Guild Wars 2

Start in Air Attunment:

1) Ride the Lightning
2) Updraft
3) Shocking Aura
4) Burning Speed
5) Ring of Fire
6) Earth Attunement Swap
7) Earthquake
8) Magnetic Grasp (For fire aura+swiftness/fury)
9) Churning Earth
10) Lightning Strike (Optional, some don’t use this but a lot do)
11) Air Attunement Swap
12) Ride the Lightning
13) Updraft
14) Shocking Aura
15) Fire Attunment Swap
16) Burning Speed
17) Dragon’s Breath
18) Firegrab

All of that is IF you aren’t being focused and have to go into Water attunement to heal up and/or CC a little bit and IF you’re not interrupted. MOST of the time this alone still won’t down your target unless they are a glass cannon or you are one yourself, in which case you’re not going to be taking on more than one person at a time. Stability also makes it way more challenging to pull off on top of CC’s. Also doesn’t account for dodge rolls using Evasive Arcana but I don’t use that trait anymore since the patch; it doesn’t work now anyway iirc.

No popping in and out of stealth or hiding amongst NPC’s. Just an Ele in his/her bathrobe out in the open with all the flashy spells to draw everyones attention.

And hell, I may even be missing a step or two since I don’t have it all completely down yet.

Speaking of RtL being bugged, Magnetic Grasp bugs out in PvE for me. My character gets stuck at the end of the animation half the time. Very annoying. Anyone else have this issue?

I’m very satisfied with my build and thus far haven’t seen anyone else running it. It is a D/D build, but otherwise it’s all me it looks like. I’ve only ever won ONE 2v1, though, sadly. They were poor players, though, and I was on my game at the time. I nearly died and still probably would have as one was a warrior who could have Vengeanced on me while I was waiting to heal up out of LoS. I was around 1% hp or so after the fight so my teammates that finally showed up probably saved me. But I think I could have kited the warrior around and kept the Thief from healing until it was safe to stomp him.

Most of the time though, I usually RtL the hell out of dodge if I see more than one person coming. I’m not glass at all, I don’t think, either. Rocking 19k+ hp and around 1.7k toughness. Thieves are laughable on my Ele; have only lost a couple times to a very well played one in 1v1 but otherwise I eat them up. Goes for any other glass build.

So far my personal best is 6k on some poor guy with Churning Earth crit. Firegrab highest is around 5.3k. Love dem crits. Mesmers still eat me alive though; I do win occasionally but more often than not I lose to a well played Mesmer. I still fight them regardless—only way to learn is to accept defeat and try again.

I’ve sprinkled my build around the forums a couple times so if you’re curious just PM me. It’s a very defensive build imo, but still easily taken out by good focus fire and CC. But main thing, in a 2v1, like most have said RtL the hell out of there and come back when it’s a 2v2.

My main problem now in sPvP is scoring points. With my Ranger it didn’t seem to be hard at all, but for some reason it’s like I’m putting in triple the effort on my Ele and getting half the points. This is even while I run around and try to do nothing but cap points.

Luckily the build is very mobile, but still.. I’m sure it’s a L2P issue. sPvP is just a huge zergfest anyway.

Thanks for the help guys.

After playing around with Staff and S/D, I think I’ve finally settled into a 0/15/15/20/20 D/D build. Does very well against Glass cannons, but doesn’t have a TON of burst. Highest damage I’ve seen out of it was around 5.3 with Firegrab on a burning Thief.

Haven’t lost to a Thief in 1v1 yet BUT I have come very close to it. The only thing I’ve lost too thus far in 1v1 is a Guardian and Mesmer.

Speaking of Mesmers, Whimsical, that build I think is the one I’ve lost too (or at least a modified version). The damage output can be very large at times, but I have beaten a couple of badly played ones easily.

I think I’m getting better at comboing now, but as far as boon stacking at such—I’m not sure how people are really doing it yet. I can stack Fury and Swiftness to near perma during combat, but Might I’ve only stacked up to 4 by myself, with as high as 17 with teammates around.

I really do appreciate all of your input. If anyone does FRAPs a lot, I would love to see some videos, especially if you are fighting and beating Mesmers on a regular basis.

Can’t speak for WvW, as I haven’t done anything PvE/WvW related with Ele yet, but for sPvP glass cannons seem to be kitten near down to skill and timing on skills with a bit of luck. But that’s ONLY for me, I’m not saying it is with you.

I’m running 0/20/10/20/20 and just started using D/D instead of S/D last night and can tell a definite difference in damage output. I’m assuming since you are bunker, you went staff yes? I personally, when I hit 80, will probably go near pure berserker gear for WvW. I mean if you look at how many people there are in WvW and how little need there is for Ele to be right up in the fray, the range on staff skills, and how squishy a lot of people are—it just doesn’t seem worth it to invest into bunker.

Now in sPvP, as I’ve already listed my setup, I have around 1.7k (1.8k in Earth?) toughness and 19k HP with over 3k power (3.2k+ if I get 25 Bloodlust) not counting any might stacks I pick up. With 34% crit chance with Fury running, my Firegrab crits for around 5k+ and autoattacks hit for around 800+. With all that info out there, it really comes down to, as Creslin said, surviving that initial burst.

Thieves are so much easier to deal with now than they were on my Ranger, even condition Thieves if I’m smart about my skill usage (I don’t blow my Elemental elite unless they blow their elite). The professions I’m having trouble with now, though, are the Shantasm Mesmer builds (if they’re good) and a couple Guardian builds which tend to outlast me if I’m not comboing and interrupting when I should.

That being said, with my setup, I’ve come close to winning A LOT of 2v1’s and can tank 3v1’s for about 30-40s before I go down if I have my CD’s up. The only reason I haven’t won any 2v1’s yet is because sPvP is a zergfest anyway, so yeah I may down the two but by then their teammate zerg has fell upon me before I can finish them and I have no CD’s left to use.

Aiglos.2907:

Actually, I wonder if this new functionality would mean that it only triggers upon landing?

I tested it over and over again by dropping my DT right inside my RoF in HotM and got nothing from it, even dead center. So if it was suppose to give the stacks after it fell, it doesn’t; on the other hand if it gives the stacks at the start of the animation, it still doesn’t.

At least Phoenix still does.

I’ve switched up my build again to 0/20/10/20/20. Have over 2k toughness with S/D Earth 2 up and usually start a fight with Rock Armor for protection and stability being up, which is nice for damage mitigation. I almost always have protection up since I have the Rock Armor trait for 50% HP as well.

Still, with 2k toughness and 19k HP, thieves are still backstabbing for 6k+ and stealth CnD combo hits for about 7k. Using Mist form now so now it’s just a matter of not being outplayed. Got a ton of survivability with this setup and damage is still somewhat respectable. Fire and Air attunements are hitting over 1.4k on pretty much everyone, Firegrab being my hardest hitter I think with 3.5k crits (only 20% crit damage).

Even after learning my combos for Might stacks, it’s a challenge. Now I see why my Ranger destroyed Ele’s so easy. It’s a ton of work to dish out the damage, stay alive, and then escape; on top of having to learn how to cope with different classes, this class is extremely fun but also very very frustrating.

So far the only things I’m losing too are Mesmers and Thief, which is no surprise since their damage and survivability is still ridiculous.

I usually do my own testing and research on what classes can do when I start them. I don’t like hopping onto bandwagons with the most omgopwtfbbq builds so I have to find something that works for me and then compare to what works for other people. My issue seems to be with Mesmers so far. Earlier I fought against one that did a 2.8k lightning strike, among other skills, but before I could tell which was him (out of stealth) I was at 50% hp. Obviously a well played glass cannon build. My build consists of having around 20k hp and with Earth 2 (S/D) I have 1.8k toughness. Power is close to around 2.8k. I think my build is something like 10/20/0/20/20.

I do pretty well with this setup for not knowing my keybinds that well, so my question is. Are there any recent ele vs mesmer videos that show how ele’s with s/d deal with Mesmers with shatter/phantom high spike builds?

Thanks in advance.

I don’t think there’s a big need to really “grind” exotics; what you really want to grind is the gold to buy them since most are usually 1 or 2 gold (if that, depending on stats) on the TP. Legendaries seem to be what you want to grind, and those are from dungeon crawls and being lucky I think and are also sold on the TP for much higher prices.

Ascended gear, I don’t know. I think those will be dungeon grinds since they are drops and fairly, new I’m sure the prices are insanely high. Running jumps (as far as I know) are only involved in jumping puzzles. Vista’s are like mini versions be very rarely require you to run and jump and often have easy paths to them if you can find them.

I would suggest reading the blog post about Infusions (here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/ ). I personally haven’t had a chance to play since all this launched, but hopefully that helped a little bit and I’m sure others can/will go more in depth on the things that I wasn’t so helpful with.

Maxzero.4032:

All in all while a disappointing patch at least we have not got worse.

The only way Ranger could get worse is complete deletion, and even then I’m not sure that’s actually worse; sounds more like mercy killing.

I’ve rolled an elementalist personally. While my success in sPvP isn’t as high in 1v1’s so far, I imagine that will change once I find a build I like. And on a further note, Ele feels a lot of more with all of the AE skills and more involved gameplay required than spamming 1 on SB as a primary damage ability. At least my class mechanic isn’t toally useless in sPvP and WvW and I have abilities that will help groups in PvE as well.. so, final straw for me.

Thank you, all, for the input.

I’m about to log in and try out some S/D gameplay to see if I like it better than Staff, but currently Staff is pretty fun even in sPvP. I’m still trying to find the proper utilities and combos to use though. I don’t have 30 into Arcane so I don’t get the benefit of rolling into my own AoE.

Is this pretty mandatory right now or do people have success without it?

Is glass cannon anything really the best way to go in WvW?

It seems like everyone and their mom is running max damage builds. I can understand the thought process behind it, but I’m not sure I like that WvW is that simple in terms of character variation.

As the title says, I JUST started an Ele last night. Got a little familiar with the skills, choose my weapon and did some attunement swapping practice. I haven’t started PvE yet, but I can honestly say that even when I’m losing in 1v1, Ele is a lot more involving and fun to play than the other classes; especially my main level 80 Ranger.

My build consists of something like 0/20/30/0/20 with the utility to drop three conditions, ARcane Shield, and Mist form. I have around 17k HP and 2k toughness. I can put up a fight but I do find it more difficult to down people solo with this build. It happens, but it’s a sloooooow process and any screw ups are felt very heavily.

My questions, however, are this: What can I expect in PvE and WvW as an ele in the upper levels? I will probably stick with staff as the skills are just really fun and easy to understand. I know this is a general and broad question, but I’m actually looking for a general and broad answer.

Also, for Staff Ele, what are some combos I could practice to make downing others in sPvP a little easier? I’ve been trying to chill/cripple and Lava Font people which does work but trying to be too offensive usually means I have to switch back to a defensive and less damaging stance which allows my enemies to recover quicker. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated and if anyone is bored enough to sparr with me and give me tips in-game please send me a PM either here or add me as a friend in-game.

Thanks.

I JUST started my Ele alt and did some PvP with her tonight. I have to say that I really really enjoy the Staff. Using a power/vit/tough build for sPvP, it’s a blast. I’m still tinkering around with it and learning my skills and what combos with what, but it’s fun. I’m getting outplayed by people more experienced with their profession, but I’m also downing quite a few people and contributing a lot to team fights as well.

I’m going to do some PvE after class tomorrow and see how it goes from there, but it’s worlds apart from my Ranger as far as PvP goes. I feel that D/D is a bit too upclose and personal for me, and S/D—I dunno; I haven’t experimented much with it yet but if I remember correctly it is a bit more offensive than the Staff and less on support.

Anyway, from one new Ele to another, those are my thoughts. I’m sure I’ll be posting a thread soon asking more questions while I try out my build more, but the best advice I can give as a GW2 beta tester is just experiment and see what fits your playstyle. If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it.

I picked Necro back up today and have started to learn the basic ins and outs of the class. I’m not sure I have the brain capacity to play a good Ele but I have one of those on standby as well.

If Nov 15 patch doesn’t give Rangers any justice, I’ll just level my Necro to 80 and try to enjoy some WvW that way. As it stands, my Ranger makes me feel very useless in WvW. I think the issue is, with WvW, you pretty much need to go glass cannon to notice any singular contribution to defense/sieges. I know I went with power/tough/vit build and feel like I’m smacking people with wet noodles.

Bring up the map after being stomped. Nuff said.

It can wait for around a minute or so, but it should happen regardless.

Yeah around level 45 ot 50 we pretty much have to keep pets on passive; in dungeons especially.

Division.9618:

Longbow is pretty bad in sPVP. The maps are way too small to use its range and it’s damage isn’t better than the shortbow.

Personally i just ignore it. The damage is too low and it doesn’t really have a large amount of redeeming factors to it other than pure range, which i said is pretty useless in sPVP.

@Cheshire
I find the SB interrupt to be a better one. While LB has 10 seconds less CD (7 if traited), it also has a large cast time making it pretty difficult to actually interrupt something.

I agree. But I use both of them in all aspects of the game so it’s a moot point for me.

LB in sPvP is not used for offense. You use it for defense and support, which means that for the most part it is a secondary weapon or not used at all. I persoanlly use SB for offensive gameplay then when I need to be more defensive I’ll switch over the LB. Reason being is that LB 4 gets you distance and interrupts attacks/stomps/heals. LB 5 is used to cripple enemies or to set them up for an offensive attack as well as supporting teammates with damage and cripples to either force enemies off points or shut off escape routes.

The other skills on the LB are pretty self explainatory. It does have the potential to be an offensive weapon in sPVP but it’s utterly horrible atk speed and autoattack handicap prevents that.

I went with Force sigil but I’m power/vit/toughness spec. I could’ve went with the siigl that gives power on kills, but I don’t think the damage will be much bigger, or very noticeable and since I just don’t want to have to kill 25 mobs after dying (lazy) it just fits. But yeah for high power/crit fire sigil is probably the best direct damage sigil if you’re looking for more AoE damage. I personally just don’t like relying on crit procs very much, at least not for anything but bleeds.

Devs do play the game, they just play other professions.

I actually like the commune idea, as I’ve thought of something similar. But I don’t like anything else that’s been posted so far.

Honestly the 2 and 3 on Ranger LB aren’t bad either, it’s just that the damage on LB in general is poor and the autoattack is far too slow with mediocre damage.

I would wager a good 25-30% of our sustained and about 50-60% of our burst.

docMed.7692:

ski.4927:

It has been said time and time again, the biggest reason you see people hating on Rangers is because the way our abilities currently work, the best we can hope for in WvWvW is to work 3 times as hard as other classes to get the same results. That’s as good as it gets for us.

Our signets are mostly pretty bad.
Our shouts are mostly pretty bad.
Our spirits are terrible.
Our pets, which are half of our damage apparently, are buggy, slow to respond, and cannot attack on the run.
Our bow shots have trouble hitting our target, and are weak when they do.

It is not terrible, and it can/should/will be fixed. However, right now it is quite difficult. I find success, but it takes a lot of work.

1/2 our damage? Which pets are you running and where can I get them?

Wolves, felines and birds all did really respectable damage….. when they actually hit.

I may have looked over it in the options, but something tells me I didn’t.

Can we get some way to change what our mouse buttons do? I’m not really sure how else to word it, but I’m getting pretty annoyed that my right mouse button selects a target (be it friendly or otherwise) right after I finish turning my camera. It’s constantly causing me to lose target. It performs the same tasks as the left mouse button, but also controls the camera.

Highly annoying to drop target just because I wanted to turn my camera with it.

Jay.3284:

Generally putting in a lot of effort for sub-par outcomes.

Sums it up.

I’ve been hooked on the profession for a while now and still do ok against most professions in sPvP. But in WvW I feel, for the most part, useless.

We have a lot of ways to keep mobs snared/chilled/CC’d in dungeons however, and this is probably the best role we can play since this would free up other classes to do the damage that we seriously can’t come close to doing.

I’ve still been loaded down with conditions after activating the signet too. It doesn’t stop people from stacking them on you. May be a bug.

If someone else wants to test this to confirm, it would be appreciated. From what I can tell though, you’re susceptible to any kind of condition based attack regardless. Rather lame.

That being said, it’s probably one of my favorite utility; kinda sucks you have to spend 30 points to get it to do something it should do to begin with, though.

I thought Empathetic Bond already removes all conditions?

Me and a few other guys were testing it a few weeks ago and it was confirmed as a condition dump. Was it nerfed?

So I just recently transferred from Anvil Rock to Henge server for a better WvW experience. Imagine my surprise when I get on Henge to find that the top alliance guild had disbanded and there was no leadership or organization whatsoever, and it was in fact in worse shape than Anvil Rock (if not on par with them).

My question is, why is there not also an option to pay for server transfers AFTER the free one has been used, currently? I can fully understand the idea behind transfers causing imbalance if too many are allowed per WvW rotation, but wouldn’t that also net more money for Anet? Also, why isn’t there the option to transfer one time for free and then one time after paying?

This has only recently started to bug me, I have to admit, mainly because I really want to get into WvW. With such a bad population this week on Henge, it feels like that part of the game is basically cut completely off—it was so bad that one of the other servers were taking our Borderland (entirely) and still had people to spare to sit around and camp the jumping puzzle (around 10 of them) so no one else could do it. Until the week is over, I’m forced to either not play or do nothing but grind dungeons/map completion which just doesn’t seem as fun since it isn’t one of my priorities currently.

Anyway, my situation aside, I’m curious as to why it is setup this way? What are your guys’ thoughts?

I haven’t been playing a lot of hot join the last couple weeks as I’ve been busy with school/work and leveling to 80 for WvW, but I actually find Thieves more balanced now than I did before. They could still use some tweaking (and I think most of this is due to the stealth rendering) but my Ranger can actually put up a fight now which is rather satisfying.

I haven’t been stunlocked/burst down in ages but I have been outplayed more often than I would like to admit. But I think that’s mainly because I’ve just not been playing sPvP very much lately.

Just me though; honestly it has me a little excited about the Nov 15 patch for Rangers just for the simple fact that balance is getting ever so closer between the other professions. Is it perfect? Hell no. Is it better than launch? Hell yeah it is.

So I’ve been on Anvil Rock since launch and have finally gotten my Ranger to level 80 (well, 78, but close enough). I’m wanting to finish out these last two levels in WvW but want to be on a server that can pull off a win occasionally while being in an somewhat organized guild.

Due to working full time and going to school full time as well, I don’t have the time to make mandatory meetings every week, and at the moment I’m currently working every weekend. I realize that what I’m looking for may be a one in a million, but a guild that does WvW events or organizes raids and such during the week would be ideal.

The reason the title says “possibly GoM” is because I know GoM does well in the tier it’s in currently and is definitely better than AR (since they stomp us every time we are matched against them). So at least I know the server can win and that’s all that matters right now.

So are there any guilds on GoM that are accepting members that may fit this description? Even if it’s joining a guild and then running with it’s alliance members, that would be fine. I just need to find a regular group of folks to WvW with since running solo is pretty kitten exhausting and very little fun.

That’s about a normal for those pets honestly. The only one that is spec’d into BM from what I can tell is that 3+4k hits from the Raven, which is expected since they have the hardest hitting pet skills in our arsenal.

My dogs normal hits (when they actually hit) are around 1.4k on heavy armor golem (usually higher on players) in sPvP, and their cripple attack almost always hits for over 2k+. Considering they also have a KD, this is why I love them. Birds seem too fragile for my taste and lack utility—they are used completely for burst and nothing else really.

To answer your question, no they haven’t received a buff. Rangers are still very weak when you factor in pet pathing and unresponsiveness.

ImagoX.4718:

Chesire.9043:

Try using it with Shared Anguish and you’ll notice how much better it is. Without SA it’s rather worthless, but together it’s actually pretty good for dropping target and escaping burst.

I was JUST about to ask of these two Traits went together – the way its written I wasn’t sure if it wound trigger, since the effect is passed on the the pet. Sounds like “yes, it is and yes, it also fires”.

With both traits, your pet eats the CC and both of you go invis for around 2-3 seconds. The trick is that one timer is about 1/3 longer than the other; one being 60s CD while the other is 90s CD. You get the best effect the very first time you’re KD/KB/etc., and then each time after that they somewhat alternate until enough time passes for both of them to reset without being triggered.

It’s really handy. The 2-3 seconds isn’t enough make any largely impressive escape attempts but it is enough to cause your enemy to drop target and then have to kittenget you. In team fights it’s especially effective since they don’t have that kind of time and to waste.

In WvW I decided to take the reduction in survival skill CDs though, and use Shared Anguish instead of the Hide since I’m usually not in the front lines anyway.

Edit: Just noticed deepwinter gave a pretty good explaination—the only problem is that without one the other is really “meh”, especially Hide in Plain Sight since you still take the full effect and it isn’t hard to guess where your invisible body has been flung too; not to mention you’re usually still CC’d by the time the stealth fades.

I had thought about those stats myself as that’s what I use in sPvP, but after thinking it over constantly I finally decided on Carrion armor for the power/vit/condi damage stats. My reasons is that I use the SB/LB combination for damage and am usually in the back. The Power would give my SB some umpf and the condition damage will benefit the SB bleeds as well as using Sharpening Stone with the LB Barrage to stack bleeds on a larger group.

The vitality would obviously be for survival and a little extra damage from the %5 vit to power trait.

I’m not seeing very large numbers yet, but to be fair I’m not even 80 yet, I’ve just now dinged 78.

Redrumickey.9672:

Helps if if the first shot is a stun or knock back and you’re not ready for it but how often does that happen. Looks neat but rather useless. We do need to help in the trait field to many are junk or for pets.

I have to disagree that it’s useless, but to each their own. I run with it in sPvP and it helps out a lot. I’m debating on whether or not to run with it in WvW, but I haven’t tested it enough to really know if I like it or not; it would probably help if I joined an organized guild.

May be handy for small skirmishes and scouting missions? Again, haven’t tested it enough in WvW. Definitely handy in PvE and sPvP though, I will stand by that fact.

Haya jii san.1978:

@Panther Chameleon : About the new “Attack” you are suggesting i have some thoughts on that I’d like you to hear before we make it official; There are occasions where Rangers commands Pet to attack X target while he engages Y target. While that would work with current “Attack” implementation, with the one you’re suggesting that would not be complicated.

Thoughts ?
Discuss …

That was my question too, but for some reason it seems to have gotten deleted or edited. Odd.

Haya jii san.1978:

@ricky markham : Bud, so what we would basically be asking is to regain control of our pet bar, when downed as well ??

Discuss …

We still have control over our pet bar when downed, as I stated. Fairly easy to test in game as well—just go into the game, get downed, press keybinds for pet attack, pet swap, F2 skill, etc.

Which is what I stated just a few posts ago.

Try using it with Shared Anguish and you’ll notice how much better it is. Without SA it’s rather worthless, but together it’s actually pretty good for dropping target and escaping burst.

It’s because the pet is acting before it has time to turn/reposition itself towards its intended target. Just another known issue with pets.

I’ve not had this problem very much, or have just not really noticed it enough to care; but I have heard about it before.

ricky markham.8173:

i think we should have control of our in the downed state. i hate seeing my pet stand doing nothing because i didnt get the chance to switch to another pet right before i went to downed. your downed and fighting to get back up and having a pet be worthless in that aspect just hurts.yes if we are waypoint place pets should stop attacking all together

You can still control your pet in downed state, you just don’t see the pet UI.

The 3 skill is buggy though and doesn’t always work.

The whole pet UI seems too simple to me. Pets should have their own dodge meters and dodge the same way PvE mobs tend to do (even if it’s wasted on nothing, it will sometimes avoid something which is better than what it does now). Add to that, we only control the auto attack and special skill of the pet while more often than not their fourth listed skill is more useful.

For example, let’s take my wolf: His special skill is a Fear but his fourth listed skill is a KD on a much lower cool down. Imagine how much better we could be if we could control when that KD happens AND how much it would work towards just swapping pets for the QZ proc. The felines, if I’m not mistaken, usually have a bleed attack as their fourth which would be great for condi-rangers to stack bleeds.

Why can’t we have these abilities on keybinds? That’s an improvement I want to see honestly, along with the responsiveness improved and the long kitten animations done away with. We need more control if we’re going to have to micro-manage them.

Even with that, I still don’t see us being forced to take anything but ranged pets into WvW; seeing as how I haven’t experimented much with them (as my pets are usually on inactive mode or dead) much, I’m not even sure how viable that is honestly. This is where I sincerely want an option to play without a pet for an increased passive buff to compensate. Sadly, though, I don’t see Anet giving us an option to play without a pet.

The only issue with spirits providing group utility at the moment is that they are utterly useless utility skills after the nerf to them ages ago.

Hopefully however, since Jon pointed this out as an issue, they will be fixed to where they are actually viable to take instead of being total garbage. Honestly though, I almost wish these spirit utilities were tied into pets to give passive buffs instead. That way our pets are very helpful to both us and teammates and we’re not having to use a utility slot (or three) to be beneficial to the group. But of course that’s just me wanting my cake and eating it too, and I’m aware of how that is just being selfish.

At any rate, I wasn’t trying to bring any new ideas to the thread that weren’t already pointed out as I think it’s been done quite well already; I was just trying to get the people that are oblivious to how bad off we are in each aspect of the game, especially regarding pets, in defense of what has already been said.

Haya jii san.1978:

“Grant pets damage reduction from AoE attacks in PvE (+/- PvP ??).”

This has already been mentioned in the thread. A change in that direction would help pets stay longer alive in WvW circumstances and not end up dying from random AoE.

Even with AoE reduction, they are still largely useless due to pathing issues, unreliable skill usage and the fact that they do not add any benefits at all during sieges or defences.

My big question refers to WvW. How are pets going to be viable? In keep defense, in their current state, they stand on the walls doing nothing (lessening our damage); in keep sieges they have to stand beside you doing nothing as attacking the gate with them does very little if they don’t die to the AoE anyway. In team battles, pets fall victim to random AoE or zerg focus fire (since they are melee) and are a big attention sink if you want to micro manage them in the chaos to try and keep them alive, so much so that you end up focusing either too much on your pet to keep it alive and doing little of anything else OR you focus on helping teammates and taking out low hp enemies that your pet dies if it isn’t right on you.

The sad part is, with so much AoE the pet still ends up dying no matter how much you try to micro it while trying to still be effective. I personally feel that we are very lackluster in WvW right now, and mostly due to our pet not really providing any noticable benefit even though it’s our core mechanic.

You know.. If it wasn’t for pets being completely and utterly useless in WvW, the state we’re in really wouldn’t bother me too much.

I feel so kitten with a worthless pet in WvW. Any time it isn’t standing up my butt the entire time I’m in WvW, it seems like all my character says is “My pet is down!” even with reduced swap time for the QZ proc. It’s quite sad, actually. :/

Ravina Gray.4719:

• Removing pet damage as a whole and adding it to the ranger. (??)*

No, no, no!!!!

Why the heck don’t these ppl that want to play Ranger without a pet roll warrior? The whole point of the prof is that a Ranger is only half a player without the pet I’d like to see pet damage buffed it should certainly include some aoe abilities- if they take away pet damage they may as well dump the Ranger prof entirely.

I think you’re missing the point. It isn’t the pet that we have issue with; it’s the fact that our damage is kittened by the pet as it stands. Our damage is balanced around our pet being an active member in combat and that is usually NOT the case, especially in WvW as pets in WvW are kitten near useless no matter what build you’re running.

I love the utility my pet brings to the table (if F2’s were instant it would be great) but because our pets deal such high damage (dogs dealing 1.5k per normal hit, and birds hitting 5k with crits) it means we have to do less. Now if you consider how often pets actually land hits due to pathing or bugged AI, all that damage potential is just completely lost because we have little to no control over it.

That being said, I also don’t want to have to micro manage my pet as well as manage my character. There needs to be something done to make the pets useful that doesn’t make us OP but doesn’t kitten us either. Taking damage from the pet and giving it to us directly makes it a little better (not ideal, I don’t think) as we aren’t losing the damage for something we have no control over. The pet can still bring utility such as KD’s, Bleeds, poisons, etc—all the while us not having significantly decreased damage output simply because it has to circle around the map to get to it’s target.

And about your Warrior comment, if things aren’t changed by the time my Ranger gets to 80, I will probably roll some form of ranged Warrior. :/

With reagrds to pet damage, here’s what I’d like to see:

Almost all damage removed from pets. I would say put their damage around the same as clone damage for Mesmers to where it’s like 0-10 damage or something. Then add a portion of their stats to ours while they are active (by way of a passive buff). That way their damage isn’t as significant but we still get the utility they provide (bleeds, KDs, etc).

All that’s left is fixing their AI and F2 animations so that F2 skills are instant. Thoughts?

SPvP should be 5v5 by default. Save the 8v8 crap for games modes like CTF or TDM if you decide to add them. That will give better feedback from actual pvp players than anything else.

Pretty sure that’s /thread. NO ONE enjoys this 8v8 zergfest on 5v5 maps. Please remove it