Guild Wars 2

Silavor.6257:

Durzlla.6295:

It actually is unlikely because these Wurms are actually an ancient race and they don’t appear corrupted, just angry.

How do you know they aren’t corrupted? Jungle wurms didn’t exist in Gw1, while every other wurm type has some counter-part in the original game. All the major jungle wurms that existed before this event are directly tied to either the Nightmare Court or a “much darker force,” possibly Mordremoth.

We didn’t have more than one type of griffon or raptor either in GW1, and they sure as hell weren’t as wide spread as they are in Gw2, I’m assuming it’s just the same sort of thing.

PS: kinda off topic but do we know what happened to the Behemoths?

dylan.5409:

I have hit 12k rapid fire on nonbunker characters. Does that make rapid fire deal stupid damage?

Yes lol (assuming they were wearing armor). But rapid fire is dodged mostly and has a long channel as well as cooldown. Now if we had a reliable long immobilize while you channeled for 12k, well I would go back to power ranger ^-^
[/quote]

Dual spiders + muddy terrain will give you plenty of immobilize.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I think this might mean that these Jungle Wurms aren’t exactly like the other Wurms. A link to Mordremoth is not unlikely.

It actually is unlikely because these Wurms are actually an ancient race and they don’t appear corrupted, just angry.

Also it’s probably a different model for the larva and all that because this wurm does have 3 heads instead of just one.

SkyFallsInThunder.8257:

Fluffball.8307:

I believe the next dragon death will be a massive world event, a better version of the Marionette fight. Maybe even at the end of a world dungeon, a better version of the Nightmare Tower.

This would be FANTASTIC!

But it will never happen. A new dragon is too major a boss to be used for content that is only temporary.

But maybe we’ll get to kill Primordus’s, Mordermoth’s or Bubbles’ champions like this?

DO WANT!

Primordious has a champion already…. He’s in mount maelstrom

Vol.7601:

You know, for someone who can afford the resources and wages to construct not only a giant walking robot, but a giant flying UFO (as well as the thousands of aetherblade millions that spawned and most certainly are mercenaries), I would have thought Scarlet would get some more lavish quarters to live in.

I love how you assume a psycho villain is actually BUYING these things, especially since, you know, she has a group of sky pirates working for her who should be able to steal stuff with relative ease.

Substance E.4852:

Neoheart.2750:

Durzlla.6295:

thefantasticg.3984:

“Rangers are OP!!1!!11!one!1!!!!”

Said no one in PVE ever….

I’ve had someone say “thank god we have a ranger here!” To me last night on the marionette fight! Brave little Beary face tanked the NPC immune to frontal attacks while all the players stood behind him and pounded dat kitten Never thought I’d see the day if see those words not dripping in sarcasm…. Don’t worry I asked, he wasn’t being sarcastic.

@OP you silly thieves always think you can fight my support ranger and escape while I’m roaming with my thieffy friend, little do you realize Sick’Em, muddy terrain, and a well timed KBS will keep your kitten sitting nice and pretty for her burst <3

Boasting about 2v1 someone, did no one in PvP ever…

I don’t think I have ever seen someone pat themselves on the back so much for being a CC spam kiosk.

I enjoy shutting people down, there’s a reason I had 3 interrupts on my bar back in GW1 + a cripple spam, damage has never been something I’ve been into and I doubt it ever will.

One thing I can say though is when you can shut people down it makes it a hell of a lot easier to 2vX

It’ll probably be in BM, AoE Ferocity buff while your pet is up or something.

Castaliea.3156:

Durzlla.6295:

Castaliea.3156:

I seriously just can’t wait to read their reasoning behind this DPS nerf. God, every single time I read update notes or previews I just sit there and laugh. So many things have been identified as core issues of design and need addressing for well over a year and none of it gets touched meanwhile, “OMG my fellow Devs, we need to fix critical damage! It’s breaking our game!” gets the spotlight? ANet has become such a joke over the past year it really isn’t even funny anymore.

They’re nerfing the damage because everyone being DPS is too strong in PvE, it literally trivializes fights and ignores entire fight mechanics, the devs (as one would imagine) don’t like this so they’re trying to nerf down DPS builds as a whole and bring support and control builds up, which is why all the heals we were given are very supporty/ tanky oriented (with the exception of the guardians), and why support stuff is getting added/buffed every balance patch.

EDIT: kitten you auto correct.

That has almost nothing to do with the DPS done by players but the complete lack of effort taken to design boss attacks, Unshakable denying the point of any control builds, support being unneeded/lack-luster, and condition play being almost jut as pointless due to a terrible stack system.

Nerfing DPS simply because one is too lazy to address the real issues eating the game is not an excuse at all.

Hey, don’t shoot the kittening messenger, i don’t think it’s a good idea, i think it would’ve been a lot better for everyone if they just made the mechanics of fights not as DPS friendly IE unavoidable damage, more enemies using protection and regen/heals (like legit heal skills that you’d need to interrupt or weaken), more retaliation etc.

Actually, both the Marionette AND the wurm are both set up to be able to go about their stuff multiple times, the marionette is a weapons test, and the wurm has been said to regenerate.

Rengaru.4730:

Durzlla.6295:

You guys do realize as long as YOUR platform completed it and YOU do not get hit by the attack for the entire duration YOU are on the platform you get the achievement right? I got the “Avoid the lightning attack!” Achievement and my platform was the only group competent enough to attack the boss from behind….

Thats wrong.

1. You do net get the achievement if a single other platform fails. A Dev even confirmed this in this very thread.
2. The Champion you have to hit from behind gives the “Lightfoot” (Marionette stomping) Achievement, not the lightning attack.

Ah yup, just realized that when I got lightfoot tonight, the one I was thinking of was the 3rd champ, for some reason thought the first one gave it to me when we failed it….

Question for those who actually roam (I mean I do sorta but it’s never solo) is it useful to use traps ( the universal WvW ones) at all?

bri.2359:

Durzlla.6295:

I’ve had someone say “thank god we have a ranger here!” To me last night on the marionette fight! Brave little Beary face tanked the NPC immune to frontal attacks while all the players stood behind him and pounded dat kitten

All the players??
I have never been on a pad with more than 2 others, and usually one of them goes down within secs of entering.

That champ at the end of lane 1 is the easiest of the lot, my cat ‘tanked’ it while myself and one other player beat it down. We were only 2 players on the pad.

I am a full zerker sword/xx ranger, and I learned the best place for rangers during this event is staying outside in the lanes.

Ranger do not have the burst DPS needed to beat down the champs within the time limit, and if a ranger is paired up with other low burst DPS classes, the lane fails. Oh and any ranger not using melee in the arena has no business being in there. Bows cannot do it.

Leave the arena to the burst DPS classes. Do not waste the slot, go help defend another lane instead or the entire event will fail.

Playing selfishly for the AP’s guarantees the event fails.

Uh, no it won’t? You don’t need burst, you don’t even need high DPS, you need to SURVIVE, I play a kittening cleric geared mercy rune 0/0/20/20/30 ranger in PvE and my pad has yet to not kill their champion in time, even when said pad has only me and one other player on it.

The fights aren’t designed for burst, the fights are designed so you obey their mechanics, if you don’t obey the mechanics you normally get 1shot or can’t even DPS the mob. ESPECIALLY on the last guardian, I had to Rez so many people during that one because not standing in red circles is apparently too hard to do.

Neoheart.2750:

Durzlla.6295:

thefantasticg.3984:

“Rangers are OP!!1!!11!one!1!!!!”

Said no one in PVE ever….

I’ve had someone say “thank god we have a ranger here!” To me last night on the marionette fight! Brave little Beary face tanked the NPC immune to frontal attacks while all the players stood behind him and pounded dat kitten Never thought I’d see the day if see those words not dripping in sarcasm…. Don’t worry I asked, he wasn’t being sarcastic.

@OP you silly thieves always think you can fight my support ranger and escape while I’m roaming with my thieffy friend, little do you realize Sick’Em, muddy terrain, and a well timed KBS will keep your kitten sitting nice and pretty for her burst <3

Boasting about 2v1 someone, did no one in PvP ever…

You think that thieves travel alone in WvW…. That’s cute….. The little kittens always travel in packs, they’re like velociraptors, one distracts you while the other goes in for the kill.

BlackenX.7386:

Oh poor Rangers, your Goddess of nature – Melandru left you alone.

With no blessing of Melandru, no condition removal for Rangers

Rangers are weak in condition removal, LoL.

BTW, when can I have a REAL Ranger with no Pets?

The same time I can have Melandrus Resilience as my elite skill again xD

Castaliea.3156:

I seriously just can’t wait to read their reasoning behind this DPS nerf. God, every single time I read update notes or previews I just sit there and laugh. So many things have been identified as core issues of design and need addressing for well over a year and none of it gets touched meanwhile, “OMG my fellow Devs, we need to fix critical damage! It’s breaking our game!” gets the spotlight? ANet has become such a joke over the past year it really isn’t even funny anymore.

They’re nerfing the damage because everyone being DPS is too strong in PvE, it literally trivializes fights and ignores entire fight mechanics, the devs (as one would imagine) don’t like this so they’re trying to nerf down DPS builds as a whole and bring support and control builds up, which is why all the heals we were given are very supporty/ tanky oriented (with the exception of the guardians), and why support stuff is getting added/buffed every balance patch.

EDIT: kitten you auto correct.

Kilger.5490:

Durzlla.6295:

What are you talking about? I never said zerker ranger is bad or anything it’s just DIFFERENT from a zerker thief or warrior, it’s not burst reliant, and it has a “pet tax” so direct damage doesn’t scale as well as condi does (god knows why), rangers still deal an insanely high amount of consistent damage between them and their pet and of you’re full zerker using a cat? You’re probably out DPSing that warrior, ESPECIALLY if you’ve got companions might on.

You implied rangers were ok since we have access to condi damage, where I said that zerk ranger was a valid route that many of us go too, and hence are very affected by this unmitigated.

Now why do you believe burst is the only way to dps? Steady dps is affected by the same measures being proposed in equal measure. Cat doesnt survive two seconds in zerg wvw or help with keep warfare, so pet damage isnt something I am concerned with.

If you’ve seen any of my builds you’d know that i think burst is stupidly useless in this game, way too easy to mitigate because people can just hit dodge.

The rest of the playerbase thinks differently than that though and seem to be under the delusions that Burst is end all be all.

And you don’t need to use cats i very rarely use them, i normally stick with Canines which i have not yet a single issue with in keep/zerg warfare, just keep your pet out of the fight unless the front lines have clashed, normally keeps my pet up in WvW and still allows him to run around being a monster.

If you’re not running any traits it looks like the mine may be stronger since it does direct damage and a longer bleed/cripple

HOWEVER, that’s assuming you’re throwing it down mid fight, the trap set up preemptively would be stronger since you can have them trip it and then use it again where the mine lasts only as long as the CD so you’ll only ever have one.

Not to mention the mine does not go off instantly where the trap does, and it doesn’t look like the mine is unblockable, so the damage could be blocked, whereas spike trap that’s not gonna happen.

Idk man, take a longbow and a sword and you can juke for days…. One thing that’s fun to do is when you’re running away with LB3, stealth and then sick your pet on some ambient wild life and watch them run that way thinking you hit F3

thefantasticg.3984:

“Rangers are OP!!1!!11!one!1!!!!”

Said no one in PVE ever….

I’ve had someone say “thank god we have a ranger here!” To me last night on the marionette fight! Brave little Beary face tanked the NPC immune to frontal attacks while all the players stood behind him and pounded dat kitten Never thought I’d see the day if see those words not dripping in sarcasm…. Don’t worry I asked, he wasn’t being sarcastic.

@OP you silly thieves always think you can fight my support ranger and escape while I’m roaming with my thieffy friend, little do you realize Sick’Em, muddy terrain, and a well timed KBS will keep your kitten sitting nice and pretty for her burst <3

thefantasticg.3984:

Durzlla.6295:

You MUST call it back to get it out of aoes, or swap it/heal it if its health gets low, especially in PvP and WvW where their health is significantly smaller.

Which, like we talked about in the other thread, that is a viable way to use the pet if you’re at ranged like you like to play the Ranger, but that tactic is going to fall flat when in melee like how I like to play the Ranger… even when you #3 with the sword or lightning reflex then F3 as there’s just too much delay to use it.

Totally valid if you’re Melee, most the people complaining about it though likely are trying to be the “stereotypical ranger” and use a bow and just can’t be bothered to hit F3.

They should make the pets “evade” when you hit F3 for a short period so you can at least have it dodge stuff better. I mean if it’s really too strong give them an “endurance bar” and if they would take a hit while you have them running back to you via F3 it drains a portion of it and they evade, then vigor would be useful for em and natural vigor could affect pet too shrugs.

Kilger.5490:

Durzlla.6295:

Rangers will be hit the least by this because rangers benefit the least from going full zerker. Rangers (as others have mentioned) get the most out of their hybrid damage builds because condis get full scaling and we have easy applications of all of them but confusion and torment, and power is nice, but we kinda get kitten by the whole “pet tax” (god knows why this is even there since condi builds completely ignore it).

Not to mention zerker builds sorta favor burst because it’s “do or die” and rangers are lacking in burst… Granted we make up for it in leaps and bounds in the steady DPS department.

Long story short, our power builds aren’t as 1337 as the warrior ones so a 10% damage increase across the board will hit us less than a warrior, ESPECIALLY since X% of our damage is tied to our pet who in most builds has 0 crit damage and is thus unaffected.

Your premise is based on a hybrid build, why do you draw conclusions about a zerk build from that? I do perfectly fine as a zerk heavy build, its what my weapons (ascended btw a lot of work) and trinkets (also ascended) are based around. I dont use conditions aside from immob/cripple/vuln (non-damage) and havent been wanting for them. This is a game in progress, I have already invested a LOT of time in assembling my gear, its not a reboot where we all go back to start.

From what you say it means they should leave us alone… we dont need nerf; any would be excessive. Nerf the warrior if thats where the problem is.

What are you talking about? I never said zerker ranger is bad or anything it’s just DIFFERENT from a zerker thief or warrior, it’s not burst reliant, and it has a “pet tax” so direct damage doesn’t scale as well as condi does (god knows why), rangers still deal an insanely high amount of consistent damage between them and their pet and of you’re full zerker using a cat? You’re probably out DPSing that warrior, ESPECIALLY if you’ve got companions might on.

I’m just saying since a very large chunk of our damage (our pet) doesn’t even use crit damage we are getting nerfed less than the guys who put all their eggs in one basket. Crit damage got nerfed so naturally that nerfs all builds that use crit damage , however just like with quickness we got nerfed the least and it actually brings us up because of it.

Before anyone pulls the bullkitten argument of “oh we were more reliant on quickness!” Ranger builds still used/use quickness a lot, the warrior and thief meta builds that used it? All dead, every last one of them.

You guys do realize as long as YOUR platform completed it and YOU do not get hit by the attack for the entire duration YOU are on the platform you get the achievement right? I got the “Avoid the lightning attack!” Achievement and my platform was the only group competent enough to attack the boss from behind….

EDIT: Was totally wrong, didn’t realize how wrong I was until I got home and checked my achievements again.

Rangers will be hit the least by this because rangers benefit the least from going full zerker. Rangers (as others have mentioned) get the most out of their hybrid damage builds because condis get full scaling and we have easy applications of all of them but confusion and torment, and power is nice, but we kinda get kitten by the whole “pet tax” (god knows why this is even there since condi builds completely ignore it).

Not to mention zerker builds sorta favor burst because it’s “do or die” and rangers are lacking in burst… Granted we make up for it in leaps and bounds in the steady DPS department.

Long story short, our power builds aren’t as 1337 as the warrior ones so a 10% damage increase across the board will hit us less than a warrior, ESPECIALLY since X% of our damage is tied to our pet who in most builds has 0 crit damage and is thus unaffected.

Have any of you guys saying pets need a health and toughness buff for bosses even played PvE lately? Bears have kittening 50k HP, after that whole “pets have 75% more health” boosting thing and my fernhound I believe has like 34k or something ridiculous.

If your pet is dying it’s because YOU ARE IGNORING IT unless you’re using a bear with 30BM and 25pts in MB you can’t just hit F1 and forget about your pet.

You MUST call it back to get it out of aoes, or swap it/heal it if its health gets low, especially in PvP and WvW where their health is significantly smaller.

So…. Where does one get these? I got like 4 of them from doing the marionette fight, but I have no idea where or how I got them… Can anyone shed some light on this?

PS: if it’s from something in the secret room just say that, don’t want any spoilers.

Idk man, as much as I’d love more dedicated group content I do enjoy the occasional world boss Zerg content, ESPECIALLY now that Anet has created anti Zerg mechanics for their newer Zerg bosses.

Well this patch is the first of the 4 “living story finale” patches, so I really wasn’t expecting much… That being said the runes and sigils are going to be a HUGE change for PvP and WvW and probably even PvE so I’m more than happy to wait, not to mention the amulets (especially if they include a power/precision/healing power one in PvP) are gonna completely ruin the current meta and flood it with new possibilities.

All that aside I think we will take the pause in balance updates to talk about the weapons a bit.

I bought an invisible bag for this alone xD

RyuDragnier.9476:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Aedelric.1287:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

The new Asura is a female golemancer obsessed with Scarlet.

Well, I guess the writer who created Scarlet was so upset that no one liked the character they decided to write a fictional fan for the twig instead.

Seriously though we do not need another Zojja.

I’m hoping that her obsession with the tree lady implies that she is somewhat unstable, and not as goodie goodie as Zojja. I’ll. never forgive Zojjas comments about my infinity ball. What a wuss!

I’m hoping the obsession implies that she wants to force Scarlet’s knowledge into a golem that can tell them everything at a single command. Meaning killing her, and trapping her mind into some kind of orb for which to power her golem with. At which point said golem will tell them specific knowledge if they ask for it, and every now and then devolve into insane cackling.

I’ll be upset if this doesn’t happen now…

PS: I can’t agree more about the infinity ball, she only didn’t want me to pursue it because she was too lame to think of such an amazing idea!

I still think Kasmeer is the real villain here, she’s totally an act, she’s the real scarlet!

9am-10am server time for PST is 11:00 – 12:00 central time or 12:00 – 13:00 eastern time.

Kilger.5490:

Yep… pretty sure its never worked for me while pet is dead…. at least I always swap out pets when I notice i have condis loaded up and pet is at zero.

I’ve previously decided on carrying only high vitality pets (3000+). They have to absorb a lot of abuse. Be proud of your bear!!

HINT: if you use Masters Bond + Companions Might (or just companions might with a high crit build) your bear will regularly hit for near 2k damage, have full Masters Bond and Stability training and that kittening bear is gonna be able to face tank most 1 hit kills as well and keep mauling things for 2.5k damage autos and ~4k damage Bites.

Granted if you put a cat in the same scenario you’ll be getting warrior 100B numbers popping up, but cats kittening implode when a stiff breeze flys through the battlefield , bears just man up, ignore the damage, and keep swinging.

thefantasticg.3984:

Durzlla.6295:

thefantasticg.3984:

Can’t listen to it for another week at least.

Sevans.4619:

I think some people forget that F1 and F3 are also part of the class mechanic and should be used liberally. You’re right in that it’s a topic that needs to be covered.

[PVE]
I don’t think people forget them. F3 didn’t work as well as it should have for the longest time. There was lots of complaining about it until it was fixed where it breaks animation to return. F1 doesn’t really matter unless the pet is on passive as they are going to auto attack your target anyway.

On the same token F1 and F3 are useless in melee if you and the pet are attacking the same target… and most of them time I use them to attack the target I am (before I pretty much ran them on passive all the time). Only time my F1 and F3 see any action is when I’m using a bow/axe which ain’t most of the time… unless… it’s tagging time.

Actually F3 is useful everywhere F3 clears your pets attack Que making the F2 guaranteed to Q next, very very useful for those, like myself, that like to be 5 moves ahead of their enemy, so I can get my wolf to fear exactly when I want him too, makes PvP significantly less frustrating!

That bolded part… Sounds much more important for PVP than it does for PVE… which is why I put the [PVE] on my comment for context. In PVE damage mitigation through recalling the pet is the main function, IMO, of the F3. I say that because once you learn an encounter (the AI chain) so timing an F2 between mob AI interrupts is pretty easy… which is why I don’t need to use F3 to clear the que to use the F2… Pretty much you can just que it up and wait for it in 99% of the PVE encounters… especially dungeons because of defiance there’s no need for CC.

I know I do it in PvE but it’s more because I like to time my pets buffs to go off with their F2, EX: Jag Stealth + Sick’Em + SotH = really hard hitting Bite.

Then again I tend to not be in Melee too much because I don’t like being Melee in general, but I haven’t had too many issues with keeping my pet up in Melee because healing spring is an absolute monster.

Bran.7425:

When exactly did empathetic bond start doing that? Not to sound tin hat, but it seems to me that this has to be a recent bug that might be isolated to the sPvP side of things. I have a feeling the spirit of nature ‘bug’ is probably of a similar nature.

Also what is with this skritty focus on harming the pet as about half Ranger’s condition removal?

The Spirit is bugged in all aspects of the game actually, it just heals for WAY too much health (I use it regularly and I think it’s ridiculous I’m surprised it’s been like this for so long). As for EB, I tested it in sPvP AND PvE AND WvW after they talked about it and it sure as hell doesn’t work like they think it does… Once your pet is dead your condi removal is gone.

And I think all of our condi removal minus healing spring kills our pet… There’s a reason I don’t use any of them, and it’s generally because I have 20 or more in BM

Arrys.7145:

Sevans.4619:

Oh! One of my favorite things to discuss when I was playing fighting games competitively were character match-ups. It’d be GREAT to talk about Ranger versus ??? class match-ups.

Tips versus each class, our weaknesses, strengths, etc.

Would be a good opportunity to also discuss ranger builds. I’ld be partial to a ranger builds section. Not just FOTM “META” but some non-standard.

Run a poll the week before and do a build review the following week…. AKA Engage the audience and increase traffic while also ensuring the content is of interest.

I would love to do this once the show gets a larger audience and gets rolling.

1) Flying around the battlefield like a squirrel, so much mobility, and so many ways to juke people it’s ridiculous, thank god most rangers don’t utilize this or that’s be a nightmare to fight lol.

2) Having my damage and support split between two entities, as much as a lot of people hate it that’s one of the biggest perks to our prof…. Now if only more stuff buffed the pet AND is simultaneously, MoC, Agility Training, Pets Prowess etc I’m looking at you!!

3) Having constant damage instead of the bursty roller coaster damage that warriors and thieves have, nothing makes an enemy panic more than when you’re constantly chunking out their health with attacks that it doesn’t matter if they dodge because it’ll be up before they can dodge again anyway. Or it’s like the SB, or Sword where that damage is on the auto and is pretty much unavoidable.

Neoheart.2750:

Its +50% damage which equals 1.5 or 150% damage. It can be confusing i know and there seems to be alot of this going around on the tooltips, it also adds to peoples confusion when they are aware that many of the tool tips are outright wrong in the first place.

You and your pet both receive the buff, so the next attack each of you deals is 50% stronger.

Its a bad trait imo and tbh there isn’t enough burst available to take full advantage of something like that. Also take the greatsword for example, #5 is a stun/daze (interupt) and it already applies the opportunity to your pet, they do not stack…

It’s far from a bad trait, you do NOT take the trait for the damage but more for the longer CC (2s stuns/dazes on SB and GS as well as longer fears, stuns and dazes from any environmental item you pick up), the attacks of opportunity are certainly nice, but if you’re running MoC, it shouldn’t be for the “burst”

Stx.4857:

I am new to ranger so maybe this is a good topic for me to get advice about the build I made today in spvp.

I went 30/20/20 with Longbow/Greatsword, sigils of fire. I got both longbow traits, signet mastery(mainly for signet of stone), and -20% greatsword cooldowns.

I am using zerker amulet, with divinity runes. This gives me nice power, 48% crit before fury, and 2500 armor, 19000 HP, which isnt too shabby.

I mainly use signet of stone, signet of.. (the condition clear one), and protect me.

My goal with the build is to have two high power damage weapons, both with nice defensive skills(stealth, blocking, two cc’s), with lower cds on them, and mix high offense with some decent armor/hp and have protect me/sig of stone to bail me out of situations.

I have only played a handful of matches with it, and so far it seems my main glaring weakness is conditions… Other than my 60 second cd condition clear signet, I only have healing spring to clear condi’s, and it really makes me feel like I have no chance vs good Necro’s/mes/engies.

I was looking through the traits and it seems the only real way to get condition removal is to go 30 into vitality line, which would mess up my build so… yeah.

Every big condi burst skill is like any direct damage burst, you can deny the entire thing with a single dodge/evade, learn what they are, what to look for, and dodge it and you should have little to no issue vs them.

Also, keep in mind that you don’t wanna activate sig of renewal unless you REALLY need it because you lose the passive condi removal/10s when it’s on CD.

Btw, what pets are you using?

thefantasticg.3984:

Can’t listen to it for another week at least.

Sevans.4619:

I think some people forget that F1 and F3 are also part of the class mechanic and should be used liberally. You’re right in that it’s a topic that needs to be covered.

[PVE]
I don’t think people forget them. F3 didn’t work as well as it should have for the longest time. There was lots of complaining about it until it was fixed where it breaks animation to return. F1 doesn’t really matter unless the pet is on passive as they are going to auto attack your target anyway.

On the same token F1 and F3 are useless in melee if you and the pet are attacking the same target… and most of them time I use them to attack the target I am (before I pretty much ran them on passive all the time). Only time my F1 and F3 see any action is when I’m using a bow/axe which ain’t most of the time… unless… it’s tagging time.

Actually F3 is useful everywhere F3 clears your pets attack Que making the F2 guaranteed to Q next, very very useful for those, like myself, that like to be 5 moves ahead of their enemy, so I can get my wolf to fear exactly when I want him too, makes PvP significantly less frustrating!

I have never ran EB extensively because I like my pet to be useful, which EB doesn’t allow, and I’ve never had issues with conditions, just gotta know what to dodge, the same as any physical damage.

Also a lot of you are saying 50% damage reduction isn’t much but it seems this applies before your armor reduction which nerfs their damage by a lot more than 50%, not to mention that this stacks with protection, which you get everytime you dodge, which nerfs their damage even more.

It literally gets to the point where 13k back stabs begin to tickle you for 2k, the damage reduction is absolutely MASSIVE. Not to mention you don’t have EB, so your pet won’t be totally kitten either, which is a huge advantage.

If you’re having issue with condis running Barkskin I’d suggest grabbing Melandru runes, and/or healing spring and/or sig of renewal, and if you’re bunkering? Take a brown bear + protect me, you’ll oversee the rise and fall of nations with that tankyness.

I don’t even get why people are upset with the pistol whip change , it’s a total buff in PvP, you can stun a rezzer and then tele to someone, which immobs them and go berserk on them and then teleport back to go back on the rezzer… Just so many possibilities now that it’s split.

I’m a huge fan of 20/20/10/0/20, sure it has no grandmaster trait but pair that with zerker armor, a longbow with Sigil of ice, a frost trap, and some runes of speed for roaming or runes of scholar for killing and you become VERY difficult to get a hold of, and your pet will be a bit more than a nuisance with 20 in BM + the might and vigor you’ll get from swapping pets.

I’ll put up a link the the full build when I get back home.

CMstorm.8679:

Durzlla.6295:

CMstorm.8679:

Where would Bark Skin see the most use in what builds?

I’ve used it in “tanky” dps builds (by tanky i mean something like valk or barbarian/knights something that isn’t totally damage oriented) and i’ve also used it in bunker builds and it works really well in both, ESPECIALLY if you’ve got a heal like TU or are running a lot of regen because it makes you extremely hard to kill once you drop into that 25% threshold unless they’re condi damage.

I personally think it works best when using HaO paired with high regen uptime, the regen itself tends to keep you alive long enough for HaO to come back off CD and allow you to shoot back up in health and really throw people off.

Pve/dungeons/fractals/wvw?

And also it just negates direct damage, not condition damage :/
does the beast master signet trait affect Signet of Stone being able to negate conditions? or not? i haven’t tried that yet, though i’ve wanted to since like forever lol

Normally sPvP, but i’ve used it in Dungeons/Fractals before, didn’t really notice it there but that’s because i normally don’t get downed very much….

Also, it’s good for toughness AND vitality builds, toughness builds it cuts the balls off of like all damage you take, and for vitality builds it gives you the tankyness you normally lack (granted only for a short time)

I could give you one, how glassy do you want to be?

CMstorm.8679:

Where would Bark Skin see the most use in what builds?

I’ve used it in “tanky” dps builds (by tanky i mean something like valk or barbarian/knights something that isn’t totally damage oriented) and i’ve also used it in bunker builds and it works really well in both, ESPECIALLY if you’ve got a heal like TU or are running a lot of regen because it makes you extremely hard to kill once you drop into that 25% threshold unless they’re condi damage.

I personally think it works best when using HaO paired with high regen uptime, the regen itself tends to keep you alive long enough for HaO to come back off CD and allow you to shoot back up in health and really throw people off.

this Trait is already freaking ridiculously strong… Hint Protection + Barkskin = taking almost no damage.

Also, this trait, unlike EB, doesn’t butcher your pet (you know that very important part of your profession), AND it occurs individually on you and your pet IE if you’re at 25% or lower you take 50%, and then if your pet is at 25% or lower THEY take 50% less, makes them very had to bring down.

Weapon Strategy is a great Idea, and one thing i can absolutely say i want to cover is how to use the pets better, i was watching sPvP hotjoins just a few moments ago and was literally screaming at my computer with how bad their pet management was… Totally wanna work on getting more rangers to use their pets properly!

As for the Ambient music it’s actually the music from Heart of the Mist, I was logged in GW2 during the podcast (had it minimized) didn’t realize It’d pick up the music at first lol, gotta say I really like the touch, gonna do that next time too!!

Dolt.2731:

Durz, the empathitic bond nerf that is incoming is what I’m talking about. And I do know that about mesmer’s, but they can still get from point a to b much quicker than rangers. Hell, they can get entire groups from point a to b… which couples with the kitten poor group support of the ranger.

When discussing rangers I feel that saying you are faster than a necro/ guard should never have to be said, lol. And where are all these roaming rangers? Don’t see to many these days… at least well-played one’s outside of Tanbin.

Anywho, Staff could make this a much more dynamic class.

Oh you mean the bug fix? For the bug that has yet to really happen ever? Because you know… if your pet were to die RIGHT NOW while EB was going it would make it so you stop losing conditions…

Sevans.4619:

Warriors can GS & Sword/Horn their way out of a lot of crappy situations, for sure, but I’ve seen a Thief shadowstep a few thousand units away in the blink of an eye.

yeah… but unless you’re being Brave Brave Sir Robin that weapon combo is horrible… So says every warrior friend i’ve asked about it!

We were hoping to do that… but we kinda wanna plan B incase they’re like “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Nothing happened!!”