Guild Wars 2

whenever I pug scale 50 fractals, I always carry a ranged weapon on swap…because pugs are generally not the greatest, and trying to melee archie by yourself can get you killed extremely fast.

Iris Ng.9845:

Quarktastic.1027:

The problem I have is: Every time I play my ranger in a bad or mediocre group, I feel like I’m not contributing anything to help the group suck less.

And every time I play my ranger in a good group, I feel like I’m being carried.

I’d honestly play my guardian more if I could figure out how to not suck at playing guardian.

Funny, do you give your group fury? Do you give Vuln? Do you give both Vuln and Fury whenever your guard and/or mesmer use their WoR or Feedback at Lupi? Do you know you alone can gives them 15 vuln, aka. 15% more reflect damage?

Have you tried to burst CoF console? Brie? reflecting Legendary Jotun? Have you tried to manage defiance without a thief? Have you tried kiting Mai Trin?

I run a remorseless build, so yeah, lots of fury/vulnerability. Never tried bursting the console in CoF. I haven’t done an arah path (aside from P4) in over 2 years. I suppose I could manage defiance without a thief fairly easily…and I suck horribly at fighting Mai Trin.

Maybe it’s the negative ranger stigma that’s giving me that “grass is always greener” feeling.

The problem I have is: Every time I play my ranger in a bad or mediocre group, I feel like I’m not contributing anything to help the group suck less.

And every time I play my ranger in a good group, I feel like I’m being carried.

I’d honestly play my guardian more if I could figure out how to not suck at playing guardian.

I bought mine because I wanted one. I don’t use it very often, but whenever I do, I’m glad I have the option.

I have that issue with my guardian. Been playing guardian for over 2 years and I still suck at it.

I find most encounters (pve) much easier as a ranger, even with a full melee setup.

Healing spring never provided a burst heal to allies, only the regen and condi cleanse+water field. It used to heal your pet, but it no longer does.

Anet essentially broke it when they made it a trap. Now I suspect it’s in the “working as intended” category, or the “we’re aware of the issue” category. In other words, don’t expect a fix until at least 3 weeks after HoT drops.

TurtleDragon.3108:

Well first of all, in a PUG I wouldn’t trust a random ranger running whatever PHIW build that usually doesn’t have frost spotter. I’m much more likely to get a somewhat decent ele than a ranger running the right zerker or sinister build. The 2nd ele makes Ice Bow up more often and makes managing blasts much easier. You’d be silly to think the difference between organized group and LFG PUGs is only 10-30 seconds per boss/trash fight. This is especially noticeable in dungeons like CM, Arah and High level fractals. My farm group does all 3 CM paths in 15-18 minutes (which is okay or relatively slow by dungeon standards). If I were to PUG that same path with my Ranger, it’d take 10-15 minutes per path b/c of subpotimal tactics and people failing the stealth skips. On my ele, i’d atleast be able to contribute a lot more than 1 smoke field blast and make it less likely that we’d fail. The 2 eles do a lot more than just camp fire and drop Ice Bows. Eg. Glyph of Storms is helpful if you’re pulling the entire hallway + champ in CoE.

I don’t PUG that often, but when I do I usually advertise for a war/thief/guard/ele/ele group in Fractals. Rangers sometimes join and I ask them to switch or kick. I’m not going to just roll with it when they can’t even bother to read my LFG.

I’d save on average, my organized groups runs are done in 2/3 the time of PUGs b/c of superrior compositions and tactics (And DPS b/c no one might stacks or uses food/pots in PUGs). If you’re doing a tour, these 4-10 minutes per path add up very quickly, but it’s irrelevant if you’re only doing 1 dungeon.

Not all of us as ignorant meta sheep, some of us are former speed runners/“Dungeon tour-ers” (not PUG speed runs).

Blasting the thief’s smoke field is completely redundant, as thieves can easily hit the stealth cap on their own.

Honestly, you have the meta sheep mindset, which makes you just about as enjoyable to be around as one of the meta sheep.

Darknicrofia.2604:

That’s the thing, deflecting shot on paper sounds like a skill shot but in practicality is merely a woefully low damage blind luck shot (that also requires 2 clicks instead of 2).

Other than stopping the occasional rapid fire, deflecting shot has no place in GW2’s fast paced combat.

It being used to purposely stop anything useful besides firing randomly in the direction of a WvW zerg has about as much chance as happening as a GW1 ranger distracting shooting another ranger’s distracting shot.

I’ve done that before though…at least twice…

bearshaman.3421:

I took NM for survivability (regen added to Clarion Bond, regen below 50%, boonsharing with pet). Skirmishing seems too situational with all the “from the side or back”, and I haven’t gotten practiced enough yet to do that consistently. I was wondering why you took the endurance regen over the bleed on crits trait, but it make sense if you are strafing around your target to get the other benefits from Skirmishing.

Equip sword
Stand in front of enemy
Press 3
Now you are behind enemy
If enemy turns, repeat above steps

SkiTz.4590:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

TurtleDragon.3108:

DarkWasp.7291:

Well at least in PvE, Ranger is a top level DPS option.

• Sword auto is brutal
• Stability is very helpful
• Double Path of Scars is brutal
• Double Rapid Fire is brutal
• Two spirits that boost team DPS (Frost gives a 7% increase and Sun works great too)
• Great area condition cleanse
• Perfect candidate to use extra ele weapon summons

So when you hear PvE people saying it’s terrible, they obviously missed the potential.

And all of those are inferrior to having a 2nd ele in the group.

you have no idea what a rangers capabilities are , and most of the rangers you come across in Pugs are not using the class correctly or Using very poor timing + rotations .

spotter + frost is still a very powerful damage boost.
so is the Quickdraw , Gs+Sword/Axe in full zerker gear its Dps is a third higher than that of pre-patch .

there is no point in having a second ele in a pug set up you could be double stacking might wasting 25might so it make no difference if its a 2nd ele or a 2nd warroir or a 2nd guardain , these dungeons can be 4manned regardless of what the 5th is running.

his points are proven facts , over many other threads even DnT on both power and condi builds, of which speed run times are only a few seconds slower than the so called 2nd ele or doubling up on classes.

rangers are great in any mode now.
and honestly there are better builds than those that DnT made.

I’d rather have an extra ice bow than a ranger. 2nd ele means 2 additional ice bow 4s. Thats more DPS than spotter + frost spirit. Majority of the bosses drop in seconds with 4 icebows. the 2nd eles DPS rotations is just as good, if not better than ranger… so whats the point?

I think most of use would prefer 2nd ele over a ranger….Sure ranger is perfectly fine and complete any group content, but If I had my choice, Id rather have an extra ele in party than ranger…

The easiest way to solve this is to nerf Ice bow 4. Watching 4 ice bows melt a boss in 3 seconds is fun to watch, but ultimately not healthy for PvE as a whole.

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Sounds like you’ve had quite the bad luck then as my experience isn’t close to yours. Generally most I run with are mostly zerk or all zerk in the 50s. Luck of the draw I guess.

I have all the bad luck it seems. every time I pug a fractal and wind up rolling the volcano or Mai Trin, I die a little inside…because I know my fractal run just turned into a 2 hour affair.

Zenith.7301:

Quarktastic.1027:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Zenith.7301:

Prophet.1584:

GS is perfectly viable and the dps loss is negligible at best since the last patch. it would still be a good idea to learn sword andh ow to play within the bounds of how it works. use gs in situations where the leap could kill you like harpy fractal. dagger oh evades break the leap animation so you could use that until you’re used to it. and turn off auto attack.

The DPS difference is not negligible. Stop this myth.

It’s a convenient weapon to use over 1h sword, but it’s a notable DPS loss.

It is easy to tell in parties if everyone is zerk or not or that every one is putting on max DPS or not. Sadly, it’s still not worth bringing a Ranger into high levels. Until the 100% of the DPS is given to the Ranger and it brings more utilities. Right now I do like some pug zerk parties 2 ele, 1 guard, 1 ea ps war, 1 thief… but everyone has to be on point, but it does allow for some forgiveness… maybe swap the thief for a mes because time warp.

I’ve done scale 50 fractals with none of the above professions, and they’ve been smoother than most of the “zerk meta DPS” pugs I’ve been in. I’ll take an experienced player over a zerk meta bot any day, regardless of his profession.

Nobody’s asking you to choose between either, a false dichotomy. Why not take an experienced zerker, who’s both?

People are not telling you to run zerker to be mean. It just works, you are really hurting yourself by not doing so.

And now if you hate zerker you even have the sinister condi spec options for ranger, guardian, and engineer.

So it’s no longer a bias against condi, just the clerics/shaman/pvt people. And this is not a hatred for people who like those playstyles, it’s just that Anet needs to find a way to make those playstyles/stats relevant. They’re just a liability now and it’s kinda selfish to force that liability on the group.

It’s like going into a MOBA ranked match and purposely choosing a hero and build completely counterproductive to the goals of your team.

I don’t hate the builds or the professions, I hate the people who play them. I run a zerker ranger myself, and I enjoy it. My guardian is also mostly zerker, though I’ve always been demonstrably terrible at playing guardian, so I haven’t updated his gear in a while.

Most zerk meta puglings I encounter have been truly terrible players. Whenever something goes wrong for whatever reason, (the stack breaks, the ice bow fails to land a deep freeze etc.) it usually results in a wipe. I feel like the zerk meta has led to situations where encounters are over so quickly no one bothers to learn the mechanics of the fight, or how to dodge properly.

Edit:

To clarify: my usage of the term zerk meta bot was referring to players who copy these builds from metabattle and/or just parrot whatever the top speed run players are playing, and expect to just /faceroll everything and win. You’ll encounter a lot of these players in LFG.

Making the rest of us look like filthy casuals since 2012.

GJ Weth.

Solandri.9640:

xarallei.4279:

edit: Oh and I hope the achievement for the sinister trinket does not include anything in the story with Glint’s domain. That one literally made me sick. I had to stop playing it I was so nauseous. Eventually, I made it through but it was very rough on me and I have no wish to reenter that place.

The one I listed as Echoes of the Past mastery requires achievements in Glint’s domain.

I don’t mind doing achievements, but a lot of these require you to play as Caithe – with thief skills. I made a thief my first month of playing the game, and hated it. It’s been sitting as a storage mule for years (the teleport on shortbow 5 is handy for moving between banker, BL trader, and guild bank in Rata Sum).

You could always find a group and have someone else host the instance. That way, you can play as your chosen profession. (in sylvari warden form).

Honestly though, Caithe’s skills are so massively overpowered it makes those achievements a breeze.

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Zenith.7301:

Prophet.1584:

GS is perfectly viable and the dps loss is negligible at best since the last patch. it would still be a good idea to learn sword andh ow to play within the bounds of how it works. use gs in situations where the leap could kill you like harpy fractal. dagger oh evades break the leap animation so you could use that until you’re used to it. and turn off auto attack.

The DPS difference is not negligible. Stop this myth.

It’s a convenient weapon to use over 1h sword, but it’s a notable DPS loss.

It is easy to tell in parties if everyone is zerk or not or that every one is putting on max DPS or not. Sadly, it’s still not worth bringing a Ranger into high levels. Until the 100% of the DPS is given to the Ranger and it brings more utilities. Right now I do like some pug zerk parties 2 ele, 1 guard, 1 ea ps war, 1 thief… but everyone has to be on point, but it does allow for some forgiveness… maybe swap the thief for a mes because time warp.

I’ve done scale 50 fractals with none of the above professions, and they’ve been smoother than most of the “zerk meta DPS” pugs I’ve been in. I’ll take an experienced player over a zerk meta bot any day, regardless of his profession.

Kehlian.4380:

I don’t recall them beeing in GW1, I may have missed them. Also, raptors are birds, not dinosaurs in Guild Wars 2.

Raptors are dinosaurs.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Raptor

They are not birds, despite the fact that many of them have bird names for some reason.

Kehlian.4380:

kitten not here, please not on GW, this is the last bastion where there isn’t those ridiculous lore-breaking dinosaurs…

Dinosaurs have been canon for a very long time. Sorry bruh.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Tyrannus

On block traits (with the exception of communal defenses) only affect the guardian.

Rump Buffalo.2594:

Honestly, a large part of group comp issues comes from fire fields and might stacking. I for one would be very happy if blasting a fire field did not give might, and did something else. This would solve a lot of issues and make classes more about interesting mechanics as opposed to who can stack huge quantities of might.

In fact, I’d be fine if we just did away with might stacking completely. Buff management gameplay is far less fun that involved and interested mechanics that are no homogeneous.

Even if blasting fire fields didn’t grant might, there’s still the PS warrior. Able to stack 25 might on a group for the duration of any fight, just by /facerolling his keyboard.

Zenith.7301:

Quarktastic.1027:

Jerus.4350:

Again I find the off hand benefits to be more of a factor than the damage, Fury/might from warhorn and reflects from axe will benefit a group more than 11%+ damage.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Ever since I dropped my longbow and picked up a sword, I’ve felt much more versatile in group scenarios. Having a reflect alone is a tremendous asset when dealing with those “meta pug” zerker groups that consist of nothing but warriors and eles. (I’m aware that warriors and eles do have reflects, but more often than not, they refuse to use them)

I really wish whirling defense worked with quick draw, but having a 5 second reflect on a 9 second cooldown does seem a bit extreme when you look at it objectively.

I don’t. For one, warhorn is obsolete with PSEA warrior and ele in a group. psea warrior makes any outside sources of might obsolete, and ele gives the group easy perma-fury.

In fact, those classes need nerfs to those boon uptimes if other classes are to become useful. Why bring a warhorn ranger when classes with better damage bring much more uptime and far more might stacks to boot, not to mention banners and ice bow. I mean, something like necromancer’s Blood is Power comes off horrendous, 8 might stacks for the group for 8 seconds is nothing next to a warrior who spikes 25 might stacks for the group for longer times without sacrificing a utility slot.

In the same vein, Quick Draw should work with Whirling Defense. For one, the skill makes you stationary, it does horrendous damage itself so its a significant personal DPS loss.

Ranger should have the highest reflect uptimes with Quick Draw compared to mesmer or guardian who can instantly lay down a reflection bubble and continue to do their own attacks and other utilities without DPS loss.

I never mentioned warhorn specifically. Besides that, warhorn is great for blasting stealth/might, considering it’s our only on demand blast finisher (that can be used out of combat)

Ranger having the highest reflect uptime in the game seems a little silly too. A thief’s only reflect skill locks him out of his weapon/utility skills as well, though he can move around while reflecting stuff. Daggerstorm is also a DPS loss.

The person operating the AC should have their camera automatically locked in first person mode for more immersion.

Sicarius.4639:

Notsoperky.4291:

Ranger will get a staff and be told to go stand in a corner with their pet. They will get a new skill called ‘synergy attack’ that takes 3 times as long as a pet special to charge while staying rooted so 6-10 seconds after you press the attack button a gas cloud is released with a 240 radius around you that damages players in it’s radius for 1k per second for 5 seconds if they stay in it’s range.

Of course in pvp you’ll be dead or the target will be at the other side of the map, but that’s never stopped them giving pets 2-3 second skill activation times…

This is why I had some concern over how Anet are doing these BWE’s and their balancing. I’ve got a bad feeling we’re in the last weekend and that many other classes will have had their specializations looked after for quite some time and if anything is broken or not right it will be glazed over.

This.
So much this.
All of my this.

I’ve always felt like regeneration should be an intensity stacking boon with extremely low base healing, but high healing power scaling.

I would like the spear to not be an underwater clone of the greatsword. But since that’ll never happen, I’d take these improvements.

The achievement bound ones unfortunately cannot be purchased.

The achievements themselves aren’t that bad though. I managed to solo all of them over the course of about 2 weeks, doing a few (sometimes just a single instance) a day. There are also groups that pop up frequently on lfg for the more tedious/difficult ones.

It’s an old bug rearing its ugly head again. Don’t expect a fix for at least another year. And if it ever does get fixed, expect it to crop up again for no apparent reason.

I think it has to do with most structures having oddly placed hitboxes.

Jerus.4350:

Again I find the off hand benefits to be more of a factor than the damage, Fury/might from warhorn and reflects from axe will benefit a group more than 11%+ damage.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Ever since I dropped my longbow and picked up a sword, I’ve felt much more versatile in group scenarios. Having a reflect alone is a tremendous asset when dealing with those “meta pug” zerker groups that consist of nothing but warriors and eles. (I’m aware that warriors and eles do have reflects, but more often than not, they refuse to use them)

I really wish whirling defense worked with quick draw, but having a 5 second reflect on a 9 second cooldown does seem a bit extreme when you look at it objectively.

I’d like some 18k autoattacks.

Also, get out of hotjoin and play some real pvp. You won’t think rangers are OP anymore. I guarantee it.

TurtleDragon.3108:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

TurtleDragon.3108:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

ps turtle go check spirit cooldowns and the ranger buffs go where the ranger goes , there is always enough time to set up a spirit and if its placed in a Stupid location which can be killed, that is a player issue not a skill issue.

PS. I never mentioned it being killed. Even if it’s killed it’s still active for a little bit. I’m talking about placing a spirit for the trash, swapping out your utility when its down then its on cd for 20s. It also has an activation delay of around 3-5s if you include the cast time. That 25s is enough time for you to kill a boss or not have it up for the next trash pack. Example of this is CoF p1 if you use it on the trash before the first boss. You can also just not use it on the trash but that’s part of the problem.

Spirit immobility is sometimes a problem with how fast things die in dungeons. The actual uptime of Frost/Sun Spirit are poor compared to banners because you can’t just pick it up and move it.

you don’t use a flipping spirit vs trash they die fast enough the ranger himself may as well just Pet swap Quickness AA them to death , why waste a spirit again player issue.

Then you’re missing out on half the benefit of even bringing a ranger. A warrior has 0 issues using their banners on trash.

I have no problems using frost spirit on trash. It’s all about knowing when to kill your spirit so the cooldown will be up before the next encounter. Spirit passive buffs pulse for 10 seconds after the spirit dies. The buff delay upon summoning is no more than 2 seconds.

MorganLeFay.5816:

Oh, the humanity…..

…Aquabreather?

Shovels are random rewards iirc.

I’d get onboard immediately if I could summon This.

Why not? My asura guardian has not experienced this issue whatsoever. Whenever he picks up an FGS, he can use all the skills just fine.

Vox Hollow.2736:

I mean, they wouldn’t make savant enemies and saddle us with status quo allies.
Right, guys?
……..right?

That is precisely what they would do.

lordkrall.7241:

Ambush.3251:

My god, do people still believe HoT is coming in 2015 ?

Yes, most of us tend to not assume ArenaNet is lying with every single statement they make.

I’m betting on Q1 2016 personally. Likely somewhere around the middle of February.

StinVec.3621:

For OW-PvE, I strongly recommend ranger. You have a very good choice of long bow and short bow to swap between for ranged in different situations (group or solo), as well as a really good set of skills in an axe/sword set. You can also pick up a greatsword for melee combat whose skills also mesh really well with those of the long/short bows as a weapon swap to where you can transition between ranged and melee easily during a single encounter.

Others may have thoughts on its effectiveness in WvW/PvP and iPvE. I do not take part in those game modes so I cannot offer my thoughts in regards to them.

I would recommend warrior over the ranger. Warriors have a lower skill floor, easy access to offensive buffs, and high base health/armor. Warrior ranged options aren’t as good as a ranger’s, but in open world pve, anything works.

Warriors also have the added benefit of being more welcome in dungeon/fractal groups.

Zalladi.4652:

The remaining Elite Specializations will be revealed once they have a bug-free enough build for it to demonstrate on a Points of Interest livestream.

That is how they have revealed them so far, and it is how I expect them to reveal the remaining ones, so patience is the key. There is only so much left of 2015.

So I guess that means rangers will never get their druid reveal….

I’m joking of course….or am I?

SharpenedBlade.6803:

So I should use GS if I’m no good with sword? Really don’t like getting stuck in big attacks because of the auto attack chain, think I’d be better off wielding GS and doing a little less damage but not getting killed all the time.

…Greatsword skills are much more fun anyway imo
(+I’m a huge fan of 2-H weapons myself)

I run GS and sword/axe. The only time I pick up a longbow these days, is when whatever I’m fighting is too dangerous to melee.

Noktus.8506:

Kindeller.3072:

It’s more than likely just a case that the game can show and display a nice high res textured character in the character select screen as that’s all it is trying to render. All that said, looking at the images I think its down to lighting and area. The Character select screen will have a well lit scene where as the in game could have a number of factors changing the way your character looks. Between the two I see very little differences in texture quality themselves.

…in my opinion anyway!

There’s quite a difference in the hair mesh as well. Also, AA in-game isn’t at all how it is in character select. But like you said, it could be because there’s nothing else to render. But I argue that not just the characters, but the entire WORLD should reflect the fidelity of the character select models.

If it did, you’d need a higher end machine to play at max settings with the same fluidity.

Frankly, I think GW2 does an excellent job of looking great without being too resource intensive.

Dinks.2478:

Back to the real point, there is no way in hell that bulky guy is a Sylvari. A sylvari that doesn’t look anorexic doesn’t exist in this game.

Maybe he juices…..

…I’ll leave now.

Knighthonor.4061:

Seabreeze.8437:

Aw c’mon, really? You’re gonna let the war in the thief sub-forum continue on like this?

Okay, it’s cool that we’re getting another elite spec reveal, but seriously I need to know what the thief elite is going to be!

How you believe the Warriors feel?

How do you think rangers feel? Ours was the first elite spec that anet announced, but we still have zero information about the druid other than “druids will use a staff”.

Knowing Anet, the druid reveal will be dead last.

Rangers everywhere would ragequit.

I want a pet with a reflect on its F2. Something like the reef drake (underwater) but usable on land, and not on a stupid 40 second cooldown.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

McWolfy.5924:

Image a wvw commander focus with 2dh and 3necros

Why not 5 LB Rangers with LtW?

because lolreflect.

Cherokeewill.7504:

I didn’t used to until they became the only guaranteed method of aquiring Spirit Shards. Now I they are the first thing I do after logging in if I intend to play for any amount of time.

Ouch… You are missing out on some serious loot. Dailies give your monthly allocation of laurels so you can buy ascended trinkets. Also give mats for crafting legendary and ascended. Its pretty much free stuff, completing daily take about 15 mins

I think you’re referring to Login Rewards, not dailies. The only bonus to doing dailies is the aformentioned Spirit Shards and bonus Mystic Coins if you do the Mystic Forge daily. Otherwise the Daily Rewards are just extra crafting mats, XP scrolls and karma sips.

Dailies are also 10 free achievement points every day, getting you closer to those sweet achievement chests.

Scale 1-10 fractals are even easier than most dungeons. Every time one pops up for my daily, I often find myself sleeping through it.

Kidel.2057:

Yeah, try that in verdant brink against smokescales

Smokescales are just overpowered in general.

Either the damage/duration of their shadowstep combo attack of death needs to be toned down, or increase its cooldown.

Tregarde.6031:

The Dragonhunter is such a mixed bag. Like others have pointed out, nothing about it says “I hunt dragons,” nor do the new abilities feel particularly original – Rangers have had bows and traps since the beginning. It really does feel like like a blend of Guardian and Ranger more than something unique.

BUT… I did find the new stuff to be useful. I didn’t spend much time playing with traps, but what I did seemed helpful in some situations. I can easily imagine the trap that reveals stealth will be a huge bane to Thieves in PvP.

I also found the bow fit my play style a lot better for ranged combat than the staff ever did. It certainly gives Guardians some versatility they didn’t have before.

Overall, I liked playing with the new Dragonhunter stuff.

I found myself using the reveal trap in PvE just for the vulnerability. Spear of justice with Big Game Hunter is also good for vulnerability stacking.

Zanshin.5379:

We’ve seen it countless times in their videos: devs do not care about guardians. They do not play them. They look bored every time they talk about them. The specialization does not make sense. The name does not make sense. During their meeting they probably spent 2 minutes finding a “gimmick” for the guardian specialization and then moved on to the other classes.

I see posts like this all the time in the ranger and warrior subforum…

…Does anet care about any profession?

Big Game Hunter also procs vulnerability whenever you strike an enemy tethered by Spear of Justice. As of the most recent beta, there was no ICD on the vulnerability application. With the proper rotations, I was able to hit ~20 stacks in the 6 seconds that Spear of Justice tethers an enemy.