Guild Wars 2

No.

We have so many weapon skills that allow our pet to perform unique abilities (Winter’s Bite on Axe, Sword Mainhand Might stacks). We have traits that provide unique properties for the pets (Malicious Training, Vigorous Training, Mighty Swap).

Unless Anet is willing to redesign the Ranger class entirely and allow Rangers to have a non-pet spec, I’m all for it. As of right now, trait and weapon-wise, we are too dependent on our pet to be with us all the time.

If the pet mechanic isn’t working, the solution isn’t to delete or stow it.

A two and 2/3rd second activation time self-rooting skill with a long 30s cooldown, alongside going on full cooldown and stopping early upon interrupt…

Really?

Oh, and Barrage is the ONLY Ranger skill that has a 5-man cap. Storm Spirit is 3. Muddy Terrain is 3. All the traps and Bonfire are 3.

Longbow was always one of the weaker of the Ranger weapons, necessitating the greatest distance to maintain the highest DPS; this is counter-productive, considering you’re distanced from your groups buffs and projectiles barely hit half the time.

Rangers are seen as free bags and are the pinnacle of poor game design.

Benjifu.8451:

Anet need to think about reducing AoE area damage or increase the width of walls to make defending something at least an option?!

Maybe you should be smarter with your siege deployment, instead of spouting ridiculous nonsense rooted from your lack of experience in the game.

Really? Bears are OP now? Apart from the 0 fight contribution, low DPS and horrible sporadic skill use, am I missing something?

What an outstanding level of idiocy in these forums. So awkward being surrounded by horrible players.

Forget the fact that pets don’t dodge and are Necro Epidemic magnets, they are usually dead during massive WvW fights preventing the Ranger from even using it’s core profession mechanic for a whole minute. Name one profession that has it’s entire profession mechanic and associative weapon / utility skills locked for that long, and I’ll take it all back.

I don’t really see the problem.

Centaurs are a great enemy to farm due to Supply Bags dropping vast quantities of Cotton.

If you’re having trouble with Centaurs, God help you when you attempt Skill Points guarded by Champions in Cursed Shore.

You have more than enough time.

Rescue 1200 citizens repeatedly. Heirlooms are pretty generously dropped via Citizen bags.

Doesn’t change the fact that they didn’t listen to the community and revert the Watchwork Mining Pick to the same level as the previous Infinite-Use Tools.

Not like I care to be honest, complaining about virtual assets like these is such a first world problem.

Specific Game Mode:

PvE

Proposal Overview:

Remove the Death Penalty from Pet Death.

Goal of Proposal:

I can understand the reasoning behind placing a minute death penalty for the pet, but I just simply cannot comply with it’s mechanics considering how lackluster the pet AI reacts to our F1-F3 commands. Not only are pets easily exploited via movement impairing conditions, but they lack any sense of urgency to rally back to it’s master’s cause with the F3 command – sometimes, they walk at a snails pace toward the Ranger when called back, which is completely counter-productive when concerning the longevity of the pet. The following change will address the largest concern regarding the Ranger profession: the overly heavy opportunity cost of having a pet.

Proposal Functionality:

Removing the Death Penalty from the pet would solve most, if not all, of the issues regarding pet sustain. Rangers can already suffer the cost of having their entire profession mechanic locked out, unique to all other professions in this game currently. This, alone, is a great, great cost. By allowing a stagnant 20 second cooldown on pet swaps, you will easily see pets applying themselves effectively in PvE and WvW play, the two gamemodes they suffer the most given the large-scale, hard hitting play.

Associated Risks:

Of course, the obvious concern would be that pets would be too strong when specialized into 30 points in the Beastmaster traitline. Having Natural healing, a large pet attribute bonus, and Loud Whistle’s cooldown reduction would provide the pet with too much sustain.

However, is this really a concern?

If a player specced entirely into their pet, isn’t that an opportunity cost enough? Consider, those 30 points could’ve been invested into Marksmanship or Skirmishing. Our damage is severely lacking as is, considering our weapon damage coefficients are lower than any other profession in the game. Taking those points in BM gimps the Ranger’s DPS applicability, so having a tanky, “perma-pet” isn’t quite “OP” as I would imagine.

The bottom line? The pet is a central figure for the Ranger. Remove the 1 minute death penalty and tone down Loud Whistle’s cooldown reduction, and you’ll immediately discover players enjoying the Ranger profession and, finally, granting them access to their well deserved profession mechanic.

And what happens if your enemy has half a brain and understand that he can pick up your Porcine’s Forage items?

How would one deal with blind-spam, which honestly are the ultimate bane of single hard hitting attacks like Maul, on a profession with little to no active condi-cleansing?

It’s cute to think it’s a L2P issue, but it’s just not. Power rangers aren’t viable for a plethora of reasons. No easy cheese safety nets without speccing 30 points into certain traitlines, lack of trait synergy (Two Handed Training in NM, really).

And to also consider that Hunter’s Shot has it’s own set of problems. It’s not some initiative-based stealth combo like thieves have. If your enemy is smart, they would count down the last time you stealthed and make sure to dodge or left-to-right side strafe to avoid the next stealth on hit, or better yet just outplay the Ranger by accurately predicting a Maul from stealth.

Moment of Clarity is nice, but it’s just not a good trait for the Ranger class. If we had something similar to our GW1 counterparts with some sort of short cooldown ranged interrupt like Savage Shot or Distraction Shot, sure. I’ll go for it. But in GW2, our CC is so heavy on the cooldowns and the Porcine pets are such a poor choice for overall utility and damage, it’s just a for-fun build when you’re bored out of your wits playing against bads in hotjoin.

Oh so people can finally blind stomp effectively with Dual-Ravens. Can’t wait to run BM again.

I’m hoping they also fix the bug with long channel F2s cancelling midway, going on full cooldown without even using the skill. So many Jungle Staker might stacks, Wolf fears and Drakehound immobs failed for the stupidest reasons.

RyuDragnier.9476:

All they need now is to increase the range of pet melee from 130 to 250 via adding small lunges to the attacks, and melee pets will actually be useful 90% of the time. And as I said long ago…if this requires increasing the melee range of every mob that is of that pet’s type to pull this off, SO BE IT. Besides, it’s time that PvE players get their battles a little more difficult.

Bird pets (Ravens, Owls, Eagles etc.) have 300 range on their auto-attacks.

Yep, logged in to also join the bandwagon.

This is really irritating. Gotta resize the inventory every time I open it…

Charr for Might stacks. Human for Condi-Removal. Sylvari for Immob.

Rapid Fire isn’t an instant shot skill… it’s a bloody four-and-a-half seconds long channel.

It’s possible to get 48k with Signet of the Wild buff and chewing signets to fuel Beastmaster’s Might, but that requires several contingencies:

1. The Ranger is incredibly glass, running Zerker w/ Scholars.
2. The Ranger must chew all of his/her utilities and elite in order to facilitate a single burst.
3. The build involves speccing 30 points into some of the worst traitlines regarding personal sustain (Marksmanship and Skirmishing).
4. The attack is incredibly choreographed. If you can’t see the “Attack of Opportunity” or 9 Insta-Stacks of Might, no one can help you learn.

And let’s not forget… a simple dodge or constant left-to-right side strafing would allow you to avoid most, if not ALL, of the arrow projectiles.

As for thieves and their stealth mechanic, it’s no venue of modern discovery to understand how broken stealth is in WvW compared to sPvP. I think the advent of the Dire stat and Perplexity Rune shows the developers sheer callousness toward class balance in WvW.

I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to get all the recipes in the game, some are too exclusive. How will you go about getting the Revelry Starcake recipe?

If only Lightning Reflexes broke movement impairing conditions like Withdraw and Roll for Initiative…

It always perplexed me why Rangers have some of the worst condition removal options. No reliable active cleansing at all. Such a change from gw1…

Finally, someone who gets it. It’s so awful being pigeon-holed into using tanky gear just to address the current meta. All classes should be capable of running power builds with the same potency as condi builds, end of. It’s so boring running the same regen-condi crap all the time, so cheese.

Save your weapon evades for Rigor Mortis. Most decent MM’s save their immobs so that Golem can rush/ plant staff marks on you. Entangle can buy you time, but make sure to take care of bone minions before that since they can easily destroy the roots. Sol suggested something cool with the Shortbow, that using Piercing Arrows can ease the burden of having to deal with your projectiles being tanked by the meat shields; but on a trapper / BM Condi it’s kinda’ hard to spec that high in Marksmanship…

MM is a cheese build. Hopefully the Devs look into all the pet builds and realize that passive play is killing their “esport.”

The only way to make encounters more enjoyable is to make the mechanics of the fight more challenging. Improving AI, most notably.

In GW1 enemies would scatter if you placed AoE in their vicinity. Maybe implementing that might cause some battle variance, preventing melee cleave stacking potency?

Mobs in GW2 just happen to fixate on a single target unless they are chasing a target while chilled/crippled. Perhaps the aggro mechanism of the monsters could have some randomized variable so mobs don’t simply drool over the player with the higher toughness?

It’s not really a problem with players. Stacking in a corner is kinda’ commonplace in every MMORPG game. It just happens to be so efficient in GW2 since AI is dumb as crap (strangely downgraded from GW1 somehow), and buffs from most classes affect nearby allies rather than the “earshot” range of GW1. Personally, I find battles far more intense and adrenaline-filled when we’re always on the move, but it’s just not efficient in GW2.

If you have everyone on voice comms and they are running competent gear(Zerker/Knights/Cavaliers), Path 1. The Ooze boss goes easy on the rock spot near the turrets, Shoggroth is easy with reflects + burning, and Korga is skipped as usual. We had alot of first timers run with us and it took around 25-30 mins.

1. Ranger (Just read peoples post please, the entire profession is a mess)

2. Elementalist (sPvP)

3. Engineer (Similar problems to Rangers in many respects)

That’s not the point. Ranger’s entire profession mechanic is literally unusable in some areas of this game. It even becomes more of a LIABILITY than a strength at times, since we are the ONLY class that has a tremendous penalty for having to wait a whole minute for the mechanic to kick in once the pet dies. Warriors miss their burst, their adrenaline isn’t consumed. Guardian virtues have potency whether or not you use them. Mesmers have 4 shatters, Mind Wrack having an incredibly short cd and illusions being capable of being spawned on a tower or keep unlike pets (for whatever reason).

I still don’t understand why we just don’t have a stagnant 20s cooldown on pet swap whether the pet dies or not. Having to burden ourselves with bad AI is bad enough. Every decent ranger I know understands that we need to press F3 -> F1 in order to smooth out the attack signatures of pets. We’ve been used to working around bugs for so long, it’s almost taken for granted… and that’s kind of sad.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Prismatic_Understanding

It’s not you. Mesmers abuse the crap out of the trait in this current meta atm, granting them a plethora of defensive boons on top of a defensive state-of-being.

Also, consider Ascended Armor increasing the armor of the “Low Armor Class” as you call it.

I’m… just going to pretend like I didn’t read the other posts on this thread implying that roamers use a Power-based longbow build when roaming.

Strengths:

- High Sustain w/ Prot on Dodge and strong regen upkeep
- Plenty of Weapon-Based Evades
- Decent Passive Condi-Cleansing
- DPS Pets are actually useful in Small-Scale
- Good disengage via Sword 2 and Dagger 4 with appropriate positioning/ experience

Weaknesses:

- No easy access to “cheese” utility (i.e. no stability/ invulnerability on demand without demanding heavy trait investment)
- If the enemy is smart in waiting for Empathic Bond to proc and knows you chewed your Healing Spring, immobilize is your worst nightmare
- Not a whole lot of swiftness unless you’re rolling Warhorn (which doesn’t contribute to a regen-condi roamer) or Signet of the Hunt (which forces you to pigeonhole your utility choices)
- Encountering thieves is a wholly different story in WvW versus the sPvP environment. Stealth is a little out of hand, so predicting that Backstab from the traditional D/P can take a little bit of time and luck. Also considering the power creep with consumables, Applied Strength and Ascended Gear, damage is a little out of hand as well

Drop 5 points off Marksmanship, put those points in Skirmishing for Moment of Clarity. You have decent of CC from GS and SB.

If general PvE is your direction, Spotter > Beastmaster’s Might. Ranger’s don’t really have many quick CD signets like Thieves so they don’t really benefit from those might traits as well as other professions.

Since I notice you like feline pets, and have Expertise Training, take Malicious Training to add up more damage from your pet bleeds instead of Beastmaster’s Bond. Perhaps replacing Snow Leopard with Lynx for added bleeds? It’ll just add in more synergy.

Most people would say take Scholar Runes over Ranger/Eagle, but I personally am more on board with higher crit proc in PvE. Looks like fun.

Axe/Dagger is okay since you can setup for Splitblades, but in all seriousness I’m not a huge fan of precision-based condi-Rangers. Regen upkeep is the bread n’ butter of a Ranger’s sustainability (NM Minor Nature’s Bounty). It also helps to abuse evades + regeneration with high DPS pets like Jaguar / Owl / Raven.

Try running Apothecary / Settlers using Dwayna Runes and Signet of the Wild.

I find it somewhat amusing that the PvE’ers are talking kitten about Valentin. He’s a pretty well known tPvP’er.

At least be constructive instead of just spouting the “L2P” or “Get used to it” nonsense. Try not to get so personal about it for once, think objectively.

You can perma-stow your pet.

Enter a tonic form while your pet is stowed when you are out of combat. During that tonic form, enter combat. Then, exit your tonic.

Right, because if YOU haven’t seen a Ranger kicked simply for being a Ranger it’s never happened before.

Bottomline is that no class should earn arbitrarily high health per second without heavy healing power investment.

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

Do you use sword as your primary weapon? Do have spotter and use frost spirit? Which pet do you use? Do you roll zerker?

I run Sword/Warhorn + Greatsword, Spotter, Frost Spirit, Full Ascended Zerker with crafted infusions for extra power, Crit Food w/ Skale Venom for weakness spam. I have 85 AR on land, 80 AR underwater.

I also have lv50 Fractals unlocked, Dungeon Master and still help people with difficult paths on any dungeon path in the game, mained Ranger since the second Beta event with currently around 5k hours, Champion Hunter, 270+ WvW rank, multiple ascended armor/ ascended weapon sets to explore build options and diversify + educate myself on the capabilities of the Ranger class.

Just face the fact. No one wants a ranger in their party unless they know the person personally. And the whole concept of pugging in general prevents that from even happening.

When certain professions have obvious acceptability in certain gamemodes and are left as pariahs in others, there’s a blatant problem with the game.

But… it’s funny to hear warriors complaining about how they are weak in hotjoin!

In all seriousness, it really should be just like WvW. Communicating to the enemy team shouldn’t be allowed in any PvP. It’s just toxic.

The one thing that makes me not use Water Spirit is the strange anomaly of having to use a 1s cast skill after the spirit is spawned. It’s not consistent with all the other spirits that just simply require a hit of a button to activate. It’s simply far too cumbersome to have to activate the skill every 25s, where half the time the spirit will never actually process Aqua Surge. Not to mention, the 3700~ base heal is incredibly lackluster.

Way too high maintenance at the moment.

Have fun buying all the recipes.

Pet responsiveness.

Main-Hand Axe Damage+.

No penalty for having a dead pet (pet swapping remains @ 20/16s).

But what the hell, this would never happen.

Bring 1-2 Mesmers with Focus and Signet of the Ether. Do NOT trait for reflects. Untraited focus makes Warden block her projectiles, including her spinny electric orbs.

She’s still melee friendly if you do this right.

My entire playtime since Armor crafting went live is basically this:

Daily for Laurel.

Daily Elonian Spool, Silk Weaving, Mithrilium, and Elder Spirit Residue.

NSP Dragonite Temple Farms.

So yeah. Playing the game like a job just for Ascended Armor? Hells yes, that’s kittening boring.

I do agree with you that statwise BM is lacking considerably. I also despise Instinctual Bond (most useless passive trait in the game).

However, what “aoe I can’t avoid” are you referencing?

You give vigor to yourself and your entire party. Chew a dodge while stacking on Alpha > pet swap > people have full vigor.

Stacking melee on Lupi, dodge roll twice > pet swap > people can dodge the next melee strike.

Needing more healing? I don’t really understand. Given the gimmick of dodging being capable of avoid damage to begin with, I would assume vigor aoe would be handy (especially for classes that lack it, i.e. allied necromancers).

20 points in BM is great for not only Vigorous Training, but Mighty Swap (which gives you might now) and Loud Whistle. It promotes active play, which to me means alot no matter where I am in this game.

When people tell you to “L2Cleave” when you’re using a ranger sword.

Try using Hunter’s Call and cancelling it midway. Birds spawn, but no damage will apply.

Can’t begin to explain how many times my spirits canceled their own skills, active play for rangers seems almost like it’s purposefully kitten. So much for ressing someone with Spirit of Nature, cause’ it just decided to turn the other way instead of using Nature’s Renewal.

How many Splitblades have cancelled when enemies walk right through me, going on full cooldown without actually throwing any axes? Probably more than I’d be comfortable with.

It’d sure be nice to see Sic’ Em used with Raven’s F2 burst… oh wait.

I can do this all day, sadly.

You’ll garner respect if you run Cleric bunker. But hands down Condi is superior in a classic battle of attrition. Condis will chew through your target while he/she blocks, dodges, prolongs resets, nulls enemy healing potency… the list goes on.

Truth be told anything with weapon-based evades with regen upkeep on 30 Wilderness Survival is easymode.

Am I the only one happy with this though? I mean, I sure won’t use it in tPvP since I feel like sword leaping through water fields in nearly essential, but in a PvE sense I can provide group utility while being mobile. And if it dies, Nature’s Vengeance will proc an additional heal. 20 seconds is a kitten short cooldown too.

…ok fine, call me a blind optimist. I just love running Power spirits in PvE, I’m bias.

According to the TP, it requires Silver, Gold and Platinum Ingots in addition to the Lump of Mithrilium.

Now, I know plenty of people have been stocking up on cloth and the likes, but anyone considering that this material will see some play in the armor crafting for December 10th?

The trait has no affect on Renewal.

There’s nothing really to say. sPvP was always a intrinsic experience for me, I never really cared about reward apart from the profession specific Champion titles. Adding gold is nice I guess, but c’mon there’s already plenty of ways to earn gold. I was kind of hoping they would retain glory as a currency and just allow more rewards to elicit from said glory.

Oh well.

No point in speccing 5 in BM since Zephyr’s Speed is grandmaster. Instinctual is a joke.

Better off putting those points in Skirmishing for Moment of Clarity, and change to offhand Axe for a source of rupts to fuel the trait.

There’s nothing wrong with Full Zerker, just don’t be the first to get hit in a zerg. For WvW purposes dogs are the best for their AoE control mechanisms (immob, fear, chill, etc.). Keep them passive and use their F2 when in a pinch. They’ll probably die anyways, but oh well.

If you’re gonna stick with dagger offhand though, stick with battle sigils and Scholar / Eagle runes (your preference really; some like extra initial burst, while some like myself like consistent DPS boost with higher crit proc). If you take offhand Axe to utilize Moment of Clarity, take energy sigils.

Dual Fire sigils? Sigils share cooldowns so it’s pointless to have 2 crit-proccing sigils on the same set.

But alas. Mainhand axe needs a damage buff. And it’ll never get one considering Anet doesn’t find it a problem that Rangers still don’t have viable power options.

Don’t fight Rangers underwater.

Please for the love of God make an Observe window like GW1. I’ve spent so many hours spectating GvG matches, it was incredibly informative and thought provoking. Plus, not to mention, my connection can’t handle those streaming services lol.

People are just upset with Rangers dodging so much. Which is dumb because this nerf isn’t really going to change much. Stack on Energy sigils, use vigor traits and LR, and no one really cares anymore.