Guild Wars 2

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I don’t feel as though DD is stepping on Ranger’s toes too much. Stealth and evasion is all thieves have as defense. We get Protection, Evasion, Invulnerability, Blocking and a bulk load of Regeneration sources

The daredevil gets a skill that at least in description is completely identical to our counterattack, so they at least also get blocking. Reading through the daredevil description, there wasn’t anything I could find that didn’t sound like one of the ranger sword skills. And lightning reflexes sounds like their new dodge rolls.

I guess we’ll see during the video, but it sounded like they just reskinned a melee ranger to me. This may be completely intentional on their part, sort of like how people thought dragon hunter might be for those people that want to play a pet-less ranger. Daredevil may be 100% intended for ranger players.

Daredevil looks extremely similar to a melee ranger concept.

Not that I’m complaining too terribly much, this is the first thing they’ve shown from HoT that has me considering buying it, since I love melee ranger so much. If they’re not going to fix up rangers to a satisfactory degree, maybe I can play something similar.

fluffdragon?

Only place dagger has in PvE is Lupi or open world dancing around with s/d. The latter is where the most people would see you in any game mode, which I guess is the point of a legendary.

mistsim.2748:

it’s interesting how nos refused to give the ranger props. not sure if annoyed or just skeptical.

I say this with the utmost repsect for all of Abjured, but other than Phantaram and Toker, they are a bunch of petty children. That goes for 99% of all the top players, and it makes sense since most of them are in their late teens – early 20s.

FANTASTIC video gamers and complete children. Look at the pure amount of rage quit you see from these guys even while being broadcast.

I mean I was skeptical when you said it was too powerful because you killed someone, but when you just straight up killed a thief or mesmer?? Just straight up?? Dude. That’s OP.

You killed me because I’m going to kill myself reading your stupid kitten post.

singinggecko.5736:

One small gripe that’s becoming worse is seeing ‘soon’ after all of these types of posts. As much as having a deadline would force them to meet it or have an uproar, not having an idea of whether that means days, weeks, or months is starting to get me decently frustrated.

We’ve gotten “soon” for years now. I’ve played almost nothing but the GW franchise for a decade and I finally ran out of patience for good. The pace of everything in GW2 is maddeningly slow. Other than balance tweaks and UI edits every 6 months or so, have there been any changes to PvP as a game type since launch over 3 years ago?

I almost feel like the pay-to-buy model is failing them, it seems like they never have enough devs for anything, to the point of disbanding the dungeon and WvW teams. On the other hand, there is no way I’d pay a subscription fee for any game ever. Maybe there are just too many games out there right now.

There is also the interesting windborne notes + WH + clarion bond. If I can ever drag myself back for some serious build developing, that will be my next project.

FrownyClown.8402:

does builds like this work in pvp?

In a not-being-sarcastic way, anything works in WvW and PvP, there are just different requirements for being good. One example; I like to roam on melee in WvW because it has excellent sustained mobility. But it has no teles, so the mobility isn’t as good as a thief in PvP.

penelopehannibal.8947:

This thread is borderline creepy. Is it any wonder you’re not hearing from them?

Borderline?

Rangers are really popular as alts for PvE boss trains, but that’s why I clarified competitively. Effectively no one plays rangers competitively in PvE, WvW, or PvP. Pretty close to 0%, which is… disheartening.

UnitedChaos.8364:

Every thread a warrior or thief pops in and screams louder than the rangers that “rangers are fine, everything is fine, keep it that way”; and with the forums he who screams louder gets their way.

I used to think the devs would be above this, but in reality they “listen to the community” a lot (dhuumfire, perplexity, turrets, and so on.) Big uproars get dev reactions, and that’s bad when rangers are the least popular class to play AND play against.

The overwhelming majority of the community doesn’t play rangers competitively (in all formats), hates playing against them, and the devs listen to the overwhelming majority.

Have you collected a bulleted list of rangers changes recently, jcbroe? Your suggestions are always 100 times better than anyone else in the ranger community. And devs love bullets.

I need ranger to be fixed because I’m only logging in for 5 or 10 minutes a day at this point to finish dailies, in the hope that I’ll be able to enjoy GW2 at some point in the near future.

That’s weird. I haven’t had that happen at all. I wonder if that’s related to players instantly dying out of combat for no reason.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

How about two kittens at once? Sounds more adorable than deadly to me.

Kittens are sharp on 5 out of 6 ends. You wouldn’t stand a chance.

Swiftly.2385:

Thanks all. Feels like we got a little bit of the short end of the stick on movement traits also…just my opinion but as a Ranger I feel like we should have top tier movement at least out of combat.

I got a guild group of six to chase me from their garri, around bay, up past wurm, and through the NE camp yesterday. Swoop, LR, HS/ML, and RT. Oh and some sword 3 dagger 4 just to taunt them up close. They never had a chance.

You probably shouldn’t try to 2v1 people.

TheFantasticGman.9451:

At this point it doesn’t matter. As far as Dungeons and Fractals are concerned the Ranger is dead. The Rev now has a spotter trait and much CC. Why do we need to bring in a Ranger? Frost Spirit? One utility skills? LOLWUT

No. As of watching the PoI, the Ranger is officially dead to me.

I didn’t prepurchase, but I was under the impression revenant was complete garbage for PvE?

Resounding Timbre.

GS:

1) Land maul either after a CC or fake them out. (i.e stow the weapon or make them dodge a pet KD that you recall, etc.) Edit: or the stealth from LB, I am stuck in double melee thought train.
2) Not sure what to comment on this. I don’t use a dodge roll after a block though. Sort of confused on how you’re using this.
3) It’s effectively impossible to land it from behind normally. You need to CC first, then chain CC. You can land it with a double melee build by jumping behind them with a de-targeted ML/HS combo + auto-target and auto-orient.
4) Yup. It’s a defensive autoattack. Live with it and learn to double up on the evade.

Sword:
1) Ya it’s cool. You can really panic people with it.
2) Use 2 for the movement, i.e. if a thief or mesmer stealths, sword 2 in random directions. You can also use it for something like churning earth or other ridiculous skills.
3) CC first, for the most part. Or point blank as you noted, as people tend to ignore it. It’s truly devastating if you CC chain with it. It hits HARD.
4) Ya it works against thieves coming out of stealth if you mean the pistol and SB skills. It reflects all projectiles. It’s not that great of a skill. You can use it to cover condis though since it reapplies vuln so often, like if you wanted to keep them in entangle with a cele build or something. To get anything out of the skill you usually need to rely on your opponent being stupid.
5) No such thing as too much evade, and you’re definitely going to want that ranged cripple. I use it often. Also, poison = -heal.
6) Condis. You can use them on cele too. Not good for LB for the most part.
7) WH is mostly crap, but the blast finisher can be good if you’re going the team support route. 4 is borderline useless.

I think he meant the ICD of PI would be 60 seconds, not the pet’s F2. PI is so completely worthless it would be difficult to make it worse. We could hold a competition to see who could make a worse trait that PI and we’d all fail.

I think PO would need to have that damage boosted to like… 8% to be worth it. Typically you have chill and cripple on a PvE enemy through happenstance. Immob is rare and stun/daze/fear/taunt is pretty much nonexistant because of defiance.

infantrydiv.1620:

Sword
Second half of Hornet’s String chain stuns for 1 second upon damage

I was going to say that’s an awful lot of CC, but then I compared it to some of the other classes and was like “mm ok I guess”.

Still, there is roughly a 0 percent chance that gets implemented.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I suggested that a while back.

You would use Hornet’s Sting, then it would flip to become Monarch’s Leap, but not time out and flip back to go on CD. Would basically be two skills in the same slot, each with it’s own CD.

I remember that thread. It makes everyone happy. I doubt it’s a big enough improvement to warrant dev time though. And knowing how GW2 works, it would probably break the way a champion ettin in timberline falls attacks every other Tuesday.

Holland.9351:

If you replace Muddy terrain with Guard and replace heal as one with troll unguent (which you already have traited), your build might be even better. You also gain a pet with stealth from which it can safely taunt and land its attacks without tells.

You can use troll unguent as soon as you start taking damage rather than having to wait like heal as one.

I would lose a major source of condi clear and the immob though. If I have to blow one of the survival skills for a condi clear, I pick MT first if everything else is equal. LR and Entangle are good to save for when they’re appropriate. Healing isn’t a problem with this build, but it’s slightly weak on condi removal.

Also MT is just a really good skill, I use it to chain CC people. I overlap the durations slightly and people just sit there and die.

Nil.4320:

@Fluffball.8307

Why do you use celestial stats on your armour? Aren’t there any better options?

Probably. Basically I made the ascended armor and stuck defender runes on it, so it’s expensive. I don’t even know what I would replace it with. Zealots, cavs and valks or something? Celestial is just easier. Edit: Easier meaning I like to run all sorts of weird builds and celestial fits most of them. If you were min maxing it would be “easier” to find the right armor combo.

Prophet.1584:

does FA ever meet up with JQ?

Nope. The tiers are pretty well locked in.

Darkness.9732:

How have you not been banned yet?

Crapgame.6519:

I use those runes on my guardian with mace and focus and they work well. I would never thought to try them on my ranger. In fact I am drawing a blank on how they would proc even…

The aegis on heal procs on any class. And the regen procs on the GS block. That part is extremely minor.

It’s definitely a decent build. Out of curiosity, why do you want the SB with a power amulet over LB? LB’s utility is underrated by new rangers IMO.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Gah, I’d like to oblige since I’m on SoS, but you’ll have to wait… What’s the build?

Basically the one in your thread. I have a few changes I make if I have time when I see opponents coming. Obviosuly Sic Em is only useful against thieves mesmers and LB rangers.

The defender runes are obnoxious. I’m not sure why more people aren’t running them on all classes. If Anet ever reads my threads I’m going to be kittened, because I’m totally reliant on those things at this point. My skill level is plummeting.

StickerHappy.8052:

Fluffball.8307:

Ya on FA. My build doesn’t work in PvP because I’m cheating using the runes I’m using.

Aw.

Woo! Dodged one bullet.

Ya on FA. My build doesn’t work in PvP because I’m cheating using the runes I’m using.

I’m having delusions of grandeur; I’m pretty sure I’m a god. I cannot be defeated 1v1, I’ve slaughtered everyone who dared look at me the past few weeks. If you’re on SoS or YB, help me get over this. Behind the monkeybars I mean windmill.

I meant to say AREN’T totally useless, I think his build was quite viable in a fun way. Not at the tournament level of course, but he’s a better PvPer than me and knows that already.

: )

Edit: ItIsFinished did come up with a burning build using sun spirit I thought was downright cool. Spirits aren’t TOTALLY useless.

I’d rather see spirits removed entirely and replaced with something active (without nerfing the PvE contributions). I doubt Anet takes such a drastic step though, but now we’re stuck with a relatively useless trait and utility line.

I took my mesmer into WvW. I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO PLAY MESMER… AT ALL, and I was 1v3ing people and slaughtering them. I was like ‘are you gall dang kidding me? seriously bro?’

I know we’re talking PvE, it’s just a real shock to me anytime I play an alt. I feel the same way about pretty much all my alts in PvP.

People dodge the super critical pets skills like the canine knockdowns. Otherwise they tend to ignore your pets. You can’t be dodging eagle swoops when the ranger has a maul ready. (Which might be a mistake, since the eagle could end up doing more damage than the maul!)

Kehlian.4380:

The river drake’s attack bounces, stacking 25 might on its own, while the other’s stack less.
But the might stacking isn’t applyable this way in PVP, since people will just dodge attacks.

These statements are inaccurate. Go play with the pets and learn their mechanics.

That’s a cool application of it. I used to use AoE pet attacks to do that in the early days of PvE before a meta had been established. I clearly remember typing “lol 25 stacks of might!” in a dungeon. First time I’d ever seen it.

Not sure how useful that is anymore, now that everyone stacks might for WvW and PvE, and even PvP to an extent.

You can fake a zerg build in most cases by simply slotting SoS and/or SotW on your normal roaming build. I do that pretty often if I want to help with a big keep fight.

It’s just one example, there are TONS of ways to use your pet in non-obvious synergistic ways (woo, got to use that word outside the office!)

Edit: It’s up to you to make sure you’re not wasting the blast finisher. Pet control separates the good rangers from the hobby rangers.

Some of the pets are good for their F2s, some are good for their other abilities. Drakes are often used for the blast finisher in healing spring, for example.

Haha, Eura assigning homework. It’s a good assignment though, you can’t play ranger if you don’t know the pets. After that, enjoy figuring out how to control all their weird quirks.

Prophet.1584:

Fluffball.8307:

Kehlian.4380:

Plus, you have the “disadvantage” (note the quote marks) of having trying for years, maybe you’re too attached to some of the old stuff that used to work, but changed, and maybe I’ll find those out, maybe you’ll find those out before me.

I’m not referring to me personally. I’m saying the tens of thousands of ranger players have tried everything. As for me personally, I play… ‘different’ builds shall we say.

please do share lol different can be good!

One of my WvW builds is in Heimskarl’s link. But really I just swap things around on a ~ weekly basis. Especially in open world if I’m doing dailies or something I try to use all the pets and traits just to get a feel for them.

I mostly base builds around where I’m getting condi removal from. After that, you can do anything.

Kehlian.4380:

Plus, you have the “disadvantage” (note the quote marks) of having trying for years, maybe you’re too attached to some of the old stuff that used to work, but changed, and maybe I’ll find those out, maybe you’ll find those out before me.

I’m not referring to me personally. I’m saying the tens of thousands of ranger players have tried everything. As for me personally, I play… ‘different’ builds shall we say.

You’re misinterpreting the responses Zenos. I didn’t tell him not to experiment, I objected to him telling us we’re doing it wrong and he’s going to fix it for us. That isn’t going to happen. The other’s that responded basically said the same thing.

The internet really will argue about anything.

No one is belittling him.

Heh. I appreciate your optimism, but you’re coming into a forum with people who have been playing ranger for over 3 years, have literally tried every combination of traits possible, every armor combo, people who have truly mastered every nuance of ranger… tiny things that you don’t even know are possible. And telling us we need to experiment more and you’re going to find the way to play ranger everyone is missing.

We’ve done it, bruh. And not just one of us, hundreds of us. If you come up with a new build you think is the answer, I can probably find a thread from 2 years ago with a dozen or more responses discussing the concept. And for dungeons, if it’s not the meta build, chances are extremely good it’s just plain incorrect, because of math.

People want to combine 1h sword into GS. We have two different weapons, folks, and they do two different things. I am truly sorry you don’t want to use a 1h sword defensively, but it DOES exist.

I don’t consider 5th place top tier, but I also don’t agree that any of those are better than ranger. There isn’t any profession or build I feel uncomfortable 1v1ing as a ranger. Sure some players are just plain better than me, but that has nothing to do with ranger. I’m sure phanta could beat me with him on ranger and me on condi mesmer.

Medi guard I don’t think even belongs in the discussion with the good 1v1 builds.