Guild Wars 2

jcbroe.4329:

If any discussion is to be had, it isn’t the current one, it’s the balance discussion of “what makes the combination of EB and SotF worth changing so that the traits are in direct competition of each other?”

I think it would be cool to change Empathic Bond completely. Since survival skills get all the condi removal in the world, why not shouts? Maybe make the trait so that shouts can remove conditions for yourself and your allies or something like that. This would make shouts way more appealing in my opinion. I would actually be excited for Heal As One being a shout with it. At that point you’d probably want to put the trait in the Beastmastery trait line with other shouts traits.

Just a thought since if you will run traps or anything you can still run Wilderness Knowledge and have better on demand condi removal thanks to Entangle, Lightning Reflexes (maybe you’d want SoR instead) and Troll Unguent equiped with your two traps.

Personally I have always hated Empathic Bond since it hurts your pet and there are good chances the condi removal will proc when you only have one or two condis on you, making your GM trait less useful than it should be.

Maybe a change of the trait’s name would be due because Empathic Bond may not really relate to shouts.

Leave the poor bearbows alone TY!!

Like I said I really do like having Wilderness Knowledge in Wilderness Survival trait, but doing so makes the other two Grandmaster traits look like simple master traits.

Empathic Bond is just a passive condi clear each 10s while you can have on-demand condi clear with Wilderness Knowledge + CD reductions on survival skills + a free sharpening skill trait when target gets low. Clearly superior to Empathic Bond especially with Troll Unguent being a survival skill now.

I don’t complain, I’m going to be able to have one of the best condi clears in the game, but it is going to make some once good traits inferior which will be sad.

Fluffball.8307:

Sebrent.3625:

Will have to see the rest of the specializations, but it’s an interesting thought … not sure if I feel like Chronomancer is Mesmer + Necro either.

6 gods, 6 dragons, 6 specializations we don’t know about yet. 6×6×6 is 216. 2+1+6=9. 9-6(gods/dragons/specializations we don’t know about) = 3. 12(months)-5(May)=7. 7+3=10. HoT is released in October.

May aswell take a break from the game if HoT only releases on October…but I’m too addicted to this game. The cries.

Don’t forget the 20% condition duration on Expertise Training! Gonna make Spider Immobs 1 second longer and both the Wolf fear and Drakehound immob increase by .5 second…!

I actually really like having Wilderness Knowledge in Wilderness Survival trait line for a power build, but it does mean that if you go condi ranger you probably will never take Poison Master. The solution would be to indeed put Wilderness Knowledge in Nature Magic. I don’t know why they added two condi clear traits in the same trait line with active one being so much superior than the passive one.

Having Wilderness Knowledge in Nature Magic would also make Protective Ward not worth taking, as the condi clear and survival cd reduction from the trait will just be too good in my opinion unless you face a team with zero conditions which will be rare.

I’m guessing Off-Hand training should be baseline in the Wilderness Survival trait line, since we already have Ambidexterity trait for increased condi damage for both dagger and torch off-hands. No point in putting it somewhere else.

What bugged me was every other class had their baselines announced while the ranger was completely ignored. The way they showed the new Ranger specialization felt really rushed and disrespectful for the players enjoying or maining the class. I think they should have not showed everything in one go and at least split it in half, making the streaming less forced.

If only we had a guy who knew what he was saying and showed more positivism when he was presenting the ranger specialization traits.

Don’t be afraid to ask people to duel you who are playing the builds you are having a bad time with. If they are nice enough they might give you some tips.

Against Greatsword/Longbow warriors, you have to keep in mind that you have to dodge their Whirlwind Attack and Rush as these skills do quite a good amount of damage if you decide to face tank it all. Also be careful to not get hit by Arcing Arrow and Pin Down(use your Lightning Reflexes if you get caught).

Against thieves you have to be pretty good at your power spec once they get close to you. When I am on point, I always put a barrage on the point to give myself a sort of protection from thieves. Keep your wolf fear for when they are going to use their Shadow Refuge, you can get a lot of thieves from this trick.

I play zerker ranger since a pretty long time now and I feel like it is a really rewarding spec once you know how to deal with builds that are supposed to counter you.

Why try harding for a leaderboard if you are not having fun doing it? You’ll be able to get llamas from ESL weeklies!

Actually better than having frost trap since it’s actually going to do damage and the weakness applied after on pet’s next attack.

Hopefully they give a bigger health pool to spirits now since they can’t move now. I never was a huge fan of spirit ranger but they are way too easily killed.

Ltomato.8649:

Your rapid fire won’t be auto canceled as long as you move your camera to where your enemy is pointing at you.

Nope. All the enemy has to do is close distance and run through you. Which will be easy because you’re going to have to be in combat before you swap weapons. So unless you run double longbow…

It’s also competing with 10% damage traits.

There is a reason why we have immobs and pets to cc the target. Learn to use them well against them and you won’t have that much of a problem.

Ltomato.8649:

Note that this isn’t as good as it sounds.

If you want to get the most out of double maul, you need to go into beastmastery for the greatsword trait and take two relatively useless pet traits.

If you want to double rapid fire you need to somehow be in combat already, but far enough away that your rapid fire can’t be ground closed and autocancelled.

So yeah, as nice as it sounds on paper, it’s not actually that great.

Your rapid fire won’t be auto canceled as long as you move your camera to where your enemy is pointing at you. Also if you stand still while channeling your rapid fire, the skill will track the enemy even if they are turning around you.

If you ask me, this is a pretty darn good trait when I think of all the possibilities it could open.

Or you could also cancel your pet abilities at times you don’t want them to. The canines knockdowns for example.

If you mean their F2 abilities, then you just have to deal with it for now unless miracles happen at the expansion! The pet will always tend to run next to the enemy before they use their skill, which might not be what you wanted him to do. When I’m using the Wolf Fear while I’m in downed state I make sure I’m not targeting someone too far or else it will just prolong the f2 skill and I may end up dead before he uses it.

Man I can’t wait to know what this specialization is going to bring to our class. So much potential I see from this.

For power ranger specs:

• Read The Wind: A very strong trait that allows your arrows to be un-strafable for the enemy. If you don’t take this trait you will simply see lots of arrows miss the target, losing quite an amount of effectiveness to your longbow. Also makes your arrows 10% faster, and it is noticeable.

For condition ranger specs:

• Survival of the Fittest: One of the best traits for self condi clear in the game (removes 2 conditions for every survival skills or traits and gives fury. Entangle removes even more as it is an elite). Works with all the survival skills and survival traits.

• Empathic Bond: If you aren’t playing with SotF, you’ll want to get this trait (removes 3 conditions each 10s) to have the minimum condition removal required to survive with a condition build. Spirits, Traps, Shouts and Beastmasters all need this trait or else they would be in an even worse state than they are at the moment.

I love fighting thieves 1v1 on Power Ranger! They think I’m an easy kill until they realize they might not win their fight.

jcbroe.4329:

I’ve actually been splitting the difference in WvW and running 6/5/3/0/0. Obviously a huge difference between WvW and PvP, but I haven’t messed around with the new Hide in Plain Sight yet enough to know how truly helpful it is.

My most pressing question; how helpful is it against “typical” bad situations with thieves jumping you (Guard won’t trigger it unless you walk into the ring or they banish you?)?

Is it worth dropping the 10% flanking damage for?

The trait has helped me alot in Conquest, haven’t tested it that much in WvW yet tho.

Here are some scenarios where it can help you quite abit:

• Thieves when they get a steal on you. This can confuse thieves alot when it happens, and if you get them by surprise you can easily kill them.
• Mesmer #5 skill on the greatsword. It can be hard to dodge that skill.
• Rifle engies knockbacks. Also a kittene to dodge as you have to guess when he will use it.
• Other LB rangers Point Blank Shot. Most of the time they will follow that up with a Rapid Fire, but they won’t be able to do that on you if you get stealthed.
• Any classes in downed state that interrupts you while you are trying to stomp. You get a stealth that can stack with your Longbow stealth then you can continue your stomp safely with the enemy not knowing. This applies mostly to the guardian knockback and ranger thunderclap.

All of these skills put you in stealth. While you are in stealth you have time to reposition yourself to surprise your target and kill it pretty quickly. If you ask me, yes it is worth sacrificing the flanking trait. I have never needed that trait to kill anyone until now.

Eurantien.4632:

I used to call these types of builds “training wheels” funny how the meta can make us digress in a sense. Personally, I think 6/6/2/0/0 or 6/4/4/0/0 are the best options we have.

I definitely feel like Read the Wind ranger is the best we have once the player gets better at the class. Signet of Renewal can save both you and your allies’s butts when you try to res them or simply are going to clear condis from someone who has plenty of it (and it’s a fokin break stun!!!!), a utility skill you will most likely not use if you are running Survival of the Fittest trait…

jcbroe.4329:

I’ve played them both, I like them both. In general, I don’t think I personally take advantage of MoC enough to make it worthwhile, which is why I’ve ultimately stopped running it in every build.

I don’t think MoC is needed at all to finish off enemies either. I run 6/4/4/0/0 variation (protection on dodges and the new Hide in Plain Sight, yum yum!) of the Read the Wind build and it works like a charm for me.

Hell, I’m sure a 0/4/4/6/0 variation of the Survival of the Fittest could also work. Think I’m going to test that out in abit. I like the idea of the build as I’m a very aggressive player and I prefer to fight on point against an enemy than standing on the ledge.

As long as you time your pet immobs and knockbacks well with you weapon skills you can kill anything without the need of Moment of Clarity. Some prefer killing their enemies faster but I think it’s better to stay in the fight longer to eventually bring more damage in the fights.

google.3709:

Euratine, but he rarely streams…

Or Mario_Ops (She streams really early in the morning).

Unfortunately ranger game play is a fun to watch as watching me type 1..1…1…1…1…1…1…1…1..1

I’m sure I’ll be way more fun to watch than that when I start streaming! Good rangers don’t only use that 1 spam button, but take full advantage of their pets and know how and when to use their melee weapons aswell. I will also show you how to use the other skills on the longbow! omg!

Here’s my twitch where I’ll stream! : http://www.twitch.tv/talgo_da_hiro

I remember crying laughing watching the first Karaoke Tournament. Can’t wait to see this!

manysongsgw.2931:

Engineer:

Updated grand master trait where “Turrets apply boons” to “Turrets orbit the sky and gain solar panels to increase their self regeneration.”

Updated animation of placing turrets to launching satellites into the sky when using the grand master Satellite trait.

This sounds scary as kitten.

Here is an untraditional build I’ve been playing around with since 2 days ago for PvP.

I basically just love the mobility I get from having Nature’s Voice trait with a shout on (which is the Guard utility skill). I used to roam a lot with shouts 2 years ago in WvW, so I wanted to give it a spin again just for the heck of it, but in PvP instead.

I know some people don’t like playing with Guard as you constantly have to reset your pet when you are running, but I got used to it after a while.

I still don’t know about which amulet I prefer, but I kinda like celestial at the moment. I also like how Guard hides my Owl, takes the enemies by surprise!

Patchi.9061:

No. I wreck power necros all the time, I have 0 issues with rangers/necros/turret engis. In fact, I have no problem facing any class as a cele engi except possibly condi rangers. However, don’t overthink this too much. I’ll do some baby step explanation for you sir.

Necro takes no skill. Rangers take no skill. Turret engis take no skill. Yet they are all effective in solo q/team q because again…they take no skill but have very high reward. It is ANNOYING to deal with, Extremley over used by the player base, and extrmley frustrating for anyone who wants to be part of the PvP scene.

Anet needs to reward SKILLED gameplay, or this is NOT esports, but a complete and an utterly sad joke.

So I guess I should feel bad then for maining ranger from reading this. I beat cele engis, shoutbow warriors ,cele eles and even hammer guardians on point as a power ranger.

For some reason tho you always had issues facing me on power ranger with your engi. Guess there is a skilled ranger player.

Yep, no skill at all. But I do have fun playing it!

Tragic Positive.9356:

We all know that as long as the Ranger is concerned there will be QQ issues no matter what nerfs would show up

I fully agree on that. No matter what change anet will give to the class/builds, there will be a huge amount of QQ from players of other classes. Either condi builds or power builds, they will always hate us. But it’s fine, I like to spread the love!

Fluffball.8307:

If you do want to talk 1v1, a cele staff ele beats a LB ranger, although that fight wouldn’t be at long range.

I can’t remember when I ever lost a 1v1 versus good cele staff eles in conquest mode, never had that much of a problem with them on power ranger honestly. If you see their reflect skills, just stow your longbow.

Ah come on Paw Paw! I’m sure you can differentiate me from bad rangers . I do understand the anger tho. Completelly do.

Thanks for letting us know this issue will be fixed Jon! Can’t wait for the update.

Darkness.9732:

Enjoy your ranger and enjoy getting stomped by every single class in this game.

This made me laugh so hard.

pfanne.9783:

I’m not saying powerranger is the best build in the universe and works great in the very competitive scene, but those claims of “I kill all rangers in less then 9 seconds ’cause they all noobz and the build sucks” are BS. As a powerranger you have quite a few tools to keep people off you for a bit.

Try to not get stuff in the forums too personally. You won’t change the minds of these guys until you prove them wrong. As long as you are having fun and having success playing this game it doesn’t matter what build you play.

Some builds perform better than others at specific things and I do think a good power ranger brings more to the table compared to a good condi ranger.

I am at a level where I can beat the best cele engis, shoutbows and even d/d eles in NA on power ranger. If only I had the time to make a team for tournaments.

I always love people saying all rangers are bad. They always get surprised once they get stomped by a power ranger on a node.

I have 5 rangers. Two humans, one charr, one asura and the last one is a sylvari. I guess it’s a lot but I used to love theorycrafting for WvW roaming and giving specific looks to my characters.

Now that I’m more into sPvP, I only use two of my rangers, but keep my other rangers for the slot spaces.

Solo queues in ranked can be quite punishing for most and I understand why it discourages them to play the game.

I however don’t look at it that way. I love to fight premades when I go play solo, adds challenge I want to get. If you end up winning versus the premade team, the feeling is pretty satisfying.

It can only make me a better player I tell to myself!

Condi ranger, longbow ranger, condi necro, shatter mesmer (a really well played one) are all specs that can deal with cele engineers.

You can’t just spam your skills and hope to win your 1v1 against them. If you run entangle on your ranger, don’t use it right away as you want to proc their condi transfer into boon trait first. They are extremelly vulnerable to cc, so take that to your advantage with the immobs and knockbacks.

Always, ALWAYS dodge the Magnet Pull from them or use your Lightning Reflexes if you get caught by it, as you really don’t want to get hit by the pry bar. Also watch out and try to guess when the engi will use their knockback on their rifle (they always try to get as close as they can to you to maximize it’s effectiveness), this skill can be quite deadly if you don’t have any break stuns available.

If you take your distance, use your stealth well (use your barrage after that to make sure the engi doesn’t want to come close to you) and know when to use your greatsword, you should be able to win most of your fights versus them as you practice.

Hope the tips will help, don’t give up!

The l2p issue is strong with this one. I actually love to face mesmers on ranger, they are among my favorite to fight.

You really shouldn’t talk trash about mesmers if you don’t know how to fight them. Play one or duel them to learn how to deal with the classes you have issues with.

I main power ranger and I really embrace the love I get every day.

Rome.7124:

I have never taken HiPS, and I dont understand why it’s good. Let say you get jumped by a thief who hit u with a immobilize skill, u become camouflaged at the location if you were hit, any movement will reveal you(is that correct), what does that do for you to survive the attack? Thief can just keep swinging away at where you are camo’d.

Can some expand on why HiPS is good?

Now Hide in Plain Sight is good because the trait has now been changed since the last patch. It does not give you a camouflage anymore, it gives you stealth. So you can move and not get revealed now for 3s.

Sebrent.3625:

Careful using the word “always”, friend :-)

Times I’m not hesistant to auto-attack with 1H Sword:

• Target is CC’d (knockdown, fear, etc.)
• Target’s key abilities are on cooldown
• Signet of Stone immunity
• Protect Me pseudo immunity

Of course there are times where it is a good time to use the auto attack. Maybe I shouldn’t have said the word “ALWAYS”, but “most of the time” hehe.

I understand the pet CC’s, but you really don’t want to pop your immunity skills (SoS & Protect Me) just for the sake of autoattacking your opponent. In the long run, Greatsword will end up do more for you anyways.

Even if you are a master of the 1h sword it’s not a practical weapon to use in my opinion compared to using greatsword. You will always hesitate in auto attacking using a zerker build with a 1h sword in PvP, hence why Greatsword will do more damage for you since you won’t be rooted when you attack.

Lewis Burnell.2493:

This variant build isn’t about feeling manly, it’s about being clever with build design. By not taking Traits in the Skirmishing line, you lose some Precision but gain the following:

Additional power from Strength of Spirit
Condition removal from dodging (Poison and Blindness)
x2 Condition removal for EACH Survival skill you use
Fury on EACH Survival skill you use
Fury and condition removal on Keen Edge (Trait)
30% extra Boon duration (applies to said Fury)
Lots more health

Taking the traditional Read The Wind Meta Build (as you describe) makes absolutely no sense. It has almost no condition removal, you have less health and don’t deal much more damage.

No matter what, I still like to feel pretty manly when I play zerker ranger

Alright I’ll stop my manly talk as you seem to not appreciate it.

There are builds with your variation you won’t be able to do enough damage for you to kill. You have good condition removal, but your job is not to stay on a point, which makes the condi removes not really that great honestly. It really depends how you want to play it tho, if you want to be more on point often then yeah it is good, but other specs are better than you to fill that job anyways. I know it’s a lot better to deal with condis (I have played with every possible variations of zerker ranger), but I never had problems to deal with condi specs. I actually think your build has too much condi cleanse for nothing for the job you’re supposed to fill. Also keep in mind your team (shoutbow, dagger/dagger ele) can condi cleanse for you, it’s not as if you are alone in the team.

Also with SotF variant you will lose mobility. I find the on swap swiftness helps alot when you want to travel from point to point to kill the next target.

Not killing your enemies fast enough can be the difference between you or your friend getting in the downed state or getting saved. The point I’m trying to make is there is no reason for me to take those defensive traits if I don’t need it in the first place.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjEq0yaDL+rQ1ag+ga9DEAjd7fYFuBW/bJrIK-TpBFwACuAAMOCAIOEA12foaZAAPAAA
Here is a variation I would recommend using if you have hard times to deal with conditions. Shadowpass, Infantry and other good rangers use these traits as well and it works out pretty well for them too.

Lewis Burnell.2493:

It’s actually surprisingly easy if you don’t use the garbage Meta build. Try this instead:

http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjEq0waHLusQ1ag+ga9CEAjdrfw9VEEp9AqA-TpBFwACuAAIOCA12fYxhAoaZAAPAAA

This build does not feel manly enough to me :/ but hey if it works for you then that’s what counts!

It’s actually not that hard to survive using 6/6/2/0/0 once you get used to kiting and know what to dodge.

6/2/6/0/0 or 6/4/4/0/0 are also other variations some can run if they feel they die too easily.

Charr rangers make Rapid Fire look effortless to execute <3

Tragic Positive.9356:

Correct me if I’m mistaken here, but you consider GlassBow ranger an aggressive character… That sadly is only good at fighting people that cannot fight back – due to range – or people who die in 1 rapid fire. (lack of survival and lack of burst… Ranger’s damage peak is tunnel variation of DPS, not a burst)…

I think you have never seen a good power ranger play then.

They are stronger than you think in 1v1s with both players having their cooldowns up. The mechanical skill with the class plays a huge part here like any other class.

I practice the class everyday, and to me it is worth it as it is my favorite class in the game.

If you still don’t know if this class is for you tho, like Eura said it’s hard to recommend this class as all the other classes can do what rangers do just far more simpler thanks to not having pet micromanagement. When in huge team fighting it is hard to focus on both the enemy and what your pet is doing, making the pet skill cancels a lot harder.

That being said, I still believe ranger has great potential competitively.

This is bound to be fixed soon because every class has this issue about burning right now. Tested out other classes and they all got burning ticking different numbers .

Michael.9517:

a good lb ranger should beat a theif 1v1 assuming equal skill.

in team comp though thief soft counters rangers….just because many times a ranger used his cd’s already on trying to burst a target they could see,.. But if a ranger sees you coming… and has his Cd’s… he will win unless you disengage… which you can easily do.

However, most LB rangers suck, so usually try to 1v1 them anyway.

Don’t get discouraged. Rangers are well equipped to beat thiefs 1v1.

In some instances though a thief does truly have the upper hand… this will be in areas where there is a lot of LOS. But overall, ranger >thief.

All those people telling you .. your bad lrn2ply are just trolls.

Pretty much this. I’m one of the few good longbow rangers playing PvP and I rarelly lose any 1v1s against thiefs. We are well equiped, but if thiefs use LoS in their advantage in maps like Niflhel they can beat us.

Also thiefs should always try to get as close as possible to the ranger and burst them while moving around them. Not many know how to track their target with their camera using their rapid fire, and thus will just cancel their skill and put it on CD.

Hope this will be fixed soon, because ANet can be pretty slow with fixes sometimes.

On another note, just imagine how this update was bugged last week and also think how it would have been if it was released a week before…

Either condi or power ranger build, I would always recommend using either wolf + drakehound or wolf + spider combo. The reason why you want these pets is basically because locking down your opponents with immobilizes and knockdowns makes it much easier to apply your damage.

Wolf: You always want this pet as one of your two pets. The knockdown and the fear from the pet is just too good compared to anything else.

Drakehound: Having a second dog for the cc and an AoE immobilize makes the build great because you can combo those ccs really well with your weapon skills.

Spider: Has a passive telegraphed immob and one that the other player cannot see coming. The poison is great and using it to block projectiles (since it stands still and damages from range) makes this one of my favorite pets in the game.

Also other options like the river drake and even birds can work, but are less effective imo. Even double moas could be decent I think LOL.

Aylpse.6280:

-If you are being reflected, you can *dodge, weapon-swap or use any other attack skill to stop Rapid fire.

Or you could also stow your weapon instead of wasting a dodge or a weapon swap you don’t really want. Key binding stow weapon is so so good!