Guild Wars 2

You’re right, it is a lost cause. I try to spark a debate about how punishing retaliation is for rangers, especially when you shoot at a zerg with barrage, and the “advice” I get from alleged “veterans” is “don’t shoot at zergs with barrage.”

No kidding. I would never have realized this if you hadn’t repeated the obvious 20 times.

This is like the guy who goes to the doctor and says, “my elbow hurts when I bend it” and the doctor replies, “then don’t bend your elbow”—completely missing the point.

Good advice on builds or how to deal with retaliation is of course appreciated, bombarding me with the obvious or snide comments is not. Beyond that, the “advice,” while spamming the obvious, also ignores it, such as the obvious fact retaliation is often up 100 percent in some fights and functions as a de facto nerf on our dps more severe than our insta-die, uncontrollable pets are. Having to use PVT armor to deal with it is also a nerf to our damage which is too high a cost for the little advantage it gives.

All the “advice” here says that it is better to auto-nerf your dps than to take a chance retaliation may set you up for an easy kill, while ignoring my statement that I rarely die except to being swarmed by the zerg. Even without retaliation the circumstances of my death would usually be the same as with it. So retal is more of a dps issue for me than a survival one as I am very good at surviving. You have to be as a glass ranger on an outmanned server.

Beyond that, I have given examples of why the benefits of shooting at zergs with aoe often outweighs the outrageous cost. I’d like to see someone refute those examples with something other than insults and dubious claims to expertise.

The fact remains that in WvW, retaliation does massive damage to longbow rangers, and the only way to avoid retaliation is to not shoot any any individual or group that has it up. Unfortunately, that is just not a practical option for reasons that should be obvious (like near 100 percent retal uptime for the duration of fights). Not everyone gets to run in a massive zergball roflstomping lesser servers where retaliation isn’t an issue for the stompers.

When you are in a class that takes more damage from retaliation than it dishes out and outnumbered in almost every fight, a mechanic that rewards larger groups over small and rewards mindless zerging over tactics is incredibly frustrating and game-killing to deal with. I rarely encounter the situations offered by the nay-sayers here, such as the ability to stand off to the side and take shots at stragglers and back-enders and when I do, they have retal up most of the time. I am usually in a group getting swarmed by the opposing zerg and having to shoot and run at the same time. Survival in these situations is already tough for a glassy build without a cheezy mechanic that punishes you for shooting at people while rewarding them for being shot.

I can only hope someone with common sense at Anet can see through the wall of obfuscation and insult that is always thrown up here whenever anyone makes a legitimate complaint and realize how game-destroying this absurd mechanic really is.

Pet AI is still bad. Pets still run ahead of you in into the aoe in WvW and die in seconds, or wallow in it when you move or dodge out of it. Pet f2 abilities proc faster than at launch, but still not instantly as they should be. Pet abilities are still wonky and unreliable. Overall pets tend to be more a liability than an asset, given the cost in dps we pay for them. Still no option to perma-stow pets to protect them when they are useless, such as on walls.

Okay, I get it now. Retaliation really isn’t a problem for rangers, just me. I have been making the mistake of shooting at people in WvW.

I realize that if you use an aoe ability against multiple targets like it is designed for, you deserve everything you get. There is simply no time at which using aoe against a zerg is appropriate, so creating a mechanism that punishes you for doing so is perfectly reasonable. Large zergs are too weak and need more protection.

Guardians that have reflects, blocks, burns, heavy armor and the ability to outheal your damage while cc’ing you in place and three-shotting you need more protection against your attacks, especially when they are in a zerg that outnumbers yours.

When you are on a server in which you are always outnumbered in a game with mechanisms that favor larger zergs, you should run through the wall of guardians and warriors to attack the guys in the back end. Don’t worry they won’t bother you and if they do, use entangle. But don’t drop a barrage on the guys you entangle because that violates the rule against using aoe against multiple targets. Any retal damage you take is because you suck.

If you shoot at anyone in the front end the retaliation damage you take is your own fault. If you shoot at anyone in the back end the retaliation damage you take is your own fault. Stand there and wait for the 12 seconds it takes to go away before shooting. Make sure you are on JQ, BG or YB and have a massive ability-lagging zerg to protect you while you do so.

Remember at no time should you shoot aoe at groups. If a large groups should happen to run into your aoe after you fire, this is because you suck, not poor game design. You should only shoot at the players who aren’t moving, like downed players. Don’t use it to chase away rezzers. Don’t shoot at the gate to hit the rams behind it. Don’t use it against massed golems. Don’t drop it on groups of mesmer clones. If you do you need to l2p and your deserve the retal damage you take.

The aoe cripple on barrage serves no purpose whatsoever, so do not use it for its non-purpose. If you see a large group chasing your guys putting a barrage in front of them to slow them down is not a good strategy. If you do you need to l2p.

Wear PVT armor so your health pool can accommodate the retaliation damage that no one but you is experiencing.

Hit an don’t be hit is the essence of competent fighting in fencing, boxing and the martial arts. Therefore it is perfectly reasonable game design that you should be hit every time you hit something in a video game. Ranged players should rely on their armor, and not range and positioning, to stay alive.

So in other words, don’t shoot until after you throw traps, run through the zerg, use entangle, then use aoe and rapid fire.

I can see where this “strategy” would avoid doing any serious dps while getting you gibbed constantly unless you are in a massive zerg ball that routinely steamrollers smaller groups, at which point retaliation and pretty much everything else doesn’t matter. I am failing to see how you avoid retaliation doing this, other than by not shooting anyone, since it is up near 100 percent of the time against the enemies my always outnumbered server faces.

The tactical situation often requires you to shoot at the enemy even when you KNOW they have retaliation up. That so many here don’t seem to get this pretty much disqualifies any opinion they have on ranger play.

But at least you have the honesty to admit you’re a guardian and benefit from the retaliation cheezfest.

I want guardians to glow bright orange whenever they have retaliation up. Where is the telegraph for that?

“No can do because I’m not trolling. If you seriously think doing a barrage on top of a buffed up zerg is a good idea it just means you are a prime candidate for natural deselection. Judging by the posts you made.. Viva la evolution!”

Yes, you are trolling, first with the L2P comments and now with juvenile insults.

Where else are you supposed to use aoe except against large groups? That is what aoe is for but retaliation punishes you for using it for its intended purpose. The ONLY way to avoid retaliation is to not shoot at large groups and that is pretty dumb. Even for single targets you cannot afford to wait around for 12 seconds waiting for retaliation to go away while someone is hammering on you or a teammate.

It’s a stupid mechanic, and anyone who can’t see this obvious fact shouldn’t be hurling insults at others like he is some kind of authority. If you can’t see the tactical need to sacrifice your health bar from time to time due to this crap mechanic in order to support the team, then I am not the one who needs to “l2p.”

“Maybe you should play your elementalist then if you are not willing to learn to play your ranger properly?”

Maybe you should troll somewhere else.

Your comments are not constructive at all. I responded accurately to the point being made. We are discussing how retaliation effects rangers, not how some of our abilities can be used to cc opponents, which I think we all realize by this point. What you fail to mention is all those cc effects also proc retaliation, and aside from barrage and pets require you to be in proximity to the enemy which you usually don’t want to be if you’re a lb ranger. Drakes like all pets die too quick and all pet F2 abilities are too slow and unreliable to be of any consistent use. There have been enough complaints from people who understand the class on these issues so I won’t rehash them here.

The primary reason to fire a barrage at a zerg is to slow some of them and cause them to separate while doing some damage, yet you say don’t “drop a barrage on the head of a zerg.” This is precisely where you want to put it but you get destroyed by retaliation if you do. You suggest hitting the tail as if no one in the tail has retaliation.

You’re just rattling off a list of our abilities while denying the fact that retaliation makes all of those abilities difficult to use and certainly not in the sequential order you suggest. The ranger lb ranger is not “amazing” at anything. The rangers cc can be useful but it pails in comparison to other classes, as does its damage and survivability, all of which are severely compromised by the crappy suicide mechanics of this game. My staff elementalist is amazing and extremely versatile at delivering slows, stuns and cripples as well as heals, damage and buffs. She has incredible survivability. She does ok damage and retaliation is never an issue for her.

Rangers do not have 2100 range, our attacks are easily dodged, we have to use three traits to get 1500 range and have a chance of hitting anything and our pets routinely run 50 feet ahead of us when we stop and die in seconds in any kind of aoe. It takes a minute to rez a dead pet. Our pet abilities routinely fail or go off at the wrong time so it’s pure luck when they actually work.

You do squat for damage unless you go full glass cannon at which point anyone in the game can three-shot you.

95 percent of the time I die in WvW it is due to being swarmed by the zerg, so PVT armor would be next to useless. All that does is kitten our already pathetic damage even further. I survive so long as the zerg I am in survives, but retaliation keeps me from being continuously in the fight. A bigger health pool just means you might get of an extra barrage or rapid fire before you have to withdraw and heal than you would without it. If you are not taking massive damage from retaliation you are not shooting at zergs or the opposing side is too inept to keep it up.

Of course, you can adapt a roamer build, which gives you okay survivability but crap damage and is useless for anything but roaming, which rarely occurs on my server anyway as we are always outnumbered.

My point is this is a crap mechanic that really hurts rangers due to the fact our two main shots, rapid fire and barrage, trigger so many procs of retaliation, plus whatever the aoe sigils proc. The idea you should have to adopt a particular build or use a particular pet just to counter this one mechanic is proof of how badly it affects us. I am already wasting my troll unguent on it. What more do I have to do to accommodate this poorly thought out mechanic?

It also hurts small groups fighting against larger zergs as those zergs will tend to have more retaliation going for longer than the smaller groups. It is a mechanic that encourages and rewards mindless zergs and incompetent play while severely punishing the one class that hit zergs from a long distance.

I am finding the experience of playing a longbow ranger in WvW extremely frustrating due to constantly taking ridiculous amounts of damage from retaliation. It is near impossible to shoot anything most times without getting retaliation, and both rapid fire and barrage stack massive amounts of retaliation damage particularly if you have an aoe sigil and target a zerg. I try to pop troll unguent whenever hitting a zerg with barrage and even then retaliation will often outdamage my heals.

You can’t hit more than 5 players at a time with barrage but I have been killed by the massive damage caused by using barrage against zergs. At a minimum I experience 50 to 75 percent damage most times I use it. That is absolutely absurd. There has to be a hard limit on how much retaliation damage you can take from a particular attack.

Retaliation is a cheesy, counter-intuitive mechanic to begin with and really has no place in PVP games. When you shoot the enemy, he should take damage and not you. There is simply too much passive damage in this game that rewards people for standing mindlessly in a neat aoe-able ball and getting shot, rather than punishing them for making themselves an easy target.

It is bad enough we have to adapt an extremely squishy build to do any sort of damage at all, but do we really have to get reamed with retaliation on top of it?

Rangers are not the only ones who abuse knockbacks (or poorly timed use of fears) to drive mobs out of aoe. I do agree they seem to be the worst offenders but removing a critical (if crappy due to 1/2 second “wind up”) skill is not the answer. As with every other class people have to learn to play properly though some jerks clearly abuse it just to get a rise out of people who complain. Sometimes people just push the wrong button.

In WvW I simply accept that commanders have to waypoint out of a fight and then run a mile ahead of everyone while screaming “Keep tight!” and some rangers are gonna knockback spam. It doesn’t make any sense but some laws of the cosmos are immutable.

This is an excellent idea, and the hunter class in WoW already has this. I forget exactly how it works but different pets or pet classes have different trait lines with options you can customize for each pet. For example one trait for a cat would be “charge” which allows your pet to charge forward at the speed of an arrow and instantly hit your opponent, stunning him for one second. Compare this to the excessively slow speed and right angle attacks of our pets which often die before they reach the target in WvW or fail to reach the target before you kill it in PVE.

Pets in WoW also have much more effectiveness and diversity in their roles which you can enhance through traiting, such as a tanky pet that pulls more aggro and is tougher with the right build. GW2 bear isn’t much of a tank and few pets hold aggro well.

I’d like a pet in WvW that does knockdowns or f2 howl like a wolf but can be customized to be more survivable at the cost of dps. A dead pet does no dps.

Server vs server was always a bad idea especially with servers like BG and JQ stacking the deck with dedicated WvW guilds. Not sure what the solution is, but I’d prefer a system like in WoW where it was Horde vs Alliance and people got assigned randomly to matches. Perhaps this could be done here with three different teams competing with each other and individuals assigned to each on a rotating basis. In fact , why not get rid of the three team thing and go with just two sides fighting each other with random players, like most fps shooters but on a weekly basis?

My idea is not fleshed out and I am just tossing this out there but the real issue is utter lack of balance in WvW and people getting frustrated with being stomped by zergs or being the ones stomping small groups, which is even more frustrating and demoralizing.

I routinely take out ACs with my longbow by firing at them from behind from the gap. Will make it harder to kill ACs but easier once you break in particularly if you come in through the front wall. That drop will no longer be there.

There is nothing wrong with dueling, just don’t be am obnoxious jerk when I accidentally kill the guy you’re “dueling” with (especially when he’s a guardian unable to beat a glass cannon ranger with fibromyalgia, arthritis and a 3 button mouse). If I realize you’re dueling I won’t interfere but otherwise I shoot first and ask questions later. WvW is not your personal playground and no one has to respect your private play. If you act like a jerk and hurls insults at people playing the way they want to play that reduces the odds people will respect your private duels or those of others.

It seems that in every instance of the MKL that I enter, I am either alone or there are few other people with me who quickly leave. Do you have to bring a group with you now to do this or is this a bug?

Step 1. Equip a longbow
Step 2.Target your enemy
Step 3. Press 2
Step 4. If target is not dead, repeat step 3

Obstructed, Obstructed, Out of Range, Miss, Hit, Out of Range. That is what Rapid Fire looks like in actual use. For any of our shots to hit you have to stand there in plain sight like a target dummy and not move. Just moving at a right angle to our line of attack is enough to make most shots miss.

Hi everyone. I am just returning to the game and need advice on a WVW full zerker Longbow/GS build. Mobility is very important to me so I was considering Travelers runes, but I heard they don’t affect the pet like Signet of the Hunt does. Is this true? I was also considering ranger runes with SotH selected. Which runes do you prefer?

Also any advice on traits would be appreciated. I have a full set of Zerker gear so I am sticking with that for now.

I think it is great that Anet has made the infinite gathering tools account bound as many requested. For those of us with alts, the cost of a full set of tools for each toon was exorbitant so many of us chose not to buy them.

I am also gratified that Anet showed a lot of class in being willing to refund gems to those who bought multiple sets for their multiple toons.

That being said, I hope that Anet will make these tools an unlockable item that you buy once and can then equip as many as you like on all your toons. As it is you still have to buy multiple tools or keep switching the tools between toons which is a hassle that doesn’t need to be there, particularly given the high cost of a full set and the fact gathering tools are cheap or free in most games.

Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? You have to be constructive at all times or the negative waves keep Anet from being righteousness and we end up with another piece of junk.

Cool post, but I’ll be Ragnaroking and rolling in ESO when it comes out. Let Queen Jenna die of loneliness.

They will reduce this from an impossible grind taking half a lifetime to a mind-numbing grind taking 2 years, or half the time it takes to get a bachelor’s degree.

I don’t know what chemicals these guys are on, but they must accelerate time to the point a decade feels like a month

Thanks for this post. The sheer stupidity of this move is mind boggling. I am convinced this is all a secret plot by Anet employees to wreck the game and have NCSoft kick Anet to the curb where hopefully, it will rise like a phoenix from the ashes and ascend to game developer paradise. Either that or they are taking bribes from the up and coming competition, which is offering them jobs in exchange for destroying GW2.

Then again, could it be….SATAN?

Who knows, but they are definitely in bull in china shop mode.

I play as a female toon in every MMO I’ve been on and I have never gotten any flack for it. GW2 is my first and only male toon, a Charr guardian. Do I need to carry a sign projecting my own insecurities onto other gamers who could care less? “Just because I play as a female doesn’t mean I want to be one. <sob>”

The whole “I am a geek/nerd” thing has become elitist posturing from people who think they are intellectually superior to others for being so. Geeks often come across as people with something to prove and that something is “I’m better than you.” It is that attitude which leads to more backlash against self-styled “geeks” than anything.

Sirendor.1394:

Exactly, but it isn’t only the GvG players that have this opinion. A lot of people have a disgust for zerging, because of the mindlessness and the numbers>victory fact.

…and the fact we are zerging against NPCs and Doors. I like the challenge of fighting big zergs but annihilating little groups of players or NPCs is demoralizing and feels unsportsmanlike.

mrstealth.6701:

Some sort of reprimand is definitely in order, even something as severe as firing.

Well I hope Anet will avoid a reaction this drastic. There is no reason for someone to lose their job over something like this.

This incident may end up being positive overall if it leads to changes in the way Anet communicates with the players. A more respectful tone on the part of the devs is in order as is more open communications. Speak your piece Anet, tell us the truth and let the chips fall where they may. Listen to our responses and try to understand some people are going to be upset when they see the hundreds of hours they have invested in the game being threatened by poor decisions. Many of us would like to know where you stand on the issue of GvG and dissatisfaction with WvW. We recognize you may not have a solution at hand but at least tell us what you think about the problem, because it is a problem.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

I wanted to comment about the incident that happened recently in-game, surrounding some negative community interaction from a member of the ArenaNet staff.

Simply put a big mistake was made by one of our employees, for which he is both very upset and sorry. He allowed his personal feelings to affect his interactions in-game whilst representing ArenaNet, and this is absolutely unacceptable.

Like all players, we are human, and all have our opinions on the game. However these opinions should never disrupt other player’s enjoyment of the things they love. On top of this we have worked very hard to create a community that is respectful to one another, and for this behavior to have occurred while a developer is representing ArenaNet is doubly saddening.

We all cherish the opportunity to play with the community, and we absolutely rely on you all for in game feedback, and personally I hope that this incident does not hamper what has so far been an amazing relationship and opportunity for us all.

I would therefore like to sincerely apologize for this behavior on behalf of our staff member. We are taking steps to address the incident and for his part, he is very sorry for behaving in the manner in which he did.

Regarding Guild game play, please understand it is extremely important to us, and an area we are paying a great deal of attention to, so please do be patient with the developers who work tirelessly on making WvW the very best it can be, they have a great deal of respect for you all, and value your collaboration in pushing this pioneering mode forward. Also please note this member of staff is not on the WvW team.

Finally, World vs. World is a free-for-all battle. Our expectation of staff is that they should be playing, and enjoying the game like everyone else, and not being disruptive or disrespectful to others.

And in this spirit I hope we can move forward, and continue, what has up to this point, been a great community/developer relationship. One that I know our team massively values and loves.

Thank you all for your time and i hope you have a lovely weekend,

ChrisW

Thanks you for your apology. The is a good example of the way Anet needs to communicate with its customers: acknowledge mistakes in a specific rather than general way, and hopefully work to correct those errors. For many of us the issue is less that an Anet dev lost his temper but that the conditions which are leading to arranged GvG matches are not being addressed. While I am not but would like to be a GvGer I have received a lot of flack for engaging in open field fights and roaming, and have seen others get the same treatment from players. It is clear a lot of players are fed up with WvW in its current form and recent implementations threaten to make its deficiencies worse in the eyes of many.

I am glad that you are taking the issue seriously, welcoming feedback from the community and hopefully you are willing to move forward and give the community what it is asking for in a timely manner before many of us feel compelled to rage quit the game.

Oftentimes people follow a commander because he’s the only guy tagging up, not because he’s good. Some commanders who are terrible get a following simply by being there and tagging up regularly, at which point it becomes hard for the ones with common sense to compete with them. People seem to take the attitude that if a commander is there every night and everyone else is following him, he must be good. Not only will they not give a better commander a chance, they will sometimes demand that he tag down so the “real” commander can do his job.

On my server, it is rare to find a commander who has the common sense to stop and rally regularly to keep the group together. Instead they wp out in the middle of a fight and take off running the instant they hit the wp, leaving half the zerg behind and the other half straggling behind them in a long extended column. We wipe again and again due to the lack of organization, while the commander screams at everyone to “keep up!” as if it is anyone’s fault but his own. Any attempts to correct this behavior will be met with personal insults and attacks by the commander’s sycophants. Other people who tag up will be ignored or attacked for doing so.

I’m not sure what the solution is, but something must be done about the 100g wonders monopolizing the commander’s role and bossing everyone around like they own you.

Agreed. I could care less about the score, what tier we’re in, or anything else. I just want fun, intense fights and on my server, these are getting as rare as exotic drops nowadays. All we do is run around following clueless “commanders” and knocking doors down. If we go up against a superior server, no one bothers to show. No one wants to incur idiotic death penalties (another bar to active participation in WvW that needs to go to attract PVE’ers) which is why people run rather than fight to the death.

The other night a commander tagged up and formed a small roaming group and we finally got to have some open-field fights with like-minded opponents. It was a blast.

The so-called “real commander” (PVDoor zergmeister) and his obnoxious minions gave us no end of grief for “accomplishing nothing” as if we should apologize for having fun. Did I mention we are like 100,000 points ahead and maybe it might be nice to allow our insanely outnumbered opponents to cap some stuff from time to time while we fight balanced groups in the fields? I’m fed up with the whole “we have to always win” mentality which is more about the commanders’ egos than fun for the rest of us.

ZOMG they just took a tower!!!!!! Everybody get to the WP and follow the commander!!!!

Who gives a baby cat.

Nuzt.7894:

If you feel you signed up for a job your doing it wrong. Its a free game that you choose to play, and massive grind ? who are you trying to fool ? You can achieve 80 in 5 hours.

I’m not doing it wrong, Anet is. There is no way you can level to 80 in 5 hours unless you buy the mats, at which point it isn’t a “free” game anymore, not that it ever was. If you farm them, that is a massive grind that takes forever nowadays because the drop-rate on crafting mats is abysmal.

Who are you trying to fool?

400 to 500 is even worse because the only way to get ascended mats is to grind for them. You can’t buy them. I have to do content most people hate like temples and dragons to get the dragonite I need for my first weapon(seriously who would do these if not for the rewards). That is grind, and grinding is not fun. It’s a job.

If Anet is too stupid or arrogant to realize this, then they better be ready to deal with the consequences. Modern MMO players are used to cutting their losses and moving on from games that have had the fun beaten out of them by clueless developers. Gone are the days when people would stick to a game for no other reason than they invested so much time in it they hate to see it go to waste.

Nuzt.7894:

Because players are lazy, I said it in a different thread, if you make an alt it does not start at 80? Just because you put time into 1 character does not mean all characters should reap the benefits, new character, new progression. Should a fresh 80 come out rocking Guarded leech or Applied fortitude because you spent time on another character ? The answer is no.

I really do blame WoW for the ever growing laziness of players as it seems this is when MMO’s went laughable ez mode. Does anyone remember when you actually had to work at your character, its what gave players a sense of accomplishment for thier time invested.

Sure, ’cause we all signed on for an unpaid part-time job, not a game. Did you forget all the rest of the massive grind in this game?

Perhaps Anet should change its motto to “Arbeit Macht Frei” to motivate all the lazy, unproductive players out there who might think there is something more productive to do with their lives than work at a game for free.

Sovereign.1093:

They want us to have fellowship degrees in supply capacity. .

No joke. Considering it takes a staggering 300 levels to max out supply, with the average level gain being 1 per hour or so depending on your server, that’s the equivalent of like 7 college classes of 40 hours each. All you students out there neglecting your studies for this game take note of the price you pay.

rhodoc.2381:

Accountbound WXP pool and character bound WvW Abilities.

nuf said

Exactly. You should have one overall WvW level based on the contribution of all your characters while at the same time each character gets the same amount of points to be used however you like. So if your warrior earns 200 levels and your mesmer 5, that gives both a rank of 205 plus 205 points each to customize each character.

Given that it will take thousands of hours to max out your rank, that ought to be enough “progression” to last anyone who gives a baby cat.

I like this idea and it could easily be done without hurting PVE buffs. Just combine two low-pop servers (preferably in a way that balances the Oceanic people) and let whatever buffs that WvW server earns apply to both PVE servers. Simple.

Secondly, there is a false dichotomy between WvWers and PVEers being made here. While some may fall more heavily into one category or the other, we all do a mix of both. While I prefer WvW, I now have to do tedious dragon and temple events to get dragonite because the drop rate for this in WvW is horrible. I have to champ farm for other mats and money. Like it or not I am a PVE’er, and not by choice but necessity.

Hepatolith.6389:

Lets see wether it is really that bad.
if you manage to stay in for the new 10 sec, you will have ~7000 healing.
+ most ranger builds can perform at least 2 finishers (leap and/or blast) in it.
Against melee enemies you can potentially go up to 5! finishers (2 drakes + sword/horn + GS)
makes ~9600 healing with 2 finishers and ~13500 with 5 finishers.
So with the right build it can be an awesome heal.
Not to mention the improved condi removal!

All you have to do is stay in one spot in a WvW zerg fight and not get insta-gibbed, and you might get all that.

dangerCake.1473:

Most of the people in my guild just refer to Tequatl as “Teq” (pronounced like tech). Like Claw of Jormag is “Claw” (I give people a hard time for referring to this one as Jormag), and “The Shatterer” is “Shatner.”

I call him “Jormie” just to get that reaction out of folks like you

(Just kidding, but I do call him Jormie, an affectionate name in the same vein as calling the Loch Ness Monster “Nessie”).

Dante.1508:

Needs to be an Aoe or its going to be not used, pets just cannot target a thief well enough with the current mechanics, either way now thieves will kill Pet then Ranger in two attacks instead of one..

This^^^

If it requires you to target the thief and/or have your pet run up and deliver the ability to the thief it is another worthless gimmick like stealth is now. Stealth fails 80 percent or more of the time because it has to be targeted, is slow to activate, or just fails outright. Both these abilities should work instantly by pressing the freaking button, not having to target an adversary who can drop aggro and stealth continuously. If you could keep a thief targeted throughout a fight you wouldn’t need a reveal.

I’m not expecting any meaningful changes from Anet anymore. As always they take lackluster abilities and pets no one uses and tries to dress them up rather than improve the core mechanics, abilities and pets the majority prefer.

Lipstick on a pig so the cheerleaders have something to cheerlead about, nothing more.

thefantasticg.3984:

Didn’t they nerf pet health awhile back because of PVP? Pretty sure they did. So, if I’m right now they are buffing back up again, splitting as they originally should between pvp and PVE. Sadly, as pointed out above, unless you are traited to 15s melee pet is still going to die before the ability to swap in a many situations (like before the nerf to health that I’m pretty sure about). That’s why I wanted a perma-stow option way back then. And as pointed out above, more health doesn’t make the pet less full-kitten. AI is still going to suck.

I really wish they’d suck it up, admit they suck at programming a proper pet, give us the option to perma stow and give that % of damage back to the ranger. I would literally, and honestly, send flowers to every Anet employee who has to do with that decision… And maybe a thank you card.

Yeah, if they want to make all us cynics here eat our words they could do that

What we need is a separate, spammable heal over time for our pets, like the Hunter class in WoW has. In WoW you could keep that HoT up 100 percent. Though pets were still kinda squishy, they were not two-shot wonders and you didn’t have to sacrifice your personal heal to heal them.

Kaphei.7096:

You can always play single player games if you despise interacting with other people inside games.

Where did I say I despise interacting with other people? Did you read what I wrote? If you have nothing meaningful to say then don’t say it.

The problem is that these fights just aren’t fun. One-shotting and chain cc’ing and all the other tired Anet gimmicks in these fights is just frustrating. You don’t feel like it’s a challenge when 10 krait magically appear on top of you and take turns reeling you in, cc’ing and then killing you. You feel like you’ve been scammed.

When you’re just another anonymous face in the zerg feeling like your contributions to the fight accomplish nothing and you’re just dodging red circles and endlessly rezzing the dead, where is the sense of achievement? If “we” (never “me”) beat the dragon, I don’t think I’d be all that excited because it depends way more on what the other 79 people do than it does on what I do.

If you could somehow leap on top of the dragon and do an instant 10 percent damage by impaling him in the head with your greatsword, that would be epic. You know, something that makes your contribution stand out, if only in your own experience of the fight.

There is fun hard and stupid hard, and the distinction between the two has less to do with the difficulty level than the mechanics of the fight and your role in it. Tequatl leans way to far towards stupid hard to be much fun.

VOLKON.1290:

It’s another Tequatl sunrise
Flyin’ slowly ‘cross the sky, said goodbye
He was just a hired dragon
Workin’ on the frogs he planned to fry
The days go by

Ev’ry night when the sun goes down
Somethin’ in the water outside town
Soon to be burnin’ down

She wasn’t just another dragon
Tequatl couldn’t keep from comin’ on
It’s been so long
Oh, and it’s a hollow feelin’ when
It comes down to eatin’ friends
It never ends

Throw another shot of poison
Wonder why the lady dragons never come
You just get numb
It’s another Tequatl sunrise, this old world
still looks the same,
Until today, mm…

Lol. Bravo. Frying frogs is a thankless job but someone’s got to do it.

Scott McGough.6897:

Hope it’s not too late to chime in, but it’s pronounced “teh-KWAHT-ul.” Kind of rhymes with “heck bottle,” with the accent on the “BOT.”

That’s how we say it in-house and how we have NPCs say it in-game through VO.

Now we need you guys to pronounce all the Gaelic Sylvari names correctly

One downside I believe but can’t prove occurs is that you get retaliation damage from the aoe if you shoot at one target and the blast effects nearby targets. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Nahuatl words as we see them in English are the result of Spanish attempts to spell them phonetically according to the rules of Spanish pronunciation. Though the actual pronunciation may be slightly different, pronouncing these words in accordance with the rules of Spanish is probably the best practice.

So Tequatl is

Tay KWA till or
Teh KWA till

With emphasis on the second syllable..

Quetzalcoatl would be:

Kates all KWA till or
Kets all KWA till

I’ve been getting a lot of the “Oh Noes!” feeling lately, especially with the introduction of ascended gear and the conversion of this “game” into an unpaid part-time job. WvW has its moments when we’re not being steamrollered by a zerg that outnumbers us 5 to 1, but other than that this game just doesn’t provide the fun and excitement to justify the grindfest it has become.

DevonCarver.5370:

We’ve actually just recently added the tech to add an achievement for complaining on the forums.

Add one for ignoring all those complaints and forging ahead with the brain thrusts we’ve been exposed to lately and I know my bet will be on the winner.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I had way too much Karma, that I was running out of things to use it on. Over 7 million from the start of the game until now. And that’s only a fraction of the Karma gains of some players.

I’m glad they reduced the output. With Karma being so easy to get, it made it less desirable to get. Plus, now that there’s no Karma gain from failed events, that gives more incentive to people to actually succeed for the awards.

I say “Good Job” Anet. A well welcomed change.

Yeah, because having too much money sucks.

Sheesh.