Guild Wars 2

Terrahero.9358:

Bryzy.2719:

The simple fact of the matter is, Rangers have sucked since beta – that’s 2 years of no buffs, no nice additions to the profession and pure neglect.

Mesmers still don’t actually suck like Rangers do, they just have a lot of problems, and these problems have only existed for a limited number of months.

The CDI polling thread a few months ago for “which profession is most in need of help?” – Rangers topped the thread by a huge margin. Mesmers weren’t even in the top 3.

Heretofor, Rangers are worse off. Not sure how Mesmers think they can be put in the same boat as Rangers when these facts are so clear. And yes, this thread has become a “who is worse off than who” thread. Even if Mesmers were to become as sucky as Rangers, we have been in this situation far, far longer.

What a load of nonsense.

Rangers have not sucked since beta. BM build was overpowered and so was the Spiritranger build. Twice has a Ranger build been overpowered that it defined the pvp meta.
So it has not sucked since beta.

And the CDI thread is exactly what i was talking about. People have had their heads filled with the constant barrage of messages that Rangers are ooooh sooooo terrible. And need the most help out of all professions. That people voted with that in mind.

You want to talk statistics? Here are some factual statistics. Last TOL, Rangers were far more represented then Mesmers and Engineers.
There are your precious statistics, top teams would rather run with a ranger than with either a mesmer or an engineer. Cant be the worst when 25% of the available professions are (considerable) less desireable.

But instead you insist on pushing on this dogma of “rangers are top priority”, and trying to kill any real discussion.

Any time a Ranger build has been overpowered, it has been nerfed almost instantly.

Ranger has sucked since beta, I’ve mained it and I can attest to it. I’ve also played all other classes and can say with complete certainty that Ranger feels the most lacking in all areas.

You wanna talk statistics? Oh so you only presented me with TOL stats did you? How about ones for the WHOLE GAME? Rangers are the LEAST represented profession in the WHOLE. GAME.

Mesmers have better condi, DPS, mobility (in-combat), stealth, clones, far better utilities and especially elites. Rangers ARE top priority, and even if you think Mesmers and Rangers are on exactly the same playing field, Rangers are the most deserving of buffs and fixes.

Neptune.2570:

Why are rangers still being mentioned in this thread :/ such hijack.

You may wish to read the second part of the first post.

Am I right in assuming that those they showed us in the skill bar are not the only balance updates Rangers will be getting? Don’t get me wrong, even if these are all the updates Rangers will be getting I will still be pleased.

Couple of things that are making me wonder though (alongside the fact that it was only a “preview”);

- They only touched on pets briefly with 2 fairly insignificant fixes – no mention of any plans to implement brand new pet mechanics like the “aspect of the pet” that took off pretty well in the CDI

- Only 2 utilities mentioned and no signs of new additions or upgrades for others (particularly; traps and spirits)

- No improvements for the torch, shortbow (disappointing ) and sword

Hoping to see some more additions when the patch goes live. As good as these updates are, I feel as though they won’t be quite enough alone to give the whole Ranger profession a sufficient boost. I hope I don’t sound ungrateful here, as I cannot wait to try out the new longbow, but I’m just thinking ahead.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Is this Anet’s way of making those horrible skills appealing?

Yep, they’re basically just trying to polish a poo.

We need completely new profession mechanics to make the Ranger a more viable class, but in reality I can’t see that ever happening.

The simple fact of the matter is, Rangers have sucked since beta – that’s 2 years of no buffs, no nice additions to the profession and pure neglect.

Mesmers still don’t actually suck like Rangers do, they just have a lot of problems, and these problems have only existed for a limited number of months.

The CDI polling thread a few months ago for “which profession is most in need of help?” – Rangers topped the thread by a huge margin. Mesmers weren’t even in the top 3.

Heretofor, Rangers are worse off. Not sure how Mesmers think they can be put in the same boat as Rangers when these facts are so clear. And yes, this thread has become a “who is worse off than who” thread. Even if Mesmers were to become as sucky as Rangers, we have been in this situation far, far longer.

Am I right in assuming that those they showed us in the skill bar are not the only balance updates Rangers will be getting? Don’t get me wrong, even if these are all the updates Rangers will be getting I will still be incredibly pleased.

Couple of things that are making me wonder though (alongside the fact that it was a “preview”);

- They only touched on pets briefly with 2 fairly insignificant fixes – no mention of any plans to implement brand new pet mechanics like the “aspect of the pet” that took off pretty well in the CDI

- Only 2 utilities mentioned and no signs of new additions or upgrades for others (particularly; traps and spirits)

- No improvements for the torch, shortbow (disappointing ) and sword

But I’m not complaining! Quite the opposite actually, I’m fairly optimistic about the full balance as undoubtedly things will be changed and added between now and the patch.

Carighan.6758:

Rangers are still taken more for PvP and WvW and Dungeons than Mesmers. Why? because they contribute more. Yes, even in the state they’re in. And now what does this tell you about the state of Mesmers?

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

PvP.

Mesmers have a far better ability to disengage from skirmishes than Rangers with their bounty of clones, stealth, teleports and mass-CC. A decent mesmer can handle themselves perfectly fine in 1vX too, whereas it would take far more skill for a Ranger to do the same.

WvW.

Rangers contribute nothing to WvW. Mesmers on the other hand are highly regarded in WvW, particularly for their utilities and group-aid abilities.

Dungeons.

You’re absolutely kidding right? There is a huge element within the GW2 community that shuns Rangers from dungeon parties, and has done since the start. If Ranger was the only profession available to fill the last spot, the party would run with a 4-man team. We have been the least-desired profession for dungeons since the beginning.

Let me also summarise why Mesmers are not in the same boat as Rangers:

- Rangers have been the worst profession since beta, and that is reflected in the fact that we are the least represented in all aspects of the game.

- We’ve had no significant updates nor adequate fixes since the start of the game (apart from making the F2 pet skill more responsive).

- Our pet AI has always been shoddy to say the least. Pets account for 35-40% of our damage. That’s 35-40% of our damage that is missing 80% of the time in WvW and PvP while they’re running around trying to decide what to do in skirmish, and even when they have decided it turns out that they can’t even hit moving targets or execute skills properly.

- Ranger utilities have always been sub-par. We lack any kind of usefulness in a group.

- The Ranger is just weak, pure and simple. Every single build is lacklustre, and other professions can do each and every build better than we can.

- Even though mesmers do have problems, they only seem to be causing problems as of this year. Rangers have had to put up with all this crap since the very beginning.

It’s like sticking a middle finger up to the community when mesmers claim “oh we have it just as bad as Rangers!”

Ross Biddle.2367:

You did remind me of this though. Full zerk gear, typical phantasm build in a 1v1 vs warrior. While it doesn’t address the question adequately it does express an example in the meta.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrpfPrWMRWo

That’s one of the worst examples of mesmer gameplay I’ve ever seen.

If I was to look at that with completely fresh eyes I’d say that it was a video designed specifically to be biased and deliberately showcase poor mesmer gameplay to make them look “weak”.

In rebuke, I give you this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U3GmhUrKSY

Sagat.3285:

Bryzy.2719:

Auesis.7301:

Lifestealer.4910:

Good, thieves dominated the meta for too long. Hopefully anet makes them useless for the next two years to balance the time period all out.

That is not how game balance works. That’s just being a bitter little child.

You’re right, that is NOT how game balance works. So why have thieves been able to get away with such power for all this time?

Since beta, Rangers have had to sit back and swallow the dirt, dust and crap churned up by all the other professions while simultaneously being progessively trodden down bit by bit by Anet. So you know what? Maybe it is time for thieves to take a backseat for once. And mesmers. and warriors. and guardians. and every other kitten profession.

Wow and you are not worried that the future changes might make them so called"stronger" than the upcoming ranger again? Seriously you need to wait before making statement like that it’s only 2 classes what awaits next is unknow….

Of course, I’m fully expecting other professions to be buffed. However I’m hoping that this will be done in such a way as to make the Ranger much more up to par with the other professions. Just because I said maybe it’s time for other professions to take a backseat doesn’t mean I think it’s going to happen.

Auesis.7301:

Lifestealer.4910:

Good, thieves dominated the meta for too long. Hopefully anet makes them useless for the next two years to balance the time period all out.

That is not how game balance works. That’s just being a bitter little child.

You’re right, that is NOT how game balance works. So why have thieves been able to get away with such power for all this time?

Since beta, Rangers have had to sit back and swallow the dirt, dust and crap churned up by all the other professions while simultaneously being progessively trodden down bit by bit by Anet. So you know what? Maybe it is time for thieves to take a backseat for once. And mesmers. and warriors. and guardians. and every other kitten profession.

TheLargeUnit.2793:

Wow, you need some straightening out.

First of all, Mesmers are bottom tier in many (all?) modes of the game. The exception is one very cheesy build (trait?) that acts as a crutch for terrible players. Outside of this build making a Mesmer effective requires an enormous amount of both effort and skill.

The same is currently true of Rangers, however they lack a singular build that is incredibly strong.

Mesmers and Rangers are more alike than you know… Both classes can certainly use some love in the next patch.

I don’t deny that there are probably things wrong with the Mesmer. But Rangers have been broken since beta. Without adequate fixes. Ever.

To equate the situation of mesmers to that of Rangers is ridiculous, and my point is reinforced even more by the fact that Rangers got the overwhelming majority of votes in the CDI poll of “which profession is in most need of help?”, with elementalists and necromancers coming in 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

You’re right in that Rangers do not have a single build that is incredibly strong; nor, might I add, do they have a build that another profession can’t do better. This is the precise reason Rangers are unwanted in PvE and WvW. Mesmers can DPS better, condi better, provide better group support (loved in WvW) and disengage much more easily – to name a few. This upcoming balance patch could be the change we need, because up till now Rangers are void in most aspects of the game. In pvp it’s not too bad; we do have a couple of decent builds available (condi bunker and spirits), though they take quite a bit of practice to get truly good at and are not face-rollable.

Earlier a mesmer had the nerve to comment on the Ranger forums claiming that they are lagging further behind every other profession, even more so than Rangers.

I’ve encountered thousands of mesmers in WvW (and a fair few in pvp) and every one I see has an kitten nal of debuffs, stealth, clones and mobility (in-combat teleports) at their fingertips. They absolutely dominate 1v1 scenarios, with their opponent being forced into a passive stance. Because of their kitten nal of utilities and skills, they can also dominate 1vX if they are at least of average skill. Deciding which is a clone and which is a player is hard enough even without all the other stealth, CC and debuffs being thrown at you.

Rangers, by the looks of things, will be receiving some very nice buffs in the next balance patch – and it’s been a VERY long time coming. However, what I’m now seeing is that other professions – particularly mesmers – are highly expectant that Anet will provide them with the same. However this would be completely contradictory to the fact that Rangers have to be brought up to par with every other profession so that we’re on a level playing field. Buffing other professions to the same extent that they’ll buff Rangers will leave us more powerful – yes – but in exactly the same situation in terms of balance.

I think you guys are being over-concerned about the whole Sic ’Em revealed thing for now.

Following these Ranger changes, many probably won’t be running with Sic ‘Em at all – at least for a time – because we’ll all be running round like “pew pew!!” testing out power longbow builds with QZ, signet of stone and signet of the hunt. OR QZ, signet of stone and signet of the wild… or w/e other variation on that they wanna use.

Until (and unless) brand new BM builds are formed with Sic ’Em (which there is limited scope for given the update previews so far), the meta will most likely running round pew-pewing with out it as a utility.

warriorjrd.8695:

Prysin.8542:

Bryzy.2719:

Prysin.8542:

Bryzy.2719:

I’m guessing one of the first things many Rangers will be doing is whipping out their full zerker builds, popping on Read the Wind for the 10% attack speed increase, popping quickening zephyr and then hitting rapid fire.

A combined attack speed increase of 60% (RtW + QZ) on top of a 2.5 second normal cast time for rapid fire makes that an unload time of exactly 1 second. Am…am I calculating this correctly or am I missing something (I am pretty tired)? Because this sounds like exactly what I’ve been dreaming of. Timed just right after the longbow knockback skill 4 this could potentially be devastating…

add +25% damage from signet of the wild and you get around 12-15k damage in 1.25 seconds to a glassy target @ 1500 range. Enjoy the terror of dealing with that. Sure it will only work every 48 seconds, but that is all you need…

I can almost hear the echoes of “OMFG NEEERRRRFFF” from the other profession forums already.

Well, it does all look delicious on paper but in practice it all may pan out slightly differently than we were expecting. I guess we’ll have to wait and see when the update arrives.

i have been running glassbow ranger in PvP for weeks now. It works fine. Yes you require some help from time to time. But moment of clarity + LB is just godlike. Now i can equip signets and use THE BEST elite ever…. there is nothing better for a power ranger then entangle (instant CC is always a life saver)… all i need to do is use entangle -> LR -> rapid fire…. They got nowhere to hide from it, they gotta eat a whole burst. And last but not least, i get a much much much better survival rate. Mainly because i get passive healing from signet.

inb4 reflect and you eat the burst instead

Lols, I’ve seen some mesmers talking about keeping Feedback in their utilities specifically to deal with this… but god they’ll have to time it exactly right because if we can spec for a rapid fire burst of around 1 second then it’s gonna be brutal

Speaking as a Ranger, given the buffs we’ve seen announced tonight I don’t think Sic ’em will be the biggest of your concerns.

cough zerkers running 1-second cast time for rapid fire and +25% damage from signet of the wild cough

Prysin.8542:

Bryzy.2719:

any ideas when they’ll upload this ready up episode 18 to youtube? I kinda wanna see the ranger gameplay again…

just go to twitch.tv/guildwars2/profile then look under past broadcasts.

or click this link here; http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/551141178

Ah of course… great thanks

any ideas when they’ll upload this ready up episode 18 to youtube? I kinda wanna see the ranger gameplay again…

In all honesty, I had actually uninstalled GW2 because I was fed up with being stuck in the Apothecary regen/condi bunker build, though that’s more my inability to adapt to different playstyles. I like to get good at one build and stick to it. But I got bored, and the only prof I wanted to play was Ranger, and it was just shunned in so many other aspects of the game that I just gave the whole game up. I’ve been checking the forums pretty regularly for signs of balance news, and today seeing that ready-up has made me re-install the game. Cannot wait for this update.

Prysin.8542:

Bryzy.2719:

I’m guessing one of the first things many Rangers will be doing is whipping out their full zerker builds, popping on Read the Wind for the 10% attack speed increase, popping quickening zephyr and then hitting rapid fire.

A combined attack speed increase of 60% (RtW + QZ) on top of a 2.5 second normal cast time for rapid fire makes that an unload time of exactly 1 second. Am…am I calculating this correctly or am I missing something (I am pretty tired)? Because this sounds like exactly what I’ve been dreaming of. Timed just right after the longbow knockback skill 4 this could potentially be devastating…

add +25% damage from signet of the wild and you get around 12-15k damage in 1.25 seconds to a glassy target @ 1500 range. Enjoy the terror of dealing with that. Sure it will only work every 48 seconds, but that is all you need…

I can almost hear the echoes of “OMFG NEEERRRRFFF” from the other profession forums already.

Well, it does all look delicious on paper but in practice it all may pan out slightly differently than we were expecting. I guess we’ll have to wait and see when the update arrives.

I’m guessing one of the first things many Rangers will be doing is whipping out their full zerker builds, popping on Read the Wind for the 10% attack speed increase, popping quickening zephyr and then hitting rapid fire.

A combined attack speed increase of 60% (RtW + QZ) on top of a 2.5 second normal cast time for rapid fire makes that an unload time of exactly 1 second. Am…am I calculating this correctly or am I missing something (I am pretty tired)? Because this sounds like exactly what I’ve been dreaming of. Timed just right after the longbow knockback skill 4 this could potentially be devastating…

snow.8097:

KARL! BE HONEST! THE BM TRAITS CHANGE WAS INSPIRED BY ME! COME ON! xD

my WvW weapon set up is LB/A+H. So in zerg Axe ranger will have perma might and from that a lot i mean in theory over 10 stacks with few AA?

Stop it you’re making me excited and a little bit of pee might come out

nagymbear.5280:

Bryzy.2719:

Yeah it’ll be interesting to see what additions, if any, we get to our survivability considering zerker rangers go down faster than a….

…ouch.

Yeah sorry just realised how bad that was cuz it was the only simile I could think of!… edited :/

Ragnar.3916:

the buffs sounds really nice for power ranger finaly.

but it’s all about the damage after this patch.
a s/d thief or a celestial ele will be still a pain on a zerker power ranger build i think

Yeah it’ll be interesting to see what additions, if any, we get to our survivability considering zerker rangers go down faster than…. something that descends very quickly.

More evades or improvements to current evades would tie in pretty nicely.

Cannot wait for this. #PewPew4Lyfe

Also, Karl mentioned in my thread that the attack speed increase from RtW with the longbow will be 10%

livlaender.8790:

am i dreaming? O.O powerranger might become viable!?

lets see what the other six classes will get

I’m hoping that the other classes won’t be buffed to quite the same extent as the Ranger, as the Ranger CDI highlighted that really it is this profession that’s lagging the furthest behind, so doing the same for other professions might negate what’s been given to the Ranger.

Karl McLain.5604:

Read the Wind was a bit truncated, it seems. In addition to the arrow velocity, the trait now increases attack speed with a longbow by 10%.
-Karl

To be honest, I’m happy with that. It’s not overwhelming but it’s not enough to be game-breaking either. Thanks for finally bringing Rangers up to par! I’ve awaited the day we’d be viable with a longbow.

Atherakhia.4086:

The might on axe has a larger impact on the condi build imo. Will make condis significantly more powerful.

Rapid fire, assuming same damage, at half the time is nice burst.

Read the Wind I didn’t catch what the attack speed buff was, did you catch it?

Signets for everyone is nice.

Not much to help the WvW side of things, but we’ll see what else there is.

I didn’t catch the exact buff speed either, I’m not sure he specified it to be honest. That probably means it isn’t that significant, maybe 10% or something. But I’d still be happy with that considering the rapid fire cast time reduction too.

Well I guess after the skill bar there’s gonna be a loooootttt of theorycrafting going down.

Dem attack speed buffs doe.

Stacking might from multiple targets with mainhand axe then switching to rapid fire with 50% decreased cast time + read the wind attack speed increase traited is going to be amazing; will finally be able to play machine gun ranger properly.

Pet fire ant colony.

Constantly using meteor shower in a 3000 radius around it as a passive skill (with the strength of a full zerk ele of course), does fire grabs every 2 seconds at nearest targets except its firegrab has 1500 range, applies 25 stacks of burning when attacked and Ranger can explode all the ants a bit like a mesmer’s clones (and there’s like 1000 of them so…)

Oh yeah and they’re invulnerable and can’t be CC’d, of course.

I like these ideas. There is a fair bit of malleability with the ranger f-skills and i’ll be interested to see if anet incorporate the popular “aspect of the pet” suggestions

I’m completely fed up of my pets swanning off fighting some some mob 5000 feet away in WvW while i’m trying to CC my opponents. It doesn’t help that it takes 10 hours to return to me when pressing F3 (while also being slowed down by whatever it is it has decided to fight), not to mention the delayed F2 anyway (Wolf’s fear anyone?).

When your pet is a certain distance from you, F3 should cancel EVERYTHING and teleport it directly to your side. This utter utter crap has cost me so many fights in WvW.

Oh mannnn I wish I hadn’t watched this video.

I used to LOVE playing machine gun SB pew pew full zerk with quickness and RaO.

At the time it didn’t feel OP, though then again that might have been because I was much worse at fighting other players than I am now, so I died a lot.

shadowpass.4236:

I just don’t understand how it takes them months to get another “balance” patch out. It takes them forever to get one out with minor changes, and they always end up breaking more than they fix lol. I think they are understaffed but that’s just my opinion.

I’ve been getting this impression recently. It was confirmed for me when I saw the forum note above saying that the maintenance was overdue because of “resource constraints”.

i.e. not enough people working on it.

Time for a recruitment drive, Anet!

I guess this is kind of a poll-type thread.

If Anet were to give us a new elite skill that allowed us to summon an extra-powerful pet for a certain period of time (or until it died), what would you like to see?

I like the idea of a phoenix with sassy particle effects ‘n shiz, though how consistent with Ranger lore that would be I’m not sure…

Anyone have any educated guesses as to when the next “balance” patch might be? “balance” being in quotation marks for obvious reasons.

Though like many Rangers I’m holding out little hope for our future (which is fine as I’m comfortable rolling condi-bunker and back-of-the-zerg-sniper for now), I’ll be very interested to see to what extent, if any, the devs actually yield the results of the Ranger CDI. I have to say, when Allie left the company my slight optimism diminished completely.

I always roll with a wolf.

Hit F2, and it still takes like 5-6 seconds from hitting the F2 to the wolf using fear.

This is really frustrating. It’s STILL not cancelling the other actions in its chain to use the F2.

I roll a Ranger as a main, and always solo roam wvw (no prizes for guessing I roll condi bunker LOL).

Usually I like to set up some 1v1s with thieves, eles or warriors, or whoever else is solo roaming.

With thieves, the fights will usually go one of a few different ways:

1. They’ll attack me, see that they can’t do much burst damage then use DatMobility to disengage and escape

2. They’ll attack me, and even though they aren’t doing much damage (typically these will be the thieves who spam heartseeker even when i’m at full HP, lel) they’ll still hang around only to get bursted down by my conditions

3. This is the one I’m starting to encounter more frequently, and with more experienced solo thieves. They’ll often use some kind of blind-based build and even though i’ll be landing hits, I won’t be doing that much damage. So I’m guessing they’re running some kind of tankier/regen type build and relying on backstabs as their main source of damage? I’ve had a few stalemates with these kinds of thieves, but often I’ll lose too.

Any ideas what builds these guys might be running? Would like to try out on my thief as I haven’t played it in a while (basically cuz I sucked at it and always died).

lols m8

But yeah in general warriors and especially guardians go down in seconds 1v1 against my condi bunker regen ranger

So what do you suggest, OP? Nerf conditions so that they’re no longer meta? So then people won’t want to roll either physical OR condition damage? And quit? Or so a new set of builds will become meta and then people will start QQing about those until they’re nerfed too?

This rage about conditions is really annoying. Players will ALWAYS ADAPT to the most advantageous playstyles they can find. you will ALWAYS be finding something to QQ about no matter what the meta.

It seems all professions are QQing more than ever these days.

Rangers have always been the most downtrodden profession, and still are, but now even professions that were considered to be in the ‘elite’ like elementalists, guardians and thieves are chiming up with their share of problems.

Engis suddenly shot to the top two most powerful professions in the game (alongside warrior, though warrior has always been the most OP and still is) after a while of being in the “bottom group” along with necros and rangers. Mesmers I’m not too sure about as a lot of people acknowledge them as being OP, particularly in 1v1 situations, but they seem to have their share of QQ too.

What are the main factors in the last couple of months that have pushed most, if not all, the professions into such a state of QQ? I’m guessing it’s partly the physical DPS “nerf” and the rise in condition builds that arose as a result. But yeah, what else?

Rangers have been at the bottom of the pile since day one, and you’re moaning that we have ONE decent build? Also, I’m choosing to disregard your Engineer gameplay because I can see from your forum post history that you main an Elementalist, so I’m assuming this thread is a response to your poor experiences with Rangers and Engineers.

Rangers have never, ever been buffed. There have been no “changes towards condition Rangers”. We’ve managed to adapt to one (two if you count spirit builds but they really aren’t all that) decent build out of the cr4p pile of traits, weapon skills and utilities. But let me tell you where a condi bunker Ranger sucks, just to put fairness into perspective for you:

- mobility (if a target flees we can forget about trying to chase, if we’re the ones being chased we can get caught by basically anyone)
- damage-dealing (we have no condition burst, ours just tends to ebb away at the target, who will eventually die if they’re too stupid to use condi removal or run away)
- negligible group support, still unwanted in dungeons and PvE, pretty useless in zergs.

EDIT: furthermore, even after Rangers won the overwhelming majority of votes for the “profession most in need of help”, and the 70-page long Ranger CDI thread (that the devs chose to DELETE rather than sticky for some stupid reason) none of our core problems (apart from the pet F2 responsiveness fix, which STILL doesn’t work on some pets) have been addressed this patch. We’re not being listened to at all. I can’t think of ONE dev that mains a Ranger.

I can’t help but see these threads and think, ‘Sigh, another DPS meta player who’s turned towards bashing conditions now that ferocity has been introduced’.

There was never any discussion about condition damage being “OP” up until there was a “threat” to DPS builds. (In the OP’s case, he’s clearly a thief who’s had his jimmies rustled now that they’re no longer top dog in pvp).

The simple fact of the matter is this:

When DPS is the meta, people cry “OP!”

When condition-based builds suddenly become meta, even after being balanced since the start of the game, people cry “OP!”

It’s truly pathetic. There is one type of player who wants their cake and eat it, and that’s those who are currently QQing about conditions. What you’re basically telling everyone is “I don’t like it that my build is no longer da bestest evar so YOU SHOULD BE NERFED TOO!!”.

I have to say, I’m actually starting to ENJOY playing a sniper-esque role as a full zerker Ranger in WvW, but it could be so much better.

As things stand with the Longbow, one of the few viable group-based roles in WvW is to stay at the back of whatever group you’re in, maximising range between you and the enemies, or to position yourself at an elevated vantage point away from the fighting that, ideally, is challenging for the enemies to reach quickly. To maximise your efficiency at performing this role however you pretty much have to resign yourself to having to stay well away from the fights.

This seems to be a moderately good damage support role. I’ve found it’s surprisingly good at deterring enemies from stomping your downed allies. Though of course this’ll all be old news to many Rangers on here.

However this playstyle currently lacks substance and encouragement (by way of lack of damage, traits and utilities). The way things are currently designed, Anet seem to want the Longbow to be considered a sniping-style weapon, encouraging further distances between you and your target. Therefore, it seems sensible to ask them to enhance this playstyle. For example, if they’re planning on following through with this “Aspect of the [pet]” idea, we could benefit from new passive effects of pets such as +200 range to the LB or +15% critical damage. Another simple idea would be to introduce a new shout (with a cliche name such as ’Predator’s Aim’ or whatnot) that extends the longbow’s range by +300 and increases critical damage by 25% for 10 seconds with a 60 second cooldown. Or something along those lines.

Generally, I feel as though this is a playstyle that can be tapped into much more thoroughly. We really do need a bit more umph added to the most hated Ranger weapon in the game.

Ok yeah I understand that thanks guys

I want to buy human t3 cultural but will it be added to my account wardrobe when I buy it?? Just wondering since it says soulbound on acquire

caveman.5840:

sooooo what do we do with our full ascend set of zerk gear now lol throw it in the trash…
because it is feeling pretty useless

cant kill anything or remove conditions to keep up …
we have no defensive stats’ on zerk gear

Oh stop being so melodramatic. Zerkers are barely any different.

caveman.5840:

theres more conditions than ever ….
need slightly better condition removes

You’re right, there are more conditions now than previously (even if only with the introduction of torment), but don’t forget that every profession doesn’t have access to every condition. There’s also currently sufficient scope for all professions to have condition removal. The skill comes in the form of judging when the most appropriate time to use it will be.

LOL they called a Warrior trait “Doge March”?

Much meme, very lol, so doge, wow

Dee Jay.2460:

Conditions suck because they are the exact antithesis of what skillful combat in GW2 should be (and was originally intended) to be about.

Conditions relegate both damage-dealing and damage mitigation almost entirely to class mechanics rather than the “active combat” GW2 was designed around. Dodging becomes secondary when conditions attacks are barely distinguishable and poorly telegraphed.

Avoiding damage comes down to what removal options you have, not how well you move, dodge or play.

It’s the exact opposite of fun and engaging combat.

You can tell that originally Guild Wars 2 was never meant to have such an excessive amount of condition spam. Stuff like Signet of Agility that removes 1 condition on a 30 second cooldown is proof of that.

But things have changed, especially with Runes of Perplexity and Tormet now added to the game and the entire concept of “active combat” has become diluted to the point where winning a fight comes down to how many different types of conditions you can apply to your opponent vs. how many he can cleanse.

It’s funny, a very very similar argument can be made about the physical damage power creep. Your logic may well be sound in some areas, but where it is completely flawed is in its applicability to almost all aspects of damage-based gameplay, albeit in different ways.