Guild Wars 2

I’d like to see Shield Mastery moved to the adept level and rolled into Missile Deflection. Combined, I think it would be a better adept trait.

I’d like to see Culling the Weak rolled into both Sundering Mace and Merciless Hammer.

@CuteLilKittenHugz.2064
“Do some more research” – Research? Well, I guess those years serving in the Army must have been for nothing compared to your book knowledge. I guess the military doesn’t know what Rangers in real life are because I lifted the description from our website. But let’s not get distracted from the point of the OP’s post.

The original message was that the Ranger has low dps in dungeons using the example of three experienced bow-Rangers unable to accomplish what three beginner warriors could do. Could a Ranger play melee instead of bow? Yes. But what if you wanted to play an Archer – what profession do you pick? ArenaNet describes the “master of the bow” as the Ranger. But the Ranger’s “mastery of the bow” is not working.

The conclusion, therefore, is even experienced Rangers have problems with dps in dungeons. Therefore, the game mechanic in how the Ranger is designed and producing dps is problematic and needs improvement.

In real life, Rangers use rifles. So that’s still ranged! “Ranger” IS about “range”. In real life, Rangers are NOT guerrilla warfare specialists (that’s Special Forces/Green Berets). Rangers are long range reconnaissance (penetrating enemy lines and sneaking back with information). They are a lethal, agile, and flexible force. They are capable of conducting many complex, joint special operations missions. They are the military’s premier direct-action raid force. So if you want to talk about real life Rangers, the came comes up quite short in comparison. But they are, and always have been, ranged fighters.

Now, ArenaNet made the Ranger not “just” about range, but it still includes “range” as a primary attribute. Yes, players can play a ranger with a melee approach to combat. And I’m sure the flexibility of combat options is great. But you can never, ever take the “range” out of Ranger and still have a “Ranger”.

I’d like to see more stun breakers added to shouts (more than just “Shake It Off”)

I’d also like to see AoE Stability granted to banners (yes, Battle Standard has it with other boons, but perhaps “just” Stability or something similar when a banner is planted)

I’d like to see the adept trait Stronger Bowstrings which has a Longbow range increase add a skills increase 20% faster.

The other Longbow trait, Burning Arrows, is a good master trait like it is.

@Manekk

/double facepalm – because one facepalm just isn’t enough to respond to that statement

Disengage – leap backwards like the shortbow skill, frees from all movement impairing affects and grants swiftness for 8 seconds.

Focused – immune to all stuns, dazes, knockbacks, and interrupts for a brief time (say 5 seconds)

Web Trap – immobilize until freed (or until the webs dissolve after a brief time).

Dust Trap – causes blindness for 5 seconds (estimated time given – times would have to be tested for game balance).

Tranquilizing Shot – remove one boon from target

Binding Shot – tethers target to location until freed

Flare – shots fired at enemy stay “lit” on target even if target stealths; lasts for 30 seconds (condition removal should also be available to remove flare marker)

Readiness (Elite) – finishes the cooldown on all skills (allows the Ranger to use, for example, Rapid Fire twice in a row).

Powershot (Elite) – fire a single, powerful shot (bows or axes) that knocks target back and does +300% damage (damage increase would need to be tested for balance, but a significant amount).

Dire Beast (Elite) – Summons a Veteran version of one’s active pet for 30 seconds.

*Stampede" (Elite) – Summons all available tamed pets to fight for the Ranger for 20 seconds (or 10 seconds if that’s too much dps). On land, land and amphibious pets. In water, amphibious and water pets. Does not include HoM pets (so non-GW1 players won’t be penalized).

It only lasts a few seconds. I like the design concept as it would redirect aggro (if it lasted longer). At present, its not a very useful skill because its too situation depending on the type of attacker.

For example, against a ranged opponent, its great. Those few seconds are enough for the NPC enemy to redirect attacks against someone else (a pet or other party member). Against a melee opponent, however, those few seconds are not enough. After the initiation of the trait, the attacker considers other targets (one second passes). Target moves toward new opponent. Then the stealth wears off and that opponent comes back to attack you again because you appeared again when he hasn’t engaged a new target yet.

I’m sure in PvP it works fine. But in PvE, its another lackluster trait that could be made more useful.

Reviewing the threads above, its interesting to read how the comments seems to consistently say, “Rangers rely on bows too much and don’t melee enough.” At the beginning of GW2, as professions were being introduced, Colin specifically described Rangers a “Masters of the Bow”. Yet, the consensus seems to be “Rangers, don’t rely on your bows.” That sounds like a design flaw to me – Rangers are not designed as “Masters of the Bow” like they were supposed to be.

Actually, you all are making my point for me. Let’s assume you are absolutely right – I’ll grant you the benefit of the doubt and say, yes, pets don’t have to die from boss AoE. Somehow, the boss’s AoE does not do 5k damage to one shot your pet.

But look at what you are saying and I hope you’ll see what I meant by my post above. The pet can survive with protection… I agree. The pet can survive with healing… again, I agree. The pet can survive by utility management… also true. But if you are stop what you are doing to protect the pet, you aren’t dpsing (even for a split second). If you stop what you are doing to heal the pet, you aren’t dpsing. If you stop what you are doing to micromanage the pet, you aren’t dpsing. All these factors, even for a tiny amount of time reduces the amount of damage you are doing.

So why would a warrior be selected over a Ranger? Higher armor (more protection built in) and no pet micromanagement. The warrior, specced completely for dps has higher protection than a Ranger specced completely for dps. That puts Rangers at a disadvantage.

What ArenaNet should do, and they probably won’t, is make Rangers superior in damage output to warriors precisely because they have to manage pets and have less protection to start with.

Can Rangers succeed in dungeons? Absolutely! But they should be compensated for the extra amount of work they have to do in managing two “players” at once (one with less control than the other). There ought to be a better payoff for the work and “risk” involved.

Here’s a trait suggestion for the Marksmanship line…

Safety Off: Increases projectile weapon efficiency by 100%.

(so far, it feels like the ‘range’ in Ranger keeps the safety on, leaving Rangers forced to club their opponents in melee for moderate dps rather than shoot them.)

Master’s Bond is counter-intuitive to the entire Beastmaster trait line. The more points you put into Beastmastery, the faster you can swap pets. But this buff only works while the pet is “unswapped.” So yes, this needs to be changed so that the Ranger is buffed as long as he/she has a pet out (and is reset on a pet’s death). That way, the Ranger isn’t penalized for good pet management.

Why is ranger performance diminished in dungeons? Well, player experience aside, lets look at the mechanics of the situation. Every dungeon boss, yes, EVERY boss uses AoE attacks. Pets have no AoE dodge or damage mitigation of any kind, nor receives any stat bonuses from their Ranger owners (gear does not affect pets). So if the Ranger is caught unawares, the pet can die quickly. That instantly reduces the Ranger’s dps by 33-40% right there. ArenaNet has designed the Ranger/Pet combo to provide equal dps to other classes. Remove the pet, and the Ranger’s damage output drops considerably.

Now let’s suppose the Ranger is not caught unawares. Let’s imagine the party encounters a boss and they start the fight. The ranger sends in the pet to run up to boss and starts firing a bow. The pet is running (no dps is being done by the pet yet) so the Ranger is only putting out 2/3rds his/her dps. The fight continues. The pet gets in trouble, so the Ranger recalls the pet. Now the pet is running away from the boss (no dps is being done by the pet now). Lets say the Ranger swaps pets and sends in a new pet (no dps is being done by the pet until it reaches the target). The point of the example here is that pets hinder Ranger damage output when they are swapped or running to/from the target. With so many damage points invested in pets (by ArenaNet), the Ranger is actually handicapped whenever the pet is not attacking (especially when dead).

As a result, Rangers get a bad reputation in dungeons. It could be the player’s fault, but more likely, its a game design flaw as well. In the open world, if a fight takes a few seconds longer because the pet is running (or dies) its inconvenient. In a dungeon against bosses and encounters designed for a whole party putting out X amount of dps, however, its unforgiving.

If they are going to create viable builds, and then shift/adjust/improve traits to make them viable, then it might “MIGHT” work. But so far, we know there’s a pet dps nerf incoming… no word on pet AI improvements… no word on pet AoE survivability… And most (if not all) of the discussion on traits is coming from the PvP sector to affect ALL gameplay. So if a Ranger pet becomes an actual threat in PvP, then it means nerfs for everyone.

On a stationary target dummy, my pet had a hit rating of only 45%. And that’s with the improved pathing. On paper, I’m sure the pet looks great. In practice, the pet isn’t making constant contact with a STATIONARY target, let alone one that runs around. Pet nerfs should only be applied AFTER the pet can actually hit the target (instead of players running the wrong way and getting hit by the pet more than if they just stood still).

I am not optimistic about the proposed trait changes. As stated by many others above, their track record hasn’t been very good for the Ranger.

I agree. Dynamic events should have more of a tug of war feel to them. At present, DEs just feel like a “heart” quest (not really dynamic at all). And event, yes, but not dynamic. There should be more “change” in the world.

Can we get a dungeon status update somewhere in our character records added to our Story or Hero panel or somewhere?

For example:
Ascalon Catacombs dungeon: story mode complete, path one complete, path two complete, path three incomplete

or

Honor of the Waves dungeon: story mode incomplete, path one complete, …

Since the game already tracks who has completed story mode and who hasn’t per character, it would be nice to be able to look at one of your alts and see which ones haven’t done story mode yet, which ones have, and which paths still need to be done, without having to travel each character to the entrance to find out.

Who can design the most “glass cannon” top dps build in GW2? Taking every profession, any build style, any gear compliment… what is THE NUMBER ONE highest dps build in the game?

(post a link to your build to prove your set up)

So Mesmer pets (illusions) work differently than Ranger pets (companions) or Engineer pets (turrets)? The reason I ask is that it seems odd that ArenaNet would design, for example, Ranger pets to “not” be affected by the player’s armor and gear (having stats of their own that can be traited) and have both gear and traits affect Mesmer pets. Can you point me to the article or interview where that explanation about Mesmer illusions receiving player bonuses? Even test footage from Youtube would be great. Thanks!

How do stats work for illusions?
Basically, I’m trying to theorycraft multiple build types. Phantasm builds are one I’m exploring, but I’m also considering several other types.
a. I want to know what my clones and phantasms base damage would be.
b. I want to know what my clones and phantasms base crit chance would be.
c. I want to know how my armor choice influences my clones and phantasms (for example, if Beserkers increases their crit damage or if Rampagers increases their crit chance) – and if so, by how much?
d. Would a Phantasm hit just as hard with Beserker gear as it would with Soldier gear? Or is there some kind of relationship involved?

Thank you, in advance, to everyone who posts with information that can help answer these questions.

“I never said ranger was better at insert thing here than class insert class here”

That’s true. In fact, you have openly stated that the Ranger needs improvement (pets and spirits, in particular). But in previous posts, including the interview with Jonathan Sharp and Jon Peters, the claim was made that its not a design problem (though they do admit that the Ranger needs improvement, too), but rather a perception problem (see http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/82417-qa-with-jonathan-sharp-and-jon-peters/).

So my intention was to be open and allow devs to change our perceptions. It was never meant to be accusatory. My apologies if my post came across that way.

I have played Ranger as my main since the betas. But I just don’t see the “successes” Robert speaks of… high damage numbers from pets, lots of utility, sustained dps….

But I accept that perhaps Robert, as a dev, knows more about this game than I. So Robert, if the Ranger is really as good as you say, show us. Show us your builds, traits, gear, utility choices, weapon types, food buffs, runes, and jewels… and show us what you are doing that makes the Ranger so good. Just record your playtime for us and post it so we can all see how we ‘should’ be playing our Rangers to get the results that you seem to be getting. I’m sure we’d all love to get the most out of our Rangers.

@Chaotic Storm: Its not a settings issue. I have very good settings. But let me see if I follow your logic… if I change the graphic settings for ‘fully shiny’ I get the shiny armor, but everything else becomes shiny, too. In other words, to get a metallic look on armor, I have to have a character with shiny, oily hair? Gross.

Adding metallic dyes is better than oily graphics.

My post was intended to refer to dye colors for armor. It was not intended to refer to aura effects or special effects on existing items. It was not intended to refer to coloring weapons or copying weapon “effects” to armor.

Just metallic color on armor with no other effect than simply being shiny. That’s all.

And if the purpose intended for the Juggernaut was to provide a recognizable “hey, look at me” color that could be turned off and on by drawing out the weapon, would, in some unfathomable way, interfere with the “reward” of owning the legendary weapon, then I’m sure that particular shade of color can be reserved for only owning the Juggernaut.

But that still leaves quite a few other metallic colors of dyes that could be added (which don’t have that “turn on/turn off” effect). And that’s why I suggested adding metallic dyes for armor only to Guild Wars 2.

I would love to see gear switching available (everything including armor, weapons, and trinkets). Let it be unavailable in combat, but out of combat, able to switch.

I think dynamic events can be improved (and thus, open world experience improved) by adding more variety to the existing dynamic events. Particularly the combat-related dynamic events such as defending a garrison, outpost, or town from attack.

At present, dynamic events have a script that is followed. Its the same every time. Enemies spawn X number to attack from the same locations based on the number of players in the area. Its the same number of waves from the same direction. Its so predictable that players even rush to the spawn points to kill enemies rather than where the enemies are intended to attack.

So I would like to see more randomness added: increased number of ‘potential’ spawn points, scaling difficult that takes into account not only the number of players but also the number of NPC victories/defeats, and more variety in the composition of enemies (such as the use of siege equipment or even NPC types beyond just scaling up to Veterans and Champions).

For example, in Gendarran Fields, there is a town (Nebo Terrace) that always gets attacked by centaurs. The centaurs have warriors, lancers, and archers. They attack in eight waves to the three gates of the town. They attack the guards at the gates outside. They break down the gates to start their attack inside. And they always, always lose. So what if we change up the dynamic event.
1. What if they climbed the hill outside of town with a wave of archers (if out of range, have them jump to the roof tops… assuming pathing will permit that)? What if the archers scaled the towers in town and attacked from on high instead of always just running into the town and attacking? What if centaurs used battle formations and literally put a line of ‘non-charging’ warriors in front of the archers? (not always, but something to give variety to the encounter)
2. What if, after the centaurs have been losing X number of dynamic events, they started bringing those catapults closer to hit the town? What if the centaurs built arrow carts and ballistas at the city gates to help their siege?
3. What if the centaurs sent in a wave of rock dogs WITH their normal waves as part of their strategy?
4. What if the centaur archers used fire fields and increased abilities after losing X number of dynamic events?

And when the centaurs finally get their victory, the dynamic event can be scaled the same way for players re-taking the town. Guards can be slowly increased in abilities and strengths and even tactics as players lose X number of dynamic events.

I’m sure there’s lots more that can be done with these dynamic events. My point is that it offers more variety – more “dynamic-ism” – to the dynamic events to let them be more fluid and changing than static and predictable. It would give more ‘life’ to the open world and make it more fun to play in, even after 80.

And as an even more radical idea, somewhat in line with the living story technique being used, perhaps even whole maps could be occasionally experience a regional dynamic event. In the case of Gendarran Fields, perhaps a centaur army may sweep through the entire map (say 100+ in size with Veterans and Champions), killing everything in its path and taking over towns and wiping out villages. Players would have to ‘retake’ maps to restore order.

An idea I had about WvW is to actually change up the game play month after month. More than just tiers of servers shifting, but actually changing the way the WvW is played. For example, for one month boost all supplies and supplies carried by 50% (and see what happens). And then next month, supplies drop to normal, but siege weapons now do an extra 100% damage to players (and then see what happens). And the next month, siege weapons drop to normal, but say all keep and outpost gates are strengthened by an extra 50% (and then see what happens). Or even for a month, the “extra camps” like Ogres and Harpies and Krait and Hylek spawn twice as many “helpers” or the “wild beasts” on the maps ‘stampede’ (sort of an NPC zerg).

The point that I am suggesting is to keep WvW changing (different types of environmental rules) to keep it interesting and never the same.

I would like to see dyes that add metallic colors to the game (shiny, metal). Colors like silver (nice reflective chrome-look), gold, copper, bronze. You can even make shiny base colors like Metallic Abyss (shiny solid black) or Metallic Celestial (shiny solid white) or even a whole series of Metallic Midnight colors (deep reds, blues, greens, and so forth) for those metallic heavy armor looks.

My favorite one-time event was the launch of Guild Wars 2. It was great to be able to finally play this ‘most anticipated game’ as it was intended.

Haven’t cared much for the others, although, the concept behind Lost Shores was very exciting; too bad it was too lagged out to enjoy (new map, new monsters with their own new skills and animations, and a great reward for all participants).

I have a theorycrafting question, primarily for someone who understands the inner game mechanics to effective Ranger build design and how it affects pet performance. The basic question is – how do Ranger stats and equipment impact pet performance?

For example, if a player stacks condition damage armor and trinkets, do pets benefit from for additional conditional damage? Or if a player stacks Precision (Skirmishing trait and armor), do pets gain additional critical hit chances? Or if a player stacks Power (Marksmanship trait and trinkets), does the pet gain additional power? And so on…..

Here’s my concern comparing other professions: If a warrior stacks traits and armor, it benefits 100% of the player (all damage and defense stats of that player). But rumor has it that the Ranger operates differently. With a Ranger, if the player gains armor or stacks stats towards one direction, it only benefits 2/3rds of the player since it does not affect the pet. If the pet is independent, unaffected by the Ranger’s stats, does that hurt the Ranger’s ability as a player? (functioning at less than 100% as compared to say, a warrior)

So I was hoping someone in the community (or even a developer who knows the game mechanics) could explain the relationship between Ranger builds and pet benefits with actual formulas or even percentages of how it all works.

Turn everyone into pandas for a day! After all, no ‘real’ MMO would want their players playing pandas… its a joke.

I have six superior runes of the soldier on my warrior to work in tandem with a Shout build. With all six, I can remove conditions with a shout utility. It has worked great for many situations.

Unfortunately, while doing an underwater fractal (killing the giant jellyfish), when conditions were applied, my shouts were not removing conditions. I tried multiple times, but the shouts/conditional removal did not work at all during the entire encounter.

Runes of Lyssa works great when combined with Empowered Trait (Adept in Tactics line). +2% damage per boon + all boons for 5 sec (Aegis, Fury, Might, Protection, Regeneration, Retaliation, Stability, Swiftness, and Vigor) = +18% damage for 5 seconds.

(EDIT: Aegis will drop quickly from being hit once, especially true in melee combat, but +16% for most of that time is great.)

Random World Boss: Unsuspicious Rabbit (Legendary)
Already in Tyria, we have an unsuspicious in the world (no spoiler here if you haven’t seen it yet) and a rabbit boss fight in Fractals (again, no spoiler here if you haven’t experienced it yet), so I was thinking ’Wouldn’t it be fun to have a random encounter of an ‘unsuspicious’ (killer) rabbit that looks like an ordinary bunny, but was actually ferocious with ‘nasty, big, pointy teeth’ (and might drop appropriate loot item for this “Group Event”). The goal isn’t the loot, but simply the fun in vanquishing this foe (who will pop up again someone in Tyria) randomly patrolling maps.

He could be “yellow” (not being aggressive towards anyone until attacked). That way, it won’t mess up maps he’s patrolling through and when spotted, like the Skritt Burgler, a group can try to take him out.

So, if pets are supposed to do roughly 30-40% of the Ranger’s damage, then Ranger GS is working like its supposed to… about 30-40% less damage than a Warrior with no pet. Correct?

- 90% aoe damage reduction
- beast mastery line also effect secondary traits like condition damage
- shorter cooldowns on dead pets as well as much higher health
- Some Pets should always go behind target to attack (stealth)
- Pet can move while attacking, they never need to stand still to cast ANYTHING
- Pet “pounce” range increased
- All main attacks should be instant attacks (no cast time or animation time)
- Shortened F2 animation time
- Shrink the pathing zone around the Ranger
- Either pets should be optional (turned off with a damage buff equivalent to the pets normal damage) or Rangers need more pet skills that do not replace other skills (all Rangers get pet skills; Beastmaster Rangers get enhanced pet skills).
- Pets get agony resistance equivalent to the Ranger
- Pets can rally from enemy kills
- Have Pet “armor” with runes (customize pet design)
- Have weapon sigils effect pets

Will any of the future content patches include profession balancing? There still remain skill mechanics, pet problems, and tweaking performance issues that need addressing. I was just curious if these will be improved in any of the upcoming patches (January, February, and so forth). I have not found much reference to fixes or improvements in the recent announcements.

I have a level 80 Human Ranger. With Exotic Rampager’s armor and Chrysocola gems in everything (including jewelry) and 30/20/20/0/0 with Bleed on Crit (Precision line) and Superior Sigil of Earth on Shortbow, I normally get about 101 per tick on a level 80 enemy with about 11-13 stacks of bleeds. If I hit Sharpening Stone and Quickening Zephyr, I can add more stacks up to around 17-20 stacks.

However, if I hit Sharpening Stone, Quickening Zephyr, and Rampage as One with Rare Veggie Pizza (Chef food buff) and Maturing Tuning Crystal (Artificer buff)… well, so far my record has been 154 per tick with 24 stacks of bleeds. I’ve only seen it go that high once against a dungeon boss, so don’t think that’s normal. Everything has to be just right to get that kind of score and it only lasted for about one second. But it was a very nice surprise that I long to see again.