making the fights fair and standard similar to spvp, you’ll have a difference in terms of ascended vs orange gear but I honestly never noticed even when I played.

Zera.8907:

Has ESO gotten better? I played it from beta to about 4-5 months after release.

They did a fairly big balance patch recently, some unbalanced things going on right now they need to fix, they did pretty much remove aoe caps though, but they left some certain things uncapped also that allows big zerg balls still. Next patch will have imperial city which will be interesting

Zera.8907:

Xsorus, what game(s) are you playing these days?

ESO and SWTOR in terms of MMO’s
working my way through Witcher 3 right now in terms of Solo RPGs

ESO is my main PvP game.
SWTOR i’m just playing for the storyline basically.

I feel they’re pretty good after the patch

I like that Traps are now usable by BM bunker builds now…

Before it always felt like you had to invest so much to use your skill line abilities on a Ranger.

Doesn’t feel that way anymore.

https://youtu.be/PZCCda1HfQw

This is basically using my old gear setup, didn’t tweak any of that (and I would if i really played a lot)

Basically wanted to test out the new changes with this style…I like Spike trap for that knockdown…and I could probably swap out skirmishing for Nature’s…though Nature’s has some kind of meh Adept Traits (its Masters/GM’s have some good choices)…

I’m still feeling i’m forced into using Speed Runes though cause I hate running around without Speed…. Wish we had a trait for that or something…

Also please note i’ve not played this game in over a year….(I won’t be really playing it either..) So i’m super rusty and make plenty of mistakes.

blitzkrieg.2451:

Sebrent.3625:

Shortbow … your pet taunts … you have at their flank.
Trap … they stand in it because they are taunted by your pet.
Longbow … they aren’t countering your rapid fire because of the taunt.

It’s another CC … so many good uses.

Yea man… Actually I’ve been fooling with an asura interrupt build for WvW

Shortbow: Interrupt on #5
Longbow / GS: Interrupts from both choose whatever you like but prob GS and has 2 potential CC’s with #4/#5
Taunt on pet f2
Nightmare runes : #6 fears
Spike Trap: Knockdown and unblockable
Technobabble

Coupled with quick draw for a 7/8 second concussion shot on weapon swap (insane nice) and a lower block cd / interrupt cd on GS.

Out of all of them though the taunt is the best due to the way it works in general. Very nice skill overall.

It’s alot of fun chaining CC on players

Technobabble has always been really great with Ranger

It saved my kitten in a fight today that’s for sure.

mistsim.2748:

Terravos.4059:

I pvped a little bit this morning…Sorta remember why I quit the game.

The build I enjoyed the most was Skirmishing(3,6,7)/Wilderness(3/4/8)/Beast(1/4/7)

using two birds (though I may change that up to something else)

Utilities were Trolls/SOTW/Lightning Reflex/Spike Trap/Entangle

Eagle doing 2 Bleeds/Weakness/Blind every 4 Seconds is silly good…

Throw in Beastly Warden for that Pull (which lines them up) and Spike trap and you have a fun day. I thought about dropping SOTW for Sharpened Edges simply to Stack 20+ bleeds on someone super quick.

But yea..Eagle with those traits actually makes Ranger Shout build have a run for its money.

u can still do 0/6/6/0/6, just not the way you want to. you have to run a few traps to bolsters your condi spike, otherwise u cant compete with other profs’ condi builds. I ran it for about 5 hours yesterday, worked great with a good team. not the most survivable. but then u can always go 0/6/6/6/0 and skip Beastly Warden, still use birds, and do lots of damage while surviving.

my dream build was 0/0/6/6/6 bunker with birds, but sadly it just doesn’t do enough damage. and regen bunking isn’t viable at all right now. not without the Resistance boon.

I can spit out quite a few conditions with this setup..its basically my old BM bunker build with the use of Spike trap now. You could use the other traps if ya want over SPike trap I just found that knockdown to be very useful.

Beastly Warden works amazing for birds based on how it works.

You see it goes off at the start of your Pets F2 ability…Meaning your pets have to get to the target first and use their F2 ability.

Spiders for Example aren’t very good with Beastly Warden because they can pop the taunt anywhere and not have to be next to the target to pull them.

Since the Birds F2 requires them to be next to the target they’ll wait to pop it right when they’re next to the enemy.

Cats with Pounce woudn’t be good either, because they won’t be close to the target when they pounce (unless you’re next to them when ya swap)

Marsh and Swamp Drake wouldn’t be great either…same with Wolf Unless ya swap next to them.

You want pets with Melee Range F2’s basically

Yea, i’m probably not going to play though hehe..I just wanted to see how the changes were.

Got to many other games I can play (Mainly ESO and SWTOR)

no ICD on them..

You can basically pop off a 2 Bleeds/Weakness/Blind hit every 4.75 seconds

Was using it this morning….Very Very Nasty in a one vs one.

I pvped a little bit this morning…Sorta remember why I quit the game.

The build I enjoyed the most was Skirmishing(3,6,7)/Wilderness(3/4/8)/Beast(1/4/7)

using two birds (though I may change that up to something else)

Utilities were Trolls/SOTW/Lightning Reflex/Spike Trap/Entangle

Eagle doing 2 Bleeds/Weakness/Blind every 4 Seconds is silly good…

Throw in Beastly Warden for that Pull (which lines them up) and Spike trap and you have a fun day. I thought about dropping SOTW for Sharpened Edges simply to Stack 20+ bleeds on someone super quick.

But yea..Eagle with those traits actually makes Ranger Shout build have a run for its money.

Archon.6480:

Terravos.4059:

You do can do 75% increased damage Mauls on targets you interrupt… Greatsword is going to be silly next patch

They just need to add a decapitation animation when you hit someone with it. :-)

Your character should yell “For the Watch” when he does it.

But yea…do Greatsword Stun, Swap Pets (If you didn’t gain fury) and then Maul Someone

freakin 75% increased damage on Maul…

Or Technobabble them… then swap and do it…Either way you’re going to mess someone up.

You do can do 75% increased damage Mauls on targets you interrupt… Greatsword is going to be silly next patch

Beastly warden will be one of the best group traits in the game. It’s basically a pbae pull from games like warhammer for example

LughLongArm.5460:

Hi xsorus, now you can consider using spirit of storm instad of technobabble.
the active is also 3sec daze(6s with MOC) on 30sec CD(at max). AOE over single target.
Stronger but less flexible.

And dont go celec, go with cavalir/valkyrie – The openning strike uptime will compensate for the low crit chance. Your heals will be very strong, you dont need the healing power- your burst damage will be much higher.
consider SOR over SOTW I think we will face some crazy condi builds after patch, not sure EB will be enough.

I’m a huge fan of healing power which is why I try and run it
I was also thinking instead of protect me I could run quickening zypher
Its now super speed with no healing problem and could burst with drake pets easier with it

Sor vs sotw might be safe will have to see how it goes, spirit could replace technobabble, I just like it cause it’s usable while stunned

So with the new patch coming I can already see some funny setups for asura Rangers
Before you were pretty much stuck with condition builds with the setup but now you can gain some incredible burst not possible before

Basic setup I’m looking at is
Celestial armor
Rune of defender (extra healing while blocking with great sword, think second mini heal)
Great sword/longbow setup

6/0/6/06
Marksman you want Charons/moment/remorseless
Wilderness you want oak/refined/empathetic
Beast you want resounding/natural(if it still gives the ranger healing otherwise great sword)/beastly warden

You want two drakes, I’d say the Lightning one and poison one

Skills you want heal as one/signet of wild/protect me/technobabble/rampage

Basic setup with this is interrupting with moment or great sword stun, swapping pets then f2 follow by maul
If you interrupt and swap pets for fury your maul will do 75% increased damage from the marksman traits. Your pets will also mess up anyone as well esp if they tail swipe after swap.

You will have a poweful heal along with a secondary heal in the form of block every 30 seconds thanks to rune of defender. Speed will not be a problem thanks to charons

Sube Dai.8496:

Terravos.4059:

I could see some weird power ranger builds with moment + opening strike combos for huge maul damage. Swap your pet to gain call of the wild, use taunt, technobabble and then maul someone, 75% increased damage right there. Ruin someone’s day

And QuickDraw for another maul straight after

Wouldn’t have QuickDraw, thinking 6/0/6/0/6 with the build, could do taunt though to line up the maul easier and follow it with drakes f2 or cat pounce.

6/0/6/0/6 with great sword/longbow with defender rune and the divinity armor type set (one that gives all stats) might be interesting.

Thinking of trying it with moment of clarity and technobabble for the 75% bonus damage on maul.

I could see some weird power ranger builds with moment + opening strike combos for huge maul damage. Swap your pet to gain call of the wild, use taunt, technobabble and then maul someone, 75% increased damage right there. Ruin someone’s day

I might end up running a nasty technobabble build on my bm ranger, getting 5 stacks of confusion or a 6 second daze

Though sic em might be decent now.. Simply because it’ll give swiftness plus regen.
Could do guard though, wait till someone got beat and have a cat pounce them, that’d be interesting.

kiwituatara.6053:

Terravos.4059:

depending on how that marksman adept trait works on pet swap (is it combat only or outside of combat) I could potentially drop rune of speed. If that was the case I would run something like 20 in marksman (for moment) 30 wilderness and 20 beast and use the Asura daze with perplex runes

Oh. You can’t just drop 20 points into a traitline after the June 23rd patch. You HAVE to go balls deep 30 points into a traitline. However, you get to pick 3 entire traitlines (so like getting 90 trait points instead of 70). Uhhh I’m not doing a good job explaining this.
Heres a makeshift build editor, hopefully it’ll clear things up. http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgUBqAKoA6g~

You also don’t get any stats (power, precision, etc) from traitlines anymore. They’re increasing gear stats by ~30%.

All the condition damage formula has changed. They also made it so that burning and poison stack in intensity instead of duration. http://dulfy.net/2015/06/16/gw2-june-23-specialization-changes/

So wait I pick 3 trait lines then select traits I want out of those lines? Oh my god

Lol

So I looked up what taunt was from that beast master line, that will actually be some what interesting with drakes. Since it’ll drag the player right into its cone effect

depending on how that marksman adept trait works on pet swap (is it combat only or outside of combat) I could potentially drop rune of speed. If that was the case I would run something like 20 in marksman (for moment) 30 wilderness and 20 beast and use the Asura daze with perplex runes

kiwituatara.6053:

OMG Welcome back xsorus! Will you be making more ranger videos instead of ESO?

I don’t know whether to take Troll Unguent or Heal as One now lol.

You take 5% less damage if you have regen boon as a minor trait in NM too.

I’ll login and screw around on the new update probably, I’m still playing ESO full time though and swtor (I just do pve in that game)

I just happen to be checking the site out when I saw the changes. Probably won’t make a new gw2 video unless I find something funny.

Heal as One can now apply 10 seconds of Swiftness/10 Seconds of Regen and recharge 20% faster now with that Beastmaster adept trait

6/17/2015:
Ranger
Heal as One: This skill is now categorized as a shout skill.
Troll Unguent: This skill is now categorized as a survival skill.
Healing Spring: This skill is now categorized as a trap skill. (Also renamed to “We Heal as One”.
Rampage as One: This skill is now categorized as a shout skill. (Also renamed to “Strength of the Pack”.)

I could see some interesting setups with my old BM Bunker build with this…Wish Moment of Clarity was Adept….would of had fun with that.

This game has Downed System, and AoE Caps…it will never recover because of that.

Hell even ZOS has wised up to how bad AoE caps are for a Large Scale PvP game and are removing them because all the problems it has caused.

CU isn’t even going to have AoE caps at the start

I tried it for a bit.. was interesting

But then again i’m doing things like this in ESO

Venoms themselves are ok at best, However once ya start adding traits to them..They just become silly

Substance E.4852:

Soilder.3607:

Atherakhia.4086:

While I certainly welcome the changes, and think they’re excellent for PvP, it still needs a lot of help for WvW.

While I do agree that this won’t really help in WvW much, I don’t think any amount of dps boosts or number crunching will actually help us without making us totally overpowered in any other game mode.

It’s the pet that holds us back in WvW, and since it’s inherent to the class, this problem might never go away.

The only solution I can even think of is if they introduced some sort of active scaling for pet aoe resistance based on the number of enemy players present, but that sounds pretty far fetched imo.

The pet is still 90% uesless in large fights, but this is still a very big improvement for us in WvW. The GS was the go to weapon in zerg fights and just got better in almost every one of it’s skills. (hitting 5 people per traited maul is a lot of damage if you can survive in the hammer train) You don’t have to trait to use signets, entangle is much better for smaller team fights, and we will be able to reveal theives/mesmers for 6 seconds instead of 3. With the changes to LB and the new MM trait with 1hsword, we’re going from thief bait to one that can potentially wreck their kitten if they aren’t actually sneaky.*

*Assuming they don’t get big buffs as well.

Actually…I don’t think upping the amount of people Maul hits is its biggest change…I honestly think the range increase on it is the biggest change. I constantly missed Maul all the time when I played cause I flat out couldn’t hit anyone unless I was right on top of them.

Rym.1469:

I will laugh at mesmers. Seriously. Unless they equip some serious boon removal/steal….. Constant Axe throwing at pinky, bouncing off phantasms and stuff will give us ridiculous might.

I can already see Axe BM builds. If Intimidation training doesn’t have ICD, Eagle BM Ranger… kitten just got real

It doesn’t have an ICD

If you’d been watching my Beastmaster builds for a while, you’d see i switched over to a spider with this + Malicious Training a long time ago.

Its also why i used the Poison Spider, It was hit 3 times with its poison, Each one of those set off Cripple….The other Spider was the Weakness One, because it hit twice with its F2.

Anyway, The Poison Spider alone could apply 21 seconds of Cripple by himself.

The Signet of Beastmaster change is nice, This opens up Signet Builds for Power users a lot better as they don’t have to waste a trait on that.

It also finally gives Beastmaster Ranger a viable Stability for stomping.

The Axe Change opens up some more interesting builds as well. …Greatsword Gets a 3 Second Rear Stun if you have Moment of Clarity, That’s incredibly nice….

And of course sic’em is really nice at 6 seconds now.

Durzlla.6295:

Eurantien.4632:

These always make me cringe. They will “buff” something, which won’t be the right thing then they will ninja nerf something good.

Someone hold me.

We thought that Beastmasters Bond was really lacking for power builds so it also gives swiftness, but we nerfed the rangers power scaling because LB builds were too stronk.

They normally are on that level of facepalm…

Or…

“We feel that Rangers evade to much, so we’re removing evade on sword/dagger, We’re allowing Pigs to Take 1 hit for the ranger though once every 45 Seconds though.”

Never Forget My friends…never forget

warriorjrd.8695:

jcbroe.4329:

warriorjrd.8695:

Casey.9687:

Theres a difference in being a good forum hero and a good ranger, all these so called in “influential” rangers have nothing to show for all the talk they do on the forums. By all means any ranger who thinks hes good in this game come duel me and ill see if your build is up to standards of this game. Because the crap builds that these so called “influential” rangers such as JCbroe and Durzzla have spit out on the forums is next to useless. Till I see some action in tourneys like say the Tournament of Legends i advise all rangers to stop getting information on their class from this forum.

They do spvp/tpvp and that’s pretty much it, however there is much more to the game than spvp.

For the wvw area I would nominate Mistism, Prysin (while hes a bit rough around the edges and some of his ideas can be far fetched, he still knows ranger better than most and won’t hesitate to prove that), and ofc myself

I’m also interested in what the OP would define influential as. Would it be those who post most on the forums, those who know the class the best, or those who play the class the best? Each would have it’s own results, because there are plenty of people who post often, but don’t know what they’re talking about.

You, Prysin, I enjoy Gladomer’s Ranger streams when he roams, though he only really runs Axe/Dagger Sword/Torch EB and SotF roaming builds, but one of the more consistent ranger streamers that I’ve seen with a solid enough build for roaming.

Xsorus and Tanbin are both great duelists, and a good in-game guy I know that is less active on the forums than he used to be, Arrow Slanger (ItsFinished) runs the RRR coined build style with guard from Faux, in both PvP and in WvW I believe, and he is more than exceptional at the class, and could duke it out with any of the rest of the players I know of on ranger and other classes and hold his own at the very least, easy.

I wish more WvW guys would stream though. I get on twitch multiple times everyday trying to find ranger streamers, and if a ranger streamer is both consistent and I respect the way he plays, I would promoting him up and down these forums.

I have every class level 80 though, and I spend less time in WvW on my ranger, and I’m certainly no hardcore WvW player. I don’t even use food, I’m tier 4 and I only play in organized guild groups, and at that point I can get away with slightly off PvP builds depending on the role I play (like Shatter Mesmer for instance).

Yeah, not many rangers play wvw consistently and are also willing/able to stream. Somebody could stream a ranger roaming alone or in a group, but that could get boring pretty quickly. Although tbh I wouldn’t watch a ranger streaming either, simply because I could go out do exactly what they were doing

It’s not just ranger though, the only stream I’ve seen that pick up a lot of traffic is Chemsorly’s stream. He’s an ele and streams guild raids or blob fights. But it seems like the streamers are few and far between for all classes when it comes to wvw unfortunately.

I’ve learned a few things from streaming in a couple games.

A. It completely blows streaming if you’re solo in a game with PvP like ESO and Guild Wars 2 (WvW)….Most of the time, you’re dying to groups of people, Running from groups of people, or looking for people to fight..Its a whole lot of boring. Its a bit better if you’re in a group cause you don’t have to run from groups of people anymore, So the action is more consistent…But generally watching a solo stream in ESO or GW2 is boring as hell..Which is why i stopped doing it, and the only thing i’ll stream on my twitch page is me playing something like PVE or whatever…. Doing Youtube clips is far better for Giant World PvP because you can post actual fights, and its more entertaining and a lot less boring in the end.

B. Streaming works far better for SPvP, or Warzone type games (SWTOR) anything were the action is instant and constant and you can keep it up.

That’s my opinion on why you don’t see a whole lot of solo streams going on in WvW or ESO’s PvP.

Prysin.8542:

Terravos.4059:

Prysin.8542:

sMihaly.1492:

Prysin.8542:

Terravos.4059:

Yea..Venomshare is incredibly powerful in a group, surprised its not picked up more

its not used much because it does not grant three or four digit crits nor does it summon a wall of tears and frustration every time you stealth….

It can be tanky as kitten with solder amulet, i could win 2v1 at mid against a bunker + no-idea-what, no big numbers are needed for wanting to play a build like this. The results are good enough.

What makes it unpopular is the reaction of peers… “oh u playing venomshare? we’r gonna lose because of u” You won’t ever want to play this in solo q.

Thats what i mean. Run settlers or Soldiers and that thief will do massive condi damage, however all the other people around you does not understand that it is strong, because it does not invoke a flood of tears or produce four digit crits.

EDIT; the fact that venomshare is as strong as it is, is just a testament to how little players know about classes, builds, build options and last but not least, potential of the game.
I bet there is at the very least 2-3 strong builds on all professions that is not being played because people think they are “unviable”. Now, unviable these days just means that there hasnt been a frag video on YT where said build is used to wipe 10-20 bad players

Oh trust me on this..I had the arguments with thieves back when I played that kept going on how bad venoms were.. and I was like “Ehh no they’re not…they’re actually pretty dang overpowered” I then made that venomaura video before I quit just to show how stupid it was. I said then..give it time… SPvP players will catch on and start running it, because its a bloody 9 second immobilize you can do not to mention you’re just adding a stupid amount of conditions for condition coverage on everyone as well as damage.

Granted….As nasty as Venomshare is right now, I think P/D thieves are better off abusing perplexity and their 5 confusion steal trait….That’d just be silly on P/D thieves.

used to roam with a VS thief for a long time, we ran 40604 boon rip S/D and me as trapper ranger. I know how strong VS is…. add venoms to ranger traps (unblockable) + a drake pet (Bouncing F2) and you got a condi nuke like no other.

VS used to be “normal” in WvW before, because the poison venom could penetrate Righteous Indignation and actually kill lords that would otherwise be protected. It was that or retal. So a LOT of thieves were running VS as they could then give it to lots of people and just perma poison the poor lord into the ground.

Once they patched that loophole, VS kinda died.

I had stopped playing my Ranger (before I left for ESO) and was doing Venomshare in zergs, Even in that setting it was actually powerful as you could tell when ya popped it how fast groups of people would die.

But yea… Trap Ranger + Venomshare thief would just be silly in some cases…..esp for removing someone from a point lol

If I ever was going to play GW2 again, I’d probably spend more time on the VS thief…though that’ll never happen, cause ESO is better for PvP… even buggy.

Prysin.8542:

sMihaly.1492:

Prysin.8542:

Terravos.4059:

Yea..Venomshare is incredibly powerful in a group, surprised its not picked up more

its not used much because it does not grant three or four digit crits nor does it summon a wall of tears and frustration every time you stealth….

It can be tanky as kitten with solder amulet, i could win 2v1 at mid against a bunker + no-idea-what, no big numbers are needed for wanting to play a build like this. The results are good enough.

What makes it unpopular is the reaction of peers… “oh u playing venomshare? we’r gonna lose because of u” You won’t ever want to play this in solo q.

Thats what i mean. Run settlers or Soldiers and that thief will do massive condi damage, however all the other people around you does not understand that it is strong, because it does not invoke a flood of tears or produce four digit crits.

EDIT; the fact that venomshare is as strong as it is, is just a testament to how little players know about classes, builds, build options and last but not least, potential of the game.
I bet there is at the very least 2-3 strong builds on all professions that is not being played because people think they are “unviable”. Now, unviable these days just means that there hasnt been a frag video on YT where said build is used to wipe 10-20 bad players

Oh trust me on this..I had the arguments with thieves back when I played that kept going on how bad venoms were.. and I was like “Ehh no they’re not…they’re actually pretty dang overpowered” I then made that venomaura video before I quit just to show how stupid it was. I said then..give it time… SPvP players will catch on and start running it, because its a bloody 9 second immobilize you can do not to mention you’re just adding a stupid amount of conditions for condition coverage on everyone as well as damage.

Granted….As nasty as Venomshare is right now, I think P/D thieves are better off abusing perplexity and their 5 confusion steal trait….That’d just be silly on P/D thieves.