Guild Wars 2

I probably should have asked this before I spent 7g crafting runes of the ranger, but here it is.

Ranger runes or ruby orbs…which adds more overall damage and why?

Ruby orbs add 120 power and 4% crit damage over runes of the ranger, but the runes add 81 precision and a flat +5% damage across the board. If I knew exactly how power translates into damage, it would be easier to figure out, but I don’t.

Going off topic a bit, I also thought about stacking healing power with runes of melandru. But it doesn’t seem appropriate for PvE.

Killsmith.8169:

The guardian’s hammer is probably the closest weapon to the ranger’s greatsword.

I don’t see why maul can’t be a blast finisher. I don’t think it would make it too powerful. Being able to make use of your own combo fields would actually add some utility to the ranger.

Actually, I think my guardian still does a little bit more damage with the hammer than my ranger does with a greatsword, probably because of the damage ticks from the symbol, the burning, and the retaliation.

I assume it’s because guardians only have access to two types of field -Fire and light.

Rangers get: Fire, frost, water, poison, and ethereal (though that last one is incredibly situational, and somewhat random)

Leo G.4501:

Whether they add that or not, what GS really needs is Hilt Bash to be made a Leap Finisher

What I would like, is for hilt bash to travel the stated 300 range. Mighty blow is also 300 range, and appears to travel farther than hilt bash.

I bought a pick for my ranger, because lava is cool (hot?).

I’m actually thinking about getting a pick for my guardian as well, but on the other hand -since I only have two characters- if I ever get sick of the lava effect, only having one pick means I don’t have to look at it all the time.

Writetyper.1985:

Quarktastic.1027:

Durzlla.6295:

Writetyper.1985:

Warrior’s GS cleave only hits 3 targets, I’m 99% sure of this. I was under the impression that all melee cleave (besides third hit on warrior hammer because it’s “aoe”) is 3 targets but I cannot confirm or deny Guardian.

Guardians is only 3 as well, I think the Symbol it makes (is that during attack chain?) is in the same boat as Warrior Hammer.

Here’s a list of guardian greatsword attacks that hit 5 targets.

-Whirling Wrath
-Leap of Faith
-Symbol of Wrath
-Binding Blade

That’s 4/5 skills which hit 5 targets.

…And everything there is an aoe. Not melee cleave. Your point?

My point, and the entire point of this topic, is that maul should be an AoE. It is not.

Clear enough for you?

Durzlla.6295:

Yes, and all of those are more than a simple sword swing, which is why I said maul -should- be 5 targets if its not. All our other attacks on GS wouldn’t follow the same rules the other profs go by.

That’s also what I said. I never said we should get a 5 target auto attack, just maul, and perhaps swoop.

This same thing happens in all MMOs with a currency exchange.

Here’s why: (Gems) retain their value over time. (Gold) continually loses value as it has a potentially infinite supply. Gold sinks help to mitigate inflation, but are incapable of stopping or reversing it.

Durzlla.6295:

Writetyper.1985:

Warrior’s GS cleave only hits 3 targets, I’m 99% sure of this. I was under the impression that all melee cleave (besides third hit on warrior hammer because it’s “aoe”) is 3 targets but I cannot confirm or deny Guardian.

Guardians is only 3 as well, I think the Symbol it makes (is that during attack chain?) is in the same boat as Warrior Hammer.

Here’s a list of guardian greatsword attacks that hit 5 targets.

-Whirling Wrath
-Leap of Faith
-Symbol of Wrath
-Binding Blade

That’s 4/5 skills which hit 5 targets.

Geotherma.2395:

Quarktastic.1027:

Ratphink.4751:

ITT: People who don’t realize that if the Pick wasn’t soulbound, you would have completely circumvented a goldsink with a 10 dollar purchase.

No, the goldsink isn’t large by itself but that’s because there are other goldsinks available in game to keep the cost of other goldsinks to smaller increments. Many small gold sinks is better than fewer larger gold sinks. Were the Pick to be account bound, it’d require a readjustment of Merch Prices/Waypoint Costs to accomdate for the disappearance of the goldsink that the Picks provided.

These Goldsinks are a necessity to prevent your in game gold from becoming utterly worthless.

I hope you realize that you can circumvent this “gold sink” just as easily by purchasing orichalcum picks with karma.

I haven’t spent a single silver on gathering tools since southsun cove was introduced.

The reason these picks are soulbound on use, is because anet wants more of peoples’ money.

If you buy with karma, you just used a karma sink. Some would argue this is generally equal to a gold sink in some ways.

Karma and gold aren’t mutually exclusive. Pretty much everything you do to earn karma also earns you gold.

Ratphink.4751:

ITT: People who don’t realize that if the Pick wasn’t soulbound, you would have completely circumvented a goldsink with a 10 dollar purchase.

No, the goldsink isn’t large by itself but that’s because there are other goldsinks available in game to keep the cost of other goldsinks to smaller increments. Many small gold sinks is better than fewer larger gold sinks. Were the Pick to be account bound, it’d require a readjustment of Merch Prices/Waypoint Costs to accomdate for the disappearance of the goldsink that the Picks provided.

These Goldsinks are a necessity to prevent your in game gold from becoming utterly worthless.

I hope you realize that you can circumvent this “gold sink” just as easily by purchasing orichalcum picks with karma.

I haven’t spent a single silver on gathering tools since southsun cove was introduced.

The reason these picks are soulbound on use, is because anet wants more of peoples’ money.

Rhaps.8540:

Leo G.4501:

Um, Ranger GS does have cleave. It’s just Guardian who is the anomaly with that one attack that hits more than the 3-target cleave limit. It’s likely because the skill is considered an ‘AoE’ and not a melee skill.

Big cleave, PBAoE whatever, Ranger doesnt have any skills on GS that break the 3 target limit, other classes do. Guardian is the anomaly? Warrior has whirlwind attack and bladetrail, mesmer has mind stab, illusionary berserker and illusionary wave. All of which hit well over the 3 target limit. Ranger is the anomaly being the only class having no multi-target (3+) skills on GS which brings me back to my original point about pets.

Our lack of blast finishers is also probably due to us meant to be using Drakes for that, but that’s far from ideal as we can’t directly control the attack that triggers them.

I also advocate that maul be a blast finisher.

And before anyone comes here arguing that we don’t get any reliable blast finishers because we have access to so many different combo fields, I will point you to scepter eles and their ground targeted, 6 second cooldown, blast finisher.

Vargs.6234:

Undean.9704:

Some fun math on the Molten Alliance Pick.

Currently costs 21.6 gold (this has probably changed).
That’s 540 regular 4 silver picks.
That would require you to mine 54,000 nodes to make up for how much you spent on it.
That ends up being 162,000 pieces of ore.
Good luck ever mining that much, but I bought one anyways :p.

And that’s assuming you mine absolutely nothing but orichalcum. The molten pick just gets worse if you keep around a cheaper mithril pick for lesser metals.

I just use orichalcum picks for everything. I buy them with karma though, so I’m not bothered.

I still find myself tempted to get at least one of these picks, if only for the visual effect.

Semil.8279:

According to the wiki marsh drake’s f2 just bounces, no homing involved.

I use a marsh drake extensively. Those projectiles definitely track their target.

jkctmc.8754:

I dodge them all the time. The pets in this game are insanely easy to avoid.

The marsh drake’s F2 is a homing projectile which tracks its target regardless of the direction the marsh drake is facing. It’s essentially deathly swarm without the blind and condition transfer.

jkctmc.8754:

Serraphin Storm.2369:

We have pets which can attack a seperate target and can have its own aoe attack. Making it possible for them to hit 5 different targets.

lol… If you ever see anyone get hit with the Drakes AoE, laugh at them. You don’t even have to dodge it, just strafe a little, and you can’t possibly be hit by it. I bet I could dodge 100 drake pets at once, and never get hit by their breath weapon.

This made me laugh, on a day I needed it. Thanks.

the drakes’ auto cast skill [Bite] cleaves. [Tail Swipe] is also a 360% AoE. And…I would love to see you try dodging a marsh drake’s F2 just by strafing.

Killsmith.8169:

The thing that really makes no sense to me is that a class that reduces damage by dodging a lot has a bunch of skills designed to do constant mediocre damage. You can’t do damage while dodging, so if rangers dodge more, shouldn’t the skills be a little more bursty so they don’t hurt our damage as much?

I agree with this. Rangers should have been a burst class more similar to thieves, using dodges and evades as their main survival tool instead of stealth.

Warriors should have been the “stand in your face and beat you through sustained damage” class. Funny thing is, in PvE…warriors can do just that. On top of their ability to burst.

Jay The Dude.5830:

…you’ve been discussing how dissimilar ranger GS is from other class’s GS.

I’ve been questioning why the ranger’s greatsword doesn’t hit 5 targets. You’ve told me why you think the ranger’s greatsword doesn’t hit 5 targets. I’ve given you examples of other classes with defensive weapons that hit 5 targets.

Until a developer comes along and says “this is the reason we didn’t give the ranger’s greatsword a big 5 target AoE” every explanation you give is nothing more than speculation.

Jay The Dude.5830:

Leo G.4501:

Quarktastic.1027:

So what gives? Where’s my big 5 target AoE like guardians and warriors get?

The same place guardian and warrior block/daze is.

Face it, Ranger GS is an offensive/defensive hybrid weapon while guardian/warrior/mesmer GS is a pure offensive weapon. I think part of the pay-off is that the GS defensive skills are often just as good if not better than the defensive weapons of those other named professions.

This ^ the greatsword is the only weapon IIRC with an autoattack evade and counterattack is one of the best blocks in the game

The ranger’s spear also has an auto evade, but it’s essentially an underwater version of the greatsword, and no one cares about underwater combat so…

The evade on greatsword 1 gives you roughly the same amount of damage reduction over time as protection. And guardians conveniently get a weapon which applies near permanent protection with its auto attack. Said weapon also has an AoE blast finisher which puts maul to shame.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

We have pets which can attack a seperate target and can have its own aoe attack. Making it possible for them to hit 5 different targets.

I knew someone was going to bring up pets as an excuse.

The only pets with a spammable AoE attack come from the drake family, and it too only hits 3 targets. It is possible, if you sick your drake on a different target, that you may be able to hit up to 6 targets, but chances are, you’ll wind up overlapping, and only hit 3 targets anyway. Other pets only have AoE attacks on long cooldowns, and some pets have no AoE at all.

Ignoring all of the inherent problems with pets, it is a somewhat valid point, assuming you only use a drake pet and it never dies.

solrik.6028:

I know I am missing a lot of data from this. I came here blind, not knowing about the numbers. There are problems, everyone knows melee is more rewarding than melee and it’s same for all classes. Melee is more damage because of the risk and ranged is less damage because of the comfort. As you say, the guardian can deal tons of damage with greatsword but why can’t the ranger do the same? What is that mysterious factor that makes the output so much less?

E.g. You can turn of melee assist in the options so you can go through the enemies you are meleeing, which allows the guardian’s spinning to deal insane damage to the enemy.

The issue is not that whirling wrath deals more damage, it’s that it deals more damage to more targets. While I can hit 3 targets twice with maul, I can hit 5 targets once with whirling wrath for more than twice the damage.

For a better comparison, let’s compare maul with mighty blow. Mighty blow has a 1 second lower cooldown. It hits up to 2 more targets than maul. It deals approximately the same damage as maul (with bleeding included). It’s also a blast finisher.

Blast finishers aside, if there are more than 3 targets to hit, mighty blow wins.

Jay The Dude.5830:

Warriors and Guardians use the Greatsword offensively hell even mesmers use it offensively, rangers on the other hand use it defensively i would argue the same for Sword too

But, the ranger’s main hand sword STILL deals more damage than the greatsword, to the same amount of targets, and is equally defensive.

No to mention, warriors get whirling attack, which is not only a gap closer, but also an evade skill. Guardians get an AoE blind with leap of faith, and an AoE pull with binding blade (which acts as an interrupt when timed properly). So yeah, guardians and warriors both have defensive skills on their greatswords. Not to mention, other classes get 5 target AoE weapons that are also defensive in nature. Speaking in terms of just guardians, the mace/focus/shield/hammer are all defensive weapons, and all have 5 target AoE attacks, some of which deal substantial damage.

Touting the ranger’s greatsword as a defensive weapon, and then saying “this is why it doesn’t have AoE” is nonsense.

I like the playstyle of the greatsword ranger, more so than other greatsword professions. But I’m constantly bothered by the fact that our greatsword has no AoE to speak of. Sure, we get lots of cleaves, but so does our main hand sword….which also deals more damage than our greatsword.

So what gives? Where’s my big 5 target AoE like guardians and warriors get?

I like the idea, but it’s too little, too late. Implementing this would require the entire ranger class to be rebuilt from the ground up. It would require more resources than I believe anet is willing to spare, and it would kitten off a lot of people who have come to like the ranger in its current form.

What I want is pretty simple. Better AI and pathing, Closer following distance, and the ability to trigger weapon sigils.

StoneWolf.7930:

the rangers Greatsword dps compared to the warrior/guardian will likely be ~1/2 of that DPS. especially since out “burst” damage on the Greatsword is a mix of Power/conditions. that means we cannot stack into the damage as much as the warrior can(they can use pow/crit/prec while we need to mix power condition damge, duration and prec/crit damage)

3 stacks of bleeding does not a burst make. Rangers can get away with running the same berserker gear as warriors. Ya know, since more than 90% of maul’s damage is NOT a condition.

At the OP: You’re missing a crucial piece of data here, and it’s not the pet. It’s the damage to multiple targets. I don’t know about the warrior’s greatsword, but of the 5 skills on the guardian’s greatsword, 4 of them hit up to 5 targets. The ranger’s greatsword doesn’t have a single skill that hits more than 3 targets. So while my ranger can maul twice in the time it takes a single whirling wrath to recharge, that single whirling wrath will still deal more damage if there are more than 3 targets to hit.

And if GW2 were made by Capcom, all characters would be left handed.

HotHit.6783:

I’m very fond of my Zweihander, the Wolfborn skin looks similar too. Coincidentally, they both seem to be what you’re after.

The krytan greatsword is actually one of my favorite greatsword skins, but I felt like the warden greatsword was a better fit after all. So I wound up getting it anyway.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Doggie.3184:

Well, you get one of your primary used weapon. Though a lot of situations force your to use range weapons, so lotta times as a melee you wouldn’t be using a legendary melee~ like in WvW. So Mesmer greatsword, Ranger bow (whichever preferred), Thief bow, and Elementalist anything would get the most use. Elementalist don’t swap weapons so I guess they’d be the answer to your question.

Elementalists don’t swap weapons, but they also have a bad selection of legendaries.

Bifrost doesn’t suit them, is rainbow-themed, and barely does anything.

Incinerators don’t change Ele attack animations at all.

Meteorologus is a joke.

The Minstrel is a bigger one.

Who gets Kraitkin anyway?

I ran with an ele the other day who had an incinerator, and it did change his attack animations. Instead of throwing projectiles, his skills would throw incinerators instead.

If you manage to leash a monster too far from its spawn point, it will simply teleport back to where it started. So I don’t think bugged NPCs is the whole issue. It’s more likely to prevent griefing. Pushing a nearly dead mob into an inaccessible area to prevent people from looting it, among other things.

Problem I have with point blank shot is: It doesn’t always work.

The first fight with subject alpha in CoE for instance: I run into range, most of the time right up into melee range, use point blank shot to push alpha into the far corner….and nothing happens. No damage, no knockback, no “out of range” or “obstructed” message. The arrow just disappears as it hits the boss.

The adds aren’t getting in the way, as none of them take damage or get knocked back. And I always make sure alpha is free of defiant stacks before trying to knock him back.

…would be the best greatsword in the game if only we could dye the hilt/ugly pink gems.

The gold/washed out pastel pink color scheme just looks tacky. Was this done on purpose? or did someone in the art department actually think it looks good?

A monastery key?

Seriously though. I read that thing and it all sounds like gibberish to me.

I don’t get it. What was changed about the thirst slayer achievement?

This is one reason why I don’t delete my characters. Maybe someday anet will do something about it. Maybe making soulbound items account bound when you delete the character they were bound to.

Since the greatsword got another buff, I’ve been fiddling with it. It’s nice, but I haven’t been able to settle on a skin. Being sylvari, warden or verdant are the obvious choices, but I don’t particularly like the look of verdant weapons in general, and the warden greatsword looks too fragile given the way rangers use their greatswords.

I feel like an appropriate choice would be a heavier looking greatsword with a thicker blade. But it’s difficult to choose one that I’m happy with. I just transmuted my molten greatsword (lol) with a krytan skin, and it’s not bad. I still feel like I could do better though.

So what greatsword skins do you like?

It’s not “reporting,” it’s “good morning.”

It’s an asuran alarm clock. The golems in Rata Sum play that tune whenever the in-game morning rolls around. Apparently golem mini pets sometimes do as well.

Pain.7465:

I know most of the Guild Wars 2 staff is probably in development of some big patch or update towards the game. But as I was running around with Eir in the beginning missions I realized that pets are SMALL. Seriously, Garm was at least up to my waist. I’m just asking that through every 20-ish levels or so that the pets will size up by 5% or such. Nothing to break game, maybe like 2%+ for all attributes (i.e Power, Toughness, etc). So, at level twenty our pets would grow 5% and have +2% more Power and Toughness. I just find it really awkward to be running with a mini wolf and bear.. Anyways, thank you in advance if you answer directly.
— Pain of Anvil Rock (Main is Graejark.)

Stop being a norn?

Seriously. My brown bear is almost bigger than my sylvari.

Best performer? Well, my guardian runs circles around my ranger in terms of raw survivability. My ranger deals more damage, but that’s only because I run cat pets and trait 30 beast mastery.

Out of all the classes you listed, I would rank the ranger as lowest on the list when it comes to overall performance.

I’ve always wanted a mini oakheart for my sylvari ranger, but with a price tag of around 100g, it just isn’t worth it.

Not that I couldn’t afford one, but 100g for a mini pet is absurd.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Pets don’t always miss their atttack or half thier attacks. You dont balance something bases off what people are unable to do but by what is possible.

No one hits all thier attacks, Players or mobs. Thier is a video with a jaguar killing a golem in 2.7 seconds. While you can argue that pets don’t always hit or that a player wont stand still that long. It is possible to make a player stand still that long. By any count 2.7 is fast as hell also considering the fact you are not including the rangers damage.

This was before the quickness nerf but still. Alot of you complain how weak rangers are and how fast pets die. AI is an issue but they can be overcome until there is a fix.

Understand how mobs chose targets help. I find that when specced into Bm my pet dies more. This makes sense because most mob pick target based on. proxcimity ,damage and toughness. So more point in BM increase the likely-hood that your pet will be main target.

Sorry off track agian but basiclly increasing attack speed of pet could reduce the 2.7 seconds to 1.4 with or without the aid of the ranger which would make us a prime candidate for a nerf in the wrong place in the future.

The golem was stationary, and unable to defend itself. Players are neither of these things, unless they’re AFK. If a jaguar could kill a player, unaided, in 2.7 seconds, I might agree with your point of view.

Pets need serious help in pvp. But they need even more help in dungeons.

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

LMAO WHAT!?
Ranger happens to be one of the highest DPS profession in game.
It’s almost unfair.

My Ranger has good Support, Great Control, and fantastic DAMAGE…
If anything, Ranger needs to have it’s Damage Nerfed badly.

Whatever this guy is smoking, I want to try some of it.

When rangers can do this, then I might agree with you.

I would love to see a ranger solo GL in 11 minutes.

It will never happen.

Shortbow thieves have the best blast finisher in the game. Other than that, they don’t bring much to the table aside from damage.

Guardians are awesome and you should play one. Like now.

Now if they would only undo what they did to my T3 heavy armor.

I want Rox’s bow and quiver.

Why should I care about some random guy who makes mistakes?

Duke Blackrose.4981:

And we might just see Ranger weapon dps brought up to compensate for dps lost to the quickness nerf. Hell, the Greatsword buffs were enormous. Like …. Godzilla piggybacking on King Kong huge. The new Ranger GS may actually compare to the Greatswords of the Guardian, Warrior, and Mesmer. Hell, it has a higher utility value than any of the other professions’ greatswords (with the possible exception of the Guardian’s).
Overall, I’m happy with the patch.

I like the greatsword buffs, I really do. But I still have a few issues with the ranger greatsword. First off, maul does great damage, but only to three targets. Where’s our big five target AoE greatsword attack that guardians and warriors have? Hell, all of the guardian’s greatsword attacks except for the auto attack hit five targets. Swoop is a nice gap closer, but I would also like to see it hit more than three targets. Hilt bash doesn’t seem to apply its stun consistently, even when you’re always behind your target. I find that it only sporadically interrupts skills, regardless of where I’m standing in relation to my target.

So yeah, Maul and swoop need to hit 5 targets, and hilt bash needs to be more consistent in applying its stun. In fact, I would argue that hilt bash should stun regardless of orientation to the target. Daze and stun at the same time is a bit redundant.

Iason Evan.3806:

i love that people knew BEFORE this game was released that all the stuff on the gem shop was gonna be cosmetic. Lo and behold, it all is! The description in the update notes says “Rare chance” and people still try 200 times and then whine incessantly when they don’t hit the jackpot. I for one am superstoked that they are account bound so that people aren’t tempted to gamble to sell them for a lot of money. I think this is a better system to protect people with tendencies toward gambling addiction that can’t help themselves.

I would much rather be able to choose the weapon skin I want, rather than waste all my money gambling for it. There are 16 available weapons. What if I only want one of them?

Leave them account bound, Just let me choose the one I want.

The claw’s roar causes multiple instances of fear. Many times my ranger has used lightning reflexes to break free only to be immediately feared again. Even if Hold the Line did break fear, it wouldn’t be as useful as Stand Your Ground, which will remove fear without any traits or soldier runes, and prevent you from being feared again for 5+ seconds.

Edit: Save Yourselves and Stand Your Ground are both stun breakers, Hold the Line is not. That’s why Hold the Line is not removing fear. The others likely wouldn’t remove fear either if they weren’t stun breakers. Try using Retreat to break fear and get back to us.

Zoletan.3672:

passw4rd.. lol yea.. like im that stupid.

passw4rd.. lol yea.. like im that stupid.I need a password i can remember. Mine are fairly random, but also have something familiar to me so i can memorize them.

passw4rd.. lol yea.. like im that stupid.I need a password i can remember. Mine are fairly random, but also have something familiar to me so i can memorize them.The game isnt good enough to go though the hassle to change it. Its more idiotic than forcing unique names throughout the entire game. Yea i could use a generator, but the it would just spit out some random kitten that i could never remember, which would force me to write it down, which kinda defeats the purpose of the whole thing.

I write down my passwords all the time. Of course, I also know how to keep them in a safe location away from prying eyes.

Ask yourself this: “If I write down a password, who besides myself will ever see it?” I’ve written down passwords years ago, and never changed them. They have never been compromised.

Turn auto login off, and type your password manually. You should have it memorized within a day or so.

docMed.7692:

Unfortunately the only dungeon viable ranger builds rely on condition damage, which initself needs to be addressed/fixed across all professions, etc. If you want MAX dps, then a Ranger is currently not the way to go. They do, however, offer great utility, bear tanks, buffs for groups via pets, crowd control, etc.

My ranger is most definitely not a condition ranger, and I do better in dungeons than most warriors I’ve encountered recently.

1. Get a thesaurus
2. Look up 4-5 random obscure words
3. String them together into your new password
4. ????
5. Profit!

If you’re seriously running into trouble, maybe you should try using passwords that are a bit more complex than “passw4rd.”

Jordo.5913:

Is auto attack spamming with a shortbow while putting spirits down and hitting the 4 skill basically what I’m gonna be doing when I ding 80, with the occasional Rage as One elite skill when i need it?

Probably not. Spirits are generally terrible -you won’t be using them much. The shortbow is an effective skirmishing weapon, but it really is nothing but auto attacks and kiting. Other weapons are a great deal more interesting to use.

Rampage as One is a useful elite for dealing damage. I tend to hover between using that, and Entangle, depending on the situation.