Guild Wars 2

I agree, the game needs more of a resource drain, not a time drain. The hoards of both T5 and T6 materials, as well as, WvW badges come to mind.

The one thing about time, you can’t replace it, it’s the most precious resource we have, it shouldn’t be wasted, and IMO a time gate is a waste of time.

Terravos.4059:

Perma Fury with longbow is a lot more scarier after the patch i will say that.

Popping people for 4.5k and 5k longbow auto attack shots is pretty funny

I was already doing this before the patch. Though it’s nice to have full up-time on fury, this still doesn’t even remotely put us on par with other classes

In all honesty, for an item purchased with gems, it should be made a minimum to salvage at the same level as a master kit. We have node mining items that are top notch, seems only fitting the salvage kit should be close to the same.

When I look up the Copper Fed Salvage -O- Matic on the official wiki, it does clearly state it’s rare, and it’s in yellow. Now, take what we know from all yellow items in the game, and we look at the following:

Basic Salvage kit (White)
Fine Salvage kit (Blue)
Master Salvage kit (Yellow)
Black Lion Salvage kit (Orange)

Then people see a Copper fed salvage kit with Rare, and in yellow writing, what are people going to assume? Bait and switch tactic?

Perhaps it would be in Anet’s best interest to change it to master quality if they want to keep people engaged on buying gems.

Neeho.3859:

You have to remember that some people just play to unwind after work or school… giving 100% attention to a game is not on their priority lists, nor their wives/husbands/kids.

I fall into this category. Most of the time I will not jump on TS, I don’t need to. I’ll usually join if I am playing small organized guild play, or if I’m learning a new fight like I did with Tequatl, but aside from that, I find it completely unnecessary.

I play a ranger, it’s nearly pointless in zerg battles because I don’t offer the group much help outside of sheer damage, and I don’t usually die to being with.

People have to keep in mind, if you (commander), or the guild, or people in your TS are even somewhat aggressive, foul language, or just being plain idiots, or have a history of any of those, don’t expect anyone to ever join up in TS, unless they are extremely serious WvW’ers, which the vast majority aren’t.

Quickness + Barrage + Rapid fire will yield a faster kill, even with no pet or frost spirit. Did this 2 days ago with rapid fire hitting just shy of 23K.

Didn’t get the exact time but it was around 12-15s. With pet and frost spirit, I dont know how much time that would shave off.

The only things barrage needs is it’s damage returned to normal and the cool down lowered slightly. What is it? 24 seconds with traited? Should be no more than 15.

I’d just be happy if they scrapped the shortbow and merged it in with the longbow. Give the longbow the shortbow’s firing speed. Make #1 apply vulnerability on it. Make 2 a rapid fire spread shot that applies poison. Make #3 both apply stealth and swiftness. #4 knocks back and cripples. #5 remove cripple and apply interrupt on every 3rd tick (total of 4).

Despite how lacking we are compared to other classes, I really don’t think that type of change would be game breaking in any respect; however, a person can dream can’t they lol

If they made the spirit a permanent “pet” that followed you around and took no damage that actually buffed you and your allies.. I don’t think people would have a problem with it.

People begin to have a problem with it when it dies within a few seconds of activating it. This makes them nearly pointless 90% of the time.

This game already favours tanky/healing builds as is. I’d much like it to take more of rock, paper, scissors approach instead of what we have now.

Depending on how you trait your character, whatever your most dominant stat is, you get a buff. Raw damage, tank, healing, condition damage.

Tank builds: Strong against damage, weak to conditions, neutral to healing
Damage builds: Strong against healing, weak to tank, neutral to condition
Healing builds: Strong against condition, weak to damage, and neutral to tank
Condition builds: Strong against tank, weak to healing, neutral to damage.

Make it so, whether your weak or strong to something, means you either gain a 50% damage bonus or 50% damage reduction.

Anything that promotes more damage and less tanky, healing, cleansing builds is good for the game. Right now, the game heavily favours stacking, armor, healing, and condition cleansing. IMO, it just leads to long boring drawn out battles where it’s absolutely essential to travel in large zergs.

This is what Anet should do: Cut the effectiveness of toughness in half, cut healing in half and double all cool-downs, double all cool-downs on condition cleanses and make AoE condition cleanse elite skills with a horrible cool down.

Now that should make fights just a tad more interesting.

All good ideas.. they don’t fix the problems we have, but it would certainly put WvW in much better shape than it is now.

I’ve said this before and a few others have as well, just remove the “servers” from the game and institute factions instead. There are 3 factions in the game, 3 borderlands, so it works. Some servers just don’t have the population to compete. That will not change, because it’s more likely players will leave that server than others to join.

Let people log on and see what faction they are fighting for and how many are on each map. You’d solve most problems overnight.

I don’t think (or hope) that ascended armour should cost any laurels. If they follow along the same path as weapons, they are already a big enough gold sink as is. I don’t mind using laurels for the infusions, but if each piece could potentially cost 75g to make, then using laurels is a moot point.

I’d second this as well. It’s probably the thing I hate most about the game. It should be changed to running slower while your weapon is drawn, not because someone shot you or a bear took a swipe at you on the way by.

There are 2 things that can happen here..

A) The players can stick to their own time zones. You live in North America, you play in North America. You live in Europe, play in Europe. You play in another country, you play on the server closest to you time zone. If the players don’t do it, Anet can simply move players back to their respective time zones.

B) Turn off the PPT at night. Despite what you may think that your time is not as valuable if you don’t have PPT; the single most important thing you can do during SEA times is prevent your stuff from being taken over. Im sure the players who come to replace you in the morning, as well as, the rest of the server will thank you. If you wan’t your time to be more valuable during PPT times, play on a time zone where PPT is active.

It’s like some people need some hand holding.. oh no.. the PPT is not active.. im not as valuable. Simple solution, move to another server, done. If your schedule keeps you awake during the night, move to overseas server, done.

Not sure why people say Rangers don’t have any burst damage.. Sure our pets could use some buffing as their damage both stink and they die to quick. Roaming i’v heard they do quite well.

Aside from that, my ranger does more burst damage than my warrior. The rapid fire consistently does between 15k-20K damage with no might but 25 stacks of bloodlust. This is also using only the stacks of vulnerability rapid fire applies.

Barrage usually causes somewhere between 12K-16K to the front line and will continually apply cripple which can make it difficult to remove harmful conditions, if removal is targeting cripple.

Their escape capability is decent now with stealth capability. Their conditional removal could use some work, well a lot of work actually. It would also be nice if the pet learned to hit stuff and stayed alive for a change.

If you don’t gear them properly, they won’t be doing very good burst damage. I have to laugh at some people that post their builds then complain about damage. Mixing knights, valkyrie, berserker, maybe some carrion. Come on now.. really.

Spec for damage and learn to stay alive, you’d be surprised just how strong they are compared to other classes.

I would have been happy with an ascended weapon, and I really don’t think it would have been any skin of Anet’s back to give one, but at the same time, where exactly do they draw the line? If they dole out superior rewards depending on placement, all that’s going to do is encourage server stacking. You can guarantee a few major guilds will get together and say “OK guys and gals, were going to this server to clean up”

I’m curious to hear from servers who had absolutely no chance of winning, did any of you even complete the meta achievement to even get the key?

Would it have been fair to just have given everyone an ascended weapon who got the key? If so, what about the servers who were constantly outnumbered who had no chance of completing it? Now what? If they decided to give everyone an ascended weapon who entered WvW, well you can only imagine the que’s from all the PvE’ers entering in and probably screwing around.

I would not have complained if I got an ascended weapon, nor would I have cared if everyone got one, but I do understand why they did what they did. Looking beyond our own greed for a second even despite all the work we put into it, you know full well what would happen if Anet gave superior rewards for the winner. You thought server stacking was bad before..

Predator.7321:

DeadlySynz.3471:

They can’t give top rewards, all it would do is encourage server stacking. I havn’t checked, are we able to open this chest yet?

I would fully expect either all the rewards to be basically the same for people or perhaps a very slight increase to those who finished in higher spots.

Imagine this, suppose Anet decided to give an ascended to the winner, how exactly does it make the rest of the servers/players feel who have absolutely no chance in winning?

give weapon for everyone special skin for winners

Something like this, I think could work.. the variance is very little.

People have to realize that if the rewards for placing higher are either moderate or substantially better, it encourages server stacking. I don’t want to put words in people’s mouths, but I would venture to think this is probably the worst thing that could ever happen to WvW.

Again, I havn’t seen what’s in the chest because it seems I havn’t gotten one yet. I personally thing the reward system is not the way to lure or encourage people to play WvW; I think offering a completely unique “grinding” experience for achievements/rewards is the way to go. I say grind because I can’t think of a better word.

If there is a Season 2, this is what I’d much rather see:

- All maps now come with their own set of achievements (each season)
- Once the meta achievement is met on a map, a chest with GREAT stuff is rewarded for completing that map (strive for all 4 chests)
- New legendaries are introduced to WvW that can only be completed with materials found in WvW.
- New nodes added for materials needed for legendary weapon
- Maybe new skins awarded for certain objectives completed in WvW

Things like this, I would think would encourage more people to join WvW, not giving people better or worse rewards depending on how they place.

They can’t give top rewards, all it would do is encourage server stacking. I havn’t checked, are we able to open this chest yet?

I would fully expect either all the rewards to be basically the same for people or perhaps a very slight increase to those who finished in higher spots.

Imagine this, suppose Anet decided to give an ascended to the winner, how exactly does it make the rest of the servers/players feel who have absolutely no chance in winning?

Im not so sure Rangers should be able to move faster than others, but their pets sure naturally should.

They shouldn’t need sic’em. There is no reason why someone with or without a swiftness buff should be able to outrun a wolf or feline.. or bird for that matter. It’s just plain stupid.

How about take PPT away completely and just award points on taking objectives (camps, towers, keeps, and SM). Also award points for both downing players and killing them.

Edit – Im also proposing to gain points for successfully defending the objective as well.

This way, those that were ticking at +600 overnight well.. that’s good your sitting on your towers, the way you prevent your opponents from getting points is by defending them, what a concept. Which likely they’ll be successful because they have no one to fight. But the notion now of owning everything over night while your points rack up is long gone.

Could be a decent way to force smaller groups on the map. If you don’t want opponents to overtake your score, defend your stuff, simple as that. You don’t want your opponents overtaking your score? Stop getting downed and relying on people to revive you, because getting downed now awards them points.

I already know this will come up “2 servers may just karma train/flip stuff back and forth racking up the points to keep the 3rd server down” Well that would work completely against them because that would in fact leave their stuff completely wide open for the taking.

Nikkinella.8254:

Khayoss.2019:

Ascended weapons from crafting were incredibly easy to get. You really don’t need to venture out from the world of WvW to get the stuff… And crafting to 500 doesn’t take that long. I’ve got enough dragonite in the bank to make 5 pieces of armor – I think. – when it finally launches, and I got it all from WvW, and that’s the hardest part to get. I think by disagreeing with Ascended armor we are essentially drawing a line in the sand against crafting. Ascended trinkets already drop in WvW from lords and chests, its just slower than crafting.

Exactly. The people against it are just even lazier than I am. It takes no effort at all to get it in wvw. And it’s not like you have to zerg at all to get it. I go out of my way to avoid my zerg most of the time and run around alone. But, I pay attention to map chat. When a commander says that they’re taking a keep or something, I rush over to get in on that. Why would I pass up effortless free stuff? It’s really just laziness on their part.

Pretty much this. Many people say WvW isn’t good for loot or not lucrative.. when in fact it’s quite the opposite.

I remember grinding my ascended weapon in PvE (how foolish) by doing every world boss event I could, then I ran into a wall, I was severely lacking those empyreal fragments or whatever they’re called. I went back into WvW (I used to play everyday), and bam, got enough fragments in 2-3 days.

Fast forward.. 3 weeks later, I have my ascended weapon and I’m sitting on hoards of both dragonite ore and those fragments. Problem is though, you have to be on a server that has the ability to continually take objectives. In a heavy mismatch where the server is continually outnumbered, I can see where this may be a huge problem.

UrMom.4205:

Not gunna lie…i have no clue as to how you fix game modes like this. Problem with set servers in these instances is they lose populations and then you get imbalances. Ok fix it by having factions or dynamic maps, where it places players based on where players are needed, ok well then that is a nightmare for friends to play together. The same thing has happened in Planetside 2 (a game I played tons of when it first launched), the servers are stacked per faction and you get ridiculous imbalances. I just don’t see how the game mode could ever be fixed.

You could be right, but in my thinking, or should say “hoping” is that there are a lot of players who play WvW. There is also a lot of players who probably want to play WvW but don’t because they are completely outnumbered.

The idea was, the player doesn’t get dynamically placed where they are needed, they go where they want to go. So it would be no problem playing with their friends, even when their friends reside on other servers. You either choose to play in an outnumbered match, or you don’t. Organized guild fights could happen easier because they just choose map where the population is low. You want to duel your buddy 1v1 or 2v2, well agree on a map and location and go there.

I don’t see how faction stacking would be a problem considering there would be no reward for winning. In other words, no league play. Well maybe if Anet wanted to build a living story around how it plays out each month, that would be interesting. If there are achievements latched onto each faction, players should have a reason to play all 3.

Ultimately, I think those players who get discouraged from WvW due to the lopsided matches, are more likely to play if they log on and see map with relatively even numbers. Same goes for players on stacked servers, they can either choose to play on an even playing field, or outnumbered. Guilds could possibly get their entire roster on the map if they wanted to for a free for all.

I’m sure there are still holes that can be poked in this, but I still think it’s better than what we have now. Another poster stated this may have been a better idea from the get go, but to change it now might be a little too much. Granted, Anet doesn’t have to alter the maps, just how people log in.

Another problem is the meta achievement. I don’t see how a server that doesn’t stand much of a chance in any of the matches, how they could get the achievement.

I swear I’ve read some posts on here saying people switched to winning servers just so they could finish it.

None I know of so far.

I do hope they have plans to introduce wintersday style mining pics, logging axes, and harvest sickles. Been holding off buying what’s been introduced so far in hopes they bring some for wintersday.

Since there was considerable displeasure with it when it was first introduced as a “basic” salvage kit, perhaps it’s intended.

I mean, if were spending gems on something like this, it should be at minimum equal to a master salvage kit. We have unlimited use top quality node mining items, so it seems only fitting the salvage kit should at least be a master kit.

I can accept that it shouldn’t be exotic level due to them possibly making money of the black lion salvage kit, but on that note, I’d actually like to see something implemented in game to upgrade the salvage-o-matic to black lion salvage-o-matic.

After watching this, I’m kinda curious what a 156 omega golem zerg vs zerg vs zerg battle would look like lol. Each server makes the cap of 52 omegas and meets out on the battle field lol

morrolan.9608:

Asudementio.8526:

tell SoR to step up then because all i am seeing from them is excuses and no fight. Blobbing isn’t enough SoR.

The post above this one is a perfect example. GG

This rather funny considering all I have seen from TC is huge blobs without much organisation that continually got wiped by zergs with half their numbers.

Plus TC is known by those servers below them for doing nothing but blobbing.

I was on TC shortly ago and was there for months. Those “blobs” never really exceeded 30 players. Mostly they were lucky to get 20-25 in a group. One thing TC did very well was wipe zergs larger than theirs consistently. Believe me, I was part of many battles that ended with large numbers of SoR, JQ, and BG laying all over the floor despite having a zerg literally twice the size of TC.

It also depends on what one considers a blob. I suppose a server that has trouble getting people out and runs with numbers of 5-10 people would consider a group of 20-25 a blob. I do not, I consider an SoR/JQ group of 50-60 a blob.

If we are to talk about who really deserves 3rd place, if were considering overall coordination and fighting ability, TC wins, it’s no contest. I would argue they were even better than JQ and BG if their numbers were even.

I say “were” because I took a bit of a hiatus from the game for 2-3 months. When I came back, I believe 2-3 large guilds had left TC, plus most of the commanders that I was familiar with (and what i’d consider the best commanders i’ve seen), were not around. The fact that TC pulled off what they did despite those losses, is impressive.

Straegen.2938:

WvWvW can be fixed by going to GvGvG. No need to invent another system. They should align guilds based on alliances against warring guilds each week. Easier to balance, creates fresh matches and players do have something to fight for… their chosen guild.

I really like this idea too, this is something I think would work and would be better than what we have in place now.

I bring this up again because more people are starting to talk about it. Turn WvW faction based, and don’t restrict people into playing 1 faction. There are already 3 factions in the game which works perfectly for the borderlands.

It simply works like this, on the screen where your character is selected, you have 2 options: PvE or FvF. If you log into FvF you can see exactly how many players there are per faction, per map.

It could look like this:

Eternal Battlegrounds 1 Vigil 87/100
Durmand Priory 73/100
Whispers 85/100

Eternal Battlegrounds 2 Vigil 55/100
Durmand Priory 60/100
Whispers 48/100

Vigil Borderlands 1 Vigil 95/100
Durmand Priory 100/100
Whispers 93/100

And so on..

The point is, when you log on, you can see exactly where the map stands. You no longer walk into a severely outnumbered situation unless you choose to. Anet can give each faction it’s own set of achievements which players can work towards.

Each faction can have it’s own set of siege, base designs, traps, and food. They could also have their own weapon and armor skins which Anet could place in the gem store where I’m sure people would gladly pay for them, I know I would. To even further our options, they could easily attach themed versions to these skins for events such as xmas and halloween. Give them their own minis.. ya I think Anet could probably make a killing off it.

Each faction could have it’s own set of legendaries to work towards which would strictly only be done through FvF play. I think players would appreciate this type of addition so they don’t have to grind through PvE to get a legendary. If things go well, maybe open up legendary armor as well to work towards.

While I’m on this track, why not give each faction it’s own set of crafting. By this I mean general crafting: Vigil Architecture or Vigil general. Where players can craft things for their guild and home instance. I’ve seen some people pipe up on how cool it’d be to have guild halls and what not. I think it’s a great idea, why not be able to craft it? Give each faction it’s own set of things to make. It doesn’t have to be restricted to architecture, this is just a thought. Anet could attach gem bought options to this as well.

This can be expanded in so many different ways. This is why I personally like it:

- No more que’s
- No more uneven matches unless you choose it
- Set up Guild vs Guild easily (just go to a low populated map)
- Far more achievements to work towards
- Legendaries you can work towards strictly through FvF
- A whole new set of armor and weapon skins
- Many more things to work towards

Then the bottom line for Anet, I’m sure they will find, they’ll make a lot more money off something like this.

What do people think?

Peetee.9406:

Here’s the thing:

Right now when one server has a massive advantage over the other two, the two smaller just give up. Once EotM hits, they will just move to the Edge.

You’re going to have situation where Huge Server is ticking at +695 while the two smaller servers are happily playing in the Edge with even numbers since the cap of players on EotM is smaller than a normal map.

This update is going to crush overpopulated, stacked server because their playerbase will have literally nothing to do besides sit on the 4 regular maps with no opponents in sight.

Good point, I can actually see this happening. In fact, I’m willing to bet this is exactly what’s going to happen.

Jamoke.1523:

Don’t play a ranger in Wvw.
1. You’re the first target in our group.
2. You have little to none escape skills.
3. You can either play a bunker build and kill NO ONE, or Play a zerker build and die in 1 shot.
4. Everyone else knows rangers suck and will come after you immediately/
5. Your pet ain’t gonna do anything except run around in circles and disobey commanders.
6. Anyone who says otherwise obvisouly don’t play wvw too often on a ranger.

I’d reiterate on this, I do happen to play a full zerker ranger in WvW, who is successful in both small and large scale fights. Granted, it’s very dicey taking them into small scale fights, so the positional awareness is key, as well as, knowing exactly when to use what little escape options you have.

I’ve played against nearly all servers and currently reside in Gold League. I rarely die to any thief (or mesmer) in any small scale or zerg fight.

You are right though pets are practically useless and we do die fairly quick, so the zerker build isn’t for those who don’t have good perception of what’s going on.

Anet can’t do much, especially put a kick option. If that ever came about, you can guarantee there would be guilds collaborating to boot people out of the map to make way for their own.

The other issue is playing how you want to play; perhaps those people find killing golems fun. It’s hard for Anet to tell them otherwise.

The only thing I can possibly think of that would stop it is for those who build the golem (or any siege) take full ownership of it. Meaning nobody can use it but them unless the specifically designate another player to use it (perhaps a right click option on the player)?

This makes me really happy that I bought gems on Nov 30th… Oh well, I don’t really care for the backpack or the mini.. but the principle of the matter lol..

As another person said, guest to Blackgate. There are a couple of commanders there who take the reins for both the 5:02pm & 7:02pm encounters. They’ve never failed since I started doing it. The overflows for 5:02 has done it as well twice when I was stuck there.

This is pacific time for me. Make sure to get there about 1.5hrs early if you want to get in the main map for 5:02. If you end up in the overflow and don’t complete it, you’ll get into the main map for 7:02.

Jayne.9251:

As much as that would be pretty, the added particle effects I think would impact lag/latency in WvW.

That would be something I would not be willing to trade for lol. If however Anet could make it work so there is no impact, I’d love to see it implemented.

I’d like to be able to buy particle effects for my weapons and armor. Actually, I’d prefer to be able to craft them instead as per a new crafting profession, but would be more than happy to buy gems and covert to gold to streamline the process.

I like a lot of weapons and armor in the game, and I dislike quite a bit of it too, either way, I think a lot of these items could be spiced up by adding particle effects. Would be even cooler if some were themed around events xmas.

This of course could be both a PvE and WvW thing; I’m just not sure if ever player ran around doused in particle effects if it would create some unbelievable lag.

The only solution I can see with balancing out the population is to eliminate WvW as we know it. Turn it faction based (there are already 3 factions in the game), and have people join a specific faction on whatever map they desire.

Players should be able to see exactly how many players per faction, per map are playing at a time. Old school example here; Battlefield 1942 and Counterstrike, you log on, and you can clearly see how many players are on each side (and map) at once, and you join accordingly.

I don’t see why this cant work for Gw2. You either knowingly walk into an outnumbered situation or you join an even fight. To even further the incentive, give each faction it’s own set of achievements and siege weapons to use so players have further incentive to try all factions.

This would eliminate the uneven fights, this would also eliminate que times (create overflow maps): For Example: Red Borderlands is full (100v100v100) so Red Borderlands 1 is created.

Edit – Adding in something else… new titles (faction) champions, for completing whatever crazy achievements needed for that particular faction. Make faction specific weapons and armor (much like the cultural sets). Give these sets a few buffs if your wearing it and the faction is the victor for that particular week.

This can be done so many different ways.

Fomby.4295:

Umm, my guild runs through Zergs to get the backline all the time, and we rarely die like you say. Also, any ranger trying to barrage us will get half of their health taken away due to retaliation.

But maybe it works against pug zergs. So ya got that going for you.

Reverting back to before leagues were introduced, I played in the bottom 2 tiers, and the upper 2 tiers. None of those servers have ever been able to effectively bust through and take out the back line. I sit in gold league now and have played Maguuma many times as both part of gold league and previous to leagues. I play quite a bit during prime time NA, and I’ve never seen any Maguuma zerg bust through the zerg to the back.. If so, you would have got me I havn’t died in nearly a month in WvW, and when I did, it wasn’t to Mag. Mag does have one thing going for them, they are by far some of the better open field fighters out there.

Retaliation used to be a problem.. but for whatever reason, it doesn’t affect me anymore. I can’t remember the last time i’ve taken any noticeable damage, and I’m about as glass cannon as you can get.

I’ve seen people argue that thieves simply stealth to the back and take out rangers and other long range targets.. but I can tell you after facing BG (where I currently reside), JQ, SoR, TC, FA, DB, Mag, SoS, SF, GoM, KN, FC, HoD, CD, EB… none of them have been able to successfully pull it off without getting wiped out first while i’ve been in the zerg. Believe me, they try, but always fail. The same goes through penetrating the front line to get the back targets, it’s never happened in any zerg i’ve been in.

Even despite what i’m saying, I still think Rangers are probably the most useless class when it comes to WvW based on what they bring to the zerg or groups in the ways of support. If they come from a pure dps standpoint, it only really takes 2 fully glassed rangers in the back lines to help flatten the front line of the enemy zerg.

I say help because, if the front line is forced to eat even half of barrage’s ticks (which almost always happens), they’re done for in seconds.

Holland.9351:

1500 range piercing Longbow Ranger is one of the few class that can go full berserker in a zerg battle and survive. However, it needs those Guardians and Warrior and other classes to keep the enemy zerg away from them. It also requires clever positioning and to not be over-confident.

It’s a bit like long range assassination. Pick a weak target and put it into downed state.

I think a small organised group of 3-5 Rangers that always focus on the same target would be very useful. They would down and kill any enemy they focused on together. It often takes downed/kills to tip the scales in a zerg vs zerg battle. It’s also bad for morale to see people in your zerg get downed. Killing the commander could be a complete disaster to the enemy zerg as well.

This ^^

People say rangers are good at many things but a master at none.. I feel they are really only good at one thing when it comes to this type of play, and what this person mentioned is indeed it.

I’ve watched zerg vs zerg clashes that are so close they can go either way. You stick a berserker ranger (or 2) in the back dropping barrage, the battle isn’t even close, it’s over 10-20 seconds.

For example, I just came out of a battle where I think I tagged about 20-25 people or so with barrage ticking at 1600-2200. Combined with the zerg’s regular play, that battle lasted about 15 seconds before the enemy zerg was dead.

People say Rangers or people that hang out in the back are easy targets because they simply run through the zerg to get to you.. fair enough. I’ve played in nearly all tiers (and including gold league right now), the enemy zerg never does it. They sometimes try, but will always die if they do. So unless they can figure out a way to stop a ranger dropping that much dps on them, well they are completely underrated

Soilder.3607:

DeadlySynz.3471:

Also missed the LB’s barrage nerf by 50% or so. If I’m not mistaken, that happened the same time the shortbow was nerfed.

As for buffs.. there have been next to none. The only one I can possibly think of is the slight increase in the LB’s firing speed. Which of course doesn’t matter when people still side step your arrows.

I guess Anet just felt the Ranger and their pets were just to OP compared to things like the thief’s stealth.

I had to look at all the patch notes to get these nerfs but I can tell you, we’ve had a fair amount of buffs.

The LB change, however, is not in any of the patch notes and I hear talk of it as being a silent nerf. I’m not going to list silent nerfs because I can’t be sure that they’re true.

cafard.8953:

I think you missed the massive pet leash range nerf.

I did but in the patch notes it’s listed as “Pet leash range increased to 2000 units” when it should be decrease. But I’m gonna get right on adding it in.

I can assure you the barrage damage nerf happened around the same time the shortbow got the boot. My barrages went from ticking 1900-2600 down to 800-1400. Many others have reported it as well. This was a silent nerf because it was never listed in the patch notes anywhere.

runeblade.7514:

DeadlySynz.3471:

The pets for one, should have their own traits in which you can tinker with. Make them tanks, dps, or a hybrid.

Secondly, they should be hitting a kitten a lot harder than they do. I mean, how can a bear swipe do 400-700 damage? To me it should be doing 4k-7k per hit. They’re bears, they hit hard.

The Canine and feline pets should naturally be really fast. They should be able to chase down anyone easily, even if their opponents have swiftness. Easily they should be running double the speed of any character. Birds shouldn’t take fall damage. Canines should be able to sniff out stealth.

It’s just things like this that make the pets seem like they aren’t pets. They are just punching bags for the enemy or AoE fodder.

The problem with that is balancing.

Giving the pets even everything I listed above still puts Rangers behind the ball compared to other classes because our damage still suffers due to their presence. That and they still die too quickly.

That’s how bad it is.

The pets for one, should have their own traits in which you can tinker with. Make them tanks, dps, or a hybrid.

Secondly, they should be hitting a kitten a lot harder than they do. I mean, how can a bear swipe do 400-700 damage? To me it should be doing 4k-7k per hit. They’re bears, they hit hard.

The Canine and feline pets should naturally be really fast. They should be able to chase down anyone easily, even if their opponents have swiftness. Easily they should be running double the speed of any character. Birds shouldn’t take fall damage. Canines should be able to sniff out stealth.

It’s just things like this that make the pets seem like they aren’t pets. They are just punching bags for the enemy or AoE fodder.

Also missed the LB’s barrage nerf by 50% or so. If I’m not mistaken, that happened the same time the shortbow was nerfed.

As for buffs.. there have been next to none. The only one I can possibly think of is the slight increase in the LB’s firing speed. Which of course doesn’t matter when people still side step your arrows.

I guess Anet just felt the Ranger and their pets were just to OP compared to things like the thief’s stealth.

I think a better solution is to just not allow people to enter door portals into bases while their in combat.

This basically forces people to either sit in the structure or be near it if they actually want to defend it.

Chris.3290:

I really do not understand the opposition to this idea from the Dev Team. It pigeonholes people into one character, which doesn’t even help their bottom line.
I know some people who are alt-crazy, and they have bought unlimited use resource tools for 8+ characters.
Not to mention that some special skins look better on some classes than others…. they are really pressing for something that doesn’t have to be.

Of course I think they are missing the chance to for a WXP reset use item that they can charge buckoo gems for too. Not that I’m a fan of monetizing the game, but I think they should look into that since it’s a non-necessary item (I personally find Fine Transmutation stones to be more necessary IMHO).

Yep! I consider myself to play quite a bit, but I have in no way, shape, or form enough time to level up a second character in WvW.

This is something that should have been in WvW since the get go, absolutely no resurrecting while your in combat. The only players this will hurt are those that have trouble keeping themselves alive.

While agree this is absolutely a must for defeated state, I think this also needs to be done for downed state as well. It could implement an entirely different strategy by having a few people staying out of combat specifically to rez downed players.

There is no way any of the rewards should be something you cant/wont use in WvW. Blue/greens should not even cross their minds as giving us rewards. At least we can sell/salvage rares/exotics for something useful.

The rewards at minimum should at least be 1G, some badges, siege blueprints, maybe traps, wxp bottles, maybe some wxp boosters. If they want to entice people to actually join WvW for league, then they will have to buff the rewards severely.

Some people are in it for the fights, but I can guarantee, the vast majority of people are not.

- Remove it as a trait
- Remove the shape shifting elite skills
- Replace it with a new signet: Signet of The Beastmaster

When this signet is chosen; both you and your pet gain a few buffs relative to the pet family you have activated. I only really use the feline, bear, canine, and bird so I’ll use those as examples.

Obviously some skills/traits would have to be adjusted to accommodate this new signet. It is no secret however that some of the ranger’s traits need an overhaul as is, so this could work.

With Signet of the Beastmaster in your skill bar:

Feline:
- Both you and your pet have 15% increased attack speed
- Both you and your pet have 15% increased chance to evade attacks
- Upon each dodge/roll you and your pet have a 15% chance to gain stealth for 5s

With signet activated: You take the form of a feline for 30 seconds. You and your pet gain permanent stealth until you attack. You gain 30% increase in attack speed and evasion. The general attacks are that of the feline family.

Canine:
- Gain stealth detection (pulses every few seconds)
- Both you and your pet have 15% increased damage
- Upon each dodge/roll you and your pet have a 15% chance to gain swiftness

With signet activated: You take the form of a canine for 30 seconds. You gain permanent stealth detection, as well as, 30% increase in damage, and 40% increased movement speed.

Bear:
- Both you and your pet have 15% decrease in damage
- Both you and your pet have 15% chance to cause fear upon being struck (melee)
- Upon each dodge/roll you and your pet have a 15% to clear all conditions

With signet activated: You take the form of a bear for 30 seconds. You gain 30% reduction in damage. You gain an AoE condition cleanse that removes 2 conditions every 3 seconds (affects up to 5 people). 30% chance of casting fear each time your struck (melee).

Bird:
- Falling damage reduced 50%
- Both you and your pet have a 15% chance to cause bleeding on each attack
- Upon each dodge/roll you have a 15% chance to cause an AoE blind

With signet activated: You take the form of a bird for 30 seconds. You now take no falling damage. Both you and your pet have a 30% chance to cause bleed on each attack and 15% chance to cause blind on each attack.

Once the signet is on cool down, you and your pet lose the buffs.

These are just suggestions open for tweaking. If pets are to be an integral part of the Ranger, then they should be made as such, not a liability.

The problem with the pets is this:

1) They are dead 90% of the time even if you fully trait into BM. If they aren’t dead, then they aren’t pulling their weight in dps, because they are attached at your hip, or being pulled in and out of combat.

2) If your running BM in WvW, you are completely handicapping yourself from being effective. Sure it works for solo roaming (if that’s your goal), but you will inevitably get run over by the bigger group, all the time. Try using a BM build vs any other build in small group or zerg play and see just how inferior it is.

3) Nobody lands 100% of their hits; but the ranger suffers from this 2 fold. It’s not just them missing some attacks, now their pet is also subjected to the same behavior. Even if the ranger was given perfect hit accuracy (tracking arrows), they’d still be behind the ball because the pet will always miss a % of their attacks. For most people, it seems the pet misses most of their attacks already. If the damage is to be equalized out across all classes over a period of time, the pet has to have a 100% hit rate.

4) If you trait to keep your pet alive and do more damage, you are drastically taking potential damage away from yourself

I’ve tested builds every which way, I find the build that supplies the most dps over a period of time, is one where the pet is stays on passive, while you benefit from the +5% damage given for whatever those runes are that gives that bonus. Sad but true.

I don’t have a problem playing the ranger. I play them very effectively in WvW while dishing out a ton of damage. I learned long ago, the best solution is to just stick the pet on passive unless you end up in a 1v1.

I’m not going to put words in Anet’s mouth, but I highly doubt that was their intention with pets.

Same thing with entangle, it doesn’t seem to work half the time. It would be useful if it actually did what it said, but alas, much like Sic em.. it doesn’t work half the time.

Aberrant.6749:

Just fix the res/rally mechanics. They give too much survival to larger groups and make it nearly impossible for a smaller more skilled/coordinated team to chip away and eventually defeat a much larger group.

^^ This would solve a good chunk of the problems. Removing them both all together however would practically solve it. We’d see a much different look in the standings if this were the case.