Guild Wars 2

I don’t like mesmers because good ones absolutely dumpster me when I try to run zerk haha.

In general coming from a different class perspective, I think that most of the people that cry that “Mesmer is op” is because the tools they have are very frustrating to deal with and can feel very unfair if one doesn’t know what is happening.

Of course one can learn, but think about just the sheer screen clutter for instance when facing a Mesmer and it can be overwhelming especially if one is inexperienced.

No for two reasons. The first is that it is not op and the second is because you can just nerf the offending dazes if necessary(see Lunar Impact).

LughLongArm.5460:

They changed “grace of the land”? When did this happend? More new stuff I should know about?

Druid changes for launch are in a sticky.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Post-BWE3-Druid-Changes/first

Justine.6351:

Lazze.9870:

Justine.6351:

You can do everything right and still lose.

That’s not the point, the point is that the ranger is arguably the weakest proffesion in scenarios like that, with no instant stability, few stunbreaks/unreliable stunbreaks, some times with long cooldowns, no ports, little stealth (prior to HoT), awful defensive passive traits.

The evades alone doesn’t cut it, and then it becomes a question about fair balacing.

Well if your bear isn’t tanking properly that’s something anet should look at. One time I got focused and my devourer lived longer than me! Then my devourer turns and looks at me and says “effing rallybot…”.

Lel this guys got jokes. Peeps don’t realize that everyone else completely disregards what they say once they start getting into the l2p or slander realm in their comments.

Zaroua.2714:

“I don’t see the part where raid teams will be forced to bring Druids so they get GotL, GoE, etc. Unless you already know as a fact that no one will be able to beat a raid without a Druid, you’re just blowing smoke.”

Look at it this way: from the start anet has showed that there is unavoidable damage involved in raids, so it stands to reason that between unavoidable damage and avoidable damage taken because of mistakes, players wouldn’t have enough self healing in a normal build to be able to sustain the damage intake for long. Enter healing from utilities, blasting water fields and dedicated healers. Healing from utilities and water fields is a DPS loss, but an acceptable one if it means bringing 10 DPS instead of 9 DPS + 1 full time healer. Now you look at Druids who can heal, dish out damage between healing mode activations and buff the hell out of the raid. With the buff to GotL, why wouldn’t you bring a Druid to heal when the can provide nearly enough group DPS to be worth 80-90% of a DPS slot in your raid while also healing and doing some damage when out of healing mode? It seems over the top in terms of group DPS, considering they’re already filling an entire healing role on their own.

Of course I’m speculating on the unavoidable raid damage part, but if every raid boss except Vale Guardian has 100% avoidable damage, then survivability in raids becomes a non issue once you get good enough at the fight, which is a huge, huge design flaw if anet decides to go that route.

You’re just speculating about unknowns. The only thing we do know is that GotL requires you to heal in CAF to buff allies. This buff lasts for 8s and is inherently limited by the ability to heal allies that may be spread out 5 separate times and also the gates on entering CAF which are full AF as well as a 10s cd.

You can keep speculating about unknowns if you want, but I’m going to wait until the game is actually out before I go asking for potential nerfs to a trait.

It only buffs when you heal when in CAF. It is much more active then something like PS or banners. GotL will force you to be more involved and mindful of positioning and cds in order to keep the buff up. I don’t see anything wrong with it especially considering that CAF won’t be 100% uptime.

I don’t see the part where raid teams will be forced to bring Druids so they get GotL, GoE, etc. Unless you already know as a fact that no one will be able to beat a raid without a Druid, you’re just blowing smoke.

Dojo.1867:

Mcrocha.3891:

So this means that if your pet has 25 stacks of might, even if all of the stacks have say 1s duration, then they become 10s of 25 stacks of might on the Ranger? Ok, I guess so.

You need the might when you can actually do something with it so I doubt you will actually wait with your heal until your pet has 1 sec left just to run around with 25 stacks.

You do it when you can actually make use out of them and don’t think using the heal like that will kill you. Do you really play ranger in pvp? I alwas read your comments and they imply that you have no clue how actual matches work.

Lel ok? I don’t know why you feel the need to slander me when I just asked a mechanic question. I never said anything about waiting to heal until there was 1s left, I just asked whether the 1s stacks would be increased to 10s on the Ranger. Thanks for the laugh.

So this means that if your pet has 25 stacks of might, even if all of the stacks have say 1s duration, then they become 10s of 25 stacks of might on the Ranger? Ok, I guess so.

Cristobal.8640:

LOL at rangers not having cleanse options on traps. Do you people not know what Healing Spring does?

LOL at you thinking HS is sufficient condi cleanse. Oh yeah let me sit here and use my heal skill because I want to get rid of some condis. Let me wait for it to arm so that I can then trip the trap. And then let me get that one condi removal per pulse every two seconds and I have to stay in this 240 radius for it to work. So strong.

Crapgame.6519:

Mcrocha.3891:

Crapgame.6519:

People can reapply, other can clear. It is a vicious circle. I’m actually just questioning why traps. I hear the points raised. Just questioning no more than why I would question people still wanting AoE targeting of traps. I feel they work fine, if not better, the way they are and would rather them fix granting stealth to our pets upon placing of traps.

I actually run traps with trapper runes, slot 3 + healing spring and entangle, and they work well in most play styles in WvW. Solo camp, HAVOC, NPC flip, scouting, and even zergs. And you are correct. Once you get CC’d the game is over and /release is the only option. But like I said I don’t think it would really matter because once I clear that lock down another is typically right behind it, then another, then another.

Stealth from trapper runes is a completely unrelated issue. Already mentioned why traps should get a stun break.

I think your argument is weak. By that reasoning, all stun breaks should be removed, all stab should be removed, and all condition clears should be removed since it doesn’t matter because once you clear conditions or break stuns then “another is typically right behind it, then another, then another.” We should just let everyone kill everyone with no counter-play.

So you are saying that Rangers don’t have any options on the table for removal of CC? It is about choices. You want to slot all traps, its a choice you make. You could have taken LR. You can slot traps and still have a stun removal if you choose. This isn’t about what every other class has and we don’t.

I feel like you just didn’t read what I’ve written in this thread. It is opportunity cost to use traps over a stun break. But where is the opportunity cost on DH traps? That is the point of this thread. Where is the balance if we are just giving stun breaks to DH on a skill type that didn’t previously have it, but not giving it to the other professions?

It very much is about what other classes have and Rangers don’t. I stated in the OP that I usually don’t care about differences between classes and skills, but this is a different story because Ranger traps are limited in the fact that they don’t have a stun break option and also lack condi removal. Thief traps are the same way and Dh traps were originally the same as well.

But then through pure power creep I guess, DH gets:
1) a stun break on a trap
2) a complimentary trait to go with it that stun breaks and drops the trap
3) the trap also gives aegis which synergizes with the whole profession and gives the potential for condi removal through Hunters Fortification
4) and then on top of that it gives stability too

This is for a class that already has a plethora of stun breaks and stab application. Guardians don’t have other options on the table for removal of CC? Oh wait they do, but it doesn’t matter because they have a trap for it too. On top of all of that, the traps now offer boons in addition to their previous functions. It is pure power creep and Ranger traps will be left behind in their current lackluster state if they don’t even offer a stun break, hence the creation of this thread.

Crapgame.6519:

People can reapply, other can clear. It is a vicious circle. I’m actually just questioning why traps. I hear the points raised. Just questioning no more than why I would question people still wanting AoE targeting of traps. I feel they work fine, if not better, the way they are and would rather them fix granting stealth to our pets upon placing of traps.

I actually run traps with trapper runes, slot 3 + healing spring and entangle, and they work well in most play styles in WvW. Solo camp, HAVOC, NPC flip, scouting, and even zergs. And you are correct. Once you get CC’d the game is over and /release is the only option. But like I said I don’t think it would really matter because once I clear that lock down another is typically right behind it, then another, then another.

Stealth from trapper runes is a completely unrelated issue. Already mentioned why traps should get a stun break.

I think your argument is weak. By that reasoning, all stun breaks should be removed, all stab should be removed, and all condition clears should be removed since it doesn’t matter because once you clear conditions or break stuns then “another is typically right behind it, then another, then another.” We should just let everyone kill everyone with no counter-play.

Crapgame.6519:

Mcrocha.3891:

Crapgame.6519:

mistsim.2748:

traps need secondary functions to them, and they would be usable. their damage is great. so I’m talking stun breaks, boons, condi clears, and possibly stealth every now and then.

traps cannot be slotted now because we need at least one stun break and preferably an invuln or a second stun break.

a lot of this goes back to us not having usable weapons.

Opinion, granted, but CC in this game is over the top now and needs to be seriously looked at. I don’t think granting a single stun break will do much of anything.

So are you arguing that we should not get a stun break added because we need more than one?

Trapper has two big holes, condi cleanse and lack of stunbreaks/stab. One of those should be addressed, the other can stay for counters. If they want to give Ranger core better condi removal instead of just trapper, that’s fine too. Pigeonholing builds into WS for reliable condi cleanse is realllllly bad for diversity.

My argument is rather giving trap a stun break isn’t going to address the larger problem. CC is the problem.

I don’t think it is as large of a problem in the confined space and limited players that sPvP offers. I think it is broke in WvW where the fights can be of any size such as X vs. X.

The game is about choices. Gear, sigils, runes, traits, food, among other things. So looking at the Ranger as a whole should the CC break be on a trap or provided by another means? That is the perspective I am discussing it at anyway and as I said it is an opinion with regards to the primary meta I play, WvW.

Thus giving 1 or 10 it won’t matter when CC in my opinion is so out of control tied it with AoE.

Well the Ranger has other stun breaks. Trapper has zero, which means that you have to slot a non-trap stun break or be completely reliant on party stab/breaks. Otherwise, you will die from stunlock.

From a WvW perspective, trapper could actually be pretty interesting in wvw zerging for example if you didn’t get shredded by condis and stuns. You can’t run triple traps and you can’t really run double traps for that matter because you need a stun break and something like SoS.

I don’t see the argument as to not giving a trap a stun break just because CC is “out of control”. That is like saying we shouldn’t get a condition clear because people can just reapply conditions after we clear them. Trapper has no choices, you HAVE to take non-traps or else you blow up. The point is, if you add a stun break to a trap it could see more use, even in non-trap builds, then simply being forced to take something like QZ or LR.

Most professions have 1 stun break or stab per skill type. We don’t have one on traps or spirits. Its understandable that spirits don’t have it as they are similar to banners for example which do not have it either(very minor stab on BS). Traps are much more active gameplay and could really use it.

Crapgame.6519:

mistsim.2748:

traps need secondary functions to them, and they would be usable. their damage is great. so I’m talking stun breaks, boons, condi clears, and possibly stealth every now and then.

traps cannot be slotted now because we need at least one stun break and preferably an invuln or a second stun break.

a lot of this goes back to us not having usable weapons.

Opinion, granted, but CC in this game is over the top now and needs to be seriously looked at. I don’t think granting a single stun break will do much of anything.

So are you arguing that we should not get a stun break added because we need more than one?

Trapper has two big holes, condi cleanse and lack of stunbreaks/stab. One of those should be addressed, the other can stay for counters. If they want to give Ranger core better condi removal instead of just trapper, that’s fine too. Pigeonholing builds into WS for reliable condi cleanse is realllllly bad for diversity.

Ghotistyx.6942:

We’ve had similar discussion on the Guardian forums about Spirit Weapons and Gyros (add has been mentioned).

There’s an easy explanation. The new specs and profession are getting the big buffs. Once the devs can see how they work within the “new” game, the old aspects can be brought to their level. In order to know how strong the old things need to be, you need to have a good focal point. The new specs are the perfect things to use as that focal point.

I don’t see how the new specs should be focal points. Why would they add something to the game that is better than what is already in the game? That just adds more work when they have to adjust what is already in the game to be in line with the pure power creep that is being added with the especs.

The focal point should have been making the traps comparable to the traps that are already in the game, not making them superior and then maybe doing something to the other traps a year from now. They just caved to the people in the Guard community crying because they are releasing an expansion so they want good vibes.

Shoe.5821:

frost trap already does millions of years of chill, if it needs a buff its only to recharge… :P

Frost Trap is our worst trap. It has uses, but is a hard slot over the other three traps. The only way it does a million years of chill is if someone stays in it which is unlikely. It could most definitely use a stunbreak to make it competitive with the other traps.

Nike.2631:

…I REALLY HOPE that doesn’t just dry up after the 23rd.

Its alright. Even if the communication does dry up, DH got all dem juicy buffs before it does. Mmmmmm so juicy.

Nike.2631:

Mcrocha.3891:

No reason to not add it.

That’s my feeling also.

So what’s the weakest Ranger trap?

DH gets it after 3 BWE lmao.

To be fair it’s been a constant request since the first time the skills were revealed. We’ve been beating that drum close to half a year now. Not so long compared to Rangers, but maybe it will nudge the baseline enough all trap-setting classes can benefit.

Most defensive trap is Frost Trap/would be the only one that could reasonably get it. Others have too short of cds. Spike Trap is a maybe, but it’s already very good, no reason to make it a must take.

Edit: assuming our traps don’t get a balance pass in the future. Which is most likely not likely heh.

Forgive me while I laugh at the drum being beat for half a year. Happy for the DH community though.

Nike.2631:

I know waiting a couple months sucks, but I’m just not confident the DH traps are going to go un-nerfed and Devs and Players alike shouldn’t rush to point to them as baseline.

But the addition of a stunbreak probably can go forward while we wait for more data.

I doubt that even if they “nerf” DH, they take the stunbreak away. I don’t see them just removing that effect, not after launch. No reason as to not immediately give Ranger traps a stunbreak. Rangers have asked for that for a long time, DH gets it after 3 BWE lmao. No stab, no aegis, no complimentary trait, just a stunbreak. No reason to not add it.

Been away for a bit for school. Get back and see that Guardians are getting a stunbreak and stab on a trap? Seriously? Not to mention that Hunters Determination will now stunbreak/give stab when disabled as well. Usually don’t care about comparing skills to other classes, but that’s bs.

Don’t see any reason as to why Ranger traps don’t get a stun break now. Frost trap is asking for it. Fun stuff. Fun stuff.

Edit: HF → HD

I really do not like the change adding a CD to CAF, it forces the form to be much more one dimensional, disappointed. Would much rather have had the generation remain the same and just let us keep remaining AF when leaving CAF.

Lingering Light is ok I guess, I liked it how it was, but we’ll see with the blinds. Don’t know if Ancestral Grace should’ve gotten an evade, thought the change to the mechanic would’ve been sufficient. Other stuff is ok I guess.

Treeoflife.4031:

Stun break trap on ranger would be nice. Spring trap break stun and knock back enemies yay! Im not saying to reveal thieves for using traps im saying trapper runes should effect all classes the same way. Unless i misunderstood what Puck was saying before or something and ive just been rambling on about something that isn’t true making myself look foolish

I believe that the reason why thief traps do not reveal is that they don’t deal damage iirc, just apply condis or stuff like that. Ranger traps deal direct damage so they reveal.

Don’t care about the revealed. You can’t make thieves get revealed, unfortunately they need stealth to not be a dumpster fire. Care more about the fact that apparently Guard is getting a trap that stun breaks and grants stab LEL.

Agreed it’s too slow for competitive play. Liked either of your suggestions or just make it so that it blossoms faster.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Puck.9612:

Your a good theory crafter, take a look at these.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_Inspiration
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Illusionary_Inspiration

Hah, I was actually playing around with those yesterday when making a build for my neglected Mesmer, but didn’t get any further than the traits, I also had Blurred Inscriptions in there for reduced CD and condi removal. Got this far before bed heh. So much reflect and boon share.

Anyway, yeah, Mesmer can do it for a whole group… If you had a lot of applications incoming, you could share out everything wholesale.

Fairly certain that Ilusionary Inspiration has a CD which makes it less predictable and useful.

Kailee.8790:

smalls.2463:

With healing power food, full benevolence stacks, and full ascended clerics my death shroud 4 heals for 9k.

On a class/spec that is not intended solely for healing and with 1-2 only forms of dps…

Anet… either kill the necro’s healing by SIGNIFICANT amounts… Or prove to us you wanted us to be healers..

Thats only one skill though and it requires a trait. Tidal Surge is almost as effective and on much shorter cd + is a mobile water field.

Don’t worry, the QQ will be exponentially higher when it is able to be used in pvp and people get mad the Ranger will have a smoke field on a 20s cd. I would take this pet if it did 0 damage, so they can reduce damage if they want(but shouldn’t), that is how badly I want the smoke field.

They obviously already foresee Smokescale being a staple in builds. Stealth too strong.

I only see two problems with Druid: the first is the difficulty in generating AF without staff which is most likely intended, but I still think this could be addressed pretty easily with the damage percentage contribution being upped slightly.

Secondly, stability. Again this is probably intended, but it compresses bars when we are forced to slot stun breaks QZ, LR, SoR, Protect Me. Glyph of Equality is strong, but it is gated behind CAF of course. I think the easiest way to fix this is just to modify a trait to give stab. I propose that Grace of the Land be changed to break stuns when entering CAF (ICD) and giving 1 stack of stab every 2s while in CAF or something along those lines. Grace of the Land is a good candidate for this trait because its current effect is imo lackluster. Furthermore, it would create tough opportunity costs when choosing between the GM’s. For instance, Lingering Light is strong in WvW, but Grace of the Land would also be a tempting pick or even Ancient Seeds if you’re trying to bomb with dazes or Natural Convergence.

Edit: also if its not intended can Ancestral Grace be fixed to not make you wait out the full cast time if you are moving less than the max range?

As long as it does not have an insane hotbox so it could body block more effects then I don’t really see how they could justify taking it away.

infantrydiv.1620:

So we’ve discovered that Staff #5 is a secret water field, please make this part of the intended staff mechanics (tool tip) because otherwise the fifth skill isn’t so great.

Since the 4th skill is so hard to land in 1v1s, it really could use extra damage and a longer immob

I think the 4th skill should get a slightly lower cast time, its slow for a skill shot, unless it is intended for it to be very difficult to hit with.

Talk about a projectile sponge.

Knighthonor.4061:

Mcrocha.3891:

Kreed.2768:

So it doesn’t say in the tool tip, but the 5th staff skill is actually a water field. That means you can use the blast finisher of staff #3 on top of it for AoE healing. Not sure if this is intended or just missing tool tip text, but it adds a little more synergy between the weapon’s skills.

Can you confirm that it is actually a blast and not just the healing from the skill itself? Been curious about whether it really is a blast.

yes tried this with Warhorn. Its a water field.

Great, Thanks much.

Kreed.2768:

So it doesn’t say in the tool tip, but the 5th staff skill is actually a water field. That means you can use the blast finisher of staff #3 on top of it for AoE healing. Not sure if this is intended or just missing tool tip text, but it adds a little more synergy between the weapon’s skills.

Can you confirm that it is actually a blast and not just the healing from the skill itself? Been curious about whether it really is a blast.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

I haven’t been able to play but I was watching some streaming and staff 1 was filling up CAF very decently just by itself if you line it up through your pet. I can only imagine that if you heal multiple allies CAF will fill very quickly.

That makes this the only profession mechanic in the game which requires a specific weapon to work properly. This is not a good thing. If someone doesn’t want to use staff, there is no reason at all (at this point) for them to go Druid, as far as I can tell.

Well yes, but obviously since the staff was designed for Druid it is going to work well with it. TU fills the bar quickly as well. And you could say cast GoU in CAF -> cast TU -> bar would probably go almost completely full. Throwing a glyph on a build with Verdant etchings could help heal allies as well if we can suggest a blossom speed increase. It’s going to take some time to test things out.

Does blast finishing in a water field to heal allies fill the bar? That could be synergy with HS right there, we have to test things that maybe aren’t exactly in the play style of Ranger atm. Does Invigorating Bond fill the bar? (If we can get a range increase to this skill that would be good synergy as well)

Reapers do just as well with dagger as greatsword. Most daredevils probably won’t bother with the staff; the spec works just fine with s/d or d/p. But if (as is being stated here; I haven’t tried it yet) it really does take a minute or more to fill up the bar without the staff…that is a serious issue.

It won’t. The staff auto pulses 3 times, so if you are lined up with your pet just by itself it will fill pretty quickly, definitely not a minute to fill 100% and as I said TU heals almost full basically.

Read what I said, including the bold part.

Ok and as I said TU fills it almost completely.

Ugh, I was thinking of giving up survival in favor of druid…

That’s why I said we need to test stuff in other lines like blasting in HS or using Fern Hound and Invigorating Bond (or other pets too).

Edit: Renewal sigils could also be good, someone should test that.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

I haven’t been able to play but I was watching some streaming and staff 1 was filling up CAF very decently just by itself if you line it up through your pet. I can only imagine that if you heal multiple allies CAF will fill very quickly.

That makes this the only profession mechanic in the game which requires a specific weapon to work properly. This is not a good thing. If someone doesn’t want to use staff, there is no reason at all (at this point) for them to go Druid, as far as I can tell.

Well yes, but obviously since the staff was designed for Druid it is going to work well with it. TU fills the bar quickly as well. And you could say cast GoU in CAF -> cast TU -> bar would probably go almost completely full. Throwing a glyph on a build with Verdant etchings could help heal allies as well if we can suggest a blossom speed increase. It’s going to take some time to test things out.

Does blast finishing in a water field to heal allies fill the bar? That could be synergy with HS right there, we have to test things that maybe aren’t exactly in the play style of Ranger atm. Does Invigorating Bond fill the bar? (If we can get a range increase to this skill that would be good synergy as well)

Reapers do just as well with dagger as greatsword. Most daredevils probably won’t bother with the staff; the spec works just fine with s/d or d/p. But if (as is being stated here; I haven’t tried it yet) it really does take a minute or more to fill up the bar without the staff…that is a serious issue.

It won’t. The staff auto pulses 3 times, so if you are lined up with your pet just by itself it will fill pretty quickly, definitely not a minute to fill 100% and as I said TU heals almost full basically.

Read what I said, including the bold part.

Ok and as I said TU fills it almost completely.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

I haven’t been able to play but I was watching some streaming and staff 1 was filling up CAF very decently just by itself if you line it up through your pet. I can only imagine that if you heal multiple allies CAF will fill very quickly.

That makes this the only profession mechanic in the game which requires a specific weapon to work properly. This is not a good thing. If someone doesn’t want to use staff, there is no reason at all (at this point) for them to go Druid, as far as I can tell.

Well yes, but obviously since the staff was designed for Druid it is going to work well with it. TU fills the bar quickly as well. And you could say cast GoU in CAF -> cast TU -> bar would probably go almost completely full. Throwing a glyph on a build with Verdant etchings could help heal allies as well if we can suggest a blossom speed increase. It’s going to take some time to test things out.

Does blast finishing in a water field to heal allies fill the bar? That could be synergy with HS right there, we have to test things that maybe aren’t exactly in the play style of Ranger atm. Does Invigorating Bond fill the bar? (If we can get a range increase to this skill that would be good synergy as well)

Reapers do just as well with dagger as greatsword. Most daredevils probably won’t bother with the staff; the spec works just fine with s/d or d/p. But if (as is being stated here; I haven’t tried it yet) it really does take a minute or more to fill up the bar without the staff…that is a serious issue.

It won’t. The staff auto pulses 3 times, so if you are lined up with your pet just by itself it will fill pretty quickly, definitely not a minute to fill 100% and as I said TU heals almost full basically.

mistsim.2748:

seed of life needs to explode way, way sooner. also, cosmic ray is outright impossible to use effectively due to its cast time and small aoe. it’s impossible to heal your mates if theyre moving frantically or evading, i.e. trying to survive in a fight. make this instacast, or double its aoe range.

Can we suggest that it just be changed? It looks very mechanically clunky and too similar to Lunar Impact minus the daze and blast. How about the Ranger channels a beam out in front of it to heal (would need to be lower values) instead of calling one down.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

I haven’t been able to play but I was watching some streaming and staff 1 was filling up CAF very decently just by itself if you line it up through your pet. I can only imagine that if you heal multiple allies CAF will fill very quickly.

That makes this the only profession mechanic in the game which requires a specific weapon to work properly. This is not a good thing. If someone doesn’t want to use staff, there is no reason at all (at this point) for them to go Druid, as far as I can tell.

Well yes, but obviously since the staff was designed for Druid it is going to work well with it. TU fills the bar quickly as well. And you could say cast GoU in CAF → cast TU → bar would probably go almost completely full. Throwing a glyph on a build with Verdant etchings could help heal allies as well if we can suggest a blossom speed increase. It’s going to take some time to test things out.

Does blast finishing in a water field to heal allies fill the bar? That could be synergy with HS right there, we have to test things that maybe aren’t exactly in the play style of Ranger atm. Does Invigorating Bond fill the bar? (If we can get a range increase to this skill that would be good synergy as well)

I haven’t been able to play but I was watching some streaming and staff 1 was filling up CAF very decently just by itself if you line it up through your pet. I can only imagine that if you heal multiple allies CAF will fill very quickly.

I hope they nerf the daze, but reduce casting time in compensation actually, as the healing and blast is more significant.

mistsim.2748:

Wondrouswall.7169:

mistsim.2748:

and the smokescale’s smoke field would be huge for us. I certainly hope we can interact with that field. now that you mention it though, this sounds a bit too good to be true because it would give us an insane amount of stealth. one idea would be to simply give it a long CD, maybe 1 min.

Why would you want to increase the CD of the Smokescale’s F2 when it’s on par in both duration and cooldown with the other utilities that provide a smoke field? It’s a 5-sec field on a 25-sec cooldown.

I don’t want to do that. but I’m just saying a smoke field on a 25s cd is very, very strong, given how many blast and leap finishers we have. the smoke field in itself is enough for me to pick the pet without caring much for its other abilities. it’s too good to be true.

It’s actually a 20s cd (assuming BM wasn’t slotted, which it does not appear to be so from the trait review) as seen on the video reveal which could be 16s with BM line so it could be up pretty frequently.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Wondrouswall.7169:

Quincy.5490:

Barrage arrows are just a visual effect. It actually just pulses damage to the 5 enemies closest to the center. Would be awesome if barrage behaved similar to ele’s Meteor Shower though.

Agreed. It would be so nice to have each arrow have it’s own impact.

As for boon strip on Hunter’s Call, maybe. I kinda wish they would improve Hunter’s Call before adding anything. It’s kind of sad how the 6th bonus of a rune (Mad King) is better than Hunter’s Call since it can attack multiple foes instead of just one.

They should just make Hunters Call a cut/paste of the Mad king (6) bonus imo. Would be a massive improvement.

Either that or the other thing I’d like to see is it remain single target, but add a 1/2s blind per strike on it for burst shutdown utility.

Either of these things or just make it AoE ground target like barrage, but both of your suggestions fit better thematically and would probably be easier to just use the mechanic they already have from mad king.

Eggyokeo.9705:

so gw2skills has been updated

so hears the rough front liner wvw build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmOD7kRFogVslFwkVgoVswIYwR1q6W1Z0NCOdMhrvVAIlj8B4iA-T1xGABA8EAwTJYuXEgEV/Zo9HWS5Hb6GAA-w

No GS on frontline? Also feel as if Natural Stride is too good to not take. I think that Verdant Etchings will be less effective since the melee stack is theoretically moving and wouldn’t be in range of the Seed blossom we will see how quickly it blossoms though.

niconori.7235:

Mcrocha.3891:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Strike_as_One
There is precedence for at least the pet doing it so I don’t see why Ranger shouldn’t be able to do it either.

Disagree with Strike as One as it will just blow my pet up in WvW or PVE.

Don’t make your pet teleport into AoE? You don’t have to cast it lol, but the point was that its not outside the range of possibility for say the Ranger to have a teleport skill.

Quincy.5490:

jcbroe.4329:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

We are, indeed, reading.

We particularly take time to read the constructive and well-crafted feedback posts.

I don’t want to make promises, which as many of you have pointed out can go horribly awry for a variety of reasons, but we are hoping to make some changes to the old ranger shouts (pre-WHAO & SotP).

Is there any sort of plan to make a pass on Guard ever?

It’s functionality doesn’t seem to tie in well with anything you’d want to do in any game mode. There have been a ton of great rework suggestions over time, but really, “Guard” has only ever functioned as fodder to get regen and swiftness through traiting, and even the changeover of WHaO to a shout has replaced that usage.

Cooldown adjustments given, some of my favorite suggestions that I’ve seen are:

• makes the pet instantly travel to an area, instead of traversing the terrain (so a pet teleport)
• becomes a two part skill, allowing rangers for the second part to then swap positions with their pet
• reveals enemies walking in the area being guarded
• grants boons to allies while in the area being guarded

This skill really seems like the only skill left in need of some sort of functionality adjustment for the time being. So if shouts are being looked it, seeing Guard on the list would be nice.

Unless the ranger is traveling through the earth with nature magic, I don’t think teleportation fits thematically. Boons and reveals sound great though.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Strike_as_One
There is precedence for at least the pet doing it so I don’t see why Ranger shouldn’t be able to do it either.

bloodpyrope.8630:

Shadelang.3012:

bloodpyrope.8630:

I heard long ago, rangers could use Guard to send pets up towers and stuff in WvW. Was this removed for a reason? Because being able to teleport a pet somewhere would be insanely useful and I might start using it just to instantly position my pet on a ledge or place I wouldn’t be able to access.

They wouldn’t even have to change the leash range.

That was changed a very long time ago. And yes. It was kittening hilarious and brokenly over powered. While it made for some of the funniest youtube videos. Many were glad to see it go.

Using guard to bypass the leash range would not cause it to teleport from my current understanding of its mechanics. Of so. Then thats something that would have to be fixed together with it.

So I wasn’t around then, but why was it insanely OP? From what I know, mesmers can summon their phantasms up towers to attack siege. Sure pets have more health than phantasms, but unless people start running all ranger zergs and teleporting pets up towers to stop defenders, I can’t imagine a situation where it’d break the game (but maybe I just have poor imagination).

I just think a shout that’s already ground targeted and involves sending a pet somewhere could be reworked to teleport the pet instead. I can think of a few situations where that’d be useful. Teleport pet on a ledge where enemy rangers are shooting, teleport pet to ledge that a downed thief just went to, etc.

I believe the reasoning was that pets could be used to take out siege that should have been otherwise safe from damage and thus not fair to defenders.

Zatoichi.1049:

Mcrocha.3891:

Zatoichi.1049:

Mcrocha.3891:

Belial.9350:

It’s still stronger than it was 2 weeks ago…

Exactly this. Before the patch everyone thought it would logically work like Fortifying Bond and thus would be a nice little buff to a skill that didn’t need to be changed at all. Since there was an oversight however, and WHaO was buffed to unintended levels, the majority of the people posting on the forums seem to believe that they were done some major injustice. Much a do about nothing really.

its an irrelevant buff dude, kinda live MDG, and the historic aquaman buffs

No it’s not dude. You’re blinded by the state it was in before it was nerfed. You need to think of it this way: Before patch WHaO was a strong burst heal on a 16s cd that also provides swiftness and regen. It needed zero changes as the heal was fine the way it was. The overbuffed state of WHaO made it 10x better than any other heal Rangers had.

The buff it has now is extremely welcome to a heal that needed no changes. People are complaining and they are using this as a strawman to throw shade at Anet. Literally people are complaining because one of our heal skills got buffs that it didn’t need. If it’s worthless now then why don’t they just revert it back to what it was pre-patch. Guess we don’t even need the might it gives, or short duration of the boons since they are obviously worthless.

I also agree it was fine the way it was, but im not gonna sit here and ignore what ANET did, and I don’t think you should either. Reading the forums, I think you are in the minority of those who feel like the current version is a welcome buff, so much as a pointless buff, when ranger has so many other issues that have been ignored. Their aim when balancing ranger seems to be consistently off-base. Honestly, the fact that a skill did get buffs that didn’t need it is one of the issues. Its current version is just a little icing on top of a skill that was already used but in general doesn’t get at the core of the ranger issues. You do have to spec to get the swiftness and regen in BM too, its not inherent of the heal, which is a tough choice btw cuz blind on f2 is very good for pvp as well. People are upset at that, in addition to ANETS lack of attention to detail when it comes to ranger, not really the buff/nerf itself. I jus don’t think you are truly seeing what the ranger community is upset about..

btw, I have silently agreed with many of your points in the hundreds of posts within the past couple days, so don’t think im one of the ones who is flaming you. Keep that in mind when responding to me plz

Fine I apologize if I offended you in any way, but I am fairly certain I know why the Ranger community is upset and it is because of an issue that is unrelated to WHaO which you probably agree with. People are mad because of a perceived lack of communication by Anet. I don’t think that this is the way to do it though, it makes the community look like whiny and aggressive.

Kitty.1502:

Mcrocha.3891:

Kitty.1502:

Mcrocha.3891:

Kitty.1502:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Kitty.1502:

Mcrocha.3891:

Kitty.1502:

Dradiin.8935:

Kitty.1502:

While ranger base will never be fixed, at least we can be heal bots. I am excited to be a heal bot assuming it is going to be viable.

Get used to “Shut Up and Heal”

its ok healing will only be useful in raids and potentially wvw (I have my doubts as do others about this)

Burst healing can be useful in pvp as well for sure. It is also useful for the probable 75% of people who play this game casually that like to run whatever builds they like and being able to heal their friends or something will make a lot of people happy in general pve content.

Not really, the majority of pve in this game is solo stuff, or stuff people do solo so dps will be best here. All dungeons/fractals currently can be done without the need of a healer again dps > healing. Furthermore while healing can be useful in spvp druid will fail by virtue of the ranger class when comparing to other support/bunker specs since they all are able to also output damage to a decent degree. Also – burst DPS is king in wvw and spvp, and a ranger can be burst down really fast.

Whether or not dps is the most efficient way, many people enjoy support and healing as a playstyle. Fractals can be done without healing, sure, but a cleric guard makes it so smooth and easy, its absurd, and people like to play it. Why not let them? It’s not like PvE isn’t just facerolling the keyboard anyway, who really cares if the F50 takes minutes longer if everyone has fun doing it? Nobody I play with anyway.

Nobody has played Druid as yet, so you cannot say that it cannot output damage like other support/bunker specs. Some of the builds I have been working on look to be very nice damage. Good Rangers do not get bursted down really fast, unless it is focus from multiple players, in which case, anything goes down.

People can play what ever they want doesn’t make it balanced, good or get you into groups that will have less headaches.

Again the groups you are talking about do not represent the majority of this games player base which is on the whole very casual. We can not pass judgment on whether the spec is good or balanced or not without playing it. But as I said it will make people happy to have a heal/support spec bc gosh this game does indeed have those casuals that draw ire from everyone else and I think that you don’t understand that the game isn’t about mad deeps to everyone who plays it.

Then why are they trying so hard to get an e-gaming scene or add difficult content. You don’t balance and make new things based on lowest common denominator, that is bad design.

Actually I think that the game is based on average, casual players being able to complete it. Just bc you think that if a dungeon takes 50m instead of 10m, it doesn’t count as completed doesn’t mean it’s not based on the lowest common denominator. The reason why they are pushing the other stuff is that the hardcore, vocal minority always clamors for “harder content”, just so they can beat it and then demand more.

When you balance to the lowest things become easier to abuse, when you balance to the highest things are much tighter harder to abuse more potential for diversity in builds.

Content like dungeons are balanced so that average players will be able to beat them. The meta abuses tactics like stacking or using long duration cc to cheese fights. The meta will always find the fastest and best way to do things regardless of if the content is difficult. If you balance the game to the highest as you claim, it does not give more potential for build diversity, it constricts this potential because you must either do x amount of damage or be able to tank y amount of damage in order to complete content.

Kitty.1502:

Mcrocha.3891:

Kitty.1502:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Kitty.1502:

Mcrocha.3891:

Kitty.1502:

Dradiin.8935:

Kitty.1502:

While ranger base will never be fixed, at least we can be heal bots. I am excited to be a heal bot assuming it is going to be viable.

Get used to “Shut Up and Heal”

its ok healing will only be useful in raids and potentially wvw (I have my doubts as do others about this)

Burst healing can be useful in pvp as well for sure. It is also useful for the probable 75% of people who play this game casually that like to run whatever builds they like and being able to heal their friends or something will make a lot of people happy in general pve content.

Not really, the majority of pve in this game is solo stuff, or stuff people do solo so dps will be best here. All dungeons/fractals currently can be done without the need of a healer again dps > healing. Furthermore while healing can be useful in spvp druid will fail by virtue of the ranger class when comparing to other support/bunker specs since they all are able to also output damage to a decent degree. Also – burst DPS is king in wvw and spvp, and a ranger can be burst down really fast.

Whether or not dps is the most efficient way, many people enjoy support and healing as a playstyle. Fractals can be done without healing, sure, but a cleric guard makes it so smooth and easy, its absurd, and people like to play it. Why not let them? It’s not like PvE isn’t just facerolling the keyboard anyway, who really cares if the F50 takes minutes longer if everyone has fun doing it? Nobody I play with anyway.

Nobody has played Druid as yet, so you cannot say that it cannot output damage like other support/bunker specs. Some of the builds I have been working on look to be very nice damage. Good Rangers do not get bursted down really fast, unless it is focus from multiple players, in which case, anything goes down.

People can play what ever they want doesn’t make it balanced, good or get you into groups that will have less headaches.

Again the groups you are talking about do not represent the majority of this games player base which is on the whole very casual. We can not pass judgment on whether the spec is good or balanced or not without playing it. But as I said it will make people happy to have a heal/support spec bc gosh this game does indeed have those casuals that draw ire from everyone else and I think that you don’t understand that the game isn’t about mad deeps to everyone who plays it.

Then why are they trying so hard to get an e-gaming scene or add difficult content. You don’t balance and make new things based on lowest common denominator, that is bad design.

Actually I think that the game is based on average, casual players being able to complete it. Just bc you think that if a dungeon takes 50m instead of 10m, it doesn’t count as completed doesn’t mean it’s not based on the lowest common denominator. The reason why they are pushing the other stuff is that the hardcore, vocal minority always clamors for “harder content”, just so they can beat it and then demand more.

Kitty.1502:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Kitty.1502:

Mcrocha.3891:

Kitty.1502:

Dradiin.8935:

Kitty.1502:

While ranger base will never be fixed, at least we can be heal bots. I am excited to be a heal bot assuming it is going to be viable.

Get used to “Shut Up and Heal”

its ok healing will only be useful in raids and potentially wvw (I have my doubts as do others about this)

Burst healing can be useful in pvp as well for sure. It is also useful for the probable 75% of people who play this game casually that like to run whatever builds they like and being able to heal their friends or something will make a lot of people happy in general pve content.

Not really, the majority of pve in this game is solo stuff, or stuff people do solo so dps will be best here. All dungeons/fractals currently can be done without the need of a healer again dps > healing. Furthermore while healing can be useful in spvp druid will fail by virtue of the ranger class when comparing to other support/bunker specs since they all are able to also output damage to a decent degree. Also – burst DPS is king in wvw and spvp, and a ranger can be burst down really fast.

Whether or not dps is the most efficient way, many people enjoy support and healing as a playstyle. Fractals can be done without healing, sure, but a cleric guard makes it so smooth and easy, its absurd, and people like to play it. Why not let them? It’s not like PvE isn’t just facerolling the keyboard anyway, who really cares if the F50 takes minutes longer if everyone has fun doing it? Nobody I play with anyway.

Nobody has played Druid as yet, so you cannot say that it cannot output damage like other support/bunker specs. Some of the builds I have been working on look to be very nice damage. Good Rangers do not get bursted down really fast, unless it is focus from multiple players, in which case, anything goes down.

People can play what ever they want doesn’t make it balanced, good or get you into groups that will have less headaches.

Again the groups you are talking about do not represent the majority of this games player base which is on the whole very casual. We can not pass judgment on whether the spec is good or balanced or not without playing it. But as I said it will make people happy to have a heal/support spec bc gosh this game does indeed have those casuals that draw ire from everyone else and I think that you don’t understand that the game isn’t about mad deeps to everyone who plays it.