Guild Wars 2

OGDeadHead.8326:

CETheLucid.3964:

DPS. The ranged pets (Devourers, Spiders, Bristleback) tended to be able to hit moving targets more reliably.

For mobile targets I agree with you. Also, in pve, there’s hardly any down time in regards to dps since ranged pets can start to attack sooner. But, this is mostly only of interest vs distant trash mobs. As soon as you go against a veteran or higher, birds or felines are way better.

http://guildwarshub.com/ranger-pet-dps-comparison/#Test_Golems

Sure, but I also do PvP and WvW so my opinion is a wee bit skewed on that. Birds and cats are very squishy, and most cats don’t appeal to me. Birds are pretty great.

Don’t often take them into PvP/WvW though.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Anyway, back on topic then!

Aye.

Harnel.6810:

Like I’ve said before, the Devs have told us before (a while before HoT launched) that classes getting lackluster weapons as part of their elite spec are the ones looking at wider changes to their profession mechanics and utilities.

Personally, I really hope this means that we’ll finally be getting a beast mastery setup that actually makes the pet worthwhile. Pets are currently doing about 20% or less of the overall damage a ranger deals (sometimes as low as 5%) and this is a problem because Rangers are balanced against the idea that their pet is doing 40% of their damage, according to the devs. It’s the reason why DPS tests for all the professions showed that Ranger is waaaaay below par, sharing space at the bottom with the likes of the mesmer. Where most classes are putting out 22k+ DPS, A well made druid is putting out 15k, or even as low as 13k. That hurts.

Getting a spec that does better with pets, though, would be an opportunity to make said pets awesome. It’s a longshot, but it could result in some really nice changes, and improve the overall power of the class.

I can agree with this in general, not in the application to elite specs though.

It’s why the Smokescale and Bristleback are meta (in addition to being cool pets in their own right). More than the other pets they deliver more of their portion of the DPS.

If all pets can be reworked to reliably deliver their part of the damage as intended, or if that 60/40 ratio could be skewed more to the ranger side of things based on how reliably pets can realistically deliver their DPS between all the modes, everything would be peachy keen.

I imagine it’s not as easy as it sounds from a balance perspective.

Further, that’s a long overdue base class ranger change I’d like to see, not something for the elite spec to fix.

That would be power creep and make the elite spec pretty much mandatory. Rather, I wanna see the elite spec add new functionality like hammer or main-hand dagger.

OGDeadHead.8326:

CETheLucid.3964:

Dadnir.5038:

anduriell.6280:

Who in their sane mind would go to HoT with a carrion devourer as pets.. WHO!!!!

I’d do it… to be honest I have done it… the carrion devourer is one of my favourit pet… Sorry…

Devourers used to be one of the best pets pre-HoT for PvE. They’re still alright. Not the best, but the judgey ones would still have hated you either way.

If there’s ever an update that normalizes pets and legitimately fixes the powercreep from HoT pets (Bristleback and Smokescale), the sheer variety of pets we’d see used would be awesome.

(And by fix, I mean make all pets as viable as these two.

Plz do not nerf Smokescale and Bristleback. This would result in a profound sadness and the primordial anger of many rangers.)

Best pets for PvE? Best in what way?

DPS. The ranged pets (Devourers, Spiders, Bristleback) tended to be able to hit moving targets more reliably.

Spiders have a poison field they use in their basic rotation. Carrion devourer has it on F2, giving you control over when it’s used.

Lashtail devourer before bristlebacks had the ranged rapid fire market cornered. It can still be argued it brings it in the form of bleed VS sheer DPS.

Devourers were great pets and they’re still not a ‘bad’ choice. But yeah, most if not all pets need to be reworked post-HoT. Including a few of the HoT pets (Wyverns).

There’s a far more elaborate post about these things around here somewhere. Don’t want to get too far off-topic.

UnlikelyHeroTx.7318:

CETheLucid.3964:

UnlikelyHeroTx.7318:

• For Melee, start with a One Handed Sword and a War Horn for the sprint (#5). Not only that, the #2 makes a nice “avoid the aoe” skill. Take that Auto attack (#1), off auto attack (Ctrl + Right Click for PC).

I’m curious. Given the change to ranger’s sword auto-attack, why would this be necessary now?

This leaves the impression you haven’t been playing ranger all that much.

You are soooo right. lol. I haven’t been playing a ranger all that much. (as per that first bullet in the op.) The Taking sword of auto attack thing is actually a popular recommendation out there for the outdated builds I was able to find. Ironically I put the comment in there to avoid the stink, seems like it stinks anyhow lol.

To address other concerns, this is solely my opinion here: Messing with your build while leveling is a ridiculous prospect. Especially starting out, you’re stuck with what you’ve got until you can get enough Hero Points to get something better. Even then you would have to make up for those points now because you squandered them making up for your poor choice (queue my argument for skill resets, a dead horse for sure).

I typically turn to builds to get the best idea of how traits blend with each other, so that I can work out a path that can take me to eighty, with out buyers remorse every time I pick a skill /trait line that seemed cool at the time, but really doesn’t cut the mustard. This is pretty much why I recommended the Build Editor first…

Cutting myself off there… At the time of this comment, my ranger has reached level 55. The build I provided wasn’t law (as I stated), it was just a plan I made so that I can get through leveling without tearing my hair out. I’ve tried switching things out a long the way, just as I hope everyone else does.

Hopefully that helps =D

No problem. Your heart was in the right place and honestly the rest of your guide is solid advice for someone leveling. Things get better once you’ve trained everything.

You can do so many things with a ranger not even including the elite spec.

I probably take it for granted how easily I swap around skills and traits and generally just muck around with my build freely.

I’m not much of an alt person so the characters I have at 80 were leveled and properly trained forver ago.

Keep at it, it’s worth it. Good luck!

Dadnir.5038:

anduriell.6280:

Who in their sane mind would go to HoT with a carrion devourer as pets.. WHO!!!!

I’d do it… to be honest I have done it… the carrion devourer is one of my favourit pet… Sorry…

Devourers used to be one of the best pets pre-HoT for PvE. They’re still alright. Not the best, but the judgey ones would still have hated you either way.

If there’s ever an update that normalizes pets and legitimately fixes the powercreep from HoT pets (Bristleback and Smokescale), the sheer variety of pets we’d see used would be awesome.

(And by fix, I mean make all pets as viable as these two.

Plz do not nerf Smokescale and Bristleback. This would result in a profound sadness and the primordial anger of many rangers.)

zealex.9410:

are we sure the priory dude changing appearance isn’t just a bug?

I wish we could get some confirmation on that, but the only comment an Anet dev made about it was deleted on the reddit…

Which, just makes me even more paranoid and unwilling to choose at this point.

If it was a simple bug with the NPC not being flagged as important enough to stay consistent, I’d just ignore the inconsistency and choose Priory.

Can’t be sure of that, so I can’t trust the Priory is being on the up and up with me. Or at least with regards to this/these Historian Tranton(s).

Maybe the Priory is being infiltrated. We know for a fact the White Mantle had some spies inside, maybe the Consortium planted some of their people in as well?

The Priory is great, but they need to work on their vetting process or they’ll be undone from the inside.

Until I can get more information, I’ll bear with my condition and the spooky energy people a bit longer assuming the situation doesn’t escalate.

Tornupto.2304:

I wouldn’t be surprised if this 2nd Tranton has kitnapped the original one and wants to trick you. He may be one of those Consortium spys…

Plot twist!

Hesacon.8735:

I needed krait oil to make Astralaria. Sounds to me like a conspiracy of the stars.

Did you really? I thought Krait Oil was a fairly new thing and Astralaria came out with HoT (or shortly after). That’s weird.

Danikat.8537:

Maybe Tranton used a Total Makeover Kit while you were gone?

I didn’t notice his appearance changing but I decided to trust Tranton and the Priory. Mostly because of past experience, I have a good track record with the Priory (3 of my characters are even members, although my main, who did this bit, is Whispers). Meanwhile I can’t remember having anything to do with the Consortium that didn’t start with them trying to profit from poorly understood magic and end with me cleaning up their mess.

Plus a bit of genre-savvy. As a general rule if you start a quest to help a researcher and then get contacted by some shady merchant offering an alternative deal the first choice is the ‘right’ one and the second will at best make you more money while everyone will hate you and at worst will ruin everything.

Also the guy is literally selling snake oil.

Oh yeah. I mean before the double Historian Tranton thing it was a no-brainer.

I don’t trust Tradesman Maezz as far as I can throw him (which is probably actually pretty far because he’s an asura, but still).

But come on, they were two different people. It’s already a stretch to be doing this as it’s pretty much on a hope and a prayer, but the Priory tends to know their stuff.

I was willing to trust in that, but I have two different people telling me they’re the same person and the second one knows everything I confided in with the first?

That’s super suspicious! Maezz is full of it, but I can’t be sure I can trust these Tranton’s either.

Carlin Sanders.3587:

Im thinking tranton using a FMK is viable given how anet likes to reference options players have. Trantons appearance change may also be a red herring as a way to troll paranoid theorycrafters.

If they’re trolling, they got me. Because I ain’t picking until I can be sure it’s a nuance of the game (some NPCs load as different people) VS an actual second person.

Or my character starts bleeding through their eyes. Maybe the spooky energy people start doing more crazy things beyond standing there and being spooky?

Then fine, I guess I’ll pick priory. But yeah… Historian Tranton is a pretty important character.

In the mean time? I guess I’ll just go investigate Gillscale Pond.

Randulf.7614:

At least you have a choice. I haven’t even seen a vision since the last patch to get the achievement started…

If you saw them before the update, you’ll still see them.

It’s completely random and client side when and where they appear. Sometimes they show up frequently, other times less.

If you wanna be crazy though and really get things moving, you can do a ley-line anomaly event (the one where you chase the anomaly around the map)

And it’s pretty much certain you’ll be seeing more spooky energy people then you can shake a stick at. :>

When one does pop up, steel your nerves, run up, and touch the spooky. It’ll unlock the event. It’s interesting.

Ohoni.6057:

You do understand that this is a forum, right? A place for discussion? I mean, you don’t have to participate, but nobody cares if you choose not to.

Right. I’m choosing to share my thoughts and opinions on a public forum. Same as you. You don’t have to engage with nor agree with me. I couldn’t care less.

I’d totally be cool with a pistol off-hand if they did it justice. I’m not at all opposed to the idea. Not my first choice though, as I’d go with sword. Mainhand preferably.

Simple as that.

You keep coming at it like I’m trying to discredit your idea. I’m not. I just have a different one from you.

But I repeat myself. I can only hope this concept isn’t very hard for you to understand. You seem like a smart enough guy.

steve.2945:

Calm down guys, don’t want to get this thread locked.

Agreed.

There’s a certain element of antagonism to ideas being presented that isn’t present in some of the other profession forums, but there’s some really good thoughts here mixed in.

JaddynnStarr.5201:

Still doesn’t make my point any less valid. It may be a bug, anet may fix it, but there are tons of other instances where we see vendors omitted from areas they would be most conveniently used in… guild halls… for a big example. no craft stations other than scribe, no BLTC vendor in there either… And don’t tell me you don’t see why bank express/trading express/ BL express are gem store purchase items, and not sold any other way…

k.

JaddynnStarr.5201:

Zoid.2568:

JaddynnStarr.5201:

aaaaaaand now you just stumbled upon their true intentions…. waste as much time as possible, so that you stay in game longer and have to come back more often, and buy more gems to speed the process up! DING DING DING!!!!!!

I will never spend cash on TP summon. Maybe for increased bag space or some cool skin, but that’s it. I will waste 1 minute everytime I go to LA.

yeaaaaaa but, you do understand that the micro transactions are a part of almost every game now, and it is the primary driving force for these games to get revenue… just because YOU don’t, doesn’t mean OTHERS wont. I’m just stating that you are discovering this system that you didn’t seem to recognize before is all.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/55ub8e/bug_no_more_tradingpost_npc_in_the_aerodrome/

Ya’ll are some sardonic kittens.

Ohoni.6057:

That’s exactly what “preference” is, arguing your personal taste.

Have fun with that.

Ohoni.6057:

It might not even be physical bullets, they could just “conjure” bullets into the chamber

Aye. You’re welcome. First one was a freebie, if you want more elaborate thoughts for your argument you’ll need to pay up.

Ohoni.6057:

I present the “taste” argument as it is, a matter of personal preference, although I do think that “gun wands” make more sense, because with a sword-wand, you could be waving anything you want, and for some reason it just has to be a sword. Why?

If I wanted to use sword in a traditional way, I wouldn’t be an ele. That’s the point. Why not use the sword in a crazy spell sword kind of way? They did daggers justice after all.

It’s a preference thing. You have yours and I have mine. You can’t argue personal taste, try as you might. lol

Ohoni.6057:

With a “gun wand,” it’s not that you’re waving a pistol around and magic happens, it’s that you’re employing it’s actual function, you are firing projectiles out of its barrel, and these projectiles have magical effects upon impact. It’s using the device as intended, which cannot be said for a wand-sword, as swords are meant to impact things, not be waved around.

See, the way you describe it sounds even less intuitive than I thought possible. Come on. No channeled magical elemental bullets that just manifest or something?

You’re honestly thinking the ele is reloading with actual ammunition and giving it a little magic umpf or something on the way out? lol

You can have that one for free.

I keep seeing spooky energy people everywhere I go.

The Consortium wants to give me Krait Oil for it in exchange for a valuable Seer artifact and I kind of feel like the Priory is trying to pull one over on me.

At first it seems like a clear choice; The Priory obviously. This commander wasn’t born yesterday. Snake Krait Oil isn’t going to fix anything for me. But here’s the thing.

I meet with a Historian Tranton. He’s the leading expert on the Seers now that his teacher hasn’t been seen since his expedition into Arah.

Never met him before. Seems like a decent guy, Canthan descent. I go about the business of finishing up collecting bloodstone slivers.

Get a letter from Tradesman Maezz. Tells me not to trust the Priory on this and even fixes the device proper for me before I return to Historian Tranton.

When low and behold, I return to the priory to meet a Historian Tranton… red hair, blue eyes. Ascalonian most likely. This is not the same man I met previously.

I have eyes man. What are you trying to pull?

Yes… I have eyes that are constantly seeing spooky energy people now, and I’m sitting here with a primed shadowstone and some serious trust issues.

I don’t trust that Tradesman Maezz’ Krait Oil cure is worth anything long term wise, even if it does suppress the anomaly visions for a bit.

And in exchange he wants a super rare seer artifact that may be the only thing that can fix me.

Or harm me, if I’m to believe the tradesman… and I don’t suppose there are any other Historian Tranton’s here that I might speak to?

So here I stand… unable to make a clear choice on the issue. Or at least I think it’s just me. Might be a spooky energy person or two around here somewhere.

Eh. If this does kill me I at least want to keep my wits. The visions are harmless anyway… right?

Ohoni.6057:

How so?

Ohoni.6057:

CETheLucid.3964:

Ohoni.6057:

Yes, and Eles have long range Staff and Scepter (and hopefully pistol). There’s no compelling need for a long ranged sword.

There’s no compelling need for a pistol for the same reason.

True, and at that point it becomes a thematic issue, and I’d prefer a pistol to a sword thematically. I also feel an offhand weapon would be more useful and likely than a mainhand one.

CETheLucid.3964:

Thematically I can see an elemental magus with a sword well before a firearm. But again it’s a preference thing.

I don’t doubt they could make pistol work just as they could make sword work. I just prefer sword over pistol.

CETheLucid.3964:

Ohoni.6057:

Guardian Scepter has no appreciable drop off within its effective range.

Yes, but as someone who used to love Guardian Scepter, the trade-off to that is that it’s never been great at any range. It’s versatile, but melee is better in melee, ranged is better at range. Dagger already fills that role for Eles.

Sword could absolutely still play around 130-600 range.

But again, Dagger already fills that role just fine. Eles don’t need a new weapon that can “play around within 600 range.” They would need either a weapon that is brutal within melee distance OR a weapon that is competitive at 900+ ranges. It can be brutal in melee with a token medium range attack or two, but not enough that you could actually stick at those ranges.

Furthermore, if they did get a weapon that would be brutal in melee range, they would also need way more options to stay alive in melee range. However good a tank a Tempest may be, the new elite spec (which remember would not be able to use any of the Tempest kit), would need to be even tankier to be survivable.

All that said you still want pistol which would be as redundant as the concept of a long range sword per your own arguments, because dagger and scepter.

It’s almost like it’s a matter of preference or something.

Ohoni.6057:

CETheLucid.3964:

Coldtart.4785:

Ohoni.6057:

So i see sword or GS more of pure melee weapons with less conidl then dagger and maybe more def and less healing.

So, a Warrior, basically?

What i turly want is a hammer and a pure field class with good cc ok tank ability but needs other ppl to get the max out of its effects.

Have you met Scrapper?

So having all the fields in the game some finnisher and a number of added effects to though field types and finnishing.

As for ALL the fields, that’s unlikely. ANet likes to spread things around, they don’t like giving all the fields to a single class, you basically only get more than 2-3 if you’re lucky. Engis and Rangers are your best bet though, not Ele.

Are you just completely averse to the concept of classes being able to do multiple things, including things that other classes can do and different approaches to the same thing within a class?

And we can’t forget: an elite spec is way, wayyyyy more than just a weapon.

Which is ironic because his suggestion for pistol falls apart under his own scrutiny. Nevermind that it’s all suggestion, matters of taste and preference at this point.

His opinion is the correct one.

Thank you.

You’re welcome. I know it means a lot to you.

Coldtart.4785:

Ohoni.6057:

So i see sword or GS more of pure melee weapons with less conidl then dagger and maybe more def and less healing.

So, a Warrior, basically?

What i turly want is a hammer and a pure field class with good cc ok tank ability but needs other ppl to get the max out of its effects.

Have you met Scrapper?

So having all the fields in the game some finnisher and a number of added effects to though field types and finnishing.

As for ALL the fields, that’s unlikely. ANet likes to spread things around, they don’t like giving all the fields to a single class, you basically only get more than 2-3 if you’re lucky. Engis and Rangers are your best bet though, not Ele.

Are you just completely averse to the concept of classes being able to do multiple things, including things that other classes can do and different approaches to the same thing within a class?

And we can’t forget: an elite spec is way, wayyyyy more than just a weapon.

Which is ironic because his suggestion for pistol falls apart under his own scrutiny. Nevermind that it’s all suggestion, matters of taste and preference at this point.

His opinion is the correct one.

Astralporing.1957:

MashMash.1645:

This blew up way more than I intended. I just thought it would be nice for non raiders to still be able to get spirit shards.

Raiders generally don’t want to be nice to non-raiders. Supposedly it cheapens their experience. Thus you will find some people protesting suggestions like that just on principle.

Well let’s see.

• I pointed out the easiest raid literally any casual player can do to get the raid masteries unlocked with virtually no investment if raids just aren’t your thing.
• Warmly invited anyone who so wishes to a great guild of folks who are always doing raids and often do training runs.

You’re right man. I’m an irredeemable monster who just wants to keep all the raids to myself.

Filthy peasants.

Bast Bow.2958:

No. Indeed I do not.

Well, in short smart people can use a hammer as well as brawn-over-brain types.

Hammer would be pretty cool on ranger. In GW1 a popular build for rangers with pets in PvP was something called a Bunny Thumper. It was also fairly effective in PvE.

It brought tremendous melee crowd control and a ranger could lock-down the front lines. If you had a Bunny Thumper in your face, you weren’t leaving that fight.

They might not necessarily kill you (PvP), but you’d be completely unable to disengage and they’d keep you in the dirt most of the fight.

I could see main-hand dagger working out also.

Dagger skills + Expertise in GW1 was also very effective and rangers in GW1 could spam high energy high damage assassin skills sometimes to a better extent than their assassin counterparts.

One popular build pilled on copious amounts of bleeding and poison. Hammer or mainhand dagger would be a great choice for a ranger elite spec.

Justine.6351:

Cant believe I clicked on this thread thinking it was actually something and not just another “op druid” crybaby thread, veiled or not.

This. Literally move after you get hit and you probably won’t get hit by it. Otherwise, auto-attack the vines like twice to end it early.

You probably already do it on accident with weapon cleave. Ancient Seeds is an excellent clutch tool, but it’s by no means OP.

Ohoni.6057:

I just think that a swordwand would be stupid and a spellcaster would be more flavorful. I was fully clear on that several posts ago.

Yeah? So was I. Further, I respected your opinion and didn’t disparage your choice even though I personally want something different and find your taste quite strange.

But I guess you’ve reached the end of your capacity. Nice convo while it lasted.

I don’t think a pistol mage is stupid per say. Before GW2 I never imagined a magus with daggers, and low and behold it’s one of my favorite weapons for ele.

I’d still like sword given a choice but if we were to get pistol of all things and it was awesome? I’d be cool with that.

Ohoni.6057:

Guardian Scepter has no appreciable drop off within its effective range.

Yes, but as someone who used to love Guardian Scepter, the trade-off to that is that it’s never been great at any range. It’s versatile, but melee is better in melee, ranged is better at range. Dagger already fills that role for Eles.

Sword could absolutely still play around 130-600 range.

But again, Dagger already fills that role just fine. Eles don’t need a new weapon that can “play around within 600 range.” They would need either a weapon that is brutal within melee distance OR a weapon that is competitive at 900+ ranges. It can be brutal in melee with a token medium range attack or two, but not enough that you could actually stick at those ranges.

Furthermore, if they did get a weapon that would be brutal in melee range, they would also need way more options to stay alive in melee range. However good a tank a Tempest may be, the new elite spec (which remember would not be able to use any of the Tempest kit), would need to be even tankier to be survivable.

All that said you still want pistol which would be as redundant as the concept of a long range sword per your own arguments, because dagger and scepter.

It’s almost like it’s a matter of preference or something.

Ohoni.6057:

And for good reason, swords should not be an offhand weapon unless the mainhand weapon is equally substantial. An OH Ele sword just gets super silly.

How it ultimately plays out or if it’s even a sword is up to Anet.

But yeah, I think my general idea for sword on ele would be better suited mainhand. But I’m not a game designer.

Maybe they could make it work as an offhand? Who can say? I’d prefer mainhand but I’m not opposed to it in that iteration if they can do it justice.

Ohoni.6057:

Dagger is medium range. We don’t need another medium range. If they make the sword a melee weapon, it should be a strictly melee weapon, with maybe a few attacks that cover 600-900 range, but not enough to have a meaningful fight at that distance. If they make Sword a ranged weapon, then making it medium range like Dagger would be redundant, it would need to be long range, mostly at least 900, maybe even 1200. But again, if they are going that long range, why not just use a pistol or rifle? There’d be no novelty to the “wandsword” since the GS Mesmer already does that, so it would just be a silly gimmick.

Could have the long-range game that dagger can’t realistically bring with tactical high-risk-high-reward heavy DPS burst on single targets that rewards smart play.

At the end of the day Mesmer GS wants to keep you at range. Ele sword can set up at range and go for the kill in melee as an example. Spitballing.

Ohoni.6057:

It’s called “Dagger/Dagger.”

Dagger != Sword. I get you want to compare my thoughts on sword as making another dagger, but that’s not what I want. I’m not disparaging your desire for pistol.

We just want different things.

Ohoni.6057:

True, and at that point it becomes a thematic issue, and I’d prefer a pistol to a sword thematically.

Thematically I can see an elemental magus with a sword well before a firearm. But again it’s a preference thing.

I don’t doubt they could make pistol work just as they could make sword work. I just prefer sword over pistol.

Ohoni.6057:

Dagger’s a melee weapon, you proposed Sword as a ranged one, like Mesmer GS. If ti’s ranged, it doesn’t need to close gaps. If it’s just a combo of short and mid-range moves then it’d be more like Dagger, which would make it redundant.

Dagger isn’t strictly melee. Even it’s “melee” stretches the concept. We’re not mesmers. Different attunements can work different roles into the weapon.

Ohoni.6057:

So you’re thinking offhand sword? That would just be weird. Dagger/Sword? Scepter/Sword? Huh? I agree that if it’s mainhand, a ranged sword and a pistol could fill pretty much identical roles, but I still believe that an offhand pistol would be better.

Either. Whatever works with the concept of an elemental sword magus.

Ohoni.6057:

Yes, and Eles have long range Staff and Scepter (and hopefully pistol). There’s no compelling need for a long ranged sword.

There’s no compelling need for a pistol for the same reason.

Ohoni.6057:

Why would a long range sword need gap closers? That’s what range is for.

Same reason dagger has one. It’s “melee”. There might be a close range zinger rapid fire attack or something. Just spit balling.

Ohoni.6057:

An offhand pistol would work well with the other options. For Scepter/Pistol, it would provide more offense than Focus or Warhorn. For Dagger/Pistol it would provide more ranged flexibility than OH Dagger, allowing you to attack while melee is too risky, or drain down enemies that insist on staying mobile.

All that can be said the same about a ranged sword weapon, so yeah. It’s just a matter of preference. I’m team sword.

Astralporing.1957:

That was not an Anet dev, so he was just guessing. Which proves exactly nothing (for one, he may not have been aware of any GW2 statistics).

All of us are guessing. The OP is ball parking it. It’s a pretty good well-reasoned guess. Someone in the industry agrees.

Fluffball.8307:

I don’t care what you do one way or the other, it’s just a fact you decrease your damage by button mashing. Take that however you want.

Right. If the sum of it is “don’t button mash”, it’s good advice. But in general it’s not something you can really do anything about.

It’s not a ranger specific problem that obligates you to turn off your auto-attack on sword any more then necro needs to turn off auto-attack on axe for fear of less DPS.

It’s not a mechanic issue with the weapon as it was in the past. It’s a global issue with skill queuing.

Ohoni.6057:

They could do some interesting stuff visually, I’m sure, but if they’re going with a ranged option, I’d prefer a spellcaster gun to anything they could do with a sword.

I disagree. Spellcaster sword would be awesome, and I’d prefer it to gun. Dagger is the ‘melee’ weapon, Revs have long range hammers.

A mid to long range main-hand sword with gap closers/makers, CC, and devastating single target burst damage would be keen. A rapid attack of some kind?

Something that puts the ele squarely on the more offensive side of things.

Fluffball.8307:

It’s really easy to see, just spam auto attack with the sword and it has a massive lag. It actually does it with auto on as well I think. Migh try it on the DPS golem if you want to see for yourself in numbers.

It does generate a fuss among the DPS crowd like for raids and PvP and such. I doubt anet will touch it since skill queuing has been a weird topic of weirdness since launch.

Reddit like 10 years late to the party: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/50qm21/major_autoattack_bug_huge_aftercast_if_you_mash_1/

Alright but based on that it’s a general bug almost every weapon and class combo suffers from, save a select few.

I don’t see how it’s relevant to ranger sword auto-attack in particular.

Can’t tell if you’re being fussy about the minutiae of enabling/disabling an updated sword ranger auto-attack or hoity-toity about the application in PvP VS PvE.

The vast majority of time save for absolute min/maxing, worrying about frames in PvP (something someone who is leveling and learning the class probably isn’t too worried about), you’re fine leaving it on auto-attack VS how it used to be before the mechanic change.

It’s poor advice to tell new players to disable the sword auto-attack (and consequently, remember to re-enable it for everything else).

That isn’t necessary anymore.

sorudo.9054:

a gamemode is a gameplay preference, not something you can just lure players to.
i just can’t stand PvP, even if i get 100G for every kill i would still not do it…..

Ele also thought they were getting sword first time around. There was hard evidence they were playing around with the idea in the .dat.

Things changed. That said, I wouldn’t be upset with main-hand dagger. Rapid attacks, single target burst DPS… something evasive? Conditions? Could be nice.

Maybe we’ll get hammer? Hard melee CC? Throwback to the bunny thumper days. lol

Astralporing.1957:

Razor.9872:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/54038c/estimating_gw2s_population_size/

Based on this, i’d say the numbers from that reddit thread are a bit high.

a while ago, i gave my calculations to askagamedev. today, he replied, basically agreeing with my findings.

http://askagamedev.tumblr.com/post/150776912525/does-your-population-estimation-trick-using-the

Can I get a source on that? Is it cataloged anywhere in the bug forums? That’s a pretty serious bug with the sword auto-attack chain if it’s true.

Can’t imagine something like that not generating a fuss. First I’ve heard of it.

Razor.9872:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/54038c/estimating_gw2s_population_size/

This is a well-reasoned guess. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in that ballpark. Raids, WvW, Fractals, PvP.

I never have issues finding people to play with, and I play at the oddest of hours.

UnlikelyHeroTx.7318:

• For Melee, start with a One Handed Sword and a War Horn for the sprint (#5). Not only that, the #2 makes a nice “avoid the aoe” skill. Take that Auto attack (#1), off auto attack (Ctrl + Right Click for PC).

I’m curious. Given the change to ranger’s sword auto-attack, why would this be necessary now?

This leaves the impression you haven’t been playing ranger all that much.

Supreme.3164:

I feel it in my guts, the next spec has to potential to be even worst than Tempest

Tempest isn’t a bad elite spec though.

One or two laurels for a mystic coin would be fair. Three is overkill IMO.

Yeah, this isn’t a discussion anymore. We’re done here.

Yeah, I’ve done it fairly reliably for myself. Couldn’t tell you if I’ve ever managed to save someone else with it though. Maybe a few times? lol

It’s pretty meh. Even when I do save myself, it never feels like I’ll recover on it; just add a moment or two more before my inevitable death.

If it’s supposed to clutch save people, the CD needs to be lower and the health it restores on saving someone needs to be much higher. I think that would work.

Or if they’re determined to keep the current CD, it should do something more + more health on someone saved.

At present it doesn’t really feel like an elite skill.

Wreave.2138:

2) This has been addressed in several posts earlier in this topic.

Nothing to charge. There is no one left of that tribe to seek some kind of retribution. There is no more Faolain. Caithe isn’t guilty on the grounds of self-defense.

It was a screwed up situation. It is certain Faolain was the instigator there. Wynne makes that clear.

Caithe was left in the unenviable position to defend herself against a bunch of angered centaurs in an escalating situation of violence.

Faolain’s party won out.
_

Pretty good story, huh? The fact that you’re so deeply invested in the nuances of it proves that much at least. But yeah, your sense of justice regarding Caithe is really misguided.

I’m inclined to attribute that to an ignorance of the lore.

Harnel.6810:

Alright, so, how does that negate anything that I’ve said?

Harnel.6810:

Well CETheLucid, Rangers don’t even necessarily have a bond with nature. Druids do, certainly, but rangers themselves are just skirmishers that know how to tame and train animals and can use some life magic.

Harnel.6810:

Fluff it however you want, but that’s the bare bones of it.

Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ranger/

Harnel.6810:

Well CETheLucid, Rangers don’t even necessarily have a bond with nature. Druids do, certainly, but rangers themselves are just skirmishers that know how to tame and train animals and can use some life magic. Fluff it however you want, but that’s the bare bones of it.

Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ranger/

No fluff. That’s just what it is. The bare bones of it.

Wreave.2138:

How about: Centaur slaughter, Killing Wynne, standing by Faolaine pretty much non-stop, not revealing the truth about the relationship between Mordremoth and the Sylvarri?

Where to begin…

Caithe hasn’t stood by Faolain for a very long time and that event is almost certainly a catalyst to that schism between them.

Which took place a good bit before our PC began the original campaign against Zhaitan.

Wynne asked for death rather than suffer under Faolain, certain that Faolain would break her and ultimately spread word of this relationship with Mordremoth.

People are stupid panicky creatures and everyone would completely dismiss the sylvari as monsters rather than complex creatures with their own wills.

This was the reason for the secret keeping. Word ultimately did get out about their origins. People proceeded to be stupid panicky creatures.

However the rapport they’ve already built with the world is established and many sylvari have proven themselves strong and unique individuals standing against Mordremoth.

You need to brush up on your lore. You have a number of fallacies going on there.

Wreave.2138:

And again, my character would absolutely not be ignoring her earlier crimes. Justice is due.

lol ok.

Have fun with that Judge Dredd. Your trust issues are noted and we disagree. I think Anet did it right.

I was initially disappointed when I found out tempest was going with warhorn over sword, but in practice, I’ve found it to be a fine addition to our toolkit.

It’s a good off-hand. It meshes well with what we had and compliments all of our main-hand weapons.

That said the next one should be sword. I’d really like a FE:A tactician kinda thing for ele. We already have access to a GS with our elite.

Only real weapons left not represented in ele are the sword and torch. Given the choice between the two I’d want the sword.

Or if we’re adding new weapons to the game? A partizan. Spear magus go!

Part of me wants to say yes to a rifle or off-hand pistol elite spec, but lorewise it just doesn’t fit well.

Do they give us perma-stow in exchange? Maybe it’s high damage, terrible utility? Cuts us off from most of our nature-theme utility?

There would be a ton of work involved there and somehow I don’t think the final product would fit with the aesthetic of our class. It’d be something else entirely.

By comparison, druid spec with staff was very well done and it fit ranger like a glove. But I dunno.

Before druid was fleshed out I thought staff on ranger was a dumb idea, but low and behold it’s a favorite weapon of mine and one of my favorite elite specs.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

CETheLucid.3964:

She’s … apologized for her personal shortcomings.

except she hasn’t — she basically says, “I’m sorry that I annoy you.” Even while claiming to apologize, she engages in the very behaviors for which she claims to be apologizing.

I’m particularly unimpressed by the PC’s claim that Caithe can be trusted with the dragon, stating that she’s (Caithe) never exhibited ill-well toward the egg or dragon. Well, no, she just stole the egg and put it at risk until the PC could get it back. “No ill-will” isn’t something I’d look for when hiring a security guard.

Pretty sure she has apoligized. Profusely. Caithe was never an honest threat in this regard, just a poor friend and communicator. She’s gotten much better.

Even at her worst, Caithe has always been on our side despite her antics. There’s no reason to distrust her with Aurene.

But we’re not going to agree with each other on this and I don’t suppose the story is going to let you keep her away from Aurene.

Blackwyn.8127:

The entitlement and arrogance in this thread is sickening and worries me. Everyone that has put the effort to reach to a state that they only need one raid to get full masteries, are capable of getting it.

Wing 3 first raid wing is the Escort, this is a glorified event rather than an actual raid and most likely everyone that is whining in this thread is capable of doing it. Ever done any of the dungeons? Then you can do it. Done any of the meta events in the HoT maps? Then you can do it. Have at least 100 Maguuma mastery points? Then you can do it.

The truth is not that you’re “not capable of raiding”, that “you’re not good enough for raiding” or “that it shouldn’t be part of its completion process”.
The truth is, that you’re lazy and not willing to put the effort to learn an event. The spoiled kid mentality in this thread that if you want something, it should just be given to you makes my dog cry.
So stop making my dog cry you heartless kittens!

Going to have to concur. I don’t get why people are treating raids like they are in this thread. They’re a challenge, but it’s nothing overtly difficult.

Some of the more challenging ones do need practice to understand, but if you’ve done Arah explorable, you can do raids.

I’m sure most of you have done fractals. Most raids aren’t much harder.

If you’re just looking for a cheese way to get spirit shards in HoT to unlock the raid mastery’s, doing the wing 3 escort event will unlock everything for you and it’s a very simple raid event.

Because Zhaitan is dead. Rather, you have “risen” in the form of destroyer minions now.

Technically, Primordus and the remaining elder dragons can now use the death magic spectrum of magic and make their own version of “risen” from the dead.

This isn’t outstanding for Jormag or Kralkatorrik because they were already capable of corrupting life into their minions, but it is a new thing for Primordus (was also a new thing for Mordremoth) who previously only imitated things through it’s molten creations.

There are remnants of the traditional risen, such as Tequatl in mainland Tyria and the remnants in Orr, but they are a dying breed.

So to speak.

Yep. Pretty sure Taimi wouldn’t object at all to letting them get off the hellrock.

They don’t want to leave because they don’t want to leave behind their untamed slothosaur.

Which isn’t going to be allowed to pass because it’s certain to kill and eat everyone it comes across.

Rather the little kid and her family should probably be like the kittens with you guys and go home to DR. But I’m also pretty sure they’re all a little crazy down there.

None of that is Taimi’s fault though, you silly goose.

Tell the adults there to quit being crazy and go home with their kid(s). Maybe they can smuggle a slubling or something.

Sartharina.3542:

RyuDragnier.9476:

CETheLucid.3964:

It’s a very hard sell and I can totally see why our PC isn’t exactly quick to trust our new “friend”, even if he did come to our aid.

Moreso if your character is a Charr or Human. The human is unlikely to forget what the Mursaat did with the White Mantle, and the charr is more likely to question it simply because they were raised not to trust “gods” or their followers (Flame Legion does that to ya).

Too bad he doesn’t capitalize on ammunition against Charr, given what started the Mursaat+Human alliance!

What would that do for him? Besides maybe get him killed right there? The mursaat of the past have openly and brutally betrayed humanity.

The charr of today have yet to break the accord struck with humanity. We’re all still friends VS food/bloodstone fodder for the unseen gods.

Charr: 1 Mursaat: 0

Rather he was wise to appeal to the “I’m useful and I’ve forsaken my past, let me be helpful” angle of things.

An appeal for forgiveness and acceptance.

Anything less or some kind of attempt to justify his past actions would have been appropriately met with hostility.

He handled that well and he was very helpful in a time of need there. On that merit his claims are something to consider.

Marjory’s on the case.

No. They don’t change what you get. You’ll get whatever the node normally gives + some UM.

Nah. Sneaky snake that she is sometimes, at the end of the day, she’s a good apple. She’s proven that time and again.

When fighting against Mordremoth she flat out says “Even if it kills the sylvari race, I’d rather see Mordremoth dead than an enslaved world”.

You can’t doubt her loyalty. She’s a good guy and apologized for her personal shortcomings. That’s good enough for me.

I’m more conflicted about Lazarus than I ever was about Caithe.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Teleoceras.1298:

RyuDragnier.9476:

It seems more that she has a plan to manipulate Lazarus, and doesn’t want the commander to know, since he’d never agree to it. Act like she has joined the Mantle, serving Lazarus…and then backstabbing him or giving us info. Jory had always been the detective of the group after all.

I was thinking the same way. I don’t feel she would actually betray the Commander. She is basically doing what she does best which is investigate.

Plus her acting the way she did is essentially ‘bait’ for Lazarus. If he is trying to manipulate us, he’ll see what Marjory said as a possible rift to exploit. Which is most likely something she wants.

This is what I think too, more or less. Dunno about full on joining the mantle, but the general idea of her figuring him out is the point of that dialogue.

She wasn’t being rude for the sake of it, it’s part of the game. Marjory’s clever like that.

Push comes to shove in an absolute worst case scenario we could kill Lazarus, at the cost of a few lives (Marjory’s, but she put herself out there). We killed two dragons.

He’s not much worse, even with the bloodstones magic. It would be a fight for sure, but it could be done with considerably less effort than an elder dragon.

Rather indeed, the dialogue is bait. I mean he was in earshot. It would be an excellent way to test his character.

I personally want to believe Lazarus has changed and we’ve gained a new powerful mursaat ally in the war against the dragons.

That the white mantle can become a true force for good, and basically not only help the world but take a major burden off the back of the human seat of power.

But these things also seem quite familiar to the happenings of the past when golden unseen gods presented themselves as saviors only to be treacherous monsters.

It’s a very hard sell and I can totally see why our PC isn’t exactly quick to trust our new “friend”, even if he did come to our aid.

(Which was unexpected, BA, and awesome; he even let us use spectral agony/judgment!)

I love it. It’s great writing. An excellent story so far and I’m very eager to see where this all goes.