Guild Wars 2

Sango… (Assuming this is Sango that I know)… why didn’t ya’ll come to reset? Quaggans missed you! :P

My main is condi ranger and I love it, and to be honest he only got better with the patch.

I used to run straight sinister gear, though I had to swap out a few pieces with Dire stats to keep the tankiness in his build once trait lines and stats got a divorce. Three pieces of jewelry got swapped out to give back the Vit/Toughness I lost. For weapons I use sinister axes and giver’s offhand weapons that use sigil of malice for the condi duration buff. I did change utility food to bountiful sharpening stones from toxic ones to recover some of my lost boon duration.

I run A/T and A/WH, with traits in Wilderness Survival, Nature Magic and BM. With Windborn Notes and Resounding Timbre + guard and the Warhorn, I have access to a combo of permi-regen and permi-swiftness.

I use Krait runes which imho work great with entangle, because not only do you bind the mobs, but torment and poison them as well. I run with snow leopard most of the time which affords and additional chill, and I actually really dig the AoE chill on axe 3 thanks to Honed Axes… I just wish it was better placed in a different trait line. Oh well.

All that said, dungeons are not my thing, and I spend all of my time either solo or in a party with guildies, which tend to be ranger and warrior heavy. We very rarely have an ele in party, so I take care of stacking 19 1/2 seconds of area might/fury/swiftness/regen, as well as blasting my own water fields from HS for area heals. Might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it definitely works for me, and I really, really enjoy his playstyle to the point I rarely log on my ele or guardian anymore.

I think where things are going to get interesting are when one ends up on a map with certain specific guilds that insist on putting 20 people on the north boats that are already filled with a full party. With the new buff, that’s just not going to float like it used to. Taking away from zerg DPS now matters a whole heck of a lot.

Besides the fact it’s just downright rude to take over an already filled defensive position, which has been a continual gripe for my guildies and I for months now, since we generally have to deal with this several times a week.

We just did fine on highly organized map with full defense teams/turrets etc. Took a bit longer, long enough to miss Maw, but honestly? The past few days Teq has been a ridiculous faceroll that took three to four minutes on the timer.

My only thought was that the burn phases went far too long, perhaps the damage during those particular phases needs to be upped a little bit?

If you set up an actual time in advance a day or two (perhaps a weekend evening), I’m pretty sure some of my guildies would turn up if we had ample time to plan for it!

PeterFries.1057:

Iason Evan.3806:

This is great and all but can we finally get that Quaggan genocide we’ve all wanted since launch, please? Where’s Peter Fries when you need him? Take action friend!

On it.

Nooooo!

FooOoo!

Quaggans are people too! Not food!

There’s too much to see in one day…

Moorookoo village is lovely! Be sure to visit the biggest structure there that’s full of the tadpols. Wait just a while and Peneloopee and Bloomanoo will sing a lullaby that’s the best Quaggan song in the game to date (at least in my opinion!)

This little hidden find is absolutely enchanting!

There is. Sigil of Malice adds 10% to duration on one weapon. There is also the choice to use Giver’s weapons, which again add an additional 10%. Unfortunately there is no ascended version of the latter. In my main’s case, I use Verata’s axes main hand, and use Giver’s on Warhorn/Torch.

Give this a try: Put on RP walk, then hold down sideways movement key and jump at the same time, keep holding either the q or the e key and steer with the mouse. You will know if you’re doing it correctly because you will lack breath from laughing so hard!

I can’t claim credit for this discovery, but every time I see it, all I can think is “Every Quaggan throw your flippers in the air, we’re gonna wave ‘em like we just don’t care!”

The resulting little ‘dance’ they do on hind flippers looks absolutely hilarious up close, from the waving flippers to the wriggling tail.

Just checked, and my level 48 Ele is sitting on Fire and Water, again no Earth. Granted I would have preferred Arcane over water for elemental attunement, but that’s easily rectified by going out and grabbing some Hero Points. That is, if I used her as anything other than a jeweler

ETA: I main condi ranger, and for the first time today his damage felt on-par with all the zerkers in my party. Please be careful how you nerf conditions for ranger, considering many of the actual condition dealing skills on axe and torch already have a significant cooldown.

Aerlen.5326:

SCREAM Why would you trait all eles to EARTH. ALL OF THEM. WHY?? I had no points in Earth, WHY? My ten other under level 80’s were all given stats that were appropriate but every ele, every last one, was given Earth. Every ele I ask got Earth too. WHY?

I’m not going to grind to 80 just so ‘everything is unlocked’ to fix your mistake, that’s bullkitten and you know it. I’m not going to do 60 hero challenges to fix your mistake, that is also bullkitten. Why, just why? I’m playing with a handicap now if I want to enjoy those toons instead of the boost every other toon on my account got.

ARGH.

Not true. My level 80 ele spawned this morning with Fire, Water and Arcane, which is exactly the three lines I intended on taking. I actually ended up only having to change about three traits within those lines and Luci was good to go.

I’m not doing nearly as badly as I expected I would, but then I run condi/bunker/support PvE build, since I really only ever play solo or with guildies, and I loathe dungeons. On the upside, thanks to Windborn Notes coupled with the shout trait, I have gained permi-regen and permi-swiftness, also really digging the AoE version of chill thanks to Honed Axes.

A few things I don’t like is the reduced radius on bonfire and Healing Spring, though for me those skills tend to be blast finisher fodder anyway to provide area might/healing.

To me though, the best thing in this patch was the upgrade to quaggan tonics… being able to jump, backflip and dodgeroll in quaggan form (which I spend more than half my time in anyway) makes vistas/JP so much easier for my fat, Norn patootie!

Gildos.8460:

I feel like condi ranger has had its survivability lowered possibly too much with a loss of a decent chunk of HP and about half the amount of condi cleanse it used to have. Possibly just my opinion though.

At least in PvE, I easily mitigated this with a pair of exotic dire rings (with sinister gems), and an azurite amulet. This made up for the loss that came with taking away the tanky stats from trait lines. Actually ended up with just under 1k more HP doing this, without losing much condi damage at all.

ETA: I am feeling the loss of Evasive Purity however… but since I run Krait runes, I need the WS trait for entangle cooldown more than EP.

Thank you for the update, and also thank you for the changes to Quaggans, best part of the day for me and many of my guild

I’ve only done Teq thus far in terms of world bosses, and I agree both runs I did were waaaay too easy. About the best part of the raid this evening was half of the North Quagganing out and jumping around like Tyrian Jumping Beans

Methinks Teq might need a bit more HP these days.

Duke Nukem.6783:

conformity and unity are essential for the proper functioning of a nation and by being public with any form of deviant behavior we weaken a nation

Absolutely incorrect. If this were the case how many of humanity’s advances would have taken place? How much art would never have been created?

Imagine if Mozart had been a conformist? How much musical advancement would have been lost? That’s just one, easy example right there… There are many, many others.

There’s a reason there’s a saying about genius being so close to madness…

Not enough praise for this Quaggany upgrade

Love the addition of the Quaggan pool, complete with Hatchlings!

New discovery…

V+ Space at same time = Backflipping through the air Quaggan!

Those of us who love to wear a Quaggan tonic are finally free!

Quaggan can now jump, and even better the roly-poly dodgeroll Quaggans are the most adorable thing I’ve seen in awhile.

As a member of a Guild who spends a lot of time in Quaggan form, thanks ANet for the amazing QoL improvements to the tonics!

Really made our day!

ZudetGambeous.9573:

World bosses sort of just dissolve…

Ran Teq earlier and the map finished with almost 12 minutes left on the clock. One spawn only for defensive teams…

Which actually kind of took all the fun out of it for me as a habitual defense team player.

I think many of the people unhappy main rangers, and rangers did lose some significant skills like the ability to throw traps, mobile spirits, and Offhand radius/range bonuses and some traits being placed in weird lines (axes for instance) to name a few. I can understand why some rangers feel somewhat slighted.

On the flipside, however, I think my ele is vastly improved thanks to the new traits!

I had a similar issue to resolve with my ranger main. Swapping out two rings for Dire stats and swapping to an azurite amulet stopped up that gap, and even netted me nearly 1000 extra health more than before.

My biggest misgiving about the new traits system was addressed by the rather easy recipe added to the Forge to allow us to restat our ascended gear. Up until now I had thought I was going to have to build new ascended gear, and that had me pretty upset.

I’ve lost a little bit of functionality here and there, but nothing too build-breaking.

Though I still dislike the placement of honed axes in the Beastmastery line. Either way I’ll survive just fine

ETA: I play A/T + A/WH condi/support ranger, so I can’t speak to those who are saying ranger is broken.

Wait… I can change the stats on my ascended armor without needing to build entirely new ascended pieces?

I’m not noticing any difference in functionality based on how I use it. The half second arming time seems negligible to me. I’ve always used it as a base heal for myself, with a WH blast for the additional area heal. With Windborn Notes traited, the regen stack afforded by both lasts a good long time.

Yes, thank you!

Our guildies had a complete blast!

I’m sure that several of the Quaggans of Salt and Burn will make an appearance, as long as we can taxi into the right instance!

I just do not understand all the quagganhaters and quagganeaters! Quaggans are made of love, and all things good!

Then again, I spend a lot of in-game time in quaggan form.

Coooo!

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Behellagh.1468:

Yep and everyone sees them. And if you think pigeons out of the corner of your eye are distracting, watch out for quaggans on balloons.

Distracting? They beautify the environment. They make people smile, they make people laugh.

The Aviator Quaggan Mail Carrier is life; the Aviator Quaggan Mail Carrier is love.

Not to mention if you actually play with the sound on (like I do), there’s the bonus of that adorable little ‘Cooo!’ at the end, which never fails to put a grin on my face.

Of course, I belong to a guild that spends half their time running around as Quaggans on a daily basis… others’ mileage my vary

Miku.6297:

Ahh ok, that makes sense.

I agree some choices are pretty limited (medium is the worst), it’s like A-net decided all medium users wanted trench or long coats, and so they made a ton of them; then realized you couldn’t see the pants most of the time so they just made generic pants and called it done xD

I have to agree on this. I feel like my female human ele has tons of choices, and her outfit (Carapace shoulders, top, gloves, feathered head piece and winged legs/boots) looks absolutely gorgeous… I often wish I had HER body, let me tell ya

My male Norn ranger who has become my main, however? His choices seem just soo limited. I’ve unlocked a lot of armor skins, but out of all of them I’m at a loss to find something that’s actually RANGERLY that doesn’t make him look like a fat blob, or hairy beast (predatory anyone? if only there was ‘manscaping’ available!).

When I go through my skins, I’m at a total loss of what I would put him in that’s even REMOTELY druidic, if I were to decide to take the elite spec. (Arcane outfit, see fat blob comment) The only thing that I feel looks good on him is sneaktheif top and legs, illustrious boots and gloves, emblazoned head and carapace shoulders. It just feels like the majority medium armor seems more geared mostly towards thieves with some engineers in there and very little ranger.

Is all of this a cosmetic only issue? Of course, but hey, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting my toons to be attractive and appealing, particularly my ranger, since I spend most of my time in game staring at him

For me it’s going to depend on whether or not I go druid. To keep the build I currently use or as close to as I can, since some of my traits will oppose one another,, I’d end up going with Wilderness Knowledge, Nature Magic, and I’d be stuck needing BM for both the shouts and axe buff (though I’d prefer Marksmanship). I run a condi build for PvE, based more around support than pure DPS.

^ this. Or make it possible to craft ascended giver’s gear which could then up the boosts given by such armor and weapons.

A few new rune/sigil sets would be nice as well!

Once upon a time I was happy Norn rangeress, darting across the snow, climbing to the summit of every mountain in the Shiverpeaks, along with my beloved Snowpaw, and I was the apple of my Mistress’ eye. Sure, I had to share my Mistress’ affection with an elementalist, but we two were content, given equal time and attention.

Then along came HIM. That. Other. Norn Ranger. The one that Mistress affectionatly calls a ‘beast’, with his spiky blond hair, and intense green eyes. Mistress began to neglect me, at first because Luci, the firstborn elementalist, was questing her way towards the pinnacle of advancement and a lovely set of exotic gear. I did not begrudge my sister in neglect this time, knowing in my heart of hearts I would be next.

I became even more convinced of this, when Mistress tasked me to use the talents inherent in my hands to learn to forge the best of weapons, and ply leather with the most skilled of Grandmasters. I was elated! I thought to myself ‘surely now Mistress will allow me the advancement of my sister elementalist! Why else would I be toiling away to craft the finest bolts of damask, and shiny ingots of deldrimore steel?’

Now, here I sit, granted with the knowledge of 71 levels, and I am all but chained to the crafting stations in my beloved Wayfarer Hills. Each day I am trotted out to create things for HIM, like that buttery-soft, perfect suit of ascended Sinister armor, or the gleaming axes that fell even the largest and most hateful of Mordrem Husks. Mistress even took away the last scrap of true fun that was left to me; my endless pink quaggan potion… and why? Yes, so that that, too, could be given to HIM!

Now I am but a mere slave, forced to make shiny and beautiful things for HIM, and my sister elementalist is trotted out but to battle Tequatl. We share the pain of our brother and sister alts, and all that I have learned is: Masters and Mistresses are but fickle creatures who’s affection can change like the wind that used to carry my arrows across the snow…

~The Forgotten Rangeress

I have never understood the argument that pets are useless. Particularly at 80, depending on how you end up using them. Right now, with my condi-bunker build, I have 100% swiftness uptime between traited shout and warhorn, once the new traits roll out, I’ll have 100% regen uptime too, if Windborn Notes stays the same as was proposed in the AMA. For Silverwastes I swap between my snow leopard, and brown bear (the latter for the extra tankiness for Dark Thrasher AoE, and when/if i need extra condi cleanse thanks to brown bear’s F2).

Back when I played LB ranger, it was so easy to ignore/forget about my pet it wasn’t even funny, now I find that really using my pet via ‘guard’, F2 skills etc. is really, really worthwhile.

I have to come down on the side of the folks who do not want to have an arming time on HS. When I use it, I am at the point of needing a heal that regen isn’t going to cover. I also double dip on it by blasting HS with warhorn providing the extra area healing.

I don’t get the sense that Anet hates rangers, actually I think that some of the new traits look fantastic, my only questioning in that regard is where some of the traits are situated in lines. If I want to come close to approximating the build that I use now I’m definitely going to be forced to take Wilderness Survival, Nature Magic and Beastmastery. Like many others I truly question the decision to stick honed axes in the beastmaster’s line, rather than a more condition oriented line.

I definitely have some misgivings in the idea of uncoupling traits and stats, particularly in the way those numbers will potentially be ‘made up’. First of all, In upping stats from 926 to 1000, that doesn’t account for loss in the minor stats. My condi ranger will potentially lose 300 condition damage and 300 toughness, as well as 3k HP, my elementalist will have a 200 Healing Power and 2k HP deficit. The only way, from what I am reading, to make up that deficit is going to be to switch gear, meaning that a full set of Sinister ascended gear on the ranger will have to be traded out for weaker Dire gear in order to close the gap caused by this shift.

I thought that Anet’s stance was that our hard work in building our ascended gear wouldn’t be destroyed? However, I don’t see how this isn’t the case since all characters will likely end up losing some stats vital to their build across the board?

I generally tend towards Teq/Silverwastes, since I’ve had some pretty negative experience in dungeons, I just don’t enjoy them. I’ve got a level 80 ele I’ve tried everything on, but I really do love my ranger as well. Sounds like maybe I should just count on the ele for all of that, since I’ve read people say that ranger/LB is crap for Silverwastes.

I’ve played around with sword/axe as well, but with the animation that locks you in with sword 1, I’ve found myself leaning more towards mh axe (especially with the might stacking). I still feel a little lost how I should be statting weapons/armor though.

I’ve started playing around with main hand axe on my mid-50’s ranger lately, and I have to admit I’m really digging it. I pretty much see 99% of rangers using LB, but I almost sort of feel like it’s way too boring and one-note. I particularly like the amount of might that I can stack up. I know the meta tends towards zerker/power build for PvE, but is axe something that’s viable for end-game PvE content, or am I forced into/stuck in LB meta?

Also would I trait/stat for condi or zerker?

Thanks!

I had the very same decision to make when I decided to try out ranger. I ended up going with Norn female, since the culture and the their veneration of animal spirit totems just seemed to really fit hand in hand with ranger and upcoming druid. I’ve really come to love the Norn culture/areas as my favorite in the game.

I chose Norn for my future druid, because I think the Norn culture and their veneration of the animal spirits really fits hand in hand with the idea of druids.