Guild Wars 2

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

All I’m hoping is that druid has some good options for cleansing. That could be the reason, otherwise you could take all three trait lines and be immune to conditions.

Have you ever fought a shoutbow as any condi build from any profession? They can literally /sleep on you.

Just on the off chance a dev ever reads this, the “TOO STRONK” line is actually “ONLY THINGS THAT ANYONE WILL USE”.

We have so few choices to make in all the lines, it’s really frustrating. I’m already leveling up my tailoring to make ascended cloth armor if I need to jump ship because of these changes. And planning on moving some ascended gear over to my newly deified engi. You know these changes are not optimal when someone who’s put up with 3 years of rangers being beaten and neglected is probably changing mains due to them.

Glass LBs would have a good excuse to use it though.

You’re on point, do a bunch of damage as the guy approaches, then go toe to toe with PM + RT up.

None of this applies to me since I don’t play LB much anymore and I never play it in PvP, but hey, I like RT so I can be excited about it.

Ooh, I like it. I’m going to be making extensive use of RT.

I like it. You don’t want your pet on cooldown, but you do want the benefits of the new pet and trait effects, so you have to decide what the optimal time to swap is.

In GW1, when you used frenzy on a warrior, you got a long duration quickness, but took double damage. That’s a cool choice. This is similar.

Also we swap pets pretty frequently as is, so they’re going to trigger a bunch regardless.

This thread is so ridiculous it’s confusing. I’ve followed outstanding commanders playing every single profession.

What kind of awful WvW experience are you guys having that you can’t find a decent commander?

Jasher.6580:

What do you think may be the meta build for Rangers then?

Probably the same as it is now, condis and LBs. There are just a few new features for both. LBs have some added utility/condi removal, etc.

We can only go so far with theorycrafting, we’ll have to see what happens when we play against other people’s new builds as well. We’re not the only new thing in PvP.

Eurantien.4632:

These changes are amazing. I’m surprised so few see it that way… For PvP anyway

PvP has basically ONE build for all professions. This is a great buff to PvP rangers.

It’s a nerf to the trait system.

It’s an indirect nerf to ranger because other professions got much bigger buffs than we did.

I think this needs some serious refinement, but it’s probably where I’d start. I guarantee you this is not the best option.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-J7kF3;0wEFt-p2VEF-0;9k2D;1_bZ;0137236058;9;1jwmAjwmA0M

Probly release the upgrade later on with no beta access.

No character slot is pretty harsh though, that effectively adds another 10 bucks onto the price.

Quarktastic.1027:

On the other hand, the .5 second arming time means no more instant heal, and not triggering at full health means no more on demand condition removal/water field.

Well the waterfield can be triggered by allies, and presumably you don’t want to blast a water field when everyone is at full health.

The 1 second delay on the heal effect is going to be sort of brutal for roaming/PvP though. I mean I guess we learned to deal with it for troll unguent, it will just take some getting used to.

I’ll still be calling it RaO.

It’s about guild halls isn’kitten

Also wtf, word filter. Is it not?

I just realized evasive purity got buffed through the roof. Oh you have 1.2k stacks of poison on you (you’re soloing a zerg)? Dodge!

Why would you run condi removal in PvE? If you’re in a super heavy condi area in open world, SoR will get you through it. For dungeons or normal open world, it’s not needed at all. I usually take SoR just to get out of combat sooner, but it’s not needed.

Tragic Positive.9356:

I have my doubts on that. I think conditions will become very powerful and more people will start running it.

I just don’t see people getting past the condi-clear meta. Doesn’t matter if you can put 1500 stacks of confusion on someone, it just won’t stick. Unless things go back to small skirmishes instead of team fights.

I do agree more people will run condis; I think everyone will run them at first. But then once people realize warriors and eles (and now engis) exist, that will fade away.

With a bit of might stacking, which we will get to a degree, celestial ranger might still be a pretty good thing in PvP. Might be a decent buff.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Although we’re still not sure if the runes trigger on trap placement or on trap arming.

It doesn’t really matter, you will either stealth immediately after HS, or .5 seconds later.

Nice point about the WvW zerg use.

Darkness.9732:

Btw i still don’ t understand why devs think ranger is overpowerd..and they keep nerfing it.

Made even more bizarre by the fact that it seems like the lead on the ranger changes was the same guy that made engies into friggen Greek gods.

Sebrent.3625:

(3)
We still don’t know what the changes are going to be for getting stats only from gear. This could have some unforeseen effects. Without focusing on condition damage gear, getting 700 condition damage is not that difficult even with the current stats from gear.

Ya we do. It’s a 30% increase for exotics, and ascended will have another 10%.

link

Maliken.5630:

Do you get the healing when you PLACE the trap and the waterfield at the triggering?
Or does the initial healing only works when triggering the trap?

Triggering. It was mentioned you could place it while you were at full health (like on a PvP point) and wait for someone to come smack you before you trigger it.

Here is the updated trait system:

http://intothemists.com/calc/

The problem we all have with it, mistsim, is not that we can’t run too different condi clear grandmasters, but that it forces a traitline on us.

I posted some off the top of my head solutions to “we have too much condi clear” a while back (which doesn’t even make sense to me, if you want to waste 2 grandmasters on condi clear, go for it.) Things like sprinkling 4 or 5 lesser condi clears throughout the trees and removing or changing the grandmasters. I can’t remember what else I came up with.

I didn’t even think about that, Prophet, since I don’t really PvE anymore.

I don’t understand why Anet hates us so much. Not hyperbole, I just don’t see how these updates can be viewed as anything other than a nerf and massive buffs to other professions. If we were the overwhelming meta in every game mode it might make more sense, but we’re not.

Yes, you need to stomp rangers if you plan on leaving the point.

Or in your case, you might as well just keep killing the pet, since the ranger was wasting an enormous amount of time trying to revive himself.

I don’t see the confusion here. You say ranger used lick wounds; 20 second timer starts ticking. You CC pet, which doesn’t really do anything. You kill the pet. Presumably 15 seconds have passed at this point. 5 seconds pass. He uses lick wounds again.

Seems pretty straight forward.

If you allow the 20 seconds to pass without killing the ranger, he revives the dead pet and it starts all over again.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Both the Engineer and Thief ones are utterly ridiculous. How can they possibly call this balance?

I am kind of hoping the new titanic demigod engis can help stem the OPness of stealth in PvP with that trait that automatically reveals people on hit. Though I haven’t really theorycrafted up an engi build, so I don’t know if it’s something people will be taking.

Sic’ em might see some play in shout BM builds, as well.

FrouFrou.4958:

I should have known you would see past all the doom and gloom! This will be glorious!

I’m very doomy and gloomy, but I am definitely going to give anet a reasonable and thorough chance.

FrouFrou.4958:

But either way, sure some of the changes are meh and it sucks to see other classes to get buffed so hard but am I the only melee ranger being amazed by the opportunities we have for roaming in WvW with some of these changes? Beastmaster line has some nice things: the pet will turn into a pew pew machine with all the trait buffs, aoe blind, aoe weakness, quickness and fury on pet swap.. Combine that with remorseless, the new QZ.. You don’t even have to bunker down and hit like a wet noodle just so you can have a buffed up pet, you and your pet together can dish out some nice damage after the changes goes live.

Ya that is exactly* the build I will be trying, remorseless + BM.

*I figure that will be a common theme amongst GW2 players now that most choices have been removed.

It’s a step in the right direction. In a realistic situation I’m not sure how much this changes things though. In PvE your pets should never, ever die unless they get hit with something that would kill them no matter what kind of damage reduction they get (lupi for example). A WvW melee zerg ranger’s pet is still going to explode in a fraction of a second, and a LB ranger’s pet isn’t sent into a zerg fight to begin with.

The engi changes are just ridiculous across the board. I don’t know what they were thinking. Good thing I like playing engi, cuz if you choose to play anything else after the 23rd, you’re crazy.

S/D thief, non-glass warriors, condi rangers. LB is supposed to lose to those.

Edit: Oh, and condi thieves or other complete troll builds.

The more I look over the new traits the more I’m thinking I’m switching to a new main after 3 years. I’m not trying to be overly dramatic, I just don’t like most of what I see.

I casually play a few of the other professions and I LOVE what I see on them. We got indirectly nerfed into oblivion based on how much other professions improved. And we have:

Predator’s Instinct: Apply 10 seconds of Cripple to foes below 50% when you strike them. This trait has a 30 second internal cooldown.

I’m going to attempt to make some sort of team-support + damage build with remorseless and see if it’s any fun or viable.

Johnny.1634:

Its the only weapon that’s missing its own trait and no news on if the range/radius of Path Of Scars/Whirling Defense is baseline.
What’s happening with it??

I think they said the previous 4 hour stream a few months ago all the offhand skills were getting OHT as base, didn’t they?

I’m pretty underwhelmed. There are a few traits that look amazing, but doing some mental on-the-fly build making, they seemed to be obvious. I.e, I don’t see a lot of/any hard choices depending on what type of ranger you’re playing.

And there are a bunch of WTF traits, like a 30s ICD cripple on predator’s instinct. On a class with more cripple than the other 7 combined…

I punched myself in the face when the dev said the current invigorating bond was pretty strong, and therefore won’t be changed.

Toxsa.2701:

It also shows how bad the game balance is, that running 3 mediation Guardian is ok while having 2 thieves or 2 necros have a great disadvantage, despite all being zerk class. It already shows who’s at the top of food chain.

Thieves are basically a requirement, though. Is there any high ranking team that doesn’t use one at all?

1 thief is overpowered, 2 thieves are auto-lose.

Don’t forget to make your armor some hideous rainbow color scheme if you go that route.

Sword, axe, and LB are all “meta” in all 3 game modes, if that helps any. But all of the weapons are commonly used. Rangers don’t really have a bad weapon set.

I was thinking about specializations as I wrote out my mock rules. It may be that we get effectively get 18 professions instead of our current 8, and this entire problem goes away.

Rule 1: Not more than 1 thief and mesmer per team.
Rule 2: Not more than 2 of any other profession.
Rule 3: Not more than 3 of any 1 amulet.

?

It would punish thieves and mesmers at first, but we’d all be rewarded with less self-desk-face-smash inducing team comps.

Oh good! I thought I read all the posts, but I’m pretty sleepy. Ok, I feel better. I guess me typing into say chat probably is useful to the GM reviewing as well.

I saw mention of a GM being called when you report as bot. Can I assume the game does not save any footage, and thus it’s pretty easy to get away with “light” hacking?

That engi may not use his program again for hours, where he would be in a situation where running around in the downed state is a) useful and b) not seen by lots of players (better chance of being videod and that person taking the time to mail evidence to Anet.)

I’ve starting running into hackers very frequently in WvW. I know you’re supposed to submit proof via email, but I don’t run video recording software and screenshots usually either don’t show what’s going on or I can’t get my fingers on the button in time.

For example I just downed an engi, and he ran quite a long ways back to his keep while in the downed state. Once a friendly was nearby he went back to his normal downstate animation and was able to be rezzed.

I don’t know how to submit proof for that, so I just hit “report player”, selected “botting”, and hoped for the best. I usually type a little note in my say chat or something to guide a dev if they are even able to review footage. Am I completely wasting my time? Are you guys able to review footage, or would you even think to do that based on a botting report?

Flopy you’re one of my favorite rangers to watch on youtube.

That said, your opponents looked drunk. You can beat better players than those guys. You found better fights than those to highlight; don’t make yourself look good slaughtering people quickly, I’d rather see where you struggled.

If you’re going to list LB as non-viable for PvP, you have to list ranger as non-viable for PvE. Both are very good up until the best of the best of the best.

This coming from a guy who doesn’t like LB in PvP, so there is no bias.

And on that note, you can easily run a ranger in a zerg. Maybe, maybe not a GvG, but anything else, yes.

Everything is pretty decent for everything. It’s literally that simple.

There are a few outliers, but it doesn’t matter that much. At the very least, nothing that can’t be covered up by a couple teammates.

Most everyone agrees necro is the worst or 2nd to worst PvP class, and yet the best PvP team in NA uses a necro.

He should have won. IMO, LB ranger hard counters necro. I cannot remember a time I’ve ever lost to a necro 1v1, or even come close to losing. It’s just a horrible, horrible matchup for necro.

Roaming necros are completely suicidal since all they’re going to run into are classes they can’t beat or can’t catch, one or the other. Or both.

Only one I can think of is you can’t port to the torches on temple (I think, I almost never play tele classes).

But there aren’t any safe spots, that’s for sure. LB is popular on foefire because of the map coverage, not because the cliffs are safe.

Is your PvE dungeons, or open world? For open world FS is not worth it except maybe for big boss fights. For dungeons, you took the 2 lowest damage weapons rangers have, and both are condi based, so you’ll have to look for groups that specifically say “bring whatever you want” or you’ll very quickly get kicked. If you ever decide to get into dungeons more seriously, you can use dungeon tokens to get “free” berserker armor and the right weapons, and run the meta build.

For food, I’d go with something like mango pies for WvW. You’re very squishy in that armor, so anything you can do to try to offset that is good. On that note, I’d drop the lynx for a more defensive pet. you have plenty of damage, but something like a spider or drakehound will help keep people off you. Also a river drake uses a blast finisher as a special attack. You could use that in healing spring for extra healing, and put your warhorn to good use as well.

Edit: Another random thought. You’re going to lose a huge amount of survivability on your WvW build if the trait/armor changes go live next tuesday (you’ll lose a bunch of toughness and vitality from the traitlines.) With guard stacks also being removed, you may need to rethink the whole concept. You’ll be running around at base vitality and base toughness.

As long as it stops pairing me up with 3 mesmers and a thief.