Guild Wars 2

Soul Beast
Please make Worldly Impact a Blast finisher.

Allow us to use pet combo fields (Smokescale, Fire Wyvern, etc.) after entering Beast Form. Currently, pet combo fields disappear when the pet is melded with or swapped. Which means you cannot Smoke Field → Worldly Impact.

Dagger #3 should be an evade.

This was the only elite spec I played with much. Otherwise I’d make more suggestions.

I’ll admit that when I find one that’s skilled I’m usually toast but fortunately WvW isn’t exactly filled with skilled players, myself included. Most people are mediocre at best and even more of them are greedy and push their luck chasing when they should be recovering.

Although some classes thrive more effectively in the roaming scene than others, such as Thieves primarily for their evasion and stealth, any profession can work when you have only yourself to depend on. It’s all about how well you play the field and your profession. Thief might have a lot of powerful tools at it’s disposal but I fear a good Tempest, Scrapper and Chrono a lot more than I fear a good Thief. Because those ones are hard enough to kill even if they’re bad, when they’re good, there isn’t much point in trying.

babazhook.6805:

I am of the opinion that all of these players claiming condi as OP just do not want to bother with Condition cleanse. I look at meta build where pople model many of their builds from and have looked at any number of builds offered up in various topics and virtually all of them BY CHOICE ignore condition cleanse because they want to do more damage. Condition cleanse is added as an aferthought and then complained on when their build is weak to a Condition player,

JJust as example look at meta battle and the thief builds offered there. The top rated d/p build has next to no condition cleanse. It does not even trait EA. It has no SE or trickster and uses the sigils of fire and air.

The staff build skips SA as well along with EA.

Persons playing either of these builds have absolutely no right to complain about lack of cleanses, They CHOSE to do that. They feel if they can kill en enemy faster they will not have to deal with conditions. Ok do it. You made that choice.

I can go through virtually everyone of those meta builds and see much the same across a number of professions. All classes have multiple sources of cleanses, few took more then a handful. Virtually every power build uses sigil air/fire. Where is generosity and purity and please do not give me the “we need that extra” damage line. You can do lenty of damage without.

A condition build can not face roll anybody that has a good supply of cleanses. Faceroll happnes against the people who do not care to trait for them.

Just a by the way. those condition builds also have to deal with those same conditions. How do they manage it?

I agree but unfortunately these threads come up nearly weekly from players that aren’t taking the proper tools to deal with it/don’t know how to deal with it/don’t understand it.

Conditions themselves are fine. People are always asking for nerfs to conditions. It’s not conditions that are the issue. It’s specific builds.

Condition builds need defensive stats because their damage is over time. Power builds have the advantage of instant results. Yes, I understand that condition builds are capable of doing heavy damage while maintaining high HP/armor but it’s only if a) you’re not cleansing properly/didn’t bring cleanses or b) you’re face tanking the hard hitters. The same way you shouldn’t sit in a Hundred Blades, you shouldn’t sit in a Confusing Images (the bright purple beam coming from Mesmer scepter that stacks Confusion.)

I know the people who disagree will refuse to understand the logic but for some reason I feel compelled to argue it any time it comes up.

Once upon a time way back when I started playing, I didn’t like condition builds either. They’re frustrating to fight when you don’t understand why you’re dying so quickly. It takes practice and yes, they’re harder to bring down than a glassy power build. That doesn’t mean it needs to be nerfed though.

Specific builds such as D/D condi Thief and condi bunk Chrono do need to be adjusted, however. On top of high HP/armor, they also have high damage and lots of ways to avoid damage. Something needs to be traded off and IMO, it’s their access to conditions. They can be as tanky and hard to catch as they want but they shouldn’t be able to do a heap of damage as well.

I main a vanilla condition Necromancer and that’s how condition builds should be. I have a slow wind up, I’m slow on foot – easy to kite and slow attacks. I have a ton of HP/armor but I won’t be killing anything quickly that’s prepared for me and I won’t be escaping anything once I’ve engaged. I can potentially deal a lot of damage but only if you’re either face tanking it or bad at cleansing.

Loving this weeks match-up. As a member of Dragonbrand I know we’re a quality not quantity server, we have lots of people but most are PvE’ers and don’t care much for WvW. But those of us that do are a good group and it’s nice to see us faced with such an even challenge. I sympathize for Ehmry and Crystal from last week being totally dominated, we’ve all been there. But the change from last weeks match-up is massive, no where is safe to roam alone and if you’re not careful the enemy will steal everything from under your nose.
High five for the level of skill Shiverpeaks and Yak’s have been showing us since reset. You guys are a tough bunch and I’m glad to have an even match. We all seem to be equally capable which will make for a very interesting week. I hope this continues!
Cheers guys and see you on the battlefield!

D… Does the Bristleback still evolve in to Godzilla with Signet Of The Wild? (:

Necromancer at 3.6k hours and Ranger at 3.3k.

I’m a ranged player at heart. In any game with sniper rifles or bows, that’ll be what I use. Even in the Soul series (Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, etc) I would do full runs with only bows. And those are games that aren’t effectively designed around ranged combat.

I like to depend on my own potential and no one elses and ranged classes often do that well. Observing the situation from afar and assessing how to proceed. Learning enemy weaknesses by baiting attacks and striking with force when it’s ideal.

In Guild Wars 2, the ranged class was an obvious choice for me but I stuck with it because of it’s grace. Ranger is the only class that has a real finesse to it and I enjoy the smoothness of built in evades, leaps and other mobility. Beyond that, I also love my pets, despite much of the hate they get. Both in game and IRL, I’m a very solitary person. I can be chatty, but I value my space and I often only have animals to keep me company. In GW2, my pets are my trusty companions. They don’t always behave exactly as I’d like them to but they’ve literally save my life more times than I can count. Can’t tell you how satisfying it is when someone in PvP/WvW is about to stomp me and my pet finishes them off or stops them long enough for someone to help.

As for Necromancer, I’m a die hard horror and death metal fanatic, I love dark fantasy and, well… I can an intense person, I suppose, lol. The dark caster is often my secondary choice but in GW2, for some reason I began playing it before Ranger and even stuck with it for longer. It doesn’t feel as scary or intimidating as I’d like it to but over the years I’ve become very attached to GW2’s interpretation of the Necromancer.

I love vanilla Death Shroud a lot more so than Reaper Shroud, which is something not a lot of people will say. Dark Path, Shroud skill #2, is just a very satisfying skill to land for me and I prefer most of the other skills as well.

I also love to debuff people because I’m evil and get a rise out of turning defences in to threats, lol. Corrupt Boon has been one of my favorite utility skills in the game for a very long time and I was screaming like a school girl when they buffed it. Besides that, I also just enjoy being obnoxiously difficult to kill despite not having blocks, stealth, mobility or amazing healing sustain. Proper Shroud and Life Force management is all it really takes and it’s hilariously fun sometimes to watch people get frustrated that when one health bar gets low the other is full.

Pictures of them attached below

Farzo.8410:

Probably every Thief player there is. Except all of them are Human Females with black leather underboob and blue colored haircut with the flower.

So true in every single way.

A lot of your community came to Darkhaven for some reason…

I’m just the scout/roamer/PUG that keeps up to date with the going’s on so don’t put any hate on me.

CD has lost a massive chunk of it’s population to transfers and people quitting the game all together. A lot of people have come to DH and as far as I know, others have moved places like Maguuma and SBI.

It sucks when servers fall apart, I’ve been on nearly a dozen servers and have witnessed more than my share of exodus’. Unfortunately, it’s the nature of things now and it likely won’t change until ANet steps in.

I doubt that it will help any but it’s made me sad to see the state of your server. When we first started being matched up a few months ago there were some really engaging battles. CD are one of those good servers that have a happy medium between PPT, fights, defending, roamers and guild groups. Now though there doesn’t seem to be much left and the 0 PPT that you guys were ticking the other night speaks volumes to that.

I won’t suggest that you leave your server if you care about it but know that by leaving it you’re not doing the wrong thing. Everyone deserves to have fun, it is just a game after all, so don’t punish yourself!

Hope to see you out there and sorry in advance for all the blobs…

Sincerely the [Ve] squirrel.

Let me explain in layman’s terms…

WvW is not designed with small scale in mind. Someone here has said this before and put it the best, “anything Anet can do to buff the little guy buffs the big guy more.”

You can’t reduce condition effectiveness anymore than it currently is because in zergs, they’re already a lot less dangerous than power.

On the smaller scale side of things, there are a couple builds that are overtuned. That doesn’t mean conditions as a whole are unbalanced and it doesn’t matter anyway because said builds are irrelevant in large scale. How many condition Mesmers or Thieves do you see in zergs? Not many. Necromancers are the only exception and most of those don’t roam because they’re too vulnerable to being overwhelmed.

Conditions are not dominating. Idiocy is.

Ranger is hands down the most fun profession to play. I’ve played every profession there is and I come no where near enjoying myself as much as I do on Ranger on any other profession.
They are admittedly not the most effective but in the right hands they can do great things. And personally, I’d rather have fun failing than being bored of winning.

Rangers are awesome for open world content because it’s basically autopilot. Your pet holds aggro while you snipe from a distance. Dungeons require Spotter, Frost Spirit, warhorn and greatsword or sword to provide your group with the best support, given you’re using these tools properly of course. PvP, Rangers are the underdog but certainly not “bad.” They are difficult to master but are fierce duelists and if you take the time to practice I’m sure you’ll find how powerful they can be. And in WvW they are the worst. They provide little to no group support, their roles are filled by other professions and they are easily outmatched solo. However, as I’ve said, in the right hands they can be very formidable. I’ve mained a Ranger for a long time and 90% of what I do in WvW is roam and 95% of what I do in GW2 in general is play WvW. After many, many hours getting myself in to trouble, winning or losing on a Ranger is fun any way you slice it so, I highly recommend you give it a shot. It might not be your favorite profession but I can almost guarantee you’ll at least enjoy yourself with it.

As for your questions:
Dungeons; Frost Spirit, Spotter, Healing Spring, greatsword and sword/warhorn (remember to blast finish those healing springs with warhorn!), 6/6/-/-/-, Jungle Stalker and Crimson Moa for pets (fury and might ) and most importantly remember to manage your pets! Use the passive button regularly so they don’t pull unwanted aggro.
WvW ; many viable builds however trapper has stood the test of time. I personally run full Rabid 2/6/6/ shortbow and axe/torch. Condition cleanses are important so it’s a good idea to take Empathetic Bond.
Pets; all pets are good in their own light given you manage them properly. Wolf, Krytan Drakehound, Jaguar and the Jungle Spider are the most appealing pets for their utility. However I have used each pet extensively and have found the majority of them to have use in their own way. I run with two spiders in WvW and love those girls ( : Immobs on their regular attacks make it a lot harder for people to run.

And stealth is broken against everything else. Because once you stealth, you’re 100% invisible and could be farming nodes during our fight for all I know.

Get over it.

Realist.5812:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I could do PvP if I wanted to fight other players, but I do not enjoy short matches and capturing points. I enjoy the strategy and time involved in WvW and skirmishes in the open field, but because so many people would rather run it becomes a bit frustrating. If people are so concerned with the consequences of dying in WvW they might want to try another aspect of the game… Because it’s ruining it for those of us who enjoy fighting other players. And if you want to tell me we’re ruining it for those of you who DON’T enjoy fighting other players, well… Lol, go back to carebear land.

You sound like you main thief or PU Mesmer. If that is the case, you only have yourself to blame.

Play a class that doesn’t have unlimited get out of jail free cards, and you’ll find that more people want to fight you.

Most people aren’t interested in fighting someone who’s hiding behind an uncounterable gimmick mechanic.

Throw the crutches in the bin and see how skilled you really are.

Lmfao, I play a Ranger. You’ve got nothing.

AnniMira.2506:

“critically hits you for 10,414 using [Backstab]” – I had full health.

I have lvl 80 mesmer. Full zerk – exo armor, ascended trinkets. Anything non-zerk would have less damage. Max crit hit I have done is about 2,000. How to get 10,414 in a split second with mesmer?

So far best weapon (of mesmer) against the thief is the Moa bird. But you may know how hard it is to get invisible thief as target for the whole cast time. Specially if thief surprises and instakills.

A full zerk shatter Mesmer can kitten near kill someone dead twice in one shatter.

Still didn’t kitten me off as much as their usage of the word “turtle” in the description for our new trait. Considering we’re supposed to be an attrition class and they make it sound like it’s a bad thing if we use our special mechanic. Very poor choice of words on their behalf…

Play a Poison Master Ranger and enjoy your 500 per tick Poison damage with 100% uptime.

Given the name, Reaper’s Touch, I think a decent change would be the following:

Reduce aftercast (obviously)
Remove Regeneration
Increase the stacks of Vulnerability applied per hit by 1

Rework it to behave like a mini-Gravedigger -

Since Spinal Shivers deals extra damage per boon removed, how about making Reaper’s Touch deal extra damage based on how much health the target has?

If target is at 75% health, it deals 5% extra damage
At 50%, 10% extra damage
25%, 20% extra damage
Downed, 50% extra damage

Wow ): No wonder roaming is dying alright… So many bads out there calling it quits when the going gets a little rough. Can’t insta-gib people so “nah, this game’s boring now. Things are putting up a fight.”

Go somewhere else then.

I love GS Mace/Shield and use it quite often. Hammer is however better for group fights as it’s easier to hit multiple targets with it, it has a blast finisher (Earth Shaker) and if you chain the CC’s together, which is the hammer’s strong point, it can be very deadly.

Mace is also a high skillcap weapon. Landing Skull Crack reliably takes a lot of practice where as Earth Shaker is relatively easy. Hammer is technically a better weapon utility wise but mace has it’s benefits. Honestly nothing in Gw2 feels as good to me as landing a Skull Crack on someone. I’m not sure what it is about that skill but I just feel so good every time I hit someone with it.

Assuming makes an kitten of u and me.

GROMIT.7829:

20+ stacks of Burn from a ranger ticking for almost 8k, cleared half of them and that’s down to 4k tick aaaaand oh look he reaplied it bring me back up 15+ with 6k tick and i cleared i……………..oh waitthat’s right i was dead by then coz you can;t carry that much condi cleanse and be viable vs other builds like CC based power builds.

Seriously Anet do something about conditions, if iwant to clear Burning then it should remove the entire stack.

My condi guardian can hit you for 8k burn tick on first attack then i can keep 2/3k on you at all times while still being tanky as balls, my problem is not the damage of conditions but the continual reaplication of the conditions after all condi cleanse is gone, you litterally have to stand there and just wait to die coz guess what condi builds are also more tanky than most power builds so they just laugh at you while you desperatly try to kill them before you die.

Lol, you need to stand in the firefields (Bonfire/Flame Trap) to get that many stacks on you. Even then, it’s extremely difficult to get more than 15stacks of burn with a Ranger so whoever managed to apply 20stacks to you I’d love to know their build. Don’t stand directly in the fire and you’ll be fine…

And what are you talking about by “cleared half of them”? Conditions don’t cleanse individually they cleanse the whole stack. It doesn’t matter if it’s 1 stack of burning or 100 it’s gone with one cleanse. DON’T STAND IN THE FRIGGING FIRE.

briggah.7910:

Hexalot.8194:

briggah.7910:

3.3k armor. afk in sm. no buffs. only 1 hit. hitting twice was another issue but who needs to be hit twice when 1 shot is enough to kill most squishier builds.

Guard true shot would have done the same numbers. Only thing CoR had on other classes big damage skills was the double hit (and low cd I suppose). But all that has been fixed now.

ok then true shot needs damage nerf as well..

I hit like a wet noodle on this toon since I’m sacrificing my DPS so I don’t get hit by big numbers yet still do.

Damage still needs nerf

Unfortunately I no longer have the screenshot… But I was fighting a Warrior by north SMC a week or so ago and out of no where I get hit for a 12k CoR followed by a 4k auto attack then another 10k CoR. I have 19k health on my Scrapper, you kitten well know I didn’t survive that.

The 10 and 12k CoR’s were not double hits.

BUT, this is my fault for taking no defense. I’m squishy, I should expect to be hit hard and I do expect it. Still, whether I’m prepared to take huge damage or not, that skill hits extremely hard even with high toughness. It needs to be tuned down. High damage skills should require setting up like Backstab, they shouldn’t just be a bam you’re dead thing.

When I’m in a zerg and I lose a huge chunk of my health I always know that CoR is the culprit because 90% of the time nothing else will hit me that hard. Every so often it’s a Gunflame or a Trueshot but the majority of the time it’s a CoR that’s tagging you for 8 – 12k+ in one hit.

Lol, why do people hate EOTM so much? Let the dogs have their bones… I’d rather the fairweathers farm in EOTM until their heart’s content than in my borderlands throwing random siege and pressuring the commander’s to start taking stuff instead of fighting.

Some people enjoy the more chaotic and laid back atmosphere of EOTM because they don’t have to be on teamspeak, they don’t have to be on a level 80, etc. If they think it’s fun let them have fun… You don’t see them asking for EBG and the borderlands to be removed because it’s deflating their ktrain in EOTM do you? Nope.

Also I’d much rather not have maps Q’d 24/7 because it sucks. The irony would be that people would want EOTM removed but then maps would be constantly Q’d and the remedy for maps being constantly Q’d was to create EOTM, lol. Then there’s the ridiculous suggestion that EOTM should only be available when maps are Q’d… You’re going to be going there either way then aren’t you?

So let’s just leave it alone… If you don’t like being on a low pop server, transfer. If you don’t like ktrains, don’t go to EOTM. If you don’t like PvE’rs, don’t ask for EOTM to be removed or they’ll flock to real WvW. Use your heads please. Really tired of people hating on EOTM because it’s different.

It’s like oh hey, that kid is having fun with his skateboard by riding on his belly instead of standing on it. What a freak. I’m gonna start a protest to have using your skateboard like that banned. God forbid he’s having fun in a different way than you. But oh look, now he’s using it the proper way and is following you around asking how to be a good skateboarder. Uh oh… Maybe should’ve left him alone after all.

Fact:
People are already taking EotM too seriously. It’s a frickin’ waiting room with pretty wall paper… Fight until Q is up or fight to kill time before you do something else. Don’t stress others to protect stuff or to obey the pin. It’s where people should be going to unwind not to deal with more orders.

Also, it’s kind of funny how suddenly so many people are saying there’s a problem in WvW because JQ are winning. BG’s logic: “Oh! EotM is s00per fun and kewl, bring yo friendz! :O, but JQ is winning?! HOW CAN THAT BE. WvW is brokin guise.”

Lmfao @ people saying it’s wrong. What’s wrong about it? There are plenty of revealing and over sexualized armors in this game, and this one isn’t either of those things.. I enjoy casual looking outfits and in GW2 in particular those kinds of outfits are few and far between. Everything is extremely exotic looking and it’s almost impossible to make your character look somewhat “normal.” Although that’s supposed to be the point, to have a fantasy outfit/character, etc. I still don’t always enjoy adhering to that standard.

Anyway… It’s only “wrong” if you’re in the state of mind to consider it so. It didn’t even cross my mind that it might be until multiple people here mentioned it… Which only leads me to believe the ones who have have a very dirty mind. Don’t project your perverted thoughts on to everyone else, some of us enjoy this outfit because it’s cute not because it can be seen as “wrong.”

I see it like this; EOTM’s score counts towards nothing, therefore playing it competitively is pointless. Since the vast majority of people go to EOTM to level alts, bag farming in EOTM is cheesy. Yes, all colours will have uplevels in their blobs, but the blobs that are actively bag farming often have the advantage via element of surprise and greater map awareness. If you want to bag farm, you should do it in actual WvW where your bags will put up a fight rather than melt within 3seconds of engaging them.

It makes sense to farm bags in EOTM because it’s easy but it also seems cheesy and mildly rude to me. Again, just how I see it, but everyone knows that EOTM is generally an alt leveling k-train map. All you’re really doing is upsetting people who want to relax, get loot and level alts by trolling their zergs. Yes, EOTM is WvW which means you know the risks you take when you enter it so you can’t say “don’t farm us” because that’s just a part of WvW.

Still, I think it’s best to have a balance of the two rather than focusing strictly on one or the other. When I command, I always do what I can to get the best of both worlds. I don’t hunt for other zergs but I won’t avoid them either. If I see an opportunity to wipe an offending zerg, I will, but I won’t chase them around the map. It just seems like the best way to do it to me as it keeps morale high given you wipe the other colours a few times and it gets people their karma/loot.

tldr; Farming strictly bags is kind of jerk-y because you know that most people are there to level or do casual farming and farming strictly karma gets boring, fast, and kind of kills the spirit of WvW. It’s best to do a bit of both rather than one or the other that way everyone is happy, not just your own colour but the others as well because they’re not being harassed.

Birds, felines and spiders -> High DPS, high maintenance.

Spiders, drakes, canines and moas -> Moderate – high DPS, moderate maintenance.

Moas, porcine, bears and devourers -> Moderate – low DPS, low maintenance.

Spiders, drakes and canines are our best species for a plethora of purposes. Felines are primarily for DPS and Moa’s have their uses for F2 ability as well as their “Harmonic Cry” skill which can heal you for around 3k.

Spiders, drakes and canines are versatile, have good utility, are relatively durable and have good – great skills of their own such as the spider’s immobilize and the canine’s knockdowns.

Drakes are our only pets with cleave, they have the highest precision and are quite reliable for blast finishers. They do good DPS, not high but plenty acceptable and are very tanky. Drakes are our most well rounded species and personally anyway, I recommend every Ranger to have one as their secondary pet. That’s just IMO though.

If you want to be really annoying in PvP, take Wolf and Pink Moa. You can chain CC people while in downed state for lulz and they also synergize quite well with each other.

Best pets: Jaguar, Jungle Spider, River Drake, Wolf, Krytan Drake Hound, Raven, Pink Moa, Siamoth.

Jellyfish or drakes for anything underwater

Mikau.6920:

Again. This is frustrating. They don’t only took every thing, but WP EVERYTHING.

Looks eerily similar to what we did on Halloween on SFR

VunDola.7596:

It might be important to note that this aspect is also applicable in zerg/guild raids in wvw due to the fact that you often focus target on one or two targets. If the targets were using kodan tonic and dodged, you would put your skill on full cd instead of stowing it.

These small things sound like they don’t really matter but sometimes fights can be won or lost due to these things. If they continue with this trend of adding combat tonics and in the worse case scenario just use basic animations (see lowest quality character model animations) this means that no combat animations would be distinct and the level of skill in wvw would drop dramatically.

I don’t see how it matters that the dodges aren’t visible when stealth already exists. You have plenty of things that can hit you from stealth, which means you can’t see them coming, only predict.

Kodan tonic has all the animations and they’re even larger than normal making it easier to fight. The dodge has just turned in to a quick step instead of a roll which is more difficult to read but no harder to predict.

I don’t think it needs to be disallowed when it has only one small issue that some players are making a big deal out of because they’ll blame anything instead of themselves for a loss.

Yep.. Honestly I’ve always loved my pets. They could definitely use some work here and there but I’m happy with them being a part of our profession. All the pet haters aren’t real Rangers (:

My drake rarely gets any good hits because of how slow she is but dat cleave… Friggin’ awesome for flipping camps.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Capes? Yeap, not a problem.

Nearly topless Marvel heroes/Avatars? Sure, here you go.

Outfits of executioners with skulls and axes designed to chop off victim’s heads? Come on, that’s just a game!

School uniform? OHMYGAWDNO-WRONGMESSAGE-YOUPERVERTSGOTOJAIL!!!!111

/shrug

^ This.

Rangers are hated for two main reasons:
They draw the worst community of players
and because they have drawn the worst community from day one, people have become used to this assumption therefore if you’re a Ranger you’re automatically bad/useless even if that’s not always the case (although 99% of the time it is.)

I disagree completely that anything the Ranger can do another profession can do better. Although yes, Rangers are lacking in some key areas, that doesn’t make them useless it just means the player behind them has to learn not to neglect the weaknesses and to overcome them.
I have fought many people on my Ranger 1v1 as well as 1v2 and come out the victor. Although it can be a struggle where as on a Warrior or Thief it might not, that doesn’t mean the victory was in vain. I didn’t spam a single attack (Earthshaker/Heartseeker) and I didn’t either facetank everything or spend 90% of my time in stealth where I’m virtually (let me stress virtually for those who play Thief and will freak out to defend this) invincible because all they need to do is side-step attacks and their opponents would be none the wiser.
As a Ranger you need to be constantly aware of your position. And it should be the main thing on your mind when in combat.
Position
If you’re not paying attention to where you’re standing you’re going to get facerolled. And this is why so many Rangers get spiked within 5 seconds of combat. When in ZvZ, duels or roaming, or what ever form of battle I’m in as I enjoy all roles in WvW, I’m always thinking about where I’m standing or where the best place to stand would be. They should be treated like a sniper not a heavy machine-gunner. If I get on a nice hill when zergs clash I can pick people off all day long. Just yesterday in blue keep I was standing on the dome above lord and with max range when the other server broke through I sat up there just watching bags pile around my feet. 3.5k + at make range with Long Range Shot on a squishy enemy… Lol. One Rapid Fire with every arrow hitting, which uninturruped from a good position isn’t hard to pull off, can take half someones health bar out easily.

Ranger’s aren’t useless… If you’re going to war you’re going to want one or two snipers with you to pick off the stragglers. The people behind the Rangers are the useless ones… They’re the ones standing with people 5 feet infront of them and they’re not even looking down their scope.

So although yes; they are lacking in certain areas.
Yes if there are too many in a group they will become more of a burden than a help.
And yes the majority of them are bad players. -
It doesn’t mean they’re all useless it just means you need to try a bit harder to recognize which ones are using the profession properly.

And for the record, if what a Ranger can do any other profession can do better… I feel sorry for all the Longbow Warriors I’ve killed pretending to be a Ranger.

In terms of WvW/PvP, I think this is fairly accurate.

You’re making us Necro’s look bad… Then, pretty much every Necro does though. Seems to be a niche for us, crying about everything and taking out our frustrations on other professions.

Berserker is strong. But it doesn’t add anything new and a lot of the burst skills are extremely weak. Sure, you can spam them a lot but they’re hardly worth using in the first place. All Berserker really does is make you want to save your adrenaline instead of spending it since you have to build it to full to enter Beserker mode and saving adrenaline isn’t always a good idea… In fact most times it’s not. It’s nearly the same idea as only entering Death Shroud when it’s 100%.

We got a lot of firefields and there are certainly some nice additions with Berserker. Still, it’s not exceptionally powerful like Chronomancer and most of what it adds are incredibly lackluster. Honestly the only things to write home about are Headbutt, Skullgrinder and Outrage.

As someone who is a big fan of customization I like this idea but at the same time I don’t. I feel it would spawn a whole new era of troll builds that would make the game a lot less enjoyable for those of us who like to PvP. However, something I think they SHOULD look in to relating to this freedom of choice subject is allowing all classes to wear all types of armor. I get that some classes are light, medium or heavy and why, but what if we want to make a tanky caster or a nimble warrior? Although I’m sure the latter would be a lot less common I’d bet it’d still be done from time to time. Or, if that idea isn’t viable… At least let all classes able to transmute their gears appearance regardless of their vocation. eg. If I were a Guardian and wanted the light class style of the Twilight Arbor, I wouldn’t be able to WEAR that gear, but I would be able to transmute my current gear with it’s appearance.

Lahmia.2193:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Crinn.7864:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Crinn.7864:

DS 2, 4, and 5 need to be reworked. None of them are even worth the time it takes to cast them.

2 isnt bad

DS 2 is bad on anything that isn’t a Core NPC mob.

It’s connection rate is horrendous, and the projectile is so slow as to make the value of the teleport questionable.

Honestly the connection rate is much better than rs2. I would say i hit close to 100% of ds2 when i played pre hot

Agreed. While rs2 is far better as a gap closer for general use, it has a habit of shooting off in random directions at times. The speed on ds 2 could be improved though.

Properly using it is all it takes. I would love to see the velocity increased but the fact that it’s unblockable and applies Chill is really nice. Can’t tell you how many times in a day it allows me to win my fights against Dragonhunter’s or Warriors by keeping me on top of them when they want me to stay away.

Overall, Necromancer is, obviously, much weaker than Reaper, but it’s not terrible. It just takes a bit more discipline. And I still love vanilla Necro dearly.

Currently on GoM ( was on DH for the longest time. <- Carmen Stacy if anyone remembers me o/ ) and I certainly agree.

Although I’m finding the fights relatively fun, it’s still very clear that the coverage is in favor of the quad server.

The main issue I saw coming as soon as I saw that four servers would be paired together is that one server’s down time would be anothers prime time. They never sleep or die down because there are too many communities mixed together. It makes it impossible for the rest of us to compete, even if we can manage fight them when our servers are awake.

I’m not horribly upset or on the verge of quitting WvW by any means. I’ve been through much worse match ups. That said, it is still extremely unbalanced and I’d like to not see quad servers in the future… Aside from their total lack of discipline, they could probably compete in T2 with the coverage that they have.

I have seen this complaint many times in the past and although yes I totally understand why people have a problem with it there is a purpose behind it.

Warriors are supposed to be the melee profession which is why all of their ranged (Longbow, Rifle, Harpoon Gun) weapons are few and pretty mediocre. Warriors also don’t use any real form of “magic” and are strictly sweat and steel. Without high mobility it would be nearly impossible for a Warrior to effectively stay on their target. Just look at power Necro’s for an idea. Imagine if they didn’t have Dark Path (teleport) or Life Blast (Death Shroud ranged AA). They’d pretty much be forced to use Axe no matter what because it’s their only somewhat ranged weapon and it’d be the only way for them to ever hit a target. Warrior’s are in a similar position. Their weapons give them the mobility necessary to stick on top of people to deal damage, without it, they would simply be too easy to kite.

The unfortunate downside for opponents is that the mobility needed for a Warrior to attack his or her enemies can also be used to run away. The same can be said for various other professions however such as Thief and their shortbow, Ranger and their sword/greatsword and Engineer and their Slick Shoes, Rocket Boots and Juggernaut (elite).

As someone who has played Ranger for a very long time, I think it deserves a bit of a toning down. Not much… I’m not talking 50% reduced damage or something but maybe like 15% and make it easier to dodge or something. Otherwise, this pet is how all pets should be… It can actually hit moving targets and has an amazing attack pattern on it.

I actually totally understand why people are upset with it but to be fair, I think a lot of it is also because people completely neglect the pet when fighting a Ranger. Most pets don’t do a lot of damage or rarely hit… With birds, felines and now Smokeskale, you actually need to pay attention to where the pet is because it can hit like a train if the Ranger wants it to. It’s the same idea as Mesmer clones really… You don’t just ignore an iZerker and you shouldn’t a Ranger pet either.

As a few others have said, Necro’s don’t stack well. Neither do Thieves or Warriors.

Necromancer has access to a lot of different conditions and can apply some heavy condition pressure. However, Necromancer is also slow and often times, unless they are very wise with their condition application, their burst would be far out done by an Engineer, Mesmer or Thief which can apply 8 – 10+ conditions almost instantly then CC you to make sure you can’t cleanse it.

Necro is more about wearing you down. We can maintain conditions on you better than the aforementioned professions which means you can’t plan to play attrition with the master of attrition. You need to either be aggressive, pressure the Necro immediately and avoid feeding their Life Force. Or, gank them. Necro is supposed to be difficult to deal with 1v1. Especially if there’s more than one attacking you, you shouldn’t expect to have an easy time.

Best tip I can give is what I already said. Don’t try to play attrition with the master of attrition. Anything with high damage output keeps me defensive or kills me pretty swiftly no matter what build I’m running on my Necro. I’m simply too slow and need too much time to build up my strength before I can really be a threat. You only die if you let me linger. Blind, blind and more blind. If core Necro, try to stay directly on top of the Necro. If Reaper, kite, kite, kite.

Pulsing Blind with every tick of damage it does sounds like a good enough change to me. Would be impossible to cleanse due to the pulsing (like standing in a Thief’s Black Powder) and would be great for ensuring melee safety.

DBL is going to happen eventually whether we like it or not, ANet has already decided it. It’s like playing rock, paper, scissors with someone and saying “re-do” every time you lose.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Given what we’ve seen from today’s stream, Scourge barriers need MASSIVE buffs if they are going to survive at all in PvP.

Agreed. I suppose we’ll see in a few hours when the beta goes live but after watching the demos, I got very nervous.

Barrier sounds like a more properly thought out Shroud but it’s rate of decay and how much you can apply without investment seem borderline novelty.

I understand that Anet want you to invest in something to get good usage out of Barrier but they can’t have it so that with no investment, your Barrier is effectively useless. I say that because Necromancer (and Scourge) lack what it takes to survive without Shroud/Barrier. They can’t just make us naked of defences with 2 dodges if we choose to go for an offensive Scourge build… It would be like a Berserker Reaper with no Shroud. We don’t have the tools to survive like that.

So I seriously hope that Barrier is better than what it looks or that, as you’ve said, sees some huge buffs.

Very nice. Certainly better than the last Reaper v Chrono video that was on here, lol.

Wish you had left the in-game sounds in though. I don’t like Mesmer but I almost want to make one just for the sound effects that Chrono has. I absolutely love what they did with the skill FX for that specialization.

blitzkrieg.2451:

Ranger lacks depth compared to most classes, sorry but it’s the truth. With this lack of depth comes a lack of skill ceiling

Not feeling that.

Although Ranger is an easy class to pick up, like Necromancer and Warrior, it also has a very steep learning curve once you out-grow the idea that it’s an archer.

There are plenty of quirks to learn with the Ranger and many of them come from evade frames, pet animations and manipulating/coordinating with pet AI.

While I do agree that it’s an easy enough class to play, I very much disagree that it has a low skill ceiling. I’ve seen enough Rangers that are truly skilled with the profession to know that it has lots of potential if you’re willing to learn it. Working with your pets rather than loathing them is one of the keys to unlocking that potential.

As I’d said in an earlier comment, I fully understand why many players dislike their pets or why they want the option to permanently stow them. I don’t think these wishes are unreasonable but I do think that a lot of these players aren’t bothering to understand their pets and just want to get rid of them. If that’s the case, other posters here have already covered the options available to you and have stated that permanently stowing would require basically a whole new profession. You really can’t just go; pets are permanently stowed → get buffs across the board to compensate. You know how OP longbow would be if it got a + 30% damage buff (pets being 30% of our damage)? I can currently hit players for 4 – 5k auto attacks with my build. That means I’d probably be two shotting people doing something like 8k Long Range Shots and 30k Rapid Fires.

Say what you will but if we got the damage to compensate for our pets being permanently stowed, we’d probably be hitting like Warriors. In which case why not just play one.

I advise everyone not to take the OP seriously. This is another of many similar complaints from other individuals that demand things without considering any variables.

There are some professions/builds that do have a lot of mobility but honestly, I’ve never had a problem with this or found it to be game breaking. Kiting is a legitimate strategy. Resetting is a strategy as well but I’ll have to agree that it’s an obnoxious one. You just need to learn how to predict when people are going to attempt to run away so you can lock them down before they get the chance.

Also note that when someone resets, in most cases, it’s a better idea to run away as well. If I’m fighting a Thief and they run off to reset, I’m not going to chase them, I’m going to get the hell out of there, too. Why? Because I probably have major skills on cooldown, they may be baiting me to a location more to their advantage, and they could potentially be buying time until they get allied support.

Don’t blindly give chase to people who completely disengage or you’re giving them the advantage of what ever terrain they might consider works best for them. I use this on people all the time by poking them, baiting them out of their comfort zone and turning to fight when they realize they’ve gone too far.

Klipso.8653:

We are not debating which is stronger. Condi wins with far less effort.

I am suggesting a way to balance the field

No, actually, power builds in many cases are much easier.

Let me quote one of my posts from one of the many hundreds of threads complaining about conditions:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Conditions aren’t magically applied. They have cast times, cooldowns and counters just like power attacks do. The issue is that people want to tank all of it and faceroll their keyboards like they do with their perma-blocking free-casting massive damage Dragonhunters or stance + high Adrenal Health uptime Berserkers.

There are a lot more power builds that are far more broken than most condition builds and are a lot easier to play. Being glassy doesn’t mean “risky” when the fight doesn’t last long enough for risk to come in to effect. Gunflame Warrior is a perfect example, it’s a gimmick but it works in most circumstances because you can 1 – 2 shot people. What are you risking if people are dead before they can retaliate? Not only that, toughness is pretty much irrelevant at this point in GW2’s life with how insanely high power damage is. My Necro has 3.3k armor and I still get slugged for 7 – 8k at times, usually by Thieves.

NekoNoKoi.9137:

flow.6043:

NekoNoKoi.9137:

I’m guessing you don’t play necro. That, or you’ve managed to find yourself some seriously garbage-tier thieves. Congrats.

Or third option: I’ve been playing necro for a long time and I actually know what I’m talking about.

It’s almost akin to saying that AP and skill have a direct correlation. To an extent they do, but not entirely. To be honest I’m not entirely sure if you’re trolling or not, but then again I’ve met some very interesting people on these forums, so someone thinking that a necro will have the upper hand over a thief on an even skill level fight doesn’t even surprise me anymore.

Actually, no, wait, you’re right. I can see a new playing trying out necro likely winning vs a new player trying out thief, at least until the thief learns how stealth and dodges work.

Flow knows what he’s talking about, and one of the few Necro’s I’ve spoken with that actually knows how to use Life Force. Which is a depressingly rare find even among people who have played thousands of hours on Necro.

I’m not sure that I 100% agree about Necro having the upper hand against a Thief but I do agree that it’s far less of a one sided thing than some people seem to think.

I also absolutely agree that OP was asking for advice and people basically saying just give up because you won’t win, isn’t true and isn’t going to help. There’s nothing in this game, at least as far as I’m concerned, that 100% hard counters something else. Some fights will be in favor of one thing and not in favor of another but there’s nothing that you just plain won’t beat no matter how good you are.

@ OP, patience is key. When fighting a Thief, don’t spam attacks or go full offensive. Be reactive, study them and save your attacks for openings. Necromancer is slow but it hits like a train, Thief is going to be in a world of hurt with that tiny HP pool if you catch them between their stealths and evades. It’s easier said than done, I know, but in a 1v1, you can afford more mistakes than they can.

Also important to note that Thieves, despite how slippery they are, have very distinct tells and a number of animation lock attacks such as the end of Vault or the beginning of Heartseeker. Learn how to exploit those openings!

One of the best tricks I’ve learned is to counterpressure their heal. This works best against Thieves because much of the time, they use their heal to top off rather than to recover from big hits. After they’ve healed, lay the hurt on them and watch them run for the hills.

Thieves, Mesmers and Engineers are the three classes that perform the best if their maximum potential is reached. They all have amazingly powerful skills that many players won’t ever master. None of these classes are OP, they’re just highly rewarding when their codes have been cracked. You’ll know if you meet one of these, trust me.

I just want to point out that most of those conditions came from a Mesmer before I start the following rant.

By no means do I always make the right decisions but I do practice, observe and think on things that are giving me or others trouble before making a statement about balance. I don’t care if I absolutely hate something or if I absolutely love it. My opinion isn’t what matters, it’s whether the skill/trait/rune/etc. etc. are performing properly or not. If after practicing and observing I still find something to be over powered, then I will discuss it with others to see how they feel about the matter. And from there, depending on the people, we hopefully have a reasonable discussion about ways to balance it without putting personal emotions first.

I know I’ll get blasted for saying the following but yes, I do play a lot of Necromancer. In fact, it’s the class I’ve played the most of but I don’t consider it my main. I rotate between all of my characters evenly, though my Necromancer is the oldest. Still, I feel it’s valid to say this before I continue.

Epidemic does need to be adjusted, but not in many of the ways people suggest. What I would consider to be reasonable adjustments are:

• Reduce the radius to 240. It is currently twice the size of Meteor Shower and that’s massive.

• Reduce range to 900. Necromancers don’t have the ability to take the kind of beating that a Guardian or a Warrior can when being hit by the full force of a melee train. Reducing the range would add a risk/reward factor. Risk getting pulled → blobbed to land a good Epi or stand back and only get small ones.

• Disallow it from working on high health NPC’s and siege. It was a nice change allowing conditions to affect siege but it inadvertently gave Epidemic a massive buff. Transferring conditions from siege/NPC’s allows for the kind of one-shot condition nukes you’ll see in videos like what has been posted in separate threads on this forum.

All of these are fair adjustments that wouldn’t remove Epidemic from the meta, but would greatly alleviate some of the pressure that people are feeling.

As a final note, though to some it will be the information they try to use against me in the Epidemic torch and pitch fork brigade… I’d like to add that all of my characters are vanilla builds (Necromancer, Ranger, Warrior, Engineer), I rarely/never use Teamspeak, I rarely/never am in the zerging squad and I rarely/never use proper zerging builds. I still frontline, I still save people who have downed, I still survive longer than many people who are in squad/TS/with a proper build and yet I have impaired motor skills, play with backwards keybinds and don’t use a mouse… I feel that a great deal of the complaints about Epidemic are people coming out of the woodwork because they’re too lazy to, well… Git gud… Because with all those disadvantages, I still manage to do just fine and to almost never get hit by Epidemic bombs. In fact, I die a whole hell of a lot more to pulls, random CC, lag and 10K CoR’s, Gunflames, Trueshots, Meteor Showers, etc. So maybe… Just maybe people need to learn to cleanse better and to position better and to pay attention… Because without skills like Epidemic that break apart the tank meta, fights will never end.

Here are the Engineer and Scrapper POV’s from the Vale Guardian kill that OP is talking about:

Engineer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8AKNIO_q2Q&feature=youtu.be

Scrapper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFAS7jPwPKk&feature=youtu.be

I’m not sure that our DPS is as terrible as OP makes it out to be but I do also wish that the people in this thread would stop bashing OP having apparently also never seen the videos. Maybe do some research before screaming “YOU’RE WRONG GRAVEDIGGER SPAM IS SO OP.”

It varies depending on your tier. Most people who continue to roam are one of a few things; Patient, not sore losers, extremely stubborn, or lazy and running carry builds.

Since the powercreep with the release of HoT, everyone has gotten “better” because of how effective elite specs are. As players, many people have gotten worse, as the OP has covered. If you’re not using an elite spec or at the very least, a meta build, you’ll be at a huge disadvantage in 90% of your encounters and will be fighting mechanics and not people.

Roaming used to be a lot more complex than just fighting other players, however. Once upon a time, solo roaming could mean; taking towers, contesting keep waypoints/contesting objectives, capturing supply camps and protecting them until they upgraded, killing dolyaks, killing structure siege (cannons, AC’s, mortars, etc.) and so on. Most people will only fight and flip sentrys now with structure contesting usually being accidental.

This is largely because of the defensive upgrades to objectives making them take far too long to capture and being constantly marked on the map becoming a beacon for everyone to see.

The video is a relatively good example of what roaming has become, at least in that tier; Fight bads -> eventually get ganked. If you want to be a little more specific; Fight bads, reset -> chase person(s) trying to reset -> reset -> eventually get ganked. Not very complicated and usually not very rewarding. Most classes have so many ways to disengage or completely recover that it has become very literally like chasing a squirrel.

Personally, I enjoyed contributing to my server in more ways than killing other players when it used to be an option. I’ve always loved fights but I also have always preferred to contribute in more meaningful ways on a solo-level. I miss the days where our zergs would be off fighting/defending somewhere while I pumped our score a bit by soloing things, keeping waypoints contested, defending camps and chasing down the zerglings trying to rejoin their fight. Now, most of what I do is stalk blobs and kill the ones that are too slow to keep up. As exciting as it can be at times (no sarcasm intended) it gets boring doing only that.

I respect the people who persist and continue to roam despite the abysmal state of it. I’ve long since retired and am quite simply, a sore-loser, who’s sick of being zerged everytime she tries to do something other than chasing the zerg.

Also @ mordran: Just because OP is a Druid does not mean she is using the meta carry build and by watching the video you can clearly see that.

I hate the meta Druid as much as the next person but that doesn’t mean the profession as a whole is a problem. There are certain traits/utilities/stats that are problematic, not professions entirely.