Guild Wars 2

I mostly do WvW and I would say that there, where is no little circle to protect, the only things that I really fear are good DPS meditations guardians, S/F elementalists, and S/D thieves.

Full on regen condition rangers and PU mesmers are a problem for everybody, I think. They’re also very easy to get away from, though.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Sevans.4619:

mistsim.2748:

but what projectiles are you destroying exactly? only ones worth mentioning are from other rangers, but theyre neutralized with a few simple evades. I don’t feel projectile destruction is useful at all, unless rifle warriors and pistol thieves all of a sudden become a thing. imo, it’s a useless bonus maybe worthy of a master in current form.

but if they gave us a flat defense bonus while smacking something with a sword, then id consider it.

I feel like it was redesigned for PvE players, where it will be the clear choice. Damage boost on our highest DPS weapon AND projectile hate for some encounters? No-brainer, really.

Agree, though, it’s PvP applications will still be limited.

It reduces the damage and adrenaline gain on a shoutbow AA by 50%! DD Ele loses 50% of fire/water AA damage, sceptre also, thief now has 50% less effective headshots and shadowshots, Mesmer sceptre/Staff, engineer rifle & pistol, turrets, all Ranger bow, axe and spider/devourer attacks. Surely there are more.

To have immunity to 50% of all projectiles is awesome! It’s not effective for the ones you evade, nothing is effective except evade, if you actually evade the projectile. It is effective for the one’s you do not see coming or cannot evade due to lack of endurance or w/e.

No doubt that in theory it is extremely strong, but unless you’re cleaving a downed body I don’t see it being as effective in practice.

I wonder if it’ll still proc without needing to make contact with an enemy, because then it could make sword the ultimate get-away weapon.

mistsim.2748:

but what projectiles are you destroying exactly? only ones worth mentioning are from other rangers, but theyre neutralized with a few simple evades. I don’t feel projectile destruction is useful at all, unless rifle warriors and pistol thieves all of a sudden become a thing. imo, it’s a useless bonus maybe worthy of a master in current form.

but if they gave us a flat defense bonus while smacking something with a sword, then id consider it.

I feel like it was redesigned for PvE players, where it will be the clear choice. Damage boost on our highest DPS weapon AND projectile hate for some encounters? No-brainer, really.

Agree, though, it’s PvP applications will still be limited.

Agreed that Guard needs to be baseline. I’d kill to see F1 turn into a toggle attack on/off on the targeted enemy and see F3 turned into Guard.

Good video and good editing, I enjoyed that.

It’s really nice seeing people not use RtW in LB builds. In mid-range skirmishes and sanctioned duels it’s really not necessary.

It’s invaluable if your build doesn’t have much swiftness up-time. Positioning is too important when properly playing LB and that speed boost has saved me more times than I can count versus classes with poor mobility.

That was a fun fight to watch. I think he would have won if instead of a Siamoth he had been using another CC pet.

I really don’t like that I have to choose between Empathic Bond and reducing my Survival CDs. As it stands I think they should just swap Empathic Bond and Honed Axes.

You’d join Maguuma if you knew what was good for you.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Hypocrisy: Eraser ~ Literally one of my favorite songs of all time, and has been since I was a teenager

Man, The Arrival was the first Hypocrisy album I heard and I’ve been hooked on the band ever since.

Yeah, this guy is awesome. I’ve had the pleasure of playing with him a few times.

I have a pretty eclectic taste in music, but generally I’m listening to metal while I play. I find the high energy helps keep me on my toes.

Hypocrisy – Warpath
Bloodbath – Weak Aside
Jeff Loomis – Jato Unit

Stuff like that.

Love it. I actually run a Mad King build myself, but it’s LB and S/D with less condi damage and more power. The rangers’ ability to stack bleeds is so incredible that even with 500 condition damage, you’re still applying some serious pressure.

I find most players don’t expect someone who’kittenting hard at 1.5k range to be able to hit 20+ bleeds stacks. And I’d say that more than half the people I talk to after an encounter assume I’m running a condition build.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Sevans.4619:

It’s like playing against Sagat in a Street Fighter game. Tiger this, Tiger that. “Hey nub, quit spammin’ fireballs and fight like a man.”

Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken! YOU WIN! PER-FECT!

Go home and be a family man.

Mechanically, ranger is a very easy class to play. It’s simple and effective. People don’t like losing to simple and effective; It bruises their ego. It’s like playing against Sagat in a Street Fighter game. Tiger this, Tiger that. “Hey nub, quit spammin’ fireballs and fight like a man.”

Strategically, though, there’s a lot more going on with the Ranger (And Sagat!) People really only get to realize this when they’ve been assaulted by other good players while on Ranger. Most punks log in to their human female ranger, slaughter some achievement hunters in unranked or hot joins and assume the class is just that easy. They never really have to experience or learn what you have to do against an enemy that doesn’t have their head up their kitten .

TIGER!

It’s not that not having to babysit little circles means that there’s no strategy, it’s just that there’s a different kind of strategy (no better or worse) for TDM and people don’t like leaving their comfort zone and I think that’s why you see all the hate.

I think that hate would go away if you saw a separate queue for TDM. My thoughts were always to add a couple more TDM maps and make it a separate queue.

Life size cardboard cutout of Trahearne.

For WvW:

Harpoon Gun (Sinister) — Air & Blight — Air makes up for the lack of physical damage on the auto attack, Blight adds another condition to the mix and is particularly potent underwater ’cause downed state. It helps finish off surfaced enemies a little faster.

Spear (Knight’s) — Leeching & Doom — Both of these are persisting buffs and spear isn’t very useful for fighting so I use them to boost my other weapons. If I’m near water I’ll pop in and out for free life steal and poison. You can also take some fall damage then jump in some water between combat and gain these buffs so that your next attack on land does about 1,000 more damage and applies poison!

Warcry.1596:

I don’t think it was stupid in Smash. A band-aid solution maybe, but it needed to be done. Or something did.

In this game, I don’t think we need something like this.

Why did it need to be done?

It was a terrible and stupid idea in Smash Brothers and it would be terrible here.

I think Smashbrawl is the only ‘fighting’ game I’ve ever seen implement a slip function, so no, “other games” isn’t exactly accurate.

Ranger. Is. A. Pet. Class.

Like Heimskarl, the first thing I’m gonna do in HoT is try HaO, Protect Me, and RaO with Resounding Timbre. I’ll add Centaur runes to the mix so that my heal becomes a 16cd source of 10s regen and 26s swiftness in an AoE.

Resounding Timbre, Centaur Runes, and Oakheart Salve in conjunction with Heal as One will give me permanent regen and swiftness. Protect Me and Rampage giving these bonuses will just be icing on the cake.

Tolmos.8395:

Sevans.4619:

Permanent Super Adventure Box Contract

I’m embarrassed to say that I excitedly checked the gem store for this item after reading this post, just thinking it was expensive or something…

I’m so sorry. xD

I feel your pain.

My experiences with Vamp runes were always spoiled by the mist form bonus. If that were changed to more life-leeching goodness, I’d totally run with them.

Most dangerous ranged party?

Me and my bow.

MithranArkanere.8957:

One million dollars isn’t that much nowadays.

Maybe enough to pay for rent for 10 years or so.

Sheesh, tell me where you’re living so I can stay far, far away from that place.

I didn’t say ‘another batch of spirits,’ as in a lot of new spirits on top of what they already have, but sure, I think that’s correct.

What I said was mostly just to goof off, because that’d be the ultimate hype killer. However, it would really fit thematically for druids to summon… druid spirits.

Maybe something new will become baseline for the ranger and the spirit grand re-work is going to belong to the Druid spec.

Man, people would be kittened.

Looks like fun.

On the build: I would definitely take Pack runes over Vampirism for the additional Swiftness/Precision and with such high crit chance, I’d personally drop Intelligence sigil for something else (maybe air or leeching.)

On the presentation: Maybe a little in-match footage!

Permanent Super Adventure Box Contract

Fester.9328:

Although, when it comes to characters, aesthetics are important to me, and I have a hard time wrapping my mind around a Slyvari Guardian.

Let’s not forget that these Dragonhunters are around to slay dragons and all dragon spawn. So a Sylvari Dragonhunter is kind of… conflicted.

About the DH spec, it definitely serves a different role and I don’t see it obsoleting LB rangers in any way. Pretty neat skills, though. I expect a slight CD increase on True Shot, but they also have no range increase, no velocity increase or no CD decrease, so things like their LB5 will be used very rarely.

The traps seem strong. I like seeing more revealed (especially with how this is one is done,) but no way to ground target them or reduce their CD.

When you see a Dragonhunter you’ll really just have to refuse to fight on their terms or their turf. I can dig that. Maybe they’ll be really strong in conquest.

Pretty sure it’s from the Marionette fight in Season 1 of the LS.

I was wondering why not get rid of it and replace it with the new Nature’s Wrath so that the pet stat bonus trait is actually in the BM line…

The way I see it:

- Spider (Any) applies venom to themselves.
- Taunt activates for at least 1s.
- In that 1s, my spider has a chance to use the envenomed spit, guaranteeing whatever other effects it may grant.

In the case of a Jungle Spider, that’s at least a 1s taunt followed by a 3s immobilize and because there’s probably going to be at least 1s between the taunt and when the venom hits, it chains into itself. That’s really powerful. Could potentially waste a stunbreak and/or force a condition clear.

EDIT: This also means we now have even more stomp interrupts in downed state.

Should act as a (near) instant interrupt on Spider F2s and the Jaguar’s Stalk. Be ready to use those pets.

Also, it needs to have the “prevent capture point” attribute removed. Stupid that Signet of Stone doesn’t have that and it’s just flat out better.

I want Frozen Soil and Favorable Winds, kitten it.

I always thought it’d be neat if Protect Me caused your pet to shadowstep to you and you both gain retaliation for the duration.

I suspect we’ll be seeing some changes to the four utility shouts.

Fo’ starters, yes you can use S/D on a power set-up. You lose the ability to cleave, but you get loads of poison and better in-combat mobility. I think it’s better for fighting off point and kiting, but GS is gonna let you stand your ground better.

If you’re trying to fight on point against the warrior, it’s going to be next to impossible if they’re any good. Our strength in that match (particularly against GS,) is our ability to kite. You’re the matador and he’s the bull. Treat the match-up like that. You need to avoid his movement impairing conditions (Pin Down, Blade Trail, maybe Bull Rush) to win this. S/D poison will help with dealing with Warrior sustain. A Jungle Spider or Forest Spider is great too.

A fight against a good thief is going to boil down to who gets a good hit in first, usually. If you’re running Sic’em you can ruin their day because a Black Powder leap is super easy to counter with that. Alternatively, save your Point Blank Shot for that, then squeeze off an auto attack and Rapid Fire. If they get into stealth stay as mobile as possible — S/D is nice for this, but GS should do pretty well too.

And I’d like to add the Jaguar’s F2 ability Stalk to the discussion, for those of us who prefer fuzzy creatures to eight-legged monstrosities.

Gonna be interrupting heals like crazy.

I guess it depends on if the trait triggers when the spider applies the venom to itself (instant) or if it waits until the next spit attack hits.

I was just thinking that since the spider venom application is instant, this could be a really powerful tool for interrupts.

Beastly Warden – Your pet taunts foes near them when executing a command (F2) ability. 15 seconds ICD.

So how’s this gonna work with spiders? Is it gonna be an instant interrupt for all enemies in range of the spider when we press F2? How’s the range on the trait to begin with?

I’m a bit excited about it.

Excited about the synergy between this trait, Heal as One and Centaur runes.

Mmm. 26 seconds of swiftness every time I use my heal.

I’m not really worried. They have to choose between Deflect Missiles/Dogged March and Balanced Stance/Cleansing Ire now.

Yeah, I’m guessing that’s either for the pet or the ICD would have to go way up.

Sea of Sorrows was great, the other two weren’t quite up to snuff, but still fun reads if you’re really into the game.

Pugchug.8905:

Watching a thief troll noobs and waiting for the very right moment to sic em. Then I sit back and watch the thief get owned by people randomly pressing buttons. Always good for a laugh.

And here I thought I was the only one. I won’t interfere in any other way.

I appreciate the acrobatic moveset of S/D. Makes me feel like a real fantasy character.

Mainhand axe isn’t going to benefit much from power. Sword will, but you don’t typically sit there hacking away to get that benefit anyway.

I think that you’re getting more from your toughness on Rabid than from the vitality on Carrion, also, since you’re packing so much condition removal on those condi-Survival builds.

Funny video.

What server is this on?

MithranArkanere.8957:

Disengaging is part of combat. It’s called “strategic retreat”.

Anything that is “strategic” is good, as opposed to the rampant mindless skill-less spammity spam that is way too abundant these days.

If they run away they may come back at full health. Which is a reason to leave the point. Will you leave and let them come back fully healed, or will you chase and finish them off, risking losing the point?

That kind of decision is always something better to have than “should I spam button 2, or button 3?”.

This. Exactly this.