Guild Wars 2

My wife finished GW1 with a competent ele. The only interest she’s ever shown in GW2 has been when I told her there was a gay male couple in beta. We’re in a very liberal US state, and we both are as well, so that really perked her interest in the game.

Just sayin’, in case Anet is interested in selling to females…

I curious how this is working out, since people that play rangers have such different expectations. Are you guys doing casual everything? Or like “hey guys I want to form a hardcore ascended only WvW roaming group/dungeon group/tPvP”?

I think it would be really funny to get in on like 5+ r40+ sPvP rangers roaming in WvW on pure berserker. That would be devastating and hillarious.

I don’t see a melee staff ever being added to the ranger because the current staffs in game are very magicy totem looking. Some would look extremely awkward being smashed on people.

I also just don’t think nature wizard is Anet’s vision for the class at all. More like fighter (I would literally choose the word “ranger”) that uses nature to help his fights.

Many of you from GW1 will remember the sticky thread on GWInc’s lore forum that listed all major research threads concerning important lore theories. I think that would be incredibly helpful for this forum.

I.e., if it’s basically proven that Jormag’s true form is a quaggan hatchling, the discussion thread is in the list. Or if there is a controversial theory with a lot of discussion, like sylvaris’ corruption tendencies, threads could be listed under that topic.

If everything is working as intended, presumably there is a steady coverage of the globe. However (and they would never show this in weapon skills due to gameplay) if you shut down the main ley lines of an entire region, you might be too far from the flow of magic and notice a difference.

I mean the Breachmaker is going to get shut down at some point, so this is probably a moot point. But it has interesting ramifications for elder dragons, inquest facilities, and what exactly ley lines do.

The devs said a long time ago they eventually want to expand current weapons to more classes before they add new ones.

I think if they ever do that, spear and especially shield will be good candidates for rangers. I wouldn’t hold my breath though.

I was playing with a group of 4 berserkers in melee (2 war, guard, me) and 1 berserker mesmer the other day. The mesmer commented that he couldn’t get his spells off before the enemies were dead. That’s the main reason condi builds aren’t any good for dungeons. The second being that even power berserkers accidentally poop out a lot of conditions, and the high condi build has no guarantee of being able to do any damage at all other than the power of his autoattacks.

She almost definitely did it specifically to wake up Mordy. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other consequences though. I feel for game play reasons they’ll probably ignore the idea, but maybe something minor will come up on the 18th.

The disconnect is that you’re using a trait that gives yourself a small power increase in exchange for a buff that gives your entire party a 7% damage increase. It’s just plain wrong. You’d benefit yourself more by taking FS.

That’s the only thing I’m complaining about, the other stuff may be different but it’s not completely wrong.

Aren’t those record runs usually using FGSs on 4ish players and stacking damage boosts (i.e. FS and spotter)? At any rate, since only 5 people out of the over 4 million copies sold are ever going to be holding the record, I’m not sure how relevant this is. :P

You could also try the condi bunker route. Those do quite well at dueling. There are also quite a few GS WvW builds available on this forum if you want to try something else that is also power based. GS is usually a glass cannon instant kill build or a very tough with lower damage build.

For the power route, a lot of people will mix in some PVT. I prefer 100% berserkers, but I don’t “duel” (I fight people that come near me) and I prefer that intense style of kill or be killed. I find with the +vit +regen cons and guard buffs, and some key defensive traits like vigor on crit or prot on big hit, I have enough survivability to focus the character on damage.

I think offhand axe or dagger is a better choice than WH if you have a choice before the fight.

TurtleDragon.3108:

Rangers … are currently not used in record runs.

I am not part of any record runs, but it’s my understanding that most speed clear guilds take a ranger for spotter and FS. There is even a thread in the dungeon forum right now about the best DPS team available and almost everyone is answering with 1 ranger, and apparently people have done the math.

I do occasionally do some of those ultra fast runs (not trying for records, just having fun with like minded PUGs) and my ranger is always welcome. Typically it is something like 2 eles, a guard, a warrior, and me.

Jelle.4623:

Well, Jora says:

“You mean Olaf and Sif? They are highly regarded among the Norn for their prowess, and favored by the bear spirit. Bear has granted them the power to take her favored form, the better to hunt and survive here! Someday, I shall regain that favor as well.”

This leads me to believe that Jora got defiled by Drakkar’s touch and by being defiled, lost Bear’s favor. To regain that favor she was required to slay Svanir and was allowed the help of humans.

She could be genuinely cursed by Svanir (or Jormag, whatever is going on) and just thinks Bear is mad at her. Sort of how a pet can fall and hurt themselves and think their owner is mad at them because of the pain of fall.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

As for the effect- nothing. Nothing whatsoever will change, because ley lines have no bearing on the usual practice of magic. They are just the means by which magic circulates about the world on a macro level- magic is by no means confined solely to the ley lines. Nothing actually directly taps into them, so nothing would be negatively or positively affected by the change, with the possible exception of the Thaumanova fallout.

Is this completely accurate? I’m going off of this:

Magic is the lifeblood of Tyria. The entire world is infused with it, and it flows through everything via ley lines that criss-cross the planet.
The natural role of the dragons is to keep this magic balanced. From time to time, in the long history of the world, the dragons have awoken and begun to draw the world’s magic into themselves, reducing the level of magic flowing through the ley lines.

When the dragons have consumed enough and thus reduced the world to a low level of magic, they go back to sleep. From then on, the magic leaks from them, back into the world at a reasonable rate. Eventually, it builds up in the world again, and the dragons awaken again to tip the teeter-totter back in the other direction.

The citizens of Tyria have ready access to this flow of magic from a very young age. They are, after all, as much a natural part of the world as are the dragons. There are as many individual ways to tap into that magic as there are people in Tyria. Some follow the methods taught to them by mentors or teachers. Others devise their own special style and relationship with magic. Some use items to enhance or channel their powers, such as the Zephyrites who use their crystals to access the Aspects.

An individual’s level of experience and knowledge affects how effectively she utilizes the magic available to them. For the most part, she can channel magic without fatigue or risk to her health. However, if a person were to stretch too far, say by using an item she’s unfamiliar with or attempting a spell more powerful than what she’s used to, then that person is taking a risk. An uncontrolled spell can do terrible damage. For this reason, most intelligent magic-users stretch carefully into spells and magical items they don’t understand.

This makes it sound like ley lines are magical rivers that magic users drink from. If Scarlet built a magic dam and redirected all rivers to Mordy, she’s going to turn the Crystal Desert in to a desert (location only choosen for the pun, I have no idea where the other ley lines go.) And it certainly looks like she re-flooded Thaumanova.

While obviously magic is not confined directly to ley lines, presumably they have capillary type lines that cover the planet entirely. This is pure speculation, but so — as far as I can tell? — is the idea that ley lines are completely unrelated to magic on the surface.

Xhean.3452:

Okey I will try 20/25/0/25/0 now. If an encounter requires me to go ranged (either by how the encounter works or due to my skill), which ranged option should I then pick? LB, SB or Axe?

I take all 3 with me at all times. They each have their uses, particularly axes (TA for “axemple”.) Often times if it’s a haphazard PUG with no pulling, I’ll start encounters with barrage, then you get fury when you move in to melee.

You’re getting a lot of negative feedback because of

Arran.9182:

i don’t use frost spirit becuase i dont like it.

…versus the thread title. You should have started with “this is not an optimal build, but I enjoy playing it anyway.”

If magic stems from the leylines, and now all leylines travel directly to Mordremoth (or at least the seven that intersect at LA) what effect is that going to have on magic in the area? Are the asura going to be blowing magitechbreakers left and right while the Flame Legion won’t be able to ignite a torch? Is Kralkatorrik suddenly going to get a lot hungrier?

Might want to delete your last two paragraphs so the thread isn’t so hostile, but I do agree some sort of statement wouldn’t go unwarranted. I’m sure they’re fully aware of the problems and it would be nice to hear even “we have a plan, the end.”

… sitting unobtrusively in the corner as you leave the final instance. I thought it was sort of abrupt how Rox saves Jory at the last second, but I think we forget she’s a ranger who has three party heals available to her. Healing Spring would be a bit too intrusive to the story, and Rox strikes me more as a Rampage as One kinda gal more than Spirit of Nature (although the instant rez from the spirit would make sense.)

Also Braham definitely needed the cripple animation.

Don’t forget we already knew 95% of what she could have told us. Braham going executioner on her was the most appropriate response. The 5% we don’t know is the interesting part, and will be the teaser for the continuation of the story.

And re: Marjory going to arrest Scarlet. I don’t believe for a second that was her intention. She says in response to Scarlet asking her if she was going to do so “ya, something like that,” draws her dagger, and then says “time to end it for good.” (Dialogue paraphrased.)

Yes, agreed. By powerful I meant damage wise. I mused in another thread it would interesting if the 2 bow interrupts added a, say, 500% cooldown to skills.

I like everything. I don’t even care what the specifics are so much, I just like the improvements to pets.

The biggest improvement would be allowing them to attack while moving, but apparently that is not possible without changing the game engine? Maybe the animation could stay the same but just reduce the pet attack time to like .1 second. Or double their melee attack range.

Burnfall.9573:

Fluffball.8307:

Rym.1469:

Good Ranger – Melee
Bad Ranger – semi-melee (shortbow)
The Worst “Ranger” – Ranged

logic?

The “range” in “ranger” does not originate from using ranged weapons.

Ranger
noun: person or thing that wanders or ranges over a particular area or domain, a soldier specially trained in close-range fighting and in raiding tactics

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ranger

Guild Wars; Ranger:

" They FAvor long-range combat, the bow being their weapon of choice, and can be especially effective from elevated locations such as bridges and cliffs "

First, your quoting a post referring specifically to linguistics. Second, see the giant wall of text in the few posts above yours to see why I don’t see powerful ranged weapons ever being added to any Anet game, for any class.

Silberfisch.3046:

That aside, I have to admit I liked the scene.However I’m still waiting for Rox to realize that she already has a warband, sort of. Ableit one with a curious lack of Charr.

I think she did in that scene. She says something along the lines of ’it’s always better to stay with friends.’ I can’t remember the quote, but that was the feeling behind it.

Rym.1469:

4. From what I know, GW1 wasn’t just about Warriors. They were mostly used for tanking and bodyblocking/CC from what I remember, more than actual DPS. It was a game with certain roles to fill and differs greatly from GW2. You could build many other classes to be DPS for group. Warriors were okay because of high physical damage resistance. Again, defense.

I meant in PvP where the entire fight revolved around the high damage warrior front line, and the mid and back lines did nothing but support the warriors.

Although in PvE martial classes in general were WAAAAY stronger than casters thanks to the way the magic support system worked. Casters were purely support in GW1 and if you played a damage ele you were pretty well hated. GW1 had tank and spank runs, but they either used weird mechanics (shadowform and broken PBAoE) or were laughably out of date.

Rym.1469:

5. Now tell me- what would be the purpose of having Rifles, Pistols, Bows in game? For newbies who start the game? So they can just take some better, melee weapon once they get more experience and just thow away ranged option because it’s just designed to be bad and for bad?

Basically, yes. As you get better at the game you can afford to take more risks. I run sword almost exclusively, but there are still plenty of places I am not good enough to melee and have to resort to range so I don’t drag down my team. I’m not that great at meleeing the champ prisoners in uncategorized at high levels, for example.

Rym.1469:

So why bother in Ranged combat? Why not make that support aspect melee? It’d be easier, more skillfull. Keep ranged options as a tutorial maybe? Like “if you suck, just stand back there and do anything”.

When I say support I mean their own personal support. If you need to fall out of melee because you missed a dodge. I view ranged as your safety net. Some bosses are hard enough that most people use range on them. You can say the same thing about WvW. It’s safer to sit in the back and range than to try to coordinate the skills that keep a zerg alive if you’ve never done things like that before.

Rym.1469:

Every MMO has to have ranged combat and it has to be not worse or better than melee.

GW2 accomplished that, IMO. Range is safe, melee is more damaging. I mostly find them both interesting (although I prefer melee range on all classes.)

Rym.1469:

As I stated previously, the fail in design is that you increase damage (and boons too, which greatly reduce threat in melee and further buff it up, mind you!), where to solve the problem of riskier melee you have to increase defense.

Sure, there are design flaws with the danger levels right now. I still stand by “greater risk = greater damage”. It’s up to Anet to make everything work.

Rym.1469:

Before you post again, please hold for a second and think about it.

See previous comment. I’ve felt this way since beta.

Rym.1469:

1. “Most games” which games? And now, which of them are MMOs? Because I think you refer to single player games.

Fantasy games in general. Throughout gaming history until recently, magic has been super powerful with things like teleport and massive AoE, charming enemies, turning enemies in to stone, instant death (there is actually a D&D spell called “Death”) etc., and fighters have been hunks of meat.

Rym.1469:

despite your hatred towards Blizzard,

???

Rym.1469:

b)In some fights I admit, Ranged players may be closer to safe zones in particular encounter phases. But what’s up with melee? Do they die?
No! They just have better defense allowing them to stay closer or get to the safe zone too. They don’t have increased damage to do that, because that would not solve anything. They have better defense at their disposal, so they can reach safe zones alive and be no worse than ranged. And it’s not harder or more risky.

I have no problems with this. A berserker ranger on LB will do a lot more damage to a boss than a cleric’s gaurdian. A berserker warrior should definitely do more damage if he’s meleeing a dangerous boss than a ranger at max range. The risk is real, I see people somehow managing to kill themselves even in CoF.

Rym.1469:

Diablo I, to begin with, is single-player Hack’n’Slash game, never aspired to be balanced or MMO, is an old, but gold game. It’s 18 years old also and can have outdated mechanics.

Exactly. More recent games did away with that model and started using a risk vs reward model. In DII, melee (barbs) got a lot stronger than warriors in DI. Sorceresses got ridiculously powerful, but they’re super glassy. I think GW1 took it a step further and was quite happy with that model. Rangers did WAY less damage in GW1 because the risk of them dying was pretty much 0.

Rym.1469:

3. Bearbow is not safer because it’s ranged. It’s safer because Bears have good threat-holding in game without threat and taunting (?) and are good in tanking thanks to stats. You argument is totally invaild. The moment mob starts to ignore bear and runs to Ranger, all advantage is lost.

If you’re in a party, the ranger at 1800 range will almost never be targeted. Meanwhile the melee players need to make use of things like aegis, blind, evade, etc. Is that too easy in the current dungeon speed clear environment? Yes, but that’s partly our own fault for breaking the game with meta builds. Anet has plans to address that very soon (next update I think?)

I’m not suggesting you use a pet for PvE at all (I’d highly recommend against it actually.)

In fact I’m not suggesting you go BM even for PvP or WvW. I’m saying people ignore the pet, so you can take advantage of it if you want. Someone posted the other day that their non-traited cat killed a mesmer on it’s own.

If you don’t want to do the fight over again, it’s not worth it for the minimal dialogue. X-o-tron helps and Kiel sees him do so.

I’m not one really bashing this build, my main issue is it’s unacceptable to me to not take Frost Spirit (and you’re already traited for it) when it adds SO much damage to the entire party.

They do, and they have a little dialogue after the fights. Basically X-o-tron is no longer a criminal.

Pretty sure masterwork allows you to skip the final fights. Exotic+ is for the achievement point.

She was trying to kill you. The time for questions ended when Braham decided to shoot first and ask questions… well, he doesn’t ask questions other than who to hit.

It was an added challenge for me. I couldn’t see the symbols, I guess due to floor clutter. Thus I wasn’t never sure what color I was heading in to. It wasn’t too bad because it’s pretty obvious if you walk in the wrong one.

I had similar problems with the wurm pheromones.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Wait… you know how he tastes???

Fun fact: human saliva has antibacterial properties.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

You wanna talk realistic? My human Thief killed an Elder Dragon, and a walking plant took credit for it. I think my issue holds more of a realism argument. Just saying.

Trahearn never claimed credit for killing the dragon. He tells he he’s sad that he can’t continue on to help you with the fight and has to stay and work on Orr.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Braham is a huge male norn.

Well, “huge” relatively speaking. He’s probably like 7’0, 300 pounds, he’s not much bigger than Logan.

Most games do it backwards, where ranged characters are practically demigods and melee fighters inherit all the risk and none of the reward. Compare and contrast a Diablo I warrior vs. sorcerer. The warrior had no abilities at all and the sorcerer could kill everything on the screen with a single click.

GW1 set the precedent for doing it right. Melee combat is always riskier than ranged combat (even in GW2; see bearbow), so it does more damage. In GW1, the game completely revolved around warriors and all other classes existed to keep those damage machines alive. GW2 continues in the correct direction of keeping riskier melee better than risk-free ranged. All 4 martial classes use their ranged purely for support, and do their best work in melee.

Rym.1469:

Good Ranger – Melee
Bad Ranger – semi-melee (shortbow)
The Worst “Ranger” – Ranged

logic?

The “range” in “ranger” does not originate from using ranged weapons.

Ranger
noun: person or thing that wanders or ranges over a particular area or domain, a soldier specially trained in close-range fighting and in raiding tactics

DeceiverX.8361:

@Fluff:
I think it speaks volumes about what so many rangers want – the option to simply not have the pet and keep the freshness of the skill kits, etc. Consequently, spirit bunker and condi builds are just strictly better than pet variants in all forms of PvP/WvW, so there’s little purpose in pet investment due to the real lack of good pets which interact with conditions or spirit bunker builds. Through a combination of style and simple system inadequacy (AI, control scheme, hit reliability, etc.), the pet’s simply just not something people even want to try and work with in a more competitive environment.

I meant opponents ignore pets, not rangers. People have been so brainwashed to think pets are useless they’ll ignore them entirely in favor of the player, and that can sometimes backfire. Also our brains can only effectively focus on a single thing at a time, so if you’re playing really well against a ranger, perhaps even sidestepping arrows, you may be physically incapable of seeing the pet (or it’s stealthed :-3).

I don’t run a BM, I’m just saying you can surprise people with one.

Sorin.4310:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPzU2Gbvt8

For the cutscene.

Thanks. That’s a really cool scene but reveals practically nothing.

She was just possessed? I guess the 18th update will fill in all the holes.

Edit: Does that mean LA is gone forever? It’s now a giant dragon?

I’ve been trying to learn the ending to the story for 7 hours but all the knights are bugged and I’ve given up. Would someone mind a quick recap of what Scarlet is/was doing? I can’t figure it out from the threads already listing spoilers.

I destroyed like 3000 of them, so I hope not. :-3

It’s just shocking how many WvW and PvP players ignore pets entirely. It’s not ideal to be getting hit by a stealthed cat with 25 stacks of might, and an extra 500 power or whatever all the BM benefits wind up being. BM used to be PvP meta, back in the day.

Ezekiel.1985:

It’s drilling upwards (backwards). I would think it’s supposed to drill downwards?

You would think wrong. It would just compress the earth if it did that. This is shoveling it out.

Frost spirit is definitely expected of you. Well, nothing is expected of you in a PUG, but not running FS will make you as popular as a cleric’s guardian.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

RaO give fury not might.

Fury, might, swiftness, and stability. The might applies to you every time your pet attacks, and to your pet every time you attack (and if you’re using a sword and/or Fortifying Bond your pet will be at max might almost instantly. Concentration Training helps you get might from your pet as well.)

In PvE you can get max might for both of you almost instantly by having a jellyfish do the swirling attack during the the boss fight of the underwater fractal.

I read the article. English longbow men were well trained, but if you give me 50 teenage boys with bows and half an hour, I can make an reasonable army. Franklin understood no one wore armor at that point which is why the medieval bows had such absurd draw weights to begin with. Also I didn’t realize all 15th century English longbowmen were built like Schwarzenegger in his prime… ; )

But anyway, no idea what this has to do with anything at this point. Just try to be nice to people.

Domey.9804:

but yeah…give rangers preparations for f1-4 and give em dshot. ranger fixed

It would actually be kind of cool if the 2 bow interrupts put skills on a 500% cooldown or something, although that would be a death sentence for a heal skill interrupt. Maybe any skill except heals (200% for those?)

That would dramatically open up some PvP options since your primary role would become an interrupter, and anything else you did would be utility.

Kilger.5490:

Facinating! I guess we can take from this Europe and 18th century America dont know much compared to you and your dad. Thanks for sharing!

Holy cow, that was the most obnoxious thing I’ve read on the internet. What inspired you to be so randomly rude to someone not being rude to you?

I have pretty extensive experience with hunting, I thought it was relevant. I’ve never tried to shoot a person with a bow obviously, but shooting one at a target or animal is extremely basic. Pull back and aim. My mother-in-law bulls-eyed the very first arrow she ever shot. Rifles are similarly simple, it’s the loading and safety and what not that confuse people.

What sort of experience with weapons do you have, by the way?