Guild Wars 2

Toxsa.2701:

Archon.6480:

It’s amazing the way the Abjured Ranger dominated mid halfway through the match!

ANet really needs to nerf healing spring because it totally carried that Ranger. And what about that evade spam and cheap perma quickness? Yeah that’s gotta go to, or else we will see everyone running ranger. Taunt is totally OP as well, it should be fixed. No one could touch that Ranger…

So it’s ok for the rest of the classes to perform well, but not ranger right? Whenever you see a ranger is doing good, we gotta nerf it ASAP so it goes back into the depth of hell once more right?

It certainly seems that way. Rangers are the villains that all the hero classes have to slaughter. And we all know the villains are weaker than the heroes…

It’s amazing the way the Abjured Ranger dominated mid halfway through the match!

ANet really needs to nerf healing spring because it totally carried that Ranger. And what about that evade spam and cheap perma quickness? Yeah that’s gotta go to, or else we will see everyone running ranger. Taunt is totally OP as well, it should be fixed. No one could touch that Ranger…

It’s the absolute worst on Sunday. All the kiddies get on and decide the best way to practice tolerance, like they leaned in school, is to trash Christianity. They stopped teaching words like “irenic” and concepts like “rhetoric” long ago…

Dojo.1867:

Them kittening up this skill has nothing to do with it being a trap.

That is just arenanet incompetence. Nothing else. And are you really kittenening serious comparing an ingame skill to vietnam war? Guess you have to change a bit more stuff then to make the game more realistic lol.

Ha, ha. No. I am comparing an in game skill to How I think it would play out in a Movie about a war. Hollywood style. Movies don’t depict reality. Please read more carefully.

I mean… A healing trap! I am picturing an old Vietnam movie where the soldiers are marching though the woods and you hear the click. Someone yells “No one move!” Next, the freckled scrawny kid says “Sorry guys, that’s my healing trap, you just need to walk ten paces forward then back again and it will sprout drinking water for you!”

Then a gush of water spouts out of the ground and everyone frolics in it…

This is sad. I used to love this skill. Thanks to everyone who advocated this being a trap.

Now you get to loose blinding pets for shouts, and use We Heal as One. Troll ungent is useless because the spike damage everyone deals is so high. Good luck popping TU when a warrior decides to rampage your face into the ground. Or a shatter Mesmer decides it’s time to pop you like a zit.

LughLongArm.5460:

Is it confirmed that the pet base 150 stats are missing or could it be tool-tip error only?
I used to run BM before the ptach and after and the damage on pets seems to be the same +-

That’s a good question. I am not sure, but have experienced the same. They seem to hit very hard in current state.

Chokolata.1870:

You need to understand that balance is how classes or builds match up against each other.

Sure, conditions deal more damage, but this is true for other classes as well. Survival condition rangers edge was that it was very resistant to other conditions. Emphatic bond, SotF and evasive purity coupled with dodging was something that made the build. It was very hard to take down with a condition build and it had solid defense against power builds which made it a solid side point holder or assaulter.

Its drawback was its single target damage and lack of a proper burst. The closest definition of the build in MOBA terms would be a condition bruiser.

Also, we are THE ONLY CLASS that did not get the half of the class mechanic bonus by default with this patch be it a bug or intentional. So even by that we were left behind. I love Ranger, i have 3k+ hours on it but it is simply in a very very bad state now.

I haven’t had time to try all variations of survival condition builds, but my experience has been similar with the ones I did try. It did not go very well. I think we have been shifted into condition spike category now. They fixed rune of trooper bug, so maybe condition shouts will work now, I’ll have to try that again.

Our prior goto for survival has been heavily nerfed for sure, other classes use blocks, ports, stun breakers, and invisibility to escape situations when they are focus targeted by enemy team. We relied mostly on evade to survive in this situation. Evade has been nerfed across the board, while the other survival mechanics have been increased. We have lightning reflexes and… That’s about it. Healing spring takes too long now. If you can’t escape you die fast when focused. GG.

Here’s a joke: A warrior, necromancer, mesmer, elementalist, and ranger walk into a room. Which one do you kill first?

Sube Dai.8496:

Archon.6480:

Condition ranger does feel pretty strong right now, and I do enjoy it and think it is in its best state ever.

Umm wat?

Condi ranger lost Eb/barkskin/poison master, Offhand training, and received no damage buffs. Leaving it at the absolute bottom of the meta.

Yes, I agree, we lost all those things, but conditions stack now, which translate into a huge damage buff—if we go heavy into conditions (runes and Carrion or Rabid). Anyhow, I think Mesmer is a nice change of pace. This is not a back handed jab at Mesmers, I am simply saying the play style fits to what Rangers are doing and the popular builds people are using include many of the things we feel we are missing. It is enjoyable to switch from time to time.

Edit: you forgot healing spring is wonky now. I get knocked out of it frequently, killed before even getting heal in. The extra .5s activation time is a huge nerf to a skill that needs to be near instant. Thanks to all the people advocating this be a trap in ranger forum. Like the title says: GG Rangers.

Yes! Join the club! Equip Rampage, fire, shatter Mesmer, more fire and go to town! Have at it! Don’t forget to equip fire, either!!!! If you can’t beat them, join them! :-)

PS: it’s kinda fun, actually…

Condition ranger does feel pretty strong right now, and I do enjoy it and think it is in its best state ever. However, I highly recommend Rangers to build a Mesmer and run the standard shatter or double ranged shatter. You can use similar tactics and it makes a great second class for when you get frustrated with Ranger. It also is a bit easier when it comes to skill usage. Skills have longer cooldowns and greater effect. It’s a nice change of pace.

It has some nice tools, to help team when it really matters, where you may find ranger lacking a little. Ranger can—hands down—hunt anything to death but may fail a little when it comes to team support. I am not positive Taunt will not change this. It seems…. REALLY strong when used at the right time. Like wipe 2-3 opponents at once strong. Time will tell. Don’t give up on Rnger, but do try Mesmer, when you get a chance.

Hey Heim,

You might want to add this one to your list, it is extremely powerful. The traits and skills line up perfectly in this build. It works great for defending any point (side or middle).

Carrion Firemaster

The drawback is lack of mobility but it excels at killing everything so balances quite nice. The odd thing in this build is the fire spirit. Size up the battle you are about to get into, to decide where to place it. It’s use is situational but generally it is best to drop it right on the point, attack a few times then blow it up. In group fights it seems to be best to place it just outside the fight and rely on team members to proc it. Use hydromancy sigils when the opposing team is heavy on light classes and doom otherwise.

The reward system should be changed so that the quitters have some reason to keep trying. Start giving rewards at 50 points and keep increasing them till 500 with 450 earning you nearly the same as a win.

With the matchmaker designed to keep us roughly at 50% win/loss ratio, the better you play the more rewards you get. Losers who quit will get smaller rewards and loose interest…

Sorry, but I like Taunt the way it is. Everyone has been bashing Rangers and “their useless pets” for years. Can you perma stow that please!? Guess what? Now that useless pet can eviscerate you. Poetic justice. Love it. The counter play is to not let it get close to you at the wrong time.

Welcome to the community, Supreme!

Thanks for sharing, I was looking for a nice apothecary build. I agree with your thoughts on ranger. Try taunt when you get a chance. Your pet needs to be close for it to work, so you’ll have to swap your spider for something else. Maybe a kitty (I enjoy Lynx) or dog. Taunt is very powerful when it hits, the enemy kinda looses control and you can hit them with splitblade or anything else you want to land.

We Heal As One works great as a heal and you can cast it anytime to get swiftness, to cover distance. That might free up a utility for you.

I think it is still a little too early to tell but, in this current iteration, we can stack conditions to a nearly insane degree. Don’t take my word for it, though. Try it yourself.

Put every single trait, utility, sigil, and rune into conditions. Focus of fire first, poison and bleed second, and see how it goes. Sure, thieves and other professions can hit hard, but you can melt a whole group of helpless targets in a few seconds. Our condition abilities are designed around constantly reapplying and stacking conditions.

I don’t believe we suck, but I do believe it can be very difficult to win some fights. Is it too hard to win sometimes? I don’t know.

Yeah I enjoy the craziness as well. It’s nice watching your skills have an effect instead of getting eaten as though they never happened.

Eh, the bunkerish part of the celestial meta was a little boring. I like being able to blow up warriors that stand on point mindlessly swinging their hammer and face tanking all my hits. Nothing was more frustrating than Pansy warriors and guardians eating all your damage. Evade, block, counter or die quickly please…

PS: I am still using celestial to blow things up. It just has a better chance to kill now. Perfect.

Yes. Ranger is much stronger now. Beastmastery is amazing with celestial dual swords build, and SB Rabid is extremely powerful. You can now use pets to break people out of stealth (rofl). All I can say is try sending your pet in first and keep it in front of you. Pet swap and taunt if someone jumps you.

+1 I really love this patch.

Faster paced combat, greater reward for dodging, stunbreaking, and evading the right skills. Ranger feels so fluid now. (Thanks for not destroying Celestial, and at the same time making the other amulets more useful)

Another character slot? That’s nice! Thanks ANet!

The best part of meta battle is that it herds all the sheep into the slaughterhouse. So easy to predict opponents builds before the match starts. <evil grin>

All joking aside, keep up good work. That site has some great builds and is well maintained, it seems.

Honestly, most of you can’t see the trees through the forest. It’s all about the condition damage component. Celestial hits like a wet noodle with raw damage, without the condition component. I keep seeing all these posts about “the break even” point—around 700.

You are missing what happens when you are well over the Break even point. How is celestial going to stand up against Carrion or Rabid. Will it be 1/3 or 1/4 the condition damage and wet noodle raw damage against an amulet that has superior offense?

My guess is, despite the numbers, celestial will go back on the trash shelf with Magi amulet. That’s kind of sad.

…on second thought. I hate twitch and can’t find crap on it.

anduriell.6280:

I got really depressed when i saw the ranger by DPS in twitch.
It shown a really poor performance, damage really really low, even lower than now (obviously you can see the missing damage traits) and comparing to other classes seems so weak, deeply weak and i think i was right to foresee the ranger become the pariah.

Some of you may think the streamer didn’t know how to play the ranger but even the basic damage seems really poor.
When he shown the traps it was so sad. The damage and conditions so weak…

I don’t know how it could improve. You can think like using long attack chains but actually i don’t think we still have the sustain to stay in place for long, most of our attacks root us (sword, barrage, whirling defence, maul…)

The condition damage didn’t look good either, Bleeding 2K per tick, something that is weak compared to other classes shown in the same stream.

Eh? We can already do more than 2k per tick in bleeds… before the updates to condition damage take place… I am pretty sure he didn’t know what he was doing, and what about fire and poison? We also have access to those on a standard run of the mill axe/dagger, sword/torch build… Anyhow, I’ll go have a look at the twitch video before opining anymore.

Not sure if this is a troll post, either, but the best advice I can give you is to create a PvP glassbow ranger and run several matches with it. You’ll learn how to counter it by how others are dealing with you. The meta double ranged shatter Mesmer can make quick work of LB ranger, but requires a bit of setup.

A couple things to consider:

1. Rapid fire is suicide if you have confusion on you.
2. Longbow Rangers are laughably (sadly) weak to control effects.

I personally think the celestial variety are a greater threat, but it sounds like the power ones are what you are having problems with.

This is going to be a good change for solo pvp’ers. Will make it easier to get in with a semi-formal team mode (you can queue with guildies) and will make it easier on die hard solo queue players as there will be more premades in the mix so less premade vs solo matches.

I don’t have time for playing on dedicated team but would like to play with guildies for more control than just queuing solo.

Vixena.3821:

I’ve been recently playing a ranger in hot joins so that I could do the Hunter achievement, and wow… I have been verbally abused every single day that I’ve been playing that ranger. I never received so much harassment on my warrior, engineer, or mesmer. It’ll happen at least once and up to five times per day that I’m doing spvp. I’ve had to report so many people over the past week. What I find interesting is that it is often coming from players who have the Legendary Champion title.

Where is all of this hate coming from? It’s making me really hate playing my ranger. I do not say anything nor do any emotes to provoke. All I want to do is play my ranger and not have to worry about someone calling me f****t (most popular word to use).

Yeah, well, that explains why some of the legendary champions we run into in Ranked Arena are so horrible. That being said, I strongly recommend queuing Ranked Arena instead of Hot Join. Hot join is like the Cantina bar in Star Wars, if you know what I mean…

Terravos.4059:

You do can do 75% increased damage Mauls on targets you interrupt… Greatsword is going to be silly next patch

They just need to add a decapitation animation when you hit someone with it. :-)

glock.6590:

NeXeD.3042:

glock.6590:

NeXeD.3042:

glock.6590:

Slininstien.7546:

glock.6590:

I’ve never seen or played a game without a proper solo Q system except gw2 obviously.

I know as crazy as it sounds but some people like myself actually like the randomness you get from solo Qing, Either in a FPS game or MMO. For exemple in a FPS game you join a random game and end up with 3 hackers in your team which is much more fun than playing with the same 5-10 people ……

Anyway I wish the game didint force people to team up. Not everybody wants to do it or can match the gaming schedule of their teammates.

If i want to log in for 30 min for some casual pvp , I should be able to. Just like try hard people can go to ESl and win actual money.

Solo Q in this game dosent exist since the crap patch. And the additon of guild PvP teams will kill it even more.

Even if most premades can be beaten by pugs, I dont feel like trying hard and playing with an unfair disadvantage vs full premade on voice coms..

And making such a horrific solo Q expeirence will also affect other people that want to play in a team. Unless all their friends have no liife and are always there to play with them, there will be a moment when they will be forced to solo Q and get farmed by premades.

So why does this game hates solo Q’ers so much to pair them with 3 mesmers against a full premade 3 games in a row? Im just giving an example, you dont need to verify my PvP history … So Why is that???!!?

Just cause I know you in game… you were about to quit the game and you wanted to leave asap but you’re back to actually caring about the game? You’re either a troll or a tryhard, you can’t be both :P

With that being said, Anet doesn’t care about soloq and they never will. It was a solution to people qqing over the fact that they couldn’t effective duo queue against full team but since so many people have quit the game since that patch, it’s no longer an issue really.

I also agree that this team guild thing is amazing but ONLY IF THEY PUT IN A SOLOQ OPTION SO THAT THESE TEAMS THAT RUN IN UNRANKED AND RANKED WILL NOT STOMP THE SOLOQERS THAT DONT HAVE A TEAM OR JUST WANT TO SOLOQ

I would quit if they banned me but even after being a complete kitten , arenanet refuses to bann me from this game. So I still play sometimes but whenever I play , I just then leave immediately and would rather play something else instead.

Cuz solo Qing under this system is near dam impossible. And even grouping up isn’t fun in ranked Q because the game is dead and it will only pair people vs solo Qers.

Just kittening quit. Why do you need them to ban you to quit? Sounds like addiction to me and your just justifying it.

Not an addiction if I’m a casual player. Its just how I roll. Every game I played , I got perma banned and it gave me a good reason to never look back. It won’t happen with gw2 I guess, cuz developers don’t give a kitten apparently lol.

So you’ve hated every game you have ever played including gw2 but you don’t stop playing them until you get banned (aka you literally can no longer play it)….. sounds casual.

Yes after I get bored I mess around and get myself banned on purpose. Plenty of people do that, hackers in FPS games are a great example. When you’re not having fun anymore by playing the game like it was intended , you do some stupid stuff that get you banned.

You may think its stupid and childish but it makes sense. Its like getting tiered of your job and then saying kitten off to your boss. You will get fired and move on.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to find another job, politely give 2 weeks notice, and move on? …getting back to guild wars, I solo queue in Ranked and almost always have a good experience.

I just had to post: Getting very excited for Wind guild hall!

OP: Longbow damage is just right. You have a pet, and nice utility with LB. If you want to survive better in one vs one situations, run celestial. Zerker staff elementalist has several weaknesses that are easy to exploit, in PvP setting.

Also, if you decide to play with fire and run zerkbow solo queue in ranked, you better believe people will see you coming and class/weapon/skill swap before the match to hard counter you. It is very risky, but can be rewarding. I like where it is at now, and taunting pets will make it even stronger in HoT. Utility > Damage.

River Drake/Owl or Lynx

I think it is still too early to tell. I suspect we may be a bit over-buffed. It seems that beastmastery will now be possible with current meta builds that were already pretty strong—without it. That, added with the option of taunt on any pet will make it so we can go without the wolf and have double the condition effect to stop resurrection and stomping. Taunt will be very strong if enemy can’t clear it, they will be running into hilt bash, maul, splitblade…. You name it. Let’s wait and see.

It would be nice to have more to do here. Maybe add some resource nodes, mystic forge, jump puzzle with chests, etc. It would give us something to do while waiting, besides using bank and trading post.

I queue for ranked solo because the players are mostly better and there are fewer and 4v5’s. Also, you can run into some really good players and get some nice fights.

Tao.1234:

Didn’t know that leaderboards reflect skill.

:o

:)The current leader board is turned off… The original MMR based leaderboard gave one a pretty good idea how they were doing.

ronpierce.2760:

I can tell because I make a Dragon wanna retire, man…

I know, but what if you are Dragon rank, for example, and consistently get matched with others, and even rofl-stomp them frequently. How can you say for certain they are not horribad Dragons that boosted their way up? They could be the worst dragons in the game!

As an sPvP player, how are you supposed to know if you are any good? The matchmaker keeps you at 50% and you can’t see anything that tells you what your MMR is… So you have no idea how hot (or not) you are!

Naturally, everyone thinks they are “the best,” but we could actually be one of the worst and not realize it!!! (Shock and horror)

Just make them move slower and give them more skills to knockback, cripple etc… They should NOT be able to outrun everyone like little fairies…

I generally win a lot during the week when there are fewer players, then on the weekend the good ole matchmaker has a larger pool and gets it’s revenge to get me back down to 50%. You must be a spvp player?

Edit: you know you are in trouble when everyone on your team has titles like, Hero of Lions Arch, Golden, and Dungeon Master… Then the first person you meet on the other team has GWAMM…

I understand. So we are saying three things, basically:

1. Increase rewards for winning matches and doing well. People will try harder to win to get loot. Maybe have enemies drop loot bags or give better/more rewards after every match.

2. Build templates, or something to reduce wait time. I agree here as well.

3. Have some kind of ladder or threshold to keep those with really low MMR in their own league. So if you afk enough you’ll not get matched up with those looking for a good game.

I will say that the rewards for playing PvP are really not worth it. I keep trying to get my brother to play PvP but he won’t because farming nodes or SW is so much more rewarding, and he needs to have every legendary in the game… I mean… He’s my brother!!!

What can ANet do to stop people from going afk?

Also, if you like dual swords you can try the Dual Sword build I have been using. You will be at a minor disadvantage in some 1v1 encounters, against really good opponents, but will really shine in group fights.

Drop spotter and put 6 into wilderness survival for EB and swap 2H training for evasive purity for a better 1v1 setup.

I think it’s worth running this just to see the shock on your opponents when they get sliced and diced with this. Looks fun. Try swapping ice wolf with river drake. Grasping vines → pet swap to drake → lightning breath and spam sw aa. I bet you could 100-0 someone with no evades left. Try to get them to blow evades with wolf fear and GS 2.

Means it will proc 6 stacks of regen if you stand in it, for the duration. Of course, you can get more by projectile finishing it while standing in it.

I love these posts about dungeon runners kicking people. Here’s how difficulty in content is ranked, easiest to hardest. Anyone with a low to moderate amount of skill should be able to carry a few beginners through a dungeon with only a small loss (not QQ worthy) of time.

1. Trading post
2. Heart Quests
3. Dungeons and low level fractals
4. Map Completion
5. Resource Farming
6. Open World Boss Events
7. Story Mode
8. Living World
9. High level 49/50 fractals
10. WvW Zerging
11. WvW Roaming
12. PvP

The dungeon crowd always act like they are so skilled to stand in circle and mash 1,1,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,1,1,1. If they have trouble with someone running a “sub optima” build they should spend more time practicing heart quests or resource farming. To really master pressing more than one button.

Your home base

How does everyone feel about toon switching before a match starts? Before you answer too quickly, consider that some of us who have played thousands of games can usually make pretty good guesses about what you are running, and how to pick a build that hard counters it. Do you think this is fair? What about newer players who have no idea what is happening and get farmed like juicy blueberries for their lack of understanding?

I think one should incur -5 points for their team, in ranked, when they toon switch before or during a match. How does everyone feel about this? Is it considered skill or cheap to switch ones build to hard counter opponents bad team composition?

…yeah I think thieves are n a nice spot and don’t need to have stealth changed in any way. They can’t really block like other classes, so they stealth. They also can’t really stop you from stomping one of their allies, no knockdowns, knockbacks, etc… I play ranger and always find them an enjoyable duel.