Guild Wars 2

What about Shield? I could imagine a Ranger using a shield, not quite to block enemy attacks, but instead to literally hide by using camo (stealth).

Zenith.7301:

I think Erro plays the build to its fullest. I want to separate my criticisms of the build to criticisms about him, because there are none when it comes to his play. I just thought many of his victims were not the best roamers.

Granted. Most looked average at best, but then I can’t talk as I’m pretty below average when it comes to WvW. And like you said before, the fights cut so it doesn’t really show well how good or bad a lot of them were players running away…but as I said before, I don’t think anyone said you were wrong in your assessments and most replies support them.

I actually use this build for pve, except I switch out signet of the hunt for frost spirit. It’s a build that also works well on towers and while keeping your distance because your longbow will burst decently often. But as a build for skirmish or roaming? This is not your build, stick to BM bunker if you want to roam.

Good to know. I might give it a shot in PvE in that case.

jubskie.3152:

You guys seem to be forgetting that activating Signet of the Wild is 12 seconds of stability if you have Signet of the Beastmaster (which this build has).

Yes, it’s not the same as a stunbreak, but seeing as this build uses SotW pre-emptively, it doesn’t need stun breaks for atleast 12 seconds.

@Erro
Hope you don’t mind, I added it to the compilation thread

I didn’t know that!

You know, it’s kind of funny…of all the classes I play, I tend to always keep a stunbreaker on my utilities most of the time…except ranger. If you don’t have a stun breaker on elementalist, you’re likely going to get ganked. If you don’t have one for mesmer you’re as good as dead. Warriors get stunned so often, you pretty much have to have something otherwise you can’t do anything.

Rangers, I often don’t get stunned because I can just evade it or block it and when I can’t, Rampage as One is 20 sec of stability! Sig of the beastmaster sounds awesome if it can increase your damage by 20% with sig of the wild and for 12 seconds!? Yeah the cooldown is 2 min but you can bring that down sig mastery. Lol warrior signets are pretty bad…Stances are about on par with Ranger signets when traited (and you can’t get shorter cooldowns on stances). Hmmm, this build seems more viable to me all of a sudden. It’d be hard to leverage well (impossible in a lot of situations) but I could still see it working and being fun.

How was Ranger Staff in GW1?

As for the OP, I think it’d be a cool concept. I don’t think it’d have so many combos though. Perhaps 1 blast finisher on something other than the auto-attack. If the auto had a blast finisher, don’t you think it’d kind of obliterate any other weapon choice for melee? Sure, it probably wouldn’t have the versatility that all the other main/off-hand options have, but wouldn’t it still be just as good if, say, the #3 or #4 were the blast finisher? Perhaps with a 10 second cooldown though?

And why doesn’t Greatsword auto have a whirl finisher at the end? Yeah it’s an evade too, but come on! And it’s not like whirls are that great anyway but it’s sure be nice.

Anyway, I find the concept of a hammer Ranger odd. But Greatsword seems odd too as I don’t think either weapon is practical in the wild but if it’s in the lore…

Shirou.4862:

Context, read it.
He stated some facts, probably expecting the OP to clear them out or explain or even just make him admit that the facts are true. Since the OP clearly stated the he isn’t interested in further argumentation OP either agrees and/or doesn’t want to discuss, disappointing Zenith (and me).

Uh, I did read the context. And OP has and likely would clear out facts and explain. Zenith sort of didn’t take that step, is all I’m saying.

It’s going to be like many burst builds and die if pressured. Then it’s up to the player’s skill to react properly and win or die. Facts like “Once he burns the long cooldown on Signet of Stone, he can be bursted down….” seem pretty duh anyway. It’s the same principal as Warrior’s Endure Pain, each with their own set of perks and penalties. And I’m curious if your concept of realist includes having high standards.

I’d like to know how the OP feels about the set-up’s AoE damage and it’s effectiveness in a more PvE environment. I can guess but I’d rather hear what others have to say about it.

Zenith.7301:

capuchinseven.8395:

Zenith.7301:

Several encounters which were cut away from. It’s a burst montage rather than a show of robust builds. He has no stun breaker so the moment he gets caught on a stun with a zerg he’s screwed. Same if he came across any thief that can land a mug/daze into basilisk. He had around 16k hp, probably very little toughness so after he blew signet of stone he could be bursted down in one sequence by a mesmer or thief.

The big burst buttons as well were long cooldowns like signet of the wild, and most of his opponents didn’t even dodge maul, which has a blatant animation before it lands.

What happens when the d/d ele mist forms/armor of eath through his signet cooldowns? He dies after.

Well ain’t you a ray of sunshine.

Why are you so defensive?

Hehe, I think you’re the one being defensive. You act like someone disagreed with your on the internet or something…

But you did come off pretty negative. You came in with a chip on your shoulder and took it upon yourself to ‘explain’ what people are seeing. Did you ask the OP about the build? Why he made the choices he did or the edits in the vid? Nah, you did something else though.

As far as bursts go, it looks pretty effective while not requiring too much set up. I like it. I think comparatively though, it’s no mesmer shatter in terms of AoE. But maybe this’ll be Ranger’s turning point, where people quit the pity party and do some amazing stuff instead.

Argis.7049:

Leo G.4501:

Argis.7049:

If you don’t understand how a 24k AoE burst

Are you forgetting that it’s not a 24k burst? But split up into 4 attacks which each have a 1 sec activation (one of them having a longer activation than that)?

But I’m not so much speaking on the premise of 24k AoE damage but more along the topic of making that trait more useful. Whatever the damage it’d do, it could be tweeked individually so it’s not straight up doubling the damage (wouldn’t be the first trait that says one thing but affects skills individually different).

24k in 5 seconds is burst. Show me another profession that can do that kind of damage at range in that time frame and maybe I’ll change my opinion. As for your second statement, now you’re beginning to talk about trait redesign and are discussing something completely different than what the OP suggested. The OP’s suggestion was that banners be considered physical utilities so that they receive a 100% damage boost and an additional 20% CD reduction…and to that I say no.

Technically, it’s 6 seconds because Battle Standard has an activation of 2 seconds. I’m sure you can get that kind of DPS with another set-up. I mean, have you seen WvW rifle builds? 16k in a little over 2 seconds from 1500 range and can pierce multiple targets which only requires 1 specific trait for it.

I guess now you’re going to add the stipulation of “well who can do 24k in 3 seconds with only 4 utilities!?!” to which I’ll just say I give up. You can win the argument if that’s what you want.

And redesigning a trait to work differently isn’t ‘completely different’ from what the OP is bringing up since that’s exactly what the OP is about. Answer this with a yes or no and I’ll at least concede to the point of it being overpowered: Is changing Physical Training to work with other utilities besides Physical types redesigning a trait?

Just to throw a contradiction to my point of view, managing the pet is key but there’s nothing I could do in the last fight in TA (can’t remember which path, but the seed turret one, I believe).

Since everyone was ranging the boss and the seed turrets will attack the moment the pet runs in range, there’s literally nothing I could think of doing to make use of the pet. He’d either get shot down by the turrets or the boss itself would stomp the pet flat nearly before it could do anything.

But in that situation, everyone is kittened. They’re using subpar ranged damage to pretty much afk the boss anyway. At least for me, I have pretty decent ranged damage…likely not as good as others there since I wear tankish gear but it gets the job done.

Recycle.5493:

Leo G.4501:

Caudecus’s Manor? Are we talking about the same dungeon? You know, that’s pretty cake for a Ranger considering half the mobs literally don’t move. They’ll stand there not doing a kitten thing while your dog chews their kitten off.

Please tell me how you manage your pets when facing Turmaine and Wahlen, I have no problem with other bosses, but I have a hard time keeping my pets alive when facing these two.

If anything, the pet’s working double duty rezzing people, for me. That and taking my conditions for me. The best way to manage the pet, in my experience, is to keep it by your side and keep yourself alive while you range.

The better your group is about keeping themselves alive, the less you have to manage. Turmaine will be throwing around AoE fields everywhere but around himself until the pet draws its attention.

I find, when the guy gets ‘stuck’ is when your pet is boned. It’s extremely hard to keep pets by your and safe when you’re barely sitting on the edge of the AoEs. And he’ll be doing nothing but that when he’s stuck.

So that’s my advice…but then I’m a sucky ranger. I only use Romeo and Lancelot (Jag and Hound) and rarely ever switch. If you can manage a ranged pet, you’d get more mileage out of them, I’d bet. Set it up somewhere using Guard and hope your team doesn’t go that way with Turmain’s attention.

I think the other side though is, yes, pets are going to die (if you can’t swap them fast enough). Which means, you’ve got a 40+ second time frame you need to keep your other pet up otherwise you’ll be sans pet for a time.

And Wahlen is a funny fight. Not sure why, but his AoE bomb barrage seems hit or miss. Half the time my pet is perfectly fine throughout a barrage and other times they’re gone amidst the window I’m dodging. My only advice would probably be, you need to be where no one else is so when you call it back/move yourself, there’s likely no AoE in that part. Wahlen tends to bomb where there are people (some of the time) and that’s where your pet needs to not be.

Solid Gold.9310:

Those that want to drag a liability around with them will still be able to, and they can still bleat on “My pet is awesome”".

:3

Recycle.5493:

There’re dungeons like CM and Arah, or even HotW, that are way past CoF level, please don’t use CoF as a dungeon run example.

Caudecus’s Manor? Are we talking about the same dungeon? You know, that’s pretty cake for a Ranger considering half the mobs literally don’t move. They’ll stand there not doing a kitten thing while your dog chews their kitten off.

HotW? When has this ever been hard? The only thing I’m dreading as I’m leveling my Ranger is fractals. So far? It’s all cake. Yeah, pets die and spirits can’t do crap in a lot of spots, but that’s not the end of the world. Swap em out, don’t be afraid to jump into the fray and get stuff done.

Argis.7049:

If you don’t understand how a 24k AoE burst

Are you forgetting that it’s not a 24k burst? But split up into 4 attacks which each have a 1 sec activation (one of them having a longer activation than that)?

But I’m not so much speaking on the premise of 24k AoE damage but more along the topic of making that trait more useful. Whatever the damage it’d do, it could be tweeked individually so it’s not straight up doubling the damage (wouldn’t be the first trait that says one thing but affects skills individually different).

Argis.7049:

That would be overpowered as hell. Banners can already crit for 3k in an AoE when summoned. This trait would make them crit for 6k in an AoE. Drop 4 banners on a group of enemies who are already occupied in a fight and boom, you just critted for 24k per target in an AoE.

Overpowered? Wouldn’t that just make it ‘worth it’ to use that GM trait + 4 banner utilities? That means you won’t have things like endure pain or sig of stamina and stuff or any sort of stun breakers.

And let’s not forget interruptible cast time.

Redscope.6215:

If you have adrenaline you’re not using, and you don’t have traits slotted for passive benefits of adrenaline, you have to concede that you forego (or “give up”) those benefits. Its a simple fact.

And that was your point, you can build to not give up anything for using adrenaline. You could, but you’d have to be able to use your adrenaline effectively every time it reached stage 1. That’s not possible.

And how is it not possible? Most burst skills don’t increase damage per adrenal stage anyway, but you can build to get side benefits for using said skills. And no matter how you twist it, the game will always be give and take. Sit on adrenaline and never use it means you ‘give up’ the use of two viable skills; build for adrenaline benefit and only use burst at special moments means you ‘give up’ the bonuses you built for for a moment of burst; etc.

No one’s attacking the validity of saving bursts for certain moments, you just decided to defend that point on your own while straying away from the point being made which was ‘you can get a free dodge with burst skills and you have two of them and you can swap within 5 seconds for it’.

The fact that you’ve actually typed out “ppssh” nearly proves you’re not arguing facts, you’re just mad. All four attunements do indeed have 4 main purposes, but they do not work against each other at all. All fights with all classes run the gambit of every scenario. The ability of the elementalist to swap to a particular attunement in order to best fit that scenario, regardless of weapon chosen, is a perk no other class has. That’s why he’s considered the “Jack of all Trades” class…although right now he’s more like the “King of all Trades” class.

I’m not mad, I’m just not going to argue with you about what elementalist is or isn’t. All you’re trying to do is pin your inability on the mechanics of another profession either in hopes they get nerfed or for some sort of pity buff to warrior. Do. Not. Care. I’d be arguing all week with nubs doing the same thing if I bothered.

Now bring up OP mesmer and thief some more, I’m sure it’ll strengthen your point. /sarcasm

That would be a pretty fun idea, Swiftwynd.

Although seems a bit redundant with the traps which also create field effects. The only thing I’d change is making Sun Spirit a Light Field instead of a Fire Field.

Olba.5376:

Raptorious Big.5416:

OMG, what i am saying is, is that Banners should take on the physical tooltip when powerful banners is activated. Throwing Bolas is a ranged skill and so is activating a banner utility, your throwing down a banner into the ground.

That would be pretty imbalanced. For one, the banners have a duration of 95 seconds, but with a total of 40% cooldown reduction, their cooldown would be just 72 seconds, allowing for 23 seconds of having twice the effects.

Also, it would make the damage from Power Banners rather imbalanced, considering that you can put up 4 banners in a quick succession.

What are you talking about? Banner effects don’t even stack with other Warrior Banners. Two warriors using banner of strength only get the stats of 1 of those banners. Only Battle Standard stacks because it doesn’t give a unikittenfect, just boons which are stackable.

As for the OP’s suggestion (that’s pretty much what it is), I wouldn’t mind Physical Training changed to encompass all utilities (not racial or elites) that do damage. Would that really be overpowered?

But the way Santa is staring right at the camera from under the brim of that hat, it’s rather scary and disturbing.

Redscope.6215:

Leo G.4501:

In essence, you can build so that there is no reason not to use your bursts.

In that case, you’re not wasting something for the potential of something else, you’re gaining extra for what you already do normally.

Using your adrenaline ASAP is usually not the best way to go with any build. In the situations where you’re not using your adrenaline, you’re losing potential benefits for not having traited passive bonuses from adrenaline.

No matter which way you build, unless you “F1” as soon as you get 1 adrenaline bar, you’re losing something.

Leo G.4501:

And elementalists spam their attunements mindlessly, eh?

Not mindlessly, no. They do spam their non-auto-attack skills before swapping attunements, rinse, and repeat though. There’s no reason not to, by the time they cycle back to that attunement they will be off cooldown.

Eles are the only class in the game with four full sets of weapon skills. I guess Anet doesn’t understand that having the ability to cycle through 4 sets of powerful 20-40 second cooldown skills in comparison to everyone else’s 2 (sometimes only 1) may be just a little OP.

How powerful would warriors be with the ability to bring, say, Greatsword, Hammer, Axe+, and Rifle to every fight with the ability to choose between them individually?

I guess you’re trying to talk to me as if you’re some Warrior sage?

Just because there are traits for having Adrenaline doesn’t mean they are the only traits nor that you give up anything for using your skills so you really miss the point I was even trying to make.

And then you try to tell me about elementalist? Ppssh, 4 sets of powerful skills? Whatever…dismiss that those 4 sets of skills have individually different purposes so it’s not like having 2-3 Hundred Blade type of skills. Try going to the elementalists and asking exactly how their rotations work rather than figuring they have 4 sets of OP skills.

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Vigor gives you DOUBLE The endurance regeneration and your saying that is bad… ?

Who said anything about bad?

But faster weapon swaps = more adrenaline = more access to burst skills = more endurance. You can go from zero to full in 2 simple button presses and you can do this more often on Warrior…

…and if you want Vigor, there’s Warhorn. Easy Vigor for your whole team.

The only thing I’d qualify as bad is Warrior hasn’t many useful effects with their dodge…if reckless dodge had a chance of a leap and/or blast finisher, that might make them particularly better with dodge than Guardian. I’d say they’re about equal; Guardian has heal on dodge while Warrior has more on-demand dodges.

How is faster weapon switching more endurance?

It has a 9 second cool-down on the sigil.

Warriors are NOT tanky, no amount of toughness will save you.

Because faster swapping means more adrenaline on weapons swap and more access to your burst skills which can replenish your endurance by 50%. Your burst skills also have a 10sec cooldown like the sigil but you have 2 of them. That’s a potential dodge every weapon swap.

Get it? You swap weapon once: 50%. You swap again 5 seconds later and use a burst: 50%. You swap 5 seconds later: 50%. etc. etc.

With vigor ontop of that, you can dodge 1 additional time per 5 seconds, more if you actually use both burst skills and not just one. Vigor only gives you 1 dodge every 5.

“9 Second INTERNAL COOLDOWN.”

It doesn’t matter if its every 5 seconds, if you don’t wait 9 seconds between switching you won’t get endurance. Which means “Fast Hands.” does not matter at all.

Building Momentum

Each BURST skill has a 10 second cool-down…

And you have 2 of them on separate cooldowns which are divided by a 5 second weapon swap.

The reason Fast Hands is a boon to this particular tactic is because you can only store 2 dodges at a time. The sooner you can swap to the other unused burst skill, the less danger you’re in for burning 2 dodges in a row.

It sounds clunky for one reason alone, you give up your burst skills on times you may or may not need it.

Its exactly like the traits “Gain Vigor when you heal.” and or “Get Swiftness when you dodge.” You waste something precious to get a bad trade of what you may or may not need.

No, it’s just a playstyle you don’t like.

Some people build to utilize their bursts when they come up and they can often use them more than every 10 seconds. In essence, you can build so that there is no reason not to use your bursts.

In that case, you’re not wasting something for the potential of something else, you’re gaining extra for what you already do normally.

Yes, I dislike saving my Eviserate till when my enemy is about downed so I can quickly finish them before they heal, or use my Earthshaker as an interrupt to stop my enemy from doing a move or healing and stunning them.

Its not a playstyle I enjoy, I much rather use my burst skills to actually help me actively instead of just spamming them mindlessly.

Thanks for admitting you don’t understand that mode of play. That’s all you really had to do.

Yeah, I don’t understand how people could save there skills when they needed to use them instead of spamming them mindlessly.

And elementalists spam their attunements mindlessly, eh?

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Vigor gives you DOUBLE The endurance regeneration and your saying that is bad… ?

Who said anything about bad?

But faster weapon swaps = more adrenaline = more access to burst skills = more endurance. You can go from zero to full in 2 simple button presses and you can do this more often on Warrior…

…and if you want Vigor, there’s Warhorn. Easy Vigor for your whole team.

The only thing I’d qualify as bad is Warrior hasn’t many useful effects with their dodge…if reckless dodge had a chance of a leap and/or blast finisher, that might make them particularly better with dodge than Guardian. I’d say they’re about equal; Guardian has heal on dodge while Warrior has more on-demand dodges.

How is faster weapon switching more endurance?

It has a 9 second cool-down on the sigil.

Warriors are NOT tanky, no amount of toughness will save you.

Because faster swapping means more adrenaline on weapons swap and more access to your burst skills which can replenish your endurance by 50%. Your burst skills also have a 10sec cooldown like the sigil but you have 2 of them. That’s a potential dodge every weapon swap.

Get it? You swap weapon once: 50%. You swap again 5 seconds later and use a burst: 50%. You swap 5 seconds later: 50%. etc. etc.

With vigor ontop of that, you can dodge 1 additional time per 5 seconds, more if you actually use both burst skills and not just one. Vigor only gives you 1 dodge every 5.

“9 Second INTERNAL COOLDOWN.”

It doesn’t matter if its every 5 seconds, if you don’t wait 9 seconds between switching you won’t get endurance. Which means “Fast Hands.” does not matter at all.

Building Momentum

Each BURST skill has a 10 second cool-down…

And you have 2 of them on separate cooldowns which are divided by a 5 second weapon swap.

The reason Fast Hands is a boon to this particular tactic is because you can only store 2 dodges at a time. The sooner you can swap to the other unused burst skill, the less danger you’re in for burning 2 dodges in a row.

It sounds clunky for one reason alone, you give up your burst skills on times you may or may not need it.

Its exactly like the traits “Gain Vigor when you heal.” and or “Get Swiftness when you dodge.” You waste something precious to get a bad trade of what you may or may not need.

No, it’s just a playstyle you don’t like.

Some people build to utilize their bursts when they come up and they can often use them more than every 10 seconds. In essence, you can build so that there is no reason not to use your bursts.

In that case, you’re not wasting something for the potential of something else, you’re gaining extra for what you already do normally.

Yes, I dislike saving my Eviserate till when my enemy is about downed so I can quickly finish them before they heal, or use my Earthshaker as an interrupt to stop my enemy from doing a move or healing and stunning them.

Its not a playstyle I enjoy, I much rather use my burst skills to actually help me actively instead of just spamming them mindlessly.

Thanks for admitting you don’t understand that mode of play. That’s all you really had to do.

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Vigor gives you DOUBLE The endurance regeneration and your saying that is bad… ?

Who said anything about bad?

But faster weapon swaps = more adrenaline = more access to burst skills = more endurance. You can go from zero to full in 2 simple button presses and you can do this more often on Warrior…

…and if you want Vigor, there’s Warhorn. Easy Vigor for your whole team.

The only thing I’d qualify as bad is Warrior hasn’t many useful effects with their dodge…if reckless dodge had a chance of a leap and/or blast finisher, that might make them particularly better with dodge than Guardian. I’d say they’re about equal; Guardian has heal on dodge while Warrior has more on-demand dodges.

How is faster weapon switching more endurance?

It has a 9 second cool-down on the sigil.

Warriors are NOT tanky, no amount of toughness will save you.

Because faster swapping means more adrenaline on weapons swap and more access to your burst skills which can replenish your endurance by 50%. Your burst skills also have a 10sec cooldown like the sigil but you have 2 of them. That’s a potential dodge every weapon swap.

Get it? You swap weapon once: 50%. You swap again 5 seconds later and use a burst: 50%. You swap 5 seconds later: 50%. etc. etc.

With vigor ontop of that, you can dodge 1 additional time per 5 seconds, more if you actually use both burst skills and not just one. Vigor only gives you 1 dodge every 5.

“9 Second INTERNAL COOLDOWN.”

It doesn’t matter if its every 5 seconds, if you don’t wait 9 seconds between switching you won’t get endurance. Which means “Fast Hands.” does not matter at all.

Building Momentum

Each BURST skill has a 10 second cool-down…

And you have 2 of them on separate cooldowns which are divided by a 5 second weapon swap.

The reason Fast Hands is a boon to this particular tactic is because you can only store 2 dodges at a time. The sooner you can swap to the other unused burst skill, the less danger you’re in for burning 2 dodges in a row.

It sounds clunky for one reason alone, you give up your burst skills on times you may or may not need it.

Its exactly like the traits “Gain Vigor when you heal.” and or “Get Swiftness when you dodge.” You waste something precious to get a bad trade of what you may or may not need.

No, it’s just a playstyle you don’t like.

Some people build to utilize their bursts when they come up and they can often use them more than every 10 seconds. In essence, you can build so that there is no reason not to use your bursts.

In that case, you’re not wasting something for the potential of something else, you’re gaining extra for what you already do normally.

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Vigor gives you DOUBLE The endurance regeneration and your saying that is bad… ?

Who said anything about bad?

But faster weapon swaps = more adrenaline = more access to burst skills = more endurance. You can go from zero to full in 2 simple button presses and you can do this more often on Warrior…

…and if you want Vigor, there’s Warhorn. Easy Vigor for your whole team.

The only thing I’d qualify as bad is Warrior hasn’t many useful effects with their dodge…if reckless dodge had a chance of a leap and/or blast finisher, that might make them particularly better with dodge than Guardian. I’d say they’re about equal; Guardian has heal on dodge while Warrior has more on-demand dodges.

How is faster weapon switching more endurance?

It has a 9 second cool-down on the sigil.

Warriors are NOT tanky, no amount of toughness will save you.

Because faster swapping means more adrenaline on weapons swap and more access to your burst skills which can replenish your endurance by 50%. Your burst skills also have a 10sec cooldown like the sigil but you have 2 of them. That’s a potential dodge every weapon swap.

Get it? You swap weapon once: 50%. You swap again 5 seconds later and use a burst: 50%. You swap 5 seconds later: 50%. etc. etc.

With vigor ontop of that, you can dodge 1 additional time per 5 seconds, more if you actually use both burst skills and not just one. Vigor only gives you 1 dodge every 5.

“9 Second INTERNAL COOLDOWN.”

It doesn’t matter if its every 5 seconds, if you don’t wait 9 seconds between switching you won’t get endurance. Which means “Fast Hands.” does not matter at all.

Building Momentum

Each BURST skill has a 10 second cool-down…

And you have 2 of them on separate cooldowns which are divided by a 5 second weapon swap.

The reason Fast Hands is a boon to this particular tactic is because you can only store 2 dodges at a time. The sooner you can swap to the other unused burst skill, the less danger you’re in for burning 2 dodges in a row.

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Vigor gives you DOUBLE The endurance regeneration and your saying that is bad… ?

Who said anything about bad?

But faster weapon swaps = more adrenaline = more access to burst skills = more endurance. You can go from zero to full in 2 simple button presses and you can do this more often on Warrior…

…and if you want Vigor, there’s Warhorn. Easy Vigor for your whole team.

The only thing I’d qualify as bad is Warrior hasn’t many useful effects with their dodge…if reckless dodge had a chance of a leap and/or blast finisher, that might make them particularly better with dodge than Guardian. I’d say they’re about equal; Guardian has heal on dodge while Warrior has more on-demand dodges.

How is faster weapon switching more endurance?

It has a 9 second cool-down on the sigil.

Warriors are NOT tanky, no amount of toughness will save you.

Because faster swapping means more adrenaline on weapons swap and more access to your burst skills which can replenish your endurance by 50%. Your burst skills also have a 10sec cooldown like the sigil but you have 2 of them. That’s a potential dodge every weapon swap.

Get it? You swap weapon once: 50%. You swap again 5 seconds later and use a burst: 50%. You swap 5 seconds later: 50%. etc. etc.

With vigor ontop of that, you can dodge 1 additional time per 5 seconds, more if you actually use both burst skills and not just one. Vigor only gives you 1 dodge every 5.

“9 Second INTERNAL COOLDOWN.”

It doesn’t matter if its every 5 seconds, if you don’t wait 9 seconds between switching you won’t get endurance. Which means “Fast Hands.” does not matter at all.

Building Momentum

Daecollo.9578:

Leo G.4501:

Daecollo.9578:

Vigor gives you DOUBLE The endurance regeneration and your saying that is bad… ?

Who said anything about bad?

But faster weapon swaps = more adrenaline = more access to burst skills = more endurance. You can go from zero to full in 2 simple button presses and you can do this more often on Warrior…

…and if you want Vigor, there’s Warhorn. Easy Vigor for your whole team.

The only thing I’d qualify as bad is Warrior hasn’t many useful effects with their dodge…if reckless dodge had a chance of a leap and/or blast finisher, that might make them particularly better with dodge than Guardian. I’d say they’re about equal; Guardian has heal on dodge while Warrior has more on-demand dodges.

How is faster weapon switching more endurance?

It has a 9 second cool-down on the sigil.

Warriors are NOT tanky, no amount of toughness will save you.

Because faster swapping means more adrenaline on weapons swap and more access to your burst skills which can replenish your endurance by 50%. Your burst skills also have a 10sec cooldown like the sigil but you have 2 of them. That’s a potential dodge every weapon swap.

Get it? You swap weapon once: 50%. You swap again 5 seconds later and use a burst: 50%. You swap 5 seconds later: 50%. etc. etc.

With vigor ontop of that, you can dodge 1 additional time per 5 seconds, more if you actually use both burst skills and not just one. Vigor only gives you 1 dodge every 5.

I’d agree that that suggestion works nicely. As for a specific ‘hard mode’, I feel that would only qualify on dungeons. It feels inevitable the devs will eventually concoct a hard mode for instance content, specifically with mobs using updated movesets.

Which is why I think the other idea would be better for other content. You can’t put the open world into hard mode without making it an instance and dividing the players into them. Simply adjusting your effective level works too.

You’d still want to fiddle with your traits, gear and what not, but at least there wouldn’t be a rush to do so. The content will always pose a challenge so you can put your adventures on hold to get some tokens on the way to 80.

Daecollo.9578:

Vigor gives you DOUBLE The endurance regeneration and your saying that is bad… ?

Who said anything about bad?

But faster weapon swaps = more adrenaline = more access to burst skills = more endurance. You can go from zero to full in 2 simple button presses and you can do this more often on Warrior…

…and if you want Vigor, there’s Warhorn. Easy Vigor for your whole team.

The only thing I’d qualify as bad is Warrior hasn’t many useful effects with their dodge…if reckless dodge had a chance of a leap and/or blast finisher, that might make them particularly better with dodge than Guardian. I’d say they’re about equal; Guardian has heal on dodge while Warrior has more on-demand dodges.

Dustfinger.9510:

Foes 2 levels above you can do glancing blows but foes lower level have a chance for glancing blows? or you mean foes below your level don’t have a chance for glancing blows?

Foes more than 2 levels above you = a chance your attacks will be glancing and that chance goes up if you are Weakened. Foes will only score glancing blows on you if they are Weakened.

Foes below your level = a chance their attacks will be glancing. Your attacks will never be glancing unless you are weakened.

[EDIT] Also, at a certain point (I think it’s more than 8 levels above you) foes will be immune to your conditions.

And I agreed with that proposal. It definitely would be an appealing option for PvE content.

The only reward I’d try to tie to it is perhaps accomplishments…maybe even an extra category in the monthlies that granted an additional 5 laurels a month or maybe just extra karma…or just a title you can gain for doing certain things while in such settings.

Dristig.9678:

Actually we do. (I play a Guardian) we can have 100% vigor up time pretty easily.

Vigor is an option yes, but Fast Hands + Sigil of Energy…coupled with vigor and other traits is greater than Vigor alone.

Dustfinger.9510:

Can OP accomplish all of this by wearing lower level gear?

Not really.

For a simple example: fighting a foe more than 2 levels above you, there is a chance a non-critical blow will be glancing and do half damage (I think it was like a 20% chance but I only heard about that in passing) and foes lower level than you have a chance to score glancing blows against you.

Astral Projections.7320:

For goodness sakes, how could it tell how it works in this game when this game doesn’t have it, just as your suggestion is not in this game either. It’s a link to show you how it worked in the other game to build on as a frame work.

And I’m asking you to build on it since I cannot.

Why do you think I opened with a suggestion I knew of and translated it to GW2? That’s how suggestions work. You propose something by describing its function/implementation.

I guarantee that going against level 40 bosses with new elite skills and faster attack speeds when you were only level 20 (which was max level in Guild Wars 1) made a VERY tangible difference. Far more than what you are currently suggesting.

Again, none of this applies to GW2. You can’t face foes 20 levels above you in this game and win unless there are many to help. Having all attacks fire off twice as fast and move at swiftness speed doesn’t translate well either since, in this game, movement and dodge are your defense. Could you dodge in GW1? Is that how you survived in that game?

So I ask to describe how hard mode would work in GW2 PvE, because pointing to a mode in another game isn’t very useful.

Why do you think I didn’t ask for content scaling like in City of Heroes? Because it wouldn’t make sense to go to an NPC that would then just make all the enemy’s levels scale how you want and how many you face when you enter an instance since all of that is locked by the instance zone and area. Also, you can’t fine scale zone events harder without scaling the whole zone or affecting those in the immediate area.

Was GW1 hard mode relevant to the open world content? Actually, I heard GW1 is mostly instances, so ‘hard mode’ would need to be described in terms of GW2 otherwise it’s irrelevant.

Astral Projections.7320:

Emphasis added.
I read this and read it as turning off leveling. I don’t see how you can turn off experience without turning off leveling. Leveling is thru gaining experience.

Well the first part is describing the system in City of Heroes. There was an option in the menu that stopped you from gaining experience points. It also had the option to shut off experience gain just while you were exemplaring so when you did content below you, you didn’t get experience points but content your level or above still gave experience points.

It was an important feature because in CoH, you could literally outlevel content and your contacts wouldn’t give you missions anymore but guide you to a higher level contact instead.

You don’t have to worry about that in GW2 though as your level is scaled down to the content automatically…but the huge difference is that CoH let you literally control the difficulty of your content. You could scale your missions up to 8 levels above you AND you could scale it by the number of team mates even if you had no team.

[EDIT] Also, turning off leveling without turning off experience is already in the game. Once you get to level 80, leveling is turned off but you still gain experience. So the mechanics are there (to manually cap your level at a point).

As for hard mode “just being a concept” that no one has described how it worked, I sent you a link. Here it is again since you seem to have missed it. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hard_mode

That’s for GW1. GW2 isn’t GW1. None of what is described translates to GW2 mechanics. It just says ‘mobs hit harder, have more HP and use different AI’ but it says nothing about how dynamic events, rewards, progression or grouping would work in this game.

You’re describing some arbitrary mode advertised as ‘hard mode’ and I’m describing a tangible difficulty you can feel now by picking up a mid-level alt and going against foes 5-10 levels above you. When mobs go past 6 levels above you, all your attacks are glancing blows, and at some point, conditions don’t work. Down is nearly death and you have to be careful of your surroundings. That already is hard mode, so why introduce a mode that exists but only for a limited time?

Astral Projections.7320:

I can’t see them rewriting the AI or giving new skills since there would be a mix of normal mode and hard mode players. The only thing I can see them doing is an option for making the down leveling harsher. Now you are down leveled to max area level plus one. So….. maybe max area level minus 5?

Yeah, I’m not asking for anything specific. I just finally realized why I get bored with open world exploring and it’s usually because, while doing a zone, it gets so easy that caves and enemy camps aren’t dangerous anymore and the only way to make it ‘hard’ is to throw more mobs at me, which is nice, but limiting when you’re playing a profession that doesn’t excel in AoE effects.

So being able to stop level gains, a mode to scale the difficulty of encounters in some way, or being able to control your own effective level…it’s all the same to me. Whichever works best.

Astral Projections.7320:

I could see them putting in a Hard Mode, where you are down scaled far more harshly than now. I can’t see them removing leveling.

No one said anything about removing leveling. This is about playing content at a specific difficulty which doesn’t imply removing anything but giving the option to do something else.

As for Hard Mode, I’d like to hear how one would translate it to this game’s content and how one would handle certain things:
-Rewards
-Zone instances and technical limitations
-Zone events
-The mobs themselves and the mechanics of levels

As it stands, a ‘hard mode’ is just a concept. No one has described how it’d even work. But I hope it can be done versus just scaling content to have more champions and to add cheap skills that mobs can spam like the new Krait and Undead have (not to mention, such changes seem game-wide as changing these things changed Krait and Undead across all modes including Story mode).

My suggestion is to simply create an option to halt level progression while you do tasks. This comes with several positives:
-No new content has to be rewritten
-No new abilities have to be added
-Uses current difficulty algorithms such as damage/armor scales, glancing blows and condition durations
-You can choose how difficult you want the content by moving and staying in specific level ranges (if 8lvls above is too tough for you, go to another part of the map and face foes 5lvls above instead)

That all said, I’d enjoy changes to certain enemy factions to make them scale harder in some fashion, but not as a game-wide change.

I find each forum area is like an island. And the hardcore players of that profession seem to be blind to the other sections.

Warriors constantly complain about not being viable in PvP, having no means of escapes and being crushed by certain profession builds, all the while other professions acknowledging that a Warrior can soundly crush them unless they are a bunker or keep them at bay.

Elementalists are content with PvE but perhaps grumpy that they feel daggers are the only viable weapon for damage. It’s generally the same in PvP but for different reasons and they even look forward to the changes in meta to make their other weapons more capable against other players. That said, they are actually self aware of how they fit within the professions, not being very damage oriented like a War or Thf, leaning on the supportive side like Guard.

Rangers are a conundrum I’ve been interested in so finally rolled one myself. Everyone knows that Rangers have a stigma in PvE and their answer to it is to perpetuate it. Pets die because they are weak and stupid, not because you left them in a situation to die. Spirits are weak because they die and have weak effects, not because they don’t understand how they are applied. Their perpetuate that stigma to PvP where it doesn’t seem true. Apparently, Rangers aren’t very good there despite having heard the opposite…and it all feels like it’s because their name is ‘Ranger’ so they should be viable at range and dismiss the utility of the pet….most of that is my opinion though, but in summary: they feel they aren’t in a good position in the game as a whole (even PvP) and choose to reaffirm that in hopes of getting a hotfix rather than trying to work with what they have now. This might be changing but I’m more an observer in that forum (and in Mesmer).

Ayrilana.1396:

Would you run story mode again on a character that you have already completed?

Yes.

Wuffles.5319:

D:

That’s just creepy…

I think it was translated to say “Princess Miya is not Moto in a wig and dress” which just seems pretty specific and sounds more like a cover-up.

But I think you’re right, it’s probably propaganda to mislead us!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/sab/Moto-Princess-In-Game-Text/first#post1749073

Opinions are opinions.

Feels like I’d be asking a lot more to introduce a whole extra mode to the game that requires coding all enemies, encounters and tackling a new means of level progression versus asking to be able to stay at level 55 while I explore Fireheart Rise and do Twilight Arbor.

But I guess the logic is “If it’s in GW1 then it can be in GW2”. There are big differences though. GW2 has 60 more levels than GW1, nor was it as easy to gain levels in GW1 (afaik).

So would hard mode have to shut down level progression for exploration/vista exp? Crafting? You can complete heart quests without even engaging enemies. There’d be quite a few issues to tackle with implementing a hard mode and its rewards other than the pure concept of it.

But I’m all ears on how it’d work. I never played GW1 so can’t really comment how to translate that to this game.

Neb.4170:

Leo G.4501:

Neb.4170:

Chopps.5047:

Any of you guys make team use of ranger combo fields in dungeons? Why or why not?

Why would you bring a ranger for combo fields? An ele would do it so much better.

Not going to lie but, elementalist water fields are crap, pure and simple.

Neither have horrible radii and one is on a decent cooldown of 20 or less seconds…but you can’t effectively combo on a water combo field that last 2 seconds and the other last 6 seconds but has a cooldown of 48 or more seconds.

A.) You’re likely going to have the field covered in a curial moment by other fields.
B.) Only superior coordination will make effective use of it.

You’re better off trying to combo off an engi’s regen turret. Sure, the elementalist themselves can time their own combos in the field, but good luck popping 2+ combos off them with your team, which is what makes water fields good.

Also, I’m enjoying Ranger ice fields more than elementalist for several reasons:
A.) to get ice field for elementalist, you HAVE to use staff whereas you can just plop one into your utility bar for Ranger.
B.) you get it more often and it’s near instant. I use it in conjunction with GS swoop in close for an extra 10% damage redux along with my hound.

If you run scepter or dagger on elementalist, what combo fields? Fire? That it?

The context is dungeon runs. The most beneficial combo field in dungeon runs are fire fields. The best supplier of fire fields are elementalists, who while bringing said fire fields, also bring their own blast finishers. They also can stack a crap ton of boons on the entire party. Fury, Swiftness, Regen, etc.

Water fields are far from necessary in dungeons, yet you seem to be fixated on them.

The best supplier of fire fields is Warrior…but I’d hardly say fire fields are the most beneficial because might is the most common boon in the game. Bringing in a field to finish off the last 5 stacks of team might hardly qualifies it as most beneficial.

Elementalist fire fields with anything but dagger off-hand is small or short-lived and with that combo, you’re not going to have any other fields besides that (and Ice fields have gotten a large improvement since blasts give everyone 5 seconds of -10% damage which stacks with protection).

And I’m not fixated on water fields. What I’m fixated on is how high a pedestal you’re placing elementalist on in groups. Yes they can stack lots of boons for a group…but likely they won’t be doing much damage in the process (talking generally/on average and high level fractals (40 and above) is the minority). I tend to run a non-supporty damage elementalist with CC as my priority and don’t have room to waste on monk/water runes for boon duration or duration from food or aura sharing. I can do decent damage with good personal survival but boons outside of blasting fire fields are minimal.

I played the supporty elementalist in regular dungeons for quite a while which I could keep up a lot of boons, but damage wasn’t even close to what I can do with the current build. It’s a variation on the arcane lightning build with arcane skills for guaranteed crits and the improved sigil of intelligence.

No class is going to do it all. There will be trade-offs for having specific build options.

FateOmega.9601:

Easy just level to 80 and you will be stuck there forever.

LeoG: I’d like to play the content 5 or more levels above me.

FateOmega: Easy, just don’t.

LeoG: …

Omne.4603:

Why add a function that has essentially already been accounted for? ie scaling

I guess I’d better update the OP since no one is actually reading.

swiftpaw.6397:

Not really. These skills are beneficial to the whole party and some instances will make or break a team. As an example fotm 40+ Shaman fight at the end is sure alot easier with these skills than without, and if you have a poor team, without these skills they will never complete it. 6 seconds of invulnerability for your ranger is rather trivial in a group dungeon given that your ranger isnt doing much contribution vs other classes and should really switch that skill out for something more group focused to be beneficial.

I’d say everyone should expect a nerf to reflection at some point in the future if not just the specific mass reflection skills.

Neb.4170:

Chopps.5047:

Any of you guys make team use of ranger combo fields in dungeons? Why or why not?

Why would you bring a ranger for combo fields? An ele would do it so much better.

Not going to lie but, elementalist water fields are crap, pure and simple.

Neither have horrible radii and one is on a decent cooldown of 20 or less seconds…but you can’t effectively combo on a water combo field that last 2 seconds and the other last 6 seconds but has a cooldown of 48 or more seconds.

A.) You’re likely going to have the field covered in a curial moment by other fields.
B.) Only superior coordination will make effective use of it.

You’re better off trying to combo off an engi’s regen turret. Sure, the elementalist themselves can time their own combos in the field, but good luck popping 2+ combos off them with your team, which is what makes water fields good.

Also, I’m enjoying Ranger ice fields more than elementalist for several reasons:
A.) to get ice field for elementalist, you HAVE to use staff whereas you can just plop one into your utility bar for Ranger.
B.) you get it more often and it’s near instant. I use it in conjunction with GS swoop in close for an extra 10% damage redux along with my hound.

If you run scepter or dagger on elementalist, what combo fields? Fire? That it?

swiftpaw.6397:

jkctmc.8754:

Both of them are people I’ve had to pay.

Exarthious can literally kill in seconds like he claims on the Thief, and LadyLad is stupid hard to kill on the Necromancer.

I killed Exarthious’s Warrior though. <nudge>

kitten, I’m gonna try this now. Probably not possible but kitten gotta be in it to win it.

Wow, 1000g? My Ranger is still only lvl 59 T_T

Hmm, if you beat me to posting a lupi solo vid, but I still make one, think you can throw me a pity 20g?

Sebrent.3625:

Lol?! An elite, that can be killed, versus the various utilities other classes have that can do the same? Look at Elementalist’s Glyph of Renewal.

OMG, this guy brought up Glyph of Renewal!?

Lolz, and using it as a self rez at that. If you can manage to use a 4 sec cast 160+ sec cooldown utiltity to be self rezzed within the 15 sec it’s up, you could have use a 90sec max cantrip to save you from being downed in the first place.

But it’s boring.

It’s the same 9 instances over and over 40+ times. I got to around lvl32 before I just stopped and rolled other stuff.

Not only that, but people become more arrogant, needy and all around more unpleasant the higher you go. Some groups are cool, but other groups are elitist more often.

But this isn’t about me being inflexible. I’m not saying I don’t do higher level fractals, or that I don’t push into higher zones as I level or that I exclude myself from any PvE content. I will do it all, so telling me I should do this or that is preaching to the choir because I already do.

I’m suggesting something new because it’d make more content more appealing for longer.

I don’t get it.

When I first saw it, I thought it was suppose to be a joke or easter egg of some kind.

But Lancelot does not joke. He’s a serious hound with a serious name on srS bsNs.

Astral Projections.7320:

Ah, I see what you mean now. Well, the only way at this time is to continually go to higher zones, which something you don’t want to do? Ummm, use only starter armor and weapons? At this point, that may be as good as its going to get. Don’t assign trait or skill points, go with low level or no armor and use only low level weapons. I’m afraid it’s not realistic to think the Devs will do a rewrite of the code for what you want when only a few people are asking for it. :-)

The thing is, even the game suggest if you want more challenge, face higher level opponents. This, however, won’t always be the case since you’ll outlevel everything without even trying. Also, it’s punishing in that going for map completion will throw a gear into that challenge due to everything pushing you past the level of the content.

Also, not assigning traits seems like faulty advice considering those traits are things you’re meant to learn. How can I learn a profession properly if I’m not assigning, experiencing and testing the different traits I’m to obtain? This leads to people not knowing how their profession works when, in essence, PvE is meant to help be a learning aid for the various aspects of the game.

But work arounds are work arounds. I don’t expect other players to play like me but then you shouldn’t angle your disagreement by talking down to a perfectly viable idea. The amount of work involved is an unknown so you have no idea if code has to be rewritten or if it’s as simple as adding a radial button in the options menu.

Let’s put things in perspective though: The game is advertised as playing how you want. Of course, that’s within the boundaries of the game:

-The game doesn’t want you to shoot to level 80 then obliterate all lower content…that’s why downscaling is present without option.
-The game wants you to be able to do specific content regardless of level…that’s why upscaling is present.
-The game has content that does not scale your level and suggests you chose your challenge with respect to your level…but the option is fleeting.

Now are you just disagreeing because you yourself fit more in the downscaling portion? Or do you honestly feel the last option does not need support? IMO, I just feel it’s an oversight that content can be surpassed so easily. An option to halt level progression in PvE so that you can face harder content should be something supported…

Or would you rather the devs aim to make hard content harder (Dungeons)? I like my idea because it puts the level of challenge back in your hands without discouraging you to do proper things like wearing proper gear and using your traits.

Well in the title I asked to turn exp off but in the OP I also suggest maybe just levels.

That is to say, an option where you can still earn exp and even skill points but your actual level doesn’t change. An option to manually alter my effective level is the same thing.

Probably one reason I haven’t gotten map completion on any of my characters is because how bloody boring it is when mobs pose absolutely no threat except in overwhelming numbers and yet I have a BLAST actually leveling up a character through the content.