Guild Wars 2

Can we get a developer who is reading the profession pages simply post that they are indeed reading both the thread on general discussion AND the profession pages?

No offense, but the general discussion is soooo hard to follow if you play only one or two classes.

It’s broken. We know it. We just know that just about everything in the class is broken in some way (some things more than others).

Can we get a detailed explanation of the debates around ranger as you have done for many classes?

Tough choice between ranger and orbs. Seems like it would be just about a wash.
I do like the idea of having +5% damage though.

Scholar would be better in PvE but probably not in WvW given the 90% health restriction for the 10% damage.

For power build ranger, what runes and sigils are you using with the new sets?

Still using Fire Sigils and Ranger Runes. Wondering if I shouldn’t change.

Suggestions?

I would GLADLY have ranger’s skills underwater adjusted in return for our getting some real help on either
a) Pets
B) Trait Dependency

Do something to relieve my trait migraine!
And fix opening strike. It needs love. Best if it would refresh itself with some skill.

Ranger should regain opening strike every time they enter into stealth. This should be on hunter’s shot regardless of how you trait.

Ranger PvE guide highlighted that longbow’s core problem was having to be outside of the range of group boons.

Suggestion:

MAKE LONGBOW #1 APPLY A RANDOM BOON TO CHARACTER AND PET.
(Use the fortifying bond list and times).

You would at most get 3-4 boons at a time just using autoattack which nerfs damage output so it would be fair. You could get more boons by stacking boon duration but that too would make your pet strong and your toon weaker (and you would be spamming LB1). Again, fair.

Trait Changes:
1. Remorselessnes: ADD converts 2 conditions to random boons. Change to “whenever you daze, stun or stealth”.
(Best you can get is once every 12 seconds on LB and you would be able to use GS5 and SB5 to remove conditions assuming you went 30 in Marksmanship). This would be the power/condition build active condition removal tool. Makes it a very attractive skill. And it would make 2 bow builds great at removing conditions.

2. Signet of Beastmaster. ADD applies all boons on pet or gained by pet to allies within 400 range of pet upon activation for next 5 seconds. This would be the PvE group utility skill for power/cond builds.

3. Fortifying Bond ADD “and closest ally” so you give your boons to not only the pet but also a single ally. So if there is a backline, the backline is likely to have boons.

4. Instinctual Bond: ADD Gain 25% movement speed when out of combat (no need to waste a utility slot then).

5. Loud Whistle: ADD remove one random condition off player upon pet swap.

rpfohr.7048:

Overall happy with changes and defiantly worth given it a shot.

I do feel that greatsword won’t make much use of fury. It’s a defensive minded weapon. I feel retaliation would be a more appropriate boon for this trait.

My 2 cents

Agree on retaliation as we have so many fury options already.

It would have been great to see how they play a ranger at say 20 50 and 80 for a newbie guide. Show the different styles of play and a few encounters.

What this really helps with is teaching 80s who don’t play rangers a bit about the class which is useful but not a real help for newbies.

This is pretty much a traits patch. At least what they showed us was traits.

I do like that we don’t need a 30pt trait to move the spirits, but will anything change? A lot of the strength in the spirits now post nerf is in Nature’s Vengeance so you’d still likely go 30 pts for a spirit build :/[/quote]

I could see using just the 10% damage spirit and 7% conversion trait.

Ranger Moment of Clarity. Did you mean it to increase the stun AND daze from 50-100%? I hope so as the stun is currently positional on the SB and GS. It would help a lot if it increased daze too for SB#5 and GS#5.
Mighty Swap. It provides BOTH might and condition to the pet but as stated would only provide the might to the ranger. Is this poor wording or intentional?

Is it JUST the stun duration going up to 100% or stun and daze? That should be asked.

What I think is really interesting?
Doubling of stuns and dazes.
Almost permanent 105 power boost with mighty swap
Crippling enemies for 10 seconds when at 50% should be quite good.
Having moving pets for only 20 pts in nature which might make a number of viable builds open up. Gives us a fair bit more defense actually.

My response below. Thought I would share on this thread too.

I play a raw damage ranger focusing on marksmanship and skirmishing. I love:
a) Changes to Long Range Shot
b) Marksmanship V- Predator’s Instinct.

The unintended consequence is that you now have too many must have options in the marksmanship line and the potential solution is that you should offload a few to skirmishing adapt.

The missing trait change is tied to giving us out of combat swiftness to free up a pvp and wvw slot versus taking Signet of the Hunt.

Explanations:

1) The issue of an overloaded marksmanship line.

Right now you have for Tier 1 +10% damage and the new Predator.

Tier 2 Piercing Arrows or Spotter and Eagle Eye. So often you wind up going grandmaster in marksmanship to fit in that third trait.

Could you move a trait like piercing arrows to the skirmishing adept line? Or replace Trapper’s Instinct with the new Predator’s Instinct?

2) The issue of lack of out of combat speed.

For PvP and WvW, rangers often take Signet of the Hunt just to keep up out of combat. That is a whole slot for out of combat movement. Could you make a simple change to tail wind and make it apply swiftness even when we are not in combat much like the engineer’s speedy kits? Doesn’t need to be a trait you choose because the buff ONLY occurs out of combat (and allows us to travel at a good speed when not in a group).

Other Stuff:

1) Nature IX Two Handed Training is supposed to help give us fury but we have lots of options for fury (almost as many as we had for endurance regen). One of the most common is the 9 seconds on weapon swap. GS is often used with a LB in a power oriented build. You range then swap/leap/maul. So for a longer fight you might get a bit of fury with the new trait. Might be better to provide might upon a crit and change the cooldowns. Not bad, but you might want something other than fury.

I don’t understand your note on Nature X at all. Can you explain?

Mighty swap only applies the might to the ranger and not the condition damage? Would be more versatile if it did both. You tend to one one or the other (condition v raw builds).

I play a raw damage ranger focusing on marksmanship and skirmishing. I love:
a) Changes to Long Range Shot
b) Marksmanship V- Predator’s Instinct.

The unintended consequence is that you now have too many must have options in the marksmanship line and the potential solution is that you should offload a few to skirmishing adapt.

The missing trait change is tied to giving us out of combat swiftness to free up a pvp and wvw slot versus taking Signet of the Hunt.

Explanations:

1) The issue of an overloaded marksmanship line.

Right now you have for Tier 1 +10% damage and the new Predator.

Tier 2 Piercing Arrows or Spotter and Eagle Eye. So often you wind up going grandmaster in marksmanship to fit in that third trait.

Could you move a trait like piercing arrows to the skirmishing adept line? Or replace Trapper’s Instinct with the new Predator’s Instinct?

2) The issue of lack of out of combat speed.

For PvP and WvW, rangers often take Signet of the Hunt just to keep up out of combat. That is a whole slot for out of combat movement. Could you make a simple change to tail wind and make it apply swiftness even when we are not in combat much like the engineer’s speedy kits? Doesn’t need to be a trait you choose because the buff ONLY occurs out of combat (and allows us to travel at a good speed when not in a group).

Other Stuff:

1) Nature IX Two Handed Training is supposed to help give us fury but we have lots of options for fury (almost as many as we had for endurance regen). One of the most common is the 9 seconds on weapon swap. GS is often used with a LB in a power oriented build. You range then swap/leap/maul. So for a longer fight you might get a bit of fury with the new trait. Might be better to provide might upon a crit and change the cooldowns. Not bad, but you might want something other than fury.

I don’t understand your note on Nature X at all. Can you explain?

Mighty swap only applies the might to the ranger and not the condition damage? Would be more versatile if it did both. You tend to one one or the other (condition v raw builds).

Too much of our swiftness is tied to a weapon or being in combat. This results in taking the signal to run around.

Can we get tail wind to work even when we are not in combat? Would that really hurt anything?

I thought the video was well done. Did it solve our problems? No, but it was a guide not a solution set. Overall, it was good to hear that directionally they have a vision of the ranger as a pet class. Wish that would quickly translate to some help there.

Additional question: 1) How does your ranger perform a. at max range, b. outside max range where their LB does less damage and c. in melee? Which is supposed to be our forte?

I wish you could give the pet a “stance” beyond guard/passive that would give them different benefits (faster attack speeds, take less damage from non directed, etc)
You choose.

How does the mechanic work?
Does it help the ranger or his pet?
Why does the benefit not show up if it does?

OGDeadHead.8326:

Please allow spirits to move by default with the option to command them to stay if anyone actually needs that.

I would use spirits a LOT more if they naturally moved.
I would use signets a LOT more if they applied the passive to a small group.
I would use bows a LOT more if they would naturally pierce (v trait).

How do you maximize your pet’s effectiveness in dungeons and tough boss fights where the AI is a bit different for the mob?

How do you get attacks and F2 skills to best work esp. on moving targets?

How do you typically control your pet while engaging in combat?

How would you build a ranger today? What type of builds do you think a new player should consider?

Like the fact you can get both bows to pierce and therefore support it being merged with another trait.

Kilger.5490:

They’ll probably just turn up our skill co-efficients to balance it. Works for everyone but BM rangers, then they’ll buff the BM line. Easy peasy.

That would be a great help and should be done.

How would you trait a Bomb/Nades/Elixir Gun? I haven’t seen a really good build.
II-VII-XII in explosives (do you want the recharge or extra damage)?
VI seems necessary from Tools for easy WvW.
Then it seems I can go firearms or alchemy. There are sooooo many interesting traits (as opposed to being a ranger). Guessing that backpack regenerator is going to be important.

As for the elite, guessing supply is the obvious.

In a completely perfect World, I would play bomb, grenades and toolbelt and use the healing kit as my heal skill all at the same time as they are so much more fun. But I think that would be a build meatball sundae.

In general, I like range and CC. I just got lured by the thought of having so bloody many pet options on the ranger. Dad always told me I should get out of the woods and go to school to be an engineer. Finally, I understand!

I always get a kick out of posts that say “you just have to play better” because it forgets that a good player on a good class would play that much better. Sure, a really skilled player can make lemonade out of lemons but that doesn’t mean the class itself is typically viable or wanted in PvE.

What I find when I do PvE is that a ranger works better when the team is well thought thru versus more casual and therein lies a real problem.

I need a good bomb/grenade build as I am new to this class and not seeing builds using them much.

Plz help!

I’d like to see signets provide the UNTRAITED benefits to your group.
That would make us have more group utility.

Shouts, Signets and Pets should be redesigned to provide group utility which would be easy to do.

I. Signets. The UNTRAITED elements of signets could pulse from the ranger up to 5 using group mates as first priority.
Additional Idea: Merge Spotter with Signet Mastery.

II. Shouts shouldn’t require 30 in a trait line to provide a group benefit. Move to 20? That would allow you to have Nature’s Voice and movable spirits.
Additional Idea: Traited shouts could also be blast finishers. (Blasting your voice).

III. Pets should apply stat bonuses by class of pet to your group or 5 targets closest to pet. Again, it would be a pulsing stat bonus so long as the pet was alive.
Additional Idea: Make all basic attacks AE but with a short radius. (Get more attacks, more AE and they should hit more folks being AE).

Ways to quickly balance servers:

1) Rewards are by GUILD on a Tier system (best guild gets best rewards for a campaign) so that HIGHLY discourages a bunching up of the top guilds.

2) For Pure population you send invitations with heavy one-time incentives to move to certain servers to your casual crowd. E.g. For every 80 you have, we will level up one of your alts to 80. We will give you 1 crafter to 400 etc. Make the herd want to go where you want it to be.
a) when you get the population you want, stop. This allows great flexibility.
b) You can’t control what that new population does but. . . you do have analytics
c) Do not allow these players to transfer for X period of time OR require double gems as they got a benefit to move.

It would be worth quite a bit to players (2500 gems or so) if you could switch classes and retain all your ranks etc. I could see this as a strong initial revenue generator as well as having impact on retention and interest (which leads to greater gem purchases).

The key would be to allow you to “trade” your gear one time for new equivalent gear (e.g. ascended to ascended etc).

Doable? Any reason not to ease the frustration of players not wanting to go thru the whole PvE thing again to get a new class for WvW?

Sure you get more FOTM but if someone is paying for it, who cares?

Isn’t that sad that when a sword/lb warrior goes up against a ranger who you just think logically should own the whole longbow concept, the warrior (as previous poster puts it) wrecks the ranger. There, my friends, lies the heart of the matter.

I have never ever met a MMO where physical ranged damage was not the expertise of the ranger class. . .until GW2.

I love ranged and always have.
I love pets (except these ones are dumber than a bulldog and smell worse too).
I love mix and match (lots of pets for lots of situations) etc.

But, I just DON’T love how relatively better other classes are at core things we should do well whether our pets vs minions/illusions or our ranged v warrior ranged etc.

What is the most effective class that actually feels like a ranger should? Engie? Warrior?
Thinking range and versatility.

That or fundamentally is a ranger a good class which just is being bashed too much? I know the BEST can play it well, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t do better with a better class, mind you. Bunker is about the LAST thing (based on other mmos certainly) that I would think I would play as a ranger!

If you were doing “power rankings” of the effectiveness of all classes in wvw (roam/zerg) and pve (general/dungeon) on a 1-100 range, where would the ranger fall and would there be anything worse?

Believe me, I would much rather this be a learn to play (think it is then teach), but really wondering if it isn’t a self imposed handicap.

Played ranger since 1 week into the game. Just staying competitive seems more about the player than the class (as if a good player were running with ankle weights on).

Thoughts? Is it just forum bias or is this class just not where it should be on range/versatility and all those things you most commonly think of as ranger (at least in other MMOs)?

Griffon would just look silly with so many running around. It would remind me of WAR when everyone moved from horse steeds to manticores etc. Way too many to make it not laughable. Skales and others seem reasonable.

I find that the gem store doesn’t have enough utility items. I pvp and wvw. My goal would be to use the store to avoid about 90% of PvE. Surprised you can’t buy levels frankly. Would love an alt but the thought of PvEing another is blah.

I think if the pig gets hit by fire it should automatically turn into southern BBQ providing best in class food nourishment on an AE basis.

But seriously, I think several pet classes could be turned into a “food pet” (porcine and create another) option that would essentially provide the damage/stat of not having an active fighting pet.

Passive benefit BUT you have to keep it alive. Pet that does little but buff you.

Someone once told me there was a setting that would help make illusions a bit more obvious and not look like the player.

Anyone know what it is or otherwise how is a fast big fight to be able to target the right toon?

I like the idea of torching your pet and then after applying burning (or in say 15 secs) it dies. That would make me laugh hysterically. Here kitty.

Rym.1469:

20/20/30/0/0 balanced Power Ranger utilizing both bows

I’d be very interested in how you setup a 2 bow Power ranger. I see the SB as being more condition oriented and in zerker gear, would it really work?

I hate melee weapons (just do no real reason) so this is intriguing.

Skyhammer is a hoot up until the point that you can fall to your death.
Eliminate that one mechanic (boundaries and make the glass floors unbreakable) and you have a good map.

It was a great idea but one that has too many bad ways to exploit it.

I tend to agree. It isn’t that getting ascended is particularly hard but it forces more PvE than most casual PvPers (I’ll include wvwvw in here too) ever wanted.

The game is certainly pandering a bit to the PvE crowd when I really thought this game was going to be more player v player combat oriented.

WvWvW should use sPvP characters. Go from the Mists straight to WvW. Same gear. Same ability to change your spec in the Mists then go out.

You can make enough gold in WvWvW to afford all the siege plans you need.

PvE should be as removed as possible from the rest of the game IMHO.

I would hate getting a focus on melee weapons as I much prefer range unless range was part of your definition.

That is the problem, the ranger class has so much to fix that depending on your play style certain “fixes” do you a lot or no good. Is there a universal quick fix that impacts everyone?

Can I ask responders to do the following:

Rate the effectiveness of the short and long term actions on ranger playability.
In other words, take your posts and give each idea a A-F on “fixing” the underlying playability/frustration level of the ranger. A would mean you actually solved the problem. F is didn’t help. C would be makes a modest change.

Rate each action individually then all your short term and long term actions collectively. In other words, if they did ALL your short term actions would the class get an B or a D rating?

I would like ANET to focus each patch cycle as it is on simple, small changes

BUT

Take one class that is underperforming in each of the next say 4 patch cycles and deep dive make changes to make it more viable.

Be bolder than you would be if having to do the same for all classes. Yes, chances are you will make mistakes but if it is only one class at a time, how hard would be fixing it in the second patch? Ranger is clearly the bottom of the barrel if we even are in the barrel.

Chances they will change their patch philosophy? Not that high. Typically, more content for the masses who are more or less satisfied keeps a game around longer than focusing on where you made key early mistakes (such as rangers). Sad, but true, fact of gaming marketing.

Well ANET will be concerned about pvp and wvw so whether it matters to you or not, it might be best to consider how ANET will take the advice.

I see so many posts with pages of fixes needed for the ranger.
Is there anything that would be simple for ANET?

I look at the sheer amount of work it would take to “fix” key features of the ranger and think If I were ANET that simply would not be where I would put my time (forget about the emotional fact I play a ranger). Question is what is the fastest way to make a fix that doesn’t require CONSIDERABLE coding or balancing?

Would love a list that looks like:

Do Blah (A for easiness) (10 for effectiveness)

In short, A-F on easy of fix and 1-10 on effectiveness. A is easiest. 10 is most effective.

Frankly, I’m not seeing a way to balance effective solutions with easy fixes.