Guild Wars 2

Exciton.8942:

Personally, I think the instability should be unlinked to a certain level.
Instead you can activate any instability on any level yourself, much like what you do with gambits in Queen’s Pavilion boss fights.

I’ve always felt like instabilities should be random. But then we’re back to rolling for the instability you prefer. Tying them to specific scales is the best option, unfortunately.

My drakes have been shaking off hits from a scale 49 Legendary Archdiviner like they were nothing. It’s great seeing my pet survive a hit that downs warriors in one hit.

Lazze.9870:

Quarktastic.1027:

Lazze.9870:

Quarktastic.1027:

I’m tired of watching my guardian (mishmash of soldiers, knights, and zerker -with traveler runes) pump out bigger damage numbers than my zerk/scholar ranger.

Sounds like you’re confused by big numbers without paying attention to the actual damage output.

Full sinister is a must, otherwise you’re just gimping yourself.

I think you may have misunderstood my post.

Okay. Let me make it easier for you:

Quarktastic.1027:

I’m tired of watching my guardian (mishmash of soldiers, knights, and zerker -with traveler runes) pump out bigger damage numbers than my zerk/scholar ranger.

Sounds like you’re confused by big numbers without paying attention to the actual damage output.

Quarktastic.1027:

Sinister gear would obviously be the best pick, but for the purposes of being a cheapskate, I was thinking of running carrion armor/weapons with sinister trinkets (I already have all the trinkets).

Full sinister is a must, otherwise you’re just gimping yourself.

Capiche?

You know what, forget it. I’m not going to argue for the sake of arguing.

Durzlla.6295:

IMO they need to make it VERY clear that whirling defense is supposed to be area denial and defensive in nature and NOT primarily offensive. Everyone keeps wanting to make WD into a “chase them down and cut them” skill when it’s supposed to be “defend this area from projectiles and punish people who get too close.”

The problem is, it isn’t good at either of those things. It deals far too little damage to far too few targets, and in far to small an area to be used as effective area or projectile denial. There’s not much point in using it as it makes you a sitting duck. Allowing movement while channeling won’t change the nature of the skill, but it will make the ranger less likely to die while using it.

Harnel.6810:

Now you’re just being bitter, Quark.

I set my standards low so I’m never disappointed. When it comes to Anet, I’m still occasionally disappointed.

Racial skills are weak by design. Anet’s vision of “balance”. in all honesty, I would prefer if racial skills either had more impact, or were abolished altogether.

My speculation: the druid will be ultimately useless in PvE, and only marginally useful in wvw/pvp. After all, we can’t have rangers becoming “meta” now can we?

The one that makes you cast “search and rescue” when you start reviving an ally? It’s not bad I suppose, but the huge cooldown makes it not worth taking.

New warhorn sound

I heard it from a guy on the internet so it must be true.

Zepher.7803:

The main thing I don’t understand or what bugs the hell out of me with the Torch is that it doesn’t burn anything #4 sets you on fire, and #5 only does damage not burning damage…makes no sense

Torch #4 burns nearby enemies when you activate it (1 stack for 3 seconds) and burns your target when you throw it (3 stacks for 3 seconds)

Lazze.9870:

Quarktastic.1027:

I’m tired of watching my guardian (mishmash of soldiers, knights, and zerker -with traveler runes) pump out bigger damage numbers than my zerk/scholar ranger.

Sounds like you’re confused by big numbers without paying attention to the actual damage output.

Full sinister is a must, otherwise you’re just gimping yourself.

I think you may have misunderstood my post.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Quarktastic.1027:

I never exploited clarion bond, and it changed my game significantly. I can no longer swap pets expecting to get a remorseless proc/blast finisher when I need one, because I can’t see the cooldown on clarion bond.

Also, forced transformation effects (i.e. legendary archdiviner’s stun) will trigger your pet swap and put clarion bond on cooldown (if it isn’t already).

Well, I never really exploited Clarion Bond, and I never expected it to be on 20 second CD (16 traited). And if you are in an environment where fight last longer than 15 seconds – than you were definitely better of taking Predator’s Onslaught which means your need of remorseless was not that important.

So then again, you either expected Warhorn #5 to be without cooldown – which I doubt – or you were exploiting the bug.

But let’s believe that you really believed you were not exploiting anything.
If you expected the trait with description of 30 seconds to be on 15 seconds CD – you either could have been absolutely inexperienced in this game and it’s mechanics as such – making the opinions of mechanics rather vague, or experiencing a Warrior syndrome – wanting the best stuff in every case at all costs.

But here again, demanding a revert to the bugfix is out of the question. If you really want to fix something to bring Rangers back to the spotlight – address the real problem.
Because right now your statements sound something like this to me.
“Well, we made an ability that can kill anyone instantly. WoW, that’s unbalanced. Better nerf it’s cooldown.”

If you want to fix an issue – fix the issue. Not the consequence of it.

And the white knight appears.

I understood that the trait was bugged, but it was nice to know exactly when clarion bond would activate. In its current state, knowing whether or not it’s on cooldown is a toss up, unless you’re looking at a stopwatch. I’d call that a fair issue.

As for predator’s onslaught being better than remorseless, they’re close enough that it doesn’t really matter which one you bring. What matters is, predator’s onslaught is completely passive, and frankly, boring. Remorseless necessitates a more active playstyle, and I find it to be much more interesting.

Actually, after thinking it over, my guardian would probably benefit more from running a condi build…He’s already running most of the traits, and his gear could use some consolidation.

I’m still interested in traps, and might try a condi ranger in the future

In order to fix whirling defense, three things need to happen.

• The whirl finisher needs to be fixed (applying to the entire channel rather than just the first hit)
• The number of targets needs to be increased from 3 to 5
• The ability to be channeled while moving

Making the range increase baseline is certainly a start though.

…Would they be viable? I’m tired of watching my guardian (mishmash of soldiers, knights, and zerker -with traveler runes) pump out bigger damage numbers than my zerk/scholar ranger, so I started thinking about traps/condi damage. I thought I’d get some opinions here before running out and crafting a whole new set of armor and weapons.

Sinister gear would obviously be the best pick, but for the purposes of being a cheapskate, I was thinking of running carrion armor/weapons with sinister trinkets (I already have all the trinkets).

Zenith.7301:

It’s still mind boggling how their balance team works where something like warhorn #4 is a channeled skill with a cooldown that does less effective DPS than the autoattack chain. Same goes for necro dagger #2.

It’s not a channeled skill though. You cast it, and it just does its thing. Using it is a net gain in DPS, but it gets overshadowed by path of scars, which deals more damage, is a CC, and hits multiple targets.

Zenith.7301:

Turkadactyl.5308:

Actual tl;dr: I played ranger exclusively for a long time. Then I made a different class and discovered that in the specific content I want to do it’s better/easier. Plsbuffranger QQ.

Ranger has always suffered in dungeons/fractals compared to warriors/eles especially, this is nothing new. The ranger is still arguably one of the best (if not the best) class for most open world content. Ranger is also incredibly strong in WvW and PvP if played well. You played ranger pretty exclusively, it seems like, and then the one time you tried something new immediately decided that because it was better in that content there was a massive problem.

Open World PvE lolololololololol

Staff ele says hi, it’s a better longbow ranger with fields, far better damage and aoe, and group support.

Loot stick guard pwns open world pve.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Puck.9612:

It made sense before they fixed clarion bond. Now it’s just underwhelming.

It never was intended.
Warhorn as such is a bad weapon. That has nothing to do with traits or pet Stow being misunderstood for pet swap.

All the cries of all of you is ridiculous. Only the players who literally exploited the game into oblivion got hit by the changes. Not to mention that even the descriptions told you it was NOT intended like that.

If the “nerf” changed your game that much, you probably were an exploiter. If you want to ask for buffs, ask them at places that make sense. If you want to buff Clarion Bond, you should buff Warhorn.

I never exploited clarion bond, and it changed my game significantly. I can no longer swap pets expecting to get a remorseless proc/blast finisher when I need one, because I can’t see the cooldown on clarion bond.

Also, forced transformation effects (i.e. legendary archdiviner’s stun) will trigger your pet swap and put clarion bond on cooldown (if it isn’t already).

arenta.2953:

Substance E.4852:

arenta.2953:

…

and now rumor is we turn into out pet for an elite or f skill

People need to stop with the “shapeshifter” biz.

Why would they give us a staff allowing us to finally actually wield “Nature Magic” only to then make the entire subclass about turning into a bear or cat?

It would also completely change up the way the pet mechanic works entirely which has always been something they have turned their noses up at every time we bring it up.

GW2 Druid isn’t going to be WoW/Diablo2 Druid 2.0

i said it was rumor

and truth be told, turning into a giant wolf with stability, speed, and toughness is appealing. it beats the current spirit elite we got

Norn already have that market cornered unfortunately.

I’m going to go with “spellcaster/support class.” I can pretty much guarantee that it won’t improve the ranger’s situation in PvE, though it might come in handy for organized wvw/pvp groups.

Substance E.4852:

Sic em still works to my knowledge, it’s just that the pet will lose the buff the instant you give it any other commands including using it’s F2 or even telling it to switch targets/return.

This is pretty much why I never run “Sick Em.” I prefer utilities that aren’t so finicky.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

FYI, Protect Me already transfers condition damage on the Ranger to the pet.

At least, the pet needs Protection and the Ranger needs Retaliation, that way, when traited it would be quite a good skill.

Does it? I swear it only transferred direct damage.

SlayerSixx.5763:

Are we going to forget the fact that shelter can keep you alive vs a whole team of focus fire while litany would require you hit everyone for it be to comparable? Or that shelter synergizes with other on block traits? Or that litany requires healing from ONE condition that can be easily cleansed and your pitiful precisionless attacks?

Also, freely repositioning is just not a part of the guard’s description. Hard to NOT be in the middle of the fight when all of your gap closers drive you closer to an enemy.

If you’re getting focused by an entire group, you’re going to die no matter what heal you’re packing. Shelter just means you’ll die 2 seconds slower.

Zalladi.4652:

Can you explain the bug in detail? And if you truly think it is bugged, do submit a /bug report in-game.

Do remember that the latest update changed it to a trap rather than an actual spring, so remember that it now must be triggered:

“Healing Spring: This skill is now a trap skill and is triggered by allied players entering it.”

Source.

Healing spring does not heal our pet. It hasn’t since the update that borked it.

Honestly, while the other things aren’t bugs, they still make the skill more terrible than it should be.

If they aren’t going to let us keep the instant water field/condi cleanse, at least make healing spring cleanse 2-3 conditions when it’s initially popped.

Protect me: For 6 seconds, you pet absorbs all incoming damage and disabling effects you receive, and gains protection.

So, you effectively gain stability, and your pet gains protection in order to absorb more damage.

allorn.4169:

Quarktastic.1027:

Stop listing every single green you pick up. It’ll save you a lot of time.

You obviously have not played silverwastes, as most green items don’t sell on the TP. I sell most of them on the vendor.

I played silverwastes long enough to get all of my luminescent armor pieces. I never once ran into this issue.

merchantchuck.4875:

Looking through some of the guardian and warrior traits ive realized that a few of the might stacking ones are similar.

The only thing I dont like is the fact that the warrior ones like Shield Master, and phalanx strength have no ICD, while the guardians ones like Might of the protector and empowering might do.

I understand that might of the protector has a longer duration and gives two stacks of might instead of 1 like shield master, however warrior shield has a lower cooldown (24 seconds when traited) than our aegis reapplication or the ability to use shelter a second time.

I understand that people will say “but guardian has more sources of block than warriors” but its still annoying when I use to use shelter specifically when I was expecting burst to build up might.

Anyway this was just my rant about Guardian ICD and warriors lack of ICD.

Waaaaaaaaaay back in the day when AH hammer guards were still a thing, might of the protector had no ICD. Watching my might stacks go from 0-25 in the span of one shelter pop was hilarious and awesome at the same time.

Choppy.4183:

Quarktastic.1027:

Oblivion? Try asking a ranger what oblivion feels like, because it’s something no warrior has ever experienced.

While I don’t support the pve buff the OP is asking for, you’re the second person who’s made a comment in the warrior forum recently that basically says, “no buffs for you because ranger is worse”.

Just wanted to say that a buff to warriors has to stand on its own merits and in no way interferes with the buffs that may need to be made to other classes. If rangers need buffs in a bunch of areas, then they should be buffed regardless of anything that happens to warriors. Same goes for other classes.

That being said, if you’re having trouble with rangers, a guy I run with has had tonnes of success running a really durable condi ranger lately, and has even predicted it’ll become the meta. He handily beat the stance warrior I threw at him and beat the shoutbow I threw at him too (it was a longer fight for sure, but he still won). We didn’t have time for me to test other warrior builds against him, but he said he’s been having very good success in wvw roaming/havoc as well. I beat him with a condi mesmer fairly easily though.

I don’t have his build details, I’m afraid, and I don’t play a ranger so probably couldn’t recreate it (I know he had a MH sword for defensive purposes). But know there’s at least one very good ranger build out there that doesn’t require you to play pew pew while standing on a ledge.

Also, iirc, there used to be a very good a+d/sb condi build for rangers… not sure if it still works or not, but it was favoured to beat most warrior builds, except maybe pre-patch shoutbow. So rangers haven’t exactly been in the dumpster.

I was taking a stab at his, “nerfed back into oblivion” quote, implying that warriors were once in a bad spot (in PvE).

Vizardlorde.8243:

Durzlla.6295:

Quarktastic.1027:

Durzlla.6295:

One thing a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that the zerker meta wont hold up in the challenging content in Heart of Thorns, colin brohanson has even said that you’ll need a variety of roles and gear sets in order to complete it, which would mean OPs want is probably going to be quite doable.

If you want to be tanky with heals i’d suggest you go with Clerics (I’ve been told Magi’s is good for guardian with a certain trait), however make sure you don’t go pure heals, that’ll never happen. Your healing will help out your team a little bit, but you should absolutely be using boons and that more.

Also, if you’re trying to tank in PvE you need to bring a good amount of CC. CC will both kitten off the mob to make it focus you (especially if you’re in melee of said mob), and it’ll inhibit it from getting to your team, and hurting you.

Also keep in mind that you may want to run the current PvE content with friends or guildies and stay away from pugs, otherwise they’ll just kitten and moan about you not stacking or doing enough damage. What i’ll normally do is make a group with 2 other friends and just say in the LFG notification that we’re not zerker and aren’t going to play like a normal zerker group so don’t expect it.

My zerker ranger has completed every PvE content currently available with little difficulty. No matter what Anet has in store, zerkers will find a way to cheese it.

You do realize the fact you’ve completed every CURRENT PvE content in zerker means absolutely nothing right? This content isn’t going to be on the same level as the challenging content from the sounds of it. This current content seems like it was a disastrous failure from how the devs talk about it compared to heart of thorns, so i wouldn’t say you’ll be cheesing your way through it until the next content comes out.

We are already cheesing SW with the exception of copper that needs condi.

Zerker guardians can cover copper with burning alone. Because lolburning.

SlayerSixx.5763:

Its a shame that shelter is still the better heal that, still, synergizes better with more important traits.

When traited with monk’s focus and smiter’s boon, Litany is actually quite good. Without those two traits, it’s pretty mediocre.

Fluffball.8307:

UnitedChaos.8364:

Every thread a warrior or thief pops in and screams louder than the rangers that “rangers are fine, everything is fine, keep it that way”; and with the forums he who screams louder gets their way.

I used to think the devs would be above this, but in reality they “listen to the community” a lot (dhuumfire, perplexity, turrets, and so on.) Big uproars get dev reactions, and that’s bad when rangers are the least popular class to play AND play against.

The overwhelming majority of the community doesn’t play rangers competitively (in all formats), hates playing against them, and the devs listen to the overwhelming majority.

This may no longer be relevant, but the ranger was at one point the second most played profession in the game, closely following warrior.

If anecdotal evidence is to be believed, this still holds true. Though I’m not sure if popularity of a profession has any bearing on how Anet conducts its balance.

Harper.4173:

Purple Miku.7032:

Yeah this is a troll thread.

Everybody knows that warrior’s DPS was buffed in the june 23rd patch to the brink of insanity… right?

It’s comments like these that will eventually see us nerfed back into oblivion. Just hush-hush it man

Oblivion? Try asking a ranger what oblivion feels like, because it’s something no warrior has ever experienced.

Durzlla.6295:

One thing a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that the zerker meta wont hold up in the challenging content in Heart of Thorns, colin brohanson has even said that you’ll need a variety of roles and gear sets in order to complete it, which would mean OPs want is probably going to be quite doable.

If you want to be tanky with heals i’d suggest you go with Clerics (I’ve been told Magi’s is good for guardian with a certain trait), however make sure you don’t go pure heals, that’ll never happen. Your healing will help out your team a little bit, but you should absolutely be using boons and that more.

Also, if you’re trying to tank in PvE you need to bring a good amount of CC. CC will both kitten off the mob to make it focus you (especially if you’re in melee of said mob), and it’ll inhibit it from getting to your team, and hurting you.

Also keep in mind that you may want to run the current PvE content with friends or guildies and stay away from pugs, otherwise they’ll just kitten and moan about you not stacking or doing enough damage. What i’ll normally do is make a group with 2 other friends and just say in the LFG notification that we’re not zerker and aren’t going to play like a normal zerker group so don’t expect it.

My zerker ranger has completed every PvE content currently available with little difficulty. No matter what Anet has in store, zerkers will find a way to cheese it.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

I believe my Revenant will take the cake after Heart of Thorns is released, but for now, my Ranger is my best looking character.

Chicks must dig the manskirt.

Holding aggro and making red/green bars go up is boring. I’m glad Anet did away with tanks and healers. Now all they need to do is refine their combat mechanics to create truly challenging content.

Stop listing every single green you pick up. It’ll save you a lot of time.

Solandri.9640:

Quarktastic.1027:

The current PvE ranger meta does not take wilderness survival. Leaving healing spring as its only condition removal.

That’s the problem I’m running into. Is there any way to get an on-demand condition cleanse with a healing skill that works when you’re not damaged, without traiting into wilderness survival? This doesn’t affect just the current meta, this affects every build which doesn’t include wilderness survival training.

Maybe I’ll try dropping signet of the wild. The way it tops off your hp is actually a negative with the current way HS works.

You could try signet of renewal, but then your pet has to deal with the conditions.

This had better not be a troll post. If it is I might just punch a quaggan.

Healing. spring. is. a. trap. Look up how they work please.

Though, healing spring is kind of buggy….it no longer heals your pet.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

A Volcano.2510:

I think dodging should be more like Wildstar. You move quickly out of the way, but there is no invulnerability. That actually rewards skill.

There’s no point in having a dodge mechanic if you just eat the damage regardless.

That’s one thing a lot of games need to learn from GW2. Monster Hunter and its competitors have always been really bad about it, in particular.

Monster Hunter does give you invincibility frames when you dodge though, you just need better timing to pull it off.

In the words of great Monster Hunter vets: you need to git gud.

A Volcano.2510:

I think dodging should be more like Wildstar. You move quickly out of the way, but there is no invulnerability. That actually rewards skill.

I would agree with this, except there’s a problem. Current PvE encounters are based around dodges granting evade frames.

Using Subject Alpha as an example: Unless everyone stacks on top of each other, you wind up with a massive slew of overlapping AoE rings that will insta-down anyone unfortunate enough to get struck by them. Getting out of that mess with dodge rolls alone is impossible.

Many PvE encounters would need to be adjusted, either by reducing the size of enemy AoE skills, or by reducing their frequency -to allow players to mitigate them through other means (weapon evades, invulnerability etc).

Eurantien.4632:

Sure, but what it especially does is track your target. The other drakes (except marsh) don’t track your target, this makes them less useful in PvP. What you could do with the river drake is cast the F2, maybe on one side of the node and then you stand on the other side of your target so they are imbetween you and the drake. This will force them to look at you, they will be in front of the drake and with their back to it. This makes it much easier to land the damage.

The marsh drake’s F2 has much better tracking than the river drake. It also travels farther and bounces farther (900 range). The caveat is: it trades some of its raw damage for poison.

As long as you’re running phalanx with runes of strength/might stacking food, you can run whatever weapon set you want and most groups won’t care because “lol25might”.

Elorna.5329:

Kubrick.5740:

RANGEr

Another of these threads…

Nothing to see here, move along folks.

It’s possible to merge path 1 into the run as well, making it a 3-in-1 dungeon run. It’s actually quite fun fighting the Howling King and Colossus Rumblus at the same time.

While it is technically an exploit, it’s not something to feel bad about. It doesn’t break the game in a way that’s harmful to the economy or other players, it just saves a bit of time.

Lazze.9870:

idontnoso.9850:

I rolled a warrior and I would just auto attack and still do more than my ranger could, and I put in some effort I would do double. Its sad really.

In a buffed team, autoattacking on ranger sword does more damage than autoattacking on any warrior weapon.

We don’t need exaggeration to point out that ranger isn’t best at anything that matters in any game mode.

The problem is:

In a team, where everyone has permanent fury/25 might etc, the ranger’s DPS wins. But in situations where it’s just the ranger and his pet, the warrior will win the DPS race every time.

Warriors can maintain better fury/might than a ranger on his best day. Banners also provide stronger boosts than frost spirit/spotter. It’s part of why you never see videos of rangers soloing arah. Even if they could, it would take twice as long as soloing with a warrior.

Fluffball.8307:

That’s a cool application of it. I used to use AoE pet attacks to do that in the early days of PvE before a meta had been established. I clearly remember typing “lol 25 stacks of might!” in a dungeon. First time I’d ever seen it.

Not sure how useful that is anymore, now that everyone stacks might for WvW and PvE, and even PvP to an extent.

I still use it, because some pugs are bad at stacking might. And it’s good for solo play.

All in all, the marsh drake is the best drake to use in PvE in my opinion.

Fluffball.8307:

Some of the pets are good for their F2s, some are good for their other abilities. Drakes are often used for the blast finisher in healing spring, for example.

A marsh drake F2 against 5 targets will stack 25 might on the ranger when used with “Strength of the Pack”. Unfortunately, the might duration seems to have been reduced along with every other facet of the skill.

Photinous.4628:

Quarktastic.1027:

Substance E.4852:

I don’t think it removes a condition at the moment of activation anymore.

It removes a condition when it’s triggered. The old healing spring would remove a condition before applying the heal, so I could use it even while poisoned without worrying about not receiving the full benefit of the heal.

The current healing spring blows, but it’s still better than our other options.

A traited TU is far superior to healing spring. The only reason to take healing spring is if you didn’t go into wilderness survival in my opinion. However, after they recently broke it there is no reason at all to take it now.

The current PvE ranger meta does not take wilderness survival. Leaving healing spring as its only condition removal. Also, with the number of leaps/blasts a ranger has access to, it’s possible to get a lot of healing out of that 12 second (traited) water field.

SOULFLY.7942:

Solandri.9640:

Substance E.4852:

I just tested it in game and it seems to only activate now if you have taken damage. It won’t trigger at all if you are at 100% health.

Another problem is that it takes too long to activate – it often (but not always) won’t trigger if you drop it while you’re running.

e.g. You finish a fight at low hp and with conditions on you and are running away (from mobs, enemy players, whatever). You drop HS. You get the immediate heal, but you will run out of the trap circle before HS triggers. So you never get the condition cleanse.

yea they completely ruined a skill that didnt need any changes

But as the only water field the ranger has, and the only condition removal my zerker build has, I feel forced to take it over the much superior heal as one.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.

I used to be an arrow like you, but then I took a knee to the head.