Well, Druz is right.
One of the best things is all the on heal procs. I especially enjoy my runes of altruism stacking might on me and x2 might on my pets. Between this ability, the horn, mighty swap, and the stacks from stalker you and your pet can do good damage while being very bunker focused. No other heal can stack might so fast.
I just wish I could “plant” spirits when I didn’t want them to run with me then unplant them when I do (with unbound of course).
(edited by Bombsaway.7198)
Ok, this heal is ANNOYING at first. . . . but
It is soooo worth figuring out for some types of play.
Impressions:
1. The heals are solid and the radius isn’t that much different than healing spring especially if traited.
2. Without the trait, the heal radius is hard to get used to.
3. This is not a good heal for a melee ranger. If you want to take damage, your spirits will too.
4. Nature’s Voice (if traiting spirits) is great at helping keep the spirits alive.
5. We could really use a button to “plant” a spirit when unbound. There are times I don’t want it to follow me into a pit of damage.
6. Some real success with double heals when the spirit dies (and I kind of want it to die). Turned at least one camp fight which was more or less 5 us 8 or so of them.
7. The healing ticks seem to really help too when folks face basic conditions. Seemed to allow people to avoid condition removal until it was desparate.
8. Condition removal was rough playing 4 spirits.
9. It took a VERY long time to get used to when exactly to bring the spirit out so it wouldn’t die due to low intensity pressure.
10. Nature’s Voice is a spirit’s friend. You can also use the Fern Hound for a similar way of having your pet die by a million small hits/conditions.
This was a pretty good patch. I am farting around with some traits I never thought I would care about and seeing real usefulness.
This was intentional I thought but somehow missed the notes.
Water spirit, 1,5 sec to cast spirit + 1 sec to use the skill + 1 sec to have the effect: 3,5 sec for 6k base heal…….is a focking joke….
That isn’t how it really works and misses several key things:
1. You cast it before the fight, not when you need the burst heal (this is no burst skill)
2. You then get 2 heals (every 25 seconds) where your HS is a 30 second timer.
3. You have a regen like ability with the passive that with good healing goes about 900 every 10 secs or 90 hps. The great advantage is its range at 1000.
4. When you heal you get a much bigger heal and don’t have to wait for all the ticks of regen.
Downsides are obvious:
1. Spirit can die (which can trigger another heal if traited)
2. Downtime of spirit takes quite sometime to get used to when to put the spirit out. Just running with it 24/7 will have it expire right when you don’t want it to.
3. No condition removal.
4. No water field.
Pretty good for a small 5v5 roaming group frankly. You put that passive with nature’s voice and you have some significant passive regen for your group.
No order in particular:
1. Entangle should be a trap and benefit from trap traits.
2. Ability to stow pet even when in combat. Ranger controls when it comes out.
Ability to “ground target” where a pet comes out when activated versus by your side. Range 2k. This allows us to get our pet immediately in combat.
3. Ability to bind F2 and other pet skills to keyboard in game.
4. Remove flanking requirement for SB1
5. Add bleed when flanking (current SB mechanic) to axe main hand ricochet.
6. Let pet interrupts work with Moment of Clarity
7. The pounce effect on sword auto attack should be a leap finisher.
8. Hunter’s Shot should apply stealth even if it does not hit a target.
9. Speargun “Ink Blast” should be a blast finisher
10. Opening strike should reapply every 15-20 seconds. (Guessing it would be hard to have it apply to each individual targeted enemy. In other words, your first attack on each enemy you target is an opening strike. So, if you cycle thru attacking many different targets, you get multiple opening strikes. Does not apply to non-targeted attacks such as AE).
11. Beastmaster’s Bond should provide you with buffs when pet is under 50% and pet with same buffs when you go under 50%.
12. Let spirits benefit from any buffs the ranger has. (Helps with regen, protection etc).
13. Remorselessness should also add a cripple to your opening strike.
14. Remove “in combat” for Tail wind.
15. Allow proccing the new heal regen (Water spirit “on hit” ability) to count for all “when you use a heal skill” benefits.
16. Master’s bond should provide a pet additional stats (like it does) based on how long the pet is “in combat”. The longer the pet is “in combat” and alive the more stats get raised. 5 trait pts every 5 seconds to max would work.
17. Traits that impact your boons/conditions should impact pet boons and conditions (e.g. duration etc).
19. Move Zephyer speed from grandmaster to master. Add new GM trait to beastmaster. Tough as a Beast (Works like spotter only for group toughness).
20. Add “removes one condition” to following:
a. Lightening reflexes
b. Quickening Zephyer
21. Make Signet of Renewal remove 2 conditions vs 1.
22. Rampage as One effect should be a boon (and benefit from all things that improve boons).
23. Increase radius for Spirit of Nature revive.
24. Viper’s Next trap should create a poison field.
25. Ranger should be able to self activate a trap even if there is no enemy by mousing over the trap and pushing the button for that trap’s utility. This would allow a ranger to provide more management on fields.
36. Spirit actives should serve as blast finishers.
Completely agree. Frost trap could use a bit of DD.
I would love an ability to put 2 traps of each kind out vs 1 instead of the limited ranged throw.
Wait, we have 2 dazes/stuns. But we have more interrupts. If the ability ONLY increased your stun/interrupt by 100% (post 10th) then I would agree this is weak. BUT, it also allows you AND your pet to have 50% more damage on your next attack. Then, it will trigger on the activity of a pet too which adds more interrupts and a couple which are controllable F2s. Good ability with the knockdowns of the hyena.
The key is this ability works only with some weapons and some pets effectively. You want to be able to deliver a big attack on cue.
I get why people want spirits to take no damage. It would be fun.
But they really don’t die as quickly with a little spirit management.
Placement helps.
Dropping them when you need them vs having them follow you all the time (even with unbound) helps.
Realizing that many times NOT having them follow you is more valuable if you just want the passive helps.
Learning to kill them by switching skills helps.
There are times where the spirits die quickly. Classic example is siege. This is also a classic example of when not to pull out spirits until you need the actives or get into the thick of combat.
Spirits are very much support focused but too often rangers try to make them about ranger damage.
I really want a cow pet. It could provide double badges of honor upon my death to the enemy. I would use this when in zerker mode in WvW.
It’s F2 could be gender specific.
Female Characters swoon over how cute your pet is. For 10 seconds, no one fights.
Male Characters 50% chance they lose focus and targeting every 3 seconds as they contemplate rib eye or strip steak? All male characters who joined the Vegan guild are immune to this effect but must have no more than 1000 power.
Well, start using up your glory. That reward will get replaced.
You can sacrifice a spirit easily by just changing the utility out with another skill then back (assuming out of combat).
Drop and forget is great for the passives and the range isn’t bad for them.
The actives are every bit as big as traps and a lot of the crowd control is similar. Downside is the spirit can die.
Plenty of juvenile chars on map chat. They may be the one thing that behaves worse that ANET pet AI.
That is what I do Oak. My pets work well keeping them stowed until I need them or until I actually get into combat.
In zergs, I use pets that provide good boons.
In roam, I use pets that damage or crowd control.
In roam, I wouldn’t use a boon pet. In zerg, I wouldn’t use a damage pet.
In a zerg, you are more of a support player. Giving 3 stacks of might then flipping for fury or a regen isn’t bad.
Disagree with Solandri. A lashtail devourer can be much better than a spider. . . in some cases.
The F2 of the lashtail does 7 rapid attacks. When using RAO, that is a quick set of might stacks for the ranger. No other pet has an F2 skill that provides so many rapid attacks for might stacking.
It can be ok I guess with the LB/GS build. Point Blank for interrupt. GS Swoop at 50% more damage. Hilt bash for interrupt. Maul at 50% more damage.
It only helps a few specific skills.
Has anyone tested if it works with say the active ability of Storm Spirit? Now that could be classic!
I like the idea of increasing the coefficient for the first target, keeping it the same for the second, and lowering it for the third.
Ariete makes a good point. Spirits die far more often when you try to get into melee combat or not be backline.
In that case, it is often better to place a spirit that is immobile (like a trap) and count on the passive. Only if the enemy gets close do you activate it.
In that case, you are relying more on the passive than the active.
I tend to play backline mid-range attacks. I will run in intentionally with my spirits just to setoff the actives, then run back out still providing passives (usually they live that long).
Absolutely, many playstyles would do better having the spirits placed so they don’t take as much damage and that means make them immobile.
Argggggggh. Banners just buff. Spirits have very useful active abilities for zerg fights.
Getting a couple of AE blinds out every 30 seconds (if you run em up to the front line the spirit will often die AFTER you activate it triggering a second active with the trait).
AE chill x2? Not bad stuff.
I just don’t find my spirits dying in large zerg fights all that much when I play mid-range (sb/axe+warhorn).
When the mini zerg is “bigger” with lots of AE, I also tend to wait to cast the spirits versus having them always up. And my role is far more backline than frontline. So my weapons are almost always condition ranged (sb/axe+warhorn) with runes that allow me to stack might quickly. This is ESPECIALLY true when you face siege. You just don’t want the spirits up when running in. Remember, you can swap out the skills to “kill” the spirit and reset the timer.
Timing of when you put your spirits up in a zerg fight is critical.
How many ticks of the buff do you really need on 5 people to make a difference? I suggest a few pulses of 5 person protection can matter. Same with burn. I cast Stone Spirit when the fight needs to be tipped. I cast Sun Spirit early, to get extra damage and blind (to get an initial edge). They don’t die so fast that you can’t get the active off and at least get a set of buffs on 5 allies if you have them moved to 70% and double hps (if not don’t use them in zerg fights).
In zergs I also really want the active abilities more than the passive but it just depends on what the nature of the fight is.
Remember, pop the active BEFORE the pet dies (even if just before) and if you have the ability of activating it WHEN it dies, well that helps too. You can get quick AE blind, damage or crowd control off which really helps in zerg v zerg. You just need to get them into the fight by waiting to cast! They don’t have to last long to be effective. And how long is the refresh on your other utilities? I don’t mind having 2x (with the trait) some combo AE damage, blind, chill, and immobilize.
I also have a lot of AE regen and that helps them deliver a few extra buffs on the allies and a setup the actives.
There not pets. They are utility. They don’r really need to stay alive that long to be very useful.
The trouble is the mindset we all go in with too often which is that we always have our spirits up.
(edited by Bombsaway.7198)
Proposed: All skills you choose (versus the passive skills) are put into a pool. They are no longer tied to a specific trait line versus some are adept, some master, some GM.
As you put trait points into a skill line, instead of opening up a GM trait from say marksmanship as a ranger, you open up 1 GM skill. You can take any GM skill in the pool. So if you have 2 lines up to 30, you would have 2 GM skills you can choose from. BUT, you could take ANY of the GM skills for your class. Likewise, if you had a 20 20 10 10 10 build, you have 5 adept skills but you could pick ANY of the 5 adept skills.
Make sense? If GW wants to open up build diversity, this is probably the most dramatic way you could do so without breaking the game.
That is a tough one Chrispy. When you start stacking a trait line with more than 12 you get a LOT of problems of having no room.
I wonder if the game would play better if you put your trait points in lines THEN had X number of skill points which you could buy from ANY line you had unlocked.
I think the answer is a whole lot simpler than we think.
There just are too many traits to place in the other lines.
You have: traps, spirits, and pets in addition to all the “normal” trait types for weapons.
I think they simply had no where else to put it and keep a relative balance in the number of traits available even.
The biggest problem with spirits is that you have to trait for things which should be innate. I have the same problem with traps.
I have a very basic guideline. If you wouldn’t use the abilities (spirits, traps etc) without THE trait (NOT without SOME trait), then it should be looked at in terms of making it innate.
I mean really, you need to trait to have them move? You know this should be innate when I have yet to see someone seriously play spirits without the trait.
More HPs INNATE.
Greater chance to hit TRAIT.
Moves with us INNATE
Blast on Death and Bigger Radius TRAIT.
That way you easily could use a spirit without traiting or going up in nature.
Traps (My assumption is that untraited traps just don’t do enough damage)
The increased condition duration (INNATE)
Throw Traps (TRAIT but can it be a bit farther please?)
Radius increase (TRAIT but can we trait to hit 10 v 5 plz with this trait????)
Reduced Cooldowns (TRAIT but add a second ability like an ability to decide when the trap goes off by pressing the trap key after it is set).
Well I think we can agree that of all the weapons that need looked at in terms of skill synergy, the axe is probably the one needing the most attention. It may not be the one you want them to focus on (because you would never want to use the axe and you love say the greatsword or longbow hypothetically), but it is the weapon whose skills seem the most “random”.
But, while the axe should get a fixin, I think we do need a ranged option main hand weapon.
Well it could always be 10% of your stats tied to the primary stat of the class of animal e.g. precision for birds, toughness for bears, etc etc.
If you asked me if I love the way the ranger plays versus how I wish it played and I would tell you heck no. I do still love the character because I spent so much time making it etc etc etc. But at the very least it didn’t meet expectations. Sure there are things I never thought I would do when rolling the character that are interesting, but my expectation vs reality was a big miss.
I adapted, but. . .
But oh do I wish my zerker 2 bow ranger with power/crit could take you down before you stomped me. Sometimes, I just have to take off the apoth and rabid sets and just don the zerker and see if I can get one or two at 1500 before they get me.
I wish we could finish a kill versus just wounding our prey.
I agree entirely with the idea that we WANTED a power ranger build to be viable and that I wanted to see my power/crit build really chew thru an opponent (and be squishy if I failed dropping them).
We got a spirit heal. I would have loved for a heal tied to a signet that got rid of my need to worry everytime I leave the house without empathic bond.
But if I look at what we got and get beyond the fact, I really wasn’t thinking I would be a spirit class vs a bow/pet class, I can’t say that this heal is useless or that I can’t come up with a lot of ways to use it better than the alternatives.
Still it is another spirit. It isn’t a crappy heal just a disappointment that we focused on the wrong part of build diversity. It is almost as if they see the ranger thru the eyes of other classes. This heal and spirits in general are great for those who are near a ranger. But, they aren’t as much fun if you are the ranger.
I see this phenomenon far too often with my consumer facing clients. There really should be a voice of the Ranger in ANet. Instead, even on the livestream, it appears you see developers trying to make a ranger work but really seeing them thru the eyes of someone who plays something else. It wasn’t a lack of familiarity but it was a clear lack of the same familiarity.
You have 8 class segments. You have 4 or 5 activity segments (PvP, tPvP, WvW, PvE, Dungeons). Each needs a voice and pair of eyes.
DAOC had a brilliant program where one player per class would be in council with the developers as the sector’s voice. It is a “how would this work” “would this really be fun” type role. Even Walmart has its moms. It wasn’t easy to manage, but it provided great value in “keeping ideas out of just the developers’ sandbox”.
Traps should be the logical way to keep melee off you for a power build bow ranger.
We just need too darn many traits to make it work.
I actually think the best answer is to make both trap traits just part of how traps work normally.
Well, you can have a spirit build WITH nature’s voice after the 10th. You just lose the auto active ability on death of spirit and a bit of range (but the range buff isn’t much to write home about).
You can’t make the main axe a melee weapon without forcing every ranger who wants an offhand to have a melee weapon. There would be no other ranged option.
For this reason, I would say no to your idea.
Traps do need a bit of work but overall are pretty good.
I often use one even untraited. But being in the precision line should make sense somehow.
Agree on swapping range/size for condition damage/recharge traits.
Outside AE attacking my spirit, I would just assume an enemy attack my spirit and not me. That is an attack I am not eating and is a form of heal itself.
There is definitely a risk to the spirit.
I would assume most will only use this skill with vigorous spirits and that makes them about 8k of HP and run a couple of spirits (so tracking the healing spirit takes some skill) so casual damage won’t do it.
Anytime they want to take their eye off killing me, please do. Plus, if the enemy did start going after your water spirit in melee you have other spirit actives to act as cc.
Still, I acknowledge that it could get ugly. I just don’t think it will regularly. Even in zergs, my spirits rarely die.
Plus if you kill it, there is a trait to have it automatically heal (though you lose the 4k
I don’t know why people play spirits so passively. I tend to constantly use my actives to cc or slow down groups or blind when I see a big windup animation.
And you still have your pet and weapon skills.
I know you can create a build that is passive, but that is just a bad build IMHO for spirits.
Clunky but very useful for running spirits without traits!
I still want a self destruct button on the spirits.
You definitely don’t need to melee to be effective in pvp as a ranger.
But the LB is a bit of a challenge in some maps.
But remember, most people plan for 1v1 and that isn’t how a fight goes. You swap the weapon when the enemy is paying attention to fighting you. I use LB quite well in pvp as a ranged second source of damage when an ally is in melee with an enemy. The range helps when the fight is spread out because I just go from one fight to the next as that second source and focus on staying out of being attacked directly. LB is great against bad play in pvp.
You can do a lot with the stealth shot too to keep yourself from being the focus in hot joins more than tournies. Forums draw much better players than you will find in most hotjoins. That is when the LB can really work.
Note: the other posters are quite right. The maps are too small and organized so that it is too easy to get to the LB ranger. But, they are also unforgiving to the novice who can’t immediately figure out where the LB ranger is firing from or how to close a gap with all the terrain features.
I use more shortbow + axe (horn/torch/axe/dagger) in a bit of a condition focus or with spirits.
I too just don’t care for melee and you can be fine in pvp with range.
(edited by Bombsaway.7198)
I am not sure I understand how we are handicapped in zerg fighting.
Traps are pretty useful in keeps.
Spirits are pretty useful in roaming.
AE barrage is pretty useful in slowing down runners.
1500 range helps for the same reason.
You have a great sword so you can tag a lot if you choose.
A spirit ranger is very dissimilar in play style and group value than:
1) bow build
2) bunker build/beasstmaster
3) trapper build
And your choice of pet can really make a difference in how you play too.
To some extent all classes can have different feels, but I find that if you line up 4 rangers vs 4 members of other classes the rangers will have the greatest variety of play.
That has led to trait optimization problems certainly but you can just get more play styles out of a ranger than most classes I find. It also causes problems within the community. If you hate spirits, you probably have to deal with a lot of rangers who love them. If you think the ranger should be all bows, realize there are a lot of rangers playing a style that is all melee.
Rangers don’t lack build diversity. We lack the ability to optimize all that diversity.
For those of you thinking this spirit has no burst, you are wrong. You are thinking about using this heal like other heals versus like a spirit. On the other hand, this heal works when you can set the spirit early in a fight and have your “oh kitten I need a heal” moment later. If you need your “oh kitten” heal without setting up, you are in trouble.
Most spirit rangers will keep the pet up almost all the time (those who trait unbounded) or will enter a fight by laying down all the spirits first. When you see the enemy you start getting the spirits ready.
Let me explain.
Provided you have laid down the spirit, the burst is pretty quick for the ranger and reasonable for the rest of the group.
Let me explain. The active ability has 2 heals.
1. The self heal for base 3800ish is extremely quick. 1 sec it seems.
2. The group heal of 2k (which can also heal the ranger and pet) is a separate animation which takes another second.
You activate the effect and both go off 1 after the other.
Remember, you still get the benefits of the passive as you activate the big heal.
The regen is more or less going to be 4050 over 60 seconds it just depends on how quickly you get it to retrigger after the 10 second icd. Totally passive and you really don’t have to worry about staying in a field etc. It is like a group signet of the wild. So I suspect that high heal rangers will get this to about 140/second effective healing.
That is pretty solid considering you still have the big heal which is about 75% of the initial heal value of HS and 80% of the same for the group regen. The DIFFERENCE is no one has to stay in the water field outside the activation. HS pulses so you need to stay in it longer. If you combo heals out of the water field, unquestionably HS does more healing.
WS is better when a group is spread out. You get regen even if pretty far away from the spirit. Allies can run to the spirit for a heal burst or run in with the spirit to give a heal burst versus having to sit in the spring for pulses.
So the ranger gets healed for 6k base roughly. Allies 2k. This can occur once every 25 seconds. The spirit lasts 60 seconds. So what a good ranger tends to do is lay it down, apply the heal upon the group taking initial pressure (e.g. “fill the tank”) and then just before it dies.
In the 45-60 second range of a fight (when most group fights get really hairy) you can have a huge burst of healing with nature’s vengeance.
Assume you first activated at second 20. At second kitten you can again activate the heal. 5-15 seconds later (at second 60) the spirit dies and you get another heal.
So within 15 seconds or so you can heal allies 4k and yourself 8k base.
It is only if you then have to cast another spirit while taking pressure that your burst is lost. You never ever ever want to play this heal as:
1. Cast
2. Immediately Heal.
It should always be.
1. Cast
2. Get regen only for a bit
3. Heal
4. Get one more heal in before spirit dies
You are not removing conditions so this spirit probably will be more of a back line type play.
Allow me to destroy my water spirit so that when I move with a stationary spirit, I am not waiting for it to expire THEN waiting for the cool down.
Or
Allow the water spirit only to move without traiting BUT don’t increase its HPs.
I THINK I will like it as much as healing spring. Sure, HS removes conditions but only 1 if you are “on the move” and out of the pulse. HS is great when you can stay “in pulse”.
The spirit is much better in mobile combat. You get the regen even if everyone is moving around. Remember, the initial heal for HS is only for you and your pet. Allies get the regen over time.
The active effect on the Water Spirit has a self heal (don’t think it adds pet) and an ally heal. The regen is front loaded but smaller and doesn’t require your being in a water field. So it works for “spread offenses”.
If you are playing say ranged weapons/spirits you really don’t want the rest of your party too close as they bring the enemy to you.
Outside AE, it is a real targeting mess to pick out and kill a particular spirit.
I like spirits. I’m not sure how many people there are like me nor am I sure how many people there are like you who do not like spirits. I am sure that ANet would have more data than the two of us.
It’s fine to disagree with the decision, as always.
My issue isn’t that they picked a spirit. I don’t like any class that forces you into taking one of the features (signets, spirits, traps, beastmaster) at the expense of the others. Remember the stealth ubercat? That was just as annoying! Likewise, if I had to take piercing arrows to make ANY bow build work, that too would get old fast. It should make it better but not be necessary.
This spirit provides a really good new type of heal. Looking at hps misses the greater picture of how many seconds. Healing spring backloads regen and starts with only a modest heal. This skill frontloads regen and then allows you to get a bigger heal on demand later.
PLUS, if you trait Nature’s Vengance you can get an “extra” heal. I tend to need that extra heal under the same circumstances that would cause the spirit to die anyway.
At worst, I know I get an extra heal and when it is coming.
Want to know what really gets under my skin is not a new spirit but the fact that we have so few condition removers that it is really hard to build without empathic bond which is 30 in Wilderness Survival. That would be my pet peeve.
Whether you would survive of not depends on two variables:
1) What pet you use and
2) What spec you use.
In PvE, rangers tend to simply stay alive because we have some incredibly good tanking pets. This allows the ranger to set themselves up for maximum damage.
Tank pets are bears followed by drakes (and a number of others are tier 2 as well).
This approach generally has the ranger do damage at range with the pet holding agro. A key is learning when to swap pets and how to have the pet regain agro. If you are using the longbow, Skill 3 Hunter’s shot will give you a 3 second stealth on a 12 sec cooldown. Save it and that tends to get the mob refocused on the pet.
On the other hand, you can rely on your pet to do a lot of damage. Then you need to focus the ranger on being a bit more defensive as you level up.
While you can make it work, when you are first starting a ranger it is difficult to make both the ranger and pet defensive or both the ranger and pet offensive and really do well.
I’m assuming from your post we are talking about leveling. Once you get to PvP or WvW how you use your pet changes quite a bit. The pet tends to be about utility then damage.
Guys as a ranger since day 1 the spirit with the new changes actually has good use.
It heals quite well for the ranger and instead of heal then regen it is regen then heal. It is also far more mobile than the healing spring. The instant heal therefore is higher for the ranger (not for the group though).
Sure it can’t be blasted thru nor can it remove conditions. But it can be quite useful.
The glory costs are too high to drive PvErs to care. Glory costs should be 1/2 or 1k per tome/level. That would make people create alts in PvP.
It should be half the glory and frankly it would be a darn good thing if you could level up an alt in PvP as easily as PvE. Lord knows, the reason I don’t create alts is the thought of having to PvE the same stuff over again.
He had no healing power at all. I think it was actually 0.
The ranger has a self heal as you know AND can benefit from the AE heal.
IF the pet dies and you are traited, you ONLY get the group AE heal versus the personal heal.
Pretty darn good little support.
With a 1000 range, you can drop the pet early in the fight and get the regen BUT you would almost need to run back to get the big heal.
This is a solid heal especially with a bit of healing power and especially if you go nature.
Healing spring requires you stay in it to get the benefit. This is very mobile.
I like getting the regen upfront and then deciding when I want the bigger heal versus healing spring’s big heal then regen.
We don’t know if the ranger will get the benefit of BOTH the self heal and the ally heal components of the active.
Crafting shouldn’t be necessary for any particular character to get gear. Sure, there need to be crafters who can SELL gear. But crafting ascended individually sucks for people who don’t like to craft and bought the game for wvw.
That would be like telling a crafter they need to do jumping puzzles to get materials or someone who PvE’s that they can only get good gear by winning tournaments.
Fact is, you should be able to get the best gear even if you never craft or deal with a crafter. Crafters just be a well deserved convenience.
I hate crafting. I won’t do it.
I bet that if you run the analytics while people complain about not looking at core functions, the fact of the matter is that the bi-weekly content probably causes you to buy far more gems.