Guild Wars 2

The Spiral King.2483:

http://pastebin.com/dmACCzwx

Let’s hope that CDI works. Otherwise, we may be in trouble.

According to Dulfy those notes are fake. The poster just took the currently known changes to make them look legit and made up the rest.

I’m also using it on my Mesmer and would really appreciate it if ANet could fix it so that clones will also have a halo.

I can agree with the visibility. While I can see it just fine on my character, others have a hard time seeing it because it apparently shows up inbetween the nameplate/title area.

I kinda like the semi-transparant look though; makes it look like crystal

MisterElliott.2481:

Aveneo.2068:

I’m currently working on my third backpiece (have enough shards but need more iron and steel though) and then a fourth after that.

… And?

And you can make more backpieces too. Or are you strictly a one man show and leave all those other character slots empty?

I have 8 level 80 characters and 4 of them didn’t have an ascended backpiece yet. So I have more than enough sink for shards.

I’m currently working on my third backpiece (have enough shards but need more iron and steel though) and then a fourth after that.

Don’t worry guys! Trahearne send an airship filled with a group of gullible people, who then throw confetti which clogs up the drill and accidentally kills Scarlet in the crash!

And then Lion’s Arch will be renamed Trahearnia in honor of his great victory!

Oh, and he’ll send you a ‘thank you’ card afterwards for a job well done… commander.

I believe he is referring to the change ANet made some time ago where all combat transformation and bundle items were suddenly on a 30 minute cooldown. I have no idea what was the reasoning behind this, but things like the Watchknight tonic and a Deployable Mortar Kit or Teleportaion Gun all have a cooldown of 30 minutes now as far as I know.

So a few minutes of fun every 30 minutes for a vanity item or worldbundle is a little over the top. I mean none of the items can be used in WvW or PvP anyway; only PvE.

Just wait until the first person buys one of those Selfless/Selfish tonics for 250 heirlooms and 10 gold; only to notice that the effect only lasts for 5 minutes on a 30 minute cooldown or something.

Silberfisch.3046:

Basically, your last sentence sums it up nicely from an individual standpoint. The stations aren’t meant for individuals or small groups.
They are meant for medium to large scale groups, like a guild doing a guild challenge, an organized guild group in WvW and similar occasions.

In addition, with the way new world bosses seem to be designed (read: requiring a large number of coordinated players), those stations come in handy from that point of view.
The only flaw in regard to the new world bosses is, that in a lot of cases the groups participating in those are clustered together from individuals and smaller groups, so almost no one (me included, I’ll freely admit) will put up a station, because unlike in a guild event there simply won’t be the number of people who might chip in to compensate for the high price.
Plus with the slaying potions seemingly fixed, for Tequatl at least, the undead slaying potion will be more useful anyway, I guess.
(And was already, even with the bug induced drawback they had until now.)

Meadfreek.6789:

I don’t have a major problem with the price of the station recipes (although it could be lower). I like helping out a guild group or my server in WvW or a large group event with feasts. And the original recipes for some of those can get a little expensive. But the mats that go into the stations for just a one shot use are another story altogether (for a station that only lasts…ahem 5 mins) .

Lose the Deldrimor Steel, Spiritwood or Elonian Leather needed for the consumable (change it to moderate # of t6 mats or X amount of the Master lvl versions, but keep the bloodstone bricks as is) and increase the time the station stays up and we’re golden.

And actually I just checked the vendors who are supposed to have the tuning crystal station and sharpening stone station recipes and they don’t currently have them. So maybe (hopefully) Anet is retooling them a bit.

Yeah, I come from a past in which organized guild raids were the norm and where I was raidleader on numerous occassions for my guild. During such events everyone was responsible for their own consumable buffs. If someone forgot them by accident the raidleaders would have some supplies that were stored in the guild bank and I had no issues in sharing those (several stacks of those items were originally crafted by me and the other officers).

Bringing this to these stations, I would rather supply my guildmates with a Potent Stone/Oil/Crystal as I do not happen to have stacks of Deldrimor Ingots and such just lying around; and with 8 level 80 characters I never will have any to spare.

So the point I was trying to make was not because of some selfcentered notion or my dislike of freeloaders (well maybe a little). But my main issue is with the 5g you need to pay for each recipe only to be forced to spend ridiculous amounts ascended materials just to create a masterwork consumable item that only lasts for 5mins.

And when last I checked, a tray of food did not require ascended materials to craft a masterwork temporary item. As I recall you often just needed the recipe and 10 of the basic item in order to make it into a tray. As such I find it rather peculiar that these stations require an overabundance of ascended materials that in no shape or form were ever required to make their original counterparts.

At any rate, I wish everyone who does wish to spend these amounts of mats on temporary items the very best. I just wanted to make a point towards ANet that I do not like their methods of adding such requirements. Something like 1 Bloodstone Brick + 5 (or 10) Sharpening Stones should have been more than enough requirements for a mastercraft consumable item; adding 5 Deldrimor Ingots and 30 dust should have been a reusable item on a cooldown.

But then again we’ll probably see things like Endless Sharpening Stone Stations for sale in the gemstore soon.

So basically you have to buy the recipe for 5g in order to craft a consumable item that allows others to get a buff?

Originally it felt decent until I saw the mats. For the Sharpening Stone Station you need 1 Bloodstone Brick, 30 Pile of Crystalline Dust and 5 Deldrimor Steel Ingot!

So I am just going to ignore these recipes and keep using my own personal versions.

It will probably be made available during the retaking of Lion’s Arch where the city will be saved by the combined genius of Rata Sum.

When all else fails, Asura won’t.

Here I was, trying to condense all my suggestions in an easy-to-read bullet point format, and now you want me to limit it even further with separate issues and the how-to’s? You think I want to spend 5 days worth of making posts of every individual suggestion with all the benefits, potential risk factors and why it should be so-and-so? Are you paying me?

Why should I bother with more restrictions when these CDI topics are all a farce anyway? You guys knew the Ranger has had severe issues since launch and now we are called upon to fix your game?

So I am just going to copy-paste my earlier post as I don’t have time to suddenly translate all my suggestions and follow a ‘format’ like it’s a board-meeting. My list is easy enough to understand and I don’t need to explain every single issue in a multi-stage format. Sorry to be blunt but this is your game, so please deal with it.

Anyone know what these two tonics actually do?

Evon is to blame! Ever since Kiel won the elections, he’s been secretly working together with Scarlet, funding her organization and helping her set up that device in Lion’s Arch!

DEATH TO EVON GNASHBLADE, ARCHTRAITOR OF LION’S ARCH!!!

While changing out weapons skills might be a little much, I would love the idea of Preparations

That way you could prepare your arrows (through a short channel) to apply Poison, Burning or Chill for the next few shots.

I agree that HaO is pretty bland and does not offer anything; contrary to all the other healing skills which all have some additional benefit.

An idea might be to also have it cleanse two conditions on use and lower the casting time to 1s. This would make it rather similar to Mending though, but that one heals for slightly less and cleanses one extra condition. But then again I never see a Warrior running that one either.

Prevvy.1936:

Aveneo.2068:

You ignored the Ranger because hey, what can a Ranger do? In WvW they are just free bags right?

And the swaggering Warrior; overconfident like Crom in his mountain dismissed the Ranger as if it was but an insect unworthy of his gaze.

This actually made me laugh, nice one. I admit I had a low opinion of rangers before today with their pew pew from a distance and cowering behind their pets. You’ll be glad to know rangers are now tied with engis for my least favorite class

tips imaginary hat

It is good to hear that you have taken the defeat (and my horrible attempt at storytelling) with dignity and honor. Others would have probably screamed murder and demand nerfs. But not you, so I applaud you for your good sportsmanship.

You will not see many Rangers like that one though, as they are very rare and only get one shot at that much damage (which were probably also enhanced by the unique buffs on EotM). As such you were probably witness to a once in a lifetime experience. But it’s pretty cool that this game can still surprise us every once in a while, is it not?

Disastro.4086:

Aveneo.2068:

Now you have experienced what most Rangers have been going through all this time.

Hope you like poetic justice… :P

Rangers have never really been as bad as the “public perception” of the class is. It’s just really easy to be terrible on a ranger if you don’t know how to build or what to do as a result most people just assume they’re awful at everything because the bad ones are everywhere. Like the bow bears in clerics that ONLY auto attack and sometimes remember to heal themselves ~_~

I was referring to the ‘downtrodden, ignored and ridiculed’ aspect which led up to this. Someone just made the mistake of underestimating their opponent and found out that this particular Ranger had an ‘all or nothing’ attack and used it at the perfect moment.

It is really easy to be terrible on any class if you don’t know how to build or what to do. But Rangers have rather limited tools to build with compared to most other classes, hindered further by a broken appendage. That does not mean it is impossible to make something with the functional scraps. But it also does not mean that Rangers do not need help; especially when someone felt that he could safely dismiss a Ranger (and could have easily dodged that highly telegraphed attack). For next time he will be ready for this trick, and then the Ranger will indeed be another ‘free bag’.

You ignored the Ranger because hey, what can a Ranger do? In WvW they are just free bags right?

And the swaggering Warrior; overconfident like Crom in his mountain dismissed the Ranger as if it was but an insect unworthy of his gaze.

But this one little Ranger was so tired of being downtrodden, ignored and ridiculed for more than a year and came prepared. And for just one single moment in time managed to pour every ounce of his rage into that single Maul with all the power he could muster, calling on the strength of the land itself! One Shot … One Kill!

Now you have experienced what most Rangers have been going through all this time.

Hope you like poetic justice… :P

(ps. this was in no way meant to insult you or anything; I just felt the need to try my hand at telling my fantasy version of David and Goliath)

PvE+WvW suggestions:

• Pets need to become a lot more reliable. The best way to achieve this is to split the Juvenile Pets from the NPC Animal group. Make them a separate group so any change there will not affect the whole animal kingdom of Tyria.
• Pets need innate resistance to random AoE (75%) with a trait in BM to go up to 95%.
• Pets need better pathfinding (if possible) and faster animations.
• Pets need to hit more reliably. Suggestions: larger radius, cleave, attack while moving.
• Pets need to have gap-closers like leap, pounce, swoop etc.
• Pet leash range needs to be increased a bit (3000).
• Pets need to be right next to you when you are standing still, not 30 feet away from you (and dying in random AoE’s because of it).
• Pets need to have their own dodge bar with parameters when to use them.
• Pet F2 needs to fire the moment I press the button; not 3-6s later (if it works at all).
• Pet scaling. Pets need to get stat bonuses depending on your gear. Now the ascended power creep sets in but pets never grow with the new stats.
• Consideration: Removal of the pet swap mechanic (and traits revolving around swapping pets like Loud Whistle). Instead Rangers could focus around choosing only one pet and F4 can then be changed to function as a Revive Pet channeled ability. That way a defeated pet can be brought back into the fight, instead of punishing the Ranger with a 60s CD because the pet died in a heartbeat due to nonexistent AI.
• A trait in BM which allows Pets to radiate an aura offering a bonus to allies depending on the pet family (like Toughness aura when using a Bear).
• Add more pets for Rangers to tame (like Dolphins, Rock Dogs, Wind Riders etc.)
• Trait lines need work. For instance Trap traits need to go in Wilderness Survival and traits like Martial Mastery should go in Skirmishing.
• Too many weak traits only affecting pets!
• Signet actives need to affect both Ranger and Pet by default!
• With the above change Signet of the Beastmaster can become: “Retain passive effects of signets when activating them”
• Shouts should have been an AI mode, not a utility. The effects are not meaningful enough to be worth a utility slot. S&R for instance is a useless shout as it is prone to fail at random. Other shouts also offer only minimal effects.
• Rangers would be perfect for anti-stealth Counter Play. As such I suggest a Trap that works like the WvW Stealth Disruptor Trap (but on a smaller scale) to flush out stealthed opponents. Easy to implement as the mechanics are already available.
• Rangers need more abilities that benefit his allies. Currently Rangers are shunned everywhere because they offer nothing to the team that another class can’t do much better. We need to see ‘LF1M Ranger’ some day. Suggestions: Shouts with AoE benefits and Spirits that offer their boons all the time (not 35-70% of the time). Guardian shouts and Warrior shouts+banners are much more useful because Ranger Shouts only affect the pet and Spirits are just not reliable and die too easily.
• Arrows should pierce by default. We’re unparalelled archers and such, but we don’t feel like it atm. Heck, Warrior and Thief are more useful with a bow than Rangers at present time. Rangers should have been the ones with abilities like double shot and AoE effect arrows.
• Arrows should fly faster. The projectiles are still moving too slow and can easily miss a target with a simple sidestep. This is extremely noticeable on the LB.
• Change Eagle Eye trait to include SB range increase to 1200.
• Change Signet of the Hunt active. Suggestion, have it give Camouflage and Swiftness (like Wintersday Scout ability). That way Rangers can choose to use the Camouflage for an attack preparation (or to try and hide briefly); or use the Swiftness to try and gain/cover distance.
• Change the ‘Animal Cruelty’ utilities and traits that sacrifice/torment your pet. The Ranger is a class that has to rely on his animal companion for ~30% damage. But what I find odd about that is that the Ranger is also the only class that actively tries to kill his own pet all the time through his own utilities and traits!

Some quick suggestions to stop ‘Animal Cruelty’:

1. Shared Anquish – Change to “Incoming disabling conditions are transferred to your Foe instead.”
   Alternate suggestion: “Incoming disabling conditions Entangle your Foe.”
2. Empathic Bond – Change to “Periodically cure conditions from you and your pet.”
3. “Protect Me” – Change this to also grant Aegis, Protection, Retaliation, Swiftness and Regeneration to the pet for the duration
4. Signet of Renewal Active – Change to “Cure conditions from yourself, your pet and nearby allies”

Frostfang.5109:

Oh, I have been so waiting for this!!!! This made my day!!! Ranger finally get to be looked over!

Let us just hope it won’t turn out to be Aquaman part 2

xXxOrcaxXx.9328:

Aveneo.2068:

[…]

This is not the CDI thread dealing with rangers. This is the CDI thread announcing the ranger CDI. Therefore your suggestions will be unheard.
tl;dr:
Please hold your suggestions back until the proper CDI starts.

Whoops, sorry about that. I merely noticed that everyone was posting their suggestions and linking to threads all of a sudden so I figured it to be best to post my own compilation of recollections and suggestions. :P

Thanks for the heads-up.

ANIMAL CRUELTY
Please change all the skills that revolve around ‘kitten our pet’. At present time the GW2 Ranger is some kind of sadistic being who revels in animal cruelty for the sake of his own selfish needs. If anything we need changes to the skills that sacrifice/torment our pet.

The Ranger is a class that has to rely on his pet companion for ~30% damage. One of the main things I find odd about that is that the Ranger is also the only class that actively tries to kill his own pet all the time through his own utilities and traits.

Some quick suggestions:

• Shared Anquish – Change to “Incoming disabling conditions are transferred to your Foe instead.”
  Alternate suggestion: “Incoming disabling conditions Entangle your Foe.”
• Empathic Bond – Change to “Periodically cure conditions from you and your pet.”
• “Protect Me” – Change this to also grant Aegis, Protection, Retaliation, Swiftness and Regeneration to the pet for the duration
• Signet of Renewal Active – Change to “Cure conditions from pet and nearby allies”

PETS
This might be another wild idea here, but has anyone at ANet ever considered separating Ranger pets from their npc animal versions?

The way I see it, the ‘juvenile’ pets and their npc versions are all linked. So a change to the pet would currently also result to a change in their npc counterpart. However, if they would all be added to a new separate ‘juvenile’ sub-class, they could then be reworked separately. This would allow ANet to fix the unresponsive F2 as well as allow you to fix the ability to reliably hit targets etc. etc.

I mean, it’s the same way that Nightmare Court or Krait and Toxic Alliance npc’s are each part of a separate subsection. Yet both have different setups and abilities even though their base models are similar. And a change to one would not affect the other.

I mean, we have a select number of pets to choose from (all with the ‘Juvenile’ header) so why not create a new group for them and move them there. Much easier to fix issues from entities in a separate group without having to worry about causing global issues to the whole animal kingdom of Tyria.

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS I MADE OVER A YEAR AGO

• A Camouflage utility (be it as an opener or escape) – 3s Stealth + 10s Swiftness (similar to the Wintersday Scout ability). Could replace the active effect on Signet of the Hunt because currently that active effect is pretty pointless.
• Point Blank Shot: Change name to Sniper Shot and add a secondary effect. If you tap it once it will function as it currently does, but if you choose to press and hold the ability, it will channel and fire one shot dealing massive damage (as per the Wintersday Scout ability).
• Signets should apply their active component to Pet and Ranger by default without requiring you to use Signet of the Beastmaster.
• A utility or effect that allows Rangers to see stealthed targets. At present time stealth has no counter and is not fun to play against. The Ranger would be most befitting to provide that counter (being a tracker and having pets). See the video on Counterplay: http://youtu.be/BRBcjsOt0_g
• for the above, if signets would apply their active effects to Pet+Ranger without the need for Signet of the Beastmaster, that Grandmaster trait could be changed to Sight of the Beastmaster, allowing stealth detection as a passive ability and make stealthed targets appear in a similar fashion as we now see stealthed allies (that Predator like camouflage) if players spend 30 points in Marksmanship and choose the trait. In my humble opinion the Ranger should be the direct counter to a Thief.
• Some signet active effects need a rework because some of them are pointless (even dangerous) to use (try Signet of Renewal with Signet of the Beastmaster active).
• Some shouts need a rework as they mostly revolve around sacrificing your pet (~30% of your damage potential) at present time.
• A ‘fix’ for all the OBSTRUCTED messages when firing arrows when there’s absolutely no reason for them to become obstructed.
• More reliable AI and pathfinding for our pets and being able to hit moving targets (maybe increase their effective attack radius and cleave?).
• 75% resistance to AoE damage for our pets (with the option to trait it to 95%).
• F2 abilities that fire near-instantly. The pet just has to cancel any current action and immediately go through the F2 command.
• Some traits need to switch position as it makes no sense in having Trap traits in Skirmishing when they should be in Wilderness Survival. Same with traits like Martial Mastery which should have been in Skirmishing instead of Wilderness Survival. Trait lines are just one gigantic mess at the moment and make no sense nor offer any form of synergy.

Thank you for your time. Let’s hope that Rangers finally get what was promised them more than a year ago.

ANIMAL CRUELTY
Please change all the skills that revolve around ‘kitten our pet’. At present time the GW2 Ranger is some kind of sadistic being who revels in animal cruelty for the sake of his own selfish needs. If anything we need changes to the skills that sacrifice/torment our pet.

The Ranger is a class that has to rely on his pet companion for ~30% damage. One of the main things I find odd about that is that the Ranger is also the only class that actively tries to kill his own pet all the time through his own utilities and traits.

Some quick suggestions:

• Shared Anquish – Change to “Incoming disabling conditions are transferred to your Foe instead.”
  Alternate suggestion: “Incoming disabling conditions Entangle your Foe.”
• Empathic Bond – Change to “Periodically cure conditions from you and your pet.”
• “Protect Me” – Change this to also grant Protection, Retaliation, Swiftness and Regeneration to the pet for the duration
• Signet of Renewal Active – Change to “Your pet cures conditions from nearby allies”

PETS
This might be another wild idea here, but has anyone at ANet ever considered separating Ranger pets from their npc animal versions?

The way I see it, the ‘juvenile’ pets and their npc versions are all linked. So a change to the pet would currently also result to a change in their npc counterpart. However, if they would all be added to a new separate ‘juvenile’ sub-class, they could then be reworked separately. This would allow ANet to fix the unresponsive F2 as well as ability to reliably hit targets etc. etc.

I mean, it’s the same way that Nightmare Court and Toxic Alliance npc’s are each part of a separate subsection. And a change to one would not affect the other.

I mean, we have a select number of pets to choose from (all with the ‘Juvenile’ header) so why not create a new group for them and move them there. Much easier to fix issues from entities in a separate group without having to worry about causing global issues to the whole animal kingdom of Tyria.

GLOBAL SUGGESTIONS I MADE OVER A YEAR AGO

• A Camouflage utility (be it as an opener or escape) – 3s Stealth + 10s Swiftness (similar to the Wintersday Scout ability). Could replace the active effect on Signet of the Hunt because currently that active effect is pretty pointless.
• Point Blank Shot: Change name to Sniper Shot and add a secondary effect. If you tap it once it will function as it currently does, but if you choose to press and hold the ability, it will channel and fire one shot dealing massive damage (as per the Wintersday Scout ability).
• Signets should apply their active component to Pet and Ranger by default without requiring you to use Signet of the Beastmaster.
• A utility or effect that allows Rangers to see stealthed targets. At present time stealth has no counter and is not fun to play against. The Ranger would be most befitting to provide that counter (being a tracker and having pets). See the video on Counterplay: http://youtu.be/BRBcjsOt0_g
• for the above, if signets would apply their active effects to Pet+Ranger without the need for Signet of the Beastmaster, that Grandmaster trait could be changed to Sight of the Beastmaster, allowing stealth detection as a passive ability and make stealthed targets appear in a similar fashion as we now see stealthed allies (that Predator like camouflage) if players spend 30 points in Marksmanship and choose the trait. In my humble opinion the Ranger should be the direct counter to a Thief.
• Some signet active effects need a rework because some of them are pointless (even dangerous) to use (try Signet of Renewal with Signet of the Beastmaster active).
• Some shouts need a rework as they mostly revolve around sacrificing your pet (~30% of your damage potential) at present time.
• A ‘fix’ for all the OBSTRUCTED messages when firing arrows when there’s absolutely no reason for them to become obstructed.
• More reliable AI and pathfinding for our pets and being able to hit moving targets (maybe increase their effective attack radius and cleave?).
• 75% reduction of AoE damage for our pets (with the option to trait it to 95%).
• F2 abilities that fire near-instantly. The pet just has to cancel any current action and immediately go through the F2 command.
• Some traits need to switch position as it makes no sense in having Trap traits in Skirmishing when they should be in Wilderness Survival. Same with traits like Martial Mastery which should have been in Skirmishing instead of Wilderness Survival. As stated above, trait lines are just one gigantic mess at the moment and make no sense nor offer any form of synergy.

Now let’s only hope something will be actually done with these votes. We have been waiting since launch for meaningful changes and except for the Aquaman patch we don’t really have much to show for it.

JonPeters.5630:

I do still believe ranger is the profession in most need of improvement after this patch and we will continue to make those improvements.

This was a portion of the post Jon said over a year ago, yet from what I recall we have seen more nerfs than actual improvements. Any of you recall the quickness nerf on shortbow for which he gave us that bogus story about an animation fix? Or to have supposedly made pets hit more reliably; and then immediately proceeded to nerf the main damage abilities of most pets into the ground?

But let’s see what is going to happen. I just find it rather peculiar (and suspicious) that ANet now throws us the ball, to give us the impression (or illusion) that we have anything to say about it; even though they should know the state of their own game and how broken Rangers are. And in part they became even more broken because of the knee-jerk nerfs of every single build we could scavenge together.

Just my personal opinion on the matter. I apologize if it radiates some anger.

I also included Mesmer in my list, but had to put it behind Ranger (#1) and Elementalist (#2) as I feel those need the most work.

Got my vote in as I agree with the Ranger desperately requiring the most help in my opinion.

1. Ranger (broken since launch, traits in wrong lines, pets can’t hit kitten etc)
2. Elementalist (overnerfed)
3. Mesmer (nothing more than veil- and portalbots in WvW)

evilapprentice.6379:

It sounds like you’re just not a fan of the thief playstyle. That’s fine of course, but it makes you a very poor candidate for offering balance suggestions concerning the class.
Just because you don’t like something doesn’t make it “cheap” or “easy”. If you had more experience with the class, I probably wouldn’t need to point all of this out to you – this is why most thieves are sick of the forums.

It’s not that thief players in general are unwilling to discuss changes to the class, they just need to be good ones, proposed by experienced players, not ones from players with a poor understanding of thief mechanics and a grudge against the playstyle in general.

I personally hate fighting PU mesmers, but that doesn’t make them cheap or easy to play. I keep my mouth shut about them on the forums because A; I’m not experienced enough with one to offer truly relevant insights, and B; even if I was experienced it would be hard not to let my dislike of the playstyle in general bleed into my (what should be objective) comments.

Finally, a reasonable answer. This I can appreciate.

You are correct that I am fed up with the Thief class and how they (or I) can just instagib any other (ranged) class whenever they (or I) want.

As I saw another thread regarding gapclosers, I felt that they all need to be brought in line. After all, they are gapclosers and should not allow you to jump halfway across a football field. Hence my suggestion for the reduced range on Steal. A melee oriented character needs to work a little harder at getting into melee range when faced with a ranged character and not simply push a button and done.

At any rate, while I appreciate your reasoning for providing an objective view when posting, you have to admit that ‘clearly you don’t play a thief’ is not objective. And pointless blanket statements like that is what I had an issue with as I have gotten such remarks too much already when trying to have any discussion concerning the Thief class. So often I see ‘You don’t play Thief’ or ‘L2P’ as if that immediately invalidates any post; almost giving the impression that this is all the Thief players know how to post.

Thief is broken and requires (a lot of) attention. And with attention I do not mean nerfs. They are certainly in need of a lot of improvement too, next to toning a few things down. That is my (objective/subjective) view on the matter. They should be more the sneaky/evading ‘Scout’. So kinda more Assassin than Thief (ridiculous why they invented a new ‘class’ when they could have taken Assassin directly from GW1 imo).

I want that dolphin that’s already in the game

Longest range any class has for a weapon attack is 1500 (Ranger with LB and trait), and aThief can just use a Steal-C&D/BS macro to instagib anyone. That’s my issue!

Thief is just a ridiculous class with all their stealth and instant teleports. Next to Warrior they require no skill at all to play.

Gapclosers in general should all be in the range of 450-600; so I was being generous with giving 900 to a traited variant.

But I am done with this. At this stage it would have been better if the Thief class had never existed in my opinion. Any attempt at suggesting changes just gets all the Thief players into posting those pointless ‘You never played a thief’, ‘L2P’ and other demeaning comments because they cba to actually post something meaningful. So instead they ridicule others.

The Thief class could be so much more if it did not have to rely on all these cheap tricks. But people just don’t want to see it. So I apparently fell into the trap of trying to offer something to a brick wall.

My mistake, won’t happen again.

Just drop the condescending attitude; I am done here as you clearly want to keep your ridiculous teleports and won’t listen to reason. So you just act all high and mighty. If you don’t want to bother explaining ‘the absolute basics’ then don’t bother posting at all.

Have a nice life

evilapprentice.6379:

Aveneo.2068:

If ANet is ever going to look at this I would also prefer the range on Steal in general to be reduced. 900 range instant teleport with a trait for 1500 range is a little ridiculous in my opinion.

450 range (900 with trait) sounds more reasonable to me.

Of course it does, you’ve clearly never played a thief.

What is with you people making pointless blanket statements instead of actually stating why they believe otherwise?

Check my sig. That’s one level 80 for every single class. So as a matter of fact I clearly play a thief.

Now tell me why you disagree with my suggestion or offer one of your own in return. But I get real tired with people that offer absolutely nothing of constructive value.

If ANet is ever going to look at this I would also prefer the range on Steal in general to be reduced. 900 range instant teleport with a trait for 1500 range is a little ridiculous in my opinion.

450 range (900 with trait) sounds more reasonable to me.

Please change all the skills that revolve around ‘kitten our pet’. At present time the GW2 Ranger is some kind of sadistic being who revels in animal cruelty for the sake of his own selfish needs. If anything we need changes to the skills that sacrifice/torment our pet.

Some quick suggestions:

• Shared Anquish – Change to “Incoming disabling conditions are transferred to your Foe instead.”
  Alternate suggestion: “Incoming disabling conditions Entangle your Foe.”
• Empathic Bond – Change to “Periodically cure conditions from you and your pet.”
• “Protect Me” – Change this to also grant Protection, Retaliation, Swiftness and Regeneration to the pet for the duration
• Signet of Renewal Active – Change to “Your pet cures conditions from nearby allies”

Some of these may sound potent (although they all fall in line with similar skills from other classes), but then again the Ranger has waited for over a year to get some more potency in my humble opinion.

Paz Shadow.9715:

If that originally signet were to happen, I think it should be “pet instantly downs and ranger instantly revives” or something among those matters like a sacrifice… too weak an elite to do what search and rescue does.

May I ask why we would need yet another ‘kitten your dps’ skill? Already the GW2 Ranger is some kind of sadistic being who revels in animal cruelty for the sake of his own selfish needs. If anything we need less skills that sacrifice/torment our pet; not more.

Very nice video, I enjoyed it very much. Thanks for making it and (hopefully) inspire mesmers everywhere!

Smirgel.9460:

I used to be slow mesmer like you, but then I took 6 runes of speed to my gear.

I’ll see your 6 runes of speed and raise you 7 runes of the traveler! :P

(aquabreather also needs one if you want to retain the 6th bonus underwater)

Mainhand Pistol for Mesmer!

—-

1. Double Shot: Fires two quick shots at the target.
   followed by
   Aimed Shot: Fire a powerful aimed shot at the target.
2. Illusive Separation: Roll to the left or right and summons a clone that rolls in the opposite direction (Evade 1s). Clone then uses ‘Double Shot’.
3. Chaos Barrage: Fire several shots with your pistol. Uses both pistols if one is equipped in the offhand (like the iDuelist animation, but damage remains the same).

I’ve been playing a Mesmer for quite some time now (and still love it, despite certain changes in the past), but it still feels as if the Mesmer is severely lacking in the choice for mainhand department, as if it simply wasn’t a fully finished class at launch in terms of weapon choices.

Only a Sword or Scepter remain as options for mainhand, which feels rather minimal; especially considering all the other classes. Only the Engineer seems to have even less choices, but can make up for it with all their kits.

Also, there are 2 illusionary pistols in the game; Lyss and Ilya. To this day this still leads me to believe that it may have been the original intention to include a pistol as an option for a mainhand as we already have it as an offhand option and a Master trait (Duelist’s Discipline) that affects pistols (plural).

Lastly, there is the pretty odd positioning of the Offhand Pistol skills when viewed from the weapon selection screen in our Hero panel and it all feels like theres a piece missing in our puzzle; as if it was originally intended for Mesmers to have pistol as a Mainhand option but not implemented at launch.

As such, I sincerely hope that ArenaNet would want to consider adding the pistol as a mainhand weapon for the Mesmer. Personally I would love to have more options available to me as the current choices simply do not seem to mesh well with one another.

(And the concept of finally being able to wield both Lyss and Ilya on my Mesmer is very appealing to me.)

So I would really love the choice of one more mainhand weapon that focuses on being a true Power based weapon. And to me the pistol could be that choice as a 900 range (1200 when traited with Duelist’s Discipline) weapon. This would allow ArenaNet to modify our scepter to take up to its own true calling; an actual condition based weapon.

Currently Jon and the rest of the balance team are trying to figure out what to do with the Scepter’s identity crisis and its very awkward auto-chain. Having a Mainhand Pistol would allow them to turn the Scepter into a true condition weapon while allowing the Pistol to become a viable choice for power based attacks.

For me having the mainhand choices of Sword, Scepter and Pistol would complete our puzzle and give us a full set of weapons where each has its own identity and function.

kiwituatara.6053:

Yea, thats what I use it for mostly. But they just switch to gap closers. The distance travelled from gap closers in this game is OP.

Agreed, the distance covered by some gap closers is just insane. At most they should all vary between 450-600 in my opinion. But 900-1200 is just ridiculous (and then there’s Long Reach at 1500 range).

All you need is Healing Signet + Adrenal Health and you’re practically immortal already regardless of gear. Then pop in some Melandru Runes and Lemongrass food and conditions can’t touch you either.

stof.9341:

As far as I remember, the sPvP meta always required at least one guardian per group. Why should we consider the guardian balance to be almost perfect when the class has been a must have for as long as GW2 existed?

Because it means it is in a good spot and ANet should strive to bring the other classes to its level so all classes would be equally desirable to have in a group? As I recall that is what balance is all about.

And to me the Guardian feels like it is the most balanced class there is at the moment; so it could serve as the perfect example for ANet to use as a base when working on the others.

Regarding balance, what is your current take on Spirit Weapons and their traits. Personally I believe ANet should have never made them mortal as even in their immortal state it was difficult at best to create an effective means of utilizing them without completely gimping oneself (and believe me, I tried).

So what would you suggest on making Spirit Weapons more viable?

Instead of more stealth, I’d rather have stealth detection

However, I wouldn’t mind for ANet to reinstate our Camouflage as an actual utility skill. Personally I think it would make for a much better active effect for our current Signet of the Hunt.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Camouflage&oldid=162915
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Camouflage&oldid=165144

Hmmm, I don’t know. The text on this one (as well as those others) sounds rather … dorky and unprofessional. “smacks enemies”, “crippling crunches”? Sounds more like a clown wrote these notes.

And to me these supposedly new elites sound rather weak and trivial. Why would a Mesmer want to destroy their clones just to become a single, highly visible target akin to the Lich transform of the necromancer? I’d rather keep MI or TW. Why would a Guardian bother with a Spirit Staff when spirit weapons have been nerfed into a pitiful state and the Guardian has to sacrifice too many point in order to actually make them slightly less pitiful at the cost of his own defenses? etc.

Then again, I guess they could turn the trait into an actual signet as it was always odd to have a trait being called a signet. But the active effect sounds rather minimalistic ‘high risk low reward’ and extremely situational.

I would be more interested in what GM trait we will get in return?

Personally I still believe that signets should work for our whole class (pet and Ranger) without all these pointless limitations attached; just like signets work for every other class. We’re supposed to be one unit, so why do all our signets only work for ~30% of our unit unless we invest heavily into it working for the full 100%?

AikijinX.6258:

I can’t believe people still cry over stealth. It’s been over a year. Haven’t they realized Stealth is given to Thieves at a young age.. I swear it’s either Stealth QQ/Too much Damage QQ/ or Too much Evade QQ

I can’t believe people don’t even bother to actually read the post before starting their blind ranting.

All he asks for is to see combat log entries for his damage dealt to a stealthed target.

The Ranger is a class that has to rely on his pet companion for ~30% damage. One of the main things I find odd about that is that the Ranger is also the only class that actively tries to kill his own pet all the time through his own utilities and traits.

And then we add the fact that pets can’t even hit moving targets and we have a Ranger desperate to kill his pet all the time, and his pet desperate to play air-karate all the time.

Something isn’t right here…

I’ll just leave this here:

JonPeters.5630:

Hi ######, I’m totally not here so skip this post and read on…

We made the improvements we had time to test. There are still more ranger improvements but when our time is limited we have to focus on things we know we can fix. Signets and shouts are still on the docket, and I suspect some of each of these will get some love in the next time around. As you can see a lot changed in this build for every profession and we have to test these changes as well.

I do still believe ranger is the profession in most need of improvement after this patch and we will continue to make those improvements. If we could fix everything at one time we would, but the reality is there are a limited # of hours to make changes.

I see a lot of talk about ranger weapons, but I don’t think that is the real problem. I think sword and longbow are both good weapons, which is why the changes take longer. The problems are deeper, in pets ability to hit moving targets, trait lines with not enough viable choices and skills that are often too specialized to really compliment the weapon builds. These aren’t things we can change overnight. The change to Greatsword block was in fact a very difficult change, but we made it because we knew it was the right thing to do.

There are >500 skills in this game, 480 traits, and 2 designers working on this. Even then often we are bottle necked by other issues. I’m not going to say we are not working on these things, nor can I say there are things we could have changed but just ran out of time on, but this was a patch that contained ranger improvements and it will not be the last one that does so. Maybe you want more than honesty but that is what I currently have to offer.

Jon

This was posted over a year ago and personally I am still waiting on these improvements we were promised.

Orpheal.8263:

In regard of moveability and their healign signet, absolutely YES and also in regard of their Damage Blocking skilsl, which ttoally absurdly OP block way too much, even attacks in the back, when they are running away and basicalyl don#t defend themself.

Blocks definetely need to work like the mechanic of the Marionette Battle’s 1st Champion.
A Block Mechanic should only block attacks from a specific direction, they should never ever automatically block everything, regardless from where the attack came.
When the attack hit you from behind, then you are simpyl said defenseless there. period !! But the current ridiculous Block Mechanics turn the classes into a temporely brain AFK God Mode.

Warrior Players should need to think twice, where and how they move their characters around, if they use their block skills, and should still receive damage, if they get attacked from a side, that is revealong a spot, where attacks simply can’t be blocked…

I agree with this portion of your response so much, that I just HAD to use my (less than impressive) MSPaint skills to show how right you are!

A lot of classes require proper positioning in order for their weapon skills to work, so I see no reason why someone who is running away from a fight can protect his back when his shield is held up in front.

Not until they fix pets first.

oZii.2864:

Aveneo.2068:

I was speaking in a general sense. Personally I don’t care about sPvP. What I do care about however are all the global nerfs PvE and WvW have suffered because of it.

That is cool that you don’t care about sPvP but the context of the conversation was about specifically Cleansing Water’s internal cooldown in sPvP. You said when you mean “PvP” I hope that also includes “WvW”. There is not icd on cleansing water. I don’t think you knew this otherwise why even say it.

Anyway alot of people don’t know this because they don’t hover over the trait to see there is no 5 with a circle around it. Or look at the wiki for traits.

What global nerfs? The biggest is RTL. SOR was a bug fix and healing reduced in sPvP only. Mist form change wasn’t oh lets just do this to ele they also did in the same patch to Elixir S for Engineers applying the same balance. You can’t use utilities with Elixier S and Mist form.

Was there some other Ele nerfs that really crippled the class in WvW and sPvP together? The sPvP Ele is much weaker then the WvW/PvE Ele.

Which part of ‘general sense’ do you have trouble understanding? I was not even talking about the elementalist specifically. I was talking about all the global nerfs we have seen since launch where the majority of those global nerfs were because of sPvP/tPvP; a minor and (imo) trivial aspect of this game.

And with the above post made by Karl we can see that the devs are still focusing on sPvP/tPvP. As such I humbly requested they open their eyes and realize that Guild Wars 2 is not running because of sPvP/tPvP.

Now go outside and take a breath, again.

dimyzuka.7051:

As pointed out by Ozii you don’t really know what is changed in pvp and wvw so your statement that Pve and Wvw sufferes because of sPVP holds no weight. And for you to think that devs care more about sPVP just shows how little you truly understand about this game.

I can read patch notes, experience the changes and am a designer myself (who also happened to work in the industry on game balance), but I see we’re at the point of flinging random insults regarding my intelligence now? Whatever dude, have a nice life.