Rapid Fire is very inefficient at long range for the most part. It’s more useful at short to medium range. Otherwise, at max range, the auto attacks do about the same or a tad more overall damage than the total duration of Rapid Fire at the same range (RF does NOT benefit from bonus damage at long range. ONLY #1 does.)
Yes drakes’ Bite is still healing enemies.
I wonder if this will assist with the rampant culling with thieves and stealth. Will my pet be able to attack him even if I can’t target nor see him?
I just did a single, quick test versus a very nice enemy thief in WvW. It DOES work with pets! My wolf continued to attack him after de-stealthing without me having to tell him to.
I’m almost coming to the conclusion that Anet’s dev team just simply doesn’t have enough on staff to handle all of the bugs, balances, etc. in a timely manner. To be honest, I’m a PRETTY tolerant gamer. I’ll keep playing my ranger because I love the potential of the class. I can’t get into any other profession as I can with my ranger.
I know a lot of you are at the breaking point. I’ve been there a few times too. But I think what will make or break my interest in the game will be the first expansion (I told you I was pretty tolerant). If there aren’t significant fixes/additions/substance after the first real expansion of the game, I may shelf the game for a long time. No worries though. I’m not paying a monthly fee and I’ve already gotten plenty of playing hours out of the price it cost.
Until then I’ll keep dreaming of my GS + A/A ranger that I’ve dreamed of since the first murmur of GW2’s existence.
Actually, LR gives you a HUGE distance underwater. Give it a shot. It is pretty ridiculous and has saved my life more times than I can count.
I’d recommend NOT using drakes at all for roaming and dueling. Drakes’ Chomp ability is currently bugged and actually heals the MOB/ENEMY PLAYER rather than the drake itself.
Thanks Dahkeus. I’ve actually been following your thread. I’m pretty eager to see what your underwater study comes out with. I use the WvW lakes a lot when outnumbered and I’ve always used the shark without really thinking about it. I appreciate the work you’re putting into the pet studies!
@ItIsFinished
Are pet combo finishers the same as players’ though? I forget where, but I thought I read somewhere that all pet finishers only affect the pet itself and not allies (such as leap finishers in healing spring) but I can’t confirm this.
Really? Wow I never realized that. That is a pretty big range difference.
Thanks for the responses!
@Dahkeus
-Swiftness barely contributes anything from what I’ve seen when running Signet of the Hunt already (Sorry that I failed to mention I carry this sig) so this is the last thing I’d want my raven to cast in the middle of a fight.
-Again, pet’s movement speed barely noticeable with SotH already applied
-It can be argued that a single one hit ability is putting all your eggs in one basket. If it misses, then I get no additional damage. At least the jag can continue to throw out crit hits even if one or two misses.
-Blind is only useful versus big attacks. I rarely have the timing perfected to use the raven for this. Otherwise its mostly wasted on auto attacks.
-Yes, I loved this about them. Its why I ran with them for so long.
This is just based on my personal experience.
I have tested them in the mists. Again, the burst damage is amazing from the raven but the jaguar has superior pressuring.
@Atroras, I do love spiders and will switch it out with my wolf when I’m zerging. But 90% of the time I solo roam or small group roam (please everyone, keep your personal opinions of the uselessness of solo roaming in WvW. Its fun, so I do it) and I have a pretty defensive load out. I need a decent damaging pet to offset my lack of hard hits.
Alright so, for the longest time I’ve ran a pretty successful roaming WvW ranger (mix of clerics & knight gear for the most part) with shortbow + sword/(whatever, changes often) or SB + GS.
For a while I used Raven + Wolf. The raven was fantastic for initial, quick bursts. I have my pet switch and pet abilities bound to scroll up and scroll down so it was super easy to swap my raven and with BM minor trait 1 he would activate his F2 on whatever enemy that was on me immediately. This was, for the most part, the key to killing enemies since I myself was more defensive in nature. However, I’ve noticed that recently my raven doesn’t actually target-stick to enemies as quick anymore resulting in his burst to miss.
Without a reliable burst, the raven is a chore to use to harass enemies because of the long attack animations and that cursed swiftness auto cast. Jaguar is pretty good for the stealth and has relatively quick animations, but has much less health than raven (also, I really loved raven for the BM trait that granted aoe vigor on swap).
So after this, what’s the general consensus on a solid DPS pet in WvW roaming?
Wow man, great play. I actually have an extremely similar play style (and success rate) as yours in WvW. Only different traits and slightly different trait lines (I have my 10 in NM for survival rather than Skirmish). The major difference is my gear consists of a combo of knights and clerics with a couple berserker accessories. I’ve wanted to try a condition setup version of this like yours but I’ve not the cash for Apothecary gear. Thanks for showing!
Asura’s Pain Inverter could be potentially useful.
But beware! For some reason 1 hand sword’s burst and off hand axe’s 5 skill are bugged on Asuras. Half the hits don’t actually land.
Thanks for testing. It would be great if the sigil prioritizes which condition is transferred based on stack amount or duration, but I doubt it does.
If spirits are ever tweaked into being potentially useful, a staff ranger with a spirit army would look pretty cool I think.
As I’ve seen in another thread or two, I think a staff ranger would be really fun (I’m thinking Friar style from DaoC)
I like the idea of a pistol, but offhand only in my opinion. I have trouble seeing a woodsman ranger using a pistol as a main hand in terms of class feel.
I’d really like another 1 handed melee weapon but I can’t picture anything else that would fit the feel of the class (MAYBE mace)
Weapons I fantasize about that my ranger would use that aren’t in the game:
Fist weapons (specifically claws, to have that ultimate predator look!)
On-land Spears/Polearms (1 handed + bucklers for that warden of the wilderness feel!)
Just as heads up, if anyone is thinking of trying purity sigils (outside of t/sPvP) then use Sigil of Generosity instead. It not only removes conditions, but transfers it to whoever you’re fighting (with the same cooldown). http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Generosity
I really enjoyed the video. I know this is supposed to be a basic starting guide, but how do you deal with condition removal/management? The only thing that I notice you have is Empathic Bond.
I almost contemplated rerolling an Asuran ranger just for that racial skill : /
I also don’t bother renaming anymore. Just another aspect of pets causing me to have no emotional or meaningful attachment to them whatsoever.
/signed
I agree with this. I want the GS to have the potential to be used as the primary raw damage weapon like it was in the beta. My dream ranger/huntsman would have a GS + dual axes. Let my dream be effective, Anet!
Asuran Warriors don’t land the full amount of hits with sword’s burst and off-hand axe’s whirling strike ability. Only half of the hits actually land (works correctly on target dummies though, just not actual mobs).
Alright will do. Wasn’t sure where to really post it since it only seemed Asuran. Thanks!
-Able to reliably stick your pet to attacking one target while you are attacking a different one.
-Long-term wish: Pets are visually distinct depending on the trait loadout of the ranger (for example, most points in skirmish give pets bigger claws & teeth, high BM makes pets bigger and beefier, high WS makes the hides of animals look more armored and thick, etc.)
-Do SOMETHING about the sizing of pets in general for Norn & Charr rangers. My Norn looks like he has a pet guinea pig and my wolves look like little foxes.
-Add more ranged pets
-Add more pets that contribute more utility for non-BM rangers.
-Add the Mistfire Wolf skin as a purchasable skin from the TP for any chosen wolf pet.
Frizzle Firecracker is pretty nifty. To me it sounds like the name of a mad engineer Asuran or something.
My Warrior’s name is Grimartan which is a combination of Norse and Irish meaning “Savage Little Bear”
Is there a bug with Asurans (warriors) that causes hits to miss?
Examples:
Sword’s burst skill only hits half the time. I counted, literally half the swings only connect.
The offhand axe’s whirling strike (5) ability misses half the time as well.
I’ve had no issues with any other race so I have to assume its only Asuran.
Apologies if this was already a thread.
@Electro
Yea, I was afraid it would sound too powerful. I was thinking of more along the lines of their abilities having more synergy with the ranger itself and others, but it does sound too powerful.
A shame we can’t get Lightning Reflexes to leave a lightning field instead of the raw damage it causes. I mean might as well right? Has lightning in the name AND in the icon after all!
This probably has been suggested already, but I really think it would be a lot of fun:
I would like to throw the suggestion out there to make all drake F2 abilities cause drakes to lay down a combo field based on their element instead of what it currently is. I really feel like this would make drake pets more useful in more situations (or at least make their F2 more effective).
Bonus: I also want to see River Drake pets have the actual river drake skin instead of the rock drake one. That’s been killing me since before the beginning.
What do the rest of you’s guys think?
I’d have to agree with everything you’ve gone over. As another hilarious use for them in WvW, use a Reef Drake during a siege defense. “Guard” him to the outside and have him target the group of attackers at the door and use the F2. It’s hilarious.
I still can’t decide which drake to use in general PvE though. The river drake does SO much damage if you manage to land his F2 on a Veteran or boss who won’t die too fast. That chain lightning wrecks. The fire drake has the highest cone damage, but it’s hard to land. Ice drake looks the coolest in my opinion (though the TRUE river drake skin looks the coolest to me). Reef’s F2 isn’t too effective against the slow hitting mobs of PvE.
One question though: do you actually SEE your drake using Chomp? Because whenever I’ve used my drake, he either never uses it or the life steal is so small that it’s not noticeable.
It still really irritates me that the River Drake still has the rock drake skin instead of the legit skin.
I’m personally satisfied with this considering the HUGE amount of non-class content that has been modified/fixed/added by this patch.
Rangershark in lakes. Anet needs to add the JAWS theme to every ranger swimming.
I just had a great time in WvW as an 80 ranger (30 WS/10 NM/30 BM). A specific example would be a tower defense that myself and maybe a dozen or so teammates had against an enemy zerg. While on the wall, I was able to use Guard with my jaguar and successfully and consistently target and attack enemy siege equipment being built. He was able to SOLO destroy them (jag’s invisibility worked wonders) before they could even finish constructing them, even though they were way beyond my attack range. He tallied up 3 ballistae, 2 flame rams, an arrow cart and a catapult. And if he was noticed and concentrated on, I’d just swap him out for another dps pet and do it over. This was infuriating for the enemy zerg and it took them another half hour to penetrate the tower.
On top of this, thanks for my modified tanky equipment setup and Bark Skin, I was able to stay on the wall 100% of the time without coming close to death which allowed me to revive my allies and heal everyone with Healing Spring as well as harassing enemies with the longbow and Barrage. I may not have actually been TOO helpful, but I certainly FELT very helpful, and more importantly…I had fun!
I’d really like to see Lightning Reflexes generate a lightning field at the point of activation. I don’t know if that would even be useful or not, but I’d still enjoy it lol.
YOU’RE the one I read the combo from! Hahah I couldn’t remember . Thanks for posting it!
Gorath, maybe its because my stats are more spread out?
With my GS equipped:
Power: 1,724
Precision: 1,541
Toughness: 1,779
Vitality: 1,102
With that as my GS stat allocation, it comes out to 2,824 Attk, 2,843 Armor, 34% Crit.
In regards to my combat behavior, PvE is mostly whatever you want. In general I use the GS when I’m being overwhelmed or fighting 3+ mobs at once. If I’m trying to grind single to double mobs one after another I’ll use sword main hand with dps pets utilizing the fantastic burst via Zephyr’s Speed.
In WvW, if solo roaming, I have a GS and Sword/Dagger loadout. A great combo that I’ve started getting used to using effectively is Swoop-ing to a target, Hilt Bash, weapon swap + pet swap (preferably pet swapping to your DPS pet) and melting the target via Zephyr’s Speed. This is versus 1 or maybe 2 enemies. Anything more and I’ll play more defensively (coaxing them into underwater combat, making them chase me until one separates from the rest, pulling them into allied NPCs, etc.)
In small groups I switch out the dagger for the warhorn and play a more supportive role. In zergs I switch the sword out for an axe and play, again, supportive control role. And in sieges, I use the black jaguar pet, Guard, QZ, and RaO for the still hilarious way he can take out squishies on walls or drastically help take out siege/oil and harass the operators.
I should also mention that whenever I WvW, I always turn autotargetting OFF. It makes using Swoop for fleeing or travelling much easier.
As for why Healing Spring: it’s partly because I sporadically join other allies and I’m too lazy to constantly switch to another heal when going back to solo, partly because of the regen boon from it to take advantage of the Dwayna set and/or Nature’s Bounty, and probably more partly because my play style (and in my opinion, the ranger in general) lacks an efficient condition removal. I know Empathic Bond is seen as a fantastic condition remover, but because of the rather lower health of my build, I’d rather take Bark Skin for those nasty bursts when I’m not paying attention.
I hope this helps some (one way or the other)!
Glad to see a thread like this. I’ve been a WS ranger for a long time now, and figured I’d throw in my setup as well.
WS: 30 (VI,X,XII)
NM: 10 (V or VI or III)
BM: 30 (VI, I, XIII)
Ability Slots: Nearly always Healing Spring, and ALWAYS Signet of the Wild. Other slots and Elite are swapped depending on the situation.
Armor: Mix of Knights, Clerics, and Prec/Heal/Vit pieces (full Dwayna)
Weapons: Always a Knight’s GS (Sigil of Blood), with either main hand Axe or Sword and whatever offhand for the situation
Trinkets: Berserker Earrings, Knight Rings, Knight Necklace, Cleric Spineguard
Total states:
Attack: 2,561
Crit Chance: 33%
Armor: 2,754
Health: 17,842 (810 Healing Power)
Pets: I switch pet loadouts fairly often but in PvE I use raven or lynx with either devourer or drake (UGH PLEASE FIX DRAKES). In WvW I usually use raven or jaguar and wolf.
I’ve had this setup for a while now and for ME personally, it’s pretty well balanced for what I do and how I play. I’m attempting to raise cooking for the -40% condition duration for when I’m roaming in WvW, and I have even contemplated a Melandru rune set but still playing around with the idea.
I’ve yet to see my drake actually use tailswipe, unless there’s no obvious animation for it.
Thanks for the replies!
@Victory: I’ve had pretty GREAT success with this hp regen build. The regen by itself is not good, but with the added timed damage avoidance via dodging, protection, and pet cc utility, it definitely makes a difference (especially with longer fights). With group fights, I basically aim at supporting my allies with Healing Spring, quick revive with QZ, and buffing with the horn. It’s not necessarily a key role, but it definitely has saved from several wipes (especially since I’d be the last or one of the last still alive).
@deepwinter: If I’m solo roaming or solo dpsing, I usually do have a Sword/Dagger as a secondary set. I usually only go with the Axe just to stack up the +healing and then I’d switch it out, but I do definitely use the Warhorn the most for an offhand for group buffing. And as much as I’ve tried, I simply cannot bring myself to NOT have QZ! It’s an addiction! I’ve used it more times for quick rezzes for my group than I can count. Often, though, in anticipation of lengthier, more stationary fights, I’ll switch out SoH for LR. And I haven’t considered Undead rune set before…I may give that a go!
Sure, this build isn’t the most optimized ranger build out there, but after trying all of the different popular builds since beta and on, this one seems to be the most fun and interesting for me. Thanks again for the input! Ranger4Lyfe!
So here’s the loadout I currently use, give or take minor changes based on what I’m doing: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBhODbkoKyOwSxC1OQ0ewJLd+3j0Hr27KgqDelaB;T4A5TCnkOpaS5E1NmuEdZdydj0pVDDM2EA
(copy & paste the link please)
I’ve played a ranger 80% of the time since second BWE. I used to have only 15 in BM and had the other points in Nature Magic, but because of the more reliable pets hitting moving targets, I’d thought I’d give this a whirl- and I really dig it!
Also keep in mind: I haven’t ONCE touched sPvP. I primarily do PvE and WvW.
All my armor is exotic Knights with Berserker rings, Berserker amulet, 1 Berserker accessory and 1 Cleric accessory (just couldn’t dish out the extra cash for another Berserker trinket).
The idea is to be a tanky, health-regenerating (Signet of the Wild + Natural Healing [yes NH affects YOU as well]) scrapper with respectable personal damage and great pet damage.
My main hand ax has +healing sigil, and my greatsword has Sigil of Blood (I have a natural 33% crit chance. Plenty for getting it to trigger consistently)
I generally play melee with this setup, but my question is: What runes do you fellas think would be best to benefit this play style? Currently I have a hodgepodge of leftover runes equipped: 2x Superior runes of Water, 2x Superior runes of Dwayna, 2x Superior runes of Vampirism.
I can only afford about one set of cheap to moderately priced runes at the moment. I’d buy full Dolyak if I could! But I’d love to hear ideas. For cost effectiveness, I’d like to try to choose the best rune set for both PvE and WvW for this build.
Safe hunting!
I always thought that it would be cool if the two pets you had in your load-out were always out and with you, but only one was active and the other just followed nearby but couldn’t attack and couldn’t die, but granted the ranger a passive boon or benefit of some kind. Then switching pets would reverse it so that the other pet granted a different passive while the other one was active. Would make it seam more like a team instead of disposable switch-outs.
What about drake pets never using their abilities? (tail swipe, chomp)
In terms of tanking, this thread brings up some very interesting points regarding toughness vs. health (despite it being a guardian thread, it can pertain to any tanky aspect for any class).
I’m sorry I have to be missing something, how in the world are you getting 18s of protection from the moa? Even traited it doesn’t last that long at all. Can you explain how that’s working out?
And don’t forget, QZ is a fantastic support/group ability. I use it more often than not to revive downed players under heavy fire more quickly.
“Violence and fighting is always their most effective and well-developed means of resolving issues”
This is actually a major theme in video games since the very beginning, and it’s not entirely because it’s the easiest to implement. Killing (in one form or another) is in almost every game ever created. From the earliest board games and chess to the newest, most modern video games, killing/fighting has always been a mechanic because of one thing: determining who wins and who loses. Yes, the level of violence and fighting can be modified, but it all comes down to who lives and who dies, because that’s what games come down to in general- who wins and who loses. Death is the ultimate mechanic for that in games. I mean, could you create a game where the premise was to comfort an old man dying from cancer in his hospital room? What would be the mechanic for whether you “win” or “lose” when you know the end is inevitable? How would you know if you’ve truly comforted him or whether it even mattered at all?
I’m not saying that violence and fighting shouldn’t be questioned. We see indie games every day with extraordinary game mechanics on winning and losing (and inbetweens). And then you have games that don’t even necessarily have such conventional mechanics (Dear Esther comes to mind), but then can that be considered a game?
Okay I’ve ranted enough and perhaps not everything I said even related to this post but it’s what came to my mind when I scrolled through.
I wasn’t sure where to post this (or even if I SHOULD post it), but this article from Gamasutra seems to be extremely relevant to the community in GW2. It’s a very insightful perspective into the entire concept of “balancing” in games in general:
This weekend at New York University, an intimate audience had the opportunity to hear game balancing strategies from a master — veteran designer and Magic the Gathering creator Richard Garfield.
Again, if this is a waste of space, feel free to delete. However, based on the sheer volume of posts regarding balance discussions, I figured this would help players gain some new insights (for better or for worse) into what it means to balance classes and play styles.
Don’t know if this was mentioned or not, but don’t forget that all birds have an 8 second (I believe) cool down “leap” attack. That’s a pretty short cool down, and that leap triggers combo fields pretty often.
Oh that’s cool. Shame I scrapped the 203 tonics I had yesterday from wasted chest openings. Oh well.
I’ve been using this guide as inspiration and have been having pretty great results:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/66729-how-to-be-a-great-greatsword-ranger/
I bought karma boosters and a black lion key a couple weeks ago and still haven’t received them.