(edited by Azel.4786)
First of all, thanks a lot for the inputs guys.
@Fluffball, yeah I was thinking about going axe torch to get the burning condi… but the ability to trap people in place is what would work as a condi removal / help against thieves.
@ Slavi, I thought about going Wilderness instead of Nature Magic, but on one side it makes me more passive on my condi removal and on the other it makes me more reliant on weapon swaps for fury and condi for damage (power goes down to a 1572 without any chance to increase it).
Signet of the Wild is a big dilema for me though, on one side the 150 Thoughness from SoS is good, plus the good sos move when you activate it… guess I will have to go with the feel on the build.
@ LughLongArm, yeah, I aimed for a 2000 or closest to it I could get… I can’t get more points into power unless I lose points in precision or take out the rune of the traveler.
What I was thinking on damage though is that with the sigil and the traits selection, I would have a good chance of proc 2-3 (or even 4) bleed stacks, which together with my shots should give about 600-800 damage against heavily armored targets. Increasing as the bleed stacks increase.
Now I have seen a little bit shocked the Warrior constant heal ability, that thing is nasty and he heals a lot, but I guess then my way out would be to focus more on the greatsword for damage in those situations.
QZ is something I like… although two years ago it was even more awesome (specially before the SB AA speed stealth nerf), but I swapped it for muddy terrain due to the better cooldown and the need for condi removal (60s seems too much and couldn’t spare the trait points for the lower cooldown on it)…
Guess to improve it would be to try to go for the axe, but I want to make SB work so much more…
You got any ideas to keep the survivability I have now, but reach the 2k base power?
Hello rangers,
I am back into the game since almost 2 years ago and getting around to learning about fractals, ascended gear, etc. (used some of the laureals and some pristine fractaI to buy some ascended trinkets and now gunning for those crafted Wup Wup gear – almost there).
Looking into the celestial gear now, I am thinking it gives me the option of doing what I always wanted, a well rounded build that can go against all specific builds, provided you play well.
So here is the idea I was toying with (this would be for roaming – I was also thinking of using it in PVP just to get some exp and play around):
The rational behind it is basically:
- Shortbow, although it continues being a subpar weapon ever since I left (was considering replacing it for axe and torch, but I just like it so much….) designed to give great amount of bleeding and provide a good kitting weapon;
- Greatsword, good burst with a combo of weapon swap, swoop, stun and maul (this weapon became a beast), plus its AA aint that bad. (Was thinking of replacing this with Sword and Torch / Sword and Dagger, to get a better disengange / chasing ability than swoop, but then I feel that no skirmish grandmaster trait would be good for this build)
Trait allocation is very straightforward, idea is to focus on crit rather than direct power. With this build I think I have a good amount of CC to apply (Stun, daze, immob, cripple) as well as a very good fury up time (weapon swap and survival skills, plus greatsword attack) – Idea is to constantly have around 80% crit chance with a 200~% crit damage. (which should compensate for the lower power, and with smart weapon swaps I think I can have 6 might on a constant basis).
Traveler runes are there because of the roaming purpose of the build, need that 25% and think that SotH would be a waste of skill slot, even if now it affects you as well.
Condi removal is more on the active side with the Surival of the Fittest (3 active survival skills and one passive from trait) – think spring is also a bit better for a heal skill because of the blast ability with swoop.
Signet of Stone is there as “oh crap, let’s bail” button, or to give that bit of extra survivability for the bleed or attacks to down my foe.
Any thoughts? I am looking to stick with the Celestial Gear and I am not looking to play the condi bunker build (I know it is powerful, but I hate depending on condi so much to do damage…. just isn’t my style of play).
In all honesty I was expecting more.
I guess its wait to download patch and see how the changes to the pets affected anything to see if there was “significant quality of life improvements”, cause patch notes was a let down – including with respect to the build diversity department that was claimed to be an issued months ago or the spirits which have not received any decent change despite being wildly recognized as bad (except for the elite one).
I have played in dungeons with my ranger, never got kicked out, but I had several occasions in which people complained that having a ranger in the party was screwing things over (even though I rarely die and usually am fighting, luring aggro, doing the most dps I can as a ranger and healing people with search and rescue or removing conditions with bear and elite spirit).
It is terrible to be under constant pressure of having to play flawlessly otherwise people complain you are dragging the group down cause your profession is bad.
Not too sure on that one Altar, the problem is that Rangers have been treated poorly for a good while now, the most communication we received in this forums is a result of the surprise nerf to SB/QZ, an empty patch with promises of future fixes and then once again no fixes and only more promises (which now scream of empty promises).
I would expect that at least once in two patches in a row rangers would be treated with some small prospect of changes to their issues, but nothing of that sort has come, even after being acknowledged as one class with considerable need of fixes. I call that being ignored and shoved to the side.
This is a very solid idea, the deaf ears of ANET it will fall into makes me sad, but shouldn’t stop us from dreaming about it.
Anyway, the part I’m not too sure about this is the effect of giving a stat boost from the spirits, sounds like an unfair advantage from the other classes. How about if instead it could work like the idea of F1-F4 having different bonuses depending on the family of pet/animal spirit you working with? For instance, wolf could give you a the power to trigger a rage and power boost, perhaps even having the wolf/dog knockdown ability? Cats could give you a precision boost, perhaps even a camouflage? Seems like it would add a nice level of costumization and power to the ranger.
My honest concerns why this wouldn’t work are: (a) major overhaul of the class; (b) would this give rangers a sizable increase of skills in comparison with other classes, and therefore make it a insanely more versatile class than all others?; © balancing a major overhaul like this would be very difficult.
Same boat. After the blunder of communications during the 40ms I started playing the game less and less and switched classes…but I missed playing my ranger. Then after the lack of ranger changes in the previous patch and second communication blunder during this one, I have stopped playing. (not to mention the insane frustration of not being able to reach 100% map completion due to a plethora of bugs).
My deadline is until the end of the month (not even trying this Lost Shores event – which is appearing to be another bug fest), if they don’t deliver anything worthwhile I’ll just uninstall and forget about gw2 and ANET and it’s failure of communication policy.
yeah, worked for me as well. Just tested it
I hear you and I agree. I think what Anet need to make a public state by a figure head like Colin and say something like, “Look we made a mistake in promising things that weren’t ready to be implanted in this patch, and we apologise to our entire player base.” Something on those lines, explain where they made the mistakes, why, and what they are going to do to fix it. Right now Anets greatest concern should be PR control and fixing the mess they created.
Yes, I think that would be extremely helpful, however they need to truly ponder on those words and how they will move forward – this seems to be a very delicate case as I’m starting to think not just a few professions are mad at ANET right now.
As it current stands, at first I thought some fixes needed to come quickly, but I am not sure right now on that. Perhaps a solid communication (not just empty promises and generic management wording – such as “we are planning big things”, but with actual ideas and concepts) should come first with a small deadline to show the commitment to move in the right direction. This can be done with a hand picked few of these ideas so that they can be thoroughly worked on in a short amount of time.
Afterwards, I think the community might feel more comfortable with longer deadlines, provided communication is handled with care.
I don’t disagree with the notion of a concentrated effort. However I think that what people are missing the point is not on the regard of the “size of team”, seriously that is not the issue, the issue is communication.
How has that team communicated with us, or let me rephrase that, how has ANET communicated with us? As a Ranger I believe communication has come incredibly poorly with little to no details, no clear expectations and hardly felt any discussions with the community on the issues – worst yet, in the main cases that Rangers have felt (SB nerf and lack of changes in last month patch), communication has felt as a lie.
I don’t expect at all that a complex game like this could be fixed in just a few weeks, but I fully expected that we would have communication as it was advertised as one of the core principles of ANET. But I don’t feel they delivered on that, and that is why I lose faith in the company.
I believe the developer was not wrong for talking to the community in both of what I consider the main occasions (the SB nerf and the lack of changes to rangers), however the biggest problem was how communication was handled. Communication needs to occur, but needs to be handle well.
Things could have taken a very different course if the SB nerf had been clearly stated as a nerf and a plan for the class had been explained, and the lack of changes / future substantial changes, had been properly communicated and informed to the community.
This “dropping the bomb” PR approach ANET keeps bringing to the table is only creating more antagonism between ANET and the community and that is the biggest concern.
Go to the Ranger forums and you will see that people were trying to think of ways to be constructive and give ideas, some, granted, were absurd like wanting an exponential damage increase to rangers, but others showed decent promise and concepts that could be worked with.
However, once again, the “drop the bomb” approach made the forums explode and the community rage (go figure how many might have also just dropped the game with this – I, for one, am seriously considering it)
I’m more than aware of the Ranger problem. I play a melee ranger mainly because of its astonishing imperfections. Just because a player comes up with a ‘possible’ idea doesn’t mean Anet can or will be able to to implement it. They need to brainstorm ideas, create prototypes, create a working build etc etc. We know how it all works. People are asking them to do the impossible in such a short amount of time. Anet don’t have those types of resources.
At not point in time am I asking for the impossible. Let’s be clear, I understand their lack of resources (the two man team and all that), however you have to understand, brainstorming for a community driven game is not to be handled behind closed doors. That is the problem I am trying to raise.
I for one could be perfectly fine with ANET working 1-2 months to bring some changes that don’t have to be the “fix all the problems” but only a “step in to the right direction” type of thing.
However when we are promised amazing things and things don’t come, you can’t possibly expect the entire community to just react to such a letdown with a “Oh, okay, well thanks for the update! Let’s hope for the next one!”.
These types of reactions can only come if a proper communication is delivered, ideas juggled with the community (perhaps beta servers), etc. That is the department ANET is falling and is causing such a rage.
I believe the developer was not wrong for talking to the community in both of what I consider the main occasions (the SB nerf and the lack of changes to rangers), however the biggest problem was how communication was handled. Communication needs to occur, but needs to be handle well.
Things could have taken a very different course if the SB nerf had been clearly stated as a nerf and a plan for the class had been explained, and the lack of changes / future substantial changes, had been properly communicated and informed to the community.
This “dropping the bomb” PR approach ANET keeps bringing to the table is only creating more antagonism between ANET and the community and that is the biggest concern.
Go to the Ranger forums and you will see that people were trying to think of ways to be constructive and give ideas, some, granted, were absurd like wanting an exponential damage increase to rangers, but others showed decent promise and concepts that could be worked with.
However, once again, the “drop the bomb” approach made the forums explode and the community rage (go figure how many might have also just dropped the game with this – I, for one, am seriously considering it)
It means that not only will your arrows get obstructed but you will run out of them!
I will not hold my breath on this one, we still don’t know how the “bug fix” is going to be implemented.
Perhaps the CD nerf has just been deemed too big due to community backlash (and might not return to the original) or SB nerf story will repeat itself.
I kind of feel sorry for Jon Peters. He is the only one that has to take the backlash that is starting to form all over the forums. Then again…it is his fault to start with….
True, but the backlash reasoning NEEDS to come across ANET, and I am particularly concerned about the last sentence of Jon Peters in which he says “honesty”. That is what has been severely lacking for rangers.
Think about it, animation glitch fix, then “substantial” changes only brings a stealth substantial nerf to traps CD (doubling the CD for a trap is substantial).
I think that people shouting curse words, asking for his head etc are blowing things out of proportion. But asking for honesty is something we should do and that we deserve after the way rangers have been treated in the last patches. ANET has seriously disappointed me in this aspect, guess it’s my fault for not knowing the company before…
Yes the bleeding effect was always there and when I did use it and my pet managed to hit the target it worked.
The traps haven’t tried, but if the trait is working it seems to be intended, so probably they will just add that in on the patch notes and call it a day…
Jon,
Have you had a chance to test the traps cooldown increase everyone is talking about?
Another point, honestly, what can we expect in matters of timing and changes? Last time we got to same text (albeit slightly different wording), we also had a timing (Mid November).
When the time finally happens you drop the bomb like this without so much as a warning saying “please be patient, we are tight on resources and these are not the significant changes you should expect, we are planning to do more changes during the following weeks of November” or something to that level.
I can’t begin to phantom how you honestly expect us to believe in more “empty” promises despite the last two (animation glitch which was actually a nerf) and the unannounced delivery of this patch which was expected to be “substantial”.
I’m trying to phrase me words as politely as possible, but it is rather hard to not be frustrated with the lack of communication or just empty promises.
(edited by Azel.4786)
So… The change to traps, intentional or not, is a little surprising. That’s a pretty big kick in the baby maker for trap builds.
What happened to traps?
Cooldown nerfed to 30 secs across the board it seems.
Ooooh really? Fire trap was like 15 or something right? Interesting.
Yup 15 as far as I know. All other traps were equally affected and traits (including cooldown reduction) seem to have stopped working. Haven’t tested anything myself, but that is the talk around the forums too.
So… The change to traps, intentional or not, is a little surprising. That’s a pretty big kick in the baby maker for trap builds.
What happened to traps?
Cooldown nerfed to 30 secs across the board it seems.
You guys are all a bunch of whiners. I play ranger as my main and yes I was hoping for the changes we all were hoping for too. But you all are acting like a bunch of babies.
They probably didn’t have enough time to properly test the changes so they were left out of the build. It isn’t lack of listening on their part.
Speak for yourself white knight.
No I am just being rational. Obviously the changes weren’t ready. I just understand how game development works.
Yes, and then I guess you don’t understand how PR works. If the company comes in and says “Hey, we hear your complaints and we know we need to fix something, sit tight and we will get it done in mid November”.
You just don’t drop the bomb in exactly mid November without so much as an anticipation that it isn’t what we were promised or, better yet, it is and this is what they think it is necessary. Seriously, anyone could see that Ranger forums is falling apart and then we take the “animation glitch fix” and then the “substantially worthless changes in mid November” without a shred of honesty or decent communication from the developers?
Face it, ANET PR has failed to deliver a proper communication with its customers. You can take all the time you want to fix the game (it has been a long time since games need to be released and fixed cause there were no future patch possibilities) but to not keep an open and honest communication with your customers (specially in a game that is designed to keep customers in for a long time) is an amateur mistake at best.
Take a look at the forums and you will see this is the biggest problem people have with this patch.
Disappointed by the lies too, we deserved at least some honesty from ANET and not just “animation fixes” which in truth were significant nerfs and “major overhaul” that includes mostly text corrections or insignificant changes.
My biggest problem right now is the lack of honesty from ANET. Hard to believe in them again and hard to motivate myself to play or even say good things about this game / ANET after being led on twice.
I can’t believe I have been following up daily on the forums for this.
I honestly thought they would provide rangers with some variations / buffs. I don’t want my character to be overpowered, but I don’t want to be the laughing-stock either.
Sadly it feels like now rangers are it for both ANET and the other professions.
I mean, honestly, the main problems with spirits is survivability and they only buff the proc rate. The other changes? Not significant at all and hardly relate to the Shouts, Pet Issues, or the most annoying of all, the invunerability and the “obstructed” bugs.
Not going to say I didn’t get my money’s worth cause I had a lot of fun with the game, but honestly the game and ANET did not deliver what I was expecting with advertisement. Just another Diablo III style let down….