Stormbluff Isle
Woah man, you need to drop the drakehound and grab a boar pet. Their f2 items have will have their stun and daze durations doubled, which means 4 second stuns from bone crack, a 4 second daze from throw rock (just make sure you’re standing on your target when you use it, it travels at .1 mph) and a 6 second fear from skull fear.
The boar also has a charge skill which knocks down opponents for 3 seconds, but it rarely hits unless your target is immobilized.
Stormbluff Isle
I remember hearing in an interview that the Devs at A-Net were doing a ton of AI work for HoT.
I’m not sure if they had done any of it, but I didn’t notice AI improvement in the playable demo at EGX rezzed.
See…THIS is what I’m talking bout right here.. Do you think Anet would fix/improve the AI Scrptings amongst other bugs/issues across all professions in HoT?
I DEARLY HOPE SO.
Pets and AI should never have been an addition to any class in the first place. The type of combat in this game (AoE, cleave heavy, dodging necessitated) simply doesn’t support it. And if they were given player like intelligence and had the ability to dodge and read attacks, then they’d probably be way overpowered in PvP.
However, I would be more than happy if enemy AI was improved to be player like, because that would make PvE awesome and more interesting.
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(edited by Soilder.3607)
Considering that expansions are now on the table for you with the announcement of HoT, Arenanet, this is now your chance to re-look at a Canthan Expansion and earn my 60$.
Stormbluff Isle
Staff ele outdps’es longbow ranger, the only thing about longbow is the rapidfire spike, everything else a staff ele does better. Not to mention a staff ele brings fire fields for might, condi clear with healing rain on top of 2 water fields, aoe chill, line root, a line of warding, an aoe stun cage, aoe swiftness and the best aoe damage spell in the game.
It’s not even a fair comparison.
;-(
Now if they didn’t suck in melee range and only have 12k HP when full zerker or I would totally go staff ele after reading your post.
Is there a good zerker staff ele that makes vids to showcase how to duel with it?
Staff ele isn’t for duelling. Well, you can duel with it, but it’s not nearly as effective as d/d or s/f.
However, it shines in zergs, where it really is 1000x more effective than a longbow ranger. If you doubt this, play one yourself.
Stormbluff Isle
RtW could affect all ranger projectiles. Throw Torch, Path of Scars, Crippling Talon, pet projectiles.
Funnily enough, throw torch currently has a higher velocity than base longbow. Test in HotM if you don’t believe me.
Anyhow, what I think would be perfectly balanced is if LB received a 20% boost in projectile speed, while RtW is nerfed to be only 66% increase to prevent it from being too strong. I know this sounds significant, but it wouldn’t actually reduce the velocity of traited speed with RtW.
Math – Current lb velocity = 100%, with rtw = 200%
. Buffed lb velocity = 120%, with rtw (only a 66% increase now) = 200% (120×.66=80, add that to 120 and you get 200%)
I seriously think this is a change that needs to happen. Hell, even warrior longbow needs a speed buff.
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(edited by Soilder.3607)
You know what I think? I think no one is actually giving this trait a chance (WvW wise).
The meta is now and forever pew pew and will be turning into even more pew pew than it already is when HoT comes because of revenant ranged weapons, guardian longbow, thief rifle, warrior pistols possibly and this is ontop of the stability changes which discourage melee.
Ranger has rampage as one, a frigging evade on auto attack and you can couple that with strider’s defense for 20% chance to block projectiles (which there are a LOT of). 20% chance is a pretty good survivability trait as far as WvW goes.
I see the rise of the front line ranger with greatsword and staff (druid for healing) when HoT arrives. Even see the use of bears for condition clears/healing with invigorating bond and stability training.
Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll see, though.
I can’t help but think it needs more.
The OP’s suggestion doesn’t sound bad, but I don’t know if the balance team would allow it. There needs to be something added on top of what it does already.
Stormbluff Isle
I had always thought the projectile speed from the longbow was too slow, even after the 15% buff. The introduction of RtW obviously makes it great, but without the trait it’s still too slow to reliably reach targets at 1200 range.
Seriously, go out and use LB without RtW and it’ll feel terribly slow. It always did, actually. I personally didn’t want the trait as I thought it was something we should’ve had as a base effect, but just not as strong.
I do run plenty of builds that don’t use any traits for the longbow, and they all work very well. I’m not saying an untraited longbow can’t work either, because it does, but I just think this is a buff that’s still needed.
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Yea I can’t get past character selection either.
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Juvenile Siamoth.
Stealth + full boon gain. What else could a man ask for?
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There’s absolutely no way to keep them alive while fighting a condi class is there…
Yea, pets vs cd classes is a rough matchup. You’re going to want a tanky pet.
It’s a shame that our best condition removal sacrifices our class mechanic.
Stormbluff Isle
Rather then nerf Rangers, they could fix the 1800 LB range bug and see where that takes us from there.
My issue fighting Rangers on other classes is the pets commonly chosen. The Wolf is in all reality, the biggest “l2p” thing I’ve ever been smacked with. But nerfing this would kitten Ranger. The issue is you have to dodge its knockdown and the Ranger’s knockback. Or you eat a whole RF.
That brings me to PBS, it is incredibly hard to dodge. Its being used as a offensive CC. The wind up animation is there now, but its too fast. Slowing this down, or adding adding a flashy particle effect (The Ranger flashes purple fire on the shot or something, purple looks nice with green.) anything of that nature would help. (Pin Down needs the same treatment, although I seem to avoid this more then PBS)
Just my two cents.
Personally, I wouldn’t care if LB range was no longer 1800. I think that amount of distance is unfair. Damage wise, the LB is fine. When a ranger nails you with a 10k rapid fire, that’s because he’s full glass. Any class running full glass will hit you that hard. The problem with ranger is that they can do it from 1800 range.
Now, here’s where you’re wrong. The wolf leap is incredibly unreliable and misses more often than not, so that cannot be a legitimate complaint. And either way, its balanced by its long recharge time. Same deal with fear, except its actually reliable.
PBS was a 3/4 second casting time some years ago, and this was bad. I know a 1/4 difference doesn’t sound like much, but it made the skill very clunky and easy to cancel if the target walks within melee range. Where it is now is fine.
Stormbluff Isle
This will never happen because the skill is fine as it is.
The only healing skill that needs a slight buff is heal as one, because its boring and does nothing aside from burst heal.
I wouldn’t be opposed to healing spring being a trap skill however, considering its low healing power and the duration Nerf it received some years ago.
Stormbluff Isle
Rangers still dont have the damage or skills to outrun a cele dd ele or a medi guard. (Or any tanky setup)
Uh, we have a lot of sources of immoblize. And if running sword/gs, you have enough travel skills to outrun them.
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This trait is only supposed to activate when the ranger is actually cc’d, but it’s activating when hit by CC while having stability.
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^it’s still total garbage. never used by anyone good. not used in any viable, competitive build.
anyway, I fully agree with just about all of those OP. all we can hope for is that they do a once-over of all the traits and utilities for the xpac. colin HINTED they would. I hope this includes WH and OH axe which are entirely useless in organized pvp.
Not arguing that at all. The trait investment for such a crappy heal is ridiculous. Just wanted to clarify for the op since they never bothered including that info in the tool tips.
I knew that natural healing healed the ranger every 3 seconds. I didn’t include it because there’s nothing wrong about that.
If anything, were natural healing to receive a significant buff, the player heal portion might be better left unbuffed considering how strong regen rangers already are.
Maul – I think a problem with the greatsword is that none of it’s skills are multiple strikes or channels, which makes it hard to use the weapon against foes with constant blocks and blinds, such as guardians and theives, or even mesmers. Maul’s damage is negated by a single blind or block, whereas other GS burst skills, like 100b or whirling wrath, are channeled so all their damage isn’t negated by a single one of these. I think that if Maul were to count as two strikes (it retains the same damage, just counts as two seperate attacks) instead of a single strike, it would give the greatsword much better usability in general as well as against block/blind heavy specs.
This would be a huge nerf to maul imo. Maul really shines when combined with Attack of Opportunity from SotH or MoC. Making it a multiple hit attack will significantly lower its burst potential.
I understand that but I really think the benefit would outweigh the loss on that one. It wouldn’t hit as hard, but it would still hit hard.
Meanwhile, the entirety of our burst isn’t lost on a single block, blind, or aegis.
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(edited by Soilder.3607)
Heal as One – The decreased casting time was very nice, but I still think it needs some other function, otherwise it’s just a bland healing skill.
Sick ’em – The reveal is nice, but the buff applied to your pet is removed if you use any of the f1-4 skills. I can understand it being removed when using an f2, as that could result in some strong burst if used in conjunction with SotW, but there is no reason for the buff being removed when you order your pet to attack or retreat.
Signet of Renewal, Empathetic Bond, and Protect Me – What I don’t like about these skills is that they harm the pet and can result in pet suicide. That is totally bad design. Sacrificing our profession mechanic shouldn’t have ever been a thing. Other classes use their profession mechanic; we are the only ones that have to sacrifice ours. This needs to be changed. Obviously you can’t just remove the components of these skills which harm the pet while leaving the benefits to the player, as that would be unbalanced. But I’m sure there is a fair way to change them.
Search and Rescue – I think this might be the most unused ranger skill of all. Relying on the pet for a revive just isn’t effective at all. It needs to be overhauled to something different.
Concussion Shot – I think the skill is decent as is. But I think it would be very neat and fitting if the skill applied say 2 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds on a daze and perhaps 4 stacks if you manage to flank and get the stun.
Throw Rock (Boar f2) – The skill is fine but needs a projectile speed boost. Seriously, you can’t land this unless you’re on top of your target.
Alright, that about covers all I wanted to talk about. I really hope these get looked at as I would love to see our versatility improved.
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(edited by Soilder.3607)
Carnivorous Appetite – This trait could be good if glassy pets had enough sustain to benefit from it. I could see it being of use on a bm spec, but no one would go 4 into skirmishing for it. Overall it just isn’t useful as other traits outclass it.
Honed Axes – Mainhand axe isn’t really good for a power spec. It only ever shines when stacking might on mobs. But even then, there’s no reason not to run sword. And if you plan on trying MH power axe in pvp, you’re not going to do well. This trait needs a seperate function, or should grant it’s current benefit when using any one handed weapon.
Moment of Clarity – I think this trait works well if running a stunlock spec (gs/sb with boar pet), but if not, it falls short. Most of the times, this trait is taken by people 6 deep into skirmishing simply because there isn’t really a better alternative. Not only that, but only two weapon skills can take advantage of the increased CC durations, and only one of those weapons has a skill which can take advantage of the increased damage affect (gs). What I think would be fair is if the trait also granted say 200 extra power for a few seconds after interrupting an enemy, with an ICD of course.
Strider’s Defense – This trait just seems too niche and random to be effective. I think it needs a big overhaul.
Crippling Talon – The skill is fine but the projectile needs a speed boost.
Opening Stike – The problem with the opening strike minor traits is that they only benefit you once combat starts. After that, they simply do nothing. What I think would be fair is if, as a base effect, opening strike is also reapplied on weapon swap. This way, the traits actually help you during a fight instead of a being a one time bonus.
Remorseless – There really isn’t any other way to put it. This trait is just bad and very much outclassed by RtW and Predators Onslaught. I think it needs a big redesign.
Longbow and Read the Wind – I don’t think the LB having such incredible effectiveness at 1500 range is fair. Not every class can counter that; they simply have to eat damage until they are close enough to respond. Now, here is what I think would be fair. As it stands, the base projectile speed of the longbow is really kitten slow, and practically unusable at 1500 range. I think it should receive a 20% base projectile speed buff, but in turn, Read the Wind only grants a 50% increase in arrow speed. This way, the longbow arrow speed when traited is still enough to be effective at 1500 range, but not enough to the point where it’s overwhelming, and the base arrow speed is now enough to the point where the longbow is more effective when untraited.
Brutal Charge (Boar skill) – This skill literally never hits. The issue stems from the fact that the skill has a 2 1/2 second warmup, and after it’s finished, the boar charges in the direction the foe was at at the beginning of the skills warmup. If your opponent as much as side steps a few meters the boar will miss. I think the skill should only have a 1 1/2 second warm up, and after it’s done charging up, the boar should charge in the current direction of its foe.
Drake F2’s – The only f2’s which are mildly reliable are the river drakes and the marsh drakes. All others require your opponent to remain standing in front of the drake within 300 range. What I think is needed is that the drake will turn towards and continually face their opponent while the skill is being casted, that way it isn’t canceled once their opponent steps out of their field of view.
Spider and Devourer projectiles – I think that these pets need a simple speed boost to their projectiles. As it stands, it is very easy for them to miss.
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(edited by Soilder.3607)
I made a big list of what I think the community generally thinks are some skills and traits in need of a buff along with an explanation as to why. I’m also going to post some suggestions in regards to skills that aren’t bad but in need of a few usability updates along with some area’s that should be nerfed.
Hilt Bash – The problem with this skill is it’s range. The tooltip says it’s 300 range, but I’ve tested it plenty of times in HoM and found that it won’t strike past the same range as Maul, which is 220. The increase to 1.5 stun/daze was a good QoL improvement and made landing a maul after the CC possible. But it’s range should be as it says it is in the tooltip.
Maul – I think a problem with the greatsword is that none of it’s skills are multiple strikes or channels, which makes it hard to use the weapon against foes with constant blocks and blinds, such as guardians and theives, or even mesmers. Maul’s damage is negated by a single blind or block, whereas other GS burst skills, like 100b or whirling wrath, are channeled so all their damage isn’t negated by a single one of these. I think that if Maul were to count as two strikes (it retains the same damage, just counts as two seperate attacks) instead of a single strike, it would give the greatsword much better usability in general as well as against block/blind heavy specs. I understand that this would reduce the effectiveness of an Attack of Opportunity burst, but I really think the benefit would outweigh the con on that one.
Ricochet – This skill is nice after the buff, but I think the duration is a bit too short. Once you stop autoing to use other skills, nearly all the might stacks will expire. Buffing the duration from 3 seconds to 4 should be fair.
Whirling Defense – The function of this skill is great as it’s a five second long reflect, but the root can make you ineffective. People have commonly suggested to remove the root, but I’d rather see this skill receive a big overhaul.
Hunter’s Call – I don’t like how this skill is simply straight damage. A common suggestion has been to add a second of blindness on each hit, but it seems that that could shut down an opponent for too long, since the skill last four seconds and can be traited to a 20 sec recharge. What I think would be balanced would be if the damage remained the same, but the skill only hit 8 times instead of 16, thereby reducing the channel to 2 second, while also applying a second of blindness each hit. This way, a foe is only being shutdown for 2 seconds and the skill itself is more than just damage. And if not this, then atleast have the skill apply vulnerability. Even though the activation time was recently reduced to 1 second, it is still easy to miss as any block, blind, or evasion during that 1 second cast will negate it.
Master’s Bond – This trait needs to be made so pet stacks are not removed on pet swap or deactivation, plain and simple. As it stands, the moment you swap your pet, deactivate it, or enter water, the stacks are removed. I don’t mind losing stacks on a water entry, but pet swapping is essential to be a good ranger, and this trait shouldn’t be punished for that.
Compassion Training – There are only two skills affecting the player which can take advantage of this trait. Fernhounds Rejuvenate and Moa’s harmonic cry. The trait just isn’t good as it provides little of a benefit, whereas might stacks on pet swap and reduced shout cooldowns can be put to better use.
Natural Healing – This is a grandmaster trait which only heals the pet for 125 a second and is unaffected by healing power. The whole point of this trait is to help keep the pet alive, which it isn’t good at. By comparison, Signet of the Wild heals your pet for a bit over 3x the regeneration you receive and is affected by healing power.
Expertise Training – Pet’s aren’t a good source of condition damage. This trait just isn’t good at all and there are much better alternatives. In fact, I don’t think it could be good in its current form in anyway. It should be overhauled to something different.
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(edited by Soilder.3607)
Line of sight also stops the damage completely.
Also with the activation time it is a lose of damage compared to just auto attacking with the sword.
LoS doesn’t stop damage, that was fixed a bit back.
There’s currently a bug, however, where if you turn your camera away from an opponent while channeling a skill at them, damage markers won’t appear above their head even though you’re still doing damage.
Also, Hunter’s Call’s dps isn’t op at all, forget not that our OP was specc’d full glass cannon against a moa.
Full glass cannon makes even lightning reflexes become decent damage.
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Stability training negates the CC affecting the pet, in addition to providing stability. I actually think it’s a solid trait and really useful for certain specs, like bm.
The rest of these will be a wait and see, although I think the skills that were changed will be just as effective as they were before. RaO, however, will no longer lose to boon stealers, which is great.
And finally Hide in Plain Sight got the rework it needed.
Stormbluff Isle
After they placed stealth on longbow they should have thrown the camouflage mechanic out the window and just reworked it as stealth.
And why they didn’t follow this logic from the start the world may never know.
It was different at the beginning of the game because people didn’t really know the trait and how stealth (camouflage in this case) worked. They tended to stop attacking when you became invisible, and that made the trait effective.
But as time went on, people understood that you should still try and cleave stealthed players and that the rangers trait meant he would lose camo should he move, so if his position didn’t change you could AoE and cleave right where you left off.
Stormbluff Isle
Imo I think it should proc off crit/interrupt (both lets and yours) if it’s to compete at all with the other options. That and then it’ll also be useful with all/most our weapons instead of only one.
We already have a GM trait designed specifically for the LB and in 99% of scenarios you’d be using a longbow it’s better, in the other 1% you may as well just take the Predators Onslaught or w/e it’s called. I
Personally, I think the whole of the opening strike minor traits should reset on weapon swap as a base effect (provided you have a point into marksmanship). That way, the traits actually help you after you’ve started a fight, otherwise they give a one time bonus at the beginning of a matchup which isn’t all that great anyhow.
I understand that sigils of intelligence do this, but I still don’t think it would really matter. People who use intelli sigils will put the crit to waste, but they still get vulnerability and a pet crit. And those who prefer not to now get a neat minor trait function from marksmanship that actually does something during a fight.
As for remorseless, I really think it just needs to go and be replaced with something better.
Stormbluff Isle
Is this trait ever going to be reworked? I don’t think it would be unreasonable to say it’s hardly, if ever, used, especially when compared to its alternatives.
Thinking the topic should stay alive for the next balance patch, whenever that may be.
Stormbluff Isle
When they added water spirit, that was when I knew they were clueless about their own game. At the time, the most major complaints we had in PvP were revolving around ai spam. We had the spirit meta in full swing, along with plenty of minion masters and turret engi’s.
Then in PvE there was the fact that, although spirits had more health, they still died easily in any large fight. So what did arenanet do? They added another god kitten spirit. The one thing we didn’t need, they added. And not only that, but the skill, which was intended for group support, was already far outclassed by healing spring.
I’ll say that, recently, a-net has done well balancing the class and putting things where they need to be, but that water spirit was a low point for how I felt about them.
Stormbluff Isle
You absolutely don’t get it. And to be honest, i’m playing all 8 classes (and I’m doing a daily rotation of these classes to keep a good feel with each of them), I’ve got a pretty good idea on what’s their own weakness and strenght.
Ranger’s don’t need a knock back on their longbow. I would understand if they were rooted when using a skill but no, you can move while attacking. I would understand if they hadn’t any melee option but it’s the same here, you can switch weapon.
The fact is that longbow is a weapon for lazy rangers. You can’t change people, they will always stick to their bad habit. A slight twick to the most annoying skill (when playing with and not against the ranger. Because, you know, I could careless about a ranger blowing me to nowhere but it’s extremly annoying when a ranger blow my foe to the end of the world.) would relieve tons of hate.
Don’t misunderstand this skill, in bad hand (sadly there are tons of bad hand), is a vast dps loss for every group. You need your foe to stand in the aoe and PBS blow foes out of aoe. Melee need to be at melee range to be effective and PBS blow their foe at range. Your pet need a stationnary foe to be effective and PBS blow your foe out of it’s range. Most of the hate ranger suffer come from this not from people complaining that they’ve been blown by a ranger, Engi are way better at that. PvP wise, I’m perfectly fine when the ranger newby blow me out of range of the thief that’s killing me.
Moving the knockback to an utility skill would be even better for the ranger since they wouldn’t be pigeonholed in the longbow to use it. Oh and lore wise, “point blank” is melee range not 900 or 1200 range and more then that, don’t you think that the fact that you can deliver a hit so strong that you blow your foe away without any kind of drawback like casting time is strange? Even guardian’s hammer blow have a cast time (maybe that’s why they use it more wisely then ranger use PBS)
PBS is pretty much the only remnant of the entire GW1 bow ranger. Instead of the flexible, tough toolbox we get a fragile DPS whose only purpose seems to be punishing bad players, or punishing those who team up with bad rangers. You want to destroy PBS? How about you give me the ability to change the course of fights with carefully placed and timed arrows, to support my teammates with my bow instead of just forcing me to go glass cannon and leaving me out to dry when it comes to competitive PvP. In GW1, a bow ranger could be a toolbox but not a damage dealer. In GW2, the opposite is true, it seems. Why can’t we have both options, and choose which one to use in a given situation?
Woah, rangers were plenty capable damage dealers in GW1. People made a big fuss over the r-spike meta, which is why plenty of their skills got nerfed to hell in PvP.
I was talking about after that, since they were overnerfed there. The aftercast and GA nerfs alone would have made r-spike manageable, but they had to go ahead and gut every skill that it used (or could potentially use) individually. And then they went even further, and nerfed just about every other +damage bow attack in the game as well. Bow rangers then all had to run almost identical builds in order to be effective. You’d use d shot, savage, apply, lightning reflexes, natural stride, mending touch, an elite bow attack (you had perhaps three to choose from), and res sig or troll unguent depending on the arena. Some 140 ranger skills to choose from and there aren’t even a dozen viable for PvP bow rangers. And yet, that playstyle brought more utility and team contribution than GW2 bow rangers. Cue frustration.
Oh, don’t even get me started. They went above and beyond when it came to nerfing ranger in that aspect.
I remember not too long ago, trying to make a decent damage build to run in RA (since most other pvp is dead) and virtually every skill I wanted to put on my bar I couldn’t because its PvP form lost out on ~50% of its original damage.
I managed to get a decent damage build to smack down nukers at FA using Melandru’s Arrows, but yea that’s about it for PvP damage with a bow lol.
Another annoyance was the Onslaught nerf. Again, they didn’t balance it so much as remove it completely.
Damage ranger as a whole was Smiter’s Boon’d over the course of a year.
Well, at least we can be grateful we have super range glassbow in gw2.
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You absolutely don’t get it. And to be honest, i’m playing all 8 classes (and I’m doing a daily rotation of these classes to keep a good feel with each of them), I’ve got a pretty good idea on what’s their own weakness and strenght.
Ranger’s don’t need a knock back on their longbow. I would understand if they were rooted when using a skill but no, you can move while attacking. I would understand if they hadn’t any melee option but it’s the same here, you can switch weapon.
The fact is that longbow is a weapon for lazy rangers. You can’t change people, they will always stick to their bad habit. A slight twick to the most annoying skill (when playing with and not against the ranger. Because, you know, I could careless about a ranger blowing me to nowhere but it’s extremly annoying when a ranger blow my foe to the end of the world.) would relieve tons of hate.
Don’t misunderstand this skill, in bad hand (sadly there are tons of bad hand), is a vast dps loss for every group. You need your foe to stand in the aoe and PBS blow foes out of aoe. Melee need to be at melee range to be effective and PBS blow their foe at range. Your pet need a stationnary foe to be effective and PBS blow your foe out of it’s range. Most of the hate ranger suffer come from this not from people complaining that they’ve been blown by a ranger, Engi are way better at that. PvP wise, I’m perfectly fine when the ranger newby blow me out of range of the thief that’s killing me.
Moving the knockback to an utility skill would be even better for the ranger since they wouldn’t be pigeonholed in the longbow to use it. Oh and lore wise, “point blank” is melee range not 900 or 1200 range and more then that, don’t you think that the fact that you can deliver a hit so strong that you blow your foe away without any kind of drawback like casting time is strange? Even guardian’s hammer blow have a cast time (maybe that’s why they use it more wisely then ranger use PBS)
PBS is pretty much the only remnant of the entire GW1 bow ranger. Instead of the flexible, tough toolbox we get a fragile DPS whose only purpose seems to be punishing bad players, or punishing those who team up with bad rangers. You want to destroy PBS? How about you give me the ability to change the course of fights with carefully placed and timed arrows, to support my teammates with my bow instead of just forcing me to go glass cannon and leaving me out to dry when it comes to competitive PvP. In GW1, a bow ranger could be a toolbox but not a damage dealer. In GW2, the opposite is true, it seems. Why can’t we have both options, and choose which one to use in a given situation?
Woah, rangers were plenty capable damage dealers in GW1. People made a big fuss over the r-spike meta, which is why plenty of their skills got nerfed to hell in PvP.
I was talking about after that, since they were overnerfed there. The aftercast and GA nerfs alone would have made r-spike manageable, but they had to go ahead and gut every skill that it used (or could potentially use) individually. And then they went even further, and nerfed just about every other +damage bow attack in the game as well. Bow rangers then all had to run almost identical builds in order to be effective. You’d use d shot, savage, apply, lightning reflexes, natural stride, mending touch, an elite bow attack (you had perhaps three to choose from), and res sig or troll unguent depending on the arena. Some 140 ranger skills to choose from and there aren’t even a dozen viable for PvP bow rangers. And yet, that playstyle brought more utility and team contribution than GW2 bow rangers. Cue frustration.
Oh, don’t even get me started. They went above and beyond when it came to nerfing ranger in that aspect.
I remember not too long ago, trying to make a decent damage build to run in RA (since most other pvp is dead) and virtually every skill I wanted to put on my bar I couldn’t because its PvP form lost out on ~50% of its original damage.
Stormbluff Isle
You absolutely don’t get it. And to be honest, i’m playing all 8 classes (and I’m doing a daily rotation of these classes to keep a good feel with each of them), I’ve got a pretty good idea on what’s their own weakness and strenght.
Ranger’s don’t need a knock back on their longbow. I would understand if they were rooted when using a skill but no, you can move while attacking. I would understand if they hadn’t any melee option but it’s the same here, you can switch weapon.
The fact is that longbow is a weapon for lazy rangers. You can’t change people, they will always stick to their bad habit. A slight twick to the most annoying skill (when playing with and not against the ranger. Because, you know, I could careless about a ranger blowing me to nowhere but it’s extremly annoying when a ranger blow my foe to the end of the world.) would relieve tons of hate.
Don’t misunderstand this skill, in bad hand (sadly there are tons of bad hand), is a vast dps loss for every group. You need your foe to stand in the aoe and PBS blow foes out of aoe. Melee need to be at melee range to be effective and PBS blow their foe at range. Your pet need a stationnary foe to be effective and PBS blow your foe out of it’s range. Most of the hate ranger suffer come from this not from people complaining that they’ve been blown by a ranger, Engi are way better at that. PvP wise, I’m perfectly fine when the ranger newby blow me out of range of the thief that’s killing me.
Moving the knockback to an utility skill would be even better for the ranger since they wouldn’t be pigeonholed in the longbow to use it. Oh and lore wise, “point blank” is melee range not 900 or 1200 range and more then that, don’t you think that the fact that you can deliver a hit so strong that you blow your foe away without any kind of drawback like casting time is strange? Even guardian’s hammer blow have a cast time (maybe that’s why they use it more wisely then ranger use PBS)
PBS is pretty much the only remnant of the entire GW1 bow ranger. Instead of the flexible, tough toolbox we get a fragile DPS whose only purpose seems to be punishing bad players, or punishing those who team up with bad rangers. You want to destroy PBS? How about you give me the ability to change the course of fights with carefully placed and timed arrows, to support my teammates with my bow instead of just forcing me to go glass cannon and leaving me out to dry when it comes to competitive PvP. In GW1, a bow ranger could be a toolbox but not a damage dealer. In GW2, the opposite is true, it seems. Why can’t we have both options, and choose which one to use in a given situation?
Woah, rangers were plenty capable damage dealers in GW1. People made a big fuss over the r-spike meta, which is why plenty of their skills got nerfed to hell in PvP.
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Lightning Reflexes is already a skill that basically every ranger takes on their bar. Why do we need to buff it? There’s already a lot going on with it.
Muddy Terrain meanwhile is also a staple in survival builds and has a very clear purpose.
I entered this topic thinking you’d post something about ways to make shouts more interesting and enable shout builds, or to help underused traps or signets have a niche. If you think a smoke field would be a cool tool for a Ranger to have, you should change spike trap into smoke trap or something. Don’t just overload the skills that Rangers already use and make builds even more locked in.
I would also like to see the role of shouts changed to be support skills. Traited guard is a good support skill but the other 3 would never make it onto a PvP bar.
This is something that rangers have been asking for since day one. You’d think we’d have gotten something back in the big ranger buff patch.
Though, protect me is ok provided you have a tanky pet. Everything else is niche. Guard is for a trait only, sick em is for thieves (and the buff is still removed if you use any f1-4 skills), and search and rescue isn’t used at all.
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Open your pet pannel and hover over the left most skill displayed of the four skills they have. That should be the auto attack (unless I’m mistaken). I believe generally melee pets have a casttime of 1/2 second on their AA, while ranged pets like spiders and devourers have a 3/4 second casttime.
Different melee pets also have different amounts of aftercast on their auto’s as well. It should be noted that the bird AA, while slow, hits twice.
Also, someone did a whole thread on pet dps by comparing the damage from their auto’s and adding tallies. Not sure where it’s buried. Hopefully someone could dig it up for you.
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(edited by Soilder.3607)
I only ever use troll unguent when running a regen spec. Otherwise I prefer the burst of heal of HaO.
I don’t think heal as one needs a cool down reduction; its plenty powerful as it is. What I do think it needs is some sort of secondary function. What that could be, I don’t know.
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Heh, not gonna say he doesn’t have a point.
At release, the skill only had a base max range of 600, hence the name.
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This trait doesn’t show a reduced cooldown recharge time on the pet’s f2 icon. If you do use their skill, the actual cooldown itself will be reduced properly with the trait. It’s just the icon doesn’t show it.
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I don’t mind losing the effects of this trait if my pet is defeated, deactivated, or when entering water, but can we atleast be able to keep stacks upon pet swapping?
That’s the reason I’ve never used this trait. You have to swap pets during a fight, whether it’s to use another’s f2 or if the one you swapped out was close to dying. And then once you do, all stacks are gone.
I’m actually surprised this wasn’t addressed in the feature pack balance update.
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I guess we’ll be going from having 25sec of Stability to 25 stacks of Stability… Personally, I’d rather the 25 secs of Stability than the stacks, but hey, let’s fix something that’s not broken in PVE because PVP.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about go watch the POI episode from 2/20/2015
This change wasn’t made for PvP. This change was made for PvE teams that can stack near perma stab and trivialize lots of content..
What content was being trivialized by stability? Please, examples. Otherwise, exit stage right.
As it has been discussed to death before, the ultimate “trivializing” ability is the ABILITY TO LEARN CONTENT.
And the whole idea of needing to nerf something wasn’t broken to make content more difficult is just simply insane to me. Just like the vigor nerf and might nerfs.
The whole idea of a game without challenging pve content should be insane to you too.
The majority of the content in this game can even be solo’d too, provided you have the patience. The point of this change is to improve the challenge in all forms of PvE encounters, not just a few specific examples. PvE as it stands is incredibly easy and fully kind to pugs, with a few exceptions. And its not like this will even have too big an impact in pve either, so its not worth complaining.
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(edited by Soilder.3607)
This change wasn’t made for PvP. This change was made for PvE teams that can stack near perma stab and trivialize lots of content..
Not so sure of that with all the talk of counter play. Currently Stability is the god-boon in any mode. That and could anyone see the revenants gaining stability (current version) on dodge. As it is the other profession like to complain about Companion’s Defense.
It’ll have its place in pvp too. But I think they’re trying to make pve content much more challenging with the expansion, and this stability nerf will have its role in making it so teams can’t just ignore all the cc thrown out by monsters and bosses.
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I guess we’ll be going from having 25sec of Stability to 25 stacks of Stability… Personally, I’d rather the 25 secs of Stability than the stacks, but hey, let’s fix something that’s not broken in PVE because PVP.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about go watch the POI episode from 2/20/2015
This change wasn’t made for PvP. This change was made for PvE teams that can stack near perma stab and trivialize lots of content..
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one good d/p thief will shut down any glassbow. shatter mesmers 50-50. engies 50-50. there are lots of counters to glassbow.
Glassbow puts up a very good fight against d/p thief.
I was duelling a very good one in the obsidian sanctum and beat him most of the time. But I wasn’t running full glass the entire time, I ended up going into WS and nature magic.
Eithet way, longbow hurts a lot.
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I understand, but those are extreme examples of what drakes are capable of.
I don’t want their f2’s buffed into oblivion either, but I just wanted to point out that its generally agreed that only two of the drakes have f2’s that are even capable of landing, and even they have their issues with reliability.
And yes, river drake can hit very hard, but don’t forget that pets can’t avoid any damage at all. That drake will be crippled, chilled, immobilized, blinded, stunned and all, so a strong f2 is kind of justified.
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Sounds like you are talking about PvE – “boss AOEs”
If that is the case spirits are usually placed outside of the combat area, but within buff range.
IMO spirits are fine in PVE. They’re not in a good place for pvp though…
Not in a good place for PvP? They’re probably the best ranger build for tPvP, team support out the kitten .
But then again, it’s not like PvP is even alive anymore.
They might be the best support build rangers have, but they are not in a good place for tPvP…
The spirits die too easily, have long cast times, long cool downs, and the buffs are weaker than what other classes are now able to provide.
In short, spirit ranger is not the best type of ranger you could bring to a team fight.
Uh, what other ranger build brings support?
Maybe your thinking of glassbow, which doesn’t bring support but highly effective dps, which could be considered support. And I’m not talking about the best specs rangers can bring for a team fight either, just support.
The support ability of rangers has not been changed and spirits are still the best for that. The last few balances patches have been mainly for power rangers aside from a few other buffs. But you know that, and I know you do. Maybe you got your head in the wrong place.
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(edited by Soilder.3607)
Sounds like you are talking about PvE – “boss AOEs”
If that is the case spirits are usually placed outside of the combat area, but within buff range.
IMO spirits are fine in PVE. They’re not in a good place for pvp though…
Not in a good place for PvP? They’re probably the best ranger build for tPvP, team support out the kitten .
But then again, it’s not like PvP is even alive anymore.
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Well if the health buff in pve is not too much then it shouldn’t be to much in pvp…
What health buff?
Right here, sweetpea. Seems you weren’t around back in those days.
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What if read the wind only buffed arrow speeds 50% Still significant enough to hit players at range, but not to the point where skills are undodgeable?
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Sadly the issue with drakes are the fact that only two have an f2 that is reliable. the river and the marsh drake. In PvP and WvW and even most parts of PvE its almost impossible to reliably land the ice drake, reef drake, and fire drake breath attacks. Id really like something to change on that end before altering there damage or conditions. Like maybe doubling the width and length of the cone.
Even with the river and marsh, if you’re opponent as much as steps out of the drakes 180 degree field of view, the skill is canceled. Drake f2’s would be great if they were more reliable.
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- You really need to swap the Steady Focus from MM to either II or IV
Malicious Training (II) is bugged and doesn’t increase pet conditions, so I’d suggest Signet Mastery (IV). I was thinking the same thing myself seeing as SoR is his only condition cleanse.
If this build was meant for casting from afar with longbow I think Steady Focus would be okay, but it seems it’s built more for up close and personal where full endurance will be rare.
Malicious training isn’t bugged. My pet black bear applies 15 seconds of weakness when traited and my snow leapord 7 seconds of chill.
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For one thing, bm builds tend to have less pet deaths because of the fact that it increases pet stats by 300 for each one. They also tend to run a regen spec too which also helps to keep pets alive. Bm’s do get a decreased recharge time on pet swapping on as well, going from 16 when swapping alive pets to 48 for swapping defeated ones.
Personally, I think that the recharge penalty for a defeated pet needs to be reduced. You can control pets but most of the time their deaths are unavoidable. You can run very tanky pets, but this also corresponds to a significant dps loss as well (compared to using less tanky ones).
I think the swapping penalty for a defeated pet should only be two times the normal time instead of three. So 40 seconds for a defeated pet compared to 60 now.
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Be careful vs necros and s/d thiefs when using RaO, because they can corrupt/steal the stability.
This is very important. If you are going against a necro, really consider using entangle instead.
Honestly though, thieves never seem to stay in the entangled vines as they always have something to get them out, like stealth or teleports. With RaO you run the risk of having them take you 20s of stability. I’d personally use RaO and wait till they pop their steal until using it.
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I would rather this trait be changed to reduce weapon swap cooldown times to fit with the theme that the 1 and 3 point traits have. I feel like if it was around 2-3 seconds less on swap CD, it would compete with moment of clarity
Woah, but warriors already get 5 seconds off their cooldown , and it isn’t even a grandmaster trait.
I don’t know what this trait needs to be changed to, but judging from the nature of the responses, it needs to be changed. So do something already a-net, kitten it.
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Just had an idea. What if camouflage reduced incoming damage by say 50% while it was active?
So, you get stunned, your camouflaged, warrior knows your camouflaged so he queues his 100b burst, but now you take half damage instead of simply eating it while invisible?
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The automatic traits (forget what they’re called) in the skirmishing line a really good in my opinion. Swiftness, fury on weapon swap in addition to 10% damage while flanking are all very good. However, many of the other traits are lackluster. The only ones I see as being useful are the trap ones, QuickDraw, and the one which gives you vigor when critically hit. Moment of Clarity can be good if running Gs/sb, but overall I think it needs something more
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