Guild Wars 2

Arena Net, You know we all want solid info on what the specializations are for each class, and what new weapons they get. But instead of giving us that, you keep giving us enormously vague statements like:

“One specialization will have access to traps, while at least one profession’s elite specialization will be a full set of six shouts.”

It’s honestly getting a little annoying. Just tell us what we get.

Source:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-two-reward-tracks-and-elite-specializations/

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Gern.2978:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Jayden Ennok.3687:

Counterception.

You do realize that is a birth control term right?

You’re thinking of Contraception.

Trust me, both terms are interchangeable. If not, look it up.

“Counterception” as a word doesn’t exist. It is mainly use by people mispronouncing “Contraception”.

They can’t be interchangeable if one of them isn’t even a proper word. You can exchange an actual word with a fake word.

Xtinct.7031:

All I can say to OP is crymore pls. I love it when people whine about certain builds/profession because they present some sort of challenge to they’re game play. If all you do is complain you will never become a better player at this game and in life for that matter, grow up.

If you are having trouble with something in this game, learn it, practice with it, duel against it offend.

Not a constructive comment in any sense, with exception to the last part about dueling against a particular build often (I am assuming you meant often and not “offend”).

That’s how I learn to counter builds that I am having trouble with: I grab a guildie who runs that build, or a similar one, drag them into our guild’s private server and duel them until I learn to beat them. This does get frustrating sometimes though, because often the guildie gets bored and doesn’t want to put in the time that I may need to get an understanding of how to defeat them. But until A-net adds a proper dueling system, it’s the best option we have.

Jitters.9401:

1) Knockbacks push me right out of the shadow refuge and into a reveal state. Most 1v2 fights, one of the enemies has a knockback, so my shadow refuge is usually null and void and I have only 1 stealth mechanic.

That right there is the sole reason I use pistol/shield on my engineer in WvW. I love it when thieves plop down SR expecting to make a getaway, only to be immediately knocked out of it. Warrior and guardian hammer works exceptionally well for this too.

Oh and I forgot:

3) Some means of dueling. Even if it’s only one specific area where we can do it. Custom arenas don’t cut it. They are inconvenient and expensive. Plus it would be nice to be able to do it outside of the heart of the mists so we can test WvW roaming builds.

1) no more hobosacks
2) A means of saving builds and quickly switching between builds that I have saved when out of combat.

That’s about it right now.

Any one know if there is going to be another sale soon?

ANewHope.5192:

Do not remove hobosack on asura engineers. That is all.

Um…..why not? I would really like to lose my Engi’s hobosack. I would be irate if they removed hobosacks for all races except Asura. The hobosack goes less well with asura than it does any other race.

Zero Day.2594:

come on guys, get it to 5th page so I can post that picture again.

I like mine better:

coglin.1867:

I love the shield. I find the reflect invaluable against that pesky LB rangers and scepter Mesmer. That and I got 4 Ghastly Grinning Shields in the first Halloween event, and it is fun seeing it on my character as I reflect that projectiles at those players who think they are going to do a massive rapid fire from 1500 range, only to find the “quit hitting yourself” aspect take into effect.

Killing a ranger with their own RF gives one of the most satisfying feelings in this game. It’s right up there with killing turret engi’s.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Jayden Ennok.3687:

Counterception.

You do realize that is a birth control term right?

You’re thinking of Contraception.

Sebrent.3625:

@Gern:
I’m still not seeing any valid reason why the change you want to Rapid Fire (and other skills) is warranted. Feel free to try again.

The main reason, as I have said multiple times, is that I feel it would be best to make it so that you don’t have to dodge twice to avoid RF, and LB rangers could use more AOE damage, and just more damage in general. If you don’t agree with that, it’s fine. Everyone has their own opinion.

Crapgame.6519:

Hence the bias and disdain comments. It is a debate for which you will not consider any other facts to alter your opinion. I don’t mean it demeaning or derogatory but I just do not see you having an open mind in this argument no matter how many people have tried to explain it.

Then again, it could just be me. I really don’t care at the end of the day. Remove the skill and we’ll find another post regarding Rangers and class balance.

I do wish you golden bombs of light and love though <3

I have considered the facts and opinions offered, because I offered responses to them of my own. You cannot offer a rebuttal to a person’s response without considering said response. Just because you disagree with my rebuttals, doesn’t mean I didn’t consider the information and responses that people made.

Once again I ask: If I have so much disdain and bias against the Ranger class, does that mean I hate myself when I play one? Having a desire to see changes to a class, doesn’t mean you hate that class. If I hated the ranger class, I surely wouldn’t be advocating buffing any aspect of them, especially not their damage, which I have said should be buffed. In fact, I have said several times in this thread that nearly all other aspects of Rangers need to be buffed.

I use a shield in WvW, and sometimes in PvP when I feel like using a condi build there (or on ranger days, hehehe). I almost feel like shield is required when roaming in WvW because it’s perfect for knocking a thief out of their shadow refuge.

Viable for what? You gotta be specific. There is no build that is viable across all game modes.
P/P, like any condi build is going to be fine (although not ideal) for WvW and SPvP, but not good for PvE.

Removing Hobosacks.

Why is this useful (and important)? Because let’s be honest: this is Skin Wars 2.

Napo.1230:

It’s just a sad situation atm thief’s are gave crap for whatever they run. S/d evade spam p/d condi cheese but i personally think d/p shadow arts is just pure cancer, kitten that most people think, remove condis in stealth, heal in stealth why wouldn’t I want to take this?
It’s impossible to kill a good d/p thief sure you can make them retreat and you can see that as a victory but meh.
Get them low poof there gone.
Condi unload on them poof there gone.
Get 3-5 in a roaming party poof your gone insta ganked.
Of course if they make a mistake and get to impatient there dead.
I mean basilisk venom backstab is enough to make you use a utility and a heal. We all no they will keep reseting and whittle you down.
I used to get mad but i don’t see it as losing anymore.
(strictly wvw opinion)

You get outnumbered in WvW against any class and you are going to be dead 9 times out of 10. Yeah, you see the “outnumbered” videos on youtube all the time, but remember they are well edited.

Also, you get a group of any particular class and it’s going to be very OP. Imagine a group of all LB rangers chain RF’ing you to death, or a group of grenade engi’s chaining thier Grenade Barrages. Me and few others in my guild roamed around one time, all on our zerker Hammer warriors, we were unstoppable.

Crapgame.6519:

Look – not many people are seeing it the way you are. Maybe it is time to just yield and say maybe you have it all wrong? That isn’t a bad thing you know.

Everyone has opinions, and you should never change your opinion simply because it isn’t popular. I have changed my opinion on a lot of things in my life, but only after hearing a convincing argument for which I could see no equally convincing defense of my own beliefs. As it stands, I personally have not read a convincing argument against my own proposition. Indeed, for several pages people have simply been repeating arguments which I had already responded too several times over.

I like this this change in PvP.

It is a bit disappointing in PvE, but as was pointed out: they weren’t useful in PvE anyways.

I have to disagree. I honestly don’t know where this is coming from. I never use banner in PvP and rarely see other warriors use it either, but we all do just fine. Warrior is most definitely not being held up by banner exclusively.

I haven’t talked about what should be changed about other skills in this thread because this thread is specifically about Rapid fire. Should other skills that are similar to rapid fire be changed, yes. But those are topics for their class’s sub forums. It wouldn’t make sense to talk about spatial surge in the Ranger sub-forum.

As far as disdain that you think I feel for the ranger class: does that mean I hate myself when I play a ranger? As I said before, I have no disdain for the class, nor have I ever given any indication that I do. It wouldn’t make sense for me to hate the class.

Yes, RF is different than other abilities like 100b, and it would still be so if the changes I suggested were implemented; I haven’t suggested limiting it’s range. The only thing that the changes I suggest would do to RF would make it able to be dodged with a single dodge, as opposed to 2. As far as LB having no skills to guarantee damage: neither does warrior GS. Warriors guarantee damage with 100b by using other weapons and abilities, just as the ranger would have to (and already does if they are smart) by using entangle or GS #5. Also, as I have said: Rf should get a damage buff in addition to the other changes to compensate for the change in mechanics.

More people opt for Guardian or other classes in Fractals and dungeons not because of damage, but because Guardian and other classes bring better group utility. And rangers do desperately need better group utility.

Um… source?

jcbroe.4329:

I’ve already responded to you once today in a different thread, and now I am going to educate you in this thread.

Watch this video and please learn from it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EitZRLt2G3w

And then please understand why you will never be left in charge of balancing a game until you understand the video.

Yes, in many ways RF is a “noob tube.” However, so is 100b, blurred frenzy, and especially pistol whip. All I am asking is that 2 of the restrictions that apply to those other “noob tubes” be applied to RF.

Crapgame.6519:

Also just want to point out you are not making any friends with the continued tone and comment by stating rangers have a lower skill level than the rest of the class base. Honestly, it isn’t helping your argument at all and is clearly showing your bias and disdain of the class.

Bais and disdain? I have never once said that ranger is a bad class, or that people who play it are bad. Quite the contrary, I have very much enjoyed playing ranger and I plan to continue playing it, and I have encountered a lot of ranger players who’s skill with a ranger has left me with a great deal of respect for them.

Perhaps a better term to use would be “user friendly.” Just because a class is more user friendly than other classes, doesn’t mean that class is bad or that the people who play it are bad. But it does mean that it’s more powerful abilities should be reigned in a bit more. Take warrior for example, it is arguably the most user friendly class in the game, and as a result it’s more powerful attacks like 100b are given some pretty strong restrictions. On the other end of the spectrum would be elementalists. Ele’s are a very complex and difficult class to play, they are also one of the most OP classes in SPvP, but thier high skill level is what keeps them from being overly dominant.

Being so user friendly, anyone can jump on a ranger and be pretty effective, regardless of skill level. However, a skilled player will be so much more effective on one. If that makes sense.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Just posting here to help push this thing towards 2000 posts.

I have not abandoned the dream of a hobosackless existence.

Everyone join hands and sing with me!

We shall over cooooooo-oooo-oooome!
We shall over cooooooome!…..

I really hope the Engi hammer doesn’t have a lot of defensive utility!

We already have plenty of that with our current weapons/kits. What we need is higher power damage and group utility to make us actually be a benefit to Dungeon/Fractal groups.

Haha, the Engineer results say so much about our class. The only thing holding this (my favorite class) up in PVE is that it’s so fun to play. I really hope that the new specialization makes us more useful for a group, and brings us into the “meta.”

I think all the people in this forum who keep saying how challenging the ranger is to play should look at the results of this survey.

I love the damage of D/D, and I use it when I can, but you simply cannot replace the damage and survivability of Sword / pistol. In most dungeons S/P is pretty much required, especially since dungeons are less about your own personal DPS these days, and more about what you can offer the group, and that smoke field you get with offhand pistol is very useful for the group.

Here is the build I use for dungeons and whatnot:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_D/D_S/P_Shortbow

Im gonna beat the dead horse a bit, but I just wanted to add my 2 cents as someone who does not main a thief:

I copy-pasted this response I gave to another similar thread about this mechanic:

I really don’t see stealth as being as much of a problem as everyone seems to regard it. I have and enjoy my thief, but I do not main it, I play other classes in PvP more often than my thief. Thieves are exceptionally squishy, and they still take damage while stealthed, so I put down as many AOE’s as possible when they stealth to keep the pressure on them and force the thief into the defensive. Also, just blocking one or two backstabs in a fight is huge, because time is against a thief in a fight due to them being so squishy.

I really don’t see stealth as being as much of a problem as everyone seems to regard it. I have and enjoy my thief, but I do not main it, I play other classes in PvP more often than my thief. Thieves are exceptionally squishy, and they still take damage while stealthed, so I put down as many AOE’s as possible when they stealth to keep the pressure on them and force the thief into the defensive. Also, just blocking one or two backstabs in a fight is huge, because time is against a thief in a fight due to them being so squishy.

Svarty.8019:

Because there is no counterplay to stealth.

I’ve never felt this to be the case.
If my block is up, I use it after they go stealth. If it’s not, I lay down as many AOE’s as possible to keep pressure up on the thief and force him to be on the defensive. Backstab thieves are exceptionally squishy, so I find it fairly easy to keep pressure on them. Even just running around spamming 1 often is enough to counter them, or at least frustrate the thief enough to force him to make a mistake.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Gern.2978:

What’s wrong with thieves?

Nothing substantial. Class is okay, but people that can’t wrap their heads around stealth are extremely kitten right now.

That and they’re stupidly useless against DPS guards in mid tier play, but I can take that disadvantage personally.

Yeah, guards and some rangers are the only classes I really have trouble with on my thief, but that’s fine, every class should have some class/builds that directly counter them. As for fighting thieves, they can be difficult at times on any of my other characters, but they never feel overpowered. I just rely heavily on AOE’s and blocks when fighting them to keep pressure up, seems to work fine most times.

Thieves are exceptionally squishy, their only survival is their ability to avoid damage via blinds, stealth, and evasion. Removing or changing this would seriously damage the class’s survivability.

What’s wrong with thieves?

Smooticus.2854:

I noticed that the hammer engi from the trailer did not have a hobo-sack. maybe the new spec for engi trades kits for something else.

Why do people keep citing this? The Hammer is a weapon, not a kit. Why would he have a hobosack on while using a hammer? You don’t see your hobosack while using your rifle, or pistol/shield, or pistol/pistol.

Moldur.6275:

Blacktalon.5681:

I really feel that Legendaries need to be more powerful. More stats, some type of specific power to that item( Ex. Thunderfury had 40%ish chance to proc 5 tornadoes that would attack closest targets, drawing a lot of threat), and overall more damage. IMO, a legendary should do more than 5% extra damage and stats.

Hah that’s sad. No. One of the worst things in this game atm is “high level gear” with stat bonuses. At launch we were promised that the shinies would be shinies only, not some stupid WoW marginal progression system that doesn’t promote build diversity.

Ascended gear is bad as it is, if they gave legendaries bigger bonuses in combat it would go against the whole buttering they went on about masteries being the progression in this game. REMOVE ASCENDED GEAR WITH INCREASED STATS FROM THIS GAME.
LEGENDARIES AND ASCENDED GEAR SHOULD BE ABOUT COSMETICS AND CONVENIENCE ONLY.

You are way over estimating the effectiveness of Ascended gear. The stat bonus from ascended gear is so minimal as to be completely negligible; a person in full exotics is just as effective as someone in full ascended. Ascended gear is really just for agony infusion slots for Fractals.

Crapgame.6519:

The profession requires skill.

Honestly, if it was that easy to play everyone would be playing it and something would have been done by now. Last time. If you trait for maximum range and damage said ranger is going to lose a lot of defense. Those are just the hard facts that the champions of change ignore. Roll one if you don’t believe us.

I did. Before even starting this thread.
I have been playing my ranger exclusively in SPvP for several weeks now. Ranger is obviously not an " I win " button, but it’s required skill level to be effective is far lower than nearly every other class, the Warrior being the only real exception, and that is why you do see a lot of rangers in SPvP. I can safely say that the vast majority of my matches have more rangers between both teams than any other class.
I play a full zerker ranger with the 6,6,2,0,0 build using LB and GS. Between the knockbacks, stealth, block, daze, and cripples I never feel like I have given up any significant amount of survivability. Rangers have less armor than even a full zerk warrior yes, but they are not meant to be a tanky class (not that they can’t be one). Like thieves, Rangers survivability comes from their ability to avoid damage, just from different means.

@Sebrent
You are ignoring all the times I have replied to your arguments. Once again: I never said that there is a viable build that doesn’t have at least one way of countering RF, I said that because nearly all those counters have a much longer cooldown than RF they can only be used to counter the first RF. Dodging is not the most viable means of countering RF because you have to dodge twice to avoid full damage, unlike every other high damage channeled skill (except perhaps unload). And now you are going to bring up LOS, which I have also responded to by saying that this can’t be used as a reliable means of avoiding RF because it is entirely environment dependent, and the environment is not going to always provide a mean of gaining LOS. And now you are going to argue that I am asking for a way of completely negating RF’s damage 100% of the time. To which I will once again respond that I am not, I am simply asking that RF’s mechanics be changed so that it is restricted in a similar manner to all the other high damage channeled skills. All the restrictions I have proposed be added to RF are already in place for 100b, blurred frenzy, pistol whip, etc., and no one would argue that those abilities are useless or can be completely negated 100% of the time, and they don’t even have 1500 range.

Just because you choose to ignore my arguments, doesn’t mean I haven’t made them.

Ive never experienced a skill delay on my warrior. The skill delay on my thief though, that is maddening!

BrooksP.4318:

….There are many aspects within GW2 that originated from WoW/EQ2…

Only in the most basic sense. For example: both WoW and GW2 have dungeons, but the “dungeons” in both games are very different from another. Like that similarity, nearly all the aspects which the two games share are very basic ones which nearly all MMO’s share simply out of neccessity brought on by how they work. Like tab-targeting or 5 man groups.

BrooksP.4318:

The issue with GW2 now is it lacks progression, whether that be gear, dungeons, etc, cosmetics can only take you so far. Without some form of progression or player influence on the game, it will eventually lead to stagnation….

Here we agree to an extent. Currently, the only real horizontal progression is PvP/WvW rank, Fractal Level and ascended gear, which isn’t enough. However, that is why they are adding a multitude of specializations. Those will provide all the horizontal progression a person could want, without instituting the painful gear grind of WoW.

BrooksP.4318:

While I do not think GW2 should add in a gear grind or gear gated content(even though it already does), the idea of improving/expanding legendaries or ascended should not be completely ignored.

The only gear grind which is currently has, is ascended gear, which only need for fractals. The stat boost that ascended gear gives you is so minuscule as to be completely negligible; a person in full ascended gear doesn’t have a significant advantage over someone in full exotics, as it should be.

The only real changes I think that should be made to Legendaries, other than the changes that A-net has already said they are going to add, should be an addition of Legendary backstories, and some better skins for several of them. Quip and the moot are both examples of this. While cool looking, they are both obvious jokes, and it would be nice to have more serious looking skins for Legendary pistols and maces.

I don’t think we should be trying to make GW2 more like other games, especially not WoW.
That being said: the fact that you can change a legendary’s stats at will, and the skins, is what makes them legendary. That is a bigger deal than you are making it out to be.

It’s just A-net taunting us.
“Oh, you wan’t mounts in the game? Ok, sure thing. ……What, you never specified that you wanted them for your characters……”

#1: Hobosacks

While I hope they add some new dungeons in HoT that are fun and challenging, I don’t see how the existing dungeons don’t qualify as dungeons.
I have played a lot of MMO’s, and the dungeons in all of them have been very similar to the ones in GW2. Actually, the GW2 dungeons are more expansive than most dungeons in MMO’s because of the “paths” they have. Most MMO dungeons only have one “path.” It sounds like what you want OP, is raids. Which I also hope they add.

I was really disappointed that this x-pac wasn’t going to feature the Tengu in some fashion. That is the race that A-net should focus on bringing in a lot of lore for, cause the Tengu are awesome.

In PVE Rangers are pretty underpowered comparatively. But in SPvP I do not feel weak at all on my ranger. Of course I run into the occasional Hammer/GS warrior build that smashes my face, or a zerker thief that drops me near instantly, but that is all to be expected and not a discredit to the ranger class.

I keep telling people that rifle is actually very effective if you trait for it, but everyone laughs at me and says that rifle is a weapon that is so worthless that it should just be deleted. Then they have this reaction when a rifle warrior smashes their face, and accuse the warrior of hacking.

Slightly off topic, but I just wanted mention the hilarity of the Longbow Ranger Vs. Rifle Warrior debate:
In the warrior forms, the majority of warrior and ranger players laugh at anyone who compares a rifle warrior to a longbow ranger. However, in the ranger forums, the majority of players (especially when talking about Rapid Fire) complain that rifle warrior can “do the same thing” as a Longbow Ranger. Some of those ranger players are the same people who laughed at you in the warrior forums for making that very comparison.

I don’t think there is any real threat of the interface becoming cluttered.

uhohhotdog.3598:

Instead of other npcs just keep it to the options there are now but after you press ranked/unranked the buttons change to game type. So hit ranked then you get option for stronghold, conquest, etc, then you choose one of those and then you enter queue. With an option for any for those who aren’t picky.

This is pretty much what I had imagined^

Sebrent.3625:

And those channeled high damage abilities do more damage as a tradeoff. That is not irrelevant information.

That’s why I said Rf should do more damage as well.

Sebrent.3625:

I’m still waiting to see what viable build you come up with that has no defense against Rapid Fire.

I never said that there is one.

Sebrent.3625:

Manekk.6981 also made a good point … you aren’t supposed to be able to avoid all damage someone throws at you.

The changes I proposed wouldn’t allow a person to avoid all the damage for the same reason that the same mechanics currently don’t allow a person to avoid all the damage of 100b, pistol whip, or blurred frenzy.

Sebrent.3625:

I don’t care if you buff Rapid Fire’s damage if that now means a person can simply side-step to avoid the damage.

I don’t see how the damage of hundred blades is irrelevant when you keep citing hundred blades as a similar skill and why rapid fire should be changed due to how it is different from hundred blades.

You can’t just simply say “this thing I’ve brought up several times … your data on it is irrelevant” … please, explain why it is irrelevant.

I’ve brought it up because they already serve similar purpose; they have similar damage and similar cool-downs with the same channel time. So, I have simply suggested making their mechanics similar as well. You can mitigate the damage of 100b already by “simply sidestepping” but no one cries about 100b being underpowered. Despite having this mechanic, 100b is still an exceptionally viable skill. I only use 100b as a baseline, because nearly every other channeled high damage skill is restricted in an identical manner as 100b.

Yes, there is an “extensive” list of ways to mitigate the damage of RF. But, because of it’s current mechanics, that list is still shorter than every other channeled high damage attack (except perhaps Unload).

I have said more times than I can count that RF should get a damage buff to accompany the other changes I suggested. Comparing it’s current damage to the damage of 100b is irrelevant.