You pay your $60, you can name your toons whatever you want.
This is the first game I’ve ever named all my toons with RP style names. But I’ve always put some thought into them in the past, making them sound either cool or profession/race appropriate or clever, etc.
If I see a clever name, I’ll pm you to let you know I like it. But some people just choose the dumbest names. I see a Youmadbromeme and I groan. I see a female Mesmer named Mary Houdini and I give em a wink. Ya know?
SB will let you stack bleeds more consistently. It’s also single target (poison spread works better point blank for 5 stacks). You get a daze/stun skill and an evasion.
Axe/Dagger will give you more consistent aoe (axe bounce) and more control imo.
I think the determining factor is if you want a single target or aoe weapon set.
Gotta say I think the OP expected more support, but I’m like 90% of the people here, I do not want the trinity. It made the game stale, cuz you did the exact same thing every single time you played.
“Shadow Priest LFG”…“can you go healz instead?” Ugh…hated that. Now it’s just “I’m LFG”…“ok, we need a 5th.”
And like Leablo mentioned, it’s fun learning the strengths/weaknesses of a group to devise a strategy. Rangers aren’t just damage anymore. They can be damage, support, or tanky. Just like everyone else. And I love it.
No more cringing at the character creation screen thinking about whether you’ll be wasting your time leveling a mage cuz it’s dps only and you won’t get into groups or a warrior cuz everyone will want you to go tank even if you hate it.
Nah, I prefer the GW1 Tengu by far. Now they’re hunched over, anemic looking. Basically just bird heads on hunched normal frames. In GW1 they had feathers coming out all over, had a presence, weren’t hunched over like decrepit vultures, but rather stood proud like an eagle. The GW2 Tengu remind me of the trolls in WoW. They coulda been cool, but instead had this weak look. I’ve never liked the hunched look of characters. It’s feeble, it’s unnatural. I understand a crouched combat stance, but not walking around like a 90yr old. Bring back the proud eagle warriors, not the feeble buzzards they’ve become!
You could do something like:
Chain 1: Shoot an arrow that does more damage the further away your are
Chain 2: Shoot two arrows in quick succession
Chain 3: Charge a shot, if range is greater than set amount, it cannot be blocked
You could make Chain 3 have a longer charge time than basic attack, kind of like Guardians hammer Chain 3. These are just thoughts though, you could make Chain 2 involve the pet somehow, like how sword gives pet might, you could make it grant the pet some boon or inflict a condition.
Actually, I like this idea very much. Since our SB is just a standard shot, I like having LB#1 being a chain attack. Especially since we should be using it at range.
(remove base distance requirement)
Chain 1: Shoot arrow that cripples for 1s
Chain 2: Shoot 2 arrows that deal more damage the further away the target is
Chain 3: Charged shot that deals big damage & grants pet’s next attack to deal +10% damage
I dunno…that seems overly complex. But we need something that let’s us attack at long range effectively (buff damage at range instead of slashing it at close range). Giving the 1st attack a 1s cripple would help keep that range. And having a charged shot would feel like an epic sniper. Let it synergize with our pets so that at close range even if we can’t deal optimal damage w/ our bows our pets still gain a bonus to be more effective.
Wow. Knowing that leveling is easy and offers some variety makes me excited to set my Ranger down from time to time to focus on what seems like a fun class. If I can love Ranger (1 of the classes everyone agrees is weaker) then I can certainly love Eng too.
So basically load up on elixirs and things that go boom. Got it.
Both of you recommended 30/10/0/30/0, so that’s encouraging.
Is our Tools trait line any good? I tend to enjoy putting some focus on profession-specific mechanics (since that’s what defines them often times). Course, Eng is unique enough as it is.
I just rolled an alt engineer and all of the kits seem to be a bit daunting, having so many skill bar options (plus toolbelt) depending on the kits I choose.
Any advice for leveling an engineer? Which kits work best, which synergize well? Are pistols/shield/rifle worth using? I know ’nades are supposed to be great but does that get boring fast?
Signets should work on rangers first and then pets when traited if they wish to justify the cooldowns.
My think is.
Signet effect ranger+pet at start.
When got grandmaster traits will effect with friend.
+1
Like the thief with venomous aura which is also a grandmaster trait. This class is getting completely short changed.
Exactly what I was thinking about! This would make Rangers worth adding to a group again. Just think of it:
Signet of the Stone: a whole group invurnable for 6 seconds
Signet of the Wild: everyone gets bigger, deals more damage and gains Stability for 12 seconds
Signet of the Hunt: each party member plus your pet deals +50% damage with their next attack
I do think the Signet of Renewal should be changed though, so it works better with the trait.
This would totally make Ranger more viable and worth investing 30 Points in one trait line.
While I do like that, it’s OP and it’s called spirits. That’s what Ranger’s party-wide buffs are supposed to be. But our spirits are lackluster of course. And while Guardian & Warrior shouts help everyone, ours only apply to our pets. So….yea let’s buff our spirits for better party-wide support and make our signets more effective for ourselves (and pets).
I agree that something needs to be done about LB #1, but I don’t know what exactly. I do open with 3, 2 and 5 if there’s a group, then swap to my axe. It’s sad that I can burn down targets (and aoe with bounces) so much faster with my axe than my LB.
I say merge tier 1 & 2 of the damage:distance and make that all max damage. This way we’ll swap to something else if the target is really close (range tier 3) but we aren’t kitten so severely if they’re in that middle 2nd tier.
- Most remain passive on my skillbar because the passive is better than the active ability or the cooldown doesn’t justify using them.
- The grandmaster trait is only beneficial to 2 of our 4 signets: SoS and SoW. Of course, those are the 2 with too long 120s cooldowns. The trait with SoR is a backfire and will kill us since we don’t get anything to counteract the conditions (also, do i and my pet split the conditions we draw?). And SoH active w/ the trait is pointless because we don’t have a spike skill to warrant using it.
Technically, they’re not pet skins. They’re a 2nd copy of a pet. So those of us who love raven, can run dual ravens…I can’t. I have to swap out for another pet. I’d love to have 2 ravens with identical skills. True skins would be an option to make my black raven white, or my pink moa black. I’m guessing this is why the HOM raven & spider have lower vitality than their regular counterparts. They’d be too OP if you could run exact copies simultaneously.
If I could add only one elite from GW1, it would be the “Echo” elite…
For those that don’t know, you could use echo and it would immediately become the skill you use immediately after, giving you essentially 2 of the same skill, with different cool downs.
Might be OP, though, because some of those long CD Mesmer skills are powerful.
2x Ranger’s “Protect Me!” would be sweet!! OP as hell, but sweet…
Elite Preparation – Explosive Tips: for x seconds your attacks explode on contact, dealing y aoe damage at target’s location. Also, 15% chance of attacks causing a blast finisher.
Soul of Melandru: for x secs you and your pet gain Melandru’s Soul, hardening your skin with bark and gaining y toughness, and create a random aoe boon of regen, protection, or aegis (internal CD of 3 secs) at your locations.
Not sure I’d have deleted them unless you planned to never ever ever play them again. I know I’ve deleted a ton of alts but only cuz they were sub-lvl 10 and I was experimenting with new professions. Also, I just like character creation.
I have 3 toons 45-65 that I’ve at one time or another called “my main.” I’ve finally decided which is truly my main, but I’m not going to delete them, even if there is little hope of getting them geared any time soon. Eventually, I’ll even hit 80 on my main lol.
I’d also like to be able to store 2 or 3 trait sets so at the push of a lazy button I can just drop into one.
That’d be great too. And it’s something GW1 eventually added too; a save function to builds. Being able to swap from say, a condition heavy close-mid range build for skirmishing and then to a long range glass cannon power build out of combat would be great.
I miss the days of GW1 when we could reset our attribute points for free any time we were in an outpost. Although, it wasn’t always that way. You used to have to earn skill points to respec.
I’m hoping that sometime soon Anet will give us the ability to respec our traits for free out of combat so that we can experiment with builds more readily and be more versatile as situations present themselves. I can see this being limited to out of dungeons, but it’d be super useful in PvP and lotsa fun in PvE. As it is we can swap out traits, but our trait points are locked in. Just free em up please.
I understand gold sinks in the game, but the cost of respeccing isn’t significant enough to be considered an effective gold sink, but it is something that people would probably do more often if they had more freedom to do so.
I miss the days of GW1 when we could reset our attribute points for free any time we were in an outpost. Although, it wasn’t always that way. You used to have to earn skill points to respec.
I’m hoping that sometime soon Anet will give us the ability to respec our traits for free out of combat so that we can experiment with builds more readily and be more versatile as situations present themselves. I can see this being limited to out of dungeons, but it’d be super useful in PvP and lotsa fun in PvE. As it is we can swap out traits, but our trait points are locked in. Just free em up please.
2 traits for traps and I’m only bringing 1 for CC purposes only? That seems like wasted traits.
2 traits for signets but our signets (in my experience) have really long CDs. Which do you suggest bringing? Hunt is the only one with a workable CD. Should I bring Stone even with the 2min CD for those ‘o crap’ moments?
3 stacks of might for pets on swap with only 10 pts in the BM line seems like buffing a weak tool, not to mention no 15pt minor trait means longer times between swaps. Explain “fast skill charge” please.
Currently I’m lvl 65 and am running 0/25/15/0/15 with LB & Axe/Horn. Stacking pow/prec.
Emphasis on LB, lotsa dodges w/ protection, and quickness swapping.
Now, should I respec into Marks if I want to keep using LB? What should I change? The 15 in BM almost seems required in any build and the 15 in WS is pretty crucial for staying alive in sticky situations. Since I’m not doing PvP or WvW, is that a waste of 15pts?
Is a condition build more effective when leveling? I’m fast approaching the harder areas like Orr and Southsun and want to make sure I’m running a build that will keep me alive and still be efficient for knocking out hearts and DEs.
We’re aware of a lot of the issues with ranger pets that have been brought up here, so none of this has been surprising so far. We’re working on the core issues I listed, and have been for a while now.
That’s what we really needed to hear. Thank you so much for coming here and talking with us.
You mentioned you’re a dungeon designer and not a class balancer, but your role in getting our ideas/thoughts/critiques to the class developers is much appreciated.
Might I ask though, without seeming indelicate, why class balance devs don’t seem to chime in on class forums more often? Seems like this is a constructive and polite thread. And I’m sure all of you guys know what’s up with your aspect of the game. But just popping in to the forums and letting us know does wonders for our morale and enthusiasm. So…thanks again!!!!
If the Pet foraged worked like Steal from a thief, Pigs would instantly be far more usable then they currently are.
Right now Pigs are a huge pain in the kitten
I would immediately drop my current pets and equip 2 Porcine pets. They have so much fun potential. I would sacrifice the damage my Raven or Jaguar do for the utility and flavor of Porcine Forages.
While we’re on the subject of Pets, I’d like to bring up Porcines. I love em (they’re hearty and have a knockdown). Their foraged items are incredible and tons of fun to use (heals, stealth, chaos field, etc). However, their F2 is really clunky, especially when fighting at range. Having to stop my action to pick up the item, lose my weapon skills, and then use the foraged itemimmediately is clunky. And allowing enemy players to pick up the item seems really counter-productive. Nobody will ever use them in PvP knowing their own weapon could backfire.
Can you make it function more like a thief’s steal ability. Pet forages, F2 becomes the item for a duration (say 10s or so). Only I can use it but then it’s actually useable. Or haveit function like Ele summoned weapons: 1 appears in my hand, another at the pet’s location. This way it’s still a team item but not so clunky I can’t use it effectively.
Personally, I’ve tried WvW a couple times and it was always one big confusing mess. I’m sure there are legit teams out there that have i all coordinated and whatnot. But there’s apparently no room for teaching new WvWers. I join in, I don’t know where to go, what I’m supposed to do. I kill a dolyak, random lonely NPC guard, run away from a 30 person zerg.
I’ve hopped into random PvP and that’s fun. Plan on doing it more actually. But I’ve never been much of a PvP player and WvW sounds awesome in concept, but I’ve no idea what I’m doing there.
Seriously? But it’s ok to kill the human pirates though right? It’s a game designed around combat. Are you really getting huffy about this? It’s so ridiculous that you felt the need to complain about this and make it an issue. Did you really ask “why add more violence?” regarding a game that is entirely about combat? Does the fact that they made rabbits critters rather than full on NPC animals with viable health bars denote that they’re innocent beautiful creatures? What about the majestic stag? Or the territorial bear? Or the quirky moas (ostriches?)? Honestly, just stop.
At 30 you should be having no problems letting your pet tank for you. Put your first trait points into BM and make your pet stronger and get that quickness with pet swapping going on.
Ranger survivability is all about evasion. Dodge often. Very often. Sword has tons of evades built into its attacks too. Try using utility skills like Muddy Terrain or Frost Trap to slow your enemies and keep them at range.
The Wilderness Survival trait tree has a couple really nice minor traits that let you dodge often and gain protection when you do. 15pts in WS will improve your survivability by a lot. I specced into it when I hit about 50 (but that’s just when I felt like I needed it).
I don’t mind humor amongst a serious storyline. GW1 had almost no humor in Prophecies but the story was great. GW2 has a mix of serious and humorous, however the only humor I find actually funny are the Asura. Tybalt is a moron and my female necro feels like she’s babysitting him. The Priory chic (forget her name) is like a kid and my guardian feels like he’s rolling his eyes and going along with her childish antics. Yes, it adds some levity to otherwise serious situations. However, the way the humor is done is less than witty unless we’re talking about the Asura. Haven’t gotten too far into any of the Asura storylines (yet) but they feel at least a little smarter than the “oh my I’ve forgotten where I’ve left my friend, lookie Risen, help my poor flowers” childishness that some of the non-serious portions have. I think I need to start rolling Norn…if nothing else I’ll get drunken ego-driven humor rather than naive & childish Sylvari and Charr. To be honest, the human and Vigil storylines are the most serious.
It depends on the material honestly. Are you talking cloth, leather, or heavy metal armor? Cuz tarnished silver (for example) looks great on metal armor, but garbage on leather. Likewise, fog dye is a nice whitish on leather, but is lackluster on metal.
GW2 is a game and as such its main purpose is to have fun. If you’re bored with your mesmer then you absolutely should roll an alt. Plus, as others have said, dungeons tokens & laurels & dailies are account wide. So you shouldn’t be left behind. Do anything that is fun. If that happens to be a new ele, then do it.
I think the point of the ‘kill 40 Krytan baddies’ dailies is to get 80’s out of Orr and into other areas of the world. You head to a Krytan zone you don’t have 100% on and start killing. Then you come across a few others doing the same thing, a DE pops up, you all join in, kill a Veteran, finish that heart quest nearby while you’re there and boom…you’ve just immersed yourself in the game and community, broken up the monotany of farming Orr, and gotten something in return for your troubles. And you’ve also managed to make some headway toward other daily achievements and map completion.
I don’t think dragging people to zones, whether with new dailies, world bosses, or with guild quests is going to help significantly with keeping the entire low-level world populated and events busy. Nor do I think that should be the purpose of the daily…I think it should be an incentive for people to log in, see what their guild is doing, and act as a ‘starter’ for their activities for however many hours they care to play that day.
Dailies don’t drag you to zones. They offer an incentive to play there. You have the option. And I think it will help the low-level zone population; last night while playing some of my guildies were chatting about being in Kryta killing things, who wants to come?, etc. Dailies are designed to be daily tasks to complete that will springboard further play, not force guild play necessarily (until they create guild daily achievements), but like you said act as a ‘starter’ for their activities. I think the reason the recent ‘kill x baddies in zone y’ dailies were added was specifically to spread the population around the map more. Instead of killing 40 Risen, you have to kill 40 of something else in the Shivers…and may as well play with those that are in the area to do the same. It doesn’t force anyone, but it’s a nice incentive to leave your monotanous Orr and take in the view of trees or snow…and then cover it in blood.
I think there should be a gear skin inspection. Since there’s so much importance on asthetics and gear skins, I think we should be able to inspect to find out what kind of weapon/armor someone is rocking. I know I only inspected people in other games because I wanted to know what kind of armor it was that looked so cool so I could get it too.
I think the point of the ‘kill 40 Krytan baddies’ dailies is to get 80’s out of Orr and into other areas of the world. You head to a Krytan zone you don’t have 100% on and start killing. Then you come across a few others doing the same thing, a DE pops up, you all join in, kill a Veteran, finish that heart quest nearby while you’re there and boom…you’ve just immersed yourself in the game and community, broken up the monotany of farming Orr, and gotten something in return for your troubles. And you’ve also managed to make some headway toward other daily achievements and map completion.
So to be clear: the Portal change is that you can’t enter a portal w/o line of sight, not that you can’t place an exit portal that doesn’t have LoS with the entry portal right?
Depends on the profession but not as often as I should I guess. You’re right, you can’t create a build around them and sometimes they’re more a hinderance than a benefit.
Ranger’s Entangle is great, but others are meh
Guardian’s books are strong/novel but are highly situational. Virtue recharge one is nice but only if you’re specced into using your virtues a lot.
Necro’s elite golem is great for PvE but otherwise not so much. Others you hit on the head.
Mesmer has some awesome elites.
Don’t know enough about other professions to state an opinion.
Most seem to be super long cooldown, situational, strong but non-conforming to builds. Nothing like elites of GW1. I miss those that you can really build around (ie – Barrage, double Echo, etc)
Hello, quick poll for a gaming thing, guess you could consider it journalism. Anyways respond however you feel, don’t turn this into a flame war. Thanks.
1. Which class do you consider to be the “most overpowered”?
2. Which class do you consider to be the “most underpowered”?
3. Which aspect of the game do you think needs the most work done? (sPvP, PvE dungeons, PvE open world, WvW)
4. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being good and 1 being bad, how would you rate the in game economy?
5. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a lot and 1 being very few, how would you rate the amount of bugs/glitches in the current build of the game?
6. Which aspect of the game do you want to do more, but have no reason to currently do so? (sPvP, PvE dungeons, PvE open world, WvW)
7. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being great and 1 being the worst, how would you rate the community interaction between players? (things such as parties, dungeons, etc)
Thank you for your time
1 – Warrior 2 – Ranger (Eng close 2nd, but at least they’re getting some patch love) 3 – WvW 4 – 5, used to be better but now everything is inflated 5 – 4 6 – WvW, only aspect that I just don’t understand. Zergs and unexplained mechanics. 7 – 8.5
@OP: can you put together an average for each poll question? Be interested to know what the general concensus is. Even if it is pretty obvious at a glance what the most over/underpowered classes are.
Lol. love how you threw in a completely useless and unnecessary buff at the end, just like how Anet does it. “Ohh…did we nerf you again? I don’t think so little buddy, we lowered the CD on an offhand by 3 secs. That’s OP pwnsammich time!!”
Signet of the Hunt increases movement speed of both the Ranger and the pet. Since Anet hasn’t fully fixed the issue with melee pets missing moving targets, giving them a speed boost ensures that they’ll land more hits to mobile targets.
I use SoH when in PvE because of that, plus I can roam the maps faster.
I honestly don’t “get” tonics. They can’t be used in combat…so…people stand around transformed? Someone would devote three months~ of their dailies to this?
Yea, never understood them either. I have a ton of those stupid things in my bank taking up space. Why would I want to transform into something out of combat only? I don’t plan on hanging around LA doing nothing for that long.
I’ve got 3 toons that I split my time between, all of them 45-55. I’ve got about 8-9g total. I’ve put in hours of leveling and gathering, etc but I’m assuming that the real money-making comes at 80. Is this true? Sure, I can get a drop that I can sell for 10s occassionally, but most of my gold so far comes from selling gathered crafting materials. At 80, are drops easier to sell on the TP? Are there craftable items that sell well?
