I think for starters Lightning Reflexes should also remove cripple and chilled. Most similar skills do that already like Withdraw, Roll for Initiative and Rocket Boots. I don’t think it would be overloading the skill by bringing it up to similar standards. They had the chance once when they added an immobilize break but stopped short.
As for the leap finisher on LR, I agree that it could be too much for a skill already on everyone’s bar. Besides though, a blast finisher makes so much more sense with the crack of lightning. Ranger is seriously lacking on blast finishers.
I like the skill Sharpening Stone, but I feel it could use a cooldown reduction. 5 bleeds every 45 seconds is kind of meh beyond combining them with a splitblade. Drop it down to 35-30 seconds or maybe add 5 stacks of might to it.
What traps need are better traits centered around them. The duration boost should be baseline, while bringing the 20% cooldown down to adept. A new grandmaster that adds either unique boons to each trap or extra conditions to further their potency. A shame there’s already trapper runes that grant stealth on use because that would be a fantastic grandmaster trait.
Shouts are just in a bad place, to be frank. I had a whole paragraph written out on them and decided that they are just a lost cause.
How would that help at all?
Rangers don’t have a problem with DPS, they have a problem with support and mobility.
I don’t think overpowered is the right word to describe cele ele/engi/war…
They can all be beaten. The problem is that they are more useful to a team than the remaining 5 classes.
Does that mean they are OP? Not really, you can kill them. But they provide more buffs/support to their team while they are still alive.
As others have said it is more of a conquest issue. Because the game mode relies on 1+ players gathering on a point, the builds that can stay alive and buff their team mates are the most useful.
IMO the sustain/cele meta does not lend itself well to classes having specific roles, as you are likely to have 3 cele classes on every team. Moreover if you are going to have 8 classes (soon to be 9) and 5 roles, then every class needs to be able to do something just as well as another class.
At the moment we definitely don’t have that sort of balance.
Don’t spam 1 and disable auto attack. You don’t have to press 1111111111 repeatedly as fast as possible to succeed.
Press it once, stop. Repeat. When the situation is right, go for the full attack chain.
It’s not a broken weapon it’s just difficult to use. Thief sword isn’t much different. Have you ever tried teleporting with that thing? It looks a lot easier than it is.
Spoken like a true PvP guy who doesn’t have mobs’ attacks hitting him for 7k+ damage.
The sword needs to work so dodge and serpent strike/stalker strike can be activated mid animation.
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.
@Jim Hunter I ran with Bark skin last night but since it kicks in around 6k health it loses its effectiveness in larger fights.
bark skin is awesome, use this build to maximise the value.
With this build you have like 31k life pool(with the gurds buff), so almost 8k with bark skin+enlargment for stability, damage and movement(you can save SoS for the last -5%-10% hp, re-position, range with axe, heal to max and go back in).
Axe 5 is a great way to split zerg, one of our best firstliner tools. you can swap muddy terrain/LR with SOTW and RAO with entangle for a more “controlled rotation cycle”.
Very interesting build.
I was not aware of those new foods that give you ferocity based on HP, that opens up a lot of opportunities!
This is one of the highest damage ‘tank’ builds I have seen.
Why not just making it a knock down instead of a knock back. Let’s say :
- Range 1200 : 1 second
- Range 900 : 2 second
- Range 600 : 3 second
This way it’s really used has a defensive skill but the ranger have to move out instead of staying still pewpewing. In fact, rangers pet’s may love this change to since they will gain 3 second free dps without runing forever doing nothing.
Because its a PvP skill, and its role is to knock people off a point.
Thief’s easy access to stealth isn’t the reason they have a spot in high level pvp, it’s their mobility. Right now we can compete with them for a spot on a couple maps but when they can do things like teleport directly into the clock tower while we have to run around there is no reason to bring a ranger over a thief.
The main hand dagger suggestion is more about being able to fight on point while having full control of your character more than it is about damage.
I didn’t say it was the reason, I said it would help.
Giving rangers more tools is what I’m trying to figure out… without giving them more damage tools – which no one is going to give to the Ranger
Right now, the LB Ranger brings heavy, single target ranged pressure, but very weak team utility in every other way
So, how can we help to give the lb ranger more team utility, without more damage, while at the same time giving him some better escape and/or team stomp/rez support
Having lightening reflexes as a leap is one good idea as it would allow us to jump over fences to kite a little better.
Another is access to 1 more stealth tool that requires a weapon switch, and a 2 step process… which would be harder to pull off and give team utility.
Support builds and side node builds are totally different things. You shouldn’t be trying to bring support to lb ranger, that’s not its role. As Jim says the only thing ranger needs to be viable is more mobility.
If you want to make a support ranger viable then you should be looking at how to bring spirits back into the meta.
ATM they provide weak buffs and they die too easy. Start from there.
I have enough mats to start thinking about ascended gear but as it happens all of my exotics are transmuted karma gear…which was fine once upon a time.
This means that I need to either extract or replace my scholar runes, force sigils, and bloodlust sigil.
Total cost of runes/sigils = 43g
Total cost of extractors (9 required, 2×5 = 2200 gems) = 287g….
….
Please make this thing unlimited, cost per use, or make karma gear salvagable (only for upgrades).
Hi @Madisonlee , it seems and you and Prysin are talking about different game mods, Prysin just presented the might stacking concept, the build he prsented is a WvW build, meny like the GS on WVW due to block and mobility and not as pure combat weapon. You are coming from pvp point of view in which BM builds actually function very well due to “low stats” environment. I gree with you that any bunker ranger build will be much much more effective as a “condi damage” build and torch is the star the condi damge weapons. With this setup you benefit from the defence and sustain of an healing bunker, the condi damge of a condi build and raw damage from pets(from the axe might stacking). The build weakness is condi defence and EB is a dilema becauseyou want to enable your pet. SOW is to much value to give up on, LR is a must and gurd is like the backbone of the build, so no palce for SOR. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRBMfdG2JjK0LotsgFLQ1iBwEq2JQnGAvGV3XwCMxH8r2D-TJhHwAPLDQ4JAA4kAAa/BA
That is more or less my build but there is no need to take natures bounty over natures protection, you have perma regen anyway.
And you need more poison than sword 3 which is why I go doom sigil on each set.
Try my version @Madisonlee. I used to run most of what you have and then changed it to mine.
- It took me a while to decide that sword is no good but the perma stacking from axe is more beneficial (mostly on the pet).
- You get 273 healing per second with NV and Sotw.
- Krait runes instead of strength – I find the condi bomb from Krait so strong mid way through a fight. Also the extra duration from strength runes isn’t needed because you have quite long durations anyway.
- Double canine – knockdowns and wolf fear for your interrupt to rez allies.
You don’t get as many stacks but you’ve got more condi damage anyway from krait runes, and much more survivability.
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.
You need to read my post more carefully.
I agreed that spirits are the best “support”. My point is that no one wants a support ranger.
The best thing a ranger can bring to a team atm is DPS. Or IMO a celestial, natures voice, hybrid which has a better mix of personal dps and some team support.
IMO conquest does not lend itself well to spectators. The fact that it is happening on 3 parts of the map, and that you can be winning whilst not actually doing anything does not make for a good spectacle.
Stronghold might change this dramatically, it just needs its own queue.
No but they weren’t aiming to change the meta last patch, just ‘shave’ it to bring further balance to the existing meta.
I believe anet likes the current meta because it is arguably the most balanced the game has ever had. But I personally would prefer a zerk vs bunk meta without celestial.
I tried GS with celestial last night and the damage was embarrassingly low. Like 2-3k mauls. Here is a fun test, see how quickly you can clear a bunch of engi turrets with axe vs sword/gs…
I think people misread OP’s notion. He’s saying he’s #1 NA based on the Leaderboards. He’s not saying he’s top player in the world. We’re all quite aware that participating in the seasonal ladder most
will grant you the highest spot on the leaderboards.
From the bottom of his heart, if he actually thinks he’s number 1 player in the NA world, out of skill or what ever reason, let’s save that debate for another thread.
As for the threads main point, I agree with OP completely.
1 Leaderboard rank doesn’t match your personal mmr
2 Does MMR truly matches skill level?
I don’t mind getting matched up with crappy players.. rather… I don’t expect getting matched up with “high experienced players” all the time. That’s due to a population issue.
The issue I have is my MMR not matching up with my rank or vice versa.
Yes I think everyone bashing on the guy has completely missed the point…
That said, isn’t the new system supposed to give you matches that you have a chance of losing?
If you are a high ranked player that might mean putting you with 4 scrubs so that you can carry them.
The issue with full melee ranger is that you can ONLY do small fights, preferably 1 v 1 because once there are more people you just don’t want to be in a melee position. When those big fights do occur then it would be great if we could run something that’s tanky. When pets were strong, we could. We could do gs s/x and bird pets in order to combo burst people pretty sufficiently with hilt bash and raven F2. That isn’t the case anymore and leaves the ranger to either be too squishy in group fights or not doing enough in a team fight. Even then, the point of a full melee ranger would have to be to push far in order to stop their 5th from entering the mid fight because whatever they bring to the team fight is going to be better than what you have as a ranger. So you push the 1 v 1. However, the only way to decap the node and to really make the fight worthwhile is to use lb because the gs block -> kb isn’t enough against any decent player. I think what is needed in that case is just 3 weapon sets, so you can still decap. If we REALLY wanted to just make full melee work then realistically it wouldn’t be a zerker amulet but rather something with some tank… like a valk, soldier, cavalier, or clerics even and using intelligence to land big mauls kind of like eviscerate warriors. However.. that doesn’t have the sustained damage to beat out any cele build imo.
In conclusion, either a nerf to cele or the perfect storm of a combo that someone comes up with is needed to make full melee viable. However, given the game mode… it would be hard not to have ranged damage.
Right, where as the range on longbow means you can still be squishy and contribute to the team fight. Makes sense.
Does melee need more damage or more survivability to be challenge for this spot?
The annoying thing about melee ranger is there is no really clear build. The traits are not ideally placed, and they wind up really lending themselves to a hybrid build, which completely defeats the point of greatsword.
For example the obvious build most melee rangers run is 6 in NM and WS, but that gives you:
No bonus damage unless you take SoS
No added power, precision or ferocity via traits
Max condi damage and condi damage on the sword, which makes you immediately want to consider a melee condi build or at least hybrid
And now all the sudden you’re running the s/t condi build.
And you still didn’t bring the team support a medi sword/GS gaurd or shout sword/hammer warrior bring.
The other option is to go glassy as kitten, which works great in roaming, but you’re not going to hold a sidepoint like that. You basically turn yourself in to a thief with slightly less mobility.
Edit: Or the final option, the one I like, is to go celestial with main hand axe on swap. You can hold a point and contribute to team fights. I hope we get a 2nd 1 handed melee option at some point (mace?) so you can run a full melee hybrid build, which rangers are just born to run.
So sounds like your issue Fluffball is that if you trait for the sword the damage is low, and if you don’t the survivability is weak…
Would you prefer to see the two sword traits in marks/skirmishing, and run either 6/x/x/6/x or x/6/x/6/x?
Or would a buff to GS damage be better?
Or even a condition removing GM skirmishing trait to replace striders…?
The POINT is that I with some guildies STARTED a breach map, successfully ran a breach, and brought people in to breach, and I ADVERTISED on LFG for a BREACH map, which then got TURNED into a keyfarm map between events, and the I got TOLD to leave. What is wrong with keyfarming-nothing if they do it on THEIR own map, but they don’t, or stop between events, but should I have to wait for 100 people to run out of shovels on a map I STARTED? They wait for a breach jump ship, and then farm until they are out of shovels again effectively RUINING the maps they jump into and telling people who where there first to GIVE UP THEIR hard earned magic find boost because they decided this map looks good.
And by the by @Garrisyl they created the toxicity when someone asked them to help with the event that they up leveled and they started yelling about how THEY OWNED the map, and saying that anyone who event THOUGHT that they should help was several unrepeatable words.
I think it is unreasonable to expect a map to remain non-farm after vw.
Most people leave after a successful run, and what more can farmers do other than start on a fresh map?
All of the legendary weapons except for one can be crafted and sold for a profit. Once you have enough gold to craft one, you can easily craft as many as you want as long as you have the karma and world completion badges.
What is your point?
My question is whether or not you think the achievement points for souldbind a legendary is fair.
I think the acheivement should be given for crafting them, no soulbinding them.
The point is that the achievement only costs someone the amount it would take to craft a single legendary. There’s nothing spectacular about someone who eventually accumulates around 2,000 gold, buys up all the materials, crafts a legendary, sells it for a profit, and then repeats the process over again 4 more times.
It should be for soulbinding.
OK I see what you are saying now.
I still think the achievement of crafting one legendary is greater than buying 5. And the current system does not reflect that.
All of the legendary weapons except for one can be crafted and sold for a profit. Once you have enough gold to craft one, you can easily craft as many as you want as long as you have the karma and world completion badges.
What is your point?
My question is whether or not you think the achievement points for souldbind a legendary is fair.
I think the acheivement should be given for crafting them, no soulbinding them.
