Guild Wars 2

Epic fighting going on at SoR BL. Spent 2 hours on in the Lord’s room at Garr holdin off BG from the east and IoJ from the west…good times. :]

Ikcen.7518:

The problem is not the repair costs. If you do such a thing in L2 you will be kicked out of the clan . Here ppl just don’t care about honor. The game is made to support this attitude. Enemies are anonymous in WvW, everyone has up to 4 guilds. Noone cares what other ppl think about him. Players play for statistic points, not for a real fame. Which are the best players in GW2? I don’t know, maybe we shall look in Youtube, cause it’s impossible to find them into the game.

You do have a point with the anonymity thing. ANet went overboard with the whole anti-griefing crusade in W3. In makes total sense in pve where you shouldn’t be forced into a pvp role. But in W3, the whole point of the thing is competition and teamwork. But ANet just wants the teamwork and dropped off the competition part. Having generic names over everyone’s head devalues everything into an impersonal confrontation that almost feels like you’re attacking pve mobs.

OP

Usually, I stay dead every time just to give directions to everyone else as to where the zerg is going. If I don’t need to do that, I wait for the spike then portal out simply because it’s faster. But if I’m the one doing the spiking I don’t mind if he exits out. That just means one less player on their side for 5 minutes. I play for my server, not for personal gain.
Side note: Peeps that dance over your corpse and spam emoticons are very troubled individuals.

But in all honesty, why does it matter so much? You know you won, and they know they lost. Isn’t that enough? True it’s poor character and childish, but you shouldn’t really care that much about it. If the only thing it is hurting is your sense of closure on a 1v1 match, that’s kind of trivial.

My only real concern about this is badges. If they could figure out a way to still give you badges if they log out in the downed state, I could care less if they exit game.

But honestly, I don’t need to drive a stake in someone to realize I won. Heck, most times if there is someone else around I’ll just move on and let someone else finish him off. I’ve even let the camp guards or krait finish off a few at times lol.

@drax

I’ll play devils advocate on this one, and use a current situation.

Q. Given the presence of Palestinians and other non-Christians living in Judea for thousands of years, was the creation of the Israeli state morally (un)justified?

Edit: lol, Curuniel beat me to it. :P

Narcemus.1348:

The world is changing, and England and the US are no longer enemies, so why should humans and charr be.

Very true…but the charr aren’t human. I just don’t see the charr, or any of the other playable races for that matter, as equals to humans. Most of my characters are human; I have one norn on the shortest height setting(lets face it, they just look like tall humans), and one asuran I treat like a pet. Does that make me racist or something? I’m not sure…maybe species-ist would be more apt. It’s wierd, I’ve played fantasy races before and not really thought anything of it.

I think I’m too stuck in GW1’s human-centric gameplay. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have introduced all 4 of the other races(charr, norn, asura, sylvari) and just kept humans. To me, that was both one of the defining characteristics of GW1, and a brilliant design mechanic. You had humans that represented Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Additionally, the next expansion was supposed to be Meso-American in theme. It was easy for any player around the world to let themselves identify with their characters. It’s the first game I’ve played that I had that sense of ownership with, and is probably the reason I think humans are misrepresented in this game.

I suppose ANet brought in the other races to appeal to a wider audience and all that, but I thought they had something really unique with a human-dominated fantasy setting that mirrors real-world cultures. Are there other fantasy games out there that do that? I blame the great writing and story-line of GW1 for all of this haha.

At any rate, sorry for the tangent here. Most of you have very valid arguments that I simply can’t counter within reason, so at this point I’m just ranting. Isn’t that what the forums are for?

Sleepy.2647:

Obsidian.1328:

Huh?? GS is the only reliable melee weapon I’ve found in W3 for a non-condition build. Sword/dagger is great but you lose that perma-cripple on thieves when they stealth. GS’s blocks, stuns, reach, and gap-closers are priceless when combating those lil devils.

I don’t see how you can block, stun, reach or anything when thieves are in stealth. It’s the same situation for both weapons, except GS has a block on “high” cooldown and sword/dagger has multiple evades.

Either way, get the legendary/skin you like, that’s what it is about in the end right?

Yeah the evades are very nice I’ll admit. The thing I like about the GS vs thieves is if you can manage to block them, you follow right away with a knockback, then can stun/daze, then Maul for a very nice bleed/dmg. Having every third attack on skill 1 be an automatic evade helps too. Oh and the GS reach is a little farther. Traited for the 20% recharge reduction I can high-tail it away if I need to every 9.5 seconds

At any rate, ya I would like to see some better 1H sword legend skins in the future.

Hmm…the Nazi thing I don’t see. If anything I see an Celt/Roman – Human/Charr dynamic, but that’s just me.

Keep in mind the writer’s have bent the situation so that any Separatist nuances are seen as irrational or uncivilized. When you’re in Ebonhawke and keep getting bugged by “sympathizer” npc’s, the writers obviously want you to choose the answers that lead toward peace. After awhile I was like, “Why is ANet trying to make moral decisions for me that I don’t agree with?”

It’s not “wrong” for me to think the Charr deserve to die by Ascalonian/Ebonhawke steel, and I take offense that they would make my viewpoint into some kind of in-game “lesson” that rewards you with karma and experience. If the people of Ebonhawke choose to honor their ancestors and fight the good fight, so be it.

Do I live excessively in the past? Probably…but it is what it is.

Sleepy.2647:

Dahkeus.8243:

There’s a factor a lot of people are leaving out of this:
Piercing Arrows

Considering how often you have multiple targets (at least in PvE), it’s easy to at least have your bow damage doubled for much of the time, so even if your pet is dead and even if you are missing a few attacks, you’re doing more damage than a warrior in any realistic situation.

Well, that’s right except warriors rifle also pierce if traited.

The pet doesn’t “die” that fast in PvE unless you have no clue about how to manage your pet. In PvP it can die to certain bursts…just like you do but it doesn’t die that often either unless you send it to a zerg.

Even in Fractals where the agony at higher levels is insta death your pet can still be alive the majority of time.

Warriors make great melee damage, playing a rifle warrior is imo completely trakitten’s like playing a spirits ranger build.

@Akisame, this is no engi…this is warrior/ranger, rifle is the shortbow counterpart, longbow is the equivalent to longbow, there is no argument about this even if rifle has a similar skill compared to longbow.
Even if you think longbow is worse than SB…that’s actually what some people believes but it’s far from being right tho :P

How is shortbow the counterpart to the rifle? If anything, dual pistols is the shortbow equal: shorter range, higher rate of fire. The longbow is specced for distance attacks, and riles come closest to that range. Granted rifle can be used effectively at any range, but it can shoot farther than a shortbow can.

Both rifle and longbow have a knockback and a volley/rapid fire skill. Both apply similar conditions. And both have comparable ranges and rate of fire. Dual pistols and shortbow both apply bleeds and dazes, both have an escape mechanism (blind, evade), and both have similar ranges. The only advantage pistol has is a burst function but shortbow kind of makes up for that by having a slightly higher rate of fire and a spray pattern skill that applies poison.

Mikitten058:

Obsidian.1328:

Durios has 2 spots screened from the 3rd floor sm trebs…but your still vulnerable to your walls being taken down of course.

And once you get inside the outer wall of SM, there are certain skills that can hit those high trebs(Barrage being one of them). You just have to harass the heck out of SM to keep them busy defending multiple fronts to get in.

Both of those spots can be hit by treb splash damage. (All the others in DG are straight Treb dmg.)

I don’t know about that, the spot I had once they tried for an hour to hit me from that east platform and couldn’t…not even with splash damage. Granted I could only take out 1 section of SM wall because of the odd angle, but it still worked. The only way they were able to to get me was by building a treb on the ground in SM farther south.

Durios has 2 spots screened from the 3rd floor sm trebs…but your still vulnerable to your walls being taken down of course.

And once you get inside the outer wall of SM, there are certain skills that can hit those high trebs(Barrage being one of them). You just have to harass the heck out of SM to keep them busy defending multiple fronts to get in.

Curuniel.4830:

Just because the charr are very disciplined and kitten, doesn’t mean they’re more Spartan than Roman. Certainly there’s a very Spartan attitude about them, but I think they’re more like how the Romans imagined themselves (at least when it came to war). Check out this story for an example! The legions, the names of the ranks, the emphasis on a disciplined fighting force rather than a berserker mob… all quite deliberately Roman. Ages ago, before the game’s release, I wrote this piece about how far that comparison can go.

Regarding Ascalon, the culture was portrayed as your standard European pseudo-medieval fantasy kingdom (even if Hadrian’s Wall probably was a source of inspiration, that’s passed from Roman to British history). It’s similar to ancient Rome only in the sense that almost every conventional fantasy kingdom is similar to Rome in some way. Rome is also a great source of inspiration for inter-race dynamics in fantasy, since the culture spread so far and interacted in many different ways with local ones elsewhere.

I don’t know about that, the Romans had a history of tolerance when it came to absorbing the cultures they conquered. In fact, some of the issues in the late Republic had to do with non-Roman influences in both the Army and Senate. It was in their best interests for order and prosperity to let their conquered territories keep their various identities. Historically, not much about the Charr reflects that, they certainly held some xenophobic attitudes in their past.

From a governmental, religious, or art/architecture standpoint the Charr don’t really adhere to Roman qualities. The humans could say they do in at least the latter two(Ascalon architecture is casually similar, and the gods much more so with how they take on human qualities and have a small but powerful “pantheon” of gods).

I would say the Charr bear two good similarities to Rome: the military and engineering. The military is an obvious one. And Romans were widely know for their inventiveness in engineering and construction, although the technological leaps and bounds the Charr take from gw1 to gw2 is arguably unrealistic.

It’s the raw culture of the Charr that seems much more Spartan then Roman to me. The Romans were a military juggernaut for sure, but they also were the transient carriers of Greek ideals, innovators in civil code, politics, law, architecture and agriculture, and the sheltering wings under which the Med-lands enjoyed hundreds of years of peace and safety(albeit after being conquered). The Spartans knew little of broad governance beyond a slavery/master framework, and even less of art. The were a warrior culture that lived and died by the spear. Seems pretty Charr-like to me.

Yet I would agree with you that Ascalon doesn’t seem terribly Roman either, but rather a generic “european”-modeled fantasy realm. Likable characters though.

No need to apologize.

Wait, December’s monthly includes Fractals again??

Good fun in SoR BL last night…BG seems to happily wade into battle like it was oxygen, and IoJ continues to impress with their craftiness and perseverance. Thanks(and no thanks) for keeping me up so late.

Score update?

Ryoki Hokishami.2756:

Ranger Greatsword is my favorite weapon. It’s a great PVE/Dungeon defensive weapon. And frankly the funnest weapon rangers have. Go for it, that’s what i’m doing. (sunrise)

Also, don’t let people get you thinking rangers are ALL about bows. They’re not.

Greatsword is really only bad in PVP, but even still, it’s great for most everything PVE related besides single target damage. Sharpening stone+Maul+Entangle is a great way to spread mass AoE bleeds with a GS.

Huh?? GS is the only reliable melee weapon I’ve found in W3 for a non-condition build. Sword/dagger is great but you lose that perma-cripple on thieves when they stealth. GS’s blocks, stuns, reach, and gap-closers are priceless when combating those lil devils.

Pro: Being selfish of Trahearne’s role and making the narcissistic assumption that role should be yours is a tad childish.

Con: Uppity, monotone-english, cold fish, hapless Fern commands elite Pact soldiers. I wonder if ole’ Monty was his inspiration…

I like sword/dagger a lot if you want to stick to someone like glue and have great evades and condition apply.

For thieves, great sword for the block, stun, swing radius, and awesome gap closer(Swoop). So instead of losing everytime to a thief I merely lose 90% of the time now. Yay for progress!

3 questions…

1) Does anyone know why unused siege timers are so quick? I realize the purpose behind this game mechanic of preventing stockpiles of siege to build up at a given location, but 20 minutes is crazy fast for that. Especially at night if you have to pull triple-duty capping supply camps, escorting yaks, and upgrading a keep or tower…if you get caught up in even one lengthy engagement, you’re defensive siege that you spent the last 3 hours slowly building is wiped out.

2) Does anyone know why some siege stays forever? There was this arrow cart and catapult in a tower I was working on that just would not disappear, no matter how long it had been since someone was around. Stuff I built right next to them came and went twice yet they remained. Is there any rhyme or reason to this phenomenon?

3) Do the siege timers work on use or proximity? Trebs seem to be unique to actual use to keep them alive, dunno why. The other stuff seems to be proximity but even that doesn’t always work. It’s like there is some random modifier on if a given piece of siege will be around if you leave and come back. Any thoughts?

Signed,

Tired of throwing silver away

Hypergrip.9673:

Miniature Giant Space Hamster.
I’ll call him Boo.

Lol, I got that! Good ole’ Minx. Or is it Minsc? :/

Lutinz.6915:

The Searing itself was probably bungled from what we learn about it in Orr. The magic had the ability to be far more focused and directed. Of course, this is the Flame Legion we are talking about so they may have just done it on purpose.

Although the Charr feel very strongly about their claim to Ascalon and often hold a hatred of humans that isnt really shared with any other race, many Charr didnt approve of many of the methods used during the invasion 250 years ago. There are charr around the Ascalon areas which make comments on it.

Most of the worst activities committed by the Charr were the result of the Flame Legion. Most other Charr can be brutal but are pragmatic about it rather than malicious the way the Flame Legion is.

You also have to remember that Ascalon was really just in the way. The Titans were pushing the Charr towards Orr. The Charr as a race really wasnt in control of its own destiny at the time and the result of that is their strong hatred of gods.

I don’t think you can skirt the blame to the Flame Legion here. GW2 likes to paint them a picture that separates them from mainline Charr, but that’s not how they were presented in the original. The GW1 Charr wanted to dominate and kill every race, not just the humans. The humans were just the closest and most dominant race around then. Charr battled the Forgotten for ages before the humans came. And even in EotN they were pillaging and killing the Norn on their border.

There’s little distinction in the first game about whether or not a charr mob was Flame Legion or not based on their attitude. And a lot of the atrocities were committed by regular Charr soldiers not just Shaman’s. The Titan’s weren’t controlling the Charr’s actions, they were using the Charr to spread destruction in general. The Charr were using the Titan’s to kill humans in particular. There’s a difference.

The OP has a point in human/charr society when he talks about intentions. The humans never wanted to eradicate the Charr, they were brought to Ascalon by the gods to live and had to deal with the situation. Once they became settled, they just wanted to live normal lives, letting the Charr do what they want in the North. The Charr, however, wanted to eradicate every human soul they could reach. Why? Because that’s what they do, they kill anything that they can reach.

Peetee.9406:

Yah we destroyed TC the last time we played them. Literally within 2 hours after reset they had packed it in for the week, I think we scored 515k that week.

For as much as I dislike playing against an opponent whose prime is different than mine, I would much rather face even competition than someone who we’d bury at the start and have nothing to do all week.

=O

I’ve been dying to put in a frolf(frizbee golf fyi) course in Stonemist for, like, ever! Or at least a swirly slide from a treb platform down into a splash pool. Too much kitten shrapnel flying around right now for that. QQ

Good times.

Valik Shin.9027:

portal is not the root of cullin issue stealth is. i have never had problem with a portal causing it. only time i could say way something even close to that was when 100 people way pointed in SM on top of us when we already had 60 people in there but i would expect 160 people in one spot to cause some issues

I don’t think stealth is the root of culling, it’s a programming function. There are times when I can see, for instance, a ranger’s arrows shooting through the air but no ranger where they start. I’ll stand there for 5 seconds before the ranger starts to materialize. It doesn’t happen all the time like that, but it happens to some small degree a lot.

Stealth just delays the culling longer, while portal bombing slows it down because of the sudden mass numbers and the program struggles to keep up. Portal bombing is ok I guess, I mean it is defensible. The OP has a point in that it detracts from traditional roles of attack and defense, and can be a pain in the butt, but it’s not so overpowered as to make all your defenses futile.

From a defensive mindset it’s not as unsettling as a half dozen alpha’s and one omega knocking on your door. And by knocking I mean using the npc door guard’s head to smash through oak timbers like they were made of fizzle sticks. :P

Seconded…and thirded

Stealth isn’t an F1 skill though, Steal is. Stealth is just a normal thief utility skill(with traits) that is used so much it’s kind of become the hallmark of that class. So something like Reveal wouldn’t be taking away a Thief’s F1 skill.

Yeah it “regenerates” but isn’t considered a regeneration. God knows why. I had the same question awhile back when I realized the duration didn’t change.

nldixon.8514:

I don’t understand why people purposefully want to nerf themselves by not using a pet.

Second, pets are the Ranger class mechanic. It’s not like the game or any of the written material at any point leads you astray or suggests otherwise, so if you willfully chose the Ranger class knowing that you don’t like playing a pet class… I’m not really sure what say.

It’s like ordering a cheeseburger then complaining that you like everything except the cheese, but you definitely don’t want a hamburger. You want a cheeseburger.

A lot of us probably didn’t realize the drawbacks from the pets during any of the BWE’s, nor during the PvE leveling phase. I know I didn’t. I can tank and dps like crazy in PvE right now with my pet.

Then I started doing W3 a couple of weeks ago…what a difference. How are all of these players doing 5k dps(low-end estimate) while I’m whittling them down at 200 a hit with my twig-shooting bow. They can gap close on me and roflstomp my life away while my dog is 10 yards away howling in the opposite direction. -_-

Few of us chose ranger because we knew it would be like this. It took dungeons and pvp to bring out that stark reality. Things that you don’t get to until a month into the game. That’s why so many rangers are going 30 deep in Wilderness Survival with Knight’s gear; we obviously can’t hurt em much without some pigeon-holed condition build, so we might as well be tough to kill.

It’s a pretty safe generalization to say this is not so much an issue in regular PvE as it is in dungeons, PvP, and W3. Unfortunately, those are the areas we need pet dps/skills the most. I mean, regular zones aren’t that difficult to manage with your pet always in passive mode, with the possible exception of Orr.

Raege has a valid point in all this, which is really the root of the problem. Our class mechanic fails us not just because it is unavailable to us for large portions of time, but also because we’re not on par with other classes anyway. An Ele won’t be as efficient without attunement swapping, but their dmg is still high. A War won’t have that burst damage available without using his adrenaline skill, but he still hits hard. A Necro can’t be tanky without shroud, but he can still lay down killer conditions. A Thief…well I don’t know if thieves use steal really.

And yeah you can shunt points into the BM line to beef up your pet, but then it’s really hard to trait both ranged and melee weapon skills. The axe/torch combo has been reported to be a nice niche build for mid-range attacks, but can anyone really run a bow/sword build and have 15 or 20 points into BM and not be a pushover?

To me it seems like this: a ranger with his pet alive is only ever nominally on par with other classes that don’t use their burst skills or special class abilities. If the pet is dead we are not like a War who won’t use his burst bar, we are like a war who uses white weapons. Or maybe blue ones.

Liquid.9672:

lettucemode.3789:

I don’t think that’s correct. There aren’t any skill points in the puzzles, nor vistas, and I’m pretty sure there aren’t any points of interest, though I’m not sure about that. I know there aren’t any waypoints.

Can anyone else confirm one way or the other? I’m at work, but maybe someone could post a link to the wiki, get a map of the W3 zones.

You are correct. There are no map exploration points at all in any of the jumping puzzles.

Oh really?? Wow, I was told wrong by several peeps. Alright, I apologize then Bull. I’ll try to get my facts straight before I /rage again. By all means camp away! =D And feel free to tell me so.

*smacks own face

Obsi

lettucemode.3789:

Obsidian.1328:

@Brumbull
(had to cut out previous posts, twas too long)

And I will continue to call out players who take an absolutist view of pvp scenarios. I can’t fault you for not being competitive, you certainly are. But I can fault you for not using your head, applying sound judgement, and generally being a grown-up. You found a tiny niche in the game where pvp and pve overlap and the fact that it’s your favorite spot to party speak volumes on your character.

And if you think fair-play has no place in your pvp vocabulary, then I will call you out on it all day and night and make it a point to see everyone you fight down there exits the game before you finish them off if that’s what it takes. I find it incredibly ironic you call out downed players logging off as being somehow unsportsmanlike when you are acting in the same manner, if not worse.

I have to disagree with you on this. You get W3-specific rewards from doing the W3 jumping puzzles – badges of honor and siege blueprints. If players did not receive these rewards from the chest maybe you would have a point, but as it is now the existence of these rewards means that the puzzles become a strategically important location. The server that holds the puzzle gets a bit of a break toward acquiring siege, while the other servers must buy them with badges or money or take the puzzle themselves.

If you prevent the jumping puzzles in W3 from being defended by other servers, then you have created a situation where players can receive W3 rewards by doing PvE activities, which in my opinion isn’t right.

You say that these jumping puzzles are a place where PvP and PvE overlap – can you please explain what you find inherent to jumping puzzles that makes them a PvE exclusive experience? And if a player just wants to do PvE, why don’t they go do any of the other jumping puzzles in GW2, or PvE in an area that is 20x larger or more than the W3 zones, i.e. the rest of the game?

Well because W3 jumping puzzles(along with all the PoI’s, SP’s, and WP’s) are required for world completion. The puzzle is simply the hardest to get. I didn’t say it was inherent to PvE, it just overlaps. Besides the achievement, world completion gives you 2 Gifts of Exploration which are used for Legendary weapons. If that has changed please feel free to let me know.

If you take away the world completion requirement, and the Gifts along with it, I would have no problem at all with camping the W3 puzzles.

Mikitten058:

The thing is, during 12-15 hours SoR doesn’t have the numbers to send someone off to snipe yaks, while pushing off 1-2 50+ member attacks at the same time.

Heck right now, to even hold ground SoR has to recall, into 1 map. We lack EU and Oceanic’s, which our competition has.

True to a certain extent, I don’t think it’s quite that lopsided, but enough that you can certainly tell.

I think our biggest problem is trying to hold SM past midnight when it’s painfully obvious we should let it go. There was one point a couple of days ago when Langor was taken, both home supply camps taken, and our Keep and Bravost under attack. Yet someone kept calling for reinforcements at SM. -_-

Burl.9567:

preech.4071:

How bout i dont and BG plays the game as its meant to be played …… try using something other than an army of mes’ and thieves and stop hacking. Theres a reason we cant find ALL the mesmers u guys hide …. ur entire realm is mes’ and thieves, cheap class realm much?

The thread is starting to get back on track. Stop with the baseless accusations. They do a better job with yaks. Period. There is no secret to their success, they are just better than us at it. IoJ is as close as they are because of it.

Agreed. IoJ is fiesty as heck. If they had more manpower they would be a dominant server imo. And both BG and IoJ do a better job than us with the little things that add up like yak hunting, supply camp capping, tower/keep sweeps, etc.

preech there’s no reason for such an off-the-wall accusation.

Kissbel.3475:

Besides this………….

Not for nothing, But i think SOR got the best Mesmer hiding spots or you guys just suck at sweeeping sorry… but is funny how we take keep n towers with one Mesmer hiding & than try to say everyone is hacking lol – only because you dont know doesnt mean is a hack. talkign about cheating? how about Blackgate I Isle of Janthir double teaming SoR? i got videos II prove it

You’re right, we aren’t the best at sweeping. :/

@Duralla Umm…yikes.

1 & 2) I don’t have auto-attack on but I do have auto-targeting. It’s kitten near impossible to line up shots with a bow whilst juking and rolling, especially when there are a mass of people around. At least for me it is. I try to manually target as much as possible. But like I said, using the right mouse button to pan the camera around makes me switch targets like 50% of the time. I can’t figure out how to turn that off. I end up having to put the cursor at the top of the screen to rotate the camera so I don’t click over enemies, which slows everything down. And switching the auto-target on/off with every weapon swap isn’t feasible.
3) I usually never see him coming until I start getting hit, so I guess I’d say visible for a split second.

You actually use this jump-skirting technique as your go-to tactic against thieves? I don’t mean to sound obstinate, but that seems like a highly-specialized and unique way of dealing with stealth. Do you expect everyone to be using that?

@Durzlla I’m not sure we are playing the same game, when I use 1h sword I stick to him like glue. Sure the 2nd chain kicks him; but he only moves a foot or two, it’s not really a knockback. And the the 3rd chain closes that small gap. Rinse repeat.

How in the heck are you creating distance with a 1h sword??

Signed,

totally confused Obsi

@Durzlla He stealths far away from me at the beginning, not near me. So yeah I could just stand there spamming skill 1 for minutes and minutes, that seems a little rediculous though. And like I said, the sword doesn’t stay rooted to the victim for very long. And it won’t jump to him if I’m immobilized, or hit him if I’m blinded.

If my mouse gets turned a certain way while panning with right click, sometimes the game just acquires a new target for me, or none at all. I still can’t figure out why right-clicking acquires targets for me, that’s what my left-click is for. That’s kind of a non-related issue though.

Torches? Yeah I guess so, I just don’t like them. Not from a utility perspective, I just think it’s weird for anyone to be carrying around a burning stick in combat. Not only that, it gets rid of an evasion and a cripple by not using dagger…both I could really use against other classes. I shouldn’t have to take a certain weapon to counter one class, especially when another one is adaptable to many classes. And not being a condition ranger makes the bonfire damage pretty low.

Brumbull.4180:

So last night some friends and i decided to do some jump puzzle ganking… (which was a blast). And we noticed a sad trend coming from the blackgate players. (not all of them mind you, but way more then there should be). As soon as they were downed they would log off. It happened at least 10x in 2hrs.
Now i know it sucks getting most of the way through the puzzle and then running into a enemy camp. But don’t panzy out and take away the rewards of those who deserve it. I have been killed more times that i can count in the jump puzzle….. Its pvp! Honestly, this is the first server I have seen since the game launched that does this consistently. And sadly “those” who do it make your server look really bad.
Here is hoping Anet makes it so you cant log out in combat. Nothing more frustrating in pvp then getting someone down, and not being able to finish the job.

Knowing that the W3 puzzles are a requirement for world completion, you shouldn’t be camping them at all really. In my opinion they did the right thing by logging out. Just because ANet made a design mistake by making pve’ers pvp, doesn’t mean you have to take advantage of it. And whether or not they are there for world completion is irrelevant. You don’t punish everyone for the actions of a few.

It doesn’t matter if someone else did it to you, be the bigger man/woman and rise above petty feuding. Do the right thing.

Obsi

@Durzlla Hmm, well I have mostly rare’s with a few exotics. Good vitality but I could use more toughness. I have 2.2k armor, I don’t know if that’s good or bad. And rangers don’t really have any burst damage aside from using QZ with my sword, which is usually a one-use-per-encounter skill. The longbow is used more for CC.

What I usually try to do if I know a thief is coming is use Barrage centered on me, switch to sword/dagger, and move around the that aoe waiting for him to show up. I also use muddy terrain to slow him down some. I also don’t have a reliable cond removal for blindess and immobilize that I can use more than once(I’ve mentioned this in other threads to be fair). And the sword root isn’t foolproof, you can disengage from it for all sorts of reasons and be sitting there swinging in one place hitting nothing. Maybe my reaction time is slow or something. /shrugs

Look, the stealth mechanic should always be the thief’s bread & butter, I use one too. But I don’t need nearly the same amount of reflexes and focus on my thief as I do on my ranger. Rangers have to fight tooth and nail against thieves.

As for the downed-state scenario, I think I have a valid point. I don’t know of any other class that can use their finishing move completely unhittable by the downed player. Well there is a 1% chance to do it I guess. And that 1% can only be from a pet, if it has an aoe F2 skill, and if it’s not on cooldown, and if it’s not dead, and if it gets back to you in time….

Well I don’t use berserker gear, I have 20 in marks, 20 in skirmishing, and 20 in survival. and I do switch to sword when in melee range. I never said I want to outburst them, I don’t know where that comes from. If they are stealthed and catch me with my bow equipped sometimes I don’t even have time to switch and attack before I’m down. It doesn’t matter what weapon I have equipped at the time if I am down in 3 seconds while blinded and immobilized.

Your argument is silly if you think the simple act of carrying a bow somehow means that I should die 100% of the time by a thief.

Durzlla.6295:

What a worthless ability… How do you have such an issue with thieves? They can barely burst through 3k armor by themselves (by barley I mean they can’t) and their stealth is a minor inconvenience at best, now when a ranger stealths ohohohoh do you throw people off!! That’s when the real OPness comes in!

In a 1v1 fight in W3, I lose to a thief 49/50 times. And stealth has everything to do with that. I get maybe one or two hits on him before I’m downed. And furthermore, the fact that they can use their finishing move under stealth is just plain wrong…my pet is useless as a class mechanic under that situation. Granted my armor isn’t all that great, but I shouldn’t have to have 3k armor just to have the possibility of survival.

Aridia.3042:

Obsidian.1328:

I can’t find any other reliable condition removal. The signet is takes too long to work, and Kormir’s Prayer recharge is too long. Any ideas that would let me keep my mobility?

You’re doing it wrong if you think Kormir’s recharge is too long. Run Kormir with Lightning Reflex and roll back immediately after you’ve cleared the immoblize and stay behind your team for the refresh. No amount of removal is enough if you don’t fall back.

Hmm, good point. Although usually this is only a problem for me when I’m by myself. I tend to not run with the zerg unless needed and work on supply capping, yak killing, tower defense, etc. It’s small team/solo work mostly. I will give it a shot though.

Well in the real world bows are quieter lol. In GW, barring any skill differences, physically the bullet is superior.

Harlequin

I’m not positive, but I don’t think he was asking about the historical background of each projectile, but rather a snarky, albeit valid, point about bows and rifles in the game.

I will say you can still dodge bullets, they just move a little faster.

RummyTheMad.7290:

I’m with darb on the WS thing. That trait line is full of awesome. However, I seem to use HS a little differently than you are, and I don’t seem to be quite as affected by the drawbacks that you are talking about.

Anyway, as darb mentioned, you can trait heavily into WS for killer passive condition removal. You can also go at least 10 deep in Marksmanship and take the signet cooldown trait so that the removal signet is ready every 48s (plus it has passive cleansing of course). Or, you can go heavy into BM and heal your way through conditions (imo a stun breaker is mandatory if you do this). I think the Nature line also has a trait that cleanses specific conditions on dodge, but I haven’t really used it, so I can’t recommend it.

I’m interested, how do you use HS differently?

Yeah, going 30 deep in WS will change my build considerably oddly enough. I need Marks and Skirmishing both at 20 for my longbow skills alone. That leaves me nothing for anything else. Same deal with BM. LR or Rampage is great for stun breaker, but like I said, it’s immobilize that gets me and neither of those work on that. And yeah, that cond removal on dodge only removes blindness and poison…pretty lame.

I looked into how many traits affect pets. Out of the 75 traits you have, @30 are specific to pets, and another 5 or so to both of you. That’s like 40-45% of your entire trait line. Makes sense considering that is the same % dmg your pet has been reported to do. So pets kinda have to be given some love in BM to survive ok in pvp. Which leaves my longbow option not an option if I go with your advice and shunt 30 into WS.

It’s like, I have 3 choices with a longbow: 1) low damage & high survivability, 2) medium damage & low survivability, 3) no high damage. So really just 2 choices.

darb.9231:

@ Obsidian. I’ve tried to like birds but they’re just not nearly as survivable in WvW and they don’t offer the knock downs, cripples, fear, etc that K9’s do.

Don’t feel like you have to be holding that silly horn all the time to use it. I just keep my inventory minimized on the side of my screen and when out of combat double tap it, hit 5, then double tap again to get my weapon back. If I need speed in combat I will usually have it from someone else or use Ramp as One (which I too use exclusively). Also I’m traited to get speed every time i wep swap.

If a thief jumps on me I pop my 6 secs invuln. Then I use barage all around me. Then I switch to greatsword and start swinging. Usually by then the thief is running away but if they still want to fight I fear them with the wolf and when they close back in I use the great sword block to interrupt them and knock them on their kitten With longbow/greatsword you can combat them very well.

Didn’t know you could minimize the inventory, I’ll try that. Yeah, I have the speed buff on weap swap too. Problem is my pet makes me stay in combat longer than I want, so I have to pump a lot into speed to make up for it.

BM signet I will try for thieves. Barrage and Muddy Terrain I center on myself but they don’t seem to slow down much and don’t need to move very far to hit me when I’m immobilized lol. I guess I could go 30 in Marks and WS for BM signet and the cond removal. But that would leave me 10 points for all 3 other traits. It really all boils down to the cond removal. If I had one that I could activate when needed, that let me keep my mobility, it would mitigate a lot of the problems I encounter.

I don’t like specializing in one area, I like being adaptable. I can’t seem to find any way to do that yet as far as traits go. And I don’t mean great in all areas, just decent. That whole jack-of-all-trades thing.

I like to use the birds for 3 reasons: because their invulnerability attack helps with the supply camp boss; because of the swiftness buff upon attacking anything( I like to use it on white’s because it doesn’t trigger the combat speed nerf); and the F2 > Owls have Chill, which is a great cond in it’s own right, and then either blind(ravens) or a very long bleed with a short recharge(eagles/hawks).

Jon.1039:

Warriors need to be in melee range and therefore need much more sustain.

For rangers, they have options of 900+ ranger. Also their melee alternative sword+offhand has many dodge mechanics to it.

I rarely find myself struggling with condition damage because hardly anyone specs condi imo.

For stuns and immobilizes, I pick up LR, though when I’m rooted I’m sort of gg’d since I’m a Longbow ranger.

LR – ah ok, well LR doesn’t break immobilize. :P

darb It’s no surprise thieves target rangers. And they tend to spam blind and immobilize out of stealth to incapacitate me. They can do this very fast, they can usually get 2 or 3 conditions on me before signet of renewel removes even one of them. I can’t knock them back with my longbow if I’m blinded, nor move away from them with my sword/dagger skills if immobilized(granted you still “evade” their attacks…you just don’t move positions). Neither Stability from Rampage(which I use as an escape almost exclusively) nor Lightning Reflexes removes immobilize…which I find insanely odd.

I don’t use Hide in Plain Sight, but I do use the rune that grants stealth at 10% health. It’s saved me all of one time…as usually I have so many conditions on me that last 10% gets eaten before I can move anywhere.

My pets die all the time. I use birds because I use the swiftness buff to catch up to people. Using Horn really limits my melee options. And if I put more points into BM to address this, I mitigate my damage elsewhere. I run a longbow, and need high power and crit to make it viable. More in a bit…

Jon.1039:

Warriors need to be in melee range and therefore need much more sustain.

For rangers, they have options of 900+ ranger. Also their melee alternative sword+offhand has many dodge mechanics to it.

I rarely find myself struggling with condition damage because hardly anyone specs condi imo.

For stuns and immobilizes, I pick up LR, though when I’m rooted I’m sort of gg’d since I’m a Longbow ranger.

Everyone is in melee range at some point. It’s a lot easier to close on a target than keep your distance in this game.

And…I’m afraid I don’t know what “LR” and “gg’d” is/are. :P

So…I have to go 30 deep in a traitline just to remove a few conditions? That seems odd. Besides, doing that basically forces you into a low dps role or a torch/trap ranger. Warriors, for instance, have a heal that removes 2 conditions at the start of the game.

Two concerns:
1) Does it work when your pet is dead?
2) CR’s that work on a fixed interval have poor pvp mechanics. If I get hit with immobilize right after that 10s tick, there is literally nothing I can do.

Quark > Even if “ranger” had the connotation you described, it still wouldn’t fit our profession. Our running is nerfed because our pet aggro’s everything in…well…range. And we can’t run all that fast. And we can’t hide. We’d make a poor scout.

Lucid > I agree with your base premise. Decrease pet dmg and increase player dmg. And let the F2 skill be the main selling point of the pet. I think you go over the top a little with how much that -/+ is exactly though. And I would only increase pet toughness a little.

Besides the obvious dps problems associated with the pet, I think rangers just have poor trait/utility options. The trait tree needs some lovin.

Hey all,

I run into a big problem in W3. Using Spring pretty much sets a bulls-eye on that area that enemies use to spam aoe’s. I find myself trying my darndest to constantly move around timing my interaction with the edge of Spring to every 3 seconds, all the while managing my own skill timers and skirting red circles. Players know what that fountain of water is, and use it as a crux for my positioning.

I can’t find any other reliable condition removal. The signet is takes too long to work, and Kormir’s Prayer recharge is too long. Any ideas that would let me keep my mobility?