Guild Wars 2

Wow, you guys are total whiners. While these changes are insignificant for our class, it does deliver a solid nerf to both the thief and the mesmer, which will help us out in pvp. If that doesn’t cut it for you, just play something else until they fix the ranger. Personally I’ve leveled 3 other characters to 80 since the shortbow nerf (crafting ftw!).

“The problems are deeper, in pets ability to hit moving targets, trait lines with not enough viable choices and skills that are often too specialized to really compliment the weapon builds. "

If he would just modify that statement to say “pets AND rangers ability to hit moving targets” I’d say he’s pretty much spot on. And while that’s may not be comforting to the more serious crybabies out there, it is for me. Clearly they agree that the ranger is in a bad place, and we’ll get out love eventually.

I like my ranger as well because of it’s relatively simple and straight forward (ranged) playing style. I definitely think the Ranger is relatively weak (in pvp) compared to other classes however, and lately I have mostly been playing mesmer, engineer and thief. They all feel much stronger and more “finished”.

Pets will continue to be useless in pvp until their hp is dramatically increased and they are given the ability to attack moving targets.

tOss.9024:

This type of whining is, sadly, part of the standard of mmo PvP these days.

Because all balance complaints are always wrong and every mmo is perfectly balanced out the door.. Oh wait.

Just came out of a sPvP game with 9 thieves..

Frankly I am at the point where I’m just gonna play something else until they are brought down to earth.. I’ve seen 6k steals, 9k CnDs and 17k backstabs and 7,5k heartseekers.. And yes, I run a pure dps build, but no, that doesn’t make it ok. Even if other dps classes were able to do the same type of damage, which they don’t by a long shot, it wouldn’t be ok. And no, the solution is not that everyone but thieves have to run bunker builds.

Starting to get pretty sick of this mesmer/thief zergfest myself tbh.. Any moron can pick up a Thief and be doing 20k 2 second bursts within minutes. It’s completely broken and sucks all the enjoyment out of the sPvP for me at least. Mesmers are annoying as hell, but at least you can fight back or try to run away from those guys.

Cloak & Dagger + Steal + Backstab = profit

The fact that people make topics like this is a clear indication that the thief will be nerfed again.

Noone likes insta-gibbing. You can wrap it up in as much L2P bullkitten as you want. Fact remains; when you die feeling like you could have done nothing to prevent or influence the outcome of the fight, that’s just poor design. And not fun.

I also find it very strange that they don’t have a simple /duel option in game.

pandemos.3497:

They’re all “viable”… though I have my own personal preferences.

I am sure they are all viable.. I just haven’t found any pure ranged, no-pets builds yet that seem good enough for sPvP. Hopefully there is one (or several) that someone here can point out for me.

mulch.2586:

Something makes me think any profession you try will be below average performance.

That’s incredibly helpful and insightful! Thank you! Something makes me think you’re a clueless douchébag.

wauwi.9162:

your enemy can’t dodge them endlessly (2 times and he have to regain endurance w/o buffs/skills)

That’s the thing, they don’t have to use the evade skill at all. A gentle tapping of “a” and “d” to strafe back and forth a little bit is sufficient to evade nearly 100% of a rangers attack if the distance is more then 600-700ish. Unlike a rifles attack, which can not be dodged in this manner at all. In my opinion this seems pretty broken.

Arius.7031:

Mesmer is perfectly viable for range with Greatsword. You don’t need Illusions or shattering in order to dish out strong damage

Thanks, I’ll look into that. I did try a phantasm based dmg build a little while, which seemed decent. Still not to fond of the whole “pet” thing, but I’ll give a greatsword build a go.

Sokar Rostau.7316:

A lot of people seem to be throwing around the word “viable” of late, especially in relation to Rangers, but I don’t think many seem to know it’s meaning: “capable of working successfully”.

LB/SB Ranger is not only viable it is effective…

This is what I have been playing lately, and while I agree it’s likely a good WvW setup, I am still not convinced it’s viable (and yes I know what it means) in a competetive sPvP setting.

I’ve been playing quite a bit since launch, my main being a ranger. However, after all this time I still haven’t been able to find a class I am really comfortable with. In every mmo since EQ1 I’ve played straight forward ranged dps classes. In this game however, there always seems to be some kind of compromise or drawback I don’t like.

Rangers main issues; I don’t want to depend on pets, especially ones that are borderline useless in pvp (low health, pathing issues, slow attack animations). Plus arrows can be dodged easily, unlike rifles. You also need to be flanking to do damage, which is difficult in a 1on1 situation.

I tried the warrior, and while it seems to have way higher burst then a Ranger, their sustained damage does not seem to be viable as a pure ranged class.

I tried Engineer rifle, and I am not really sure this is even a ranged option as pretty much only the auto-attack has any range worth mentioning. (Grenades are fun, but I doubt they are viable in sPvP..?)

Elementalists are interesting, but the damage seems subpar in every build I tried. The ackward mechanic of constantly having to change attunement also annoyed me somewhat. Possible L2P issue admittedly, but unimpressive so far at least.

Anyone?

Please give us the option to move buttons around on our hotkey bars, or at the very least give us character specific rebinds. Thank you.