I really like being able to plant them instead of have them follow me around. They just die way to easy if you have them following you around.
If you trait for more health and run AoE regen they become tanky little kittens, but if you want to run spirits WITHOUT trait investment I fully agree, and I’ve included sun spirit in SEVERAL builds without boosting it and it works fine.
Granted, as you are stating it’s a 100% different play style, you need to hide them and keep them out of sight or out of danger instead of being able to take them into the fray.
It’s actually a radius, and it’s melee range untraited so it’s not -that- bad to hit them with. If you have the trait it’s a little further than melee range. You can also use spirits more as a detaunt, so if any enemy gets near you they blow up.
Not to mention that they can be activated while you’re stunned and w/e and the effect will go off, which has proved to be better than a stun break a lot of times with that freaking sun spirit, that thing is a life savor (can also be used to blind nearby enemies twice to secure a stomp)
If you’re so inclined to have Spirits unbound and have Nature Renewal as your elite, hitting your elite skill to activate its burst just before you go down will cause you to get back up long before someone could finish you. It’s unfortunate you can’t actually do it while downed though. It’s about a second delay before the revive kicks in, so y’know, the timing isn’t too difficult.
More on-topic though, the bottom line is, the spirits’ bursts are pretty kitten strong. While they’re only short range, if you have a pack of spirits following you I highly doubt anyone would be wanting to try and melee you. This is actually a good thing, it means the spirits’ bursts can have more impact because they don’t immediately have an effect on everyone in a teamfight.
If you have Natures Vengeance your Nature spirit will Rez people when it’s killed (this usually results in the enemies getting kitten ed off because they killed the spirit at a poor time) and the spirit also will cleanse all condis from allies within range upon activation (not just rezzing).
Another helpful tip, Spirits counter the meta (AoE everything!) because it can cause spirits to do a double active (IE you activate them all and then they all die causing their actives to go off a second time) which will absolutely turn the tides of battle.
Also, all spirits can proc one another, so your spirits can all proc sun spirit and stone spirit making the burning last longer (I’ve read spirits have 800 condi dmg to boot) and making them harder to bring down.
Replace gear with berserker.
Use melee weapon.Profit.
Uh, pretty sure his build profits a bit more than full zerker…
No because we have a 10pt trait that makes their boons have +50% duration, which is more than I can get without giving up 30 traits and my runes…
If you want to kill the current meta’s spirit ranger, all you have to do is kill the sun spirit (takes like 3 seconds tops), kill the stone spirit (like knocking over a house of cards), CC the now naked ranger once or twice, then clean up the mess. As long as you have decent condition removal, you’ll be fine.
I hope you don’t try that strategy against a power spirit ranger, you’ll be kittened.
There’s a thread in the PvP forum that’s complaining/debating over whether spirit rangers are OP.
I’m sorry, I’m just still trying to rap my head around how anyone could even begin to think this. Spirits are still our most broken utility next to shouts. We finally get a teeny tiny bit of group support, and then we get called out as OP again. It’s just…wow. Just wow.
Actually, spirits -are- really strong now, you throw some regen on those things and it takes a good deal to take them down, and their actives aren’t useless anymore, that being said they’re far from OP.
I’d say their decent 1v1 and strong in group fights (ok, they -may- be OP when paired with a minion master but that’s a 2 man comp not a single build). I think people just need to put on their big boy pants and accept the fact they suck and need to get better.
That or the ranger community needs to stop leaping onto the bandwagon and start being more creative so our good builds aren’t tuned into being so good xD.
Huh, interesting build, you’ll definitely be made of glass though.
Just curious, are you using Rampagers weapons as well? Or something else? Also, why Bear + Drake? Any reasoning behind it or no?
Also, have you though about using Nightmare Runes instead of adventurer? Or TU instead of spring?
A phoenix skin is probably somewhere in their Future plans.
It just didn’t make sense in Tyria b/c it’s NOT A TYRIAN SPECIES. …Duh…
Might as well complain about there not being white tigers everywhere too.
(disregarding certain very pale striped Charr of course).
Yeah, once we go to Cantha I guarantee we will see the return of the Phoenix pet, as well as several others! I want my crane back, Sgt Slappy I miss you =(
I’m more worried about whether or not we’re going to get shafted because the whole our skills scale like kitten (compared to other profs) and our pet gets NO bonus for our gear.
This
Every single powercreep update in Gear … consumables .. and … just about everything else… continually makes our pets and thus US —> WORSE b/c those pets do NOT receive those buffs/enhancements like they really should. (in PvE … NOT in sPvP where you can’t even use any of that crap in the first place)
I wonder if they have the tech to make your pets stats increase the more Ascended Gear you’re wearing. IE If you have a 0 Ascended Gear your pets are as strong as now, but if you have say a full set they’ll get a boost to bring them up to par.
I think thats kinda wishful thinking… at current they dont even have the technology to make our arrows not miss when people side strafe…. (feels like ANET is going for gimmicky stuff without addressing core concerns as always)
Uh, that’s a game mechanic not a bug, they could very easily turn the projectile speeds up to the point their undodgeable, but then you lose a layer of skill.
In GW1 you could dodge projectiles via strafing and there was nothing you could do about it, in GW2 you can also dodge projectiles via strafing but you can always just aim your skills like I normally do so they can’t dodge kitten. Thanks Smite for making me a skill shooting beast =D.
Don’t make me buy my own mechanic. Purely cosmetic maybe.
I assumed it was literally a skin nothing more, IE you pull out a Wolf and I’m the pet menu get an option to “reskin” the wolf as a lunar wolf. Make it so you don’t even double up like with HoM (IE you couldn’t run Lunar Wolf + Another wolf with same F2 to get double F2).
I’d rather they didn’t.
Maybe you people sit at range all day… but I prefer melee and the LAST place I want that squishy little spirit is right next to me getting cleaved while I’m tanking or evading the Boss.
I’m a longbow user myself, but whenever i go into melee i sure as hell don’t want my spirits to follow me…
I’d rather them make it so that spirits actives are ground target effects, because that’s pretty much the only reason people want them to move anyway…
I’d rather see Phoenix’s as their own pet due to how much bigger they are than the other birds…
But i would like to see the Lunar wolf as a pet option for sure!
I’m more worried about whether or not we’re going to get shafted because the whole our skills scale like kitten (compared to other profs) and our pet gets NO bonus for our gear.
This
Every single powercreep update in Gear … consumables .. and … just about everything else… continually makes our pets and thus US —> WORSE b/c those pets do NOT receive those buffs/enhancements like they really should. (in PvE … NOT in sPvP where you can’t even use any of that crap in the first place)
I wonder if they have the tech to make your pets stats increase the more Ascended Gear you’re wearing. IE If you have a 0 Ascended Gear your pets are as strong as now, but if you have say a full set they’ll get a boost to bring them up to par.
Who says this wont happen? I have a feeling this upcomming election will end up being a perfect storm, if Kiel wins she’s going to pretty much declare war on the Consortium, and then if Evon wins he’s probably going to be going super consortium and it’ll be like the settlers scenario on a larger scale.
That and it’s just begun, if you’ve noticed from the personal story they aren’t afraid to make you lose cough cough CLAW ISLAND cough cough
I use Scholar Runes instead of thief, at 1500 it’s a lot easier to be at 90% or more health than it is to flank.
Ya, I like this option here better too, switching them out
you also get more crit damage, always nice for builds like this.
oh wow so for the secondary skills to be viable the spirit has to be up your enemies bum? thats too bad 8(
It’s actually a radius, and it’s melee range untraited so it’s not -that- bad to hit them with. If you have the trait it’s a little further than melee range. You can also use spirits more as a detaunt, so if any enemy gets near you they blow up.
Not to mention that they can be activated while you’re stunned and w/e and the effect will go off, which has proved to be better than a stun break a lot of times with that freaking sun spirit, that thing is a life savor (can also be used to blind nearby enemies twice to secure a stomp)
May want to run ranger runes. The combined bonus is 9.6% between the extra precision, condition damage, and +5% damage when you have a companion (and you always do, even if they are defeated).
Ranger runes don’t give condition damage, they give crit damage and precision…
I believe the most recent patch notes said its a 240 range, 360 radius when traited (which is a bit further than most Melee skills), however the spirit range is a 900 radius (ranged for just about every prof).
(edited by Durzlla.6295)
I use Scholar Runes instead of thief, at 1500 it’s a lot easier to be at 90% or more health than it is to flank.
Corrupted/nightmare pets.
Even if just for RP-purpose…otherwise: More pet control. (stay, go to x place, don’t use skill y, attack a diff target than me, etc)
You can have your pet attack a different target already, put them on passive and spam F1 on a target (doubt you need to spam it, but that’s what I do) and then shoot the target -you- want and the pet won’t move.
If your pet is on defensive or w/e the red one is called your pet will stick to whoever you’re attacking instead of staying on the target you sent them to.
I’m more worried about whether or not we’re going to get shafted because the whole our skills scale like kitten (compared to other profs) and our pet gets NO bonus for our gear.
But i doubt there will be as many problems as a few people think, i’m sure Anet isn’t going to allow stats to inflate more than they’ve found it’d work.
Prosperity and happiness? Or stability and happiness?
Prosperity and happiness translates into Stability and Protection if you ask me xD
I’ve officially watched this, and i find it hilarious, how upset they’re getting! Oh, you were outplayed boys, just suck it up and accept it!
Good job my fellow rangers!
I don’t buy keys, I played GW1 and done the whole Abbadon mission (too easy) I have used WP’s over the last 9 months losing a nice bit of gold. The reactor well tbh I don’t run fractals… So I vote for the independent party! :P
On a serious note, I am voting for Ellen. The cheaper WP cost appealed to me. I done the Abbadon story back in GW1 I feel a newer story/lore for the reactor would be more interesting if I was to ever run fractals.
Wrong Abbadon story, it’s already been said it’ll be when he’s cast to the realm of torment, not what we did in GW1.
That being said I’m torn between the candidates, I REALLY want to see the gods duke it out, but at the same time I want to see all the conflict Kiel will bring (her campaign is essentially “kitten the Consortium, vote for Kiel.”) not to mention I know NOTHING about the reactor, but I also would prefer keys over WPs, because I’m a gambling man and would love to spin the wheel a few times…
We will see where my vote lies when it comes time to throw my tokens to someone!!
I’d argue that rangers difficulty is pretty low, I’d certainly rate the skill floor as higher than thief, warrior, and guardian, but it’s skill ceiling is probably just above Warrior, IE: the second lowest.
I’d say most of ranger is more punishing than difficult, as I’ve said elsewhere, for ranger if you kitten up with your pet management you get kitten D by the consequences. We lose a large portion of our damage, and sometimes even utility/support (depending on how you build) for 60s. NO OTHER PROFESSION gets hit that hard by kittening up with their profession mechanic.
If the pet swap CD was just 20s flat, or our pet would Rez (while in combat) within 20s of dying without the swap(IE you can swap and take a huge CD but have pet ASAP or wait and be petless) then it’d be fine.
Idk what bunker build you use, but GS + S/D(or LB for KB) with a Moa and a bear (or double up on either of those) does really well for holding a point.
Will you kill anything? Hell no, maybe and I mean MAYBE if the fight went on for like 10 min but they sure as hell won’t be taking you out if you know what you’re doing.
Only real downsides to it is the lack of stability and throwing them off the point, but it does well against sustained DPS, condi, burst, AoE, and I’ve survived countless 1v3s for long enough for my team to show up.
The main problem with all of this is that the Phoenix’s in GW1 were not European Phoenix’s, they were Asian (I think Chinese specifically) IE: NOT FIRE. So that entire idea of fire, rebirth blah blah blah, not gonna happen.
That being said, I’d love to see the Phoenix’s make a reappearance and I’d love to see them as their OWN type (or at least share it with other large flying birds/animals).
PS: I’ll put up a skill set later based upon the Chinese myth if you want, or at least a bullet for what their known for.
Just out of curiosity, what exactly is wrong with rangers that need fixing? Because I can think of a lot more things that need nerfs than buffs, unless that’s what you meant.
Rangers have a lot of issues with their prof mechanic SOMETHING needs to change, they’re the only prof who can drop off due to not scaling well (pet gets 0 benefit from stats), ther DPS can be killed pretty kittening easily in PvE and WvW, and if you kitten up you get kittenED by that stupid 60s pet swap CD, if that was say 30 if your pet died, or kitten even 40, it’d be a lot more forgiving to make an error. Necros don’t get totally boned for using DS improperly (it certainly will hurt them, but not as majority as rangers)
I’d love to see preps and pet skills added. Preps would work like venoms do, except I’d like to see a trait at least to make your pet gain it as well (Call it Poisonous Bite). Pet Attacks would be like in GW1 you command your pet to perform an action that ALL pets can do, IE: Pets next Attack applies Tornent and Cripple (that’s an EXAMPLE).
If they’re just adding onto our existing utility types…
Trap: Dust Trap: applies blind and deals damage, is a smoke field.
Smoke Bomb: when triggered it explodes Dazing(1s), blinding, and confusing anyone within the area.
Spirit: Edge of Extinction: has a 35% chance to apply retaliation to allies, active: apply 5 stacks of confusion to nearby enemies.
Pestilence: allies have a 35% chance to apply poison on their attacks (maybe weakness too but I feel that’d be too strong). Active: Convert X boons into conditions (long CD, maybe only once per spirit)
Signet: Poison Tip Signet: you and your pet have increased critical chance. Active: your pets (traited to both) attacks cause poison for X seconds.
Antidote Signet (trait in nature magic): your signet skills remove 2 conditions from you and your pet upon activation.
The only area we aren’t ASKED for in groups is PvE, especially now that the 23k maul hit build has been discovered (that thing is EVERYWHERRE in WvW). In sPvP rangers are still asked for because their extremely powerful point defense and roamers.
And our issues ARE NOT because of traits and utilities aren’t working, we aren’t that great in PvE because we don’t benefit as much from a lot of stats as profs do, our pet dies due to things we can’t do anything about, butchering damage and utility.
These new traits and utilities could actually IMPROVE ranger by giving us more tools, like better support options, more condi cleanse (c’mon Antidote Signet!) so we aren’t “forced” into using 30 points in WS.
The ranger isn’t in a bad place, we just aren’t at the top, and the vast majority are stupid enough to believe that if it isn’t the “best” then it’s the “worst”.
I mean for BM Bunker, don’t use shortbow
Sword/Dagger/Axe/Torch are the weapons you want
shortbow is better for other things
I was always a fan of Sword/Torch/Axe/Dagger, but it’s essentially the same thing…
Shortbow is not a weapon you’d wanna use with BM though.
Huh, I guess I’m the only spirit ranger with a super support theme… I go 0/0/10/30/30 and take Healers Clerity with Mercy Runes and a Clerics Trinket, I gotta say though, it’s done amazing things in group fights!
@OP: I would personally run dual spider instead of dual canines (or one of each) due to the HUGE amount of single target control spiders have, but that’s just me.
This is not the place to look, go to the sPvP forums, there should be a subforum labeled PvP Events or something similar, that’s the place you want to watch.
Kiel blew up a ship. No doubt fully manned and filled with goods as well. That doesn’t sound life free trade to me. Would you support a terrorist who hinders trade through force?
Do you not recall her dialogue when that happened? That they had precautions to abandon ship if anything happened? And the fact that it was obviously done on purpose? You know she made sure her people were off the ship first. And the goods? Just Consortium papers conscripting people against their will. No hindered trade.
So what did she do wrong again?
Yeah, HER people knew, the consortium passengers on the other hand were not as lucky!
She’s a fiend and a scoundrel, she can’t be allowed to be on the council!
#voteEvon
Breeze Rider, I want to warp my enemies minds with my floating squid!!
Hey all,
I was looking to pick up Elementalist but have been pretty turned off by them mechanically. I enjoy the idea of a caster but find Necro too indirect (IE: it’s a lot of conditions, whereas I just want to hard-nuke people). Is there an option to make the Ele more single atunement focused?
At launch I ran DD Combo for the high dmg crits on Fire Grab and that was fun. But in terms of viability I feel like it’s pretty bad right now. Too many people run stability and that shuts down your combo for a good 30s~.
Anyways — I’m just looking for some ideas on playing a more single atunement Ele. Any thoughts?
You’ll want to avoid the Arcane tree like the Plague, and you can’t totally ignore your other attunements BUT you can use them a lot less.
If you want to be a “Pyro Mancer” you may look into a 30/20/10/0/10 build, you’d wanna take Arcane purely for the Arcane reduction, or you could go with 30/10/10/20/0 and go for a more Cantrip Oriented build.
Keep in mind both of those builds are GLASS, you essentially have to goal of blow up the enemy before they can do anything to you.
You could also try a “Fresh Air” build, granted you will swap a lot, but it’ll be more of Start in air, leave air, go back to air sort of swap than the usual swapping.
You could likely do the Same with Earth and Water, I just haven’t tried with it yet, I’ve seen plenty of “Healer” water builds that seem to work pretty well though so I’d imagine it can work!
EDIT: I just wanted to Clarify all the builds I listed above STILL swap attunements, they just don’t do it as often because they focus heavily on one role instead of a few, IE pyromancer wants to stay in Fire as much as possible for those might stacks, but should still swap if/when they need other things or to burst.
(edited by Durzlla.6295)
Idk how this works with D/D (I don’t like that set up) but I know Fire/Earth works pretty well with S/F and Staff, gives some nasty hybrid damage with Carrion Gear, but you do give up a bit of defenses…
Remove Dust Devil from Scepter and put Magnetic Aura instead.
That would make the S/F a bit mean to those poor rangers, 2 reflects and projectile destroy, I like it.
Why not just add the magnet aura to Dust Devil? I think that the Aura skills should all do something else AND apply the aura, IE Fire Aura is granted and you make an explosion of flames or something.
I just really like that piercing blind…. But magnet aura is so awesome….
I’d try something like 0/30/0/20/20 for the storm build but I’d take Tornado instead of FGS and then for the other utilities take glyphs and essentially just make it a Glyph + Control/Support build with some damage.
It could do -ok- in 1v1s but it’d certainly do much better in group fights.
@TGS actually the Focus was made first and actually had some skills such as Cleansing Wave, Pheonix, Churning Earth, and Updraft on it way back in alpha, but as you can see, not a single one of those stayed….. Along with a few others I can’t think of…
PS: this was back when Updraft literally launched the enemies into the air AKA freaking forever ago
PABX or did you get into the alpha / closed beta press release?
Cleansing Wave makes sense for a foucs. Your not going to be in close range so you can actually use the heal to support your group (instead of daggering off into the distance healing yourself). Updraft makes less sense. Of course this would be the other way around if you used D/F, to me that is a nice setup by your lake of RTL will make it easier to be kited.
It was in the wiki, people updated it after each PAX thing where they played, I just assumed it was correct.
Keep in mind those were alpha versions of the skills, churning earth was still a charge, updraft wasn’t even the same skill.
That being said I agree, cleansing wave would be a good skill for focus, I’d personally also like to see some of the single target focus skills (like gust) to become AoE as well.
(edited by Durzlla.6295)
It could work, you’ll need to take traits for defense ( or utilities) because staff lacks in that department.
Isn’t that the main problem of all our weapon sets? (Healing isn’t defense)
Dagger has some good Defense, but it’s Melee range so it’s mostly negated and Scepter has some AMAZING defenses but are all really Ranged based and worthless against Melee…. Staff can keep most Melee at bay for a while, but if they’re super mobile (like a thief) you run into issues…. Oh yeah, and Dogged March makes warriors stupid strong vs Staff now, they used to just be destroyed.
@TGS actually the Focus was made first and actually had some skills such as Cleansing Wave, Pheonix, Churning Earth, and Updraft on it way back in alpha, but as you can see, not a single one of those stayed….. Along with a few others I can’t think of…
PS: this was back when Updraft literally launched the enemies into the air AKA freaking forever ago
It could work, you’ll need to take traits for defense ( or utilities) because staff lacks in that department. Your best bet would likely to go with Cantrips, and if you want damage as well I’d suggest going 10 into fire for the Spell Slinger trait.
Staff can be pretty good 1v1 once you get the hang of it, CC is key for killing anything with the staff, and luckily the staff has a ton of CC built right in.
This was great fun to read I love all of these ideas, pet cemetary!!! heh master’s bond would likely be too good this way though why on earth pick anything else if all you have to do is have the pet out for 25s to gain so much? it’ll make a 10bm pet a 35bm pet just by waiting before heading anywhere not that I would complain if I had it XD
Lol not to mention that when MB gave 10 pts cats were capable of 15k crits in the beta (IF they felt like obeying you), but since the recent nerf to pets and if they made it every 5s instead, I feel it wouldn’t be too strong.
The first 2 or 3 trees I liked, granted 2s daze on hunters call is a bit over the top (2 would be better), the NM ones I’m not a huge fan of, get your grubby little paws away from my Enlargement and Circle of Life(comes up on downed and the regen can even rally you if you Hit 4 fast enough)!
I really like Pet Cemetary, I must have it!!
You see all those fancy pancy Attunement Skill CD reductions that no one takes? They should make each of those reduce CD on the swap time for THAT ONE ATTUNEMENT (wouldn’t stack with intelligence) be reduced by 40% which would be the equivalent to 20pts in Arcane, it’d allow some build diversity because if you wanted to be, say a tanky condi ele you’d be able to get into the attunement that allows that more often AND reduce those skills CDs.
IMHO it should do both. 20% cd to that attunement skills and 40% (not stacking) to the attunement. And for god sakes, why are they 20 points high, but the water one is 10?
So you can take all 4 is what I came to the conclusion of lol, and my suggestion is that they do both, it’d open so many doors and allow so many builds.
@TGS by Earth Shield I’m assuming you mean Conjure Earth? If so I agree fully, our conjures should all do something when summoned instead of just FGE and FA.
I’m aware this is a hot button issue, but I think I have a relatively fair solution to the problem. Here are my possible solutions:
1. Restore the Stun Breaker to Cleansing Fire. Hell, remove the burn if you really want to, so long as the stun break comes back.
2. Restore Stun Breaker to Lightning Flash and/or Cleansing Fire in PVE only.
3. Remove Stun Breaker from Signet of Air and restore Stun Breaker to Lightning Flash.
Don’t remove burning from cleansing fire.
Step 1 start Fire Grab, Step 2 teleport at enemy, Step 3 cleansing fire before the Fire Grab hits. Who would expect that?
No one, I saw some ele fire grabbing yesterday in PvP (he was a ways away from me) so I thought he was some noob, next thing I know he’s in my face and I’m dead xD
i think it’s silly that 19/20 staff skill are aoe. air #1, #2, water #2 should all be looked at. also sceptre fire #2 (DT), IMO the worst-designed skill in the game.
Staff has a skill that’s not an AoE? The whole point of that weapon is to be a mobile Artillery unit…
Pidgeonholing a weapon into AOE on a class with no weapon swap is a really dumb idea. It virtually guarantees a weapon will be hard to balance – OP in its niche and UP everywhere else.
At the very least there should be traits that increase single target dmg on staff at the cost of less AOE.
You mean like pigeonholing a total Melee oriented build on the same prof or having a purely defensive off hand? I see no problem with it being AoE only, it really shines at area Denial and nuking down groups of mobs.
The problem is we have no weapon swap. So when we get told no aoe because we don’t want to kill the marked cultist in cliffside fractal, all we have as an option is stoning…. but we want our aoe when the marked cultist is not nearby to burst down the other group.
Try a different strat? Run scepter for that part instead? Learn to get mobs away from each other? Take off blasting staff for one encounter?
@Oid you clearly aren’t a good player, I mean you seem to be in this illusionary world where the second I hit WD I can no longer move, and you clearly aren’t thinking if you go “oh that engi has a bomb kit! Lets pull him in and WD that’ll show him!!” That’s like popping WD on a zerker GS warrior and expecting to win out against 100blades.
You also seem to be completely ignoring the fact a ranger can immob someone for bloody ever, try to evade out of a WD when their running Black Widow + Jungle Spider, it’s ok, I’ll wait.
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