Guild Wars 2

MadameS.3582:

MadMan.5109:

Dear anet can you please stop kittening up wvw. People like it just the way it is right now. When you guys look back at the release of the desert bl map. Was that a great succes? No. But u guys kittened up wvw then and this will be the same. Stop putting pve crap into wvw. We the hardcore wvw players dont play pve. So please stop messing up our content. I know for a fact that lost of players will be leaving the game because of these things. They only game back when its back to normaal.

Gliding for wvw is actually going to be super fun, I don’t know how gliding offends you so much, and if someone is running away from you in your territory, they wont exactly be able to glide off, so youll probably have a better chance at catching them than before. Stop crying about something that hasnt even happened yet. xoxo

Gliding offends because certain people didn’t bother to read the whole post before they started typing.

Guys calm down haha. Actually think about how the gliding works.

1: From the looks of it you can’t glide in enemy owned territory. So no the enemy pushing garri cant just glide away. The defenders however could try and use it to there advantage to regroup.

This will affect roaming as well. I doubt youl see to much gliding away. Im sure there will be SOME. But not nearly that much.

2: Gliding isn’t flight. And while they are gliding they CAN NOT FIGHT BACK. SO whack them odds are if there just on a small hill they will still be in melee range for a bit. Also if you have a ranged weapon they are a free kill.

3. THIS IS A kittenING TEST PEOPLE. Cool yourselves down. If it really IS horrible they can turn it off later. If its NOT horrible its an actual dynamic change to how the game mode works.

Thanks to how there setting it up this also means that f2p players and PoF players can enjoy it. As it will be tied ot wvw ranks and NOT mastery. So its available to everyone.

Read before you flip your kitten.

Bugabuga.9721:

Wait, so we still have those “get where you’re totally not supposed to be” port “errors” unfixed, but now there’ll be gliding too?

Fantastic I need a giant tub of popcorn to see people trying to catch mesmer with a falling trait equipped (as in “quick, enemy is about to take it, get onto cliff and hide”)

They can’t glide if they don’t own the territory if i am seeing this right. So if you own garri for example an enemy mesmer wont be able to glide. however you can perch high up to try and see him and then glide down and chase.

I wonder how this will interact with minions actually. Applying barriers to your minions. having reliable aoe cleanse. Could be a good boon to the MM playstyle.

Just from what I have seen so far.

WvW Zerging: Stances look really good if a ranger wants to run with a melee train. The pet not dieing during a clash lets you bring it out to cleave downed while you continue to push. Or keep it comboed to gain access to skills like defy pain or shake it off from bears. And thats NOT countign the fact that stances can be shared but only considering it as a selfish melee character rocking lets say GS and going for maul bursts on low targets.

Example of a “frontline” ranger combo. Mostly stances (Further defensive utilities of your choice) Greatsword, longbow (swap to longbow if you need to pressure a low escaping target) rock GS for the clash using the evading auto attack to mitigate and the stances to make sure you can keep going forward and maul combos to whale on anyone vulnerable.

Fused with Drake. Gaining access to two high damage cleave abilities chomp (Damage+Health gained) and Tailswipe (Aoe NUKE+ Blast finisher+weakness)

When you generate a down unfuse and allow the drake to assist in cleaving.

Offpet is bear for highly defensive abilities (Defy Pain "Health cannot fall below 1/3rd HP) and bite (Damage+regen)

Or MoA (For the AoE Heal ability and another burst skill)

Done properly you can probably survive without a frontline party. But with the shared stances you have the ability to assist your grp reliably if the frontline meta has a spot for us after the expac.

Wel be able to put out decent frontline support and damage based on the setups we choose. Itl be up to the ranger to swap pets to fit the conflict though. No more camping two pets just cause they are your favorite.

We’re gonna be getting alot of options. Itl be up to the rangers ability to plan though how much wel get out of it.

Oppressive superiority as well as the stance one look good. As for the 3 second duration on the stance one. Some of the stances are pretty kitten nice. Like the dolyak one for getting yourself and allies out of a lock? Or to get guaranteed crits +might/poison on what your hitting?

The comboes are there. Im looking forward to playing with them.

Also keep in mind there not done. Odds are the numbers will be tweaked a bit more before release based on our feedback.

My best guess if you want to use BM and NM still your likely to still have your pet out most of the time. But if your pet gets close to death or you end up in a situation where you know your pet can’t handle it or is a risk you can merge with it and still be functional in combat. And separate once gain when the coast is clear.

So the F5 becomes a defensive ability for your pet kind of. While you can still UTILIZE your pets abilities while it is riding out the storm. And once you want/need it again you pull it back out.

Im playing “pick” druid with jaguar/smokescale in wvw. I merge with jaguar to sneak up to someone then engage. Swap to smokescale to chase them as they try and seperate. Seperate from smokescale to apply more pressure.

Or also in WvW. Im running a would be melee zerg build with GS. Merge with pet during the clash so I can have its abilities and it doesnt die. Seperate after to have it cleave downed. Remerge when it gets in danger again. Depends on the cooldown of the merge.

Like even bears could be useful if we gain access to defy pain when merged. But that would likely be for a non beast mastery build.

So you could still play BM/NM builds as before But have a bit more reliability as far as your pets abilities and survival goes.

This is a very specific setup. Yes its dangerous. But its also dangerous for the ranger himself. As he gives up nearly every method of staying alive we got with HoT. He will attempt to stealth in order to wind up the combo. Move away from him when he does and dodge the tiger when it leaps. That will avoid the vast majority of the setup. And then turn and punish the ranger.

Its only dangerous if you let it happen. And this specific setup gives up a good number of the tools a ranger typically uses to lockdown an opponent.

I definitely agree another source of fury would be nice. Especially for Beast mastery/shout builds. I won’t say we don’t already have alot of sources we certainly do. But atleast in the current PvP meta trying to keep boons on you is almost impossible. Nearly every player is running annulment now after all. Makes trying to run a boon based build a losing battle without multiple sources.

Ranger GS is a fairly balanced weapon. In that it offers a strong mix of defense, mobility, cc, and a reliable burst skill in the form of maul. It also has a leap finisher with no wind up enabling it to make use of fields quickly.

When traited with the BM line it is also a source of fury.

If you aren’t intending to do anything heavily end game. GS is a good option. The evade on its auto attack and the leap will help you survive. And the block/counter attack and hilt bash will let you CC mobs out of dangerous attacks.

However. If you intend to go for things that are a bit more group oriented. Specifically fractals/raids you will want to consider learning the sword axe weaponset if you intend to stay power focused. or taking a look at the condition builds that are available. As in those circumstances damage is often seen as being the same as survival. And those other options offer more sustained damage.

GS does what it does and does it kitten well. Its my favorite weapon and I use it over any other weapon in PvP, WvW, and open world PvE. But there are times when other weapons are necessary just for the sake of group play.

Sic Em is quite good as it is. The only thing I would wish for it is a slightly lowered cooldown. (Maybe Unblockable on the pet for the original cooldown)

The damage boost and superspeed on the pet make up for the lack of aoe. But it does so in builds that focus on enhancing the pet further.

The currently popular builds don’t make good use of it just for how they are designed and what the goals of the build are.

But other builds (Mine for example) use it as a staple and I get rather incredible performance out of it.

Its not just a reveal after all. Though that is all anyone seems to know how to use it for.

OMG. Stop Calling it a GRIND. Its only a grind if thats the only reason your DOING wvw. If your playing wvw for the sake of playing its a reward. The only people that should be calling it a grind are the people that come here from PvE/PvP. And these rewards aren’t FOR them yet.

Infact it sounds like you WANT it to be something that could be considered a grind. Something you mindlessly do for a short time each day rather than it be something you get for actually COMMITTING to an entire game mode.

Shadelang.3012
Scheraz.8132
tehmaverick.1786
Preston.9467
Valar Morghulis.7960

We are still stuck. The last one has logged off.

Also were in temple of the silent storm. We are beggining to show signs of frostbite.

Mini Emperor Llama is love. Mini Emperor Llama is LIFE.

You may get her interested but encourage her to experiment. Seriously.

A LOT of rangers just take the simplest build they can find. Or just copy the metabattle build. But they learn some habits doing this that can be really hard to unlearn.

Being longbow heavy is fine. If yall are largely gonna be doing openword with dungeons here and there instead of focusing on the meta build consider looking at a more balanced build. Meta builds are based on certain assumptions that may not be realistic for the content your doing.

Beast Mastery for example will improve her pet. And make it easier to use some power skills. Like getting reduced cooldown on shouts like heal as one guard and protect me. Which can really help when leveling and learning.

It also gives access to a GS based trait. Reducing cooldowns and improving hte damage of the greatsword. Which is a powerful defensive weapon with strong burst in the form of maul. GS synergises well with beast mastery as maul also improves pet damage significantly.

The evade on the auto attack, gs 3 and the block/knockback on gs 4 combined with the daze/stun on gs 5 can offer ALOT of tools to get out of dangerous situations.

Nature Magic can offer some significant boosts for your friends survivability. In the form of protective ward and evasive purity. It also has strong synergy with beast mastery as every boon you generate through shouts/skills will go to your pet as well. Offering some significant damage boosts in the right situations.

If she is going to be focused on the longbow at the start then marksmanship for the third line sounds like a good idea starting out. Offering her Another source of offensive boons. More upfront damage. As well as the longbow grand-master trait which will give her piercing and reduce the cool downs on her longbow skills.

As she gets more experienced and you both start leaning towards GROUP content. You may encourage her at that point to lean more towards the meta battles. But for learning its best that she experiment and try to develop her own playstyle. Pidgeon holing her into a specific playstyle right as she is starting isn’t the best introduction to a game.

Edit: If yall like I can sit down with you and your friend and help her set up build that fits her needs. Just let me know and we can set up a time to get into ts and chat. I can (If the two of you are on the NA servers) also show her some of the combinations that may give her an edge on the learning curve.

People are so focused only on the end ascended items.

People. There are TIERS of rewards. Three of them

Newcomers get the triumphant set and t1 weapons.

Then experienced wvwlders start getting the t2 armor and eventually the weapons.

People that have stuck with the game mode for a long time get the t3 armor.

Its not like if your not getting the t3 armor your getting nothing from it.

Don’t ignore everything else there.

This isn’t supposed to be something people do for the skins. Its a reward for people that play and love the game mode as a whole. The skins aren’t supposed to be the goal here. Its a REWARD for sticking with something for a long time.

The GOAL is to play and enjoy the game mode. If the skins become the goal and are made easier to get then the game mode will be filled with farmers for a short while before they all immediately dissapear agian.

Is the 2k rank minimum for the FINAL REWARDS gonna turn people off? Maybe,…probably..GOOD.

But it will give people that are dedicated to the game mode something to look forward to.

And it may encourage other people to try the game mode and realize they love it.

As such. I STRONGLY disagree with anyone attempting to lower the rank limit.

If this seems super out of hand for you and turns you off from the game mode. You weren’t going to stay there long anyway.

Dont salivate over the new pair of boots and make that your reason for existing. Let it be something you would have gotten anyway for doing something you enjoy and it makes sense.

Hmm id really argue against reverting maul. Its current force is actually quite strong, especially if your running a beast mastery build. Hell its incredibly good with a tiger or other pets with heavy damage single hit attacks like drakes and wolves. And its pretty nice normally due to the fact that you can precast it since the buff has a TWENTY SECOND DURATION. Letting you trigger the damage boost three times in quick succession (precast maul before fighting. Maul during the fight into hilt bash then maul again). The low cooldown on it lets you produce that damage buff ALOT.

Counterattack/crippling throw im iffy on. I like counterattack as well as its rebound skill. Though I do wish you could trigger it manually (I.E. Remain blocking for a time)

As for crippling throw. I almost wish this wasn’t a cc based skill at all but a fairly hard hitting ranged attack. That sort of “If I hit someone trying to run away with this it should HURT” kind of skill. A away of punishing a careless retreat without forcing me to weapon swap leaving me open to a reengage.

…Maybe it was talking about the tankards? Like…the quaggan thought the tankards were pools?. Thats the only thing I can think of.

Itz Jay.8941:

Bunker druid. The sustain from bunker druid will always out heal a guardian in a 1v1, combine the sustain with your mobility and LoS you shouldn’t be losing vs DH.

Power ranger is really a low level and niche build in PvP. I have no problems destroying a power ranger on any class in a 1v1, or forcing him to disengage and retreat in a team fight rendering him useless.

Bunker druid is definitely the way to go in my opinion, it is a very strong build and has few counters due to it’s disengage and re-engage potential.

I welcome you to try and destroy me at any given point. We can set up times and record and I can even stream it. “power ranger” is a meme dedicated to a specific style of play that isnt effective in the current game. But a dps ranger build using power as its weapon of choice CAN and DOES work.

Falomir.3870:

Shadelang.3012:

For example im running a DPS set up with paladins, solider runes, full shouts, longbow gs, and evasive purity in nature magic.

Would you share what other traits you use? I’d like to test that. Or is it mostly about evasive purity here agaist condi?

NM 112 BM 322 Druid 113. Its not just for condis. Its a 1v1 build in general and strong enough to kill just about anything if you play it right. The stable condi clear helps against power builds as well (Getting rid of cripple, vuln, weakness etc.)

I play it as a harasser build. HaO Guard P.M. Sic Em and SoTP.

I spend most of my time taking/trolling far but I assist in team fights as able and when necessary. It uses boon copying to make up for the loss of ferocity by stacking boons generated by traits,sigils, and utilities (sigils I use are courage seperation longbow and agility battle GS).

I use smokescale and fire wyvern with this setup. Electric wyvern and bristleback just aren’t reliable enough for me and wyverns can hit like a kittening TRUCK when buffed by the build.

Its just a matter of perspective an timing.

Against a burn guard numerous smaller cleanses are more important than 1-2 big condi dumps. Damage is also important if your running limited condi cleanse cause you need to both force the guardian on the defensive as well as be able to make what hits DO go through count.

MEANWHILE. A ranger set up slightly differently completely ignores burn guards.

For example im running a DPS set up with paladins, solider runes, full shouts, longbow gs, and evasive purity in nature magic.

I can pretty much fight a burn guards friend and completely ignore the fact that hte burn guard exists unless his friend is condi as well. (Then I focus down the burn guard cause hes likely the squishiest of the two).

The same thing with a condi engi. CA to break the initial dump. Stealth. Heal up what damage I did take then enjoy killing him and layering cleanses with each of his subsequent “bursts”.

Im not saying you have to change your build. Condi engi and guardians aren’t the most common enemy you will be fighting.

Just keep in mind that even a simple trait change like going to evasive purity might help with removing some of the major threat they pose. Guardians dont have alot of cover conditions after all. Especially now that geomancy doesnt exist any more.

TL:DR RANGER has no problem with burn guards in the SLIGHTEST. The build you and many others are currently running MIGHT though.

My favorite is still my birds. “Spread Eagled” and “Hawkward”

The recent change was a big help. It added small lunges to most melee pets attacks. This alleviated some of the “stop” attack “miss”.

Part of the issue is that the change didn’t affect most pets ability to CHASE. At the moment the only melee pet with a reliable chase auto attack. Is ironically the wyvern. Who has a two hit auto attack with a long lunge attacked to both hits. Making it the most reliable attack source on mobile targets. Even over smokescale (especially considering smokescales now abysmal burst even when buffed).

The above is of course excluding ranged pets.

This change did help massively with keeping up with targets.

Part of the biggest problem with pets is that they are vulnerable to all of the soft conditions players are vulnerable to. With NONE of the defenses.

They can be crippled, chilled, blinded, weakened, and immobilized. Any of these effectively shuts down a pet and forces a pet swap in order to regain effectiveness.

On most pets even a single second of cripple takes them out of range of a kiting target.

And weakness drops there already low crit chance to near zero.

Pets also cant choose to use an auto attack to clear blind before winding up for a big attack.

terrorshard.3854:

They just DOUBLED it’s cool down so maybe we should let that settle a bit first.

Rephrasing this to be more coherent. I tried mentioning this before terrorshard. People just dont care. If something interferes with them doing the same thing over and over again in the same build. They lose their kitten.

Never mind the fact that a power build can 1-2 shot hte roots.

Never mind the fact that the roots when killed clear the entire stack of immobilize.

Nevermind the fact that its now on a cooldown that isn’t synced with any of our CCs.

Nevermind the fact that our elite got nerfed at the same time. Lowering the reliability of our teamfighting potential meaning side node fights are really all we have.

Until what they don’t like is nearly unusable. Until we start taking grace of the bloody land for our pvp grandmaster. People wont be happy.

Zintrothen.1056:

I’d rather they just reduce the hp so that it has a bit more counterplay. Currently, it actually takes a few hits, and by then, you’re probably dead cause pew pew + pet pew pew while hitting something that can’t move without blowing a cleanse and dodging or resistance or taking a few seconds to kill the roots… = balanced?

So, more counterplay, or at least easier counterplay because of its short CD. Longer CDs can have less counterplay because then a player has to think about when to use that counterplay instead of just using it whenever and having no problem against the trait.

The other solutions is to scrap it and replace it with something that requires a bit more skill and activity.

Issue is it already almost instantly pops in team fights and may classes can deal enough burst to kill it in a few auto attacks. If they reduce the health any more, We SERIOUSLY run the risk of “It might as well not even exist”.

The cooldown kittening SUCKS. I HATE IT. But its still useable even if I can’t rely on it at all now.

But then im already at the point where the only reason I slot druid now is druidic clarity. I tell ya if THAT ever gets nerfed druid goes off my bar eternally.

Edit: At the OP. Ancient seeds is now the weakest part of the druid build for most druids. AND it can be auto attacked down by “most” builds. And the “Nerf to stability” harmed druids more than most of the affected classes. Ancient seeds does NOT need to be nerfed any further.

Some of the people I consider myself closest to in this game I met by them blocking and then whispering me. Sometimes its a rage whisper that I use to convince him to duel me. We duel things calm down and we just talk.

Other times he likes how I played and asks questions. Wants to know what build I am running/how to beat it etc. I ended up joining the guild im in currently this way. Someone whos guild I used to fight was in contact with me through whispers. One day he sends me an invite to join after the guild I was in was slowing down.

Cutting off the ability to communicate between servers or even learn an opponents tag would prevent any of this from having happened most likely as I am just not a terribly outgoing person.

It sucks that the OP is getting hit with the negative side. But despite that I wouldn’t want anything changed. They already made it difficult to do. Honestly unless the person is a habitual rager most people dont immediately reach for that block button.

Cutting it off entirely would pretty much remove any POSITIVE reaction between servers as well. Beyond the simple “hey these guys are 1v1ning lets NOT stick a object into this guy from behind”

So I was sitting with a friend while we were waiting for the que to pop. And he asked a question that never occured to me but at the same note seemed vitally important.

How many times have the target golems in the HoTM lobbies died?

And is it proportionate to there health/armor?

For example How many times have light golems been killed relative to medium/heavies?

Im not sure how much of an impact this knowledge will have on my life as a GW2 Player. But I can’t help but feel it is important to me now.

Jhoul.6923:

If this is true and anet fails to explain the lore behind the elite spec (again) I want to see a meme of a person getting his/her mind blown after throwing a sword or dagger from one hand to the other and realizing all the things he/she could do for 5 years but they didn’t switch the equipped hand.

A charr tossing his dagger up and down but drops it panics and grabs it with the other hand. All the other charr rangers gasp in horror (But you can’t DO THAT). But all he can see with his widening eyes are three “Skill Unlocked” messages popping up at the top of his vision.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Roots are deeper than that. They reduced the boons from Resounding Timbre because of lack-of-creativity. It makes every shout grant regeneration which powers up Druid – it was bound to be nerfed.

I’d go for none of those options proposed. Instead, remove the one-time stability, swiftness, and fury. Reduce the duration effect from 10s to 8s, cooldown to 60s, and have the effect grant might (8s), fury (3s), and stability (2s) when the player and the pet attacks to each other.

Just front load 3 boons onto the effect and base it off of player and pet performance so we can at least have some synergy back with Remorseless and extra stability application if the pet is able to land attacks.

Shorter cooldowns and stun breaks are nice, but if there’s no Remorseless synergy, then there’s no point. It might as well be converted into a Signet. Also, Resounding Timbre could use a change, too.

It’s lame for every shout to provide the same 2 boons. Having each one provide their own separate boon like Mesmer’s Bountiful Disillusionment would have been the better thing to do.

Heal as One – regen (6s), Protect Me – vigor (5s), Sic ’Em – fury (6s), Search & Rescue – protection (3s), Guard – retaliation (3s), and Rampage as One – quickness (5s). The trait should be more than just another fuel source for AF.

Hmmm. I actually like this idea a hell of a lot more.

Alright. So I decided to give it more testing before making my final verdict on the subject.

My conclusion at this point as this SOTP is only useful now as a mild dps buff.

The stability it "provides’ is more often than not a downside. The only reason to use this skill now is if your build is lacking in fury. Or your set up to make use of the might stacks it generates.

There are two VERY common classes that completely ignore your stability. Namely Reapers and Thieves (and to a lesser extent condi revs). And both of these actually gain benefits from taking this away from you (thieves get the stability and necros fear you)

Previously even if they did so the pulsing stacks prevented you from further punishment. They got there benefit and had an opening to attack you. But that opening closed.

Now it stays open. And you do a kitten ed good impression of a stake pounded into the ground as you are locked in place.

That leaves us with MAYBE two stunbreaks. One of which we have likely used before hand. And another we may still have off cooldown or we may have used it to cover the cast of strength of the pack.

Ranger is back to being one of the primary focus targets. Where before we had a fair chance IF WE DID THINGS WELL to slip away now we are much easier to eliminate.

Due to the lack of reliable stab I think youl find it common for us to be sent to the side nodes once again. We can contribute to team fights sure. But much more passively than we were before unless were in an organized group.

And on the side nodes we are a hell of a lot more vulnerable to being +1d. Our elite allowed us limited ability to fight back against a +1 by preventing us from being completely CC locked between two players. Now it does not.

Since Anet doesn’t have a history of rolling back changes of this degree we need to look for further alterations.

My recommendation’s

One: SOTP becomes instant cast and breaks stun. Same cooldown. Same current affects. Further nerfing would simply make this change pointless.

Second. SOTP gains a MUCH shorter cooldown. Like im talking 30-40 seconds when traited shorter. Same Current affects and boon durations. This makes it more likely we can use our elite again during the fight if we do somehow manage to survive the initial lockdown.

These changes are designed to reenable us to play aggressively. Cause as it is we are once again stuck being afraid of any of the copious amounts of boon hate in game.

I do NOT want to go back to the passive 1 spam off point playstyle. I was sick and tired of it before. And I am lothe to return to it.

Please seriosuly consider undoing this change. Or performing further reworks to return some of the reliability of this skill. Especially seeing as we have NOTHING else that can provide the same benefits. Atleast nothing even slightly worth using (signet of the wild)

Sly.9518:

Shadelang.3012:

@Sly

Thank you for proving my point. The 1 second ICD part of that doesn’t need to be there. And does not need to be talked about. It could just say dazes for x every second and it would mean exactly the same thing.

Pointing at the ICD as a reason the skill isnt OP when the ICD is the PULSE RECHARGE is pointless. All I want out of this is for people to actually be discussing the skill in regards to the cost, risk, and effectiveness of the skill in comparison to its affects and what other classes are capable of.

Again. Im not saying its op. Infact in comparison to other classes down cleave id say its cheap but balanced. Cheap meaning the relatively little risk involved for the impact it can have. But its true other classes can have similar if not more deadly cleave actions.

At most id increase the cost of doing the skill a little and leave it in its current format.

Wow you have a weird way of thinking, you need 5 stacks of poison to prove the Daze, it’s not a daze for just being in the CG field, so it saying daze every x seconds is nowhere near the same. CG alone cannot provide 5 stacks of poison, so CG alone cannot cause the Dazes and if someone is waiting for all 4 pulses then having the Daze process from other poison applications…. GG I didn’t prove anything that you said, since you were talking about it applying daze to anyone crossing the CG field.

No ini cost need increase since t can’t cause the dazes itself, at most it will need the ICD increased maybe 1 second.

Ahhhhhh. I see. I misunderstood the wording of the skill text. I would say english isn’t my first language but I would be lieing and making excuses. I was just not paying attention. I was wrong. My apologies for distracting from the post. Ill edit my above comments to reflect this.

Edit: My comments were based on a misunderstanding how the skill functions. My apologies. I don’t see this skill as even slightly a problem now that I understand properly how it functions. Part 2

Edit: My comments were based on a misunderstanding how the skill functions. My apologies. I don’t see this skill as even slightly a problem now that I understand properly how it functions. Part 1

ANet I have been in this game for a long time. So I remember the original version of rampage as one that this new SoTP closely resembles.

And I remember why you changed it.

You swapped Rampage As One to the pulsing format because the limited amount of boonsteal and corrupt in the game was enough to completely nuetralize our elite skill. Making this skill borderline useless.

A single thief steal. A single corrupt. And our elite skill was not only non existant but could also be HARMFUL to us.

So you changed it. And FINALLY the skill saw use.

But today. In a game FULL of corrupts and boonsteals. More than ever before. You decided to revert SoTP to its old form that was ALREADY considered weak.

It doesn’t matter how many stacks of stab you put on it. Any more than 3 is extra after all. We know this.

Here is a list of things you hurt.

You hurt the ability to maintain personal stab.

You hurt the ability to copy stab through heal as one.

You Hurt the ability to copy stab through fortifying bond.

You hurt the ability to generate and maintain personal fury.

You hurt the ability to copy fury through heal as one.

You hurt the ability to buff the pet after a swap through fortifying bond and heal as one.

With this change. You have left both the ranger AND his pet without stability in most realistic fights. Hurting survivability and damage.

You have hurt both the ranger AND his pets ability to deal damage through the loss of fury.

Now It may seem I am being melodramatic. But this change actually took multiple tools/combos away from rangers. Making the class more straightforward to play if you want to use these skills. In effect making the skillset more BORING as well.

So my question I suppose is this…Why?

You KNOW that this version of the skill is weak. It was weak when there were FEWER counters to it. And it is only going to be even weaker now. So why did you change it back to a version of the skill that was at the time of the change considered sub par in nearly every fight?

Edit: And another 15% damage nerf to smoke assault? Really? Will you atleast give us back the two hits you stole from the skill before along with the two might stacks attached to them?

Swoop can change based on terrain as well I think. I believe it has to do with the leap portion at the end. Though im not precisely certain on what affects it.

I just notice that the behavior depends on outside factors including what your targeting and what your running over/off of.

Legendary Weapons will continue to be released past the expansions launch according to devs if I remember right.

TL;DR. You can definetly be successful with dps druid. Will it be as reliable or easy as a heal druid? No. But with practice time and actually learning how your skills do what they do you will steadily start slaughtering people as a matter of course.

I wont go into the health of PvP and wvw atm. Its the most guaranteed way to start an argument.

As far as ranger in pvp and wvw goes. Ranger is still one of the top 1v1 classes on a dps build.

In WvW it does indeed take a focus on support. Especially in zerg fights. Where ranger/druid dps sources are largely negated (but you can still deal impressive melee damage in bursts on a ranger. You can also zerg “surf” effectively until you can split off to hunt outside targets) But Pick builds can still find purchase. And good roaming druids can effectively fight 2 opponents if they properly use there entire skill set and don’t try to play passively.

Atm In PvP i am ranked 12 after purely solo queing on a dps druid build. So we aren’t just support classes though DPS takes a bit more skill to do effectively and is less friendly for players that want a safer build.

DPS Rangers aren’t as obvious to play as they used to be. Which turns alot of players off from it and convinces them that its weak.

For example I run

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA9Ci1CCuCCctglOBDelGT3pO9tAQh7pFMAWYlI9yA-TpBEQBT4CAAgDBwALDkk9HSwDAwdHBAA

The build is based on layering affects over eachother to create a cumulative affect on damage and sustain instead of focusing super hard on one aspect. Its a general build that offers alot of flexibility and when used right still creates specialized level affects. (I can burst like a zerk ranger or tank like a menders for a short time. The build requires you to know when to do each and exactly how your skills ENABLE you to do them)

The build multiple boon sources to buff the ranger and the pet making up for the lack of ferocity. It also has higher than normal quickness uptime when you make proper use of heal as one and the Nature Magic minor traits.

The above is an example but each aspect of the build is like that. It requires you to know the ins and outs of each skill you and your pet have.

Where as other more popular builds let you ignore certain aspects of your build and allows you to play semi on auto pilot. The average player just doesnt put that much effort into it.

@OP Your jumping to some big conclusions here. And letting your own bias color your post someone from the looks of it

I can see this going 4 ways.

1: The pet stays but pet swap is replaced by a toggle that causes the pet to go spirit form. Giving you an aura/buff based on the pet family you absorbed. Standard pet swap cooldown before you can bring it back. Your buffed. But you have fewer attacks/skills going out.

This maintains f2 and f4 reliant traits. As well as other effects that rely on the pet existing. This doesn’t sync well with utillity skills such as signets and shouts.

2: Similar to above. But instead of replacing the f4 it becomes the f5 like CA did. Using F5 absorbs the pet and suppresses the f4 until f5 is released.

This is the one that interferes the least with current builds and playstyles. Yet still offers bursts of the petless playstyle. Helping the ranger in pet problem areas such as WvW. (F5 during a clash giving a buff to the ranger and making it more melee train friendly. A buffed ranger running around Mauling enemy melee can do ALOT of damage)

This is I feel the most similar to druid. Where as druid takes away our weapon skills to use its abilities. This spirit beast f5 would take away our PET skills to make use of our new aura. A similar tradeoff for a similar affect.

This is what I am personally hoping for as a beast mastery focused ranger. But for those that wan’t permanent removal of the pet. This may not be their cup of tea. But would give them the option of at-least alleviating the issue in the biggest problem areas.

Possibility 3: The pet is completely removed upon taking the spirit beast. Or the toggleing of said ability is detrimental to the use of the pet. This would be a worst case scenario for me. As entire utility skills would become completely incompattible. As well as a complete traitline.

And from a logical standpoint this is also the least likely. On the other hand many people wish for this.

I can’t comment on this too much. This is so far from my playstyle that I can’t really give even semi educated predictions on this.

Except that the aura would have to be strong as HELL to justify this. Like brokenly strong. Think about what losing the pet means for PvP as well. Pet CC is a big part about what gets us out of trouble in PvP. So the aura would need to supress incoming CCs (both soft and hard) to a significant degree as well as providing a huge boost to our damage to justify taking. (think about the gimmicky 1 shot builds that still exist for rangers in hotjoin. Now imagine every spirit beast has that amount of damage normally+resistance to CC.)

Possibility 4: Anet completely surprises me and does none of the above. The spirit beast is nothing like what any of us think or any of the “leaks” indicate. And we get a suprise buttsecks of an elite spec that none of us have any idea what to do with and may be good or bad. “shrug”

Edit: As for the pets being useless. Outside of zerg fights your wrong. Provably wrong. (I say this not to be antagonizing. But merely to attempt to prevent an echo chamber affect. If I am asked to back this up I will. But an argument is not what I am trying to make out of this part. Pets have MAJOR issues in WvW zerg fights. But in all other game modes they have proven there usefulness. Both after and BEFORE the recent update to their attacks)

Actually if you use Sic Em a split second after they enter stealth it reveals them so long as they are in range of sic em. I use this skill constantly in PvP. You will lose the target because it takes a half second for the reveal to knock them back out of stealth. But they WILL be kicked out of stealth. Easiest way to test this is to sic em a thief as shadow refuge is being formed. Or as they are running into a precasted shadow refuge.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Not even significant. Just being out of range now nets nada. When did this happen @@

I believe it has always been that way. Or atleast as long as I have been using shouts and can remember. Which is pretty kitten far back

Something many people might not know. When using Sic Em on a target significantly out of range. Nothing happens. It goes on cooldown and thats it.

Edit: (No swiftness,no regen, no condi removal)

@Mr Pin. Yeah honestly I would prefer if we could avoid having the clutter. But barring methods of actually dealing with the issue. It seems like the best choice. I mean atleast that way we would have some warning. The idea on reduced death penalty is interesting. And I wouldn’t be opposed to it in just wvw (I feel its necessary in PvE and PvP as counterplay).

A broader survivability pass would also be interesting. But we do have to be careful on how strong we make the pets in general. Whatever is done should still be driven by the ranger atleast in some way.

As for what I run. I hope this helps. If you whispered me and asked at the time I probably told you then. But just in case. My apologies for not remembering u.u im fairly bad with names even IRL.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA9Ci1CCuCCctglOB7pFMAWYO9tAQhDelGT3plo80A-T1CEQBA4IB4uDBQS2fgfq/MhLAADVi5QlHJ4BAsRlgsTXQb0wEAAB4m3MbezAn38m38m38czbezbezbWKgAXGB-w

Core post updating. Bumping to ensure that the changes are recognzied

Unfortunately that was also one of the thigns that kept people from taking the map even slightly seriously. It was also harrying for people with out auto pop stunbreaks due to the fact that you could be stunned and pulled entirely from stealth and have no realistic counterplay.

I actually remembered that I had to change my sound settings if I wanted to play on this map. Turning off my music and turning the effects up on this map map so I could hear the floor shorting out when their is a stealthed “insert pull capable class here”.

Also fear necros were a bit…overbearing to fight on the skyhammer.

Yes it gave those builds a place where they were strong. But it also took out alot of build diversity on the other end. As you were pretty well forced to counter these tactics or there would be a high chance you would get one shot with zero practical counterplay and be forced to sit there as your team gets steamrolled just because you weren’t running x build.

This made it SUPER FUN for some classes and builds. And absolutely horrible for others.

I don’t think anet minds too much if there is diversity in maps. But from what I have seen they try not to have such an extreme split between them.

I guess they thought skyhammer was just too gimmicky to really justify the drama in the end.

Rewriting this because it ended up a wall of text.

We need the ability to monitor our pets boons/conditions.

We need the ability to cleanse conditions from our pets reliably (almost all forms of condition removal prioritize players over pets)

Barring the above two we need the ability to stow our pets in situations where the pet is ONLY a liability.

I want to be able to stop slitting my pets wrists as fast as possible once i get into combat where the MIGHT be a necro somewhere that MIGHT be aiming epidemic at my pet.

Suggestions : Any time the ranger cleanses a condition off HIMSELF. One is cleansed off of his pet as well. This should not function with external cleanses (those from other players) but should function when used with say. Soldier runes (which currently prioritizes players over pets), light field blasts (as above) and all relevant skills/traits.

This still requires direct involvement on the rangers part to perform.

Suggestion 2: Reworking various condition removal traits to remove conditions from pets as well.

Empathic bond changed to cleanse conditions from your pet. Possibly 1 cleansed for every two transfered as suggested below. Just a way to keep the overall stack a little bit manageable. Or even doing away with the transfer entirely and making it direct cleanses periodically so long as the pet is alive.

Evasive Purity changed so that when the ranger dodge rolls both the Ranger and the pet remove cripple/blind/poison. (currently only affects the ranger)

The above are just examples. Possible other changes include condition dumping capabilities added as part of a BM trait (minor or major) such as “remove a condition on crit” this would affect some pets more than others. And would give a deeper benefit to maintaining fury on your pet.

Possible consequences. The ability to remove conditions from pets make them more reliable damage sources as well as improving there sustain. Which is why Ideally I would prefer the ability to strip DAMAGING conditions off of pets while leaving them vulnerable to all forms of soft cc and mitigation (blind weakness etc.)

With the recent updates pets are more reliable dpsers. And I don’t feel they need much more (if anything at all) in they of damage uptime changes. The current pets can be worked with. Unfortunately pet survivability is still low outside of 2-3 specific species. Especially against conditions more than anything else.

Im not saying that pets should be immune to the effects of conditions. But in the current situations there are circumstances where pets can die extremely quickly without you being able to help them in time (Against certain comps in PvP) despite investing in their survival, as well as times where the pets are down right liabilities. (Any large scale combat where necromancers are present as an enemy. The use of ranger pets to create an undodgeable unblockable epidemic bomb is a known trick. And one that when used properly can turn a druid focused on healing his party into the tool for its destruction.)

One of the things that I think people forget. Is just how absolutely kittenty tyria is as a place to live.

Honestly a child prodigy ending up in danger…disabled or not doesn’t seem that out of place. Considering EVERYONE is in danger at any given time.

Civilians are attacked and killed CONSTANTLY in their own homes across the world. Hordes of undead repeatedly ravage settlements to the south.

Bandits, Centaurs, Inquest, Dragon Minions, the wildlife (THE MOSQUITO’S IN TYRIA ARE LETHAL).

This world sucks. Oh everyone talks about it pretty cheerfully and handles things in stride. But thats because thats all they have known. Their used to it. “Oh my neighbor got eaten by drakes on his front doorstep? kitten not again”. Is about the sum of it for the most part.

Unlike the vast majority of people. Taimi has the DIRECT protection of (correct me if I am wrong) the single deadliest combatant on the planet at this point in time. Think about that for a minute. Could the council really protect her better than we can without making her skills absolutely useless by bundling her up in a holding cell somewhere? Do we really think that anything that is going to go after her couldn’t just chew through whatever defenses the asurans put in place?

Between the likely static (heh) defenses of the asurans or an entity on the level of Elder Dragons who has absolutely slaughtered in dozens of horrible fashions anything that has stood in its way. What would you want your “progeny” hid behind.

Fluffball.8307:

anduriell.6280:

and please do ignore shadelang

Wasn’t going to read his wall of text until I saw you post this. Now I know for a fact shadelang knows what he’s talking about and posted good advice.

Hahaha Ill be honest I could probably have worded it better. But I fealt it would be a good idea to give examples that I have actually done in game. Sorry about the wall of text.

GS 4 is actually pretty powerful. Even against mesmers. The trick is to constantly be moving away from the shattering clones. See clone shatters (the other half of a gs mesmers burst) have an aoe effect in them. And GS4 only auto pops on skills that happen in melee range. Meaning if your moving away they “clip” you with there aoe range. Shatters are blockable. Meaning when done properly and with a little luck you can bloke all of the shatters without your counterattack triggering leaving you stuck for the rest. Not as reliable as dodging obviously but sitll an option

Mirror blade will go through greatsword 4 yes. But its possible to almost completely nullify mirror blade as a ranger.

Moving closer to your pet for example will cause the second bounce to aim for it and attempt to bounce back for it. This can be hilarious on say. A smoke scale with smoke field up causing hte blade to pass right through it. Or a fire wyvern that is in the middle of its F2.

Or simply pet swapping while the blade is moving towards it. Or letting it hit the pet and dodging it on the way back often causing it to fly up in the air instead of hitting a clone behind you like dodging it can cause. Due to the pets lower hit box relative to your center.

GS4 is a skill that shines when used with other tools. For example in most builds GS4 is almost useless against a thief. Who blinds you when he attacks you causing your gs4 to miss.

However for a shout ranger running trooper runes this isn’t an issue. As each shout clears a condition. You can pop a shout when necessary to clear blind making sure counter attack lands. Very few thieves can adapt to this and they often either retreat or panic. The trick is the timing here.

Im not saying you should suddenly run x build. Or do x thing. But seemingly impossible to beat attacks are often beatable if you think outside the box a bit.

Once you learn how to nullify a GS mesmers burst. The only time they should really kill you is if they nail you with gravity well when you don’t have a stunbreak. Or they burst you from stealth while you are distracted fighting something else. But these are THEIR domains. And they should have the advantage in those situations. Much like how in a fight where the ranger engages on the mesmer he often has the advantage.