Guild Wars 2

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Its not that longbow rangers cant kill, its just that its inferior compared to other weapons. Mostly because stats dont scale as well with power/crit because our pet. Which is why ranger will never be able to run a glass cannon build as well as other classes. Gimped pet AI, low end damage weapon attacks ect…

Under what circumstances? When? How? Show me numbers that proves beyond a doubt how much more DPS another glass cannon does than a ranger.

What’s that? You haven’t done that? Then stop talking.

Black Scoutsman.5830:

Chopps.5047:

I just tested this with wolf. The cooldown is 45 seconds regardless of when you swap it back. If you howl with wolf, swap, wait 25 seconds, swap again, there’s still 20 seconds left on the timer.

The timer does not pause when swapped as OP is apparently trying to say. This isn’t a “huge nerf”. It’s a minor change to correct behavior that was unintentionally shortening a CD. Relax everyone, the world isn’t falling apart.

Chops, because it seems to be a recurring theme that people are not reading what was intended by my post i will explain it again down here in the thread.

BEFORE TODAYS UPDATE using white wolfs howl would start the 40 second CD. switching pets would then bring up your second pet. That F2 ability would be fresh and ready to go. 15 seconds later when you could switch back to the white wolf, his F2 ability would also be refreshed, rather than having the full 40 second CD.

AFTER TODAYS UPDATE switching back to the white wolf will find you with 25 seconds still remaining on the CD of his howl. You will note that I did not scream about it being a nerf, nor did I say the world is falling apart. I was simply stating that a change was made that decrease the efficiency of pets with long F2 ability CDs, and the change was for whatever reason not mentioned in the contents of todays patch notes.

No, it’s not 25 seconds remaining. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. The CD timer ticks for the proper CD time now, regardless of whether you swap or not. I know you want your broken, unintended CDs back but you’re not getting it. It was indeed fixed.

How do I know it was ‘fixed’ and not some conspiracy theory stealth nerf? Because why in the heck would ANET make a 45 s CD on something that can be reset to 15 s? That’s clearly not intended play.

And if ranger is so bad and broken, don’t you think ANET would have made major changes by now? Perhaps ANET’s devs know more about the game than us and actually have shown that rangers are competitive?

How do you know ANET hasn’t done this? How can you tell the difference between poor play and a broken class? Because I argue you cannot.

I hear nothing but whining on this forum. But me? I love ranger. I pwn with ranger. I do well, exceptionally well. I’m not bragging. I’m not showing off. I’m saying that ranger is competitive.

Would you guys STOP saying this class is borked? JUST STOP. People don’t want to play in dungeons with rangers anymore due to all the negativity coming out of this forum and out of your mouths.

Most of you don’t even understand the difference between burst and DPS so I’m basically talking to a wall anyways. I guess I’ll walk away now while you guys continue to trash ranger and slander my name.

Joey.3928:

Whatever guys

Just trying to offer motivation for others who may have given up or thought their ranger was useless.

In general, the people here are nothing but know-it-alls; ready to condescend and shoot down ideas at a moment’s notice. It’s just like reddit where the hivemind shuts down thoughts, ideas, and people constantly—almost every other post too. If you have an idea, rather than talk about the positives, the goal in mind, or how you could make it work, a lot of times people just can’t wait—CAN’T WAIT— to shut you down, make you sound dumb, and in general boost their ego.

Don’t listen to them. They’re just jealous they never had a fine moment in combat. I for one applaud your efforts. Keep having fun and don’t let other people take their waste and dump it on your day.

You condescending writers out there…well, you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for dumping on someone’s 15 minutes of fame. I’m sorry you’re not the popular one right now. Maybe I should play the world’s smallest violin?

Xsorus.2507:

heh….Guys you’re not getting it

There was this Animation Bug with F2 Pet abilities that needed to be fixed….

You of all people should know Xsorsus. Test it yourself instead of making Pain Inverter Volume 12 or whatever you’re on. The cooldown does NOT pause on swap like you guys are trying to say. Rather, it’s a full 45 seconds like it’s supposed to be (whether or not you swap).

I just tested this with wolf. The cooldown is 45 seconds regardless of when you swap it back. If you howl with wolf, swap, wait 25 seconds, swap again, there’s still 20 seconds left on the timer.

The timer does not pause when swapped as OP is apparently trying to say. This isn’t a “huge nerf”. It’s a minor change to correct behavior that was unintentionally shortening a CD. Relax everyone, the world isn’t falling apart.

Agadar.4931:

If the drake has indeed been fixed, it could definately have uses for dungeons if your teammates are specialized towards laying down combo fields.

They’re still pretty bad for PvP and WvW, though. Their main attack is just way too slow.

Yes, their main attack is so slow. If only rangers had an elite skill that properly worked and also rooted enemies in place long enough for the drake to unload full confusion…

luckyfortune.5071:

doesnt seem all that great of an update…

But no one’s played…maybe it’s good maybe it’s bad. Try it before complaining?

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

sigh boring patch for those who dont want to be pigeon holed into condi builds. Seems like anet is pushing hard to make rangers the condi only class like they were in gw1. I think I might just sell my account, just not worth the headache atm.

You don’t know that until we’ve tested it. Also, selling your account will get the account banned for what it’s worth (if you care/didn’t already know) if somehow ANET ever found out that it isn’t you playing anymore (different name on credit card for example).

Rampage.7145:

Ranger rocks for PVP/WvW, it is bad at dungeons but hey, can’t be perfect. it is still not too bad tho, about 1/3 damge of a melee warrior, considering u have the safety of the range is not too bad, pets stupidity in dugeons is a problem tho. Ranged thief damage is worst and warrior ranged is hits only for about 30% over the ranger, u see big numbers as a warrior but warrior skills have long cast time. I think entangle think will be awesome for PVP using the trap 0/30/30/5/5 build can’t wait

1/3 damage is a huge exaggeration and, if true, it’s only true for this particular build (probably not even counting DoT even though that’s what the build is focused on). I think statements like this contribute to the common practice of excluding rangers from dungeons, particularly Arah.

FLFW.3105:

If you manage to avoid fight you can stow your pet

The fact that you say that means that you’ve never tried path 4 arah. It’s going to get a lot easier after the 28th I heard. But right now, for most groups, it’s for all intents and purposes impossible. And of course people will say “CHOPPS ITS NOT IMPOSSIBLE I DID IT BLAH BLAH BLAH”. Believe me, for MOST groups that could be formed from the player base of this game, it is impossible.

Daemon.4295:

In a duel you should be able to beat a thief fairly easily, as you can pick your skills accordingly. Thief is all about burst, absorb it and you should win. Depends on your build, but I’d slot unguent, protect me, traited sos, qz, entangle. Wolf and drakehound. He did call you out OP, you pretty much have to fight him now.

What is this high school? Call me out? That’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

Agadar.4931:

Chopps.5047:

Agadar.4931:

I’m hoping, praying even, for some proper changes. Sword auto-attack not rooting you in place. Arrows and pets actually hitting their targets. Spirits and shouts becoming viable. Trap-related traits not being in a traitline completely unrelated to traps. Etcetera.

Any one of those changes will do. Literally. Just any one.

However, I am expecting nothing at all. That way, I won’t get disappointed.

Arah path 4 sparks follow only pets; my latest gripe. Ah, to be a ranger is to be universally hated in dungeon parties.

I never find myself hated in dungeons. Usually, I’m the one saving everyone’s kitten with my quick-ressing, Search and Resque, and Spirit of Renewal mass ress.

Also, Healing Spring + Whirling Defense = spraying healing bolts all over the place.

You apparently don’t run dungeons enough to see that.

I’m a ranger. I would really like to do path 4. I’ve spent over 15 hours in that path to no avail. A lot of times people don’t like to play with a ranger either so that’s another hurdle. There’s a bias that “it must be the ranger’s fault” when a group is failing that makes it really hard for me to have any respect for that path. It’s bugged and unfair and broken.

Forzani.2584:

Chopps.5047:

Forzani.2584:

Chopps.5047:

And I quote:

“Quit giving bad information bro.
We can get out of entangle with abilities like Infiltrators Strike, Infiltrators Arrow, Shadow Step to name a few.
AoEs are only going to put them on cooldown, and your number “5” abilities which gives you your AoEs are easy to dodge out of, with minimal damage.
There is no possible way you could kill a good Thief, and if you think you can, I’ll bet you 1 gold per duel, and beat you multiple times until you run out of gold. I’ll even wager 2 gold, and let you bring a second Ranger, after I’ve beat you at least 20 times.
I’ve never seen worse information given on any forum, for any game ever.”

What do you guys make of this? Apparently, this was in response to me saying I rarely lose to cloak and dagger thieves in dubs.

Is this just hubris? Any rangers want to battle this person? He or she claims to reside in SoS.

Here’s the basic claim: “There is no possible way you could kill a good Thief”. That’s a challenge to all of us.

He has called you out. Why don’t you duel him ?

That’s absurd.

Absurd how ? I get tired of seeing Rangers come on here looking for advice only to get bombarded from a special few that say it is easy for Rangers to kill Thiefs. Apparently a thief saw those claims and called BS…which = calling the keyboard warriors out.

That’s absurd.

Fjandi.2516:

That’s really strange tbh. I’ve done lots of wvw lately and this never happened to me. This looks like a bug to me, not sure tho. There’s no legit way a ranger could disappear every 5 seconds even if he was using a siamoth.

Remember, a ranger has access to a lot of combo finishers so smoke dropped by a thief can grant a ranger stealth. But yeah, this does sound like a bug. I just want to rule out anything else that could cause this behavior.

shaktiboi.5194:

CRrabbit.1284:

Last night I used my ranger soloed a 5-men team in wvw (yes 1v5, I am surprised too), in whole process I was like killing all of them for free, it seems that they can never even touch me.
Today I use guardian and met twice VS ranger 1v1, and I was killed both time, surprisingly, in both of time, I can’t see the ranger in whole process (1v1 so not culling issue and more than 2 mins), but I was able to see the arrow coming , so at last I have to use staff to hit the direction where arrow come from.
I have not found what trick to trigger this bug, but all 3 times, me + the other 2 rangers use cat as pet (that’s the only same thing I can recall) , I guess there must be some trick for cat pet to gain ranger perma stealth in WvW.
Hope someone who know how to do that can give us some hint.

Thank you. I knew I wasn’t crazy. Although I’m pretty sure the ranger that did it to me in WvW had canines out, but when everything is a generic “beast” model, perhaps they were jaguars and I just thought they were dogs. They were sleek, slender 4-legged creatures.

I’m guessing since Jaguar has “stealth itself” as a special property, perhaps there is a bugged trait that shares boons between ranger and pet that is somehow transferring stealth to the ranger (from the jaguar) in a perma-bugged state? Or something like that? Or not, lol.

All I know for sure is that accidental or not, I’ve seen a ranger who was unbeatable because they could just disappear as frequently and for as long as they wanted, literally every 5 seconds.

Juvenile Siamoth is sleek and slender and grants stealth to the ranger (it looks something like a beastly dog). (blinding tuft and throw feathers)

Decrypter.1785:

Well ive tryed all diffrent specs and youre best chance to beat a thief is a beastmaster build 0/0/30/10/30

But if the thief is even remotley good youre dead lol

soz hes right

It was never a right or wrong question. His challenge came out of nowhere and I really don’t know what to think of it. It was never an argument. Maybe ANET made wvw such that some classes are better at 1v1 than others? Honestly, I don’t know.

There’s not many good ways to duel in wvw unless you roam, which I typically don’t because normally I’m in a party trying to gain points rather than bolster my own ego looking for a 1v1 scenario.

All I said (and I still stand by this) was that I usually have success when encountering a thief on the battlefield. Whether that’s because many casuals play thief, I don’t know.

I have ~3300 achievement points and have played a lot. I have success against many classes. It’s possible that my own success as a ranger is just attributed to me being a better player at anticipating situations for interrupts or evasion so I have success against most average players? Maybe encountering a thief of my own skill level would result in a loss.

The motivation of this thread was to discuss ways a ranger can defeat a thief. I can’t make much out of your post because it doesn’t really say anything informative. When you make passing mention of the cookie cutter Xsorsus “Pain Inverter” build and say something about thieves being the best, I mean, you might be right, but it’s hard to take you seriously because there’s no substance to the bravado.

Forzani.2584:

Chopps.5047:

And I quote:

“Quit giving bad information bro.
We can get out of entangle with abilities like Infiltrators Strike, Infiltrators Arrow, Shadow Step to name a few.
AoEs are only going to put them on cooldown, and your number “5” abilities which gives you your AoEs are easy to dodge out of, with minimal damage.
There is no possible way you could kill a good Thief, and if you think you can, I’ll bet you 1 gold per duel, and beat you multiple times until you run out of gold. I’ll even wager 2 gold, and let you bring a second Ranger, after I’ve beat you at least 20 times.
I’ve never seen worse information given on any forum, for any game ever.”

What do you guys make of this? Apparently, this was in response to me saying I rarely lose to cloak and dagger thieves in dubs.

Is this just hubris? Any rangers want to battle this person? He or she claims to reside in SoS.

Here’s the basic claim: “There is no possible way you could kill a good Thief”. That’s a challenge to all of us.

He has called you out. Why don’t you duel him ?

That’s absurd.

And I quote:

“Quit giving bad information bro.
We can get out of entangle with abilities like Infiltrators Strike, Infiltrators Arrow, Shadow Step to name a few.
AoEs are only going to put them on cooldown, and your number “5” abilities which gives you your AoEs are easy to dodge out of, with minimal damage.
There is no possible way you could kill a good Thief, and if you think you can, I’ll bet you 1 gold per duel, and beat you multiple times until you run out of gold. I’ll even wager 2 gold, and let you bring a second Ranger, after I’ve beat you at least 20 times.
I’ve never seen worse information given on any forum, for any game ever.”

What do you guys make of this? Apparently, this was in response to me saying I rarely lose to cloak and dagger thieves in dubs.

Is this just hubris? Any rangers want to battle this person? He or she claims to reside in SoS.

Here’s the basic claim: “There is no possible way you could kill a good Thief”. That’s a challenge to all of us.

Agadar.4931:

I’m hoping, praying even, for some proper changes. Sword auto-attack not rooting you in place. Arrows and pets actually hitting their targets. Spirits and shouts becoming viable. Trap-related traits not being in a traitline completely unrelated to traps. Etcetera.

Any one of those changes will do. Literally. Just any one.

However, I am expecting nothing at all. That way, I won’t get disappointed.

Arah path 4 sparks follow only pets; my latest gripe. Ah, to be a ranger is to be universally hated in dungeon parties.

Anyone know how to make the sparks not aggro pets on path 4? I have avoid combat on and no matter what I do, the sparks follow my pets around everywhere. In my opinion, this puts rangers at a huge disadvantage, as well as teams that lack burst yet have good sustained damage. I think the sparks need a lot of work and the dungeon master has a lot of work to do if he wants good dungeons in this game because this is just one of many broken fights.

capuchinseven.8395:

Whirling Defence is the reason I use an off hand axe and don’t want it changing to anything like warriors 100 Blades, Whirling Defence is not sub par and is perfect for killing other rangers and more importantly, dumb thieves.

100 Blades is only any use when timed with Frenzy. If you really want burst for it, time it with your pet swap with Zephyr’s Speed or Quickening Zephyr, that’s one extra option warriors don’t get.

I find it comical that skills I consider vital to my build and success are considered subpar or not viable but I’m also expected to believe that ranger is utterly broken and useless.

Interesting, this is the kind of perspective I like to hear.

Chosen.8207:

I’ve no idea why a game mechanic would ever be implemented which meant you couldn’t actually stow your pet until you wished to pull it from the ether.

This is a complete joke… it’s a massive hindrance to the Ranger.

Forsaken Fortune mini dungeon and achievement – Ranger Pet? Hmm lets put my pet on Avoid Combat (passive). Yeah right lets triple the difficulty due to the pet running all over the place.
Fractals Lighting Highway – Ranger pet? Lets double the difficulty. If you do get hit your pet now counts as part of you.
Dungeons Generally, The open world, anywhere to be honest. Tell you what lets make sure the pet aggro’s half the world as you cant permanently stow it and as soon as you gain aggro out it pops were it follows its own path pulling even more mobs to its lovely little owner.

SORT IT OUT ……

If this was game design your having a laugh…

Can I suggest: “Stow Pet” ability allow the Ranger to Stow their Pet permanently…..when you first log-in the pet will be summoned.

…doesn’t it defeat the purpose of having a pet? ANET doesn’t want you kiting you know. But if you have to, keep tapping “call” and put on avoid combat; you’ll be fine. I do fine and I’ve run hundreds of dungeons.

And, yes, lighting stairs are kitten.

Jay is an angry person, don’t listen to him. He’s mean to everyone.

The point is that the fields would be more effective for ranged use this way. Most of the time when you want to use it (choke point at a bridge), the way AoE is, you can’t get your pet close enough to get the skill off. And I don’t think the AoE nerf will change that since this happens (glass traits) even if no meteor or siege — unless you go bunker. The problem with that is bunker is sort of incompatible with bows. See the conundrum?

Also, if you’re on a keep or ledge, you tend to have trouble utilizing the combo field.

I mean, as a ranger, I want to be able to sling poison arrows if I want, that’s all. I think Jay’s opinion is funny because rather than offer a reasoned comparison of the existing mechanic and the suggested change, he simply derides and dismisses the idea. That’s the sign of carelessness; someone who just wants to bolster ego.

Who would like to see the 4 skill knockdown invaders like pins in a bowling ally? Who would like to see whirling defense change to whirling offense?

These are two changes I would really like to see to make the offhand axe viable. If anyone else has thoughts on this please comment.

Reganov.3569:

What if they made spirits a companion/pet species, functioning purely as a buffer that follows you around.They do not deal damage but they do not take damage either.

A spirit is supposed to be almost like a banner on steroids. It should be WAY better because it’s killable. I mean, to remove the fact that it can die would completely change the direction of the intended mechanic. I don’t think that’s the direction most people want to go.

jkctmc.8754:

I was hoping to see any kind of dialogue by now. Oh well, I’ll focus on overtime for now.

Well, this thread is going in so many different directions…it’s kind of hard to answer anything.

Another ranger on this forum (I can’t remember who) suggested forage pets should behave like the steal mechanic of the thief. What do you guys think about this? Why or why not?

Morellow / devourer combo fields should AoE over the user when called back (or near user when set to ‘avoid combat’), don’t you guys think? I like shooting poison arrows or launching forward in an aura with the greatsword.

*Edit: Here’s an example. I’m standing on a keep trying to defend, I can’t really use that particular combo field reliably. Sometimes the pet just doesn’t want to do it because it has no target. Maybe no one else has had this issue?

I don’t want arrows to pierce by default because

1) In pvp, default piercing arrows would mean, to keep balanced, rangers would suffer a net loss in power of basic attacks. This fact is self-evident – if you buff it one way you have to balance it by reducing something else. What’s even worse is now the trait lines are messed up; from this perspective, seems better to keep it like it is.

2) In pve, I avoid piercing arrows in many situations where I do not want to aggro things in the background. People already complain about ranger pets aggroing unwanted mobs, right? Wait till arrows pierce by default.

I think it’s fine the way it is and there’s other glaring problems with ranger. For one, I’d like to see Muerello etc combo fields enact on top of ME when ranging with arrows with pet on ‘avoid combat’.

Let’s focus on what’s important and not get caught up in trendy ideas. What I just mentioned is a basic thing and there’s lots of problems with a class that has such access to combo fields. As another example, foragers should basically utilize a “thief steal” type mechanic rather than an environmental type mechanic. Also, the ethereal field “throw gunk” needs to be longer in duration. Whirl defense needs to be whirl offense and the number 4 skill needs to knockdown. Well, okay, that last one was an opinion but I think that’s worth it’s own thread.

Let’s keep our eyes on the target with our suggestions.

OreoWolf.9564:

Surprisingly I’ve had this happen to me by a warrior, guardian AND elementalist in spvp today. No shadow refugee’s or stealth walls from thieves were up, as it is visually obvious if there was. They were popping in and out, making it almost impossible to land burst on them. Really hope Anet looks into this, as it is becoming quite a nusense.

It’s called “blind” everyone. It is quite the nuisance if you don’t know how to deal with it. It’s not surprising that people use it considering lots of people (you guys for example) don’t even know what it is. Blind makes it so your attacks miss, not a bug.

Forzani.2584:

Well, I just had this happen to me last night. Fought a Ranger who had a Raven pet and used GS. He stealthed right when the fight started..then 2 more times during the fight…and yes, 100% it was a Ranger because i saw his signets when I clicked on him.

Either a hack or there is another way to get stealth that I don’t know about (since I am new it is very possible)

…oh, and for the troll named chops…I won the fight.

-_-

Guess what? Raven blinds. He’s not targetable because he blinded you. I’m glad you won the fight, good for you. Learn what “blind” means and stop complaining about hacks (yet I’m the troll here apparently).

These guys lost to all the stealth and blinds rangers have. I’m sorry you other classes don’t know what skills we have access to. You were simply blinded and punished for not having condition removal.

How’s it feel to learn that rangers can be a powerful class when properly played? I won’t explain to you how this is done so our rangers have a chance to keep doing it to other classes. Muahhaa

Rangers have tons of combo finishers, stealth on knockdown, stealth on percent life damage, stealth from Juvenile Siamoth, as well as plenty of BLINDS and evades.

You lost legitimately to a good ranger BUT IT MUST BE CULLING! Lol, sorry, but you lost plain and simple

Leucetius.8231:

I haven’t had much luck killing them in PvP or WvW. What I did find that works to end the fight is taking the trait that halves my fall damage, sticking to ledges and, if attacked, work on getting them between you and ledge (this usually requires lots of dodging). Then, knock them back w LB and jump down after them or continue on your way w/o finishing the fight. I run w traps most of the time and LB while making my way to a point in WvW. I will typically use Sword/Warhorn as 2nd. I frequently change my weapons while in WvW too.

In PvP, I just play what I’m most comfortable and tail my team around the map or jump on the Treb after laying down my traps to slow down anyone hoping to take out the treb.

In the end, I think it’s a LOT about environment awareness and playing what you’re comfortable with. I am always change up pets too in between battles depending on what I’m about to head into.

The devs made a post that handed us on a silver platter exactly how to beat thieves: AoE when they stealth, root them with Entangle, then unleash your pet, damage, and conditions on them. You can hit stealthed players…I only mention this because it sounds like you didn’t know based on the fact that you’re losing to thieves which really shouldn’t happen—assuming we have the typical cloaking thief build vs. a condition/defensive ranger build.

Honestly, though, you don’t even need that build though. As an example, I was testing glass cannon builds yesterday and a guy on sanctum of rall found me roaming and jumped me. I did not see him coming. He got a big hit off me (I think heartseeker) and I was down to half health with all my cooldowns popped since I had just finished a fight.

I managed to dodge some of his bigger attacks (2 seconds of protection on dodge), now that my cooldowns are back, I root him, burn, poison, and hit him with my cat. I was downed but he was almost too.

I downed him from the ground. I had my pet attack him. I’m getting close to death so I have my pet move 2 feet to me to lick my wounds. I struck the thief with lightning granted by Mother Nature, then close by throwing dirt. Thief died even after jumping me while my cooldowns were popped. I rallied and saluted my fallen foe for almost beating me. Thieves almost never beat me so I was pretty impressed.

Ranger beats cloak and dagger thief 1v1. The only thing a stealth thief can really do is continue evading such that it’s a stalemate and no one kills each other. But as soon as they try to stop blinking and instead damage me, it’s GG.

Boomstin.3460:

All races move at the same speed by default, it’s just the size of the race and animation that make some races seem like faster than others.

I think OP is referring to pets aggroing mobs which takes you to normal run speed. I’m sure you’ve all noticed that outside of combat you run faster. That’s ANET’s gift to us: you get free run speed when you’re outside of combat.

It looks like someone got it for us…now the wiki says…

Rangers are flexible and durable—proficient with the bow, yet surgical with the sword. They rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature to slay their targets. Their loyal pets, which rangers tame and train, distract enemies while the rangers strike safely from a distance. As an adventurer profession, rangers wear medium armor.

Omega.1473:

Sina.9208:

capuchinseven.8395:

This just sums up how stupid people and forums are.

People are whining we don’t do enough AOE and are useless, ANet tell us they are helping by bringing WvW and PVE AOE classes down a little to help single target classes stand out more, player makes a post of the forum that this is the end of the world and ranger is ruined.

You are very optimistic, they can easily nerf what little aoe we have.

^This.

Right now, the one objectively “good” ability on LB is Barrage. Its the only attack I can be proud of in a large fight. What is this nerf going to do to it?

Not to mention Axe MH’s only real selling point being the bounce on Axe 1 and the spread on Axe 2. Its our only ranged MH option and 2/3 of it is multi-targetted. Will they nerf it too?

If they decide that the best way to nerf AoE is an “across the board” system that reduces all multi-target abilities by X% for each enemy hit by the attack, we’ll be boned. If they instead do it on an “ability by ability” basis, I can’t imagine they’ll be too hard on us, but who knows?

So you’re saying that 10 stacks of vulnerability isn’t good? Knockback isn’t good? Come on, all barrage is good for is cripple and AoE nerf likely won’t affect it. Why? Because that nerf is driven towards trap rangers in spvp, elementalists in wvw (their AoE fire attack is way OP in dubs), and necros (blood is might…if you haven’t tried this skill on necro, wow, it is awesome…and it is going to get the nerf hammer).

With all the complaining going on, I thought I’d throw in some real issues that annoy me about ranger that don’t really have a lot to do with class balance.

1) I’ve played so much that if there is a way to bind “avoid combat”, it is embarrassing that I haven’t found it yet. Does anyone else wish they could toggle this rather than mouse click?

2) Why don’t my pet names save? If I equip a different pet, the names are lost.

A related problem is the inability to occasionally drop aggro. Sometimes, I’m in a place where I cannot be hit, I am out of line of sight, but I cannot drop aggro. I think this affects all classes.

Regarding the pet slowing you down while running, try switching to “avoid combat” and see if that helps.

raGingIMP.8496:

What I think some of the biggest issues everyone has with the class is that the builds that work well in the various parts of the game (BM PvP, defensive condition pressure, Traps) are not the builds that ppl want to use. They would like to be able to be a full archer/glass cannon type dmg and this is currently not especially effective.

You can run 100% crit. build with ranger, there was some discussion about that build a little while ago. Due to the balancing that must be done considering pet does damage too, the warrior still has a more powerful “Kill Shot” skill—but not by much.

With a similar build, I am able to put 20 stacks of vulnerability on a foe instantly if I time it right with my pet, since the pet provides 10 stacks. I could probably get to 25 but when I was testing that build, I was too lazy to try and optimize the build. At the end of the day, I decided glass wasn’t viable. Having a pet does complicate things for people that want to play that way.

The only problem with glass of any kind in wvw is the lack of toughness/vitality for extended fights or melee combat scenarios.

CharlieWaffles.1509:

A Ranger is a flexible, highly trained and rapidly deployable light infantry Soldier with specialized skills that enable him to be employed against a variety of conventional and Special Operations targets.

That’s right. You should update the wiki with that phrase so people don’t get so hung up on “RANGER MUST EQUAL RANGED COMBAT”

autoduck.2837:

You know what the funny thing is? It is the fact that barely anyone complains about AoE OPness, yet these guys at Anet think it is a good idea to nerf them.

I myself main a DD ele and AoEs are not causing the “OPness” . What makes the DD ele strong are our heals, boons and condition removal. If you reduce the AoE effectiveness, all you will be doing is making staff eles even more obsolete.

Rangers have been complaining about pet/spirit deaths to AoE since day 1, pal.

Do you teach? I teach. A lot of times a student will complain about concept A not making sense when in reality they misunderstand concepts B and C that lead to confusion with A.

I think that’s similar to the GW2 playerbase. They see issues and assume that direct thing must change for it to work. The fact is, ANET is smart enough to fix the things that REALLY matter, thus making the game all around better and, maybe, answering your concern—not in the way you might expect—but in a way that gets to the root of the problem.

For the record, I have nearly 1000 hours of play. I have got roughly a dozen exotic drops during my time in the game. I got a couple from the mad king chest, a few from the karka chest, one in dubs, four in FOTM, and probably three or four from dungeons. I’m not sure if I’ve ever got a PvE exotic drop…I don’t think I have.

Hours played: ~1000
Exotics dropped: ~12

That’s roughly one per one hundred hours. And, given how easy exotics are to get in game, I think this works out pretty well. The reason I say that is I get really, really excited when an exotic drops precisely because of their rarity.

>It’s almost like you didn’t even read what was posted.

I admit my reading comprehension isn’t great but I did read it thoroughly two times.

>hey specifically mentioned bringing the AOE skills in line with single target skills, that has nothing to do with siege.

This is what was posted in the summary on reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/16rsh9/jan_17_dev_livestream_summary/

“One of the issues brought up a lot in WvW./sPvP is AoE (Area of Effect). We feel like they are too strong at the moment and a lot of people in WvW are gaming the system using AoEs. For people that don’t know – max targets for siege weapons is 50 while max targets for AoE is 5.”

So they’re going to reduce the number of players a siege weapon can hit (like I said) and perhaps do other minor tweaks to the damage calculation. This is where I got the information that you have a problem with.

“Reducing AoE effectiveness to bring them in line with the single target damage skills.
Major update coming to all the AoE skills – make classes that are good at single target damage stand out a bit more.”

I interpret this as pets stay alive longer underneath AoE so I’m not really sure what the issue is? Honestly, ranger is a hybrid single target / AoE class so I don’t think we’ll be affected badly. If ranger was nerfed in dubs, I can really see people getting really upset with ANET. They want to make us happy because that makes them money. Happy customers are paying customers—particularly when it comes to expansions.

>It is not in our best interest to trust net to make good decisions because they have shown us time and time again that their “class balance” decisions are ridiculous.

This is a biased and generally untrue statement.

>And don’t give me that “software development is hard work so we should just ignore bad ideas”

I never said that. But the fact that you think software dev. isn’t hard says tomes about your understanding of the field. They’re handling their job magnificently regardless of your opinion.

Arsenic Touch.7960:

It’s almost like you didn’t even read what was posted.

I admit my reading comprehension isn’t great but I did read it thoroughly two times.

[quote=1233208;Arsenic Touch.7960:][quote=1233208;Arsenic Touch.7960:]

Lelouch.8452:

i should make a guide about this, bc, tbh totally honest, a ranger should not die to a thief, unless u get absolutely jumped by a thief and u stood stand still.

Why and when should u die to a thief?
1- When you are in combat with half health and get heart-seeker spammed/one shoted by back-stab.
2 – When u r running 3 traps and entangle.
3 – When ur stun breakers r out of CD and u have no way to avoid the whole rotation of basilisk venom>backstab.
4 – When u stand still and get hit by cluster bombs.
5 – Thief Guilds (elite)
6 – When u get outplayed
7 – Misplaced traps

What!? All of that is true?

1- The less health u have, the more damage heart-seeker does, and backs-tab can crit for 9k-11k more or less and that is without factoring haste on thieves.

2- Why on earth r u running 3 traps on PvP when 70% of the players do stuns/stunlocks and can kill u in under 1 second? Signet of Renewal and Lightning Reflexes are VERY viable utilities instead of poison/freeze/cripple traps. U already have cripple and poison on short-bow, learn to use them >.<

3 – For starters, if u run 3 traps, u should die by all means, well deserved. U get stunned by eles, warrs, mesmers, and thiefs, u deserve all of it. 3 traps is a PVE thing to aggro mobs and kill them super fast. In PvP, 3 traps should only be used when u know that ur team is going to be there for u, or* STABILITY* is given out, or u r timing ur RAMPAGE AS ONE for TEAM FIGHTS/1v1 and not Moving from point to point.

4 – U r a ranger, with a ranged weapon, and pets, yes, pets. MOVE, AUTO ATTACK *and USE UR PET*. if the thief is out of the point, no need to stand on the point and get hit by AoE. ur pet becomes an annoyance to any glassy builds out there.

5 – Well, sorry, but this is a legit reason why u should die in 1v1 against a thief, he poped the elite and out healed you. that elite can turn the table when fighting a thief.

6 – kitten right, u got outplayed, learn from your mistakes.

7 – Placed the traps on u, basic stuff to fight a thief. they open with steal most of the time, so they eat ur traps. u will still die if they used the backstab rotation and u have no stability or way to break stuns, so u need better strategies. After the open up, try to cover ground with traps instead of stacking them up on one spot

I don’t know why you have to get me an infraction point; we agree on almost everything and I really think you need better writing skills. Seeing “u” instead of “you” makes me cringe, nevertheless, good luck out there.

*Before a mod. deletes this thinking it adds nothing to the discussion thus earning me another infraction point, listen, heads up people: re-read the quote and be a better ranger. This copy pasta is to spread knowledge.

Lokheit.7943:

I’m waiting for a patch to finally help the Ranger before starting to level my third character which is a ranger.

Right now I love seeing them on opposing teams in PvP because it’s free kills always (and I’m not a glass cannon). From the 8 professions, Rangers are the ones that I have the less problems with.

In PvE when I have rangers in my group I have mixed feelings, overal they tend to be very average / low-average BUT if they pop the Water Field (healing spring) I can trigger it once per second with my Cluster Shot, which means around 1200 healing per second for everyone in the party standing there, so the synergy is great here… but then a Water Elementalist can feed me too and while they last less, they will cast it in spots where people will need to mitigate damage more.

Rangers need a lot of love from devs in may aspects of their game, and I’m saying this as someone who mains a different profession. Specially Spirits!! (one of the reasons I’m waiting is that I wanted to be a “spirit herder” and right now it’s useless).

Email or whisper me in game. Let’s duel in dubs and see who wins. My ranger vs whatever you want. Let’s see who the better player is because if ranger is as bad as you say, if you lose, it will be incredibly embarassing for you and your ego.

Dardamaniac.1295:

The skill is called WW defense..defense not offense…its a defensive skill against projectiles.It does some pretty decent dmg but its not easy to make someone stay in meele range while you channel it.i used to use it in some builds and its cool.Whats wrong with you guys?why do you want every skill to do 100000 dmg in the click?
The #4 skill of the Off hand axe is a bit low but this is for another thread

I agree wholeheartedly.

I agree, pets are affected too strongly by AoE and have some issues with targeting. Perhaps the AoE nerf will benefit rangers due to this fact? A lot of people think the AoE nerf will hit rangers but I don’t think it will…AoE for players is already limited to affecting 5 people.

The devs specifically mentioned “seige weapons” and “certain boss fights”. They’re probably going to change it such that siege weapons hit 15 or 20 people; in PvE, they’ll make certain bosses invulnerable or less susceptible to AoE. I don’t think they’d toy with PvP AoE because that could disrupt the entire balance of the skill system. They spent a heck of a long time balancing skills and I know for a fact they aren’t about to blow up all of that work.