Guild Wars 2

nerva.7940:

anyone putting anything other than Protect Me in their utilities? anyone?

Yea, I’ll be using “Sick ’Em” since I’m running a 1h sword bm build. This buff along with the fix to melee attacks from pet have swayed me to use it.

And it would be nice for spirits to get fixed, but ANet doesn’t fix everything at once. They like to fix a little, then observe to see how things work out before fixing anything else.

Cakoluchiam.6901:

• Ranger
  • The ranger class combines its own innate abilities with the skills of their pets. We’ve balanced the class around the idea that you always have a pet with you to aid in any fight. The fact that the ranger can have multiple pets allows them to combine their pets in ways that most impact the current fight. We want the Ranger to have some of the evasion enjoyed by the Thief, as well as the mobility other classes employ. The class is able to deal physical or condition damage, and it can do this in melee or at range.

… and yet still no fix for the fact that ranger pets die instantly in dungeons, can’t attack from keep walls in WvW, and take 60s to respawn -AFTER- you’ve switched them out, regardless of how long they’ve been dead. Excellent.

Yea, being a ranger is tough if you’re not managing your pet well, but it’s really not that big of an issue.

Also, if you’re on a wall, pull out pets that buff with F2. You may not be able to hit enemies with your pet, but you can get might x 5, fury, protection, or regen boons with the right pet out.

ItIsFinished.9462:

2nd bullet point. Dart. Which skill is that? Devourers white attacks?

It’s the underwater spear attack with the ghost shark
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dart

OGDeadHead.8326:

Dahkeus.8243:

It’s frustrating, but is fair considering how much defensive stats drakes have and how hard their F2 hits.

…well, I will consider it fair once drakes are fixed to actually use their auto-use skills.

Hits hard compared to what – other pets, or other classes?

The F2 abilities are balanced considering their long cooldowns (30 secs untraited). Having an attack that is so hard to land on anything but stationary targets is, if anything, unbalanced.
In spvp, you need to be very lucky or play against really bad players to actually land their F2 attacks on anything. Heck, it’s hard to even get it to hit mesmer illusions/necro minions due to the very long activation time, lol!

Yea, I’m not going to defend drakes in sPvP, but I also don’t think that all pet types need to be viable in PvP either.

As for hitting hard, I’m talking about River Drakes.

Well, overall I see some things that WoW did better and some things that GW did better.

What WoW did better:
– You had to work a lot harder to get the right pet.
– Rare pets available for collectors.
– You couldn’t swap them all the time on a whim, so there was more attachment to the pet.
– More diversity in pets (which makes sense, considering the age of the game).

What GW2 did better:
– Better balance of pets.
– More diverse roles for pets.
– Ranged pets.

Heard some people had trouble with the link, so here’s the same build on the Guildhead calculator:
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmoVzVm9Moavg0oavg9cGGxokcoozb8kin7khs7kin7khs

Updated build below
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmoVzVm9Moavr0oavr9Maffxzococb08kin7khs7kin7khs7070z7kIW70V

I read the topic and expected this to be a comparison/debate between pets in WoW and pets in GW2…

…instead it’s a list of things wanted with GW2 pets with no mention of WoW or what WoW has to do with them.

FlyingCrackers.5620:

Kain Francois.4328:

Know what would be a cool idea? If when a player dodges, so does the pet evade attacks. That would be a nice trait or even profession mechanic for avoiding large AoEs.

You know what that is a good idea. That would look really cool also, synchronized dodging. That way we only have to focus dodging once, instead of getting your pet to dodge and yourself. It would just be one button.

This would require additional NPC animations for pets to be able to dodge, which generally means it would take a considerable amount of time and effort to be implemented, especially considering how many pets there are. Even if ANet wants to do this, I wouldn’t expect to see this anytime soon unless they could get around adding extra animations somehow.

@ Kassidi: for WvW, use pets that give you buffs if you’re going to be spending a lot of time in zerg fights. If you use a Red Moa and a Jungle Stalker, you can at least give yourself Might x 5 and Fury periodically.

Xiumph.9085:

So, I bought this game and it’s sitting on my desk in it’s physical copy awaiting me to play it. I wont be able to play it until my new PC build is complete (so awesome! 660 ti’s SLI!) but anyway I really want to hear how awesome or not awesome this game has been for you and what I should be looking forward to etc.

Thanks!

On any forum you’ll hear plenty of QQ since people that are content tend not to post, but here are some of my favorite points of the game:

- The community is pretty awesome: Town chat in GW2 is noticeably better than most games. WoW had lots of crap constantly in trade chat (and is also well known for the type of conversations in Barrens Chat) and Tera probably had the worst of all the games I ever tried..

- The game feels very alive. There’s just about always something going on, whether it’s random banter of NPCs or dynamic events.

- I never feel like I’m being forced to play. In many other MMOs, I always felt like I had to grind through tons of boring content to get to the good stuff (end game dungeons/raids and PvP). However, you can jump right into so much of what makes GW2 great without having to grind to max level or having to farm up the latest and greatest set of gear.

There are issues, but GW2 is definitely doing something great here and I’m glad I got this game.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Just some food for thought.

Trait overhaul – Marksmanship
(These suggestions all take into account a possible change that active effect of signets apply to the ranger instead of the pet, or to both the ranger and the pet)

*

Minor traits:

Adept
Current: You have opening strike
Suggestion: You and your pet have opening strike

Master
Current: Pets have opening strike
Suggestion: When you swap pets, you and your pet regain opening strike

Grandmaster
Current: Opening strike always critical hits
Suggestion: Opening strike always critical hits, and you regain opening strike for you and your pet when you kill a foe.

I can definitely stand behind the minor trait changes. This would be an elegant way to address the major shortcoming of Opening Strike, which is that it becomes exponentially less worthwhile as the duration of your fight grows.

It’s frustrating, but is fair considering how much defensive stats drakes have and how hard their F2 hits.

…well, I will consider it fair once drakes are fixed to actually use their auto-use skills.

If you want to get a feel for 25% speed while you wait for the patch, you can roll a thief, step into the mists and run around with Signet of Shadows.

=P

They’ve already stated that Sig of Wild will be buffed, but they’re doing so by increasing the movement speed to 25%, so the only way to keep 100% swiftness is either with runes of the pack, 30 points in NM, and a warhorn or runes of centaur with a warhorn. However, this at least does give some alternative with a decent speed increase.

As for the introduction of any new skills, there’s no way we’ll see anything before something like a major expansion. In the meantime, the closest thing you have to camo is either the Hide in Plain Sight trait or by using an Ash Legion Spy Kit (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ash_Legion_Spy_Kit).

Arrys.7145:

That’s not lazy ranger it’s remote control killer mode. See you’ve found the joys of boon transfer and a nasty pet.

As an FYI when I tested boon transfer I noticed the pet gets no more than 5 second duration per application and doesn’t benefit from duration increase on boons transferred from the ranger to them under 5 seconds base. AKA a duration increased protection boon applied to the ranger lasting over 5 seconds remains 3.5 transferred to the pet. Something to consider in regards to going 30 points in nature.

Good to know. I’ve recently started using a boon stacking melee build (1h sword with sigil of strength and offhand with sigil of battle). One of the things I realized about this build that I love is that if you use a pet that buffs, such as a jungle stalker, they get the benefit from casting on themselves as well as a double dipping if they apply it to you. Because of this, you can get 10 stacks of might from a single F2 of a Jungle Stalker.

lol, fun video. Great music/sound overlay.

For solo, I would probably recommend a trap build. This gives you a ranged snare for kiting and will deal damage with fast acting conditions (bleeding/burning) for when you are killing low health mobs.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBlODbEoKuOyyui1SA0UwpmsHH64jvCx6Kg6JzIaMA;TYAqZMzImxOjbG5MA

If you plan on doing event farming where you need to make sure you tag mobs quickly before they die (such as in Orr), drop 10 points from WS and NM to invest into Marks so you can get Piercing Arrows. Piercing normally doesn’t really shine in solo play, but it along with traps will give you all the tools to need to tag every mob in your general area before they die.

One thing to note is that I made this build with Centaur runes since this gives 100% swiftness (optimal for solo travelling), but if you want to avoid this and still want more mobility, you could always drop the traps and pick up Sig of the Wild (getting buffed to 25% run speed) and Muddy Terrain.

Well, there’s already something like this from the 15 WS talent that gives you and pet protection on dodge.

However, this can still be problematic since using a dodge for your pet means you have less endurance left for you. This would also have an impact on PvP that would reduce the chance people would consider killing our pet (something that doesn’t really happen right now much anyways).

I think the most elegant way to deal with the issue is just to add something in the game that either reduces damage that PvE bosses do to pets or that prevents it from doing more than a certain amount of damage in a burst.

Biggest tip I can give for Piercing Arrows is to aim for the furthest target in a line from you. This is because the arrow shoots towards the middle of the hitbox of your target and arcs down after. If you target the front enemy, the arrow may hit the ground before it reaches the last target, but if you target the end enemy, it will hit all of them.

Also, if you fight a really tall enemy, like a giant in Orr, then you may need to be close to any enemies between you and the giant. The middle of the giant’s hitbox is really high up and enemies between you and the giant may be too short to be hit by the trajectory. Getting closer will make sure the arrow pierces before it travels high enough to go over their head.

Piercing arrows takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get the feel for it, you’ll be amazed at how much you can improve your damage output.

If you ever want to see a fight where piercing really shines, do the Butcher path in Honor of the Waves. You can simultaneously take out two of the bosses totem or you can take out a totem while dpsing the boss.

NaturalPortman.9562:

Dahkeus.8243:

NaturalPortman.9562:

Dahkeus.8243:

NaturalPortman.9562:

Oldgrimm.8521:

Agadar.4931:

Oldgrimm.8521:

i think it would be better if that trait goes to our pet on death, since our pet dies a lot

That is actually a pretty decent suggestion. At least then we will gain a little bit back from our pet dying.

let us start a suggestion for this one, so we can have the developers look in to this trait

Do you know just how OP that would make regen/ healing power specced rangers?

Not very, considering the cooldown on swapping dead pets, especially with the utility/damage/healing (depending on the pet) you lose when the pet dies.

Errr that’s still OP…… That is three 11k heals the ranger has and even more vigor than it has right now (which is alot). Think about it, tanky rangers already last a long kitten time, and now whenever they bring a squishy pet they get a free full heal off, that means he still has his actual healing spring. That ranger will never go down.

Eh, I’d take a living pet over this any day. The numbers may sound nice in theory, but you can’t control when that pet dies very accurately if at all, so you’ll likely waste a lot of that as over-healing.

An untraited raven always dies in combat

Yes, and a feline will die even faster. You still can’t get them to die exactly when you need them to though. Even a player wearing no armor will often survive for a few seconds if a boss is stuck on another target or just between attacks.

tlenex.7901:

Dahkeus.8243:

Don’t want it. I like the challenge of having to keep my pet alive.

Thats the point of making this an optional feature.

That makes about as much sense as changing heart strike to deal twice what it normally does, but only as an “optional feature”.

Don’t want it. I like the challenge of having to keep my pet alive.

Rocklin.4106:

Thorondir.9138:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stun_break

One of these is not like the others, one of these doesn’t belong.

At least 4 utility skill stun breaks for every other class.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stability

few engineers use elixir x or mortar, so they have none at all, thieves only have daggerstorm, necros only have it on extremely high cd as well, ect.

you need signets traited with 30 points marksmanship to get the boon of sotw, but we have by far the longest lasting stability buffs of all.

Don’t come here with your logic and rationality! Don’t you see that these people are perfectly happy getting all riled up because the argument of “2 is less than 4” is one they can actually understand?!

NaturalPortman.9562:

Dahkeus.8243:

NaturalPortman.9562:

Oldgrimm.8521:

Agadar.4931:

Oldgrimm.8521:

i think it would be better if that trait goes to our pet on death, since our pet dies a lot

That is actually a pretty decent suggestion. At least then we will gain a little bit back from our pet dying.

let us start a suggestion for this one, so we can have the developers look in to this trait

Do you know just how OP that would make regen/ healing power specced rangers?

Not very, considering the cooldown on swapping dead pets, especially with the utility/damage/healing (depending on the pet) you lose when the pet dies.

Errr that’s still OP…… That is three 11k heals the ranger has and even more vigor than it has right now (which is alot). Think about it, tanky rangers already last a long kitten time, and now whenever they bring a squishy pet they get a free full heal off, that means he still has his actual healing spring. That ranger will never go down.

Eh, I’d take a living pet over this any day. The numbers may sound nice in theory, but you can’t control when that pet dies very accurately if at all, so you’ll likely waste a lot of that as over-healing.

Durzlla.6295:

Dahkeus.8243:

Durzlla.6295:

Dahkeus.8243:

Yea, if it’s between my pet getting it or me getting it, then I’d rather have it.

However, why not make it so it works when you OR your pet goes down?

I’d be ok with this so long as they each had a separate CD

I didn’t think there was a cooldown associated with this, or are you meaning that if they did add a cooldown that it should be separate?

No there is a CD, it’s around 10s or so (i haven’t had a good place to test it that wont damage my armor), so if my pet dies and then 8 seconds later i go downed i wouldn’t get my healing spring, which could possibly save me, all because my pet died first.

Ahh, I see. Yea, that makes sense.

Also, if you’re just worried about your armor, you could always remove it.

Electro.4173:

Dahkeus.8243:

3) I wish. I’m not a big fan of having a giant spider/devourer follow me around, but they are very effective pets, especially in dungeons. I’d love to see other options for ranged pets, but I can’t think of another creature that would make sense as a ranged pet.

Plains / Frost Worms and caterpillars / grubs would both make nice ranged pets considering they’re both ranged or semi-ranged already as enemies, but if you don’t like giant spiders and scorpions then those probably wouldn’t be much better (and Frost Worm would overlap with the Norn racial).

Perhaps Imps? I dunno, I think they’re somewhat sentient which would mean they probably wouldn’t be added as pets, but maybe.

Wind Riders seem like a good choice. Only the Veterans are ranged as far as enemies go, but that’d be OK since most enemy Devourers are melee yet the pets are ranged. I could totally get behind a pet Wind Rider (or Reef Rider even, they look cooler and it would give Sunsouth Cove a second pet) as a pet, they’re pretty nice and would also be good since they’re more fantasy-related and not just a normal animal, which some people have mentioned wanting more of.

They could always add a ranged Drake. There are already a couple Drakes with ranged F2’s (River and Marsh) so one that was strictly ranged wouldn’t be too strange. Or maybe just add a small ranged dragon.

As far as completely new creatures that aren’t even in the game yet, a spitting snake would definately be reasonable. Maybe a porcipine-type creature that shoots quills. And as far as the fantasy side goes, sky’s the limit really. It should be really easy to make up a fantasy creature that shoots energy projectiles or whatever.

Oooh, a Wind Rider would be awesome! Not only do they look cool, but they were great (although also often frustrating) enemies to fight against in GW1 since they could interrupt so much.

I can’t get excited over a wurm pet though.

Unspecified.9142:

Dahkeus.8243:

I think you’re missing the point. Class balance isn’t about giving one class a buff just because they received a nerf last patch.

It doesn’t matter what other classes have.

It doesn’t matter how many buffs/nerfs you received last patch.

If something is not balanced it should be fixed because it needs to be balanced, not because you think it’s fair or unfair that your class got x number of nerfs last patch.

The devs said in BETA that the ranger utilities needed work and that they were still missing 3 (turned out to be the shouts). We got the 3 missing utilities and they have continued to say Ranger utilities need work without doing anything about it yet.

You seem to be suggesting Rangers are fine and shouldn’t be balanced ‘just because’. What I’m saying, the devs have said, and everyone else is saying too, is that Rangers NEED WORK and have since launch. They haven’t gotten it yet and people are starting to feel like it’s never going to happen.

The first meaningful buffs to happen to ranger since beta (25% move signet, arrow speed, and pets hitting moving targets) can all be construed as a general game fix because every last one of them effects several other professions. It’s just a reasonable to assume that they were trying to fix a different profession that had the same problems and decided “Well, we have to give rangers the same” as it is to assume they were trying to fix rangers and other professions just benefit from it.

tl;dr Again, Rangers are NOT balanced. They have a lot of problems in utilities, traits, and pet mechanics. They aren’t “horribly broken” but even the devs have said the ranger needs the most work. The problems aren’t going to get fixed with multi-profession buffs/fixes because many of the problems are ranger specific so they need ranger specific fixes.

Ugh, seriously? Did you really read my post? I’m not saying rangers are fine and I never did say that. I know that’s an easy assumption since it’s easier to categorize people as either QQ whining brats or fanboys, but please take a second for some critical thinking.

No, I don’t think that rangers are “fine” and no I’m not oblivious to the issues of the class. What I am saying is that just because we have issues doesn’t mean we are justified crying for buffs on any or every aspect of the class just because we see something another class can do well and assume that we should be able to do the same exact thing just as well.

Fix what’s broken/overtuned/undertuned because it needs to be fixed not because “OMFG LOOK WHAT THEY CAN DO I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO IT TOO!!!”

Unspecified.9142:

RaDiOaCtIvE.3697:

You guys are soooo whinny, my god. O noes! They’re making other classes speed signets(which are just as worthless ATM) better as wells! But, but, but how will I feels special/better than they are unless my class is the only one to get a buff on fairly useless signets???? Well my class is worthless until they give into my whinnying and implement a ‘one shot’ skill so I can then whine it isn’t aoe and therefore sucks /QQ.

Grow up people…you’re not the only class in the game, let alone the only one that needs help. If you’re gonna spend so much time whinnying at least direct it towards actual problems your class has. Not just ‘/sad my class isn’t mechanic wise OP to others’ seriously…

This is what is known as ‘missing the point’.

Pre-Launch: Rangers nerfed to hell.

First big balance patch: Every class tweaked in various ways except ranger (not even mentioned).

Second big balance patch: Ranger becomes the Aquaman of Guild Wars 2. We do kick kitten underwater.

Third big balance patch: Rangers are led to believe that Rangers specifically were getting buffed finally. Turns out Anet is just balancing the game as a whole and Rangers happen to benefit from it.

The Point: Rangers have been sub-par since the nerfs in beta. We’ve been told “substantial changes” are coming. I think for obvious reasons people are assuming that means Ranger specific improvements. This isn’t ranger specific so while it’s still a nice improvement it does nothing towards fulfilling the promised “substantial changes” in a meaningful way.

This is really more of a indirect nerf to Thieves, Warriors, Engineers, and Guardians (assuming the last 3 don’t get a comparable improvement to movement) than it is a buff to Rangers.

Edit: I’m still in “wait-and-see” mode until tomorrow. Who knows what else the patch might bring.

I think you’re missing the point. Class balance isn’t about giving one class a buff just because they received a nerf last patch.

It doesn’t matter what other classes have.

It doesn’t matter how many buffs/nerfs you received last patch.

If something is not balanced it should be fixed because it needs to be balanced, not because you think it’s fair or unfair that your class got x number of nerfs last patch.

Tauril.8504:

Electro.4173:

Calling your pet back to dodge AoE’s or powerful attacks is all well and good if you’re playing ranged.

Yes. There were a few boss fight events where I managed to keep my feline alive the whole time simply by using F3 and F1 so it would always end up behind the boss, or stay with me if it needed to recover a bit, but I was using a bow.
If you’re playing melee you cannot ask your pet to stay away to recover by using F3. It will only stay next to you and therefore be right in front of your ennemy, taking damage… so if you melee you can only choose to sen your pet on suicide mission, you cannot get them out of a fight like you can when playing ranged.
So F3 should not only make the pet dodge (or at least get out of the way quickly and reliably) and come back to you, it should also put your pet in a mode where it tries to stay away from ennemies and AoEs (and not following you right into the heat of battle).

If it could be done and be reliable it would be much better than a straight up stat increase or some artificial protection against AoEs that I see suggested here and there. It’d make managing our pets rewarding because we’d have the tools to do it properly.

I haven’t run into this problem much, but I also tend to spec far into BM on any melee build I run, especially if I use 1h sword. However, even if I do need to move my pet out of the way to avoid being hit, unless I’m sitting in the bad stuff myself, there’s not much reason my pet shouldn’t be able to get out of the way as well.

Nurse.1085:

I feel 0 attachment to my pets. Here’s why :

• 1. I didn’t work to get them. I didn’t camp 5 hours for a rare spawn, I didn’t go through any type of process to tame it. I didn’t complete a quest line. I didn’t do anything. It was handed to me, thus I do not appreciate it.

• 2. A lot of the pets are not attractive looking or cool looking. There are no “special” pets. Everyone has access to everything. I’m not asking for awesome new pet skills for “special looking pets.” What I’m looking for is for them to be treated the same way Armor is. It’s all about the looks. (PS: I miss it when people ran up to me and said “Woah! Cool pet. Where did you tame him?”)

• 3. Only a few pets are viable because the rest die so easily. Even if I’m attached to my Feline type pet, it wouldn’t matter because he will die too quickly.

• 4. It’s encouraged to change pets. Every 30 seconds, I’m swapping my pets. Why become emotionally attached to something when I can’t even use him on a regular basis?

• 5. Pets feel more like a burden than a companion. I have no way to heal him, I have no way to utilize all of his pet bar skills (who’s idea was that?), I have no way of naming him, I have no way of training him past Juvenile. He’s just there. By my side for 30 seconds. No name, no significant value, no place in my virtual Ranger’s heart.

I can understand what you mean here, but sadly, this is why pets were so imbalanced in other games. In other games that did this, you either had a very special pet that would require a ton of grind/luck to get or you had a pretty looking pet with crappy mechanics.

I mean, the example that most people will follow goes back to WoW where you had rare and diverse pets that you weren’t constantly changing. However, this is also why everyone would end up using a ravager/wind serpent/OP pet of the month. This also was why it was sad to have an awesome looking pet that was just all around inferior.

Don’t get me wrong, the pet system in GW2 isn’t perfectly balanced and there are some pets that are all around inferior (I’m looking at you hynas!), but most pets are completely viable in the right setting, which is something that’s rare for an MMO.

NaturalPortman.9562:

Oldgrimm.8521:

Agadar.4931:

Oldgrimm.8521:

i think it would be better if that trait goes to our pet on death, since our pet dies a lot

That is actually a pretty decent suggestion. At least then we will gain a little bit back from our pet dying.

let us start a suggestion for this one, so we can have the developers look in to this trait

Do you know just how OP that would make regen/ healing power specced rangers?

Not very, considering the cooldown on swapping dead pets, especially with the utility/damage/healing (depending on the pet) you lose when the pet dies.

Dutch Master.7208:

So I think a really great tweak to the ranger class would be to change the way stow pet button works. I propose something like this:

Stow Pet – Pet no longer automatically comes out upon entering combat. While pet is stowed, Ranger gets +15% damage.

That’s basically it. I think this would encourage more/different builds and also solve a lot of problems people have with pets at the moment.

You can already do this. It’s called rerolling warrior.

Kincaidia.3192:

I agree that it’s not apples to apples exactly, but other classes have traits to lower their cooldowns as well, beyond the 30 seconds. My argument is that Lightning Reflexes should be lowered to a 30 CD.

Let’s focus on fixing the things with ranger that are broken before we get to nit picking things that aren’t really making a difference just because we like what other people have, eh?

Kincaidia.3192:

Everyone has 4 active stun breakers except rangers. We have 2.

Everyone has a stun break on a 30 second time except:
Elementalists share our 45 second
Necros have a 40 second.

Shared Anguish isn’t an ability you can choose to use when you need it. Hide in plain sight isn’t a stun breaker.

So yes, it appears that rangers have a combination of fewer stun breakers and the longest max cooldown.

Sweet.

It’s 36 seconds with a talent most rangers want anyways for the QZ cd reduction. That’s also not counting the talent that prevent the stun from landing on us in the first place (shared anguish) or the one that gives us stealth if it does land on us.

So, no, your comparison is not valid, nor is it that simple to compare classes.

Majik.8521:

lightning reflex should remove cripple and chill, or maybe be like the thieves version and remove cripple, chill and immobile. i think this would help a lot for a class that is suppose to be some what mobile.

On immobilize, I’ll agree with you. I don’t think stuns are a problem with rangers, but immobilize can be killer.

Thorondir.9138:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stun_break

One of these is not like the others, one of these doesn’t belong.

At least 4 utility skill stun breaks for every other class.

Other classes could have 10 stun breaks, but that’s not what matters.

What matters is A ) do we have what we need to escape from stuns without being immune to them and B ) is the opportunity cost of our stun break reasonable (i.e. if we take a stun break, what do we lose by making that choice)?

We have the tools we need to get out of stuns enough to be competitive, so there’s no point crying just because the grass looks greener on the other side.

Honestly, despite the problems around right now, I think GW2 is much better balanced than most other MMOs I’ve played and it’s a hell of a lot more balanced than GW1 was.

And honestly, I think the balance issues that GW2 has right now has more to do with the sPvP maps/objectives than it does with the classes themselves. If they would add in some maps that weren’t small and oriented around sitting on nodes, we’d see a lot less focus on the bunker/roamer metagame (which rangers don’t fit in) that we have right now.

The balance in the game you’re playing is always worse than the game you’re not playing.

Atherakhia.4086:

OGDeadHead.8326:

Dahkeus.8243:

Rangers have some of the best abilities to snare enemies in the game, so it doesn’t matter really what run speed your enemy has if you’ve hit them with chill from your axe, crip shot from your short bow, kick from your sword, immobilize/cripple from muddy terrain, barrage from long bow, crippling talon from dagger, frost trap, spike trap, or any of the many, many abilities that pets have which also snare targets.

It’s a little misleading posting things like this, since we can’t have them all at once!

It’s also only half the story… while there are ranged snare options, they aren’t adquate at keeping people where we want them given most classes have more ways to close distance and remove snares than the ranger has abilities to apply them and stay at range.

What build are you using where you have this problem?

I mean, of all the popular short bow builds, the swap weapon is usually sword/dagger (gives constant snare on sword main attack and ranged snare from dagger) or axe/torch (gives chill from 3 ability). And of course, if you’re using a ranged weapon, there’s less chance that your enemy will get out of range anyway.

If you’re using a 1h sword, then you’re constantly spamming a cripple on your target which is only lost if your enemy gets a dodge at the right time in which case a crippling dagger will get them snared again.

And what pet are you using? Are you running a PvP build without a wolf?

@ Fivekiller: Guardians are a lot more viable than rangers in the current meta and they don’t have a cripple or chill on a single one of their weapons.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Dahkeus.8243:

Rangers have some of the best abilities to snare enemies in the game, so it doesn’t matter really what run speed your enemy has if you’ve hit them with chill from your axe, crip shot from your short bow, kick from your sword, immobilize/cripple from muddy terrain, barrage from long bow, crippling talon from dagger, frost trap, spike trap, or any of the many, many abilities that pets have which also snare targets.

It’s a little misleading posting things like this, since we can’t have them all at once!

Well, yes, but I listed them all because it shows how prevalent snaring abilities are. Pretty much every build will have at least some amount of snaring because the mechanic is embedded in so many skills/weapons and rangers can easily bring a snare without it really costing them much.

I mean, 4 of our 5 mainhand weapons will give you a snare and that’s before you even consider talents, utility skills, or pets.

No class magically changes in any way at 80. While there are plenty of mechanics that take a good deal of play until you can really appreciate them (such as 1h sword and pets), it may be that this just isn’t the class for you, and that’s ok.

I played a ranger as my main in GW1 long, long ago and loved it. I thought because of that, hunter would be the class for me ‘the mmo that shall not be named’, but I just didn’t get into it. When I came to GW2, ranger has clicked with me as the most enjoyable class.

We have Lightning Reflexes (skill), Signet of Renewal (skill), Shared Anguish (talent), and Hide in Plain Sight (talent) to deal with stuns. What else do you need?

Forzani.2584:

As I mentioned earlier. Rangers don’t live in a vacum ….and everything is relative. Yes, speed helps to get around the map. The problem for Rangers was 1. Escaping 2. Catching someone that disengaged.

So a buff is only a buff when your class gets it. Everyone getting a speed boost = the same problems exist. Escapabilty and being able to pursure ..and catch someone.

To me that is the most frustrating thing playing a Ranger. Zerg can catch you everytime and when you actually are winning a fight, the opponent disengages, laughs and runs away…..and you can do bleep all about it.

Agreed, we don’t exist in a vacuum. However, Rangers have some of the best abilities to snare enemies in the game, so it doesn’t matter really what run speed your enemy has if you’ve hit them with chill from your axe, crip shot from your short bow, kick from your sword, immobilize/cripple from muddy terrain, barrage from long bow, crippling talon from dagger, frost trap, spike trap, or any of the many, many abilities that pets have which also snare targets.

I would probably venture to say that we are one of the best if not the best class when it comes to slowing targets. However, the current meta in sPvP generally revolves around people bunkering down on small maps where everyone struggles to stand on a small capture spot. Until this changes, it doesn’t matter much how well we can slow our targets.

For WvW, the importance of speed buffs has more to do with getting to an important objective than it does catching fleeing enemies. The only enemy that will consistently escape a fight from a ranger is a thief and that has more to do with stealth than running speed.

Yea, I’ve generally found that in PvE a mainhand axe is good for a temporary swap to get a bit of AoE or to use for a ranged weapon while you make use of a particular offhand.

In PvP, it tends to shine on condition builds since it allows you to throw a lot of bleeds on a target instantly with a close ranged splitblade.

For offhand axe, it seems to fill the niche of being a decent offhand that does more damage than dagger or horn, but less than torch. However, considering how problematic conditions and stacking burning can be in PvE (at least in groups), it still is a very worthwhile weapon. The projectile reflect is also great for some dungeons.

In PvP, it really feels like an overall subpar weapon. A dagger provides much better defensive utility and gives a way to snare enemies. The torch also doesn’t suffer from the condition stacking issues that you can run into in PvE, so it serves as a much stronger damage dealing option.

deepwinter.9015:

The sigil will only effect the 4 ability, so I would either consider 5% damage or 5% crit chance.

The sigil’s effect actually applies to all skills and isn’t exclusive to the skills on the weapon with the sigil:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil

As for me, I prefer Sigil of Battle. Might is an all around solid boon and whenever I have a warhorn equipped, I tend to swap to it, then swap off of it as soon as the cooldown comes up, so sigils that have “on swap” effects benefit me the most.

fivekiller.1432:

Durzlla.6295:

Rune of the Pack, 30 points in nature magic, warhorn, bird pet, congrats you have perma swiftness.

kinda frustrating though considering:

a warrior needs only the best elite they have already equipped and a warhorn in their inventory along with no traits, runes, or clothing

necro is similar. perma swiftness from one utility skill and a warhorn in their inventory

there are other.. but consider other classes get it running around naked and untraited yet rangers have to put a full 30 points in a line and have a complete runeset along with a certain pet? kinda locks em into a playstyle doesn’t it? most other classes don’t have to build their characters around swiftness.

still.. run speed isn’t the problem with rangers. i don’t know why any sane person would think it is. run speed isn’t an escape and it won’t save your life in a sour situation. rangers need escapes. this all is just going to allow them to get to where they are going to die quicker.

As mentioned, use centaur runes and you don’t need any talent/skill investment. Centaur runes also give power (our best stat) and bleeding duration (great for short bow or greatsword builds).

There’s always a tradeoff to some degree and honestly I don’t see why people think that just because our tradeoff comes from picking up a set of runes that doesn’t give quite as many stats as another set is such a big deal, but I guess it’s a moot point now that we’re getting a 25% run skill.

1) Unfortunately, there’s no perfect way to keep pets out of AoE and retracting them will often just pull them through other AoEs. The best work around for this that I can recommend is either using a more durable pet or picking up the 15 point Wilderness Survival talent that gives you and your pet a protection boon on dodge and using a dodge when your pet is in AoE.

2) Swapping pets or stowing/unstowing them is the most reliable to get pets to follow you up platforms, although they will often just teleport themselves along with you if there’s enough room. For stuff like the steps with harpies, it may just be better to take a ranged pet like a devourer/spider

3) I wish. I’m not a big fan of having a giant spider/devourer follow me around, but they are very effective pets, especially in dungeons. I’d love to see other options for ranged pets, but I can’t think of another creature that would make sense as a ranged pet.

I used to run agony, but I switched to the precision one (don’t remember the name offhand) when I changed my gear over to Berserker.

Now, however, I’m starting to think that Sigil of Strength may be the way to go.

Durzlla.6295:

Dahkeus.8243:

(in before the inevitable Durzilla response on spirits, hehe)

The buffs from the spirits are quite good. Sadly, until they get some sort of boost to survival, a support build that uses spirits can quickly be messed up by something like a big boss AoE.

Lol damn you’re quick xD

ZOOM ZOOM!

…slow day at work, lol.

Oglaf.1074:

Whenever I fight “Sniper”-type enemies, I feel envy. Like the Bandit Riflemen in CM Exploration. I realize that Rangers shouldn’t have “all” the long range weapons and that Engineers needed something for themselves… but still.

Anyone else feel the same?

This is a pretty contraversial issue since there are a lot of rangers that are completely against bringing any sort of industrial-influenced weapon to the ranger class, but personally, I’d love it if they did something like this.

However, I don’t think this will happen for gameplay issues if nothing else. Rangers already have two 2h ranged weapon options, so there’s not really a niche to fill with a rifle unless they did something like change short or long bow to do more AoE and made the rifle more of a single target specialized weapon.

(in before the inevitable Durzilla response on spirits, hehe)

The buffs from the spirits are quite good. Sadly, until they get some sort of boost to survival, a support build that uses spirits can quickly be messed up by something like a big boss AoE.