Guild Wars 2

Because Guild Wars 2 relies almost entirely on Horizontal progression, where you reach the exact same level and wealth you had 1 month after launch, I don’t think we’re going to be seeing anything new (except for a new backpack skin, gemstore weapons and armor, and…that’s about it)

stale.9785:

Two weeks of humanity streaming from Kryta into a neighbouring zone that has no humans. Then have the Krytans engage in a couple centuries of genocide, followed by neglect. It’d be more interesting than any of the other LS updates so far.

Then, after centuries of Genocide, we get another LS update where that other race becomes dependent on humans because they are unable to take care of themselves, or don’t want to. Then, human representatives offer that race some funding to set up a casino because its illegal on human lands. Then every couple of weeks, we can have that race threaten to secede from Kryta, even though they wont, they just want more money!

You’re right stale, that would be an interesting LS update!
[/sarcasm]

Brimwald.5894:

Chrispy.5641:

Time Is the secret sauce that makes our favorite TV shows great. Having Good writers and people working on the shows are good and all, but rushing something is still rushing something. And seriously, if the Queen’s Gauntlet had those same bugs, whether the team had 4 months or a whole year to work on it, then there is something very, very wrong.

Look at it another way….In fact, we will. Lets use food as an example… My Dad is an executive Chef in charge of a High end restaurant. One of his best menu items, are the ribs. You can’t just throw BBQ sauce on a rack of ribs, throw it in the oven for twenty minutes and call it a day. You have to take your time preparing those things. You have to put the sauce on the ribs in a way that doesn’t overpower the flavor of the meat. You have to be careful that when you smoke them, you use a certain of wood, so the flavor of the wood gets cooked into the meat. You can just use coal, or it will taste bad. And you can’t just turn the temperature up, and cook those things in 20 minutes. It takes several hours of love and attention to make those things as perfect as they can be. The amount of time you spend cooking the Ribs can mean the difference between something that tastes good, and something that tastes extraordinary.

Videogames are the same way. You can’t just spend a week on something and call it done. You have to take your time. You have to make sure the code is correct. You have to make sure that the cosmetic armors and weapons that go into the game match with the story and is the sauce that people want with their video games. The story has to make sense. But above all, that stuff takes time, and if you rush it, there will be very obvious bugs and graphical errors, plot holes, basically stuff that can make a game go from something people want to play, to something that sucks. The Amount of time you spend making a video game can mean the difference between something that is just good, and something that is extraordinary.

….and now I’m hungry for ribs….

Simple solution to the bug issue is a public test server.

They don’t spend a week working on the content. Bobby Stein already confirmed in an earlier post that they create these things some 4 months beforehand (how’s that for marinating?).

I wish you would have used a different example; my mouth is watering now.

Even though They spend four months working on the Living World releases, how much of that time is spent actually weeding out the bugs and other issues? Its obvious that 4 months isn’t enough time, because some Living World releases (Queen’s Jubilee for example) were filled with bugs. While many of those bugs were minor and no one cared much, they were still a major turn off to the people it affected. (I played the Secret World when it first released. It was spectacularly broken in parts of the game, and that turn off has kept me from trying it out again, even though a subscription is no longer required, and most of those bugs have been fixed now!)

Theres parts of Armor Sets and weapons missing. We already know why. Its tough to make it all in four months, bug test everything in 4 months, make all the graphical assets in 4 months. And how much of those 4 months was actually just concept and planning? How much of it was making the stuff? How much of it was quality and bug testing?

Yeah, I get it. Its hard to do. It takes time. There is probably a ridiculous schedule to keep, but, are you absolutely 100% freaking sure without a shadow of a doubt, that 4 months is enough time? So far, I am not convinced. I would rather Anet take a breather from time to time if everything isn’t ready, and make ALL of their releases the stuff of perfection, instead of having maybe two great releases, and the rest are,…‘Okay…’

That’s all my concern is. I don’t think 4 months is enough time. I was talking about Naruto earlier, and get this, the average amount of time it takes to make a single episode of an animated show can be as long as 9 months, and even with 9 months, some of those shows still suffer. Yeah, there’s different teams working on different stages of the show, as there are different teams at Anet working on different stages of any given Living World release, but, it still isn’t enough.

Imaginos.3756:

Brimwald.5894:

That’s some secret sauce. Time is not the only, or even the major part of something (tv show, novel, game, etc) being great. Having the best writers is what makes tv shows good or bad period.

Your getting the same quantity of Guild Wars 2 content on the 2 week plan as you would get on the 12 month plan, your just getting it as it is finished instead of all at once. The quality is not suffering since they are creating it the same as they would on the 12 month schedule; working on something and then moving on to the next thing. the reason the quality isn’t there is in execution and writing. Just imagine waiting 12 months and still getting the Scarlet arc. At least this way we can have input in the process, and they can make quicker changes to improve quality.

The shorter content release schedule is better.

No it’s not. The shorter release schedule makes everything feel rushed and like you have no time to rest and enjoy the game in general. The content itself is rushed. Southsun is the perfect example. When it was redone Hrouda<sp> said they didn’t have time to do skins for the weapons so they used the generic crap you can buy off of any vendor anywhere in the world. He also said it was far easier to create head/shoulder/gauntles/ which is why you see a deluge of that stuff as rewards. Because the teams are cranking stuff out too fast and don’t have enough time for polish or creating full sets of armor.

Look at all the bugs on each release. Not enough time to test it all properly. A slower schedule would insure higher quality content with fewer bugs and better rewards.

The rapid release schedule has already driven half the people on my friends list from the game including some RL friends. It’s bad when you’re hemorrhaging players.

Time Is the secret sauce that makes our favorite TV shows great. Having Good writers and people working on the shows are good and all, but rushing something is still rushing something. And seriously, if the Queen’s Gauntlet had those same bugs, whether the team had 4 months or a whole year to work on it, then there is something very, very wrong.

Look at it another way….In fact, we will. Lets use food as an example… My Dad is an executive Chef in charge of a High end restaurant. One of his best menu items, are the ribs. You can’t just throw BBQ sauce on a rack of ribs, throw it in the oven for twenty minutes and call it a day. You have to take your time preparing those things. You have to put the sauce on the ribs in a way that doesn’t overpower the flavor of the meat. You have to be careful that when you smoke them, you use a certain of wood, so the flavor of the wood gets cooked into the meat. You can just use coal, or it will taste bad. And you can’t just turn the temperature up, and cook those things in 20 minutes. It takes several hours of love and attention to make those things as perfect as they can be. The amount of time you spend cooking the Ribs can mean the difference between something that tastes good, and something that tastes extraordinary.

Videogames are the same way. You can’t just spend a week on something and call it done. You have to take your time. You have to make sure the code is correct. You have to make sure that the cosmetic armors and weapons that go into the game match with the story and is the sauce that people want with their video games. The story has to make sense. But above all, that stuff takes time, and if you rush it, there will be very obvious bugs and graphical errors, plot holes, basically stuff that can make a game go from something people want to play, to something that sucks. The Amount of time you spend making a video game can mean the difference between something that is just good, and something that is extraordinary.

….and now I’m hungry for ribs….

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

I am also answering a question from many pages ago that was asking about comparing Guild Wars 2 to a television show…

The game can be like a T.V Show, very easily, but, honestly, I’d rather have less Naruto, and more Samurai Jack

Naruto is an Anime from Japan that has released a new episode every week uninterrupted, for the better part of 10 years. Some episodes and story arcs are amazing, and represent the very highest quality in what should exist in Animation and story telling in general. Others are terrible, should have never been made, and look like obvious filler content for the better stuff.
Other shows to compare this to would be Spongebob, Ben 10, and pretty much every soap opra ever shown on network television.

Samurai Jack when it was still being made, put out way less episodes every year than Naruto and other cartoons ever did. Each season ran for 13 episodes, that aired once a week uninterrupted for about 4 months. Then it was 8 months before we saw a new episode. You would think that because Samurai jack put out 1/4th the content of those other shows, it wasn’t as good? You would be wrong! Because the story writers and animators have had much longer to work on it, almost every episode that aired represented the pinnacle of what can be achieved in Cartoon animations and story telling.
Other shows to compare to this would be Legend of Korra, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, the Sporanos, and most other shows that you see on primetime television, in the timeslots that get the most viewers.

Guild Wars 2, currently, is More like ‘Naruto’ or ‘One life to Live’… You have been pushing out content regularly since last year, and while some of it is amazing, and represents the very best that you can hope to see in Video Games and Story telling today, other releases leave much to be desired. Some releases have much more content than others, and some have much higher quality content than others.

I would have to say that the Southsun releases are the low points. last year’s Halloween, Wintersday, and Bazaar of the Four Winds/Cutthroat Politics are the high points. Everything else fell in the middle.

What you should be aiming for, is to make every release, everything possible that you make for the game, to be Top quality. That also means giving yourself enough time to test the new releases until there are no bugs, so you don’t run into the issues that we had during the Queen’s Jubilee release.

If Releasing the very highest quality content 100% of the time means transitioning away from a bi-weekly release, and moving to a monthly, or even bi-monthly/seasonal release (Yearly festivals excepted), Then please do it! Even if I see no new content at all from July-December except for the yearly festivals, because all the new releases and story telling is getting showed to us from January-June, I would take it!!! Because I know that you put the same amount of effort in those 6 months as you normally would for a whole year of living world releases, and that would make all the content you release much better all around.

I don’t want everything at once like in an Expansion, but I also don’t want it trickled to me so slowly that I lose interest. You should also realize that Quanti(t)y Does not equal Quality! Your current release schedule is releasing new content at the pace you desire, but not at the Quality we, as gamers want, or deserve.

My Opinion on the New Map:::

• Looks Neat, but Lower Population servers (Anvil Rock for example) barely have enough people to not be outmanned on their own borderland. I don’t see very many people going to this map, unless its another Achievement sink, in which case, everyone shows up to do it, then leaves a week later.
• There seems to be a lot of new boss mechanics worked into the maps, and they aren’t designed to be done solo (but I’ve heard that before…). Still good stuff.
• Every different thing that can be captured has its own mechanics, which is awesome!
• You showed us almost all of the Jungle area, and some of the Arctic area, but you only showed us the inside of one building in the desert, but none of the rest of the desert area. It would have been nice to see the other parts, instead of watching you get forced choked by the boss for 30 seconds then port away to go show off something else.

In addition to a chest always giving a ticket scrap, one thing I think Anet should do is Always reward 1 Black Lion Key or Always give 1 Ticket Scrap for completing any of the maps in the game. That way Players are motivated to go out there and level new characters and complete maps they play on. This would also allieviate some of the problems with Player-Controlled prices, because most of the RNG risk is now removed, but it will still take alot of time to get one of these tickets, and any player can now go out there and invest their own time in getting weapon skins instead of just buying gems, or hoping that its available on the trading post for a good price.

Edit : Another thing is, only maps above level 20 should give that reward, so players don’t just create a new character and run through all the starter areas over and over again.

uhhh…good question. Its been asked on atleast 100 other threads before already.

You should ask yourself this question::

If a tree falls down in the middle of the woods, and no one else is around, does its life pass before its eyes?

If you answered “But Chrispy, Trees don’t have eyes!” you are correct! It makes no sense, but what I am trying to say is, Anet either doesn’t have the capacity to pay attention (not likely), or, being reasonable here, its safe to assume that its just not their top priority right now, because the skill itself functions properly, and works as intended.

Its always been like that. The F2 skills show what the damage/healing/etc. would be based off of the Ranger’s stats, instead of the pet’s stats like its supposed to.

Rhyse.8179:

The biggest problem with GS is that it’s a defensive weapon, and not the offensive smasher that most people think of with 2 handers. I actually like it for exactly that reason, but the perception of it is coloring peoples view of it’s balance. Also, as a defense/control weapon, it relies heavily on pets for it’s DPS. Conveniently, since you are the tank when using GS, it allows you to use a high DPS pet. Fixing the pet movement AI so they can apply their damage properly and making them stay alive in AOE will do more for the GS then anything you do to the GS itself.

This person gets it.

Norjena.5172:

Chrispy.5641:

That GS Auto Attack can be pretty useful sometimes when you take it off of auto and time the evade (Crazy talk, I know!). Because most enemies in the game have a pretty long delay in their attacks, you can almost never get hit by anything if you time it right. Its I solo champions, and its how many rangers you see on youtube solo dungeon bosses.

And by doing this, your dmg is so freaking low, i wouldn´t care if u´re alive or dead. Better a Swordranger who can use WH5+Junglestalker and die after this.
Then a ranger wo is doing 0 dmg and is alive. Sry this argument is rly foolish.
U can do nearly everything solo even with the MH sword. Or “maxdps” GS Playstyle, which means, interrupt AA 3 as often as u can.

So what you’re saying is, abandon all other ways of thought. Become zealous, and gain an understanding of a borderline pathetic emphasis on DPS and only DPS, then I am playing the game right? Sorry, but I don’t do world record timed dungeon runs, so having a little more survivability is more important than your emphasis on DPS.

I did say it was a pain to time right though, so replacing it with something else (even something that adds more damage like retaliation) is better in the long term than leaving it as it is now.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

I think its very hard to play puppet master with a theme park game and succeed in creating a living, breathing, dynamic virtual world that people love to explore. Even the best D&D dms admit their own limitations in comparison to the group purely interacting, after all.
Look at EVE, or star wars galaxies (preNGE ofc). The reason why they have a dynamic sense of freedom is because the game merely provides tools for the players to create stories from. I think that philosophy can be utilised here as well, even if its just to expand the economy and endgame.

When I was a DM, I made a regular looking hallway that I spent hours putting lots of traps and stuff in it on the walls, that should have taken a little while for the players to figure out….After a perception check, they noticed the traps and tried to figure out a way past them. Then, the players had a really dumb idea of putting giant metal shields on both arms, and just running through the hallway. What took me hours to build was conquered in about 5 minutes. I didn’t see that one comming…

Also, If Anet ever makes Guild Halls, I would like to see a combination of Instanced Guild Halls, and Guild Halls that are out there in the game world.

• The Instanced ones are common guild halls that anyone would be able to purchase and customize.
• The Ones out there in all the game’s zones (and major cities), would be guild halls that the highest tier guilds can afford and build up, but also as a way to show off their influence to the rest of the server.
• All guild halls should have some sort of arena for Guild vs. Guild, 1v1, etc. battles though. They can be static, or the opposing guilds can wager influence and gold, the winner taking all!

That GS Auto Attack can be pretty useful sometimes when you take it off of auto and time the evade (Crazy talk, I know!). Because most enemies in the game have a pretty long delay in their attacks, you can almost never get hit by anything if you time it right. Its I solo champions, and its how many rangers you see on youtube solo dungeon bosses. It also frustrates players to no end in WvW when I do half of the auto chain to start the evade, then dodge for real, do the auto chain to evade again, then dodge for real yet again.

I would be fine to see it go and be replaced by something else, since timing that attack can still be a pain, but just adding more damage to it doesn’t really seem like the answer for me. Neither is giving GS#2 a Blast Finisher that you can spam every 4 1/2 seconds.

It would be neat to see a 1 second retaliation on the auto attack instead of the 1 second evade though. It will deal at a minimum, 250 extra damage to whoever deals damage to you, plus, if you decide to invest into Nature Magic for the boon duration, you could potentially make it last through the first two attacks in the chain as well.

Seeing 1 Second of Vigor would work for me too.

wow…

I honestly can’t think of anything else to say or contribute other than….wow! 3/4th’s of it is exactly what I want to see in a Guild Wars 2 game (which is twice as much as the current living story is giving me) Please hurry up and tell us what you propose for the other years too. Not that it’ll ever happen, but it would be very interesting to see!

The Spores WILL go up in price, is what I am guessing. Don’t buy any until near the end of the event though so its at the cheapest possible price. Their use is rather limited right now, so, they might double or triple in price in 3-6 months time, but I wouldn’t expect any more than that.

Other items have been far more useful, and profitable though. I always buy atleast a stack of these crafting matrials during these events, then sell them 3-6 months later. I have made 10x as much on snowflakes and Azurite, and before everyone flooded southsun and dropped the prices of the materials you can only get there, I made quite a good profit on those too because I bought them early.

Zhaitaffy has to be the most profitable though. I bought almost 5000 back when they only costed 3 copper each. I can sell each for roughly 20 copper today, or I can sell Koi Cakes (which cost 5 zhaitaffy) for 1s30c, which is quite a bit more than what I bought them for, and the price is only going to go up, because the other items that do the same thing as Koi Cakes (Rare Veggie Pizza) cost a heck of alot more and don’t offer that much more time. I can guess that by the end of January or Febuary, Zhaitaffy could cost as much as 50+ copper each (which if I just sell them, that would be 25 gold, which is a heckofalot more than the 1.5 gold I originally paid.) If the pricing trend stays the same though, I can trade all of them for Koi Cakes, and then sell them for 32.5 gold,…

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

DarkWasp.7291:

Amlin.6041:

As a warrior I take umbrage to being called “Aromatic”, pungent perhaps, maybe even going as far as seasoned, but aromatic was just hurtful Anet.

Should have rolled ranger. Only our pets smell, but we can stow them.

But never permanently. It’s tied to your leg at one point or another for the rest of your life.

You’re not allowed to be a lone ranger.

Thank goodness for that, I would rather have a pet than the other option!

Atherakhia.4086:

Well at least we finally know our role/niche… we’re the official pet class of GW2. And a year into the game and those pets still don’t work. Lovely.

It sounds cool on paper to split stats between you and a pet, and that you can focus on one thing, while your pet does something different, but, it only sounds cool on paper. In actual execution, it suffers, because of the nature of the gameplay itself (which is very heavily movement based). For some people, They are only half of their class 3/4ths of the time because their pet is always dead. For other people(like, everyone in WvW), the pet is always ignored, and you go straight for the ranger. I guess going all DPS while having a defensive pet worked out for you really well, huh?

Hedgehog in the fog.1053:

Its amazing to me he said that the longbow is pretty much garbage and that new players should just move on from it.

did he seriously say that?!? I didn’t start watching until near the end of the stream, and there is nothing that makes me want to go watch the whole thing.

Substance E.4852:

Atherakhia.4086:

Ranger traps being underwhelming shouldn’t come as much of a shock. Most Ranger utility skills can be summed up in 3 letters …meh…

I believe the trap only affects 3 targets too? We had a thread several months back talking about how a lot of Ranger AE was limited to 3 targets and don’t recall what the status of this trap was.

But yes, Spike and Viper traps should both provide a field otherwise what good are they?

Yup, viper is still an only 3 target aoe.

Which I am now 100% sure, that the reason involves our pet in some way, instead of being an actual issue with the skills or class itself.

When(or If) you max out the stacks of Bloodlust, trade that weapon for one with another sigil (like a Sigil of Accuracy). You critical chance isn’t too bad, so you could get a Sigil that does something on critical hits. (Sigil of Generosity for example.)

Alukah.2063:

So much hate for Scarlet, sometimes justified, most times just blind hate.

At least wait until the full story is out before bashing the writers, this is just the beginning of the Tower of Nightmares.

So far I see no holes in this living story update. The Krait are on the decline, and would probably do just about anything for the promise of power (…except that!)…(and that!)

In two weeks when Red Salad comes along, that’s debatable, only because we don’t know what’s going to happen yet. So far though, its doing better than the Zephyrites, which didn’t really make that much sense since we were forced to draw our own conclusions from a very fragmented story. Everything about this living story is explained right infront of you by npcs on the map, but I am willing to bet gold that there’s a short out of game story that gets posted on the website that ends up asking way more questions than it answers!(either this week, or during the next update)

I bet we see this….

Nov. 12th Path Notes:::

“Storm Spirit : Call Lightning This skill is no longer able to make critical hits.”

Because visually, the trap consists of Snakes climbing out of the ground . I don’t think I ever heard of snakes exploding into clouds of poisonous gas before. To be fair, it does do more physical damage than the Flame Trap does, and definitely does more than the Frost trap which does no damage at all.

Way back, just a few months after release, I was able to stack poison in the middle of WvW. I stacked it 5 times somehow. The icon didn’t show it, but I saw the 5 damage ticks for each second for 2 second. there were no other conditions on the player at the time. After seeing it that one time, I was never able to duplicate the effect again, (and also never bothered to report it as a bug, because I couldn’t duplicate it)

I’ve never been able to get burning to stack though, But, it is likely a bug.

Griffon
Raptor

…

Pygmy Moa

Apparently there’s some sort of conspiracy going around that Anet hates us and only loves Warriors. That or there’s some sort of reason why we absolutely have to transform and “grow larger” like our pet does in order for the signet to work. That, or both reasons I just gave, and any other reasons anyone could possibly come up with are dumb reasons because other classes that have access to non-elite stability aren’t handicapped like we are. Personally, I think its the last one.

I don’t wanna click on a link! I’m too lazy! Can’t you atleast list some of the major points of the video that you agree with instead of just posting a link?

I’m working on it, turning those trait ideas into useable (and not purposly OP) traits, but first! I have another few trait ideas that will make other professions cry out from every corner of the world “WOLF! ITS A WOLF!”……sorry, wrong story, I mean “OP!! ITS TOO OP!!!!”

So anyways, I noticed that aside from the Ranger’s ability to inflict the chill condition, we also have 7 pets that can inflict the condition. You know what though? I never see anyone take these critters along as pets. Its either because of long cooldowns, or they are bugged.

You know what we should get (aside from fixing the bugs?), that would make everyone scream out across the land at how hard it suddenly becomes to kill us (which they might even if all Ranger bugs were fixed?) We should get a new Trait in Wilderness Survival that lets us deal more condition damage.

Spirit of Winter Wilderness Survival
Effect 1 : Chill deals damage. (You and Pet)
Effect 2 : Chill lasts 25% longer when inflicted by your pet.

How it works
(1) – Pets – if you have Malicious Training and this trait, Chill will last 75% longer than normal. That should make about 1/6th of our pets a little more useful, expecially since some, like the polar bear, apply it for a pathetically short amount of time, with some awfully long cooldowns.

(2) – Rangers -The Ranger himself has a few ways to access Chill. First, its on their Axe #3 (Winter’s Bite), plus they have a Frost Trap, and a Spirit of Frost, that can both also apply it. There’s an ice field that really helps when you use attacks like Axe #2 (Splitblade), There’s also a Sigil that applies it on weapon swap, a food that applies it at night, and there’s also alot of runes that can help you apply it as well, etc. So, yeah, you have no problems there.

(3) – Damage – I’m not actually sure what the damage should be for something like this. The Damage that Poison does is on the low end (84 + 10% of Condition Damage), and the damage that Fear does(necro’s traited with terror) is on the high end(302 + 25% of Condition Damage).

Other Notes

• This would make the Mainhand Axe more useful and probably cement its role a little more as a condition weapon, instead of “what the heck does it do?!?”

• The Frost Trap would actually do damage instead of just sitting there, only applying one condition.

• I am not suggesting that it replace any other trait. I am just suggesting that it be added as another option. Seriously, who really thinks that we must have only 12 major traits, from release to when this game gets the nails in the coffin?

• “Well, Wait a minute, Chrispy! Why Rangers? Shouldn’t Elementalists be getting something like this?” Why yes, Elementalists should be getting, probably the exact same trait, just with a different second effect, since, you know, they aren’t gifted and/or hated enough to have a pet thrown on them that they have to micromanage all the time. But, this is the Ranger Forums, and I rarely play Elementalists, so you could go make a similar suggestion there, or in the suggestions forum.

• I actually tried for once to not make an OP idea/suggestion, but I am sure that someone is going to to call it that anyways. I did however, use way more sarcasm than normal.

So there! What do you guys think of this? Do you like it? Hate it? You’re going to give up all hope for Rangers and your going to go reroll a Warrior? Is it still too OP?

Rabid gear…(rampger’s if you are feeling really suicidal!)
Take a Warhorn with an Earth Sigil..
have Sharpened Edges as a trait. Use offhand training for more range.

Use Hunter’s Call on an unsuspecting Player, and watch them dodge and flail around wondering how they got so many bleeds on them so fast (low end for bleeds is like 4-6, high end is 20+, depending on how merciful the RNG gods are feeling at that moment). If its a more inexperienced player, they will end up losing 30-40%+ of their health before they even realize what happened. Just to make it better run over there and throw down some traps, and use a pet with CC skills(like the Wolf).

I don’t run condition builds very often, so I can’t help you out with the survivability issues.

stale.9785:

Chirspy – based on your views in previous threads, you and I will never agree on things. I say ranger, as it is, is hopelessy broken – you’re one who disagrees.

Chrispy/DeceiverX – the 15% crit chance is taken DIRECTLY from guardians. If it’s not OP for them as a grandmaster trait, it’s not OP for us either.

(1) – Darn right I disagree! I don’t think the ranger is hopelessly broken, but it does need some tweaks to its traits here and there.

For example, why does Two Handed Training only increase damage by 5% when wielding Greatsword and Spears, but, the Warrior’s Slashing Power trait increases it by 10%? (Guardian’s trait is only 5%, but also has an added effect) What reason could there be? (mesmers in my opinion are even worse off than we are as far as greatswords go, just saying…)

(2) – oops….yeah I actually did forget about that one…

stale.9785:

Conceded. I’m off, wrong, and gave the wrong number. I’m bad, terrible at math, and that’s STILL far too many pet related traits/skills. To me, the signets are the worst offenders.

Caveslug – F2 should interrupt whatever action the pet is preforming. It doesn’t, but we should keep demanding this until they get the idea.

Signets and Shouts both (and the unresponsive Pet F2), I agree with you on those parts!

stale.9785:

Chirspy – open up the wiki, grab ranger traits, start counting. Like every class, we get 75 traits. Of those 51 are pet tied traits. That is, 51 of them are either “your pet” or “you and your pet”.

That’s why there are so many changes to trait locations and traits in my other thread.

…Okay…

MARKSMANSHIP
Opening Strike – You
Alpha Training – Pet
Precise Strike – You and Pet
Steady Focus – You
Malicious Training – Pet
Keen Edge – You
Signet Mastery – You and Pet
Predator’s Instinct – You
Beastmaster’s Bond – You and Pet
Spotter – You
Piercing Arrows – You
Beastmaster’s Might – You and Pet
Eagle Eye – You
Signet of the Beastmaster – You
Remorseless – You and Pet

Skirmishing
Tail Wind – You
Furious Grip – You
Hunter’s Tactics – You
Pet’s Prowess – Pet
Sharpended Edges – You
Trapper’s Defense – You
Primal Reflexes – You
Comapnion’s Might – Pet
Agility Training – Pet
Carnivorous Appetite – Pet
Trapper’s Expertise – You
Honed Axes – You
Quick Draw – You
Trap Potency – You
Moment of Clarity – You and Pet

Wilderness Survival
Natural Vigor – You
Companion’s Defense – You and Pet
Peak Strength – You
Soften the Fall – You
Healer’s Celerity – You
Shared Anguish – You and Pet
Vigorous Renewal – You
Expertise Training – Pet
Wilderness Knowledge – You
Off-Hand Training – You
Oakheart Salve – You
Hide in Plain Sight – You
Martial Mastery – You
Empathic Bond – You and Pet
Bark Skin – You and Pet

Nature Magic
Rejuvenation – You
Fortifying Bond – Pet
Bountiful Hunter – You and Pet
Circle of Life – You
Concentration Training – Pet
Nature’s Bounty – You
Vigorous Spirits – You
Strength of Spirit – You
Nature’s Protection – You
Nature’s Vengeance – You
Evasive Purity – You
Two Handed Training – You
Enlargement – You and Pet
Spirits Unbound – You
Nature’s Voice – You and Pet

Beastmastery
Instinctual Bond – You and Pet
Loud Whistle – Pet
Nature’s Wrath – You
Speed Training – Pet
Master’s Bond – Pet
Shout Mastery – You and Pet
Compassion Training – Pet
Commanding Voice – Pet
Mighty Swap – Pet
Rending Attacks – Pet
Stability Training – Pet
Intimidation Training – Pet
Vigorous Training – Pet
Zephry’s Speed – You and Pet
Natural Healing – You and Pet

Total that affects:::
Only You : 39
You and Pet : 17
Only Pet : 19

I’m seeing only 36 traits that affect only your pet, or affect the pet and you in some way, not 51. the other 39 only affect you or your skills only (many of them will affect the pet after taking fortifying bond, but not before). I may have missed one or two things, but not 15. While 36:39 is still a ridiculous ratio, its not wht you say it is.

DeceiverX.8361:

Chrispy.5641:

Well, atleast you didn’t suggest to make the pet optional or completely redo the class mechanic in this thread. And also I agree with this person.

Seems to me like that’s one of the intended suggestions.

One must consider this, though: Why does an opinion supporting the requirement of pets matter more than an opinion disliking the mechanic and either asking for the possibility of not playing into it, or simply an alternative?

No opinion matters more than the other. Fact of the matter is that one of the opinions’ desired style of play isn’t accounted for in any class or build in the game.

This is the ideology I never understood about people who argue with the concept of the option of perma-stowing the pet; nobody’s asking for pet nerfs, just the ability to play in different ways. The easiest way of doing that is to simply modify the ranger tree/weapon skills, rather than implement either a whole new class or weapon paradigms with another existing class which makes sense (thief, ele).

But with proper discussion, if this thread stays maintained, I could see both groups of players (archers and beastmasters) appreciating the suggested changes.

I think that what I said went over your head a little. If you frequent the forums and read on how many people want a simple “Stow pet, give rangers more DPS” option, you would understand why I made that comment.

Also, no, I do not like the trait suggestions.

• Moving the Traps into Wilderness survival now forces me to choose between traps, and survival options, as opposed to what I do now, with a Rabid build, and pick both.
• I now have to invest into a grandmaster trait to get ground target traps instead of a master.
• In order to be good with Traps, I now have to take 3 traits instead of 2, instead of getting to invest that trait into something else.
• Empathic bond was moved to Beastmastery, so, If I want the passive condition removal, I now have to invest into beastmastery instead of just wilderness survival.
• The reason why Spotter was in Marksmanship is so that way you can’t just get 150 points of free precision,…by investing into precision.
• which brings me to this….Why Practiced Stance? Sure the 15% increased critical chance is pretty good, but that is the equivelant of 315 extra points of precision, just for using the sword or axe? uh…I know I’ve suggested OP stuff before, but, that’s, kind of insane.
• Where the heck is Nature’s Wrath? While you might not think it was that useful, It is for certain builds (like with Cleric gear, or getting some extra power (because its nonexistent) with Apothecary or Magi gear). Removing a Trait because you don’t use it is not enough justification for suggesting that we get rid of it.
• I like Zephry’s Speed. You made it a Master-Minor trait instead of a Grandmaster-Major trait like it was before, and also gave us 1 more second of quickness than before. You made it more powerful while requiring less investment….Probably too OP(even for me!).

I like some trait suggestions, like Melandru’s Wrath, but for almost everything else…I could go on for a week if I had the time to, but I can’t…until tonight that is. But, here’s a few already, which I think are all very reasonable concerns for the suggestions made (especially since the suggestions seem to favor bows and pets mostly, while screwing everything else in the process.)

I wanted to earlier, but, I still want to ask….

I agree that 8 utility skills are tied to the pet (40% of our utility skills),…but, What of the 51 of the Ranger’s 75 traits are directly tied to their pets? I think you overstated that number just a little.

Renn.8241:

NemesiS.6749:

since in wvw pet are useless well better to have him by my side and remove condition/take damage for me lol

Pets are only useless if you want them to be – a true ranger will take to account that your playing a ranger it has a PET and it account for MOST of your DPS

Which…It should be said, that a majority of Ranger players do not take their pets into account at all, because they think pets are always useless.

Another Thread, another list of changes that seeks to totally redesign everything. Well, atleast you didn’t suggest to make the pet optional or completely redo the class mechanic in this thread. And also I agree with this person.

whyme.3281:

I dont think, that sorting the traits that way would be the best sollution. If I want to play a High damage bow/bow sniper-ranger I would need about 70 Points in Marksmanship.
And still the 300 precision and 30% crit damage of skirmishing.

I think some specific traits need to be in other traitlines, otherweise there will allways be a lose-lose situation.

Zaxares.5419:

Taku.6352:

One skillpoint per day would be very trivial since you can get a dozen scrolls just by running frostgorge champ train for few hours.

Another reason why the Champ trains need to be hit with diminishing returns.

And once they do, Anet adds a different source of farming.

Rangers have way more issues than what was described here, but I am not completely convinced that just doing away with pets (except for beastmastery) and giving Ranger’s a completely different mechanic is the right way to go. Pets, for all their flaws, give rangers a HUGE amount of different options. Dropping pets as a class mechanic, and replacing them with just an F1,F2,F3,F4 option as opposed to the 40+ options we have now is a little…uninspired, and would make rangers a much duller class in the long run than what we have now.

whyme.3281:

btw shouldnt we start a new thread to collect all those non overpowered ideas for the upcomming “collaborative development”.

Yes, we should start one soon, and pool all the best ideas the community can come up with in one place.
(now if only I could come up with an idea that isn’t overpowered…..)

I kind of started with the traits being OP so that we could take away what we don’t like, add a cooldown, or change some thing around until we got them to something we liked enough to say “HEY ANET! WE WANT THIS IN THE GAME!”, but I’ll get to them later if someone actually suggests any changes to them, but lets get to one of my many other Random, sometimes too OP ideas!

Edit : reworking the idea for new pets a little. check back …later

I almost always run a build with lots of healing, but I don’t ever take the Fern Hound. It doesn’t actually heal for 2800, it only heals for 1000 (1350 traited). The 2800 heal and 20 seconds of regeneration you see on the tooltip is a bug (I’ve fallen for it before too). Also, a Fern hound has 0 healing power (350 traited with Compassion Training), so any regeneration you can apply yourself (with 1800 healing power) will always heal for alot more (infact, almost 3x more). If you can perma regen yourself and others, then the regen that the Fern hound applies is utter garbage and will get in the way of other stronger regens. If you can’t, then the Fern hound might be somewhat useful…

I normally take a more tanky pet, like Drakes, or pets with some crowd control, like Wolves. Drakes also have the bonus of having a blast finisher every 30 seconds or so on one of their skills, which can provide an extra 1,320 healing (and if you really have no better trait to be using,….1,390 healing, traited with compassion training).

Ashadow.6874:

Chrispy.5641:

meh…, as long as she keeps staying out of my way and letting me defeat her and her minions with every encounter, I could care less if she lives, dies, goes plant herself in the ground and becomes a new pale tree, etc. Anet hasn’t really given me a reason to want to kill her yet.

Not yet, but if they keep building her up and don’t let her slide by the wayside. And they do it right. You’ll have your reason to kill her soon enough.

Its gotta be a really evil, totally messed up reason though…Like, forcing a necromancer to revive your dead parents then forcing you into a cage match with them kind of messed up evil.

indubitably….

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Chrispy.5641:

If profesions do get the new Conditon, my guess is that Rangers, Thieves, and Necromancers are most likely to get it. for a few weeks atleast, then everyone cries wolf (ahem…I mean Op) on Rangers, and then only Necromancers and Thieves have it

Don’t forget that they’ll almost certainly give it to warriors in greater abundance and on one of their spammable power attacks, just cause.

Oh shoot, I forgot all about that! thanks!

meh…, as long as she keeps staying out of my way and letting me defeat her and her minions with every encounter, I could care less if she lives, dies, goes plant herself in the ground and becomes a new pale tree, etc. Anet hasn’t really given me a reason to want to kill her yet.

If profesions do get the new Conditon, my guess is that Rangers, Thieves, and Necromancers are most likely to get it. for a few weeks atleast, then everyone cries wolf (ahem…I mean Op) on Rangers, and then only Necromancers and Thieves have it.

Edit : After a few months, just to make sure that Rangers stay inferior to everything else, (because Pets and Nature is for chumps) Anet gives it to all other classes, especially Warriors who will probably get it in greater abundance than rangers ever had, and they’ll put it on one of their spammable power attacks, just because!

(yes, I am obviously joking. Anet would never do that!….right?)

well, lets see….

Troll Unguent
856 per second, 8560 total. 25 second cooldown. 1 second activation

8560 / 26 = 329.

Healing signet is always 392 a second unless they decide to use the active, which isn’t that strong. The difference is 63 per second. Keep in mind that the Warrior has more Hp than we do though. Also remember that we are also healing our pet for the same amount that we are healing ourselves.

so…I’d say they are equal.

…Because if I titled my thread “Trait Idea! Quivers!” or something like that, it wouldn’t sound as cool! anyways, In this edition of Ranger Ideas, I have several new ideas to present to you, including:::

(1)Trait Ideas
(2)Passive Pets
(3)???
(4)Profit!

I am going to keep all of my ideas for the Ranger class in one thread from now on, including some previous suggestions, after I rework them.

First up is…..
TRAITs

I have an idea for 4 new Grandmaster Ranger Traits. These traits affect each and every single arrow that you fire, and the effect stacks each and every time the arrow deals damage. They’re meant to be able to stack with all other bow attacks, and with each other for even greater effect. I also want to make them powerful enough that you would want to take them instead of another Grandmaster Trait. I also want to make it to where you can’t just evade or block your way through a Rangers Barrage, Rapid Fire, etc. without consequence. They are:::

Glass Arrowheads Marksmanship
Effect Conditions caused by your Arrows last 25% longer.
Effect 2 If your Arrows are Blocked or Evaded, they Shatter at the point of Impact, damaging all nearby foes. (damage is with a 0.05 coefficient?)

Weighted Arrows Skirmishing
Effect You Inflict vulnerability with every Arrow you fire.(5 seconds)
Effect 2 If your Arrows are Blocked, they still deal 50% damage. All conditions and effects caused by arrows still activate (but not CC’s).

Winter Arrows Wilderness Survival
Effect Your arrows transfer 1 second of a condition you are afflicted with to your target.
Effect 2 If your Arrows are Blocked or Evaded, they shatter at the point of impact, chilling nearby foes.(Chill for 1 second)

Spiritwood Arrows Nature Magic
Effect Every time your Arrows Damage a Target, Allies near the target are healed for a little. (healed for 25 + 5% of healing power?)
Effect 2 Your Arrows are Immune to Retaliation.

How would they work?
Well, lets use Spiritwood Arrows. Every time your arrows damage a target, they heal up to 5 targets for 25 hp (75 at 1000 healing power, 125 at 2000 healing power). that doesn’t seem like alot, but, if you use barrage, and all 5 targets are hit all 12 times, you actually heal 5 nearby allies for 1500 each. At 2000 healing power, you would heal for 7500 each. Also, they are immune to Retaliation so, you have no fear of being instantly killed if you use barrage in a zerg in WvW.

Using Winter Arrows, using the same thing, you hit 5 targets 12 times, thats 60 total. That is 60 seconds worth of conditions that you not only lose, but you transfer to your enemies. Of course, if people or enemies think they are too awesome for damage, and all 5 targets block and evade 12 times, good lord…thats 60 seconds of Chill…or if its a zerg, it gets transferred around to all of them, whoever is closer to the blocker and evader at the time. Maybe you should have just avoided that barrage circle and went around it?

Okay, Weighted Arrows. You deal vulnerability every time you shoot an arrow, which should make it stupid easy to keep 25 stacks up at all times. Also, whenever someone blocks your arrows, they still take 50% of the damage it deals, as well as any conditions and effects that would have activated (incuding the vulnerability from this trait), but Crowd Control effects would not work, because that would be too OP. Piercing Arrows would cause that arrow to fly right through the target and keep going, even if it was blocked!

Now we have Glass Arrowheads. Conditions already last 25% longer, but if they are blocked or evaded, they shatter, dealing more damage. Say you have 2500 power. against 2500 armor, you would deal 50 damage to surrounding enemies (for you super zerkers out there, you would deal 125 damage with 100% critical damage). If you have Sharpened Edges traited, then those surrounding enemies would also get bleed applied to them as well on critical hit, and your pet would also gain might if you have Companion’s Might traited.

Chances are you would only have one equipped at any time, but invest into equipping two of them at once, and you can see the effects start to stack up on one another quite quickly. I hope I didn’t make this idea seem, too overpowered…

So, how’s this idea? Rate it on a scale of 1 to 10?

webtoehobbit.4201:

Ok, people, please stop with the Scarlet and Faolain theories, I am willing to go on a limb and say that they are 100% wrong. It would go against pretty much all lore behind the Krait to have them team up with anyone, they are Xenophobic and really only care about their religion, which involves Krait Obelisks, which is obviously what is being built in Kessex. I’ll link the wiki page on the Krait so you can all read it yourselves, but what is more likely happening is they have built the obelisk to bring back, or “summon” if you will, one of the Krait prophets, which, as stated in the wiki page, will then bring with them massive armies to wipe out all life.

Also, according to the wiki, Obelisks mark the site of “ascension” of ancient Krait prophets. Knowing that the location of this Obelisk is right above where the Krait Bloodwitch event happened, I don’t think it’s outside the realm of reality to speculate that what’s really going on is maybe the Bloodwitch herself is trying to “ascend” somehow to bring back one of their ancient prophets.

Anyway, here’s the link for the wiki article http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Krait

Please please please read up on the Krait and lets stop this speculation about Scarlet and Faolain, because it would go against all existing lore for them to team up with anyone.

Something tells me that even if Scarlet isn’t involved, it is going to tie in with future living story and its all going to roll into one nice big package in some way, just like how all the other releases have.

AND…..my hopes for some of the backstory and Lore getting filled in just got shot away….

There’s an actual suggestion in that magnificent sarcasm…somewhere…I think?…uh…

“Make Toughness, Vitality, and Healing Power…more, useful as a counter to DPS?”

yeah thats it!!! seriously though, kind of pointless to post it in these forums…

Faux Sheaux.6179:

Landsharks next update

Nah, your not thinking big enough. I say we get FLYING SHARKS with LASER BEAMS attached to their head!

also, Raptors, Griffons, and maybe a Hyena that doesn’t look so diseased and actually looks like a Hyena!