Guild Wars 2

capuchinseven.8395:

Aridia.3042:

capuchinseven.8395:

We’re one of the best, if not the best 1v1 class in the game, there is no class outside of a decent confusion Mez and a P/D thief that could bother me.

Just what is it that you think a rifle warrior can do to a Ranger? It’s comical to even suggest one could beat me. It’s a free kill. The only way it would happen is if one caught me dealing with another player which was already made clear isn’t what was stated.

Then please start a thread to ask Anet to boost Warrior some more because according to you they seem to need it.

This L2P tone coming from people is getting very old and boring. Doubly so, when even the devs have just said the LB is crap and needs to be boosted.

If you can’t beat a warrior with a ranger, you’re doing it wrong. It is as simple as that.

Amen! Watch out, though, a lot of warriors go into wvw with pve specs extremely weak to conditions. I’ve faced a warrior build that frightens me but I won’t reveal it here.

Durzlla.6295:

Chopps.5047:

I haven’t read any of the responses but my answer is simple: 10% chance to give 3s quickness on hit built into the longbow. That’s all it needs, I think, although poison on the knockback shot would be fantastic, or maybe a stun.

I would personally prefer Cripple on the #1 instead of quickness, i have PLENTY of quickness sources already, i don’t need more.

A Poison on Hunters Shot or an immob/stun attached to PB shot would be AMAZING though…

Interesting perspective…I want more quickness! Especially for the slow longbow. I’m glad you like the poison idea though. Rock on compadre

PS – Would poison + knockback be OP? But ya poison on the vulnerability attack would be sick. It needs work for sure. When I don’t even have the names of the longbow attacks memorized (even after sticking with ranger and theorycrafting it to death and being endlessly optimistic about the profession), that’s indicative to me of severe issues and underuse of the weapon. We make fun of longbow rangers! Really, I’m only using it to defend a keep using barrage. And even then I don’t use it a lot.

I haven’t read any of the responses but my answer is simple: 10% chance to give 3s quickness on hit built into the longbow. That’s all it needs, I think, although poison on the knockback shot would be fantastic, or maybe a stun.

Did the player swap? He may have been using Master’s Bond. In any event, a well trained condition / beastmaster ranger is a formidable foe, indeed.

Just last night with a similar build I was able to destroy a yak and hightail it out of there with Swoop and SotH. The party of 5 SoR guarding it must have been livid because they couldn’t do anything to stop me, although, I don’t feel this build is OP I just think those players needed more practice fighting rangers.

Braxxus.2904:

Ran.3251:

Why are you completely ignoring the damage output from your pet as well?

Because in any sort of PvP setting or most bosses it’s either going to be dead, pathing in a stupid manner preventing itself from reaching the target, walking through 43 aoe’s to get to the target (thus dying shortly), running to the target then proceeding to stop and stand in one spot before attacking which gives the enemy the chance to strafe 2 steps and prevent the damage as the pet moves two steps, stops then starts all over again.

Etc, etc.
Pets are never going to have 100% up-time on the enemy, and yet that’s how the devs balance the rangers utilizing a flawed and terrible presumption of 100% pet up-time on the enemy.

In my experience, pets don’t die that easily when you build for the encouter your facing, be it dungeons or pvp. If your pet is targeted and is dying, remember, you have swap on a 15s CD when traited, 20s CD when not traited. Keep it alive for 20 seconds, thats it.

Use Natural Healing in dungeons with signet of the wild; in pvp, you’re going to have more success with pets that offer CC. No one can survive extended aoe, so control the pet and don’t let it wander.

naphack.9346:

Fine, forget it, my pet just bugs out sometimes and it irritates me.
If the first part is a big no anyway, this thread can be buried right here.

If I said you’ll learn to love it, would that make you feel better? Ranger gets a second autoattack for freeeeeeeeeeeee

Zane.8471:

to the people calling GS a defensive weapon: Random evades dont really mean much when 80% of all damage are AOE and conditions. 1-hand Sword is a way better defensive weapon.

Greatsword has evade on autoattack, Swoop for some of the best mobility in the game, and a block melee / projectiles on 4, along with a stun/daze on 5. Stun + swoop, when you land, block projectiles, swoop again: and you’re gone. In short, I’ll take GS over sword when I have to be defensive any day of the week.

My biggest concern is that when they buff the attack on GS they will, for balance, nerf the defensive utility of that weapon. That would make me a sad ranger. Longer CDs on greatsword swoop or block is NOT cool guys.

By the way, the evade is on the third chain of autoattack; so if you turn off autoattack, then you have access to more control over that skill. Remember, once triggered, there’s only a few seconds before the attack chain reverts to the first animation.

I’m not trying to pick on you but let me leave you with this thought: if it was that simple, don’t you think ANET would have done that? Clearly, the pet mechanic design choices run deeper than you are assuming. For the record, I have many hundreds of hours on this game and have learned to handle the pet. It causes me almost no trouble in that I can’t think of many situations where this matters a lot. Maybe you want to stow versus Jade Maw — I get that. And you can actually do this, just get out of combat and stow the pet.

If you are new to ranger, note that many of us forum visitors have been here since the beta weekends. This question has come up more times than you would believe and the answer never changes.

Why not contribute to some of the cool threads right now, like the greatsword attack analysis?

Really, we need a sticky on the pet stow discussion and we also need a NEW sticky on build advice for newcomers to the profession. I anticipate many more people playing ranger inthe coming months so we better be ready to handle a deluge of questions as the negative posts slowly fade away.

Pvp.2758:

Samhayn.2385:

As a roamer I was wondering what map BG and JQ roamers frequent, getting tired of people who run from a fight to a keep or a Zerg. Well that’s if there are any roamers left on those servers.

I have that exact same feeling!

We definately roam and harass, that’s an important part of the game. And we don’t ‘zerg’; we’re an army.

All is fair in love and war.

Durzlla.6295:

misterdevious.6482:

KStudios.2850:

Description: Ranger assumes the form of random local foliage while immobile.

Reminds me of Mister Nesbitt…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zekiZYSVdeQ#t=1m0s

Something sneaky we can do right now…

1. Hide behind a building, ridge or obstacle.
2. Send your pet around the side with Guard (this turns him invisible).
3. Order him to attack the player/ballista/treb/whatever on the other side (it can be far away).
4. The pet appears attacking out of nowhere with no ranger in sight. I made a thread about the ethics of techniques like this that never got any traction. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/How-far-can-too-far-go

What’s even more fun to do is to do this with a group of 20 rangers all using 30BM a Jag, QZ and Sick’Em as well, those poor unsuspecting kittens…

I’ve been dying to try that for months but not enough people in my guild (or allies) play ranger due to all the stereotypes and misconceptions about the profession. Imagine all the QQing if this became a “thing”.

By the way, as it stands, the jaguar remains stealthed while it attacks and crits on every attack. After the reveal debuff is implemented, will it still work the same way?

No Walking.6349:

infrequentia.3465:

still funny how he is comparing class mechanics and still hasn’t figured out the ranger gets a 2nd auto attack for freeeeeee

An auto attack that isn’t even useful in WvW and sPvP because the pet never paths to the target correctly unless they’re rooted or crippled. Still nowhere near being as useful as ALL the other classes F abilities.

You should try more chills and cripples if you’re going to focus on pet damage for kills in wvw. If you want to try a hybrid build, then check out Valroth’s videos. If you’re set on beastmaster damage like you explained above, then check out some of Xsorsus videos.

Re-evalute your build and ask yourself “does my setup compliment pet damage”? If it does not, then don’t try to use the pets for your kills. And if your build still isn’t effective, try again.

Swagger.1459:

ok this is how it works…

1. select moment of clarity.
2. drag it to your ability bar and set it to either pve/dungeon or spvp/wvw mode.
3. close your eyes and click it.
4. open your eyes and gaze in awe upon the magic list of other professions you should play.

:)

Stun is one of the most powerful control effects in the game. This trait compliments shortbow and greatsword builds. I’m not ANET and any opinions I have are just that: opinions, however, I sure as heck don’t want a 150% stun/interrupt to hit me in wvw, followed by some wolf’s fear or knockdown and some kind of buffed ranger attack.

Serpent’s strike into hilt bash anyone? It’s fun to stun.

I just wanted to say thanks for the great discussion so far. It’s refreshing to just talk about numbers and concepts on this forum without a ton of negativity. Thanks and keep up the positive discussion / testing / math. Rock on!

This is a common complaint although note that a lot of people love Kudzu and it’s also in very high demand on the trading post—and that happened after ANET buffed the way the unicorn looks when shot. Rumor has it that more lore based legendaries, like flameseeker prophecies, but we’ll have to wait and see. For me, it doesn’t take away from the universe because a lot of woman I know, and some men (though not as much) really like the cuteness of Kudzu.

Ryan.8367:

“Read that link carefully, slowly, he says ANET working on pets is nothing new and has been going on for a while after launch. I thought that’s what you were looking for? The original discussion we had was in reference to two rangers using pets to tank bosses, recall?”

Why should every other area of the game get ignored because it’s speculated that 2 ranger pets can take a boss in pve?

Ryan, this discussion between Petra and myself has been ongoing for a week now. What you are saying isn’t relevant. Petra asked me for a dev post showing they are aware of problems with pets and working on it. I gave that link which said just that. Regarding that specific example, that was one thing the dev brought up that he recalled from internal discussions and it’s certainly not the only thing ANET is working on.

This question comes up a lot. Maybe try searching the forums? I don’t recommend longbow in PvE though.

Tibbel, your answers are very different. I’m not disagreeing or whatever, just trying to get to the bottom of it. Why are you calculated coefficients different? I might be missing something.

Read that link carefully, slowly, he says ANET working on pets is nothing new and has been going on for a while after launch. I thought that’s what you were looking for? The original discussion we had was in reference to two rangers using pets to tank bosses, recall?

jkctmc.8754:

Durzlla.6295:

Elitejelly.7462:

I see this is a hot topic.
I agree with rangers need more attention. I always get teased because i play and enjoy my ranger. would be nice if people would welcome rangers into wvw, dungeons, etc.

I’ve never had issues, I’ve had a few “omg your pets still alive?!?” Responses in a handful of dungeons… But It’s usually in fights that its not even hard to do… Like the ice dog giant things in the Kodan instance path 2

I don’t PvE, never have, and never will, but I could keep my pet at my side 100% of the time, and it will always stay alive, but what use is that? Each and every time your pet is not attacking, that is less damage you, as a player are doing, and all the more reason for me to pick up a Warrior and complete the run faster.

In WvW, the pet is virtually useless against a good player, or in zerg vs zerg fighting (something I avoid) because I run solo or in small groups most of the time. Pets have a large number of issues, and saying; “I do fine with them” is not an honest assessment of every aspect of this game.

I usually apply cripples/chills and use 30% run speed for pets, along with cats, and I don’t have a problem making contact with pets, usually. Sometimes I’ll use ranged pets with expertise training and that tends to work out well. The dogs are very accurate with their leaps and with a trap build you’re doing conditions instead of direct damage.

With that in mind, your argument seems to boil down to you want your pet to be able to hit better without depending on cripple, chill, immobilize, stun, or daze; without pet speed and without traiting anything for pets. Am I understanding you correctly? Then it seems your real complaint is that you can’t both run the traits you want to run AND have your pet do reliable damage.

Quarktastic.1027:

nerva.7940:

Actually ranger core mechanic is evasion (it’s on almost every weapon). I feel pets were just sorta tacked on last minute.

Rangers don’t have a single skill that removes immobilize/cripple/chill outside of our already limited condition removal skills. We only have two stun breakers while other classes get as many as four. We only have two very situational sources of vigor.

We do have plenty of evades on our melee weapons, but out of all our ranged weapons, only the shortbow has an evade skill.

By my count, besides Soldier’s runes or generosity/purity sigil, we have Shake it Off, Signet of Renewal, Empathic Bond, Healing Spring, and…that’s it, right? Would you mind comparing these directly to other professions?

So, slightly off topic, but that gives ranger many ways to apply cripple (as well as the only way to make cripple last longer via traits as far as I know: Trap Potency for the spike trap) and four ways to remove it. Signet of Renewal is reallllly good, keep that in mind: sends all conditions from all allies in range to pet, then you swap pets before it dies.

Immobilize, chill, and cripple…what professions remove it better and why? Is healing spring or signet of renewal just no good? Because I always thought they provided some of the best removal potential in the game. Was I wrong in that estimation?

Oh one last thing: keep the pet on aggressive mode in general pve. In fact, I’ve been playing a lot with pet in aggresive mode and feel like this is the best way to play now, overturning my previous advice to use passive. Now, for dungeons at least, I suggest new rangers use passive and experienced ones use aggressive mode. But in general PvE open world, as well as WvW or sPvP, aggressive is your best bet.

20/20/0/0/30 with Honed Axes traited in skirmishing and Natural Healing in beastmastery and dual axes will give you plenty of AoE. To get pets more in the action, it’s good it use a fast attacking pet, like cats, and instead of traiting 30% crit damage from pets like I normally do in dungeons, I would trait 30% move speed for pets. Ypu’ll also want to be able to get around fast so for that use Signet of the Hunt and swap to greatsword. GS will also cleave and it gives you the awesomely mobile Swoop ability.

Run berserker gear and trinkets with runy orbs or superior rune of the ranger OR superior rune of the golemancer, at least for maximum damage. Some folks like to run knights or rampager gear in PvE. To get berserker gear, run CoF and use the tokens for the medium armor power/prec/crit option. To get rampager and/or rune of the golemancer, run CoE.

Rock on! Good luck! Find Dusk for me! I’ve been looking!!!!

Edit: I meant ruby orbs not runy orbs. There’s other typos in there too but I’m on my cell phone so I apologize for that.

To add to the brainstorming list:

Killed spirits gives a condition to the player that killed it

Spirits Unbound is still a grandmaster but, if not traited, spirits are invulnerable to attack (they still exist in the ether so they can’t run and can’t be hit…if you want a lore based explanation)

Spirits have skills, like pets, but instead of attacks, it’s AoE buffs on a CD that activate various boons on players or conditions on enemies within range

That’s all I got right now.

I always wondered about spirits + rune of the monk. How do I know the aegis bonus is applied to my spirits? Has anyone tested that?

raubvogel.5071:

Keep in mind that the warrior is also able to have +20% crit all the time. You can’t really compare it even if you add the pets damage. And the pet may die, may run somewhere else.

You can factor in average damage due to crit percentage by adjusting the calculation so I won’t comment on that point further.

Regarding your point on the validity of the model, note that no simplified mathematical models will perfectly represent every response a complex system gives. With that in mind, allow me to provide even more complexity: warriors have to heal and dodge roll too and are sometimes downed (as well as rangers). Why add all of that complexity into a baseline calculation? We’re still trying to baseline a few weapons before we address that kind of complexity—such as pet death and pet retreat—which varies drastically between builds, playstyles, and pet selection. That’s a complicated problem and gives us some insight into why ANET struggles with this challenge. It’s likely no one here has the tools to properly address that problem, actually.

kidbs.8920:

The ranger GS damage will never compare to a warrior’s because A-Net is always factoring in our pet as a damage source (regardless of whether they actually survive long enough to be effective).

If we could actually rely on our dps pets (cats/birds) to stay alive then our damage with a GS would probably be on par with a GS warrior.

Ah! Baited me into another post! This is true, but isn’t learning the margins by which something is better useful? Note that if we could do this for pets—there’s got to be a way—we could even add the pet + ranger (waiting for someone to say “yeah but pets die” which is a valid complaint. Warriors have to heal sometimes and rangers dodge a lot. It sounds difficult to add all of that into Dojo’s baseline right now. What we’re doing here is abstracting reality into mathematical model and for initial versions of the model, it’s better to break the problem into pieces and use simplifying assumptions).

Also, in line with your post, note that comparing ranger weapons would be more useful than professions…or at least an easier comparison. Xsorsus and I disagree about axe/axe vs greatsword in a pve berserker build and many folks on this forum still like longbow. The problem, then, with this calculation is that we’re not factoring in piercing arrows or path of scars, who’s full damage is proportional to the number of targets hit.

But at least we’re getting some real, hard facts.

Nugget.8031:

Half of the reason warrior GS damage is so much better than everything else is all the damage traits that go with it.

• 12% damage bonus with full endurance
• 9% crit chance bonus with full endurance
• 10% GS damage bonus
• 20% reduced cooldown on all GS skills
• Gain might on crit when using GS (easily stack 10+might in a fight, going up to 25 when cleaving mobs.

Yes, and given the baseline data Dojo has so generously provided, we can easily calculate how each of those bonuses affect the average damage. I’m on lunch break right now or else I would. If anyone cares to make this calculation I’d love to see it. Heading back into the shop guys, adios.

Ah, this is clear. Thanks again for the informative post and direction. Rock on!

Pedra.4381:

Chopps.5047.

Keep in mind that just because they ran out of time in this talk doesn’t mean they aren’t working on it. Ranger pet mechanics is a complicated, difficult issue and it’s just fine that it isn’t always discussed.

Everyone: relax!

Given your “scientific background” and your familiarity with peer review, then you must understand the need for empirical evidence. If your claims are true.

That’s a long way of saying, “I’m still waiting for my link, Bro”. Show me where ArenaNet is both aware and working on the numerous issues faced by Rangers.

A dev posted this a day or so before you challenged me to find the link.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Robert-Hrouda-on-pets-in-dungeons/page/11#post1620086

This is the coolest post I’ve seen in a long time. Most of my data comes from empirical testing because I never knew we had access to these coefficients. If you have time for a couple questions

1) Where did you get these coefficients and data

2) Have you compared ranger axe/axe to ranger greatsword?

3) Would you agree that this shows that 100 blades damage is perceived as being greater than the math shows?

Thanks for sharing!

Manekk.6981:

Xsorus.2507:

Chopps.5047:

Xsorus.2507:

What about Torch?

Torch is fine..

Offhand axe though..

but the lack of talk about Spirits though…

You tried it in PvE yet? I’m telling you, it’s awesome. In WvW it’s really situational though and requires smart play. I’ve killed exactly one rifle warrior with it, blocked projectiles with it, and I heard it’s an effective counter for big crit thives since it’s like a 12 s animation, it buys you time until the thief appears…or, as I’ve heard, if the player is dumb enough to hit you he/she will be defeated.

Can you elaborate on whether you think I’m flat out wrong? Sometimes I am, dude, I can admit that. I thought immobilize was CC the other day until you corrected me and said it was a condition. I’m not afraid to admit mistakes at all.

To long of a timer to really use in PVE, you’re honestly better off with Greatsword.

As for PvP, its the standing in place part..if you could move with it, it’d instantly be better…

Right now though if you use it people just move out of it…

Pretty sure he means you should use it defensively to reflect rather than to do damage and stack vulnerability directly, it’s great when it works but I personally think you get more use out of any other weapon really, exept when farming karka of course.

But I play sword/warhorn and use hornet sting to go into dual axes with Honed Axes trait. My attack rating is definitely higher with dual axes (Honed Axes is +10% critical damage) and just one bounce from the axe does almost as much damage as GS as far as I recall. I will return with numbers brotha. Let’s figure this out together

jubskie.3152:

ChillyChinaman.6057:

jubskie.3152:

To be fair, the other classes didn’t get Robert Hrouda to post in their respective forums. One problem at a time guys.

I’d gladly welcome pet changes over any of the other stuff you listed since they’re active all the time.

It’s a sad day when Rangers are glad they have people talking/listening to them rather than actual changes.

What am I talking about? It’s business as usual. I’m glad I rerolled a engineer and have a kitted-out thief in storage.

So let me get this straight, for 4 months we get nothing and now we do and we’re not supposed to be happy? :/

Also in the vid: They say that Longbow has nothing to protect itself with and they’re buffing utilities so it can protect the ranger to a certain extent. And then there’s the buff going to maul in both damage and condition duration.

inb4 more QQ about “thats not what i want!”

I’ve played this game since the start and have noticed more than a few changes and I don’t even read the patch notes. I don’t want to be mean, it just frustrates me when people mAke wild, emotionally charged claims on this forum. We did not get nothing in 4 months, my friend. And the devs have repeatedly acknowledged the difficultly in balancing ranger because it turns out to be very easy to make the profession OP. Instead, much like their culling system, they have to give the whole profession a look—not just pets or weapons. And then they need to test, test, test…and some of those tests will turn out to be failures but every idea is a springboard. I, for one, confident ANET will once again impress everyone. They are on a hot streak!

Ryan.8367:

“The trait -is- fine though, 3 condis every 10s? With the utility that’s 4 every 10s, that’s a TON of reliable condi transfer and as long as you’re not using a cat or bird the pet will live through it for 15s, you know, before you swap the pet to wipe the slate clean?”

Wait, why should we have to swap pets to get true condition removal on par with other classes? We have to do so much more to get what others get passively (and also have the opportunity to convert condi into boons, and transfer boons to other players like other classes get) and hinder ourselves in other areas while doing so (you know, wearing a condition signet instead of the other useful utilities because we have no traited TRUE removal of condition and using a heal that isn’t meant for 1on1 play at all and has a large cooldown). I’m tired of hearing these workarounds like using bear pet and protect me , popping condi signet and switching pets, or simply switching pets. How about just give us condition removal on part with other classes? How about that?

Why? Well, I’d venture to guess that ANET devs know more about balance than us and the fact that you can swap pets on a 15s CD has to be considered when you balance professions.

You can’t make your case effectively without making a sound, reasoned argument that is well thought out with math and clear examples. You can’t just make a bunch of emotionally charged and wild claims about balance. Some of these devs have spent careers—many, many years—mastering the art of balancing games. Please, all I ask is that you first acknowledge that you don’t have much in experience in the field of game design and if you think there’s a problem but can’t make a solid case for it, like right now, then you should be humble and reserved instead of loud and condescending.

Ryan.8367:

“I think a single burning stack would outweigh the heals.”

Exactly, and by the way engis can keep borderline perma burning in fights so yea , try getting signet of the wild to cover that dmg for ya and let me know how that goes.

Okay, well, let’s see some math. Put up numbers so we don’t endlessly debate about who knows more about rangers weaknesses.

Durzlla.6295:

Lucky Shot.8740:

Evasive Purity is pretty awful for the amount of points you need to spend. Mesmers can trait 20 points to create a clone on dodge. Guardians can dodge roll for a small AOE heal for 15 trait points. Bring Evasive Purity closer to it’s former glory. Make it remove 1 random condition in the same AOE radius as the guardians dodge heal.

I think 30 points to receive this trait is really high compared to other professions but Rangers have poor access to condition removal and a change like this would go a long way towards fixing it.

In all honesty I don’t know why they nerfed it so badly to begin with 1 condi removed on a dodge roll every 10s? How was that deserving of a nerf… -maybe- if it removed specific condition set instead of 1 random it’d be better, like poison, weakness, blind and chill or something, that’d be awesome IMO. But so would one random… It just needs to be changed…

I second that motion, but maybe there’s a reason why? We do get lots of endurance plus protection on dodge roll so maybe that has to be factored into the equation. But, yeah, out of all the grandmaster traits, that’s one I really don’t use at all.

I think it’s a 5000 heal per ally in range; hey, if you had that kind of success on Subject Alpha right away, I have to give you props. If played wrong S.A. wipes parties. In glass cannon, I do take damage on SA though and the drakes saved my hide more than once, particularly on the timing changes in path 2.

After all, isn’t part of a thieves role to simply harass? Harassment is, by definition, making the opponent waste time. I don’t like to waste time when I could be capping.

Xsorus.2507:

Chopps.5047:

Xsorus.2507:

What about Torch?

Torch is fine..

Offhand axe though..

but the lack of talk about Spirits though…

You tried it in PvE yet? I’m telling you, it’s awesome. In WvW it’s really situational though and requires smart play. I’ve killed exactly one rifle warrior with it, blocked projectiles with it, and I heard it’s an effective counter for big crit thives since it’s like a 12 s animation, it buys you time until the thief appears…or, as I’ve heard, if the player is dumb enough to hit you he/she will be defeated.

Can you elaborate on whether you think I’m flat out wrong? Sometimes I am, dude, I can admit that. I thought immobilize was CC the other day until you corrected me and said it was a condition. I’m not afraid to admit mistakes at all.

To long of a timer to really use in PVE, you’re honestly better off with Greatsword.

As for PvP, its the standing in place part..if you could move with it, it’d instantly be better…

Right now though if you use it people just move out of it…

Too long of CD? How so? With axe axe you doing ricochets that really hurt bosses / mobs and path of scars will hit more people for more damage than GS. I know this fr experience so I don’t feel I have to prove it…if anyone has the motivation to check the numbers in zerk gear let us know but I just feel like the reflects (caudecus manor for example) are too good to pass up and by the time I cycle through my skills the whirl is ready again, have the time happening in water field healing people (yes I use drake blast finisher too). It’s better than you think, try it again with 20/20/0/0/30 and honed axes.

Regarding the point about moving out of it, I think that’s part of the point. That’s a lot like thieves who constantly say “I CAN JUST RUN AROUND YOUR TRAPS” well, sure, but by then I’m gone to actually cap points.

No comments on Healing Spring + drakes in terms of melee ranger?

Xsorus.2507:

What about Torch?

Torch is fine..

Offhand axe though..

but the lack of talk about Spirits though…

You tried it in PvE yet? I’m telling you, it’s awesome. In WvW it’s really situational though and requires smart play. I’ve killed exactly one rifle warrior with it, blocked projectiles with it, and I heard it’s an effective counter for big crit thives since it’s like a 12 s animation, it buys you time until the thief appears…or, as I’ve heard, if the player is dumb enough to hit you he/she will be defeated.

Can you elaborate on whether you think I’m flat out wrong? Sometimes I am, dude, I can admit that. I thought immobilize was CC the other day until you corrected me and said it was a condition. I’m not afraid to admit mistakes at all.

No Walking.6349:

They talk about all the bugs necros have
they talk about engineers for like 10 minutes
they talk about eles and the nerfs they need
they talk about mesmers at length

They get to rangers…and spend 1 minute talking about how pets in fractals will benefit from your agony resistance…and how great sword needs a buff.

WHAT ABOUT SPIRITS
WHAT ABOUT LONG BOW
WHAT ABOUT OFFHAND AXE
WHAT ABOUT PET PATHING
WHAT ABOUT PET ABILITY DELAY
WHAT ABOUT THAT kitten SB NERF THAT WAS A “GRAPHIC FIX”

The state of the game today was nothing but proof that they don’t care about Rangers at all…

They buffed offhand axe before and I think, at least, it’s awesome in PvE since I had already been using it in nearly every dungeon. I do agree that GS needs a boost in DPS and I’m really happy to hear that.

Keep in mind that just because they ran out of time in this talk doesn’t mean they aren’t working on it. Ranger pet mechanics is a complicated, difficult issue and it’s just fine that it isn’t always discussed.

Everyone: relax!

This is one of those rare instances where A) your pet is basically going to be fine no matter what and longbow makes sense.

Let’s talk about one positive things about pets: lava in CoE boss doesn’t hurt them sl you can fire and forget if you want. Ya, they’ll get repeated knockback from the flame shield until the cryo lasers are fired, but they’ll live in general.

Also, rather than run down, if you already have a few melee in the group (melee i max DPS), save yourself some trouble and use LB from the top. You don’t need to trait 1500 distance for this…just stand on top of the stairs and if you get the aoe aggro, make sure you don’t let it knock you down into the lava (“doh!”)

You’re talking about PvE right? You can do just fine with 20/20 (homed axes)/0/0/30 (Natural Healing) and full berserker with Superior rune of the ranger. Youtube Faelwan’s burst ranger and you’ll find a video where I prove that ranger isn’t as UP as most people think.

If you want to do huge DPS in dungeons don’t use longbow. Listen, I have Bolt and have run over 200 dungeon paths on ranger. I am level 24 FOTM and would be further along if I didn’t grind CoE and CoF so hard for Bolt. Please, trust me: LB IS HORRIBLE in dungeons and probably the worst weapon choice you can make unless you’re fighting the flame shield boss in CoE…that’s fun to rain longbow from the top so you don’t have to run down (plus pets won’t die in the lava!).

To answer a couple questions here, first, until the condition caps on PvE are fixed, running conditions in dugeons—like at all—is a waste of DPS. That’s why Rampager is ‘t good in dungeons for ranger right now. Regarding mainhand axe, the primary utility is big richocheting cleaves in berserker gear. For offhand axe, Path of Scars—if you line it up—can NAIL like a few dozen 2000 point crits, also, the Whirling Defense is extremely helpful to A) reflect projectiles and to stack vulnerability on a mob. If you use Whirling Defense offensively, though, prepare for possible 1 shots from the boss and he realizes how much you’re being a pain in his or her neck.

According to the Wiki, Invulnerability prevents the application of conditions as well as damage but WILL NOT wipe conditions you already have on you. Perhaps that’s the real issue here and this is all just a misunderstanding?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Invulnerability

“Invulnerability is an effect that prevents the target from taking damage or receiving conditions. It does not prevent damage from existing conditions, fall damage, or environmental traps. The effect is characterized by an ""Invulnerable" message whenever a character would take damage from an attack. It is automatically placed on many boss monsters during cutscenes. It is also placed on downed and rallied players for one second.¹ The Determined effect is a common effect found on certain allies and enemies, usually to maintain plot elements such as preventing key NPCs from dying or to avoid exploits."

20 (10% damage / Spotter) / 20 (pet heals on crit / honed axes) / 0 / 0 / 30 (Natural Healing and your choice of specs)

Sword/warhorn and axe/axe

Berserker gear and trinkets with rune of the ranger (exotic / superior runes)

DRAKES!

Drakes are the key. Their blast finisher in Healing Spring will AoE heal from S.A.‘s targeted attacks and well timed dodges/sword evades will save you from the AoE (I do not recommend Hornet’s Sting because of possible lag preventing it from triggering on time…this is distinct from the auto-attack issue by the way). Along with Signet of the Wild, this build will result in something rangers on this forum keep telling me is impossible:

a) Keeping pets up on Subject Alpha
b) Melee subject alpha with ranger

I just double checked this last night and it works great. This is the same build I used in my DPS PvE video, Faelwan’s Burst Ranger…Chuck can play too!

Remember, drakes do the tailspin blast finisher when they are first swapped! This is on a 40s CD; with Healing Spring’s shorter CD and 15s Pet swap, be sure NOT to swap to drake pre-maturely or else you’ll miss the heal.

And this heal helps the whole party particularly when a guardian isn’t around. This setup works best when everyone stacks and melee’s alpha, as people moving around and causing S.A. to run around will make the fight longer and more difficult.

Don’t forget: Subject alpha has different attack sequences in different paths so be ready for that! Don’t waste your endurance.

CoE, like all dungeons, is hard the first few times you play it because you aren’t sure how to defeat the various phases and bosses at first. If you lose a few times, find a group of regulars and practice together. For me, I run with some really good players (a thief, a guardian, etc) and we’ll usually PUG one or two players. We simply dominate Subject Alpha much like how players dominate Slave Driver in CoF. SA is harder because you have to dodge his attacks though, while Slave Driver just, well, until recently, he just basically took it straight to the face.

Use drakes for the whirl tailspin blast finisher on healing spring for a nice AoE heal. Nice work!

fivekiller.1432:

To quote the late and great Joe Strummer, “If you’re after getting the honey. Then you don’t go killing all the bees.”

Its fine if you want to crap all over everyone’s GvG fights. That’s totally within your rights. Just don’t expect people to want to GvG with you in return. If you’re not looking to make friends and GvG then who cares.

Pretty simple stuff.

That’s a great song. “Heyyyyyyyyyy….”

Moddo.7105:

Chopps.5047:

Dahkeus.8243:

Chopps.5047:

Sebrent.3625:

Two reasons:

(1)
When I’m on my Mesmer and a clone gets popped, I summon a new one and my damage isn’t really impacted

When I’m on my Ranger and my pet gets targeted, I swap him out (if able). If not, he dies and now I have a long cooldown. This often results in the pet being dead and reducing the ranger’s effectiveness as their pet is a decent portion of a Ranger’s damage even if they are not beastmaster spec’d.

(2)
If we want Jade Maw to stop targeting illusions, Mesmer can simply stop creating them.

If we want Jade Maw to stop targeting Ranger pets, we have no option. Jade Maw targets Ranger pets even when they are already dead and Ranger’s can’t permanently stow a pet … any damage or combat action un-stows the pet.

1) No, that’s EXACTLY what people complain about. Because now JM fight takes longer as one of his “shots” were wasted on your clone. And if you stop creating clones you stop doing damage…don’t lie. You know you do. I thought shatter mesmer was the highest DPS build for your profession? Hmm….

2) First of all, my pets aren’t really dead that long. I said “if it really bothers the team I can leave it dead” but usually I don’t because it doesn’t get targeted enough to really matter. Ask the people I’ve saved and helped complete smooth runs with whether they’d rather play with me or someone else. I do just fine. That being said, the fact is that you don’t need MAX DPS for the JM fight. You just need teamwork and positioning. You also need stability to run and pick up crystals and rangers have a lot of stability / stun break / dodge / evade (shared anguish + stability training / RaO / SoR / LR / Swoop).

Let’s just list out the weaknesses of every profession? I mean, how come when a knockdown strikes the team and I’m the only one left standing to hit SoR and stand everyone up, how come people don’t say “WHOA THAT WAS COOL RANGERS ROCK”? Or when I rezzed your warrior pal who still needs to learn how to dodge? Search and Rescue has saved more new warriors in dungeons than I care to count.

Get off your high horse, please.

Whoa, what’s your problem? The guy just gave you a simple straight answer to what you asked. There’s no reason to be a jerk about it.

I think you’re reading too much into my words. Maybe my writing style comes off like that but if you heard me talk, you’d see a lot of that isn’t insulting. Really, it’s sarcasm. I guess I need to use /s more?

Help me out here. Where was I being a jerk? I know she answered my question with a straightforward answer but it just so happens that I disagree with part of what she said.
What’s wrong with that? There’s no need for white knighting here.

Well thing is being sarcastic is one thing, being sarcastic and WRONG is another.

Like this example.

“1) No, that’s EXACTLY what people complain about. Because now JM fight takes longer as one of his “shots” were wasted on your clone. And if you stop creating clones you stop doing damage…don’t lie. You know you do. I thought shatter mesmer was the highest DPS build for your profession? Hmm….”

You were being sarcastic about shatter mesmer being a strong dmg build and implying that they must have clones out. Totally missing whole point of what a shatter mesmer does with said clones. Create them and “Shatter” them to get the dmg.

How long does it take to create them and shatter them? Is it something you can do faster than JM’s attacks? Because most mesmers I’ve played with have ended up getting clones targeted by JM. It happens to engineer turrents and necro/ele minions too. The point was that everyone knows there’s problems with pets but you guys, I think, search too far for things to whine about.