Guild Wars 2

I’ll start by saying what changes there were for the Ranger were great. Good on you, Irenio for some of the Shout reworks and buffs to traits. I’m not sure about other Rangers, but I felt as though other small adjustments could have been made elsewhere that would have had a significant, and beneficial impact. I’ll elaborate.

Main-Hand Axe After-Casts
I was surprised “Throw Axe” on Warrior had the after-cast delay reduced by 0.5s while the Ranger main-hand axe received not a single after-cast delay reduction, even though both the Warrior “Throw Axe” and Ranger “Ricochet” (A1) & “Winter’s Bite” (A3) [used] to share the same drawbacks.

I would propose equal treatment for Quality of Life of having Ricochet, Splitblade, and Winter’s Bite have the same amount of after-cast delay reduced, or some after-cast if not 0.5s of it.

Light On Your Feet
Is there a reason why evasion will not be added in order to proc this effect? There is built in evasion for many of our weapons (sword, greatsword, shortbow) that would have further synergy with this trait.

On a side note, the extra condition duration is weak. Could that be changed to condition damage instead so it can further rival Quickdraw to amplify the Ranger playstyle of constant damage vs a utility/burst trait?

Shortbow
Nothing on Shortbow was touched. This is one of the most, if not the most, under-powered weapons of the Ranger. For years, there was a suggestion by the Ranger community on countless occasions of adding smart, and active play to “Concussion Shot” (SB5) by inflicting Confusion when successfully interrupting a foe.

This, in turn, would add to the utility and damage of the Shortbow’s skirmishing playstyle, alongside the already unique flanking criteria of certain moves within the set. I would hope that this would be considered in the next balance update to place Shortbow in a higher relevance in the future, even if it is just a hair higher than it is currently.

Sic ’Em! Unchanged
With the shout reworks, I was hoping “Sic ’Em!” could use some improvement. There were some fine suggestions in the past for this shout, ranging from the pet shadow-stepping to the target (like a skill in GW1) or having the pet reveal enemies around it if the utility were to trigger on activation or reveal enemies in an area if changed to be a ground-target.

However, Sic ‘Em! remains unchanged and the only utility skill across all professions that is a preventative measure against stealth vs an active reveal. Why wasn’t this looked at or changed for something more practical? Even if it was to apply an AOE reveal, the reveal duration could be reduced from 6s down to 4s to compensate depending on the radius and potency.

Some of the Less Used Traits are Hurting More
I’m grateful for the buffs on some traits. Increases to Predator’s Onslaught, Hidden Barbs, and even Primal Reflexes were a nice touch. I cannot thank you enough for those. However, the already weak traits are now even weaker in comparison.

I’m surprised that traits such as Predator’s Instinct wasn’t touched at all. Not even an interval added to ensure it can apply on multiple opponents with their own ICD to make this effective in group fights. What’s even more daunting is the push to make Most Dangerous Game relevant with the change to “Guard!” and its cooldown.

So, now the combo of killing your pet for more Might and being able to linger under 50% (along with any of the other health threshold traits) is a potential combo. It’s interesting, I’ll give it that much, but why wasn’t the simple and effective solution of pulsing Fury (even for 1s) added to this formerly-planned Adept trait knee-jerked into the GM tier?

There was and still is, so much talk of synergy, and for a trait placed so high, there is so little of it. Having synergy with Remorseless would truly make it Most Dangerous during a Game (match).

Again, I really like and appreciate the current changes. You’re our (Ranger) guy, Irenio. Thanks for the work you have done. Hopefully, these points may be touched upon later balance updates. Cheers.

/rant

Excuse us. ‘Salty’ is someone reporting another player because they lost to that player in PvP. So Leeto’s opinion is therefore nullified. As far as why ‘every ranger uses bristleback and smokescale’, that’s because the other pets truly suck in comparison.

Too busy chasing around players and not hitting squat. Sorry if two of the new pets manage to land hits like all pets are supposed to.

I know it must be hard dealing with rangers and druids who know what they’re doing.

Our apologies.

AivenPrimus.9184:

And this is exactly what, salty druid player would say…

All players get salty one time or another and this isn’t unique to the Druid. So not cool.

Ever since HoT came, PvP has been going deeper into kitten,
and ’’balance’’ patches becomes even more ridiculous every time.

Not just a Druid issue although we probably had the quickest and fastest changes than any other class. Ever take a step back and think about how many beta weekends Druids got compared to other classes? And then some of those “other” classes had more and are more unbalanced. So pot meet kettle.

They are complete joke in PvP,
just like cancer druids who require little to no skill to be decent, since all you have to do is AFK heal while your Bristleback/Smokescale shreds every enemy…

No skill – ok. I guess the Revenant takes all kinds of skill to master, or the Mesmer, or diamond skin ele, or any other class.

Sure, most Rangers or Druids are running bristleback and smokescale. What of it? I was running a bear yesterday and was called a farmer…go figure. Issue is just depends on what people are doing. Guess what, you can’t ignore the pet anymore but that doesn’t mean the druid can go afk, the pet still has to be managed for optimum dps.

This is generalization but of the few diamond druids I’ve seen I’ve asked them all what class they played through the various PvP games. Only 1 that I’ve asked said they played their druid. Everyone else ele, rev, with one shocking me saying they actually preferred Guardians…go figure.

Tragic Positive.9356:

it’s bearable.

I sincerely don’t understand why some folks feel the need to dictate how others play.

If it’s not interrupting your game play, then why even bother with duellers? Let them be.

You certainly can no longer argue they’re “taking up valuable map space” now.

FrouFrou.4958:

Malkom.5607:

so glad I asked for help – last year when our guild went, then Alpine Borderlands went, it seems like a depression set in – now something to aim for. Perhaps might even look for a guild.

Not sure which server you are in, but most servers do have a community guild you can join. It’s a bit softer landing than trying to figure out things on your own and helps you to find like-minded people to play with.

Thank you, I’m on Fissure of Woe Tier 8 and luckily I’ve had a few nice guild invites – a nice one since this thread started. I was hoping our old guild might re-activate but think with members’ real life changes, plus Desert Borderlands and some other game issues that guild won’t be re-activating any time soon, perhaps never.

Apart from being a ‘Clicker’, think the root of my problems was a terribly unbalanced game play – unlike most other players I rarely looked at my character stats. When I did login, it was straight into WvW with zero time spent on character development such as armour, weapons, crafting or even practicing how to fight.
Clearly I got lazy, had information overload, and because I couldn’t understand traits, skills, build or even opponents classes, the fun option was just to play WvW.

These posts have completely changed everything for me, from keyboard usage to character development – this game is fantastic now with many more things to do – and after just a few hours i’m a wiser better player than before – still below average but getting better

By the way, just been into Heart of Mists and found those NPCs – got downed by Engineer NPC – then killed near Lord. Now will change builds etc, practice practice, and have fun.

This must be one of the most constructive threads I have read in a long long while on the WvW forums. Great contributions from all of you.

Hope Malkom and others in his situation can use this to their advantage!

synk.6907:

This thread is fairly frustrating.

That’s putting it mildly, but I do concur.

This thread is fairly frustrating.

Cedric Ambidexter.9174:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Cedric Ambidexter.9174:

Pandaman.4758:

Cedric Ambidexter.9174:

In the constant zones I would allow pc characters to versus one another (this could maybe be done by clicking on a player nearby and asking if he wants to combat). There could also be rewards for this, or restrictions imposed if you do it without permission. I don’t believe in ‘not allowing’ these things to happen, because that isn’t realistic.

Whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait.

One of your first threads (now deleted) on this forum was complaining about virtual animal rights, how wrong it was that we can kill the innocent animals and they should all be marked green. Now you turn around and say we should be able to gank other players without their permission because it would be realistic?

Ok,

So, say for example you are in a town and I come in and hit you with my sword. Before I am allowed to initiate a second attack, you will be given two choices (perhaps more?) by the computer:

1. Engage in combat. Earn points for each successful hit and for a win.

2. Refuse to engage in combat. You do not earn any points. I am notified of your choice. If I ignore it and attack you again Ascalon guards would come and arrest me and I will be put in jail for a period of time. Perhaps I could also lose some money, who knows. But you won’t be killed or affected by my second hit. Or if you are capable of being killed that would be really funny… I’m sure there’s ways around this to make everyone happy.

3. Complain to the army that you are being hassled. If you were in ‘combat’ mode and you choose this option, you may lose points. I am notified of your choice and delivered a warning from the guards which I had better follow.

Sound good?

Not really. I don’t want some stranger hitting on me.

lol.

Can I used my wand instead?

Keep that in your pants.

Lol doesnt even have a lvl 80 and thinks he has the game figured out, and claims gw1 was more co-op and group based, lol. you arnt even a high enough level to do most of the group based stuff or even experience the endgame zones, yet you apparently “GET IT” without even seeing a majority of the game yet

Seems legit

It is so easy to get exp in this game, i even think if you fart irl you will get some.

I just got the shoulder skin yesterday. I didn’t buy a single item from the trading post for it. I did the jumping puzzle lots and lots of times (completed the infinite achievement 59 times to get enough drinks from gifts).

I didn’t get it for prestige or to show off. I got it because it looks nice. I don’t care what other people think about it.

Whether someone payed a lot of gold to get the items from the TP, or earned it through hard work, is nobody’s business. People who complain about someone having a prestige item are just jealous. I do agree though, people who bot/hack/cheat to get such sought after items don’t deserve to have them.

The funny thing is I looked forward to getting the shoulder skin so I could stop farming the JP. When I got it I was like “what now?”. I was so bored I didn’t know what I wanted to do in the game so I decided to keep farming the JP LoL. Well I do have around 10k out of 100k drinks towards the Thirst slayer achievement. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Community#Thirst_Slayer I could make some gold off the drinks but decided I’ll use them and sell everything else.

After I got the shoulder skin I figured I’d get the T1 and T3 Norn cultural armor (I already had the T2). I spent over 70 gold on it and realized none of it I wanted to use. I decided to buy the Braham’s armor set, Lawless gloves and boots, from the gem shop and go with that instead. So I wound up with 22g left after getting the cultural armor and felt dumb for wasting all that gold. But on the bright side I completed the achievement for soul binding 18 pieces of Norn cultural armor which bumped me up to just over 8k achievement points.

Edited for typos.

Let me understand this new line of logic: Ranger DPS sucks in PvE, so you kick them from your group, but the ranger pet does too much damage to you in PvP . . . therefore the ranger, indirectly through the pet, does too much damage and needs a nerf?

. . .

Can we please have this thread locked or deleted before the kitten gets any deeper in here?

Those 2 new pets are used because they are the only ones that work. Some of the old pets (and the wyverns) are effectively unable to kill a moving test golem…

I don’t mean to be snobby, but this is an insanely ignorant thread.

Someone who doesn’t understand why rangers have been a broken-code class for years complains when the devs gives players something that pretend-fixes the pet problems. Smokescale and bristleback don’t actually fix any pet problems, they just mask them via teleports and ranged attacks.

It’s also worth reiterating that ranger is a pet class, and pets are our profession mechanic. Just because we’ve been forcibly hamstrung for years and players got used to fighting only the ranger while ignoring the pet, that doesn’t mean rangers aren’t a pet profession.

Jski.6180:

It takes a lot to get just one of the banner your not going to see them that often and when you do you out right kill the person holding it making sure they do have another for some time. The problem atm is with chron who can double up the banners effect (though i must say chron and its effect has destroyed a lot of balancing in wvw and i guess spvp).

We see both Turtle and Dragon banner in every prime time in the enemy full map zone blob. There is no balancing around currency price (see EVE Online Titan’s….).

What is meant to help the little guy helps the big guy even more. The devs should know this. MMO’s are around for a while.

For developing game mechanics in WvW there should be a basic key rule:
“Does it ruin fights?” If no: go for it – If yes: stay away from it

ArchonWing.9480:

Technically, though it’d be a bit more substantial if we had people agreeing/disagreeing with it.

Its just more of the PvE mentality pervading WvW development, overpowered siege/special abilities taking away from the actual skill of the players.

No player should have a kittening defiance bar.

Yes another rant post of me. It is already a joke to play wvw with this class imbalance. Now fight someone miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiles away from their objective claim with turtle banner and you have to deal with cc/condi spammers running around with a breakbar.

Whoever came with this idea i dont know, but i would like to have a chat with him asking if he ever plays this game himself. Outside of a blob. Aka roaming. Bet they dont even know what that means.

/Rant over.

Huyzee.4013:

In my opinion, nerfing 5 rally to 1 rally is pointless. If I can only get 1 rally off you might as well disable rally altogether. That’s such a HUGGGEEEE nerf considering as a commander you’re in the frontline and you’re going to need the support of the rest of your group composition to down and break enemy lines while you barrage through. Those multiple rallies are important for commanders to tag, bag, and rally off of if he gets downed.

It remains to be seen so I wouldn’t go full negative yet. But my guess is this is going to hurt one group of players for the most part and that’s large blobs. If that’s how you play then I have no sympathy for you. That type of fighting style needs to die and this, hopefully, is one step forward in that direction. Running map pins was fun years ago but it’s a different game now and a lot of 20-30man guilds like WvW but get sick of the enemy commander showing up with 70-80 talent-less peons to spam auto attack on them. Much Skill Many Wows. You could say, “then run larger numbers”. No we refuse to blob, it’s not fun for us, we like a realistic challenge and today 25vs 80 isn’t realistic(25vs50 is about the max). The next option if this isn’t changed is we stop playing and there goes a very large portion of Anets WvW player-base.

Melanion.4892:

The majority of the commanders she interviews (despite their assurances otherwise if you talk to any of them) prefer to run in groups of 25+ people. That’s not the wvw a lot of us enjoy. That’s not the wvw a lot of us outside of t1 and 2 can do.

Couple points.
T1/T2 NA outnumber pretty much any other tier group combined. If you’re going to get your info on how to fix WvW that’s where you ask. I do agree it wouldn’t hurt to collect info from lower tiers and other timezones to kind of find a balance and see where things differ.

25-30 vs 25-30(even numbers scenario)is many peoples sweet spot for fights in WvW. Any more than that and it gets laggy. WvW is meant for large scale fights, it’s not designed around small roaming groups taking camps, occasional towers and the off peak hour Keep or SM. That said, I don’t condone 80man blobs running on the same pin just spamming auto attack on any enemy they see. It’s pathetic and lacks all skill. We need to be able to have large fights but we also need to be able to punish the baddies that run these map blobs.

Gaile Gray.6029:

We also wanted to express our thanks to Reyana and the commanders she has been talking with in her World vs World Commander Interview series. Reyana is a dedicated member of the WvW community and a WvW streamer. She has brought together a diverse group of community leaders to constructively share different perspectives on how they play with their guilds, and our team has taken a lot of the commanders’ feedback to heart. Reyana has put a lot of effort into organizing these interviews and we want everyone to know that the efforts that she and the commanders made have been greatly appreciated.

Not to, uh, kitten in anyone’s breakfast here (and I do really appreciate what Reyana is doing. It’s a big undertaking and it’s likely the only way we’re going to see appropriate forms of feedback to Anet about WvW) but the “diverse group of commanders” part is pretty funny. I haven’t watched many of the interviews, but I’ve stopped in to see a few and there has been 1 (to my knowledge) commander from anywhere other than tiers 1 and 2 of NA. Maybe I’m missing one or two more, but the sample of commanders she’s collecting is heavily weighted towards blob vs blob fights. The majority of the commanders she interviews (despite their assurances otherwise if you talk to any of them) prefer to run in groups of 25+ people. That’s not the wvw a lot of us enjoy. That’s not the wvw a lot of us outside of t1 and 2 can do.

I’ll say it again, great work on getting this started, Reyana, but the group of commanders is almost surely not diverse and not representative.

First post on forums ever but had to ensure there was enough positive vibes to ensure you are not discouraged by the toxic vibe a select few are throwing in here.

All these changes make sense and are worth committing. Don’t let the new breed of toxic player base stop you from working with this community to tweak the game.

As someone who’s played this game since release for only WvW and PvP I appreciate hearing you guys mention caring about something besides PVE. Thanks!

Here is my experience.

1) checked out the item. I thought it was pretty cool looking.
2) looked up how to achieve it on Dulfy
3) quickly realized it would be a grind and rather frustrating with the JP stuff. I have no problem doing JP but it does take me awhile.
4) weighed the pros and cons
5) Decided my gaming time would be more enjoyable spent doing something else because even tho this is a cool item, the grind would be too boring. The time investment and grind did not seem worth it to me so I am passing on this item.

Now if you happen to be a snowman I can see your point. You really need this item so you don’t melt in the jungle. In that case maybe I would advocate for some nerf.

Dashingsteel.3410:

Well Anet has certainly cut down my tree by changing their philosophy on platforming. I actually enjoyed earning skins previous to HoT. Now that platforming is involved not so much.

You understand that you are still not required to actually do any platforming right? You can go through the entire game, experience every map and you still wont ever need to do any platforming. But those who enjoy platforming as well should be rewarded for their efforts. It’s like Dungeons, The very best stuff in the game is in dungeons. I hate dungeons with a passion, so I don’t go in dungeons. I don’t go on the forums and whine that I should get those things too despite being unwilling to put in the effort to do them. Dungeon runners go the extra mile and they should be rewarded for it.
I completely agree that if actual game content were gated behind a platform, like part of a map or something then you would be absolutely right, I’d be right there with you. But there is nothing but a single skin designed to be acquired only by the most elite of us gated behind that platform…one skin…and people are losing their minds over that. Its ridiculous…

Rayzah.4235:

TexZero.7910:

Rayzah.4235:

So please tell me how I can improve my reaction time

By not making excuses and actively going out of your way, even though it may not be appealing or easy and just taking small steps.

Eventually you will build up muscle memory and be able to do the puzzle almost instinctively.

You made me laugh. Maybe I should get a personal trainer for that. Oh wait, GW is a game and Wintersday is a festival, maybe a bit exaggerated. I’m not making excuses, me not being able to do this is the third sure thing, between death and taxes. I wasted a lot of time till now on that and I will not waste anymore.

Do you want the shoulder item or not ?

If so, while you may be laughing, you’ll have to put in the time and effort to complete the puzzle. Not everyone learns at the same rate, and while you’re no prodigy you are human and are capable of overcoming challenges. I mean unless you’re actually a cat in which case disregard prior comment.

Now i wouldn’t at all be against the snowglobe being a sell-able item that was given every 10 or 20 runs….. I’d love to make more money for minimal effort

so having only 3 ways of using 3 skills is better than having Multipul ways or different uses of 3 skills means less Dynamic well blow me over , Sword is clearly more Dynamic than any other Main hand sword in the game.

other swords can only do 2 things , get out of the way once and Spam AA , this ranger sword has Skill canceling, Different Routes of use , alternate methods of use say compaired to a Mesmer main hand sword which only Ports and AA’s / different ways to damge like boon removal or Projectile Destruction on sword 3 for Guardain(which people forget about a lot)

this is what dynamic is and applies to everything that has the most alternating ways of chain or changing activity from )in gw2s case more options for the limitation of 3 skills .

here is the meaning of dynamic
d???nam?k/
adjective
adjective: dynamic

1.
(of a process or system) characterized by constant change, activity, or progress.
“a dynamic economy”
Physics
relating to forces producing motion.
Linguistics
(of a verb) expressing an action, activity, event, or process.
denoting or relating to web pages that update frequently or are generated according to an individual’s search terms.
“the dynamic content of these sites keeps their audience informed and up to date”
powerful, potent, positive, effective, effectual, high-powered, aggressive, driving, pushing.

1. a force that stimulates change or progress within a system or process.
“evaluation is part of the basic dynamic of the project”

in this case ranger sword has more Dynamic options than other swords in terms of “powerful, potent, positive, effective, effectual, high-powered, aggressive, driving, pushing.” they way its allowed to move allows the ranger sword the dynamic of consistant pressure.

i’ve played the other main hand sword weapons , and ranger sword is way less restrictive even though you have to learn these " tricks which people lable as poor desgin" , but the Reality is .

its designed this way to be different much more than just a one way teleport and the odd effect to improve or block damage , which ranger sword Sacrifices for the insane mobility uses.

How many times does it need to be said that devs posting here or on reddit is entirely V O L U N T A R Y. They are not obliged to post anywhere because it’s not part of their job requirements.

And like some said, why would they want to post here lol, so many nasty people in this thread.

I also would like more dev communication but I’m not going to complain when… you know.. devs communicate.