Guild Wars 2

Safari.3021:

I used siamoth as the main pet for the forage ability, finding feathers was another source of stealth to use to get opening strikes back, but the drawback with this is enemies can also pick up the foraged goods if you’re not quick enough.

Haha never realised the enemy could pick up the foraged item too, and I use siamoth all the time. Usually to go poof in the face of a zerg, or just have every buff in the game if I’m “unlucky”.

Like pets?

Yes → Ranger
No → Thief

Cant decide… read further

For all the rangers that say rangers dont have enough condition removal then go on to diss brown bears, I shake my head. Using a brown bear doesnt even take any time from you and bears in general can bathe in conditions and still smell charmin fresh.

Ive got empathic bond traited so I dont use bear much but I see room for it in some builds. Just rantin’ ’gainst all the bear hate. I like murrellows for the poison field but it seems to me that 14 sec aoe weakness on black bears is probably far underated also.

I tried a similar build but spamming a shout was very annoying during fighting when you need to multi-task.

Ive been considering regen type builds without this mechanic but havent found anything satisfying that still gives sufficient dps.

Maybe a nerf to people who run pets to be contrary to their builds. Either way though, an overall buff of 5% to all stats to compensate for ascended would be the easy way.

These runes on an engie with crowbar is just pure hilarity.

Sevans.4619:

snip

Sounds like you play a lot the same as I do. My favorite pets are wolf and spider also, but I find them not durable enough for large scale wvw soaking up aoe and conditions via EB, so I have to trade out one of them for a higher vitality pet. Also being power build I have a hard time giving up a slot for malicious training but sounds like it would be great in smaller scale.

Against thieves, GS#4 is also a great counter to backstab. You knock them down and can follow up with maul and have them half dead in seconds. Usually they bug out after that, but if not rapid fire and all the other stuff mentioned will finish them.

If you want more than 3k of power, use a sigil of bloodlust on one weapon. Also, even if you dont use a horn normally, you can do this: out of combat I will hot swap a torch#5 and horn#5 to get 4 stacks of might, fury and swiftness for ~20 secs.

Carighan.6758:

Ah kitten , you’re right!
Those bloody 10 cents I have to pay every time I want to harvest something or loot a monster!

Their revenue stream is simply drying up!

Good thing you figured it out!

I spent $20-30 actual cash to get the mats I needed to level up to 500. If you have more time than money then I see where you wouldnt get what I am saying. But I dont believe I would be the only one, by a long shot.

Multiply money spent by 10% or so of their user base and its not rocket science to see they made some good cash. One way to grab more cash.. make em do it again. “Rinse repeat” – where this phrase even came from, made the shampoo companies some good money. This is how the marketting world works.

edit – actually they probably wouldnt make much real money since peeps are leveled up already, but they would add a lot more artificial grind at least

IF the problem is in PVE, then lets fix it in PVE. Leave Wvw damage alone.!!!!

Durzlla.6295:

What are you talking about? I never said zerker ranger is bad or anything it’s just DIFFERENT from a zerker thief or warrior, it’s not burst reliant, and it has a “pet tax” so direct damage doesn’t scale as well as condi does (god knows why), rangers still deal an insanely high amount of consistent damage between them and their pet and of you’re full zerker using a cat? You’re probably out DPSing that warrior, ESPECIALLY if you’ve got companions might on.

You implied rangers were ok since we have access to condi damage, where I said that zerk ranger was a valid route that many of us go too, and hence are very affected by this unmitigated.

Now why do you believe burst is the only way to dps? Steady dps is affected by the same measures being proposed in equal measure. Cat doesnt survive two seconds in zerg wvw or help with keep warfare, so pet damage isnt something I am concerned with.

• head slap ****

Just realized, of course Anet realizes many people have done their farming etc for Zerk stuff and are all fitted out. That means the revenue bonanza has died down and they need to chase people into farming other armor types to get things going again.

Never before have they done an overall equipment nerf… until now that equipment is actually worth something in terms of actual money spent for mats and time to grind.

Wrong way to go about generating money imo. Better to supply content.

The problem is ascended equipment; they put a high time sink requirement in the game to get equiped properly for a spec. I spent a LOT of time getting my zerk weapons and trinkets together. I cant just change spec now to accomodate a heavy nerf.

Zerk rangers were already considered underdogs, and not needing nerfs. Blanket nerfing zerk equipment is just very heavy handed. If there is a specific problem, nerf that.

Edit: What we will need is a free full equipment respec as well.

Durzlla.6295:

Rangers will be hit the least by this because rangers benefit the least from going full zerker. Rangers (as others have mentioned) get the most out of their hybrid damage builds because condis get full scaling and we have easy applications of all of them but confusion and torment, and power is nice, but we kinda get kitten by the whole “pet tax” (god knows why this is even there since condi builds completely ignore it).

Not to mention zerker builds sorta favor burst because it’s “do or die” and rangers are lacking in burst… Granted we make up for it in leaps and bounds in the steady DPS department.

Long story short, our power builds aren’t as 1337 as the warrior ones so a 10% damage increase across the board will hit us less than a warrior, ESPECIALLY since X% of our damage is tied to our pet who in most builds has 0 crit damage and is thus unaffected.

Your premise is based on a hybrid build, why do you draw conclusions about a zerk build from that? I do perfectly fine as a zerk heavy build, its what my weapons (ascended btw a lot of work) and trinkets (also ascended) are based around. I dont use conditions aside from immob/cripple/vuln (non-damage) and havent been wanting for them. This is a game in progress, I have already invested a LOT of time in assembling my gear, its not a reboot where we all go back to start.

From what you say it means they should leave us alone… we dont need nerf; any would be excessive. Nerf the warrior if thats where the problem is.

I’m mostly (~70%) zerker and not liking the sound of this (obviously). It can be very difficult to impossible to down some regen bunker builds already.

What is the justification behind the nerf? If there are specific abilities that are doing too much damage look at those, blanket nerfs are generally not a good thing!

Can someone post a link to where this is presented?

Being the only guy (or one of few) rolling out of zerg wipes 9 times out 10 with stability, damage immunity, stealth and GS leap.

As mentioned GS#4 on thieves is my newest tickle spot

Big hits at 1500 range against squishies

Neoheart.2750:

I’d be happy with just Immob lol

Second this… forget the damage. Immob makes this skill cry.

Rangers have pretty good elites as is, I wouldnt let that be deciding factor. We also have good mobility. That said radiation field is pretty potent.

Making the pet AI more responsive and functioning would be amazing, but thats more like a bug fix.

Amazing to me would be:

- a revamp of the trait lines (to add more synergy since with many changes some things no longer make sense – ie martial mastery in condition damage line),

- revamp traps (better mechanic than just being inferior necro marks),

- pet mechanic revamp (my idea – option for spirit pet – passive only pet that gives a passive buff),

or something involving a greater synergy with the pet that doesnt involve its AI (actually become pet for a duration, pet gets limited block ability on passive, mode for pet fights side by side and doesnt skip a beat with its attacks, that kind of thing).

Yep… pretty sure its never worked for me while pet is dead…. at least I always swap out pets when I notice i have condis loaded up and pet is at zero.

I’ve previously decided on carrying only high vitality pets (3000+). They have to absorb a lot of abuse. Be proud of your bear!!

Solandri.9640:

• The correct equivalency if it kicks in at 50% is 33% damage reduction. 50 + 50 / (1 – .33) = 125 units of damage to die.

Thanks for looking at that again, I was going to say 33% at first but my brains tired.

Bark skin would have to kick in at 50% to consider it. Mind you they could reduce the damage negation to 25% then.

Being at 25% is such an aggro magnet in wvw it doesnt help much as is. And it doesnt come into play enough to matter a majority of the time, while EB is working for you all the time.

Haha but yea, if they give warriors a bow it should work as a viable weapon choice if someone wants to main/trait it. Theres going to be some areas where its better, some where ours is better. If its universally better then theres a problem, but I dont see that.

Pretty hard to compare anything to warriors atm. I think its universally understood they are the pinnacle class right now, which will change no doubt.

But Ive never felt threatened by a warrior with a bow. Not when I can knock him back any time I want, disappear into stealth, cripple him (make him use his evades) with barrage, or just dps him down from out of his range. Theres so many ways to put him on the defensive, I dont care much that he can aoe better. Every weapon is supposed to be viable in some way or else it wouldnt be an option.

Rabbit of Caerbannog please!!!

sminkiottone.6972:

Ranger is the pet class not the bow class, a warrior is much better with LB than ranger.

What is a good spvp warrior LB build, I’d like to test this against my ranger build?

I agree about ranged dps being our niche. I havent noticed another class that has our sustained single target ranged dps. Talking wvw here, apparently other dps options are better in dungeons but that’s not my expertise.

I also like ranger because its a difficult class, more rewarding when you win. Playing mesmer or necro and killing a ranger was just so unsatisfying because its so easy.

I play a GS/LB power build too since I enjoy good dps when playing. Its not nearly as survivable as a regen build and I’ve accepted there are times when I am going to have to fight tooth and nail to survive and times when I will die. But when I get perched just right and everyone has either not noticed or given up chasing me and I can rain down death… oh yes… its worth it.

That said I know the feeling after I swoop in, stun someone and maul it feels a bit weak after with the lack of options with GS to continue a beatdown. The decreased cooldown trait helps a lot here, but perhaps more damage on #1..?

My big one right now is to have pet F1 abilities reliably fire off. Especially buffs!

There is no reason not to make buff abilities go off 100% of the time, as no one needs to dodge etc, just force the effect once F1 is pressed.

As it is I have to wait for pet to stop moving completely to be guaranteed (more or less) that effect will fire. Looking at you jungle cat and red moa.<

edit: or at least make it not go to cooldown if it doesnt go off… easy fix?

Bloodstone is threatening to take over all my inventory space. I just throw it out now.

Problem I note with pet buffs in particular is pet has to be at a complete standstill or the buff doesnt work and goes to cooldown. Probably something similar going on with other specials as well.

Perhaps they could fix this by making the special action override the movement animation and just let it move while animating, even if it doesnt look as pretty, to ensure the ability fires.

Ragnar.1546:

Here is the real fix:

Make pets a mobile back pack with buffs.

Each pet group (Dogs, Cats, Drakes ect.) provide a unique buff. Something like dogs provide swiftness on crit and cats fury on crit… Whatever. Their main role is to haul our kitten around as a function.

Yea I suggested this as a “spirit animal” option a few times, its very workable and takes out the headache if you dont want to deal with a pet. They dont even have to change what they have, just put a new area in where you can pick up the new junvenile pets. They give buffs, dont attack and are (perhaps) indestructible.

Do everything to not rely on the pet for anything except for soaking up some conditions or damage (protectme). That said a tanking or buffing pet is probably best, left on passive except when you see an enemy that it could probably attack reasonably well.

Mabuse.2879:

Kilger.5490:

I only played WoW for a couple months and hunters beat up my priest guy pretty bad on pvp server, at low levels anyway. Nerf hunters I say.

Hunters always used to rule 10-19. Blizzard paid very little attention to balance below the level cap. I ran a priest with a 10-19 team and it was very strong. But, hey, teamwork.

Hehe I know, part of the reason that game turned me off, its really just pve with some pvp clothing for show.

Edit: Also was thinking, pretty sure part of the reason Anet wants pets to do the animation first instead of just applying damage is because of the dodge mechanic. You cant dodge if you cant see the pet wind up etc.

Sevans.4619:

Kilger.5490:

I’m finding quickdraw a bit less important these days with the LB#1 damage more evened out, however I like using my great sword a lot when closer anyway.

I couldn’t disagree with this more. Quick Draw has nothing to do with increasing your damage output and everything to do with surviving via Hunter’s Shot and Point Blank Shot.

Quick draw did have a lot to do with increasing my longbow dps with more instances of rapid fire, but now it matters less, since the autoattack damage is normalized more at short/medium range with the patch. This is the point of what I was saying, and part of the appeal of the trait was lost, “for me”.

Dont worry, I understand your point. I did qualify what I was saying I like using my great sword, so please… come closer. But thats a bit tangental to what the OP needs to know about.

I only played WoW for a couple months and hunters beat up my priest guy pretty bad on pvp server, at low levels anyway. Nerf hunters I say.

I’m finding quickdraw a bit less important these days with the LB#1 damage more evened out, however I like using my great sword a lot when closer anyway.

Maul on GS actually does get some pretty high numbers, I dont know that I totally agree there. I’ve never played guardian, or warrior so I cant compare though.

The thing I dont like is if we want to go for high survival it seems we need to rely on our pets or conditions for any damage, not the best options for wvw. I’d like to see more survival options for a power ranger, like a better regen on signet of wild.

I was just thinking how spirits should move with you even untraited… wierd.

Solandri.9640:

RaO + warhorn#4 gives your pet 17 might stacks, and sword’s attacks will quickly put that over 20 stacks. The cat’s base power is 1374. 20 might stacks adds 700 power, so that’s a 50% increase to its damage. The cat will also give you about 8 might stacks, which for a power build should be about a 12% increase in damage. It’s a pretty potent combo.

I get what you are saying, keeping in mind other classes have means to might stack too, my eng didnt even have to use an elite to have a full 25. I’m not digging down to that level, there are too many iterations. I dont doubt it works well.

Bambula.3649:

you forgot the pet dmg ><

You are absolutely right, I left it out on purpose, to compare weapons.

Part of the point being weapon selection is a lot less important to a ranger based on dps, since pet is a large component, the weapon contribution is watered down. So choose what you want (except axe ).

Also because any detriment to our pet is a large detriment to our dps. Not a problem in 2v2 but the higher number of people the better chance your pet will not be on target with you and our dps suffers unlike other classes. But this is pretty much known to most rangers.

thefantasticg.3984:

No. Not true. With my ranger sword/horn + roa + cat I can out dps my warrior gs/axe+axe + banner + shouts. I know this because the standard COF p1 gate I knock out faster on my Ranger than I can on my Warrior. I can also knock it out faster than my Mesmer or thief.

Warriors axe I calc 1.38 coeff/sec compared to rangers sword 1.05 coeff/sec., so I dont know what mitigating factors you use but thats the math. (autoattack). I just know from using other classes too, what melting health bars is like.

Taverius.8645:

Range dps is terrible everywhere. Only places you range, essentially, are some very high level fractal bosses that simply cannot be melee’d no matter how godly you and your team are.

And for ranged damage supremacy, I’m afraid other classes do it better. Lbow is awful, sbow is ok, axe has a small (tiny) niche in places, but none are best of class damage by any stretch of the imagination.

I dont know where any class does single target range dps like we do. I’ve played necro, mesmer, elementalist quite a bit, and engineer for a month. Its not our best damage but range is the equalizer. Its the only niche I’ve found with ranger where we outperform. If you think Long bow is terrible, youre just not doing it right.

Main hand sword, while our best damage, is laughable compared to other classes melee damage.

Umm… its working all disables, and pet abilities too..? Thats gonna get nerfed. Until then I might have a little fun too…

Durzlla.6295:

So yeah, stun locking people with stuns and immobs is pretty hilarious… drop a muddy terrain, go behind, hilt bash, mault, swap to SB, concussion shot, spam autos from behind, run away giggling because they’re now dead.

I’ve been doing this in solo arenas quite a bit, I didn’t feel like waiting for you guys to find it, so i just decided to share it.

It’s even more fun to do when you’re running Hyenas, + Drake Hound or spiders. Happy Hunting!

Who does this work against? Most classes have escapes and invulnerabilities to avoid the initial burst. Otherwise just be a 100b warrior.

I like it but its messing up my fury build, I want to see how it actually works.

I tried trapper ranger, felt like a watered down necro. Rather play a necro.

Love this thread… because I pack a long bow AND a great sword. win!

… but melee dps is something other classes do better (much much better). Rangers strength is range dps. If youre not using a bow you’re better off with another class.

Although I dont do dungeons.

urdriel.8496:

Kilger.5490:

my dps is going up significantly,

Yes?? How??? we only had a little dps increase in LB.

15-20% is significant to me, it was already great at long range. I try for long range but in spvp/wvw its not always ideal circumstances.

And I’ve been using Nature Magic IX which is now buffed (Two-Handed Training: Greatsword and spear attacks now have a 50% chance to grant fury on hit. Each attack will have 3 seconds of fury. There is also a 10-second cooldown).

With buff duration its over 40% fury uptime with Furious grip should be close to full time without even trying.

Also use the trait that Nature trait thats buffed up to 7% power, an extra 25 power isnt much but it adds up.

Dodging is arguably more useful to a mesmer too, since the trait to create illusions via dodge is spammable and very powerful (when used with shatter).