Guild Wars 2

OGDeadHead.8326:

ProtoMarcus.7649:

Saurian

• F2 – Rain of Spikes

Looking forward to try this one out a point blank range…

Wow. Mix that with a Trap Bomb and it should hurt a little

Update: Created wiki pages and added links to Iboga and Jacaranda pet skills, and the 4 known Beast (F3) skills

Substance E.4852:

We’re did this information come from. As far as I’m aware, only the pull and the ground stomp skills were shown to us?

Was there some additional release of info?

Primal Cry, Spiritual Reprieve, Worldly Impact were used in a stream, and Prelude Lash is actually the first description shown in the soulbeast elite spec line, which was also quickly previewed in a stream

I’m missing the 5th one, which I suppose is related to non-heal support?
Kinda hoping for some AoE Stunbreak and Stability

Jabronee.9465:

Bristleback?? Cmon where is Bristleback!!

’’Saurian’’ is the name of the Bristleback family, even though he’s alone!

Ohoni.6057:

The thing that interests me though is, how much added benefit will these bring? I mean, yes, the Ranger now gets these abilities, but the Ranger always had them, he just had to command a pet to use it. On the face of it, other than being “cool,” it’s actually a downside to shift these to the player character, because it means that while you’re doing them you can’t be doing other attacks, while on the pet they were fire-and-forget. Also, while you had a pet, it was drawing agro, taking hits, all that.

I’m interested to see what sort of benefits they are offering to make these abilities stronger than their pet versions, to make up for the various pet benefits we’re losing.

Some benefits would probably include the fact that they scale off the players attributes, and they are now ‘on demand’/ you have better control on them (and the finishers apply to you)

Also for pet tanking, I get what you mean, but we can still always un-merge! If you’re running low on sustain, un-merge, let pet get aggro, recover, and re-merge! (Maybe!)

EDIT: LughLongArm.5460 beat me to it, and with more benefits ahaha

It seems non-meta pets will quickly become meta Soulbeast pets! Except for smokescale… It’s already meta and will stay that way!

Quick observation:

• Smokescales give us multi hit, multi evade ability (We Revs now boys) + 1s Knockdown
• Devourers give us long evade + knockback
• Porcines give us a 3s knockdown which is also a leap finisher and gap closer
• Bears give us a 5s direct damage immunity
• Canine give us extra cripple and a 2s knockdown

It would seem that the F1 and F2 Soulbeast skills (when melded) are the last 2 pet family skills, and the F3 is based on one of the 5 pet archetypes (which also affect the attribute bonuses)

That said, here’s a quick list of all the F1 & F2 skills for the melded Soulbeast (alphabetical order)
Note that while the skills are based on pet family skills, some may and will act differently for balance purposes

EDIT: The Soulbeast beast skills may have different values from the pet beast skills for balance purposes, I will update and link the skills themselves to the Soulbeast melded versions once I create the pages on the wiki!

Armor Fish

• F1 – Protection
• F2 – Chomp

Bear

• F1 – Bite
• F2 – Defy Pain

Bird

• F1 – Swoop
• F2 – Quickening Screech

Canine

• F1 – Crippling Leap
• F2 – Brutal Charge

Devourer

• F1 – Tail Lash
• F2 – Devourer Retreat

Drake

• F1 – Chomp
• F2 – Tail Swipe

Jacaranda * NEW PET *

• F1 – Call Lightning
• F2 – Photosynthesize

Fanged Iboga * NEW PET *

• F1 – Crippling Anguish
• F2 – Narcotic Spores

Feline

• F1 – Bite
• F2 – Maul

Jellyfish

• F1 – Healing Cloud
• F2 – Dark Water

Moa

• F1 – Harmonic Cry
• F2 – Frenzied Attack

Porcine

• F1 – Maul
• F2 – Brutal Charge

Saurian

• F1 – Sharpen Spines
• F2 – Rain of Spikes

Shark

• F1 – Charging Bite
• F2 – Fear

Smokescale

• F1 – Takedown
• F2 – Smoke Assault

Spider

• F1 – Entangling Web
• F2 – Poison Gas

Wyvern

• F1 – Tail Lash
• F2 – Wing Buffet

F3 (Beast) Skills & Pet Archetypes

• DEADLY Pets – Primal Cry
  Tap into your primal essence and unleash a debilitating roar.
  This is the Condi? Archetype
  Deadly pets grant +200 Condition Damage and +100 Precision when melded

• VERSATILE Pets – Prelude Lash
  Pull foes toward you and bind them briefly
  This is the Support Archetype
  Versatile pets grant +200 Vitality and +225 Concentration when melded

• SUPPORTIVE Pets – Spiritual Reprieve
  Restore health to your allies and grant them a reprieve from conditions
  This is the Healing Archetype
  Supportive pets grant +100 Vitality and +25% Outgoing Healing when melded

• FEROCIOUS Pets – Worldly Impact
  Jump up and slam the ground beneath you, severely damaging nearby foes.
  This is the Power Archetype
  Ferocious pets grant +200 Power and +100 Ferocity when melded

• STOUT Pets – Unflinching Fortitude
  Shrug off all movement-impairing conditions and become unflinching in the face of normal attacks.
  This is the Tank Archetype
  Stout pets grant +200 toughness and +100 vitality when melded

andy.7813:

[…] Devs neglected ranger class since day 1, look how they destroyed “S&R” , it was nice shout for a month .Or how the nerf to the ground “protect me”. I have no faith in ranger dev, this class is a king of garbage skills on long cd’s.

Woah woah!

Since day 1?

Nah there was some necessary/good balance/buffs in the past 5 years.

S&R wasn’t ‘destroyed’ – it was overly buffed, then balanced to something reasonable. Remember it used to run on a 85s CD and the pet would rush (not teleport) to an ally, it’d only work once in a while, and it wouldn’t teleport back to your feet either

Protect me used to be 60s CD and it would effectively pretty much kill the pet, and the stun break was personal and not team-wide.

And those are just 2 skills, plenty of skills and traits have been tweaked or reworked for the best

M A R K S M A N S H I P

Predator’s Instinct

• Cast ’Sic’em!’ to foes you hit while they are below the health threshold.
• Health Threshold: 50%
  Cooldown is the same as the shout so traitable (40s/32s)

Brutish Seals

• Same as it is +
• Refresh Opening Strike on Signet use

Steady Focus

• Damage is increased when endurance is full or when you have stability

While were at it,

• Make Guard! usable underwater… It’s no longer ground targeted and the effect is different now
• Change the core regen from Search and Rescue! to Resistance perhaps? All other professions with shouts have at least 1 shout with an effect related to conditions, except for ranger. Furthermore, traited shouts simply makes the regen redundant.
• Since the nerf to Strength of the Pack! we could really see a reduction to the CD back to 60s – it no longer pulses, boonstrip and bye bye.

Funny, a guildie and I were talking about this skill just yesterday – I’ve often suggested tweaks to it in the past, I’ll use this thread to share them once again!

• Lower Radius to 900 BUT be applied without target, in an AoE
• Apply Reveal 6s to enemy
• Pet gains Sic ’em 10s (40% speed, damage)
• You and your pet gain 8s Fury
• Maybe lower base CD to 35s? Traited would be 28s

The FURY would add a boon to this boonless shout (every other shout apply a boon in some way)

Additionnally, I would often suggest to change the marksmanship trait ’Predator’s Instinct’ to

Cast ’Sic’em!’ to foes you hit while they are below the health threshold. – share the same CD as the shout, so 40s base or 32s traited, and threshold being 50% health.

I mean it’s called ’Predator’s Instinct’ – a reveal on a stealthed foe kinda matches that theme! Somewhat situational, but if not for the reveal, you also gain fury, pet gains 10s of 40% speed and dmg and when traited, swift and regen!

Now applies 10 stacks of vulnerability when traited, don’t see this mention anywhere? Good change though!

Guardian’s Smiter’s Boon doesn’t seem to proc though, gonna test with other on heal traits

Yeah I understand the passive,

But equipping the ‘Cultivated Synergy’ trait and using downed skill 5 (active) will proc the Cultivated Synergy trait (AoE healing form player and pet, complete with the visual effects, sound, and… healing itself)

Gonna test runes with visual indicators of On Heal Skill use effects (I think one has a fire burst VFX Rune of Balthazar?)

Was testing the new downed skill 5, Signet of Agony, and it seems it procs On Heal Skill Use effects and rune effects!

Been testing with Druid – Cultivated Synergy with Rune of Altruism, everything was proc’d when using the active portion of the downed skill 5

Rune of the Stream – Healing Power-main Movement Speed Runeset
175 Healing Power, 15% Outgoing Healing, 25% Movement speed bonus
Possible additional effects: AoE Swiftness for 10s when using Heal Skill use? AoE Condi Cleanse on Heal Skill use?

Breakdown

• +25 Healing Power
• 5% Outgoing Healing
• +50 Healing Power
• 10% Outgoing Healing
• +100 Healing Power
• 25% Movement Speed Bonus; Insert one of the 2 possible additional effects here

• New PvP-only Rune: Rune of the Lynx: +175 power, +100 Condition Damage, +25% Movement Speed
• We’re looking to add a viable damage-oriented movement speed rune to help professions with minimal access to in-combat movement speed or swiftness. This may impact match pacing, so we’re going to keep a close eye on it.

YES.

I mean, I typically play Ranger/Druid so movement speed bonus is rarely a problem for me, but my poor little Guardian/Dragonhunter or even Necro/Reaper are both struggling a little.

So I’m absolutely happy with that new PvP rune, but here’s a few things -

1. Please, we need more Movement Speed Bonus Runesets, each with a specific theme (Power, Condi, Healing, Tanking)

2. Make the available in PvE aswell! Include them in the next expansion perhaps!

Right now, accross all gamemodes, we only have Of the Taveler which is small bonus to everything and Of Speed which is Vitality-focused.

For PvP, right now, I’d like to suggest 2 offensive-oriented ones -

Rune of the Tiger – Power-main Movement Bonus Runeset

• 175 Power, 100 Precision (or ferocity), +25% Movement speed

Rune of the Lynx – Condition-main Movement Bonus Runeset

• 175 Condition, 100 Expertise, +25% Movement speed

With that, you’re still limiting the movement speed runesets available to toy with while keeping an eye on how it goes in PvP, but you’re also offering a Power Build solution and a Condi Build Solution.

I’m also curious, what kind of Movement Speed Runesets would you people suggest?

• New PvP-only Rune: Rune of the Lynx: +175 power, +100 Condition Damage, +25% Movement Speed
• We’re looking to add a viable damage-oriented movement speed rune to help professions with minimal access to in-combat movement speed or swiftness. This may impact match pacing, so we’re going to keep a close eye on it.

Amazing.

Although I’d really suggest including a Power-Based movement rune and a Condi-Based movement rune while still keeping an eye on movement runesets (I do HEAVILY welcome more Movement Runesets for all gamemodes)

Suggestions:

Rune of the Tiger – Power-main Movement Bonus Runeset

• 175 Power, 100 Precision (or ferocity), +25% Movement speed

Rune of the Lynx – Condition-main Movement Bonus Runeset

• 175 Condition, 100 Expertise, +25% Movement speed

Also Glyph of Rejuvenation is still bugged with the 0.5 healing activation time but 1s for trait effects or rune effects (verdant etching, cultivated synergy, any on heal upgrade equipment etc)

If you complete a glyph ‘activation’ when in mid-air it won’t spawn any seed of life (of course when you trait for Verdant Etching)

Instant use glyph will trigger it (no time to jump and cast it, as it can’t be cast mid-air) but all other glyphs won’t create a seed when you’re in the air by the time the cast is complete.

Having traited glyphs as a druid (by way of equipping Verdant Etching trait) and using glyphs and jumping (or being in the air) won’t create a seed of life.

Instant glyph will of course create it, but any glyph that you can cast and then jump won’t create any seed of life.

A X E

Skills

• Winter’s bite should be AoE by default. a suggestion for the trait further ahead
• Path of Scars should cripple on the initial throw

Trait
Okay so the trait is weird right now as axe main-hand is a hybrid weapon, and off-hand is power weapon which could greatly benefit form the ferocity bonus, but you can’t access it if you use sword. Now, let’s suppose the AoE is now base, here’s how I’d see the axe trait-

Honed Axes

• Gain +200 condition damage when wielding an axe in your main-hand
• Gain +200 ferocity when wielding an axe in your off-hand
• Axe skills recharge 20% faster

That way you’d still benefit from an attribute modifier if you use a sword main-hand and you’d benefit from the 2 attribute modifiers if dual-wielding axes.

Interestingly enough, changin Predator’s Instinct to casting “Sic ’em” would make the entire Marksmanship Adept line traits actually traitable themselves!

• Enlargement with Brutish Seals
• Predator’s Instinct with Resounding Timbre
• Clarion Bond with Windborne Notes

PREDATOR’S INSTINCT
Okay I initially wrote a huge wall of text just for this one, and ended up having so many different ideas I’m gonna simplify everything.

There are 2 things I need to talk about for this one, as they’re related.

First, “Sic ’em!” needs to be reworked

• Lower CD from 40s to 35s
• Make it so you don’t need a target to use it – if you don’t have a target, it’ll select nearest enemy, like warrior’s “On my mark!”
• Add a 5 seconds cripple effect on target
• Keep the damage and speed modifier for pet (maybe lower the dmg bonus a bit to balance things out)

Now, with that in mind, here’s the new PREDATOR’S INSTINCT -

• Cast “Sic ’em!” to foes you hit while they are below the health threshold.
  Health threshold: 50%

There. Amazing. It fits the name (predator’s instinct kinda hints at being a master hunter/tracker, the reveal effect is perfect for that concept) and it fits the theme of the trait – denying escape (thanks to the new cripple effect on “Sic ’em!”)

So with that idea, you also give both greater utility to the “Sic ’em!” skill and the trait itself, and synergy would be possible with Resounding Timbre and any Shout-related runes

Do you guys remember the preview for the signet trait change?

It’s basically what we have now, but with the added effect of refreshing opening strike on signet use

It would be amazing.

I don’t see how it’d be unbalanced as most signets have rather long cooldowns. It would make Signet of the Hunt much more interesting. Alternatively, change signet of the hunt’s active to ‘Gain Opening Strike’ ? And lower the CD to a base 20s maybe?

• I’d like a stun break on a trap - perhaps Frost Trap to add some utility?
• Signet of Renewal could be tweaked a bit -perhaps, instead of cleansing a condi, it’d convert to a boon?
• Healing Spring need some change too -perhaps, instead of cleansing condis, it’d apply resistance per pulse? I do kinda miss the old vigor trait though
• Strider’s Defense needs something more. -The CD reduction only affects 2 skills, that feels kinda cheap – Also, I think it’d be pretty interesting to reflect projectiles when evading them (50% chance, or something lower). Another idea was similar to the Guardian’s Valor Master trait line: you either grant team AoE 150 toughness, OR self 240 toughness + CD reduction. So with the sword, since it shares the same line as Spotter, something like +200 precision while wielding sword would be interesting
• Most Dangerous Game is… Lackluster too. Still sticking to an old suggestion – keep the current effect, but also add Gain fury whenever you gain might – no health threshold criteria, but maybe a small cooldown, like 3s fury on 3s cooldown. Imagine the synergy with Remorseless!
• Like most people suggested, the original Light on your feet idea was much cooler. (dmg bonus when moving, like seaweed salad consumable) Either revert it to original suggestion or change it to dodge and succesful evades (synergise with SB 3 and GS auto, sword and dagger. Oh and lightning reflexes)

On april 19 it was sped up to last only 3.25s making it (among other things) compatible with ‘Quick Draw’

The tool tip channeling duration shows 3.25s but the description says 5s, and it DOES last 5s so it is yet again no longer compatible with ‘Quick Draw’

Anyone knows when it was reverted?

So on the April 19 patch they sped up Whirling Defense so it only lasts 3.25s for its full channel, it was reflected in the skill description aswell.

Now it seems the channel is back up to 5s, making it incompatible with the ‘Quick Draw’ trait (much like pre-april 19 patch)

The channel duration tooltip says 3.25s but the description mentions 5s, and it DOES last 5s.

Location: Ember Bay

Been able to replicate it everytime

The gunshot itself is ‘player-instanced’ (client-side?), other players won’t see or hear your gunshot, but they can replicate it themselves.

• Grab a piece of damaged ship from the possible ‘spawn’ locations
• Move around the spot, whenever you get in ‘range’ of being able to interact to grab piece, you’ll see and hear the gunshot.

Video of the bug

List of very niche/thematic builds

THUNDER RANGER (Lightning-Themed – Hit Hard, Hit Fast)

• + 65% Boon Duration
• + Lots of mobility
• + Lots of Stunbreak
• + Acceptable Condi Removal
• - Glassy Build
• - Relies heavily on projectiles
• ¤ Rune of Surging for a CC Bubble, easily switched to Of the Ranger/The Pack
• ¤ Can Switch the melee set to GS
• ¤ Can Switch Druid to Wilderness Survival or Nature Magic

FLAME RANGER (Fire-Themed Condi)

• + Burn for Days
• + Blinds
• + Acceptable Condi Removal
• + Acceptable health/toughness
• - Somewhat weak vs High Resistance Uptime Enemy
• ¤ Switch Celestial Shadow to Natural Stride for better mobility

TOXIC RANGER (Poison-Themed)

• + Mega Poison
• + Lots of crippling
• + Lots of evades
• + Mega Mobility
• + Acceptable Condi Removal

FROST RANGER (Chill-Themed)

• + Chill for days (enemy cooldowns & mobility near-permantly reduced)
• + Bleeds
• + Acceptable Condi removal
• + Perma Weakness
• - No stability
• - Limited Stunbreak

RAPTOR RANGER (CriticalCondi Bird Themed)

• + High Crit Chance
• + Lots of Bleeds
• + Lots of Condi removal
• + BIRDS EVERYWHERE
• - Slightly Glassy
• - No Stability (But 3 Stunbreak skills)
• ¤ Can switch Druid to Nature Magic

ARMY RANGER (Shout Ranger)

• + AoE Condi Cleanse
• + High Protection uptime
• + Lots of Might
• + Lots of mobility
• + Non-Projectile based Ranged
• + Acceptable access to Stealth
• ¤ Switch Signet of Stone to “Search and Rescue!” or Bountiful Hunter to Allies Aid when in group

TRAPPER RANGER (Traps)

• + Lots of Mobility
• + Lots of Stealth (Rune of Trapper + Smoke Field)
• + Lots of Condi
• - Limited Condi Removal
• - No Stability
• - Limited Stunbreak

CELESTIAL RANGER (Ultimate Jack-of-all-trades)

• + Lots of Stun Breaks
• + Lots of Taunts
• + Lots of Damaging Condis
• + Lots of Hindering Condis
• + 65% Boon Duration
• + High Protection Uptime
• + Lots of Quickness
• + 2 sources of Superspeed
• + 2 sources of Stealth
• - Very Limited Condi Removal
• - Damage relies on might stacking, fortunately it will stack to 25 most of the time
• ¤ Can change Beastly Warden to Zephyr’s Speed for even more Quickness and Might
• ¤ Can change Windborne Notes to Evasive Purity for some condi removal
• ¤ Can change Rune of the Traveler to Leadership for higher boon duration and limited condi removal (self and allies) or to Durability for some Condi Management through Resistance

A week + 16s CD to balance things out

Also clicked the link for curiosity, he does know how to play!

Do you have a YouTube profile?

I’d like ‘showcase’ videos, don’t wanna spend hours on 1/2/3+ hour long videos, but I’d like to see fight compilations!

Updated the wiki page for Primal Echoes

Also, unrelated, but the CD numbers for skills 3 (Lunar Impact), 4 (Rejuvenating Tides) and 5 (Natural Convergence) during CAF are off by 1s – They’re supposed to be 7, 8 and 10s respecitvely, but they show as 6, 7 and 9s

Since when does it trigger upon shifting into celestial avatar without wielding a staff?

I know it also used to proc if you’d shift into and out of CAF when wielding a staff, and
I understand CAF animations make it look like you’re wielding an invisible staff, but I don’t recall when the trait would proc even when NOT wielding a staff

Can someone also check if Natural Convergence kills count toward Staff Master achievement? (mine already maxed, can’t check!)

Addendum:

If they’re reaaally not willing to bring back any form of mobile spirits…

Could they at least make spirits ground targeted?

Nature’s Vengeance
I don’t think the name fits with its mechanics. I’m PRETTY sure, with that name, that the effect of triggering their active on kill was supposed to be included… But they removed it last minute.
Suggested Rework

• Double Health
• Double Active cast – The old version had the active usable many times before the spirit would die. Dunno why they changed it – this trait would enable the player to cast the active twice (with cooldowns, of course)
• Cast the Active when they are killed – Would create really interesting play, and it used to be a trait.

Add a new Master Trait
Replace Vigorous Training with
Nature’s Gift

• Add the boon effects to this trait (make them last slightly longer… I mean… Look at Warriors. Heralds. Engie Turrets. Elementalists etc etc)
  - Water – 3s Regen every 3s
  - Sun – 3s 3 Might every 3s
  - Storm – 3s Swiftness every 3s
  - Frost – 3s Vigor every 3s
  - Stone – 2s 1 Stability every 3s
  - Nature – 1s Resistnace every 3s
• Make them mobile when traited with this trait – I still do NOT understand the removal of mobile spirits. Guardians get Spirit Weapons. Warriors have banners that can be moved. Engies get Drones. Elementalists Elementals. Necros, THOUSANDS of Minions.

Keep the flanking mechanics.
Make it so flanking shots have additional effects.

Crossfire
Base 2s bleed per hit.
4s bleed if flanking

Poison Volley
5x 4s Poison
5x 0.5s Weakness + previous effect if flanking

Quickshot
Swiftness from Frontal Shot
Superspeed from Flanking

Crippling Shot
Cripple + Pet Effect from frontal shot
Cripple + Pet Effect + 2 Stacks of 4s Torment from Flanking

Concussion Shot
2s Daze from Frontal Shot
1s Stun + 2 stacks confusion for 4s from flanking

I feel like range is fine,

But I think I’d like to have the old-announced GM trait, where there’d be a FLAT dmg % bonus and condi duration bonus from MOVING – I think it was around 5% dmg bonus when moving and 10% condi duration bonus

Seed of Life
Completely unnecessary nerf;
Takes forever to cleanse
Super small radius
Light field is so short it’s almost inexistant
In kitten-condi meta, I don’t see the logic behind removing/reducing the very few condi-cleansing options from ranger/druid. They already struggle quite a bit, and they have to TRAIT HEAVILY to have SOME form of condition management.

Lunar Impact
Wouldn’t call it a direct nerf, closer to ‘proper balance’ BUT why diminish 2 effects? Both the daze duration (I mean come’on, Moment of Clarity was nerfed months ago) AND the cooldown?
Could you maybe at least up the healing value to compensate?

Pet Nerfs
The nerfs are a bit too harsh, but the real problem is no the HoT pet. Its all the core pets. They absolutely underperform. The main reason people pretty much only play with SS and BB is because they’re the only pet that can hit reliably.
Don’t nerf HoT pets. Fix core pets. Like, really.

Also please, tweak the core ranger traits apropriately. Some of them are barely ever used, same for ranger skills (looking at you Sharpening Stone, Glyph of Unity, SPIRITS…)

I still don’t understand the nerf. It takes a long time to cleanse, the radius is super small and the light field doesn’t last long. With the nerf, here are some balance suggestions:

• Make the cleansing and healing 50% faster
• Enlarge the radius by 30%
• Augment the healing coefficient by 15%
• Make the light field last 30% longer

That rune is really bugged on rangers, as ANY shouts are supposed to trigger the rune effect.

If you use them on warriors and use shouts that don’t affect yourself or allies (such as ‘Fear Me!’ or ‘On my Mark!’ ) they still cleanse the player and allies around.

But you know

Being a ranger issue…
…Yeah

Hunter’s Call
Make it work like the 6th Bonus from Rune of the Mad King, but maybe lower its efficiency a little.

How madking’s bonus 6 work is that when you cast an elite skill, up to 3 enemies in a 1200 range around you will basically get the same effect from Hunter’s Call (fact in combat log its labeled as such) >> 16 hits on a target. The rune effrct cooldown is at 45 seconds

The warhorn version could be lowered to 12 hits and 900 range, could work well against stealthed enemies

Also PLEASE fix the ‘obstructed’ glitch. It was fixed at one point in history but it’s back and very annoying

If you have glyphs equipped, their effects are pretty much ‘inverted’ – the damage is changed to healing on allies, the condi application is turned to Cindi cleansed on allies, push becomes pull, etc.

Skill 4 for some nice pusling PBAoE heals on self and allies. Also acts as a water field to combo healing

Skill 3 for small burst heal on self and allies, but can act offensively too as it dazes. Can act as a blast finisher.

Skill 2 for not too efficient small burst heal + 2 condi cleanses and a blind on enemies. Can act as a light field

Skill 1 uh yeah. Underwhelming skill

Skill 5 is the only damaging one, but it roots you. Still some nice numbers and adds slow, cripple and immob

Path of scars

Make it so you throw 3 axes in a cone similar to splitblade to enlarge the width/area of effect

Keep it ground targeted, maybe enhance the velocity

Predator’s Instinct (trait)

The cooldown and effect are a bit to high
I’d suggest lowering both values proportionately

But if we really want to make this trait interesting compared to the other 2 it’s competing with, add a short superspeed on the same cooldown

Say 3s Cripple on target, 1s superspeed on self on a 10s cooldown?

Sharpening Stone (skill)
I have two suggestions for this one

First one would be to DRASTICALLY lower the CD from 45 seconds to like 20s

Since the condi rework, 5 stacks of 6s bleed on 45 seconds CD is meaningless. I’d also add maybe 2 more seconds to ring base bleed duration to 8s.

The other suggestion would be to reduce the ‘charges’ to 3, but DOUBLE the stacks per charge, and make all charges unlockable. Keep the 45 seconds CD.

Change leap to 1s superspeed >> Keep some form of gap closing

Whew huge topic title, sorry.

So yeah

I’m probably the minority enjoying the CURRENT sword auto (leap/stick to target)

But I do understand the change (I did die many times in the first few weeks from falling off cliffs and such)

But, they’re removing a pretty good gap closer.

My suggestion, much like the topic title, would be to add a 1s superspeed component to the 3rd chain – would add the gap closer element they’re removing. It would balance things out, considering superspeed cannot stack

Swift Strike (…or any other name)
‘Strike your foe, granting yourself superspeed. Your pet gains might’
Damage: 293 (0.8)
Might (5s)
Superspeed (1s)
Number of Targets: 3
Range: 170

• Cosmic Ray
  - Remove the cast time, but add a 0.5s Cooldown
  - Apply 2 stacks of 5s vulnerability to enemies and a small damaging component

• Seed of Life
  - Heal on Spawn + 1 condi cleanse on spawn, and then blind on burst and the 2nd condi cleanse on burst

• Lunar Impact
  - Lower the cast time to 0.5s

• Rejuvenating Tides
  - Grant 2s of vigor per pulse (self and allies)
  - Let the water field be active even if you perform other actions or cancel the skill until the skill duration expires

• Natural Convergence
  - The damage values are different in PvP and PvE, make them the same
  - Make it a dark field

Oldirtbeard.9834:

schmu.4630:

Shout GS Longbow (perma buffs, survivability, dmg is okay)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARTnUqA1Ci9CCWsActgh9g6jjj4p3bPAGd+CC4RoEpfG-TxRBABUq+De6aA4JF8wlU4KlfPt/gZKBBA-e

For open world and casual fractals this is an easy to use and fun to play build in my opinion.

I dig it, does it offer any utility to other players?

• High Regen and Swiftness Uptime (pretty much permanent)
• High Might, Fury uptime
• AoE Team-Wide Stun Break
• 50% DMG Reduction on allies with “Guard!”
• 150+ Precision thanks to Spotter trait
• Smoke field for combo’able Stealth aswell
  I’d probably switch bristleback to either Jungle Stalker (5 stacks of might 15s) or Tiger (10s Fury)