I want a RANGED class with Longbow skills, and I had hoped Ranger would get some long-overdue improvements in that area, but instead we get a useless Staff with useless support skills.
If something has been improved, it’s the Longbow.
The best thing to happen was the 100% projectile speed from Read the Wind a year ago, which has now become baseline together with 1500 range.
In this latest update the Longbow traits have also been reduced from 4 (of which you could only have 3 in your build) down to 1.
I suppose you’re just not used to having all these spare trait points left over to spend on other things? You could always go into Skirmishing for the extra Spotter, which would have cost you a longbow trait before the update.
Yes I lost damage with my Longbow since the update, but I do have more trait points to spend on other parts of my build as well.
Brown Bear F2 skill Shake it Off first moves in range of the target rather than activating at its current position.
(Red Moa F2 skill Furious Screech is an example of how it should act.)
Stances would be kind of boring. They’re like signets, but without a passive effect. But then again, they would be better than our spirits and shouts. But then again, maybe our stances will be like our shouts…
I hope they’re not transfomations.
Transformation = no pet = worthless pet traits
Transformation = no weapons = worthless weapon traits
Transformation = no utilities = worthless utility traits
etc
You do have Resiliance of Shadows, which gives 25% damage reduction while in stealth. It might not fit in your prefered build, but we all have to adapt to what we face.
I have to trait into Nature Magic, which is a horrible line, just to pick up the only good trait in it: Protective Ward just so thieves and mesmers can’t insta-kill me from stealth.
I’d much rather trait into another line, but Thief and Mesmer force me into it.
At least you can see a Ranger coming from a mile away, unlike a Thief or Mesmer. Sometimes you just need to run away. For a thief, sometimes you just have to stealth and leave. If you can’t handle Rangers, avoid them until you can.
the only thing i dislike about the longbow is that #2 causes vuln and it traces, for mesmer or thief it is kinda unfair
Stealth is a counter to targetting and longbow requires targetting. That’s unfair. Rapid Fire is an answer to stealth. Also, Rapid Fire was cast first, so stealth loses its ability to counter. If stealth was cast first, then Rapid Fire wouldn’t hit anything. So they counter each other.
They can still dodge. I run into Rapid Fire on my Ranger all the time and dodging once takes away the majority of the damage.
I agree. Strength of the Pack should always have been instant cast. Same as Signet of the Wild. Our only sources of stability shouldn’t be locked behind a 1 second cast time.
“I’m going to need stability to counter CC, but please take a second to counter my stability with the CC I was trying to counter”.
It’s the main reason I run Enlargement. It’s our only source of stability without a cast time, but it’s not on-demand.
I guess they could give Protect Me 6s of stability otherwise.
In sPvP I use to run Air/Fire but lately I’ve been running Force/Air for the higher, more reliable damage on LB through piercing. Still have fire on my GS for finding stealth targets however.
If you auto-attack with the GS and it goes into the 2nd combo swing (Slice), that means you hit a stealthed target. So you won’t really need Sigil of Fire on GS for it. The sigil is handy on longbow for Barrage.
This reminds me, I’ve always been very annoyed with how laggy the trading post is since it got that big update. The game shouldn’t try to update everything with every single key press.
It could reduce server load 10-fold easily if there was some type of delay and it would make it a far more enjoyable experience for the player as well.
They should just add the old Bark Skin to it, now what it’s a grandmaster trait:
Take 20% less damage below 50% health and gain 1 stack of might every second.
To be fair, they all seemed to be under the impression that Bark Skin would still work below 50% health. But since that was changed to above 90% health, all the below 50% health traits fell flat. And we do have quite a few below 50% health traits now: Enlargement, Most Dangerous Game, Instinctive Reaction, Rejuvenation.
I think there was supposed to be some awesome below 50% health build that could really shine if you picked up all the traits together with Bark Skin. You could spend a lot of time below 50% health because of Bark Skin, esp in a high vitality build.
So, I’ll give him and the others a pass on this, but I do expect some improvements now that Bark Skin only works above 90% health.
I personally much prefer Bark Skin above 90% health (since I run Scholar Runes), but would not mind to see it changed to below 50% health again.
permanent regeneration heals for more than defender runes (if you dont count the aegis).
If you can get defender runes on top of permanent regeneration (easy with shouts), then that should be better than dwayna runes of course. But maybe he needs dwayna runes to get (near) permanent regeneration without shouts. Having troll unguent with condi clear could be superior to heal as one if you already have regeneration.
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.
The item that starts the quest really ought to be added to the laurel merchant.
Everybody ought to have access to the Star….
but veterans shouldn’t have to sit through a rerun of last years event. Plu, I think there was a title associated with the Grawnk part that ought to remain exclusive.
I’m also using Mystic Salvage Kit instead for rares. It’s pretty cheap and very easy to make and lasts a long time with 250 charges. Crafting 2 would already be overkill, but you’d never run out of kits if you keep replacing the one that runs out and it doesn’t clutter up the inventory at all.
I’m using the copper-fed for blues and greens and it’s the best gem store purchase I ever did.
Looks like the Ele one was improved. I think Ferocious Winds used to scale off healing power or something. I also can’t find the one on Engineer anymore.
So maybe Ranger now has the only trait with bad scaling
It’s horrific. Every scaling trait should scale off either vitality, toughness, power or precision, because those start at 1000 and the others start at 0 (healing power, condition damage, ferocity).
I’ll gladly see the quickness go in favor of having it scale off a stat that starts at 1000.
It’s not the only trait in the game with bad scaling. I think Engineer an Elementalist have one too, but they should be changed as well.
The only problem is that it requires Remorseless to reset. It should be the Grandmaster Minor that does it. The Adept and Master traits could easily be merged as well.
Opening Strike (Adapt Minor)
You and your pet cause vulnerability with you first strike when entering combat
If nothing changes in the meantime, WvW will be deserted. Maybe that’s why the new WvW map has the desert theme. “Sweeping for mesmers” will be an exersise in futility.
Changing reflect into destroy would help PvE encounters
It wouldn’t only help players from hitting themselves without knowing (see point 1), it would also help AI, who aren’t programmed to be able to know.
So since point 2 is already solved I have 1 request left. To get a popup message when a projectile is reflected or destroyed.
The first one is a serious l2p issue. While I agree that reflect needs to be introduced with something like a tutorial (similar to dodging), it doesn’t need any further notifications, nor does it need to be changed into destroy.
The second part would still be better solved by adjusting the AI. Make mobs recognise reflects or at least stop shooting if they are hit by their own projectiles.
Also about the pop-up…
You’ve clearly not read what I wrote.
It’s not a l2p issue if I can’t see when stuff is getting reflected or destroyed. It’s a video settings issue in WvW, nothing else.
I said popup as in “Evaded”, “Obstructed” and “Blocked” which we already get.
It’s often not possible to see if a projectile is getting reflected or destroyed, especially in WvW.
It probably also has something to do with low video settings, but that shouldn’t be a factor. So, a “Reflected” and a “Destroyed” message for projectiles would be great. Like currently “Evaded”, “Blocked” and “Obstructed” messages pop up. This would go a long way in keeping reflect/destroy an enjoyable game feature for everyone.
The game is very clunky in stopping attacking with the esc key. It’s used for many things. Including dropping a target and opening the game menu.
The “stow weapon” key bind turns out to be a solution, so I guess this part is already solved. A seperate “stop attack” key bind would still be welcome, since that’s what players would be looking for.
Changing reflect into destroy would help PvE encounters
It wouldn’t only help players from hitting themselves without knowing (see point 1), it would also help AI, who aren’t programmed to be able to know.
So since point 2 is already solved I have 1 request left. To get a popup message when a projectile is reflected or destroyed.
u forgot that it is a counter to range since often times range can be coming at u from 1500… thats a pretty legitimate argument against it
But destroying projectiles would also still be a counter. So it doesn’t really help as an argument. Also, reflect doesn’t counter range, only projectiles. Most projectiles are 900 range. Non-projectile ranged attacks can be 1200 range like Mesmer Greatsword.
plus the tell that its going to be reflected is usu the gigantic blue wall, or purple line, etc
That’s a valid point. But a wall or a hill is also visible, yet the game tells me when a projectile is “obstructed”. The game also tells me “evade” when I evade an attack… eventhough I should already know because I pressed the button myself. It’s a quality of life change. In zerg fights it’s often very hard to see if projectiles get destroyed or reflected. It also depends largely on your video settings how visible something is.
It’s a bit Ironic yes, but your character becomes more situational aware, so the player has to deal less with reflects and retaliation. The character does more, the player less.
So in a way the player can be less situational aware and therefore it sounds like the opposite
You could always go into Skirmishing for the extra Spotter, which would have cost you a longbow trait before the update.