Guild Wars 2

Staff Rev will likely wipe the floor with both Staff Ele and Staff Ranger :P

Cogbyrn.7283:

What if one of the shouts provides a unique debuff on enemies that, for example, increases the chance the target will be crit by 20%? Like a unique de-buff Fury that works with the Fury boon. Suddenly it’s like Necros are providing group Fury, but they aren’t actually overwriting/adding onto the same Fury someone else might be giving.

Team support doesn’t have to mean “boon sharing” or “unique boons on allies”. I don’t necessarily think this will happen, but it could.

Also, after all of the complaints I saw about not having cleave, I’m really surprised to suddenly see that apparently cleave wasn’t a big deal. I suppose the big deal was <insert thing Necro class didn’t get>. I always figured cleaving down trash even quicker would contribute to the speed run timing as well, but apparently this game is just about boss kill speed now?

I really don’t understand competitive PvE in a game where it isn’t about difficulty of content, but just slamming your face through the content as fast as possible.

I’m quite happy Reaper will be getting cleave… but a lot of trash is skipped so… The end game is about what one wants it to be about, I guess. If you want it to be about speed runs it can be. If the Reaper can buff group DPS or with boons, well, either would be great.

Eolirin.1830:

And to be clear, I’m not saying that’s what HoT content is going to look like either, mind, but until we have a sense of what’s coming with HoT and with the condition changes, it’s pointless to speculate on whether something will be part of the meta or not.

Yeah, so, pretty much ignore the first three paragraphs before that. Got it lol

Anyway, I’m referring to current PVE content since that’s what we definitively know. I’ll need a reason, like I said, to bring the Reaper over Guardian, Warrior, Ranger, Druid, Dragonhunter, Chronomancer, etc. What can the Reaper do just as well or better than those? Hopefully, we will get an answer (or something close to an answer) tomorrow.

Was this a PVP thread? Unsure.

Either way, until all the new weapon skills and utilities are known I think you are extremely premature in your claim about the Reaper being even remotely overpowered. We shall see though.

Sevans.4619:

Ranger. Is. A. Pet. Class.

Yup, the Ranger is and forever will be… but future Elite Specs… They won’t be Rangers then. They will be Druids or whatever else they want them to be called. Thus, there is the possibility of them redesigning the pet mechanic into something completely different, such as the totems or whatever. But, again, the Ranger mechanic will remain as is. So don’t worry your little head, your Ranger class mechanic isn’t going anywhere… but that may not be the case with a future Elite Specialization.

That being said, sadly, OP is right though. It is unlikely they’ll do away with the pitiful pet mechanic for a future Elite Specialization because I don’t think they (the ones that decide where money/resources is spent) want time/money spent on an entirely new mechanic for any one class. So, in the end I’ll have to end up picking something else as a main when HoT comes out.

I didn’t specify group vs single because it’s obvious that the individual DPS makes up the group DPS. That’s why I like to run in zerker groups because overall of the group is higher, than say, cleric group DPS. Need active defenses (that’s good support) such as blinds, etc, then that combined with dodging people shouldn’t be dying. Of course, player skill has to be there. So, I imagine that if the DPS is high enough I wouldn’t mind bringing in my Reaper. Think of it this way, why should I bring my Reaper vs Dragonhunter? How will having a Reaper in the group benefit the group MORE THAN having a particular other spec/build for the encounters? That’s what one has to weigh when considering group composition. I need reasons to bring the Reaper over over classes.

As long as killing things is the goal, DPS will be king. CC/Support might move up in importance but they will not be more important than DPS.

You’d think though if that were the case (and they were getting group support through some means) they would have mentioned it in the write up that the Reaper is getting group support in some fashion. That’s been a GLARING hole in the Necromancer’s abilities for years, just like DPS, which they did mention. Of course, like everyone else I’ll be paying attention to the PoI but I’m not going to be foolish and get my hopes up. Did that too many times while maining a Ranger and won’t be doing that again.

I don’t know… I’m not fond of the idea of slow combat, which is what the Reaper will be. Not only that, given what they wrote about it, it’s still going to have ZERO group support.

EDIT: I mean, the reason I don’t play my necro, at all, is because the lack of good melee weapon and absolutely terrible group support.

Shiki.7148:

Mangelware.5193:

Yeah hype…
“Creepy slow horror monster that is unstoppable and will…”
“STAGGERING BLOW, EARTHSHAKER, BACKBREAKER, BANISH!!! Thats what you get for going melee, noob”

Time to reroll I guess

It is confirmed an elite-spec will get a Defiance bar. With the “Creepy slow unstoppable monster” description, it might very well be the Reaper. Which would definitly fix this. So wait for tomorrows PoI!

That’s great and all but without group support the Reaper will still be left out of the LFG unless they have just insane DPS.

Don’t know enough to know if Reaper will be handy in Dungeons/Fractals…. but it doesn’t look very good. In parties we need high support and high DPS. If you can do only one you’ll be less looked for in the LFG process. Leaving out group support will leave the Reaper out of a lot of LFGs… unless their DPS is just insane.

Open world PVE it doesn’t matter 99% of the time what kind of build you run because it’s just zerging anyway.

Dhorghar.5249:

Nemesis explains really well what’s wrong with the berserker meta in his new video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js5ltIBr73s

LOLOLOLOL. Video made me laugh. If content takes longer than it already does… I’ll quit and Anet won’t get anymore of my money.

That guy just wants the Trinity in GW2 because he mains a Necro. He sounds really bitter.

Scholar and strength. Need to kill things fast.

See. See everyone? Threads like this IS the reason that the Suggestion subforum got trashed, locked down, and put away into the archives.. 99.9999% of the Suggestion threads are pure garbage.

Yeah…. but until we see what they actually do to them it’s just speculation.

Made me LOL when I saw it… Been up on the LFG for a little while now.

Justine.6351:

same as now.

marksmanship
skirmishing
wilderness

All the traits I use now are still in the same lines…

Same here.

I assume this is PVP related? Don’t know anyone that runs torch outside of tagging mobs much less cares if it is nerfed or not. Hell, I have a ascended torch but haven’t made it since I made it. Made it, pretty much, just to have it.

It’s great that people that want the archer will have more options. Sadly, there’s no other class that plays like a melee Ranger. I know, I’ve tried them all. Sword+Dagger thief comes close, but it’s still a distant relative.

Ragnar.1546:

The same reason follows suit for those that may not know… Like myself. I’ve got better things to do with my time than to read endless pages of interview crap. The forums are full of speculation some more grounded than others.

Like I said, if you really want to know, you can go find it.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If you make a claim that someone has said something or quote them, you should supply a source for that claim, else we end up with people just making up quotes about everything/anything they feel like, to validate their opinion. Don’t quote unless you provide the source. The burden of proof is not on the reader. Simple.

Uh, it wasn’t a claim. I know it wasn’t a claim because I read it in the interview. There’s no “burden of proof” needed because I know it’s already there. If you saw a “burden of proof” need that is on you and I don’t really care. So, I’ll quote all day long if I feel like it and not provide the source because I don’t really care if you believe me or not because it’s irrelevant if you believe me or not. If you want to know you can go google it yourself or just do whatever, I don’t care.

Unless there’s a damage modifier trait for 20%+ when using traps or just having them on your bar, then don’t expect traps to be a thing in dungeons after HoT… Unless you use Dragonhunter traps… Those look much better than Ranger traps.

Fluffball.8307:

I’ve been trying to get archer-people to play thief or warrior for years. They’re all just names.

Key words have been bolded for emphasis.

For those who love to play melee Ranger, well, SOL.

Sebrent.3625:

I don’t think that took you that long … and here’s a nice agreement

• You be nice and help others
• I’ll be nice and help others.

If we were all nice and helpful … we’d all win :-)

Thank you for providing the link and info.

It’s not me questioning you, it’s me wanting to know exactly what you’re referencing.

If I didn’t get the link from you, I’d find something and come back and ask “is this what you were talking about?”. I’d rather just ask you and skip a step.

Regardless it’s not about being nice or not, it’s about time management… that time I won’t be getting back which is why I almost never google things for people when if they really want to know they can go find it —> using their time, and not mine. Of course, I view my time as a much more valuable than others I guess since I work rotational. If you or someone else couldn’t find the article you’d be SOL and I wouldn’t bother continuing the conversation any further… I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.

Once again, Sebrent, you can google it yourself if you want to see it. It’s been there and referenced in other threads on this forum.. But, I’m feeling especially generous with my time today, so here LET ME GOOGLE THAT FOR YOU.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/9624/Specializations-Interview.html/page/1

MMORPG: Specializations seem like a way for roles to be further defined in party situations. Will we be seeing support, crowd control, healing, and all those traditional roles with each different specialization?
Jon Peters: Yes, specializations tend to fill a specific role. However, part of us realigning the skill and trait system is that we’re trying to make sure the normal professions—not just with specs—have more specific roles for players to play, and more distinct playstyles to fulfill those roles. Part of our combat system is all about having the ability to change roles during combat if you need to by weapon swapping. That way, everybody can make parties and you don’t have to wait for a specific profession. Anyone can pick a specific role and try to play that way. Specializations are a way for characters to still do this, but to go a bit deeper into the control and support roles in particular to reinforce more of that kind of gameplay with this system, and with the types of new creatures and content that we’re building into the game. How these work and play out will become even more apparent when we introduce more challenging group content coming to the expansion.

Bam. They are going CC/Support for the Elite Specializations. And that is reinforced if you look at what information they have released about the new Elite Specializations. They are all about crowd control and support. Never once has anything from Anet said they are about the DPS role.

Ragnar.1546:

Depends on gameplay.

Which is what so many sheep glaze over when yelling at the top of their keyboards to go play another class.

Ragnar.1546:

But the read makes them sound less damage oriented than the ranger.

All the Elite Specializations with HoT release will be CC/Support and not DPS. Jon Peters confirmed as much already.

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

I can’t believe, that they give him so much support, cause … he was lacking of support (…per distance) X(

It’s not a surprise really. Jon Peters said that all the Elite Specializations coming with HoT are going to be CC/Support roles.

Honestly, now-a-days I’m just indifferent about the lock in place leap. For fights I’m still learning or if I’ve had a bit too much of the Turkey, I just use GS. Although, I wouldn’t mind evade frames for the leap portion of the sword auto attack.

I know I know. I know it’s impossible… but they can make up for it through much more control and giving my pet some evade frames while I dodge :P

We do know from the recent interview (at the time of this post) from Jon Peters about Elite Specializations that the druid will be all about some CC/Support. I think it was MMO.com interview, I forget what MMO related website it was. (Too much work on the brain recently.) So, knowing that I’m still waiting to see if there are going to be support damage modifiers from the trait line or if it’s going to be something else, because, maybe, sword+axe/staff might turn out to be new ranger dungeon/fractal meta build… I mean, since we know very little anything is possible, right?

Leo G.4501:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

I’m sorry, did I say they work just fine in high level fractals? Nope. I didn’t. They are far from perfect. I have to work much harder on my Ranger to keep the profession mechanic up than I do on say, my guaridan, warrior, thief, or ele.

But nice try.

So you’re saying you want easy-cheeze like Ele camping fire attunement, Warrior hoarding adrenaline or skill spam + stealth + steal.

No. Not what I’m saying. If that was what I was saying it would look like this:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

I want easy-cheeze like Ele camping fire attunement, Warrior hoarding adrenaline or skill spam + stealth + steal.

But you don’t see that above because that’s not what I said. So, again, nice try.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Actually, I never said I couldn’t keep pets alive. Feel free to reread my posts. I said they die faster in melee, which is true. Not to mention just because you don’t get why people like to play Ranger without the pet doesn’t mean anything. If I was a betting man I’d wager there are players that play Guardian and don’t want to use Virtues. To repeat myself: I can micro manage my pets just fine. If you want to see for yourself, please feel free to come run a lvl 50 fract with me.

You are right, I apologise for miss quoting you, you did not say you couldn’t keep pets alive. Although if they die faster in melee, that is kinda the same thing?

I was basing my assumption of your pets inevitable death on this;

I really thought they’d keep the 5% from pet on it given how quickly they die… not like you’re going to have that 5% all that long anyway.

And this;

Since I melee most of the time and use melee pets that can’t dodge like I can, they die faster since if you press F3 they just stand next to you and get cleaved to death.

But either way, the part I don’t get the most is your obvious dislike for pets when you can complete F50’s with jaguars, a notoriously fragile pet without them dying. Meleeing Archdiviner, no less. If that is the case, what’s wrong with them? If you can complete probably the hardest PvE content in the game without them dying, where’s the problem?

No, it’s not the same thing.. It’s an assumption or jumping to conclusion that they are the same thing. Do I have 100% uptime with my pets? No, I never claimed to be perfect with micromanaging them 100% of the time, especially after half a bottle of Wild Turkey 101. I’m willing to wager, though, that my pets are alive much more than they are dead and on a 60 sec CD, even the fragile ones. What would really help my pets stay alive is if they got 1-2 sec of evade frames EXACTLY when I dodged — so that they “dodge” at the same time I do and that would go a long way to helping my melee pets die not as fast. But, I don’t think I should have to give up my build for something that should be baseline since they aren’t going to give us perfect AI or more control. When we get the new trait system that’ll probably help too assuming the pet gets the base stat increase.

My dislike of pets mostly stems from poor AI, 2+ years of it. For me not to think of it as poor AI it really has to anticipate what I want it to be doing at any given time. I know this is impossible for Anet, as evident by Dev posts in the Ranger CDI. What is possible, though, is to give me enough control over my pet so I can micromanage it into doing what I want it to do when I want it to do it and where to do it from (when I’m sober at least). I don’t think I should have to give up the way I like to play (my build, utilities, etc) for that to happen. Until that perfect AI code or more control over happens pets will always been a poor preforming class mechanic in my eyes because the AI code simply doesn’t have the intelligence part coded well enough.

EDIT: After thinking about it a little bit more I could probably achieve nearly 100% up time if I had 1-2 sec evade frames on the pet when I dodged… while sober of course

Randulf.7614:

Murderin.8269:

to make the ascended gear that everyone already has

I doubt most people have much in the way of ascended items at all. Maybe a piece here and there, but generally the acquisition and the existence will turn all but either the most hardcore, completest or dedicated of players off. I haven’t spoken to anyone in game who has a full set of ascended gear or is aiming for it.They simply aren’t needed or required beyond high level fractals. Obviously if that is your aim though, then my point is moot.

I’m not hardcore, completest, or that dedicated… and I have two characters that have been decked up in full ascended for many moons. High level fractals have dropped so many ascended chests that I just stopped making them and now I just put either zojja or wupwup on my alts… Wupwup makes great drunk gear

I’m sorry, did I say they work just fine in high level fractals? Nope. I didn’t. They are far from perfect. I have to work much harder on my Ranger to keep the profession mechanic up than I do on say, my guaridan, warrior, thief, or ele.

But nice try.

CureForLiving.5360:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Portal unfairness?

For what? To be an unpaid game tester? Pft.

With the content drought I’d imagine even a beta is looking appealing to some players.

Touche.

Stormy Dragon.9210:

My concern is that the elite specializations end up so powerful that you’re basically forced to play them whether you like them or not.

You aren’t forced to play anything build in this game. The only thing that is forced on you is if you want to do high up fractals that require agony resistance. Outside of that you can literally play whatever build/gear/crap you want and get away with it.

Scoobaniec.9561:

If everything is op, then its balanced right?

Reminds me of “If everyone is special, then no one is special.”

Anyway, op, if this thread was supposed to be about something other than Chronomancer being OP, why did you title it, specifically, “Chronomance OP”. Oh, because you knew that was garner a large number of hits to your thread.

I remember the general impressions from those things I read/saw well enough, I don’t have to remember specific quotes and is unrealistic to expect anyone to remember such. I’ve read plenty of books over the years and have general impressions of those books (i.e. good, bad, indifferent), but can I quote the entire book that I read five years ago? Nope and would be down right silly to expect me or anyone else to. But, I don’t have to remember the words of the book to remember if I liked it or not. And, on top of that, I never claimed the “I don’t give a flying fart” to be factual or anything other than my belief. And to that end I don’t really care if someone agrees with my belief or not. I see it how I see it. Like I said, if one wants to know one can go look up all that information because I’m not doing it again.

Portal unfairness?

For what? To be an unpaid game tester? Pft.

heh… General impressions from watching the Ready Ups, interviews and forum posts. And, no, I’m not going to sift back through all that mess for quotes. If anyone is so inclined to know they can go through all the forum posts, interviews over the last 2 years, and watch all the ready ups, etc. I’ve already done that.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Are you suggesting that your dead cat will out damage a live drake? I don’t get it, if the pets die so fast, why use a cat? .

I’m not suggesting anything. But, I won’t bother explaining WHY one would use the highest DPS pet because it seems like it would fall on obviously biased deaf ears. And it’s cool you play coy and pretend not to get it because you play in super-casual PHIW groups, which is fine. More power to you.

Stars, IMO, if that is to happen it will only happen in an Elite Specialization. I’m also of the opinion that it is not going to happen until certain Developers leave Anet.

Yup… I can agree with that… but fun is subjective. OP might not find LB/GS as fun as Sword+Dagger/Axe+Axe though… Wouldn’t hurt the OP just to experiment around with different builds to find what OP thinks will give them the greastest return on whatever reason it is OP plays.

Actually, I never said I couldn’t keep pets alive. Feel free to reread my posts. I said they die faster in melee, which is true. Not to mention just because you don’t get why people like to play Ranger without the pet doesn’t mean anything. If I was a betting man I’d wager there are players that play Guardian and don’t want to use Virtues. To repeat myself: I can micro manage my pets just fine. If you want to see for yourself, please feel free to come run a lvl 50 fract with me.

Oh man… This is going back over the last 2+ years worth. Easiest, I think, would be to watch all the Ready Ups on YouTube or Twitch channel. Same “I don’t give a flying fart” about Ranger and Necro comes across on the Ready Ups as the interviews and various forum posts.

Firelysm.4967:

With my 1,800hours on ranger I can tell that RaO was never my favourite choice to pick. I almost always took Entangled over RaO just because of the big cooldown that RaO has, which makes fights boring once elite is on cooldown, just like Lich, you have that power spike, and then you have one big skill on way to big cooldown, which is totally fine compared to cooldown and bust you get.

With my nearly (or over as I haven’t checked in awhile) 3,000 hours on ranger I can tell you that Entangle was never my favourite choice to pick. I almost always took RaO over Entangled just because Entangled sucked in comparison and doesn’t add to my DPS. Most of the conent I do the fight is over in 30-45 seconds anyway so the duration of the CD never bothers me because all I need is that the power spike and that’s it. I only use Entangle when I need to immobilize something like ooze in Arah or Grawls on grawl fractal. Otherwise RaO doesn’t leave my bar.

You know what else would solve your problem? Perma-stow.

Best chance of the Ranger’s crap pet being changed significantly is two-fold: 1) It’s done through an Elite Specialization because there would be too much QQ if it was done to the Ranger. 2) Certain persons leave Anet. I do believe through reading many interviews, watching many Ready Ups, and various posts on the forums that the Ranger’s worst enemy is some Developers. I do not belive one will happen without the other.

Tragic Positive.9356:

I personally think of Rangers as skirmishers that learned to survive in the wilderness and use their tricks for battle, just as mastering all kinds of weapons to survive in the wilderness.

Editing your words down to this and I can 100% agree.

Syfin.6875:

Hello

I just made a ranger and ive read around about optimal builds for pve, but the only solid information I could find was centered on dungeon running. Im looking for an open world pve build setup that would satisfy leveling and then later on silverwastes. Not really concerned with group based builds as there is plenty of information out there about that. Any advice is appreciated.

You can literally just run whatever. It honestly and truthfully does not matter in open world PVE what you run on any profession. You will be able to complete all open world content in any build variation. Literally. Any. Build. Combination.

I guess you run in super-casual PHIW let’s take 3 hours to do COF p1 groups. I don’t. I play in get through a dungeon I’ve done 1000x already efficiently groups. Let’s not waste time killing mobs that drop crap loot groups. Groups that enjoy getting better and better thus clearing the content faster and faster… So, taking a ranged pet is not an option. And drake is only good for blasting fields… which sometimes I have to do if the group composition isn’t right for the encounter. Other wise it’s cats.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

WVW and PVP is garbage anyway, it only breeds contempt for content, removing the fun from it, creating frustration and elitism.

FTFY.

:D

Nike.2631:

If you’re one of those people who understand the word ‘diversity’ has an actual meaning that encompasses all possible permutations that don’t crash the second you leave a city-safe zone then you know that the design space of the game if about to experience an apocalypse that will annihilate 99% of the game’s diversity. And since the reality has ALWAYS BEEN that new top builds emerge over time as people explore those deep and vast wilds of possibility, the future meta-builds of the game are being murdered in their sleep in favor of the blatantly obvious builds left in the wake of this change.

See, he gets it. Bottomline is this trait change was made, in my speculative opinion, purely for balancing reasons. When you have a metric ton less build options its easier to balance around. Balancing = Developer Time = MONEY. Less Balancing = Less Developer Time = Less MONEY Spent on Balancing. Boom.

Morfedel.4165:

I’ve never let publicly viewed metas influence my builds. I play what I want, and screw the meta.

And I’ve generally been just fine.

You’ve been just fine because every single build in this game is viable. Viable = Can complete content. Build Diversity has always been there. Just because it’s not Dungeon/Fractal, WVW, or PVP meta doesn’t automatically make a build not viable it just makes it not meta.

Oh, and just incase y’all forgot what viable means:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/viable

" capable of working, functioning, or developing adequately" = in GW2 that is every single build available. If you think a build is not viable because it is not meta, then you are wrong by viture of the definition of the word viable.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diversity

“an instance of being composed of differing elements or qualities " = In GW2 that means that there aren’t limits on builds. If you artifically state there’s no diversity because it’s not meta, then you are wrong by viture of the definition of diversity.

We know from the recent Jon Peters interview that the Druid is going to be CC/Support oriented… but we don’t know anything about more about the Druid profession mechanic now than we did when they did the reveal at PAX South.

And Ranger’s are “one of the” heaviest hitters? LOLWUT? Put the pipe down, son. NOT EVEN ONCE.