Showing Posts For DoomBunny.2903:
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I have never said the pets are perfect and in fact have stressed the need for improvements. But good management can rememdy most of the snare/leap/ability use woes.
Just going to throw this out there for people who have been having issues with pet responsiveness. Activating the f2 skill as soon as the pet swaps in works a god majority of the time. The only time it bugs on me is with a Carrion Devourer or Lynx, which casts the spell on top of themselves, not at the target.
There’s a reason they were merged. Having a “ranged weapon” profession and a “pet user” profession were two very narrow and dull concepts. Putting them together allows for more variety, where you could play as either one depending on your spec, or a mish-mash of both.
Either way, we’re way too far into the game to completely split a class. This would have had to been done in early alpha testing at latest. You can’t just tear a class in half, that would be a serious amount of work at the risk of upsetting people who enjoy the Ranger class.
Also, there’s a reason A-Net merged them.
Please be sure to post your suggestions here guys. The signets are just awful compared to the Thief and Warrior, and I want to see them on equal grounds.
Here’s my little wishlist for Ranger suggestions:
Weapons:
- Longbow-increase damage back to pre-nerf levels.
- Shortbow- reduce Poison Volley to 3 Arrows, increase posion damage/duration, buff bleeding from Crippling Shot
- Greatsword- buff damage to a percentage of pre-nerf levels, remove bleeds from Maul, allow use of Counterattack while moving
- Sword-allow use of movement during chain, remove leap from Kick
- OH Axe-buff Path of Scars base damage, allow Whirling Defense while moving
- Dagger- add a small leap to skill 4
Utilities:
Signets
Signet of the Hunt-increase move speed to 25%, affects Ranger by default. Increase CD to compensate if necessary
Signet of Stone- Reduce CD to 90 seconds, affects Ranger by default, breaks stun, reduce duration to 4-5 seconds
Signet of the Wild- Reduce CD to 45-60 seconds, rebalance where necessary. Provide a better tooltip for what enlargement does
Spirits
ALL spirits gain a small health boost
Sun Spirit- Passive: Grants allies Burning on critical hits, Active: Grants might to nearby allies
Frost Spirit- Passive: Increases allies’ damage by 10%. Active: Heals nearby allies
Stone Spirit- Passive: Grants allies Protection when struck, Active: Grants nearby allies Stability for 4 seconds
Storm Spirit-Passive: Grants allies Swiftness on Dodge Roll, Active: Grants nearby Allies Vigor and cures crippled, chilled, and immobilized
Traits:
Marksmanship
Opening Strike’s guaranteed crit and current Remorseless rolled into the T1 trait
Remorseless changed to grant opening Strike on Crit
Signet of the BeastMaster moved to T2, causes SotH and SoS to affect Pet
Skirmishing/Wilderness Survival
Traits for traps moved to Wilderness Survival, Survival skills moved to Skirmishing
BeastMastery
Everything from 20-30 points scrapped, new traits added. I’ll think of possible ideas later.
I am talking specifically about speed boost being negated while in combat. I am pretty sure it is the case, just wasn’t clear if it affects other professions. I know for fact you can’t use Call of the Wild to run through some mobs, speed boost simply doesn’t work. Naturally I assumed other professions have the same limitation.
The speed boost should not be negated in combat. Swiftness from CotW will work in combat, as does any other profession’s form of swiftness.
If it’s not, I’m going to assume it’s a bug, so you should add it to our lovely list of Ranger bugs at the top of the forum.
Some nice changes, but some things I don’t agree with:
Signet of the Hunt/Stone just giving generic boons removes most of their value. Signet of the Hunt should just affect the Ranger, and Signet of the Stone should be on a 90 second CD, break stun, and affect the Ranger, which is exactly what the other invincibility skills do. It might need to lose a second of invulnerability, however, as I believe the other skills are 4-5 seconds, not 6.
Also, I don’t think pets need to be faster, they just need to attack while moving. The evade chance would do little to nothing for helping them survive. Dodging roughly 1 out of every 10 attacks really doesn’t do anything when 2-3 hits from non-regular mobs will down them. That also doesn’t deal with pets being absolutely trashed by AoE damage. Adding AoE resistance and some sort of escape/dodge skill for the squishy pets would make them perfect.
Wait, are you saying other classes don’t get this? WTF! I am off to try it it out…
The amount of irony in your name and what just occurred is absolutely hysterical.
No, Rangers don’t get this magical speed penalty. Yes, pets cannot attack while moving.
When people say Rangers are slower than other classes, they are referring to the other 2 Adventurer professions, the Engineer and Thief, both of which have better passive speed buffs (not swiftness).
@WhiteDevil (quote button broke)
I personally dropped Quick Draw in favor of Trap Potency because, IMHO, Quick Draw is overrated on the shortbow. The only skills with CDs are skills 2-4, all of which are situational. I have never run into a situation where I thought, “ kitten if only I could cast Quick Shot 2 seconds sooner after I just cast it.” AFAIK, it does not affect Crossfire in any way, and considering that’s the only attack we have on the SB, I don’t see a reason to take Quick Draw.
I’d much rather have the reduced CD for Flame Trap and Viper’s Nest, both of which are great DoTs.
But a ranger class in every RPG since forever is a ranged SPECIALIST. What’s so special about using ranged weapons but being worst than every other class that can use those weapons?
Incorrect, the original Ranger class from Dungeons and Dragons was a subset of the Warrior class and used melee weapons. It was based off the original fantasy Ranger, Aragorn, who used a sword.
Bear in mind Signet of Rage only gives 5 stacks of might, while RaO stacks might for each time your pet atttacks.
Using a Carrion Devourer, I can easily get 15-16 stacks of might from RaO.
I think it was a great idea, and has been balanced relatively well damage-wise, but as others have pointed out, it’s the defensive areas that are in trouble.
Melee classes have traditionally had more health or armor to offset being in melee range, the exception being the Rogue classes which had stealth, evasion, stuns, or burst to offset it.
On the other hand, Ranged classes were fragile but had the advantage of being ranged.
Now, that didn’t translate as well. Traditionally melee classes kept their advantages at range, but ranged classes didn’t get too much in way of melee advantages.
Either way, it’s not so much a deal of ranged vs. melee as it is issues with the classes themselves. The traditional ranged classes, Archers and Mages, have all have issues in their GW2 counterparts. Rangers, Necros, and Elementalists have their own issues that are being looked at, which is creating this perception of ranged/melee not translating well.
Also, on armor, I faintly recall A-Net saying lighter armors would give bonuses to endurance to make them more agile in exchange for losing armor. What ever happened to the idea?
I, too, played the Ranger/Hunter/Archer class through most MMOs.
First tip: Ignore the re-roll advice. Yes, Rangers are UP right now, but they’re not 100% useless like the doomsayers have been toting. If you really like the class, stick with it. We’ll get buffed eventually, that’s just how MMO balancing works.
Second tip: Decide on a playstyle. Whereas other Ranger classes have been strictly DPS in several flavors, GW2 Rangers have a variety of styles to choose from. You can Tank, DPS, buff, heal, area control, roam, burst, or do whatever it is pets are for. Figuring out a ideal role for the Ranger and building from there is a good start.
Third tip: Swap Pets. The f4 button is going to be your best friend from level 16 onwards. Learn to love him, for he will be the only thing keeping your pets from dying and your DPS from being negligible.
The Ranger is and will always be many people’s favorite profession however when literally everything you want to do just either does not work, is bugged, poorly implemented, or just plainly has a poor design there isn’t much to do but make jokes…(which we tried and it was a sad day when that thread was closed…). I’m sure they may eventually find suitable fixes but frankly I’m already disgusted, betrayed, and depressed. I was so excited to play GW2 Ranger because it felt like they took everything from GW you wished you could do and said, “Oh, Ranger would be cool if they could do that!” and then said “Just kidding, we didn’t like that after all, sorry.” nerfed the crap out of it in a pre-mature panic and left us with nothing. So really, thank you for crushing the Ranger, we all really appreciate it(even before this SB fiasco). We’ll be happy when [IF] you fix it but till then I fully support all the “QQ” on this sub-forum.
I posted this somewhere else in this sub-forum, but I’ll drop it here:
The Ranger from the beta events is exactly what everyone has been asking for. Harder hitting Longbow/Greatsword, usable Spirits, great Traits, etc.
For funsies, here’s what would happened if the Beta nerfs were rolled back:
Greatsword damage buffed
Longbow Damage buffed
Spirit health increased
Honed Axes grants 33% crit
Evasive Purity removes ALL THE CONDITIONS!
Those are just the ones I recall off the top of my head, but you get the idea.
Now, before someone comes in here with the Buzzkilling Buzzsaw of Fun-ruining, yes, some aspects of the original Ranger needed a nerf. However, they only needed to be slightly toned down, not completely ruined. In fact, most of the nerfs really wouldn’t have made sense outside of the beta. GS burst is almost commonplace now with Quickness builds, and there are things far more durable than Spirit Builds.
(edited by DoomBunny.2903)
Link to build?
I have been doing something similar. While QZ/Shortbow took the nerfbat to the face, Traps dodged it unscathed. With the low CDs on Flame Trap/Viper’s Nest, it’s very easy to run a condition trap build.
Spirit Builds I haven’t tampered with. While I’ve never had an issue with Spirits dying, even untraited, the procs just seemed unnoticeable, and when they did activate, they felt highly underwhelming.
Finally, some common sense around here.
I agree 100%. People weren’t using Shortbow/QZ builds because it was the “FotM noob-stomper”, it was just the only* build that was competitive.
Ironically, most of the weapons and build options were great at one point, but were systematically nerfed over the course of the beta events. Reverting the nerfs from the beta events would make a plethora of new builds viable overnight.
Until then, may I suggest Trap Ranger builds? Excellent control with great damage and support.
*there are other builds, like Axe/Torch condition damage, Bunker, BeastMaster, etc. Unfortunately, they’re either bugged or not strong enough compared to what other professions can bring.
FYI, you don’t have permissions available for your first doc. Fixing that might get some conversation started here.
The second one I had already commented on in your thread in the Ranger forums about it, so I’ll let this thread stick to the first thing.
Also, copy/pasting the posts onto the forums might be a good idea. I don’t have an issue with Google, but I know some people don’t like using Drive/Docs/whateverit’scallednow.
Breaking the mold slightly here:
I think the Ranger is mediocre because he has plenty of great mechanics that have either been broken or fixed until they were broken.
Weapons, for example, are absolutely amazing…. on paper. We have 3 great ranged options that can fill a variety of builds from long, mid, or short range, with emphasis on condition, crit, or power as you choose. Or, at least they should be that way. Longbow hits like a wet noodle, Axes are only useful when 2 feet from the enemy and his friend standing next to him, and the Shortbow is usable but got trashed in the Quickness department.
Same thing with melee weapons, we can choose to be evasive like a Thief, or up-front like a Warrior. Yet, both options have issues. The MH sword roots on the auto attack and has horrendous tracking, and the GS is decent, but can’t move while blocking, has mixed condition/direct damage, and got nerfed hard for damage.
Utilities suffer to a worse degree. everything that is not a Survival Skill requires traits to be usable, and even then can be mediocre. Signets need a Grandmaster trait to use, and even then are weaker than other profession counterparts (Signet of the Hunt vs Signet of Shadows). Spirits are just plain awful, they require traits, die easily, and have rather weak boons. Shouts are, hands down, the worst utilities in game. Sic ’em and Protect Me have occasional usage, but Search and Rescue is a waste of a utility slot and Guard IS the worst utility in game. Traps are the diamond in the rough, however, as with proper traits a Trap Ranger can be great at control, support, and condition damage at the same time.
Pets, once again, great mechanic, bad execution. Pet swapping and abilities are an awesome concept, but don’t hold up. Pets are stupidly fragile, and are overly dependent on swapping to stay alive. However, if anything above trash-level mobs aggro them, it’s game over, assuming they haven’t died to a random AoE yet. Then there’s the whole issue with responsiveness and attacking moving targets.
The Ranger itself isn’t a bad class, it’s a great class in fact. It’s just that for every great build or style that comes along, there’s either a bug, nerf or other issue to drag it down.
Read the whole thing. There’s some nice stuff in there, but some I disagree with.
The pet stuff has been suggested dozens of times. I’d be surprised if A-Net doesn’t fix those issues at some point in the near future.
On weapons:
YES to Longbow skill 1 having a faster and stronger projectile. NO to replacing Rapid Fire with a “Kill Shot”. RF is currently the LB’s skill for nuking with QZ or combo fields. Replacing it with a nuke would lose a lot of that. However, I wouldn’t mind seeing Hunter’s Shot be a hard-hitting attack similar to the Harpoon Gun’s Mercy Shot. LB in general could use a hard-hitting finisher/opener, but it’s not absolutely necessary.
Axe actually used to be an awesome weapon for power/crit builds due to the original Honed Axe trait giving 33% crit damage instead of 10%. Why on Earth it was nerfed was beyond me. Did anyone honestly think Axe Rangers were OP?
Greatsword is in the same boat. Overnerfed for no good reason. 80% of the GS “uber-crit” videos involved highly unrealistic scenarios, and is not nearly as bad as the other melee “1-shot wonder” builds. The nerf only hurt our melee options for the sake of 1 build.
Sword just needs the root fixed and the tracking improved and it will be golden.
As for utilities, I find the Traps and Survival skills to be great. The other 3 categories have varying degrees of issues.
Signets seem to be the BeastMaster’s choice for pet effects, but Shouts do that as well. IMHO, Signets need to be reworked to benefit the Ranger untraited, with possible changes where needed (Renewal, Wild). Signet of Stone also needs a shorter CD, as does Wild.
Spirits need more health to start off with, and we can work from there. I’d like to see the buffs improved, as right now they are lackluster with a proc chance on top. I’d also like to see new active effects that are more supportive and not just a trap rolled in.
Shouts just need a complete overhaul. They’re all either highly situational or complete trash. If they can’t be fixed, scrap them and put in 4 new skills.
Traits, too, seem ok aside from bugged ones. Marksmanship needs better minor traits to replace the utter trash Opening Strike, and BeastMastery could use more worthwhile traits in tiers 2 and 3.
Other than that, the Ranger is good to go. It’s a great class by design, and was executed amazingly in the beta events. Unfortunately, some block-headed nerfs completely destroyed entire aspects of the Ranger, when they really only needed the slightest toning down.
Poison Volley seems to be the spiritual successor to Poison Arrow. If anyone else remembers that pitiful skill, you can understand my feelings toward the current Poison Volley. Compared to Splitblade, it doesn’t pierce, doesn’t combo, does less damage, and has a longer CD.
The changes I’d like to see are anything done to skills 1 and 2 to give it a more condition-focused build. Crossfire should bleed unconditionally, perhaps with another bonus for flanking. Posion Volley should be changed to actually be useful for applying poison.
The only other change I’d like to see is making Quick Shot have a wider use outside of a dodge. Skills 4 and 5 are fine the way they are.
1 and 2 are serious issues for PvP, although not as bad when playing PvE. The best solution is to just let them attack while moving, unless that’s a a challenge to program for some reason.
The other issue is the largest step backward GW2 has made with pet design. The huge level of AoE in PvE events and WvWvW makes our class mechanic horrendously inferior. I guess A-Net just intended for us to use the heel button or pet swap to avoid the AoE, but it’s a horrible solution when having your pet run back to you can possibly have it running through more AoE, and forget about it if you play melee.
I’m assuming you meant Death Shroud for Necros, not Lich form?
Back on topic, our HOLY KITTEN button is supposed to be Signet of Stone. It’s invincibility for 6 seconds, which is quite handy.
However, it’s on a 120 second CD, and requires a Grandmaster Trait to affect us.
Protect Me! works too, but you need to bring a tank pet like a Bear in order for it to work. Using a DPS pet with Protect Me! doesn’t work very well.
Ranger underwater PvE is amazing. Jellyfish are OP against mobs that don’t move. They can tank dear infinitely from the blind spamming and constant regen. Oh, the Harpoon Gun is pretty good, too. Sure beats some of the other junk underwater weapons some professions are stuck with.
Also, I think we can all calm down about the SB “nerf.” If A-Net really wanted to nerf the Shortbow, they would have at least tried to cover it under some reasoning as to why they did so. The “fixed a glitch” excuse doesn’t exactly sound like a good cover-up. Honestly, I’d guarantee someone put an extra zero somewhere in the 40 ms fix, and he’s probably sitting in a corner panicking over the Doomsday he’s brought about.
1 just needs to be implemented now. Like, right now. NOW. Having to use a ever-valuable snare just so I can do my full DPS is absolutely nonsensical.
Pets not being able to dodge super-AoE attacks is also on the list, but it can easily be fixed by adding AoE resist to pets. Why on Earth A-Net didn’t do this seems like a massive step backwards comparing GW2 pets to WoW-style pets.
BeastMastery could also use some serious remodeling, starting with Shouts and Signets. Signets feel more like they should be BeastMaster skills than Marksmanship, as they affect the pet, not the Ranger (unless they have the ironic Signet of the BEASTMASTER trait). Shouts just…. they need to either be reworked entirely or go. The usable ones feel like toned-down signets (Sic ’em and Protect Me) while Search and Rescue could easily be a pet skill and Guard is just plain awful.
IMHO, I’d rework Protect Me and Sic ’em in as new Traits for BeastMastery (e.g. “Protect Me”: when below 25% health, your pet absorbs all damage for 6 seconds) along with some lovely new Majors to replace the junk in tiers 2 and 3. Then, add Search and Rescue as a pet skill for a new breed (St. Bernard, anyone?). Guard can just get chucked, I doubt many will mourn its passing.
That also opens up a new set of utility skills that better fit into Marksmanship, while moving Signet traits to Beastmastery to make it an attractive option after the 2s QZ on swap.
I have a level 29 Engineer I created long before the SB nerf.
Ironically, I’m actually playing my Ranger more now. The SB nerf just gave me a valid excuse as to why I’m using the Longbow. :P
Can we just give this debate a rest already?
Here’s the REAL reason Rangers don’t have rifles:
ArenaNet did not give them rifles.
The GW2 Ranger is ArenaNet’s creation. It’s not the same Ranger as Tolkien’s Ranger, Roger’s Rangers, D&D’s Ranger, or WoW’s Ranger. It may be similar, but A-Net has the final say in what they want their Ranger to do. ArenaNet said Rangers use bows and Engineers use guns. That’s the way it is. A-Net designed their Ranger the way they did for their own reasons, whatever they may be. YOU may want Rifles, but A-Net isn’t just going to add them for the sake of adding them.
You mentioned this in another thread, so I’ll just throw in my 2c:
Spirits, are just not worth it.
The boons rarely proc, and when they do, the reward is measly. Very rarely does the damage (20% chance for 10% bonus damage) ever, ever become worth it. (hint: you can do that constantly with Hunter’s Shot). On top of that, the actives are really counter-intuitive. Support Skills with crummy control skills don’t mix.
I’d like to see the buffs they provide become constant and worthwhile, and have the actives be more supportive. Combo fields seem a bit bland, I’d rather have different effects, like Stability on Stone Spirit or Breaking Snares on Storm Spirit.
The other thing that needs to be addressed is traits. Having to take 30 points to make Spirits usable is a no-no. Spirits should start off useful, and have extra effects added through Traits. Look at Warrior Shouts, they start off good, and can heal with traits.
I agree with both points. Longbow buffs and Spirit buffs would probably put Rangers on the map as a profession. After that we can worry about the “nitpicky” issues.
e.g. making Signet builds an alternative to Survival-skill based builds
Making Shouts worth something
Making the OHs that are not a Warhorn more attractive
Cleaning up Trait lines
Those 4 above are on my list after Longbow/Spirit buffs, as both of those were well over-nerfed. I’d recommend just reverting the nerfs and seeing how it goes from there. I doubt people will complain about the old longbow, as most WvW zergs have figured out Arrow Carts work.
The other thing that NEEDS to be fixed is sword locking, but that may be a bit more complex than changing coefficients on skills.
I run a Carrion Devourer in my DPS builds. They’re honestly a must-have in addition to your preferred cat/eagle.
Being a ranged pet means they don’t have to be in the death-trap melee area near bosses. They also do respectable DPS, and their basic attack can proc combo fields and hits twice (great for RaO).
On top of that, they have a knockback for dealing with overly-attached melee mobs, as well as a retreat, meaning they can essentially manage themselves.
Now, I know we all like to play “Bash on WoW”, but 1 thing that game had right was pets.
Having played a Hunter for 2 years as my main, pets in GW2 seem like a step backwards. In WoW, sometime around Burning Crusade or Wrath (I don’t remember which), they gave pets AoE resistance. It was the most elegant solution, but it was the most effective. The issue with pet classes is I already have to focus on my player to dodge AoEs and the like, I can’t constantly keep track of 2 characters just to maintain a portion of my DPS other classes get to themselves.
Now I know someone is going to come in here and say “use the heel command”. That’s probably the least effective way to deal with AoE. Heel makes your pet run in a straight line back to you, so if there’s other AoE, you can kiss your pet good-bye. The best solution I’ve found so far is to just run with 2 devourers against bosses with heavy AoE and just swap between them to avoid it.
While I despise the minimum range as much as the next guy, I can see why A-Net put the range at 600.
At 600 range, you can still set traps, but you’re setting them between you and the enemy, not on top of the enemy. This means you still have to lure the enemy into the trap, as opposed to just using them as over-glorified AoE spells.
It’s not as big of a deal as you would think, just set up traps before combat so the enemies run into them. The only issue you’ll run into is trying to re-apply Flame Trap or Viper’s Nest if you’re running a Trap condition damage build.
Because ArenaNet was contacted by the Almighty Lords of Role Playing and informed them that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should the Ranger class ever become powerful, lest people actually play them. Thus, following in the example of Blizzard and those who went before, ArenaNet unsheathed the mighty Nerfbat, and in the dead of night, ambushed the Ranger and smote him. After he fell, the conspirators agreed that he must not ever return, so they took his most prized possessions- his bow, his speed, and his skills-and took them under the nerfbat as well. Then, when their deed had been rendered, they returned to the Almighty Lords of Role Playing, and it was decided that Ranger was put in his place. As their final measure, the Almighty Lords of Role Playing gathered together, and with a ancient chant, cursed the Ranger with pet AI incapable of avoiding AoE and attacking while moving. Only then was the Ranger deemed incapable of playing, and with the universe at balance, ArenaNet returned to their offices to…. eat donuts…. or… play table tennis…. or whatever they do there.
/Serious answer
They look more like an oversight to me. When ArenaNet nerfed a lot of the Ranger stuff a few betas ago, they didn’t seem to really check their math or playtest it to see the effects of the nerf. On top of that, a lot of the Ranger skills and traits didn’t “mature” as the other professions did. As a result, a lot of the Ranger skills are in a weaker state than they should be.
Blast Finishers in Healing Spring is stupidly amazing for dungeons.
I ended up running AC explorable once with 4 Thieves from my guild. All of them had shortbows. I had Healing Spring. What resulted was perhaps the greatest healing extravaganza in all of GW2.
Healing Spring is really that good. I bring it on almost all of my builds, I only bring HaO or TG if I’m running solo or need a pet heal. Even then, I still feel HS is stronger.
Nerf QZ and you will utterly destroy half the Ranger builds.
While the QZ debuff is milder than Haste/Frenzy, so is the actual buff (in practice). Whereas a Thief or Warrior will combine theirs with something like HBs or Pistol Ship for stupidly high damage, Rangers don’t have that much to combo it with. Rapid Fire is a good one in theory, but the Longbow is too weak for any serious PvP. That leaves us with the Shortbow Crossfire, which is only dangerous if you let a Ranger stand behind you the entire time.
While I do think it should be nerfed in the future (e.g. prevent healing for a some time afterwards, making you susceptible to counter-burst), Rangers need heavy buffs in other areas before we start nerfing things. Once Rangers become scary with QZ+Longbows, then we can discuss possible nerfings.
I don’t think ALL spirits are junk, Spirit of Nature’s Renewal is absolutely amazing. (Revive your entire party roughly 2-3 times a fight, HELL YEA!)
The utility spirits, however, need a buff. For one, the proc chance is very annoying and generally doesn’t help. The buffs are nice in theory, but they often don’t proc when you need them (e.g. Protection decides to proc after the boss smashed your face).
That said, the buffs are just plain weak too. 1s of protection, 10% damage, a few seconds of burning. I like their thoughts, but they just don’t compare to other options. 1 Hunter’s Shot will give as much bonus DPS as Frost Spirit, but its up near 100% of the time and affects all party members simultaneously. Likewise, Sun Spirit is cool and all, but a Fire Combo-field does the same thing for ranged attacks, with some different stuff for leaps/blasts/whirls. Stone and Storm Spirits are once again, outclassed by any shout or other similar boon-applier.
Now, they do have some uses their counterparts don’t. Sun Spirit works on melee auto-attacks, Stone/Storm Spirit last longer than the average shout, etc. However, the other sources also have their own benefits (blast finishers, other boons, etc) and come with the advantage of being on-demand with relatively short CDs. I don’t think anyone would rather bring a Spirit Ranger over a Shout Warrior/Guardian any day of the week.
So, if the passives got slightly buffed with more uptime and a larger radius, that would solve one problem, but the actives are still another hurdle.
I like the concept of Spirit Actives, but they just tend to be counter-productive. Spirits are, primarily, AoE buffs for allies. In that sense, I want them near my allies. So, why on Earth would their actives be control skills that require them being close to enemies? SoNR got it right, the active is a powerful supportive skill that makes sense for where it is placed. The other Spirit Actives just don’t seem to add much.
Frost and Stone Spirit have control skills, but they’re redundant. If I wanted Chill or Immobilize, I’d take Frost Trap or Muddy Terrain. Sun Spirit at least has the advantage of being unique, but blind with a long cast time is near-useless. (although AoE blind in itself can be handy)
Overall, I really like the concept of Spirits, passive area buffs with active abilities, but they just feel failed in execution. IMHO, they need a few changes:
1) Make the buffs 100% uptime and a slightly larger radius, with modifications as necessary (100% swiftness with mobile spirits could get OP in a hurry)
2) Give the Spirits new Actives. For example, replace Storm Spirits lame thunderbolt with a breeze that cures Cripple, Chill, and immobilize.
3) Buff the health slightly, losing spirits to anything that sneezes on them is bad, but they should be killable to offset the powerful buffs (that they should have, at least).
If you really, really like the longbow for whatever reason (aesthetics, style, whatever), go ahead and use it. Thankfully, there is no inspect button, and most non-Rangers don’t care to think about what it can do outside of ERMAHGERD ARRERS!!!! I personally use a Longbow, because I just like the skins better, and nobody in dungeons or WvW has bothered to call me out for playing longbow.
However, if you really want to be effective, choose a Shortbow. As much as I love my Longbow, I realize its complete junk damage wise and always carry a shortbow in my inventory in case the content is serious. No matter what you run, Power/Crit or Condition builds, Shortbow will outDPS the Longbow.
For utility, its somewhat of a toss-up, but it still feels weighted in the shortbow’s favor. Shortbow packs Healing Reduction, Cripple, Stun/Daze, Swiftness, and a retreat skill. Longbow has Vulnerability, Knockback, and AoE cripple. Longbow Vulnerability vs Shortbow Poison is dependant on your style. Both are great assets for helping spike, Longbows can set up for burst specs, while Shortbow can help slow recovery from burst or attrition specs. After that, I feel the Shortbow starts to come out on top. Cripple+Self Swiftness/Leap back is incredibly more powerful than the Knockback. However, the knockback can be useful group wise, but I prefer Concussive Shot, again that’s more of your choice. The Longbow’s one useful skill of note is Barrage for AoE damage/cripple, but if that’s all you’re bringing it for, you’re better off with taking Spike trap and freeing up your 2nd weapon for Axe/OH.
Honestly, the longbow is just underwhelming. The damage is always less than a Shortbow, even at max range. For a weapon that is giving up a lot of utility for a skillset focused on high-damage (think Warrior rifle), I was expecting more. The fact of the matter is, if I’m running anything serious, I bring a Shortbow. It offers more damage and utility for both me and my team.
The only time I ever see Longbows used seriously is in WvW for chilling at 1500 range and hitting people on walls, or used with dual-bow builds. However, the second one is falling out of favor as people are using Axe/OH with the shortbow for added utility, as opposed to the opener from the longbow.
Whether due to intentional coding or just a weird system glitch, you can only change out the pet you currently have active. In your case, when you try to change the pet portrait, you have the 2nd pet active. Press f4 to swap to the first pet (the moa) and you should be able to change it.
“My only (tiny) gripe is the number of “pig” based pets. They all have identical stats and the same “forage” special skill…which is pretty much completely useless in a fight.”
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Actually, the pig pets each have a different forage. That is, each has a specific set of 2-3 items they choose from, completely exclusive to the species. I don’t remember which one has what off the top of my head, but you can test it in game if you’re curious.
I am using a Longbow. I also tried with Axe/Warhorn. Both gave me poor results, I didn’t really try any others.
My pet’s Opening Strike seems to be not working either.
What enemies did you test on? Considering how I noticed Remorseless didn’t work on the test golems, I’m beginning to wonder if Opening Strikes is bugged on certain enemies.
Also, are the attacks hitting? Sometimes if the enemy moves, the pet’s attack fails and loses the buff. Likewise, some enemies can avoid the Longbow’s shots if they move sideways as it comes towards them, extremely common in PvP.
If you haven’t done so already, test on the golems in the Heart of the Mists.
Personally, I think the weapon skills are fairly interesting. The sword and shortbow skills in particular are very fun with a high emphasis on mobility and positioning. The only weapon I think is really bland is the longbow. Every time I convince myself to use a Longbow I come back disappointed after pushing 3-2-1-2-3-2-1-1 for 2 hours.
That said, the grass is always greener. Other professions’ weapon skills are about as entertaining mechanic-wise, but just have flashier effects. Just go look at the Thief, Warrior, Necromancer, or Elementalist skills for a while, they’re fundamentally similar, but just look cooler. The Engineer, Guardian, and Mesmer just tend to have more interesting weapon skills overall IMHO, but then again, they have more unique concepts.
The only place I feel Rangers really got gibbed is Off-Hands and Utility skills. Compared to the level of polish on the Main-Hand weapons, the Off Hands just feel very…. vanilla. Just compare the Ranger Torch to either of the other torch users. Ignoring the generally pretty graphics associated with Mesmers and Guardians, it’s just no contest. 1 Condition and a fire field as opposed to AoE burn/Cleanse and Stealth/Retaliation just feels weak, especially when I get the same effect from flame trap. The axe is just as bad, while the dagger is a bit better. The Warhorn is the only real option IMHO. Just take a look through most of the OH (Focus, torch, etc.) skills and it’s easy to see who got the short end of the stick.
For a better example, look at the Healing skills. Ours boil down to instant heal, Heal over Time, and, well, Healing Spring is just plain amazing. Whereas other professions healing skills have other effects incorporated into them (e.g. gain a boon, cure conditions, block, stealth, minion, etc.), we’re stuck with 2 flavors of pure-healing. Healing Spring is the saving grace, incorporating the best combo-field in game with good overall healing and regeneration.
Utility skills suffer from a similar issue. Spirits just cannot compete with Banners/Wells even with the mandatory 30 Nature Magic, and have the added handicap of being able to be killed. Traps are decent, but require too many high tier traits to be usable, and only then they are just AoE conditions. Signets suffer from a similar issue, they need 30 points in Marksmanship to be useful, and then still feel sub-par compared to other professions’ signets. Survival utilities are just plain better right now. They require no traits, unless you want the CD reduction. That leaves shouts, which are just plain awful. I honestly cannot think of a reason why you would want one of these, they are just so far below sup-bar atm.
Pets themselves aren’t bad, and I actually quite enjoy them. My only issue is they seem to be compensating for a lack of depth in other areas. I LOVE pets, but let’s be honest, they really don’t add that much depth. You pick 2 and swap between them for a different skill, not that much depth. It’s nifty, but its just another mechanic, no different than Steal or the Tool belt. We’re not a full-on pet class like some MMOs have, we just have a pet as a mechanic. Trying to play Rangers up as “the” pet class is like trying to argue Thieves are an stealing class.
(edited by DoomBunny.2903)
Just tested this in HotM. Standing right next to the target with Opening Strike displayed, I attacked and triggered the 5 stacks of vulnerability. Having my pet attack first triggered both sets of 5 stacks.
Remorseless triggered on actual enemies (I used the ghosts in the southeast corner), but not the target golems.
Opening Strikes has a maximum range of 900, which is quite silly when it’s in the tree with the 1500 range Longbow. Move closer and you’ll see it working.
Remorseless I really don’t know about. I rarely see it work, so your guess is as good as mine. I’m willing to bet it has the same range handicap.
The whole mechanic is underwhelming. 30 points in Marksmanship for 1 free crit and Hunter’s Shot per fight is sad. It’s complete trash when compared to the swiftness/fury on weapon swap and quickness on pet swap.
Question in title.
I suppose ArenaNet may be the only one with a definitive answer, but I’m genuinely curious as to what happened to them.
For those of you who didn’t play GW1, Preparations were a skill that added an effect to attacks for a period of time. For example, Ignite Arrows made arrows explode, Read the Wind made arrows move faster and do more damage, etc.
When the Ranger was first revealed back in 2010, there was a developer "question and answer" where one of the devs stated Preparations would be coming back as utility skills. They were then unseen for a while before Sharpening Stone popped up. For the longest time, Sharpening Stone was listed as a preparation on the wiki, but was later changed to Survival. After that, preparations seemed all but gone, aside from a faint rumor they would be returning as traits (akin to how camouflage became a trait).
However, the betas rolled out and preparations were still MIA, and no word from the devs ever emerged.
Some of them were reworked into other skills (Choking Gas is a Thief skill, while Ignite/Kindle Arrows was worked into the Warrior longbow, Rapid Fire is a Longbow skill). Apply Poison was the only preparation to actually make it into GW2 as a Thief utility, but is now called Spider Venom. Aside from the lowly Sharpening Stone, though, the Ranger’s signature skill is all but gone.
There’s a couple reasons why they would not be included
One explanation is they could be overlapping with Thief venoms, but considering Thieves and Rangers can manage to share Traps and 1 "preparation" without feeling similar, I’m sure Preparations could be worked out.
The only other real explanation would be lack of a purpose. The majority of GW1 preparations were +damage of some sort, and that is really hard to translate into the simplified boon system in GW2. Likewise, there’s very little for them to cover with Signets/Survival skills covering the bonus damage.
The last, but not real effective, explanation is the inclusion of melee to the Ranger makes "*adjective* Arrows" preps unavailable, but considering Sharpening Stone is essentially Barbed Arrows, that doesn’t seem like a reason to not include the,.
Still, I would love to see some of the old favorites like Ignite Arrows and Read the Wind worked into GW2 in some way. It would also help to make the Ranger’s currently dull attack animations more exciting. They could also be a good set of utilities for Marksmanship, and move the Signets to Beastmastery where they are more appropriate. It would also be cool to see some new GW2-inspired preps, like Lighting Arrows or Healing Arrows, as well as some of the old Ritualist Weapons spells *cough* Splinter Weapon *cough* return as preparations.
So, does anyone, dev or otherwise, definitively know what happened to Preparations?
1. Buff the Longbow’s base attack speed and/or damage.
This is needed. Longbow’s base damage is so pitiful right now it’s not even worth taking outside of WvW sieges. For a weapon that is trading all utility for raw damage, it should at least be able to out DPS or match a shortbow at max range.
2. Buff the Greatsword’s auto attack slightly.
I think we can all agree the Greatsword was a little ridiculous before (for those of you who don’t remember, think 19k crit backstab Thieves). However, the nerf has put the base damage under the 1h sword, which has much more utility (evades, poison, cripple OH choice, pet might, etc). Buffing it slightly to put it on-par with the 1h sword would be lovely.
3. Do something with the OH axe. Touch up most of OHs for that matter.
Path of Scars is horribly outclassed by Throw Torch and Stalker’s Strike, and can just barely beat Hunter’s Call. Whirling Defense is nifty, but locks you in place for the duration. On the same thread, the OHs just don’t offer enough utility to warrant taking them over the Warhorn aside from a few scenarios. The Dagger has nice synergy with the sword, and the torch is good for condition damage, but they just need something comparable to Call of the Wild. Just pick any other proffession’s OHs and compare it to the Ranger ones, and it’s easy to see who got the short end of the stick.
4. Swap the traits for Survival skills and Traps.
Someone already brought this up. Traps fit Survival much better, as they are one of our best condition sources. This also makes it easier for non-trapper Rangers to incorporate a trap into their build: they only need to put the points in survival for the trait and damage bonus, as opposed to points in Skirmishing for trap traits and then more points in survival to make them actually do damage.
5. Fix the Marksmanship and Beastmastery Trait lines
Marksmanship isn’t bad, but opening strikes is. The mechanic is laughable at best, and takes up the entire set of minor traits while requiring a Grandmaster major trait to even work. Beastmastery has its own set of issues. The majority of the traits after 15 points are utter trash, while Master’s Bond has a glaring set of issues. The healing power also seems to be on there as an afterthought, whereas it feels like it should be swapped with Nature Magic.
6. Make Signets a viable alternative to Survival skills
Right now, Signets require a full 30 points in Marksmanship to even be considered for use, and even then are dragged down by heavy CDs. Rebalancing signets and their respective traits would open up a variety of builds beyond the Sharpening Stone/QZ combo everyone and their mother is running.
7. Buff/Re-balance Spirits.
Spirits are mediocre at best, pitiful at worst. For one of the only support skills that can actually BE KILLED, they have sub-par benefits. The proc chance just absolutely ruins most use of them, while the actual benefits are hardly worthwhile. 1s of protection or 3s of swiftness, yay? The damage spirits aren’t much better. Frost’s proc amounts to 20-60ish damage based on weapon, and Sun isn’t much better. The whole proc concept needs to go, and the buffs need to be made worthwhile.
8. Shouts. Just remove them.
For something that was withheld for so long, it’s almost sad how near-useless these are. Sic’em is completely outclassed by Sharpening Stone, Signet of the Hunt, and Quickening Zephyr, Protect me feels like a poor man’s Signet of Stone for those who don’t take Signet of the Beastmaster, and Guard doesn’t do anything to even warrant taking a utility slot. Search and Rescue is moderately useful in dungeons, but is kittened compared to other rez options. Honestly, the entire set of these feels like pet f2 skills that decided to become utilities. Putting them as f2 skills on a new set of pets (e.g. a St. Bernard with Search and Rescue) would let those who honestly like these use them, but remove them from the utility bar.
This may be a bit rant-y and come off as a lot of complaining, but I don’t think the Ranger is bad overall. Unpolished is more of an appropriate term. Some stuff is good, but overall the skills just feel underdeveloped. If you compare the Ranger from the 2010 demos to the release version, not much changed aside from the pet overhaul. A few skills were moved around and added, but the majority were almost untouched. It almost appears as if A-Net put so much effort into making pets great that they forgot about the other skills and just rolled them out. Now, that’s not to say nothing was done (the original longbow was horrendous, no cast on move, no bonus damage, and the monstrosity known as Poison Arrow existed), but there’s still a good amount of room for improvement.
Kirby's Competitive Tournament Ranger + Suggestions and Complaints
in Ranger
Posted by: DoomBunny.2903
20. Blind on Warhorn 4 skill.
21. Whatever happened to Throw Dirt or Dust Trap?
Throw Dirt is a downed skill. It is skill 1 and bleeds on hit. It used to blind on hit before Beta Event 2, IIRC.
Dust Trap died off well before any of the beta events or demos were playable.
Overall, I agree with a lot of this post. A lot of great thoughts and ideas. My real gripe is our options just don’t compare to other classes. Spirits really need to be worked on to actually be useful. That alone would help us immensely, but other things like buffing some weaponsets and making utilities other than Survival viable would be great. Traits could also use some work on. Some Traits/Stats feel like they’re in the wrong tree.
Back during the beta weekend events, I ran with a Black Widow Spider named Scarlett Johansson. I got a couple laughs out of it.
This used to be a huge discussion on Guild Wars 2 Guru for a while after the Ranger announcement, but if I recall correctly, ArenaNet had said Rangers are strictly bows to offset the strictly guns Engineer.
However, that never really ended the discussion, as seen here.
My own thoughts on rifles are mixed. IMHO, the Ranger isn’t a Druid or a master of ranged weapons. He’s just a wilderness geurilla-fighter who uses whatever weapons that fit his purpose. In this case, that’s bows, swords, throwing weapons, and assorted offhands.
You can make the argument that rifles fit the Ranger thematically, sure. However, the rifle just doesn’t add anything to the Ranger in terms of gameplay. We already have the Longbow for long-range, high-damage builds, and the Shortbow and Axes for Mid to close-range, condition damage builds. All the weapons also have their own form of AoE: Barrage, Poison Spray, or Ricochet/Splitblade + Bonfire or Path of Scars/Whirling Defense. The only real role the Rifle could have is a heavy-control weapon, but then its competing with Point-Blank Shot, Crippling Shot/Concussive Shot, and Winter’s Bite. The only control types not present on a weapon are immobilize, launch, and fear, and the only one not available readily through pet skills or utilities is launch.
As cool as a rifle would be, there’s just not much room for it between the Longbow, Shortbow, and Axe. Rather than crowd another unnecessary weapon into the mix, I’d rather A-Net work more on making all our current options viable.
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