Guild Wars 2

@jcbroe,

That wasn’t an excuse, I have no need to toss out an excuse for anything – it wasn’t I that designed or programmed this game, lol! Just pointing at how the game works currently.

I get other rangers pets sent after me all the time – I deal with it, one way or another.

*

The thing is, ever since the last patch came out, a minor crowd of ppl have been going wild on the forums about how OP the ranger is, which is funny since nothing of real importance changed with this patch for us, so I can’t really tell why the hell there’s been this major focus on rangers all of a sudden. A few ppl start being very vocal about this, and all of a sudden a lot of other players follow suit in ‘t r a kitten a l k of the month’, without even knowing what they’re talking about. It’s pathetic.

Tell me, what really changed for us rangers in pvp post april 30:th patch? So far noone has been able to actually point to anything that changed us to the “gods” some claim us to be.

The only thing that happened was that we had a looong list of changes (most of which were changes to our pets), and ppl go by the quantity of changes, and doesn’t even read or understand exactly what those changes means in practice.

Edit: God, what’s wrong with this forum? Can’t type anything without getting that ‘kitten’ all over the place…
Corrected some grammar mistakes…

If our pets aren’t supposed to be a force to be reckoned with, you might just as well get rid of them, and rebuild the ranger class completely. They don’t hit nearly often enough vs a good player that knows the flaws in their ai.

Is it annoying to have a pet constantly chase you and try and take a bite out of your kitten For sure, and it kitten well should be!
Stealth is annoying as hell also, so are the illusions/clones/phantasms of mesmers, and guardians sanctuary skill and so on so forth.

Ouch, crushed by wall of text for 50k…

I’d rather see spirits have the range they had in GW1, or close to that range anyhow.

Drakes and dogs have about 300 more power compared to the other pets.

They should balance things differently for all three aspects of the game, since they’re all different.

Don’t forget about the timestamps as well, needs more digits!

Chrone.6809:

Spirit AOE Actives (in the case of Frost, Sun, and Stone) need to be 200% larger area.

Stone is fine. But a blind that only hits things within two feet of it is fairly useless (without GM trait, even worse).

Agree. Activated effects of spirits are only really semi-useful if you have them follow you around, but that may be intended. However, their activated effects needs shorter cd and they need to bring more bang for the buck – in short, be more useful.

Passive effect of spirits needs to be extended A LOT.

Like I’ve said numerous times already Daecollo, if that’s indeed how it works it should of course be fixed. I see that as a bug, and I would think all rangers can agree on that.

It’s really simple – if the ranger or the pet is fighting something, both should be in combat state, ’nuff said.

I like the current system, that specs for player/pet are independent of each other. If I go for very high condition damage, that may not benefit my pet of choice at all (drakes).

So no, current system is the best. Apparently Anet felt the same way designing it since it is what it is.

There are thieves out there fully capable of burning down a bunker ranger in a few short seconds, cuge, so your point here is invalid.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

While I disagree with pet dodge when the player dodge those of you unwilling to use a dodge to help your pet probly cant keep your pet alive becuase of this very thinking.

Dodging to give you pet protection is key to keeping your pet alive. Using Heal to keep your pet alive is also key.

You can kite and dodge your pet can not. Those of you who are unwilling to save half of your dps with a dodge or a heal are doing your pet,class and self a disservice.

And that’s not what I said really, I do use my wilderness trait go give my pet protection when I dodge, and I most def. toss a heal when my pet needs it. Or pull it back. Or swap it.

I just don’t like the idea that my pet should dodge when I do, that would be a really crappy mechanic, especially for a pvp player like me.
I don’t think any pvper would like that mechanic.
I wouldn’t like it anymore in pve either…

So leash is too long in pvp. Well, it might be. What if you were to use “Guard” on one node, and you yourself were to head to another node, that wouldn’t be ok either? Is mesmer portal ok?

(Speaking of mesmers, what’s the leash ranger on their phantasm and illusions? Just curious, since I’ve had them follow me a great distance while the mesmer himself sets off in another direction.)

If splitting up pet on one location, and ranger on one location, that’s basically half a character on each location. Or are people honestly claiming that ranger without pet is as strong as other classes? Or that the pet alone without the ranger is as strong as a real class?

And again about the pet being able to attack stuff while you are out of combat. I honestly never thought of this, but if this is indeed how it works, it’s a bug and should be fixed asap – simple as that. Can’t say I’ve seen it though, will have to check more carefully.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Nothing really besides pet damage and survivability. You can easily get through the game without a single point in it.

This!

…but I have to say that personally – BM all the way, just fits my style of play!

The mindset that there is no counter play is a faulty one. Players wants to ignore our pets, that’s the core of the issue, they don’t want to “waste time” on fighting the pet. Well, I would like to ignore mesmer phantasms as well, but that can prove to be a fatal mistake.

You can send your pet to attack targets at far greater distance than 1500, not sure where you got that information from? Just go to the mists and see for yourself. A pet is not a weapon like a sword or a bow, and should therefore not be bound by the same limitations, that’s rather logical imho. It’s our core mechanic, don’t try to dumb it down to the status of yet another weapon, because it’s not.
Of course we should be able to perform things with our class mechanic that are unique to us, just as all the other classes can perform things that are unique to them through their class mechanics.

There also needs to be an area that extends over the maximum distance that you can send your pet, where the pet can move around in, otherwise one small step back by your enemy would instantly send our pets back to us, and that would be a bad, bad mechanic.

In other words – as it works today, more or less.

Zenith.7301:

Eurantien.4632:

This would be a problem for pvp. There are things I HAVE to dodge and there are times my pet HAS to hit so that I can win a fight. Often times those two things coincide. I do not want this as a mechanic.

Make it so when the ranger dodges the pet just gets distortion or evasion status but keeps attacking.

That would most likely be considered OP, even if I would like such a mechanic.

In the past I suggested that the pet either dodge or get evasion on call back, with some form of cooldown on the ability. Such an ability could help in some situations, but I don’t think that would be a good solution either.

No thank you. If I dodge it’s (mostly) because I want to get away from something. I don’t want my pet to stop attacking because I dodge. I also don’t want to, normally, waste my dodges on the pet – I need them myself.

If you think about this some more, I think you can agree this would be a bad thing.

Daecollo, wth are you on about pet healing for 30-50% more when they are far enough away from the ranger, even though they are in combat? I’ve never heard or seen this.

IF there’s any truth in what you’re saying, that would be a bug that should be fixed, and of course will be fixed. But again, I’ve never, ever heard about this before. Strange that it pops up now, when there are some loudmouths on the forums working their kitten off in an effort to nerf rangers.

The real fun begins when you face 3 or more mesmers at the same time!

Quite honestly, Anet went for a visually appealing game, but they focused too much on that aspect, having a gazillion npc’s and effects all over the place.

Anyone remember how the “pro” players used to tweak games like Quake and CS to be as ‘clean’ as possible, all in favor of improving actual gameplay by removing excessive and distracting clutter and making things easier on the eyes?

The mesmer class mechanic, in combination with all other things going on is a bit over the top for most ppl. While you struggle to first of all find the real mesmer after a swap and/or stealth or whatever, then retarget the actual player in all this mess, the mesmer can continue to punish you nonstop.

The way they implemented the thief and the mesmer was to make them too reliant on abusing a somewhat faulty game mechanic (= screen clutter). They both should have been designed completely differently.

ronpierce.2760:

You’re admitting you rely on the clunky mechanic of forced de-target in order to live. Maybe if that wasn’t a factor they could be improved in other ways to subset this change, if they found it neccessary.

This.

Targeting in this game is far from perfect, and both thieves and mesmers benefit from it far too much, besides their stealth and confusing options.

It’s a bad game mechanic because of how clunky this system actually is. Reacquiring your previous thief target in the midst of minions, pets and other players is not an easy task, granting stealth “double bonus” if you will.

I think we all agree on challenging content = fun, for the most part.

But one-shotting mechanics ? challenging, nor fun. That’s just lazy, crappy design.

I just wanted to say, since some seems to think otherwise:

It’s perfectly legit that a ranger pet can kill a player!

Getting upset because you got killed by a ranger pet and because of that claiming that pets are op in a trillion different ways is just ignorant.

Since there are some loudmouths trolling the forums these days, campaigning against rangers to the point even plenty of people on this part of the forum are starting to fall for the “op rangers” talk, I thought that stating the obvious was needed.

How about giving the pets collars? One slot only, and with different bonuses on different collars.

One thing… according to the wiki, banners can be destroyed:

“Banners are a warrior skill type that apply buffs to their allies. Once summoned, banners function as an environmental weapon. They can then be replanted to a different location to follow the flow of the battle. Once planted in the ground the banner can be targeted and destroyed.”

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Banner

You forgot about the aoe application of vulnerable and the support through whirl finisher. If used like this, trying to get all of the effects at once, it’s a good skill. That’s how I use it, when I use it.

Daecollo.9578:

They need a 1200m leash, they follow targets way too far, its not right.

Once they get far enough they heal like they are out of combat if there master is.

1. Maybe they need a shorter leash, but who are you to say that leash should be 1200m? Hell no. Just no.

2. If they heal like that (never seen that), then that is a bug.

Chopps.5047:

So the community consensus seems to be leash pets in spvp, nerf rangers in spvp, buff ranger spirits, rework traitlines, leave pet leash alone in pve/wvw, buff longbow auto, and remove pet death penalty CD from pve.

Community consensus? I think not. If we talk about the nerfs, those are the opinions of some very vocal minority that are running a campaign against rangers this month, working their kitten off and pulling all the strings to try and get us nerfed – they want their free lunch, and rangers have always been seen as just that.

We’ve waited a long time for some fixes to our class, primarily to our pets. The fixes in this last patch was a step in the right direction, but none of the fixes have boosted our pets to invincible levels, like people are stating. 2k more health for my jaguars in pvp means nothing more than that they may be able to take another hit or two – that’s it.

Sebrent.3625:

Are you sure? I thought that if you were in combat with anything else it would break it … if you’re correct, excellent.

I personally prefer passive though as it gives me the most control over my pet.

Actually, now I’m not sure anymore, lol. I may have to come back and revise my earlier post.

Lol yeah, I’m very new I guess, using aggressive all the time

Sebrent.3625:

Run pet on passive, press F1 while you have the Thief or correct Mesmer targeted … don’t press F1 again for that pet …

Your pet will now attack that Thief or correct Mesmer any time they are not stealthed no matter what they do. This is one of the beautiful aspects of the Ranger pet.

But you don’t have to have your pet on passive for this to work…

Ok guys, here’s how it works.

If you lock your pet on a target, let’s say a thief, by using F1, your pet will attack that target for as long as possible, no matter what you are doing/attacking, passive or aggresive mode makes no difference.

If the thief enters stealth, and you attack another target, the pet will also attack that target (if set to aggresive) UNTIL the pet comes out of stealth – then your pet will go back to attacking the thief again (even if you continue to attack another target).

In short, you can see your F1 key as a lock on target for your pets. This is very useful against thieves and mesmers.

If you just let your pet attack whatever you are attacking, by never using your F1 key, they will not lock on to a target like this.

Durzlla.6295:

I thought you guys said MF is the hardest instance to keep pets up?

Huh, who have said that? This is the easiest dungeon in the game by far.

Eh, the actual player still have to reacquire the target again after stealth, JUST like all other classes have to.

Difference now is that pets can be useful in between the stealth spam, and not like before when they just stood there pondering over the situation, wondering if they should, you know, attack, when the thief got out of stealth.

Also remember, our pets can’t swing around in the open air attacking a cloaked thief, which means we miss out a large portion of our potential damage against a cloaked target.

So yeah, having my pet keep attacking the target I’ve told it to attack is pretty kitten balanced, all things considered. If anything, they still need more work, since they miss A LOT of their attacks against competent players.

faeral.7120:

OGDeadHead.8326:

Exactly what AI change are you talking about here?

i am speaking of pets automatically regaining their targets after a target drop, so they are effectively set-&-forget for ranged harass. this made the leash range a ridiculous situation, as a pet can perma-track a thief or mesmer with no effort at all, shadow refuge can’t shake them off teammates, etc. prior to this change you would need a teammate to set a target for you if they are out of your LOS to put your pet back on them.

And thank god for that change. Before, especially vs cnd thieves, you could be glad if your pet did anything at all when the thief got out of stealth, before (s)he got back into stealth again.

Mostly it would be like when the thief got out of stealth, we would have to fight them without our class mechanic, because pets were way too slow to react, while it apparently was absolutely ok for the thief to spam their class mechanic, non stop. We were at a huge disadvantage, our pets were only good as cnd targets.

Almost the same issues with mesmers, but not to the same extent. The fact that our pets had so slow reaction time would make them next to useless in these fights.

So the change that made pets automatically reacquire their targets was a much, needed one, no doubt about that.

Luthan.5236:

Ha ha. I also had this problem. One of these teams was a premade with 3 rangers. Also a lot of random teams with 2 rangers.

I checked that patch notes again and it does not seem that much of a buff(the ranger players complaining about our “whining” already mentiond only a few more hp).

I think the problem is that rangers always have been a bit strong(someone said this in another thread) and now more and more people are playing rangers because of the last patch and that’s why we only notice them now.

This.

This, and all the new whining on the forum here for sure must have caught the eye of many players to try out the ranger now. For the not so bright, going by quantity of changes in the patch notes, it would seem that rangers and their pets got buffed to god-status. Anyone that have played a ranger since release and/or beta before that, knows nothing really changed in pvp.

The same thing happened with engineers, was it last patch or the patch before that, and all of a sudden a crapload of HGH engineers were seen all over the place.

People are going by the quantity of changes to a class and thinks “heck, that class got some crazy buffs, I must play one”, while they have NO actual knowledge of what’s really going on.

All the things I hear ppl complaining about rangers now, I did months ago, just as effectively. The only change in the last patch that benefited me in a very minor way, was the 2k health buff to my cats, and by the sound of all the whiners here, that change alone have made my cats go from dying when you sneeze on them to being invincible now.

It’s laughable.

K, good to know!

Nah, I agree, axe 5 is best when you know what to expect.

Off hand axe is pretty nice in the new dungeon, in many places. Used right, and ontop of your healing spring or other combo field, it deals decent damage, adds lots of vulnerability, reflects any projectiles coming your way AND can support your team through its whirl finisher – all in one skill.

I can’t think of any other skill we have that has so many thing going for it at once. It’s situational, yes, but if you do find those sweet spots where and when to use it, it’s a kick kitten skill for sure.

If anything, please Anet, let us gain stability while channeling axe 5. With that change alone, I wouldn’t mind the fact that this skill roots you in place.

Durzlla.6295:

Ision.3207:

Beardmonger.4692:

If I ever do bring a drake into WvW, I bring Marsh. The F2 still hits the intended target at any angle (even directly behind the drake) at a 900 range. MUCH less of a hassle to manage than the other drake F2s.

However, successfully landing the river drake’s F2 once or twice has made me laugh hysterically.

Huh?

I’m somewhat at a loss on what you said. Are you saying that the Marsh Drake’s F2 attack, if in range and un-interrupted, never misses his intended target?

And if so, which other Drake sub-species would you rank as 2nd for most likely to fully hit his target with his F2 attack? Salamander Drake?

Marsh Drake is the only drake whose breathe homes in on the target, but as such he’s lacking in the raw power aspect, but that bouncing poison can be detrimental.

I’m not sure, but I don’t think it homes in on targets any longer.

If you read the update notes, this is what they said:

Drake Skills

• Lightning Breath skill: Reduced cast time from 2.7 seconds to 1.5 seconds. The lightning from this attack no longer tracks targets.
• Fire Breath skill: Reduced cast time from 2.7 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• Insect Swarm skill: Reduced cast time from 2.7 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• Frost Breath skill: Reduced cast time from 2.7 seconds to 1.5 seconds.

Thing is, Lightning Breath never tracked targets in the first place afaik, so I think they mixed that up with Insect Swarm? Not 100% sure about this though, will go to pvp to test the Marsh drake some more post april 30 patch, would love some help with this!

It’s always been like this. The only pet attacks that you can use when swapping+instantly pressing F2 are the jaguar and birds (might have missed another pet or two).
All others needs half a second or so to aquire their target first, before their F2 will work.

Axe 5 reflects projectiles, fyi.

FupaVirus.1502:

The pets doing more damage (shorter activation times)

Eh, what? A shorter activation times = more damage? It’s still the same amount of damage dealt within the cooldown of the skill. This claim = fail.

FupaVirus.1502:

The dps pets weren’t a threat before because they were so easy to kill. You guys must not run with a decent team in Tpvp because anyone that does knows that a big part of the game is control. Whereas a player used to just blow the ranger pet up while he was immobilized or whatever, that’s no longer the case.

Let’s take a look at the popular jaguar, which would be classified as a dps pet. The jaguar belongs to the family of cats. Cats got NO increase in armor, and got a whopping increase in health from 13,000 to 14,868, an increase in health by 1,868 points. Wow, just wow. I understand that they are unkillable now, I really do… (sarcasm).
This claim = fail.

FupaVirus.1502:

Rangers are too rewarding for nothing

For nothing? This claim is insulting

FupaVirus.1502:

The fact that a ranger is now the biggest offensive threat to a team fight and must be focused on or controlled before almost any other target is what makes him OP.

That is NOT a fact, that’s your extremely biased view of things. You’d rather see the ranger class so kitten that they can be ignored completly, and a free kill to cash in as soon as you see one.

FupaVirus.1502:

Say whatever you want to defend your class, but at least be honest and acknowledge the fact that they did get buffed and are stronger.

They got an increase to health and/or armor across the board, yes. They did not get an increase to damage dealt.

faeral.7120:

i will admit that the AI change they made should have been for PvE only, it is way too easy to just sic a pet on a target & target breaks won’t force the player to make another active decision. this one change has dumbed down the spec more than any other since the pet will maintain its target regardless of player’s line of sight.

Exactly what AI change are you talking about here?

Lol! They better fix this, and fix it fast, since it’s driving ppl away from the game.

Yeah, they better fix these issues fast, with the changes to upscaling and other issues that popped with the last patch. Word of mouth travels fast, and areas and events die out fast when players see how kittened up things are atm.
Unless that’s actually what they want? It would be interesting to hear the reasoning behind the decisions taken recently.

A typical day in mob development @ Anet:

-“Oh look, those darn players are killing my mobs here! Curse them!”

(30 minutes of intense keyboard clatter later, boosting mob abilities and stats to insane levels…)

-“Now kill this, you schmuks! Muahahahahaaaaa!” (evil grin)

The flying champion boss where you farm sparks have been boosted to crazy levels as well, compared to before. Why are they doing this? You’re only making the gameplay experience worse for your players by implementing changes like these.

If upscaling of events from now on will mean oneshotting mechanics, then goodbye GW2. Never been so frustrated with anything before in this game, as I was when I did the Lyssa encounter today.
Your new ideas of how to upscale content sucks.

Anet must love to put in these cheap game mechanics. That Champion Gorilla mob is pretty much the stupidest thing I’ve came across in this game so far.

Millions upon millions of healthpoints, and oneshotting ppl left and right. What’s your problem, Anet, seriously?

The changes to Lyssa doesn’t bring anything good or fun with it at all.

I agree this is one skill that the devs really need to fix. There are however a few things you can do to make it work better, and activate without having the bear run to the enemy.

• Clear your target!
  This is easiest to do by binding a key to “Lock autotarget” under Control options.

• Make sure you don’t have an enemy “marked” in your view!
  By marked I mean if you look at an enemy, and can see their healthbar, then it is marked, and the bear will run to that enemy!

See the attached screenshots, my example of the marked / not marked doe!