Guild Wars 2

(D)ecember 10th balance change(s)

ExaFlare.1390:

Soilder.3607:

ExaFlare.1390:

While I think that Diamond Skin is less OP than Automated Response.
Things like Automated Response and Diamond Skin should not exist. You can’t give a player this kind of passive ability. Either give an actual reduced condi duration instead of total immunity, or make it work like Berserker Stance.
Passive play should not be encouraged anyway.

I also think that Settler’s Amulet has a ridiculous stats spread, those 3 stats should never be together in tpvp. Condi bunker is the worst kind of bunker.

Just wait for the Dire Amulet…

Yeah. I hope they listen to all the players saying that Dire should not be added to spvp

If they do, omg, so many builds would become super op. Think of staff/scepter mesmers, 3 kit engi’s, lb/ dual sword warriors, p/d thieves, necros…

Arius.7031:

This is totally skewed. Of course heavies are more suited to zerg combat and that’s the way it should be, thus you see more of them in WvW. But tell me, how many guardians can beat a Mesmer 1v1? 1 out of every 10, maybe, if we’re generous? How many Guardians do you see doing really successful roaming like thieves/memsers? Warrior is, at best, decent in roaming/duels, not OP like Mesmer for example. Guardian is very, very bad at 1v1 and pretty bad at small scale roaming. It balances itself out.

For the record, my sig was too long so I had to cut it, but I have an 80 Necro and an 80 Mesmer as well, so I’m not just in it for the guardians.

Are you joking? Warrior is one of the best roaming and dueling classes in the game right now. Why do you think they’re getting nerfed come Dec 10th?

Hi, this skill is bugged. If you run off a ledge while the skill is still in use, your character will stop for a few seconds, and then resume the animation. Also, during instances of lag, sometimes the second part of the skill will simply fail to move you or turn your character around and move you backwards slightly.

The first bug, however, has been a problem since launch. Please fix it.

ExaFlare.1390:

While I think that Diamond Skin is less OP than Automated Response.
Things like Automated Response and Diamond Skin should not exist. You can’t give a player this kind of passive ability. Either give an actual reduced condi duration instead of total immunity, or make it work like Berserker Stance.
Passive play should not be encouraged anyway.

I also think that Settler’s Amulet has a ridiculous stats spread, those 3 stats should never be together in tpvp. Condi bunker is the worst kind of bunker.

Just wait for the Dire Amulet…

Caffynated.5713:

Dat overzealous moderation doe….

Let’s try this again.

Based on my tests from a long time ago, the “back” is a 180 degree arc behind the target. Flanking attacks are anything except the tiny 90 degree (maybe less) in front of the target. It’s not a thief specific game mechanic.

Mac Maritimus.8327:

This.

Thiefs are NOT overpowered as we speak. Its very high risk with less reward with all those bunker builds floating around on warriors, necs and rangers. Thiefs needs need some love or better ranged options otherwise they will stop getting playd even in hot-join, in high end tpvp they been away for months.

Thief is less OP than warrior, necro and ranger, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t OP. S/D damage avoidance and D/P perma stealth are both completely broken. They’re being hit on Dec. 10th, so we’ll see how that shakes out. Otherwise, I think thief is fine in sPvP due to the far lower effective power in the game mode. They’re still completely broken in WvW though.

My main gripes with thief is in WvW. They have blatantly op escapability and I have complained about it since day one. But then again, a-net can’t balance for kitten, so…

Fluffball.8307:

PvE it should be fairly trivial to keep your pet alive. Some basic recalls, swaps, prots, and heals will suffice for all but the toughest of bosses. CoF: your pet is never, ever going to die if you’re paying attention (boulders aside). Fractal level 39 molten facility, maybe, but it should actually do pretty well.

PvP pets are powerful. WvW roaming pets are even more poweful. Zerg pets die too much; that’s where the conversation should be centered. Do zergs deserve a special pet consideration, or are the mechanics of a zerg weird enough that it’s ok as is?

Mm, sPvP pets aren’t as good as you think. If you aren’t playing bm, they’ll die fairly easily as sPvP is all about bombarding points with AoE.

Absolutely spot on with the condition suggestions, ESPECIALLY torment. Day 1 since its introduction I have claimed that its extremely op and it 100% is. Seriously, kittening impale the OH warrior sword #4 can deal well over 10k damage if you move continuously, and that can be achieved without having to sacrifice survivability like a zerker would need to do to achieve the same damage.

Burning totally needs to be around 200 dps base. I’m tired of seeing power wars run lb because burning is so good even without cd.

Xukavi.4320:

The problem is that PvE mobs and pet AI are one and the same. For example, your suggestion on having cone skills follow players. Imagine if PvE mobs followed you with those cone skills, there wouldn’t be any way to avoid dmg (other than a dodge or a block) thru mobility. Since pet’s AI is shared with PvE mobs’s AI they’d have to split or do an overhaul with with how the AI works which is the problem in the first place that the devs have admitted to having. It’ll take too much time and work so they’re trying to band aid the problem

PvE in this game is faceroll easy, so maybe that’d be a good thing.

Idk what these people are talking about. 0 0 30 10 30 bm with s/t and a/d is still a very strong spec. Massive regen, tons of evades, good cd damage, and good mobility all followed by a pet that can deal strong damage and is extra tanky due to regen and increased stats. Only drawback really is weakness to condition bursts and a low hp pool.

Eh, the class is decentish now. Nothing great though. It’d be best to just role a warrior and facepwn everything.

Edit: And pets will still get crushed in any AoE heavy fight.

Sube Dai.8496:

Soilder.3607:

Sube Dai.8496:

Can you kill people with that though? Can you kill a guardian?

Bunker or zerk I sure can.

Sube Dai.8496:

I’ve never tried full power without crit. How much damage does maul and path of scars do?

I wonder how it compares to a clerics build, if the regen is better than the HP from soldiers…

what’s with the crit damage rune and spotter? They seem like a total waste.

Runes of the orge are for the +4% damage bonus, spotter because there really isn’t another trait worth taking.

Depending on your target, maul does around 2-2.5k and PoS around 1.5-2k.

Well that +4% damage is taking your maul from about 2400 to 2500, so not really worth it imo. I would probably take runes of the fighter instead.

And spotter is taking your crit chance from 4% to 11%, so still totally worthless. I would take signet of the beastmaster for the SotH active which will give you some sort of burst, and put your immobs to use. The trick would be getting your spiders to immob first before you attack, so that you can stack SotH and your opening strike for guaranteed crit. That is the best burst you will have with this build.

I still don’t know if those numbers are worth it but I think I will give it a go. Condition builds are just so boring.

Signet of the beastmaster really isn’t worth it. Every 30 sec pop really isn’t good imo and I dont want to be without the speed buff for that long.

Runes of the fighter are just bad. Extra toughness which I totally don’t need and one perma stack of might? Ogre runes give me much better damage and since I have so much immobile the rock dog it summons can actually hit my target.

+25% movement is very important for mobility and my ability to stay on my target. Since I have no way to gain swiftness, losing it for even 30 seconds is pretty bad. Not only that but the slight damage buff I’d gain from having higher hitting mauls probably would drop my overall dps as my target gains an increased ability to kite me from my speed boost loss.

Cufufalating.8479:

I dont want to pile on with others being all negative, since I havent tried the build, but it does seem strange to focus on immobilize when you can neither burst nor kite (since you dont have range).

Immobilizing is usually use for either of those purposes, but it doesnt seem to serve much purpose in your build other than for running away.

The problem with running a full melee build with ranger is that your opponent can easily kite you. Easily. Try running a full melee build without any immobile and you’ll see what I mean. And I do have slight burst, PoS into maul works fairly often since I have lots of immobile to ensure PoS hits twice.

Benjamin.8237:

I run two spiders and I don’t have a problem with -98% warriors at all; I have my interrupts and dazes alongside that and the ability to kite however, I use a condition and power hybrid. I don’t think 2 spiders will work well at all in a power build, Drake Hound and Wolf would be a better combo, you have 2 knockdowns, a fear and an immobilise if you so please.

While running a full melee build, you simply cannot use any melee pets. In such a situation, you and your pet will always be within melee range of each other and therefore any non single target attacks focused on you will hit your pet as well. This is why I run dual spiders, and both of them have fairly strong f2’s (6 sec immob, 2×10 sec weakness..)

Dhunis.9072:

Soilder.3607:

Sube Dai.8496:

Can you kill people with that though? Can you kill a guardian?

Bunker or zerk I sure can.

I would like to see how you kill a competent bunker guardian with this build.

You’re actually right about that I cannot kill a full bunker guardian, but they can neither kill me. I typed those responses while on the bus this morning and I don’t know why I put that.

Fomby.4295:

You say you use it in zerging. What kind? Organized guild or pug groups? I ask, because I don’t see the ability to keep up in an organized group. You have zero access to stability but you are melee on both weapon swaps, and you have the vit/tough to take a hit.

Also, if you run front line, how often are the pets dying?

It’s an interesting build and I tried something similar to it before. But I was unimpressed when compared to heavy class frontliners and decided to stick with max range backline on my ranger.

No guild zerging, just regular zerging with a commander. And the pet will die pretty often in full zergs but that’s pretty much unavoidable no matter the build. And while you’re right about zero stability, I’ve never really had a problem with it.

Then again, I can’t remember the last time someone wanted a ranger in an organized zerg.

ItIsFinished.9462:

I’m curious about this build. Any chance you can put up a video of it in action?

I’m not really going to have time to this week but I’ll see if I can today

Sube Dai.8496:

Can you kill people with that though? Can you kill a guardian?

Bunker or zerk I sure can.

Sube Dai.8496:

I’ve never tried full power without crit. How much damage does maul and path of scars do?

I wonder how it compares to a clerics build, if the regen is better than the HP from soldiers…

what’s with the crit damage rune and spotter? They seem like a total waste.

Runes of the orge are for the +4% damage bonus, spotter because there really isn’t another trait worth taking.

Depending on your target, maul does around 2-2.5k and PoS around 1.5-2k.

Me thinks those stun wars should be taken care of first.

Increase AA damage by 20%, have swoop apply 10 stacks vulnerability, have maul weaken instead, problem solved.

Thief shortbow is absolutely great in some situations and downright OP in others (spammable blast finisher and evade), but some things will never change like it’s terrible dps because of it’s fantastic utility.

(sPvP/WvW) http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAR8XjAVV2BWOWo2Bi1j9Ao93ewJLhJXBUVymiC-jAyAoLioZCUgpCKaZvioxWILiGreBTXSEV7xLiWtQACGDA-e

( Dungeons/Fractals Variant) http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAR8XjEVB2VVeVs2Bi1j9on93eoJLdeXhSlxRf8KC-jAyAoLioZCUgpCKaZvioxWILiGreBTXSEV7xLiWtQACGDA-e

Why this build?

Well, I’ve been using this build for a long time but never really bothered to share it with anyone. However, after constantly hearing negativity on these forums about Ranger power builds, I decided it was time to reveal it. Additionally, the recent immobilize stacking update has increased it’s viability more than ever.

Simply put, this build is very efficient. You have extreme amounts of immobile, insane survivability (soldier’s gear), mobility rivaling that of a thief and warrior (not a joke), a decent amount of cc, and a fairly good dps output. Superior sigils of hydromancy only add to your ability to pin down and damage your foe as well.

Where can I use it?

I mostly play sPvP and WvW (roaming and zering) and designed the build mostly for those purposes, but it honestly works very well in pretty much all forms of gameplay. I do use a separate version for dungeons and fractals, however.

Pets

Dual spiders are essential to this build for their immobilization. If you really think you have to swap a pet, then swap the Cave Spider. The Jungle Spider’s f2 is too good to let go. And do not swap to a melee pet unless they are very tanky because having both you and your pet in melee range means that your pet will take any attacks focused on you. When running the Dungeons/Fractals variant, you can pretty much bring any pet you please but I prefer the drakes due to their tankiness and wondrous f2 abilities.

Weapons

I honestly love to run bows, however, all melee I find has a better overall dps, good synergy with hydromancy sigils (you’re constantly near your target to proc their effects), and an extreme amount of mobility, something especially invaluable in WvW.
Not only that, but since I have so much immobilize, Path of Scars is very reliable and it’s damage + cc is really too good to let go of. And lastly, Whirling Defense and Counterattack give me a fairly high uptime on projectile block time.

Weaknesses

As with most Ranger builds, heavy condition specs can be a problem. Generally, with good game play these can be overcome (I’ve beaten PU mesmers, 3 kit cd bunker engi’s, P/D thieves, BM Rangers, SS/LB Wars etc…) However, the only class I really have trouble with is CD burst necros. If I get hit by one, I try and fight but If I realize I can’t win, I just run away because I’ve got the skills to do so and he/she can’t chase me. If you come across any perplexity rune users in WvW, don’t bother to fight them because those sigils are unbelievably OP.

Well that’s it mates, good luck and have fun.

For the past few weeks the lag has been terrible on the weekends. I can’t play wvw, I can’t solo roam pve, I can’t even play spvp because of the lag. Seriously, I went to the hall of monuments just to test and I still had tremendous skill lag. This is getting ridiculous.

Sbi server

OGDeadHead.8326:

Serraphin Storm.2369:

If you don’t like the trait don’t use it. I for one use it. we are not other classes trying to compare traits on a one for one bases doesn’t give a true picture.

True. Doesn’t change the fact that having to invest 30 points into a traitline to get the benefits of active effects of signets sucks.

Or the fact that we need 30 to make traps useful.
Or 30 to make spirits useful.
Or 30 to make guard useful.
Atleast survival skills don’t need to be traited.

Solandri.9640:

Cufufalating.8479:

I mean, you could increase the MH axes damage by 50% and probably noone would notice or care,

That’s actually already happened. OH axe 4, Path of Scars, had its damage coefficient upped from 0.7 to 1.2. It’s now the highest damage skill available to the ranger with a single button press (it hits twice, for an effective 2.4 coefficient vs Maul’s 1.7).

Nobody cares.

I use OH axe all the time. #4 with the damage and pull effect is too hard to give up.

While playing a full power ranger gs/sa with soldiers gear
In order from easiest to hardest

1. Glass cannon ele’s
2. Glass cannon d/d Thieves
3. Any power engi
4. Any S/D and S/P thief
5. Zerk Guardian
6. Stun Wars
7. Glass Cannon Mesmers
8. BM Bunker Rangers
9. Condition burst necro
10. CD Bunker Engi

Things I did not include
Bunker Guards – Can’t kill me, can’t kill them
Bunker Warriors – Can’t kill me, can’t kill them
Bunker Eles – Can’t kill me, can’t kill them

But to be completely honest, it all depends on your build and their build. If I were running full zerk lb/sb, then CD Bunker Engis and condition burst necros wouldn’t even be a problem to me. But since I’m all melee, they can easily focus me while kiting due to the nature of their attacks.

1. New game modes and maps
2. Gold rewards from tournaments
3. Better class balance

Keep the great sword as it is bit just bump the damage of its AA by 20-30% and then maul by another ~10% or so.

Dirame.8521:

Nova Stiker.8396:

Josh Davis.6015:

We’ll be reducing the maximum amount immobilize stacks in the near future.

Or just change it back. The game was DESIGNED with ONE stack of immobilize in mind.

Not five, not four, not three nor two, designed for just one.

Stop adding/changing mechanics without considering the entire game! (AHEM torment)

But… torment isn’t that bad though…..

The warrior skill impale can deal well over 10k damage with just 1000 condition damage. Worst part is, since the terror is applied gradually, you can’t just clear it and be done. Most op skill in the game.

wauwi.9162:

fixing the sticky 1H Sword and the Greatbow should have top-priority for now.

Yes, we must fix the great bow…

In all seriousness, I think #5 needs to give at least three stacks of might to justify its cool down. And then #4 should be redesigned to be supportive and maybe remove conditions.

This is actually a fantastic idea. Healing Spring duration and vigor field abilities were nerfed so why not make it a trap and allow it to be traited as one? I really want this now.

Since you already have zerker and rabid/rampager, it would be best to pick up a full apothecary’s set and a full soldier’s set. Then you can pretty much play every build. I only really use soldier’s tbh because ,#1, I hate condition builds, #2, I love the super tankiness and good dps.

Cufufalating.8479:

Hyena + wolf + mistfirewolf + rune of the ogre.

Lets go.

Hyena + wolf + hounds of balthazar+ runes of the orge + full spirits

10 minions what up

Just so everyone is aware, sword auto #2 is actually not 400 range. Its the same range as all melee attacks but the tool tip has been wrong since launch. Only the third skill in the auto attack chain has 400 range.

meikodesign.6471:

Soilder.3607:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAsXRjAVV2BWOWo2Bi1j9Ao93ewJLhJXBUVymiC-TsAA1CtIQShkDJDSSksINKYByEEA

I use this build mainly for wvw roaming, some zerging, and spvp. It is simply fantastic because of how well you can pin down your opponent. The main problem with using ranger melee weapons is that they really can’t prevent your opponent from kiting. But with this build you have tons of immobile + chill every time you weapon swap. Another advantage is that since your pet attacks from range and you attack from melee, your pet will rarely be hit by enemy attacks, so you don’t really have to worry about their health.

You’ll be very tanky with this build while still retaining the ability to dish out damage due to the fact that you have (almost) max power. Keep in mind to use axe #4 when your target is immobilized to ensure it double hits and cc’s them. Also try to always be on your opponent, unless they start to AoE, to ensure they are chilled when you weapon swap. Good luck mate.

Seems good. Do you try it with Predator’s Instinct instead of Spotter?
I’ll give it a try!

No, never use predators instinct. It is an extremely weak trait. All it does is cripple your opponent for two seconds with a 15 second icd. The only reason I take spotter is because its the most useful trait aside from those other two.

Xukavi.4320:

Raven.9603:

Rangers got run over by a bus of bad mechanics and broke every bone in their bodies.

Devs make a post asking for ideas to bandaid the problem because sadly, rangers dont have insurance… but players waste the last 10 pages talking about fixing our bones with experimental surgery so that one day we can walk again like its actually gonna get done.

(stop asking for spinal surgery and hip replacements, lets just stick to getting some sweet stickers for our wheelchair)

So by that logic we should give up on having a good working class mechanic and just try to buff other parts of the ranger?

“Summoned creature AI is a different can of worms that we aren’t opening for the same reason. Pets that delay F2 use isn’t some wait script we put into their skills it has to do with core AI behavior shared by all pets and creatures and how they decide tasks. Rewriting that has the risks of breaking millions of unknown things so we have up until now band aided the solution. It is something that needs addressing but won’t be addressed until we can kitten how and when we will test it.”

That is an actual post from JonPeters in this very thread confirming that pets are somewhat broken and highly unlikely to be fixed.

The most logical thing to do at this point is to buff things that are actually in control of the ranger.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAsXRjAVV2BWOWo2Bi1j9Ao93ewJLhJXBUVymiC-TsAA1CtIQShkDJDSSksINKYByEEA

I use this build mainly for wvw roaming, some zerging, and spvp. It is simply fantastic because of how well you can pin down your opponent. The main problem with using ranger melee weapons is that they really can’t prevent your opponent from kiting. But with this build you have tons of immobile + chill every time you weapon swap. Another advantage is that since your pet attacks from range and you attack from melee, your pet will rarely be hit by enemy attacks, so you don’t really have to worry about their health.

You’ll be very tanky with this build while still retaining the ability to dish out damage due to the fact that you have (almost) max power. Keep in mind to use axe #4 when your target is immobilized to ensure it double hits and cc’s them. Also try to always be on your opponent, unless they start to AoE, to ensure they are chilled when you weapon swap. Good luck mate.

I remember back in June or so a-net released a developers article or something and they promised us new weapons or skills by the end of the year for all classes. Does anyone have any recent info on this because we’ve got less than two months before they break their promise…

And I think that the greatsword auto-attack really needs a buff. I think we’re the only class where the greatsword has one of the weakest auto’s, damage wise. Not only that but there is a huge delay before and after power stab, making the entire chain take about 2 and a half seconds.

Hunky Munkey.1430:

Greatsword damage needs a serious buff. I play a “power” Ranger tank and I currently have 2958 power but I’m only averaging 437 dmg per swing (based on skill facts). What?!
My guardian’s mace which has less base damage and his 2606 power is hitting for an average of 641 dmg per swing.
Pet’s aren’t the great equalizer here as they are unreliable.

No, you have 2958 attack, not power. I play a greatsword power ranger aswell, and I have about 2.7k power with consumables and each of my greatswords auto tooltip is about 610 damage.

DaShi.1368:

Remove #4 and it’s a fine weapon.

1. is like the best skill on it. Knockback on a mere 15 second cool down or even 12 if traited. How can you not like that?

Terkov.4138:

They should just replace it with same trait as mes and guard ones – 5sec vigor on crit with 5 sec CD.

They should not. Not everyone runs high precision builds.

The trait is fine and should be left alone. I don’t know where they get this “too much evasion” bullkitten. The only evasion heavy builds are s/d, nerf them if you must.

DiamondMeteor.8345:

Remove the death penalty of pet swapping. There is no reason why any class should have it’s entire profession mechanic disabled for a whole minute, ESPECIALLY considering how kittening lackluster is it. 20 seconds is discipline enough.

I understand the frustration but I’m only talking about increasing the viability of certain builds. Pet issues are a whole nother thing, and while I did mention them, that was only to show how their poor ai affects certain builds.

Benjamin.8237:

Spot on with the trap suggestions. It’s ridiculous that we need a minimum of twenty points in a trait line to make our utilities worthwhile.

I’d also love to have more flow with some of our weapon skills. For example the longbow, everyone wants to change the fifth ability on it. I have two ideas for it;
A) Make it castable on the move and improve its damage, or pulse speed.
B) Remove the current skill and give it to us as a utility, “Call Barrage” is more feasible than firing one hundred arrows on our own anyway. Make the new 5 skill something that makes us feared on the battlefield rather than some quaggan stew. “Vital Strike” as I shall call it for the time being should be something well telegraphed like the warriors killshot. So it doesn’t become OP with our signets(150% damage anyone?)give it a 2 second charge or something, I just want a skill that hits like a brick and synergises. Imaging using the 4 to make room, stealthing with 3 to charge up a 7k single target ability.

Good ideas anyway, us rangers need some love. Especially our utilities, diversity and pets.

Edit: typed on a tablet, might of made some mistakes.

Thanks for then support mate. But many of our utilities require 30 trait points to max them and make them viable instead of twenty. I think it would be sweet to give the LB a really high damage skill, and that points to replacing rapid fire if you ask me.

The last thing I want to talk about is also the most important thing I am going to talk about. Empathetic bond. It is our kittening lifeline in spvp and wvw. We are literally forced to go 30 points into wilderness survival because we lack condition removal. I know that other classes are also forced to 30 in certain trait lines such as the thief and ele, but they are getting buffed next patch so they won’t be as dependent in it. We need this buff too. Not only that, but if our pet dies, this trait becomes completely USELESS. a GRANDMASTER trait STOPS WORKING if our pets dies. This is a humongous no no. Our only forms of on demand condition removal are unreliable as well. Healing spring requires you to stand in its field for 10 seconds. Skilled players can knock you, AoE the field, fear you out etc… Recently it’s condition removal ability was buffed by condensing the time frame in which it removes conditions, but in turn it’s vigor pulsing was completely nerfed and so was the duration, which in turn left us with less dodges to avoid further conditions and less time to leap/blast the water field. Signet of the Wild’s reliability is ruined by no other than our pets. If our pet is dead or not within 600 range of us, the skill does nothing and goes on recharge. But if our pet is not dead and his/her swap is on recharge, you might as well kiss him/her goodbye as he/she recieves the conditions which were about to eat right through you. Let me show you how many other classes can remove all their conditions without any consequences.

Consume Conditions (Necro) – Removes all conditions, heals, and then heals for each one removed.

Ether Renewal (Ele) – Removes one condition per pulse and heals, 8 pulses over four seconds. Doesn’t remove all condition but removes more than our healing spring in a much shorter time span and has a recharge time of a mere 15 seconds,

Elixir C (Engi) – Converts all conditions into kittening BOONS. FORTY second recharge time.

Contemplation of Purity (Guard) – Converts all conditions into even more boons!

Signet of Stamina (War) – Aside from a wonderous 50% endurance regen (which we will no longer have), removes all conditions on a 45 second cooldown.

Honorable mention, Null Field (Mesmer) – Removes boons from enemies and conditions from allies. One per pulse, five second duration, 40 second cool down.

There you have it. Lot’s of classes can do what we can do way better than we can do it (not surprisingly…) Arenanet, there are a multitude of ways to fix this. Like I said earlier, replace some of our pointless utlilities with condition removal. Add condition removal to some of our traits. Just do SOMETHING. We’ve had a lot of the same problems since launch. You talk of wanting to improve our viability, so you go and buff useless traits so they become slightly less useless and then nerf some our more powerful abilities because why the kitten not. I’m voicing my concerns in one big kitten thread because I really am tired of having these issues. I’ll agree, other classes suffer them as well, but I firmly believe we have it the worst.

Thanks for reading mates.

Some of our weapons need an unfair amount of trait point usage to achieve maximum efficiency. Some of them also have their related traits in different trait lines (notably the LB and SB). Once again, there is a simple solution. Quick Draw NEEDS to be merged into Piercing arrows. The warrior has this exact god kitten trait with the rifle. It’s really annoying trying to make a longbow build when you need to spend FIFTY trait points to achieve all its kitten. Same goes for the short bow except it requires only forty. Why a trait that affects bows is not in the MARKSMANSHIP trait line, I do not know. But this is a change which seriously needs to happen. Fifty trait points is a complete joke. If we want to fully trait bows, then we should only need to spend 30 trait points in marksmanship. I don’t know what trait would replace quick draw should it be merged, but I know you guys can be creative, so it shouldn’t be too hard. I would’ve also suggested merging martial mastery with two handed training, but since the latter trait is getting a buff, we’ll have to see how that plays out.

Shouts are a fairly complex problem. Some of them sound useful on paper (Protect Me, Search and Rescue) but due to poor pet ai, they become useless. Sick em was recently buffed to be a counter to stealth, and I like the concept, but for whatever reason, if you change your pets target or call him back to you, he loses the damage and speed buff. So right there you can lose a forty second recharge utility due to merely pressing f1 or f3. Not only that, but there is NO point in taking this trait if you aren’t using a dps pet, such as a cat or bird. Search and Rescue was much better when it allowed pets to revive dead allies, but that was nerfed. It still sounds fairly useful, but once again pet ai compounds this problem. Using the skill sometimes results in your pet doing nothing. It also has an incredibly high cool down. Protect me can essentially be pet suicide if you’re pet isn’t tanky or if you aren’t bm, and that can leave us lacking a chunk of our dps. The answers to these problems do not lie within improving pet ai, since it is not on A-nets list of things to improve. It simply lies with making the skills much more useful, and no, perma regen and swiftness does not solve this problem. It simply made guard useful for spamming. Back on topic, shout improvement can be achieved in a number of ways. I think that first of all, search and rescue and guard should be scrapped completely. Guard’s function is entirely useless and search and rescue is extremely unreliable. Guard should be replaced with some skill that improves your survivability through boons or condition removal. It just needs a real function and not to be used for simply regen and swiftness spamming. Seriously, you guys know that that is it’s only function besides serving as an example of poor balancing. Search and Rescue can be replaced in any manner you want. I’ve got no suggestions for it other than the fact that it must go. Protect me is fine, but it really needs to not result in pet suicide. Not only that, but why must this skill stop our pets from attacking? So we become immune to damage, only to deal less damage for its duration and potentially a whole minute/twenty seconds? Meanwhile, classes like the mesmer and warrior can easily achieve damage immunity through skills and class mechanics without having to sacrifice. And lastly, if our pet is dead, every single one of these skills becomes useless. I’m going to end the shout section there, but you guys really need to improve them.

So, if any of you were following the Dec 10 preview, you should know that one thing Jon Peters spoke about was improving the number of viable builds for all classes. Certain classes, such as the ele and thief, received huge buffs to their class mechanics, notably an increase in base initiative regeneration and an increase in base attunement recharge rate. I don’t expect any changes to our pet ai, but there are a number of things they could do to make certain builds more viable.

One problem we tend to have is that we must spend lots of trait points to make our utility viable. Spirit traits are already being addressed in the next patch, but they must’ve forgotten about traps, signet actives, and shouts. We also lack on demand condition removal. The only (somewhat) reliable form of condition removal we have is empathetic bond, which essentially requires us to put 30 points into wilderness survival to have it.

The signet problem is the simplest of them all. Signet builds have been buffed significantly since launch, and now have fair cooldowns and strong might stacking abilities. But unfortunately, to even make the build viable you need a grandmaster trait. I know it sounds crazy (sarcasm), but the trait needs to be removed and active effects of signets need to always affect us, similarly to every other class in the game. I know our actives are generally stronger than those of other classes as well, but we have long cool downs to make up for that.

The trap problem is pretty simple as well. Unless traited, traps are just weak. Three stacks of bleeding for five seconds and a meager two second cripple? No thanks. If traited, traps can be strong, especially is sPvP, but once again, this requires you to spend 30 points in skirmishing. There’s also a double irony here as traps, logically, should take time to prepare and are something used in a defensive scenario, being meant for your survival. But for whatever reason they’re been placed in the skirmishing line, a line meant for quick, offensive abilities. It would make sense for them to be moved in the WS line, but I think this is too much balancing for a-net to handle. Therefore, I’ve devised a simple solution which kills two birds in one stone. First, swap Trapper’s Defense with Trapper’s Expertise. This way, Trapper’s Expertise is now in the adept trait line. Then, swap the condition duration affect of Trap Potency with the radius increase of Trapper’s Expertise. Now, Trapper’s Expertise is in the adept, doubles condition durations of traps and gives them ground targeting, while Trap’s Potency increases trap radius and decreases recharge. Lastly, add an additional function to Trap Potency which causes it to transfer one of your conditions to an enemy when traps are activated. With this change, a mere 10 points is needed to make traps VIABLE. Not max them, but make them actually useable. It also gives traps rangers a reliable form of condition removal. Simple, effective, not OP.

Manekk.6981:

Soilder.3607:

Manekk.6981:

I want a trait that makes movement skills break immobilize just like warriors do, warriors heal more than us, do more damage than us, have more health than us and more armor than us if it’s not too powerful for them to have then it’s not too powerful for us, gimme!

And while on the topic of conditions they need to give rangers means for good overall condition cleanse that does not force them to pick 30 points in the wilderness line, I am sick and tired of that traitline holding me hostage by 1 trait I feel I can’t be without.

You aren’t wrong in feeling like you can’t be without it. Try swapping it out for a while and watch as you cry to 30+ second poisons, 10+ seconds burns, 20+ second cripples, 10+ second chills, etc…

I know I’ve tried many times with things like lemongrass/melandru and sigil or combined with generosity/purity sigils it’s enough in duels against non condition people anytime there is a small group conditions will kitten you without this bondtrait and to make matters worse it kitten es me off to no end that a trait that is so vital to me consistently and frequently kills my pet and I can do very little about it.

That’s the way its been since August 28, 2012.

Ironically, Arenanet claims to want to improve Ranger viability by making certain traits more powerful in the Dec 10th patch, but won’t change the fact that we need 30 points in Wilderness Survival to have condition removal.

Manekk.6981:

I want a trait that makes movement skills break immobilize just like warriors do, warriors heal more than us, do more damage than us, have more health than us and more armor than us if it’s not too powerful for them to have then it’s not too powerful for us, gimme!

And while on the topic of conditions they need to give rangers means for good overall condition cleanse that does not force them to pick 30 points in the wilderness line, I am sick and tired of that traitline holding me hostage by 1 trait I feel I can’t be without.

You aren’t wrong in feeling like you can’t be without it. Try swapping it out for a while and watch as you cry to 30+ second poisons, 10+ seconds burns, 20+ second cripples, 10+ second chills, etc…

Vayne.8563:

Corpus Christi.2057:

When the ranged weapons are the least efficient/useful on an ideologically archer-based class – ranger – you know there is something wrong with this game. Enough said.

People keep saying the ranger is an archer based profession and it’s just not so. It has BECOME an archer based profession but rangers are based on D&D which in itself was based on Lord of the Rings. In Lord of the Rings Aragorn was a ranger. He prodominantly fought with a sword.

The misconception comes from the word range in ranger, but that has nothing to do with weapons. It was to do with the fact that rangers live in the wilds instead of cities. They have a range (as in home on the range or park ranger). They range. That’s what makes a ranger.

Not using a ranged weapon.

But the ranger in this game IS mostly ranged.

Longbow – Ranged
Shortbow – Ranged
Greatsword – Melee
MH Axe – Ranged
MH Sword – Melee
OH Axe – Ranged (#5 is a defensive skill, doesn’t really count for melee)
OH Dagger – Hybrid
OH Torch – Ranged
OH Warhorn – Ranged

Sometimes when using this skill, my character begins to run and when he goes to leap, he simply leaps in place without moving.

And when using the skill while falling your character stops moving for a second and then resumes the animation. This particular bug has been in the game since release. I think its time you fix it…

ChioChip.5970:

LB1 arrow flies so slow that you can kite it by just walking sideways.
Necro´s Axe1 always hits (except for evades)… is this meant to be overpowered or is this just broken?

Uh lb is pretty impossible to kite unless you’re pretty far away. Have you ever seen has slow the warrior lb auto travels?