Guild Wars 2

I like the pet aspect. Unfortunately there are some things that bother me.
The AI is, indeed, horrible. Since pets don’t have any gap closers they need to be able to move more quickly across the field during combat. In addition, their attack animations are super slow and rarely connect with anyone who is even remotely strafing. Non HoT pets, in particular are super sluggish. They’re never able to connect with heavy teleporting classes. I also find it irritating that anything and everything will tag your pet and put it into combat. Particularly annoying when you’re trying to run through a bunch of mobs in pve without being tagged. The solution to that is to put your pet on passive, simply giving the player the option to stow and unstow your pet when you want would be a better option. Or simply not have the pet put you in combat. Not being able to effectively use them in wvw is annoying, too, at that point they’re always on passive and just there for the swapping bonus. Even then if they get caught in a stray bomb they’re boned.

My two cents, anyway. I like having the pet, I’d enjoy being able to do more with it.

~ Kovu

Players who solo capture stuff should have their character names (or at least their guilds) be displayed. >.> (Or, I guess for the enemy’s side “Objective Captured! [Server/WvW Rank Title] has captured [objective name].”) Put the “guild” back in Guild Wars 2.

Anywho, I guess I’m on board for options 1 or 3.

~ Kovu

Yeah, those blinds were nice. Rangers can’t keep nice things without people kittening about it, though.

~ Kovu

I’m on board with this.

~ Kovu

Three accounts.

Main (2012): Dragonbrand → Isle of Janthir (2013) → Dragonbrand (2013) → Fort Aspenwood (2014) → Sea of Sorrows (2014) → Stormbluff Isle (2015) → Fort Aspenwood (2015)
Alt 1 (2014): Fort Aspenwood → Tarnished Coast (2015) → Dragonbrand (2016)
Alt 2 (2015): Maguuma

~ Kovu

Razor.9872:

• Don’t be that prick who knocks mobs away from other melee players with LB 4.

Awh. =(

Yeah, so a ranger that brings that elite to the table can have stability 16% of the time, 20% if traited. And that’s their elite. I felt the cooldown nurf was unnecessary, but 2016 has been ~year of the ranger shout nerf~ so I’m not surprised. A pet with a insta-cast stab would definitely help rangers/groups who know they’re about to be CC’d, and it’d giveone more reason for groups to bring rangers along — goodness knows they could use that kind of help.

~ Kovu

Seasniffer.1763:

Spotted the YB player.

I lol’d.

~ Kovu

Any “advantage” garnered from a series of disconnects won’t noticeably impact the outcome of a match. Odds are your opponents are also suffering those disconnects. Any “free” upgrades they’re gaining on their maps, you’re gaining on yours.
The only thing I recall being particularly unfair is a specific borderland being unplayable for a proloned amount of time. The qq when that happens is for real.

~ Kovu

Swagger.1459:

jcbroe.4329:

So a trait with the precondition that a target be hard CC’d to begin with, and as such is countered by what counters hard CC (stability, stunbreaks), that is then countered by a simple cleanse or the ability to press 1 and cleave (or even if your ping is low, you can predodge the roots when you know AS has procced on you) is somehow OP?

Meanwhile other classes can pump out hard CC and immobilizes by just existing? I mean, I’d take Chaotic Interruption on a Druid over Ancient Seeds ANY day.

Nobody cares that you have a ranger. Your opinion is wrong, your post is presumptuous and indicative that you play far below the skill level of having a strong grasp of balance, and your “I have an x friend like this, therefore I can say whatever I want” stylized rhetoric is both toxic and lost on a community of players that can immediately discern how blatantly misinformed and clueless about the game you are.

To anyone else reading, this is /thread. Further responses, admittedly along my own, are just troll feeding.

I would like to show my +1 support for jcbroe on this.

+2

What is this garbage. Anet pls open BG for transfers so we can fix!

~ Kovu

Just put the entire alpine map inside the oasis of the desert map. I’m sure it’ll fit. =)

~ Kovu

A sad YB player

WvW was supposed to be about skill

Heh. Okay, I’ve had my chuckle for the morning. Time for some coffee. Thanks. =)

~ Kovu

The thing I really think needs help is the arbitrary obstructions I keep getting whilst shooting someone in a flat area. I’ve even been obstructed shooting slightly downhill. Its kind of annoying. If the bug (I assume its not intended) itself can’t be fixed, arch the longbow projectiles slightly so this is less of an issue.

The sheer number of reflections in this game is getting a little out of hand, too. Even in small scale fights I find myself switching to staff or greatsword and not wanting to switch to longbow for fear of being stuck with a useless weapon for 9 seconds because everything reflects. Kind of silly.

~ Kovu

I feel like a potential 15s cooldown on a skill that cleanses all conditions and stun breaks is more than fair. Its base ranger condition removal that needs to be looked at. The signet and other traitlines. Not Druid.

I do agree with most other points, though.

~ Kovu

Lol. Throw this on the marksmanship longbow trait. *that*’ll get people out of nature magic.

~ Kovu

OGDeadHead.8326:

Yeah. Or evade from the moment you press the button until you land them 400 units back, so you could, you know, actually use this skill to get away from danger by reaction instead of prediction.

+1

Hm. I actually like the idea of improving this ability out of combat for mobility purposes. An alternative to the directional arrows option would be to have the first portion of the ability remain unchanged while the secondary leap could default to a backwards leap unless an enemy is targetted (in which case it would close the gap as it does). Its still not the optimal option for out of combat (as you’d still have to swing your camera around), but this would make putting some distance between you and your opponent (for either breaking combat or switching to a ranged weapon) easier.

~ Kovu

Seems less trolly and more kitteny.
I think someone got spanked by a ranger and wants other rangers to know about it.

~ Kovu

Alright, disregard my above post.
Going straight ranger would be your best bet for optimal condition damage in pve. If you run skirmishing (you’ll be running skirmishing) in addition in shortbow you’ll have perma swiftness so you won’t need to worry about that.
Traps will work really well for you.

~ Kovu

After seeing this thread I’ve been theorycrafting at work (I’m such a hard worker >.>) and mean to try something along the lines of the following. Its basically a CC & heavy bleed build with about 80% of the survivability of that power NM/BM/Druid build everyone and their dog is running. Much like a burn guard, this build’s weakness is tons of small condi removals. I wanted condi damage from my runeset so I’m trying out the antitoxin rune (instead of trooper or durability). I’ll let you know how it goes.

Build:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAVWnUqA9Ci1CCmrActgFDB7ZL8syZMBgRXDAOr+VTrlMtKA-TVSAQBK4QAQhrAAJVCpt9HClKIA4BAETlgiR5TpU/gUA9N3C-w%20…

~ Kovu

I run 400~ because I like slightly quicker heals, but in pve you’re probably fine with 0.

~ Kovu

Cele ranger stopped being a thing ages ago. Ranger’s weapon options simply can’t support raw damage & condis at the same time in the way other professions can. On that particular build the condition damage is wasted almost entirely.
Rangers have enough difficulty with bursts in #bukerwars 2, running sub 2k power on a raw damage build will get you nowhere.
Not going to dissect the build’s specifics. To each their own.

~ Kovu

Keep in mind that any pet ability that comes under control of the ranger would inherently be nerfed because the ranger has control over when to use that ability. The smokescale changes a while back are an example of this.
Not saying its a bad idea, but it would be a rehaul. Can’t see it happening.

~ Kovu

Aye, that would be neat. Having the option for extended cripples, vulnerabilities, weakness & immobilizes would be a neat spec for ranger. As it stands power rangers are more likely to run boon duration and vigor/protection. Nature Magic is just better than Marksmanship. -shrug-

~ Kovu

Aye, Druid doesn’t need more cleansing. Base Ranger cleanses need to be improved. Thought I’d clarify. Locking the profession to a specific runeset because they can’t deal with the conditions without it is not a solution. I’m not going to buy a set of runes every time I’m facing an opponent with a particularly heavy condition spec.

~ Kovu

The group reflect uptime is kind of silly post HoT. They need to cut down the duration of reflection effects or apply piercing to certain projectile abilities and traits (this is hardly limited to ranger). The answer to the inability to pierce shouldn’t be a forced weapon swap. Especially if they see you’re swapped and are now locked into to a weapon with nothing but projectiles.
Perhaps Lead the Wind should also allow for some attacks to pierce?

~ Kovu

The problem with condis is that the Druid healing is gated behind that full cleanse, (the only cleanse coming from the profession,) most professions know to hold off on the bomb until the Druid pops CA (and they’re going to, its how they stay alive). So the Druid can either utilize their (now weaker) heals, and risk being loaded up again right away, (as they can’t block or evade while channeling/casting CA’s abilities) or pop right back out for the stealth to kite and hope to hell WHaO is up. Even then, it might not be enough because condition duration is out of hand these days.

As a Druid I run both cleansing sigils & druid cleanse and I still find I have a lot more issues against condition builds than power. Not calling out mesmers specifically, but professions that can load up conditions while kiting and stealthing are a particular pain.

They should probably throw resistance on one of the survival skills, or have Signet of Renewal grant the pet resistance.

~ Kovu

Major changes? We can all be pirates now! Arr!

~ Kovu

SMC would never flip.

~ Kovu

Okay, so they can thesaurus a different word. Stop derailing the thread.
Some of the ideas in this thread actually have me intrigued. =)

~ Kovu

I personally find that ~400 healing power is the sweet spot for utilizing CA to regenerate your health affectively in CA post patch. Especially good if you have some form of stealth prior to popping CA so you’re not trained while you’re channeling/casting. Of course to use the Druid abilities we’re now forced to use at least some healing power. (At this point if you don’t run the stat to some extent, don’t bother traiting Druid for CA. The channel time isn’t worth the healing in most situations.) More healing power would of course allow you to heal yourself slightly more quickly, but with the new timegate on CA you’re not really gaining anything from it. Group comp is a little different. If you run nature magic there’s a trait that adds 13% of your healing power as power. That’s not nothing. Works well in boon duration builds, but then you’re probably giving up marksmanship so your damage will be down a little and you won’t get to utilize the spiffy new CotW effectively.

Guess it’s a matter of whether you want to be more glassy and prone to burst, or more tanky but have less burst yourself. The former has more issues in group fights but can melt tankier builds, the latter while heavier on sustain will have difficulty with tankier opponents or those with lots of escapes.

That’s my experience, anyway.

~ Kovu

Not to mention you have to trait to pierce with longbow (which with all of the aoe’s being thrown around is kind of silly). Staff is just a better option than longbow for power builds in wvw. Of course there are people who enjoy using both, which is fine.

~ Kovu

450 is manageable. Guess my boon duration’s taking a 30% hit. I need to be able to use my elite spec (what a concept) and I need three stats to run an effective power build. I hate condi on ranger. Thanks for the info.

~ Kovu

So I roam around on a power druid, but I do rely on stealth into CA healing for my sustain. About how much healing power would I now have to run to be as effective at healing as I was with 0 healing power pre patch? I don’t have the time or patience to #math it out. Right now it does literally near nothing.

~ Kovu

Aye. Encourage scouts that do not provide the proper information to do so, (which map, how many of which enemy, which guild if applicable, where they’re heading, what siege they’re using, wall & gate status etc, even available tactivators). A surpising number of people still don’t specify the map while speaking in team chat.
As well, call them out by name and thank them for their diligence. Scouts are the reason [your server] has T3 anything.

~ Kovu

I don’t keep track of the stats, but I play on three different servers and two of them are more active than they were prior to server linking. The third is currently unlinked. I’m not saying there aren’t drawbacks, but “killing the game” is hardly one of them.

~ Kovu

I roam in the higher tiers to increase my odds of running into opposing roamers. There’s nothing more disappointing than circling around an entire map and not running into anybody.
If you see an enemy group you can’t take, don’t engage. If they’re trying to close for a gank and you lack mobility, wp out and go elsewhere. If they stealth in and pop you, be satisfied in the fact it took three of them (just picking a number) to murder you, and continue on with your day.

~ Kovu

Server links are a good thing.

~ Kovu

Zallybar.4501:

i legit watched a TC blob pass into a Mag Blob and not a single person died.

That’s actually pretty normal.

~ Kovu

Glad to see things are back (and fixed).
Looking forward to playing after work. =)

~ Kovu

Clownmug.8357:

Does anyone remember the reason why we have this glicko match making system rather than a simple one up, one down system? There’s obviously something wrong when it requires manual changes to attempt creating a fair matchup, then ends up creating one just as lopsided, if not worse.

From the outside that match seems super close. Agreed with the rest of this though.
There’s enough population amongst all of the server pairings that a 1 up 1 down system would work perfectly fine. It would increase match variety, too.

~ Kovu

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Guard: Reduced the damage reduction from 50% to 33%.

Wonder what brought that about? Also noticed the death of Cleric amulet in PvP.

Aye. Now there’s no reason outside of small group composition to use this over Protect Me, (which just grants the 33% damage reduction via Protection outright, and comes with a taunt & a stun break.)

I like that they’re addressing the core pets, but I feel like cooldown reduction doesn’t help all that much. Rangers need some burst potency, something HoT pets can provide and core pets cannot.

~ Kovu

I find the raw damage/burst on ranger to be severely lacking compared to most other professions, so I run a strictly power spec’d build and improve my survivability with various tools such as numerous stealths and damage mitigation which rangers have lots of access to.

But it’s technically a glassy build so I won’t post it.

~ Kovu

Sure thing, bob! Lets make trolling the gvg’ers even easier!

~ Kovu

YOU FOOL. DELETE THIS THREAD BEFORE ANET REALIZES THIS IS A THING!

~ Kovu

Tyler Bearce.3427:

• That feeling of hopelessness when your team is down 100,000 points after a single day

Give players a real opportunity to make a comeback

• Matches are often decided in the first few days, making playing in the final days feel pointless

Aye, gw2 wvw needs to be more like Mario Kart.
Give T2 some blue shells to huck at Yaks Bend, so we can feel accomplished. =)

Thanks for the Assassin’s Creed update the other week btw, now I’ll die from fall damage 0.02% less often. =D

~ Kovu

Definitely QoL.

~ Kovu

I don’t mind the increase in cooldown, pulling someone’s butt out of the fire should have a decent cooldown on it — but it’s always been an unreliable ability to trigger, and the 600 range doesn’t help that. If you pop the ability and are out of range, or if your pet is on passive in a big group fight to prevent it from dying you basically need to be on top of the person you’re trying to SnR for it to work. Kind of defeats the purpose, as they’re likely being bombed & stomped.

Ground targeting would solve some of that, even at the mitigated 600 range.

~ Kovu

Yeah, some of us play professions not worthy enough of their attention, even on April 1.
((Though its possible that was the joke)) =p

~ Kovu