Guild Wars 2

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I think you want someone from the wiki to tell us if/when they updated the wiki to reflect the current mechanics. The best way to do that is to ask on the wiki on the Community Portal talk page

Folks there are usually happy to explain how things work behind the scenes. Usually, they pull data from the API and transfer it via script. When that’s not possible, they do controlled tests and record results, updating the relevant wiki pages (sometimes by putting data in a table and using a script, sometimes manually).

You can also just point them to this thread and ask someone to explain. I’ve seen a couple of the heaviest contributors post in the forums.

Strategist.6132:

I did another example on my thief:
Wild Strike Tooltip Damage: 302

Skill Coefficient = Tooltip damage / (Average Weapon Strength * Power / Armor)
0.7852 = 302 / (1000 * 1000 / 2600)

Which is exactly as the wiki says: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wild_Strike

The “skill fact” on Wild Strike was changed on 28 June 2015 from

• 286 damage -> 302 damage
• 0.85 coefficient -> 0.785 coefficient

For what it’s worth, the specific contributor making the change only edited the wiki on that one day, changing three other skills.

Thanks for the response! I will try it on the community portal! I already had a feeling that some skills were updated while others might not have been.

I’ll post a response once I found the answer!

Basandra Skye.4031:

Again, why would they lower the damage of ALL classes when the intent of providing a boost to base stats is to partially OFFSET the loss of stats from traits (and to compensate the not full offset from armor stats)?

It is not about “Why” Anet could have changed things. What I mean to say is this:

- Either the Ingame Tooltips are calculated wrong at the moments with the old 912 base stat and should be corrected.

Or

- The skill coefficients have indeed changed and the Wiki needs to be updated. (It already does need to be updated since most skills damage’s are out-dated. But we need to know for sure if it’s calculated with 912 or 1000 as power base. Otherwise we cannot find out the real coefficients.)

Another note:

I did another example on my thief:
Wild Strike Tooltip Damage: 302

Skill Coefficient = Tooltip damage / (Average Weapon Strength * Power / Armor)
0.7852 = 302 / (1000 * 1000 / 2600)

Which is exactly as the wiki says: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wild_Strike

So this leaves me kind of clueless.

Maybe a Anet Developer can respond how they calculate the Tooltip Damage, so that we can either update the ingame damage tooltip correctly or update the wiki.

Mmm there could be multiple reasons:

- Either they thought engineer was too overpowered
- Or it’s a balance thing because the base stats are now 1000 instead of 9xx (Forgot the number) I mean they already made the amulets more powerful in PvP.
- Maybe it’s an overal lowerage of damage of classes? (I only checked engi)

Even if they didn’t intend to lower the damage (and it isn’t) then the tooltip is probably calculated wrong with the old base power?

@Photoloss:
I also checked Rifle skills using the above value’s, and the funny thing I found too was that I couldn’t find a linear relation to the lowering of Skill Coefficients I found.

Mmm but I am asking this in all honestly (I am not the rage-type) maybe you guys can help me figuring it out?

Strategist

I believe the cooldown makes it kind of bad. A few reasons:

- Nobody has an internal counter in his head and knows when it will trigger
- It already has a delay for the Blast Finisher to activate. (Making it hard to abuse stealth from this I believe)
- Endurance / Dodges are really valuable expecially since Vigor is lower now.

I believe making the cooldown around 2 or 3 seconds would be a lot better, this way you can still count on it activating without it being able to be abused for Might stacking for example.

I hope a dev can respond on this!

I believe the throwing adds some skill to Medkit,

But since it is so hard to play I do believe they should buff it a little (expecially the auto attack:P)

One suggestion that would already enhance the play a lot:
- Make the cast time a lot faster, around 0.25 or maybe even kind of instant would be great. Since it requires aiming it would be far from OP I think.

Hello everyone,!

Since the patch I’ve also logged in a few times and I was wondering what changed. I made a spreadsheet (or more like updated) to help me create new builds,
But when I calculated the Skill Coëfficients from the tooltips again I noticed that almost all damaging skills were reduced on Engineer. I thought this might be a response to the increase of base power to 1000. I also noticed that it wasn’t a straight reduced on all skills by a certain percentage, for example Poison Grenade actually does more damage now. (upped to a 1,2 Skill Coefficient) But almost all other skills do less damage I believe.

I was using the following formula:
Tooltip damage = Average Weapon Strength * Power * Skill Coefficient / Armor based value
Average Weapon Strength: 1150
Armor Based Value: 2600
Power: 1000

Or rewritten:

Skill Coefficient = Tooltip damage / (Average Weapon Strength * Power / Armor)

Maybe my calculation was wrong, but otherwise we would need a huge update on the wiki to check these value’s again.

Strategist,

Hope I can get some Developer Responding on this btw! I don’t blame anyone in any sense, I was just wondering:P Maybe we can help updating the wiki and stuff.

Ps. I equiped a rifle for these calculations as you might have noticed!

I think the average people spend is around the game + 2000 gems or so? Or do you think it’s higher? I think most people don’t buy gems at all.

Mmm I think the following would be really cool!:

- New voices for sPvP (INCOMINGGGGGGGGG) or for your character.
- Characterizing fashion items. (Not potions, but skins would be nice!, Something like a Santaclaus suit, orrr a Reindeer. Or a cowboy / superman suit. Things that don’t look like other normal gear)

Agreed! It shouldn’t be too hard to implement I guess (not too easy either:P)

But I hope this will be in HoT release!

Hello everyone,!

Since the patch I’ve also logged in a few times and I was wondering what changed. I made a spreadsheet (or more like updated) to help me create new builds,

But when I calculated the Skill Coëfficients from the tooltips again I noticed that almost all damaging skills were reduced on Engineer. I thought this might be a response to the increase of base power to 1000. I also noticed that it wasn’t a straight reduced on all skills by a certain percentage, for example Poison Grenade actually does more damage now. (upped to a 1,2 Skill Coefficient) But almost all other skills do less damage I believe.

I was using the following formula:
Tooltip damage = Average Weapon Strength * Power * Skill Coefficient / Armor based value

Average Weapon Strength: 1150
Armor Based Value: 2600
Power: 1000

Or rewritten:
Skill Coefficient = Tooltip damage / (Average Weapon Strength * Power / Armor)

Maybe my calculation was wrong, but otherwise we would need a huge update on the wiki to check these value’s again.

Strategist,

Hope I can get some Developer Responding on this btw! I don’t blame anyone in any sense, I was just wondering:P Maybe we can help updating the wiki and stuff.

Ps. I equiped a rifle for these calculations.

I think builds are basically weak to either raw power, conditions or stuns. So I guess if a Necromancer can go tanky (aka soldiers) and can make sure he transfers those conditions back, he is only vulnarable against CC so far. Of course in practice it might be a bit different. But I think the condi tranfers on necro are nice!

Guys comon, they tried their best on providing some benefits for players that play longer.
Maybe this expansion doesn’t contain as many maps as the original game, but imagine the content they have provided over the years, while most of us only spended a few 10s on the game. They need money to keep developing this game. You can’t expect them to keep making new content while we don’t have to pay for something. They also have costs at their side.

Great that you made the blog post! I didn’t have any issue’s but I am still glad to see that there is good communication.

Sebrent.3625:

Puck, you’re feeding :-p

@OP:
This topic has been discussed to death. If you truly care about Rapid Fire, then feel free to dig up the actual good conversations where the numbers of ways to counter Rapid Fire were listed … it was quite an extensive list.

In one of those threads, I even did the math and showed how Thief’s Unload is superior in every way except for range … more DPS, more spammable, can ricochet, etc..

Hey! Can you put the links in a response? On most classes there are way to counter it, I wonder if there are any good ones on thieves though. Thieves are generally more squishy then Rangers so I wonder if you can make a good comparison to it. (Ricochet is not there anymore in the new balance update btw!)

I think revealed bonusses are nice. But look what happend with Assasins reward, we got a 1 second stability and nobody chose it because it was underpowered. (if it was buffed to 5 it would probably be too OP again)

What about axe or torch? I would like that:P

I’d rather have a longbow then a rifle (even though longbow is already given to gaurdian)

But of course it depends all on the skills they give with it, but if it doesn’t have access to stealth or evades I doubt that it will be chosen.

Meld in Shadows doesn’t effect the combo stealth time. So either:

1. It never worked this way or
2. The guy is right.:P

Tarkan.5609:

the meta will be D/P 66006 though

Btw! Why 6/6/0/0/6 instead of SA? I mean that would mean we’d have 0 access to condi removal (aside the healing skill and shadow step on relative big cooldowns)

babazhook.6805:

While I think pack will be very solid those Runes of Evasion now look more usable as well and might just work.

This will really load on the ferocity on top of what you get from the CS line. You will go 0/6/0/6/6 of course and get a lot of evades and dodges. Fury shuts off you just dodge and turn it back on along with getting 5 seconds swiftness base. Why I did not use them bere was the 3 seconds fury was too low. With the ability to keep regenning fury using the CS line this no longer an issue.

These runes along with the CS traitline will allow a base of ~ 650 ferocity and will open the door to using all knights armor for added toughness.

I don’t think Rune of Evasion exists in sPvP, but it would be a cool addition! Since S/D doesn’t hit many times (but rather hits a bit harder), maybe speccing into CS isn’t that bad in the end?

The idea I think is that you throw tbose bandages to opponents. I think med kit is jyst very hard to master, but once you do it will probably provide more healing and utility then Healing Turret.

- Perma Swiftness if managed well
- Specific Condi removal, as you alll might know removal of boons and condi’s is now random so it might be tougher to remove bleeds for example
- Throwable to allies for fast supporr.
- Not to forget you can now save your blast finishers for Healing Fields on Mortar

Tragic Positive.9356:

Strategist.6132:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Strategist.6132:

Lazze.9870:

Strategist.6132:

About the dodge:
Rapid Fire lasts 2,5 seconds, while a dodge only takes 0.75 seconds, so even if you would use both dodges you would still not be able to fully come out undamaged.

This gets brought up every time, and every time people seem to forget the simple fact that Rapid Fire’s channel duration was lowered. Before two dodges migated less of the damage. The actual damage is the same, it’s just the damage per second that is higher.

This isn’t something new, people only come to realize this after several other changes to the ranger made LB builds more viable in PvP.

What most people also seem to forget is that Rapid Fire benefits immensly from Sigil of Air and Fire. You got 10 hits to proc both them, that’s a huge chunk of the damage which actually doesn’t come from the skill itself, but from sigils due do the nature of channeled skills.

Mmm I don’t really understand what you mean. You mean that the skill description is wrong and it lasts for less then 2.5 seconds? Do you know how long it takes now?

No no, he means that it was buffed at some time to have 50% reduced cast time. Before that, the weapon was never ever used. Anywhere. PvP, PvE, WvW – it didn’t have a single viable place.

And the only buff it received was the cast time. Which means nothing really in particular. Maybe only that the damage was even harder to negate by dodges, right?

Yea, I mean, of course the spike got buffed, but the overall DPS hardly changed.

Aha! So it used to last around 3+ seconds? (or before it started shooting?) Thanks for clarifying though. I think Rapid Fire in WvW is fine though! (I mean there are some other cheesy things over there if you talk about damage:P) Just in sPvP I think it’s a bit too strong for just 1 click on the button. With strong I don’t really mean the damage perse but more like the counterability of it for some classes/builds, and the sigil procs which make it do even more damage. It does look like though that this is one of the only viable builds for Ranger. But who knows what HoT will bring! I should take a look:P

Yes, indeed. It had a 5 second cast time.
Well, as I see it, Ranger in his Power Builds have always been about those on-hit effects. And I’m fine with that, I kind of like it. It’s kind of class-defining.

You seem to be the only guy who came to discuss the issue on adult level. I like you, Sir. And you are definitely right about the HoT. We still are far from knowing how the things will go and we’ll have to see and adapt afterwards.

If the longbow game-style becomes too out of hand, I’m fine with getting a little bit of tweak over here and there to fit the meta in another way. But currently as we are – the longbow is not really powerful at all. I mean – organized groups have really easy time dealing with this issue and will have the same after the changes as well. We’ll get some more breathing room and utility to hopefully make our way into tournaments after such a long time – we really deserve it.

I agree that the ranged damage is a nuisance but it’s only uncomfortable, not troublesome. If you take into account everything a Ranger can do – you don’t have a slightest problem fighting against them. I actually sip my coffee against LB rangers currently with my celestial setup and I usually go out winning and on 80% HP.

The reasoning behind why people find LB rangers a trouble is nothing else but human factor. And that’s fine. People that don’t know where is the Ranger’s limit have hard time countering them. The rest has a child’s play.

But in my opinion – Heart of Thorns offers new ways of dealing with LB rangers. We are going to get way more candy to play Longbow Ranger but much more salt is getting into other classes’ options, too. Which means that Longbow Rangers will have easier time tearing through unprepared enemies and will get countered harder by those prepared.

And I definitely like this “Sniper patience” game-style. I won’t probably play it anyways but I like the context regardless.

Thanks for compliment I guess! Maybe you were right that it is partly a human factor too, they are definitely not Overpowered in the general sense, and organized teams can indeed take them out well. I don’t see rangers in tournaments often either, so I guess it would be nice if ranger got some cool options to choose from.

Anyways, thanks everyone for the discussion and for providing some new insights! I’ll watch this topic for a while but I probably won’t post new information.

Have a nice week!

Tragic Positive.9356:

Strategist.6132:

Lazze.9870:

Strategist.6132:

About the dodge:
Rapid Fire lasts 2,5 seconds, while a dodge only takes 0.75 seconds, so even if you would use both dodges you would still not be able to fully come out undamaged.

This gets brought up every time, and every time people seem to forget the simple fact that Rapid Fire’s channel duration was lowered. Before two dodges migated less of the damage. The actual damage is the same, it’s just the damage per second that is higher.

This isn’t something new, people only come to realize this after several other changes to the ranger made LB builds more viable in PvP.

What most people also seem to forget is that Rapid Fire benefits immensly from Sigil of Air and Fire. You got 10 hits to proc both them, that’s a huge chunk of the damage which actually doesn’t come from the skill itself, but from sigils due do the nature of channeled skills.

Mmm I don’t really understand what you mean. You mean that the skill description is wrong and it lasts for less then 2.5 seconds? Do you know how long it takes now?

No no, he means that it was buffed at some time to have 50% reduced cast time. Before that, the weapon was never ever used. Anywhere. PvP, PvE, WvW – it didn’t have a single viable place.

And the only buff it received was the cast time. Which means nothing really in particular. Maybe only that the damage was even harder to negate by dodges, right?

Yea, I mean, of course the spike got buffed, but the overall DPS hardly changed.

Aha! So it used to last around 3+ seconds? (or before it started shooting?) Thanks for clarifying though. I think Rapid Fire in WvW is fine though! (I mean there are some other cheesy things over there if you talk about damage:P) Just in sPvP I think it’s a bit too strong for just 1 click on the button. With strong I don’t really mean the damage perse but more like the counterability of it for some classes/builds, and the sigil procs which make it do even more damage. It does look like though that this is one of the only viable builds for Ranger. But who knows what HoT will bring! I should take a look:P

Lazze.9870:

Strategist.6132:

About the dodge:
Rapid Fire lasts 2,5 seconds, while a dodge only takes 0.75 seconds, so even if you would use both dodges you would still not be able to fully come out undamaged.

This gets brought up every time, and every time people seem to forget the simple fact that Rapid Fire’s channel duration was lowered. Before two dodges migated less of the damage. The actual damage is the same, it’s just the damage per second that is higher.

This isn’t something new, people only come to realize this after several other changes to the ranger made LB builds more viable in PvP.

What most people also seem to forget is that Rapid Fire benefits immensly from Sigil of Air and Fire. You got 10 hits to proc both them, that’s a huge chunk of the damage which actually doesn’t come from the skill itself, but from sigils due do the nature of channeled skills.

Mmm I don’t really understand what you mean. You mean that the skill description is wrong and it lasts for less then 2.5 seconds? Do you know how long it takes now?

Tragic Positive.9356:

@strategist
Thieves have access to the smoke screen. Of course, this isn’t ever picked to PvP since it’s potential is against Rangers (Or Morph necros) only…
… But then again, every other class is more valuable on point than 1200+ range away from it.

Moreover – one other fact to add to Rapid Fire
- the chance to apply on-crit-procs (like sigils) is close to guaranteed.

The thing is:
… Rapid fire is the only ability that a Ranger has to deal spike damage. Also, the only thing the class brings to a fight is damage unlike other classes. If damage is the only thing we can bring – we might as well be best at it.
You know… We have no easy access to higher ground, our mobility is low, our damage can be tracked and countered easier than others (no real burst like backstab or kill shot).

If our only reason we can be viable (and yet worst at the role : see competitive scene) is nerfed – we need a huge compensation for that. And I mean a massive one. Heart of Thorns offered lots of classes projectile denial or reflects – which means you can build your team to have a member to potentially fill this role of anti-Ranger.
You are never alone in this game and you can’t (and shouldn’t) balance this game around 1v1.

I agree with you, if Rapid Fire is nerfed, something else should be buffed a lot. Right now only Condi Ranger would be the other alternative, but the rest is not that good for as far as I know.

coax.2951:

Warriors often don’t run Rifle in the current meta since LB is one of the best utility weapons out there and important for soft cc/condi cleanse/aoe pressure.

In real pvp matches longbow rangers aren’t much of an asset at the moment, because if your opponent knows what they’re doing that ranger is gonna get focused as soon as he tries to join the teamfight.
True, longbow rangers are pretty great when they can just sit back on, say, the ledge on Foefire, but in real matches you’ll have someone on you asap trying to force you into melee or retreat. And in real matches there are PLENTY of spots you can use line of sight.

RF & Longbow in general are overpowered against subpar or unaware players. The second you start fighting people who know what they’re doing a longbow ranger is more of a hinderance than an asset compared to other classes. That’s why you never see them in tournaments (it also lacks offensive utility like boonstrips, but that’s another story).

I totally agree on this! But this is of course when you have an organized team, in Unranked or Ranked without TS this is almost impossible to realize. When in fights there isn’t much time to see a Ranger approaching on the map without being off focus in the fights themselves. But still a good point, in organized fights this would be less of a problem.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Lol. While we’re on the subject of Thieves, since you’ve mentioned that you play one, your #1 dagger skill while in stealth, “Backstab” has a “cooldown” of 4seconds from Revealed. Said skill can deliver critical attacks of 12,000+ in a single hit, that can be spammed until it connects (you can repeatedly press #1 while in stealth without using Initiative) and that you cannot see coming.

For science…

This is only in WvW of course, and only fools would go with an all in build:P In sPvP you can limit it on around 6000 crit damage for a fairly bursty build. About the 4 seconds revealed, you also need time to go in stealth again, so add 1 or 2 seconds to that + the time to actually position yourself behind an opponent which is also 1 or 2 seconds. Backstabs are dodgable or can be halved by clever positioning, or you can do AoE damage. Aegis would work too. But I agree with you guys, it might be hard to feel when to dodge for backstabs and stuff too since you can’t see an enemy. I aim for sPvP the most (sorry for not saying earlier).

I like the discussing and please don’t feel attacked personally or something. I don’t mean it like that.

Toxsa.2701:

Strategist.6132:

Okay let’s take a look at the facts:

About the dodge:
Rapid Fire lasts 2,5 seconds, while a dodge only takes 0.75 seconds, so even if you would use both dodges you would still not be able to fully come out undamaged.

Rapid Fire vs Kill Shot
- Rapid Fire and Kill Shot both have a cooldown of 8 when traited.

- Rapid Fire has a Skill Coefficient of 3.75
Kill Shot has a Skill Coefficient of 2.25/2.5/3.25 for each adrenaline level on Warrior. I never played Warrior, but I can imagine the adrenaline takes a little while to build up. (Shouldn’t be too long though)

- Movement Interrupts the Kill Shot, while Rapid Fire can be used while moving.

- Kill Shot has a 1.25 cast time, and only does one hit, Rapid Fire hits 10 times with a 2.5 channeled cast. Concluding from this:
-> Rapid Fire can hit faster since it doesn’t have a 1.25 cast time
-> Kill Shot is likely to deal more damage when traited with the 100% crit trait at full adrenaline.
-> Kill Shot is blindable, dodgeable, blockable, reflectable,
-> Rapid Fire is blockable and reflectable

I think Kill Shot is very strong too if I look at it on paper, but still I never see warriors running with a rifle. (Anyone knows why?) But builds without blocks or reflects are really screwed with Rapid Fire, while Kill Shot can be dodged or blinded and depends on Adrenaline.

If I miss some points please add them below, then I’ll add them to the post.

Sources:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dodge
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rapid_Fire
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kill_Shot

Rifle is Warrior’s WORST weapon. The dps is even lower than their LB. So do you mean Ranger’s LB should be as bad as Warrior’s Rifle? How about fix Warrior’s rifle instead of nerfing a currently viable weapon?

Also don’t know why you look at things only half way:
1. RF eats retaliation and confusion 10 times. Retaliation is extremely common in WvW.

2. When compare to real dps, RF’s damage should be divided by 2.5 since it takes 2.5 seconds to complete the damage. Rifle’s kill-shot takes 1.25 sec to complete, so the DAMAGE PER SECOND is actually higher, especially after you combine it with Volley in the rotation.

3. The reason why ranger’s LB still win in terms of damage is because Rifle’s Auto attack is very bad compare to Long Range Shot, not because RF does more damage than Volley + Kill shot combined. But LRS’s > 1000 range damage never changed, even back when LB is unviable. So why complain it now?

4. RF is destined to avoid at least half of it’s damage at any person with normal reaction speed because 2.5 seconds is not a real burst.

Btw, here’s a footage about how Warrior utilize rifle, which is kinda good tbh:

https://youtu.be/V9k2chH6beM

Thanks for some new insights! I will add them! About the “Don’t compare classes with other classes”, I wasn’t the one that suggested to compare Rapid Fire with Kill Shot.:P (So I hope you’re not that mad at me).

About the Retaliation and Confusion:
- Confusion only damages when starting to activate a skill (Source: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Confusion) so it will only hit once I guess.
- Retaliation is a good point! The shame is though that not many professions have access to it. It’s mainly only Guardian (and one skill for Mesmer).

The problem for me lies to the fact to counter the whole skill without it’s relation to other skills. (For me rifle #1 might be buffed if neccecary). Just thieves have no access to retaliation, blocks or reflects, which give them no option to prevent the damage.

Okay let’s take a look at the facts:

About the dodge:
Rapid Fire lasts 2,5 seconds, while a dodge only takes 0.75 seconds, so even if you would use both dodges you would still not be able to fully come out undamaged.

Rapid Fire vs Kill Shot
- Rapid Fire and Kill Shot both have a cooldown of 8 when traited.

- Rapid Fire has a Skill Coefficient of 3.75
Kill Shot has a Skill Coefficient of 2.25/2.5/3.25 for each adrenaline level on Warrior. I never played Warrior, but I can imagine the adrenaline takes a little while to build up. (Shouldn’t be too long though)

- Sigil procs are close to guarenteed because of the 10 hits on Rapid Fire.
- Movement Interrupts the Kill Shot, while Rapid Fire can be used while moving.

-> Rapid Fire takes damage from retaliation 10 times, while Kill Shot only takes it once.

- Kill Shot has a 1.25 cast time, and only does one hit, Rapid Fire hits 10 times with a 2.5 channeled cast. Concluding from this:
-> Rapid Fire can hit faster since it doesn’t have a 1.25 cast time
-> Kill Shot is likely to deal more damage when traited with the 100% crit trait at full adrenaline.
-> Kill Shot is blindable, dodgeable, blockable, reflectable,
-> Rapid Fire is blockable and reflectable

I think Kill Shot is very strong too if I look at it on paper, but still I never see warriors running with a rifle. (Anyone knows why?) But builds without blocks or reflects are really screwed with Rapid Fire, while Kill Shot can be dodged or blinded and depends on Adrenaline.

If I miss some points please add them below, then I’ll add them to the post.

Sources:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dodge
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rapid_Fire
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kill_Shot

Glad this worked out! I might send a month-late birthday congratulation as well:P

Killerassel.2197:

The build itself (i.e. selection of traits), especially after the upcoming patch, would probably not be that problematic. But I foresee the meta zerker elite kittens in LFG tool will start with gear checks before running even the simplest dungeon. As long as they need to ask for an API key I can just laught at them and leave. If everyone can always check everyone else I am afraid mandatory gear checks will become commonplace.

I’ve played WoW and have seen how the community became after the rise of GearScore (and similar addons). I do not want to see this happening in GW2, too. Many LFG tool listings already look discouraging. I don’t want to see support for this behaviour by granting access to data.

This is pretty much along the same line why I don’t want to see damage meters in GW2. That is another topic, but many of the reasons against them apply here too.

As for what you can do when the API is private: almost everything you can do if it was public. As long as each player agrees and voluntarily gives you a key to access his or her data. You can still pull up a GW2 equivalent of the WoW armory, but only list players agreeing to the service. You just can’t spy on or stalk people, who don’t opt-in.

You seem to be thinking about SPvP builds, though. I see those a bit less strict, as they can already be inspected by spectators in game and I haven’t seen the PvP players as elitist about builds as the PvE’ers and PvP gear is a non-issue anyway.

Also remember that API access can be easily automated. You can track my online times manually via the friend list, but this is quite cumbersome. A service that tracks online times of every player would just be spooky.

I think you provide a few good reasons! I don’t play Dungeons myself, but I have heard a few people complain about players being aggressive on gear or professions you run. (Of course I don’t agree with this behaviour) Even though this can happen, I personally think it’s better that you get told upfront that they rather want another profession or other gear (you don’t want to stick which such a group anyway:P) then that they are raging about it during or after the dungeon path. Aside that, there would be no need to ask for the key, since the player could already easily link his/her armor them in the chat. (I think most players wouldn’t know about the keys)

But as you already noticed, I was aiming more for sPvP. It would be nice if you could check the builds enemies characters run while you’re waiting before the match, so you can discuss strategy a bit more. Or to see how successful people have been with certain builds for the past matches. I think cool things could be realized this way.

Maybe it is an option to split the sPvP build and the PvE build such that we don’t have the dungeon problems? But I guess this will be a bit of a hassle to maintain. So I still voting for builds to be publicly available without key. Of course I do believe that the online stat shouldn’t be shown to everyone.

Maybe it is a good idea to provide an authorized friendlist API where players can see who is online? I am not sure if it is possible to also chat with friend using the API? That would be really amazing, but it might be tough to implement.

Thanks for sharing your view!

EDIT: I just looked up the Damage Meter, and I really agree that would be a bad idea. I hope the community will take care of the armor checks though. Overall if most people think the same way about just enjoying the game with people then it should be alright I hope.

I don’t mind the buff of other skills, I truly believe Ranger can really use some. I only think that Rapid Fire is a bit too strong compared to the other skills

Classes such as Warrior / Gaurdian and Engineer should in general not have much of a problem with it I think, as they have good utility to blocks and have quite some toughness most of the time. The problem lies more for the squishy classes I think, such as Mesmer, Thief, Necro and Eles (the fresh air ones). As most already found out I play thief most of the time (Gaurdian, Engi and Necro too), and I do have a ranger of course.

The problem is more that a full Rapid Fire does around 75% of my HP. On 1 vs 1, I can beat rangers fine, but I notice a lot that when a ranger appears in groupfights, he just instantly casts Rapid Fire and most of the time it is already too late to react, because the attack has a larger range (not in range of Headshot or Steal), and Utilities have a too long cooldown to be able to able to handle the Point Blank Shot + RF more then twice. (Since most of the time you also need utilities for certain other professions.

But of course I can agree that if you’re out of utility, there are many more skills that could kill you. The only problem I have with RF, is that there is no way to escape once it is casted as a squishy build without block/reflect. If you’re below 75 health it kind of means instant death. (As it does 1.5 times the damage of a backstab)

It is not like the whole game is ruined because of this, but it tends to ruin the experience a bit, if you’re killed at 75% health from 1500 range with the ranger just pressing 1 button.

I do think Ranger needs more utility to survive though. Expecially when wielding other weapons then longbow (since longbow already has stealth)

EDIT: Thanks to your responses guys.

Killerassel.2197:

No. Just no. Yes, you can see if someone is online (unless invisible). But you cannot see their equipment or build. You can – if you manage to find that character in the world – see the SKINS one is wearing, but not the actual items.

Unlike in a certain competing game you cannot right-click “inspect” characters. GW2 does not have its own armory. And this is something I like.

Please Anet, don’t make GearScore a thing in GW2! EVER!

If anything the API needs MORE fine grained permissions rather than less.

I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t want people to not see your build? It is not that private right? I can imagine you don’t want your inventory or bank to be shown. But what is wrong with making builds public?

I think there are many possibilities if you would make the API public (in sense that you can query the (sPvP) builds of other people). If you would limit it only to your own character, I don’t think there would be many reasons to not just log in on GW2 itself and check their info. Maybe you can provide me with some cool idea’s that could be implemented right now with /v2/characters/ being private, and some reasons why your build should be private to other players to convince me?

Hello everyone,

First of all: I am sure there have been other posts like this before, so I am sorry if I bring this up right now.(I’ll delete this one if you can provide me with another post) Please also don’t see this as a hate post that ranger is too overpowered in general or something. I am just wondering what you think about this.

Right now Rapid Fire deals tons of damage on a 10 second cooldown (8 when traited right?). On a Light Golem it with power ranger it deals over half its HP, with not even every hit being a critical hit. Because Longbow is ranged it can stay at a nice range without being afraid to be targeted. (Some of those spots are the pillars in Spirit Watch or at the sides of the mid point at Temple of the Silent Storm).

I must say that 1 vs 1 Power Ranger is strong, but not too overpowered or something (I can beat it on my thief if I try my best) and in sPvP I basically only see two builds: Condi Ranger and Power Ranger, but I feel like ranger always has been a bit under the lader.

So to the point: I think Rapid Fire need to be changed because of the following reasons:

- Does way too much damage for a skill on 8 second cooldown
- Is Channeled, so you need to waste 2 dodges on it to dodge everything. (which leaves you vulnerable to other attacks, and since professions without vigor such as necro can only dodge once every 10 seconds, they are guarenteed to be hit by the full attack)
- Blind only affects the first arrow, so cannot be countered with this.
- Not every profession has good access to blocks and reflects (like Engineers and Gaurdians) with low CD’s like Rapid Fire.
- Cannot be countered by going into stealth since the skill will still complete.
- Some interrupts are generally too slow to counter all the damage.

I do believe that Ranger can use some buffs in other area’s though, I just think that instead of providing multiple skills that are decently strong, there is just one skill that is a bit too strong (while the other skills kittene a buff). Would most of you players still take longbow without rapid fire?

I am sorry if I misunderstand some things, I hope we can all discuss this with respect.

I was wondering: Does some of the character data really needs to be hidden behind a key? I mean everyone in game can basically already see if someone is online, the equipment and stuff. It would be nice if you could query a name to get his/her build too. Why was it chosen to make this API behind a key if you can view most information in game without their permission as well? Sorry if I missed something! I believe that making this more public really would open more oppurtunities for sites

I created the new PR regarding /v2/spvp/matches. I hope I didn’t break / forget something:P

Alright Pat! Thanks for the quick response! I will try to make a PR somewhere this midday if I don’t forget! I am a bit new to Github so I will try to be careful, but please forgive me if I mess things up.

It’s been a month ago! Sorry for bumping this post:P I was just wondering: What is the state of the Skills and Trait API?

I’ve already seen it being mentioned before but I really think the following API could be useful:

- Account/PvP/ where you can gather statistics on the matches won and against / with who. This way people could check on their previous matches and for example check out other players statistics and things. Maybe this would also be a good way to upgrade PvP with a new better-looking leaderboard?

I am not sure how hard it is though but I really think it would improve the community!

Wow great work here! I haven’t been here for a little while, but I see some ultra cool API’s coming out!

Hello guys!,

I am watching the youtube video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbdl5WoAI90)
And I see Karl talking about Unrelenting Strikes having typo. I wonder if the trigger is still on 50 percent or below? Or is it now the suggested 90 percent or above 50 percent?

Feel free to take your time answerring

Good luck!

The posibility is low, but there are quite some amount of times where you proc SR and still get downed by a group of zergers, it’s nice if you can teleport away and rez and have them think that you survived, instead of the smokescreen indication that you’re down there somewhere in the teleport radius.

But for non-stealth deaths it is nice of course.

I think they decreased the damage in WvW (and buffed it in PvP) because the revealed duration in WvW is 3 seconds while in PvP it is 4 seconds and thus you can use it less often and with more risk in PvP.

Even though I think it would be cool if it had a 5 seconds internal cooldown and lasted just 1 second. Maybe I would considder on taking it then:P

I personally wouldn’t get your hopes up.

The chance is probably the the haste is on a 60 second cooldown, just like the Utility skill we have.

Haha:P I secretly hope the Elite will not be RifleO_O I’d rather hope for something like Axe or something:P

I think it’s best to wait what the Elite Specialization for thief will be. I believe there is a huge chance that we might see its graceful return in the Elite.

Mmm I agree that on the first sight Healing Seed totally seems useless. But I think it can be quite nice. Leap a few times through with heartseeker and you’re back to full HP, while damaging the ranger itself.

But I agree it’s not a big thing to counter rangers. Maybe a dome would be too OP if people would run improvisation, but if the duration is not too long I would like this idea!

I think the 2a and 2b cost too much time to implement for Anet, and since it’s a skill only for Thief, and only when stolen on Ranger, I doubt they would implement something like this.

Rai.9625:

You forget that the poison duration of the AA Chain got increased. So with those two seconds we can guess we get almost 100% uptime for Poison even if the enemy uses cleanses.

If you battle against Guard for example I always use my SB for poison fields, makes life so much easier (even on downed ppl), so hell yea: Poison is nice and it is worth a try (for the record I almost never used the 5% dmg boni Trait before, because… why? It makes almost no difference, only in coordinated groups for speed runs)
SO this new Trait let us play with new possibilities: More easily cut the heal of enemies (we will see if more healers will appear in pve, I hope so) and in PvP it is worth a test.
AND for Condi builds this could very well become massive Damage (Dagger/Dagger for example, bleeds + poison is nice)

Trappers respite is just for testing a trap build, i did not say it is powerfull, that I cannot know yet. But it will be fun testing it

What I Agree on: Acro got hit hard and I think our place in the DPS ranking got lowered (I’m not happy with that)
But you know what? We will see so much hate from our enemies regardless, because we, the thieves have one major advantage:
Our play is not limited, we always find something to make the life of our enemies hell. Think about all the debuffs we got, it changed nothing. This Time as well, maybe we will be able to abuse Sinister stats to a degree and more.

But for me there are only two real nerfs: to our Acro line (which is hard) and maybe DMG overall (but not sure here, because… well we can go 66006 now, which gives us lead attacks in addition to executioner+ revealed training + ferocity buff including high uptime on fury… nope sorry I think we got buffed there

I think this guy is right.

I think the real nerfs are on Acrobatics (the amount of dodges is pretty much halved?)
but that is about it. Personally I think CS is buffed. The new Fury traits are very nice and Hidden Killer and No Quarter are very nice Grandmasters. (I do think that the master traits are not that good though, but I guess you can’t have everything)

I think Poison is also not that bad, since thief has around the most access to poison (aside necromancer maybe) we have poison on our autoattack chain:

Lotus Strike: Increased the poison duration from 4 seconds to 6 seconds.

People also complain that 33% chance on hit to apply 2 seconds of poison is bad. But you shouldn’t forget that we have this chance on every hit. The dagger autoattack already does around 4 hits in 2 seconds. Which means we can upkeep it by just spamming our auto attack. (not even counting the Lotus Strike poison duration)

But we’ll see what happens.

Nomad.4301:

Yamsandjams.3267:

I mean you might as well just delete the other two options on SA adept tier. Shadow’s embrace is just too attractive.

To me this is a problem, SE is just so vital to a thief’s survivability that most just cant go without it, a problem that is only going to get worse with the coming condition buffs.

IMO no matter what you put in the tier with SE in it most will feel forced to take SE for the condition management, which leads me to believe SE should have been what replaced Last Refuge as the minor trait (due to its near mandatory nature) freeing up the adept tier so thieves no longer totally ignored the other options in the tier.

At some point I agree with this. Since thief barely has any condition cleanse at all, people will generally always take this, unless they are dual-ling 1 vs 1 against a power spec. But at the other side, there are probably more choices that are quite obvious. If we would place them at the minor some setups might become to overpowered compared to other profession.

Personally I think GW2 should try to collect some data on which traits are practically never picked on all professions, and try to replace those for some more unique/better traits.

I wonder! You still think this will work after the update on tuesday?