Guild Wars 2

Durzlla.6295:

I’ve found that going 30 in either skirmishing or marksman (your choice) and 20 in the other one and 20 in BM results with MUCH better damage than 30/30/10/0/0

Yea, agreed. I played with bow-based builds a lot and I now consistently run with 15 in BM for loud whistle along with the additional pet survivability. Not only does this make it reasonable to keep your pet up without using something like a bear, but it also allows gives you more uptime on quickness by allowing you to swap pets more frequently.

NaturalPortman.9562:

Dahkeus.8243:

Xsorus.2507:

Rambodacious.7495:

Hello friend,

Dunno why you posted all this stuff. I made a post addressing this very thing in the “how to counter a ranger” thread.

If classes are forced to bring builds and abilities that are sub-optimal for fighting the other 7 classes in an attempt to have a CHANCE at beating a trap ranger it means ONE thing.

Rangers are overpowered.

But hey, thanks for spending a large amount of time trying to prevent a nerf to a build that obviously needs one. Peace.

“I shouldn’t be forced to change my meta to deal with a new meta!”

^ That’s this thread in a nutshell.

It still blows my mind how the perception of rangers has gone from them being seen as an underpowered laughable class to now this scary overpowered class when next to nothing has really changed (especially for trap rangers).

The only thing that has really changed for rangers is that A) Java started running rangers mainly because he just wanted to try something new to keep things interesting and rangers main Achilles heel happens to come from skills/abilities that aren’t popular in the current meta.

I mean, rangers themselves don’t do anything really much better than anyone else. They don’t have amazing dps, they can’t bunker like other classes, but they just happen to be the right kind of mediocre to shine in the stagnant meta game that GW2 has created.

To be fair vyndetta never gave his opinion on whether he finds it op or not. He’s just giving people a way to “DEAL WITH IT”.

Oh, I should clarify, I’m really only talking about the people replying to this topic who are complaining about how OP they think rangers are or how they don’t like the counters that he suggested. Vyndetta did a good job at giving a level-headed analysis with the intentions of helping rather than judging or whining.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Get your pet involved!

You know, if burst is really the goal, this is a good idea. A might stacked, BM traited pet will do more burst, especially if you know how to stack your abilities well.

Honestly, as long as we don’t get caught in a big gear treadmill, we’re better off this way.

The current mechanics allow tankier builds to still be able to deal solid damage, which is really what keeps many melee builds alive.

Boomstin.3460:

Replace your sword/axe with a shortbow and stay on range, shortbow is very good also with power/prec/crit combo .As a glass cannon melee ranger you most likely have the shortest live expentancy of all classes.

Agreed with this. You can do good damage with a 1h sword, but you need a lot more defense to pull it off than you do with a bow build. Because of this, I really don’t recommend mixing melee and ranged for dungeons.

Also, the short bow and longbow work well together. Use the longbow for knockbacks, AoE, and putting up weakness, then swap to your short bow to use as your main dps weapon (short bow does more dps than longbow).

Xsorus.2507:

Rambodacious.7495:

Hello friend,

Dunno why you posted all this stuff. I made a post addressing this very thing in the “how to counter a ranger” thread.

If classes are forced to bring builds and abilities that are sub-optimal for fighting the other 7 classes in an attempt to have a CHANCE at beating a trap ranger it means ONE thing.

Rangers are overpowered.

But hey, thanks for spending a large amount of time trying to prevent a nerf to a build that obviously needs one. Peace.

“I shouldn’t be forced to change my meta to deal with a new meta!”

^ That’s this thread in a nutshell.

It still blows my mind how the perception of rangers has gone from them being seen as an underpowered laughable class to now this scary overpowered class when next to nothing has really changed (especially for trap rangers).

The only thing that has really changed for rangers is that A) Java started running rangers mainly because he just wanted to try something new to keep things interesting and rangers main Achilles heel happens to come from skills/abilities that aren’t popular in the current meta.

I mean, rangers themselves don’t do anything really much better than anyone else. They don’t have amazing dps, they can’t bunker like other classes, but they just happen to be the right kind of mediocre to shine in the stagnant meta game that GW2 has created.

The big advantage of stealth on a jaguar is actually the damage that it does while stealthed moreso than the actual stealth itself. Once stealthed, they can continue dealing damage to the target without being brought out of stealthed and get guaranteed crits. Quickness works particularly well with them since you can get an additional attack from them while stealthed. That being said, they still have the same drawback that other cat pets do, which is that they have very weak defensive stats. Birds have equal precision, but also have increased vitality, so they also work well for dealing big dps.

I don’t know exactly what the formula is for condition damage, but I believe it scales pretty badly compared to direct damage stats like precision, crit damage, and power.

Offhand dagger doesn’t bring much to the table for PvE since cripple often isn’t needed and poison is a low damage condition that’s already available on the shortbow and 1h sword. However, it is a great PvP weapon because of the extra evade along with how good cripple and poison is in that setting.

The murellow is a decent pet, but it’s butt ugly. Also, while the combo field is nice, poison is (as mentioned above) a rather weak condition for PvE. You can also get a poison field from a whiptail devourer. Because of this, the other bears are more popular. Personally, if I want a poison field since I generally use it as an alternative way to tag mobs in PvE events and the ability to throw it quickly at range means that I’m more likely to hit mobs with it before they move or die.

As for your playstyle, I think it’s fine, but a lot of people (myself included) have changed to a more direct damage playstyle in PvE because of the potential problems that can occur when you have multiple condition build players in a group. Examples are how a bleed only stacks to 25 and doesn’t benefit from additional bleeds after that point. Also, conditions like burning and poison can often be kept up 100% of the time by others, so you don’t contribute much if someone else with equal or greater condition damage is keeping this condition up sufficiently by themselves. However, in the right group, a condition build is fine and deals almost as much damage as a person stacking precision and crit damage.

Oh, also, if you do go for a direct damage build, don’t be afraid to keep your shortbow since it outdamages a longbow even if you don’t stack any condition damage.

Finally, if you decide to give a BM a build, I’d recommend looking at a might stacking build since you seem to like the 1h sword. The 1h sword gives your pet might by itself and with Fortifying Bond (15 in NM), you can also get a lot of might stacked up from other sources. The result is that you have a relatively tanky build that brings some strong damage and very big burst if you use something like a Raven. Here’s an example build, but you could easily modify a few things if you like:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQRBMhx+1JRFBWGZhVQsWII6H4ErwhePmV6bv/wouYpkkA;ToAKqMUJoySljKJVrMGZsFZKC
(copy and paste the link for it to work)

Hope that helps!

I assume you mean PvP? Personally, I prefer just running double canine. If you really want to drop something for loud whistle, then I’d probably say to drop 5 out of Skirmishing, but I wouldn’t go that direction myself.

Yea, this needs some more attention. Pets are really underrated by people that don’t understand the mechanics well enough.

Eh, the 30 second cooldown keeps it from being anything I’d call “ridiculous”, but it does put drakes in a good spot for PvE AoE situations.

However, I don’t think you’d want to try to build around a drake for PvP, even if you tried using it with Entangle. You’ll get much better burst from a raven easily along with better overall dps.

Wolves are actually pretty awesome as pets. They don’t look like it at first since they have a lot of utility/cc based abilities, which is why they are so well adapted to PvP, but they also have a very fast attack animation and do well in PvE since they bring solid dps while being stout enough to survive dungeons better than most other dps pets.

This is why I frequently run with canine pets in PvE.

Eh, the Storm bow in itself was cool, but mostly because of the prestige. Personally though, I’m not a huge fan of bows that are so sparkly/shiny/glowy/elaborate/etc. that they don’t look like they would even function. This is probably why I think bows like Eir’s Longbow (http://www.guildhead.com/item/28272/eirs-longbow-of-ice) are the best looking in the game.

I honestly don’t see how this matters. At worst, you cast this and just hit your hotkey to have your pet to come back to you immediately afterwards. Considering the other bugs in this game, this is probably near dead last in priority.

Hoyvin.3241:

OrianZeta.1537:

And here’s my suggestion: pets can rally the player, rangers should be able to rally their pets. A bond is a two-way street, Anet, we support one another.

This. And you used to be able to revive pets, as well, back in the beta. Even other players could revive pets. I’d be ok with making that just the ranger only being able to do it for their own pets.

I might try a moa the next time I do AC (which is every day, just about) and get to Lt. Kohler. Any pet that gets anywhere near him IS useless.

It’s better the way it is now. When we were able to rez pets, then you would either have a dead pet on top of an ally so that your pet would get rezzed instead of your teammate or the time it took to rez them wasn’t worth it since you could just swap pets a few seconds later without losing combat time.

skupuz.6940:

OGDeadHead.8326:

It’s just Anets vision of balance.

Warrior – takes 50% more damage – break stun

Thief – lose all endurance – break stun

Ranger – anti heal – doesn’t break stun

All form of quickness have drawbacks with the ranger being the mildest. 4 sec where you cannot heal is a minor when you compare it to taking 50% more damage or losing the ability to dodge for 10 sec (for thief, you do not regen endurance while quickness is still up). If you want the ranger’s version to break stun, you will have to give up more than a minor inconvenience.

I actually prefer the ranger version out of those 3 choices. If I’ve decided to bust out my offensive burst, I’m probably not under so much fire that I’m stunned. If I an stunned, I’m probably playing defensive anyways.

Eh, I don’t think they need to do anything to the skill. It’s definitely not a good choice for most if not all PvE, but it does work well as an sPvP skill.

No, it’s not the same in the slightest. GvGs were well coordinated fights with groups who knew eachother and had built a sense of community together aimed towards a direct win or loss.

WvW is a semi-coordinated fight with tons of players who often barely know eachother in an amorphous seemingly neverending fight of which the outcome doesn’t seem to matter.

GvG fights took place in guild halls that provided unique challenges, so home turf vs fighting at an enemy’s guild hall made a difference.

WvW fights take place in a huge sprawling area that’s always the same, regardless of server that you’re facing.

In GvG, there were guild rivalries because the cohesive structure build a community that interacted with eachother.

In WvW, there’s very little actual interaction between guilds and guild rivalries don’t matter anyways since fights are never really just between two guilds, but rather are guild and a bunch of random people vs guild and another bunch of random people.

In GvG there were specific roles that people planned out so that the role of individuals mattered in the way they used their class/build to help achieve a goal.

In WvW class and build matters very little since strategy is really more about who can amass a bunch of people and move them to the right place effectively.

WvW is great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s no replacement for the lack of GvG. There is a gaping hole in GW2 where we lack the same community involvement with guild identity that there was in GW1 and WvW has not made up for that.

Jazenn.7526:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Ravens have the most burst, Ive gotten 16k crits with my ravens f2 in pvp. Jaguar does less overall numbers and burst but stealths and hits just as hard in its own right. After a ravens f2 its inferior to a jag, atleast during a f2 stealth.

Dang! Someone please tell me how to do this, I cant get my birds to hit even 3k lol. Is this multiple skills buffing the hit or what? Can anyone tell me? In WvW my jungle stalker was able to hit 3.9k but thats the limit I’ve seen. I think I used an enlarged jaguar to hit 5k once but I’m not sure.

In PvP, it’s probably from hitting a lowbie in WvW, which is where most of the outrageous numbers come from in damage.

Realistically, you will need a very specific type of build with a lot of things lined up to get a number like that in PvE. I’ve run a 1h sword build that focuses on stacking might on the pet through Fortifying Bond. With 25 stacks of might on my bird and Sick ‘Em, I can frequently hit for 10k (the f2 does two 5k hits at once) on crit. If I used a greatsword along with Sig of the Wild, I could use the hilt bash damage buff to beef that up, I’m sure, but stacking that much just to hit a high number on a pet F2 really doesn’t make for a good build because of everything you have to sacrifice to pull it off.

Bambula.3649:

---

could we maybe stop talk about the dmg question and look for other points?

wvw:
-range rly need on lb?
-better kite options with lb/sb?

pve:
-whats better for dungeons/frac?
-bm with lb/sb?

pvp:
-same point as pve bm better with lb/sb?

what you guys think?

Yea, sb really is superior on almost every account aside from range as Dante said.

The shortbow is much better for kiting since it has an on demand cripple that doesn’t require you to stand in place and channel an AoE. The knockback is nice, but doesn’t do much without a snare in place and really the jump back evade from the sb does almost the same thing while protecting you from attacks and isn’t countered by stability.

In PvE, the SB is much better suited to the positioning and movement required for fights. Anyone running with at least 25 in Skirmishing (very popular for glass cannon builds) will need to be flanking enemies anyway for the 10% damage increase, so in reality the longbow requires you to be flanking AND at max distance, whereas the sb only needs you to be flanking.

So what is the longbow good for? In short, it’s more of a group support weapon. Because of this, it really shines as a weapon that you swap to in certain circumstances, such as when you want to push an enemy off an ally with Point Blank Shot or when you need a big AoE for a large pack of enemies. However, once these abilities are on cooldown, the short bow is superior in just about every other way.

Hoyvin.3241:

Can someone explain the attraction of this? I’m not looking down on you if that’s what you want to play, it’s a semi-free world, after all, but why would you pick a class generally known as a ranged class and then want to play melee?

For myself I play longbow/shortbow. I started out longbow/greatsword, but found that I very rarely used the greatsword, and liked some of the crowd control/condition damage (sorry I hate acronyms on forums I generally have no idea what the refer to) aspects of the shortbow.

I have a guildie that pretty much thinks the same way. Again, you paid yer fitty bucks for the game and you can play it any kitten way you please.

Just because Ranger has “Range” in the name doesn’t mean that’s what a ranger is all about.

When you get down to it, the real defining characteristic of rangers in this game is the pet system since a ranger without a pet is just a watered down cross between a warrior and thief. Personally, I really like using a melee build that is BM focused since it synergizes so well. The main attack of the 1h sword directly buffs your pet with might, you’re right in range to give and recieve boons between you and your pet, and a lot of the talents just synergize so well together.

Great guide.

Yea, Jungle Stalker F2 does suck for the most part. The only place I’ve seen it as a good pet is in PvE with a build using Fortifying Bond since that gives the pet 10 stacks of might on F2 cast (assuming you’re in range).

Indoles.1467:

Against? A player? The running heavy golem? Monsters? Static golems? In every case different pets are the fastest killer (highest dps). Snow leopard kills the running heavy golem in the mists faster than any other pet. However, an 8s chill isn’t very reliable against players (high chance of being cured). Raven kills the running heavy golem the slowest out of any bird.

Eh, I’d have to test it, but I’m pretty sure a canine would be better for a moving opponent since they have a fast attack animation, a cripple, and a knockdown. They may do less direct dps, but they would likely have more uptime, even against a snow leopard.

Also, I’m skeptical about believing that there’s something about a raven that would put it behind other birds (except Owl of course since it has a chill F2). They don’t have any difference from other birds except for their F2 and there’s nothing about a hawk/eagle’s F2 that gives them more dps against a running target.

Jaguars and Ravens are the two top dps pets for single target. I want to say that jaguars edge out ahead a bit, but I don’t remember for sure. Either way, they are the go-to pets for high dps and burst.

Jaguars top feline pets because of the extra damage they deal while stealthed and Ravens top bird dps due to the big damage they bring from their F2.

Ravens have more vitality and also blind on stealth, which often puts them as top dps pet in my eyes.

Here ya go:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQRBMPxG2JRFVWGZhVQsWII6H4ErQiePmV6bv/wou4pkmA;TwAg0CnooyQlgKLVOqkUtyYkxWkpIA
(you may need to copy and past link for it to work)

The build revolves around stacking might on your pet while dpsing with your sword. The number 1 ability gives might to your pet, so the sword is inherently well suited for a BM build. This takes it a step farther by using Sigil of Strength and Sigil of Battle to give yourself might boons while putting them on your pet at the same time (from Fortifying Bond). Swap weapons frequently to make use of your offhand dps abilities as well as to stack might on you and your pet. Use the raven F2 when you have a good bit of might stacked for some big burst that can easily hit 10k damage.

For gear, berserkers is good, but you’ll want to have some pieces with defensive stats as well (vit and/or toughness) since rangers need a good bit of defense to survive melee.

This post seems like a reply to something, but I’m not sure what…

Anyways, most good PvP condition builds rely on conditions either from axe/torch or from traps anyways. Sb bleeds help, but they’re not something you really rely on.

Wow, a lot of people here started hating on Lily pretty quickly, but what (s)he said is correct. Whether you run a direct damage or condition build, the shortbow will do more damage. The short bow will also do better with certain sigils, such as those that produce an effect on crit since it has a faster attack speed (i.e. Sigil of Strength).

Source: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/57386-longbow-vs-shortbow-dps-speed-etc/#entry2094997

Now, the Longbow is pretty competitive damage at max range, but the dps ramps down quickly as you get closer and maintaining the max range is a lot trickier than flanking an enemy, especially considering that most high damage bow builds will have 25 in Skirmishing for the 10% additional damage when flanking. This means that if you really want to get max damage on a long bow, you need to be at max range AND flanking.

So, let’s move the conversation away from dps. Lily’s comments on this were spot on and that’s not really what the OP is asking about anyways.

As for utility, I’ve found that outside of zerg fights in WvW, the short bow tends to be the most advantageous. The longbow does have some very good abilities that fit well in some situations (which is why I run sb/lb in PvE dungeons), but if you’re really making the choice between one or the other, the sb will give you the upper hand in most situations.

Here’s my comparison of sb to lb utility:
Longbow
Rapid Fire – Contrary to popular opinion, this doesn’t really do much burst. The dps of this ability is on par with your auto attack at long range, so this ability is only really useful if you’re not at max range and have your lb out. If you’re at max range, don’t bother using this in your rotation.
Hunter’s Shot – Helps to stack vuln, but other classes can do this better than us anyway. Using this is a personal dps loss, but may increase group dps if your group doesn’t have enough vuln stacked.
Point Blank Shot – Great ability and gamebreaking in some situations. Pairs very well with Piercing Arrows and is very good for helping out group mates, but doesn’t do much if your target isn’t snared.
Barrage – Great ability that brings a much needed snare and does good dps since it continues after the channel effect, but since this roots you while you cast, the situations where you can effectively use this can be limited, particularly in high movement fights.

Short Bow
Poison Volley – Pretty weak ability unless you get in melee range to get the maximum stacking duration. Shines mostly in PvP, but is great for mob tagging since it pierces in a cone with a short cooldown.
Quick Shot – Doesn’t give the group utility that Point Blank Shot does, but is much, much better for personal survival. This is even more true when facing mobs that can’t be moved or opponents with stability in PvP.
Crippling Shot – On demand snare can often be weakin PvE, but is clutch when it comes to kiting.
Concussion Shot – It’s a small CC, but can be great for helping out group mates, especially when used with Piercing Arrows.

Tl;dr – Even though longbows look much, much cooler, the short bow is the winner in dps for almost all practical situations and the utility is arguably better for most situations as well. WvW and simple PvE boss fights are the only places where the longbow is the clear winner.

Maybe this will help. Here’s a link to where you can see most of the current longbow skins:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gallery_of_longbows

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Yea I want that one as well, was hoping for more of like a plain one but that is the next best thing. Too bad people are overpricing atm, Im planning on buying one for 6.5g if I can find it.

You could always buy one with the stats you want and just transmute the appearance with the plain skin from some low level bow. =P

Akisame.9508:

Dahkeus.8243:

Akisame.9508:

Dahkeus.8243:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

I wouldnt mind the class if I wasnt forced to have a pet. Id be happy if they just make a petless archer class. But they wont.

That class already exists. It’s called a Warrior or Thief.

Wrong, a warrior is a warrior, and the thief is a thief. Ranger’s are the only class that aren’t ranger’s, they are beast masters. Traditionally, Ranger’s are not suppose to have pets. ANet mixed two classes into one when they did our class and that’s why this class is so broken. Anet created a hybrid class and doesn’t know what to make of it yet.

Whoa, put down the coffee, lol. Go back and read the post I replied to again.

Sorry, didn’t mean it as a ‘snap at you’ type of attack or anything. I’m just tired of people saying that if you want to play a ranger then create a warrior or a theif. I have a level 80 thief, and I have a warrior as well. Including my level 80 Ranger, neither of the three feel like a ranger to me. The thief feels like a true thief for me. The warrior excels in rifle, not bow, and ranger doesn’t excel in anything. When I play it I feel like a beast master in any other game. I’m there to support my pet, I am my pet’s pet! I really wish they would either rename the class to beast master, because that is what we are currently, or remove the pet mechanic which sucks anyways, especially in WvW, increase our damage to offset the loss of pet damage, and we keep the name of ranger.

And honestly, it’s not even the pet mechanic that doesn’t make the ranger class ‘feel’ ranger..ish. It’s the whole thing. We are suppose to be woodsmen, outdoorsmen, hunter’s. We should be able to track, hide in the shadows and move in stealth when in the woods while hunting prey. I should be able to take terrain as an advantage, not a disadvantage as it is now. I stand on a wall and try to shoot DOWN and I’m told it’s to far away! How the kitten can down be to far to shoot? Then adding salt to injury half of my damage is sitting next to me licking his balls because he doesn’t know how to run down the stairs to attack the people below!

For gods sake Anet, Give me a REAL Ranger class! One that I can be proud to play!

But…the ranger is, at it’s heart, a pet class. This is one of the major directions that ANet has decided on since the launch of the game. For people that want to shoot arrows without a pet, there are two other classes that cover this, so don’t hold your breath about some petless option.

Even if ANet wanted to make Rangers able to play without a pet, it would require a really big change that would require a lot of balancing and testing that’s just not realistic for them. Right now, ANet is focused on proving that a game without a monthly fee can produce lots of content, which is why there are still so many bugs prevalent.

Even if ANet had the time and resources to make a change like this, it would be a big balance change and their philosophy since launch has been to only make small minor changes to class balance rather than making big sweeping changes that cause additional balance issues later.

The GS does less damage than the 1h sword (as counterintuitive as it sounds), but is a good weapon for a tanky, defensive build. I’m not sure how it compares to a bow build though since I haven’t tested the damage that much.

Akisame.9508:

Dahkeus.8243:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

I wouldnt mind the class if I wasnt forced to have a pet. Id be happy if they just make a petless archer class. But they wont.

That class already exists. It’s called a Warrior or Thief.

Wrong, a warrior is a warrior, and the thief is a thief. Ranger’s are the only class that aren’t ranger’s, they are beast masters. Traditionally, Ranger’s are not suppose to have pets. ANet mixed two classes into one when they did our class and that’s why this class is so broken. Anet created a hybrid class and doesn’t know what to make of it yet.

Whoa, put down the coffee, lol. Go back and read the post I replied to again.

Easily. A good 1h sword build will put out more damage than a bow build while still being tanky enough to survive being melee in dungeons. However, it’s still easier to survive as ranged.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

I wouldnt mind the class if I wasnt forced to have a pet. Id be happy if they just make a petless archer class. But they wont.

That class already exists. It’s called a Warrior or Thief.

Eir’s Longbow is my personal favorite. Not only does it have Berserker stats (best stats for rangers), but it also has a beautiful skin that looks good without looking like some bizarre, over-the-top, overly flashy object that’s supposed to resemble a bow. It also sounds like it’s what you’re looking for.

Link to item:
http://www.guildhead.com/item/28272/eirs-longbow-of-ice

Roziel.5720:

Ok, i’ve read a lot on what a Ranger CAN’T do, but not much on the CAN. I’ve only hit 25, but yeah the pet and lack of burst are bad. Then again I hit harder and more steady then my necro which I feel is in a similar boat. But I can still see a lot of people playing high level rangers and have been advised to try it if I want to be a ranged fighter. On the bright side I love having to track down new pets, I love not having instant access to new abilities since it makes me explore more. I loved that about vanilla wow, and miss that from today’s mmos.

So what exactly is the highlights of this class right now? If there is no burst, pet stinks, and damage stinks if my pet dies why would people keep recommending this class? Why do YOU keep playing it?

I like the class because I enjoy the high mobility active playstyle along with the complexities present with pet management. The mobility isn’t on the same level as a thief, but the thief class really doesn’t appeal to me.

I also like how much I can adapt to circumstances in PvE with Ranger utility and pet changes.

My 2 cents:

I agree with the criticism against Speed Training. I would recommend dropping Sharpening Stone for “Sick ’Em” and then swapping Speed Training for Commanding Voice (decrease cd on shouts). “Sick ’Em” is a pretty solid talent for a BM build and can be a great way to get some burst.

If you swap your Alpine Wolf for a Raven, then you can sync up “Sick ’Em” with the F2 ability for a big hit. This will cost you the chill from the wolf, but if you really want the chill, you could use an Owl instead of a Raven. The burst will be a bit smaller, but it is still more than the Alpine Wolf.

Yea, this really is one of the most underestimated skills. However, the one thing that keeps me from using it very often is the cooldown, which is pretty brutal.

I know it doesn’t work in combat, but I guess I never paid much attention to check if it was working while in combat…

I’m at work atm, so I can’t test it, but I looked online and I don’t see anyone else reporting a bug with this.

I want to WvW more, I really do, but this is why I don’t touch it much:

- Individual fights don’t contribute much, if any, to success and big fights tend to be zerg spams where little to nothing is accomplished.

- There’s not much community behind WvW. I think if they scaled WvW down and brought back Guild vs Guild with the mechanics, I would love it.

- The grind to get tokens for WvW gear is so slow, that it really feels pointless. This is sad because I really like the set.

- With out any beginning and end, there is rarely if ever any sense of urgency.

Rooks Zaer.5846:

Don’t get me wrong, GW2 is absolutely brilliant in a lot of ways. But in the areas it falls short…it -really- falls short. And possibly unrepairably short (looking at you gem shop).

I’m actually ok with the gem shop for the most part. I mean, I honestly expected to hate it at first, but it’s grown on me. I’ll admit that there’s not a ton of stuff that really appeals to me and the “fashion” clothing feature feels really underwhelming since there’s so little available on the shop, but I’ve actually bought gems twice, which is a first for me in any MMO.

GUFF.5692:

Dahkeus.8243:

LB is tough since the slow rate of fire makes just about any “on crit” type of sigil really crappy. Personally, I’d vote for Sigil of Accuracy since precision goes so well with berserker gear.

I ran these for a longtime in both my LB and 1H Sword. Changed to sigil of strength and both and have not noticed much a difference. I already had 60 crit chance even before the sigil of accuracy so having a sigil with an effect on crit feels like it does more for me. I may experiment with some of the others but so far I do like the sigil of strength. Seems like a decent replacement for Rage as One might stacking as I run with Entangle Vines currently. After doing a hunter’s call from my warhorn then switching to LB and rapid firing/barraging I can get a 8-15 stack fairly easily when I have fury up.

Yea, Sigil of Strength is pretty awesome. I use one on my 1h sword. If you have a spec that has at least 15 in Nature Magic, the sigil is even better since it will put might on your pet as well. This is the cornerstone of the 1h sword build that I use for PvE.

I miss interrupts.

I mean, yes, GW2 technically has interrupts, but it’s not nearly the same. I miss clutch shutdowns by stopping a heal with distracting shot.

This is also why I just haven’t enjoyed the mesmer in GW2.

LB is tough since the slow rate of fire makes just about any “on crit” type of sigil really crappy. Personally, I’d vote for Sigil of Accuracy since precision goes so well with berserker gear.

Aveneo.2068:

Choose one thing? Alright, I’d have to choose one that applies to our bows as it diminishes our damage output significantly and can be summed up in one word…

OBSTRUCTED

Even on a clear field with my enemy less than 1200 away from me, I get these messages constantly. Heck even standing lined up in front of a keep door in WvW I get these messages.

Yea, obstructed is the one for me too.

Nurse.1085:

Reasons why I use it :

• Even though Shortbow does more damage, I can’t stand the idea of pressing #1 all day for my main source of damage. Auto attack, auto attack, auto attack. I find it’s gameplay very boring for Dungeons.

Huh? Both the longbow and short bow both do max damage when you just use skill 1 on autoattack. The only exception is if you’re not at max range with the longbow, in which case, it actually benefits to use rapid fire.

Nike.2631:

You know that you can dump stacks of food into the mystic forge for captain’s commendations, yes?

That’s basically vendoring them, but for a spiffy unique currency.

As frustrated as I am at cooking right now, the thought of flushing all this extra crap down the mystic toilet sounds rather appealing, regardless of what it throws back…

Agadar.4931:

What Dah said.

It seems Anet’s main focus has been anything but rangers, really.

Nah, it’s really just that since the game has gone live, ANet has only really done small changes since that’s their philosophy when it comes to profession balance. The most radical change I’ve seen them make to any class was a 30% damage nerf to engineer grenades and that was because they were offsetting some of that with making sigils effect weapon packs and making some of the other utility grenades deal damage.

So, don’t expect major changes in January, but expect some good solid small changes.

Anet is taking it slow with fixes and changes. Things have gotten better, but don’t expect anything really radical. To recap the major changes we’ve seen since launch:

Greatsword – Maul does more damage and the block can be used while moving. The block also blocks all projectiles for the full duration or until you get melee attacked and trigger the knockdown.

Short bow – Crossfire (number 1 attack) was nerfed slightly in attack speed and doesn’t seem to speed up as much as it should under quickness any longer. However, it still out dpses the longbow in most scenarios and has a much faster rate of fire. On the plus side, projectiles on all bows (even bows used by other classes) have been sped up so they aren’t as easily dodged.

Longbow – The projectile buff above affects longbows. Nothing else here has changed.

Pets – Melee pets now land their attacks on moving targets more often. It’s not a perfect fix, but it’s a lot better. Also drakes use their normal attacks like they should I believe.

Underwater combat – We got a bunch of damage buffs to underwater damage, particularly with the harpoon gun, but of course underwater combat still doesn’t really matter in this game.

Spirits – Now proc their benefits more often.

And that’s about it I believe. The 1h sword still roots you and prevents you from dodging while you’re using the regular attack, spirits still keel over from any light breeze, and the longbow still hits like a wet noodle unless you’re at absolute max range, but other than that, things are better.

florence.1674:

The only reason I use longbow……

Pure sheer stubbornness.

^ The most honest response so far, haha!