Guild Wars 2

sorrow.2364:

Cynz.9437:

No, you just have warriors with asburd burning dmg, immobs, blinds + stuns, you have condi/terrormancers with load of condis on AA, grenade spamming engis with butt load of conditions, spirit rangers with sun spirit granting burning dmg and oh the surprise guards that add to that burning dmg….

Most team comps don’t run more than 2 condition builds (one of those is more a bunker than a condi build), on top of 2 direct damage builds.

Condi warriors have never been the meta, terrormancers are slowly disappearing from meta eaten alive by PW thieves and warriors, condition engis are a rare sight, spirit ranger is the only meta build but mainly because of the suppor rather than conditions.

So no, there aren’t loads of conditions at all, unless your idea of an healthy meta is a meta with no conditions at all and white damage is the only viable form of dps.

in WvW condi builds are extremely more powerful. using koi cakes, perplexity, torment sigil… the condi output becomes extremely high.

Pray For Kosmos.5849:

I thought this thread would be cool and different, but not many people appear to be interested.

Give it time, you give up way too soon.

When I saw the title I thought “great, another condi qq”. Glad to find out this isn’t a qq at all.
I really like your perspective and ideas and I agree with you 100%.

What this patch basically does is making spirit builds even more OP in tpvp than it already is.
You should state that this change to spirits should only affect PvE.

Himei.5379:

DanSH.6143:

Never make an underwater legendary. Just never…
Although if you realy wann- NO. Never.

Sorry if you didnt like getting a underwater legendary but to me, its perfect for a ranger. With all of our weapon skills summoning animal spirits, especially Spear 3 with the shark, how COULD you not want a shark spear ALONG with a pet shark? BTW, I agree with not getting any underwater legendaries till after you get 1 or some of the others (this was my 3rd).

peakittenlady.1408:

While they have indeed added better/more effects to the underwater weapons (and a few of the other legendaries, in general) overall, the variation of effects per class is wildly unbalanced. As you pointed out, the warriors seem to have the most effects available to them for this spear, followed by necros. Every other class only gets 1-3 of this effect depending on class, skill used, and of course crit.

Yup, that is my general complaint about it. It’s stupid to not include the effect in the autoattack chain.

Didn’t you read what I said? Never means never. Not even ever!
Why? Ask aquaman.

No one likes useless skills, I think we can all agree about that.
I know that many warriors (including me) think “Whirling Axe” should also have its dmg increased by 50% in pve (as it is in pvp), in order to be more effective than the AA.
Yes, yes… Whirling Axe hits more targets. That’s not what I’m going to suggest.

“Dual Strike” is practically useless for warriors, since warriors are blessed with high duration fury via Signet of Rage, and available decently via traits & general group suppport by other players.

My idea is to replace the fury with quickness. Instead of 3 seconds of fury each hit, Dual Strike will grant 1 second of quickness on each hit.
What do you guys think?

Terravos.4059:

Empathetic Bond isn’t the only Trait you pickup in Wilderness Survival as a Trapper

Offhand Training is the other…and its incredibly useful for a Trapper

As for the other builds you suggested..ehh No

If you’re going to invest that many points for Traps, you’re no going to pickup other things other then Traps, About the only thing you’ll ever replace a Trap for..is a Stun Breaker…

Which mean its pointless to go 30/10/30 as a Trapper
You don’t go BM Bunker without SoTW, and a Stun Breaker Either (Which means you just invested a bunch of points into picking up 1 trap)
Shout Based Trap Builds are the same, You’re going to pickup Guard, and you’re going to have to have a Stun Breaker, so again.. that leaves room for 1 trap again.

Spirits, its even worse, You’re investing so much into both of those things, while only using maybe 1 or 2 of each one…

The Bunker version of a Trap Build, is basically..You’re deciding not to use Rabid, and instead have decided to use Dire…which is perfectly reasonable… But you’re still going to go 10/30/30 because it is flat out the best choice then all the other builds you listed.

Also i’ve never understood why you’d go Geomancy on a Trapper..Its going 30 Points down the Skirmishing Line, its going to use Precision for Sharpened Edges, You’re going to get Fury on Weapon Swap…There is no reason to go Geomancy..The only reason i used Geomancy on my BM Bunker build was because it was Cheap back then, but more importantly..I had no access to Fury, and No Precision what so ever.

The best trap is obviously “Flame Trap”, you don’t need the other ones. “Spike Trap” is nice if you don’t have anything better to take (which is the case atm).

Just think for a moment how strong BM bunkers are today, and how powerful a fully traited Flame Trap is.
The suggested trap changes allow BM bunkers to use fully traited traps without giving up almost any survivability. They could take [Flame Trap][Spike Trap][SotW].

The most effective spirit is the sun spirit. Rangers with both Flame Trap and Sun Spirit have access to a lot of burning. The last utility could be either a second spirit or a second trap.

If Signet of Stone will really give immunity to condi, it will probably be enough to make trappers want to take it, and maybe spend 10 points in marksmanship to reduce its cd.
+30% condi duration is a big deal for traps, and besides that, Marksmanship has some nice traits for a condi spec.

And about Geomancy: It’s a reliable AoE 3 stacks of bleeding. Considering how close it is to earth sigils, and that it doesn’t depend on traps/multi-hits to hit their target, stacking precision isn’t better by much.

Terravos.4059:

DanSH.6143:

(First and most needed change: Signets now apply their active effect to the player. “Signet of the Beastmaster” trait will now also grants the signet’s active effects to the pet).

Marksmanship Changes

1. “Signet Mastery” (IV) merged with “Beastmaster’s Might” (IX).
2. “Opening Strike” (minor adept) merged with “Remorseless” (XII).
3. “Precise Strike” (minor GM) functionality changed: Opening Strike now stuns the foe for 2 seconds.
4. “Precise Strike” (minor GM) switches places with “Alpha training” (minor master).
   With these changes to Opening Strike, it should now be avoidable. If the Opening Strike misses, it is lost.
5. “Signet of the Beastmaster” (XI) switches places with “Zephyr’s Speed” (Beastmastery GM trait XI).
6. “Beastmaster’s Bond (VI)” should also affect the pet. CD reduced to 30 seconds.
7. “Piercing Arrows” (VIII) merged with “Quickdraw” (Skirmishing master trait X). Remains in Marksmanship (VIII).

Marksmanship now needs a new Master trait and a new GM trait.

Explanation: Opening Strike is nearly useless without a GM trait. Minor traits should be useful without needing to entirely spec into a trait line. Opening Strike as it is today is out-dated.

---

Skirmishing and Wilderness Survival Changes

1. “Quickdraw” relocated to Marksmanship as mentioned.
2. “Trapper’s Defense” (Skirmising III) merged with “Healer’s Celerity” (Wilderness Survival II). The merged trait will remain in Wilderness Survival.
3. “Trapper’s Expertise” (Skirmishing VIII) moved down to the empty _Skirmishing III. _
4. “Martial Mastery” (Wilderness Survival X) moved to the empty Skirmishing. VIII
5. “Trap Potency” (Skirmishing XI) moved to the empty Wilderness Survival X.

Skirmishing now needs a new Master trait and a new GM trait.

Explanation: As the trait-line’s stat doesn’t improve traps at all, trapper Rangers shouldn’t be forced so heavily into it.

---

Nature Magic Changes

1. Remove “Spirit Unbound” (VII). Make spirits always move and follow the player.
2. Break “Nature’s Vengeance” (XI) into 2 traits, so Spirit-built rangers would still have to spend 30 points in order to achieve their full potential .
3. Replace Vigor with Stability in “Fortifying Bond” (master minor)". Vigor does not affect a pet in any way – they don’t have endurance.

Congrats..You managed to completely gut the Trapper Build…because someone told you Traps belong in the “Condition” Stat Tree….despite the fact its a tree you’re going to pickup anyway as a Trap Ranger.

Also..

Explanation: As the trait-line’s stat doesn’t improve traps at all, trapper Rangers shouldn’t be forced so heavily into it.

Will you people quit with this nonsense already..

Precision is actually very good for Traps..Whenever they pulse and do damage they can apply Sigil of Earth and Sharpened Edges.

I didn’t ruin the Trapper build, as I moved Trap Potency to a master Wilderness Survival trait, so you can still take “Empathic Bond” as a GM (which is the main reason you want to invest 30 points in Wilderness Survival).

Precision is only good for offensive trap builds. In bunker builds Geomancy can replace precision-related sigils/traits.

With these changes, players will be able to use much more diversed builds like:

• 30/10/30 signet/trap build
• 0/10/30/0/30 bunker BM trapper build
• 0/10/30/30 spirit or shouts + traps build.
• 10/30/30 full offense trapper build.

All of these builds will still have “Empathic Bond”, but they will be able to chose if they want more offense via crits / more offense via pet / etc

Archaon.6245:

got 240 on guardian already…unopened, i just put those near the 600+ unopened chests…along with the others spread through other chars..

PvP is so rewarding…

Meanwhile sh and sw still in soloq, decappers and wars still bringing panic into tpvp, ppl porting into walls and random lags all over the mists…

..but hey…we have bags with random pve stuff inside..

You do know you can get some very valuable items from those bags right? in the near future (a month from now or so) some of these items will be worth dozens of golds and maybe even more than a hundred.
Open a bunch of those bags using a magic booster and enjoy the gold

lordkrall.7241:

glaphen.5230:

So why does solo queue get half the rewards again? Why do you keep giving double the rewards to the people who team join and farm solo joiners?

You are aware that Team-queue and Solo-queue does not fight each other, right?
When you go for Solo-queue, you fight other from the solo-queue.

As for why they get the double reward that is most likely due to the fact that it is more organized and thus most likely more challenging.

By solo joiners he meant people who join alone to a team match queue. There are still random teams in there, which is fine.
And yeah I agree; teaming up, using more complex tactics, fighting at a higher skill cap, all those be enough to make team-queue more rewarding.

This is great!
Thank you for listening to our feedback, the last couple of patches were very kind to the pvp regulars

Can you please add them to hotjoin aswell? something like 1 bag for losing and 2-3 bags for winning.

And again- Thanks!

Specific Game Mode
PvX

Proposal Overview
Suggestions for some trait changes.
Improving some weak traits and relocating traits that belong in different trait lines.

Goal of Proposal
Reducing the need of most Ranger builds to invest a large amount of trait points to make utilities from almost completely useless to useful.
Expanding build diversity.

Proposal Functionality
Trait changes: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Trait-Changes-Suggestion-for-the-CDI/first#post3701323

Associated Risks
Trap builds could be too defensive with these changes.

Specific Game Mode
PvX

Proposal Overview
Suggestions for improvements to the Ranger’s utility capabilities:
Slightly improving the utility potential of certain weapon skills, and decently improving the effectiveness of certain Utility skills.

Goal of Proposal
Giving the Ranger class a more reliable tools to work with.

Proposal Functionality

• Weapon Skills: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Weapon-Skills-Changes-Suggestion-for-the-CDI/first#post3701203

• Utility Skills: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Skills-Changes-Suggestion-for-the-CDI/first#post3701058

Associated Risks
Some of these changes could be just a little bit too strong in certain situations.

Thanks for reading Anet!

solrik.6028:

This is what I see in these changes:
Marksmanship receives the good traits and the bad traits are made less accessible.
A 4 second daze with 2s daze every 10 seconds is overpowered when coupled with other control skills.
Inverting signets is a careless change, because barely anyone would take SotB.

It would mean

• 6 seconds invulnerability
• Pulling all condition to the ranger, the profession that lacks condition cleanse
• Once again more power to zerkers

That could result in very tanky builds; 3s block (same as invulnerability to an extent) + 6s invulnerability (tanky pet + protect me) + 6s invulnerability (signet) + evades from weapon (sword if you have it)

After that, you got damage boost from MoC after 4s daze, plus the daze from GS, plus another 2s daze from longbow.

…

This changes go along with my utility skills suggestions https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Skills-Changes-Suggestion-for-the-CDI/first#post3700941
Signet of Renewal according to this would be changed to simply remove all conditions.

+ I forgot to mention something: with this trait changes, Opening Strike would be able to miss out. if the attack misses/blocked, you would lose the Opening Strike.

The duration of “Signet of Stone” could be reduced to 5 seconds to compensate.

Greatsword
Hilt Bash – Applies 2 seconds of knockdown if used from behind or from the sides. 1 second stun otherwise.

Explanation: The greatsword should be more reliable. Hilt Bash already has a very short range to compensate for the control effect.

Longbow
Barrage – Apply a longer duration of cripple every pulse. Maybe 3 seconds each pulse

Explanation: This skill already roots the player for a decent amount of time, foes can leave the Barrage field before being applied with more than 1.5 seconds of cripple.

Warhorn
Hunter’s Call – Apply 1 second of blindness every second, for the duration of the skill.

Explanation: This skill already deals low damage. It needs to offer some kind of utility to compensate.
This suggestion fits the concept of the skill perfectly.

The build I posted is the spvp build. In WvW there are some modifications you can use to improve its performance there.
This build is actually way stronger in WvW with +40% condi duration food and Dire gear.
“Bull’s Charge” could be taken as a reliable gap closer, and also another source of confusion.
Keep in mind that this build has +25% movement speed, plenty of swiftness, stuns, and immob. It’s not that easy to run away from it.

Another thing you should consider: you sometimes come across more than just 1 enemy. If 2 or more enemy roamers will see you they’re gonna try to kill you in 1vX.
This build is very powerful in 1vX fights, even when the enemies are trying to run away, they usually die trying to.

Not to mention that Thieves (the main wvw roamers) are extremely good at running away. That’s a problem every roaming spec is dealing with, not only warriors.

It’s ok, I’m posting it outside the CDI first.
I’ll link it to the CDI in a few minutes

Signets

1. Signet of Stone – now also grants immunity to conditions for the duration.
2. Signet of renewal – cooldown reduced to 40(s)-45(s). Instead of transferring conditions this skill will now simply remove all conditions from the player and nearby allies.

Explanation: power Ranger builds lack condition removal, they have almost none. Signet of Renewal as it is now, isn’t reliable and shuts down the pet.
Even when it works it’s not enough to deal with the amounts of conditions most classes can apply.
That’s why I think power Rangers should also have some condition immunity.

Shouts

1. Sick ’Em – reduce cooldown to 30 seconds.
2. Search and Rescue – reduce cooldown to 60 seconds in all game modes.

Explanation: These shouts have decent effects, but thier cooldown is too long to consider using them in pvp/wvw.

Healing Skills
Heal As One – reduce cooldown to 16 seconds.

Explanation: This change might be too strong, maybe there should be a way to reduce this skill’s cooldown (from 20 to 16) in the dps-related traitlines.
At the moment this healing skill is weak, and unused at all. the other 2 healing skills aren’t suitable for dps builds, they are both suitable for bunker/sustain builds.

(First and most needed change: Signets now apply their active effect to the player. “Signet of the Beastmaster” trait will now also grants the signet’s active effects to the pet).

Marksmanship Changes

1. “Signet Mastery” (IV) merged with “Beastmaster’s Might” (IX).
2. “Opening Strike” (minor adept) merged with “Remorseless” (XII).
3. “Precise Strike” (minor GM) functionality changed: Opening Strike now stuns the foe for 2 seconds.
4. “Precise Strike” (minor GM) switches places with “Alpha training” (minor master).
   With these changes to Opening Strike, it should now be avoidable. If the Opening Strike misses, it is lost.
5. “Signet of the Beastmaster” (XI) switches places with “Zephyr’s Speed” (Beastmastery GM trait XI).
6. “Beastmaster’s Bond (VI)” should also affect the pet. CD reduced to 30 seconds.
7. “Piercing Arrows” (VIII) merged with “Quickdraw” (Skirmishing master trait X). Remains in Marksmanship (VIII).

Marksmanship now needs a new Master trait and a new GM trait.

Explanation: Opening Strike is nearly useless without a GM trait. Minor traits should be useful without needing to entirely spec into a trait line. Opening Strike as it is today is out-dated.

Skirmishing and Wilderness Survival Changes

1. “Quickdraw” relocated to Marksmanship as mentioned.
2. “Trapper’s Defense” (Skirmising III) merged with “Healer’s Celerity” (Wilderness Survival II). The merged trait will remain in Wilderness Survival.
3. “Trapper’s Expertise” (Skirmishing VIII) moved down to the empty _Skirmishing III. _
4. “Martial Mastery” (Wilderness Survival X) moved to the empty Skirmishing. VIII
5. “Trap Potency” (Skirmishing XI) moved to the empty Wilderness Survival X.

Skirmishing now needs a new Master trait and a new GM trait.

Explanation: As the trait-line’s stat doesn’t improve traps at all, trapper Rangers shouldn’t be forced so heavily into it.

Nature Magic Changes

1. Remove “Spirit Unbound” (VII). Make spirits always move and follow the player.
2. Break “Nature’s Vengeance” (XI) into 2 traits, so Spirit-built rangers would still have to spend 30 points in order to achieve their full potential .
3. Replace Vigor with Stability in “Fortifying Bond” (master minor)". Vigor does not affect a pet in any way – they don’t have endurance.

Cygnus.6903:

DanSH.6143:

runeblade.7514:

condi mace/sword Warrior

What is this build?

This is the most common mace/sword condi Warr build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vIAQNApcTjMdUGaVIehwJagApALVxo4HiX9YO4JOA-TsAgyCuIKSVkrITRyisFN6Y1xcBA

What a topic…

I seriously can’t tell if you’re serious or just having a laugh anymore. Anyway, good day.

I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Are you laughing at the spec? I don’t get it… :\

oZii.2864:

I would put my list

1. P/D perplexity Thief w/ 30 trickery
2. Hambow
3. PU condition mesmer
4. Terrormancer
5. S/D Thief w/ 30 trickery

I don’t really have anymore after those. I feel these are the only builds that have a fair chance to beat any other dueling build where it isn’t a uphill battle

I just don’t see S/P thieves with 30 trick aslong as your not impatient and blowing important skills on the evade frames of pistol whip I just don’t see how it is strong in dueling.

The S/D 30 trickery I would move over terrormancer if it has lyssa runes. Hambow over PU mesmer just because it can out regen and dump the conditions easy on a PU mesmer but that would probably be a long fight.

S/D 30 trickery will dump all over a P/D condition thief though but I feel the fight is close to even. I don’t know Engi’s that well but bomb kit engi I am not sure where I would put it but it is very strong.

Hambow is over rated in 1v1. In tpvp it’s god mode with all the suvivability and AOE pressure, but that’s because you’re forced to sit on a point. in 1v1 you’re free to move as you please, so Earthshaker, Combustive Shot and Arcing Arrow are less effective.
In a 1v1 it is possible to kite a Hambow, in tpvp not so much.

I can’t includ a perplexity spec because:
1) This list applies to both WvW and PvP.
2) Runes/sigils are getting patched soon (perplexity is likely to be nerfed) and I don’t want to make this list “outdated” so soon.

And about s/p thieves: Go to the 1v1 custom servers (King of the Hill type), decent s/p, s/d thieves rule those. They don’t leave until one of the above 10 shows up, or a highly skilled condi engi shows up.

Never make an underwater legendary. Just never…
Although if you realy wann- NO. Never.

s/s is weak, even with Deep Cuts on. Many warrior builds simply skip that trait because it is not needed. There’s a rule about stacking condi duration in pvp: don’t bother with anything longer than 10 seconds, because that’s about how long it takes for skills/traits to cleanse them.
Deep Cuts is good with Geomancy Sigil because it greatly increases the damage per swap.
FYI, a mace/sword condi build is much, much, much stronger than s/s condi build, with/without Deep Cuts.

runeblade.7514:

condi mace/sword Warrior

What is this build?

This is the most common mace/sword condi Warr build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vIAQNApcTjMdUGaVIehwJagApALVxo4HiX9YO4JOA-TsAgyCuIKSVkrITRyisFN6Y1xcBA

Some warriors use sword/shield instead of longbow, and there are many different variations of the build.
The build is extremely strong in 1v1 and 1vX fights, being able to stun opponents frequently – applying 4 stacks of confusion on interrupt (which mace has on skill #2 and #F1).

While sword/sword builds are more common (sword seems more suitable for condi builds at first sight) they are by far less effective.
mace/sword builds use “Missle Deflection” trait very effectively. This grants the builds high sustainability/offensiveness, being able to reflect projectiles on a 10s and 15s cd.

When used with perplexity runes, this build will easily apply over 10 stacks of confusion that last over 15 seconds. While on top of that still applying a huge amount of bleeding, torment, burning (if using longbow), poison (if using doom sigils).

Pyroatheist.9031:

Yeah, since when has condie mace/sword been a thing? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a warrior running that particular weapon combo…ever…for any reason in any build.

Also, phantasm mesmer should be somewhere in the top 3. It’s one of the few builds that can faceroll PU condie mesmer, and acts similarly with most everything else.

Well I hope for you that you’ll never face it, if you’re not using one of the 10 mentioned specs your chances of winning are low.

I’m not sure about phantasm mesmers, they sure are in the top 20, but I think that lockdown mesmer builds are more potent in 1v1 than normal phantasm builds.

Hedger.9261:

you all realize that “1v1” is not a game type. “roaming” is not a game type…

the purpose of a list like this is the get the things you dont like about the game nerfed or removed. The problem is that changing mechanics based on game types that dont exist is bad design…

I didn’t say any of these builds needs to be nerfed. I simply provided the list of the strongest 1v1 specs rated by their effectiveness.

This post is more of an FYI rather than a qq.

MrForz.1953:

It’s surprising to not see even one engineer build in there.

Engi didn’t make it to the top 10, but I’d say it is definitely in the top 20.

Travlane.5948:

its super suprising to notsee engi in there.engineers are possibly 1 of top 2or 3.

and s/p is a joke :P lol seriously. once they pop devourer venom….there goes their chance if they missed it.

s/d thief too? eh not anymore since Shadow Return nerf….its really beat back alot and too risky to play.

id say p/d thief is the hardest to play against 1v1 when rightly built.

everyone i have ever dueled says id rather face d/p all day than my p/d build. d/p is pretty easy if u knowhow to CC :P

meta s/p thief builds do not use “Devourer Venom”.

Cygnus.6903:

DanSH.6143:

6. condi mace/sword Warrior

This made me lol.

Condi engineer beats all specs you listed.

I could also say condi engineer beats all.

condi engineer cannot beat mace/sword condi Warr, terror Necro, PU Mesmer, condi-bunker Ranger, and s/f “fresh-air” Ele.

The mentioned warr and ele specs counter condi engineers with great success. both have high condition removal and missle reflection/block.
All of the mentioned condi builds apply a lot of condition pressure, and condi engi don’t have enough condition removal to deal with that.

Cygnus.6903:

Terror necro might be a tricky fight, but I’d still put my money on the engie. Dodge the worst part, and you can CC the necro (which is their ultimate weakness). I agree, it might be a very close match.

Also, s/p thief has a very hard time with high stability uptime.

That’s actually not true, s/p thief has 30 points in the trickery trait-line. which means every 20 seconds the thief is able to steal the opponent’s stab.
Even if the thief is not able to steal your stab, auto attack with sword is also extremely powerful (not that thieves can just use AA all day long, but still).

Guys just to be clear:

The listed specs aren’t listed considering how well they counter each other, rather they’re listed by how well their overall performance in 1v1 is.
The fact that trapper Ranger can win against an MM Necro doesn’t make it a good 1v1 build, or even better than MM Necro. Because trapper Ranger would lose to (alot) more specs than an MM Necro would.

Also, the fact that you “killed every listed spec with this/that spec” doesn’t change anything. When comparing different specs you assume the two sides are equally skilled.

Thanks for commenting guys, it’s interesting to hear your feedback

The problem with blackpowder+WA is that the Thief can walk out of the smoke field and continue whirling blinds. Warriors can’t use any melee CC on a blackpowder+WA combo because they’re perma-blinded while in-range.

There are 3 ways to counter to successfully counter a blackpower+WA combo:
1. Having Berserker’s Stance before the combo, now being able to CC the Thief in melee.
2. Using a full or atleast 2/3 Combustive Shot to force The thief out of the field.
3. Using Endure Pain.

chances are the Warrior has Berserker’s Stance on cd, and Combustive Shot has a fair chance to be reflected. So those aren’t 100% child-proof counters.
Also, a Thief can dodge while whirling, so it’s not even a risk/reward.

The even bigger problem is Lyssa+WA(+blackpowder):
Lyssa grants stab/prot/aegis, if a Thief uses Basilisk Venom and then WA you can’t touch him, those 3 boons alone will protect him enough, if he used blackpowder to prema-blind that’s even worse. running away is less effective because he has swiftness for the whole duration.
The only safe solution if Endure Pain, which has a much longer cd than steal and basilisk venom.

The truth is that warriors aren’t able to successfully deal with WA is used with either basilisk venom or blackpowder.
other than that you could argue that WA is about 7% stronger than it should be.

I like the idea, but I think it should be named better in order to maintain the Ranger theme.
something like – Players could chose one of two Aspects:
“Aspect of the Beastmaster” – which allows them to use a pet.
“Aspect of the Skirmisher/Marksman/Other” – which will boost them.

I wanted to post this a long time ago. It seems that people are clueless about what’s strong/weak in the 1v1/roaming scene.

The Best Spec’s In 1v1

1. PU condi Mesmer
2. s/d Thief
3. s/p Thief
4. condi Mesmer
5. condi bunker Ranger
6. condi mace/sword Warrior + terror Necro
7. d/p trickery Thief + d/p shadow arts Thief
8. s/f “fresh air” Ele
9. MM Necro
10. medit Guard

Some people have weird assumptions about certain classes. Like “warriors are OP in everything” and “ele is the worst class”. I’ve seen people posting things like “why do people think PU is OP?” etc…

While I do agree warriors are brokenly OP in most parts of the game, most of their specs are mediocre in 1v1.
Yes, ele are weak in tpvp. But most people assume that ele will drop dead in any fight including 1v1. s/f ele is an incredibly strong 1v1 spec, that can completely counter other strong specs like PU and condi mesmer.

I don’t want to get too much into detail with the rest.
Feel free to comment/rage/rant I’ll be happy to hear everything

hey Jerry, nice build.
I suggest you try mace/sword instead of sword/shield, you can take “Deflection Mastery” instead of dogged march or spiked armor.
It adds a lot of CC while having better condition output than sword/shield. It also works great with perplexity.

Very impressive.
Cheers mate.

Well, i don’t think ele’s need some major changes, just a bit of tweaks here and there.
They’re not viable in tourneys because they get hard-countered by the meta builds (terror necro, d/p thief, hambow).
condi-burst meta should be toned slightly. thieves should be less effective since there’s no reason to use any other roamer class spec. And warriors are getting theirs soon enough.
I think ele’s are going to become viable soon. I really do.

Umadusa.5874:

And could we please get a reskin on the ranger spirits. Seriously….frosty, watery and firey….oakhearts?

-____-

Lame.

The dolphin underwater versions are soooo much better.
I don’t know what would be as cool as dolphin for the land version though.

Shadelang.3012:

DanSH.6143:

Yeah it’s silly that Long Range Shot exists. It’s obvious that the less the arrow travels the less energy had gone to waste.
Longbow could have just had 1500 range to begin with, and have the max dmg on all ranges. I doubt it would be OP.

Hmm well as far as the nature of a longbows arrow goes I will have to disagree. Traditional use of a longbow in war was to pierce through the plate armor of cavalry. Primarily a defensive weapon they were almost impossible to fire while moving like you could with a shortbow. The mounted archers would use shortbows. But the archers on a wall would likely use longbows. Arrows from longbows were much heavier than there shortbow counterparts. And they actualy used gravity to gain power. A longbow fired at pointblank was actually less likely to pierce a knights armor compared to a longbow arrow at the end of its firing arc. Theres exceptions of course. Firing into strong wind would likely reduce the arrows effectiveness. But you see my point. Long range shot is actually following the idea of the longbow. However its weapon power was VASTLY inferior to the real thing. For logical reasons of course, but its maybe been taken a bit to far.

We don’t shoot in high arcs so it’s irrelevant, and we don’t shoot from insane ranges like the real thing either.
We shoot in low angles, and that’s why it appears so illogical.

Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t want to see it changed :P

Yeah it’s silly that Long Range Shot exists. It’s obvious that the less the arrow travels the less energy had gone to waste.
Longbow could have just had 1500 range to begin with, and have the max dmg on all ranges. I doubt it would be OP.

Thieves at the moment control the 1v1 scene, they’re only threatened by condi mesmers/ PU mesmers.
while s/d and s/p are at the top of the chain, d/p is very close to it.
No point denying it.
Go to the 1v1 servers and see for yourself. For any pvp player that watches 1v1 fights it’s pretty clear what’s OP and what’s not.

And again. Note: even if all of my suggestions would go through stealth would still be extremely viable, but considering after testing at least some of the suggestions wouldn’t go through, it’s safe to say it wouldn’t have a huge impact on thieves. it would definitely won’t lead to thieves constantly being perma-revealed.

Couldn’t agree more.

Soilder.3607:

Mate, ranger power builds are extremely underrated. I mean they really are. If you want, I can post a few specs for you to try out.

No they’re not.
Considering 1v1: try fighting any thief, any warrior, any ele except staff user, any necro, any dps guard.
Considering group play: You don’t do enough dmg to justify the lack of sustain. Taking a warrior or a guardian instead would be much better for you and your whole team.
Considering hotjoin: everything can work in hotjoin.

Your suggestion is very creepy, A Lynx coming out of nowhere, bites the foe once and then runs away in giggles o.O

Those are just a couple of suggestions I came up with while writing the post, but I’m pretty sure that if pet-skins would be available in the gem store, most of them would be “special”.
Anet wouldn’t likely let you buy pet-skins that could be added as an actual pet in a future release. Like pandas, tigers, parrots, foxes, etc.
By “special” I mean things that you wouldn’t see in the open world.
And btw, if any pets would be given gem store skins, it would probably be “Brown Bear”, “Wolf”, “Stalker”, “Black Wildow”, “Raven”. Since they’re the most popular ones.

Morte de Angelis.7986:

No. You’ve already got Sic em that applies reveal. Just time it right and its awesome. Not so much if your running solo cause 4s is prolly not enough for you to down them. If you see a common time where a mesmer / theif will use stealth use Sic Em. Hunters shot IMO is on a too short of a CD to apply reveal unless its a short one at which case its kinda useless. But I don’t want the Ranger to get any less stealth as it is by increasing the CD on Hunter’s Shot.

While it would be nice I personally would say to reduce Sic Em from 40 secs to 30 secs with a 5 second ( 5 – s is filtered?) reveal.
(As a theif player)

Consider hunter’s shot can be easily avoided by evading/dodging/blinding.
Longbow Rangers rely on their utilities too much to replace anything with Sic Em.

Guys it’s not like any of the other new heals are any good. The mesmer signet is the only one worth using.

I think we need more counter-stealth skills and I made a post about it in the profession balance forum.
I’d like a less biased opinion about one of my suggestion though (that post got kinda trashed by thieves)

We all know longbow (aka power) rangers are weak. Even if you’re one of those “I use power ranger and I kill X and Y and I feel good” as a dps spec you’re still inferior to all other dps specs.

Do help make longbow rangers a bit more wanted in roaming, and make them a bit more defensive, I propose:
- Hunter’s Shot also applies 3 seconds of ‘Revealed’ to the target.

I think it fits the concept of a hunter’s shot nicely, since you can track your foe bettre while being in stealth yourself.
What do you think?

urdriel.8496:

less ticks , more damage and less channel time would be a nice solution

As it’s much simpler to simply change the damage numbers, I’d rather have them do that.
I always thought barrage have 100% more dps, and turns out it used to have it. so yeah, double the damage, that would be a start.

I like the idea of maintaining sword pressure to cripple foes in the traps. It’s a nice variation of the usual trapper build. good job!

urdriel.8496:

DanSH.6143:

Guys, keep in mind 2 things:
- completely redesigning skills (making new ones/removing old ones) is a TONS of work.
- Weapons/Classes/Builds are about ‘concept’. The longbow has its own concept of a slow yet powerful weapon, that reaches its maximum potential in long range. You can’t just make all ranged weapons into the same thing and ruin the concept.

Instead of completely redesigning our LB skills we should just have the dmg on #2 and @5 buffed-up, because at the moment they are very weak.
That’s it, no need to make into Warrior’s Rifle or Longbow.

Anet stealth NERFED LB #5 2-3 months ago….

Yeah I’ve heard about that. I know they decreased damage per tic by 50% but I’m not sure if they haven’t doudble the tics. If they did it’s supposed to have the same total dps.

Chrispy.5641:

Why does barrage show hundreds of arrows falling in the same area, but, only 5 people get hit by it? Remove the 5 target limit on the skill, and turn Barrage into a true area denial skill, then it’ll be good for large scale use against zergs in WvW as well as against smaller groups of enemies in PvP and PvE.

Buffing the damage makes it too powerful against smaller groups, buffing the conditions it gives also makes it too powerful for the same reason. Turning it into a single target damage spike isn’t going to suddenly make the skill better than what our autoattack can do by itself.

The dotal dps of Barrage is considerably low.

It’s actually pretty interesting, everyone agree that warriors are OP except (most) warriors.
The thing is that the ‘most’ part doesn’t contain the top ranked warriors. Each of them will tell you warrior is OP.

I like the idea of improving thief’s traps. They pretty useless atm.

Cynz.9437:

DanSH.6143:

Cynz.9437:

ok, but if this changes are implemented then thief AA puts 25 stacks of weakness on target and strips all boons, just to make it fair

and fyi, stealth has counters…quite few of them at that

OP, i dare you to roll a thief and fight any class w/o using stealth with common weapon set that relies on stealth…something tells me you won’t last long

I forgot to mention that I also play a thief and a mesmer.
I played all classes so far and learned how to use their different specs, I can roll either one when needed (most pvp players do the same).

I played a stealth built thief for a pretty long time, and then played s/d and s/p too.
in tpvp atm, stealth is almost exclusively used for reviving/stomping. d/p uses it for backstabs and they don’t stay in the fight long enough to care about survival – they hit and run.
In pvp s/d and s/p Thief are ridiculously OP, in 1v1 they only use Shadow Refuge as stealth and they don’t even rely on it in anyway.
Check out the 1v1 servers, if an s/d thief gets in, he won’t leave (you have to leave when you lose there).

for some reason you think that by giving a few underused skills(which means they don’t work well in the meta) very short ‘Revealed’ duration, all of the sudden you can’t stealth anymore.
I’ve just written a pretty long reply about this, and I guess you haven’t read the whole thing through.

You already apply ‘Revealed’ to yourself applying it again to you while you’re revealed, has little to no effect at all.
As you can’t be targeted while stealthed, half of my suggestions wouldn’t be able to reveal you.

you just stated yourself that d/p uses stealth for BS, take a guess where main dmg comes from d/p? what else are they gonna do while sitting in revealed forever? do you want everyone run evade spec? really? you might have as well rename your post into: i want thieves have only 1 viable weapon set in pvp

@Rye: no matter how much tanky gear you stack on your character, there is absolutely nothing that backs up thief survivability outside of evades and stealth which both are based on avoiding dmg but not mitigating it…we do not have any traits or utilities that support toughness or vitality stacking, we do not have traits/utilities that support condi clean… no matter how tanky you build your thief you will only end up doing kittenty dmg (in comparson) and still drop pretty fast

As I already said multiple times, these said suggestions would berly impact stealth in-combat. You wouldn’t be perma revealed.