Guild Wars 2

Criminal.5627:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Welcome back. I wish you would consider thinking of the ranger’s pet as a mesmer clone and not as an extension of the ranger. The AI is bad, so bad in fact that giving pets such a high percentage of OUR power feels like a serious class Nerf. In PVE pets are meat shields which they could still be even if they didn’t posses a third of our damage potential.

Many of us are willing to get rid of pets in our gameplay just to recoup that damage but if you want to keep pets out at least consider nerfing pets and buffing the actual player.

a ranger without a pet is a warrior without adrenaline. if you get the base damage without the mechanic what is there that makes you, well you? Besides the lack of depth and skill ceiling.

Dropping pets would be a horrible move if you hate the Ai I think your energy would be better expanded on stating what you expect from the Ai and where it is falling short. What if the AI got fixed would you rather a pet with a smart Ai doing next to no dmg and looking pretty or would you rather it tearing through enemies while you focus on another aspect of the current combat you find your self in?

There are two sides to every coin. yes the AI is bad atm and I would like to see 18k crits from my own attacks without setting up for it. But wouldn’t that get dull? wouldn’t you crave a more interesting way to play? I do agree though that there should be a way to spec so you can play a more strait forword.. dull build by taking some grandmaster trait in marks that gimpifies your pet with a stat boost to you but it is not something that should be the norm nor should it be preferred. it should be something if anything that is easily countered, and makes you feel like a fish out of water while you have it.

on the flip side there should be a way to make the pet more of a part of you as much as Necromancer minions are when they run minion master or Mesmer phantasms when they run zerker. High damage and utility capability much more so than currently available with the benefit of it being there and fighting with you rather than being a hindrance to your or it’s own survival. We should be empowered to be fighting with our pets not punished…we should also flip out and smash more face should something happen to them and they should be the same should something happen to us. just think how K9 officers react should someone hurt their hound or how their hounds react if someone attacks their officer, they only get more aggressive, more passionate to the other and more lethal to the attacker.

A ranger without a pet is nothing like a warrior. Our weapon skills are nowhere near as good as warrior. Lose pets and buff traps and redesign our bow skills and sword and then we’d be somethng special.

Pet AI hasn’t improved since beta so my suggestions to improve the class disregard the pet as Anet has done during the life of the game. They probably will improve F2 but it took a year and a half to do just that. As I’ve said before, with ascended gearing I want to only play my ranger, and they need to be fixed.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Hey all,

Sorry I haven’t had time to comment in here. I went through the past 10 or so pages and tried to grab some of the issues that have come up and address them. The balance team has been keeping up with the thread, but they haven’t had as much time lately to comment on specific ideas.

Re: “Shot down” ideas

• The only thing we are not open to is a real permastow option that would essentially take away the pet completely (ie an option that said always stow).
  • We kicked around the idea of giving the ranger an “aspect of _______” which we moved to a new thread because it is elaborate and should be a single topic in itself. The idea is that it would give the pet more utility with swapping/stowing, but it wouldn’t retire the pet completely.
    • We want to fix issues with the pet AI and general usability before we consider doing something to this extent.
• We acknowledged that Pet AI does need help, but we did not say we would not be doing this. You will see some changes in the coming feature patch that should help with the pet’s usability.

Re: Lack of participation

• I apologize that I had been absent from this thread for a few days. I had to produce Ready Up last week and a number of other things came up that took priority (including getting a virus that meant I left early for the week). Also, I don’t work on the weekends.
• Just because we’re not responding doesn’t mean we’re not reading.
  • Sometimes we just don’t get the time to respond, but we’ll try to get better about this.

Re: Fear that we will only work on pets

• Don’t stress about this. We wanted to look at the class as a whole with you. We didn’t make this thread specifically to get feedback on the pets. It just happens to be one of (if not the biggest) the top issues with Ranger right now.

Welcome back. I wish you would consider thinking of the ranger’s pet as a mesmer clone and not as an extension of the ranger. The AI is bad, so bad in fact that giving pets such a high percentage of OUR power feels like a serious class Nerf. In PVE pets are meat shields which they could still be even if they didn’t posses a third of our damage potential.

Many of us are willing to get rid of pets in our gameplay just to recoup that damage but if you want to keep pets out at least consider nerfing pets and buffing the actual player.

So we get red posts woohoo! Unfortunately they are about signets and shouts, and “something we’ve been thinking about”.

-Stow pets is something we’ve been thinking about.
-Power for the ranger and not the party (let everyone else support it’s time to be selfish)

It’s apparent that Anet didn’t want this discussion about the ranger, but since we’ve had it, I hope you make power rangers happy with some nice changes.

PvX

Speedy pets!

This proposal will do nothing to keep pets from dying, and stowing them isn’t going to happen for whatever reason, but this should help our pets HIT WHAT WE TELL THEM TO. My idea, give pets their actual RL movement speed relative to humans (since Charr and Asura run at human speed as well).

Human maximum run speed is 20 mph.
Jaguar maximum run speed is 40 mph. (2x human speed, easy fix)
Hawk maximum speed is over 100 mph. (5x speed makes birds really cool)

My point is that hitting a moving target is much easier when your pet is a predator with superior speed than it’s prey.

My second suggestion which also works hand in glove to the pet speed boost so as not to break the game, is to reduce all non condition pet damage by 50% and add that to the base damage of the ranger so that we aren’t penalized as severely as we are now when our pets die in dungeons. Pets dying would subtract 15% of our damage under this formula which is significant enough.

The problem with rangers currently has to do with how unbalanced the professions have been for quite some time. Every class in GW2 should be of equal statistical value since the game has no trinity. What I mean by this is if a class has high armor, health pool, cleanses, party buffs, and high damage, then everyone in the game will be pigeon holed into playing that class (I’m looking at you warrior). Warriors and guardians are in the best space and have been for the last 2 balance patches in particular and Anet isn’t going to blow them up which is fine, I have a warrior, don’t kill it. But my ranger is lagging behind in utility and party support and healing, condition cleansing, damage mitigation and damage. Not everyone wants to main a warrior or guardian so I would ask that you risk making rangers as strong as warriors if it means you actually are doing something to help bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots.

With the introduction of ascended gear and the amount of resources and time gated materials used to craft them, this issue of balance has jumped an energy level. Whether intended or not, alts aren’t as viable, and I do not plan on playing 5 characters and gearing them all (gearing 5 ascended characters would take 1.5 years anyways). So balance is key. If a class does high damage, remove it’s healing ability. If a class is spec’d for healing, they should suffer a severe damage loss. If as you say the ranger is meant to outlast an opponent, then mitigation, healing and cleanses should be vastly improved. I don’t want my ranger to be a warrior or a thief, but we need our own power.

Chokolata.1870:

No developer response in the CDI today….. hmmm

Too busy to collaborate.

Fluffball.8307:

PvPers have cause for complaint, but rangers are so called “god tier” in tPvP. The only cause for complaint is that we have other builds that are pretty good instead of unstoppable.

Weak dungeon ranger has been put to rest like 9 months ago by Brazil. We do need variety and perhaps some more visible buffs.

WvW, it just depends on what the devs expect. Right now LB rangers are strong “thieves” in zergs if you play spectacularly, and there are TONS of viable roaming builds.

Brazil changed his mind on the class being worthless but we are decent at best due to gimmicky sword dodges that pin bosses or unpin bosses in this stack on boss meta. Spirit ranger is OP in tPvP but that’s about it. I roam condi bunker in WvW and zerg in my zerker build but nothing I can do in either compares to what my alts can with half the effort and twice the effectiveness.

I like the idea of stowing our pet in order to get the one thing we as a class lack, burst. It would open up some interesting build possibilities.

Allie Murdock.8152:

The Ranger isn’t expected to do burst damage. By sustained, we mean that the Ranger should excel at surviving (resilient) through burst while still doing enough damage over time to take the opponent down.

I would’ve thought that to be the role of a heavy armor class with the highest health pool in the game and nearly godlike condition removal and healing. But no, that’s the role of the medium armored, no condi removal class, interesting.

Ision.3207:

Bran.7425:

I think they are trying to green line removing the pet in lieu of that aspect idea.
Basically test the waters with the stow and a few patches later…pets gone. Though that would be trading time spent on reworking the AI on pet to time redesigning most of the trait lines, the signets, the shouts and so on. Kind of scary that that might just be less work.

Perhaps, but I don’t think so.

Because despite the forum outrage, the Ranger is still one of the top most popular and played classes. And trust me, among those thousands and thousands of Ranger players, the overwhelming vast majority rolled a Ranger specifically in order to have a strong aggro-ing pet. I doubt they will risk alienating all those folks just because me and a few hundred WvWers are razing cain in the forums.

WvWers and dungeoners and PvPers that is, you know, 3/5 of the game.

EverythingXen.1835:

I might be a bit confused… but here’s how I understand this thread so far…

1. Permastowing pets is tabled until all other options to improve the pet are exhausted.
1b. All other options does not include Pet AI improvements, as it is an issue too big to tackle.

2. Due to powercreep, suggested improvements to the profession need some severe tempering.

3. Sustained damage is the rule of the class, and is as sacrosanct as the Pet. The various game modes may not value sustained damage very much, but that is an issue with the gametypes.

4. Trap traits might not move, but instead get different stat boosts attached to the trait line to better accommodate the trap builds.

I mean… aside from the nod to Traps, this thread reads like nothing got accomplished 20 pages in, as the suggestions seem to run into philosophical differences with Anet as to what a Ranger should be/how powerful the Ranger should be, or run into logistical/technical nightmares of coding.

Your understanding of this CDI is in line with my own, maybe we’re both wrong, but I doubt it. It seems as though they would like us to play a guessing game on our own on how to improve the class and then when one of us guesses the fix they had in mind all along they can swoop in and say “I LOVE THAT IDEA YOU CAME UP WITH” and call it collaborative.

rabidsmiles.5926:

I don’t like the idea of stowing the pets to gain an advantage.

The advantage is that we can get our damage back from our pets who’ve stolen it and can’t hit a moving target with it, or who can’t dodge a red circle and are dead and not hitting anything.

rabidsmiles.5926:

We’re a pet class and if I wanted to be a ranged character minus the pet, I would have rolled up a warrior or thief.

We were also “masters of ranged combat, unparalleled archers” until Anet decided we weren’t and made us “skirmishers”.

Ision.3207:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Hey everyone,

Before things get out of hand, I want to address the aspect idea so we can move on. First of all, it’s a great idea, but there are many current issues with the profession that need to be addressed first. Our priorities to make the pet a more viable option will likely remain higher than giving an option to “permastow” the pet.

We recognize there are a number of issues with the pet AI and general functionality, so that is something that will come first. Rangers are first and foremost a pet class, but they are also great skirmishers and some of the best sustained long range damage.

I don’t want you to think we’re going to ignore the idea or the feedback around the pet, but it could very well be the case that fixing some of the major nagging issues with the pet would make it a more desirable aspect of the Ranger.

That said, if you would like to consider discussing the aspect idea, I ask that you start a thread outside of the CDI to brainstorm.

Thanks so much for all the great, constructive feedback everyone! Let’s keep it coming!

Allie, Bravo!

And thank you, thank you.

Stowing the pet isn’t meant to be mandatory, if you like yours, keep it out. Pets and our class mechanics in general make rangers the least wanted dungeon and wvw class, so forgive me for asking but what are you applauding here? They haven’t fixed pet AI in close to 2 years since I started playing in beta, I doubt an AI fix is coming soon.

I see zero chance that Anet will fix pets. 1.5 years post launch and pets still act like a 3 year olds at a toy store (the constant dying let’s call nap time).

Fixing pet AI isn’t realistically going to happen so what to do then? How do we fix a class who needs help without breaking the bank in terms of man hours?

STOW THE KITTEN! Or the BEAR! Give the ranger ALL of the damage that is currently split between ranger and pet. When we want our pet, we call it, when we don’t we STOW it and consolidate our damage into the one place not Dependant on AI… US.

Allie Murdock.8152:

We’re seeing that power creep is a big problem in the game right now, so bringing the Ranger up to snuff would only exacerbate that. When we do balance patches, we like to look at every class and where they are at so we can balance appropriately throughout.

Of course, it can be hard to account for certain things when doing these patches, which is why we’re trying to do the patches less frequently so we can properly gauge what needs to be done (that’s not to say that we won’t hotfix any major issues that arise).

I’m sorry but this pretty much accounts for why those who main rangers feel neglected. Because other classes are TOO STRONG we don’t get buffed? And yet you’re not nerfing those other classes to our level? We are a medium armor class with the game’s least amount of condition removal and lowest or near the bottom in burst. There is no reason for a heavy armor class to out burst a medium, since melee does more than ranged because of risk of damage. When we as a medium armor class melee, we should out pace warriors and guardians because we are risking more.

I’m happy that you’re looking at fixing rangers, I really am. I love the class and would like to use it as my dungeon main, but I can’t.

If this thread is unable to get you to redesign the aspects (no pun intended) of the ranger that keep us from being welcomed in Dungeon and WvW groups because it doesn’t fit your desired direction then I’ll take my leave. Collaboration means working together to achieve a goal, and many of our suggestions would require very little effort in terms of coding. Saying rangers have good sustained range damage does nothing at all for us in dungeons where the style of play is push boss in corner stack on boss. No fix to the pet is going to change that style of play, either we can melee like everyone else, or we won’t be welcome.

And now for something different.

Rangers absorb the power of their stowed pets and TRANSFORM into an animal while the pet is stowed. We would lose all weapon skills which would be replaced by the animal skills say “aspect of the avian” for any stowed bird, would give a certain set of attacks. This would give us our dungeon fix as all of our power would be in our hands, or talons, and wouldn’t crush pet usage as in order to have range at all we’d need our bows, so out of animal form we come.

Shape shifting mechanic already exists in game code… See Norn.

Allie Murdock.8152:

mtpelion.4562:

snip

When Stowed, the ranger should gain the “Aspect of the [pet name]” effect, which provides unique buffs based on the pet family and specific pet.

mtpelion.4562, you have some really great ideas in your posts. I noticed your sentiments about Ranger pets right now are shared by a lot of the community here. The quote is an idea in particular struck me as interesting.

If we weren’t able to have an option to keep the pet permanently stowed, would having an option like you suggested make it feel better to toggle the pet? It seems like the kind of thing that you could develop a strategy around (pet could be out for one reason, then you switch it up to catch opponent off-guard).

I see no reason why you couldn’t perma stow as it’s a very straight forward coding change unless you choose not to. Many of us point to perma stow as it addresses the glaring flaw with rangers in dungeons and wvw (pet AI and hitting moving targets and dead pets) without requiring you to re code the pet AI and mechanics. I love using my pets in open world but in every other gameplay environment they’re sub par.

Rick.5781:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Shadowsong.4820:

Permastowing a pet really shouldn’t be the “solution” to clunky pet mechanics. The people who would prefer this over having the pet mechanics improved/reworked just shouldn’t play rangers, I guess.

That idea would actually be in lieu of a permastow. It would give Rangers a little more utility while not losing site of the concept of a Ranger.

Either way though, I don’t want this whole CDI to be able stowing the pets. There have been a lot of great ideas outside of this one that will help pets to be a more viable option. Perhaps just fixing some of the issues with the AI could be enough for people to feel better about the lack of permastow.

Having a way to remove the pet’s ability to be attacked and damaged until desired is a necessity in my opinion. It doesn’t have to physically disappear, as that wouldn’t make sense, but there needs a way to make it completely invulnerable and untargetable by enemies. Even reducing the damage received to 30% of AoE damage, I can’t foresee many of the pets surviving the Mai Trin bombardment phase. There also needs to be a way to prevent the pet from becoming the target of specific boss attacks like the Jade Maw. The pet literally IMPEDES progress against that boss, and there is NOTHING the ranger can do about it aside from stay out of combat entirely, which IMPEDES progress against the boss. A ranger literally causes the Jade Maw fight to become longer, or more difficult, and that should NEVER be the case.

Pet’s arent entirely useless, as they do provide some damage and utility. If the pet AI was fixed/improved, and there was no buff for permastowing the pet, most rangers would be gimping themselves by NOT having the pet out. There is no GAMEPLAY downside for allowing permastow in some form or another.

Keeping the pet on passive in order to achieve an invulnerable pet also sacrifices all damage the pet is meant to contribute. Stowing the pet and boosting the ranger’s damage makes more sense.

Allie Murdock.8152:

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Gotejjeken.1267:

IMO, the discussion on pets is becoming overcomplicated. Why not just redistribute the power, fix the F2 timing, and keep them as-is? The pet is not the problem if you swap it, its the pet hitting things that is a problem.

Also I am not super happy with the idea of stow buffs and even less happy with a perma stow. The pet is part of me as a Ranger, it is one of the core things of the class.

You may not be happy about permastowing. I would be absolutely. Furthermore, if you could stow your pet, you could still use it like you are used to. And people like me, who don’t want to rely on the pet can stow it. Simple as that.

As Orca pointed out, some people aren’t as fond of the pets. The idea of the buff would be to appease everyone. Also, what if stowing the pet and having an aspect gave the Ranger some kind of aura that communicated to others they are in that “aspect”? Would it still feel like the pet was a part of you if them being stowed affected your physical appearance?

If not, I don’t think the aspect idea would be a necessity for players. There are definitely things that need to be done to fix Ranger pets in general, and it’s something we are well aware of. If we fixed those things, but maybe also added in the aspect idea, I think we’d be in a spot where everyone would be pleased, no?

Just musing!

Or add the damage from the pet to the ranger when stowed and allow us to keep the F2 of that pet which casts on us or from us instead of the pet.

For instance, the juvenile brown bear when stowed would make our F2 shake it off as it would when the pet is used, but cast on our location. The spider’s poison attack would grant a poison combo field at our feet.

I’ve posted my idea in format but I’d also like to put it in out of format to expand on my point.

This is PVX

30% of the ranger’s DPS comes from pet damage while pet AI is terrible and they are just bad at hitting a moving a target. We as a class have a third of our DPS out of our control or dead, which nerfs us to 70% (reliable) damage of other classes.

The Fix

Without asking for complete re writting of the game code to pet AI, simply make our stow pet permanent until WE call the pet back, and give us the 30% damage allocated to the pet back to the ranger.

Drawbacks?

None.

Dos.7052:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Specific Game Mode
PVE Dungeon

Propsoal Overview
Allow pets to be stowed and boost the ranger’s DPS by 30%

Goal of Proposal
To allow rangers to partake in the glory of zerker gear boss stacking! Our pets die even when fully micro mangaed, so give us the choice of not using them as a DPS source, and fold their DPS into the player.

Proposed Functionality

Make stow pet permanent until recalled and not upon entering combat. Add a buff to the ranger while pet is stowed:
SOLO ARTIST “30% boost to damage”

Associated Risks

Warriors will now beg to be buffed and rangers now are part of the meta.

not really my friend, apart from damage contribution, warriors also does better team support (banners) and higher resilient than rangers, even with 30% boost to damage. rangers are not first choice to many players.

I’m not trying to supplant warriors or make rangers OP I’m simply trying to make it easy for Anet in terms of coding and balance to allow rangers a seat at the table in dungeons. Rangers still provide spotter and frost spirit which warriors do not, but this would halt the auto kick a ranger mentality, as pet AI is wonky and creates problems in dungeons.

Specific Game Mode
PVE Dungeon

Propsoal Overview
Allow pets to be stowed and boost the ranger’s DPS by 30%

Goal of Proposal
To allow rangers to partake in the glory of zerker gear boss stacking! Our pets die even when fully micro managed, so give us the choice of not using them as a DPS source, and fold their DPS into the player.

Proposed Functionality

Make stow pet permanent until recalled and not upon entering combat. Add a buff to the ranger while pet is stowed:
SOLO ARTIST “30% boost to damage”

Associated Risks

Warriors will now beg to be buffed as rangers are now part of the Dungeon meta.

I have crafted in every city as many have stated they do, but when I’m crafting swords for the forge I did so exclusively in LA. I hope they rebuild LA with the same amenities as before regardless of what it looks like. Removing that map while having this pass ready to sell is why many see trouble.

Carighan.6758:

Lord Kuru.3685:

My reading of the patch notes says that crafting will be available in this airship — but not at the vigil keep.

They’re not even making an effort to be sneaky or subtle about it anymore.

Why is this a problem? Crafting is available ~everywhere, including the major cities and WvW.

I mean, it’s not like things are any further spread apart really. I got most of my chars in Rata Sum, which is a pretty awesome place to do crafting in, and also pretty pretty. :P

Your statement is false. The only location in Tyria where all services, vendors, and activities NPCs which were contained in Lion’s Arch exist is now locked on a ship accessible only via passes (please note that I did not embellish this statement by saying paid passes, as I’m aware the passes drop as well). So in fact, and in direct contradiction to your stement, things are further spread out.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Aidenwolf.5964:

You’re missing the point. We already had convenience, they removed it and are now charging us to get it back.

You’re making the mistake between your wants and needs. Because you have a choice of where you want to go for Crafting, or MFing, or vendoring, you don’t need to go to a certain place. You want to.

A quicker, cheaper alternative is to visit your main server’s Borderland in WvW. It has nearly everything LA has to offer. If you own your Garrison, then you have access to Zomorro’s forging. Or, visit EotM. Simply press “B” to gain access.

Great example, however, our BL is currently not in our control, we own none of it on patch days. CD is a pve server.

laharl.8435:

Aidenwolf.5964:

laharl.8435:

morrolan.9608:

laharl.8435:

Lord Kuru.3685:

You can remove QoL features from the game. You can add QoL features to the game behind a paywall.

But when you take what’s currently a free QoL feature and put it behind a paywall, that’s really bad. And judging from Anet’s response (i.e., none) this is a sign of things to come.

And looking at how Anet creeps these out slowly, here’s likely what’s next:

• Any new map will have a paywall on its WPs. (White knights: “hey, you can just walk so it’s ok, right? Plus, I walk everywhere anyway, who needs WPs?”) Then:
• All WPs will be paywalled. (White knights: “hey, you can just walk so it’s ok, right? Plus, I walk everywhere anyway, who needs WPs?”)

What did they take that was free and put behind a pay wall? Oh, nothing… lol

You’re not actually addressing the argument. As was said earlier in the thread almost every single poster criticising it is putting forth reasoned arguments as to why whereas those who don’t object to it offer nothing.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

NOTHING IS BEHIND A PAYWALL. Was that clear enough for you now? Nothing.

Sure something has been, and its been stated multiple times, convenience.

It’s a single loading screen, are you kidding…

The gem store is supposed to be about convenience. How is this concept so difficult to understand? Look at the other gem store items, all quality of life items, items of convenience. This is how non-p2w games runs a cash shop.

You’re missing the point. We already had convenience, they removed it and are now charging us to get it back.

You’re missing the point. It’s one single waypoint hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

That they added in order to sell us a replacement for what they took.

laharl.8435:

morrolan.9608:

laharl.8435:

Lord Kuru.3685:

You can remove QoL features from the game. You can add QoL features to the game behind a paywall.

But when you take what’s currently a free QoL feature and put it behind a paywall, that’s really bad. And judging from Anet’s response (i.e., none) this is a sign of things to come.

And looking at how Anet creeps these out slowly, here’s likely what’s next:

• Any new map will have a paywall on its WPs. (White knights: “hey, you can just walk so it’s ok, right? Plus, I walk everywhere anyway, who needs WPs?”) Then:
• All WPs will be paywalled. (White knights: “hey, you can just walk so it’s ok, right? Plus, I walk everywhere anyway, who needs WPs?”)

What did they take that was free and put behind a pay wall? Oh, nothing… lol

You’re not actually addressing the argument. As was said earlier in the thread almost every single poster criticising it is putting forth reasoned arguments as to why whereas those who don’t object to it offer nothing.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

NOTHING IS BEHIND A PAYWALL. Was that clear enough for you now? Nothing.

Sure something has been, and its been stated multiple times, convenience.

It’s a single loading screen, are you kidding…

The gem store is supposed to be about convenience. How is this concept so difficult to understand? Look at the other gem store items, all quality of life items, items of convenience. This is how non-p2w games runs a cash shop.

You’re missing the point. We already had convenience, they removed it and are now charging us to get it back.

Ayrilana.1396:

mrstealth.6701:

For those that have thrown in the idea of the “slippery slope”, mind the fact that this is actually the 2nd step, so we’re already on the “slope”. The Royal Terrace was the test to see if this type of pass would sell.

Now we’re at the next step down the line, of actually removing something and replacing it with a pay service.

Exactly what did they remove that couldn’t already be gotten with the royal terrace pass?

Lions Arch.

They REMOVED the Central Services Hub from the game and are SELLING a central services hub for 1000 gems. These facts are not in dispute.

lordkrall.7241:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Read it again, you’re wrong.

Please point me towards the place that says that EVERYTHING from Lion’s Arch would move to the Vigils Keep.

Page 1 of this thread.

lordkrall.7241:

digitalruse.9085:

• Stated publicly that all LA services could be found at Vigil Keep temporarily

They never said that though.
They said all ESSENTIAL LA services could be found there.
And the only essential LA services were MF, Dungeon-traders, Portals and Activity guy.

All of those are in the Vigil Keep, free for use by everyone.

Read it again, you’re wrong. Page 1 of this very topic. Argue 1st worry if you’re right never seems to be how this forum operates.

Had Anet simply added Mystic Forges to the other cities along with activities hubs (you know, the only things LA had that capitol cities don’t) there would have been no issue.

Aven.7295:

p2w

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, omg you guys think this is a pay to win game. ive never laughed so hard in my life. Gw2 does their cash shop right, their items in there offer absolutely NO combat advantage. It is merely items of convience and just because you dont want to buy them you cry Pay 2 win! omg not fair.

Seriously… comming from Aion a true pay to win game where you need to spend easily $200 to get your armor in fighting condition, your petty argument is halarious

Guild Wars 2 is better than Aion… Got it. Now who asked about Aion? Don’t get sidetracked, they took convenience away, then offered what we already had… In the store.

Algreg.3629:

Waldir.2571:

Its the peoples faults really, we should have learned by now when something good comes into the gem store something better will follow. Its a trend really at this point. You have to ask your self… Do I buy this now? Or should I wait for the upgraded version few patches down? Must will give in and cry at the end. Moral of the story? Learn from passed experiences and evolve.

Thanks for the education, but I buy whatever I want whenever I want, yes, that includes “P2W” if I feel like it. Please, keep that Occupy Tyria-stuff to yourself.

Keep your opinions to yourself. See it works both ways.

They released this pass which acts just like the Queen’s Jubilee pass, but this time they actually made it more desirable by making everyone’s life in game less convenient by removing our hub, and not relocating the assets to another city. This follows the Sprocket Pick which added value to mining. Troubling trend. Those of you who choose to be dismissive of our objections to the gem store’s shift from cosmetic to Value Added items have every right to, but it doesn’t make you right, or wise.

Faowri.4159:

This is pretty dodgy, I have to say. Everyone was under the impression that ALL central hub services would be relocated for free. Paywalling it has really not impressed me.

I hope everyone who is similarly not impressed is not complaining about it while buying a ticket. Vote with your wallets, people. If it sells, ethics will be kittened.

Well said. I didn’t buy the Sprocket Pick, I will NOT buy this. The pass doesn’t bother me, but by removing our central hub as they released this, they made everyone’s QOL worse in order to sell something meant to improve quality of life…. Shame.

cortin.9174:

They’re releasing quality content for a game that costs no monthly to play. Personally I think it’s ok they make some money, they deserve it. I’d rather they make money so they can keep releasing quality content, rather than go the ways of SOE games where people pay for expansion packs and still don’t get quality content.

Its underhanded business. They did not mistakenly forget to add crafting stations at the Vigil. They know what they did. Shady tactics and you lot still defend them, hilarious.

Weeks after the release of the first true item in the gemstore that provides more than a cosmetic difference to armor or items, and no communication from Anet.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

You don’t need Ascended armor. The stat increase over Exotics is minor. So if you’ve given up on getting these, you can still play the game as normal.

People like you are the reason wurm can’t be beaten.

Yes the stats do matter. They offer a 5-15% damage increase. That is a HUGE amount of damage when everything in this game is a dps race.

If you don’t think that much damage matters then please don’t show up to the wurm event or any timed event that is introduced from this point forward.

Have you ever considered that you fail at wurm, because of, you?

Substance E.4852:

CRrabbit.1284:

Strengths:
Very strong at 1v1
Might be the Top1 anti thief class.

Weaknesses:
Bad at 1vx
Not good at escaping espcially when 1vx, (need very good timing + skills, much harder than some other well-known roaming classes)

You pretty much need Swoop and be clear of cripple or chill or you will never get away.

I run 2 builds in pve and wvw and I only ever use great sword when I’m 30 30 10 0 0. When I’m condi I run 0 0 30 30 10 and I am I’m impossible to pin down. Sword will get you away from baddies quite well, and then pop lightning reflexes... And you’re gone.

I run apothecary for my bunker setup and I assure you that I kill every class. Rangers are usually played like they’re an ez class, they’re deadly if you play them like an advanced class, which they are.

Welcome! Don’t be shy about asking anyone you see in game a question.

Behellagh.1468:

timidobserver.7925:

The answer to why players ignore orders is this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Clone-Wars-2-or-Why-Meta-Builds-are-for-Sheep/first#post3616529

Just read what the OP said. 100% the answer to this thread.

Great. Problem is I don’t understand what he’s saying. What is a “meta spec”? I don’t read the parts of the board talking about min-maxing your profession.

I also don’t spend time trying to “optimize” my build. I just make sure I have a mixture of melee and range attacks I can switch between. I don’t have BIS items for my 80s. I don’t worry about all that stuff because I rather enjoy playing than creating the ultimate X. That’s why I don’t have ascended items, exotic is good enough. And if someone would bother to take the time to explain a complicated event rather than expecting everyone would know certain terms (pin, stack, etc) and have studied the YouTube video then maybe I could enjoy an event instead of thinking I’m on Omaha Beach with a sling shot.

Problem is I see those with Commander tags as uber control freaks but at least have the decency to post a warning above their heads tells everyone who they are. I see them as an exclusionary element, who gets upset when people don’t play “the way they should” according to them. An MMO with a class trilogy is probably best for them since every class is pigeon holed in a raid but an open event is like herding cats. Expecting players who can play any way they like 99% of the time aren’t going to be the easiest to organize into a unit to follow some event mechanic. And it doesn’t help when ANet has achievements that if attempted makes failure more likely.

Get my guildies together and explain before the event what is going to happen and what to do, fine, I’ll follow them anywhere. Some random guy with a Commander Tag barking gibberish at me. Well good luck with that.

Since it was my post, I’ll answer. Commanders need to organize the groups and describe the fights for those that don’t know it, but aiming to have 8 classes all running the same specs isn’t realistic.

Organize sure, but your tag gives you no special powers, any more than my tag gives me magical do as I say mind control.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Star Ace.5207:

Aidenwolf.5964:

The elements of an MMO which I have loved for many years and which make it my primary style of game are exploration and reward. GW2 is a place to explore, Tyria is beautiful and varied, but as for rewards, this game falls to the bottom of all games in the genre that I’ve played. If you want something in this game earn gold and buy it in the trading post? That’s a tragic game flaw.

While I don’t share your negativity about the game, gold, and the TP (no offense intended), I do wish exploration would be more rewarding other than map completion rewards and full exploration Legendary gifts. So that people who just love the universe would be a bit more rewarded if they chose not to do any Dungeons that particular day (not saying that rewards should be the same as doing Dungeons-just a bit more rewarding overall.)

No offense taken. I would love to have exploration and all aspects of the game be more rewarding. The entire loot system needs to be changed now for that to happen IMO. With the introduction of a higher gear tier, the drops need to reward rares as frequently as they do masterwork currently for that to occur. This game is in trouble and needs help.

Fenrir.3609:

There is some pants on head lunacy in this thread.

Run whatever build you want, but do not expect it to be as good, optimal or efficient as the current meta and do not castigate those that use (are capable of using) the optimal build as “sheep”.

Those “elite” players more often than not readily point out that you can do the content using other build comps, they merely state that it is not as efficient or as optimal as the meta (when used correctly).

Taking no offense whatsoever to the pants a on head lunacy comment, because its funny, and who doesn’t like to laugh? My original point was that asking all rangers to run the exact same pets, skills, and traits, is why I titled this Clone Wars 2. To borrow from biology, bio diversity is what keeps species from going extict when confronted by a virus and having several kinds of rangers actually adds to the groups chances for success. Having a spirit ranger around may not maximize DPS, but so what.

Meta DPS is simple math, which is only potential damage per second, if you’re running back from a waypoint because you died, you’re doing zero DPS.

I wonder what lovely new grind (I mean content) we have in store after the end of LS season one.

I read through quite a bit of this thread, and while I love opinionated passionate people who freely express their ideas, but if you can’t even recognize that this game shatters the promises made to those of us who paid for it, then we have nothing to discuss because you can’t argue with crazy.

Sad to say, but I’m starting to think this game is nearing Free to Play. They seem to be pushing the gem store harder and harder (flamekissed T3 and watch work pick). The lack of response on the latter makes me think that Anet no longer cares if we’re content with the state of the game because they’re readying for a new group of consumers, the FTP gang.

WingLegacy.7159:

No To PRECURSOR CRAFTING!!!

YES to precursor Crafting!

The elements of an MMO which I have loved for many years and which make it my primary style of game are exploration and reward. GW2 is a place to explore, Tyria is beautiful and varied, but as for rewards, this game falls to the bottom of all games in the genre that I’ve played. If you want something in this game earn gold and buy it in the trading post? That’s a tragic game flaw.

tigirius.9014:

Aidenwolf.5964:

I hopped into a Wurm event and all of the talk was about making sure you’re running meta spec. All members of each class running the same builds and using the same skills in an event, not a dungeon. This is a very bad trend IMO and so I just left. Guild Wars 2 had lofty goals pre launch, and said all of the right things, but has become a game filled with rigid adherence to clone builds. Play the game the way you want to play it seems a distant memory.

It died the moment that condition damage was nerfed, every high level mob became CC immune, and healing was never truly buffed as it should have been.

That’s when I said “so much for the Anet trinity” when while on my engineer I was dropped and ignored for running in dungeon groups. Since then I have never looked at dungeons at all, and have only run with guildies if they happen to have a space. Otherwise why bother with it? All it’s going to be is a headache, either people are going to exploit or they are going to enjoy the game and I’m not going to make my toon like everyone elses.

I didn’t in other games not going to do it here.

I agree. I won’t run with the pack when I dislike how we’re being asked to play. This is a game after all.

Suddenflame.2601:

ronpierce.2760:

Suddenflame.2601:

ronpierce.2760:

Suddenflame.2601:

Devata.6589:

laokoko.7403:

You dont’ need to grind anything. Just play the game normally. Most people can make 10 gold easily by just playing the game.

In 2 month you can have your precursor by just playing the game.

The way I like to play is to hunt for the item. Thats how I play a game. Not but just doing some stuff to get gold (also knows as grinding) to then buy the item I want. Thats not fun. Or at least not for the people who have a similar game-play style as me and complain about the grind..

Precursors you can’t hunt for because they are intended to be able to be gained by any type of player (expect a PVP player). Play normally and you will get your precursor eventually.

Lol, people with 2000 hours still don’t have one, let alone “their precursor” (aka one they’d want).

If it isn’t one they want most are closely the same cost (expect underwater ones) they can just sell it and then buy the one they want. Problem Solved

Pretty sure even land ones range from 300-1000g? Then count the water ones. Yeah it’s not the same. >_>:

From what i seen the GS, pistol, sword, staff, rifle and dagger cost close to the same. The offhands are also close to each other. Those are the only ones i know at the moment (havn’t looked at the rest really).

Pistol is half as valuable as the others you listed, not that any of ythis matters, I’d love a pistol, hell I’d love an underwater pre, ANYTHING at this point.