I noticed that this skill now breaks stun when you are not in celestial avatar form. Was it always like this and I am just noticing it now?
Alacrity is pretty insane. It makes GS warrior DPS sky high. Alacrity makes condi engie DPS sky high, though it makes engie even harder to play than it already is since you have to kit swap that much faster. Alacrity doesn’t do much for Rev, though since it does nothing for auto attacks.
By the same token, Quickness makes rev DPS insane but does little for condi engie.
Well from the sounds of this, Chrono is by far the #1 wanted class to have in a party right now. It is the master of both alacrity and quickness buffs so it can help everyone reach sky high DPS. This is also not mentioning the reflect skills it can also bring.
Endless healing settler druids
Permanent resistance bunker revs
Stone heart tempests
Celestial scrappers with permanent stealth to escape
40k hp necros with carrion amulet
Yawn. Bring back the old meta, HoT has really turned this game into endless on point fighting.
now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).
Pet swap -> F1 = Smoke assault.
How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?
Wrong Eura, its Pet swap = smoke assault lol, so not sure why people complaining you don’t even need to press a key after pet swap lol. So maybe rangers will start using avoid combat now rather then letting them pets do all damage.
Except this tactic only works if your Smokescale is not already out. Therefore, your suggestion is to never keep it out until you need smoke assault and then swap back ASAP or pray to the RNG gods.
Works if you keep the pet out if you use F3 and F1, but most rangers refuse to learn how to use pets.
Works allot better if you keep it on swap, you want the QZ so they have less time to react and dodge, 1 dodge will mitigate the damage by allot. It works same as Rev’s you dodge there Teleport burst and it does stuff all damage.
Like the pet is new so was only matter of time before players started learning the tricks to counter Smokescale burst skill.
The f3 f1 trick only works if your pet has a skill animation you can watch out for to cancel and recast. Smoke assault is an instant cast skill. You are suggesting to keep your pet afk with f3 until you want to use smoke assault or keep it hidden until you need it.
now the pet lost damage because smoke assault was nerfed and you can’t use it for insta burst someone (zephry’s speed).
Pet swap -> F1 = Smoke assault.
How is that not insta cast burst using zephyr’s speed?
Wrong Eura, its Pet swap = smoke assault lol, so not sure why people complaining you don’t even need to press a key after pet swap lol. So maybe rangers will start using avoid combat now rather then letting them pets do all damage.
Except this tactic only works if your Smokescale is not already out. Therefore, your suggestion is to never keep it out until you need smoke assault and then swap back ASAP or pray to the RNG gods.
Chill is most definitely broken. Not only was it already a really strong condition before the damage trait, there are a ridiculous number of sources of chill through sigils and runes in this game that reapers can just keep it on you permanently now. At 700 damage per tick, it only takes about 15 to 20 seconds for a reaper to faceroll any melee class.
The Smokescale Smoke Assault skill had its cooldown reduced from 24s to 20s and the number of attacks from 7 to 5.
Why are dragon hunters allowed to one shot people with their traps but our best burst skill needs to be changed?
Honestly, most people were getting used to having smoke assault on f2 and enjoying it. Now the f2 is kind of a waste of a skill to have on demand.
Without a blind on it like blinding powder, this skill’s only purpose is to provide stealth if you happen to have a staff or greatsword, basically.
I don’t understand why Anet also decided to add ridiculous boons on each trap. Wtf, why?
Meanwhile, reaper chill was buffed…..
2.). Stop being such Eurantien fanboys. His personal skill level is above average at best. I’ve dueled better Rangers. So what he says shouldn’t be the word of “God”. Nomsayin?
This is a big one. No disrespect to Eurantien, but too many people follow him so blindly. He is not our god and thanks to this thread we now have a smoke assault that is pathetic in damage and a smoke field that probably only a handful of people even know how to use to it’s full potential.
It also feels like the damage on smoke assault has been nerfed too…
This sucks, now the pet has 0 burst capability.
Keep it as is. It’s a nice “OH kitten” moment that forces you to dodge out of instinct. In fact we need more animations for the invisible knockdowns, if anything.
I’m sure those games have built in logic to prevent constant 5 man premade vs 5 man solo games. Guild wars 2 does not. I don’t mind facing duo or even trio’s most of the time, but constantly facing a 4 or 5 man premade team on skype in back to back games is not fun. If there is no solo q to be had, at the very least prevent these 5 man pug vs premade matchups.
Anet has been completely quiet on this issue since they removed solo q last year. It would be great if they actually showed up and made a statement on the future hopes for this. As it stands now, being esports and implementing a league system will be a huge joke if solo q is not implemented. Anet needs to pickup a few tips from other successful esports games.
Astral Force should not even be a thing. CA should only have a cooldown after leaving it and nothing else.
If we want this then expect the cool down to increase dramatically to at least 20 or 30s. I can already heal to full with CAF #3 in settlers so it would be kinda OP on a 10s cool down only. I would rather have it stay as is.
Problem is, top tier games don’t limit players wanting to pug. Imagine you’re in a competition for money (which could very well be the case if you hit the challenger rank) and you guys are playing football. You get ranked against madrid, barcelona, or w.e world class group of players you can imagine. Should there be a rule in place to help out the group of guys who didn’t wanna organise themselves into a pre-made? Make unranked solo Q only, but ranked has to be left as is.
We’re not playing for money in ranked, it’s solely for bragging rights and enjoyment. Are you saying that we should all suffer solely because of the 8 teams in pro league that have a chance at money? If you limit solo Q only to unranked, then I can guarantee you that nobody will play ranked any longer and there goes the whole leagues idea. Who wants to be farmed all day while they can just hop into unranked and get a fair match instead?
It gives them another month to reconsider implementing solo q again. Without it, leagues will mean nothing since top premade teams are just going to farm pugs all day.
-Necromancer: Greatsword build need to have faster attacks, nothing more. Pretty weak overall but still playable class.
You obviously have not faced any condi reapers if you think this is a weak class.
I know this issue has been brought up numerous times, but I am hopeful if we continuously bring it up it will eventually be considered. Irenio, please give rangers the ability to control the pet 2nd skill. This will help make so many more pets become viable in this game if we could control :
Tail swipe blast finisher
Canine knockdown
Smokescale smoke field
Spider poison field
Bear defy pain
Bird swiftness
… Etc….the list is endless
You guys completely redesigned mortar kit for Engis because it was never used. Please consider giving ranger’s the same treatment since most of our pets are hardly ever used. A good suggestion was made on this forum recently to selectively choose our F2 per pet if adding an extra button is too OP or difficult to do. This way the default does not need to change.
Agreed, the skill is pretty useless. It takes time to cast and does the same dps and healing as aa. The #2 skill should really be a good damage dealing attack just like most other weapons on every class. In fact, the staff only has 3 viable skills, in my opinion, #1, #3, and #5. The #4 also never ever hits for me, and even when it does it’s only a 2sec immob. Better spend that time auto-attacking instead.
I don’t think it will ever be optimal unless it can be top dps. Almost every other class has something great to bring to a group along with dps. I see Revenants and Chronomancers becoming meta in the optimal comp. So fit in your typical ele and guardian and there is really only room for 1 more DPS heavy class which will probably be another rev or ele, or maybe thief for blinds.
I think people are overreacting. Despite the recent nerfs, I feel very very strong on the druid class. Yes the lingering light nerf was bad but:
1. The new smokescale pet is incredible and reliable, I also like the burst and sustain damage on the bristle back even though it takes some positioning to work.
2. The druid self sustain is amazing with staff and CAF.
3. They gave us probably the best might stacking skill in the game. In about 3 seconds I can stack 25 might no problem.
There are lots of other great changes in Druid, but the 3 above are really game breakingingly good.
If you are going to normalize HP then thieves need less access to blinds and guardians need less access to aegis and blocks. This was the trade off from day 1 and lots will need to be adjusted.
This pretty much sum up my experience those 3 builds should be nerfed before they touch anything else ( anything they touch they break i mean just look at mantras ) .
Actually, all of the recent nerfs in the past week and a half have been to druid, dragonhunter, and reaper….
Does the extractor only remove infusions, or can it also work on sigils/runes?
Timed out because you cant kill anyone? Thats a l2p issue. Try running a non cele build, youll have a much better shot
Okay, I’ll just watch your pro double dodge distortion techniques again on an assassins amulet to learn how to kill bunkers.
2 and a half pages of people who want minstrel back … And then there is chaith
This thread does not speak for the community as a whole or even a majority. Minstrel amulet is the most boring amulet to play and play against. I do not want it back and I could care less what the ESL players in this thread want for their tournaments, I just want a solo q that is actually fun and not timed out every time.
They need to keep doing this on a continuous basis for the next short while. Like many above me have said, the elite specs are a bit over the top right now. So funny how people cry when Anet doesn’t balance for a long time and now that Anet is balancing frequently, people still cry. I for one am happy that Anet is balancing things quickly rather than waiting 3 months like the d/d ele “nerf”.
I also do not want them to switch back. I prefer smoke assault on the f2.
I really think the problem is that the total number of stat points available on celestial is ridiculous. All amulets should have normalized stat points. You are truly gimping yourself by running any 3 stat amulet because of the amount of points you are missing.
I like the idea of this build but I’m not sold on the beastmastery trait line for druid. I think the 20s cool down on WHaO is pretty good already and the might on pet swap is not needed if you carry a warhorn. The quickness is pretty nice to have though. I was thinking using skirmishing instead to use sharpened edges and also add a sigil of earth onto the staff. This way you can at least use your condition damage more and quick draw will let you use call of the wild more often as well as ancestral grace. Skirmishing also gives you spotter for more team support.
I’m in the same boat as you. I’m not sold on it, but I believe it’s main purpose is to build up astral force. If you can already do that no problem during the 10s cool down then I say drop staff and pickup something more offensive instead.
This skill is still ridiculously strong. Lol @ everyone complaining about this nerf.
Has anyone ran the numbers for a shatter Mesmer in PvE? I feel like with alacrity and the large number of ways to generate clones now that this could be quite good. I was thinking greatsword and sword/shield. Shattering also gives us vulnerability application, more alacrity, and might if traited.
As I wrote this post, I just noticed that dulfy put up a guide for verdant brinks here: http://dulfy.net/2015/10/25/gw2-verdant-brinks-hero-points-guide/. Thank god, at least it’s a start.
Do 20 of these even exist? I’m tearing my hair out finding these things only to find out that they are gated by level 50 clingon mastery or some kind of elite mushroom crap. Does anyone know of a list somewhere that points out the non-gated hero points? I really just want my elite spec and get the hell out of here forever.
Why can’t we have this in both unranked and ranked? If you’re going to lock ranked queue, then at least let us have standard models in unranked.
I love this idea, it solves a lot of our pet problems and I should hope is a very small UI change on Anet’s part.
Roughly 2/10…
Smoke scale does this skill every 30s then becomes useless. Revenant can do it every 15s while still dishing out enormous damage. People need to simply learn to pay attention to pets now instead of outright ignoring them. This is nothing more than a L2P issue. If you can’t handle a pet, then how are you fighting any revenant that presses 3?
How are people complaining about the smokescale damage when revenant has the exact same skill? Pets are finally a contributing part of the ranger DPS, and if you can’t dodge 1 skill every 30 seconds then how the hell do you fight revenants that can do it every 15s? Not to mention that the pet is worthless outside of that skill while the revenant is still very potent. If you’re complaining about ranger pets, then this is a L2P issue. Be more attentive, you can’t just simply ignore pets now.
Agreed. Not even mentioning the horrible grind that they have put in place for PvE, there is literally nothing to do in this expansion now that is fun.
It’s only been 3 days. If you haven’t unlocked all the masteries it’s not the end the world. Just play the game guys. You can finish it in a couple of months and that’s the idea. And yes some people have finished unlocked all core masteries and most of HoT masteries.
Thank you ANet for not making contents that can be done in one day (for the vast majority of the players).
Some people don’t enjoy this content, so why force everyone through it for a couple months to start doing the things you enjoy.
Don’t waste your time with druid until AF generation is addressed. Go with basically ANY other elite special and you’ll do great.
I’ve already stopped playing all PvE content because of the grind. It’s a huge disappointment to me how they did this.
Do we get enough hero points for the full spec from completing all hero points challenges, or is there another way? I feel like thats not enough if its 1 point each for them
It’s 10 points per hero point challenge in the new maps… but you have to spend hours leveling your masteries to gain access to most of the challenges AND a lot of them are pretty difficult to even locate in the first place.
OMG HOURS! I have to spend HOURS!
Why wont they think of the children? WHYYYY.
GDMNT but kids are entitled these days. You guys would never have lasted a week in the original EQ.
We didn’t buy EQ, we bought HoT. Anet has made clear many times over and over that grinding out crap was not one of their core philosophies. This expansion completely contradicts that.