Guild Wars 2

It’s gotten to the point where I only use this skill for the evade. I can’t even hit the test golems with it the majority of the time.

I prefer to run LB GS but if I’m running into a lot of mesmers (that actually know how to play) I switch to my condi build. I find most mesmers can’t keep up with the steady amount of condi’s a ranger can apply and the frequent condi bursts.

On my LB GS build I find that any fight against a mesmer is an uphill battle due to the terrible targeting system in this game. Every time they come out of stealth I end up having to tab target through every clone, npc, ambient creature, etc. before I am able to retarget them and by that time they are usually back in stealth. I find the best way to fight them is use the GS so I don’t have to worry about having them targeted 100% of the time.

Of course the other way to fight them is to be a jerk and reset the fight as needed and then just keep enough distance between us to take them out at range.

So it comes down to 1v1 roaming Food buffs, full stacks) I have no fear of mesmers. Ranger condi should carry the fight, my LB build can reset as needed.

1v1 in PvP I have no fear of mesmers due to normailized stats.

1v1 Dueling (min maxing gear but no stacks/buffs) mesmers are a pain in the kitten when I’m running power and it’s a pretty fair fight on condi, could go either way.

Honestly there is so much I would change about that build I have a hard time figuring out where to begin.

I’m going to assume this build is meant for running in the zerg so I’ll make suggestions based on that.

If you are going to run triple signet you should definitely drop sharpened edges from the skirmishing line and pick up signet mastery in marksmanship. With such low crit chance and condi damage that is a waste of a trait.

Maybe switch out your “on crit” sigils for “on hit” or “on swap”. Especially the torment sigil, again with such low condi damage 1 stack of torment is going to be next to worthless. Something like sigil of intelligence for GS to make use of maul, purity since you have almost no condi cleanse, or even water (wouldn’t be my first choice) since you specced into healing power.

On the topic of the lack of condi cleanse there are a lot of options here. You could swap runes to Lyssa since the elite has such a low cooldown, you could move a couple trait points to pick up empathic bond, you could swap out SotH for SoR which would give you a cleanse and a stun break (you should have swiftness from the zerg anyway), least of all you could swap food to a -condi duration food.

As far as pets go I’m leaning towards murrelow or marsh drake for your main pet and wolf for your second. Both the murrelow and marsh drake have decent survivability in a zerg, the marsh drake offers cleave and a blast finisher, and they both have aoe poison to apply to downed enemies. Wolf fear is just too good not to bring for any form of pvp.

They moved a lot of the pets out of the starter areas for… reasons.

Seems I made a mistake before.

Even on completely immobile targets devourers are not the best pet for might stacking.
Thanks to the jungle stalkers f2, it will stack more might than a devourer on an immoblie target. On a moving target the devourer doesn’t even come close.

RIP the rest of my gold….
Thanks for the heads up.

Darkness.9732:

Unfortunatly man you can test every build you want…but nothing will change. Ranger is the most broken class in this game. Other classes are more than decent and have decent F skills..whereas ranger…well it has nothing viable above all concerning survival skills. That’ s why noone wants it in guild vs guild.
Don’ t do my same mistakes…don’ t play ranger and don’ t test things on ranger..it’ s wasted time… if you want to be competitive Play another class.
Regards

What a load of bull kitten. Rangers are fantastic for solo and small group roaming in WvW. They have some mean builds for dueling, and if the official gvg mode that is being released in HoT is as much like GW1 FA as it sounds, rangers will be very welcome. I have very fond memories of tearing people up in GW1 Fort Aspenwood.

@Op: Use the build editor, post in ranger forum, we’ll offer advice on what you can tweak.

Dadnir.5038:

Well test are all done. the fact that a target move or not is irrelevant since no pet fare well against moving target. And still 2 might stack on auto for devourers.

The fact that you dislike devourers won’t change this fact.

So I take it you tried it out on the moving golem and you are unhappy with the results? Dismissing something as irrelevant because it doesn’t support your argument is childish.

You can be a devourer fan, I don’t care, but if you try to spread misinformation I am going to correct you.

Your argument is that devourers are the best pet for stacking might but in reality this is almost never true. In the few situations it is true (when hitting something that never moves) it would still be better to have a pet that can buff the party and has better dps.

3 things.
Why didn’t you just use the build editor and link your build?

What’s this build for? I’m going to assume zerging because you would absolutely get wrecked by a half decent player in a 1v1.

If you want to post something specifically for rangers you should post it in the ranger forum.

Rimmy.9217:

I’ll add that when you say “balanced” when referring to gold, I see “stagnant”. What changes there?

Qft. In the past couple months my server has faced at least 8 different servers with a variety of play styles, different roamers, different guild groups, etc.
When is the last time T1 had a different match up?

lil devils x.6071:

Honestly, from what I have seen anything below T2 is a waste of time even trying to play wvw now.

That’s funny, I find anything above tier 3 to be a waste of time.

StickerHappy.8052:

You’re on the pvp tab thats why its not showing.

Sigil of torment is becoming available in pvp

sminkiottone.6972:

Lets hope they dont repeat the same mistake for the 4th time

Hear, hear

SuzukiMethod.4732:

I wouldn’t mind losing traps. I’m hoping staff is going to provide enough control to make a beast-master style spec more reliable and more engaging. But even that is sort of a bandage instead of fixing the animation issue with.pets that makes them so terrible vs. moving targets.

For one of the next specializations, I’d like to see a more archer/survivalist spec which ditches the pet and replaces the f1-f4 with a quiver that held different limited use charges of arrow types for different effects, and with very long cast times when emptied, like mantras. Or maybe have the f1-f4 change depending on equipped weapon so that melee rangers get utility out of it as well.

Edit: Sorry for the triple post, my phone went sort of berserk for a bit.

Sounds a lot like preparations from GW1.

http://dulfy.net/2015/01/26/gw2-current-trait-unlocking-system-to-be-removed-in-hot/#disqus_thread

Wonder what this means for us.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,

Now that the HOT is out of the bag, we’re able to update this thread with more details. With the introduction of the new account based mastery system for end-game progression and growth in PvE, we’ll also be re-evaluating our other systems of character progression to ensure they match our over-all pillars and goals for Gw2.

In doing so: we’re going to be removing the current trait unlocking system currently on live and replacing it with a more simplified system that supports where skills-traits-specializations are going in the future. We’ll go into more details between now and the release of HOT on how skills, traits, and specializations will work in the new Gw2 world.

Thank you for all your passionate feedback on this topic – it not only helped our dev team lead to this decision, but has played a large role in helping us define how to build our exciting new account based mastery system for end-game progression in PvE as well.

How is this going to affect players that strictly WvW? Will we need to run PvE content to access new traits and skills?

Xillllix.3485:

How should they nerf it? Simple: Invert the mechanic, make it do less damage the further away you are.

Fantastic idea, make the longbow a melee weapon….

Quick question, are you also an eotm player that doesn’t know how to dodge?

Junkpile.7439:

Today i did lose against some other longbow ranger. I didn’t remember that i have stealth skill and protect me doesn’t seem to work if pet is dead (bug or something?). I did forget use dodge too because i use dodge so rarely or if i use i just spam it when i am middle of enemy zerg. That gold invader or something jumped over my body like crazy. Well i would feel like pro too if i would manage kill platinum assaulter.

Wow… If you aren’t a troll then you are the perfect example of the type of player that thinks rangers are op.

Junkpile.7439:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Junkpile.7439:

Well when there is 50-80 enemies barrage works just fine.

So you’re tagging a zerg, hoping that your zerg wins, and that you don’t die to retal… and this is you being more effective than you are on your ele? I… I don’t know what’s left to say… every time you respond you are just making yourself look worse…

You think that people stack retaliation in EotM.

Bwahahaha! So now you are basing your arguments on eotm zergs?! You were better off when I assumed you were basing your arguments off of the test golems.

Lookout everyone, this guy nailed the real problem. Rangers are OP against uplevel eotm pug zergs. Guess they need a nerf because only the best of the best can beat an uplevel eotm pug.

Junkpile.7439:

Well when there is 50-80 enemies barrage works just fine.

So you’re tagging a zerg, hoping that your zerg wins, and that you don’t die to retal… and this is you being more effective than you are on your ele? I… I don’t know what’s left to say… every time you respond you are just making yourself look worse…

Lol I just looked at the name and realized I was calling ”junk pile” garbage. At least he’s upfront about things.

Junkpile.7439:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Junkpile.7439:

Ranger so op. After day playing i play ranger more effective than i play ele after 3k hours. I don’t even remember any skills. I just use elite, signet, barrage, rapid fire and i get lot’s of bags.

You must be a pretty garbage ele then.

Well this just tell how op class ranger is. I play ele much much better than i play ranger and still ranger is superior.

You blow a bunch of cooldowns on one easily dodged burst without cc’ing or drawing out their dodges and stun breaks, and to top things off you are opening with barrage!? Who are you fighting, the test golems?

If you are more effective running this combo than you are on your ele…. Wow… Just… Wow. You should probably just uninstall.

Junkpile.7439:

Ranger so op. After day playing i play ranger more effective than i play ele after 3k hours. I don’t even remember any skills. I just use elite, signet, barrage, rapid fire and i get lot’s of bags.

You must be a pretty garbage ele then.

Tom Gore.4035:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Tom Gore.4035:

When I want to go solo roaming, I pick a thief. Why? Because it has by far the most potential to get in, kill someone quickly and get out before the zerg runs you over. Low risk vs. high reward. That’s thief gameplay for you.

When I go roaming in a small group I… Ok who am I kidding. We still pick thieves because of the funnies of instagibbing anything and disappearing before they even realize one of them died.

That’s the reason I play ranger. I get to bathe in the tears of all the thieves qqing about rapid fire tracking through stealth.

I believe you kill lots of bad thieves intrigued by the low risk high reward gameplay I mentioned. A good thief will still eat a LB ranger for breakfast. They don’t even have to spec for it. Just slot a couple more teleport gap closers and you’re done. Most bad rangers at that point panic and try to run. Good ones might still have a chance, but they’re up for an uphill battle for sure.

Most thieves only run 1 stun break, it’s pretty easy to draw that out and then chain cc them to finish them off. A glassy thief in no way counters a ranger, you need to be running a high sustain build like cele ele or medi guard for it to be an uphill battle for the ranger. Only ranger a thief will eat for breakfast is a bad ranger.

Tom Gore.4035:

When I want to go solo roaming, I pick a thief. Why? Because it has by far the most potential to get in, kill someone quickly and get out before the zerg runs you over. Low risk vs. high reward. That’s thief gameplay for you.

When I go roaming in a small group I… Ok who am I kidding. We still pick thieves because of the funnies of instagibbing anything and disappearing before they even realize one of them died.

That’s the reason I play ranger. I get to bathe in the tears of all the thieves qqing about rapid fire tracking through stealth.

Most people are smart enough to figure out how to disable emotes on their own. I know for you it appears to be some incredibly complicated multi step process but it’s really not. It’s a check box, not a rubik’s cube. Anyway I’m done talking to you. Go ahead and spam the forum to fight against spamming….

Lord of Madness.2603:

I don’t care how much attention i give to the trolls. They will be banned in the end if I’m persistent enough for their Blatant Disregard for the Code of Conduct. And to me that is a big help to the community by removing the trolls and/or Rule Breakers. and no what your stating is not a solution its just sweeping the problem under the rug so that they can just do it to another less informed player. Jim I understand your way of dealing with problems is ignoring them untill they go away. But this one will not go away because they one doing it will still be there and able to do it to others.

Only to people too ignorant or stubborn to use the tools already provided. This is only a problem if you allow it to be.

Sirendor.1394:

I barely play thief. The rapid fire bug is a common bug and is complained about by more than just thieves, since most groups run a thief for stealth rez alone.

Channeled attacks tracking through stealth is not a bug, it is an intended game mechanic. If you don’t want to be hit by rapid fire in stealth have the common sense to stealth before or after the channel starts.

Lord of Madness.2603:

One Prarie- as i said we could just “ignore it” with your 5 step program. But they are doing it for the soul purpose of trying to harm and annoy others, making a 5 step program sounds like they are completely annihilating you. What they are doing is against code of conduct. And we need to find a way to change this if in any way possible. ether by gaining the ability to block individual emotes by right clicking on them or to even go as far as to report these individuals. And you can be sure i will keep this post on the front page for months if i have to. I will make sure for everyone that this issue gets addressed Properly no matter what the cost is to me.

How in your mind does clicking a check box equate to a 5 step program?

The reasonable people here are telling you how to deal with the problem, all you are doing is giving a troll the attention he craves.

But you go ahead and do what you think is best, keep making a big deal about something that already has a solution. I’m sure that if you keep this thread going you won’t be encouraging others to follow in this guys footsteps.

For pve try running frost spotter and bring a pet that provides party buffs. that build brings damage boosters that other classes can’t provide. No one wants a useless bearbow, you have to show them you are going to carry your weight.

For WvW do you prefer to roam or zerg? Do you like condi or power?

I’m really hoping for a good mobility skill. Leap, dash, whatever..

It’s been running really slow the past week or 2, maybe they took it down to fix something.

I love my bat sword. I use it as my GS for every character that can wield it.

DarkSyze.8627:

So player who in the tail get punish? It like saying, tail of zerg is not important. I do not agree; every part of zerg is important, include tail. Example; like animal tail; so if somebody cut tail; it is animal fault for have tail? So is trade of for animal for have tail? Some class like necromancer is slow class, so is ok for thief to kill because it is in the tail? I say; all player are important including in the tail; i play guardian class and i protect the tail players because they are part of party. Also there is new player in wvw who is not experience in run fast but is learning; should they be not Uteimportant to party for be in the tail? should new player trade of be instant kill because not learn yet and experience yet?

In my server; some thief stay behind with in the tail player to protect them; even other player and commander wait for in the tail player; they wait for me too; which is nice.

I understand what you say but i do not find ok for this trade of at all. Every part is important; No trade of.

Experienced in running fast? If your zerg isn’t garbage all you have to do is stay on the tag and you will have Perma swiftness.

If you are running a zerg build then stay with the zerg or expect to die. One of my favorite things to do in game is get zerglings to over extend from the group so I can pick them off.

Sirendor.1394:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Sirendor.1394:

Tbh, they just need to nerf the dmg on rapid fire (not on longbow in general) and decrease the range of longbow to that of any normal long range weapon (1200), like elementalist staff.

Why exactly? If you are going to call for a nerf you need to provide an argument that holds water.

I think the arguments you are looking for are in this 5-page long thread.. to name a few:

• This is the only weapon+class that has such a far range and so much damage with it: it does not encourage strategic or skillful play, instead it encourages you to stand in your tower and shoot at enemies who have no alternative than to run out of your range.
• Since no other class has this kind of range it’s poorly balanced. Counters are either speccing to counter one specific builds, or relying on high mobility to get out and in fast.
• Rapid fire is a broken skill since it does not stop firing when an enemy goes stealthed, and people who go full zerk can shoot you to death with just using that one skill.

Many more arguments all over the thread, but I think you get the gist. Range is too far which makes it unbalanced when compared with the high damage. Therefore: nerf.

I said arguments that hold water. Each complaint you have listed has been destroyed by numerous people. Unless you can come up with a valid reason to nerf longbow I suggest you spend more time improving your personal skill and less time complaining.

Use gold instead of buying gems. As long as your guild doesn’t hate you they will probably chip in.

I know it’s absolutely terrible but if you really need the gold you can just run dungeons for a week. This should be your last resort though because the pve in this game is so bad your brain might spontaneously shoot out your mouth and run out the door in an attempt to save itself.

What game mode are you playing in? Each mode is going to require different builds for you to be useful. If you ask some specific questions we would have a much easier time helping you.

Oh and bear is never a “must have”. The only time I ever run bear is if I’m soloing a keep in WvW. For anything else there are just too many better options.

Sirendor.1394:

Tbh, they just need to nerf the dmg on rapid fire (not on longbow in general) and decrease the range of longbow to that of any normal long range weapon (1200), like elementalist staff.

Why exactly? If you are going to call for a nerf you need to provide an argument that holds water.

You don’t get suppressed if you use team chat instead of map chat….

shadowpass.4236:

He just said he wouldn’t share his build. I was just guessing he was using a regen build because those are pretty strong and he doesn’t want it to be nerfed.

Condi regen is a mean build but it has its drawbacks. The mobility is better for escaping a fight than is is for chasing someone down. And the more players you add to the mix the less useful it becomes. It is fantastic for 1v1 fights but they have made it pretty clear they won’t t balance around that.

Back on topic, there really isn’t a way to say who is the best roamer since people play on different servers. I’ve got a good reputation on my server but there is no way for me to know if I’m better than someone on a tier that I haven’t fought in months.

shadowpass.4236:

RoyalPredator.9163:

I am!
I win most 1v1s vs T2 enemies who aren’t totaly optimised their builds for an overkill spike or simply being way too OP. Solo capping keeps, including Bay and Hills.
Once solo’d Garrison as well, even if it took like half hour thanks to random incomming enemies I had to deal with.
1v3+ where troubles start, too mutch lockdowns to be handled.
Would try myself on T1 but way too long queue there :/

BTW I’m sure that there are even better rangers than me, known one a ’year ago who had mastered her movement so well she barely took any damage. Shes not playing the game for long time… :/

& No, I won’t share my build. It only leads to a nerf, as always…
What You can do is to improve Yourself in the first place.

Hey mate. =]

I’m guessing you are condi then.

What makes you think that, the soloing keeps part? I’ve done that a bunch of times with a power build.

Disrupting enemy communication is a very effective tool. So is spying. Thanks to the game only costing 10 bucks right now don’t be surprised if you have enemy players creating alt accounts to spy on your map chat.

That’s another reason TS is so much more useful. You can control who has access.

joneirikb.7506:

Haven’t watched the PAX video just read some of the text summaries on the HoT page. But from the sound of it, the “Mastery” thingy sounded more like a PVE variant of the WXP system, with “Hang gliding mastery” etc. So I doubt that will be of any use in WvW for obvious reasons.

The Mastery System

We’re reimagining progression with our new Mastery system. Explore new training opportunities for your character beyond level 80 and master abilities like hang gliding in the jungle, tearing the bark off of heavily armored Mordrem, or building new collections that earn precursors to a legendary weapon.

Specializations

Evolve your gameplay. With profession specializations, you’ll unlock access to a weapon previously unavailable to your profession as well as new traits, skills, and unique mechanics – all of which will transform your profession into something new.

Specialization sounds more like the general upgrades you would be interested in. Skills are likely being accessible as normal, so just save the skill points for them. Traits are probably unlocked in the usual manner, and I’m guessing the unlock’s are going to be tied to the new maps and story etc (but that you can still buy it off as usual at trainers).

No idea how they will handle the extra weapon or the unique upgrades.

You’re right, specialization is the word I was looking for. Mastery sounds more like the pve version of Wxp and world ability points.

I would absolutely love a WvW reward track but I don’t think they would make the new masteries available through that. I’m afraid it will only be available through PvE grinding or possibly by using gold and skill points (the way the new trait system works).

Both of these choices are pretty ridiculous for a WvW player. WvW is the biggest gold sink in the game but most of us have karma and badges coming out of our ears. Why not give us something to spend it on?

Not an endgame argument. It’s a quit being lazy argument. It’s a learn to think for yourself argument. It takes almost no effort to figure out how to disable emotes. Not everything needs to be handed to you on a silver platter.

They already gave players the option to disable enemy emotes. Players also have the option to hop on TS. Either one fixes the issue.

I doubt there is a single WvW server that doesn’t have a TS, mumble, etc. that they are actively trying to get the pugs to join. My server spams it constantly. When I tag up the first thing I do is give our TS info and tell people to hop in because I won’t be giving directions in map chat. I’d rather have 10 reliable people in TS than 30 pugs.

There is only 1 person on my server that has a legit excuse for not using it and that is because he is deaf. But he is a good enough player to stick on tag, build what needs building, and function without being told what to do.

If your pugs need direction to play the game they need to get in TS. Physical impairment is the only valid excuse for not doing it.

Please please please, for the love of all that’s holy, give us a way of getting these new skills/traits through WvW.

I don’t care if it’s through capping structures or buying them with badges and/or karma. Just give us a way to stay competitive without having to grind PvE content.

And please don’t make us buy them with gold, our rewards are garbage and anyone that strictly plays WvW is already broke.

Lord of Madness.2603:

You Expect every player in the game even the new ones to have TS?

Ummm…. yes. TS is free. If you’re scared to talk just mute your mike and listen. You will be much more effective as a group and make things easier on your commander.

Get on TS instead of making your commander type everything out while he is trying to fight.