Guild Wars 2

I think you guys are inflating the extremes. For one, there’s only 375 slots in Legendary. Even with a supposed low PvP population, that is a small percentage of the total. And as Skill Rating is linear, high Platinum is going to be pretty close, skill wise, to low Legendary.

I’m going to put myself out there and say that I’m currently ranked just at Silver 2. I climbed up from Bronze 1 in ~200 matches.

So please, show some respect for your lower ranked brethren. Not only is it necessary in a ladder for someone to be last but also “all pros were once noobs”.
In those 200 matches I’ve only had a handful of blowouts and only two matches where someone decided to afk to throw the match. Regardless to why they play; do not say any group of players is useless, don’t care, or don’t try. We’re may not be on your level (literally) but I’m confident saying we play just as hard as any of you in Gold and up.

Ah! I see. You’re build is full zerk longbow focused. Shortbow is just your utility set of choice. That it works with Light on Your Feet is a nice bonus. Yeah I can see how a build like this would have to play off-point. Your best defense is being out of range. Does being only ranged change how you rotate? I know with a melee set on swap I’m generally thinking about where/when I can jump in.

Given the style of play, I think your build is decent. I’d only suggest testing out Spotter and Clarion Bond. The bleeds on this build are piddle even with Hidden Barbs and the trait doesn’t affect your pets’ conditions. Spotter gives ~+7% crit chance for you and allies and Clarion will help you keep up Fury + a bit of might and swiftness when you’re out of range of your Tiger.

Regardless, you’ve piqued my interest. I might just try this out on my own.

Justine.6351”

you have the opportunity to trait both signets (2) and shouts (2) but don’t.
you are using sharpening stone (untraited) but have no condition dmg.
Need to iron that out.

The signet trait is pretty lame for Rangers, especially compared to the other two options. He explained why he doesn’t trait shouts. And he used Quickening Zephyr in the vid. I assume SS was a misclick.

I was not expecting to see a dual bow build. It’s something I wouldn’t mind trying but I feel like it wouldn’t work well fighting on (smaller) points. Contesting/holding points is such a huge deal even at our rank (I’m only ~150 rank above you). How do you deal with Dragonhunters? Do you spend most of your time in non-blowout matches attacking from off point?

I’m genuinely curious as to how everything in your build works together. What I can gather from the video leaves me a little confused.

You’re running Marksmanship with Predator’s Instinct, Moment of Clarity, and Lead the Wind. I could see maybe running PI if you were running Predator’s Onslaught but ehh. Maybe it’s just my experience but 10s of cripple doesn’t seem to work against the people you want to cripple. Warriors especially. How does it seem to work for you?

You’re running Skirmishing but not Primal Reflexes or Spotter, which means you have to be running Sharpened Edges and Hidden Barbs. But then I didn’t see too many bleed procs either. hmmm. Are you running a power/condi hybrid amulet and rune?

Finally, you’ve slotted Beastmastery with, I think, Companion’s Might, Wilting Strike, and Zephyrs Speed. How’s general survival? Do you find you don’t need traited shouts as you’re fighting exclusively at range?

NumenorLord.6539:

I recommend to make another class if you want to play something different to DH DPS. I have Viper/Sinister gear on my Burnzerker and Necro. I have tried some burn builds on my Guardian and, even if they can be fun, you end up losing most of your utilities and still won’t be dealing high enough damage. You’ll also will be unable to provide the constant 25 might stacks you get from Burnzerker.

I don’t understand one thing and it’s the reason you’ll be making another zerker set. Why? Both are zerker with Scholar Runes, only difference is that you don’t need any Assassin gear/trinkets if you’re running Scepter-Sword/Torch and Radiance (because of Right-Hand Strength).

Guardian is one of three classes I currently raid with; the other two being Viper’s condi Ranger and zerker Tempest (staff or auramancer). My thief and engie can borrow gear but I haven’t raided with them seriously (just escort). Getting another character is technically an option but I’m already invested/happy with these guys, even though I could level a char to 80 instantly.

And in saying “another zerker set”, I was referring to on the account, not on my guard. My guard was previously running…a build balanced between Power, Toughness, Condi damage, with some Vitality and Healing Power thrown in. And Rune of Balthazar. PvE friendly but not raid useful.

OnizukaBR.8537

- Lots of useful words -

Hey thanks! I hadn’t looked into tanking as my group generally has at least two ready and willing players to tank online any given night. Do you think you could replace a few of the Minstrel accessories without sacrificing too much?

I completely agree with safe over fast.
And yeah, Aegis on Gors? So good.

Contrary to some comments here, I run mace on a Mender’s DH for ranked PvP. (No traps on utility bar either.) And I totally agree; mace AA3 and mace 2 are way slow. I sometimes hit AA 1 and 2 and then consider interrupting it with 3, 4, or F1. That I have time to think about it says something.
I’d def be behind reducing those cooldowns and increasing that healing power contribution. Would be certainly make my life easier.

Thanks guys. It’s…not what I wanted to hear but it’s appreciated.

General consensus seems to be my group is better with me on DPS (guard or no) and a PUG healer. It’s a shame, I quite enjoy my Mender’s DH in PvP.

Same with burns huh? I’ll look into scepter/sword torch then. Plus side, I’d be able to run either build. Down-side, it looks like I’m making another Berserker set. So boring. I prefer min-maxing a skill or action over min-maxing stats.

I would like to discuss more about why burn Guard isn’t viable. Burning is the strongest condi in the game and Guard can buff it to 100% duration without Viper’s. From what you’re saying, it sounds like even going full Sinister wouldn’t be enough to offset the loss of the Power and Ferocity from ’zerkers. That about right? The scaling is really that bad? dang.

In the end, I’ll play what my group needs. Cheers

Hey guys,
I’ve been looking to properly gear up my Guardian for general purpose raiding. I COULD just go with the all Berserker’s gear but that doesn’t really jive with me so I wanted to ask for some opinions first.

My static raid group is generally pugging for a healer so that was my first inclination. Playing around in the build editor, I found that I could increase outgoing heals to 50% or so. Trouble is, skills are invariably left untraited unless I maybe drop DH (and lose the awesome F2). Has anyone played with this sort of thing? { Dumb build link }

My other thought was trying burn guard. I quite enjoy all the burning guard can put out and have run Rune of Balthazar casually. I’ve seen a couple meta builds that use torch but don’t spec any condi damage and I can’t figure why. Is the scaling really that bad? Or is it just that guards basically only do the one condition?

Thoughts?

Gwaihir.1745:

Sorry meant gs skill maul. And yeah I had to ask the ranger afterwards how he hit so hard at around 10 might stacks.

Just to avoid misinformation, the Greatsword Maul burst requires significant trait/gear investment, is fully the Ranger’s damage, and isn’t the easiest to land. He’d probably run BM for the GS trait (increased dmg and reduced cooldowns), then go into marksmanship. Highest burst combination would probably be Steady Focus (10%) Remorseless (25% and crit). Then +5% power sigil, Strength on weapon, rune of Strength(5% when under might). And you’d probably go WS – Wilderness Knowledge for easy access to fury. THEN you have to burn Signet of the Hunt and QZ or Sharpening Stone for one shot at the burst. next chance in ~45 seconds? You could probably swap BM for Druid and get close to the same numbers but yeah. I’m impressed if I see that land.

As an update: I’m moving up slowly and have broken 800. Things are mostly the same but I have seen some Revs down here now. And they’re ok! Definitely a heavy class with good damage and sustain but not unkillable.

Communication is still really useful. Just small things like pings and saying you’ll get home helps immensely on helping your team know where to rotate. Particularly on Temple.

Shadowstep.6049:

You actually defend maps that give huge advantage to certain builds in RANKED matches? Are you serious?

Yes, I am serious. Besides all of the above responses on how to deal with range and other tactics on Skyhammer; I will defend that maps can favor certain playstyles/classes over others by their design and that’s ok.

Much in the same way that not every map in TF2 is great for Snipers and not every map in Overwatch is great for Pharah. You can still play those classes and be effective, just be aware of what people can do on the map. Play the game, maybe win anyway?, and the next map will probably better suit your class.

There’s a reason GW2 has voting based on a random selection of maps; there is no such thing as a perfectly balanced map. I guarantee that, if people could always play Legacy and only Legacy, there would be builds to specifically play on Legacy.

Yes, they did. And they improved the map a couple of times in major ways. It’s pretty competitive now with significantly less cheese.

And not every map needs to be perfectly friendly to every playstyle. I think it’s great that there’s at least one map where ranged can have a clear advantage over melee. With all the gap-closers and the terrain of other maps; we don’t really have much of that anywhere else.

I’ll throw my current experience into the ring. I’m probably the lowest skill rank represented in here at around 780.

Things that are powerful at this level:
-Dragonhunters. Their damage and sustain are consistent and relatively easy.
-Power Warriors. I’ve never been a fan of Vengeance and you’ll see Warriors get up a decent amount of times at this tier. Power variant tears through most people as I’m pretty sure no one is speccing toughness.
-Good Eles. Or at least semi-competent eles? Fire staff eles don’t seem to do much but Air Tempests can tear things up. They’re decently survivable if they know what they’re doing and have a few annoying “I’m not taking damage now” buttons.

Things that seem weak at this level:
- Thieves. Just. I’m sorry guys, I know you’re trying but… they can’t seem to DO anything except rotate.
- Necro. Might just be me but I’m seeing a lot of minions but not a lot of ooph. I’ll get hit with a good condi bomb once in a while but I’m not really worried if I see just one necro.

Things I haven’t seen:
-Revenant. I have yet to see a single Rev at my level.

Rangers, Engineers, and Mesmers seem to be the most balanced around my level. They have the tools to burst, condi, kill, kite, AoE, heal, or support depending on spec but not all at once. At the same time, none of them feel unbeatable.

I’ll also note that I’ve seen some weird point rotations or lack therof. And there’s usually a complete lack of team chat in any given game, without so much of a “hi team” when joining a game.

MrThompson.8347:

Can I turn an Ascended weapon with the fractal skin into gold fractal? Or do I throw in the skin itself, or do I have to use an exotic, it’s pretty unclear

You cannot use your ascended weapon in the recipe as the forge will treat it as the original item (ex. Coalforge’s Warhorn or something). You’ll need to get the regular, non-transmuted version of the fractal weapon you want and drop that + the Ecto, stabilizing matrices, gold relics into the forge to get the gold version unlocked. Then use a transmutation charge on your ascended weapon to get the gold skin on it.

Cirian.8917:

Likewise I have characters with skills missing on login. I just put them back and carry on but it’s disconcerting to say the least.

I wondered if skills are being worked on behind the scenes. Maybe it’s gremlins.

While not related to the staff skills bug, I did notice something that might shed some light on the utilities becoming unequipped.

It wasn’t listed in the patch notes but utility, heal, and elite skills now have a static position on the skill selection tab. No more skills rearranging based on what skill is currently equipped. It’s super nice.

What I think might be happening is this ordering required adding a tag or ID to associate a skill with it’s slot but this tag overwrote the previous tag. So when you log in, “equipped heal skill = a invalid value” and it is just set to null/ no skill equipped. Then you equip a skill and the value works.

Update: I managed to successfully obtain the buff after the most recent patch.

As a precaution, I deleted all of the leftover ingredients (suet, eggshells, firestone) from my inventory and used the winterberries for magic and collected everything fresh. In the same sitting, I made it over to the hot springs and “made” the tonic. The dialog hung for a couple seconds but my character commented on the smell and gave me the buff.

I hope this helps anyone who might be stuck.

I too am unable to get the buff, though my situation is slightly different.

I had to stop midstory yesterday (after successfully receiving the buff) as it was getting late. Log in today and the buff has expired on the character and I die to the cold. Weird that the buff didn’t carry over like every other PvE buff in the game but w/e. I gathered the ingredients and the pool just ate them without giving the buff.

So, I (or at least my main) cannot continue/finish this LS chapter. Which is really garbage.

If you’re talking Core Tyria map completion, just about anything will work.
You can totally go traited shouts and get near perma swiftness for getting around. You could also just slot Signet of the Hunt for a passive speed boost and run whatever else you care to play around with. Add in a single stun break and you’re golden. Though I would suggest a ranged weapon on swap.

HoT maps are tougher. I’d suggest going either for solid CC application or solid condi depending on preference.

Lastly, spirits are probably the least useful thing to bring for map completion. Otherwise, go nuts.

While I’m still not happy with the auras, you guys make some valid points. I’m not sold on “makes healers useful” but the no self-res side-effect does instigate more teamwork.

Knowing that they’re here to stay; I would like to see an effect/condition on my toolbar for these auras. Even if they aren’t actually connected to the mechanic and just turn on when the fight starts.

Something like “Magic Aura: Crackling energies pulse through the air, damaging you periodically.” or similar.
As I mentioned in my first post; the worst part of these auras is how they’re not gameplay visible. It might be balanced but it feels cheap.

TexZero.7910:

Less the making healing a thing and more of keeping people in combat while adding risk to everyone.

If you’re not under some threat you’re liable to just afk range things to death and that’s less than a challenge.

I’m pretty sure none of the fights would allow you to afk range it, even without the auras. Even at the end of escort, the dude teleports to the furthest player. And if it was possible, your DPS would drop significantly in doing so (Except maybe staff Ele?). Please correct me if I’m wrong in my postulation.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Fwiw, I’ve seen bosses in other games’ raids who also did unavoidable raid-wide damage as part of the encounter mechanics.

Do those other bosses/encounters have a visual indication of what’s doing the damage? Because in GW2 now, you’d have to have the combat log open to see what hit you. Which to me, seems counter to GW2’s “play the game, not the UI” idea.

Side note: none of the guides I’ve looked at mention the aura damage. That’s not the game’s fault but I can see this being annoying/frustrating to new raiders.

This has been bugging me for a while but trying to learn tempest in raids pushed me to ask. Why all the damaging auras?

Bosses already have painful attacks, visible damage over time mechanics, and one hit KO moves/mechanics. I fail to see what an invisible ‘attack’ (it can be dodged or blocked) that hits everyone for 1000-1800 damage every ~4 seconds brings to any of these fights. It’s not interesting and it’s not fun; you just have to take it and heal through it.

If it’s to prevent players from getting out of combat for a free heal (if that would even be possible) why isn’t it like Stressed from the Molten Facility fractal? Or hey, moved to only when the enrage timer expires.

^This.
Also I’m actually surprised they didn’t incorporate the unique mechanic of Ember Bay a.k.a. Thermal Tubes into the JP. Thermal Tubes could either be a puzzle mechanic (think skritt tunnels in the last bit of the SW JP) or act as checkpoint teleports (like the tunnels you pay for to get you back in if you mess up in the SW JP).
The latter could probably be added without adversely affecting the puzzle as is and might fix some of the bugs the checkpoints have.

Glad to see people are still naming pets. And doing so creatively too. The references OH! the puns.

Speaking of which, I found a name for my Drakehound.
Brutus, after the Great Dane in The Ugly Dachshund .

Uh, no. That would make Sic ’em a useless one trick pony. So what, you counter the stealth on a third of a third of the classes (some Mesmers, Thieves, and Scrappers)? Whoopdedoo.

No, the current version is so much better. Sure the revealed isn’t as long, so what? It’s a utility and the pet damage/attack speed buff is useful everywhere. Compared to your idea which would only benefit braindead countering a few PvP opponents and would be completely useless in PvE.

My issue with treb is (on the games I play) is: after the initial roll-out, there is almost no situation where going treb is a decent idea. Partially because (for non-teleporting/shadowstepping classes) it takes too long to get to treb. In the time it takes to run to treb, you could have +1 on home or on mid. And while the damage and CC is good on Treb; it doesn’t compare to actually being on point, buffing/healing allies and debuffing, dpsing the other team. I would poke kitten in the spawn point and get a third, direct-bridge exit to treb to help that.

And if just going treb is pointless, repairing it is doubly so. Every second you’re helplessly shuttling the repair kit is a second you’re not decapping, fighting, defending or buffing. You’d be better served sitting on a capped point. And if only mesmers can repair effectively (with portal), why is it even a thing?

Agree on making treb vulnerable to conditions though.

I’m going to have to side with Malediktus and afrocrusade; revive is fine as is. Revive is just as much of a calculated risk as finishing is. It makes sense that some classes would have the tools to mitigate some of the risk, as annoying as it is some times. It’s still 2-7 seconds where that character is doing nothing else.

And any change to base revive would have to take into account all of the traits that affect revive or the downed state. Some classes are just easier to revive.

As a counter proposal: How about something to make finishing easier instead of making reviving harder. Like an inverted Rune of Mercy.
So instead of revive bonuses, something like…
Superior Rune of Cruelty
(1): +25 Condition Damage
(2): Gain up to 400 Toughness while finishing a foe, based on your level.
(3): +50 Condition Damage
(4): +15% Poison Duration
(5): +100 Condition Damage
(6): You finish foes 20% faster.

Just a thought.

I’ve been slowly naming all of my pets as I get to using them. Added these three to my list recently:
Mrs Peckers – White Moa
Philomena – Red Moa
Taylor – Brown Bear (he uses “Shake it Off!”)

Still haven’t decided on names for my Jellyfish or my Drakehound. Will have to give it some thought.

Just a thought I had. When a big patch hits, there’s usually bug fixes and adjustment for all the classes and nowadays an explanation of “For this update we wanted to look at Necro’s X” as well. With nine classes though, some invariably get very minor text edits or nothing at all as the balance team is stretched over essentially the whole game.

So title question, Could themed balance updates help? Instead of trying to balance everything, themed balance patches might allow better focus on what needs fixing for a smaller section of the game.

Themes could be as simple as class based (The Rev update, Engie vs Thief) or could focus on a shared skill type (Signet Polish, AI Ally Overhaul) or weapon (Shortbow, Torch).

Just an idea. Thoughts?

Donari.5237:

Ah, I thought 2 was to swipe it from opponents, I didn’t realize it was dual purpose.

That points out another idea.
It would help if the skills swapped out for different icons when you got the ball. Ya know, like the skills in Keg-Brawl and Crabtoss.

Donari.5237”

would have liked a way to pass to a team mate, but when I targeted my first buddy and hit 3 the ball just soared away.

Unlike Keg-Brawl where 1 and 2 are different types of throw and both can pass or shoot; Basket-Brawl’s 3 will always throw towards the basket. Skill 2 is the designated pass and works as you think it should. (select teammate, hit 2, pass).

Not your fault. Like most activities, there is very little tutorializing.

Another bug/anomaly/annoyance: the court and minimap show the teams as green and yellow but the UI is red and blue. This made my first match completely confusing and subsequent matches harder to keep track of.

I suggest swapping everything (including arena details) to be the GW2 standard red/blue teams. “Home” team can be white outfits with blue details (blue team), other team can be red with white details (red team). Keep it consistent with the rest of the game. Color coding the hoops might help as well.

Also, how is dunking supposed to work? I seems overly fiddly right now.

This also feels like an activity built for action cam but there’s no real aiming required for shooting. Moving jump to skill 3 (or just default make spacebar jump higher) and shoot/pass/throw to skill 1 (LMB in action cam) could make the game more responsive and raise the skill ceiling.

OH, also the activity needs to remove Guardian’s passive aegis. Being able to block a steal isn’t fair to the other classes.

Update: I’ve played around a bit and tried a few of the suggestions. Here’s where I’m at now: Ka-LINK
-Swapped in Refined Toxins as suggested. I’m not missing Shared Anguish and it helps with my pew-pew.
-Swapped Moa for Bristleback. Played around with a couple other pets but Wolf is just too useful. Couldn’t grok how to best use Smokescales field and Wolf’s fear still works sometimes.
-Swapped Beastly Warden for Zephyr’s Speed. Less CC in general but the boons help and Bristleback doesn’t proc BW in decent places anyway.
-Currently running Cavalier Amulet and Rune of Lyssa. Biggest thing there is learning when to pop SotP. But they keep me alive in different situations. Bit of a DPS decrease but ZS helps with that.

I’m finding my best bet against Guard and War is fight a bit, disengage, fight more at range. If Hunters Shot was 100% reliable, that would get me out of more scrapes. As it is though, things aren’t bad.

Funny thing though, I tested my build and the various permutations in unranked and did noticeably better on average than in ranked. Usually close to the same builds and comps, just generally closer to my skill level and no real roflstomps.

I’m not usually one to q_q but I think ranked matchmaking might be holding me back. I think I’m going to have to go scrapper or join the DH hordes to progress.

Archon.6480:

Yeah, I think you should use HoT pets and Destroyer, or Demolisher amulet with scholar or trapper runes.

With destroyer just walk up and try to shoot everything to death before they figure out what is going on. If you want to skirmish in a more serious fashion try using Demolisher and trapper runes. Be slippery.

You are too flimsy to duel anything up close, without HoT spec. Shoot and run.

Less control, more power. It’s worth a shot. I’m just kinda wary of primarily fighting off point in a game mode about control points.

Justine.6351

auto-attack when they come into lb range. Once they get to the point they will maybe be 1 cd shorter. Drop barrage on the point before they get to it. Cry for help.

:(

That’s all I got sorry. Spike trap is the only ranger skill that will go through a block ,but ya…

I actually did run Spike Trap with a similar, weaker version of this build before the shout rework. It kinda worked sometimes but it wasn’t consistent. Replaced it with Search and Rescue them.

But yeah, it pretty much gets kittened on by all the elite specs now.

That’s what I’m afraid of but I’ll keep trying for a week or so. I have a DD and a Scrapper to fall back on if I need them to actually cross a division or two.

If you can, try slotting refined toxins in instead of shared anguish, or sigil of doom. If you end up in a stalled 1v1, the constant poison application will at least help cut down their ability to heal/sustain. That’s pretty much it.

Not sure about Doom but swapping in Refined Toxins is a decent idea. Sure, I wouldn’t be doing much damage with it but it would reduce enemies’ healing. And I only lose one free disable avoid per 60 seconds. Not a deal breaker with my other stunbreaks.

If you can use HoT pets that might help too. Tiger for perma fury so you can drop a few of you WK traits for more damage mitigation ones, and smokescale for their smokefield. Either leap through for stealth, or shoot through to blind them.

I can totally use HoT pets. Tiger would be another application of fury for remorseless to feed on, so long as it’s worth losing either the daze or the fear.
Could you elaborate on what traits you’re thinking of? Wilderness Knowledge is the best condi clear option I can think of.

Druid is actually your class, because ranger is being pretty bad and is not a complete\self-sufficient class. So sadly you should rethink that.

I’ll swap classes before I spec druid.

maybe try S\D instead GS? you need more mobility. In any case the LB won’t work with all this projectile hate. or even axe\x so you don’t have to get in the middle?

I’m guessing when you say mobility, you’re talking evades? I’m plenty mobile on GS and I have plenty of swiftness from traited shouts. GS also gets 2 handed training for a damage boost and more fury procs for Remorseless. You could be right about LB though, I’ll think about my options.

Considered Rune of Lyssa?

That’s an interesting thought.
Swapping to Lyssa would up my crit rate to ~14% without fury if I stick to Valk amulet. The boons and conversions would certainly help my survival and I could take Tiger for the lost fury proc.
Rune of Rage is more for the (4)Gain fury when hit (fuels Remorseless) and (6)While under fury gain +5% damage. The extra fury duration is just a bonus to feed the +5% damage.
Though I suppose Rune of the Pack would proc fury twice as often + might + more swiftness…
Thanks for the replies, lots to think about.

Hey guys, I’m looking for some help tightening up my build for PvP. And possibly some play tips.

Here’s what I’ve been running: Ka-LINK

My standard point rotation is just bouncing between home and mid as needed. I’m the guy who takes home to start if no one else calls it and I guard it for a short bit before helping mid. When team leaves a point after team fight, I generally stay back to prevent the decap. Then watch mid and/or home depending on the map. I rarely go far unless the other team had a weird split.

This did me good in S3 (got to mid ruby) but seems to be having more trouble in S4. Only difference is “Protect Me” over what used to be “Search and Rescue”. S&R just doesn’t feel worth it after the nerf a few months back, but maybe I should try it in a few Unranked games.

Personal preference: I won’t be speccing Druid. I know it’s basically a straight upgrade but it’s just not me, ya dig?

Where the build works:
-Off point pew-pew.
-Good swiftness uptime/mobility
-Good control (when it lands)
-Good damage on GS (when it lands)
-Decent condi cleanse and the health to survive them
-Surprisingly ok escape options

Where I’m struggling:
-On point fights against Guardian,Warrior, and Engineer. SOO MANY BLOCKS. SO MUCH STAB. And AoEs to boot. Is there anything I can do or should I start conceding the point and go +1 mid?
-Team fights in general. It seems like 50/50 if I can get in there and do some GS damage or get bursted down. I wonder if part of that is the current “kill the druid/healer” mindset that PvP has nowadays. Except, ya know, I’m not actually a druid. Would I be better served sitting off point and slotting “search and rescue” despite its range?

I’m miffed that I can’t use Black Moa in this build anymore. His screech is straight inferior to Pink Moa now.
I also wish Moment of Clarity would trigger on pet interrupts. Right now we can have 2 interrupts on weapons, one on trap, and I think one on “Protect Me”. Pets would add another 2-3 depending on pet and would really help the build.

Suggestions?

Keep ’em coming guys.

I recently added a couple names to my menagerie.
Tiger: Dandelion (after one of our housecats)
Smokescale: Pankonin (after William G. Pankonin, the inventor of the staple remover)

Puns, references, other; I love it!

@Wondrouswall – Ow, the puns!

Fluffball

I name them all some random title and some random animal. For example my tiger is named Champion Hippo, my wolf is Elite Walrus.

Clever, getting an edge on your opponents by confusing them! Like writing the word “blue” in red ink, but with the threat of getting mauled.

Now that pet names are saved, we can finally keep track of them. So in the vein of this thread: LINK , let’s share the names of our personal zoos!

I’ll start:
Amadeus – Wolf
Mr Peckers – Pink Moa
Blackgryphn – Black Moa
Steve – Bristleback
Hyacinth – Lynx
Melandru Stalker – Jungle Stalker

I’m sure I’ll name more pets as I use them. Now what do you name a jellyfish? {ponders}

Hello, I have two beefs today. One mechanical and one aesthetic.

First mechanical: Black Moa.
From the patch notes:
Pink Moa—Dazing Screech: The aftercast of this pet skill has been reduced by 2 seconds, allowing the creature to engage in combat faster.
Black Moa—Dazing Screech: This skill now dazes up to three times during the cast, at a 1 second interval. Daze duration has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second per hit.

What this doesn’t say is the “dazes up to three times during the cast” also applies to Pink Moa’s Dazing Screech. It also doesn’t say that Pink Moa’s Dazing Screech now dazes for 1 1/2 seconds per hit while Black Moa’s Dazing Screech only dazes for stated 1 second per hit.

This in addition to Black Moa not getting the reduced aftercast (I checked) makes Pink Moe objectively better. This should not be. Black Moa is a (really cool) skin, and thus should be mechanically exactly the same as Pink Moa. Anet, please fix.

Second: Rainbow Jellyfish.

Here are pictures of the the Blue Jellyfish and the Rainbow Jellyfish options:
!https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/7/73/Juvenile_Rainbow_Jellyfish.jpg!
!https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/3/30/Juvenile_Blue_Jellyfish.jpg!

They changed the Rainbow Jelly to make them significantly different a while back but I think they got them backwards. Why does the Blue Jellyfish have more colors than the Rainbow Jellyfish? Why is the Rainbow Jellyfish mostly blue and green? Aurg! It irks me so.

Look at these beautiful yellows and purples and oranges jellyfish have! Please, make Rainbow Jellyfish live up to its name.

What if he’s actually the disgruntled Asura in the new chaos fractal? Time is more fluid in fractals so his ‘future’ self devised a plan to get revenge for the insult in the present?!?

dun Dun DUN!

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Revealed is the opposite of Stealth…so it doesn’t belong in Shadow Arts.

I’m going to disagree with you there. Revealed isn’t the opposite of Stealth, it is an effect of stealth. The more times you break stealth, the more use Revealed Training gets. Shadow Arts helps this by giving a base duration buff on stealth, giving you more time to break stealth without it just expiring (preventing Revealed).

Yes please +1.
With the way a venom build works, there’s really no reason to spec Leeching Venoms. You can slot a venom by itself more effectively now but the one trait doesn’t provide enough utility to take the whole traitline. You just won’t be stealthing around with a venom build.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Dadnir.5038:

I even wonder if they don’t share CD on their F2 ability.

Varies from patch to patch. They didn’t when they were first introduced, then they did later on, then the f2 would appear to be on cooldown but you could still use it…. not sure where it’s at now.

Currently cooldown on chilling whirl is shared between rainbow and blue jellyfish. I noticed this in aquatic fractal last week when I mistakenly swapped my shark out for the blue jellyfish instead of the red jellyfish.

To OP: I’ve used jellyfish for underwater combat almost exclusively since release and it’s always been a reskinned blue jellyfish.
ANet changed how the jellyfish look a couple years ago but the skills haven’t changed. Though I think they did it backwards as the rainbow jelly is mostly blue and the blue jelly has a rainbow. >_<

Hey Noct,
Thanks for the quick reply. Your pitch has me interested. I’ll PM/mail you in-game this evening.
Cheers,
Chrury

Hey guys,
I’m looking for a group or guild to raid or learn raiding with. As the title says, I’ve got zero experience in the actual raid fights. I’ve only visited the entryways (foyers?) of the wings to see the sights but I really want to experience the rest.

I’m willing to gear up one of my characters to what I understand is “raid ready meta” (exotic armor, ascended trinkets and main weapon) to start. It’s a pretty decent investment but doable. I can probably do two but it would start stretching my coffers.

Classes I can play:
Thief/Daredevil
Engi/Scrapper
Guardian/Dragonhunter

I’d love to run my Ranger through the content but I understand that a non-Druid Ranger isn’t wanted nowadays (and I refuse to spec Druid).

I’m usually on at 8PM EST most days (for dailies) and can stay on for 3-4 hours as needed. Can be on discord or ts as needed. Will listen to and follow instructions to the best of my ability and will do my research beforehand as well.
If your group is learning as well, I’m not adverse to failure either.

If I sound like a decent fit to your group; drop me a message here or through in-game mail.

Cheers
Chrury

My first thought was is there precedent of a heal skill that damages enemies? And there is 4-5 untraited skills and a few traits and runes that trigger damage on heal skill. So that’s not an issue.

I like some of these ideas. An actual AA that damages would help it as a kit. Maybe the syringe gun idea mentioned could have a non-piercing projectile that either heals allies or damages foes (a bit). Would give an actual reason to target allies or position for one or the other as needed. As it’s still on the heal slot, I’d expect the damage to be lower than the other ranged options but still there. Maybe a high % to be a projectile finisher?

I really like the defibrillator idea in the other thread. It could be a high recharge, decent cast time gadget (so skill 4 or 5). PBAoE Knockback on enemies, instant revive on downed allies, adds 50% health to dead allies. That would at least give the kit a niche.

With the cooldowns and awkwardness of throwing bandages, I just don’t see it getting much play as it is now.

I also agree that the F1 is fine.

Josh Davis.6015:

Is there a similar thread to this one but for pets – ideally somewhat current? Looked over a few pages but came up empty handed. Would love to take a look.

I can’t a ‘suggested pet fixes’ thread personally. They’re a part of the class so the topic generally sits with the Ranger fix threads (like this one).

But on the topic of pets; I’ve personally tailored my build around only 6-8 pets and only used others for a specific encounter (Krytan Drakehound) or on a lark. The rest have annoyances that keep me from considering them, regardless of stats.

I agree with the few pet issues brought up here (again).
-Melee pets do have a tricky time hitting moving targets due to not being able to move during AA cast time.
-Most pets don’t have cleave, even when it might make sense (cat’s claw swipe). Not every pet needs it and not every attack needs it but I’d expect to see some tradeoff balance between cleave attacks that do Y damage and single-target damage that does Yx2 damage.
-If a pet is expected to be a healing pet (bears, fern hound, moas to a lesser extent) and the pet healing skills/traits scale from the pet, then those pets absolutely need more healing power base.

From my own experience, here are some of my pet annoyances:
-Spider poison field (Poison Gas) doesn’t last long enough to do anything. Its one second duration isn’t even listed on the tooltip. Needs to be longer or not be a field but stronger.
-Pets with buff F2s have a huge channel for little reward. Juvenile Jungle Stalker in particular but Blue Moa and but Fern Hound as well. Red Moa (with Furious Screech) feels ok but everyone seems to have ample fury these days.
-Juvenile Jungle Stalker should’ve been named Juvenile Melandru’s Stalker. mmph {GW1 Vet disappoint face}
-Porcine pets’ F2 is useless as is. There have been a number of suggestions for this but my fav is swapping the F2 to the skill like a Thief’s steal.
-And finally, I really want to be able to see what boons, condis, buffs, and debuffs are on my pet without selecting him/her/it. Seeing when their other skills are off cooldown/being used would also be a help, even if I don’t control them. Cause then I could combo off of, say, a Tail Swipe or hold off using Stone Signet if I see my bear used his invuln.

Bensozia.8071:

Think the wiki only has one verse. I think he is asking if there are two more verses
which would coincide with the last two verses in the major-general song.

Correct.

I’ll give you a poke. These are a pain.

Is/was there a full version of the lovable Captain Penzan’s “Modern Pirate General” written? (I love it!)

Because if noooot…I’m tempted to try my hand at filling it out to 3 verses + 3 choruses to match the original.

Followed by “A well-trained Charr”.

I’m not usually one for magical type bows, but for Celestial_Longbow I’d make an exception.