Guild Wars 2

It works Crunk. Many people have tested it. One thing you can do is set yourself to 50 percent crit chance. go into the testing area in LA. Activate the golem and use the console to give it 25 stacks of vuln and then start auto attacking it. You will crit 100% of the time. Meaning the trait works.

Quarktastic.1027:

Shadelang.3012:

Whirling defense hits like a TRUCK. Im talking when buffed upwards of 16-17k dps in a marauder amulet against things like eles.

Being able to chase someone while moving with that skill WOULD make it over powered.

Axe off hand I really dont feel needs buffs. What I feel DOES need buffs is the sword movement skills. To make them more reliable movement or evade skills (pick one). That would buff axe offhand by proxy.

Really. In PvE, I get around 3k DPS. Perhaps you’re referring to the total damage over the duration of the skill?

Yes my fault their I meant damage instead of dps haha. The point is still valid though atleast from a PvP perspective.

Edit: this is specifically reffering to the quickness on pet swap proc +whirling defense. Which does enough damage to kill kitten near anything aside from a reaper that stands in melee range without poppin and invuln of some kind.

Edit 2: hmm on that thought. Its possible it wouldn’t be as over powered as I originally thought. Their is enough active defense on other classes that its actually quite possible to stand in whirling defense despite its fairly high pressure (When its buffed). I take back my previous comment. Ill give it more thought and reply again later once ive thought it through more clearly.

Whirling defense hits like a TRUCK. Im talking when buffed upwards of 16-17k damage in a marauder amulet against things like eles. Edit: Ty Quark for the correction

Being able to chase someone while moving with that skill WOULD make it over powered. Edited in result to my later post: Or atleast it WOULD if active defense wasn’t handed out like candy with every elite specialization. It would be overpowered in the old GW2. But as it is now it would fit the bill most likely. Its possible however that it would just be another form of power creep. Which I am leery of.

Axe off hand I really dont feel needs buffs. What I feel DOES need buffs is the sword movement skills. To make them more reliable movement or evade skills (pick one). That would buff axe offhand by proxy.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Just logged on to get that sweet login reward of more Essences of Luck (..). As (essences of) luck would have it, I came across something that was interesting [to me] and recorded it to highlight the subtle things about Pets. Specifically, how effective they can be against ambient creatures hiding behind a pebble.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwUIgMywXes

Hahaha oh god why am I crying and laughing at the same time.

Atleast on yaks bend atm the most common method for people to breach overlook is to smash down the south west walls with trebs/catas. Then go up the ramp and ignore the gate instead going around to the side of the keep facing SMC. Their is a spot below a ledge where catas can be placed without worrying about being hit by most defensive siege. And a shield gen on the stairs to the left can make it immune to ACs.

This mostly works because BG and TC typically outnumber the defenders 2 or 3 to 1 however when they use this tactic. But its a pretty fast way in as long as you have the numbers to keep them from pushing you.

Dear Blackgate. From Yaks Bend. If you didn’t try to kitten jam every possible fight with two separate forces that are equal in size to ours. We might actually want to fight you.

I know the people I run with absolutely LOVE even number fights. But after we wipe you once or twice. You always ALWAYS come back with a second zerg to back you up. Every single time.

Edit: I reworded my OP to more accurately reflect the target of that specific portion of the thread and the location where pets have the biggest issue with that subject.

Please remember that this thread is not about any one specific game mode. Nor is it a rework thread. At the moment atleast its a place where I have gathered the vocal portion of the ranger forums ideas on what the biggest issues with ranger pets are across the game as a whole.

So you should expect general wording that reflects that.

Astralporing.1957:

Interesting poll there, where one of the points contains two options that do not necessarily need to go together. I thought you said you won’t be doing that anymore.

Hint: not wanting Desert does not mean not wanting a new, good wvw map. If you word the question that way, even people that absolutely hate dbl will think twice before answering.

All they said was that they were MORE LIKELY to devote time and resources to creating a new map this way. Which makes sense from a business perspective as well as a mechanic perspective. (Its all right for all three servers to have one map but if a server has a different map the creation of a third to finish the pattern is the logical conclusion) People that see it as a threat to not create more are caught up in the typical persecution complex that afflicts the minority or those that thought themselves in the right but are now forced to face differing opinions rather than roll over them.

Dadnir.5038:

The ability of the pet to FORCE an enemy to recognize it as a threat and to tempt said enemy to do something to actively hinder the pet.

I feel like the wording is bad here. Personnally, in my way to play ranger I prefer when the ennemy don’t see my pet as a threat (mainly in PvE). The wording here could lead to solutions that would harm a lot the ranger in PvE group content.

I think what you meant was to say that the pets skill/auto-attack lack a clear impact that would lead other players to be more warry of there existence. At the moment, except for a few exceptions, the pet’s skill are not threatening enough to make other players, in PvP, even take a glance at the ranger’s pet. Which mean that there is little to no reason for the extra long induction time of the pet’s skills.

Pet behavior : I couldn’t agree more with what you said. I’d include the pathing issue. (It cost nothing to continue to hammer it)

I added what you said on pet pathing to Pet Behavior. However its an issue I feel we cant count on getting fixed without the creation of new tech on arena nets part or ALOT of hard work. Mobs in gw2 aren’t designed with verticality in mind which causes a large number of issues.

On the subject of causing the pet to appear as an active threat to an enemy. Pets I believe are near the bottom of the melee range agro table. So we shouldn’t have to worry about pets being targeted abnormally. (I.E. Theirs another juicy target right next to it the mob could be hitting)

That part of the post was mostly from a WvW and TPvP perspective. Where the majority of pet families are about as dangerous as the normal mobs found in pre HoT PvE. I.E. Most players completely ignore their auto attacks because they aren’t gonna get hit anyway. Meaning those players only have to watch for the extremely rare CC, burst skills which they can dodge and then go back to ignoring the pet.

Increasing the pets base accuracy will increase the pets dps in PvP. Whatever method Arena Net uses to make it happen. An increase of the pets reliable damage causes the pet to exist as more of a threat in the other players eyes. If they ignore the pets existance they should be PUNSIHED. But in the current game mode its so easy to negate the pets damage potential that players are instead rewarded for ignoring the fact that ranger pets exist outside of 1v1s.

If you disagree with what you have seen here don’t be afraid to SAY SO. Just because I have made this post doesn’t mean its the end of the discussion. I am simply attempting to keep it easy to read and to give a general statement to any that are interested. If you want to continue discussion specifics feel free to do so I encourage you to.

Edit: Previous posts edited for clarity in some places.

Pet Damage By Family/ AKA: The rolls of pet families.

Pet Survivability

Pet Behavior: This one has the ability to be insane in length so I am keeping it very general for brevity.

Pet Hit Reliability

Pet Boons, Buffs, And the management thereof

Edit: BEAR WITH ME I apparently forgot how the spoiler crap works -.- its only been a couple weeks

EDIT 2: got it

DISCLAIMER: My original plan was to take some direct quotes from the other thread. However I realized that would destroy the purpose of making this alternate thread entirely. I apologize to all posters in the original thread for going back on what I said here. I WILL include a link to the original thread so any reader can see for themselves where these ideas came from and from whom.

Hey all as I promised here is a more concise version of my previous post which can be found here.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Shadelangs-Pet-Flaw-Thread/first#post6206004

Here I am going to ATTEMPT to put every ones words into a more easily read format. If I do not include your idea please check to make sure that it isn’t very similar to something someone has already posted. I won’t be attempting to copy over every specific post. If your interested in reading the sources I included a link above for that purpose. This is to give a more general view of what the forum going rangers view as the priority when it comes to our pets. What we feel is most important.

I will be putting them into a few categories for the sake of further condensing inevitable walls of text.

I will list them by Priority.

Pet Hit Reliability: The ability of a pet to consecutively land hits on a target, Whether or not that target is moving. This will include multiple factors I will get in to below.

Pet Buff Management: This includes everything from boons to auras to banners. Typically the things our pets are forced to go without unless we go out of our way to provide them despite the fact that these are integral parts of the games mechanics.

Pet Survivability: The pets ability to maintain itself. Be it from debilitation to damage. This ties into Pet Hit Reliability Somewhat.

Pet Behavior: How the pet uses what skills at what times. (Like when a bird pops aoe swiftness when you are pumping out 2 and a half minutes of it in an aoe). How the pet chooses to engage the target based on its abilities. This ties into pet hit reliability in many cases.

The spread of damage through various pet families: This is placed here because while it is an issue it is one that isn’t the biggest crippling factor in peoples eyes as far as I have read.

Rangers are designed EXTREMELY well to be completely self reliant. We don’t need other classes for soft cc, burst, hard control, procs, boons, or anything else really because we are fully capable of generating sufficient amounts of each on a personal level. This is in part due to the fact that we have pets. Which are suited for filling many gaps that we ourselves might not cover.

(the old longbow ranger build using wolves was a good example of this. A mix of soft cc, hard cc, and burst on both the ranger and his pet while having almost permanent fury and swiftness uptime as well as at the time decent personal cleansing and burst cooldowns.)

What tragic said earlier is very true though. We PERSONALLY do not scale in group combat.

Anet probably CAN’T fix that because in doing so they would make us so unbelievably broken in other forms of combat that we would likely shred people.

And so we had to be balanced with that in mind.

For example, In PvP our damage and CC is EXTREMELY predictable turning most fights that don’t end in a few seconds in our favor into attrition style fights. But since were self sufficient we can HANDLE that kind of combat. Our damage is applied in ways that are very easy to negate entirely in Team fights however. Confining us to 2v2s and 1v1s as far as damage dealing goes. The more players in the field. The less effective we are. On the damage front.

Similar to raids our damage does not increase in group combat the same way other classes do. Our pets are unlikely to gain the effects of banners,spirits,traits for example. Which is why nature magic is so popular so that the pet can get boons atleast from the ranger. Likewise our weapons themselves don’t scale as high in high boon situations as others do. Our max hits are lower than the hits of other classes with smiliar attack speeds. Thats including the pets contributions usually. (Though their are exceptions here)

In order to match the dps of other “support” builds such as phalanx warrior. We have to give up certain things. We have to give up our own group support entirely.

Our class was likely balanced around the concept of self reliance. Which limits us when it comes to situations where all buffs would be provided ANYWAY.

Anet found a work around in the addition of unique damage buffs that can effect other players boosting THEIR damage to compensate for our personal lower maximum. Even better. These unique buffs in group situations while they would effect ourselves wouldn’t effect our pets most of the time. Keeping us balanced despite the massive damage boost were giving other players. Typically other people benefit MORE from our buffs than we ever can. I don’t think thats accidental.

It keeps our output under control despite our internal capabilities and yet made sure their was a reason to BRING us in the first place.

The down side of that is ultimately a rangers/druids worth is determined ALMOST solely by his ability to boost the damage of others. And not how he himself performs.

I BELIEVE (this is my own theory) Ranger was designed for an environment where boons themselves were less common. But the addition of more and more aoe boon generation made our self buffing capacity irrelevant.

To put it inter perspective. I roam on a commanders build that has permanent 25 stacks of might, Permanent fury, Permanent protection, Permanent vigor, and over 60% uptime on quickness.

On ANY OTHER CLASS that would be brokenly overpowered. Yet on ranger it makes sense because even with all those buffs it is still possible for other builds to crush me through group buffing. In the end in group combat my ability to buff myself to that extent is meaningless.

If the MASSIVE amount of aoe boon generation was heavily reduced. Ranger would appear alot higher on that dps priority. Because our damage would be reliable and constant while other classes woudl be fluctuating both above and below our damage. We wouldn’t be NEARLY as affected by the reduction in aoe boon generation as several other classes and builds were. And builds that could stabily maintain their perssonel performance would intermingle with builds centered on dealing high periods of damage for a short time.

But as long as massive aoe boon generation is the norm. Our “Support” is the only thing keeping us interesting as far as composition goes.

But as it is. Classes that without that boon generation would be “burst” builds. Are in a constant state of burst because their fully buffed 100% of the time in organize combat. Meaning “Sustained damage” builds whose overall dps doesn’t fluctuate in any situation because their mechanics are all internal. Completely lose their place in compositions and are forced to abandon the dps roll in favor of further increasing the “burst/sustained” builds damage.

One big issue with forced 5 man team que is the little issue of class discrimination.

At the moment it doesn’t matter what variant of a build you run so long as you do in fact get the desired result. Who cares what amulet side node fighter is running so long as he wins his fights and can force the enemy team to rotate to kill him.

But players kittening LOVE to tell other people how to play and what to play. This is something we see all the time in litteraly every pvp game ever made. We see it to an extent in right now with our ever present Metas. This isn’t good or bad its just a fact of life here.

As it is even if your NOT running the meta you can que solo. And AS LONG AS YOU ARE EFFECTIVE it is very unlikely anyone will say anything against you as they probably wont even notice.

But in forced team que that psuedo anonymity goes away. Your going to see people absolutely rejecting certain builds and infact entire classes just like we do in PvE 5 man and 10 man content. It won’t matter if a player is more comfortable with x and performs batter with x than they do in y. The perception of their party members will be more important than his own enjoyment of the game due to the simple fact that That player needs the party. Not the other way around.

Oh your not running this precise trait,amulet setup? Well see ya because we can just find another of your class.

And in an environment where people get as salty as they do in SPvP I can only see that turning into a kitten ed nightmare.

And before someone says “Well anet will just have to balance the builds” Our build system is too interchangeable for that to work unfortunately.

Which is probably why they are going with elite specializations now so they can balance elite specs against each other without worrying about someone getting x trait + z trait = oh my kittening god.

Honestly the greatsword is as close to a dream weapon for my necro as it gets. I just REALLY wish the pull stripped boons and the GS# 3 did more damage the more hits connected. (Steadily increases in damage to culminate in a heavy hit).

Other than that if Nightfall had longer duration and farther reach (like add one more expansion and pulse) I would be completely happy with its performance.

HenawyMT.4951:

Crowley.8761:

That’s awful. Pretty much means you got ignored and didn’t kill anyone.

i find it quite amazing that you came up with this analysis, dealing 1m damage without killing anyone in a game that we won

Damage Done isn’t really a reliable method of telling the effectiveness of your build.

For example I play a marauders druid in legendary tier. Focusing not on the healing aspects of the build but on the break away and control aspects.

My “Damage Done” for each match is typically less than 400k Sometimes as low as 200k. Yet my number of kills is usually the highest. The reason for that isn’t how much damage it does but HOW the damage is applied. A dps build ranger (in this case sword axe longbow) doesnt deal a massive amount of damage overall and its damage is often avoidable. The build is centered around forcing people to TAKE the burst we can apply. Dealing high amounts of damage in a short period of time while using control effects to prevent the player from escaping or healing.

This means that the fights I usually encounter end VERY quickly when I am the one who wins. Usually in a span of 5-8 seconds. If things last longer than that I am usually looking to disengage for a short moment before reengaging to try again unless the opponent is very VERY low.

What the person your replying to was likely saying is that while yes you did alot of damage over the matches duration TOTAL. It was delivered in a way that wasn’t “Final” in the way you would expect a burst dps build to act. It showed that many of your opponents actually lived long enough to eat all the damage you put out. Instead of you finishing them off quickly enough they didn’t have the chance to sustain which should have been your goal.

Which means your burst wasn’t actually able to function how a burst should.

^ If we vote for the mixed bl in the next route their will litteraly be NO REASON for anyone who hates DBL to be upset

2 abl’s to play on 1 dbl to play on. Whoever wants to play wherever wins.

Ragion.2831:

Good question, the effects you gain from those traits shouldnt be affected by resistance, but knowing anet and their ability to code, it probably does.

Resistance should just allow you to ignore the condition effects not the bonuses other players gain from you having those conditions.

Thats what I was thinking. Ive come to “expect” a certain level of dps and damage taken with this build. With power reaper its pretty easy to see how low/high your health is gonna be (infact id say management of that knowledge is one of the key points of the playstyle). And its true for nearly every class I have fought.

But with warrior something about that seems off when I fight them. Dps I know I can generate just isn’t there like it is even with evade spammy thieves. And damage taken far exceeds what I mentally attach to certain timings and attacks. I can fit every other class into the pattern EXCEPT this one class. And resistance is the only thing that makes sense to me at this point.

If resistance DOES negate our traits. (I have no proof one way or the other yet)

Then its a pretty big deal and I would like to figure it out as soon as I can.

Hey all. I had a question I havn’t found an awnser to myself yet and I thought I would ask to see if anyone knew before I started looking for a warrior to test.

So long story short I roam on power reaper quite often lately. I have very high success rates against the typical roamers but against berserkers its absolutely a hopeless matchup. Like even if I land every attack I usually die while the berserker has 100% health even after 30-40 seconds of fighting.

And I feel there are a few reasons for that but the biggest one I feel is resistance.

With it said warrior can ignore our chill and our vulnerability. Two things a power reaper absolutely has to have in order to be effective. And said warriors produce enough boons that getting that resistance off can be… luck based.

I want to know if our condition based traits. Such as Decimate Defenses and just as importantly Cold Shoulder which reduces the damage we take from chilled foes. ALSO lose their effects when the afflicted is impacted by resistance.

Because if so that means that this one anti condition buff shuts down a MASSIVE chunk of our power builds damage. And would explain how such one sided fights end up occurring. ( I wont say its COMPLETLEY one sided I can get them low every now and then if I land a lucky crit but they heal up faster then my other attacks can typically pressure even if he doesnt dodge)

So. Does anyone know if this is the case? It would explain ALOT if it is. (The loss of the effectiveness of chill,blind,and vulnerability is bad enough but if resistance shuts down our TRAITS too this is kind of a problem for the future of the build on the most basic level)

Unfortunately all the tools that power reaper needs to survive (Weakness,boon corruption, chill uptime) condi reaper has in larger amounts…which are ALSO the tools that are needed to KILL power reapers. So condi reaper is pretty much a hard counter to power reaper.

And because they have more of those tools they are better suited to dealing with other classes than power reaper. Making it superior both in terms of power vs condi reaper as well as reaper vs everything else.

It also does more reliable damage. “shrug”

I don’t want to seem rude. But I agree with some others here that people going OUT OF THEIR WAY to make these situations and events more in the face of other people are part of why so many people are leery of the LGTB community even if they agree with that communities message.

Its starting to feel like all the jokes about vegans. “How do you find a vegan…dont worry they will tell you”. There have been so many posts on this subject or other subjects that frankly its getting tiresome.

Are we going to do this every time someone gets hurt? Then your just shoving the events into peoples faces causing more negative emotions for BOTH sides. Your actions aren’t gonna gather that much more support. The U.S. atleast overall already supports you. What your going to do is polarize the issue even further for the people on both sides.

To you it may seem like your doing something good. But to others you range from Obnoxious because your inserting real life into our video games when many of us play these games for the SOLE PURPOSE of releasing the stress real life puts on us, to downright bothersome for people that DON’T necessarily agree with your message. It feels like your pushing your opinions and lifestyle onto other people EXACTLY like how the LGTB community accused others of doing to them.

I went ahead and recording the journey up as well as a better look as to what it actually is. Its set up to look larger while your in the center. So you may be surprised at how small it actually is. The layout and lighting on this one piece of land is what convinced me to make this style of forest. Though without the help of my guildies it wouldn’t have been possible (for one thing I am not a scribe haha I just placed them. Others deserve the credit for making them in the first place)

Its really designed for the views you get while in that clearing, Permanent god rays, constant sunrise/moonrise style lighting, and the glow effect the unique lighting in this one area gives the trees once they are placed. Their is also a view of what I believe is supposed to be mordremoths tree up here.

https://youtu.be/Z0n_53DZBYM Hopefully this link works. Also the higher resolutions should be available by now.

Edit: It looks even better at night.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Anyone have any tests of power Reaper with standard raid builds vs. test golem in the special forces arena? I’m curious what it comes to these days.

this is a link to brazils video that I mentioned before where he discusses valk reaper. He discusses comparisons to condi reaper and zerk reaper as well I believe.

Edit: He goes over dps numbers near the end. His conclusion atleast is that the DPS compared to the condi variant NOT counting the massive swarms of jagged horrors or epidemic isn’t MASSIVELY different. But condi still pulls ahead on high health mobs (just not enough to truly worry about unless your failing by 1% in my opinion.)

He goes on to say that valk typically does more damage in environments where vuln is capped and fury is constant than the zerk version. Which I believe is thanks to the increased conversion from vitality to ferocity from furious maintanence oil and the higher likelyhood of being in scholar runes range (massive health pool makes it less likely random aoe dmg #357 will take you outside of the threshold.)

Hey there. Im gonna keep this short and sweet so it doesn’t waste too many peoples time.

So I made a forest in gilded hollows. (See below) issue is its near the roof of the word. Which makes GETTING to my forest difficult (Even with ramps) time wise. I like to visit it whenever Im in the guild hall but often find myself not simply because of how long it takes to get their.

So I was wondering if it would be possible to one day add placeable waypoints to guild halls. So that players can reach the “Homes” they have created more easily. Even if they are far out of the way.

The guild hall is great for people to claim a piece of land as their own but its kind of pointless if they rarely ever get to SEE the their creations.

So consider this my request to look into the possibility of placeable waypoints. In the hopes that some day I can visit my forest more readily. I got alot of help in making it from others. So it would be awesome if I could show it to people more readily as well. Which this would also help with.

Druid excells even in fractals/dungeons/open world PvE. The sheer amount of group healing it can provide even in a glass/condi build is difficult to ignore. The personnel survivability it offers as well as the CC it provides is also significant. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that druid has pretty much replaced ranger as far as the communities viewpoint goes in nearly all game modes (There’s a reason nearly every ranger is refereed to as a “Druid” regardless of what build hes actually running aside from WvW, Where our position is still that “eh you woulda been better as a tempest”)

Adding druid to your build will probably be OVERALL a net gain. However you do lose some personal damage. And you risk losing a chunk of your play style.

Its up to you in the end what you value more.

I originally stated in this post that it was unfortunate. But the fact is thought I don’t like how the elite spec plays it is what keeps ranger relevant in the current game.

Hey all Just want to say ill be making my follow up post some time on the 20th. In there I will try to collect everyones ideas into a more organized form while crediting the original posters of such ideas as well as any variants that were discussed.

If you have a preferred layout let me know (This is to both the posters so far, the people just reading it, and any Red/black poster that might want to give their two cents on a decent way to set it up) otherwise I will simply try to format it as best I can with what I have and everyone will have to live with it.

I gotta say. ARENA NET IF YOUR READING. Gryphons man. Gryhpons are awesome. Just don’t do to them what you did to wyverns. Let them be awesome.

Edited because I apparently cant say something is kitten.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Shadelang.3012:

I want to thank everyone here for there replies so far. It feels like most people agree that having fortifying bond base line or a similar mechanic (Like pets simply getting straight benefits from what boons we have on ourselves) is one of the things we need as a start.

-snip-

What are your thoughts on this?

I mean, having ideas are fine and all, but that realization hit me which made me edit my post and suggestions is that: first and foremost, we should tune our suggestions back and focus on getting Fortifying Bond baseline.

Tragic does have truth in his post when he states that once sharing (at least) boons (and buffs) with the Pet is baseline as part of the Ranger profession, everything else can begin to be fine-tuned afterwards.

Just a suggestion on our suggestions now. Maybe hold the suggestions that would require heavy-loaded amounts of work and aim towards reaching 1 common goal that seems reasonably obtainable that will have a significant impact on the class.

Edit (On second thought reading OGD’s post and thinking it through I agree with him. Though it would be more work increasing the overall accuracy of pets is the best starting point. It won’t free up build diversity but it will make pets a better base platform WITHOUT trait investment which I believe is a better goal for the long term health of the class).

I do feel that making FB baseling is a good goal however. And its why it was the first paragraph of my post. The rest of it was more for the concept of generating ideas to increase the usefullness of pets in general by covering gaps in our various pet families. My goal with the later parts of my post was just to try to assign a “role” to various pets in the hopes of giving a direction those families can be balanced towards. Where as it is now all pets feel like their in vacuum’s which is why many of them seem irrelevant to actual game play.

I am fully on board with focusing on getting the boon issue involved with pets fixed first. But the purpose of this thread wasn’t to discuss just ONE possibility. But to cover a general range of issues inherent in pets so that a developer can look and see what we think on the various subjects without digging through pages of posts.

This thread is just the brain storming section. IF it is succesful I will make a follow up thread in half a month or so discussing the most discussed issues by the priority we assign them in this thread.

So I want to get as much feedback on as many subjects (related to our pets) as possible. That I can then put into a more organized post at a later date.

AllNightPlayer.1286:

McKenna Berdrow.2759:

The poll has ended! After removing all votes for “Don’t Count My Vote” the final results are:

38.1% Reevaluate match-ups monthly.
28.9% Reevaluate match-ups quarterly.
15.9% Reevaluate match-ups every other month.
11.6% Reevaluate match-ups every 6 months.
5.5% Reevaluate match-ups every 4 months.

After analyzing the results we have decided to go with a 2 month world linking evaluation schedule because the majority of players voted for evaluations to be more frequent than quarterly but less frequent than monthly. Since we have decided to reevaluate every 2 months we will be reevaluating the current world links and making adjustments on the very last Friday of every even month starting this month on the 24th. Thank you to everyone who voted!

I’m afraid that you do not understand the system of a plurality vote. In the last poll, 70% wanted 1 Desert and 2 Alpine borderlands. But you said, it wasn’t enough, so the vote were meaningless.
Now, the majority wants monthly change, but again you say it’s not enough. So you choose a system, no one voted for. Are you kidding me? If this goes on, you can keep your polls for yourself and don’t annoy us with these anymore!

From what i can tell however ultimately this isn’t a democracy. They use this to gauge what the players want in general and rework their plans to fit that. But we can’t be surprised if they use them as “guidelines” for their actions. Also the last poll was specifically designated as needing a super majority due to how massive a change it would made to the gameplay.

No matter what people picked here the matchup reworks were still going to happen. This was to tell anet how often the population wanted. And they are telling the truth when they say two months IS the compromise between the different player factions and it best fits what hte actual majority of voters have requested (Most players wanted them more frequent than quarterly but less frequent than monthly) judging not by the individual votes but by the over all of all available categories.

I think they made the right call here.

I want to thank everyone here for there replies so far. It feels like most people agree that having fortifying bond base line or a similar mechanic (Like pets simply getting straight benefits from what boons we have on ourselves) is one of the things we need as a start.

Others have argued for AI changes to alter the behavior of pets (Their placement for example).

Still more have argued to have a base rework to the skills the pets themselves use. Ranging from alterations of there auto attacks to a new take on the roles of individual pet families.

Id like like to make a case for the addition to taunts on designated “Tank” pets. Such as the bear family. And the addition of soft/hard cc to brawler pets. Such as Moa’s. I feel the smokescale is a good example of how a brawler pet should be set up. A defensive skill, A gap closer, and an CC skill.

For example on moas I would like to add a small lunge to the auto attack (similar to how polymorphed moa works) as well as one to the peck frenzy style skill that exists in there toolset. I would also reccomemnd having said peck frenzy reworked so that each subsequent hit provides a damage buff to the moa that lasts for 10 seconds. Increasing its damage for successfully hitting. If such a damage buff became common in “brawler” pets it rewards us for keeping our pets alive and active in melee combat giving each pet type “Tank,Brawler, DPS” a unique feel.

Tank pets (such as bear) will provide occasional taunt while in melee. Making its effect on the field noticeable. And causing it to be something that cant be completely ignored.

Brawler pets gain damage buffs when they land certain skills in their toolset. Such as their special abilities or even there auto attacks. These pets start out at middling to low damage but the longer their in the field and actively fighting the more dangerous they become. Rewarding builds focused on using pets in PvP and offering damage boosts outside of PvP.

DPS pets start out high damage but are naturally more vulnerable. I feel theses pets should have some kind of debilitation built in (Like vuln from cat auto’s but it can range from vuln/chill/weakness/cripple) to their auto attacks to make them high priority targets once their seen. These pets should be enough of a threat that the enemy should be very tempted to turn and stab them them in the face or try to angle themselves to directly cleave them down.

What are your thoughts on this?

Wondrouswall.7169:

You could have used spoilers and had each section neatly hidden in tabs. Just saying. I haven’t read all of it, but the multiple walls of text aren’t inviting me to do so at this time.

I’ll comment later when I have actually read everything.

Okay I restructured the posts a bit. Its better but still not great. I am nearing the end of my day here so I am pretty exhausted but ill try to work on it again later. I didn’t design the original layout with the spoiler headings in mind so its difficult to place them properly within the character limit of each individual post “shrug”. Ill finish putting each section in its own spoiler location and try to condence the posts where possible.

Edit: Okay. I have edited out most of the major grammar errors, Reformated some of the posts (merged two got rid of one that served no purpose besides empty emphasis). My posts now also contain 40% less sarcasm.

And no that wasn’t me being sarcastic >.<.

Hopefully its a bit easier to read. If you have any more suggestions ill hear em.

Edit: also sorry to anyone who read it in its original form. It’s only after separating it I realize just how horrible it really was.

Josh Davis.6015:

Great thread, thanks. Good feedback from OP and the subsequent posts.

Tipper.6973:

Haven’t had a chance to read every post yet, but I really think ANet needs to look at the pet abilities. So many of them are underwhelming with ridiculously long cooldowns.

Especially if pets are here to stay as a mandatory part of the class.

Is there a similar thread to this one but for pets – ideally somewhat current? Looked over a few pages but came up empty handed. Would love to take a look.

I made a post highlighting the issues as I saw them. I say highlighting but it isn’t exactly short. I tried spacing it as well as I could but unfortunately it was 1 A.M. when I finished it and frankly I don’t have the proper presence of mind atm. But I hope I portrayed the view points of the ranger community with at least a decent level of accuracy. And I apologize for any points in the post where my emotions show through. I at no point intend to be rude if it seems that way. It is just a topic that has been discussed possibly hundreds of times by now and at this point I imagine everyone on BOTH sides of the conversation is getting tired of it.

Swagger.1459:

Shadelang.3012:

Pet thread will come on soon. Its gonna be a long one for me. I am trying to cover all the most basic areas where pets fail.

Here I’ll help you, because the devs won’t do any extensive work on pets…

1. Speed up pets so they can put pressure on targets.

2. Speed up pet attacks and f2 skills so they can hit moving targets.

3. Fix these first.

4. Make pets optional, and boost ranger damage appropriately when pets are locked out of the build so we are given a dps spot in groups instead of being regulated to buff bot with gated and timed reticle heals…

Feel free to post your opinions in the actual thread. It’s up now. But I want to ask you and everyone else to leave the emotions at the door if possible. I didn’t succeed entirely and youl be able to see it in my post. But atleast making the attempt makes it far more likely well have an actual discussion on the subject.

Post 3 Pet Traits

TL,DR (for the above 3 “posts”)

Post 2 Pet UI

Part 1: Pet Reliability

Part 2: Pet Sustainability

Part 3: Pet Damage Dealing

Tl;DR Pets need to be able to reach moving targets, survive being in range of those targets, and be able to land attacks on moving targets. Something most pets currently struggle to do.

WARNING Slightly less horrible wall of text incoming. TL;DR IN THE LAST POST (Its ALOT shorter)

So since there isn’t a pet thread on the first few pages where devs can see them easily I thought I would go ahead and get one rolling. What I would ask from the community is posting your opinions on our current Pet families and make suggestions on how to improve them. (Warning Expect this post and other posts to be of middling to high length)

Some of you may remember my shout rework threads pre hot. I would like to follow the format from then as much as possible.

Ill go ahead and start and outline some of the issues rangers have with pets in general. My intent in doing this is forming a basis that we as a community can agree on to work towards improvement. I do NOT want to just push the ideas of one playstyle If I can avoid it. So when you make your suggestion think about how it will affect other builds both ranger and druid. And do not ASSUME any one build.

Ill be talking from a beast master’s perspective. As pet focused builds have been what I have run on my ranger since day 1.

The three primary issues I see with pets that come up most often are. Pet Usefullness, Pet UI, and Pet based traits.

First up is probably the biggest of the issue and what most people will recognize right off the bat. The usefulness of the majority of our pets. To put it simply. Its terrible. The vast majority of our pets go unused in most forms of content simply because they don’t serve a purpose outside of situations so incredibly niche that some players may never encounter them at all.

These issues can be gathered together in a few categories. Pet Reliability, Pet Sustainability, and Pet Damage Dealing.

Pet thread will come on soon. Its gonna be a long one for me. I am trying to cover all the most basic areas where pets fail.

Swagger.1459:

Shadelang.3012:

I can make a thread for pets if people are interested. Itl be up the community as a whole to post in it and give feedback however. And I would also appreciate if people helped me gather information on the subject (there was a post in reddit at one point about the time to kill of pets on moving targets that would be useful).

I don’t think we need to go all out on this personally. The fact that we are forced to use pets and they don’t hit moving targets consistently of put any really pressure on targets is a big enough for the end to focus on. Their aoe/area attacks are useless on moving targets too…

Pets/minions/illusions… Are very poorly done in this game overall, and if ranger pets could hit moving targets fast F2 skills that hit, we can dissect more after that.

Ill keep it general. But giving htem as much room to work with and as many ideas as we can give is important I think. Itl be a multi post thread for sure if I want to cover each topic even a LITTLE bit. But saying “hey these are the areas we need work on” and letting them see them even if we keep it in general terms is a good place to start I believe

I can make a thread for pets if people are interested. Itl be up the community as a whole to post in it and give feedback however. And I would also appreciate if people helped me gather information on the subject (there was a post in reddit at one point about the time to kill of pets on moving targets that would be useful).

DrEckers.2039:

Shadelong, I agree that power reaper needs some look at. Either raising weapon coefficients on Dagger/Greatsword or reworking traits to actually be effective in a raid encounter (looking at you Reaper’s onslaught and Soul Eater). If Power reaper was buffed to be comparable to other power dpses or a new specialization for ranger came out that was more in line with normal Power Ranger, would that get you to Raid?

While it would close the gap and allow me to make the attempt. There is still community belief we have to worry about.

Power Reaper is more LIKELY to be accepted than ranger. Because ranger currently fills its roll as a buffer even if the ranger wants to give that up in return for more personnel damage its likely the raid community itself would ignore any increases to its dps outside of that buffer roll in order to maintain its aspect as a buff for the rest of the raid. Druid is just too good at improving other peoples damage. And I am worried the class will be pidgeon holed into druid (atleast for PvE) for quite some time without some HEFTY reworks to the base class I can’t expect this late in the games life.

It would be easier with Reaper. As currently the largest reason to run condi reaper over power reaper is the higher damage. A base damage increase to power builds that put it on par with condi builds would mitigate the largest reason to take condi builds over power. And it would then be decided by the mechanics of the individual fight and the desires of the individual raid group.

Its still not a guarantee however. Even with those buffs it would likely take weeks if not months before “lf condi reaper” became “lf reaper” appeared in the PuR community. As for organized raids. They will likely be more accepting after the first round of DPS tests came out on reddit showing the two would be nearly equal. This would happen faster if the people posting the tests were well know groups such as DnT who have a significant affect on player opinion towards composition.

So even with buffs there is a good number of ifs. But that isn’t completely what you asked.

If I could begin to find raid groups on the builds I enjoy. I would likely begin looking for a long term raid group again. Regardless of how it was done.

What I would hope however is that it was done in a way that made the different builds equal. With only there utility separating them. (or in the case of power reaper vs condi reaper their damage application method) Or the utility they DO provide balanced in such a way that there is a reason to take either of them depending on raid composition.

Edit: Tl;DR Yes it would. But I feel that would be the easy way out and would just lead to this kind of issue happening for someone else instead of me. Which I feel is inherently kittened up if its possible to atleast mitigate it.

Sillytune.1580:

Shadelang.3012:

@Sillytune I played in the other expansions two man. Its why I said it how I did. I played all they way till MOP*. Including lich king when beast mastery hunters were considered jokes outside of BGs. I still topped dps meters even against top level players there.

Its true that its different than in GW2. I was only making an example based on my past experiences. Not a direct comparison by any means.

That illusion of choice is part of what annoys me. This game lies to you from the get go. Gets you to love a playstyle. Learn it. Master it. And when you get to the content that you have worked so hard to be able to play. It tells you that everything you did was completely worthless.

As for giving it time. How many expansions should I wait do you wonder? Do you REALLY think dps ranger is ever gonna out perform buff applying rangers in group environments? Not without those buffs being gutted first. Its built into the class too deeply now.

And im not gonna ask anet to butcher the rest of the ranger class so I can feel important there.

Its the same thing with condi reaper vs power reaper. Unless power reaper gets heavy buffs. Or condi reaper gets heavy nerfs it probably isn’t going to change. And again. Im not gonna ask anet to break someone elses playstyle to fit my needs. Or WORSE. Put players that love condi reaper to death and don’t want to play power reaper in the same position I am in now.

Thats why I gave up. Because no matter who wins here someone has to lose. If it isn’t those of us that don’t enjoy the current gameplay then itl be someone else that won’t enjoy our gameplay. So theres no point just pushing the misery onto other people.

“Shrug” Im never going to see gorseval. And im never going to see the bosses of SP or the new raid thats about to release.

Simply because there probably wont be any room for me.

And im okay with that. My post was only to awnser your question. Does it suck? Yeah. And it probably means my life span in this game won’t be for too much longer unless other things continue to catch my attention. But that isn’t the raids fault or the players fault or even anets fault. Its just how the dice rolled.

Edit: Bah realised after I posted that it made it sound like I was playing the martyr card. Not gonna edit it because this is still how I feel but wanted to say that wasn’t what I was going for. Just an accurate as possible portrayal of my feelings on the subject.

Nah again, you’re doing fine, and when i said thanks for your reply it wasn’t a sarcasam, i truly mean it.

However, your situation is well it’s dire to be fair, and i stand with your point of view as well.
I just don’t think that there’s anything that can be done in that case, until someone proves me otherwise, raids will always be custom-tailored otherwise they wont be challenging-fun at all.
We could have “bosses” like world-bosses, that don’t require you to do pretty much anything, other than spam 1, but it’d just feel kittenty tbh.
I got into this game because of®Aids only.

I’ve personally changed couple of classes here, because i was bad with them, one being PS warrior, and another one Druid, i simply can’t heal here without additional UI being in place.
So i’m playing Guard/Herald/Condi Eng, etc.

i understand that this’s not something that you should be doing, but maybe try changing another class and looking at end-content performance of that particular class and its playstyle, maybe it’ll be something that’ll interest you.

Again I never said we should have easier bosses. My “DREAM” would be to have builds that provide similar levels of utility also provide similar levels of dps. And dps focused builds that don’t provide utiltiy provide the dps to make up for it. The difference between dps builds should be HOW the damage is applied. To enable people with multiple playstyles to play the content. And to account for specific rolls (like vale guardian who REQUIRES a condi dps).

lets take power reaper and condi reaper as examples agian. Both are capable of aoe boon stripping and CC as well as debuffing. Which is the utility of their builds. But their potential dps has significant differences.

Condi reapers potential dps is MUCH higher than that of a power reaper. Even in ideal circumstances for the power reaper and sub ideal for the condi. Two builds that fulfill the same purpose to significantly different results.

If the difference in dps between the builds was only one or two thousand. Then people would be more inclined to pick their build based on the “flavor” of there build. A valk reaper plays differently than a zerk reaper. A zerk reaper plays differntly than a condi reaper. But ultimately all 3 fulfill the same utility roll in combat to similar effectiveness.

Its the application and levels of there damage that separate them apart and make only one of them ever viable.

I should warn you the second half of your post begins to sound condescending. The advice you have given is one that has occurred to me already so it sounds like your trying to talk down to me. Or that you feel like your talking to an inexperienced player and feel pity which is also something people could take as insulting. I don’t think thats your intent but I thought I should warn you.

Other classes/builds simply don’t have the same level of enjoyment for me. And Id rather let someone who will enjoy the content on those builds play rather than take the spot of someone who will have more fun than I will because I feel like I am fighting my own build. (Which is how playing condi/buff bot builds feels to me personally).

@Sillytune I played in the other expansions two man. Its why I said it how I did. I played all they way till MOP*. Including lich king when beast mastery hunters were considered jokes outside of BGs. I still topped dps meters even against top level players there.

Its true that its different than in GW2. I was only making an example based on my past experiences. Not a direct comparison by any means.

That illusion of choice is part of what annoys me. This game lies to you from the get go. Gets you to love a playstyle. Learn it. Master it. And when you get to the content that you have worked so hard to be able to play. It tells you that everything you did was completely worthless.

As for giving it time. How many expansions should I wait do you wonder? Do you REALLY think dps ranger is ever gonna out perform buff applying rangers in group environments? Not without those buffs being gutted first. Its built into the class too deeply now.

And im not gonna ask anet to butcher the rest of the ranger class so I can feel important there.

Its the same thing with condi reaper vs power reaper. Unless power reaper gets heavy buffs. Or condi reaper gets heavy nerfs it probably isn’t going to change. And again. Im not gonna ask anet to break someone elses playstyle to fit my needs. Or WORSE. Put players that love condi reaper to death and don’t want to play power reaper in the same position I am in now.

Thats why I gave up. Because no matter who wins here someone has to lose. If it isn’t those of us that don’t enjoy the current gameplay then itl be someone else that won’t enjoy our gameplay. So theres no point just pushing the misery onto other people.

“Shrug” Im never going to see gorseval. And im never going to see the bosses of SP or the new raid thats about to release.

Simply because there probably wont be any room for me.

And im okay with that. My post was only to awnser your question. Does it suck? Yeah. And it probably means my life span in this game won’t be for too much longer unless other things continue to catch my attention. But that isn’t the raids fault or the players fault or even anets fault. Its just how the dice rolled.

Edit: Bah realised after I posted that it made it sound like I was playing the martyr card. Not gonna edit it because this is still how I feel but wanted to say that wasn’t what I was going for. Just an accurate as possible portrayal of my feelings on the subject.

For me its probably the build dynamics. The variance in performance between two builds that fulfill the same roll in a raid environment can be INSANE. And area net’s way of dealing with it is to attack psuedo gimmicky mechanics to classes in order to make them relevant.

For example I main a ranger. I love the playstyle of the ranger. And especially the combat style of it. But unfortunately most of my build is decided for me in raids and high end content. We aren’t really dps builds. Were buff builds that also deal dps.

That unfortunately isn’t how I play ranger. And I am not a big fan of druid in general. Which means that quite frankly I am never going to play my favorite class in end game content. Because at this point the classes dynamics simply aren’t going to change away from being a buffer.

My other character is a reaper. Which is great. But its a power reaper. Which isn’t great. Again before raids got into full swing I fell in love with power reaper. I love the playstyle. And the way both the zerk and valk power dps builds feel amazes me. But I will never be able to play them in any form of challenging content. The hardest content I get to play them in is fractals but even THERE my condi counterpart has taken my spot.

The difference in performance and utility is just too high between the two builds. Despite the fact that the two builds serve arguably the same purpose. I have TRIED to find a raid group in three different guilds and probably 70-80 hours staring blankly at the lfg screen seeing (lf condi reaper) pop up and off every single post. I have given up.

The ONLY RAID GROUP I have gotten into since the first month of HoT came out I was invited to on accident. I had posted as a valk reaper (full ascended and propperly geared with food and oils and I had memorized the bosses mechanics by heart) and they just assumed I meant condi reaper when they invited me. I was promptly insulted and then booted.

I am sure you can understand why I personelly might not be happy with raids. Its not any fault of the raids. Or even the players that kick me. Its the class dynamics of the game that allows for two similar builds set up to fulfill identical purposes to have such a massive performance difference because one is condi and the other is power that REGARDLESS of the skill level of the weaker of the pair there is no possible way for them to overcome the difference.

To put it into perspective. I played a BM hunter in WoW. And I did progressive end game raiding in every expansion until I left near the end of MoP when I started doing GW2 full time. BM wasn’t the meta build for hunters for quite a lot of that time. But I was able to top dps charts because I new the mechanics of my build so well that I knew exactly how to use every cooldown properly because I had focused on honing that one playstyle.

That isn’t possible in GW2. Not just because we don’t have dps meters to prove (Hey I really CAN do competitive dps with you) but because even if we did with the games combat system dealing near the potential maximum dps for a class is incredibly simple. So there actually is no variance for skill level except how well you didnt stand in the fire.

So a super skilled power reaper has no chance of out performing a medium skilled condi reaper. Just like a Well played dps only ranger can never make up for the dps loss of a druid running group buffs.

It makes any incentive for me to improve enough to prove myself fly out the window. As the only thing that matters past a certain level is what build your running.

Thats why I am not happy with raiding in gw2. Because it rubs the flaws in our games system in my face as I watch my friends go through content I probably will never get to enjoy myeslf despite being willing to commit hour after hour to it. Because i don’t want to compromise what makes the game fun for me in the first place.

If you start in emerald and get even ONE game in you automatically get achievement credit for the previous leagues you would have crossed. At the same time you got all the rewards for crossing as well.

Edit: Also many people are able to hit legendary without being pro. I have done it in all three seasons. In the first season I hit legendary as a BASE ranger running marauders using a full 5 shouts (this was before shouts were reworked. I was running the single worst possible ranger build in the game that could still be called a “build”). I do not believe I am a pro league level player. That means that the average player running a good build should be able to hit legendary as long as they observe what they themselves do wrong and right in their matches.

Morte.5916:

Shadelang.3012:

So if your gonna go power reaper and go so far as crafting an ascended set for it. Consider valk as well when your looking at gear types.

I’ve been looking into that myself, it’s pretty interesting.

You can get loads of health, and also the worm runes are very tempting if you expect to lose your scholar’s bonus. The DPS with no external buffs is also excellent in the dual shroud version, because you’re getting 20-25 might/vuln and 100% crit so no need for fury.

On the downside, once you go valk you find that any time you are without most of fury/banners/spotter you must take soul reaping + reaper and camp shroud. That means no speed from traits, so you will want signet of the locust for running (which won’t work in shroud).

A set of berserker gear gives you more choices. But you may not need the choices, depends how much your circumstances vary.

I am somewhat inclined to say that you should go berzerker first and see what you think, how you feel about camping shroud etc, before committing to valk.

But yes, it is a very attractive and interesting option and it will be better for many people for much of the time.

I see what you mean. My main thought process on that though is if your in a situation where your not capping out on vuln/fury. Your going to want to camp shroud ANYWAY because odds are your the only reliable vulnerability source your group has. And youl provide more dps by keeping vuln up than you will be using other attacks. If vuln IS capped then your crit chance is going to be a minimum of 70ish percent in full valk (Valk accessories give some percision.) Which is actually more than enough for unorganized content.

Its the same thing with might. If the might source isn’t reliable then youd be using shroud anyway to generate might for yourself.

Ive never had any issue with mobility in most forms of content. Reaper shroud 2 is usually enough to get you to the next target. So you would only need it when your absolutely solo and just running from one location to the other in open world.

So while I understand your point and see your logic as solid. I feel that due to how the gameplay actually turns out you wouldn’t notice the faults your suggessting. Because your gameplay would automatically be forced to change to cover for those weaknesses anyway.

If theres no vuln youl be camping shroud anyway to generate vuln for other players until the enemy is low enough to start popping vuln from traits.

If theres no might youl be generating might for yourself as well.

In combat mobility as a reaper is enough to get from target to target quite reliably. Out of combat doesn’t matter too much as far as what were discussing here goes.

In organized play the weaknesses themselves won’t exist so valk will win by default.

Atleast thats how I have experienced it so far. I by no means am going to claim to be an expert.

Scrapper Probably.

While druid can be useful its damage is soft countered by most elite specs. Either forcing it take the long route to fighting (relying on interrupting,outlasting cooldowns until they can land heavier damage) (Staff/GS Staff/Longbow Longbow/GS builds) or forcing it to go more aggresive in a “Make it or break it” style of fighting (sword axe builds)

Scrapper however gets its offense and defense in the same skills. And its control skills are great setup for either more control skills or more damage. Edit: In a coordinated gank it also shuts warriors and condi reapers the kitten down.

So if you want a sustainable damage profession that is just plain reliable over all. Then probably scrapper. It’s a known quantity whos performance is not AS dictated by the enemy composition as druids can be.

One thing to think about if you do decide to try power. Beserker isn’t actually the best way to go for power reaper. Reaper gets almost 100% crit chance SUPER easily with 0 investment into precision. (50% from decimate defenses nearly 20% from valk trinkets 20% from fury). If you really want 100% you could swap in one maybe two zerk trinkets and reach it easily.

Because of that valk is actually the more efficient choice for reaper. As you get more health meaning that for you there are MANY attacks even in raids that you simply don’t have to dodge because you can soak. For the chip damage that often occurs in raid/high level fractals its less likely to drop you below 90% so you don’t lose the effect of scholar runes as easily. You get more benefit from things like furious maintenance oils.

In other words youl have more reliable dps uptime and uptime on scholar runes = more dps in valk than zerk. And its much more reliable in the situations where something goes wrong and your party needs heals. Quite often youl be able to just go into shroud and heal yourself to max before you come even close to running out of life force (or just soak it with life force in the first place saving your scholar runes proc while every else loses theirs) all while maintaining dps.

Brazil recently released a video on valk power reaper as well you can probably check out on youtube. He goes over it pretty well on its strengths and how it compares to things like condi viper reaper. (Edit: Infact That video was what got me to start playing my reaper again in PvE. Condi Builds are pretty unfun to play for me (just a matter of different playstyles) so I had given up on doing any form of serious content until I saw his video)

So if your gonna go power reaper and go so far as crafting an ascended set for it. Consider valk as well when your looking at gear types.