Guild Wars 2

It is a good defensive weapon with CC/Short burst capability. It has mobility that rewards using it offensively. And its defensive nature also encourages using it offensively (Evade frames at the end of auto attack chain, Counter Attack knockback, Swoop evade frames at the end of the attack)

It can definetly be used for attacking. It isn’t going to match the dmg of sword 1 spamming. But you will live several times longer with a GS than a sword.

GS was one of our best tools for fighting rampage warriors back when warriors were more common in PvP as timing the evades helped negate most of the CC effects.

Atm. It is outclassed by staff in the defense and mobility categories. But it has higher burst damage and in the right hands more reliable melee defense.

It also has one of the best short range CCs available in the game through hilt bash. An attack that dazes from the front while stunning from the back and boosting the pets damage.

It is above average down cleave. But a 1 spamming revenant will out cleave you hear unless you combine a pet burst (bristleback f2 for example) when your trying to rally race.

It’s 2 ability (maul) hits just hard enough and with enough range to force a dodge. Making it very good for disrupting an enemies attack rotation.

In PvE it is our sustain melee weapon. Are you in a fight with multiple mobs? Or the mob hits fast/hard enough you want those auto attack evade frames? Then greatsword is your weapon. It won’t match a sword/axe combos damage in most scenarios. But it will keep you alive through all of it without causing your druid to scream into his microphone at you.

Are you certain it was the wall and not a barricade? Those take damage from any source.

If it was legit a wall. It could be a bug. And you should have made a bug report on it.

I would remove the cast time and convert its healing to a heavy pulse every couple seconds instead of on movement.

Definetly the pets for me first. Baiting a mesmer around a corner into a pet attack is gold.

After that its probably the freedom of movement. Combat as a ranger just feels so SMOOTH to me. And when things go well it always feels like your slipping through the cracks.

Second is the smoothness of setting up combos. Tricking a mesmer into looking at me while my bristleback revs up its spike barrage behind it is amazing. Or using your pet to force cooldowns while setting up your own burst. Or landing two seperate bursts from two completely different directions and forcing hte enemy to pick which one he wants to get hit by.

That kind of thing.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

I’d rather Anet Change all the shouts to be Way more Pet Focused so we can have the option to build for a Full beastmaster tank set up , atm shouts are nither here or there , somewhere stuck in no mans land and do nothing good.

they should revert the shouts to what the Gw1 shouts are and then add in some Defence effects , that way the Sacrifice for going full BM would be to use heal as one that benifits pets and the user , the down side would be the ranger would loose more direct effects and would need to use traits and heal as one to make up for the support loss , as a trade for highly improved pet damage.

a classic example would of been the Gw1 skills or they could rename all the shout skills to Beast mastery skill types and remake some from the old list
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Beast_Mastery

i’d honestly say ranger having shouts does not fit well into its Dynamic we have other means to team support through pet f2s and Druid now , even traits which grant Vigour with sun spirit and on a pet swap , at this point we dont need supporting Shouts of that kind but somthing with different effects which improve pet use at the cost of the rangers personal effectiveness .

if you get what i mean?

Believe me I do. And a true BM style would be incredible to play in this game. I just have a feeling it is something they would save for a future elite spec. I almost wish beast mastery WAS an elite spec with all the baggage that comes with it because then the playstyle could more easily be balanced.

All we have right now though are the shouts infront of us.

Gah. Im sorry if that came off ruder than I intended. I only recently woke up here. I do appreciate you trying to help. But it wasn’t addressing the purpose of the post. Which annoyed me.

Thank you for the build idea. I hope it continues to work well for you. It just isn’t something I can apply to my current gameplay. Nor does it address the purpose of my OP.

LughLongArm.5460:

@Shadelang.3012
We can dream about a radical changes to shouts utilities(we have been for a long time now). In the meanwhile, have you checked the build I posted for on the pvp forum(not the druid one, the GS/LB with shouts). I checked it, and it actually works quite well.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARTnUqAtCi1CCOsActgBMhyX8F4x/boBq4eZHgAok7kG-TpBFwACOEAMuAAF3fYxDAoaZAAHBAA

Your original shout play style got massive buffs with HOT. you can now stack might, F2 won’t cancel sic’em anymore. you can first) you can combo Sic’em with smoke assualt. This build is tankyest zerker build you can find, great survivability, CC defence and condi defence.
As second pet you need another tanky pet that can take the punishment of protect me and EB. Try out red moa (for the fury uptime).

My long typed reply was canceled. So I am gonna do this short and sweet.

First. I have tried a build similar to yours. It has several major flaws.

1. It has NO damage. With 0 damage multipliers for yourself from either traits or runes your build will be flat out ignored by tempests, revenants, and scrappers. Scrappers especially you will deal more damage to yourself from retaliation hitting them than youl deal. I know this for a fact. As I have seen it happen. Your build expects the pet to carry you through fights. That isn’t going to happen outside of the lowest level of MMR

2. The idea of bringing a moa of any kind into pvp (or anywhere) is a HORRIBLE idea. It does almost no damage. It does no control. The fury it provides is something you would have permanent uptime with if you took marksmanship. Your saying to devote an entire 15 seconds in combat that you will be doing so little damage that ANY of hte current elite specs will out heal you if played even slightly well.

3. Since we have established you don’t deal significant enough damage to be a threat. All you can be is a CC bot. Except that since your only stability is behind 48 second cooldown and can easily be corrupted by a signet necro to fear chain you over and over again while others beat on you. It means you can’t be a bunker in team fights either. So your confined to side nodes. Where you won’t be able to kill the person fighting you unless there running one of the old builds. Especially not if there a tempest where you simply won’t be dealing damage to them. Or a chrono which has no problem CCing and Interupting your attempts to recover. Also you don’t have enough CCs to be a CC bot.

Second. I managed to get past the slump. So I would appreciate not trying to use my post in another thread to derail this one.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARTnUqA9Ci1CCuCCctgh9gyD+iI53bPAO7POOinuknlG-TpBFABCcIAEvMgDXAgS2fYhHAAAHBAA

I would recommend trying this. You will actually be able to kill people if you learn how to use it. Unless there a tempest /shrug but a power ranger wont be killing those unless you get lucky with CC or go druid for CA5.

That also in no way changes the fact that the CORE SHOUT UTILITIES WHICH THIS THREAD IS DESIGNED FOR. Are lacking with the exception of sic em.

I am not talking about Heal as one here. I am not talking about Strength of the pack. Those are both fine as they are. Hell heal as one is our strongest heal skill.

I am refering to Guard, Protect Me, And search and rescue in this thread. Three of our core shout utiltiies with are Buggy (guard), Prevents the use of our class mechanic and even can KILL that class mechanic (protect me), or simply not worth putting on your bar except as a TRAIT (you can guess).

Edit: Also on your build. You talked about how good heal as one was for coppying boons. But you only have ONE source for offensive boons. So you are not making use of it at all. Also your moa isn’t going to be doing anything with those boons even if had them. Meaning hello 15 second down time for the enemy to do kitten well whatever they want to you.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Shadelang.3012:

@ Tragic Your ideas are interesting. Theres just a few questions I have.

For your version of guard. Would that be a repeating effect or a simple one and done deal. Does the teleporting attack deal damage. Does it have some kind of telegraph showing it will be teleporting.

A single target single effect utility. Basically in order to keep the cooldown low but make it a useful BM-bunker trait. Like it’s obviously meant to be.
The effect would be instant (similar to Thief’s Shadow Shot).

Shadelang.3012:

Your idea for protect me is interesting. It loses effectiveness massively however against classes with stability. How would you see this skill working in the current meta? Where nearly every dominant build has very easy access to stab. Also how would this affect PvE? I feel like this could be rather over powered in some situations. Not to mention its effect in WvW.

It’s not like it is supposed to have zero counter-play. And pet-taunting is a mechanic that is quite unique and defining for our pet-ranger archetype.
Also, I don’t believe it’s gonna end up overpowered in PvE. No one would ever pick the taunting utility into competitive scene and it has a considerable CD to consider it picking for open world content. When it comes to WvW – the effect is no different from Ele’s shocking Aura. No reason for it to be overpowered.

Shadelang.3012:

S&R is cool. Though I can see issues where people start to rez after you sent the pet to the target. But your pet was slowed by soft/hard CCs on the way there. And then starts moving the body as there attempting to rez. Would this version simply fail to work? Leaving the rezzing to your allies and wasting your cooldown. Or should it interrupt there rezzing to attempt to bring it to you.

This is a good question. I was thinking of starting to pull the body, and if he is hard CCed or rooted, he’ll be forced into the reviving command.
I believe having the pull forced regardless of whether is anyone ressing him or not is a good idea. It would promote awareness. Plus saving the ally from people stomping just as those trying to revive is more user-friendly then asking 3 people to stop reviving because you are going to save the guy from stomps.
Methinks.

Shadelang.3012:

Sic Em Does this mean that it loses the 40% damage increase and movement speed? That will hurt ranged pets quite a bit. Causing this show to massively favor melee pets.

That is partly the idea. Currently the Ranged pets offer less damage but safer pattern especially against moving ones. The 400 range limiter is there to prevent long-ranged pets from needless teleportation (but helping in case of LoS chasing) but would drastically favor melee pets that are in absolutely horrible spot against moving targets.

Second question on Sic Em. From the way you described it it makes it sound like each attack would cause it to teleport for 6 seconds. Or atleast it would need ot be for it to be useful.

However from what I understnad it would need to have quite a number of exceptions built into to work.

It would have to do absolutely nothing if your using a ranged pet. Which kind of hurts my affection for the skill. Cause if the ranged pet was in 400 range. It would start teleporting CLOSER to the target. Which would end badly for our ranged pets.

Having the pets abilities be unblockable for a time is interesting. On that note atleast it would be good for ranged pets as there attacks would be able to pierce reflects.

I feel it would take alot of work to keep it from bugging. As alot of pet skill animations and mechanics would need to be taken into account. But the concept itself is cool.

Mcrocha.3891:

Shadelang.3012:

Mcrocha.3891:

I think Search and Rescue would still be meh with the stab. I think it should fully revive allies like other revive utilities. Make the pet cast some skill that has a similar cast time to other skills like 3 or 4s. That way it can be rupted, but also would synergize well with SotP.

Guard is ok I guess.

Is the rework of Protect Me! on top of what it already does? Or does the resistance replace the damage transfer?

I feel the rework of protect me should be on top of what it already does. This skill doesn’t reduce the damage you take in any way shape or form. Simply forces it onto your other half. My goal would be to enable you to actually use protect me to get away. Unlike signet of stone which is more of a “were gonna keep fighting” kind of skill.

The reworked protect me would enable you to disengage.

It also doesn’t move you or produce evade frames like L.R. so the attacks will still be landing and conditions will still be applied. It also means that the resistance can be stripped. Leaving the skill with plenty of counterplay.

If it were to NOT continue to have the damage transfer. Then it would absolutely HAVE to be reworked so that the pet is no longer passive for the duration. As you will then have 0 methods of mitigating physical damage at all from the utility ontop of losing complete control of your pet.

Edit: As for S&R I could see it if the pet gained a break bar while attempting to cast. But it have a VERY obvious glow surrounding it during the cast. Making it easy to see. The skill would also have to be targetable.

Ye I was just asking if it would have the damage and resistance, bc I wouldn’t want it to only have the resistance. I think anything is good really because any skill that kills our own class mechanic is bad. Same thing with Empathic Bond.

I was thinking like a howl/screech/roar kind of thing for PM. But yeah obviously would need a big tell. Alternatively, I would be fine with it having nothing to do with revives as Spirit of Nature already does that too. Maybe something with shadow stepping and swapping places with the pet.

Aye. Unfortanetly those seem to be heavy reworks that would involve creating entirely new skills just with the same name. I am not sure if thats possible at this stage in the game. I find it more likely they would do that with a future elite spec instead.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Ideas that most of people liked, so far.

• Protect Me: You and your pet get retaliation. Attackers against you will get taunted for 2 seconds by your pet (3 sec ICD). 6 sec duration. 60 sec CD. Stun Break.
• Search & Rescue: Your pet seeks the closest downed ally, pulls him to you and helps you revive him. 60 sec CD.
• Guard: Your pet will instantly blink onto the 1st enemy entering the area, applying conditions (some of these: cripple/weakness/vulnerability/root). Your pet gains protection. 15sec CD
• Sick’Em: Your pet’s attacks ignore block and blink him to his target from up to 400 range, pet gains Quickness and reveals the target for 6 seconds. 40 second cooldown.

Most are immense QoL improvements that will keep their current use as well as add interesting effects without much balance changes. For example Protect me would serve the same purpose of self-defense but with utility instead of damage transfer (that is toxic) and naturally – we already have a superior version of damage negation – Signet of Stone.
For Sick’Em – basically any improvement that makes the pet hit the enemy on the move (even similar to smokescale’s assault) would work.

@ Tragic Your ideas are interesting. Theres just a few questions I have.

For your version of guard. Would that be a repeating effect or a simple one and done deal. Does the teleporting attack deal damage. Does it have some kind of telegraph showing it will be teleporting.

Your idea for protect me is interesting. It loses effectiveness massively however against classes with stability. How would you see this skill working in the current meta? Where nearly every dominant build has very easy access to stab. Also how would this affect PvE? I feel like this could be rather over powered in some situations. Not to mention its effect in WvW.

S&R is cool. Though I can see issues where people start to rez after you sent the pet to the target. But your pet was slowed by soft/hard CCs on the way there. And then starts moving the body as there attempting to rez. Would this version simply fail to work? Leaving the rezzing to your allies and wasting your cooldown. Or should it interrupt there rezzing to attempt to bring it to you.

Sic Em Does this mean that it loses the 40% damage increase and movement speed? That will hurt ranged pets quite a bit. Causing this show to massively favor melee pets.

Mcrocha.3891:

I think Search and Rescue would still be meh with the stab. I think it should fully revive allies like other revive utilities. Make the pet cast some skill that has a similar cast time to other skills like 3 or 4s. That way it can be rupted, but also would synergize well with SotP.

Guard is ok I guess.

Is the rework of Protect Me! on top of what it already does? Or does the resistance replace the damage transfer?

I feel the rework of protect me should be on top of what it already does. This skill doesn’t reduce the damage you take in any way shape or form. Simply forces it onto your other half. My goal would be to enable you to actually use protect me to get away. Unlike signet of stone which is more of a “were gonna keep fighting” kind of skill.

The reworked protect me would enable you to disengage.

It also doesn’t move you or produce evade frames like L.R. so the attacks will still be landing and conditions will still be applied. It also means that the resistance can be stripped. Leaving the skill with plenty of counterplay.

If it were to NOT continue to have the damage transfer. Then it would absolutely HAVE to be reworked so that the pet is no longer passive for the duration. As you will then have 0 methods of mitigating physical damage at all from the utility ontop of losing complete control of your pet.

Edit: As for S&R I could see it if the pet gained a break bar while attempting to cast. But it have a VERY obvious glow surrounding it during the cast. Making it easy to see. The skill would also have to be targetable.

KaporHabakuk.6219:

Didnt read it all,wall of text.So i agree only with guard and SaR should get some buff.Protect me,is a solid util,maybe a weird shout,but overall a good choice for a stunbreak role,at least if u dont have druid and the super lovely daze glyph.

I can’t agree with on protect me. But this is something that caused disagreement in my previous thread as well.

My reasoning on the matter is that it is a damage TRANSFER (note not an invuln) that stun breaks. But simultaneously shuts down your damage by approximately 30-40% for 6 seconds. Possibly longer if the pet dies. It also deprives you of your pets control aspects. Which I am sure you can agree are a bit part of our disengage.

When you think about it. It doesn’t own up to the skills it could be compared to. Either lightning reflexes (our other prominent stunbreak that can also grant fury and remove condis while EVADING attacks entirely. Making it a superior defensive choice) or SoS (which is a physical damage invulnerability for both you and the pet just lacking the stun break).

Edit: It also has 0 synergy with the other shouts. As it CAN’T be used in conjuction with them. Unlike signet of stone which can be combined with signet of the wild to create a “safe” burst phase for both you AND the pet.

Hey all. Some of you might know me from my original shout rework threat located here. Edit: Also the proposal is at the end underneath the caps if you don’t care about the reasoning.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Shout-UTILITY-thread-remade/first

To make the back story short. I have played shout ranger since the beginning of the game. And feel that I have pushed its limits as far as it can go as far as skill and mechanical knowledge is concerned. What I mean by shout ranger is a full utility bar of shouts. Typically (atm) Heal as one, Guard, Protect me, Sic em, and Strength of the Pack (in there current forms).

In my previous thread I attempted to gather suggestions on how to rework shouts to be more relevant to the game. As most shouts simply didn’t do anything significant.

Shortly after that post Sic Em was altered in a way that vastly improved its usability. Fixing an issue that has prevented it from being a reliable skill since the start of the game. I know its likely a coincidence but I still like to think I had something to do with it (let me have my ego PLEASE >.<).

So what are shout utilities. To put it simply ranger shout utilties are commands that are meant to enhance an aspect of the pet or give it access to a new capability for a short period of time.

Guard gives the pet protection and stealths the pet.

Protect me causes the pet to take damage for you for a short time.

Sic Em enhances the pets movement speed and causes it to deal more damage.

Search and Rescue causees the pet to attempt to heal a nearby downed ally.

So whats the problem?

To put it simply. In most aspects of the game shouts don’t do ENOUGH. Or the pet isn’t capable of doing enough with that shout.

A bear with sic em is just as pointless for dealing damage as a bear without sic em.

Who cares if the moa is stealthed.

That bird isn’t going to rez kitten if there is down cleave unless your holding its hand (I am looking at you bark skin).

Protect me is largely worthless if your using a cat since it does true damage (unmitigatable by any method).

What this means is that in there original forms. Shout utilties only seem to work with specific pets to significant results.

(A stealthed canine has a very good chance of landing its leap)

(A Bear can rez for days or soak damage from protect me for almost the full duration before dieing)

(Birds and cats benefit ALOT from sic em)

This creates an issue when attempting to utilize the shout utilities to there fullest. Because you have to be very careful in what pets you chose take. In my experience canines are typically your best bet. There decent general pets that can benefit from each aspect of shouts.

However even ontop of that there are further issues with the mechanics of the skills themselves.

Guard can’t actually be used to defend locations any better than you acting as a turret with a longbow can. This skill did its job fine before the Leash range change early in the games history. But ever since that change. The leash range is so small the pet will actually become permanently passive even if an enemy is standing right ontop of it if you leave it on a point to check another location.

Protect Me is inherently harmful to use. It causes the pet to take “true damage” that you would have taken. What I mean by this is the damage it takes is unmitigated by your armor. Its armor. Any boons either of you have. Or even traits such as bark skin.

Also due to the nature of combat its actually quite rare for anything besides a ranged pet to be sitting at high enough health to make use of it propperly. Usually in order to use it safely your forced to pet swap and THEN use it.

To make matters worse. The pet actually deactivates and turns passive while this is up. And attempting to utilize it in any way will cancel the effect. This means you can’t use that wolf fear to try to peal for you. Or try to get it to knock the guy hitting you down. Or else you leave yourself open to all the damage when your probably low on health. Meaning that when you use protect me. Its a gamble that the pet taking damage for you is more beneficial to you then having the pet continue attacking. Im sure you can all imagine how having a large chunk of your damage suddenly stop working can be a bad thing.

Search and Rescue is inherently bad as a utility. But its very good as a trait. Like the above 2 it causes the pet to become passive and run towards a downed body near YOU (not its always near you and not the pet). What this means is that in order for you to use this skill you have to already be where there is very likely a large amount of cleave in order to trigger the skill. This puts you at risk before you have even used it.
As the pet reaches the downed ally it is very likely it will be subjected to levels of aoe that the vast majority of our pets simply can’t survive. Whether its a champion mordrem snipers fire line. Or a mesmers gravity well combined with a revenants condi cleave.

Also the pet has no means on its own to resist CCs. So all the downcleave thats going on will not only kill the pet. But also prevent it from functioning at all unless you burn a cooldown to cover it in stabiltiy.

This ability works fine as a trait. As it occurs automatically when you rez. And you don’t have to sacrifice anything or take any EXTRA risks in order to make it work.

Sic Em is our best example of a well designed shout. As it has two aspects of use to it. You can use it to boost your pets speed and damage. Or you can use it to apply reveal to a target. Making the skill potentially useful no matter what pet you have taken.

REWORK CONCEPT BEGINS HERE. IF YOU SKIPPED THE ABOVE THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART

My current proposal will be to add that duel functionality to the other 3 shout utilities. Giving them a wider range of purely situational uses that will help loosen the restriction on pet choices for each shout while still retaining there core functionality.

Guard. What I would do with this utility is add a mechanic that causes the pets BASIC attack to strip one boon per hit with a 2 second ICD as long as the pet is withing the targeted area.

This will allow pets to pressure enemies within there range of influence not through raw damage but through a secondary effect that goes within the line of “Punishing enemies that enter this area”. Whether that be a necro losing swiftness to a stealthed pet that was blocking the road and taking a little longer to reaching his destination.
Or stripping protection from a tempest that is attempting to take the point the pet is overwatching.

Protect Me: For this skill I would have this skill grant 3 seconds of resistance to the ranger and the pet. Making it an effective “break away” skill. Where you break your stun and you have a short time to escape. This also allows the pet to break free of any engagement its caught in and retreat to your side. So you can more easily command it to fight whatever has attacked you.

Search and Rescue: I would have this skill pulse stability in the affected area while it is rezzing your ally as the pet attempts to further bolster your allies. This enables the pet to perform the role of rezzing. While still leaving it susceptible to heavy down cleave. But it also helps protect allies that are attempting to assist in the rez. Or attempting to shut down the enemy down cleave. Which further reinforces the pets ability to perform its job.

If you have any comments, Ideas, Objections or the like please feel free to post. My previous post only got where it did due to community feedback on the subject. I would like this to be the same.

Allright. Time to make a less salty reply.

Alot of rangers dps is based on combining multiple factors.

Our highest burst is when we combine our own burst with our pets burst after buffing both.

This is best shown by shout rangers (the build I have been playing for the last 3 years) who can self might to 25 and also buff there pets to the same. Add quickness into that from BM grandmaster trait. And you and your pet can perform a HELL of a hard hit over an extremely short time.

For my build in order to make that burst happen it combines fury, might, 10% damage modifier, and 10% attack speed increase from Marksmanship. 4-7% damage modifier and a boonsharing minor trait from Nature magic as well as damage multipliers for the pet from BM as well as other boon related goodies.

Combine that with Heal as one to further boost both the ranger and the pet as well as sic em for another dmg multiplier and the list of bonuses you get for a short time is rather awesome. This all culminates into enough damage to shred most anything youl be fighting.

Due to the nature of it the burst can be a bit harder to pull off than other classes. But its extremely rewarding.

And here is the biggest part of ranger. The burst isn’t a 1 and done deal. Its not like the yolo blade of a warrior. The benefits you use to make that burst happen STICK AROUND. Meaning your dealing high sustained damage the entire time inbetween bursts.

At first when you look at just the simple base ranger. The dmg probably doesn’t seem as awe inspiring. But as you start to add in all the other factors you start to see how each trait combines and each mechanic boosts the other mechanics. And you get a pretty good picture of what the class is like. Its a big part of why I can’t enjoy other classes as much. The synergy you can find in the ranger playstyle. And the fact that that syngery is mandatory to really be effective is part of why I love it.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Shadelang.3012:

Aye. But I wanted to post scenarios that are very easy to repeat. Not numbers that occur only when EVERYTHING is stacked if that makes sense.

Yep, it does. But my usual Rapid Fire numbers in raids are ~23-24K as you suggested earlier.

On Gorseval? God kitten . I can understand that on vale guardian. But I have to nail EVERY cooldown perfectly to prep for a rapid fire burst that hard on gorse

Tragic Positive.9356:

Shadelang.3012:

If you wan’t to persist on upping your personnel damage. Try MM BM Druid.

I hope you won’t mind if I correct this a tiny bit.
The highest Self DPS setup currently is MM/SK/NM.
Druid does not really contribute to self-DPS much and NM beats BM. The Glyph for self-DPS is inferior to 1% per boon (up to 13% for both you and pet) and constant 25 might and fury on pet from NM .

Also, you didn’t have to correct the numbers of Rapid Fire.
Mine in Full Zerk DPS role with Grace of the Land buff active dealt roughly 27K. No need to be shy.

Aye. But I wanted to post scenarios that are very easy to repeat. Not numbers that occur only when EVERYTHING is stacked if that makes sense.

first of all. Rangers do have lower than normal base damage unless you go condi.

Second. Our ranged weapons will always do less damage than our melee weapons. Because “its safer” (lol bullkitten)

Third. Ranger is NEVER taken in groups for its damage. If its just damage theyd laugh at us and replace us for kitten near anything else (probably a beserker or sinister engi if condi and herald if power)

The only reason ranger is ever brought to a group is for damage multipliers. Namely. Frost Spirit. Spotter. and Grace of the land. If you don’t bring atleast 2 of those 3. Most groups attempting to min max are going to consider you worthless. Unless of course your raid healing.

Our traits are more important than we are >.> yaaaay.

If you want to maximize your personnel damage. There are builds on metabattle.com for that. Hope you like condi builds. But all of them also require you to take frost spirt/spotter/grace of the land.

If you wan’t to persist on upping your personnel damage. Try MM BM Druid.

Take the relevant trates in those lines for upping your damage and combine the effects each line brings you.

On vale guardian I have reached 20k Rapid fires by combining the grace of hte land bonus with glyph of empowerement and the 10% increase from marksmanship after a pet swap for quickness. Combine that with bristleback f2 bursts and your damage isn’t bad. Though its still outdone by most builds out there.

Sorry if this isn’t what you want to hear. But it should give you an idea of what the current direction of the class is and how were meant to work in the current meta.

Edit: As the above post said. Hope you like being a buff bot.

Edited for accuracy

dank.3680:

Try stronghold, I’m having a much more fun time in there then I ever did in conquest. Not often facing teams and lately after a few days I am often having fun challenging fights.

Issue is theres a few “perfect” compositions guild teams have been abusing in stronghold lately. If I see a guild grp 2 tempests and 2 revs its kinda like…whelp…atleast itl be over fast.

Serious Thought.5394:

That’s the point mate. The same one all of us feel if we’ve been here a while- you know, those “loyal gamers who helped raise the game”. But uh, salt aside.

I used to play pistol/dagger power (sometimes I still do) on my Thief, but the problem is as others have stated every class can make a million mistakes. It takes the Thief one. On top of that, I ran off meta. Funny bit here (I run s/p, I run p/d, I run d/p condi. I do things you should never do), I was successful like the OP. Maybe not face pro players super often, but I know I was better than whatever maelstrom of players are coming my way now. Far, far superior. And HoT took all my practice, effort, memorization, and skill practice then tossed it out the window.

I can’t provide a build that is similar to whatever you may be running that is viable meta, but I can tell you what I did. I stopped aiming for viable, duelist, yada yada and went straight for my adored playstyle- Master Assassin. And it works, because I stopped caring about surviving and focused on killing. Shade, something on your build keeps you coming back to it again and again yes? Find it, focus it, don’t make your build revolve around it- make it your build.

Inb4 people laugh/ignore/don’t read my post. I’m used to it.

Thanks for the words man. Ill look back on what the key factor to my playstyle is and try to isolate it and play based off that. Hopefully Ill share a similar level of success you have.

Alekt.5803:

Mcrocha.3891:

Maybe, but still is it unreasonable for a pet to have an unblock able attack?

Repeat it 3 times in your head very quickly?

I think it is very unreasonable for this pet to have an attack that is above all logic. Think about it for a moment. Why on earth is it okay for it to be unblockable aside from the assertion that rangers are…. underpowered?

Why is it okay for auras to have zero counterplay other than stop attacking? See I can do this too. Theres no reason for a pet NOT to have an unblockable attack. Especially considering all the things rangers DON’T get because of there pets.

This attack has a slower and more obvious telegraph than most. I am sorry you didn’t think the guys pet was a threat and chose to ignore it and apparently got rolled by it.

Now give us a GOOD reason for this ONE pet not to have a form of attack that the ranger itself CAN’T have.

Edit: also If you played ranger youd realise it WASN’T random. It follows a VERY predictable pattern based on your range from the target. Just like every other pet does.

Alekt.5803:

Mcrocha.3891:

Alekt.5803:

Well… Unblockable attacks need not to be given away for no reasons, Shadelang. You don’t give unblockable “just because”; something in the skill needs to make it clear that it is unblockable.

All I see from rangers is them wanting broken and senseless stuff to balance their “inferiority complex”. Sorry if it’s not the case for you, but you’re probably the sort that would defend how bristlebacks used to have 35k health. You guys put your cards into the most idiotic things; I remember people defending unblockable/undodgeable taunts, defending the ultime boon copy from Heal as One… Etc.

I agree that you shouldn’t have unblockable things just bc. But Rangers have zero unblock able attacks. So is it completely unreasonable for a pet to have one?

They don’t even have control over that unblockable. Rangers should ask for something unblockable on their control instead of a random and frustrating thing.

Exactly. We don’t have control over it. So we have an INFERIOR unblockable mechanic. Thank you for better showing why this isn’t nearly as bad as your making it out to be.

Edit: You also havn’t addressed ANY of the points for keeping it.

Rap Tiger.1257:

Game ranger to three years and also I’m able to kill many of the elite classes, I had to adapt my build, but it worked, although I agree that REV, DH, REAPER are hard to kill, but not impossible.

Aye. In most cases though Adapting the build has a massive effect on my playstyle. Especially the one ive been running. Its built in a way that it requires each individual piece in order to achieve the desired to result.

As I said in my above reply though. Ill probably just go druid when I give up. Im just foolishly trying to hold on to what I built even though its already a dead horse >.<

Edit: also I find that DH and Reaper aren’t significant threats compared to malyx revenants and tempests. Tempests can flat out ignore a longbow ranger. And gs doesnt do enough damage to pressure them. And Malyx can spam strip the boons that are the crux of my built while also completely negating any burst I attempt to land through weapon evades or blocks.

LughLongArm.5460:

M8, we’r(rangers) in much better shapre compared to what we were used to be.
If you can consider taking staff over LB it will open up lots of great builds for you.
This build for example will compliment your style, its very rewarding for good timing and skillful play, got great burst damage potential, but not as tanky as other druid builds(which grind the opponent to death). You can try also the tiger/electric wyvern – both asl good for the build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARWnUqAlsiVsCOsActgl/AD+s+WvrLvuMQA4JN8DOalMtKA-TpBFABI8AAI4QAUz+DhXGYhLAAAHBAA

Again. My hope is to PRESERVE my playstyle. Not toss it for another one. If it keeps going as it is though. I will HAVE to go druid in order to play effectively unless I want to go condi. My hope in this post was to find a way to avoid that.

Edit: I do appreciate teh build though Im pretty set on using the shout utilities ive memorized. Ill probably bookmark it and use it as a base when I finally give up.

Most of you probably don’t know me unless you frequent the ranger forums. Though I am sure some of you read my recent salt post. I thought I should create a more organized post.

I have been an avid user of the Longbow/GS Shout Ranger playstyle for three years now. So you know I am used to running underperforming builds.

In PvP I have managed to make it to what I have to assume is as high as a solo quer can get in MMR. I was regularly partnered against PvP teams that are normally in tournaments even before the release of HoT.

This is despite running what is probably the WEAKEST build in the history of GW2. I ran longbow/gs with shouts back when longbow could be sidestepped while WALKING. I ran it during the condi meta where the only condi removal I had was trooper runes. I ran it during the bunker meta where my auto attacks did less than 400 damage per hit. I ran it during the DD ele meta where the salt flowed freely in the oceans of tears.

I outkited and outplayed the condi players. I perfectly timed my bursts against the bunekr players. And I laughed at DD eles as I slowly wore there health down while steadily cleansing their burning piece by piece waiting for my fern hound to land its knock down (kitten takes awhile).

And all through that. I have never felt like anything I did was actually pointless. I always felt like in the end my skill was what mattered. That despite running a HORRIFYINGLY bad and buggy build I could out play anything that stood in my path.

That feeling is gone now. And it probably won’t come back for AT LEAST 3 months.

When I que now I can look at the enemy roster and know without a doubt how I will perform. Because there exists builds and effects in the game that can’t be outplayed. Because there are critical tool sets that HAVE to be had to succeed in this…I am not even gonna call it a meta…

Two tempests on the enemy team in stronghold? I lose because I will get 0 kills and even if I land every burst perfectly. Even killing a doorbreaker is impossible…much less the channeled heroes. And thats not even talking about trying to defend your own doorbreakers against something you can’t hit.

Two malyx revenants in conquest? I lose because they counter EVERY strength I can produce. They can take away my mobility. The boons I rely on to gain enough power to be a threat. The damage of my bursts. My ability to control them. And even my ability to run away from them.

And thats just for me. I have seen a lot of salt pass through this forum the last week. I can’t even come close to imagining ALL of these are just “L2P” issues.

I am at the point where the tools I need to be successful in PvP in its current form…don’t exist. They simply aren’t there. Its like I look through all the possible weapon combinations and come up with…nothing.

In the end. I find the only option I have is to give up a playstyle I have managed to make work to AMAZING success for 3 years. A build I was able to make work against builds that supposedly hard countered me. Not even counting all the bugs innate in my utility choices >.<.

So I am at a turning point. I either give up 3 years worth of effort, mechanical knowledge, and skill in order to not be literally a wasted slot dooming every team I join to what is effectively a 4v5. Or B. Stop PvPing entirely and give up goals I had set for myself 3 years ago.

Honestly. I am writing this hoping that PvP community can find a different way I can take. But I am so deeply buried in my own salt that I can’t see it.

Ill go ahead and say. What I am looking for isn’t.. Oh just go condi…or Oh just go druid. Or oh just play revenant for awhile.

I am trying to find a way to salvage SOMETHING of what I have built. I hope yall can help.

Edit: Fixed some grammar issues (I missed some I am sure)

Alekt.5803:

Takedown from the Smokescale is unblockable.

I got knocked down when casting Stone Sheath and it passes through arcane shield.

Yes. Its also one of the only ranger attacks in our entire kitten nal that is so. Meaning its our only method of fighting things like chronomancers and herald revenants.

I SERIOUSLY hope this is intended. Because otherwise… Well who am I kidding. Non druid rangers are kitten tier anyway might as well get rid of us entirely. Hey. Itl hurt the druid too so two birds with one stone >.<.

Now that the salt is out of the way. Yes it is unblockable. And yes I hope it stays that way.

I do not however think its op. Its attack suffers from all the issues pet attacks have. The biggest one being we can’t control it without jumping through serious hoops to manipulate our pets cooldowns that ultimately causes us to be less effective in combat.

I believe it should infact have the unblockable skill fact added to the skill description. Because frankly. Its one of best things about this pet. And I wasn’t joking when I said its one of the only methods non druid rangers have of tripping up certain elite spec builds. If it goes away… I am pretty sure ill just give up at that point. The last few weeks have been hell anyway.

Edited for accuracy

Err…Yes. Hammer revenants dominate zerg fights. Completely. You really don’t need to have anything else.

My experience so far is that a hammer revenant is singularly more terrifying than litterally any other build in a zerg fight. In the meteor showers of a glass ele doesn’t come close.

Just got put against Abjured in a full random group (no premade whatsoever). Im sure you can all imagine how that ended for everyone involved.

I very much don’t want normal upgrade back. I got tired of spending money and over an hour of my game day just to get something even moderately upgraded only to see it destroyed by the first yolo blob that walks by in under 2 minutes.

And yet I fealt I had to because NO ONE else was doing it.

Actually Id like to add something. Why does EVERY elite spec have projectile hate built into it. I mean ALL of them do. Expect beserker of course.

Edit: this is the end of my Generic QQ post. Feel free to comment or not. As I said this was mostly to vent. Absolutely everything I said is true though.

Timston.1976:

Yay for tempest qq, thought u were going for Dragonhunters for a bit. As a Dragonhunter I get shut down by tempest reflect and sustain but guards have always been subpar when dueling Tempest. I would think Druid would do better with it’s large amounts of sustain, weird right?

Yeah. Atleast druid has staff which no problem with projectile hate. I just wish I LIKED playing druid.

Shepherd.5839:

Tempest damage is pretty low, just make sure not to fire at them when magnetic aura is up. Best help I can offer low, other than that maybe roll a DH lol? It’s pretty much a power ranger these days just with more survival as well.

Sadly. Even when magnetic aura is down it isn’t possible for me even if I went full glass to kill them before the next aura is up. There sustain and boon uptime is too high. And power ranger has 0 method of counterplaying those.

As for rolling a dragonhunter I am sure I would be happier. But as I said. I have spent so long developing my playstyle that abandoning feels like throwing away all the work and practice I put into it.

On that note. How about a suggestion. How about aruas have a set number of times they activate. And once there gone they kitten well dissapear. At least then I could shoot myself five times then start doing damage.

Hey all. First time righting a rage post I think (or if I have made others I don’t remember them) so feel free to let me know if I can make it saltier.

Over the last few weeks. It has been a living kittening hell playing PvP. To put it in perspective I am a power ranger. (que generic lol pew pew comments for my generic qq thread).

I ended up not liking druid so for the most part I stuck with my longbow/gs build I had made for myself. Its not the typical WS build but it has led me through a couple years of a high win rate as long as I played to my strengths.

Big kittening mistake. I might as well have deleted my ranger as far as it goes in PvP.

It isn’t the chronomancers. Its not the reapers or the scrappers. And I laugh at the dragonhunters.

Its the god kitten tempests. I am SICK of going into a match and seeing one of these.

Because its an impossible matchup.

A tempest naturally shuts down EVERYTHING about BOTH of my weapons. This isn’t a soft counter. This isn’t something you can just get good with and improve past. This isn’t something where you can pull of godlike positioning and timing and make it through. This is a flat, base, Hard Counter. If there are two tempests on the enemy team. Then I am not going to get a kill in a team fight. It simply isn’t going to happen.

The reason for that is Magnetic Aura and Frost Aura. And the fact that they are kittening AOE. And there MASSIVE protection uptime. And not even normal protection. IMPROVED protection.

To put it in perspective. My build is designed around self creating and maintaining 25 stacks of might and permanent fury. I will never have less than 18 stacks mid fight unless I get corrupted. I run a marauder amulet so you know my damage SHOULD be good.

If in a miracle the FULL rapid fire hits. It will do less than 5k against a tempest.

Keep in mind this isn’t an unmighted rapid fire with normal crit chance. This is litteraly as boosted as it can get. With all the damage modifiers available to me rolling. I CAN"T make the burst hit harder than that.

In that situation the tempest will heal from it in seconds. And there is nothing I can do to stop it.

And heres the funny part. This ^ situation never happens. When tempests are on the field there is so much frost and magnetic aura going out that I can’t land more than 1-2 odd attacks at a time. And trying to melee a tempest as a power ranger is suicide. You cant even try to burst them down with a sword/axe combo because lolreflect your path of scars. And good luck making maul do enough damage to kill them.

Typically my PET does more damage to the tempest than I can even if I do everything possible to play perfectly.

I have played ranger for three years. I know how to play my class. And I know how to play my build well enough to be a threat.

But this? It isn’t possible. The tempest has to be new to there build entirely for me to actually be able to do anything. And if theres two? Like kitten near EVERY PREMADE has? Get ready to spend a whole round doing NOTHING.

I don’t typically get angry at anet or there balance team. You can check my post history. I am usually playing the devils advocate to try to get people to see things from there perspective.

But this? I can’t. I have no idea how this made it into the game. I simply don’t understand.

There is no way to break the auras. There is no way for me to counterplay other than run around and try not to die until its over only for something else to be put up in its place.

I don’t have unblockable attacks to pierce reflects. I don’t have enough melee burst to bypass them. I can’t outlast them because they have more sustain and PBAoE pressure than I can EVER produce.

Honestly? If LRS had a 50% chance to be unblockable. Or was unblockable when shot from behind a target. I would atleast have the ILLUSION that something I do in these matchups actually matters.

But I don’t even have that.

I really wish there was a balance patch today. But even if there was. I SERIOUSLY doubt this would have been what they addressed. Because in a way. It just so happens to hurt the build and playstyle I have spent three YEARS developing more than anyone else.

I don’t expect them to get nerfed. Nor do I expect to get buffed. In a way this was just a way for me to vent. Sorry to waste the time of anyone that read this. Hope you all are having a better time than I am.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Gimli.9461:

What on earth are fractal leaderboards, and why’d you lock a legendary behind a leaderboard? :O

No one knows. They tried to make them 2 years ago or so but later abandoned the idea because it is very stupid. And now they want to make them again because why not.

The idea wasn’t stupid. In fact it was one of the most player requested features. And one of the playerbases biggest gripes has been the fact that its still not in the game yet. If there adding it this month"which they have said there doing" then its a good thing.

Are you freaking kidding me? Power ranger is bottom-mid/low tier in the current meta. A VERY good ranger can pull it off. But theres a reason nearly every ranger in the current meta is actually druid.

Between Tempests and there aoe frost/magnetic aura. Reapers with there frost aura and dmg on chill. And dragonhunters with enough counterpressure to make you back off. Its pretty kitten hard to get a grip on a target as a power ranger without baiting out 10-15 seconds worth of cooldowns.

And thats not even mentioning chronomancers where since power ranger has 0 unblockable attacks we can’t force them out of there defensive wells. Making cutting there active defense uptime nearly impossible unless we time an EXTREMELY well timed CC.

Druid is good because staff doesn’t have to worry about projectile hate. And its defensive capabiltiies are a straight upgrade from GS. Combine that with its CC and sustain and it can hold its even. Even be kitten near unkillable 1v1 unless your running specific builds. But the BASE RANGER? Lol kitten no.

Misguided.5139:

Azure.8670:

I said this earlier in another post

I fully expect AA, Glint heal, and shield 5 to get nerfed.

other than that I see buffs across the board coming, especially mallyx

Duration of Glint heal was already reduced by 25%. Besides, if you mean for pvp it is a learn to play issue.

Shield 5 already had a cd increase of 5 seconds.

Reducing damage on the AA would require reworking the entire profession since most of the damage comes from AA by design. If anything needs to be adjusted, it is IO, not the AA.

Atleast as far as glint heal goes. Not every class can stop there damage once its sent out. So it can’t be called a l2p issue atleast as far as that goes. Theres a delay when certain attacks are fired off and when they land. Meaning if glint heal is popped in that delay. Its guaranteed healing. In the case of skills like lava font or something similar. Its a guaranteed FULL heal.

I agree its 70% of the time a l2p issue. But its the other 30% that is going to get the skill the most attention.

Azure.8670:

I said this earlier in another post

I fully expect AA, Glint heal, and shield 5 to get nerfed.

other than that I see buffs across the board coming, especially mallyx

Isn’t malyx one of the most popular legends in PvP now though? Im kind of curious as to how further buffs to it will change things.

My best guess is.
Reduced auto attack damage on sword.
A shift in functionality (not necessarily a damage nerf but some alteration for how it works) for coalescence of ruin.
Certain traits being heavily altered.
QoL changes for Ventari (changes to smooth the use of the tablet).
Improved HP scaling for ventari skills.
Possible nerf to staff 5 (atm it pretty much ignores any stab skill and DESTROYS break bars even on raid bosses)
Buff to sword offhand.
Buff to Mace
And a rework of certain defensive measures to make timing more important. (glint heal and shield 5 for example) (Not necessarily a nerf. But its possible)

XxsdgxX.8109:

Stability on Mallyx? Lmao this people are a joke

Oh comeon. Its obvious hes talking about the build by the same name. Its not hard to figure that out. Spend 20 seconds thinking about what he could mean before switching to ridicule mode.

The current meta revenant build is refered to often as the Malyx Revenant. As its the most common legend used. There are different variations of this build but all of them have malyx as a stable to it. Its just a name in this case. Hes not saying hte stab is COMING from the malyx line.

Honestly druid is a kitten good spec to add onto any build. Its utility is good regardless of whatever you were trying to do. Its actually a problem for some of us that have been trying to make builds WITHOUT druid in it. Druids just so kitten good that not taking it usually results in a build thats less up to the task. Or you feel like your gimping your team mates in some way. Be it in PvE WvW or PvP.

Its kind of depressing really. Everyone I know wants me to play druid. Issue is I DON’T want to play druid. But i kind of have to if im going to take part in anything.

Hes talking about the commonly used build by that name.

Yes the build has alot of stability AND resistance uptime. Combine that with alot of boonstrips and chill uptime and they do a very good job cutting out most of the strengths of other builds.

Im kind of curious how its so hard to get ascended gear for those of you here. I have had a full set on each of my chars for a few months now. I just did them slowly over time. I think I maybe bought 8 golds worth of mats and that was just to speed the process a bit.

If you craft them yourselves its only a time investment. If you buy it its a gold investment. You can do it either way for whats convenient for you. Or even a mix of the two.

If you weren’t prepairing in advance for raids when you knew you were gonna want to raids. You probably shafted yourself and don’t really have any ground to stand on with the complaints. If you only just decided you wanna raid but you never leveled your crafting or anything like that then its kind of the same deal.

The methods for getting the stuff is there. Youd probably be better served doing it instead of making posts in the forums hoping theyl make it easier for you. Alot of other people have gotten there gear. I can’t see how its expressly more difficult for you.

Archon.6480:

Just use A/D Sw/T and carrion. High Condi damage and relatively low attack rate. Even better, just run Healing Druid and don’t worry about attacking.

Edit: The old meta still works as well, Axe/T and T

Haha Its one of those issues that not all of us can enjoy playing a condi build. Its similar to the fact that I have a hard time slotting druid in PvP even though druid builds are so kitten superior compared to non druid builds. I just don’t enjoy playing it as much as my primary build. And ultimately how well you enjoy your build is gonna be worth more than whether or not you clear the content as fast as possible. I could probably win alot more fights in PvP If I just bit the bullet and slotted druid. But I probably would get bored very quickly and stop pvping as I wouldn’t get that sense of excitement that I do in my current one. Its a matter of playstyle.

As to the OP. If its retal that hes talking about as I believe then the axe isn’t exactly a great choice either. It is still a high rate of fire weapon with multi hit attacks. Though with condi tis allright if you stop attacking for a bit.

I feel gliding would be fine as long as there were similar methods of reaching the spaces that gliding could reach without said mastery.

I.E. Someone with gliding could glide down a cliff and just fall to get there faster. Someone else can go through a nearby teleporter and go straight down.

The trick I feel would be making it so that gliding doesn’t truly offer any more advantages that not having gliding. Or else it heavily favors HoT players.

Smoother movement over terrain is one thing. But a zerg with gliding needs to reach x tower at the same time a zerg without it does. Even if the methods of the second zerg are a bit jankier.

Edit: Id also make it so that in WvW taking ANY damage at all while gliding knocks you out of the sky.

Aylpse.6280:

Boy it would be nice to have unblockable attacks on every class and build. And I sure do love having three stunbreaks.

Sure is helpful here.

As a Ranger that doesn’t have druid in his build. I know your pain. Unblockable attacks would be REALLY nice.

Rym.1469:

Bumping because it needs to be discussed.

From myself, I’d like every profession to have it’s own niche when it comes to supporting/healing. Warrior being able to “heal” defeated bodies with Shouts maybe? Guardian excelling with damage prevention rather than healing being able to place something akin to GW1 Wards? Elementalist bringing best condition removal? There are a lot of things that could be done to make support option on each of the professions feel special and wanted.

Atleast for warriors. I would REALLY like to see banners become something that are encouraged to be used full time. When was the last time any of us picked up a banner and hit someone with it that wasn’t for the luls. But thats a different thread for a different time.

On a side note. I agree that each class which HAS a dedicated support role seems to have its own methods of support.

Elementalists have auras (sustain and preventative healing). Ventari have there tablets (primarily sustain healing). Druids have Avatar form (burst healing). Guardians have damage mitgation (preventative healing).

One of the issues right now though is that those methods step on eachothers toes in actual practice. Though with druid its practically dry humping ventari’s leg while still having its own massive burst potential.

Seperating them so there truly distinct, so that you would want to bring the one that fits the content your doing or so that you would need to use your form of healing to its strengths and not as if you were a different type of healer, would go a long way towards curbing the druids dominance of the healing area atleast as far as PvE is concerned (though PvP and WvW are affected by this to a lesser extent)

Oh My God.8423:

So Druid vs Ventari is essentially Burst vs Sustain… Health maintenance vs Emergence response…

Issue is Druid is also very good at sustain healing. its been an issue thats been talked about in other threads and were hoping gets adjusted. But yes thats SUPPOSED to be the plan.

I have found its a good sustain healer and good for keeping oh kitten moments from happening. But it won’t save someone that stands in the fire.

Wait. Was there no one at all running the base classes? All elite specs? Ouch.

Other than that though aye. Thanks for making these. Its good to know what everyone will soon be FoTMing >.<

I’d reccomend keeping it. Its true that longbow rangers get pretty well countered in the current PvP meta. But as was said above its a weapon that FEELS right to use. Youl eventually wan’t to pick it up again.

Also there could be changes coming up that help lower some of the classes (cough tempests cough cough) that participate most in negating our longbow. Once that happens the weapon will have more of a spot and you may feel less pidgeonholed into staff to avoid projectile hate.

I found this issue is often when Effect Lod is on in your graphics settings. Do you have that on? If so try turning it off and seeing if that fixes it. I end up turning it on for PvE and off for PvP because it covers things like timewarp up.