Guild Wars 2

Fluffball.8307:

Why would you not be ok with the semi-controllable random smoke assault that is similar to how a brutal charge or tail swipe works?

Because I never was satisfied with random Tail Swipe, either.

And I never found any real reason why should I want smoke field. I support a theory that “not everybody is supposed to replace everyone else”
I want classes for skipping which are Thieves and Engies. And I don’t feel like I need to have closer to any of them when I know I’ll never be on par with my 2 almighty blasts and a pet ruining the skipping.

It’s like saying we no longer need classes with water fields in the game. Because we can use the item Healing Seed.
Do you see where the idea goes?

LegallyBinding.4937:

Give em a break. They are at least trying to balance. IMO they could learn a thing or two from Riot about balancing through gradual buffs/nerfs.

If you say that again I’ll definitely learn hacking just to personally edit it into something different.
Riot are the worst balance-oriented company in gaming industry I have ever seen.

I do not want their approach of lying to players and forcing them a certain game-style that you either play or ban. Addictive imbalance is one of the worst balance systems that destroys the game eventually. They already lost a massive amount of former dedicated players because of it.

I actually like the Assault on F2.
It gives that nice synergy with timing your BM bursts in PvP.

Smoke Field being random that’s… Simply random. You have no way to use it and for that matter you don’t need to make it a smoke field and just give pet the evasion.

I can’t decide which I want more since I’m enjoying my brightest days of PvP I ever had in my life thanks to having Assault on F2.
I’m fine with not having a smoke field. We’d still be inferior to any other skipping class and I find on demand Assault more helpful in PvP than a smoke field.

Justine.6351:

Tragic, if only your opinions were worded as opinions and not shoved down people’s throats as be-all-end-all facts people might be more considering of your opinions and less shutoff by them.

But that’s not really any of my concern.
Quantum physics is not taught through picture books, either, and it’s not my duty to rewrite it to such a form.
I’m posting on forums to brain-storm and teach. Not to search for a Girlfriend. People who do not like my straight approach that saves time can just skip over my comments without any harm.

A simple SotP paired with warhorn results in 16 might. If you just so happen to use SmokeScale F2 – that’s 24 might from WHaO by itself.
Without Pet Swap, Without Call of the Wild, Without any other effect or trait whatsoever.

The build is so overkilled by might and mostly glued to cooldowns that you usually combine or heal yourself by that I simply won’t sugarcoat an awesome build when I don’t really need to. It has flaws and lots of them.

The build is strong, yes, I said that and I’ll say it again. The build is fun, the build has potential, but with all due respect, has nothing in common with the meta.
PvP meta is not focused around duels where this build shines.
If this build was Team-Fight oriented it would have looked completely different.

From view of roles:
- it cannot bunker. It’s easy to be decapped
- it cannot decap. It lacks knockbacks
- it doesn’t turn team-fights. It’s inferior to CC cleric build
- It lacks burst/rotate options

And it’s easy to be focused and burst down

It doesn’t fit a single meta role
It’s just yet another of those “good” builds. Just like QuickDraw Power Survival, Condi Survival… There’s literally no difference. You simply traded utility,CC and damage from longbow for sustain and more boons and you became dependent on AI. There already are builds that can rank 25 might with Longbow as well. That’s no news and makes this build no special around that matter.

Durzlla.6295:

and if you go into Nature Magic and pick up the Healing Power gives you Power trait you’ll actually gain a pretty good chunk of damage too.

You get pretty much 80 power.
That can be neglected pretty much. Of course, it helps. But I wouldn’t really stress it.

@OP
Anything else – yes Durzlla told you everything you need to know.

Elxdark.9702:

I’ll ignore you for now because I’m pretty sure you haven’t even tested the build, and if you have then you don’t know how to use it properly, I can do any “objetive” you said pretty well.

Sword/warhorn is just for the might stacking + evade I don’t use it for dps lol.

I got cc from daze glyph smokescale and celestial form that’s enough cc im not a freaking engi.
Am I inferior of decapping or holding a point? sry maybe you’re one of those guys who play misntrel’s bunker druid right? sure I can’t 1v5 24/7 but I do damage I do pressure I do SOMETHING.

Allie’s aid + zephyr’s speed I can res to anybody in 2 sec.

damage is easily negated… more and more I think you didn’t even try the build at all..
1v1 it takes time yes but I win or at least I decap.

Ok it’s fine tho if you want to stick being a rock in the middle do it, if that’s fun for you do it, if it’s fun for you 1v5 and not dying good for you but not for me I want actually do something.

If you’ll ignore me, that’s perfectly fine by me.
I know that people overall (not in forums only) are too hard to accept other people’s opinions.

Just came to share an insight on variation of build I tested on BWE already and did it again when I saw your thread.
That’s all I did. If you are not okay with people’s opinions, don’t use forums. You’ll get disappointed a lot and lot of times.
Have a nice day.

I’m sorry to have to come here and disappoint… But this is not a meta build by any margin. It’s simply determined ever since I saw Quickening Zephyr in place of Taunt and Jungle Stalker in place of Lightning Wyvern.

This indeed is an interesting build, I give you that. But it is far from being meta. A power of the build is not determined by whether you can 1v1 scrapper or not. It’s determined by how many roles can you successfully fit at the same time and how do you contribute to objectives (even though fighting is a part of it but only if you watch it from casual point of view).
And this has 1 and 1 only.
A hybrid.

Now let me demonstrate of what I have in mind.
-When it comes to saving your teammates when being downed – you are inferior
-When it comes to objectives – you are inferior holding a point or decapping one
-When it comes to damage – it’s easily negated
-When it comes to CC – you lack
-When it comes to dueling, it takes lots of time to win a fight
-When it comes to Team-Fights – you lack

But yes, you do have that jack of all trades, I’m aware. But that’s it. The build is amazing in solo-queue but doesn’t offer almost anything that a dedicated PvP group might expect.
Why am I so sure?

and now teef is ded so I went back to Ranger which it has always been really fun for me.

Just make it a simple change on Might Stacking. Take Companion’s Might. That’s 12 stacks on the spot from Hunter’s Call alone. Give it 2 chains of Sword Attack and you flew straight to 20 stacks.

The problem with the build is not that it is weak in damage or survival. The problem with the build is that it tries to focus on damage through sword without Signet of Stone.
Just to give 1 more hint of where the flaw of the build is.
You cannot afford to use sword the same way as in PvE. With Jungle Stalker you sacrifice the main source of damage (pet itself) to boost yourself – which you can’t make money of since you are using staff.

The DPS is good.
The sustain is mediocre.
CC is weak.
Support is good.

But none of it is at a place where you want it to be. None is excellent.
I enjoyed playing it, but I’m definitely coming back to my immortal BM bunker.

Rizo.9534:

You know how devs will read your post…

Tragic Positive.9356:

Let’s think about AF for a second.

…
Bla bla bla…
…..
now leaving the form early(since most goes to overheal)

Oh!!! Yes! Overheal are not intended, so we should nerf overheal in next 10 hours, because it will brake our perfect balance!!!!
Other part of class looks like OK.

I’m aware… But I felt like an analytical approach should appear somewhere around here. What can I do.
I always go bullheaded when I can prove my point with facts.

Let’s think about AF for a second.
What a druid is supposed to be? It was developer-confirmed Healing specialization. Plenty of people were shocked, some disappointed some thrilled… But it was a good idea. A person dedicated to look for other people’s lives is a good thing. It also takes some skill-cap to predict the movement and hit the heals which is also a good thing to prevent it from facerolling PvP.

But here comes the but:
In BWE:

• You had hard time being a healer with DPS build and weapons. Which logically is fine. You had that situational “snap” button.
• You also were punished after leaving the astral form by depleting all the Astral Bar. Which forced you to think twice about healing people up or doing damage/utility.
• If you were smart, you could control your astral force so that you could look after people’s HP. If you failed – people died.

WHAT HAPPENED THEN
HoT came live and we got stuck up with a rare-to-be-used Astral Form. You cannot use it when you need to, you cannot build it quickly enough, you are forced to stay in for as much as you can spamming skills and you are forced to stay out of it for 10 seconds if you decide you need to Use Glyph of Tides to protect your allies.

And that’s absurd.

• You cannot be the healer anymore. You are a situational “snap” bot for organized content only. Where people won’t need you because your AF nerf made you worse than other healers who can constantly keep sustaining you.
• Druid cannot heal people anymore. He can only get them to 100% in 3 seconds and then randomly spam abilities without any needed effect.
• If the form last that long as in BWE, you could choose to activate it at heavy dmg phases to keep people alive during it for a cost of 10 sec punishment after it depletes (so people would die if you mess up the time window). Now it lasts 15 seconds that is not enough either in PvP or PvE.
• Glyphs are just horribly designed after this phase because getting into AF is so rare that you won’t ever use astral form for the secondary effect of the glyph. Punishments are way too harsh.

Astral form in current state indeed is a failure due to weak potential and mathematical reasons.
Astral Form should be a form that players can choose to play in or outside. We are supposed to choose when do we want to enter or leave the form. We should be ones to decide when do we want to use our secondary glyph effects, when do we want to start dealing damage or build back our astral force again…

But now leaving the form early is punishing, activating it isn’t rewarding, staying in the form till the end is a waste (since most goes to overheal) and using it requires huge amount of prediction and skill.
This just needs to be changed into something we want to use.

Not really a druid bug … But one that has been here for ages now.
Hunter’s Call (Warhorn #4) – doesn’t apply damage to Structures regardless of successful cast and Bird Swarm animation activated.

I’m simply just not playing it.
… because it’s that bad.

It kind of does the trick in Stronghold but lacks a lot of stuff at lot of places.
Cannot be used in PvE whatsoever.

LegallyBinding.4937:

Druid felt so smooth and nice in BWE3. I refuse to believe they intentionally ruined such a promising class.

I don’t. They did it for plenty of times already.
I’m enjoying the new pets as a life-long Beast Mastery enthusiast for now.

Rangers have fine DPS, I refuse to play druid till they fix their mess. And I’m gonna kick every druid in my fractal groups, too.
That just feels so useless and I really already tried every build for various scenarios. Druid just doesn’t work. You have no way of keeping people alive outside of CAF and your form doesn’t last long enough to fit a role of healer.

Right now it’s just a random healing mechanic that has high delay, 30% chance to hit moving targets and overheals into pointless infinity in case it hits (a single person goes from 20% to 100 in max 3-5 seconds, then you are wasting the the form duration).

Also, I don’t remember when did I actually use the CAF glyph versions last time … Probably in BWE.

Just calm it down guyz.

Everybody can ruin a mechanic into useless state. For the same class… Over 3 years… Over and over again… And keep going.

That’s just something we are already familiar with. Let’s give them 1 more chance and then I suggest petitions. I really don’t feel like going through this for 3 more years.
Because if we don’t start – they won’t stop.

Their communication got better, but the developer attitude is as absurd as ever. Not sure if Irenio is just held down by others or is he just a better actor… But this just needs to stop.
The treatment we are getting all this time is not worth our patience.

Anything useful and user-friendly …
… Like … Really.

Terravos.4059:

heh, I could run my old Technobabble Build, would have a 6 Second instant Cast Daze, and a 4 second Insta Cast Daze.

To go along with 2 stuns…

Talk about ruining someones day.

Pair that with Glyph of Tides (Knock), Pet Taunt, Pet CC.
Now we’re talkin’!

Monk for permanent +10% all the way.
Nothing to do here.

Kitty.1502:

Are you reading what I am saying or just typing random non sense?

And are you?

Saying that generalization and approximations are nonsense is far worse than claiming 2×2=5.
Because even I can claim and prove that with a nice laugh at the end of the lesson.

But you can’t say that a tool such as generalization that humanity came up with in order to explain things with better ease is nonsense because you believe you can explain it better. Because you still haven’t elaborated how much DPS you gained for choosing the trait. A few of us had but you didn’t like it.
So… if you do it better and even those who have harder time following numbers can imagine it – just skip your passive aggression and do it.

The further it goes the more I feel like people gather at forums to argue, not to help each other…

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

OGDeadHead.8326:

Everyone keeps talking about meta. Have you personally experienced that you aren’t allowed to play your ranger due to the so called “meta” in whatever game format that may be? If that’s the case, you play with the wrong people. Simple as that.

Having issues with pugs? Then don’t do pugs. Find a kitten guild and play with friends. Really, this whole “meta” discussion is a joke.

Could not have put it better myself.

So, I am thinking I would like to make a video, if 9 other Rangers are keen on it.

How about we do an all Ranger raid? I’ve done all Ranger dungeons before and it was the most fun I’ve had playing the game. I see no reason why we couldn’t, we have everything needed.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

jcbroe.4329:

…(Reaper, Chrono) are beautiful, amazing, well designed, well balanced, highly effective and strong classes…

If you aren’t having fun, you aren’t gaming the right way

Scrapper is like that too, though.

Agree on the 2nd point, which is why meta should not matter to vast majority of players, yet it does for some reason.

A few years ago I thought that Meta=efficiency.
GW2 taught me it’s face-rolling. Not efficiency.

Why people follow it so blindly? “Because others are doing it too!”
Something like the independent research that confirmed that 9 out of 10 people blindly believe random independent researches.

Basic herd mentality, eh?

Yep pretty much.

Also, if you find me in-game, definitely count me in for an All-Ranger Raid. I’m definitely going for it!
(/whisper, don’t tell anyone, but Sinister Ranger has higher DPS than an Engineer. Tested. But don’t tell anyone because we’ll get nerfed v.v’)

Maximum Potato.5923:

Snip

No offense, dude. You associate yourself with idiots who are not worthy of your effort.

I have been long acknowledged by “The only OP ranger / the Meta / Strong One / Ace / MVP” (whatever, mostly random ones I remembered) in my guild.
Mostly as a part of friendly chat where we flatter each other – but it doesn’t change a fact that I have been made a Raid Leader because of that.

And it does feel good to be acknowledged.
Naturally, people who are too dull will never acknowledge results and will simply go with the crowd. People see flaming Rangers so they follow.

Those are idiots you shouldn’t ever consider taking seriously. Find people you enjoy playing with. People that will sue you according to your accomplishments, not prejudice. People who are not arrogant kittens like those toxic “braindead meta ele/warr or die” and people that watch results instead of wikipedia.

That’s just how it is, young fellow Potato. It has always been.
I remember my times when I was in a pug fractal, searched for swamp for the party. They aggroed the champ drake, bugged his combat so he literally followed us through whole swamp part in circles (2 rounds)…
… So I decided to solo him since others were too meta-dull to realize they are wasting time. It took me 2 minutes with Kiting, Pet management (blah blah)…
After 2 minutes of my hard try of pushing the fractal forward alone, the group pointed at me, said I’m an idiot for trying to farm champs in swamp and they want to kick me.

That made me realize I’m never doing fractals with 4 pugs anymore. I’m taking at least 2 friends that can kick the puggy if he is toxic. My PvE experience has improved at a speed of light. And I always have a nice friendly run this way. You should try it too.

Kain Francois.4328:

Needs its CD reduced to 60 or something, and maybe it’ll be usable.

CD is fine.
No other Resurrection ability has such a short CD. And our ability is a potentially powerful healing source as well as 33% chance for CC mitigation (AoE).

The problem is reliability and responsiveness (aka you can’t ress your team when you need to). Yes, I believe everyone in this community would be fine if we got an instant spirit reaction to resurrect. We are willing to trade our clunky self-ress for a reliable group support.

CD is not the problem. The delay of the ress is.

Kitty.1502:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Kitty.1502:

What math are you using to say it increases a single person’s dps by 75%… its only 3% per stack to a total of 5 stacks.

Approximation to generalize all people’s DPS as potentially the same. Then multiplying 15% per person to 5 targets.
To calculate the number without having 5 people keep DPSing like idiots, you can measure yours and nicely claim that if others have close to same DPS as you do – you increased the DPS exactly this way.

For approximated math results, it doesn’t matter whether you increased single person’s DPS by 75% or 5 people’s DPS by 15%.
Numbers will stay the same.

There is a big difference between single person buffing 75% dps or 5 people dps, mostly because how what role the class is doing. A dps class like sinister engineer will see much more benefit from a 15% dps buff than say a support guardian. So the buff isn’t the same as giving a single person a 75% dps buff.

Then keep going in circles. Great job.
You do know what I was trying to say.

Mathematically the trait is a situational Frost Spirit for 10-men raid. Suck it up and deal with it. Hypothesis in type of “what if all other 9 people are dead” hold literally no meaning.
Just as this trait can hit 5 tanks it can hit 5 pure DPS people. Skip the doubts and try to help the community instead of trying to confuse it.

Justine.6351:

95% looks extreme. Ohwell ;-)

Depends on the way you look at it.
Pets are source of our DPS that no one else was hindered by (except mesmers that had an easy “refresh” on them).

If we think about how unfair it was till now – it doesn’t really look extreme. It does solve most of our pet problems, though. And that’s how it should be.
Reliability for PvE just got buffed by tons. And we really needed this change.

Kitty.1502:

What math are you using to say it increases a single person’s dps by 75%… its only 3% per stack to a total of 5 stacks.

Approximation to generalize all people’s DPS as potentially the same. Then multiplying 15% per person to 5 targets.
To calculate the number without having 5 people keep DPSing like idiots, you can measure yours and nicely claim that if others have close to same DPS as you do – you increased the DPS exactly this way.

For approximated math results, it doesn’t matter whether you increased single person’s DPS by 75% or 5 people’s DPS by 15%.
Numbers will stay the same.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

jcbroe.4329:

…(Reaper, Chrono) are beautiful, amazing, well designed, well balanced, highly effective and strong classes…

If you aren’t having fun, you aren’t gaming the right way

Scrapper is like that too, though.

Agree on the 2nd point, which is why meta should not matter to vast majority of players, yet it does for some reason.

A few years ago I thought that Meta=efficiency.
GW2 taught me it’s face-rolling. Not efficiency.

Why people follow it so blindly? “Because others are doing it too!”
Something like the independent research that confirmed that 9 out of 10 people blindly believe random independent researches.

InsaneQR.7412:

Tragic Positive.9356:

“Forced Pet Traits” are not really at wrong places.
Pet Swap is a core pet mechanic regardless of traits you use. Having Party Support (Call of the Wild) on pet swap is a good thing that has literally nothing in common with beast mastery itself.

Fortifying Bond should be baseline, that’s another discussion.

Invigorating Bond is just weak, but potentially placed on a good traitline. Team support. That’s about it.

I dont think they are bad placed because they are Pet based traits, i think they are bad placed because they are the only one in the spec line or dont fit the specline theme.

Having the Might, Fury and Swiftness fits the Marksman theme, if you ask me.
Well as I said – fortifying bond is a trait that should have been made baseline in the 1st place. That’s a forced trait not a pet forced trait.

Swagger.1459:

Just wonder how many “oops so sorry” moments druids will be faced with when CA form is on its 10 second cool down and staff skills just won’t be up to the task

That’s why you won’t do raids with pugs but Organized people on TS.

“Forced Pet Traits” are not really at wrong places.
Pet Swap is a core pet mechanic regardless of traits you use. Having Party Support (Call of the Wild) on pet swap is a good thing that has literally nothing in common with beast mastery itself.

Fortifying Bond should be baseline, that’s another discussion.

Invigorating Bond is just weak, but potentially placed on a good traitline. Team support. That’s about it.

Exciton.8942:

This is really just a number tweaking thing. It is safe to let it play out.
If it indeeds proves to be too powerful, they can still reduce the number or buff other class’s counterpart.

It potentially increases a single person’s DPS by 75%.
… That basically targets people with low health that are trying to avoid fighting the boss.

I find it perfectly Okay since the Druid doesn’t deal almost any DPS whatsoever. He can invest into Toughness and Healing power without feeling a burden of DPS.

It is a nice choice of being a DPS support that has a cooldown, is efficiency limited (due to priority targets of your heals) and sacrifices all your DPS for it while it required people to be perfectly stacked and organized if 5 people want to benefit from this trait. Not to mention you’ll be targeted by it most of the time as well.

The trait is mathematically balanced.

ProtoMarcus.7649:

Also needs its CD lowered since it now dies on active skill use.

Lowering to 90s would be awesome

A reliable 120 sec revive CD is fine.
It’s not reliable and having unreliable ress even on 45 seconds would be weak.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

How does the smokescale solve the problems of the other pets? Or do new traits/skills make things like Sharpening Stone or Signet of the Hunt or other useless stuff suddenly usefull?

You are strongly contradicting yourself.
I won’t drag this further because it wouldn’t lead anywhere. You like to argue, not to search for solutions.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Oh, and they already confirmed to solve the problems of pets i mentioned? You know, stuff like lack of control and reliability? Link?

Lack of control stays (but doesn’t hinder DPS anymore).
The rest of the question: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Juvenile_Smokescale

You’re welcome.

Can we also get an instant reaction to the Revive?
It’s horrible to have to wait for 5 seconds till the ability takes effect. And I can’t really afford to wait 5 seconds to revive somebody. And I don’t want to play a russian roulette to blow it as a precaution and risk a completely useless CD in case I die a second after the animation time.
(Spirit Cast time 1,5 sec., active ability availability 0,5 sec., roughly 2,5 seconds for the cast time of the spirit – without any human factor included)

The players usually die due to starvation (if not other means) till they are revived unlike Warrior’s Banner. And banner has no counter-play unlike Spirit that can be killed/interrupted.

I think some of the ideas are … Not really necessary.
Let’s call it a Healing Spring Treatment.

If I were you, I’d focus on only those traits that are broken, underwhelming or not competitive given it’s tier choices (see Predator’s Instinct, Strider’s Defence, Invigorating Bond,…).

Given as it is, you can’t possibly expect any of your suggestions to come true. It simply includes a lot of coding, testing, bug polishing and most importantly – a lot of change in game-styles of people who might not like your changes.

Knowing all this, you only risk having a 50/50 satisfaction vs disatsifaction achievement that … Literally solves nothing at all.
If you only addressed the stuff that a vast majority dislikes and hit 2 birds with one stone in a way your changes are user friendly and are mathematically and potentially correct – that would be the way to reach towards changes.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Uhm, i was just responding to Dojo, who was talking about the smokescale. Why should i suddenly start to talk about Sharpening Stone or Signets or whatever?

I was just responding to the reality that you are like 10th person that responded to pets over various topics. Which means you are not really like the 1st or last person to bring such a redundant matter as pets that are most likely going to be changed anyways.

And that I don’t realize how can abilities that have been mathematiaclly and experimentaly proven to be useless keep being ignored while stuff that everybody knows will change is the point number 1 to cry over.
That’s not you. That’s the community I’m so confused about.
If doubts about Ranger is the topic – why not as well include stuff that really is a reason to ponder about. Like… Having Tier 2 minor Trait in marksmanship a completely useless script that has no synergy with anything else, is weaker than the 1st minor trait and has literally no way to be refreshed in combat.
Yep, those are the Ranger Features to be concerned about. Not stuff that we know will be changed or stuff that has either already been solved (PvE damage reduction aka Ranger DPS increase to be on par with others) or is already a subject for change confirmed by some of the developers.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Did they state somewhere, that pets not working in pvp was intended?

And of course i’m only talking about BWE3, since we don’t know, if/how the pets will change. But yes, i think (well, at least hope), they will nerf the smokescale. And then hopefully change/buff all those useless pets …

I don’t know what’s really wrong with all of this.

The pets are a part of Heart of Thorns. Do we have Heart of Thorns live already? We don’t. So we logically can’t use new pets. The reason why couldn’t we use them in BWE in PvP? I have no idea, it’s long past my interest since BWE is long over.

Why would people get so lost about such a logical trivial thing as this? I don’t really get this community from time to time.

You should think more about some abilities’ functionality. I don’t know… Like that Bleeding utility slot that deals zero damage and has 45 second cooldown. That utility slot that is single target, deals less damage than spike trap, presetting lasts for less time and doesn’t provide anything else. Yes, I’m talking about Sharpening Stone.
I haven’t seen anyone using this for ages. If I did, the person was in hotjoin.

What about Signet of Hunt that no one will ever use again? (you’ll either go for swiftness or for Druid).

Like… The important stuff I mean. There are so many topics to shout for and you guys decide for pets that aren’t even supposed to be available yet and are most probably going to be changed just as XYZ other things.
I … Just… Don’t… Get you.

Swagger.1459:

Sure, in pve… also, this post was made before the announcement.

Under the ideal set up vs a training dummy or stationary AI enemy, a pve ranger can really shine

I’m really trying to play this broken down and underperforming profession properly so please don’t lose faith in me.

When HoT hits I’ll get right to work on my Fact Finding Mastery Track, I promise!

I can probably see why you feel distressed… But keep in mind that a certain class doesn’t have to hold the potential to everything.

There is currently no other profession capable of what druid can do in PvP. None. Potential to heal so many people up, keep permastunning people to death, while your Pet still deals those stable spikes of damage… That build is simply a king of PvP.

And, I’ll be frank, I don’t wanna everybody in PvP to be the same. Just like WoW ended up a disaster I’m afraid GW2 might too if they follow the same mentality.
I do not want Rangers to have all the mechanics as mesmer or Thief do. I don’t necessarily want all their boon strip or teleports.
I wanted Rangers to have a defined role. And now we finally have the best team-fighting disruption potential in the game, so far. Just as well as we have one of the best roaming escapes with staff-GS.

Or Ranged preparation for a huge spike with WHaO synergy.

Or simply toughness regen Beast Mastery bunker that I have been playing for past few weeks and I could hold my own against 2 people anyday.

Rangers are totally viable in terms of PvP at very long last. But what you are trying to say is true. We lack some of the mechanics that other classes posses.

But I’m fine with that. Because we can do something they can’t in return. And that’s something I believe it should be.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Makes me Wonder.

Raid Bosses prioritize targets with Highest Toughness
Bear Pet Tanking, anyone?
Immortal Bear pet Tanking, anyone?

Minions that are targeted take full damage.

Oh, sorry, missed that by accident. I didn’t say anything at all.

Makes me Wonder.

Raid Bosses prioritize targets with Highest Toughness
Bear Pet Tanking, anyone?
Immortal Bear pet Tanking, anyone?

Swagger.1459:

If you look at what is being introduced with hot… 1 new profession, 9 elites, tons new skills, traits and stuff… It’s pretty disheartening that things like the Rangers pathetic damage, mostly useless pet, “wonky” sword that is more often than not detrimental to use, bleed restrictions on short bow, rooting axe 5, uninspiring dagger…. have all been left to rot because it’s seemingly too difficult or beyond the scope of development to fix or improve… But hey, we have a 1500 range long bow and rapid fire right???

Pet’s are getting improvements (like not dying in PvE) and I still don’t see a problem with having 6500 DPS self-buffed.

If you can’t play a ranger properly then don’t play one. Or if you do play one the wrong way – don’t claim statements that you can’t support with facts.

Bryzy.2719:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Bryzy.2719:

It took me 5 seconds to find this on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjfp1Tz6AiE

It took me a split of second to see this is not a fractal.

It’s as close as he’s going to get given the brevity of bwe3, not sure what difference you’d expect

To see whether it’s viable even for the current meta as a healer. The only difference that a person could probably ask for since we already know it’s needed for HoT.

Bryzy.2719:

It took me 5 seconds to find this on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjfp1Tz6AiE

It took me a split of second to see this is not a fractal.

Curring.9752:

… I was told by a cele d/d ele that rangers are meta. Also cele d/d ele isn’t powerful, time to take their spot I suppose?

Brb, dying of laughter.

Tell him he is quite behind in schedule.
If he was talking about PvP – we still don’t have Druid on live – so your d/d ele has no idea what he is talking about and his words wouldn’t count for much even if he told you that Raids would compose of 9 rangers.

Warlock.7136:

personally i have a complete set of armor and staff in ascended nomads thats waiting for my druid. i plan on using clerics for the accesories.

Yup, that was just as well one of my ideas. To be the tank and healer at the same time. Pet deals DPS by itself regardless, which makes the druid like one of the better tanks (since 30% of our DPS simply won’t go away regardless of stats).

Didn’t try it, though. It’s a b!t$hy duty squared. Healing is troublesome by itself.

I believe in Cleric for the time being.
From my theory, with that bit of toughness it becomes possible for you to do your job.

You won’t have to watch all the 20 things that might possibly kill you. You’ll just need to watch the crucial attacks (because unlike DPS players – you have to SEARCH for low HP targets that takes away your focus).

If you have that toughness, you can afford to take those few hits of AoE in order to heal your fellas up. Because that second you might have needed to dodge an attack might as well be the second that cost your friend his life.
That’s nothing like postponing your DPS by 1 second. If you miss your time, the team DPS can drop by 12 000 for 3-5 seconds in a blink of an eye (1 guy downs and 1 needs to rezz him up again).
I intend to play druid via Pet oriented DPS and occasional bursts only. My job as a druid is to allow people to stand in that AoE for longer to maximize THEIR dps. Not to be that DPS machine myself.

That’s what I think.

I’d say it’s perfectly fine without having both.

You should be able to pick from sustain or damage. Having both nice things is not really necessary. If you want utility/swiftness – pick Timbre.
If you want pure DPS and pet management – get companion’s might.

If you want both, get NM alongside with Beast Mastery for Timbre. (Maybe alongside with druid). Not only the might will be 25 all times, it will also have 16 second cooldown only.

You sacrifice Spotter and Quickdraw (Skirm) / 20% damage (MM) / Druid (sustain) in order to get this self-sustainable might benefit.
It’s balanced in my opinion.

That’s pretty much it.
I don’t agree with having everything at the same time.

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Fluffball.8307:

What the heck does your post mean, Gman? You said dungeons won’t change except that they will be dead content. That’s why I told him not to base expensive purchases on the dungeon meta. It would be ridiculous to spend 20 gold on scholar runes and then find out he needs something else for raids.

True, if he ends up doing raids, but he asked about pve (which was vague, granted), but if dungeons is what he wants to do then investing in them wouldn’t be bad. I’m willing to bet that the zerk setup will be useful in most of the content coming.

Sinister beats it anywhere in longer encounters.
Zerks are bursters for the time being. Not the real DPS anymore (it seems). Their DPS is way too risky and comes with a burst, then ticks down.

Conditions are the other way round. They keep piling up and eventually beats Zerker Straight. If NPCs with low HP are in new fractals – yes. Zerker is better.
If there are not – Zerker will be for Dungeons and old open world only.
And that we currently do not know yet.
Even Silverwastes are more Condition oriented. I was able to 10-man a red breach hulk with 5 people running sinister. Killing the boss in like 1 minute straight. By doing lots of AoE.

People still fail it because everybody is playing Zerker and still scale it up further up to that (which means Zerker already became harmful in some of the PvE scenarios, even open world).

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Chokolata.1870:

…If it was % of power into healing then it might be ok.

Yeah, 10% of Power into Healing Power would be good and much more useful than 80 power when in Clerics. Makes Power druid better too, since the scaling.

MDG is alright now, imo, I haven’t tested it or anything, but 15 might for 3s under 50%? Some boon duration and you can get 20 stacks? That’s pretty good. You just need more vitality to take advantage, because you know you will be under 50% health in PvP. For roaming, combo with Enlargement and Dragonfish Candy and it should be super powerful.

You need toughness to make use of it. Not Vitality
With Toughness things get really easier to hold your ground with Troll Unguent.

With Vitality it’s either sink or swim. It would only make sense with conditions.

Are there no conditions used anymore? I was under the impression that Vitality is a better choice now because of all the burst. If a Mesmer can burst you from 15k-0 with 3000 toughness, doesn’t seem like a good idea to even get under 50% health, let alone stay there for any length of time. At least if you have 25k health, you have some breathing space. I was more referring to using Celestial gear, so it would have some Toughness also. I took a look at Carrion with MDG for a condition/hybrid build and it looks pretty nice too. Crusader would be pretty nice if you used a shout build with Trooper/vitality runes, imo, same as valk/wurm.

MDG with Enlargement, Forgeman runes, Celestial stats and Dragonfish Candy is a potent come-back roamer imo. Ofc, not tested as yet, I’ll make a Celestial set in 6 weeks when I get home.

Celestial is my guess as well. Hybrid damage with all that might would be interesting. Maybe even worth competing with Quick Draw.

I dunno. I wasn’t able to survive any burst with carrion (23K HP) but I’m able to fight for a whole minute with Settler. I live through conditions with cleanses and heals, not vitality (vitality gives you time for 1 more chance to fight back. It doesn’t give you room for mistakes)

Maybe it’s just me.

Girion.5483:

Wondrouswall.7169:

[…]
Would rather it apply an attack of opportunity and stealth to both the ranger and the pet, then have the pet shadow step to a target if selected.

That’s a great suggestion. The shadow stepping works only with melee pets though. Anyway, 3 seconds of stealth and an attack of opportunity on signet activation for you and your pet sounds great and actually offers real utility.

This would also combine nicely with the trait Brutish Seals.

Then again… The problem is again the attack of opportunity. It does not have any synergy with anything except Maul on ranger.
The idea is nice but the design on attack of opportunity is a fail. Thief’s Assassin’s Signet (+15% on next 5 attacks) is exactly what Ranger would profit of and vice versa. In return Rangers are stuck with a Burst booster while having only 1 burst ability in the whole store of our class.

And that’s wrong.

If the Signet gave both of you 3 second stealth, pet would blink to the target and both would get 300 power for 4 seconds (or something), that would be much better by me.
Attack of Opportunity is just a class design fail.

I was just thinking that Rangers could use some more damage modifiers.

Currently … I don’t remember seeing any ranger with this trait inside of combat.

It’s almost all the time picked for outside of combat roaming and than swapping for different utility skill before fighting.
But the Signet has a Great Potential of being a choice for players who want to hunt.

Here’s the Thing:

• Increases your and your pet’s movement speed by 25%
• ~When activated, increases allies’ damage by 10% for 5 seconds. (current glyph which is both weak and boring)
  or
• ~When activated, your next attack applies Hunter’s Call. (to have synergy with Ranger’s DPS pattern as such)

Okay now. I know what you are thinking but this might actually become a good Signet if Glyph of Empowerment is changed into something interesting (because currently it isn’t…)

~It just doesn’t have synergy with Ranger as such. All the damage comes from auto attacks and 2 out of 3 hard-hitting abilities are multi-hit (PoS is devided into 2, Rapid Fire into 10 – making both of them have close to no profit out of it).

~The only ability that has synergy with it is Maul. And that means you are trying to play burst GS build and you are playing PvP. And for PvP you simply don’t have free utility slots to kill them with Signet of the Hunt that is useless anywhere except roaming.

@Rutee

You have a nice point of admiration from me. That was well thought out and presented.