The key to success with scepter is to forget it’s a ranged weapon.
In PvE it is very niche regardless.
Hate to look at it this way but could it be that the player base is the ignorant one here?
I don’t believe so because there are some pretty solid players that provided builds, different builds, and some facts behind the numbers. Is this one of those moments that we just need more time to play or have people show their cards?
Perhaps the player base could be ignorant, but the developers have to be held to a higher standard— and thus they can’t afford to be ignorant as the player base. So, that’s why complaints need to be filtered.
I would definitely say that any game that gets played to a hardcore level has a player base whose combined knowledge is far superior to the developers could possibly imagine. Of course, said knowledge is very top heavy— the really good players who are able to conceive of and execute good builds have most of the knowledge, while many people simply aren’t and just don’t know what they’re talking about, merely copying the builds they see without really knowing how it works.
It’s a kind of arrogance that goes both ways. Players think the developers can’t see something that obvious, and the developers think that gamers are too tunnel-visioned and that’s not the kind of game they want.
This is why I said (and I will probably post something similar elsewhere), it is important to conceptualize how gameplay works WITHOUT passing some kind of assessment because when you engage in too much of the later, we simply cannot weed out the L2p issue. On the other hand, if one class needs to l2p and another doesn’t, then at the very least there’s some kind of comparison to be made.
It’s also why I used the necromancer Death Magic trait tree as an example, because I actually saw how constructive posts were being used— the suggestions weren’t taken directly, but it’s clear how some of the concepts were taken to make these changes. In essence, Anet developers were able to establish how the necromancer was played somewhat, after L2P. So that took like a year and a half to get rid of the much hated re-animator trait, if some perspective is needed.
And at the same time, it’s also certain from my view that Anet’s concept of guardian gameplay has not coincided with the same level of reality and no kicking and screaming will change this. What I mean is that things have to be seen eye to eye— otherwise it’s like Anet is playing one game, and we are playing another.
So back to your original question. I think we could wait to see how these changes settled, but on the other hand, the stagnant vision of the class means that regardless, there is an issue somewhere. Consider that the guardian ability to combat conditions has not improved significantly over time, yet condition application and damage has only gone stronger. The ferocity change has only widened the gap. As you can see, my observation has nothing to do with what I want or am annoyed by. Now I know this kind of argument has been put forth, but how often has it been put together in a more fair tone that isn’t screaming at Anet to fix it tomorrow?
Filtering out the noise is very difficult. These forums can often get very toxic, and although I think a business that works with the public must have a thick skin, there’s just some communication that works more than others. From what I’ve seen, it appears they do care, although the manner they go about it is well, to put it lightly, extremely cautious and occasionally stubborn.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
I don’t think we are balanced when we only have 1 effective build for each game mode.
Changes over the last year have not created any build diversity.
PvE has hammer dps and 1 hander dps, WvW has balanced AH and healway.
Not sure about pvp, but there’s more than 1 build. There should be more of course.
ArchonWing, have you lost yer mind? Merged with kindled trait is going to make it so overpower that warrior might actually start rerolling! roll eyes
Let’s be honest.
I could replace the 30 zeal slot with free cake, and still nobody would take it.
That’s nice but warriors and guardians OO?
Edit@Archon:
Are you saying that there is no dev that actually play a guardian or what?
By the way they added the traits, I’m convinced that they don’t actually play many classes. At least in a difficult environment.
On the other hand, I have seen real anet tags that are guardians and actually weren’t terrible, so that leads me in a state of confusion or they have some secret meta build that remains hidden.
To be fair, it’s a good thing they don’t listen to most of the complaints on this forum site as too many of them are myopic and balance the game around themselves. Problem is when people start passing their experiences off as fact, and thus stuff contradicts. Who do you follow anyways? Of course, the people that know what they’re talking about. Of course, that’s another problem— how do you judge that?
And it requires knowledge of more than one class too. For example, can a necromancer complain that their previous GM trait dhumfire was weak, because engineers can get the same effect on a master level trait? No. Or how about Engineers need to invest 30 trait points into endurance regen while rangers get it for 5? But if you had no idea about either class, then you’d say a lot of crap that should be rightfully ignored. And I see a lot of that when people make comparison. They have no idea about the other class they’re talking about— or the one they’re actually playing.
Oh hell. Why do Rangers get free regen and it wasn’t touched, while guardians were? Nerf rangers too plz!
Anet DOES listen to complaints. Just not most of them. I am dead certain the Death Magic tree renovation for the necromancer was almost completely player inspired. (It got revamped just yesterday). But that took ages, and the effect was wonderful. The class is still garbage in pve though, so sometimes I sort of have to laugh when people always claim the grass is greener on the other side.
Of course, this isn’t to defend Anet at all. It’s clear they don’t understand the meta enough and would rather nerf it than do anything. It’s up to you to paint a picture of how the game actually plays and present the concept to them instead of piling on a list of demands so you can 1111 harder.
And if you don’t like it, well, there’s 7 other professions to play. As well, as other games.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
For some reason they thought that investing in radiance line was for condition damage.
They could have done something sane like add 20% of condition damage to current power for retaliation. It wouldn’t have been good anyways, but still…
This trait should have been merged with the zeal GM trait.
“The guardian is in a good place.”
The already overpowered godlike master-class, Warrior, got massive boosts this patch. This is frankly bullkitten.
I think they listen far too much to Josh Grouch. On every single broadcast he did, he suggested to the devs that Guardians were in a good place. Then they employed him! /facepalm
What warrior buffs were there? I see some nerfs…
The problem is that it competes with both monk’s focus and AH. :S
It’d be pretty nice with a mace/focus, but what build I am lost on.
Some kind of small scale 0/5/30/30/5 build….
Ruby Orbs were only a choice due to their cheapness. Scholar Runes will be better most of the time. Not sure about the new runes…)
Shouts are a losing struggle alone save for the bunker 0/0/2/6/6 sword/gs (2 gap closers); they are meant to support as a group— alone, they are literally 1/5 as effective. Once they go on cooldown, you lose. But that seems to fit what you want the most.
I would suggest Scepter + Focus and Mace +torch. This gives you more reach, as well as strong blocks on either set. This is the only build of which I’ve found it relatively painless to defeat ranged classes or warriors (it’s too difficult to break through their high healing/health/armor otherwise it seems). Also, even with 2 gap closers they would still run away. Scepter is also very handy against a necro despite the fact that most hits will miss because it outranges their own main ways of killing you (their own scepter, Death Shroud).
You could obviously put more soldier/knight as needed until it reaches a point where you feel comfortable. Life is low but mildly acceptable with guard stacks. Also, the ferocity nerf goes both ways too. Roaming is just a side activity for me, and thus I went for the cheapo speed runes instead of the expensive traveler ones.
I went with purity because conditions can be hard to clear off at times. . I’m using exotic armor/weapons /w ascended trinkets as a “standard”.
Also, the site doesn’t take in account Right Handed Strength, so it’s 15% higher than displayed.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Probably more. There’s a bunch of new builds to try atm.
I was actually thinking a lot of the classes had gotten stale, but the necro and ranger have some decent new toys.
Power is almost always better, and with the ferocity nerf power is a clear winner. Bloodlust is pretty expensive though.
This was largely a feature patch, not a balance one, so I would take the balance changes in stride. 2nd rune gives a lot more options though that’s only for 2 hander builds.
Vigor nerf is crap definitely, though for some reason melandru runes received a small buff. Yay I guess.
With the new sigil cooldown changes, a condition build might actually not completely suck as it is possible to have a cover condition other than burning, though its actual viability remains to be seen.
Lightning Reflexes is now an amazing skill if traited.
Previously it was pretty worthless since we have other backflips and you could fit in a better stunbreak. Main thing is that it DID NOT get rid of immobilized. Now that it does, and add in the potential for condi removal and fury makes it a great utility skill.
Now in wvw, a ranger could take 30/0/10/30/0 (no need to tie yourself to Empathetic Bond anymore, it’s gonna be trash anyways since dead pets don’t remove conditions), with sword/either bow, and jump around pretty easily. Combine this with Muddy Terrain, and you have a semi-decent, non selfish, high damage build since Muddy Terrain has such a short cooldown. Plus all that fury and stuff. I could also take shortbow, and have like 3 leaps for skirmishing. AOE damage would be limited, but spotter/piercing arrows wouldn’t be too awful. The main thing is that you wouldn’t have to get hung up on signets just to live.
But kitten , Archon, my group always gives me fury! Well, consider you can keep some distance now, and you won’t be in boon range. This makes up for it, so you don’t need to be in people’s faces to get it.
It also allows for 30 Nature /30 Wilderness (take BARK SKIN), for some very funny annoyance.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
I just put an extra sigil of energy in my GS to make up for the loss of endurance regen. Ofc, this will screw over the one hander builds, but of course nobody listened to me on this.
I foresee a lot of 25/30 virtues builds being taken to compensate partially for the loss. (30% boon duration will increase vigor duration to 6.5 seconds and maybe even lol, that GM trait).
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Imposing a change for PvE with zero thought to how it affects balance elsewhere, is incredibly shortsighted.
Necro mobility out of combat is better than guardians because of the 25% mobility signet and also barring that, perma-swiftness.
However, in combat, they have only 1 gap closer and that one utterly sucks. It is very easy to escape from a necro. A necro can’t break combat either and one that plans on fighting you is prepared to die.
Guardians are highly in demand in wvw zergs, that’s for sure though.
I don’t think rangers need more damage. They would be severely OP in small scale combat because their single target damage is fine. One should be addressed on focusing on their ability to deliver said damage to a enemy zerg. This game also isn’t balanced around 111111111 content.
IMO, it just takes two steps:
Merge Signet of the Beastmaster with Signet Mastery to adept or remove it entirely, making it so that signets work without traits.
Merge Piercing Arrows + Eagle Eye, and maybe make it so that it increases SB range by 150. This way you could take both without sacrificing spotter and look selfish and/or worthless.
That would be more than enough. The main problem is that ranger traits are so scattered and have to compete with each other over a small space.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Currently this build would not work at all because of cooldown sigils interfering with each other, but there may be something of value after the patch. Then survivability as well as a lack of damage will hurt. You don’t need too high of a crit to set off the procs since they have cooldowns.
Searing flames is a bad trait because it can go on cooldown with nothing removed.
Unfortunately, guardians just don’t bring enough condition applying of their own to make this really work. You will be subpar atm, regardless, but I’m sure you’ll be bored from hearing that, but if you want to make the best of it for whatever reason, I would say…
Can’t find condition duration, but nothing a veggie pizza can’t fix. Basically this just relies on empowering might/ah to keep you alive and keep a few stacks of might to boost damage.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Maybe.
A player with 10k AP would most likely be better than they were when they had 2k AP; they may have learned to do whatever they were doing better.
It doesn’t make them better than anyone else with 2k AP though, especially given the poor balance of achievement points, especially regarding wvw.
It could have been a useful metric, but currently is extremely misleading and you shouldn’t set any arbitrary requirements like that.
So, at the moment there is a correlation, but a weak one.
And obviously if someone has never run any dungeons, then all the AP in the world from other content does not matter.
If your main focus is dungeons or fractals, I would suggest Ascended Berserker Gear.
If you don’t, then keep an exotic berserker set for that if you do dungeons/fractals at all, and craft whatever you want. Soldier, Sentinel (Your Wei Qi armor), or Knights is good for WvW and good enough for open world pve. Well, with the exception of anything that contains condition damage; that’s terrible on guardians. Don’t waste your materials on that.
In other words, if you don’t intend to dungeon or fractal much, you can complete the set you are currently doing.
I mostly wvw and rarely do any fractals, so I’m crafting ascended soldier armor while on the rare occasion I’m dragged into a fractal, I have my exotic berserker gear ready as well.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Why pair mace with a shield?
Shield 4 is crap because you are melee and offering protection to people in front of you. It doesn’t make any sense if you’re up front.
Shield 5 knocks people away, and mace has no reach… and not to mention that awful root.
Torch is better with Mace because it gives you nominally more reach even if the damage is pretty mediocre, plus torch 4 actually gives you a threat to people from afar.
It seems to me that focus is far superior to shield for the same reason it’s a superior offhand with any other weapon. Focus 5 gives you more damage and also can serve as an addition block to the mace’s block and 4 gives more support. It’s also a blast finisher (admittingly on a long cooldown)
Hammer is better in many cases, but mace healing isn’t completely useless either when used in conjunction with other hammer guardians. I know it’s hard to really justify regeneration and healing over protection, but hey, protection doesn’t protect you from all attacks!
IMO, hammer is the far superior AH weapon, while mace is better off in a healway one as it scales quite well with healing power. Though it’s actually not a bad dps weapon… and here comes focus again! It’s kinda funny to actually run into a zerg and boom, protector’s strike downs some people!
But yes, there’s really no reason why the thing should hit at the same speed as a hammer. It doesn’t have to be 2x faster; but it needs to be faster than hammer.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Not much, since with triple shouts, Pure of Voice will always be superior. There’s even competition from battle presence. You could try to replace save yourselves with purging flames if you’d like.
For zergs, maybe do…
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vUAQNAW5dlsApZo1CxVI8DNhk9QkQwEE7BGpRAwVBHC-zECB4hCykDw0HBKJtIasVWFRjVNDQrETDbR1ECo/YA-w
With the additional 3k health, going soldier trinkets would be overkill imo.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
You should thank them.
Hop on some superior arrow carts, and enjoy their gift of bags to you.
The ranger has rather good single target dps. People mistaken burst damage for dps, and they also mistaken giant numbers (even though there’s a channel) for dps. This makes them faceroll pve open world like no other. Ok, sure, open world is trivial and requires little skill, but considering this class gets bashed because it doesn’t perform in the activity that requires just as little skill (wvw zerging), I don’t really see a problem. And hey, the pet can tank champions effortlessly! Rangers are underrated for their ability to provide consistent damage pressure because it isn’t cool enough with the giant numbers so you can brag about.
In actually difficult content such as dungeons, fractals, and roaming, rangers are strong. So I don’t really think anyone wasted their time rolling a ranger.
The problem I generally have are the trait spreads and flexibility and a reliance on the pet that makes scaling a pain. (Why must I spend 30 points for signets to work; why is everything stacked up there?). This causes a general lack of build diversity, something guardians complain a lot about too. That class certainly has builds that work really well of course, but venturing out suddenly makes it a ton harder.
I think the pet mechanic needs to be looked at. Having many utilities that rely on killing your pet or praying for the ai to save you is just not anyways to go.
I don’t main a ranger; I rolled one specifically to see what the complaints are about. Some of the complaints are valid, and this class is far from perfect— surely ignoring the problems will not lead to any changes, though the class is far more functional than a lot of people may think.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
… And it’s only a master trait!
It’s pretty amusing since for some reason, because if you listen to enough people, necros aren’t allowed to kill people or something. If you do, it’s because you’re cheating.
I’ve started to grow tired of the “condition meta/op” rants. Let me first state I run both as condition and power necro, as well as other classes.
1) WvW is not, first and foremost, a 1v1 arena, and I seriously doubt 1v1 balance in WvW is high on the game designers’ priority list.
2) Conditions are strong in small fights, but that’s about it.
3) Of all the damage I receive in WvW, I don’t think half of it stems from conditions.
Now… I’ve had thieves surprising me out of nowhere, landing some devastating combinations and I’ve dueled thieves who knew how to counter necro:s. They get my respect and if we party up, it’s always on friendly terms.
I’ve also fought brash thieves with predictable movement, announcing their presence, happily walking in my marks/wells and trying to out-tank me. If I party up with them I know I’ll be called cheesy.
Who would you listen to?
I can tell similar tales about other encounters, but you get my drift. I don’t think I’ve ever been called cheesy by a seasoned roamer.
Edit: gramma
I pretty much agree with most of it. 1v1 is just peanuts in the grand scheme of things, especially in stuff like wvw. It’s most likely an ego thing for many.
Then again, unlike some other classes, a necro once engaged in battle pretty much has to fight to the death. Maybe some people can’t accept that someone has accepted this mentality and won’t just run away like a little kitten once things go south. =p
Once an Anet tag successfully led me and a few other pugs to bypass the enemy zerg and get to the main force in wvw. Clearly, they must have developed quite a high level of skill since they get targeted so much, lol.
#Anet tag roaming meta 2014
In any case, having a tag can be useful if certain situations need to be resolved quickly.
The perception that bearbow (and thus longbow) sucks is actually a pve one, because it really does suck in pve. But that’s because pve has no use for the bear’s meatshield or condi removal, and melee is preferable for max dps. Stuff like Point Blank shot is bad when you’re trying to stack together to kill stuff, but trying to approach a group of 5 rangers each spreading out their PBS’ing would be annoying as hell. Of course, other pets such as felines, spiders, and dogs have interesting utilities as well.
Still I would say it’d be funny to run around with 5 bearbows standing on top of something or knocking people off bloodlust or something.
Yea, I think power is the way to go; besides it’s not RNG dependent and also as a minor detail, objects can’t be crit.
The only place for crit damage builds is Death Perception ones, then you can take cavalier, though I think Valkyrie would still be better. So if you can hit 50% crit before DS, then you can stack some of it.
Of course, crit damage is getting nerfed, and we’re not certain of the effects atm.
Time to murder critters!
But yes, it’s a faulty assumption that LF is free.
It’s pretty amusing since for some reason, because if you listen to enough people, necros aren’t allowed to kill people or something. If you do, it’s because you’re cheating.
It’s not like we have terrible ways of handling CC, trouble being focused, or no escapes or anything like that.
Although the condition bunker attrition does seem to be the rage these days and is very hard to deal with it.
I think the problem with condition damage is that it seems geared to be used against other players, which is why it does horrifically in pve but so deadly in wvw/pvp
Vendoring Silk scraps even when ascended gear was announced.
I guess I was in denial.
I don’t think it’s worth it with this build over POV— purging flames is decent but alone as a condition group cleanse is dubious. You may be able to withstand the conditions of course but the people around you could do a bit better. As a melandru runner myself, I would say stuff like immobilized and cripple is going to ruin your day even with reduced duration without an easy access to cleanse— it’s just not the same as cleansing it on demand. You also have to remember purging flames can be interrupted and has a cast time. In addition the radius is small though I suppose it’s also persistent in condition duration reduce. Overall, I’d say if you take shouts and 30 honor then you really should take POV.
You’re also losing the aoe blind that the standard 0/5/30/30/5 build gives.
If you wish to proceed, I think a reasonable compromise is to take soldier runes which compensates for the lack of POV. Your on demand group cleanse will be more competitive.
Personally, I’d also lose the oil for a power stone. You don’t have anything to proc with crits besides vigor and for the most part power > precision. An organized group also has frequent access to fury too, and thus I think overinvesting in crit to the expense of power isn’t too great of an idea which is why soldier is quite favored and knights tends to be a compromise. I would leave cavalier to other classes/builds that can attain very high crit to take advantage such as right handed strength guards, warriors, or death perception necros. I feel most guardians have much more to gain from knight or soldier.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Oh yes, the brown bear, lol. I always thought that was the bear.
Yea, that’s a really effective group support skill. I’ve been trying to see what happens without it, and looks like I’ll be going back soon.
I was thinking vigor wasn’t too necessary with warhorn and the endurance trait, but it might help people around me a bit more.
I have always thought that if you are in the middle of a zerg with a Ranger, you are doing it wrong
this is Build Wars 2, not “This is what i think i cannot do wars 2”
Really have no idea what you are trying to say there. ^^
i bolded the relevant part for you
You could go out into WvW without armor…….or run into the middle of a zerg dropping traps and swinging a GS. It doesn’t mean either is playing to a Rangers strength. Play as you please though. lol no one is stopping you.
Edit: To top it off, running into a zerg pretty much negates the pet. Other than stepping over a few traps for you they are irrelevant….more than usual.
Hmm, isn’t bear somewhat durable? I mean yes, there’s all those bearbow jokes and they’re poor in pve because dps is king, but in wvw zergs where dps is secondary and they have that condition removal, it seems like they could be useful.
…Which isn’t pet reliant. :p
Anyhow, feel free to post any build that gives me the cornerstones of zerg combat (stability, condition removal, cc) which doesn’t completely destroy your ability to support nor simply relies on guardians or something for critical things.
This has stability, condition removal, cc and support.
Well, thanks for posting that.
Blargh, I should have explicitly said AOE ranged damage, since I suppose cleave isn’t a problem, except the close range part.
Looking at the video, muddy terrain + entangle is something to look at, though I’m not too appreciative of entangle’s long cooldown when it’s going against rampage as one but that may be worth a shot.
I wouldn’t really say the build has good condition removal. It has healing spring which is good in and of itself, but that’s it. The stability is strong from Signet of the Wild but the cooldown is looong, and there’s also 0 stunbreaks if I’m correct here.
As for AOE damage, we have barrage…. and entangle again. I’m not the hugest fan of barrage but we’ll give it that for now.
The hounds are something to worth considering… if they’d stay alive.
The survivability is decent, as expected from a 30 marksmanship signet build, but those things are just so selfish.
This is still a good build of all the things I can conceive and am sure it works I have a similar build that I think is even more durable (well, my computer sucks and nearly explodes in combat much less be able to record and skills are limited, so you don’t have to take my word on it) but am running 3 signets. If I try to fit muddy terrain here, I’d be sacrificing either stability or condition removal/stunbreak.
I suppose the other catch here is piercing arrows. I currently use spotter in its place because I think the group dps increase is more important (also, as you’d expect, nobody else provides it either, lol) though I wonder how well the effect on that is. Which of course really brings up the issue of why so many traits are loaded in that three.
Let me tell you something;
Your average warrior or necro zergling build is equally selfish, or even more selfish then that build. However there is no warriors or necromancers in zergs right, so thats not a problem.
Yes, but I don’t really see the point of this comment nor do I get the point of the sarcastic commentary on pug warriors/necros.
They can be selfish, but they also can make minor concessions to huge effect. I can’t speak on warriors, though it seems their high defenses and long duration god mode skills with powerful heals allows that kind of stuff. They can afford to get punted with conditions because they have a higher health pool while CC’ing like nobody’s business. Hanging out with frontline warriors with a ranger is NOT a problem, but what are you sacrificing to do this, and what are they? And so wvw groups have their hammer trains and whatnot. And I can’t imagine a warrior evaporating if they want to show some banners, though I guess I should stop talking about this otherwise it’ll end up like 96% of warrior rants.
So no, I’m not saying that build is bad at all (in fact, quite the opposite) , but I look at all the concessions that had to be made to achieve it.
And what do you think a zerg necro build is? AOE boon removal (including that delicious stability). 20 trait points nets you AOE chills and blinds, not to mention it turns the plague form elite into an absurd, game changing ability. And necro staves— AOE regen/chill, fear (also a blast finisher), all on relatively low cooldowns for an even lower cooldown when you spent a mere 10 trait points. 10 more? It’s unblockable now.
The scary part are all these traits are potentially universal— meaning either a condi necro or a power necro is capable of all this kind of manipulation with small 10-20 point investments. In actuality, the tankiest/bunker zerg ready necro builds also give the most support too. You of course could be selfish with some 30/10/0/0/30 stuff, but that’s just a choice.
I understand that’s not really a fair comparison, since necros by design are top tier in zergs, but I do like to look at what works. Instead of nerfing stuff, stuff should be balanced towards what works. It doesn’t mean “turn every class into a warrior” but such things need to be factored in when designing things for the synergy.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Having a smoke field that is a trap or survival skill would probably help a lot.
Although I feel your Signet of Renewal comments to be off— it’s also a stunbreak. The necro signet can miss. They could make the cooldown a little shorter but that skill is fine as is.
IMO, rangers need something like a trait that removes conditions. For example a trait that removes a condition every time protection is applied (with a cooldown obviously) would be quite swell.
Anyhow, feel free to post any build that gives me the cornerstones of zerg combat (stability, condition removal, cc) which doesn’t completely destroy your ability to support nor simply relies on guardians or something for critical things.
This has stability, condition removal, cc and support.
Well, thanks for posting that.
Blargh, I should have explicitly said AOE ranged damage, since I suppose cleave isn’t a problem, except the close range part.
Looking at the video, muddy terrain + entangle is something to look at, though I’m not too appreciative of entangle’s long cooldown when it’s going against rampage as one but that may be worth a shot.
I wouldn’t really say the build has good condition removal. It has healing spring which is good in and of itself, but that’s it. The stability is strong from Signet of the Wild but the cooldown is looong, and there’s also 0 stunbreaks if I’m correct here.
As for AOE damage, we have barrage…. and entangle again. I’m not the hugest fan of barrage but we’ll give it that for now.
The hounds are something to worth considering… if they’d stay alive.
The survivability is decent, as expected from a 30 marksmanship signet build, but those things are just so selfish.
This is still a good build of all the things I can conceive and am sure it works I have a similar build that I think is even more durable (well, my computer sucks and nearly explodes in combat much less be able to record and skills are limited, so you don’t have to take my word on it) but am running 3 signets. If I try to fit muddy terrain here, I’d be sacrificing either stability or condition removal/stunbreak.
I suppose the other catch here is piercing arrows. I currently use spotter in its place because I think the group dps increase is more important (also, as you’d expect, nobody else provides it either, lol) though I wonder how well the effect on that is. Which of course really brings up the issue of why so many traits are loaded in that three.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Rangers are a poor zerg choice due to poor handling of condi spikes, lousy stability/stunbreaks, and abysmally poor aoe damage. , and fine in small groups because they are decent at providing long ranged sustained damage. Also, the pet matters more. On the other hand, zerging is largely about numbers anyways, and tbh it doesn’t really matter what you bring as long it’s level 80 and halfway decently geared. The exception would be organized guild fights, but you don’t need to take part in those.
Don’t die though.
there is so many blatant lies in this post i do not even know where to start….
My life is a lie then. :/
But really, in most situations of blob, does it really matter what you bring as long as you don’t rallybot ten people?
Anyhow, feel free to post any build that gives me the cornerstones of zerg combat (stability, condition removal, cc) which doesn’t completely destroy your ability to support nor simply relies on guardians or something for critical things. It’s possible that the masses are wrong (and they frequently are) but it certainly feels like an uphill struggle compared to everything else I’ve ever played. (necro, guardian, and even my uplevel engie) in that I have to work harder to get less effect.
I will seriously retrait to it and create the new ranger meta.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Unfortunately, I only have a zerg set on my ranger though I can still do something in smaller groups. Someday I’ll fit a rabid set on her for condition, but that will have to wait as Anet hopefully makes this class more interesting. Or maybe when account bound wxp comes along.
I use this crap:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQNBlYDbkRlKWbYxfFuWDErHEa/Dq9gSmHTuCoqkR1E-zkyAYLBZyCA9BmKAl9ESTgSjlxioxqXwUlpW5KERGgltA-w
I rely heavily on sword/shortbow mobility skills to get away from trouble. The shortbow is just for utility and harassment so don’t spend too much time pew pewing in it. Spider pets stay at ranged which means they’re less likely to run in and get destroyed plus poison fields are cool.
Damage is sorta poor but I can outlast a number of people. Sometimes I use longbow when lazy. Either bow has a sigil of fire so I can tag enemies for loot tag enemies so it’s easier to get rallied if I should fall. Sword is pretty good for tagging people as you fly all over the place.
As a side note, I actually leveled mostly in wvw. People will see you as an uplevel ranger and will automatically mob you like bees over honey. You will learn to survive, or else…
Also, sword isn’t very hard to use. Yes, I screw up and send myself off a cliff once in a while, but that’s a reason why you shouldn’t bearbow to 80 and learn nothing about other weapons. Turn off autoattack and sidestep per slash. You will find yourself beating the crap out of most targets instead of flailing around hitting nothing. One thing about gw2 is that smashing the button does not make you go any faster, though I suppose rangers are one of the few classes to have to learn this. Well, you could use GS too but if you get sword halfway right, you may never go back.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Rangers are a poor zerg choice due to poor handling of condi spikes, lousy stability/stunbreaks, and abysmally poor aoe damage. , and fine in small groups because they are decent at providing long ranged sustained damage. Also, the pet matters more. On the other hand, zerging is largely about numbers anyways, and tbh it doesn’t really matter what you bring as long it’s level 80 and halfway decently geared. The exception would be organized guild fights, but that doesn’t really apply to most situations.
Don’t die though.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
It’s easier to loot in wvw than pve because the bags generate next to you….
Though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want all loot to just be teleported straight into my bags. I can’t imagine why I wouldn’t want such a thing.
If you lack aoe abilities, Just get crit up to 25% and take a sigil of fire, easy tags regardless of what you’re doing. If you’re not willing to even make this compromise, then there’s nothing really to say.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Well, most of the time it’s ok. Heavy armor at least has more “battle appropriate” wear for female characters. Sometimes the boobplates get annoying when it comes to dyes. I mean really, you get some weird combos where the boobplate stands out from the rest of the piece. No!
Then sometimes you look at the differences between light/medium human t3 armor and am just like WTF. I don’t want a big coat on my ranger but I’m certainly not putting that on her, and the other choice I can see is that corset duelist armor which is just as silly.
As for light female armor, I honestly don’t think some of them are actually clothes and would take the male counterpart. I mean some of those outfits look like they’re from a really sketchy anime…
And note I’m a dude whose female guardian wears the vigil miniskirt so it’s not like I’m particularly prudish or anything. (It could be a little longer, really, would be perfect), but I find those light/medium choices pretty lousy. They either show too much or too little. Light at least has some choices.
tl;dr I should not see my character’s underwear 65% of the time. Can you imagine that on a male toon?
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
For a lesson in how to design a loot system, I would suggest trying D3 ROS. Vanilla D3 was the worst possible way to misunderstand the ARPG formula, but that is corrected, massively, with ROS. Just level a character in ROS and experience loot that is appropriate and rewarding. Most games get this fairly right, but GW2 and vanilla D3 are examples of games that are far off the mark.
It’s not completely fair to compare it to the Diablo series, especially Diablo 3 in which game progression is the same as gear progression, because the loot system is designed to reward you with massive boosts in power. It’s rewarding because you can see the drastic difference as your character levels and gets better gear. Vanilla D3 failed because the progression was too steep though of all honesty was fine until inferno mode until Blizzard decided the real money TP was a good idea.
This is also a key reason why Gw2 loot seems unrewarding, because the difference between ascended gear and weaker gear isn’t that much. With only several tiers of equipment, you’re obviously not going to get much stronger regardless of what drops. It’s no wonder why ascended crafting gets a lot of bashing— it’s almost a waste of time.
However, in terms of Gw2’s progression for aesthetics, I would still say the drop system is bad, and comparable to Vanilla D3 in being able to acquiring them through play— you’re better off buying it off the TP or what not. Much like Vanilla D3, it is much easier to farm gold and then buy stuff. There’s a horrific lack of in-between skins; they’re either really trivial or worthless or they’re rare and impossible to find— well, the way I see it most of the skins I could think of getting that have a unique look are in the gem store.
The other reason why Diablo loot worked, is that usually the harder content you tried, the better loot you got. This is something Gw2 could really look at.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
RNG is a lost fight because not only are the chances of getting a box not that high, there’s so many stat combos that are undesirable; and in pve you’re just looking for like, one of them.
I would just take the ability to salvage ascended tbh.
Not affiliated with ArenaNet or NCSOFT. No support is provided.
All assets, page layout, visual style belong to ArenaNet and are used solely to replicate the original design and preserve the original look and feel.
Contact /u/e-scrape-artist on reddit if you encounter a bug.