Guild Wars 2

Well actually I don’t use the SB for the bleeds really. I use the projectile finishers to keep my enemy cold because my cat prefers stopping to eat and chilled food. Otherwise Chuck has a hard time landing hits.

There once was a person named warrior
she fought forums sitting under the foyer

All the rumors she spread
About cuddles being wed

Succeeded being my heart’s destroyer

Zaeon.3846:

Lol. I can’t stop laughing. The most I’ve seen IRON fielded was 20-25 member per map and yet you read about all these QQ’s and panic and ‘omg their eu coverage is now superstacked’. This is just priceless. BG got thousands of new transfer several weeks ago. Now SoR got no more than 70 IRON’s and bam! the paranoia and panic ensues.

Just have fun and play for the moment.

Zero drama forever

We love you guys. I was just trying to squeeze a limerick into the peotry session. My brain hurts…English is hard. That’s why I’m in engineering :p

Puandro.3245:

Chopps.5047:

So in SSC there’s an npc that sells these fantastic +200 condi for 30s on kill 10 min buffs for a good price of 119 karma. Save your silver! Are you guys aware of similarly powerful karma foods?

I never liked food that gave you buffs on kill, its only good for PvE farming if that. Also 10 mins….. ill take my 30 min food.

Ah, this is the kind of food people run in zergs. It’s really good since you only have to tag one for the buff. Most battles are determined in the first few minutes. If it’s not your cup of tea, I get that. But if anyone knows where to find other foods like it please post. I have tons of karma. The equivalent food (saffron stuffed mushroom) is cheap but the main reason I asked is the 200 power version (plate of truffle steak dinner) is really pricey at 5s a pop. Sorry I’ll try to be more clear next time.

There once was a server named sanctum
To counter their enemies they flank them

But their diet was weak
It was [IRON] they need

now they nutritionally spank them

Thanks for supporting ANET! More content here I come!!!!

I could go for a coke. With my favorite bloke. I hear a frog croke. My favorite armor is broke. My undies are soaked from swimming in Ssc. Yet I am stoked.

So in SSC there’s an npc that sells these fantastic +200 condi for 30s on kill 10 min buffs for a good price of 119 karma. Save your silver! Are you guys aware of similarly powerful karma foods?

Swimwear FTW! Ah, summer.

Infernia.9847:

I have been patiently waiting for this update in hopes flower prices would drop. I tried to theory build a condi/regen Ranger but needed apothecary gear.

And I was going to ask if it wouldn’t be best to use Axe/Dagger & Sword/Torch to keep the condi going but Faux Sheaux answered it already. So the 2nd question is; is it better to build for more condi damage or more condi duration? Or is it best to balance them? Say your gear is apothecary, weapons are giver and sigils are +10% xxcondi dmg type?

So my main Ranger is retired with its longbow and my alt Sylvari Ranger will have a go with the gear. (I created two rangers at launch because I loved the profession).

Did I say those weapons? I like greatsword too because I can close the gap and stun or even frost trap the enemy. GS is diiiiirty in the right hands.

Mourningcry.9428:

Chopps.5047:

You must be an engineer—great display of estimation skill. Here’s an alternative : make more skins and sell them (non-rng) for less per unit but make more money via volume. Of course, that takes more effort than hiding the odds from people who are not as gifted as yourself at estimation. RNG boxes play to the LCD <— there’s my math.

Thanks

As I mentioned above, the problem with offering cheaper purchases is that players can simply use gold to convert to gems, and negating any revenue what so ever to ANet. And then you get the cascading issues there (unfavorable exchange rate, etc.). The number of avaialable items isn’t so much the issue. Rather, it’s the price of the items due explcitily to the gold to gem mechanism.

Chopps.5047:

Btw, again, good dimensional analysis there. 13k gems/skin. Based on the unbreakable choir bell research, I would estimate a drop rate of 0.004% (1 in 25,000)—with an accelerated rate at the start of the event to make the odds appear better than they really are over the course pf the week. This puts us well above 100k gems/skin. Thoughts?

Would agree that drop rate is pretty representative for the Choir Bell. Given that, and the unique attributes and attractiveness to some players, it’s amazing that it’s currently only 68 on the TP going for ~48G each (compared to a SAB skins going for 10-75% of that) – it’s a steal. Simply put, 48G is a tiny fraction of the value of what it argueably would have taken to acquire one, yet, there they are. But this really just goes to show there’s a ceiling for just how much the market will value an item regardless of rarity.

So, that kind of dovetails back into the individual pricing problem. What’s the least you can charge for one of those items without risking losing too much revenue to gold to gem conversion, while at the same time, making it high enough to not exceed the market’s valuation of that item. I dunno.

I’m just repeating this because it’s probably one of the most insightful things. Ty morningcry

Jahn.7019:

Are we planning for the Sanghae/Cuddlestrike wedding this summer?

If so, we’ll spread the word around the SoR community and make sure to do it nice at a fantastic location.

Let us know you two.

Can I be the pink haired flower girl? XD

Calcifire.1864:

Zyphent.2967:

Chopps.5047:

Calcifire.1864:

Zyphent.2967:

PopeUrban.2578:

The flower backpack essentially tells you the entire plot in its item description without any spoiler warning.

Why Anet? Why?

The entire plot? It just tells you what happened already, which you can sort of derive most of yourself. It doesn’t tell you the why. What were his motivations, did he really discover Southsun by chance? What is his overall plan? And what the hell is Sclerite, it looks nothing like the Karka.

Plenty to still be revealed IMO, even with the minor spoiling that did happen.

actually, as far as we knew, canach and noll just took flora samples, we didn’t know they also planted insanity flowers.

also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sclerite
it’s the material that crab and lobster shells are made of (sclera are also the whites of your eyes, hence the eyeball theme)

now why the heck a karka shell has tentacles I have no clue ;P

It seemed reminiscent of wind riders to me, or Jade maw. Does this mean mursaat?

Interesting!
But the eyes and tentacles still aren’t really like the Karka.

this is something a guildie mentioned as a joke about the tentacles, but it’s technically possible and kinda gross:

so far, all the adult karka we’ve seen have been female, they are all capable of laying eggs after all, and the jokes from november likening them to “a va**na dentata with legs”.

if that’s true, we haven’t seen the male ones yet… and if they are similar to the female ones then those back pieces are going to quickly become the grossest things on tyria

Are you in Strikeforce too?

Miiro.3124:

If I was going for Condi dmg I’d just go rabid armor, I’ve done the vitality armor same spec as Chopps said and it definetly can work. I just liked the rabid gear better myself. If you want power/crit you could try running knight/zerker mixture suit and spec accordingly. Can still be good dmg with a shortbow and when you use a 1h sword its good dmg aswell. You might not survive as long as a knight/cleric mix but its still decent.

I totally agree. The only drawback is spending karma and running TA. I personally prefer rabid but as other professions start trying condi’s more in wvw, carrion will balance out more I suspect.

Loxsus.3841:

Can someone please explain to me why Apothecary is better than cleric’s? It’s condition instead of power which I thought only affected our personal self since our pets don’t get our stats. So won’t it only affect our bleeds or poison?

I run GS/SB and I do stack some bleeds but is it THAT much better than cleric’s (especially for the price tag)? And pvp it seems hard with the SB to get the flanking to make the bleeds trigger enough leaving just SB 4 and GS 2 (maybe SB 2 with poison but if not aoe not sure how the damage is on a single target).

Thanks in advance for the education.

(Also in pve/dungeons it seems bleeds are usually in over supply anyway)

The only time I prefer conditions is when I fight high toughness low vitality enemies but keep in mind that apothecary regen is a beastmaster build so you will get most of your DPS from the pet. This is true with karka and true, mostly, in wvw since many run toughness to counter the zerk builds that have been prevalent since professions like warrior made them popular in dungeons. Speaking of dungeons, I run the existing ones mostly in clerics with rune of mercy. I become a PUG reviving beast in Arah.

Ozymandias.5704:

Interesting interesting, mind sharing your build Chopps? I am still learning the ropes as a new ranger myself.

I run apothecary regen ranger like this (people tailor this to their playstyle and there are several other iterations of this build)

0/10 (agility training)/20 (shared anguish + oakheart salve)/15 (nature’s bounty)/25 (mighty swap, commanding voice, or master’s bond if I want to get nasty)

Frost trap / signet of renewal (muddy terrain in a zerg) / signet of the wild

Apothecary or clerics (in today’s meta I prefer apothecary)/ Superior dwyana runes

Greatsword of Life / Rox’s :p Shortbow of Chilling (100% projectile finish chance in ice field from frost trap)

Pets: One cat and one miscellanious (siamoth is good in zergs, dog is good when roaming, drakes are good in aoe and zergs, red moa is good in zergs, etc)

Furajir if you keep talking like that, everyone will think ranger is OP. shhh A growing core of spvp players are already calling for nerfs. But really a great couter is sigil of nullification or general boon removal. If you can avoid the CC and cat you will live. This is just a hard thing to do. Basically, the way you counter regen ranger is conditions and boon removal.

Mourningcry.9428:

Pirlipat.2479:

So again you are saying disguising prices (nothing else is done here) is ok because it generates revenue and a customer has no right to complain because well a company has to make money no matter in which way? That they should not try to treat their customers fairly? That it does not matter which image a way to sell items create? That we should buy and shut up?

I never said it was ok. In fact, I have even said many times that the current method is not optimal for the player.

That said, I don’t have an alternative to offer. Given the choice between the current method of revenue, and no revenue, I have to side with revenue.

Instead of complaining, if it’s so easy, and Anet shoukitten it, why don’t one of you propose a viable alternative. Still yet to see one.

There are examples of cash shop games without RNG, no? Our community loves to gamble (don’t argue about the semantics…raffle, is that better?) so as long as that’s true, we will have RNG boxes. The bottomline matters, sir, you are correct.

Mourningcry.9428:

Just some quick, very basic, off the cuff calcs to kind of paint the picture of what some of you are asking for.
What’s the value of one of these weapon skins? Let’s say there are 1million players. Of those, some (like so many here) won’t buy gems (they’ll convert gold, or abstain), and there are others that simply don’t want them. So, let’s say, half of those players are willing to make a single, one time purchase.

500,000 * $10 = $5,000,000 = 400,000,000 gems

At 125gems/key, they get 6 tries.

500,000 * 6 = 3,000,000 tries

Let’s be generous and set the drop rate for a skin @ 1%

3,000,000 * 1% = 30,000 weapons skins dropped

400,000,000 / 30,000 = 13,333 gems is the value of 1 skin

I would even go so far as to say these are very generous assumptions (only one gem purchase per player and a 1% drop rate) Feel free to tweak it as you like, but you’ll get the idea.

Now, you want to propose to offer them up for 800 gems. Ok. Well, 800 gems is pretty cheap. I would venture that most players would just as well convert gold to gems and get them that way.

But then, as the rate becomes less favorable,some players are going to start complaining about that (happens every time). So, now, you’ve just shifted discontent from the RNG haters, to the exchange rate haters. And they’re distaste for purchasing gems for cash is arguably just as valid as the RNG haters distaste.

So, again. Instead of complaining, why don’t one of you malcontents offer up an alternative with some thought behind it.

You must be an engineer—great display of estimation skill. Here’s an alternative : make more skins and sell them (non-rng) for less per unit but make more money via volume. Of course, that takes more effort than hiding the odds from people who are not as gifted as yourself at estimation. RNG boxes play to the LCD <— there’s my math.

Btw, again, good dimensional analysis there. 13k gems/skin. Based on the unbreakable choir bell research, I would estimate a drop rate of 0.004% (1 in 25,000)—with an accelerated rate at the start of the event to make the odds appear better than they really are over the course pf the week. This puts us well above 100k gems/skin. Thoughts?

Mourningcry.9428:

Just some quick, very basic, off the cuff calcs to kind of paint the picture of what some of you are asking for.
What’s the value of one of these weapon skins? Let’s say there are 1million players. Of those, some (like so many here) won’t buy gems (they’ll convert gold, or abstain), and there are others that simply don’t want them. So, let’s say, half of those players are willing to make a single, one time purchase.

500,000 * $10 = $5,000,000 = 400,000,000 gems

At 125gems/key, they get 6 tries.

500,000 * 6 = 3,000,000 tries

Let’s be generous and set the drop rate for a skin @ 1%

3,000,000 * 1% = 30,000 weapons skins dropped

400,000,000 / 30,000 = 13,333 gems is the value of 1 skin

I would even go so far as to say these are very generous assumptions (only one gem purchase per player and a 1% drop rate) Feel free to tweak it as you like, but you’ll get the idea.

Now, you want to propose to offer them up for 800 gems. Ok. Well, 800 gems is pretty cheap. I would venture that most players would just as well convert gold to gems and get them that way.

But then, as the rate becomes less favorable,some players are going to start complaining about that (happens every time). So, now, you’ve just shifted discontent from the RNG haters, to the exchange rate haters. And they’re distaste for purchasing gems for cash is arguably just as valid as the RNG haters distaste.

So, again. Instead of complaining, why don’t one of you malcontents offer up an alternative with some thought behind it.

You must be an engineer—great display of estimation skill. Here’s an alternative : make more skins and sell them (non-rng) for less per unit but make more money via volume. Of course, that takes more effort than hiding the odds from people who are not as gifted as yourself at estimation. RNG boxes play to the LCD <— there’s my math.

For fast and easy you could run cof for carrion gears. If you go carrion, I recommend dogs. Sword/dagger and axe/torch seem logical here, along with offhand training. Your healing power is low so don’t even use many BM points. You’ll get mileage out of NM and spirits if you wanted maybe a longbow/condi direction. If not, consider MM and signet of the beastmaster with signet of stone. In fact, something like 30/x/30/x/x should work well here. That’s all I got, anyone else care to chime in?

alexparris.3754:

Yeah, I am loving the ranger but don’t want to end up having too hard a time being upscaled 45 levels I guess I will give it a go and see!

Thanks for the info.

Upscaled players usually are more powerful than level 80s. The reason is A) compensate for less utility and 80 players are penalized harder for not havig full exotics than underleveled for not having full rares. In other words, it’s quite common for an upscaled player to “look better” on paper than your typical 80. We also run dungeons on upscaled avatars. This is the strikeforce way.

alexparris.3754:

Ah ok thanks. If I was to go on my 80 guardian instead for example, can I get the bits for my ranger? Is the whole island good or certain parts of it better?

Basically, is most of the stuff account bound and would I miss out on much by not doing this on my ranger?

I like ranger for run speed (my catchphrase is basically “you can’t catch a ranger, son!”, pet tanking, and due to the obsession I have. But with guardian reflections and retaliation, you will be golden down there. Afaik everything is account bound. I might actually start taking alts through Fotm now. Just slap on that evil tentacle looking back or the flower with a +5 AR? Good to go!

@BlusterWolf

You should be mostly killing enemies with your cat (CC/chill/cripple FTW). The condition damage is just there to finish the job.

Tachenon.5270:

Primetime.5864:

I support the RNG boxes, if the skins that people wanted were added to the gem store everyone would have the same skin and that skin wouldn’t be as prestigious as it would be if it were made exclusively for RNG boxes.

Hmm, well, I personally don’t care about the perceived prestigiousness of any skin or item in any MMO.

By way of illustration, if I could have had a Tier 5 Constitution Class Cruiser in STO I would not have cared one bit if everyone else in the game had one, too. I just wanted one for myself. There are no skins or items in GW2 that I want as much as I wanted a T5 Connie, but if there were I would still not care if every other player had them.

I totally agree. Fun fact: I see less Rox sets than fused weapons every day. What’s rare again? RNG items? Riiiiiight.

Flissy.4093:

You are guarenteed to get something, just maybe not what you want.

Now people can stop QQing about them breaking state laws or whatever, because by that logic lucky dips should be illegal for children.

Next thread pls.

I never QQ but I consider it equivalent to carnival games. My family (not the law) has a value system such that these games are a form of soft gambling that is to be avoided. I don’t even know the odds of getting the weapon token which just makes me even less likely to purchase crates. Contrast this with the many non-RNG items in the store that I have purchased. To me—and many folks here—this is indeed gambling, whether or not it meets the legal definition. Lawyers love a technicality—well that’s mine: family values.

Chokolata.1870:

its the sole reason i dont use axes .

The axe projectile is noticeably faster now…and how do you chop firewood in the winter? You still making your drakes bite trees in half? Poor little guys get cold out there.

I beg to differ.

…too…much…over-analysis…must…watch…ESPN…still…too…much…over-analysis…must…watch…news—oh wait.

Primetime.5864:

The only way it is gambling is if your direct ROI is actual real world currency. In this case it is virtual items in a video game.

I support the RNG boxes, if the skins that people wanted were added to the gem store everyone would have the same skin and that skin wouldn’t be as prestigious as it would be if it were made exclusively for RNG boxes.

So you’re saying you gambled for a skin and got one? Well, it’s not my cup of tea, but congrats. It seems you folks fuel the RNG profit margin :p nevertheless, I do appreciate anyone willing to donate to anet. It’s an expenditure for great content.

LameFox.6349:

Danikat.8537:

Now I often get people asking where I got . . . a black moa (items I wear most often) and they sometimes seem impressed that I’ve got them.

You should tell them they need to collect all the other colours of moa and MF them in a particular order.

We do not joke about skins we cannot get. I am extremely jealous of people with HoM pets. I both hate/love you all. T_T

It’s apparently either a difficult or low priority bug because it’s been reported many times and has existed since day 1. Whenever I equip an axe, I turn my back off.

ProxyDamage.9826:

PsionicDingo.2065:

Chopps, I value your input on Rangers. So before I get too hyped about Apothecary gear, could you explain where there “Condis Suck in PvE” theorycrafting comes from?

Probably a good investment for WvW anyway, yeah?

Many reasons. First is that conditions themselves are a natural counter to high toughness and low vitality – since they do relatively low (or at least lower) damage that ignores armour. Most monsters in PvE don’t have particularly high toughness, but most of them (particularly the more difficult ones) have a metric kittenton of health. So in most cases a power based build will beat a condition build in downing any enemy.

Second is a technical issue: most conditions only stack duration, and bleeds have a 25 stack cap. So having more than 1 condition build in any group generally significantly decreases their effectiveness. “White damage” has no such caps.

In short, don’t bother with conditions for PvE. They are quite good at PvP though!

Be aware, this has been changing. Southsun is full of enemies counter by apothecary builds and I’m willing to bet R Hrouda and Co .’s new dungeon will bring more of that.

Zenith.7301:

You can get an apothecary ascended backpiece now. Do the 25 Southsun achievs and get the exotic version, and then in the mystic forge you use it+250 karka shells, 100 passion flowers, and 50 ectos.

Besides that, use laurels and guild commendations for ascended apothecary gear. There’s no point in getting ascended stat combos that you can get with exotics since the stat difference is not that big.

I just need 1 more week to have full ascended Apothecary.

Grats! Get yourself a torch and axe while you wait. I also like shortbow: 100% combo finish in frost trap FTW.

Titan.2937:

ya if you dont like the stat combo (and i doubt you would), dont ascend it, just transmute the skin to another backpiece and save yourself a ton of gold.

My ranger loves apothecary. It was the stats I was, in fact, HOPING for when I first saw it. Anet rocks. If you don’t main ranger, it’s hard to see how much love we’ve been given lately. And the flower goes perfectly with my TA armor.

Calcifire.1864:

Zyphent.2967:

PopeUrban.2578:

The flower backpack essentially tells you the entire plot in its item description without any spoiler warning.

Why Anet? Why?

The entire plot? It just tells you what happened already, which you can sort of derive most of yourself. It doesn’t tell you the why. What were his motivations, did he really discover Southsun by chance? What is his overall plan? And what the hell is Sclerite, it looks nothing like the Karka.

Plenty to still be revealed IMO, even with the minor spoiling that did happen.

actually, as far as we knew, canach and noll just took flora samples, we didn’t know they also planted insanity flowers.

also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sclerite
it’s the material that crab and lobster shells are made of (sclera are also the whites of your eyes, hence the eyeball theme)

now why the heck a karka shell has tentacles I have no clue ;P

It seemed reminiscent of wind riders to me, or Jade maw. Does this mean mursaat?

ProxyDamage.9826:

dinominator.9862:

And what’s with trying to turn GW2 into The Sims with beach barbies?

Seeing as more than half of the game is essentially “playing dress up”…

That said, I love it how people seem to immediately seem to go in an uproar whenever attractive girls with swimwear pop up on a “beach resort” (unthinkable, I know), but nobody means the half-naked dudes that were already there. What happened to “equality”? Where are the topless women?

UNDERWATER COSTUME BRAWL FTW

Dare I say that it’s ok to ‘miss’ a title? Heck, I already got champion, won 175 to 75. Strikeforce FTW.

I don’t know…many people who I know who work for a living won’t be able to get that back for at least a few more days. It seems fair to me. Get Arah armor skins if you want a challenge.

@Ardon

Surely you’re not blaming SoR’s lead on JQ?

MrForz.1953:

oxide.8324:

JQ in third place, who is the king???

The Queen of Blades.

The zerg are behind this infestation in southsun! KERRIGAAAAAAAN!

Tachenon.5270:

I will never pay for a ‘chance’ at anything in an MMO. I say put new items in as drops, or put them in the store as direct purchases, or just don’t put them in the game at all.

I wrote a song about it, want to hear it, here it goes:

Won’t get no money from me!
For kitten RNG!
Cut out all of this trash!
Or you won’t get no cash!

Thank you, thank you very much.

Standing ovation! Btw the free backs are totally awesome so at least there’s that (silver lining).

IndigoSundown.5419:

Assyrian.4827:

We have players under the age of 18 if they do buy it is that illegal(online gambling).

It’s neither gambling nor illegal.

I don’t patronize RNG stuff online, but the way they are implemented is no different than buying a pack of baseball cards or a MTG booster pack. You always get something, even if it isn’t what you wanted.

Yeah, I was taught growing up that things like buying cards for rares was gambling. I guess the law doesn’t always line up with my family’s values.

I really like the new backs—I’ll use the flower and the wind rider thingy—they are, basically, really cool. That is all.

Doggie.3184:

Chopps.5047:

There is a post like this every other day. Thankfully, I research and discuss with others before I make a mistake. Infuse it and wear both or else give it to an alt.

Doesn’t really matter. I haven’t made this mistake myself, but honestly you can’t blame others for making it when the game never mentions it. There should be a popup warning when buying them.

Weird, I never said there shouldn’t be a warning. Why did you think that I was blaming anyone?

I’m not: I bought Rox’s set straight up. Why? Not only does it look awesome, I knew what I was getting. They completely hide the odds from us. I refuse to gamble when I don’t know the odds, and even then, usually, I refuse to gamble.

There is a post like this every other day. Thankfully, I research and discuss with others before I make a mistake. Infuse it and wear both or else give it to an alt.

Goldmember.4368:

PsionicDingo.2065:

Chopps, I value your input on Rangers. So before I get too hyped about Apothecary gear, could you explain where there “Condis Suck in PvE” theorycrafting comes from?

Probably a good investment for WvW anyway, yeah?

I’m not chopps, but run rrr build in full apoth gear. He probably is refeRring to how the max 25 stacks on conditions get applied faster fRom other professions and you will see diminishing returns. But I’m solo wvw its op.

Dude, I don’t know everything. Feel free to chime in. There’s tons of really good rangers that browse these forums: Sebrent, Xsorsus, Durzlla, jubskie, dojo, kenshie, and on and on and on. Faux, gasmask, valroth, and on and on and on. You guys are all awesome IMHO.

I’m in southsun cove doing well against karka with nearly full apothecary. It gives my pets a lot of longevity in battle with the standard oakheart salve / Dwyana rune build. I prefer fortifying bond and agility training over maxing beastmastery (in pve I’ll usually take signet of the beastmaster). Sometimes I even take 20 in nature magic because spirits work very well in pve, despite the claim against them. It’s not a banner, no, but it’s something. And something is better than nothing, particularly when it procs at 70% rate for the entire group.*

The reason conditions work well against karka, and in wvw, is because conditions counter high toughness / low vitality. In contrast, in many dungeons, bosses have high vitality and low toughness, which favors the reflection. Oh, man, is reflection strong or what? 47 second Lupicus kill with 2 mesmers in the group? WHAT!?!

The other unique thing about this build is the way it offers burst. Usually, it’s hard for professions to deal with a bunker but usually that’s not an issue because the bunker can’t really do much damage, particularly if you have condition removal. But a ranger, well, the cat hits like a truck no matter what gear you wear and with perma regen, you’re easily one of the most formidable opponents on the battlefield. Sigils of nullification and other boon removal (dare I say wvw boon removal traps?) will become a counter to all boon builds, of which there are many types.

Right now they are still awfully expensive though, so I’d hang on for a while. There’s plenty of time and regen / apothecary ranger is here to stay in the meta for probably a long time.

*What I find with spirits is that if you place them out of cleave range you are usually okay. They will eventually despawn – you don’t have to recast right away because the spirit boon will stay up for a short duration. When the boss / champion is at roughly 20% health, feel free to re-cast right on top of him. Do not be afraid to use your powerful healing power loaded healing spring right on top of the spirits. Why not? Keep that frost and stone up. Even if the boss drops them, you will have gotten off their secondaries and by the time the boon goes down, the boss is dead anyways. I use spirits all throughout Arah—except Lupicus, where I don’t want them anyways. Usually I need SotW, SoS (traited with signet of beastmaster), and SoR or QZ. I find lighting reflexes too unpredictable to be of great use in many boss fights, however, it’s great in wvw. A lot of people dislike ranger utilities but I often have trouble deciding which ones to load out. They’re all really good.

I think the sword is almost flawless. That’s just my opinion (I know many dislike the weapon and that’s okay).