I’d like Call of the Wild to add a blind, since it’s very easy to avoid adding something else to spice it up would make OH horn more appealing to take then just for run buff zergs.
Path of Scarn – OH Axe – Needs something else. Anything. Again, as a direct damage ability it’s boring and easily avoidable. Adding a control condition like a knock down or knock forward (on the path back) would make it more appealing and add some much needed control to the Ranger’s quiver.
Pet moving behind the target in PvE is actually worse on some boss fights that do PBAoE attacks…when I recall the pet he just has that much further to walk back to me before he gets blasted.
All in all, it’s a huge step in the right direction but not a cure all.
I agree..the bond should be on the master and not the pet allowing for pet swaps and water pets to benefit
Most power axe builds will switch to DS when they need ranged. That’s what I do anyway,,,
I would love it if spectral armor gave us stability but cant see that happening.
This is exactly where I would put it. SA is already an underused utility (given the long cooldown) puting stability there would make it very nice for any tanky or bunker build.
Just avoid farm groups or elitist groups like the one you were in. Use gw2.lfg.com and avoid any group that says they want to farm, or say you have to be this or that class, or full zerker or ping gear.
The fact is CoF is one of the easiest dungeons, and path 1 is probably one of the easiest paths and anyone, ANYONE, that says you have to have x, y or z in order to finish CoF path 1 (not farm it) does not understand the game and is probably bad.
Farming runs are different, and there is some madness that compells people to run the same dungeon path over and over and over again for a few extra coins. I find I make more money when I do different dungeons and different paths. I probably make more money because I’m actually having fun and doing the runs. After 2 CoFs, I’m pretty much at the end of my line.
HotW and SE path 1 each is quick, easy and readily done with pugs. Use gw2lfg.com and you can get full rabid gear in a weekend. Also, as others have said you can get rings, necklace and accessories for karma at the dwayna temple. Buy yellow versions for a few silver in the mean time and rabid crest go for under 5s through the TP.
Weapons are a little more expensive and harder to get. If you don’t want to grind dungeons for them, I found that by the time I had enough tokens to buy a few rabid armor pieces I also accumulated enough gold to buy a staff or sceptre from the TP. The dagger I think was under 6g when I bought it.
This guy has a great guide for we condi mancers and tells you where to get the gear:
I’ve been a condi necro from the start, and I reluctantly agre that the los epidemic change was needed. However, to off set the many changes to the skill, I am in favor of a small reduction to cast time. The cooldown is already suitable and should be changed one way or the other, but a cast time reduction would be welcome.
I like written guides to suplement my video guides so I can have a quick reference when I’m switching builds around or need to crunch numbers. If there’s a way to add some written guides to your site, I would probably leave them open during my play sessions.
OK.. my math could be way off, but….
OK.. my math could be way off, but….With 5 points in spite 5% duration, that’s enough, with the 20% bleed duration and 33% scepter bleed duration traits, to get across a threshold for getting those extra ticks for scepter and mark of blood.
OK.. my math could be way off, but….With 5 points in spite 5% duration, that’s enough, with the 20% bleed duration and 33% scepter bleed duration traits, to get across a threshold for getting those extra ticks for scepter and mark of blood.I forget the actual math on it all…
OK.. my math could be way off, but….With 5 points in spite 5% duration, that’s enough, with the 20% bleed duration and 33% scepter bleed duration traits, to get across a threshold for getting those extra ticks for scepter and mark of blood.I forget the actual math on it all…so I go 5-30-25-10-0
OK.. my math could be way off, but….With 5 points in spite 5% duration, that’s enough, with the 20% bleed duration and 33% scepter bleed duration traits, to get across a threshold for getting those extra ticks for scepter and mark of blood.I forget the actual math on it all…so I go 5-30-25-10-0It works for me, I could be wrong.
Ok, this works for me too. I kind of want to go 10 into spite to get might on life blast for the periods of time on boss fights when I’m at 25 bleed stacks. Pop into DS for fury, pop off a few life blasts to get a few stacks of might then stack my bleeds again.
Even with 10 into Spite I’m well over 1875 toughness and the 1600 condition damage mark.
I still use my ranger in open world PvE if I need to farm bloods or something, otherwise I have not found a fun gameplay for them. I don’t like them in WvW because the pets die so quickly, I don’t like them in PvE dungeons or fractals because the pet dies too easily and I don’t like them in sPvP because I like to help the team and I can’t do that as a ranger.
Good video, had it on audio while I was doing my tournies yesterday. Good info but I tend to like written guides like Lopez’ condionmancer guides. Makes it easier to get to the info when I want it. Perhaps transcribing or consolodating the guides into a written format down the road is a project someone can take on.
I use a 30/30/10 100% condition duration build for WvW with rabid gear and some giver weapons. Works well enough but I run pain inverter which you may not have (100% duration – 10s of 3stack confusion).
Does Close to Death work on condition damage?- it’s the grandmaster trait in Spite.
I see a lot of folks running around as minion master builds. If you are just looking to level to 80 it seems like an easy way to go.
Max death magic, get minion and staff traits and throw the rest into a trait line of your choice depending on what you want to do. Curses if you want to do condition damage or spite if you want to do more direct damage yourself or blood magic if you want to tank right up front with your minions.
I played a Ranger in beta and played him up until about 2 months ago. I finally gave up on him when I would frequently be turned down in pugs because the class didn’t bring much to the table. And frequently being forced to run with a dead pet in high level fractals was the breaking point for me.
I played a warrior and a thief up to 80 but didn’t really like it that much. Then I made a charr just to complete parts of their story, made a necro and fell in love with them. I admt that necro was the LAST class I wanted to play but their utility, their AoE, the look and feel of their spells and DS all matched a play style I’ve been looking for all along. I like the Necro so much I leveled my charr to 80 and since I wanted my main to be a necro and didn’t care for the charr I remade him into a human and started all over again. I couldn’t be happier.
Many naysayers claim the class is broken but I think we are sitting pretty good if you follow any of the popular builds that are out there. I’ve done damage, tanky hybrid and condition and have had gobs of fun with them all.
Yeah that’s how I’ve always felt with Death Magic that I had a ton of points going into a line that didn’t give me much but added toughness, which gave me more condition damage because of my runes of undead. Now that my condition is high enough I feel like I can expand the build a bit into spite and give me a little more direct damage, but still give me the survivability of the rabid set.
This build is what I’m thinking:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYWjMap7tbKb8bKCpCPbqQ2gU8edF9gYBLZA;TkAqmMNJay2krJZTrKGVMXA
So Does the trait “Close to Death” effect Condition damage? I could easily lose the Blood magic points and go a full 30 into Spite if that trait helped conditions
(edited by Lobo.1296)
You’d need to get a mainhand axe or dagger to make a hybrid build work. You’d also need to trade out some of your Rabid gear for Carrion (which still has condition damage as primary). There’s no point in going power if you don’t use a weapon that can take advantage of it, and there’s no point in taking a power weapon if you don’t have that much extra power.
Check out the “Facemelter” link in my sig for my approach to a hybrid build.
I think you misunderstood (my fault I’m sure since i’m not articulating well)
I want to stay rabid conditionmancer (I tried hybrid and don’t like it so much) but now that I am well past the 1600 condition damage mark, should I drop some of the points in death magic and go into spite for extra condi duration and power and some good traits?
Is there any thought on the benefits of doing this or just staying as a 0/30/30/10/0 condionmancer.
It’s quieter. So I like it better…the Meeeeoooorrrrrr sound gets really old and this one seems a little more quiet.
So I’ve been a condi build for most of my time in GW2. I’ve tried a power build and a tanky power build and I’m now trying out a hybrid.
I keep going back to the condimancer though. I’m pretty much Lopez’ conditionmancer with a few skill changes and I’ve been able to do most content and feel comfortable. Got my dungeon master achiev and I’m mid 20s fractals.
Now that my gear is pretty much where I’m at. With ascended gear and full undead runes and traits my condition damage is well over 1600.
Now my question is: is it worth it to not trait into death magic and start going into spite for more condition duration and some power (and a couple nice traits along the way).
I found that I liked being able to spike a bit with hybrid and still maintain decent bleeds on my own but did not like the squishiness of the all out hybrid. Also, I’ve got all this Rabid gear so i’d rather stick with a rabid play style.
So I’m looking for some convincing to stay the course or if there is any merit at all into branching out into other trait trees as long as I maintain 1600 condi damage.
Yup, not bad, but the long cooldown kind of stinks.
Or make it so spirits are invulnerable and make their passives and abilities weaker.
They need to do something for AoE. I think a strait up damage passive damage mitigation to AoE or an avoidance mechanic like a dodge on a short timer so they can automatically avoid a spike attack and give the ranger enough time to recall the pet.
Also: Agony Resist. Seriously.
I can live with the ranger now as it is, the traits could use some cleaning, the utilities can use a balance pass, and some of the weapons could probably use an update. As they are now though, they can function.
Except the pet. I would be fine with everything as it is now, except the pet. Now that I’m doing higher level Fractals, the pet issue is becoming so sorely obvious that it’s frusterating me into playing alts.
Pet have to have some kind of agony resist. They have to have some type of built in AI that will help them avoid, absorb and mitigate high damage AoE attacks that are unavoidable and they have to recall as soon as I call them.
Even a small AoE damage reduction would go a long way for pets.
A small timed ability that acts like a pet dodge to avoid spike damage
Agony resist at the Ranger’s agony resist
That’s what I would do and I would be fine with the ranger.
I wasn’t trying to be debbie downer, I love the class. It has some things working for it, but I think it’s somewhat disingenious to say that the Ranger is ok. We need to keep voicing the issues they have or we’re not going to see changes.
Having said all that, I like the Ranger. We have the most potential out of all of the classes.
A few points into BM go a long way. If you are leveling up, do 10 points into BM and get Master’s Bond. Makes even DPS pets tanky.
Leveling the ranger isn’t a problem. That part of the game is very fun and benefits from the ranger pet. Eventualyl though, the ranger runs out of places to explore and events to complete and wants to run a dungeon or do some PvP. The ranger faults become very obvious then, and it sucks because by then you’re invested in the ranger. You like the class, you built the gear and you’re kinda stuck by the time you realize the pet can’t do jack in a dungeon.
Rune of the Pirate on his armor will summon a bird pet
I keep coming back to the ranger because the other classes don’t really do it for me, but the Ranger has serious problems still, especially in PvE.
Just running around and leveling they are great, and really easy. But once you get into high level fractals or explorable dungeons the pets are a liability. They get one shot by bosses and have 0 agony resist.
In WvW and sPvP the ranger can hold their own, but many classes can do what the ranger does better. They can bunker, but not as well as a guardian or warrior. They can burst, but not as well as a thief and they can do condition damage but not as good as a necro.
If you like the ranger, play it. But you have to accept their many short comings.
Instead of poison shot maybe add a short-mid range front cone attack?
I love double pistols but I hate that there is no AoE at all to the weapon at all.
I’ve Loooooong advocated for a skill like this to long bow. Hunter’s Shot would be perfect for a Snipe like cast bar. Oh how I wish that would happen…
at least 15% but I would vote for 20%.
I think long range shot should be completly retooled so as not to penalize the distance on the auto attack. Hunter’s shot should be given the range damage bonus – and make it considerable so we can have our “sniper” attack and just have the auto attack normal damage regardless of range and have it give a condition or boon.
For Marksman I would just dump the opening strikes all together and bake it all together into a master trait. Right now its so buggy and does not offer any meaningful improvement or style in play that it’s useless as 3 minor traits in the Marksman tree. I’d much prefer more ranged combar improvements in those minor traits then Opening Strikes.
I’m actually surprised at this…I really thought we would get something we’ve been calling for. Spirit health, pets attacking and moving or sword root fixed. One of them and I would have been happy(ish). To get none of them is just plain surprising.
Wow…just wow. No bug fixes, nothing to increase pet responsiveness or survivability, nothing to increase build variety. HUGE let down.
Add name saves to the pet to the master list. It’s a small, quality of life issue but it still irks me.
I’d also like to see Short Bow Quicksot and Sword hornet sting remove immobolize so the mobile weapon sets can remain mobile and serve as counters to builds that try to shut us down.
50% would be crazy over powered. Fix the pets so they can attack and move at the same time and increase missle speed OR have less obstructured errors when shooting and I would be a happy ranger.
I don’t think we’ll see the ranger updates until Nov. I think Anet has their hands full with the halloween event.
Nov. will probably roll out another patch with bug fixes and class updates – hopefully we’ll see some love then.
The worst part about Orr is that the mobs act differently then everything else you’ve encountered before. They run at top speeds, and they ignore your pet. Still, it’s pretty easy to solo even with our kittened traits and weapons. You just gotta be aware of the area you are in because the zones are chop filled with mobs.
It would be better to simply level up your crafting so you can make the exotic gear yourself with the desired stats.
The Leatherworking vendor sells the exotic insignia recipes for karma right at the vendor station and they are a lot cheaper then finding exotic gear to buy. Furthermore much of the karma gear does not have very good stats and the crafted stuff you can tailor for your playstyle or build.
The exotic stuff takes all of the top teir mats so you’ll need to farm some in Frostgorge or Orr but that should be expected.
Huzah! Thanks for the update Jon.
(edited by Moderator)
I always go back to this quote from Jon Peters at a GW2Hub interview:
http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/profession-and-traits-interview-jon-peters
“Lewis B: Moving to professions directly, one of my biggest concerns with Guild Wars 2 at the moment is the AI, notably ranger pet AI, the responsiveness of engineer turrets, and necromancer minions. Are you able to shed a little light on how you’re approaching AI? Is it still even a priority? My biggest concern is that if it isn’t just right, at least one class out of the eight could be crippled…
Jon: We have handled a few bugs on the AI side, but we haven’t really tackled it full on yet. This is really a matter of resource management. The programmers who handle this stuff also work on other critical systems, such as performance. The short answer is that pets need to be 100% responsive in combat, always attacking when they can and obeying any commands you give them. That has to happen in order for us to release the game."
Rangers…I would fix Rangers.
It’s not just this patch. The last few patches saw either no updates or a significant nerf. Ranger’s ARE that bad right now and need an update.
i would be happy with any carrot right now from Anet saying, “hey folks, we’re working on it. No ETA on anything but we are working on it.” At least then I can level my alts with a clear conscious.
I appreciate your opptomism, I hope you are right. Still, I can’t help but feel let down that my favorite class is held hostage by what botters might do. It’s a bad way to manage the botter problem.
I’m as surprised as the rest of you that we didn’t get an update…very disappointing. I was looking forward to this patch in hopes that it would give me some reason to pick up my Ranger…saddly not.
MeGa…No I agreed with the OPs sugestions on them. The bonuses aren’t great, but they are useful in some settings but the click ability is terrible and it won’t ever be used. If the click was reduced to 30 or 60 sec I might actually click them once in awhile.
I used both signet of the wild and stone in my PvE builds. I don’t use them because they are great. I use them because they are the only signets we have and they are, without a doubt, worse then any other signets out there. Please read the whole paragraph to keep individual lines in context.
Spirits: Make them invulnerable and decrease their effectiveness. They would still be useful and would not require the heavy trait investment they currently take to make them even semi-useful (but still notsomuch). Spirit traits can still make them mobile and more effective and thuse give spirit focused rangers something to build on. As they are now, spirits are almost entirely unused because of the heavy trait requirements and their flimsiness in combat
Signets:
I’m less optimistic than you. I think our surent signets are the worst of any class.
Signet of the Hunt: Increase runspeed from 10% to 15%-20%. For the mobile hunter we are supposed to be, we should have speed to match it. I love you suggestion of adding the active effect be an immobolize instead of the weak damage increase it currently is.
Signet of the Wild/Stone: Aggreed. Decrease cooldown so rangers may actually decide to use them
I would like to see at least one signet where the active effect has nothing to do with the pet and will buff the ranger. Helpful for those rangers that don’t focus on pet damage.
Shouts:
Shouts should have an AoE effect that buffs the group and ranger on top of their normal ability to give support focused rangers a little more skills to go to other than spirits.
Sick ‘em: Gives AoE Might/Fury
Protect Me: Gives AoE Protection
Search and Rescue: AoE regen or retaliation (we don’t have a way to get this buff yet btw)
Guard Here: Reveals stealth in the guarded area.
Increasing any of these shouts would make them semi-viable. As they are now, they simply aren’t used except for Protect Me – and even then it’s situational. The shouts right now are just not useful.
Those are my suggestions. I hope we see something in the upcoming patch for Ranger.