Guild Wars 2

spoj.9672:

Just in case people arent aware. Crit chance is calculated differently now. Which results in lower crit than before patch even if you have more precision now.

New formula is:
crit = (prec – 916)/21

Old formula was (prec – 822)/21.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Precision-Calculations-were-adjusted/

More assasin gear/precision food is needed now for people that want to get 100%, even the ones with prec signet will need some changes (apart from warriors I guess, cause of the signet trait). Guardians will be ok with 1-handed weapons, but hammers and gswords are more appealing than ever now. And you lose out on the virtues or honor line if you go with radiance. On the other hand this does make ranger a bit more appealing.

But screw the meta and fiddling with crit chance, new Ursanway is here – https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Easy-mode-Team-comp-for-dungeons/

Horus.9685:

So pve is really an anything-goes now?
They achieved the viability of EVERYTHING at the cost of braking what was the best befor screw the meta, ill play condi ele XD

This actually has great might, perma fury and perma quickness (lol), plus when they need it, easy reflection and condition removal can always be traited/skilled. The only thing stopping this sort of build from becoming the ursanway of GW2 is the exclusion of all other professions. Ursan was so popular since every profession was ok using it, not everyone has a guardian/wants to play a guardian in GW2, altho a mesmer or 2 could easily go with these. More AoE quickness sharing!

Miku Lawrence.6329:

I love it, looks like Ursanway.

Reading this made me watch the video, and it totally did seem that way. The permanent boon spam and constant symbol healing is pretty much adding the effect that the monk, SY para and consumables had on the old Ursans. Very manmode build.

EcoRI.9273:

Elorna.5329:

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Looks like we’re going to need to start bringing group support to dungeons.

People have been bringing group support to dungeons since 2012.

Can confirm, I was playing sonic boon warrior back in the golden age.

I think OP’s group was missing an anchor guard…

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Looks like we’re going to need to start bringing group support to dungeons.

People have been bringing group support to dungeons since 2012.

People are just going all out with conds because of the novelty and not playing the usual counter builds as much (shoutbow, dagger ele). For home point ranger the counter build is just another condi build – either traps with healing spring and signet of renewal or full survival build with the trait. For power builds, play a remorseless gsword/something with a tanky amulet and survival skills. Plenty of crits on demand with that much fury reapplication. Or just queue up with a shoutbow and stay near him.

The main advice I can give in regards to the ranger is being aware of your pet, it’s a part of the profession, not just a bonus damage boost. Get used to it, the AI isn’t awesome, but it’s predictable and controllable.

Baldrick.8967:

bsurreal.5928:

Dear Gaile,
Thanks for the update, however it does not address the disparity in the price of the HoT expansion for those in for example the UK and those in the USA.

To explain at the current exchange rate the rough cost of the HoT expansion in the USA is $50, $75 and $100 for the Standard, Deluxe and Ultimate versions. At the current exchange rate converting the $US price to UK sterling the equivalent cost would be approximately £31.67, £47.50 and £63.34 respectively. Sadly ANet/NCSoft have costed the expansion in the UK at a considerable different price to that in North America; £34.99, £59.99 and £79.99 so at the current exchange rate this equates to $55.25, $94.72 and $126.30 respectively.

I am a member of a multinational guild within GW2 and the the cost disparity between the rest of the world and the North American price is typical. Members outside North America are very reluctant, to put it politely, to purchase the HoT expansion because of this.

Could you please explain why this disparity in price is present?

20% VAT (or 22% if they are selling it from Ireland for tax purposes of their own) plus a small amount for exchange differences.

The problem is that with the addition of VAT, the prices sound even worse.

They are selling from Ireland, the company that charged my credit card was an Irish one. I think their former EU office was somewhere in Ireland so they probably just went with whatever bank/financial institution they were partnered with before. Altho VAT is a thing in most EU countries but those that pay in euros aren’t actually as screwed as the UK (45 euro is about 50.5 dollars or so), so there’s probably something else going on besides the tax.

There was no direct mention of it in the thief notes, but considering traps from two other professions are getting it, it’s fairly probable thief traps are 1/2 s arming as well.

GW1 rangers had both melee and ranged builds as well, hell their melee builds were so effective that most were considered cheese. Just because Anet made some general description involving ranged weapons 10 years ago, doesn’t determine the “best” build. Altho my favorite GW1 ranger build was both cheese and ranged. Spear beastmaster ftw! Earned far too many points in RA using that.

Kaz.5430:

• Does the effect of Bountiful Hunter work using stacks of the same boon, or just per different boon?

If it’s like the other 1% dmg per boon traits, it only depends on the amount of boons on you, not their stacks – 1 stack of might, 2 stacks of stability and regen will give you 3% boost, same as 20 stacks of might, 1 stack of stability and regen.

I’ll go with October, although late August would have symbolic value cause of the 3 year anniversary, there won’t be enough time for 2-3 betas + the rest of specialization reveals + talking about other features.

Revyn.8961:

Also, what will happen for future expansions? “In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.”

The way I understood that last part, combined with the rest of the post and the overall context of this entire “affair”, they will give character slots/something of similar of value in gems to old players prepurchasing any future expansion, and the usual 5 slots + all existing content to new ones.

Thanks Anet, this restored most or all of my faith in you as developers, and your dedication to old fans and new alike. Hopefully marketing mess ups like this won’t happen again, but considering the last paragraph in that blog post they probably won’t. Good job overall.

As far as individual spirits go, they didn’t mention the elite and stone spirit specifically, but since stone is just another utility it will probably work the same as others, and elite would be screwed over by the other change if they also don’t lower the cooldown. So maybe not 30 like the rest, but if they keep the “death on activation” part for it, some lower cooldown is to be expected. Or they just keep it the same as it is now, and nothing changes really, that’s also ok.

I thought I mentioned it in my earlier posts, but looks like I just kind of glossed over the fact without focusing on it since it’s the main reason why I prefer HS over all the other options – the continuous nature of its removal coincides well with the often continuous reapplication of burns/poisons/bleeds/cripples that is so often in PvE encounters that have conditions. Having a party wide healing signet that can remove a condition once every half a minute, is just a nice extra bonus. And no, I don’t have a heal power build.

Yeah, but that’s just another reason to keep it up as much as possible for its passive, and rely on HS for the actual condi cleanse. Free healing signet for the entire group is a great bonus.

I do use elite spirit and HS together most of the time, since I find little value in RaO – just the stability really, it will be better post patch cause of the lack of fortifying bond. But the spirit alone is not a replacement for HS, specially not after the update if the general description for all spirits applies to the elite as well. It would mean it gets killed as soon as you use it once for a condi cleanse, removing the nice regen effect which is the main reason for using it – makes it easier to keep scholar rune damage bonus and lowers the need for party members to use their heals thereby increasing damage slightly. Signet of renewal tho is just a waste of a utility slot in PvE – quickening zephyr, frost spirit and signet of the wild are too good.

Either way there’s nothing much that I’m disagreeing with as far as the old vs new HS is concerned any more, since previous posters have convinced me it won’t suffer from some arbitrarily hard to accomplish prerequisite condition for activation.

Engie damage rotations are also more complicated to pull off than pretty much any other profession, something people don’t trust a stranger to do.

Well I was thinking about that too, but the sheer amount of frequency you can use the hawk f2 might make it ok as that second pet. But anyways, I’ll bow down to math analysis once it’s out, I always just have general ideas and “feelings” on how things might go, if people actually good with math prove otherwise I won’t complain.

EDIT:
There’s also a thing that might make NM a strong/equal option – the new guardian elite shout, depending on the casting time of that and adding a slightly longer quickening zephyr due to the final minor in NM, might give similar uptime on quickness, and better boon distribution on the pet, making a single pet swapped only if it’s about to die a possible play style.

The thing about it being on start of f2 compared to at the end, is how much more it allows for setting up burst combos. Even a taunt at the end of the f2 would make for great maul/splitblade/etc. plays, but when you remove one of the counterplays (interrupting the pet) it becomes all that much more stronger. Although I’m probably getting ahead of myself as far as SPvP goes and ignoring the obvious elephant in the room – overbuffed shoutbows making anything relying on conditions even more pointless than it already is.

If the taunt happens at the end of the f2 activation then the effect would just be an equivalent of a stun that can be condi cleansed. Having the taunt at the start of the f2 would make for uninterruptable cc (unless under stability ofc), which might be deemed too strong. Who knows, other professions are getting a ton of strong options so wait and see…

EDIT:
There’s also resistance being added, and it would negate this taunt into fear combo the same as stability does, so it might not be as strong as I imagined after all.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You know Hawk has the same stats as a Jaguar yeah? Also, the Hawk F2 does the most DPS of all pets. With BM and GFTE, the Hawk will have as much toughness as the Drake and take very little damage due to the blind and weakness.

The Ranger can lose out on some DPS so it can serve as the group toolbox, allowing the other characters to focus on pure DPS, since it can do all the other roles except might stacking which a PS war will take.

This is the possibility, whether or not people choose to play it is another story.

The birds use the swiftness skill which is a loss of dps, birds also don’t get a free crit chance increase which, as I mentioned earlier, is even more important now due to the lack of fury from fortifying bond. And any bleeds you get out of the F2 are hindered by the lack of bleeding and, to a lesser extent, lack of vuln that you lose from not taking Companion’s might and jaguar. In fact, taking an eagle might end up being competitive and closing out the gap on the jaguar only because of Companion’s might to help it out with the bleeds during the F2 CD.

So, to be most efficient in the upcoming “quickness swap” patch one would have to go double drakes for trash and trade them out for hawk/jaguar in boss battles. Traits would be companion’s might/wilting strike/zephyrs speed for both setups. As far as being the toolbox for trash fights, both thieves and guardians are already not sacrificing much to keep trash mobs permanently or almost permanently blinded, having a ranger help out if the group feels the need for it is ok but I’m not convinced it’s ever anything but overkill. Plus you’ll have your drakes to apply some weakness on top of their blinds while actually cleaving with their auto attacks and tail swipes unlike the bird or cat.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Elorna.5329:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Even if it is 75%, it would not be terrible, at least you couldn’t waste the heal then.

Any lower percentage activation was putting off the group condi cleanse even further, which was the whole reason I thought this change is bad. I’m just too used to using HB as an instant AoE condi clear, to suddenly lose that utility. But if the activation is only really slowed down by the arming time, then I’m not losing anything and gaining free cooldown reduction/longer regen.

Let’s say it does trigger when you reach 75% health. With standard health pool, that 75% is 11386. So the heal triggers and heals for 4920, bringing you back to full health and removing one condition and giving regen at the same time. The clear and regen pulses over time.

If you place it for an immediate condi clear, you waste the heal, whereas if it triggers at 75%, you clear the condi, heal back to 100% and make the foe waste that damage, it also took longer to trigger, meaning your skill has been on CD longer, making it available sooner to do it again.

That’s the way I’m looking at it anyway.

Yeah I get it, but like I said a few times earlier, I never viewed it as a waste to clear multiple people of burn, cripple or bleed (the most common AoE conds in PvE) even if I got very little or no healing out of it myself. As far as other game modes go, this is a buff no matter what, since things like pop HS, get a combo in it, use it to stand there a few more seconds if you need extra cond removal, or fight around the water field were making 1v1 against most cond based roaming builds in WvW a cakewalk as it is. Builds like cond thieves and engies were completely neutered by a single skill (then again cond thieves get a free stealth off the pet, so that kind of puts the matchup into a standstill). Anyway, adding extra layers to that with more regen/less cooldown just opens up more play options and doesn’t necessarily pigeon hole us into shouts or survival skills.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Even if it is 75%, it would not be terrible, at least you couldn’t waste the heal then.

Any lower percentage activation was putting off the group condi cleanse even further, which was the whole reason I thought this change is bad. I’m just too used to using HB as an instant AoE condi clear, to suddenly lose that utility. But if the activation is only really slowed down by the arming time, then I’m not losing anything and gaining free cooldown reduction/longer regen.

Thief wasn’t and won’t be losing out on a ton of DPS for using a single or even 2 blind fields during a trash fight, guardian isn’t losing anything at all, ele was losing vuln stacks from air attuned glyph, but those are plentiful anyway. Compared to losing free might on the pet, which will become even more important now that fortifying bond can’t be taken together with Companion’s might is a pretty big deal. Especially when you combine that with the fact that fury will be pretty much nonexistent on pets after the patch, making jaguars even bigger than they already are for single target damage and drakes still being the only real option for bigger groups, I just don’t see a single blind trait being a good enough reason to replace any of those two with an eagle/hawk.

Well if the activation percentage really is anything under 100%, then I see no problem either, I was under the (obviously wrong) impression it was something like 75% or so.

Lazze.9870:

Blind vs bosses is getting changed to affect the defiant bar, not that it will be effective enough for it to matter.

Yeah, I originally wanted to type “almost useless against bosses”, but then I remembered that change coming soon, so I went with weak.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Elorna.5329:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Yup, Frost Spotter S/A-LB with Hawk and GFTE/Wilting Strike is massive.

Why bother with the blindness trait in a PvE build when you’re giving up on the new and improved Companion’s Might to do so? Something a guardian, thief or even ele can do just as well or better without messing with their build? Hell why even consider taking birds at all, cats will always be better against stationary targets, or drakes for bigger trash mobs?

Blind = Damage mitigation. Can you please show me any other class skill that can put up kitten AoE blind every 4.75s? I can’t find one. The 4.75s recharge on the Hawk F2 is the reason for taking it, that and it does the most DPS of all pets due to that low recharge. Remember too that you not only get Blind, but Weakness if the blind is used up immediately. It is a lot of damage mitigation, one of the main reasons Guards are brought along.

Having that much blind isn’t needed and even if it is, pistol offhand on thief can keep it up permanently. Gsword 3, traited f1 on guard can keep it up enough for the trash mob to be dead or almost dead by the time you need any other protection. And if a certain trash group is absolutely unmanageable without blind – glyph of storms on earth attunement can do the same for eles. Having weakness on an AoE f2 from a drake with the help of any of the aforementioned blinds from other professions seems like more than enough. For boss fights both of those conditions are weak anyway.

Galen Grey.4709:

Elorna.5329:

Galen Grey.4709:

Elorna.5329:

At the time of my pre purchase I was still under the impression I’m buying the expansion, and everyone else regardless if new or old player, is doing the same. Their FAQ that I read around the time they released the initial HoT info had me believe that. The original game losing value is a given and I wasn’t at all worried or offended about the sales of it. But adding that product for “free” at the same price value with another product to people that are complete strangers to the series while charging the same to old veterans just for an upgrade, especially when it was a last moment decision, is a shady business practice, and makes me lose trust in Anet as a company. And as I said in my original post this is mainly on me for not reading up carefully, but I didn’t read up carefully because I never had a reason to not trust Anet so far. So yes, you’re right in the fact that it’s a perception issue, but customer care and trust is based exactly on that.

Why? Its quite normal not just for MMOs to offer the original game at a discount when they release an expansion. Like say FFXIV which is launching an expansion right now has a bundle too. $50 for the expansion, $60 expansion + core game. Is arenanet’s decision to instead of discounting the game to $10, they discounted it to $0 that makes this shady for you?

Everyone is simply buying the expansion, if the account you apply that expansion too doesnt have the game, it unlocks the core game for you. I dont really see whats shady about that! No one is being cheated out of anything.

Something having value and that value dropping over time as exhibited through various GW2 sales is different from that same product suddenly having no value at all and only being a bonus to some other product. Especially since there was no indication of that happening until it actually happened (the whole FAQ editing as previously mentioned). If I were to compare to another game, I’d compare to Team Fortress 2 – that game has been losing value over time, going on sale multiple times and eventually becoming free. But even when it went completely f2p old customers still got a silly hat as a recognition of their support. Treating old customers exactly the same or worse as newcomers is what has me upset. But luckily for Anet not actually upset enough to quit/ask for my money back, just wary for any future purchase.

we dont get a silly hate but we do get beta access / a title + god knows how many free updates between now and the next expansion.

All things complete newcomers get as well, and the whole reason I’m even participating in this thread, while the silly hat in question was only for the vets. Treating return customers better is not at all uncommon, since companies know that having a loyal customer is something like having a good friend, and you don’t treat that friend the same as someone you met five minutes ago.

Galen Grey.4709:

Elorna.5329:

At the time of my pre purchase I was still under the impression I’m buying the expansion, and everyone else regardless if new or old player, is doing the same. Their FAQ that I read around the time they released the initial HoT info had me believe that. The original game losing value is a given and I wasn’t at all worried or offended about the sales of it. But adding that product for “free” at the same price value with another product to people that are complete strangers to the series while charging the same to old veterans just for an upgrade, especially when it was a last moment decision, is a shady business practice, and makes me lose trust in Anet as a company. And as I said in my original post this is mainly on me for not reading up carefully, but I didn’t read up carefully because I never had a reason to not trust Anet so far. So yes, you’re right in the fact that it’s a perception issue, but customer care and trust is based exactly on that.

Why? Its quite normal not just for MMOs to offer the original game at a discount when they release an expansion. Like say FFXIV which is launching an expansion right now has a bundle too. $50 for the expansion, $60 expansion + core game. Is arenanet’s decision to instead of discounting the game to $10, they discounted it to $0 that makes this shady for you?

Everyone is simply buying the expansion, if the account you apply that expansion too doesnt have the game, it unlocks the core game for you. I dont really see whats shady about that! No one is being cheated out of anything.

Something having value and that value dropping over time as exhibited through various GW2 sales is different from that same product suddenly having no value at all and only being a bonus to some other product. Especially since there was no indication of that happening until it actually happened (the whole FAQ editing as previously mentioned). If I were to compare to another game, I’d compare to Team Fortress 2 – that game has been losing value over time, going on sale multiple times and eventually becoming free. But even when it went completely f2p old customers still got a silly hat as a recognition of their support. Treating old customers exactly the same or worse as newcomers is what has me upset. But luckily for Anet not actually upset enough to quit/ask for my money back, just wary for any future purchase.

My only problem is the value they add to new players compared to veterans. Any business has to grow, but to do so you tread a fine line between appeasing old customers and getting new ones. I think Anet have stepped on that line for the first time in the 10 years I’ve been their customer.

Galen Grey.4709:

Elorna.5329:

I prepurchased the expansion without noticing the whole “core game included” clause. I did it because in the 10 years I’ve been Anet’s customer I never once felt like I’m getting a bad deal, and I just flat out trusted the company.

But for the first time in those 10 years I kinda feel cheated now (even though I’m fully aware it was my own fault for not reading through the offer carefully), not because new players are getting more value for their money, but because veteran players are getting treated differently, like we’re something that is a given, instead of a precious resource they should be building upon. I won’t look for a refund, because I doubt I’d even get one, nor will I stop playing, but I’ll definitely look closer next time I buy anything, since Anet stopped being the company I can just trust with my money without a second thought.

This is just false perception. You get exactly the same thing new players get with the only difference they get the core game cheaper cause well its 3 years old now. That has been happening for quite a while now, they had multiple discounts promotions.

At the time of my pre purchase I was still under the impression I’m buying the expansion, and everyone else regardless if new or old player, is doing the same. Their FAQ that I read around the time they released the initial HoT info had me believe that. The original game losing value is a given and I wasn’t at all worried or offended about the sales of it. But adding that product for “free” at the same price value with another product to people that are complete strangers to the series while charging the same to old veterans just for an upgrade, especially when it was a last moment decision, is a shady business practice, and makes me lose trust in Anet as a company. And as I said in my original post this is mainly on me for not reading up carefully, but I didn’t read up carefully because I never had a reason to not trust Anet so far. So yes, you’re right in the fact that it’s a perception issue, but customer care and trust is based exactly on that.

I prepurchased the expansion without noticing the whole “core game included” clause. I did it because in the 10 years I’ve been Anet’s customer I never once felt like I’m getting a bad deal, and I just flat out trusted the company.

But for the first time in those 10 years I kinda feel cheated now (even though I’m fully aware it was my own fault for not reading through the offer carefully), not because new players are getting more value for their money, but because veteran players are getting treated differently, like we’re something that is a given, instead of a precious resource they should be building upon. I won’t look for a refund, because I doubt I’d even get one, nor will I stop playing, but I’ll definitely look closer next time I buy anything, since Anet stopped being the company I can just trust with my money without a second thought.

I kinda liked the sacks, bit sad seeing them go, but these suggestions are all solid.

What has me worried is the activation health percentage. For fights like the first champion in SE3 you want to put down HS as soon as the first bleed stacks start coming, which is usually when everyone in the party is still on high health. That way all the following bleeds in the next 10 seconds pretty much get evaporated as they come. In that particular example you would first have to bleed out to whatever the activation percentage is to get the condi cleanse going. Basically group condi cleanse on demand is a great thing and something I’m not hesitant to use HS for even if I don’t need the heal. Having that gated by me first being on X% hp before it triggers is not very fun.

unlikeyou.8452:

Is it really that difficult to categorize this skill as a trap, but leave its functionality as-is?

I agree with this, not really sure why it has to act as a trap with the whole arming/activating thing. The trait lowering its cooldown doesn’t suddenly make the current iteration of healing spring OP compared to other ranger heal skills and heal skills in general. Neither of the other two healing skills received any functionality change, just a skill category.

coax.2951:

Elorna.5329:

Quarktastic.1027:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

2 x Ele
1 x PS
1 x SA Thief
1 x Frost Spotter with Axe OH

Meta.

Needs more guardian. New elite shout too OP.

Ye this is what has me worried, plus after chronomancer goes out with the f5 timewarp recharges, I seriously doubt ranger will see any play in the meta.

Nerf icebow, bring ele staff dps down to levels where it’s more beneficial for overall party dps to run a frost spotter instead of a second ele.

That’s the only scenario I can see for rangers in speedrun groups.
For your ordinary dungeon tour ranger will work just fine and you won’t face problems with pugs I guess.

Or adding mobs that pulse revealed as a skipping nerf to all/most dungeons, making stealth useless. Altho that would be brutal tbh.

Quarktastic.1027:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

2 x Ele
1 x PS
1 x SA Thief
1 x Frost Spotter with Axe OH

Meta.

Needs more guardian. New elite shout too OP.

Ye this is what has me worried, plus after chronomancer goes out with the f5 timewarp recharges, I seriously doubt ranger will see any play in the meta. Spotter + frost spirit was only good when it had a 180+ cooldown timewarp to compete with. With quickness becoming a boon and guardians/ mesmers having it in the form of a party wide buff, spotter and FS lose a lot of their value.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Yup, Frost Spotter S/A-LB with Hawk and GFTE/Wilting Strike is massive.

Why bother with the blindness trait in a PvE build when you’re giving up on the new and improved Companion’s Might to do so? Something a guardian, thief or even ele can do just as well or better without messing with their build? Hell why even consider taking birds at all, cats will always be better against stationary targets, or drakes for bigger trash mobs?

I was thinking of a similar build and would probably run something like this for a home point holder/defender, but having this necro as a mid point teamfighter would probably be stronger, with the blood traits swapped into revive traits (maybe not all 3 of the revive traits, but at least the adept and grandmaster, good outplay possible with that one). Although I was thinking about a power or bunker style amulet more than conds when it comes to the necro damage, but that is mostly a secondary part of the build, the minion gameplay is the main thing. How is the AI of minions though? Any improvements there?

Aerlen.5326:

I can see it now. They add in an 800 gem loyalty bonus for players who already own the core game. Some people don’t spend it to buy a character slot and continue complaining they deserve one anyhow.

I’ll get the popcorn…

But at that point the pendulum swings from “shady business practice” to “over entitled customer” for anyone with common sense, which should be enough for a better marketing picture.

They really should change the whole deal to:

-new customers get the base game + HoT for 45 euro
-old customers get a character slot + HoT for 45 euro
-any old customers that prepurchased deluxe or ultimate get another character slot (or something of similar gem value from the gemstore, like a mining node, or whatever)

EDIT:
Or risk messing up the gem-gold conversion and just give old customers an extra 800 gems with the prepurchase of any HoT package. But John Smith would have a seizure if this happened so probably out of the question.

Ye I understand the reasoning behind it, it’s the same reason why LB is taken in the current iteration. But the lack of cleave and rotational playstyle on LB in melee range just feels unnatural and wrong. Anyway, I’ll wait for my judgement until the actual patch hits and people make some thorough math analysis. Another thing that has me worried about a weapon swapping playstyle is the concurrent pet swapping playstyle, and the quickness you get with it. Being in LB at that time is a waste of damage, actually being on any weapon beside sword at that time is a waste of damage.

Well if it’s to be a rotation playstyle, why not go with gsword then? Quickdraw mauls and better autottacks than LB, altho the lack of cripple might hurt the predator’s onlsaught bonus . Maul/gsword aa are all cleave as well.

Ah ok then I was slightly misunderstanding your intention. I thought we were talking mostly about somewhat organized groups. Not necessarily guild groups but at least something to the point of people being expected to bring might if you’re a war, spotter if you’re a ranger, fury if you’re an ele, etc.

Am I missing something about Frost spirit? It got a 5 second longer cooldown, but 5% more chance to proc, you’ll still probably have it up for every fight? What’s the duration of it if you don’t use the active skill? Swapping it after a fight for something else, then back at the next mob was always the modus operandi. Is this “frost spirit destroyed argument” only because of the lowered health, since the trait probably won’t be used any more?

Dunno how the stat spread will look like after the patch, but I have a fairly easy 100% crit chance right now with food+runes+spotter+banner, so getting a high crit rate shouldn’t be a problem, making the auto crit of opening strikes pointless (the new hunter’s tactics is an easily achieved 10% crit too). But it does remain to be seen how remorseless can be paired up with quick draw/path of scars/maul and if various fury applications can be used reliably to make weapon swapping possible. Altho with the increase in quickness uptime I doubt moving away from sword and its autottack will be advisable… I’ll leave all that to ppl actually good with math, just that my hunch makes me fairly certain even the full potential of weapon swapping mauls, etc. won’t reach the sword aa. And if you just use the other weapon as a start of fight thing for maul and swoop, then the LB should still be the better choice cause of AoE cripple and more spike vuln.

Prophet.1584:

Thanks to Dulfy and that_shaman for getting the skill calc updated so quickly, i got to play around with a few ideas and i have a good idea what i’ll run when the patch hits.

pve build s/wh + gs melee ranger

pvp build bird/bird + a/t + s/d – , i’ll probably wait till i can test it to decide between Wilting Strikes and Natural Regeneration

I’m still not convinced about gs as secondary weap for PvE, predator’s onslaught + LB + sword should still be superior. The big deal about the traits as far as PvE is concerned is the removal of damage modifier from hunter’s tactics. Either the reliable quickness out of beast mastery is enough and they decided having another +10% would be too much, or they did balancing with the idea that went into engie firearms as the “guiding light”.

EDIT:
Sharpened edges doesn’t have an ICD as of now, so if that remains it will be a damage increase, especially in properly might stacked groups. Vigor is nice but every bit of damage you can squeeze out is more important in PvE.

It’s the falling damage trait you’re talking about? That one won’t be useful unless you somehow create a fight that revolves around you continously jumping off a ledge high enough to activate it. So basically it won’t be useful outside of some edge cases in WvW as it is now.