Guild Wars 2

Another issue, aside from killing your pet, is that you can’t really predict when it will activate. How long do you really have to clear immobilize or those 10 stacks of bleeding that are eating you? Can you wait for it to activate in the next 3s, or will it be 4s? I could be using anecdotal evidence, but I think this would force one into higher vitality/healing amulets to account for the condition damage you will inevitably take. So, I see it as a nice compliment to active condition removal. Not a good supplement.

Laserbolt.6731:

I have changed my build to a celestial build that retains a pretty good LB DPS while having solid melee with survival of the fittest that deals 1400 condition damage. I like axe/dagger. Just a style I like as I have never gotten comfortable with the sword. I know a lot of people like the torch, but better players tend to dance outside it.

It is fun to surprise them when they come for the “glass LB Ranger” and find I am not easy to take on.

Great idea! Celestial SOTF LB is an excellent build. With this you can win most fights with skill. Not an easy cheesy win, but you can take on almost anyone and won’t have to worry about getting picked off between points.

Edit: Axe/dagger is a solid choice as well. You can try sword dagger when you are facing someone you must keep poison on 100% of tiime, but doom sigil can do same.

ChubbyWarlord.6037:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

The build is designed for after the specialisation patch hits, so you cannot currently use it.

Oh ok thanks, I was kind of worried it was like a hypothetical build.

Does that mean we get 18 trait points to spend after update (sorry haven’t been closely following)?

Bump. Totally agree with OP. This is a huge issue. This will make GM In NM mandatory in every build and removes Poison Master as an option. EB should be moved to new beastmastery line or changed to master trait.

All joking aside, for those who don’t like the pet mechanic, DH will be awesome. Guardian has great feel already, and will do quite well as a sniper class, complete with spirit weapons and walls to block incoming projectiles.

Personally, I love the pet mechanic—and ranger mechanics in general. Ranger is a skirmisher who jumps into the fray with his trusty pet to slice and dice. As a hunter he runs towards the fight. DH is ANet’s way to kindly answer those who want a sniper without a pet. Just create a guardian. They managed to give you a pet-less sniper without breaking our hunter. I am looking forward to throwing Kudzo on my guardian. :-)

DH should be called RLBH—Ranger LB Hunter—because he will totally trash a Glass LB Ranger. You won’t have a chance against DH if you stick to ranged weapons. Take a quick look at Ageis vs Opening Strike, and the options guardian has for utilities.

Sevans.4619:

Ranger. Is. A. Pet. Class.

No, no, no, you have it all wrong. Those 20-some-odd pets they built into the game have nothing to do with ranger!

We are the pew, pew class that, um, stands on a ledge with our trusty side-kick bird (think Iago from Aladdin) who yells “Get em’ Jafar!” If only ANet realized we would do better if they let us get rid of Iago… Maybe they could give us a teleport ability instead, so we could TP to the ledge!

Laserbolt.6731:

When playing a LB Power Ranger, it can be tough to get to your team to support them if you are caught on the way.

When you die in sPvP, what procedure to you follow leaving the base to get back to the action?

Do you just run to the high ground to an important spot and look and wait for action to come near you?

I think you might see this as a yellow flag for the build you are using. An organized team or experienced solo group will spot you as high damage output early on and call you out: “laser is glass!” or “will somebody get that stinking glassbow.” At which time you will be marked for death and someone will enter stage left with a sharp knife.

Newer teams will sort of ignore you, but the better ones will get someone to b-line you or just start using you as a rally bot. If they can kill you before you get to the fight, or shortly after, they’ll win the match. It just takes a little coordination or thought on their part.

The longbow glass ranger build is well balanced in that it is has overly powerful attacks, but exploits the Rangers weakness, which is the ability to counter CC abilities, especially when they are chained.

You can use GS leap (away from attacker), LR and pet abilities to try to slow down someone who jumps you but you might have more fun by switching to a build that will end up slaughtering them instead. Ranger is one the strongest (maybe strongest) 1v1 class.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Archon.6480:

Not sure, 3 signets seems a bit of an overkill. I think Wild is a must have for most builds. Required for stomping and those clutch moments when you need stability and small dmg burst.

Actually, it’s the most comfortable build for WvW.
You get access to Movement (key mechanic), to survivability and possible burst/ AoE condi cleanse.

Those are not wrong choices at all.
Sacrificing a utility slot for signet is a big deal. You might as well want to squeeze everything from it if possible and build accordingly.

To each his own, you can certainly make it work. With this, one must find another method to clear conditions, break cc, reposition, etc.

Not sure, 3 signets seems a bit of an overkill. I think Wild is a must have for most builds. Required for stomping and those clutch moments when you need stability and small dmg burst.

Hey, just wanted to chime in and report that ItIsFinished’s dual sword build is really fun. You can really decimate some of the more popular builds out there. Ran it exactly as posted on page four, except with Healing Spring (because I like to leap finish it—and always mess up ungent timing).

Mordrem staff, hands down awesome for ranger with those cute little snake heads!

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Mordrem_Staff_Skin.jpg

Ha ha, how do you bump a two year old thread? Bug!

X/bow warriors are weak to poison because they rely (usually) on healing signet. Some form of bunkering poison master beastmastery GS/SW-T Kinda build. Keep fire aura up and try to get him to wander around in your fire field.

The same build will work on thieves. GS and torch work well on thieves in general.

Sorry you dislike ranger. I absolutely love the class and think GW Rangers are yet again the best in any MMO. Here are some tips that will make you feel over powered:

1. The first thing is to understand each pet and bring the right ones for your build.
1. Get ascended Armour and trinkets.
2. Ranger is hardest class to master, so that’s why it seems weak.
3. You need to master combo fields and utility you have.
4. It is important to understand each pet and bring the right ones for your build.
5. Try to counter your opponents skills. Button mashing = dead.
6. Don’t forget to understand each pet and bring the right ones for your build.
7. Try to learn the right conditions to use on your opponents.
8. Save your dodgey attack skills for when you need to dodge.
9. And finally, try to learn each pet and bring the right ones for your build.

Well, hope that helps.

I think it is meant to be used when they are running away or otherwise stationary. One of the few skills we have to prevent stomps. It works well with high critical damage and intelligence sigil (Zerker or Valkyrie). High damage on the way out.

Just switch to main hand axe and bounce it off his clones and run around. As long as you keep the point capped, you’ve locked him down and are gaining points every second. It’s very hard for a shatter Mesmer with staff to deal with bouncy axe, when played right.

Sublimatio.6981:

No, it’s Boomerlang now

No, no, no, you got it all wrong! It is Bloomburger!

Stick to fractals 49 and 50, if you play ranger. The lower levels often attract dungeon filth that don’t know how to use the dodge button, cant handle basic mechanics like healing, walking out of red circles, or moving out of range when they get hit hard. They’ll blame you (or anyone else) when they have trouble. Kicking you last minute is trashy, for any reason.

Woot! Love scavenger. Thanks!

Good suggestion. I find might stacking to be very effective in PvP and think more rangers should try it. I have best results with my might stacking hybrid. Drakes in fire! They cleave enemy and blast the fire field. The sigil of battle nerf hit our opponents harder than us, since we have so much access to might through other means.

The best part, you can fight on point with these builds and actually prevent caps and decaps.

oneply.9586:

ItIsFinished.9462:

Funny thing is, the guy laying on the ground about to die is blaming the other guy who is still alive doing damage and holding a point. The guy laying on the ground needs to get good.

your teammate just went 1v3 and killed 2 of them before the last one managed to get him downed, and then you finally arrive.
why does he need to get good? maybe you shouldve been there to assist sooner?
goes both ways, many different scenarios. fact is you need to help your teammates to win a team game consistently. unless theyre just really bad, then maybe them waiting to respawn helps the other team not score points.

Yeah, not likely… At the higher tiers you will never kill 2 in a 1v3 and will always get obliterated in a 2v1. Most of the PvE heroes who jump into PvP think they can roflstomp the enemy in an outnumbered fight (say hello Forest-of-noob-rushing-svanir-why-did-you-die-on-mid-with-uber-boon-Niffenhell).

These are the same ones who complain you don’t revive them when you arrive, last minute, and make it an “even” fight (even though they are laying on their back already). You try to explain the complexity of pulling off a revive with the enemy shatter Mesmer at full hp, to no avail.

Good players are usually too busy figuring out what to do next or what mistakes they made to swear at teammates. If you have time to type trash to your allies… Maybe you are the problem! :-)

Suggestion: right click their name, select block. If they used pejoratives, follow it with a report.

Ha ha, you got kicked by dummy for WvW bonus. Classic. Don’t worry, the world is full of simpletons…

Yeah, that was my point. I wouldn’t mind donating $10.00 or $20.00 to ANet per skin, but more than that gets a little silly. If they lowered the price a little I think they would get quite a few buyers. You start to feel like a sucker if you pay $100.00 (Or more) for some sweet looking pixels. :-) I think that goes from donation too… Something else…

Yeah, but that is insanely expensive right? 5 tickets = 50 scraps = ? $100.00?

I love you ANet, but not THAT much!

I like them and would be willing to spend gold and even Real Money for them! But, alas, they are waay too expensive. Are these skins going to come into circulation again? It does not make sense to pay less for Precursors…

Actually your theory fits perfect. The attack on the summit has left me confused for quite some time but your theory would explain quite a bit. I never understood how the Pale Tree Avatar is doing fine in all her power, a roar happens, the lights go dim, and all of a sudden she is crippled. Not so mighty now are ya? I kept wondering how this happened so fast.

If you question the Avatar, she says “The Mordrem tore at my roots and wounded me” (something to that effect). That’s silly. How did they do that so fast? What? A bunch of wolves we never see were thrashing around underground… And left after crippling her in a few seconds? Why not finish the job?

It makes more sense that the Shadow of the Dragon tore free from The Pale Tree—in an instant—and proceeded to fly right to the top to dispatch you. The Pale Tree is now mortally wounded without it’s dragon half and needs a new one (Glints Egg) to survive. The only thing not explained is how the tree became sentient on its own and had a different will than the dragon half? :-) sounds a little far fetched, but could work.

Another thought, the rise of the Revenant, and Tyrians all of a sudden being able to have specializations (read increased magical power) could be related to Zhaitan’s complete and utter death and spewing his ancient magic directly into Tyria.

Targuil.3741:

Tao.5096:

DS is a spectral form not a transform.
L2read.

What’s the mechanical difference in utility skills between DS and transforms if not something I tried to describe. Also the “spectral form” is just a tooltip description. Not a color coded skill type or anything.

That’s easy! In one your toon changes into something else and in the other…your toon… aw shucks! :-)

From ANet’s description, I am picturing Stronghold to be a game mode where each team consists of 3 or 4 full parties. It will be designed to discourage, but not prevent forming a zerg or Blob—as we used to call it in GW1. If you remember correctly, Blobing would almost always result in a loss in GW1, due to the match mechanics. Really looking forward to this. A single skilled 5man party will make a huge difference, but won’t determine the outcome.

Whew, I thought you were going to complain about our recent stealth buff. Thankfully, this is more about LB spike. I do believe the most competitive ranger builds have less to do with LB and more to do with other… Things.

I personally enjoy it when I see the enemy has a spiky LB ranger. My enjoyment goes down when I see they are using celestial, drops to concern when they are using conditions, turns to worry when I see spirits.

I smile inside when I see them using Sentinel Ammy.

Great idea! Can we say cloth! Cloth is OP and needs a nerf! Metal and wood can’t compete!

Yes there is a larger amount of nasty speech in PvP. The root of the problem stems from modern day culture in which free speech is contorted to mean good speech. Most people nowadays are not versed in history and thus don’t realize that unrestrained speech leads to death, destruction, and just about every kind of evil imaginable. Ok, I’ll get off the soap box :-)

Bringing it back to GW, a couple quick rules:

1. If they are using profanity, racial slurs, etcetera—in an aggressive way—block and report them. The GW team really hates this stuff, but needs your help to root out these people. Everything typed is logged by GW (and scanned by the NSA).

2. Don’t take advice from these people as they are usually pretty horrible players and don’t understand what is actually happening in conquest. The really good people don’t bother flaming because they can spot your skill level pretty fast and won’t see the point in insulting you.

3. Do your best always. Sometimes you get slotted to loose based on MMR. Shoot for 200, 300, or 400 points when things start to go south fast.

4. You can always be a real hero and stand up for someone getting flamed. “Hey calm down.” “Take it easy, it’s just a game.” “Really, you’ve never met his mother…” “Be more irenic please!”

Could also be that you are lagging. The game client on your computer makes educated guesses about where it thinks your opponent is going to go when you loose connection. So, if your opponent is running towards the edge or a hole when you loose connection or lag, you will see him run right off the edge or fall through the hole. When your client reconnects it learns your opponent stopped just before tossing himself off the edge and will correct its incorrect assumption. Boom, your opponent teleports back to the edge.

It’s rather amusing how well the client guesses where people are going, because there are tons of lag like interruptions on the Internet, yet we rarely see it make bad guesses. ANet has been very good at squashing hackers in the past, so just report them for exploiting if you are sure that is what is happening.

I think the idea is interesting, but it could really complicate balance. Some classes might not be viable in 2v2 situation, for example, while being just fine in 5v5 conquest. The developers would have to take PvE, conquest, and 2v2 arena into account for every balance update.

I’m not saying it is impossible, but I bet it would mean longer wait times for balance updates, etc.

How do specializations affect weapon and utility skills. Do they modify, replace, buff, or simply give additional skills.

The revenant wears a blindfold, does this imply it will have Ritualist style skills. The description kinda sounds more like a new version of dervish. Maybe the blindfold is because the Revenant is a Kormir follower? In short, what are the characteristics of this new class?

The place where you want to move quickly and think you might need the block. Works nice with mismatched dungeon pugs. Also woks well in more difficult PvE content, where enemy actually has a chance to down you (silverwastes).

Vizardlorde.8243:

Jim Hunter.6821:

They moved a lot of the pets out of the starter areas for… reasons.

NPE is the answer for most of what’s wrong with the game currently. They moved TP and a lot of pets out of starting maps because they were “too confusing for new players”

Oh, there you done gone an’ done it. Did you have to remind us why our pets only respond to brain dead commands!

No, but they are good at it. They are not supposed to be either ranged or melee only. They do both well. Want to play mostly ranged? There are builds for that. How about all melle? Yep, we have those too.

My Personal Recommendation is that you always have a Melee weapon equipped, whatever you decide to do. That’s all. And don’t be afraid to use ranged weapons in near melee range to pick up allies’ boons.

Also, it seems to me the celestial ranger can still do a kitten load of damage with celestial when using both air and fire sigils on the LB. I really think celestial ranger is a better choice for PvP kind of scenarios. Don’t get me wrong, the pure zerker melt-my-enemy builds have their place as well.

Yes, good point! I am gonna bump this thread (like all the others) and add the following:

Pretty Please!!!

Maybe they could add a “Reputation” stat that your teammates could rate you with after a match. +1 or -1 kind of thing. That way I could -1 the next person who says “Stupid Ranger Arie, can’t even kill an engineer!” As Chaith dances over my dead body and we loose 500-30. :-)

I kind of like celestial where it is, by the way. Shaving stats would make it too weak to use I think. I use it from time to time on ranger and it feels pretty good as is. If it were weaker, there would really be no reason to bring it over the other amulets. I am no expert with other classes, so can’t speak on their behalf.

Sube Dai.8496:

style.6173:

Community: Eles can stack might too easily
ANET: Cool, let’s nerf might for everyone

Engis were OP before and will be even more OP now (relatively speaking to other classes). This game really needs a balance team. Right now, it does not appear that one exists.

They won’t be more OP. This is a positive change for builds that don’t stack might.

There were other classes who could stack might though (like rangers). And rather than bring them up to the same level they have made them completely un-viable.

So in a way this patch also hurts build diversity, which is a bad thing.

I wonder, though. Ranger might stacking comes from pets, auras, and signets mostly. The battle sigil nerf does not really affect our might stacking ability as much.

Don’t get mad in unranked for new players making mistakes. That is what it is for. Try hard and expect the same in Ranked. Help beginners in unranked.

I understand the frustration at the thought of people cheating to get ahead. It’s like deflating your football and still making it to the superbowl! :-)

In all seriousness, the joke is on them. It is a slow, boring way to gain rank. In the end, they’ll be a horrible dueler with a nice finisher they’ll rarely get to use. Even relatively bad players will have a 30-40% win ratio in unranked arena.

Finally, I truly believe ANet left this loophole specifically as a catch-all for the farmers and exploiters. Without it, they would be trying to manipulate ranked and unranked arena, which would annoy everyone who enjoys the thrill of PvP. They allowed the exploiters just enough rank to make it more worthwhile than trying to manipulate ranked and unranked. I understand the frustration, just ignore them…

You should join the ranger guild [Wind]. We are a nice group!

Well, don’t worry about loosing in WvW too much just yet. If you are running around by yourself, you are technically “roaming” and would do better with a build spec’d for roaming. Your current build works great in zerg or 5vX kind of battles but is a little weak for 1v1 against someone who is spec’d for it.

I took a look at you build and wanted to suggest you use Healing Spring instead of heal as one. In PvE you can fight inside the spring and get a nice regen boost off it. Even better, if you swap to GS and hit 3 you will get a leap finisher off it which will give you extra healing. If you ever decide to go back to Warhorn and sword, you can blast your Warhorn inside the spring for a finisher that heals you and frinds and double tap 2 to get another leap finisher. The Spring also removes conditions which will help in the silverwastes. Good Luck!

1. Great idea. Nice way to practice in HotM.
2. Yes, but they will only do that in expansion :-(
3. Yes! Legendary champion is getting old and 10,000 wins for Brawler is too far.
4. Yes please! C’mon GW1 has this!
5. You are famous!

I really like the idea of keeping the solo team together after a win and maybe only placing those teams against premades after a few wins. You could always drop out if you get paired with a snotty asuran engineer. :-) No harm, no foul. This would give premades more of a challenge as well. I am sure they would like that.

Another solution would be to punish team que vs solo by only placing high ranked, high MMR solo players against premades. Three high ranked solo players will have a tough time against a premade when they have a couple beginners in their group. Maybe only place legendary champions in mixed matches against premades? Is this hard to program?

I find the premades loose their ego rather quickly when placed against higher skill solos. It’s a bit unfair to add relatively new solo players in match against a team with communication. There really is no substitute for being able to talk to your allies.

Your friendly neighborhood SotF Ranger here would like to say he approves of these changes and would like to leave you with the following heart felt comment:

1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1…

:)

All joking aside, I think the balance changes are just about right. I think small incremental changes are the best way to fine tune balance. I am glad nothing got severely nerfed, but some of us rangers will have an easier time now. The addition of torment sigils and mildly better warhorn skills will nudge us just a little closer to being almost viable in team setting. We still lack the considerable stomp prevention and general group support abilities the meta carries, but I am betting we’ll be able to contribute more now.