Guild Wars 2

You forgot weakness as a damage reduction. 50% dmg from 50% of hits is very significant.

google.3709:

DevO.9854:

google.3709:

glass cannon rangers take more skill…

something most rangers havens learnt due AI pets and binded auto attack always playing the game for them…

except even with skill it will never be used top end.

Eura does! then again he’s one of the very few rangers who know how to use their pets.

He doesn’t do that alone though. He plays power as a teamfight class and not as a backpoint player. In 1v1 he will lose to a shaman spirit build provided it is played well.

I run the vigor trait, and I always combo twice in the field, so this is certainly a nerf to me.

Isn’t pulsing vigor and 2 combos a higher skill cap play than non pulsing vigor and 1 combo?

I can see Rangers using this on zerg blobs in wvw. Knowing where one guy will essentially reveal the group’s location.

I’m pretty sure the healing spring nerf was to hit Rangers using monarchs leap twice in the field. The vigor nerf is also to hit people playing an evasion tank with vigor and healspring on point.

Warrior utilities apply here too right? Berserker’s stance, endure pain, and healing sig all seem very forgiving to me.

Can I play too? I want to keep beating Eura in 1v1s though.

I think we need to add up all of the “change somethings” and compare those to the “is fine.”

I really don’t understand the balance decision behind allowing warriors to have condition immunity, normal immunity, massive damage, long duration immobilizes, and permanent stunlocks all on the same build.

I really can’t figure out a counter to a warrior aside from just running away as long as you can and hoping you can evade EVERY SINGLE HIT, or you will be chained to death. Matches of 2+ warriors are even worse. Due to the liberal CC, stability, and everything-immunity, it is impossible to help any downed allies, or to even fight back against this kind of a comp.

I agree fully with the OP’s post. I really don’t understand the hate towards people who play a class that is perceived as “simple.” I main a ranger, but I didn’t get here from jumping onto the meta, I started playing this class on release.

Even with the builds, I’ve yet to see anyone who can play a spirit ranger to perfection. People still use spirit actives while their spirit is blinded. They still stack condis right before a cleanse is off cooldown. They still don’t cancel their pet f2 when it is apparent the skill will fail due to stab/range. They don’t combo though fields properly, evade dangerous skills, or all sorts of things that they should be doing to maximize their potential.

Aside from just your own class too, there is a lot of depth in your knowledge of other classes. How you handle a fight with another class is a real indicator of skill, not just the build that you run. If a player fights a mesmer, do they swap their weapons with the mesmer, watch animations, and time their burst to the mesmer’s defense? If the player fights an ele, do they watch the attunements, ready to dodge during fire and earth, and ready to burst immediately after water?

I have full respect for players who use the most effective build for their class. I wouldn’t handicap myself to help an enemy, and I wouldn’t expect my enemy to either.

The worst system ever???

Glad to know 4v8 queue would be better in your book.

Troopa.6179:

Ryan.9387:

Reasonable changes to traps:
1) merge both trap traits into the 20 point slot for skirmishing.
2) create a 30 point skirmishing trait that gives allies a benefit from standing in triggered traps. Ex – 1 condi clear/pulse or aegis/regen/prot etc.
OR give traps an aoe aura like a combo field upon activation. Ex – fire aura, frost aura, etc.

That would be too much power for a trap build and traps with a boon… not a good idea either. Therefor we have their combo fields and those can give us auras etc.

3) remove the might from warhorn #5

That wouldn’t improve anything . give me any reason WHY it should be removed
__

One thing that should be improved are the shouts. I think this would give us another build possibility. Any other classes can use every utility type and build up on it. We can’t because nothing seems to fit with shouts.

My reasoning with the traps is that the 30 points in skirmishing are kept to reduce survivability while adding specific benefits to allies to encourage high skill cap play. Now the Ranger would be better for teamfights and could provide a measure of support without increasing the offensive power of the build.

For the warhorn, the 1 stack of might isn’t enough to provide any real benefit. I’ve never seen someone take warhorn to get 1 stack of might, instead they go for the fury, swiftness, or blast.

Reasonable changes to traps:

1) merge both trap traits into the 20 point slot for skirmishing.
2) create a 30 point skirmishing trait that gives allies a benefit from standing in triggered traps. Ex – 1 condi clear/pulse or aegis/regen/prot etc.
OR give traps an aoe aura like a combo field upon activation. Ex – fire aura, frost aura, etc.
3) remove the might from warhorn #5
4) change the 30 point signet trait to also allow the passive effects to remain once the active is used.
5) change evasive purity to cleanse 1 (2?) Conditions on Dodge.

I will still use my ranger in solo queue, thanks.

Indoles.1467:

Two big problems right now are A ) Most top pvp players don’t play ranger because they don’t like the idea of the pet. B ) Most top pvp players are very sick of seeing the low skill floor and ceiling spirit ranger (even after the nerf).

If you talk to any of the top pvpers, they know nothing, absolutely nothing, about ranger. All they know is that ranger relies heavily upon passive ai (something very high skilled players despise) and that rangers are super easy to play (even though they aren’t, they only see the builds that are the strongest, which happen to be extrememly simple while effective).

I have some serious issues with this post. First of all, there plenty of “top” players that main ranger. Those people do know a lot about their class, as well as other classes. There have been plenty of people who have told me about the double pulse-infinite duration blind on sun spirit, yet the vast majority of rangers I know didn’t know that. (Plenty don’t even know that Axe #3 has a weakness application, and can be used out of combat to buff your pet)

I believe that the main issue with rangers stems from their opponents’ incapability to realize that the meta build is purpose built for 1v1, and if they try to bring their teamfight build against the ranger, they will lose provided both players play at an equal skill level.

The issue with skill ceilings for ranger builds is really simple. The potential for high skill play is there, which is evident in mirror matchups between rangers, or backpoint vs backpoint matchups (Ranger vs Engie). The problem is that there is no need for players to execute that high skill play. The mesmer who attacks the ranger backpoint with his midfight build will feel like the ranger class is very easy, because he is effectively choosing to fight a class that is built to kill him. If the mesmer dropped the midfight build, and took one built to kill a ranger, suddenly the ranger will have to play much better in order to win.

The spirit ranger who brings shortbow, rabid amulet, and the 66% bleed on crit trait will be much stronger in midfights than an A/T S/D ranger with shaman’s amulet and 10 in marksmanship, yet once the two are pitted 1v1, the shaman ranger will have no problem destroying the rabid ranger 1v1. Its a simple build order win, which is why I believe most classes tend to hate rangers.

Durzlla.6295:

kiwituatara.6053:

Xsorus.2507:

Two ways you can take it.

10/0/30/10/20
or 10/0/30/0/30

Make sure you grab the Cripple Talent for them as well, It might seem kittenty, but it’ll cover Conditions so they don’t get removed.

But you end up with a bloody 4 Second Immobilize every 20 seconds and a stupid amount of Weakness/Poison

So say your spider immobilize + cripple and your opponent uses a skill that cleanse 1 condition. Which condition gets prioritised?

Whichever was applied last, so if you cripple than immob the immob would be dropped

Actually, that is wrong. Conditions are removed via rng. I’ve tested this with a friend.

This post still won’t make me start posting good builds. I know too well by now that anet can only nerf what they know to nerf.

Ranger also has less mobility than a greatsword warrior.

The two things I’ve found that Rangers can do better than other classes is evade spam and provide consistent pressure. It is really a testament to the weakness of the class when any build without sword and dagger underperforms.

People have a point when they compare Rangers to other classes. I have both a berserker Ranger and warrior and while my Warrior’s Axe auto attack regularly hits for 4-5k. I can’t seem to get even a basic Ranger sword attack above 2.5k.

You can micro your pet to get its skills to fire off correctly. I can f3 my drake, stand at the edge of a point, then f1 → f2 to the other side to get the skill to fire properly. You can also do subtle things, like giving your pet fields to combo in.

I’m really disappointed by this update. Spirits are effectively worthless for fights now and there has been no buffs to increase the viability of other builds.

People played spirits because other builds were bad. Removing spirits won’t make other builds good, now we will simply underperform more in equivalent situations.

Healing spring always.

Go human. Rep your race.

I feel a warrior will probably shut down the main threat of a spirit ranger, but in 1v1, I don’t see the warrior winning. The warrior kills the spirits which represents most of the threat of the Ranger’s build, but the spirit build is pretty much purpose built for 1v1, so I don’t see the warrior as able to kill the Ranger. A stalemate would probably result in my opinion.

Granted, I didn’t watch pax so I don’t know what happened between the two teams. These are just my opinions regarding the two builds.

Chopps.5047:

Ryan.9387:

The animation is roughly 2-3 seconds long, so time it so that you will die 0-2s after you cast the active. If you don’t have the active up, you can try to stand on top of your spirit to have it cleaved to death alongside you, which can res you if you are lucky.

We need Nature’s Vengeance for that, right? To rez on death of spirit?

Yes. It’s not easy to do, but I’ve been able to use it to waste time 1v2 vs cleave heavy Clara like necro and engie.

This is the build I run in tPvP. I’ve played this is WvW and it excels for small scale play (0-8) people.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-F7kF3;0wEFw-j2BEk-0;9-8E;19-TT-2;337A36A;1VN17a;1jwmAjwmA9cx

You can get the stat combo for WvW with apothecary or settler’s gear. I sometimes swap out drake for cave spider for additional weakness to help against warriors and thieves.

This is another variation of the build that is viable:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-FV-F3;0wEFw-j2BEk-0;9-8E;29TT;21;037A36A;1K;07a;1jwmAjwmA2VL

This version gives you better ranged condition application, which helps when you are worried about going melee and having your spirits die to AoE.

Champion Slayer is 200 tPvP kills. You can obtain that title within 20-30 games if you average 5-10 kills/game. It will be the first title you gain in tPvP and will be of little worth.

I look at titles in this order:
Champion Slayer
Champion X (150 tPvP wins)
Avenger + (ransacker etc.)
QP titles

The animation is roughly 2-3 seconds long, so time it so that you will die 0-2s after you cast the active. If you don’t have the active up, you can try to stand on top of your spirit to have it cleaved to death alongside you, which can res you if you are lucky.

Yet if you called something different, which didn’t happen, you wouldn’t have made a thread. Nobody makes a thread that says, “I did solo queue today, got a balanced match, and lost by 15 points.” Only, “I did solo queue, got a bad team, and lost 100-500, fix plz anet.”

Your brain merely notices the outliers of a set of data, and ignores the expected outcome.

If your fortune was “ascended gear will kill gw2.” You wouldn’t make a thread, “I thought ascended gear would kill gw2, but it didn’t.” Noooooo, the one time you would find a single example of one time your prediction came true becomes the real prophetic statement.

The simplest strategy is to play home and close. Generally communication is key for solo queue. Since I play a backpoint Ranger I make my team aware that I will hold home, and I’d I ask for help please come (ping spam). Usually simple communication like this gives you the upper hand for rotations. Apart from that, try to exercise good team tactics like quick resses, damage focus, and team support.

Noobie.1073:

Katkon.3698:

Admittedly I am pretty new to GW2, but I enjoy the class tremendously. But, I only play to have fun, and couldn’t care less about the opinions of anyone else as it relates to my choices.

i’m with you brother, but the more you PvP, the more you’ll want certain things that aren’t currently attainable

I could do with a small buff to traps, and maybe some stronger aoe for teamfights. But in my honest opinion I think Rangers are in a good place in tPvP. The meta spec may be fairly simple for the skill floor, but there is a lot of depth that really differentiates different skill levels of the class.

Spirit can res npcs that can be revived. I do this during the charr fractal on the final boss all the time.

I think I could still beat this build puma.

Shortbow beats an axe torch setup for midfights, although it is not as strong 1v1. The 900range condition application helps keep spirits alive while also bringing good utility. In a 1v1 you lose the weakness, chill, and alternate burn sources that axe/torch brings.

On critical balances the effects of the signets with builds. Imagine a shaman build making use of sigils of earth. Maybe a heavy aoe class with sig of strength. On crit forces people to drop a defensive stat to make use of the offensive power of sigils.

My advice is to create an alt of the class that hurts the most. Then you play some matches and get an elementary knowledge of the playstyle. Once that is done you can identify the key combos and skills for the class. From there you can just stand still in the mists watching yourself cast certain skills.

Even if the skills aren’t dodge able, your knowledge of the enemy will help you win in fights.

Probably af (k) ing

I don’t see this build being effective at all in tpvp without condition removal. In wvw I can see this working due to the common builds there being mainly power based but in spvp/tpvp you will be hard pressed to survive against engies, necros, warriors, and other Rangers.

Darnis.4056:

Lol you’re still like top 100 on solo que I see

Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

Darnis.4056:

hmmmmm been playing too long

Not long enough!

Axe torch is not a different build than sword dagger for rangers. We just swap weapons. Traps are not viable and are not a bunker type build. Any type of power build is also not viable. The only real choice Rangers have in their builds is whether to bring shortbow or a/t s/d. Other than that there is the choice to run rabid or shamans.

Any build you put together will eventually become ‘viable’ because you will be matched with other players who are equally bad so your poor build balances out with their poor skill.

I think nature spirit needs a cooldown reduction to 60s. That way everyone can have a Warrior’s healing signet.

I hope you understand that you wouldn’t have killed the warrior with or without a 1200 range shortbow.

If you really think spirit Ranger is low skill then make one yourself and duel me.

Of course if you don’t like that idea, I encourage you to find a single spirit ranger in this game who can beat me in a duel reliably. If it is a low skill class then certainly you can find some other person who is capable of out preforming another ranger. Unless of course there is actually some depth and skill that differentiates players that you can’t put your finger on because you have absolutely no experience playing the class you comment on at a high level.

What server are you on. From what I know the zerging is far different between t1 and t3+. A class that may be great for 0-10 may be next to worthless for 30+ groups.

I don’t see the issue here. If he is a bad Ranger then he will play against bad players. They could be clicking their skill bars for all we know.

Logitech g9x with a random no name keyboard.

On the note of anet’s plan for pvp. Ask them to fix their EULA:

“While participating in Plaver-vs-Player (PvP) gameplay, you will not participate in any form of match manipulation. Match manipulation is defined as any action taken to fix or manipulate the outcome of a match or alter or manipulate the rankings or ratings of the ladder. This also includes disrupting other people’s game experience by not actively participating in matches in good faith, a.k.a leeching.

In-game Infractions

The following will result in either a temporary account suspension or permanent account termination, depending upon the severity of the matter:

Engaging in PvP match manipulation, disrupting a PvP match by not actively playing in good faith, or any other form of PvP griefing, exploitation, or abuse"

While I agree that this is perfectly sensible, since syncers, afk players, and leavers are ruining the game for everyone else playing, it needs to be changed since anet evidently does not operate by these rules.

I’ll probably drop torch for offhand axe for the path of scars pull. I may also bring SoR.

I play a Ranger. As such, the only viable build I have is spirits. I don’t have stunbreak or stability.

The necro who comes up to me can kill me without me being able to do anything. He can open up with doom, an instant cast fear which is impossible to avoid if the necro doesn’t use it on spammed evades. From here he can use spectral grasp to pull me over a plate to my death.

Impossible to avoid without stability or stunbreaks which do not fit on a Rangers bar.