Guild Wars 2

Asurans have a TON of clipping issues – just take a screenshot of your character actually swinging a sword/firing a bow/etc. and look at the hands or places where the weapon gets close to the body. Fingers pass through the handles, blades clip through ears, etc. It’s so bad that I’ve stopped shooting new shots of my gear (which, for ME is very unusual – I typically love shooting pics of my characters – almost like a minigame for me). They DEFINITELY need to re-rig the Asuran models and completely overhaul all this weapon scaling stuff, I agree.

Was just playing and my pets were holding agro…. sometimes. In a lvl 60-70 zone. Felt about nornal to me, but I’m noticing the higher level I get (currently 75) the more I tend to scrape agro off my pets.

You can apply the look of a piece of Heavy or Light armor to a piece of Medium while retaining all the medium piece’s stats and usability, using Transmutation stones right? I play Ranger mainly, and like overall the look of most of the medium pieces, but some of the Light and Heavy sets have individual pieces I like the look of better…

I’ve played other games that used a Test Server model to perform pre-release testing on proposed changes (usually paired with special threads in the official forums) and, almost universally, noticed a dramatic decrease in after-the-fact nerfing as well as an overall increase in quality of the final changes. By actually publishing the release candidates for use in a closed environment by actual players, then inviting feedback, it seems that many of the “unintended consequences” experienced in the test phase are eliminated. As an example, I’ve been following some pretty extensive Dev discussions between people working on Starcraft, and the level of player fine-tuning they do is AMAZING, which leads to the final code being pretty much bulletproof (and balanced, for you folks fretting over PvP issues) on actual release day. Plus, this method avoids the losing game of “announce planned changes in a low-information, teaser-style Red post → watch forums go bat-kitten crazy as users speculate wildly about what the vague statements really MEAN → threads spiral out of control as speculation mounts on top of speculation, leading to wildly uninformed expectations → reap the whirlwind of ranting, angry posts on release day as users begin to discover flaws, cracks, and unintended mechanics and exploits → leading to a downward spiral of satisfaction for those players who may have actually been somewhat satisfied with the pre-change systems.”

Just my $.02 after almost 3 decades of game and software product development…

Agree the skill should fire immediately where the pet’s standing. I hate it when I’m in a dungeon and In have a brown bear with me (not to attack… for the Condition removal ) or the Wolf (for the on-demand Fear howl), set to Passive and I hit F2, expecting that it will fire the skill and affect ME (either to remove condition or to Fear away mobs trying to bash in my face and give me breathing room).

Instead, more often than not, the pet runs away up to my (usually distant) target, THEN fires the skill (which usually doesn’t even affect or help me), and THEN starts attacking! In both those examples (brown bear Shake It Off and wolf Fear), neither skill is what I’d consider an “attack” skill, so why does invoking them not only cause the pet to run to my target and then switch to Attack mode??

OK, that’s a rhetorical question; I know the answer is “because the devs haven’t gotten around to fixing pet skills so they trigger differently, based on what kind of skill it is (attack- or environment-based)”, but it does point out, I think, the need to ENHANCE pet F2 skills so that they work properly. Obviously some skills are “target” based (Moa dazzle scream… etc.) but others are simple AOEs (like the wolf Fear howl) or are designed to assist teammates (like the blue Moa’s defensive scream), and so should be configured so that if the pet is on Passive and sticking close to my side I, as the Ranger, can place the point of origin of the effect by moving MYSELF to the triggering location.

Vox Hollow.2736:

Even this thread’s OP is more than what most companies would do.

Actually, in many other games I’ve played, there was a beta server where possible fixes for issues like this were made available to the community for direct observation, comment, and ongoing testing before they were ever considered for release into the general population. Much better, in my experience, to simply put release candidates into a closed environment to allow actual users to bang on them for a while as opposed to giving low-information, teasing “advance notice” type announcements then letting rampant speculation drive expectations through the roof. But what do I know?

Pets fading in and out of existence to accomplish a 5-second task would break my suspension of disbelief, I think. That sort of mechanic only works with the Warhorn call-bird ability due to the nature of the summons (and even that is really odd-looking when you, say, call down the birds on a giant-sized MOB and they appear gigantic as well… looks silly). No other ground-based pet would look believable. At least, to me.

WoW pets were unique early-on, before all the special ones were nerfed basically to basic stats because of PvP “balance” issues. I still remember the massive disappointment of watching my really hard-to-obtain pets like Humar and the black rapror (can’t remember its name) getting reduced to basic stats. The SKIN was still unique, but definitely not worth the 3+ days I camped, waiting for Humar to spawn.

Personally I’d love it if the devs added in some of the same sorts of “rare spawn” pets, with not only custom skins but custom STATS as well. If there’s a worry about PvP “balance”, reduce them to some sort of generic baseline in PvP/WvW areas, but leave the specials intact in all PvE areas.

Oh, and I’m still holding out for a pet that’s also a mount (hint hint hint) – now THAT would be amazingfantasticstupid-awesomecool.

Having the mob run away would work, sure. Making it Invulnerable just seems… lazy. PLus most of the time WHO CARES? Anything really tough (like a Veteran-level mob or a DE boss) where a player might want to use this as an exploit generally has access to AOEs or ranged attacks that can effectively neutralize any potential advantage…

Well I understand that they did it because there are lots of situations where a computer-controlled mob can’t figure out how to path its way up to you to respond to an attack, but if you’re ALSO at the same time designing content that SPECIFICALLY RELIES on vertical structures and jumping puzzles, well… that’s a HUGE issue. You can’t have it both ways – either fix the pathing and allow Rangers to shoot downwards in all circumstances, or stop designing content that specifically relies on terrain which is BY DESIGN not intended to be scalable by characters OR NPC mobs. One or the other. guys!

Given the heavily-advertised “extreme verticality” of the upcoming dungeon, I can only shudder… Will I even be able to ATTACK???

Owl Griffon – that is all…

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

They should bring back height advantage for bows. Like in gw1 if you had high ground on your target you did a good chunk more damage and had almost twice the range, and if they had high ground it lowered your damage on them. Thats an amazing realistic mechanic that Id love brought back. I was amazing at getting high ground and sniping people with my ranger from distances so far that by the time they got to me most of the time they used up their heals and were so low on health that they either died or just ran away. If they made it so with high ground rangers gain more distance and damage with bows, or even all bows for all classes have that effect, Id love it. Was one of my favorite tactical abilities in gw1. Nothing like being the only dps focused ranger in gw1 and knowing how to hurt people. Many pms came my way asking wtf.

+1… Loved that old mechanic in GW1.

I’ve seen this VERY occasionally, but certainly not consistently – 1:15 obstructed ratio seems insanely high – where the heck are you observing this and under what conditions?

Durzlla.6295:

Because you hatched it from its egg and you have been there forever and ever?

No you didn’t… most likely you wandered up one day when it was a baby, murdered its parents right in front of it, then said “Follow me, bizatch!” Not exactly the most endearing event it a wee lil’ spidey’s life methinks.

Chesire.9043:

Try using it with Shared Anguish and you’ll notice how much better it is. Without SA it’s rather worthless, but together it’s actually pretty good for dropping target and escaping burst.

I was JUST about to ask of these two Traits went together – the way its written I wasn’t sure if it wound trigger, since the effect is passed on the the pet. Sounds like “yes, it is and yes, it also fires”.

Apes/monkeys would be fun… Also rare spawns (a la Humar) would be great as well – they don’t even have to have any special abilities (although they would be nice), just a unique, kick kitten skin.

Surprised more people haven’t mentioned Bats (one or two people did) – they already have a workable model. I’d tame them.

Tropical/colorful birds would be good as well. I’d love a talking parrot, personally, that would perch on my shoulder when I’m not moving. In fact, I’d like to see that as an idle animation for ALL bird pets (hint, hint).

Raptors too, please! Every time I fight them I ask myself “why can’t I tame one of these????”

PS – A Beastmaster Trait: “Get the ^%$#!@ Out of the Red Circle!” (aka: “Danger Sense” or “6th Sense” perhaps?) would really help pets in Dungeon situations. Basically make it a 10, maybe even a 20 point Trait selection that, when active, without user action automatically tells the pet to stop what it’s doing and run out of a red “incoming fire” circle on the floor, instead of just standing there waiting for the hammer to fall. I find that most of the time my pet gets downed its because of an AOE dropped by a big mob, and even with Recall most of the time there’s no way for them to avoid it (if I even see it from bow range, which sometimes is just simply impossible in a dungeon situation).

Just an idea…

THANK YOU devs for looking at this – I can’t wait. Like most everyone else (not all, but most), I’m on the “pets” bandwagon, specifically getting them to be able to attack on the move. THIS ALONE would be a huge, huge improvement, particularly in PvP and in the later PvE game, when swarming by large(er) packs of mobs is more prevalent. Move+Fire is very much a part of my combat strategy w/ SB, but when I I get chased I can’t rely on ANY of my pet’s damage output because they are running behind the thing that, in turn is chasing ME. This more than anything is why I run Wolves (because they will at least every once in a while perform a knockdown attack and scrape a little heat off me – problem is it’s not even remotely reliable). sometimes the Lynx (for the same reason).

I LOVE the idea of pet-specific trait lines, but I realize that’s a longer-term enhancement that will need extensive development and testing. Great idea though, whoever came up with it.

Weapons need some love, I agree, but not neatly as much as pets, IMHO.

Thanks again for the hard work!

It definitely wasn’t the “jumping puzzle” aspect that frustrated me – it was the crowd + camera wonkiness + timed aspect that caused me to bail.

Making other players transparent or translucent is one idea, but why introduce an artificial-looking element into the game? Instead, I’d recommend a different kind of jumping puzzle, one that leverages a feature in the current game, specifically the red visual indicator in the ground that warns you of incoming damage. You can use this to indicate areas that are about to fall away, necessitating the player to jump or dodge to reach the next “safe” area. If you did this, you could potentially make the actual running surfaces large enough to accommodate multiple different “safe” routes, thereby eliminating the need for the players to bunch together to reach the one teensy-tiny safe platform. This would allow you to not only keep the player models 100% visible, but also actually ENCOURAGE players to take different paths, since the more clustered the harder it will be to see the safe route. Plus the falling-away sections would definitely maintain the level of suspense I think you were looking for with the constantly-rising acid, just using a different mechanic.

Just an idea..

I ditched it… too many other fun things going on to pound my forehead into pulp against the keyboard. Gah. I wanted to kill every Charr waving their huge, furry, screen-eclpising butts in my diminutive Asuran face.

First MMO I assume? Forums are like that, yeah.

Tulisin.6945:

Pros:
You can dodge all day, and your dodges are amazingly synergized. Thanks to acrobatics, the more you dodge the more you can dodge. Between the invulnerability of the dodges itself and the healing caltrops you’ll be dropping everywhere, much of your survivability comes from here. Unlike most thief setups, your effectiveness is much higher against groups, especially if you can group them for sword strikes and caltrop control. For 1v1 a rotation of C&D->Daze->Autoattack Chain->Dodges will give your opponent extremely little viable damage uptime against you while you are constantly receiving substantial healing. For burst, you can attain 25 might stacks if you have food and want to pop signets, and going into burst mode right before spamming D/D or sword autoattacks is the best way I’ve ever seen of “discouraging” an enemy reviving mid-combat. Excellent condition removal between spammable IF (since you aren’t using the initiative to do regular damage) and Signet of Agility. Infiltrator’s Strike, swiftness, and tons of cripple makes you extremely difficult to escape from. This is actually my favorite build for chasing down hard-to-kill thieves.

I found almost all of this reply very informative (thank you), but I don’t understand some of the section snipped above…

1. Where are you getting Daze following Cloak and Dagger? Something on your gear? I’m not seeing Daze as a condition on any of your utility skills )on a skill calculator – I may not be seeing it)…

2. What’s “Spammable IF”? Don’t understand the abreviation…

3. Last, how does this build do in PvE? I initially tried D/D, which is AWESOME against up to 2 mobs, but over that I tend to run out of Iniative and fall before I can take out the remnants of the group. This build looks more “survivable” both because of the dodges and the resulting dropped caltrops triggering Signet of Malice – interesting idea…

Thanks again!

I don’t understand what you mean by “I use Signet of Malice to dodge”… Are you “using” it for the passive heal, or actively, somehow?

I agree on Caltrops as an “oh, crap!” button – dropping one when you pull too much agro is indeed useful. I usually toss Dancing Dagger right beforehand so I can at least buy myself a few split-seconds before I’m mobbed. Assuming I see the extra adds coming, that is. I still have issues with getting beat to snot during Caltrops’ long kitten animation, something that CnD doesn’t really help with I’m finding – sure I’m Stealthed for a few seconds, but if the mobs can inflict a bunch of bleeds or a cripple, I can’t do much to get away…

Welcome to MMOs – this ALWAYS happens. To EVERY class. ALL the time. Thanks to the mutually exclusive needs of PvP vs. PvE (“winning” vs. “having fun playing”), nerfs to any class with a statistical edge, no matter how slight, will ALWAYS happen. I suggest just learning to have fun with whatever you’re currently playing, keeping in mind that behavior will certainly change over time. If that frustrates you, try single-player games like Skyrim (which are actively designed specifically to make you feel monstrously overpowered because… well… you ARE).

Zarrik.3598:

So does the signets passive bonus just not work in-combat? The boon is displayed, but I always appear to be running at normal speed until I leave combat.

Typically any passive signet bonuses go away while the signet is active and in cool-down. There are actually some Traits (in Ranger I know of for sure, maybe other classes too) that specifically grant the passive bonus AS WELL AS the active at the same time, but that’s not the default behavior (AFAIK).

Note, Signet of Shadows DOES have an active effect (according to the wiki), specifically Area Blind when invoked. I’d assume the speed bonus drops while the signet is active and in cooldown – can someone confirm?

Rangers have a similar signet (always-on passive speed boost), but it’s not nearly as fast (10% IIRC?) Either way I know it made a big difference on my Ranger – faster travel = faster clearing of maps, faster close to MOBs, faster retreats, etc. etc. etc.

So I ran across this item:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ash_Legion_Spy_Kit

10 seconds of Invisibility, so long as you remain stationary, for only 28 karma… I can see benefits to Thieves as a panic-button to break PvE agro, sure. Problem is, it’s in INVENTORY – not a skill or anyplace where I can get to it quick. Hmmmm…

Anyone have any ideas I’m not considering, since there’s no way that I know of to hot-key inventory items? I’d love to keep a few of these handy for those times that I pull way too much agro and want to hide out for a while (10 seconds is forever in combat), assuming Invisibility will break agro (or at least make the enemies whiff).

Thoughts?

Okamakiri.8746:

I am so sick and tired of PVP’ers ruining every every single MMO that comes out, and then moving on to their next victim leaving behind a broken game for PVE’rs.

+1… can’t count the number of games I’ve initially loved that got nerfed into oblivion or became a different game altogether a few months after release due to PvP “balance” issues. I just want to explore and experience new content occasionally, PARTICULARLY when I can do it in a co-op group – defeating other players just isn’t something that interests me, I guess.

Bloodgruve.6038:

Try focusing on staying alive and taking the least amount of damage other than killing stuff quickly.

I think this may be the trick – I’ve been focusing on getting them dead ASAP… I’ll try it. thanks for the advice and tips.

Watching this one since at PvE @lvl 15, it’s feeling like I get squishier with every level (instead of feeling more powerful). D/D main, SB backup mainly, but I’m trying to learn (and love) P/D, P/P, or anything else. So far I’m having… difficulty… figuring out what I like about them, though. Definitely wondering how to play better at lower-levels, without tons of lvl80 gear – it must be in the Traits?

Problem is, if there’s say, a stack of some Food in the Bank, and I only want to take 4 or 5, I can’t, just the entire stack. That prevents others from taking some. I suppose I can take the stack, then go to MY bank and split off just the ones I want, then go BACK to the Guild Bank and re-deposit the left-overs (returning to my bank yet again to get the partial stack – meaning 2 trips back and forth between banks), but what a pain!

I’m having this exact same issue – is tis a bug, or is there just some different mechanic for splitting stacks of items in the Guild Bank? Please advise!

Jnaathra.6549:

Best thing you can do right now is buy a gem giftcard. You can get them at places like Best Buy and Amazon.

Very cool – I didn’t know those existed. Thanks very much!

I have this same question – want to buy my friend some gems for his birthday. How? Possible? Are they perhaps TRANSFERABLE, like gold?

I do wish that I wouldn’t start auto-attacking when I F2 my pet…

I’ve handled +2 amnd +3 multi-mob pulls all the time with my Ranger in PvE – they’re fun!

Ethics.4519:

I would love to see an option to perm-stow your pet which would give you a 15/20% damage bonus (or maybe toughness bonus/vitality bonus, something you could select yourself). 15/20 is just a random, obviously the devs would know more about how much % increase to actually grant you.

This wouldn’t be a bad option, provided you had to build it this way specifically via special Traits. I, personally, only play Ranger BECAUSE of the pets, but I can see the appeal of a specialist solo/traps/woodland assassin type character that’s built specifically around the lack of one. Remember that besides basic DAMAGE the pet also gives the Ranger significant benefits – in PvE they draw aggro away from us and our Medium armor, and in PvE/PvP/WvW, etc. even if you keep the pet on Passive and don’t use it to attack directly all that much, you can still use skills like the brown bear’s condition removal, the fern hound’s Regen, spiders’ poison AOE/COmbo FIeld, etc. for a variety of beneficial effects…

Don’t stow, just put them on Passive and keep them handy for F2 skills. In dungeons, I love the Fern Hound’s regen, the brown bear’s condition removal, even the spider’s poison combo field, etc. Also remember that some pets even on Agressive do NOT run in and melee typically – both spiders and devourers have ranged attacks w/ condition adds that can be used even with the pet set on Agressive. For more control, keep them on Passive and then only attack via F1, then recall them with F3 (if they’re set to passive they should immediately stop attacking and run back to your side). I find that using Toll Ungent (which can be popped on-the-fly) is useful to click on when the pet gets to about 1/2 health, but be ready to do a quick F4 to swap if they drop down below 1/4 – the cool down is MUCH shorter if you swap the pet BEFORE it dies.

Basically stowing your pet really hinders what you can do using the pet’s F2 abilities, so why lose that?

Long bow in PvE is actually my go-to weapon for group and meta events – it’s perfect for when you want to stand back and let the melee classes whale on something while adding constant DPS and control via Barrage. If/when you end up drawing aggro (which will typically happen a few times if you’re standing at long range so your longbow DPS is maxxed out) then just wait for them to get right in your face and use #4 for the big knockback. If that doesn’t get them off you, you can swap back to short bow real quick and start strafing/dazing/conditioning, then swap back to long bow when someone else pulls agro away. Long bow is also great for tactically executing the weird little adds you sometimes get in big group event fights as well as saturating a choke point with damage via Barrage for those events where some defendable objective/choke point is getting swarmed by henchman-level mobs… Definitely a versatile weapon…

Oh, and don’t forget to constantly re-position yourself to take advantage of combo fields – necro poison rings, elemental burning/freezing lines, various types you can lay down with all sorts of skills, etc…

Ooooh, nice synergy. I think I have Sharpened Edges in my Skirmkishing 10pt. trait right now to add to the short bow Bleed condition, but I’m respeccing when I turn 40 and use my Manual – might have to try that. Do you notice a nice bump in pet damage as a result?

For PvE I like Wolves (the AOE Fear on the Juvinile Wolf you charm in the WvW Eternal Battlefeld is one of my favorite pet abilities bar none), plus they look cool.

For dungeons I like Bears, usually the Arctodorus/Brown for their F2 abilities (Brownie’s condition removal has saved quite a few lives over time in my experience).

Haven’t done much PvP, but when I do I run Brown Bear/Raven, mainly for the Condition removal on Brownie and the Bleeding/Speed from the Raven. Plus, other players seem to ignore the bird a LOT more than they ignore the bear (it almost never seems to be specifically targeted).

Ranger is my favorite class so far, at least in my PvE soloing travels (haven’t done much WvW or PvP)…

Long Bow/Short Bow is a good mix for me (lock down the target with F1 pet-send then open with long bow at range, then swap to short bow for circle-strafe/kite/conditions; when target is dead long bow is off cooldown and switch back for the next mob). My play style is highly mobile so the mobs can’t run up into my face and gob-smack me, which feels right for a Ranger. TO ME anyway…

And collecting pets from all over the map = cool. Hopefully they’ll add some new ones soon!

I’m coming up on my 10pt. Beastmastry trait, and wonder what people think about Mighty Swap (pets gain 3 stacks of Might for 10sec. on swap)? I’m primarily soloing, but am starting to get into dungeons, and find myself swapping out pets frequently to keep them from getting ganked ANYWAY, so I wonder if people are using the Trait and are noticing that it helps? FYI – I often run a Wolf/Lynx or Spider/Raven set when travelling around in case it matters.

Thanks!

Wow… really? I’m starting to appreciate all the lamenting comments about Ele’s being “complicated”… 0.o

And yes, the video was from one of the betas I believe. So all that for only 10 sec. of Swiftness, or do they stack? Either way, it’s a lot of work just to be able to run around a bit faster…

I ran across a video where someone was giving themselves 35 seconds (!) of Swiftness by combining Arcane Blast + Static Field… but looking at the powers on skill calculators like gw2db, I see nothing about Swiftness coming as a result of either power. Anyone know what this means?

I’m not sure how you’re playing this build, sorry… Are you starting with the bow for the Crippling Shot and speed burst from Quick Shot, then Shouting to Sick ‘Em and wading in with the Sword/Horn? Pre-stealthing and Guarding the Jaguar? I’m having trouble imagining the combat flow.

FYI – Copy->Paste the URL in the OP into a new browser tab to see the build.

Good post – thanks for sharing! I’m just wanting more info…

EDIT: I assume this build works in sPvP at any level since you get auto-leveled for that playtype? I’m intrigued by this as a potential PvE build as well – I’ll let you know how it goes. My toon is currently lvl.33 and has all the needed skills but one or two, which can pick up quickly.

Ah, I see… well, never mind, then… Thanks!

Good opinions guys – thanks for the discussion!

Sweet – thanks!