Guild Wars 2

jcbroe.4329:

Against the meta, I would honestly say that a well played LB/GS works better.

There’s a reason why there isn’t a single notable person running full condi in PvP (the closest are cele eles and necros).

WvW might be different though with the foods and weapon types (are people still using givers for more condi duration?) and etc.

WvW is different not just because of foods/weapon types, but also because of what matters. Condition rangers can flip camps easier than power (from my experience at least), and are easier to play with (especially with that torch radius increase!). Plus traps are just fun.

As for Giver’s, depends on the build. I’ve been running Giver’s weapons, and from what I’m finding they’re better against NPCs (that don’t clear) but the loss to condition damage hurts against players (who usually burn them off after a tick or too anyway). Probably best suited to someone running Frost Traps.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You don’t have to hire anyone. You already have people working on the game, so why not just tell the players what you are working on that week? It would literally take 10 minutes at the end of the day on a Friday. Not hard.

I worked in Game Design for a smaller company for two years, and am currently in school for Software Engineering; actually working on my own game engine in the BG as I write this. I say this so you’ll know what I say next is from experience:

Interacting with the community directly on a regular basis is the absolute dumbest thing a Developer can do.

In order to release a feature to the public, it needs to be cleared by the NDA. You also have to be careful how you explain the feature, since implementation is also NDA. Once you’ve got both of those taken care of, you have to write/record the update. Then the update has to be proofread, because Balthazar FORBID you have a typo, misspelling, error, mistake, or anything else the “community” can use to prove their superiority over you. Then, after you’ve got all of this cleared, cleaned, and ready to go – wasting time that you’re not spending doing the important parts of your job like coding/designing/testing/etc – something changes and that feature/bugfix/update/balance change/dye color/pixel on an ambient mob doesn’t get put in this update. Now you’re in for it!

To top it off, once the public freaks out over this they double down that you’re not responding to their outcry of vitriol.

While I am all for public releases of information, they need to be handled by the right parties. Not devs themselves.

Isn’t the current server system setup on current user base? My impression was the upcoming change was to have those numbers calculated based on WvW participation instead of general server cap, since WvW is now the only point of servers at all.

Currently, I’m working on 2 builds:
A Power Shatter for bursting down other roamers, camping flipped keeps to reflip them with portal, and just being a general pain. Essentially working as a utility version of thief.

So, for the most part, PU Condi is by camp-flip 1vX build. Thus additional durability with still solid damage is exactly what I’m after.

I’m currently looking at something like THIS; the idea being that I can stack a ton of conditions in a very short time, which deal their damage quickly and can be reapplied just as fast. Since clearing is so common now, I wanted to build to make sure they suffer as much as possible from the conditions while they remain. I’m hoping 2500 condition damage is enough to get the job done.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

~snip~

Please please please do this. I’m currently about to level my Mes to 80 for WvW, and since I’ve already got a nearly full set of Rabid Ascended Trinkets, I’d like to make use of them.

I’m especially curious about the effects of a full Rabid with Undead Runes making super-damaging but short lived conditions. Just not flush with gold atm for trying out the different rune sets, so a more experienced Mes at the helm would be much appreciated!

Just a side note: A basic support Mesmer can be run by just using Signet of Inspiration and Prismatic Understanding. They both give you a random boon every few seconds (one while in stealth) and you can use Staff to create even more boons onto yourself and those around you while remaining in stealth. Then activate the Signet to give ALL of those boons to 5 people around you. If there’s anyone else around tossing out a few boons, it becomes VERY entertaining… so much stability!

Also, Mass Invisibility, Portal, and Veil are amazing WvW tools.

Just wanted to clarify that a Support Mesmer is not a typical support class, nor a healer, but does what it does well. And is fun.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Nachyochez.9758:

~snip~

If Remorseless gave a time based buff, such as Berserkers Power on Warrior, then I’d say yes you do not need precision, but one OS on opener and each fury application is pretty bad on LB. Full zerk is totally fine assuming you trait defensively, in which case, you’ll probably still do more damage yet have the same survivability.

Admittedly LB doesn’t get as much as GS does from OS currently, if you go for Quickdraw, RF/OS, “Strength of the Pack”, PBS/OS, then RF/OS(possibly 2 OS) you’re probably not going to be missing the Precision.

I think the best thing about the current Ranger setup is that Power Ranger has tons of subtle variations, all of which are valid in WvW; they just share a core. That said, I’ve had my best luck with survival gear against PU Shatter Mes out in the open. The only build I have that works better is my Psuedo Trapper build, but that’s not the point of the discussion!

I hate to be overly blunt, but…
vvvvvvvvv

Full zerker

^^^^^^^

There’s your problem right there.

I don’t want to say precision us useless per se, but I’m hard pressed to think of a stat that doesn’t give a Power Ranger more benefit atm.

Allow me to explain: Thanks to Opening Strike, we can provide 100% crit that hits harder than normal to a given strike at a given time. This includes Maul. It also stacks vulnerability, meaning it hits even HARDER. As of this writing, this combination provides the most modifiers of any attack in the game-it hurts. With Remorseless, you can regain this attack any time you get fury. Considering Rangers now have more Fury than Bruce Banner at a Death Metal concert, this is quite often. Since our power coefficients are terrible, landing a crit with most skills isn’t that great of a feat; thus 100% crit on the attacks you want makes more crit from Precision redundant and less useful.

This is the greatest thing that could happen.

Because of this change, Zerk is no longer required to reach “optimal” damage. You can actually add survival stats like Vitality or Toughness to your Roaming Ranger. Admittedly, toughness will lower that optimal damage by a fair amount (Cavalier uses tough as primary instead of power) but this can be tweaked thanks to Utility Buffs (sharpening stones give back some of the Power based on Toughness). Valkyrie is kind of the perfect set; lots of Vitality, the right damage stats, and it’s fun to send your enemies to Valhalla! I personally run Valk Armor/Weapons with Cav trinkets, but that is purely my personal preference; ymmv.

The reason this matters, is because with all zerk you typically have what, 16k health? A mesmer with full shatter is going to do just north of 10k; 12 if they run sigils and they proc. This’ll also leave you with confusion, torment, and blind. Trying to clear or heal is going to cost a little more HP, and this leaves you with practically nothing when they follow up. Getting caught unawares like that is an unwinnable battle.

Now, with a nice mix you’re breaking 20k health. That Mesmer can blow up all it wants, with Signet of Stone and some survival stats I’m barely dipping below 50%. A quick wolf Kd-Fear combo, some maul followed by a swoop, and their glass is destroyed. Even if they did survive it, they’ll need to reset to last any longer, and RF can track through the stealth to help finish them off. It doesn’t always work, since a good Mesmer is going to know how to disengage from an opponent, but for the majority of the players currently playing Lindsey Stirling, this should be more than enough to either end the fight or send them packing.

As Benjamin said, for me Mesmer battles come completely down to the skill of the Mesmer. Condi PU builds give me the most trouble, but I can handle them well enough. Shatter builds are usually the easiest for me to handle. They Blink-cast GS #3 just in time to be knocked down by my wolf. Then a quick Maul/Fear/Swoop/Maul and the fight is usually over (Yay glass!). If they’re not dead, I’ll swap to LB, pop a condition clear to sheer confusion, then use RF to track them when they try to rest in stealth.

Again, a GOOD mesmer can and will survive my counter with well timed dodges, clones, and shatters, but there’s never been a lot you can do against class that’s at the top of their game in WvW.

Ever, mind sharing what kind of build you’re running?

For the zones, see posts above.
For different class key bindings, technically not doable in game. If you have a gaming mouse or keyboard, you could use macros; just set them to press a specific key and swap them out when you change classes. Since it’s still 1 press for 1 action, it’s completely legal.

I’m actually very pleased with the update….

I currently Main a Ranger and am leveling a Mesmer for WvW utility, and all in all I think the bug fixes/changes are a step in the right direction. Am I a little sad the Mantras got hit so hard? Absolutely. But I also know that, overall, both the classes I’m playing atm are in a solid place and having fun!

In that case…

Plays a special diddy on his Longbow Clarinet

Now, for real devourer power!

SOURCE

I’m completely in, but with one caveat:

Ranged power stats pretty please?

My guess was the recharge on Mantras was a legit bug, but the Balance peeps only saw what was going on as a result. Thus Harmonious got balanced in accordance with no-recharge mantras in mind. The bug just happened to get fixed at the same time as the balance change, and we have the current situation. I’d even hazard a guess that MoD’s CD reduction was a last second attempt to course correct.

Hopefully ANet will see what Mantras look like now, and take measures to put them back to usefulness; ie: bring back the Bug that turned out to be a massive QoL improvement, and then tweak base recharges accordingly!

Fourth thread on this… I can understand being upset, but can since mesmers are supposed to be the sophisticated/refined class, perhaps we can keep a civil discussion in the already existing topics?

Three threads on this now. Perhaps contributing to an ongoing discussion would be more productive?

Well, I can’t speak for most of your classes, but for Ranger Theives are usually a favorable fight, and Mes depends ENTIRELY on the quality of the player. Bring a trap(or two, depending on build) and Signet of Stone. Run gear with Toughness, Vitality, or both (if you can squeeze it in). ALWAYS pack a wolf when walking around alone.

The Survival stats + Stone mean you’re going to eat the opening burst and be alive. If you swap into wolf, they’ll have little time to break off before being knocked down. If immediately feared, they’ll have problems (especially post 23 thief; their Stunbreaks are rare and valuable). Should you stand still for a moment, drop a trap at your own feet so that initial burst bit into them as well. Memorize your burst skill (Maul on GS, RF on LB, and #2 on Axe all work well here), then slam into them. 90% of burst builds are glass; between the pet, the trap, and your attack they’ll usually be hurting and try to break for reset. This makes RF really great since it tracks into stealth, but make SURE you check for confusion before activating. Even 3-4 stacks of confusion will make your day a bad one going through Rapid Fire!

More general advice to keep from being ganked:
#Don’t AFK in the middle of the road.
#Don’t AFK on top of a node, on a Ruin, or outside a supply camp.
#Don’t AFK. By this, I also mean sorting inventory, tweaking builds, changing dyes, etc. If you aren’t actively moving, you’re a target.
#Try to keep swiftness up. Moving targets are harder; sometime a gank can just outright miss.
#If the opponent goes for reset, use ‘X’ to flip and swing every so often. Nothing worse than a backstab that misses and gets a GS to the face instead.
#No one works well underwater, but Burst builds are especially bad. If you need a little breathing room, treat them likes a hive of bees and jump in the water for a second.

Hope this helps!

For healer: I’d look at Elementalist or Guardian (as suggested above)
For support: Take a peak at Mesmer

If you have HoT, Reventant looks like exactly what you’re asking. I’d also add Tempest(Elementalist) to Support, and Druid(Ranger) is likely to go into that category as well.

If you use Signet of Inspiration with PU you can maintain a fair amount of swiftness. combined with Focus #4 and some practice on timing, it’s near perma-swiftness. For tagging, use your Scepter or pop a GS #3. Mantra of Pain is also nice for tagging something at distance!

Otherwise, need to see your current WvW build to make suggestions on an openworld counterpart!

Fresh off the presses, may I introduce:
Cheshire Glamorclaw

Have a high-60s mesmer already, but realized I DESPISE how he looks/voice (apparently I’m not a fan of humans) so I rerolled this one and tossed some heritage skins on. Already very pleased with his results!

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Good changes, they were needed dearly, but more still needs to be done. Why Mantra of Distraction deserved a 33% CD reduction from 30s to 20s while spirits are still 30s blows me away, though.

To be fair, since the big update Mantras have had practically no CD due to them recharging after cast, not use. The CD reduction is still a nerf over what it’s been for the past month.

All in all, a great update for Ranger. Lots of the ‘little things’ that have been asked for given, and nothing taken away. A few more bugs needing fixed still, a few things needing improved (looking at you spirits), but all in all we’re in a better place today than we were yesterday, and as a class being murdered by little things this patch is in the right direction.

MattyP.6954:

I’m thinking of trying out a lulz trapper for WvWvW, but my main deterrent is having to actually craft Sinister Gear.

(If I do it, it’ll be riffing massively on WoodenPotatoes trapper build)

I highly advise AGAINST sinister trapper in WvW. Rabid is outstanding for the build, while a Rabid/Carrion mix, or Dire/Rabid mix (what I user) works very well. Remember that for Ranger the Power Coefficients and Base damage aren’t outstanding, so the loss of Ferocity isn’t something a trapper ranger usually notices. By dropping in Rabid you actually end up dealing more damage than sinister, once Utility is applied (6% toughness to condition damage) in addition to being better protected against stealth bursts.

Sinister works well for PvE, and is probably the way to go for PvP, but for WvW Rabid is the all-star.

As a reformed thief, I have to say: Comparing thief to any class right now isn’t a great matchup. Their burst is slightly less, and made less effective thanks to Rabid/Carrion seeing playing. There’s less condition removal in most builds now courtesy of the changes to Shadow’s Embrace. They’re much easier to keep CC’d, partly due to the aforementioned condition clearance and partly due to Stun-break being relatively limited. I’m not making an argument whether Mesmer is or has been OP/UP/Balanced, just making note that competition against Thief is not a solid litmus test at the moment.

In PvE: Run what you want. If you want to get creative, get a guild/friends and avoid Pugs. You’ll be fine.

In PvP: Don’t care for the mode so don’t play it much, but I imagine players aren’t standing in your condition application areas long enough for them to do any good. Plus LB and GS are great burst weapons, which matters a LOT on enemies than are mobile.

In WvW: A lot of people run condition damage. It’s excellent at flipping camps, handling roamers, or breaking up small groups. In the zerg, however, it tends to fall behind since there’s so much clearing going on and the damage can’t really seem to ramp. (That’s why we get second sets of gear!)

Chaos, thank you so much for all the hard work maintaining this. As a returning WvW player who wants to pickup the Mesmer toolbox for his server, this is an invaluable resource.

Thank you again.

Reaper: The reaper is your reverse; while the Chronomancer may control time, death always comes in the end. As a result, your abilities can advance an enemy to that inevitable end. It’s a fun combination to boot; quickening the Reaper and lowering the CDs takes away the downsides of the class, while your slows make the Reapers even stronger. If I was playing against mid-tier players who know to clump for boons/AoE reduction, this would be my ideal pairing. But, since we’re probably facing a bunch of players trying to form a mini-ktrain…

Tempest: Between your area denial, their area denial, and the ability to cross boon to over 9000 you should have no problems breaking up a herd and then picking them off one by one. Combined with all of the hasting and boons, two players would play like 3, maybe even four. It’s only downside is against a group that stacks, you’d be too easily targeted down.

That’s unfortunate; would be a great buff to the skill if it worked from the Rnager’s.

Thanks!

As I’ve made mention a few times, my first real main was Thief. After the Update, I started running a Venomshare Thief just before switching to Ranger. When using Venomshare, the applied venoms used the Theif’s Condition Damage/Duration; this made them very fun to use for some amazing burst condition damage. Looking over the ranger skills to try something new, I looked at Sun Spirit and wondered:

When the burning procs, does it use the stats of the Spirit, the player, or the Ranger?

In PvE, Traps deal amazing damage when used correctly. Mobs will just stand in the flames/viper traps, allowing you to just churn stacks on stacks. Trapper’s runes reset aggro each time you set a trap, letting the pet tank more for you so things like glass builds aren’t as fragile (though I still prefer Rabid). It’s great and fun, just don’t expect to set any speed records just yet.

Dinas Dragonbane.2978:

I run traps in WvW with rune of the trapper and currently love it. I use my build in settings from solo to groups of 10, and find lots of use for the traps. Dire armor, Giver’s weapons(s/w a/d), Celestial Jewelery is what I’m currently running. The runes themselves are good, and the stealth is great, but isn’t always feasible, and that’s where the super speed comes in. Traps are supposed to be set in advance and a stack of flame, vipers nest, and spike trap will basically kill certain builds that do not stun break/condi cleanse in time while they are facedown in your traps and getting pounded on by you and your pet. This stack is great in front of any sort of WvW portal especially for my guild since we’ll hit towers and keeps with less than 5 on a regular basis, and it’s handy to make sure enemies can’t get inside.
The runes are great but the stealth is only half of it.

Another cool trick is to set traps at the entrance to areas, like supply camps. When the enemy enters, you get an alert (entering combat) that there’re players incoming.

Is there a video link to watch?

Rangers being viable as support doesn’t depend on the Druid so much as it depends on HoT content. If the game is still Piccolo’s training camp (“DODGE!”) the zerk gear will still be the only thing dungeon groups really want. If ANet finds a way to make it consistent, but smaller, amounts of damage in addition to dodge spikes without it becoming tedious, THEN a support specialization can be useful, and we might get to see some real group action.

Otherwise, how much/well we heal will never matter, since healing isn’t currently doing anything.

Love my drakes.
That is all.

Personally, I love my traps now. They deal out nice damage on a decent radius. As for trapper runes, I’m loving those too.

Yes, the trap triggering knocks me out stealth, but that still resets the target (so long as you weren’t getting channel-tracked). So, against players with NPC aide (Mesmers/Thieves w/Guild/other Rangers) you get some awesome relief. Against players who aren’t on their game, it’ll also buy you a few free attacks. All in all, depending on what I’m doing, I feel like my trap-based build is incredibly strong.

If they were going to remove the DD from the traps, they’d need to add a decent amount of conditions to make up for it, and I’m still not sure it’d really put traps in a better place.

It took me weeks to get onto Dragonbrand to play with a friend in WvW. The ONLY way I managed to get on was to wait until a patch went live, download it, and then IMMEDIATELY go for the transfer. It’s not perfect, and requires more dedication than it should. but there is at least some chance.

Substance E.4852:

arenta.2953:

Ryk.7289:

Justine.6351:

My uber 1500 range hard at work. Sadly this was from before specializations ;-( https://youtu.be/Vb9sUlnTFUg

Holy kitten nerf pl0x anet, gg

i don’t see it being OP….

the theif nearly killed the ranger there with alot of hp left. had it not run (and instead switched to a ranged weapon instead of just using 1 weapon) it would have won easily.
instead, the ranger made use of 2 weapons to fight while the thief only used 1.

so bad play on theif part, and ranger nearly dead.

I think the joke was that he killed the thief without just Rkitten him for 1,000,000 damage from spawn.

It was actually a really good fight.

The only sad thing is that he came back on a condi thief which is ’baby’s first mmo pvp’ when used against a ranger.

To be completely fair, Camp Flipping (which the thief was doing) was usually done in a power build setup. The most popular build I was aware of was sword and Knight’s. He might not have ‘switched to gank the ranger’ but rather put on his actual combat gear.

Chuck Zitto.2367:

I just dont have these problems. Granted I hated my ranger for a long time. After they added the trapper runes though I love it. I play a zerker build with trapper runes. I can engage or disengage at will. I put out some of if not the highest burst dmg. I play like a thief that almost seems better than a thief cus no innititive and I can stealth on demand anytime with a trap.

I KNOW, right? If an activated trap didn’t break the stealth, I’d almost say the runes are too powerful. Especially against AI; resetting the targets is just too good.

I think the manual trigger would be the best way to go for this.

While I’d love to see the radius slightly larger, having it be the same as when triggered would take away the drop-in-back-then-pop-to-cover method that’s currently being employed by myself, and I’d hope others. A manual trigger would have the downside of eating the ability to layout multiple of them, but that’s technically a bug anyway so I’m not going to cry if it gets replaced by something useful.

My new gear and armor set.
Other weapon is a Vigil GS.

Loving it.

Goundski.9701:

What if they only allow login from one device at a time? Then the load should stay the same.

Being able to access chat while on the go increases the load in and of itself just because more players will be using the service more of the time. Now, admittedly, the chat itself is VERY little data consumption, but the number of ports and requests needed would be drastically increased, and these increases come at the times the servers are usually at their lowest usage (when people are at work/school and can’t play), making even basic maintenance more difficult.

I sincerely hope we’re looking at consecrations.

Ranger, as a solo class, is getting to a really good place. We have solid control, decent healing, survival w/o taking a hit to damage, plenty of build variety. The two areas we’re really hurting for is more straight up damage (condition is good, but our power builds could use just a bit more) and group utility. The majority of our CC is single target. same with heals, buffs, etc. One enemy, ourself/pet. So long as this is the case we’re always going to be considered ‘bottom tier’ for any group content.

Adding in consecrations the way the guard has them (lots of AoE/Group utility) is EXACTLY what the class needs, and it fits with the connotations of the ‘druid’ concept.

DHawk.2687:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

So what if RF does more damage than BS? It takes all ten (10!) hits to strike and crit for it to do full damage. One dodge negates 50% of that damage. BS hits for 60% of that damage in 1 hit and can be traited to 100% crit.

You can also steal from 1200 range that automatically puts you behind the Ranger, into stealth, Stun the Ranger and have 100% chance to crit the BS. Or you could just steal to gap close, then Head Shot to interrupt the RF channel, which you can do EVERY SINGLE TIME IT IS USED. Not only that, but it puts it on full CD.

Stop crying about 300 range, it is really nothing, especially when you have all the tools to counter it.

one dodge won’t midigate 50% of the damage first of all, you dodge 3 arrows tops
then steal won’t put you behind the ranger, it will shadowstep you toward him, meaning, the closest distance between the 2, only shadowsteps behind if you already are behind or the ranger turns around during the step
the bs does about 9k damage out of stealth with 100% crit rate, barely enough to get the ranger half health, if even that.
Furthermore your argument only stands when talking about dp thieves, dd or sd are not affected, since they have no acces to daze and the stealth on steal trait would be idiotic for dd
so you still dish out more damage at max range by pressing 1 button that will follow the enemy
anything else you want me to correct?
how about you play the thief before acting like you know his mechanics, thanks

To be fair, a well timed dodge will negate MORE than half the damage of RF. While it’s only 3 arrows (30% of arrows fired) it also prevents the vulnerability from stacking which enhances the damages of the arrows that come after it. What’s more, for RF to reach peak impact it needs Opening Strike; if that’s dodged then 5 stacks of additional vulnerability (8 stack total) and the enhanced crit both whiff; that’s easily half the damage of the channeled skill (even if it didn’t get clipped, evaded, or gap closed to lower the overall damage as well).

Also, there are some slight miscalculations: A BS thief can regularly break 10k on most targets (Ranger is an exception, but we can save the reasoning/traits for later), but it usually comes with a venom applied to trigger a brief stun to allow them to tack on more damage and lower healing. The best rangers can do is land an entire channeled skill which is rare.

Both are great burst skills, both have drawbacks and parts that make them excellent. Neither of them would I consider OP, and there are counters to both.

1) Not a bad change. We do have a fair amount of condition removal already, but by adding Resistance (Assume that’s what you meant?) to it we get something really cool. IF we were also able to make this affect allies (just like the condition pull) you could even pull the the Resistance down to 3 seconds and we’d suddenly have something really cool we can do in groups.

2) The range increase needs to be baseline, honestly. Whirling Defense isn’t a bad skill, but it’s so selfish atm it adds nothing to our grouping potential. Baseline a radius increase for all of the off hand skills and suddenly they’re all very useful.

3) +150 ferocity while wield an axe, Chill is now AoE, Whirl now grants stability? Yeah, this could certainly work.

4) This is a pretty big overhaul, and while I like it I’m hesitant. Combining a bear with beast mastery and the Signet of the Wild makes something tanky enough; having it be a secondary pet that absorbs all incoming damage while the main pet and the Ranger just go to town seems a bit on the strong side. The only real downside is it’d jam your swap combinations, which can curt, but it far from the end of the world. Especially when combined with Signet of Stone. Perhaps, if we had the bugs fixed so the class operated properly and the first 3 changes implemented we could give this one a try?

Since the Update, I’ve played three classes pretty heavily. The Mesmer, the Thief, and the Ranger.

The Mesmer is too strong, but that happens when you rework how a class functions and provide it with the tools it needs amid a massive alteration to the landscape. It’s known that they’re too strong, and the very reason I switched off was due to the multiple nerfs they’d already put on the class was making it hard to get a feel for it. Even though it’s holding atm, I’ll wait until the game is a bit more stable to give it a try.

The thief… the thief honestly got it bad this last patch. Boosted condition gameplay in all modes at the same time their conditions clearance got severely toned down, a lack of immob or stun break w/o very specific builds, lowered spike damage while other classes got better burst resistance – I know many people rate Necro/Ranger as the bottom classes, but having played a thief in Dungeons/Fractals/WvW I can say they are certainly living down to the reputation.

As for the Ranger… we have bugs. Yes, I know every class has a few bugs here and there, but the ranger bugs appear in every build I’ve seen. Traits that do literally nothing. Skills that only function to half of what they’re supposed to. A class ability that seems to be taking itself offline when we use Golems…during a golem event. Promises on specific buffs and features that aren’t yet implemented despite a dire need.

However, aside from those bugs (and that’s a BIG aside, I admit) I feel like the class is in a great place. I was flipping a camp earlier that was boosted by Hyleks, only to be caught by a thief right as I was coming to the end of the battle. I was able to not only hold my own, but the battle ended with both of us in a downed state. Sadly, buggy pet AI prevented me from getting the kill, but I started at less than 50% HP and most of my skills on CD and still walked away. Later, I returned to that camp and managed the slip only to have a solid 5 man team come at me. I was able to break combat and change the locale, and when the lone ele came after me I was able to take the battle to her face until the rest of the party realized I was still around and joined in.

If you go to the Ele forums, there have been posts asking each other how to deal with these new melee builds.

Yes, we have some completely dead skill lines – Looking at you spirits – but so do Necros (Minions) and Engineers (Turrets).

Rangers aren’t dead.

We just have a bad stomach bug.

cagiepoo.8162:

Nachyochez.9758:

Programmer here.
The current API only has return values, meaning it can get info sent to it by the game. In order to allow for first or third parties to push data into the game (chat/TP/crafting) requires EXTENSIVE pipeline to exist, much less be secure. It’s doable, but it’d require a ton of man power and testing before it could go live, and would nearly double the traffic on their servers. There are ways to offload it, like secondary mobile-only servers, but that incurs higher cost of development. The most likely feature would be something along the lines of a chat system, but that depends entirely on how the original was implemented- and again increases data usage.

It’s a nice feature, but there’s a lot of work and cost for little monetary gain.

Maybe this is where the GW2 players can show their talents. I know there are many programmers out there that could come up with some form of app/addon that could possibly be shown to the Anet Dev’s, maybe open a thread in here solely for third-party apps that could possibly be applied to the game in some form. The Dev’s could then test each app and make a decision whether to try it or not.

TECHNICALLY it’s possible a makeshift chat client could be fabricated; With the use of a screen reader and IRC “server” box for a guild, the data could be transmitted without interacting directly with GW2 servers. The caveat is that this is STRICTLY against the UA of the game, so a dev would need to approve a showcase of the program BEFORE any real ground work could be done. For something like the TP or Crafting you’re probably dealing with something more akin to ‘botting’, which again creates issues. Still, technically doable – were anyone willing to risk their account!

Programmer here.
The current API only has return values, meaning it can get info sent to it by the game. In order to allow for first or third parties to push data into the game (chat/TP/crafting) requires EXTENSIVE pipeline to exist, much less be secure. It’s doable, but it’d require a ton of man power and testing before it could go live, and would nearly double the traffic on their servers. There are ways to offload it, like secondary mobile-only servers, but that incurs higher cost of development. The most likely feature would be something along the lines of a chat system, but that depends entirely on how the original was implemented- and again increases data usage.

It’s a nice feature, but there’s a lot of work and cost for little monetary gain.

Another cool trick with traps is to set them up like a Venn Diagram with Spike in the middle. This will have the effect of holding them in all of the effects at once, larger area denial, and the ability to use the finisher of your choice with only minor position adjustments.

Guys, Axel’s post requesting “rangers stay away” wasn’t askign rangers to stay away, but rather that those with nothing to contribute beyond “l2p teef n00b” reservce their comments so the thread can stay constructive.

While a discussion on who is the true bottom of the barrel can be a bit of a grating subject for both classes, constructive feedback should always be the focus of a post.

I’ve got a metric ton of transformation potions just relaxing in my inventory. If anyone can come up with a solid series of experiments to test/verify if this is the case (place to kill the pet and transform safely) I can try to replicate on video

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

For a thief to have 22k health, he would need all ascended valk armor, all exotic valk trinkets, ascended valk weapons, Plate of Lemongrass Poultry and Furious Maintenance Oil… And you wonder why you cannot beat a Ranger? How about getting some crit chance?

Sorry, had to make a note on this before anyone became confused:
Full Valk armor is actually fairly common for thieves in WvW. Much like Ranger Remorseless builds, it can achieve 100% crit w/no precision in all game modes. It has the added bonus of allowing them to handle a little of the ongoing condition damage and still maintain zerker level power/ferocity. With full Valk Armor/Weapons/Trinks, he should be sitting just shy of 21k. With any given food, WvW bonuses, Ascended Gear, runes, or combination of the above he’d be looking at close to 22k hp with 100% crit and 3500+ attack with 210% crit damage.