Guild Wars 2

Durzlla.6295:

Which is exactly why she’d be an evil druid, an evil druid would NOT share the exact same goals and morals as a normal druid. I’m not saying any druid who uses death and decay sorta stuff is evil, i’m just saying that’s a darker aspect of nature. Fyonna as a whole would be just a flat out evil character, her being a druid or not is irrelevant to this point. If she WERE a druid though, she’d have to have a different view of things than all the others because she’s evil.

Not to mention that she likely didn’t follow in any of their teachings and would just be using similar abilities to a druid, that she learned/achieved through other means, but that’s a different story.

Ah, I see where you’re coming from now. I thought you meant a druid that’s taken to an extremist view but still inherently upholds the basic virtues, not a former druid that’s gone off the deep end to the point of wanting to intrinsically change the natural world to fit her twisted views.

I still doubt she has any connection to druids though. The sylvari use magic to turn us into things all the time, and the Nightmare Court has an odd infatuation with spiders. It seems more likely to me that she’s just using Nightmare Court magic rather than calling on nature spirits or something.

I hope we get one or two new pet options. They did add the Reef Drake with Southsun so we know they aren’t strictly against giving rangers new pets to choose from.

Our profession mechanic is to explore the land and find new companions. It only stands to reason that as we go to new regions we’d find new pets to ally with.

Actually Durzlla, decay and death are a part of what Guild Wars druids were all about.

“Darkness and light, good and evil… all are a part of nature. There is no regrowth without death… Without decay. Such is the lesson that I can teach you, stripling.”
~Dark Oak Quote.

But that still doesn’t make Fyonna’s goals in line with them. She wants to cover the world in spiders, where as the druids of Maguuma were only interested in protecting the Maguuma Jungle. Throwing it into chaos by overpopulating it with giant spiders is the exact opposite of that.

Agroman.7190:

From a roleplaying point of view, I think this is very questionable. Think of the biological barriers between humans an Charr. It’s highly unlikely that either side would find the other attractive. The idea might be exciting as long as you’re a real life person sitting behind a computer, but imagine a creature such as a Charr standing right in front of you. Would you have any intentions of getting intimate? On top of that, Charr most likely have a smell about them that would hardly be attractive to humans, and the other way round.

Yes, perhaps it is possible in a really, really exceptional case. But think of the consequences a person would suffer. An interracial couple such as this would be shunned and most likely even hated by a large part of its own people. So really, I wouldn’t do it.

Sylvari+human is a different cup of tea. One could also say that human+Norn or Norn+Charr would be less of an issue, since the Norn are pretty much in between the two concerning several points (humanoid physique, large body, animal transformations), but still, I would disapprove if they steered Braham and Rox in that direction.

Attraction doesn’t really follow a set of rules. Animals behave in ways contrary to their biological needs all the time, and from what we have observed the more intelligent a species is the more likely they are to deviate from biological norms. Humans and charr are close enough intellectually and psychologically to interact with one another as if they were the same species, forming friendships and even familial bonds. There is no reason to think they couldn’t form a romantic relationship.

Why is sylvariXhuman different? If anything sylvari are MORE biologically and psychologically different to humans than charr are. Humans and charr are separate species but are in the same class of life. Sylvari are in an entirely different KINGDOM of life.

Seems more like Nightmare Courtier magic than druidism. She’s a very twisted, evil character and isn’t exactly interested in upholding the balance of nature if she intends to completely change the world’s ecosystems to be spider dominant.

Ranger Elite Specs

Name: Totem
New Weapon: Mainhand Mace (Control weapon)
Class Mechanic: Only one pet with higher stats, F4 becomes a warrior Burst Skill that combos attacks from the pet and the Totem Shaman depending on the family of the pet. Shaman gains an aura and attacks with their pet’s natural weapons for the animation.
Utilities: Stances based on different animals.
Heal; Turtle Stance: Pulse resistance, grants Aegis, and heals the user and the pet for 10 seconds.
Bear Stance: Pulse Protection and Retaliation on self and pet for 10 seconds. Gain Might and Fury each time you or the pet take damage.
Eagle Stance: Break stun and gain Superspeed for 10 seconds.
Dolyak Stance: Pulse Stability on self for 10 seconds. Enemies that use control skills on you get knocked down.
Elite; Drake Stance: Inflict Burning with attacks and pulse Might to allies within 360 range of self and pet for 10 seconds. Places a 240 range fire field when activated that does damage and inflicts burning.

Name: Packmaster
Weapon: Mainhand Scepter. 900 range defensive support weapon. Calls swarms of creatures like wasps and snakes for animations. Heavy poison and torment applier.
Class Mechanic: Both pets are active together. F4 switches control from one pet to the other but no longer swaps pets in and out.
Utilities: Animal Minions.
Heal; Summon Wolf: Summons a support companion that’s attacks steal health. It’s active skill causes it to howl, curing conditions and doing more healing the more targets are effected by the howl. When traited summons two wolves instead of one.
Summon Bear: Summons a tanky bear companion that’s active skill purges conditions from the Packmaster, both pets, and nearby allies when activated. Can be traited to pulse Resistance to nearby allies on skill activation.
Summon Eagle: Summons a speedy high damage bird companion that’s active skill grants allies swiftness and fury. Can be traited to inflict AoE blindness on skill activation.
Summon Raptor: Summons a deadly raptor that does high critical damage and inflicts bleeding on hits. When activated will pounce on the enemy target, knocking the target down and removing 3 boons from the target. Can be traited to steal the boons and transfer them to the Packmaster instead.
Elite; Summon Wyvern: Summons a wyvern that is tanky and does high sustained damage. When activated produces AoE fear on nearby enemies while flying toward and launching the target. Can be traited to deal increased damage with it’s launch.

I really hope so. It’s kind of cruel to announce our name and weapon first then only give us the important details last.

I use this amulet for my Remorseless Ranger all the time. I’d be pretty bummed if you changed the Ferocity to Precision that I don’t need.

In order for spirits to be effective they need at least a two of the following changes:

Spirits need 3,000 range so they can cover a wide area without being moved.
Spirits need to function like traps in that they go on cooldown after they are set.
Spirit actives need to teleport the spirit to the ranger’s location where they go off.

With all three changes (The cooldown isn’t visible while the spirit is alive as you need a place for the spirit active skill, but we know Anet isn’t exactly averse to hiding cooldowns from us anyway) spirits would be able to cover more area with their passive effects and boons, would be able to be repositioned 20 seconds after they were first set down so they could be easily moved to new areas as the fight moves, and the ranger could actually benefit from the active effects as they trigger where the ranger is.

Another buff that would be nice is:

Traited spirits have retaliation.

Suddenly the enemy is punished for trying to cleave the spirits down. Compensation for how easily killed they are compared to banners.

I also really love this trait. It allows rangers to revive an ally without actually spending time reviving, so we can use our skills to fight off stompers while the pet is doing the menial work. Or just double up on rezzing to do it faster. Great trait.

Well, not entirely random. You know how long the cooldown is, so you could count how long until the next Tail Swipe and plan your slows and stuns accordingly.

Though what we really need is the ability to see our pet’s cooldowns at the VERY least. If we can’t control when they happen we need to at least see when they are coming off cooldown.

Sube Dai.8496:

RevanCorana.8942:

So you need to land it with random proc from AI pet, use signet of the hunt and proc frost spirit lol this is so bad.
In normal situation you’d be lucky to crit for 7k.
Crippling leap is much better

If you use bonfire/trap, warhorn, clarion bond, battle sigil, zeyphers speed – that’s 17 might stacks within 3 seconds. And you only have to burn 1 utility at most.

Or just use mainhand axe with Nature Magic and have perma 25 might on your pet almost the entire fight. Or use Companion’s Might in the BM line.

Rangers don’t exactly suffer when it comes to stacking might on our pets.

Tail Swipe is a pretty insane burst when it lands. On at least two occasions after the big patch I saw my drake take a thief from 100% to 10% with one blow. The thieves were not nearly as amused as I was.

As for taunting, you just need to be good at positioning to make sure the taunt lands. Or you can use a frost or salamander drake who’s F2’s range is slightly less than the taunt, which means the drake will make sure the taunt will land every time.

Being good at cancelling the F2 also goes a long way, as you can taunt the enemy in to fake out a panic dodge/stunbreak then follow up with the actual F2.

At this point I will be incredibly amused if thieves get a staff and it turns out to be awesome. So many people angry about what they are getting.

jcbroe.4329:

From what I’ve read about GW1 druids, although there isn’t much to go off of, Druids became highly attuned with Nature. When I personally think “attuned to nature,” I think of the ability to create forests and manipulate the natural elements and creatures. You can entangle foes in roots you’ve grown and plant seeds on them that grow and suck the life out of them and sap them of energy, you can create environments (like quicksand and frozen ground) to hamper enemies, and call forth MANY animals of the wild to make an army to attack enemies.

So yes, I’d be inclined to agree that it will be more like a caster and less like a shapeshifter.

The Guild Wars druids were very plant oriented. Very spirit oriented too. They shed their bodies entirely to become nature spirits. If we do get a transformation skill we’ll be turning into a giant spirit creature, not an animal. And that suggests we’d gain more potent nature spells rather than physical attacks like clawing and biting.

Honestly if we didn’t already have spirits I’d expect us to get new spirit skills. As of now I am hoping for consecrations. Though I suppose we may get spirit based minions as offensive spirits we can summon. Then we’d have a ritualist kind of playstyle where we summon immobile ranged attacking spirits. Maybe take Sun Spirit and two offensive spirits and a longbow and load the enemy up with burning.

We’ll just have to wait and see. I just hope we get the reveal soon because the wait is driving me nuts. I want to know what sort of gear I should be saving up for.

Nibcakelol.9082:

Not a misconception. I think Anet defines what the class entails:

“Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ranger/

You didn’t prove him wrong. The word ranger does not mean “One who fights from range”. What the Guild Wars 2 description says is irrelevant to what the word means.

The description also says “Can adapt to any situation”, which would imply it doesn’t suck at melee combat and can still fight effectively as a mid-range skirmisher. Above all a ranger has to be good at adapting to new situations and challenges, as that is what is required of someone who ranges. Ranged combat isn’t nearly as vital to the ranger theme.

Pretty sure Anet already said the druid was designed heavily around the staff weapon, unlike other elite specializations. A transformation would replace all the staff skills entirely, so that doesn’t seem likely to me.

Not to mention that turning into animals doesn’t fit the Guild Wars druids thematically.

A jaguar in stealth is already very good as it’s attacks don’t break stealth. Very handy and doesn’t need to apply to the ranger.

The pet’s F2 should come from the pet so I disagree on the bear part.

Canines are already our best pets by a fairly large margin. They do not need such a huge buff. Fear and immobilize on a 15 second cooldown? That would make using any pet aside from a canine dumb.

I don’t have a strong opinion on the other changes.

The biggest buff they could give pets is the simple ability to jump. Jump down a ledge to get the enemy so rangers can utilize ledges and high spaces more effectively without losing their pet damage would be a huge help, and it’d make kiting pets around ledges more difficult.

So let me get this straight. There are people in this thread arguing in FAVOR of AI based RNG being a staple of the ranger profession? You want MORE AI in the game and LESS player control?

Alright then.

Drakes – Can now rotate when channeling like rangers do when using Rapid Fire.

Redemer.2601:

sadly Ranger forum is like that rangers attacking their fellow rangers for them wanting to play the class they like like they want like anet stated I made a Ranger as my first character after looking over what the other classes has and I prefer a more range focused class that allows me to pick of high priority targets (high dmg dealers, low hp ppl before they can escape and so on) I have always prefered my ranger over all my other characters but when ppl give me kitten for playing ranger that just kittenes me of and I already know I will get kitten for this but if you ever really look into the traits in marksmanship and how they sunergice you will se that marksman isnt optimized for LB builds but for GS builds while U accualy lose a lot of dmg for going for Lead the Wind

ps since Revanant has peirce on a hammer baselined why cant LB have it aswell that would open up for a dmg increase for LB in Lead the Wind maybe those 5% we lost from Eagle eye Im pretty sure everyone that has ever used a Longbow will agree that it makes more sense

No one is saying you shouldn’t be able to play a ranged ranger. We’re just tired of people arguing that the ranger’s bows should by default be their best weapons in all game modes, which would mean melee ranger wouldn’t be a viable option anymore.

You can see how that might get on some people’s nerves after hearing that argument for a couple years or more.

Ryld.1340:

Why no new F ability for Ele’s?

Because that would involve adding five entirely new abilities to the profession? Don’t be a silly Billy.

A new F key for ranger would just give them the ability to control when their pet uses another skill rather than leaving it up to the AI. In other words it’d decrease the dreaded passive play people hate so much and promote skillful timing of the pet’s skills for the right moment.

It’s be a huge buff to a profession mechanic that could really use it. Give the players more control so we have to rely less on the AI.

Spirits are more for group play than single player bunkering. That said the traited Stone Spirit does give all allies in it’s radius perma protection. It’s a pretty strong effect. The downside is that it’s hard to get your allies to stay in range of the spirits to get their effects and that any smart enemy will take the five seconds necessary to destroy said spirits that can’t defend themselves.

Stone+Fire gives your team a strong defensive boon along with lots of burning stacks though. So it may be worth it. You could also take the elite spirit for passive healing, the condi removal, and the ability to revive yourself if you time it right just as you go down. Plus maybe the pulsing stability will eat a stray crowd control now and again.

Spirits might make a decent Lord Guard build for Stronghold with that set up. Only time will tell.

Healing Spring is a better source of regen, stronger heal, has incredible condition removal potential, and is a water field for your sword skills to splash around in. Far better heal than the spirit. With Healing Spring you can probably get rid of Signet of Renewal for Signet of Stone/Protect Me for more damage mitigation.

Is this for PVE or PVP?

I’m not a hunter but I do practice archery as a hobby and have an interest in historical warfare in general. There is a pretty big flaw in your logic. This is a video game that has to be balanced around virtual mechanics. They can’t make the bow the same as it is in the real world any more than a warrior’s greatsword is the same. Have you seen how they use that thing? Freaking children could fight more competently than that, and yet we’re meant to believe that these are highly skilled warriors.

Were longbows to have the same range as they do in real life a ranger could fire from across an SPVP map. If an arrow did the same damage as an arrow in real life they’d be able to just about one shot anyone in light or medium armor nearly every time. It wouldn’t be balanced.

Plus real life archers don’t have the 95% hit rate that rangers in GW2 have, so the insane accuracy while running/jumping against a moving target kind of compensates for the lack of range and damage of individual arrows. Also, we have access to giant predators who would murder a human under normal circumstances along with freaking magic.

If you want a game’s mechanics to reflect real life combat you need a different game. GW2 is high fantasy and was designed with “Rule of cool” in mind for how the weapons are handled rather than practicality. Thus it takes a hundred arrows to bring someone down. Mount and Blade is pretty fun and is probably as close as you’ll get to actual archery outside of a dedicated archery game.

Wolfey.3407:

Realistically, I think the only use Minis would have in the future would be for Polymock.

Which I really hope they implement some day. Along with the other mini games the game world hints at that we don’t have.

Charr steamcar racing for example.

While it would be hilarious to have an army of Queen Jennahs knocking down the enemy gates there are way too many minis in the game to make the necessary animations for all of them just for some flavor.

I would be in favor of having a few different skins for the NPCs that you can choose as part of your “build” though. Similar to the Mist Champions. For example, maybe I could choose to have hylek Dart Shooters instead of tengu archers with the same mechanics, just a different skin. It’d add some variety and be fun.

Definitely don’t make it a priority though.

Technically there is no such thing as PVP in any video game if you go by the strictest definition. If you want true PVP go outside and play a sport.

Meanwhile I am quite looking forward to Stronghold. It’s a pretty fun map and a welcome change from endless Conquest maps.

Redemer.2601:

Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.

copy pasted from GW2 official wiki it never even mentions melee except for the part “rangers can adapt to any situation” but it clearly stats that they are “Unparalleled archers. rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows”
Im not saying it is supose to be a melee only class but it feels kinda weird when they nerfed LB and they are supose to be “Unparalleled archer” when all they really have over a warrior with longbow is basicly the extra range and velocity and an elementalist with an icebow is basicly an “better archer” then the so called “Unparalleled archer”

ps meant no offence its just something that has been bugging me since beta and I just had to get it out of my system

The class descriptions do not represent what the professions are like beyond giving a basic rundown on their themes. Beyond that, the ranger IS an unparalleled archer. It’s the only profession with access to both types of bows and the only profession that can effectively use it’s longbow from max range. The warrior longbow is nothing more than a utility weapon and cannot function as their main damage source like the ranger longbow can.

So it seems that the description is pretty accurate. However the profession description doesn’t cover how the game itself operates. In GW2 melee will always do more damage than ranged, and because of how the field/combo system is set up standing away from the melee group means you’ll not be benefiting from the combo fields and boon spam, lowering your effectiveness. These are just the raw mechanics of the game being melee friendly while ignoring ranged combat.

Meanwhile in PVP Longbow is still one of our better weapons because in PVP things like mobility and hitting the enemy when they can’t hit you are actually important.

I don’t have much to say on the subject at hand other than this entire thread is a massive logical fallacy. You’re asking people to show you proof that rangers are bad in this game… It would be incredibly easy to fabricate the evidence you ask for by making a video montage of all their deaths or just plain playing badly. Someone can perform badly with a profession regardless of if it’s good or bad.

Gern.2978:

None of what you just suggested is very different form how thief is played right now.

They may not have aegis, or blocks, or retalitation. But they have some of the best mobility and evasion in game, and make one of the best “high mobility decappers” as they are right now.

Thieves aren’t very good at decapping. They don’t have a means to force someone off point to neutralize it, nor the sustain to do the usual sumo wrestle over the point that a bunker can. Your primary method of decapping involves BURSTING the enemy down quickly to capture the point, which isn’t, or at least shouldn’t, be possible against a dedicated bunker. Thieves perform the role of a back capper and roamer, not a resilient brawler who can knock people off the point.

No where did I mention PVE in my post. I am talking about a melee support build for SPVP that has the sustain to weather a few AoE attacks without going down immediately, and can push out enough support to keep their allies alive. In other words something where using a zerker amulet isn’t automatically the best option.

This community has a tendency toward bandwagoning on bias that’s a bit disturbing. Once something is deemed “unskillful play” they will rally to see it destroyed and insult people for playing it because it’s “easy mode”.

I’ve had defeated players call me a scrub for playing an “unskilled class” after I defeated them using freaking dual axes. Just laugh it off and go on playing.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAR3XjMqQLLWvCmrAXLGYEKuA+2AwH9R40/Wf1T9T2xhWB-TphBwAAOCAaeAAhLDY5CAwb/hIHEAA

Went ahead and switched my Winter Trapper build to skills.net for you Heimskarl. It also occurred to me that you could use Signet of Renewal as an alternative to Lightning Reflexes as your stunbreaker if conditions get too much to handle.

Gern.2978:

None of what you just suggested is very different form how thief is played right now.

You’re suggesting thieves have access to a working bunker/support build? I’ve never seen such a thing. Every thief seems to run the same stealth burst build with the occasional condi build.

Thieves have a melee burst weapon set, true. But that isn’t the sum total of all melee weapon playstyles that the staff could bring.

What if the staff is a melee control weapon with some nice knockbacks and blocks? The Elite Specialization could come with a set of stances that give different defensive boons like stability, aegis, or retaliation on a pulse. Throw in a defensive trait line and you could have a high evasion melee bunker or brawler build with strong potential to be an excellent high mobility decapper.

Or it could provide a mix of magic and melee and serve a melee support role with some AoE buffing and damaging skills that center around the caster, providing stealth, vigor, might, fury, and swiftness to nearby allies as the thief fights, suddenly giving thieves the team support they sorely lack.

Or it could have a bunch of small dazes and stuns and a trait line dedicated toward interesting mechanics when you interrupt a foe, giving thieves a heavy interrupt playstyle that requires precision strikes and expert timing to deal big damage numbers on the target.

There are a lot of ways a new melee set would benefit the thief profession. Just because a weapon is melee doesn’t mean it plays the same.

The fact rangers can’t break dance anymore is the real nerf here.

Raptors would be amazing. Definitely my top pick.

I just want more fantasy pets like the drakes. It feels so much more epic to have a magical creature at your side as opposed to an ordinary creature.

So bats, basilisks, wind riders, skelks, skales, rock dogs, griffons… Maybe even trolls.

And any new species we might find in Maguuma.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Kg-77;0wEFx-u2gEV-0;9V72;1baZ;0036237236;4WkW-N;1W3H7W3H73z

This is a build I’ve been running with. Sort of a throwback to the old chill builds rangers use to run.

Basic playstyle is to drop your traps at your feet. With Runes of Ice and the Sigil of Chilling the Frost Trap puts out 7 seconds of chill per tick, and with the spike trap’s knockdown the enemy is going to have at least 14 seconds of chill right off the bat. Naturally they will have to cleanse that, which gives you a bit more of an opportunity to press the advantage. Then you have Winter’s Bite and the owl’s F2 to keep applying more chill during the course of the fight. On top of chill you and your pet are also constantly applying weakness, which messes with power builds.

This build comes with three ways to get the enemy into your traps, the taunt, Path of Scars, and potentially Counterattack if you can aim it right.

As for pet choices owl is fairly obvious. I went with Frost Drake because it’s F2 range is just enough to ensure the taunt nearly always hits, unlike the Alpine Wolf. The F2 also does a pretty nice chunk of damage when it does hit, which happens more than I expected. It also ensures both F2 skills have a similar internal cooldown to the taunt which makes it easier to manage. Most importantly though the drake is tanky enough, especially with Go for the Eyes, to stand in some cleave for a while. This works very well with Allies’ Aid which I absolutely love. The drake can also blast Healing Spring for more healing and, if you time it perfectly, Frost Trap for AoE frost aura.

The build is somewhat lacking in condi clear, but the traited Healing Spring has been sufficient for me so far. I just don’t run into many condi builds, and Healing Spring is such a good way to deal with conditions that I haven’t yet felt the need for an extra source aside from Evasive Purity. Others may though.

Elorna.5329:

Kubrick.5740:

RANGEr

Another of these threads…

Really starting to feel like we need to get the definition of ranger stickied on this forum for new players to read.

Besides that traps are in a pretty sweet spot now. Eura is using two traps (Spring and Spike) in his longbow build and I saw another fellow take a third (Frost) in a similar set up. I tried both and they are really effective. Traps are finally good enough that you can take one or two in a build without dedicating the entire build to them, which is ideally how a utility skill should work. Not to mention they are doing their job as a defensive utility amazingly by severely punishing anyone who tries to open with a melee burst, which is something longbow ranger really needed to keep them safe.

Heal as One and Rampage as One made shouts more viable too. You don’t need to take Guard for perma swiftness now, which opened the door to having a mix of shouts and survival skills, both traited, to create a pretty strong line up of defensive skills. Search and Rescue is still pretty bad, but the fact we can trigger it through a trait so easily now made it a valuable mechanic all the same. I might try out a Mercy oriented medic ranger build at some point and see how that goes, which is kind of funny because we use to make fun of such a concept.

Rangers are in a better place than we were before in terms of build diversity and what utilities we could take and remain competitive. We’re not as well off as say, mesmers or guardians, but that’s not to say that we became strictly weaker.

Creativity is all well and good but what you’re asking for would damage this game’s community.

Information on how to play the game well should not be hidden or kept secret. That sort of attitude breeds elitism to the highest degree, and poisons an already competitive gaming community with paranoia and distrust.

As a build maker myself there is nothing better than seeing other people compliment your set up or try it out for themselves, and hopefully succeed and pose a greater challenge to others. That’s how a theorycrafter should behave in a community. Spending time to find the best and most entertaining builds and sharing them with others so we can ALL have a funner and more challenging experience in the game. Not jealously guarding their precious builds and hoarding ideas in hope of getting a competitive edge in hotjoin.

Hitting through evade should be changed, but making it trigger at the end of the cast would ruin the trait and make it borderline useless.

I also find it an odd design choice that the RANGER class is so slow compared to the heavy armor wearing warrior or the sneaking shadow hiding thief. Rangers go out and explore vast tracks of wilderness and scout behind enemy lines. We should have the necessary out of combat mobility to do that better than any other profession.

But alas, Anet gave the thief profession the best in combat mobility, best spike damage, best access to stealth, and best out of combat mobility all in one package.

Writetyper.1985:

Hey fellas! Helpful hint to all the brand new players congregating in this thread in regards to how to not be soulcrushingly terrible:

In the options menu, you can bind a key to the “dodge” button. After binding this button, you’ll be able to use it to roll away from dangerous attacks and area-of-effect spells!

For practice on this fancy new technique known as “dodging” (don’t worry, scary as it sounds, you’ll get it soon enough!) you can head to any PvE starting zone to find a friendly NPC here to help you press that button! Here’s an example of what you’re looking for: http://i.imgur.com/fdRgzw7.jpg

Good luck out there friends! Hope this guide helps in your future adventures in Tyria!

I tend to avoid thief nerf threads because I haven’t had a problem fighting thieves since the stealth render issue went away, but this here is a really dumb post. Largely because despite your condescending tone the suggestion you’ve given doesn’t actually work.

Dodge is a reactionary ability that can be used to avoid every burst skill in the game… Except backstab. Because in order to properly dodge an incoming attack you have to see the animation of the attack coming in and time the dodge so the evade frames come in just as the attack lands. An attack coming from an invisible opponent has no tell, and the best you can do is dodge when you THINK the thief might be about to press the backstab key. Dodging alone is not sufficient counterplay to backstab, and in fact can result in you being in an even worse position it you happen to have guessed wrong. You’re both low on health and out one dodge.

Now I’m not saying thief is overpowered, but I am saying that dodging alone isn’t going to let you reliably avoid a backstab.

This happens to me regularly because I use satellite internet. Basically what happened is you used a crowd control skill just as the person went down or the person did a dodge but didn’t get the dodge frames in time due to latency issues, and so went down anyway. These are what seem to cause it the most frequently.

Once it happens you can’t stomp the target. You have to bleed them out with damage. Your attacks will still hit normally, you just can’t stomp. It’s nothing I can control.

T raw.4658:

I see most of you missed the point.

It’s not about class or what class i play. Its all about AI builds being in the game period. If they actually took skill I’d be ok with it….unfortunately in GW2 we’ve yet to see that.

So I say nerf AI builds into the ground since they never require one iota of skill to succeed with.

thx

You misunderstand what made the turret engineer the king of all AI builds and why it needed to be toned down. It wasn’t simply that it was an AI build, it was that every turret had a ranged attack which meant the turrets had a near 100% hit chance so long as you were in range, which meant there wasn’t much you could do to avoid the damage once in the engineer’s area of control. On top of that the turrets were incredibly difficult to damage, which meant the turrets could be placed on point without fear of any AoE short of a staff ele, which were almost never played because of their dagger wielding cousins.

Minion Master necromancers don’t have either of these advantages. Only three of their minions are ranged, one being their heal skill that needs to consistently hit to heal (unlike the Healing Turret which could heal the user regardless of if it could hit the enemy or not) and another being their only stunbreak and teleport which means they need to be positioned off point in a strategic location to be used properly. The heavy hitting minion, Flesh Golem, is pure melee, as well as the little flesh rats. These minions need to be positioned properly to land their damage, which requires active input from the player to pin down the enemy long enough for them to hit. And because the minions don’t have the tankiness of the turrets any degree of AoE damage can be a hard counter to the build, making it near unusable in large team fights. Finally, the active effects of the minions aren’t temporary boosts to what the minions are already doing, as is the case with turrets, but rather control effects that have to be timed properly to get the most out of. All this results in a pretty active play style that requires constant vigilance of multiple entities on the field at once and good management of control effects.

What the minion master does best, however, is hard countering the condition burst set ups that are currently running rampant all over the place, and for that I say thank you minion masters.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If they leave spirits as is, they need a much bigger range.

If they leave Nature’s Vengeance as it is, all is vain.

Nature’s Vengeance; “Your spirits pulse boons, have double health, take half damage, have +100% range on passive and +50% range on active abilities, they use active abilities on death and recharge 20% faster.”

Frost: Fury – 2s/3s
Water: Resistance – 1s/3s
Stone: Stability – 1.25s/3s
Sun: Retaliation – 2s/3s
Nature: Aegis – 0.75s/3s

That is what it would take to make spirits decent.

I agree with this. The range is a pretty big problem as it’s very common for a PVP fight to leave the current effect range. Spirits aren’t banners so they can’t be dropped in the middle of a node to ensure everyone in the area gets the boons.

I’d also want their cast times to be less painful as the OP suggested. Even cutting it in half would be a huge help. The set up to summon them is just too long. Or, if we’re keeping the current cast time, make them ground targeted with a 600-900 range so we can still be contesting the point and placing our spirits out of harm’s way. That 4+ second period of not being able to attack or defend is harsh enough without also making it 4 seconds of not being able to stand on point.

Interesting that with all the complaining about traps being worthless they’ve found their way into the preferred build of the only competitive ranger. I’ll definitely give this set up a go, it looks interesting.

I love that Healing Spring functions like a trap like we were hoping a while back. Looking at this build it’s your only source of condition removal beyond Evasive Purity, which is pretty cool. Healing Spring was always such a strong condition cleanse that I wonder if it might be too good now that it can be pre-cast.

Have you thought about using other pets with Beastly Warden at all? The way you described it dogs have amazing synergy with this trait, but I was wondering if you thought we were gonna be looking at another “all dog” meta.

Obsidian.1328:

Because GW1 already had dragons??

“Dragons of all shapes, sizes, and origin have called Cantha home for thousands of years, since long before the tribes of old joined to form the empire that took them as its symbol.
— The Guild Wars Factions Manuscripts”

“Dragons are a large theme throughout Cantha and somewhat throughout Tyria and the Mists, resulting in many draconic statues and decorations.”

Given that they didn’t even have to get rid of the gods in the first place(that was yet another decision based on personal narrative preferences and marketing demographics), why make them huge dragons at all when Tyria already had a small but rich draconic theme(much of it loosely based off of Eastern myth)? Why not make them something else not already relentlessly overplayed as the top of the food chain in the fantasy genre? They were given a blank slate to invent something to replace the gods as the arbiters of power in Tyria and what do they come up with? Big dragons.

Give me a solid reason why that isn’t anything but a lazy play for a wider audience?

I asked for proof that Anet went with Elder Dragons for marketing reasons and not because that’s the sort of story they want to write. You just gave me more speculation on your part.

Aside from that the Elder Dragons aren’t your typical fantasy dragons. They are primordial forces that serve a brutal, yet necessary role in the life cycle of the planet Tyria. The fact they resemble dragons aesthetically could well have been a marketing choice, but that doesn’t mean they wrote the story of GW2 specifically to include big dragons.

Rednik.3809:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

We see only one charr farm in-game (the heart in Diessa) who’s a bit of a secluded odd-ball charr; the rest are ranchers. The cub wanting to be a farmer may be wanting to be something unusual.

He says “like you, mother”. So its not unusual.

Unless the mother is unusual.

At any rate we have a lot of lore that says charr are carnivores. One asura saying they can eat fruits and vegetables shouldn’t trump all of what we already know. And it isn’t like there aren’t carnivores in our world that can also eat the occasional vegetable when needed.

The asura’s quote doesn’t state a charr can survive on primarily vegetables, only that they are capable of eating it.

I’ve been taking a longbow as my secondary weapon for my Remorseless BM build. It’s range and sudden spike damage is still very strong when engaging and sticking a fleeing enemy. Its knock back is still an extremely strong tool for stopping stomps, it’s stealth is still valuable for re-positioning (I use it to get behind my opponent, switch to greatsword, and open with a Hilt Bash followed by Maul), and it has a solid AoE that applies cripple for some AoE pressure and to help the pet close on the enemy.

Just the other day I was charging a thief who was standing on point. Point Blank Shot→Hunter’s Shot to disrupt the thief and gain stealth. My river drake got behind him as I used F2, triggering Beastly Warden. Then I popped out of stealth as the thief turned around to stare into the gaping maw of my drake and we hit him with a full Rapid Fire+Lightning Breath combo. Thief went down instantly.

Longbow is a very versatile tool that can be used as a control weapon in addition to a damage weapon. I don’t think anything short of a hard nerf to the weapon itself will destroy it’s viability.