My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Hey, it was asked for:
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Man, I’ve never even slotted the skill because I thought it just camped the pet in an area. I didn’t know it did all this. Slotting tonight.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
And i’m probably going to get butchered for saying this but:
The pet control in WoW as a hunter is something A-net should be looking at. WoW hunters are truly Beastmasters compared to Rangers here.
No argument there. I don’t feel it needs take the entire control system, but at the very least pets in WoW felt very…snappy? You hit the button, it did it.
I have this issue with a lot of MMOs, as when friends lured me to City of Heroes, Champions, D&D, and Old Republic, the combat rarely felt as responsive and crisp as WoW’s. I’m not sure how to explain it, but other WoW players usually know what I mean.
Champions Online and Guild Wars 2 are two games with combat that is as responsive and, to me, deeper, but the pet system certainly isn’t as polished. Aside from the jaguar and birds, most things feel clunky, even if I accept that the drake is “casting” it’s breath.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Holy cats, I may have to replace my toy bag. Even if I’ll still be rocking a sling shot.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Game Informer posted a news article on Tuesday about the patch being released. We know that isn’t so, but I assumed they were just jumping the gun and the story was meant for this Tuesday.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Rangers have well defined tools with well defined purposes. They are not as dull as the warrior, as they still have some sort of side effects, but they are in line with the general purpose of the skill.
Take sword/dagger: The skills all have a single purpose, sticking on a target and slowly killing it, but can be used creatively to do something else, when the need arises.
Longbow: Every skill has a well defined purpose. In case of autoattack, it may be a bit TOO well defined, as it sucks at anything but what it’s designed for, and even there could need a tweak, but you will never find yourself asking “should I use skill xy or skill yz”? The opponent gets closer, so you knock him back. BOOM. Simple as that.That’s what’s so great about the ranger: You feel like you got some toolkit with fine tools and always have a tool which is perfect for the situation. None of all that “the skill does a, while it’s also good for b, but you really want to spam it, even without a target, because it gives you c”.
Precisely why I find myself coming back to my Ranger time and again. While there are some pet issues and weapon tweaks I wouldn’t mind, it’s just so playable without being bland (Warrior) or exhaustively complex at times (Ele).
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Thanks, Mik! That’s a great perspective. I do like challenging classes that teach me about the game, so I’ll give Ele a try first.
I’m usually a Warrior/Tank type in tabletop and MMOs, but with GW2 I ended up as a Thief and Ranger at launch. I’ll keep breaking ground and try a mage class. I suppose a Norn Ele is just a shaman, eh?
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Great input, thanks. I believe my friend has designs on GS for the most part, though he likes shield and sword.
I like learning the ins and outs of classes, so I’d love to try a DPS Elem, but yeah, my experience with my Thief has been most people don’t notice combo fields.
Thanks for the food for thought.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I like Consecrated or Save Yourself.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Berghildr – Awesome and simple.
Ravensworn – Also simple yet classy.
Ulfrigg Stormborn – Not my favorite surname, but I dig it on the whole.
Sigrun Trollbane – I quite like this one, but I’m a fan of any Sig prefix. Trollbane is kind of cliche, but classic.
My Norn Guardian is Skadi Thundersteel. Thundersteel after the Riot song and just because it was cool. I thought about translating the surname to Tordenstal, or even running with Svartmetal, but decided against it since perhaps Norse isn’t actually Norn. It was approved by my Norwegian friends and family, so that’s good enough for me.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
My buddy hasn’t played since November, and I haven’t played much since Christmas, though I dip in. I’ve kept up with the changes for the most part.
We both decided to start new Norns together, he went Warrior. I can’t decide what to roll between Guard or Ele. Most of my experience is with Ranger, Thief, and Mesmer.
Norn Cultural armor is a big draw, but as far as duoing in WvW and PvE, is there anything warriors might benefit from?
Protection and Aegis vs lots of Combo Fields is my main thought.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Dual warriors, eh? That could actually be fun since there’s no competing for gear.
I was thinking the Ele’s combo fields and utility could be fun while he smashes things. One thing I dislike about the Guardian is being limited to Light fields, but maybe I’m overvaluing combos.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
My buddy hasn’t played since November, and I haven’t played much since Christmas, though I dip in. I’ve kept up with the changes for the most part.
We both decided to start new Norns together, he went Warrior. I can’t decide what to roll between Guard or Ele. Most of my experience is with Ranger, Thief, and Mesmer.
Norn Cultural armor is a big draw, but as far as duoing in WvW and PvE, what’re the boards thoughts?
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
My buddy hasn’t played since November, and I haven’t played much since Christmas, though I dip in. I’ve kept up with the changes for the most part.
We both decided to start new Norns together, he went Warrior. I can’t decide what to roll between Guard or Ele. Most of my experience is with Ranger, Thief, and Mesmer.
Norn Cultural armor is a big draw, but as far as duoing in WvW and PvE, what’re the boards’ thoughts?
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
My buddy hasn’t played since November, and I haven’t played much since Christmas, though I dip in. I’ve kept up with the changes for the most part.
We both decided to start new Norns together, he went Warrior. I can’t decide what to roll between Guard or Ele. Most of my experience is with Ranger, Thief, and Mesmer.
Norn Cultural armor is a big draw, but as far as duoing in WvW and PvE, what’re the boards thoughts?
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I like this idea.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
My issue with Forage is it’s pretty pre-emptive. On my Thief I know what I’m going to get and I can plan my Steal and usage of the Stolen Item with the flow of combat.
With my pigs it’s more of a gamble and clunkier to use. It should be one or the other: random chance at the item but it goes in your hand, or guaranteed item but you still have to manually pick it up. Or something like that.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Skills and Traits are swappable for a reason.
Adapt as the scenario requires it.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I’d like to have a Utility skill that’s similar to Hide in Shadows from a Thief.
Not a heal, but it could be a Trap or Survival skill you lay down for stealth that gives Opening Strike and Stealth so you could ambush or escape as you needed to.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I’ve heard it’s a memory issue and that there is no intent to implement permanently storing the names as their system stands.
No clue how accurate that is.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I usually get about 2 a month, and I play pretty casually. Of course, it’s like a 1 key to 20 chests ratio.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
When your jaguar is stealthed, all his attacks will critical hit. And this lasts the entirety of his stealth, it doesn’t break on attack. Time it right and you get some nasty burst.
You can also use it to drop aggro if you want an enemy on you and your pet unbothered.
Those are the two uses I know of.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Daisy means Beast Mastery Traitline focus with a Greatsword. Beast Mastery will boost your pet and yourself with boon synergies and up your swapping speed to cut down on pet deaths.
Greatsword offers a nice dash away if you use Swoop without a target, Counter can block ranged and melee and kicks the enemy away if it’s a melee attack (and it can hit more than one), and Hilt Bash buys you stuns and helps your pet lay into a target.
The basic Greatsword attack chain has an Evade every third swing, which is very nice.
I would pack a Longbow as my secondary weapon for it’s Point Black Shot to knock enemies away if you need time to think/wait on your sword cooldowns, and Hunter’s Shot is a nice opener: it stacks Vulnerability and gives Swiftness to you pet, so they run and stay on the target better.
A good opener in PvE is: Hunter’s Shot to get your pet on them and stack Vulnerability, swap to Greatsword and Swoop in, Maul, then swing away. Counter or Hilt Bash if you see the enemy winding up to hit you and you don’t want to dodge.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Perhaps Rapid Fire could be replaced with a “kill shot” like Mercy Shot on the spear gun: More damage the less health the target has.
I’d call it Aimed Shot and it might cause Weakness or Blindness (because we’re aiming for the head? I dunno. I just think it needs a little pizzazz).
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
No, I’m pretty sure interrupts weren’t a factor in most of my situations.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
If it’s like Signet of the Hunt and Opening Strike, I believe it’s only the first arrow, even on Rapid Fire.
With my Any Bow/GS build, I use the Daze as a chance to pop Swoop or Maul (I’ve seen math making a case for both, I prefer Maul under the logic that it has bleeds and while they’re dazed it won’t screw up my evade chain).
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Would ANet ever explain the philosophy behind weapon skills and traits so that players might understand the intent of the game design?
I feel a lot of player concerns or criticisms might be alleviated by a simple 101 as to how ANet wanted things to synergize or differentiate.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I do have to agree with Dante, if only for artistic flavor. To me, shortbow is the flashy, impossibly fast nock and draw bow, and it does it well.
Every shot on LB except Rapid Fire is a single draw – even Barrage, it just uses a fistful of arrows. Rapid Fire stands out as something that might have been a Shortbow skill at one time, and one long power shot seems to fit more.
Perhaps ANet thought it was too similar to Point Blank Shot, but a longer wind up or rooting effect or condition (Weaken? Maybe it knocked the wind out of the target.) could help differentiate it.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Only spider I have is the forest, but that’s cool to know. Thanks for the knowledge!
The way I’ve played with it I pretty much rely on Shortbow and GS 5 to get stuns, as the stun and extra attack bonus are pretty nice with Maul. I’ll have to play with the pets.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Widow isn’t available to all, is it? I need my Pink Moa, it seems.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
30% more critical damage works.
30% faster runspeed – nah, not really.
30% speed works, ive tested it last night. It doesnt stack with sigil of hunt or swiftness but if you have only pet 30% speed you can notice your pet moves faster!
Correct to my experience.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I’m playing with a Remorseless/Moment of Clarity build using SB/GS and a Wolf and Hyena.
30 Marks/30 Skirmish/10 BM right now. It’s less focused on the daze extension and more on getting an interrupt.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I don’t think it’s supposed to, but that is what happens.
Best example I can give is the random present boxes. I’m not ashamed to say some of those toys beat the hell out of me if I don’t pay attention, and I especially lose my pets to the stupid Asura cube things when it gets hectic.
When I’m downed, if my arcturos or jaguar is alive, they run to me and don’t do anything. If they died “My pet!” around the time I died, and I can’t swap them, 3 will work. If I can swap to a living pet, it will not work.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I feel the same way about mine, coming from my Thief.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Works when my pet is dead, doesn’t if it’s alive.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I’m curious how other MMOs make do if it’s such a memory issue.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
But see the longbow shouldnt be the support or secondary weapon, it should be able to be used as a primary weapon. Sadly it cant, atleast not in spvp.
I agree with this. I’m sad to hear people see Longbow most viable as a Support weapon. It’s suppose to be our means for direct DPS.
I’d love to have ANet explain where each weapon sits with each class, just like they explained profession philosophy.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Only comparison I would make with Thief sword vs Ranger sword is Serpent’s Strike is a hell of a lot more reliable thank Flanking Strike, which is odd given they seem to work the same.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I do not disagree with you and would like to see it addressed.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I play my Ranger like my Thief: small gang skirmishes, chasing down runners, keep defense, and harassing. I prefer to harass and skirmish, but I pick off the stragglers unless I’m pushing with Barrage.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I’d rather see the scout tools moved to the Thief. I’ve wanted a Thief Rifle since Beta with those exact tools.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I use my Longbow as a support weapon with my Sword or GS. Hunter’s Shot throws vulnerability on (and an extra 5 stack if you have Opening Strike) and gives swiftness to your pet so you and your pet can charge in and start whacking away with your sword.
If I need space, I’ll pop PB Shot. Also in a support capacity I can drop Hunter’s Shot for Vuln, then Rapid Fire as someone else engages. Then I go back in with melee. Barrage has it’s uses.
Outside of that, though, I don’t use it as a primary weapon unless I’m doing PvE and want to play around. I’m not entirely sure it’s meant to be a primary damaging weapon as much as it is a support tool.
As a Thief at launch, I heard similar complaints and comparisons about our shortbow, but it’s clear the shortbow is meant as a support weapon: blast finisher, mobility, the poison cloud. I would argue that the shortbow supports better than a longbow in a group environment, and that may be where one could say the longbow isn’t meant to fulfill the same sort of support.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Daenerys is cool, but I have to think it’s primarily the Sephiroth/anime thing.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I’d use a jaguar because I like the stealth ability and feel with proper Sword usage you two could really lay down some pain. It’s what I’m trying right now, actually.
As for builds, I’d have to think on that.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I use it as a maker and closer. I don’t see any problems with it.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
Nice job. I still love my GS, though.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the Trait bonuses. They’re nice, but they aren’t the end-all, be-all. As Munrock said, the Traits themselves can offer more payoff.
Working with a LB/GS build for an example, Marksman boosts your power anyway, and you have some condition with Maul and Traps. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but Marksman boosts condition duration, and you do have Vulnerability on 3, and it should extend the duration. It’s a very nice condition to have, in addition to the Cripple on Barrage.
It also depends on what your secondary weapon set is. I like to use Longbow to control fights and then pop 3 for Vulnerability right before I swap to GS for a quick 2-3 combo, and unload with my pet.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
so anyone…
was that the magical ranger patch everyone expected?
Just asking…
I have a new love for Longbow/Shortbow and Greatsword as a combo, and I really enjoy the speed boost on the signet, especially since speed was the first thing I’d always notice between my Thief and Ranger.
I notice my pets have better damage output and stay on target more.
So yes, it did restore my faith (and play time). It’s not there yet, but it’s finally looking like we’re going somewhere and that I agree with the direction.
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.
I don’t care if the skill is horrible, I’d just like to know your favorite animation.
Back in BWE2, what sold me on the Ranger was the Counter animation with Greatsword. When I saw my Norn female plant the sword into the ground and kick off of it and around, my jaw dropped. It was just so cool. My Ranger is a human now, and she does the same animation, so I’m happy with that. I haven’t seen any other races or sexes do it, so I’m unaware of any variants to it.
I really enjoy that Barrage rains arrows and the totemic themes that Sword and Greatsword have. I do wish the bear wasn’t so prominent in Maul, and the bee buzz irks me with Sword, but the idea and execution is so cool. It’s what I hoped Spirits would be more akin to, actual animal presences.
I also thought the piranha summoning skill was pretty humorous the first night in beta I worked on underwater skills.
Do you guys have a Ranger favorite? Or other class, if yours is taken?
My psychic knife. The focused totality of my psychic powers.