Guild Wars 2

I fully support this… nerf the celestial might stacking.

Just give anet another 5 months to sub out a part time employee to look into this

How does matchmaking work?
Right now the algorithm is incredibly simple. (Read: not intelligent)

• For solo arena we find 10 players near the same MMR and then shuffle those players into teams to make the teams as even as possible (MMR-wise).

I call shenanigans, this is setup for a 50/50 win loss ratio. Meaning some games the odds will be stacked against you mmr rating wise, and other games they will be stacked in your favor.

Is that really it… shatter for spvp/tpvp. One build for the past 2 years now with little to no variation.

Can someone who knows this class please offer up something with a different play style that is not condi pu…

Best burst that ive seen is this easily

http://www.twitch.tv/doctorbeetus/c/3227745

As for me, I find when wvw players do spvp theyre 10x more entertaining then these cookie cutter meta build spvp players who gravitate to these cheese builds that exploit maps and abilities.

Infact I hope the last remaining few spvp players that are still playing with this elitist attitude move onto a new game and take thier ‘skillful’ play with them.

Three Minutes.

Carpboy.7145:

Just one dodge is enough to avoid all the damage from rapid fire. Not most of the damage, or some of the damage, but ALL of it. Keep that in mind when you complain. 1 single dodge. On the flipside, these rangers are pure glass, so as soon as you do your 1 dodge (yes its hard i know) their toast.

Seeing as this is wvw and not spvp, I dont think any ranger who isnt a bandwagon longbow at this time would be toast after one dodge (Unless youre playing a thief where you can teleport)

As for the original post, everyone here kittentainly understand the frustration… to say otherwise is lying to yourself. Should a ranger join a fight and be pinging you off from 1500 range, yes its annoying and who wouldnt want to vent.

The dodge will negate most of the rapid fire except maybe the 1st 2 hits – which is a lot and i do mean a lot less damage than an auto attack.

Reflects are nice but such a long cooldown so use it wisely… the best advice I can give you vs a ranger hiding behind his teammates – hide behind yours… odds are that ranger is not using piercing arrows.

Cheers

Three Minutes

All great ways…

Although, for the most part when im playing ranger… ill avoid 900 range like the plague vs any class… so at least in my case a lot of these counters arent needed

If im in 900 range, im not looking to use #2 on my longbow, rather my greatsword to disengage or finish.

I dont think the issue people have with rapid fire is how to counter it.

Three Minutes

Jagstang.6912:

then you just might need to learn to evade/reflect/run up to him and just hit him.

If youre a longbow ranger, learn to count evades.

Rapid fire cooldown will be up before reflect will be, so if they catch the 1st one… feel free to hit #2 on the 2nd.

Should they feel like running up to you, feel free to use
Longbow #4
Longbow #3
Entangle
Hound/spider immobalize
Wolf Fear

Should they use stability, switch to greatsword and reset the fight.

zaxon.6819:

the main issue.is that they buffed something with such a low skill floor/ceiling. so there are alot of people auto attacking thier faces off.

This is dead on, the offensive abilities of the longbow ranger are low skill ceiling. It was the defensive end that really separated the players.

7 months later…

You assume they still have people working on the spvp part of the game?

Liked the video, but the build has 2 things that really didnt make sense to me.

Pets Prowess with spiders? Wouldnt malicious intent be a better option for this?

2nd being moment of clarity – i cant stand this being a 6 point investment for 1 second more on hilt bash… if it lands.

Im thinking malicious intent and spotter would work better for your setup?

Three Minutes

Which build is considered the meta build currently for rangers in TPVP?

Build im currently using on my ranger/stream twitch.tv/chompstomp

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-FV-73;1Fkx-p2gDF-0;9-9E;1J9T9-26-1;057A2;3Ko17K;1fgm9fgm92VF

Position is key
Sharpening stone if you want to apply bleeds from any direction.
QZ if you get beside or behind your target.

Make adjustments to your likings, this is just what I liked.

Cheers

Three Minutes

Bryzy.2719:

So how much are people willing to bet that when the balance patch goes live other professions are going to QQ like mad about Rangers until they force the devs to nerf or remove the buffs?

Like a jealous sibling on christmas day…. “No mummy if I can’t have it then he can’t either!”

Which build? And ill take that bet.

Atherakhia.4086:

I can’t watch the video for another 9 hours because of work, but would you mind explaining why you’ve made some of the choices you did? Specifically with your Warrior Runes and running Accuracy over Flame?

Do you find the 2 second off swap is really beneficial in the long run when you’re losing more vital stats over the vitality?

For my playstyle, Where Longbow is my main weapon and my gs is either a finisher or to disengage. I feel the weapon swap serves me pretty well. Vitality is always nice to have, and with the trait strength of spirit its an added bonus to power ( all be it not that much)

When I swap to GS to leap away, i want to get back into longbow asap to start attacking again at range.

The sigils on the longbow, I really havent found any I stick to. I went with accuracy because i felt the 7% would put me at a decent amount.

The sigils however on the GS are geared towards the disengage – Hydromancy
Finisher – Intelligence

Here is the build I run on my stream www.twitch.tv/chompstomp

I do make a few changes now and then, like swapping for steady focus if there is more sniping spots.

This is just what ive come to like running recently.
Cheers
Three Minutes

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Fo-g;2FFu-p2gDF-0;9V2E;1T-T9-39C;157A4;3IJF7R;1aNX8aNX85Bm

adozu.6398:

it happens to every class you know, it’s not an issue with ranger itself however some skills seem more forgiving than other.

I agree here entirely. For me, damage with longbow was never an issue. Its the 2 key defensive abilities of this weapon not working with what I feel could be the best reasons – does this make that true… nope just my opinion.

I think 5 months between patches and getting a 17% buff on short range and a shorter duration on 2 other skills isnt what the class needed. Some may agree, some may not.

As for getting better, i think im alright with longbow/gs.

Three Minutes

Its a bait and switch…
Sure if you play longbow on lan (with almost no latency) you will land #3 / #4 on longbow vs melee classes (which I want to kite)

With online latency this will change dramatically the difference between 30ms and 80ms is more than one could think – want proof… look at the railgun in quake.

Its not the offensive abilities the ranger needed, its the 2 key defensive abilities that needed change in order to compensate for online latency & terrain.

This blows my mind it took you five months to come up with this garbage.

Three Minutes.

Zerk Longbow Ranger – Three Minutes
http://www.twitch.tv/chompstomp

Prysin.8542:

stealth is too short to reset. You can create space, but not reset.
Reset happens at 8-10 seconds with a minimum distance of 4k from enemy, AFAIK.

LB is a good backup weapon. But not a good primary weapon.

Best weapon set(s) for WvW is GS + Axe/Warhorn. This set will be even better now that axe and GS is getting buffed.

Maybe for your playstyle, but longbow has long since served me as a great primary weapon – in both spvp and wvw.

Different strokes for different folks.

Three Minutes
twitch.tv/chompstomp

Show me the best ranger has to offer right now.

Condi regen allows more room for error. I feel this is why this is the more popular build/choice.

Power you will want to be very aware of roaming so you get full use of your range.

I stream a fair bit of wvw and spvp as full longbow zerk ranger.

As far as being good, this is subjective. I think a lot of the rangers ive seen are good that stream. Really depends on the spec and what youre looking for in a stream.

www.twitch.tv/chompstomp

I stream my ranger Three Minutes

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

“yes for rapid fire, does its damage over 2.5secs , add Quicken zypher it will shorten that by onther 50% to 1.75secs. more burst but not more damage.”

The ability alone when you frame it like this… yes will do more burst but the same damage. Now, remove the frame and add in a auto shot in the time frame of the old rapid fire and it would be more damage in a similar time frame pre patch.

Personally I wasnt looking for these sort of changes, more of a 100% stealth on #3 of the longbow… just to avoid the amount of times this key ability fails for me. I realize a lot of it has to do with latency, terrain – which is why I was hoping for some sort of change to how it casts stealth.

That being said, I welcome any sort of buff to the longbow ranger or rangers in general to encourage more players to explore specs.

Cheers

Three Minutes

Feel free to come watch me play zerk longbow/gs ranger in spvp and wvw and give what you feel are pointers to my gameplay.

Respectfully if there is something I can improve on im all ears and willing to give it a shot if its not speccing condi.

twitch.tv/chompstomp

DeceiverX.8361:

Dead Muppet.9718:

Longbow ranger specced full glass will lose 100% of the time to a thief of above average play.

Thieves also have better mobility, better escapes.

There is no real reason to take a glass longbow ranger over a thief.

This is simply false.

It’s almost entirely dependent on the ranger’s skill level. If the ranger is good, he will actually very likely win. RF’s stealth tracking with a proper spec can in all honesty 100-0 most thieves, PBS can cancel out a lot of their essentials (CnD/HS through BP) and force them on cooldowns with utilities/steal. Pets can force them from SR, and a quick-reaction barrage can cause them to maintain low health, forcing them to either waste the skill or waste its healing effects. I find thieves one of my easiest matchups on my full glass longbow ranger.

It’s almost entirely dependent on landing defensive abilities and the thief not resetting the fight.
Point black shot Can miss due to latency, blind which will not cancel out any of their essentials anymore.
Pets forcing a thief from shadow refuge… i doubt the thief will need this vs a glass ranger.

A thief of average or above will get the jump on you, not the other way around. Their offensive cooldowns will reset before all of your defensive cooldowns.

Also lightning reflexes + GS Leap will not escape from said thief either as they will/can close that gap just as easily.

It being your easiest matchup… I doubt it. Stealth is the anti kiting ability. Latency screws #3 #4 on longbow. not to mention trying to move spin and use these abilities.

Steb.2571:

This thread is full of misinformed biases and meta copy-pasta players who aren’t experienced enough to make a reasonable argument against zerker ranger. It’s a high risk, high reward build, just like any zerker build, and it takes a lot of skill, with a massive importance on timing and patience to play properly.

It is viable, it is powerful, it can compete in the current meta.

GS Ranger would be shut down easily by a average or above thief. I wouldnt recommend bringing one over a thief for the role of assisting/roaming between points.

Longbow ranger specced full glass will lose 100% of the time to a thief of above average play.

Thieves also have better mobility, better escapes.

There is no real reason to take a glass longbow ranger over a thief.

In my experiences as a longbow gs ranger (Three Minutes)
Longbow #3 and #5 fail too much. IF they landed 100% of the time it would change a lot of fights at least for myself.

Onto the greatsword. #2 is easily dodged. #5 misses again in my experiences… latency will differ for everyone. The auto attack doesnt pose any sort of threat.

I use the greatsword as a defensive weapon, block and leap away (which will be easily countered by a average and above thief)
The only time i use it offensively is for the 3 crits off sigil of int, otherwise I really dont want to be in range to have damage done to me.

Is it viable? Hit and miss. Sure if left alone you can kill players or assist, who when specced for it cant?

Ive had games go well and bad… that being said it has its issues and ive given all hope on anet and just play what I find fun – for as long as its fun then I log out.

Kilger.5490:

^^^

Is this the reason all the thieves seem to bee-line my ranger? :p

I run full zerk longbow in both spvp and wvw, and yes thieves will bee line for me… if they dont they die… do you blame them?

Three Minutes

awge.3852:

The build looks very interesting, might stacking and survival under your belt. You can pick up the trait for larger traps ground targeted as its more useful in team scenarios. I cannot say much for the celestial or the runes yet, it looks good in theory but in practice I cannot agree with the low toughness on a melee setup, all I can say is that you have to play it smart.

For the traps, since im only using the fire trap, I dont know if Id give up the fury/condi removal for trap placement (which I think anet needs to increase).

Im on the fence with celestial also but I cant seem to find a better rune for this. Im sure if I played around with pve/wvw gear I could find a better optimized stat spread though. Out of the runes available in mists thought this one seemed to give the best power/condi/toughness ratio.

;)

Sigmoid.7082:

Have you considered changing companions might to sharpened edges as your pets will get 17s of might every time you gain might and your stalker will always be sitting at 25 stacks pretty much after a few swaps, attacks and its roar so its bleeds will do nice damage and with sharpened edges you could do a lot of extra damage opposed to more might on your pet that will be there anyways

Testing it out now.

Swapped:
companions might for sharpened edges
steady focus for keen edge

Burst wise it was superior.
Sustained though though id say the previous build. Really up to you which you want to go for.

Have to look more into it since the build I originally designed was mainly built around spotter/companions might/fortifying bond/2 handed training

Cheers

Tested the build and made a few changes… this will give condi removal at the expense of the 25% movement speed.

Ive been showing the build via my stream on twitch. I just havent tested it in pve or pvp yet. Still the build is impressive I think.

Updated build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8fjEq0uaNLusw1ag9gaZAEwMzgOw9TcEt9FfcyE-TJRGwAAuIAJeCAg2fYZZAA

Full zerker power ranger is extremely dependent on teammates. In my experiences thieves in solo q are vengeful little buggers and will b-line it for you after you snipe them once. This will be frustrating because you cant kite a good thief… and they will outlast your defensive cooldowns. Just pointing that out because soloq has NO shortage of thieves.

I think its the above poster has yet to have a necro flip those condis back onto you.

That being said, its just a matter of time before more players realize to focus the pet and remove these rangers condi removal.

Hello frands #1…. at nada and dont care.
Onto the 3Minutes Around the world build

Pet applied Party Buffs
Spotter +150 Precision to allies
+5 Stacks of might for 15 seconds every 25 seconds
+Healing/Regeneration should you want the fernhound as 2nd pet (optional)

What will this build do in combat?
5-25 stacks of might on your jungle cat(5 being the low, 20 was easy to hit and maintain)
5-12 stacks of might on you (Can be more but this seemed average)
2000+power
800+condition damage
Great uptime on Fury on both you and the pet
2 fire shields
2 fire fields
Pretty decent self healing or healing spring with celestial amulet
Last but not the least the only utility that is for me a necessity is the flame trap, so feel free and change up the others.

Now this is my build, does this mean its going to appeal to everyone… no.
I know this Would you like to make changes… have at it

Try this out for yourselves folks…
Great pet damage
Great fire damage
Great greatsword/sword damage
above average healing
above average toughness
above average health

Anyhow cheers
Three Minutes -Ranger
not intended as a tpvp build
made the build in the mists though so adjust accordingly for gear/food

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8fjUq0uaJLGsw1ag9gaZAEwMzgOw7TcEX8xJTA-TJRGwAAuIAJeCAg2fYZZAA

Prysin.8542:

yes, because bringing 2 warriors is the worst idea ever. Even if they team up, they are nowhere near as strong as a single ele, or a well played condi ranger. They will just burn. It is a simple fact, warriors are only good when guardians got their rear end covered. This is why GWEN is even remotely working. Remove guardian, and the warrior is naught.

So for 2x warrior you’d need 2x guard to cover them, and then you got ONE slot of ONE class.

Tell you this dude, 2x thief/mesmer/ranger/engi > 2x warrior any day

Condi ranger yay…. boooooring. Another year of that and lets see how many people are playing the game.

Archon.6480:

Prysin.8542:

infantrydivEU.9670:

Ranger:

Worst class in PvE? Yep
Worst class in WvW? Undoubtedly.
Worst class in PvP? At top tier, yep.

Is the above poster a warrior fanboy? yep, undoubtedly

…my guess is he did not watch 55 HP Monks in the PvP championships.

I did watch 55hp monks, i do think its one of the better builds available to rangers… That being said I would still bring 2 warriors over 2 rangers with that spec.

Does that make me a warrior fanboy or a realist at this point in time of the class I play.

To really answer the OP question.

Yes rangers still suck.
WvW We are the least desired… there are a ton of threads why and proof will be in the recruitment threads alone.

Spvp Rangers still suck and more so now then we did months back. I hate spirit ranger but it was strong at one point. Now its no where near what it was and again the proof will be in the leaderboards both team and solo. Many of the so called top players who played this stupid spec have long since dropped off the leaderboards or likely moved to another character.

Rangers really have no one but themselves to blame for this. People played spirits and so long as Anet sees one viable spec (all be it boring as heck) they will never buff the class elsewhere.

So if you like bouncing around depending on dodges and minimal damage through bleeds and a burn then rangers arent far off from where they were.

Ill say flat out longbow sucks and I use it a fair bit. The defensive abilities for ranger are horrible on it. Its impossible to kite a good thief. There are more gap closers then openers for us.

Anet is too slow with thier updates and have little to no communication with the class. Im sure they will continue to bleed accounts rather than grow a larger pvp community.

necrid.7615:

I’m using a trapbuild and if u got skills it works fine as teamplayer and also for solo………. be creative??? Uploaded the build on youtube if anyone wants to check it out…….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PBrXwYGkqE

An engineer using krait rune / the burning on crit will do the same condi damage with the auto attack+#3 on elixir gun.

Take that how you want it

Three Minutes

Littlefeather.8623:

Dead Muppet.9718:

Speaking on my experience as a zerk longbow ranger… in spvp

Longbow 3 fails way too much. A lot of it due to lag. This needs to be changed to 100% chance to stealth.

This alone has cost me countless deaths where I ‘may’ have come out ontop.

As a defensive ability is is completely unreliable for a spec that really should NOT be backpeddling in order to land the stealth.

Longbow #4 also fails too much for the same reasons & also ‘may’ have changed the fight many times for me.

Pets with zerker spec are near to useless. The ONLY time I feel a pet has helped is when I keep wolf on swap for when a melee closes the gap so I switch for the knockdown followed by fear. Otherwise I have all but given up on pets.

Three Minutes

Which pets do you use? I think using a pet purely for the skill is not maximizing pets. Birds and Cats, you’d be surprised by the DPS.

Birds have less dps than cats due to the cast of swiftness which allows a gap between actual damage abilities. Also with playing longbow zerkittenep maximum range and with pathing and the distance combined pets damage isnt a factor as much as kiting.

Lastly in spvp where players are fighting on a tiny circle spamming aoe the pet dies. I dont understand where maximizing pets comes into play here.

If I were playing a melee build then sure it would…. where I pointed about before I save my wolf for the swap knockdown and fear should I need to melee. Otherwise my 2nd pet is a poor dps addition.

Id settle for 3 on longbow just working

Speaking on my experience as a zerk longbow ranger… in spvp

Longbow 3 fails way too much. A lot of it due to lag. This needs to be changed to 100% chance to stealth.

This alone has cost me countless deaths where I ‘may’ have come out ontop.

As a defensive ability is is completely unreliable for a spec that really should NOT be backpeddling in order to land the stealth.

Longbow #4 also fails too much for the same reasons & also ‘may’ have changed the fight many times for me.

Pets with zerker spec are near to useless. The ONLY time I feel a pet has helped is when I keep wolf on swap for when a melee closes the gap so I switch for the knockdown followed by fear. Otherwise I have all but given up on pets.

Three Minutes

Best of luck to those rangers stacking bleeds to hambow warriors, d/d ele, guardian, necromancers, sword thieves with inf strike, Mesmers who remove 1 condi on stealth.

Sorry Jekkt, I posted the same build as Prysin there. I meant to post this here http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRnUqQrgWxCGsAXLGYPoWHABcEwMD6AnbxRkxSnMTC-TJRGwAAuEAD3fIxTAAaZAA

This build here will hit 8k easy. With an easier setup.
Also It will keep stacks of might up on your pet allowing it to hit extremely hard also.
NOT viable in tvpvp but fun to use in hotjoin

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8XnUqQHL2yC2CCXLGIRo6dCcP3Aw9PsCRNA-TZBFwAFOCAIuAA12foaZAAPEAA

Aye I can see the poison build hitting that. Just I have yet to see anyone take that trait over emp bond.

Ill try that maul build I love playing zerk ranger.

Cheers
Three Minutes

@ prysin

Im not sure where youre getting your numbers in spvp or tpvp.

8k Mauls being ‘easy’ please inform me how this is easy. It sounds more like a lot of if’s.
3k Auto Attacks? With what weapon? Longbow? Greatsword? Again it sounds more like a lot of ifs to me.

350 Poison ticks off a trap… Can you share this build so I can test this out
800 Per tick off Flame Trap… Again can you share this build so I can test this out.

Im not saying youre lying, im saying for the maul/auto attack they are ‘unrealistic’ thus not ‘easy’ without a setup or utilities no power ranger should take to get these.

Three Minutes.

I run full zerk Long bow 6/6/0/2/0 or 6/4/0/4/0 and stream a fair bit on twitch as Three Minutes.

Is it optimal? No. I bought the game to play whats fun for me… and I enjoy my longbow zerk ranger.

At the end of the day isnt that what we all bought the game for?

Josh Davis.6015:

Here’s my 2c:

I’d assume the main time you’d face off against a turret decap engineer is if they push into your home point and you’re stuck defending against it. Your best bet in this situation is to engage the engineer as far away from the node as possible and to deal damage to them as you chase them to the point. Their strength comes from having their turrets down in a confined area, and they’re not going to waste them by dropping them in roads somewhere. Just make sure you don’t get CC’d in roads and then decapped for free.

If you’re solo pushing far and trying to get a node from a decap engineer who is playing backpoint…well, you’re both doing it wrong.

In other words, enjoy playing vs this class for months to come. Its not powerful in solo q… or you would see a sudden boost in their numbers OH WAIT

Yup, done with the map and playing 4 engineers

Nothing personal to other players, but im going to sit in the spawn everytime I have to play that map.

I dont mind playing vs players that are using specs/classes that dont exploit the map… but its come down to that.

I refuse to join them in that so here is my apologies to those who get paired with me.