Whirling Defense is my favorite. I wish I could justify using dual axes or at least axe offhand since this attack looks so cool, but it’s only viable in PvE and even then there are better options.
The thing that kills it completely for me is the fact that you cannot move while using it. Considering a ranger is supposed to be all about mobility, it is peculiar indeed for an attack to root you.
John seems to agree with this, as is evidenced by making the greatsword’s block ability no longer root you. Now all he needs to do is to do the same to the greatsword’s sword throw part of the block ability as well as the off-hand axe swirl, and we’re taking a step in the right direction.
Yea, and sadly, I don’t see this changing anytime soon since they would have to change the character animation for all races and genders, which would be costly. They were able to fix the GS block to be moveable because the block animation didn’t really affect the lower body of the character, meaning they just changed the skill to only change the animation of the character’s upper body.
With Whirling Defense, the character jumps around and uses lower body movement, so I doubt they could just make the character move without them looking like they were floating.
Hopefully, I’m wrong, but I’m not holding my breath over a change to this anytime soon.
Whirling Defense is my favorite. I wish I could justify using dual axes or at least axe offhand since this attack looks so cool, but it’s only viable in PvE and even then there are better options.
Agreed with Jay and Sleepy.
Also, if you’re running with less than a full BM build, I would really not recommend using a feline or bird pet since they’re really squishy. Instead, consider a canine (Wolf, Alpine Wolf, or Krytan Drakehound, not Hyena). They don’t look like a heavy dps pet from their stats, but they have a fast attack speed with a short attack animation that allows them to land a lot of hits. They also bring some good utility with their cripple, knockdown, and CC F2 ability.
Hyena only gets its max effect after its f2. It is incredible in PvP as you now have two pets tossing around CCs instead of just one. It takes both hyenas to equal the damage of one of the other cannines.
Yea, but even with the F2 effect, it still does less dps than any other canine that’s not using its F2. And yea, the double hyena for the extra knockdown can be good, but it’s unpredictable and compared to how useful an on use fear or immobilize is, I can never justify a slot for a hyena, even in PvP.
And it’s sad, because I really like the way hyenas look! It’s a shame their power is half that of other canines. =(
Well, for gear you’ll want as much Berserker gear as possible. If you feel you’re too squishy, then get either some Valkyrie gear or Power/Tough/Vit gear.
As for build, it will depend on your play style. If you’re spending a lot of time in big castle battles and want a supportive type role, you won’t need big defensive abilities as much and you could even consider running a spirit build. Just bear in mind that spirits quickly become useless when you don’t have an absolutely safe space to drop them.
Talent-wise, you’ll want 20-30 in Marks of course to get Eagle Eye along with Steady Focus. I would also recommend getting at least 20 in Skirmishing since you’ll want crit from the investment. There aren’t a lot of good choices for your first tier of Skirmishing since a pet doesn’t do much on a wall, but Primal Reflexes may be a good choice. The bleed on crit is rather weak since the bleed only lasts 1 sec, so it’s hard to recommend that.
Beyond this, you probably have a good bit of flexibility. Most talents that work everywhere else will be good here, although Soften the Fall, a talent that is usually useless, can be viable for WvW.
For runes, I would recommend of the Centaur since this gives you 100% swiftness with a warhorn and being able to travel quickly is big in WvW. For Sigil, go with Accuracy.
edit oh yea, Quickening Zephyr is pretty awesome for just about every build, so consider taking that along with Wilderness Knowledge from the WS tree. As mentioned above me, it’s great for making a quick rez on an ally in a dangerous spot.
Ugh, poison volley. I still have a bad habit of using that ability when I don’t need to. It’s just strange to have a damage ability that’s not worth using.
The question is, why are you using longbow autoattack? Why not shortbow?
I am not a big fan of the condition damage playstyle. I like to play a heavy hitter, not necessarily a glass cannon but I prefer damage over conditions. shouldn’t we have this option?
Even if you’re going for direct damage, short bow is still your best option. Sadly, the longbow is pretty much inferior to the short bow in almost every way.
What build have you been running? If you’ve been using a bow for a long time, grab a greatsword and go melee or give the sword a shot. There’s no bad build or weapon for leveling since it’s always a good idea to get some experience with everything.
If you’re not digging any particular weapon, give traps a try. They’re better once you can put 30 traits into Skirmishing, but even before that they’re still fun.
@Sleepy, You say that the Shortbow should be the number one weapon. I might be wrong, but I’ve always thought of the shortbow as a condition weapon because of the flanking bleed, and the poison volley. Does it also do well with direct damage?
Yup, the short bow is better for both condition and direct damage specs. Here’s a good post that breaks down the numbers behind it:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/57386-longbow-vs-shortbow-dps-speed-etc/#entry2094997
I strongly recommend changing the keybind for your pet abilities from the F keys to something easier to reach.
Also, the key to performing well with pets is understanding your full aresnal of pet abilities and bringing the right pet to the right fight. Some fights you need some extra CC, some fights your pet will need to be extra tanky, and some fights it’s just better to have something that attacks from ranged.
A jaguar can bring some great dps, but if you have to pull your pet out to prevent it from dying frequently, then you’re losing more dps than you gain by having a glass cannon pet.
Agreed with Jay and Sleepy.
Also, if you’re running with less than a full BM build, I would really not recommend using a feline or bird pet since they’re really squishy. Instead, consider a canine (Wolf, Alpine Wolf, or Krytan Drakehound, not Hyena). They don’t look like a heavy dps pet from their stats, but they have a fast attack speed with a short attack animation that allows them to land a lot of hits. They also bring some good utility with their cripple, knockdown, and CC F2 ability.
It becomes a gray area when there are some mobs that seem to be designed as something groups should run past such as mobs in the rooms with the flame throwers in CM or the Archers close to the last boss in TA.
If you need gold, do events in Orr, not dungeons.
Nah, forward, forward is much harder than forward, up. Ideally, if you’re going to farm the place, up, up is best though.
As for strategy, when you fight the mesmer bossdo this:
– Kill the two adds asap.
– keep the npc up with heals as much as you can since she tanks a good bit of damage.
– Move out of Chaos Storms asap (of course).
– Bring condition removal.
– Stop attacking when you have 2 or more stacks of confused on you.
– Strip any boons from the boss whenever she gets any.
– If you’re taking damage when attacking her, don’t attack.
Follow these rules and it’s not too bad. If you’re wiping, then someone isn’t doing this.
For the bees, just have one or two people who are comfortable with the run go up without the rest of your group past the bees to aggro the pups. This will disable the bees so the rest of your group can come. If you do this yourself, start on the left side and move slowly up and to the right by moving to the gaps between traps.
For the last boss:
– Start pulling spiders as slowly as possible.
– Focus the spider adds one at a time and kill them until there is a clear spot in front of the tree.
– Once the front of the tree is clear of adds, have everyone use a ranged weapon with NO AOE and attack the boss.
– At this point, the fight is incredibly easy. The only thing to look out for is to dodge when the tree shakes from side to side as this is when it throws bad stuff at you.
And that’s it. Once you get the hang of it, this dungeon is really manageable.
One way you can check is by previewing dyes. Go to GW2DB.com or guildhead.com and look up dyes that you are interested in and copy the link for the item. Then paste it in game and preview it.
Yea, conditions can be good for PvP, but in PvE, you’ll be doing more damage with a direct damage build.
I tried to look at the OP’s build, but the link goes to a blank Guildhead talent calculator page.
Hi Dahkeus. I’m sorry that you’re not able to view the build I linked in the original post. I’ve checked the link and found that it works on multiple computers. Try refreshing the page or clearing your browser’s cache.
I also took a look at your build and, with the axe/torch secondary, it doesn’t appear to be a “direct damage” build – rather, its appears to be a condition based one. The torch provides no significant direct damage and the Axe is one of our lowest DPS weapons. It’s been stated in another thread by (by you, as a matter of fact) that, despite the Axe’s ability to bounce between targets (even hitting one of two targets twice) it still under performs. In addition, its second and third abilities provide no significant direct damage.
Yea, but don’t get caught up in that. If you prefer, use a different secondary set. Either way, you’ll want to use your short bow the majority of the time. I just have the axe/torch because it’s handy to light a fire combo field before fights. A longbow works with this build just as well if you prefer.
As for viewing the link, I’ll just check later when I’m at home. I’m at work at the moment and we have an old version of IE, lol.
Here’s the build you want for a direct damage build:
For more pet survivability, either change Quick Draw to Carnivorous Appetite or take 10 out of WS to invest in BM.
For condition heavy fights, replace Sig of Wild for Sig of Renewal and for more CC, replace it with Muddy Terrain. Slot skills are nogotiable aside from QZ.
Elite skill is negotiable as well.
I tried to look at the OP’s build, but the link goes to a blank Guildhead talent calculator page.
15 in BM is viable, but not necessary. You can run 5 in BM and still do fine as long as you’re not running with a bird/feline and pop the extra 10 into WS. This gives you the prot on dodge roll and the ability to pick up vigor on heal. I would recommend this because:
1) More defense from stats means you can wear more berserker gear and less gear with defensive stats
2) More vigor means you’re at full endurance more often and thus get the 10% damage bonus from I in the marks tree. Of course, this also means more potential dodge rolls that grant protection.Pets are fine with a 5 bm investment as long as you’re aware of what they’re doing, are not glass cannon pets, and as long as you’re not using melee pets on fights where melee gets chewed up.
15 into BM not only gives your pet better stats but it gives you 2 seconds quickness more often or 12 seconds earlier a dead pet. That of course is my personal opinion.
about the defensive traits…it’s actually worse, putting into defensive traits gives you less offensive and valkyrie gear keeps your power/crit damage it just lowers your precision a bit as long as you just want some extra hp and not build completely into valkyrie which would result in having too low critical chance. I’m using full berseker, i have not many issues surviving except in certain places where a dozen mobs hit you.
Yes, and that’s why 15 in BM is viable too.
As for defensive traits, they’re not totally defensive. By putting more in WS, you get toughness, but you’re also increasing your condition damage. Also, as I mentioned before, vigor on heal keeps your endurance full more often for the 10% damage increase.
Yea, dyes can be glitchy sometimes. I got a moss green dye and for whatever reason, when I apply it to a certain armor, it will look fine in the preview, but once you close that window, it turns to a purple. Going back to the dye window shows it magically changed to some sort of purple and using a dye remover changes it to green…that reverts to purple when you close the window again.
To all the people saying I should reroll a warrior, I agree. I already have a 30 warrior, but leveling is such a pain, and I’ve already invested so much time in my Ranger. It would kill me to see all that go to waste.
You should simply ignore the people who tells you to reroll a warrior, even more if the best damage spec they suggest is “traps and shortbow”…that just shows how poorly they play their rangers.
Honestly, the best damage as ranger comes from full berseker (you can mix berseker with some valkyrie pieces if you feel like you need some extra HP at the cost of having less precision).
As for the traits, 15 into BM is a must to keep your pet alive in dungeons thanks to the extra stats for your pet along with the 15/48 seconds swap, 30 into skirmishing is great and 5 into survivality is also a must to gain endurance faster leaving you with another 20 points which i’d put into markmanship for piercing arrows and 10% dmg when full endurance.
As you can see this spec is mainly shortbow/longbow oriented, tho you can switch the longbow with sword/horn in certain situations where you feel going melee is not going to hurt you much.I don’t recommend traps/condition builds for PvE and the reason of why not it’s simple, other classes can apply bleeds/burn/poison and since it doesn’t stack (bleed is capped at 25) it will result in a DPS loss for you or your teammates.
15 in BM is viable, but not necessary. You can run 5 in BM and still do fine as long as you’re not running with a bird/feline and pop the extra 10 into WS. This gives you the prot on dodge roll and the ability to pick up vigor on heal. I would recommend this because:
1) More defense from stats means you can wear more berserker gear and less gear with defensive stats
2) More vigor means you’re at full endurance more often and thus get the 10% damage bonus from I in the marks tree. Of course, this also means more potential dodge rolls that grant protection.
Pets are fine with a 5 bm investment as long as you’re aware of what they’re doing, are not glass cannon pets, and as long as you’re not using melee pets on fights where melee gets chewed up.
@ Loki: Enemies move plenty in PvE too. Yes, they move less, but it still happens. With the damage bonus from the Jaguar’s stealth, they’ll also do more damage than a bird anyway. They also synergize very well with Rending Attacks. If you’re attacking a world boss as part of an event, then you might see the bleed cap, making the bird better, but this is pretty rare in dungeon runs.
If the healing spring is working as a target for enemy fire, use it to your advantage.
Drop it away from allies and run away. You’ll get the immediate condition removal that you want. If you need to remove other abilities or to grab a replenish boon, just step in it for a few seconds later.
It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s either that or to rely on your other options: Sig of Renewal, trait investment, or brown bear.
For pets, I wouldn’t recommend a bird since they have a big attack animation that is easily dodged by moving enemies. If you want a glass cannon pet, take a Jaguar.
Drakes would be great pets if they weren’t bugged. I believe they still only use their bite attack, which is a shame since they have some other abilities that would be great to use. That being said, the River Drake has a beast of an F2 ability…as long as your target stands still long enough for it to land, lol.
Honestly, I think canines are your best all around pet. They do better dps than all but birds and felines with a fast, short attack animation that is seldom avoided. They also have a good amount of toughness with some great CC and utility. Just make sure you don’t choose a hyena. They have a F2 ability that makes it look like they would be good for damage, but they have half as much power as other canines, so they end up having less dps.
For fights where pets take a lot of damage, devourers are a great choice since they have a good amount of toughness, attack from range, and have the tunnel ability to escape when they are focused.
Eh, you can get by with sword, but for any damage build, you’ll be better off with the short bow and for a tank build, a greatsword will give you a good balance of utility without requiring you to fly all over the place, which is dangerous in tight spots in dungeons (particularly when there are cliffs around).
But if the sword is fun for you, then go with it.
i am pushing for a final setup shortbow/axe-warhorn
10 – I
30 -VI, IX, X or XI
20 – VI, VII
10 – Vany comments..much appreciated.
I’d recommend this instead:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAV3fjEVV2RWKWsWCgli9CspgTN5MOkxvgEmVZjB;TsAg0CnomxMjYG7MuZkzsIYExWAA
Similar build, but instead is:
10 – I, VIII
25 – I, X
20, VI, IV
5
- 10% damage with full endurance.
– Piercing for reasons mentioned previously.
– Pet critical +30% damage but pet speed +30% is good too.*
– Quick draw mostly for the utility of the short bow since the main damage comes from the auto-attack. There are other viable choices for this slot.
– Wilderness Knowledge is a no-brainer for any build with QZ.
– Vigor on heal because it both gives you more protection boon time and keeps you at full endurance more often for the 10% damage increase.
I’m seriously considering this trait, however I’m very wary that it will inadvertantly make pulling that much harder due to the risk of arrows flying through targets and hitting some other mob in the distance, possibly drawing 2 or more enemies into the fight.
I’ve never had this happen and this is pretty rare mostly because when you target an enemy, the arrow hits them relatively low to center on their hitbox, which makes the arrow arc down soon after passing them. Because of this, when you want to pierce many targets, you want to aim for the enemy in the far back, but if you don’t want it to go through that far, just hit a closer target.
I use a 20/25/10/0/15 build focusing on maximizing quickness. Depending on the situation i change my trait to either get piercing arrows or the bigger range/damage with longbow. My slot skills are quickening zephyr and sharpening stone with the regen signet that helps me stay alive. (i occasionally change those especially for Lupicus) As a second weapon, I have to switch between a number of different ones depending on the fight. Shortbow when it is a ranged boss fight, greatsword in melee(like coe alpha boss) Axe + warhorn when I need more aoe + speed buff.
Skipping the 10 points in the last tree and spending them in 1st could produce higher dps, but without a “meter” it is hard to say. Those 5 seconds of swapping the pet are in my experience many times vital to being able to swap your pet before it dies so you don’t have to wait longer to swap.
This, although a viable alternative is to take 10 out of BM and invest it into Wilderness Survival or Nature Magic for a bit more defense. Personally, I would suggest taking the 10 out and investing into WS since it gives you toughness for defense (along with another trait for a defensive talent) while increasing your condition damage.
Let’s break this down: Each hit of an axe does roughly half the damage of a single bow attack (before you take into account traits). This means:
- If you have two targets not lined up, the axe will do more damage.
– If you have two targets lined up, the bow will more damage. (axe hits target 1 twice and target 2 once, bow hits each target once for twice as much damage per hit).
– If you have 3 targets not lined up, the axe will do more damage.
– If 2 of the 3 targets are lined up, the bow will do more damage (3 axe hits vs 2 bow hits of 2x damage of axe).So, I’ll admit that if you’re not flanking, the shortbow damage isn’t twice as much, but it’s still close. Yes, you may not always be able to hit as many targets as you would with an axe when you only have a few mobs, but it’s easy to always hit at least 2, which means at worst, you’re doing roughly equal damage.
And yes, if you only have 3 mobs, you won’t likely land every hit on all 3, but you can hit at least 2 frequently and 3 occaisionally. And if you have more than 3? This is pretty common and the more targets you have, the easier it is to pierce.
Look, just go out to the mists and do some damage tests, then try piercing arrows and actually make an effort to line up your shots. There may be a handful of situations where the axe may edge you ahead a bit more than a bow, but that’s why we can weapon swap. However, for the vast majority of situations, you will be better off with a piercing bow because it does so much more damage per hit, can apply more conditions, and has no limit to number of targets that can be hit.
I have nothing against axes and until they come out with a better 1h weapon, I’ll be using one for my second weapon swap to access a good offhand, but they’re not strong enough to be a primary weapon, even in most AoE situations.
I don’t know where you’re getting your damage numbers, but Ricochet actually deals MORE damage per hit than Crossfire.
Here’s some proof using steady weapons in the mists.
Ok, let me correct myself, it hits for twice as much DPS, not damage.
Go to a dummy, remove your talents, then auto attack it with axe auto attack alone and time how long til it’s dead. Do this again with the short bow. There’s your answer.
Eh, to me I think the biggest problem with pigs is that they have a huge wind up before their charge ability which means that they often do some elaborate charge into nothing which effectively takes them out of the fight doing nothing productive for a long time when they could just be auto-attacking instead.
This is the same for ALL pets. Jaguars will charge enemies at full speed. Stop. Then, start casting (I believe it’s a second or two cast time on all abilities).
I think you’re misunderstanding. Yes, the attack animations of pets do lead to missed attacks, but I’m referring specifically to the porcine pet skill called Brutal Charge, which has a longer animation than normal attacks. Go into the mists and set a pig against the moving golem to see what I mean.
Let’s break this down: Each hit of an axe does roughly half the damage of a single bow attack (before you take into account traits). This means:
- If you have two targets not lined up, the axe will do more damage.
– If you have two targets lined up, the bow will more damage. (axe hits target 1 twice and target 2 once, bow hits each target once for twice as much damage per hit).
– If you have 3 targets not lined up, the axe will do more damage.
– If 2 of the 3 targets are lined up, the bow will do more damage (3 axe hits vs 2 bow hits of 2x damage of axe).
So, I’ll admit that if you’re not flanking, the shortbow damage isn’t twice as much, but it’s still close. Yes, you may not always be able to hit as many targets as you would with an axe when you only have a few mobs, but it’s easy to always hit at least 2, which means at worst, you’re doing roughly equal damage.
And yes, if you only have 3 mobs, you won’t likely land every hit on all 3, but you can hit at least 2 frequently and 3 occaisionally. And if you have more than 3? This is pretty common and the more targets you have, the easier it is to pierce.
Look, just go out to the mists and do some damage tests, then try piercing arrows and actually make an effort to line up your shots. There may be a handful of situations where the axe may edge you ahead a bit more than a bow, but that’s why we can weapon swap. However, for the vast majority of situations, you will be better off with a piercing bow because it does so much more damage per hit, can apply more conditions, and has no limit to number of targets that can be hit.
I have nothing against axes and until they come out with a better 1h weapon, I’ll be using one for my second weapon swap to access a good offhand, but they’re not strong enough to be a primary weapon, even in most AoE situations.
I Tank PvE dungeons for the group I run with using Ranger. 0/0/30/10/30 GS/Sword&Horn. I have Power/Vit/Tough Armor and weapons and Tough Power Healing Jewelry. Runes of Dwayna on Armor and Sigils of Water on Weapons.
It tanks really well and I can keep regen with 100% uptime. My pet obviously is primary DPS and helps me with tanking as I often swap aggro with it. Run Dual Canines mostly (Fern and Alpine). Signet of Wild (extra source of regen), Signet of Stone (mostly to keep pet up if I am begging for a few more secs to swap, free tough doesn’t hurt), and Sick’Em (Makes good burst if you can get 25 stacks of might on pet through RaO, combined with GS#5 and you can get some good burst out of the pet).
The nice thing with the build is that I can rez people while keeping DPS up through the Pet.
You switched from 0/0/20/20/30? (yes, I recognize you from the Guru forums, lol: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/74991-gs-tank-pet-build/)
Good its a long event.. Hurrah
Agreed. Between the holidays and getting married, December will be a busy month for me, so it’s nice to see that they’re expanding the range of time to log on and experience the event.
The sword is not about dps. The sword is about control and decision making. Clearly, you don’t appreciate this. However, this is your opinion, not a fact. Yes, not being able to dodge stinks. Deal with it. The weapon is strong enough as it is, as long as you know what you’re doing. But I guess I’ll leave this thread alone, as the OP’s questions have been answered by now.
Oh come on, don’t give me that elitist “you can’t appreciate this” crap.
Just because you can use a hundred work arounds to get the sword to be somewhat useable doesn’t mean it’s a good option and it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t need to be fixed.
This trait is a must for any PvE build that uses a bow.
Yes, you won’t be able to get the pierce effect in every fight, but once you pierce even with 2 enemies, you are doubling your dps. There is no other talent that comes close to increasing your dps that much.
Your utility abilities on a bow also suddenly become AoE utility abilities. AoE stun, AoE cripple, etc.
By investing in marks, you’re also getting a boost to your power, which is your biggest dps stat.
There is simply no reason to pass it up if you’re doing any PvE.
Your points would have more validity if the ranger didn’t have any weapons with built in AoE attacks, but we do, so it kind of negates the point of Piercing Arrows. It’s a nice trait if you want to use both bows, but I find that the shortbow and longbow don’t play well together.
I recently dropped all my points from Marksmanship, in favor of higher Wilderness Survival and Beast Mastery. I don’t miss Piercing Arrows at all.
The shortbow is by far the highest damage weapon that a ranger has. The only way you can compete with this damage is to use something like the 1h sword with a torch offhand and that still only compares in an ideal situation where you’re able to stick on your target with the problematic rooting main attack and where you’re not attacking a target that already has a full duration of burning applied.
You can also tag a lot more mobs with piercing arrows than with a melee cleave weapon. Instead of chasing around mobs and having to have them grouped up, you can pivot at your position and unleash without any down time. When mobs are spread out, you can simply use Poison Volley.
So, yes, you can pick up a melee weapon for the cleave, but you’ll be doing significantly less damage and will need a bigger investment in survival talents. If you’re rolling with a tanky build, then that’s fine, but if you’re going for a damage dealing role, nothing compares to a short bow build with piercing arrows.
You’re forgetting the mainhand axe can also hit 3 targets, and they don’t have to be lined up. In addition, if you’re only attacking two targets, Ricochet will actually deal more damage than crossfire, since it will hit one of the targets twice.
The axe is our lowest dps weapon on its auto attack and can only come close to decent damage when you use splitblade on a target at melee range to stack bleeds.
Let me put it this way:
When there’s one enemy, the shortbow does about double the damage of the axe autoattack.
When there are two enemys, you may do slightly more damage to one target and half damage to the other by using an axe.
When there are 3 enemies, the axe still does half the damage of a shortbow hitting the same targets.
When there are more than 3 targets, your bow can hit every one that is lined up while your axe will only hit 3.
The lateral bouncing of an axe will hit targets that your linear bow attack won’t, but this doesn’t make up for the drastic loss in damage done per target along with the limit of targets that you can hit and as soon as you’re down to a single target fight, you’re at a very distinct disadvantage with the axe.
This is before we even take into account that you can apply bleeding, cripple, stun and poison while continuing to AoE with your shortbow.
It’s a good weapon, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not practical to use one as your primary weapon. It’s good for applying bleeding and can keep up mediocre damage while you swap to use an offhand, but it will never replace a shortbow that can pierce.
Go out to Orr and see how many mobs you can tag with your axe, then do the same with a piercing bow. You’ll see the difference.
Eh, to me I think the biggest problem with pigs is that they have a huge wind up before their charge ability which means that they often do some elaborate charge into nothing which effectively takes them out of the fight doing nothing productive for a long time when they could just be auto-attacking instead.
I dislike the ranger’s melee options. I would dislike the sword a lot less if you didn’t get rooted every time you choose to use the auto attack. But the only time I’ll ever use a melee weapon is when I’m forced to face enemies that reflect projectiles. Like those blasted jade shards in the solid ocean fractal. They are immune to ranged weapons entirely.
Yea, same. Melee would also be a lot more viable if you could pump out comparable damage, but as it stands, you’ll almost always do more damage with a shortbow than with a melee weapon.
The second part I couldn’t agree with more. What’s so hard about making dodge override the chain? Can anyone think of another auto-attack chain that renders dodge unresponsive? If my ranger can’t voluntarily stop himself, he shouldn’t be able to be interrupted either. Rename the sword skill “rage” and make it grant stability.
The last two attacks of the chain involve movement. If they allow you to use dodge to cancel them mid-execution, they would have to change all movement abilities to follow that same idea. I don’t think we’ll ever see dodges interrupting your own jumps. The sword is all about making good choices, anyway. It is far less forgiving than other weapons, but if you know what you’re doing, the added mobility is amazing. This is coming from an sPvP/WvW perspective (mainly WvW).
Yea, but the trouble is that while other weapons give you movement while you dps, you have to throttle your dps by not autoattacking to utilize the movement from the sword. If you’re going to have to dodge you have to either use a low damage evade attack or simply hold off on dpsing until you’re sure you don’t need to dodge, which is still pretty impossible to predict.
I haven’t played with tanky builds much, but from my limited experience, I think there is definitely some potential. With a greatsword and a solid investment into the nature and WS tree, a ranger can take a hell of a beating.
However, even if it is viable to run as a ranger tank, I don’t know if it’s as good as a warrior/guardian or if it really brings anything to the table that they can’t already do better.
You realize how difficult it is to turn off auto attack on #1? Not the atcual physical act of doing so, that is easy: You need a top notch PC and top notch connection 100% of the time. You may have that but I think many people do not, at least not 100% of the time.
If you have even the slightest lag or FPS drop in WvW or any place then #1 with auto attack off is made useless because the window is so small to press again!
You design a game with a hardware and connection target and then design one ability for one class that breaks that target, why?
If you’re playing with 3 seconds per frame, chances are you will have trouble playing any of the classes right. That’s right, you have 3 seconds before the next skill in the chain will disappear. That’s a massive window for you to use that skill again. Having a good pc has nothing to do with this.
As far as most of the other people go: The devs have clearly stated the sword is working as intended. You can complain all you want, but I think the sword is in a fine position right now, as long as you turn the auto attack off.
“But HTech, doesn’t that mean they made a bad design?” No, it does not. I do not know why most of you here seems to think this way, but let me explain myself. There is no rule for basic attacks that states they are not allowed to root you, nor is there any rule that states they have to be good with auto attack turned on. What the devs made was a weapon that has a high skill ceiling and is very different from all of the other basic attacks. I like that, it shows they are willing to try out new stuff.
Now, you might not like this kind of skill, there is nothing wrong with that. Nor is there anything wrong with finding it difficult to adjust. But the sword is not bad, it has a clear purpose which is to stick to your target and cripple+poison him, allowing for your team to catch up.
That logic is flawed. There’s no rule that a sword can’t have a chance on proc that it falls out of your hand and cuts you, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.
Being unable to cancel an attack at a split second to dodge a potentially devastating attack is more crippling than the condition the weapon applies. Sure, you can dodge after the animation or even use the extra evade that the sword provides, but being unable to do so when you’re actually attacking means you lose a lot of dps on a weapon that still does less dps than the shortbow even in optimal conditions.
I mean, if you lost a leg, you could still get around to do most of what you’re clever and strong willed, but that doesn’t mean that it’s suddenly a good idea to cut off your leg.
Every
single
other
weapon
in
the
entire
game
has an auto attack that allows you to move and dodge normally. There is no good reason to make the sword the exception to this. Even if you could legitimately work around this, it leads to a very clunky disjointed feel to gameplay that downright sucks!
One of the biggest reason many of us chose to roll a ranger is because it’s generally a very mobile and agile profession, which makes being rooted with your basic attack even more frustrating.
You can argue ways to work around the root issue all day, but it still doesn’t change the fact that the mechanic flat out sucks and is not fun.
I like the downed state for Rangers. While I wouldn’t say that it’s as powerful as Mesmer or Thief downed state, we have good tools to survive when we go down and because of our pets, we have more control over what’s going on than other classes. Anyone who has rallied because they thunderclapped, swapped to a wolf, used the f2 to fear, then had the wolf pounce an enemy knows how awesome this can be.
Not only that, but being able to tag or finish off a dying enemy with your pet when they are out of range of your downed attacks to rally is pretty sweet as well.
Because of this, I always feel so helpless in comparison when in the downed state of an alt.
(edited by Dahkeus.8243)
This trait is a must for any PvE build that uses a bow.
Yes, you won’t be able to get the pierce effect in every fight, but once you pierce even with 2 enemies, you are doubling your dps. There is no other talent that comes close to increasing your dps that much.
Your utility abilities on a bow also suddenly become AoE utility abilities. AoE stun, AoE cripple, etc.
By investing in marks, you’re also getting a boost to your power, which is your biggest dps stat.
There is simply no reason to pass it up if you’re doing any PvE.
Your points would have more validity if the ranger didn’t have any weapons with built in AoE attacks, but we do, so it kind of negates the point of Piercing Arrows. It’s a nice trait if you want to use both bows, but I find that the shortbow and longbow don’t play well together.
I recently dropped all my points from Marksmanship, in favor of higher Wilderness Survival and Beast Mastery. I don’t miss Piercing Arrows at all.
The shortbow is by far the highest damage weapon that a ranger has. The only way you can compete with this damage is to use something like the 1h sword with a torch offhand and that still only compares in an ideal situation where you’re able to stick on your target with the problematic rooting main attack and where you’re not attacking a target that already has a full duration of burning applied.
You can also tag a lot more mobs with piercing arrows than with a melee cleave weapon. Instead of chasing around mobs and having to have them grouped up, you can pivot at your position and unleash without any down time. When mobs are spread out, you can simply use Poison Volley.
So, yes, you can pick up a melee weapon for the cleave, but you’ll be doing significantly less damage and will need a bigger investment in survival talents. If you’re rolling with a tanky build, then that’s fine, but if you’re going for a damage dealing role, nothing compares to a short bow build with piercing arrows.
Master’s Bond works fine for Orr in that it’s easy to get your pet stacked and to keep it that way.
However, if you’re farming events, then there’s not much reason to invest in any BM traits since pets are mainly single target damage dealers and Orr farming is all about tagging mobs, which means using things like piercing arrows and traps to AoE as much as possible.
Faceroll what content? I’ve yet to see a Ranger faceroll content in Orr.
Huh? The ranger class has some weak spots, but questing and DEs are extremely easy for rangers.
As for Master’s Bond, yes, it’s a great ability for leveling and solo content, but sadly it doesn’t hold up very well for PvP and dungeons.
Um… PvP is where it holds up the best because each kill gives 5 stacks, that means you only need 5 kills w/o swapping pets (which isn’t needed due to most people completely ignoring them) letting your pet quickly spiral out of control for the enemy which can be absolutely game breaking for a lot of enemy teams in tPvP (letting a BM pet become as strong as a player is never a good idea)
It’s just not worth it in PvP because you’re either A ) getting enough kills to build MB, in which case, you’re doing fine without it anyway, or B ) in a tough fight, where need MB, but won’t be able to build up stacks.
Taking MB also means that you’re losing out on the potential benefit of a faster pet swap and more importantly, quickness on pet swap. You also lose out on the CC benefit of having multiple pets and swapping to fit the situation. Being able to immobilize your target, then quickly swap and fear an enemy trying to stomp a downed ally is priceless. On top of that, you also have to avoid water completely since even stepping in it for a second will reset the stacks on your pet.
Sure, it looks impressive when you’re sending in a stacked pet against a team that you’re steamrolling anyways, but I don’t think it’s justified over other alternatives for any balanced game.
I have nothing against a higher difficulty weapon, but there’s really no big reward to justify the challenge. It’s a decent secondary swap weapon for defensive abilities at best, but since they’ve buffed the GS block, I’m not even sure if it’s still best for that.
Faceroll what content? I’ve yet to see a Ranger faceroll content in Orr.
Huh? The ranger class has some weak spots, but questing and DEs are extremely easy for rangers.
As for Master’s Bond, yes, it’s a great ability for leveling and solo content, but sadly it doesn’t hold up very well for PvP and dungeons.
A Sword/dagger is really mostly used as a defensive weapon set to swap to when you’re getting focused since it provides extra evades and dodges. Once you’re ready to dps again, you swap back to your short bow.
This, along with ranged traps, is one of the reasons that rangers are one of the best farming characters for tagging mobs in events.
And you are basing this on what? If it is experience, then clearly you were doing something wrong, as I have no issues whatsoever to stick to most targets. Of course there will be some people that get away, but that’s to be expected. All you need in order to pull this off is be willing to learn. But I suppose you like having things handed to you on a silver platter. That’s fine, just don’t expect the ranger class to be your kind of thing.
This isn’t about having to learn something. The problem is that if you’re spinning your camera 180 degrees, aiming your character at the place you want to jump, using a backwards skill as a gap closer, then turning your camera back around to be able to melee again, then you’re just not going to be nearly as reliable at being able to take on a fleeing foe as either someone with a 1-button press gap closer or someone with a ranged weapon.
I don’t care who you are, you are going to be likely to miss when doing this and/or miss what’s going on around you because you’re putting so much focus into manually jumping backwards.
Look, you can make scrambled eggs with a lighter and a tin can, but that doesn’t make it any better than using a skillet and a stove.
In the end, all your over the top work arounds for broken mechanics won’t do anywhere near as much damage as a person with a short bow using auto attack because they also have a cripple and dodge weapon skill, but it doesn’t come at the expense of their normal movement and dodges.
This trait is a must for any PvE build that uses a bow.
Yes, you won’t be able to get the pierce effect in every fight, but once you pierce even with 2 enemies, you are doubling your dps. There is no other talent that comes close to increasing your dps that much.
Your utility abilities on a bow also suddenly become AoE utility abilities. AoE stun, AoE cripple, etc.
By investing in marks, you’re also getting a boost to your power, which is your biggest dps stat.
There is simply no reason to pass it up if you’re doing any PvE.
and you auto-leap to fleeing targets.
..After you leap away first. Would be logical to leap to the target, then leap away.
Why on earth would that make more sense? There is way too much strategic value in a mid-battle evade to reverse the chain effect. It’s the difference between a free evade and having to use two skills to do the same thing. Rangers have plenty of snaring/gap closing ability as it is anyway. What they need to do is give us a much longer window in which to use the second part of the chain, to increase that strategic value and play more mindgames with your opponents. They also need to slightly buff its damage and increase sword’s synchronization with pets. Most weapons don’t really have linked pet effects, which really add to the flavor of weapons.
Because to start off a fight you need to be in melee range. Right now the only gap closer abilities on the sword require you to already be in melee range since you either have to start a melee chain or jump away from your enemy.
Sure, the evasive abilities on the sword are great and in an ideal situation you can keep a cripple on a target dummy with the number 1 ability, but in PvP, you have to hope that your target doesn’t do a dodge or jump away from the range of your 1 chain (or hope that they do this when your next 1 chain ability is to leap) or else you have nothing to catch up to them.