I love the GS. In PvE I always run a squishy build and the GS auto-attack evade makes it great for wading in and cleaving groups down. Though in general I feel the norn animations are a bit silly it still feels fun with the GS, like dancing through a crowd. I miss the beta damage but shrug
I feel like the condi/berserk sections of OPs argument are not well written. The phrasing makes it sound like he’s saying condi builds across classes are having a far more difficult time which isn’t really true. Many people used condi builds specifically for their first kills(there were numerous people with multiple level 80s that after failing a bunch finally got liandri by switching to a condi necro). I think the main source of perceived inferiority of condi builds is their lack of presence in speed farming builds(ie subject 7 and dunwell farming). Since the topic is suppose to be about Ranger’s the argument should focus on the specifics of why OP feels condi ranger is inferior to power Ranger.
Personally the only problem I see is the Shortbow’s auto attack and it’s positional requirement. In the gauntlet the foes are programmed to ignore pets so, with some exceptions like when chomper is going for meat, the enemies are always instantly facing the player.
The issue of the pet I think is the biggest flaw that the gauntlet demonstrates. Upfront I want to say that just because we can still do the gauntlet without our pets does not make things ok. By having opponents ignore our pets it takes away strategies involving tanky pets. If pets could tank it would be fine as you could focus on using your positioning to position your pet(since recall and attack are your only ways of moving your pet). This means that damage is what they want you to use your pets for. Without the ability to move our pet to specific positions and to stay we have very limited ability to keep pets out of harms way while allowing them to actually attack since we don’t have the luxury of using our position to control our pets position via recall/attack since we must focus on avoiding the boss ourselves. This means they either get one shot or they must spend most of the time not attacking which greatly nerfs the Ranger’s damage. It’s like doing the gauntlet with Squeamish active.
The biggest design decision IMHO is the decision they made to make the gauntlet bosses ignore pets. If Anet feels that having pets hold aggro is such a poor design then why have corporeal pets to begin with? Make them non-corporeal, rebalance the auto-attack damage from the pet over to the ranger(pet does little AA damage, ranger does more), change the F1-4 skills to be pet ability skills since there is no reason for pet control abilities, and a single longer pet swap cd. If they really want pet survival to be a part of the Ranger class than give Ranger’s better control over the pet and allow Ranger’s to use pet tanks as well.
I haven’t tried it on everything in the gauntlet but every fight I wanted to use it on has been immune. Is this intended considering there is no defiant?
Running jade maw a lot? Don’t be that Ranger who only has bows and insists on shooting themselves in the face when facing perma-reflect mobs. Equip a sword or gs or at the very least stop shooting…
It’s there to disallow you using disposable pets to wear someone down while you stay out of their range.
Pretty easy just to hit the return key(assuming you rebound them, don’t know why memo devs love function keys) and the attack whenever you want run or fight.
As you said the servers are pretty stable population wise. Do you have information to suggest there was any big population moves to more than one or two servers to justify a reset?
The only way I see this playing out it is we are going to have 2 months of very unbalanced WvW as things resettle back to roughly the current rankings. Reading some of this thread I already see T1/2 servers talking about how they are excited to get WvW map completion done on alts.
Will you go back to shorter matches if not daily matchups?
You don’t get in combat when your pet is hit. Likely what is happening is you don’t have your pet on passive and your pet attacks the mob that hit it which puts you in combat.
Can you talk any about upcoming balance changes to professions(if any)?
Could Ranger shouts be given some group utility in addition to(maybe reducing) the pet effect? Could some of the ranger signets see lower cds? Will Ranger pets ever scale with gear or are they currently balanced to always have stats equivalent to full exotics? Will ranger traps besides flame trap ever pulse more than once? I believe spike trap’s tooltip is nearly completely different than it’s tooltip.
Are there any plans to increase condition caps in PvE? Many people recently have been putting forth the idea of increasing the Bleed cap on veterans and champions. Also allowing conditions to do damage to structures.
One of the most important features to me as a casual player is a quick way to join into content so the upcoming LFG tool is the top feature I am anticipating.
My main concern is that it won’t by a ‘queue’ type interface that auto-forms groups which is the ideal system. Basically I would want it so that I can select the content I want to do, click a button(and do this ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD), and have a message box come up to join the assembled group and enter the content.
I also worry that it won’t be cross server. Can you talk you talk about any of those kinds of details at this time?
So I held off completing my PS due to progress blocking bugs in PSes back in September. The past few weeks I decided to go and complete the storyline on all 3 of my characters.
On all 3 when doing ‘Source of Orr’ after defeating the eye and tasked with protecting Trahearne the music stops and only some combat effects play. Is it suppose to be basically silent during this part? There is also no music that plays during the “cleansing” cutscene.
I remember back in BC WoW when an automated LFG didn’t exist. People are so entitled these days.
Like you said, a better alternative didn’t exist at the time. However a grouping function was created years ago and has been implemented in games other than WoW. This isn’t 2007 anymore, the genre has progressed.
I don’t recall the underwater version but I know the land version of pet rez revives your pet. If your pet is then killed after that it shouldn’t continue to rez, if so that’s a bug.
I’m not sure 6 seconds immunity every 90 seconds garners calling it a survivable glass cannon
I don’t mean to be a hipster but variations of this build were FotM at release. QZ, SoS & RoO and typically it was Axe/Horn + GS → Use horn skills, use axe chill/bleed, switch to GS, stun, QZ(+ pet swap quickening), opponent dead. Typically also with hyena or hound to also knockdown + damage, SoS if in trouble. The birds + axe bleeds backloads into the QZ GS spam doing a ton of damage in 2 seconds.
This builds doesn’t have the same burst but I like the general play style of playing it wary at first and then bursting after dodges and stuff are used.
The OP and most players forget one very important point.
PETS DONT SCALE WITH GEAR.
This might seem minor right now, but as gear creep continues, pets will continue to slide backwards as a class mechanic. It needs to be addressed at some point for the long term viability of the class, either by compleatly halting gear creep that started with ascended gear, or making pets scale with player gear.
So, I’m peeking in on this forum as I goof around looking for something to replace my Engineer (I’ve realized ANet has no idea what they’re doing with that class, and it’s just a hand’s breadth from utterly broken and useless right now). And I wanted to comment on this.
This is actually a good thing. Let me say it again; pets not scaling with gear can be a good thing. What this means is that your pets do not scale with your gear choices, which means you and one of your pets can be wildly different in spec. ANet has promised, unfortunately, to change Engineer kits so that they do have gear dependence. Try not to let them do this for you; instead have them make pets keep up with gear creep.
The reason it’s good is that right now, you could go full bunker spec and still whip out a cat and have cat-level DPS added to your own (which may be low with a bunker spec, but presumably you have control effects to help your pet). You have mid-fight role variability. It’s the holy hybrid grail, and right now the only class where it’s even remotely feasible is Ranger.
I do not have a high level ranger, but I’ve done dungeon and WvW runs with them. I’ve always been impressed by the class. I’ve watched people switch pets to dodge (exploiting the fact that pets do not instantly phase in, and as such a pet swap is actually a dodge if you time it right; even in melee). I’ve always been impressed by how much DPS Rangers can sustain while also being very good with helping the party. And in sPvP I dread stomping good rangers nearly as much as I dread stomping mesmers (“Oh kitten now I am dazed… Oh kitten now I am knocked down… Oh kitten you just got a rally… and you were contesting the point the whole time.”)
I also want to note that the people here talking about the absurd difficulty of managing a pet and themselves should probably try giving Elementalist, Thief, or (if you hate the idea of being effective) Engineer a try. All three of those classes require a lot of situational awareness, very quick decisions, and close-to-flawless technical execution. Which is not to say that Rangers are not in need of bugfixes; I think most classes are. But I do think it’s easy to forget how hard other players are actually working with their classes.
I don’t think the scaling would work like that. I imagine it would look at your gear ‘level’ and just scale the stats of the pet up or down based on that level. Pets would keep their relative stats(ie high precision pets would have precision as their highest stat when up or down scaled. Bears would have high vitality even if you had pure berserker gear).
you can also bleed target from front when you have trait cousing bleeding after critical hit
Also if you are at a higher elevation than your target. Was on my guardian at the keep on the forest spvp map and a ranger came up on one of the ramparts and started to auto attack me. While facing him his autos were stacking bleed(they weren’t crits, wasn’t sharpening stone). I suppose because the game felt they were hitting from above and not so much the front.
Personally I went deep into beastmastery to help my pets be more durable so that they could tank and I could go more damage focused(of course this is from a PvE perpective, in wvw I play like anything will kill me if they see me >_>).
If you want to tank though the only suggestion I can make is use the greatsword. The evade on the auto attack will avoid a lot of damage(most of the damage if you take it off auto) plus you have the block and stun to cover important enemy abilities between evades. IMO it’s one of the best tanking weapons in the game.
If you didn’t plan on using this in WvW I’d say to experiment to see if you can get away with less in wilderness survival to pick up one or two of the pet improving major traits in skirmishing/marksmanship. For anything PvP I feel those major traits in the wilderness survival line are vitally important.
I too like the sword but I have changed my mine about the lunging and have decided I do not like how it makes your character uncontrollable during the attack animations(regardless of manual/auto).
Since beta I chalked it up to unique flavor and just used it for the flavor. However I do like skills and I think it’s damage is good and I’d love to use it more but those small lockouts preventing dodging and making it really difficult to keep yourself not in front of enemies really make it a literal double edged sword.
If they could fix it so that you could strafe while in the animation and make dodging more responsive that would be fine otherwise I’d prefer it being reworked.
I would like to know where the finishing line is… I keep dying at the rolling snowballs because I have no clue where to go next.
Follow the path the snowballs are coming down using the peppermints on the side to avoid them. You will go around a sharp bend to the left leading up and then a bit up from there you will see some presents off to the right side. Jump across the presses and candy canes and jump into the shining yellow door/opening(watch the opening cinematic when you first ‘zone in’ to the jumping puzzle. It will show up the course ending with a zoom into the finish).
Ty! I had a feeling it would be there but I keep jumping on the wrong presents I think as I just slide down from them. Oh well..
I’ve always jumped on the blue presents and one of the candy canes in the middle. Trickiest jump there is the candy cane in the middle.
I would like to know where the finishing line is… I keep dying at the rolling snowballs because I have no clue where to go next.
Follow the path the snowballs are coming down using the peppermints on the side to avoid them. You will go around a sharp bend to the left leading up and then a bit up from there you will see some presents off to the right side. Jump across the presses and candy canes and jump into the shining yellow door/opening(watch the opening cinematic when you first ‘zone in’ to the jumping puzzle. It will show up the course ending with a zoom into the finish).
Pretty easy. Got this one in like 6 tries. I’m fine with that. Splitting up the players into different paths does help mitigate the issue of being able to see your char but more because it reduces the chances you get grouped with large, view blocking charr/norn. The wait time to start would be rage inducing except for the fact that I completed it in fairly low amount of attempts.
I will complain that it is no where near as visually awesome as the clock tower
Edit: Perhaps the clock tower has desensitized me but after completing the winter puzzle I find it boring. The clock tower I had a lot of fun repeating it. Not a big deal though
After 6 months of reporting these bugs(since BWE1) I am sick of this. I am really disappointed. Since BWE1 I have constantly been reporting and been impeded by DEs bugging(and PS bugging) whether it be NPCs falling through the world/disappearing, remaining friendly when they should be attackable, NPCs not moving to the next stage, ect…
It baffles me that the root cause of these common show stoppers has not been found yet. The concept of GW2 is based on changing and adding events over time(A dynamic world) to keep people interested and playing. But as long as these problems remain in the DE code base the players are going to be constantly brickwalled by a constant introduction of new progress stopping issues.
There is no ghost at Greystone(maybe you mean the one at seraph’s landing but that would be the wrong ghost). The second book is at the matyr’s tomb in the the Ruins of Holy Demetra
As a guardian the GS is a great weapon, but some bosses including the recent Mad king I swapped to Scepter and Torch, as it was more effective, and getting up close and personal was a death wish.
I took scepter in one weapon set on my guardian when I first ran MK because I didn’t know what to expect. Found that he did basically no damage outside of 3 step ‘air blade’ attack which I found has a funky hit box up close and often doesn’t hit you but either way it’s easy to dodge. I just used GS for every run with my guardian. The little mobs are more dangerous than MK.
GS on the ranger is the best AoE weapon for the ranger(although if enemies stack right bows with piercing trait are better). If you turn auto-attack off you can time the evade on the first skill to make yourself very dodge tanky.
Love the GS on Guardian and I thought mesmer GS looked boring on videos but it’s not that bad to play.
There weren’t any tips. It was just ’don’t stop moving till you hit around the middle then you can sometimes take a moment to set up a jump’. Basically a run through video with commentary
A tip would be like…at the first section where everyone has to wait for the platforms try to jump as soon as you see the platforms start to come out instead of waiting for them to come to a stop. It takes a bit of practice to know where the platforms will be but once you get it down you will consistently be ahead of everyone else at the most critical point. Only by a bit but it’s enough that you can see your char.
I saw a tip in another topic(either here or reddit) about grouping with another person and putting a mark on each other…or something.
Another tip if you are having a really hard time being the green air…stuff is switch to a class that can have passive run speed via traits(of course not everyone has that option).
My suggestions would be to reduce the lobby wait time and make everyone the same size.
I suppose removing the wait section at the start of the puzzle would work as well instead of changing sizes That’s the absolute worst part since everyone is on top of each other and you have to jump on some really painful sections with little bumps that can stop your char or kill your momentum. Not being able to see exactly where you are going to land because everyone is on top of each other is the most frustrating part.
When I went to repeat the clocktower puzzle to see what the chest would give I ended up in a ‘lobby’ with a char. The first time I learned it there were no charr in my group but even though I already learned and completed it I had a rough time due to the chars being so wide AND long(due to running with all fours). I made a remark about charrs making the puzzle hard mode and he left and it was actually a lot easier to do the start.
Talked to the new NPCs at the entrance to Wayfarer foothills and tried to join the activities but I get a connection error followed by a ‘game not fond’ error.
I think some people are confusing the issue. It’s not a question or problem of the dolyak’s being solo-able, it’s an issue about the dolyak’s being defensible.
Seems to be a cultural problem. During beta they didn’t provide detailed tooltips because they said things were changing too often. With that view of tooltips being unimportant compared to pretty much everything else when launch approached and things hit crunch time they didn’t spare the time for tooltips since they didn’t consider it that important.
There was another problem that was ignored. Not providing detailed tooltips during beta meant that no one could know what traits were suppose to be doing and so couldn’t give feedback. This resulted in the huge list of trait bugs we saw at launch in each profession forum.
Lesson learned: Tooltips serve as documentation for your testers. Follow through with your changes and update tooltips everytime you update functionality. If Anet had done that during development there would be better tested abilities and traits as well as detailed tool tips already in place.
2) Taking advantage of no queue times to get free teleports to Lion’s Arch all week. Saving that extra 3s at the end of each farming run really adds up.
Do you really not know that you can get a free port to LA anytime by going to the SPvP lobby?
The key point in WvW matchups is the first couple days. It’s makes more sense to have the first few days on the weekend with the closing day on a friday.
It seems that your proposal is more to benefit PvE than to benefit WvW
I don’t think this week had any chance to be balanced ignoring transfers. I hate to pick on GoM but they just don’t have the wvw presence NSP did.
Transfers did ruin a potential 1v1. Oh well. Credit to those transferring since you seem to know your way around WvW. Hope you plan to stay. Don’t take the grumbling too personally. It’s growing pains from not getting a balanced fight like we’ve seen the past 3 weeks. We’ll all just have to wait around a week or so to see how the next matchup will be.
Unless I missed it I don’t see them implementing the guesting system this Halloween update so we have to deal with free transfers for some time to come. It will be interesting to see who sticks around when things get tough and also who sticks around when they find themselves in the same matchups they transferred to get away from :p
Don’t burn yourself out SoR. I logged in this morning and jumped in to hear more than one commander announcing they were ready to pass out and logging.
I ended up doing this quest twice. Once on a guardian and once on an ele. It was pretty easy to AoE things down. On my ele I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t pull aggro as quickly as fire spells and I waded in to melee to auto and spin.
they said it won’t affect owners of MF gear, so I’m curious how it will work.
Oh well..