Guild Wars 2

Asakura, I personally am aware of the perma regen use.
… But you seem to have overslept a patch or two.

Conditions do stack now – resulting in close to double the damage a Condition spec can pull off. Power Specs now hit harder as well.
Which makes regeneration much weaker boon itself. Making this build weaker by nature.

On live servers – you are going to die in 10 seconds instead of 6 with this build. That’s all there is to it. It’s not immortal like it used to be. Your proof is more than 1 year old.

For the Clarion Bond part
- Warhorn Weapon is the problem. Not Clarion Bond.

If you copy>paste an underpowered ability to a trait – it will be underpowered regardless of the intention or synergy. Warhorn should be addressed. Not Clarion Bond.

Zenith.7301:

Elementalists already get perma 12 stacks of might from weaponskills alone, no trait investment, so I don’t get what your fuss is about.

It doesn’t matter that this is an adept trait, you invest into the full line so the placement of the trait doesn’t matter.

And yes, I want pets to scale with ranger stats, because I don’t give a kitten about WvW or spvp duels as a BM bunker. My concerns are not about those game formats seeing as I have no interest in playing them. What I am concerned with is that the class is garbage tier in PvE, and it’s not that much better in spvp from what I am told either, so it’s good that you enjoy it for WvW roaming/duels but that bears little value to me.

…

Elementalist’s mechanics are overpowered, just as Warrior’s are. In every game scenario. That has nothing to do with Ranger. It’s time to realize that at last.

It does matter it is an Adept trait. If you are leveling up a new character – having access to mechanic that is better than ones obtainable at lvl 80 is nonsense. That’s why traits are divided into tiers with different “power”.

And now to the most important part.
You yourself just said that you do not care about this game. You also confessed that the whole topic comes from your own personal point of view, and your own preferences, that might not have nothing in common with other thousands of people. Therefore, asking for changing is ridiculous, pointless and selfish at best.
If game was changed just because of your own personal issue, that is based on no objective facts, numbers, experience but pure preferences altogether – then this game would be in much worse shape then it currently is.

Long Story Short – don’t force your ideals on other people. If you can’t deal with mechanics that are in the right direction, but not in your wishlist – it’s your problem.
About Pet Condition damage (And Healing Power) – yes. I agree that this issue should be addressed. Scaling from Ranger? Nope. Not ever.

Dojo.1867:

No it doesn’t need to be low for perma swiftness. I would rather have a useful skill on its own that some stupid regen + swiftness enabler. Shout builds will still generate plenty of regen and swiftness if you have atleast 2 (which is easily done with heal as one and strength of the pack). You can’t really call it shout build to begin with if you just run Guard.

I agree.

I already provide like perma swiftness with Clarion Bond, Resounding Timbre and build that goes for
Heal as One, Sick’Em, SotW, Frost Spirit, SotP.

Yes, it’s a slight DPS loss if you don’t have both mesmer and guard – but it helps with the team support. Heal as one is 16 sec CD. That’s your short-CD perma swiftness if you really want one for PvE.

Durzlla.6295:

It’s also hilarious with drakes when paired with Beastly Warden, just all of a sudden they’re taunted into a stealthed drake that’s about to roast their nuts over an open fire.

BW didn’t work on Stealth from Jaguars. Does it work with stealth from Guard?

runeblade.7514:

samanosuke asakura.6240:

guard doesn’t need rework your think only about the skill not the combinations brings with it. meaning perma regen perma swiftness we could this even before the the patch. guard is fin how it is rework the other shouts agreed but don’t touch guard. for the kitten
sake of it

I’m fine with losing perma regen and perma swiftness. They aren’t any viable builds that goes good with it.

With the finally fixed Rune of the Trooper – I’m going to try the front line shouter. Perma Regen, Perma swiftness, AoE condi cleanse.
It might not be that bad. Where’s the Harm in trying, right?

Shadelang.3012:

…

Guard: The pet is commanded to protect the target location. The pet runs to the target area and a ring in the range of the shout is generated around the pet. The pet CANNOT leave this ring unless he is given another order (pretty much any pet command skill would cancel the affect just like now)

While in the ring the pet is stealthed when out of combat and gains pulsing protection and resistance.

…

Still would be used for something absolutely and completely different than the description said.

This way you’d simply use it to keep your pet alive because you need it’s F2 skill or functionality such as SotP (RaO), SoTR (cleanse). You wouldn’t ever use it for guarding an area.

If it should feel like guarding an area – enemies should be punished by entering your pet’s territory. By cripple/short root/blind/weakness on it’s 1st attack. All on short durations of course (12 sec CD is too short).

Because currently the ability is used as a Boon bot. I like it’s supportive uses. I abuse it myself. But with all due respect – the idea of this skill is in such a horrible shape of design that it makes me feel sad about Beast Masters who’d like to order their pet around. Because the pet does in reality something completely different. You need your pet beside you – so after casting guard you order it to do something else every single time.

Guard = I need swiftness.
Protect Me = Throw your life and node point away – just let me live selfishly.
Sick’Em = Let me snipe this thief/mesmer for a bit longer
Search and Rescue = Keep him alive while I stomp/kill this guy to rally him

What if the abilities worked like this?
Guard = punish enemies who enter your territory
Protect Me = Pull the attacker’s attention to yourself (aka taunt) for 0,5 second with 2sec internal cooldown (similar to Ele’s electric Shield)
Sick’Em = attack the target without fail (port mechanic) and keep it revealed for me
Search and Rescue = Your pet will target the nearest downed ally and bring him up to 600 units towards you, granting him resistance for 2 seconds.

Dirame.8521:

Tragic Positive.9356:

1st thing I realized it that you are using Light on Your Feet.
And your build goes for Quick Draw.

Well, LoYF is getting nerfed anyways.

I was testing out both. Ones great for damage, the other’s great for survivability (and damage). As this is a preview, I reserve the right to change things overtime.

Well yea, I was just trying to say that in video you are using the soon-going-to-be-changed trait while the link to the build suggests Quick Draw – so the game-style is totally different, as the results are.

In my opinion, if the LoYF gets just nerfed – it would be the more teamfight oriented trait (for the pierce). Quick Draw is better in every skirmishing scenario since you can evade more, or condi bomb more – depending on situation.

But I like the build. I tried it today and had a success. But the weakness I had was against Mesmer. I couldn’t bring myself to win almost any fight. Other match-ups were quite easy, though.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

To be fair, you can never guarantee it. Even with a hammer guard, he can be CCd, downed or not complete his chain to get the symbol, shouts/Virtues on CD etc.

The boons are 1.25s duration too, so with the +20% from Lingering Magic, the boons actually last for 1.5s, so 50% uptime. Combine that with the 3.6s proc from Stone Spirit and you have 86% uptime, which is quite decent, assuming the spirit is alive…

My thoughts exactly. Thanks for clarifying.

StickerHappy.8052:

Might as well change it something else, 10% damage is good enough for me, buffing this is more than welcome

Well, Power Rangers need a source of burst. And this would be the ideal place to address the issue. I had a mass DPS test in PvP area and Warriors and Guardians said they are hitting for 32K with auto-attacks (full buffed, my Frost Spirit, banners etc).
My maul hit for 12K peak.

Plus skirmishing is a perfect trait-line to buff direct damage burst. If you want to go for burst – you need remorseless. And if you took MM and Skirmishing, you either have to choose between BM (cc) or Wilderness Surival (condi cleanse)
And you do not even have Protective Ward regardless of option.

10% is just not cool. Maybe if it was a 10% global damage modifier – we could talk. But that would again become really boring since all a Ranger does for DPS is auto-attacks. At least for PvP we could gain a sort of Peak Burst by combining Remorseless, LoYF, SotW and SotH – and we still wouldn’t go past 12K, even might buffed against light armor.

EnderzShadow.2506:

1st thing I realized, tragic is a hater.

Tragic is a realist. You’re welcome.

I’d actually welcome a mechanic that stays the same way it is now.

But the 10% condi and direct damage should go up to 25-30%.
Well I mean yea. You have to sacrifice Quick Draw for it. And you do have to stop attacking by dodging for it to work – so it is not a DPS increase for PvE. You also sacrifice utility/defense uses from Quick Draw.
And the access to this trait is very limited by nerfed endurance and Vigor

25-30% seems just about fine. It would actually make a viable choice for those bursty builds that focus solely on hitting that Maul and/or Rapid Fire. And since shortbow benefits from both Condi and Direct – it might just as well become a wanted weapon for PvP.

1st thing I realized it that you are using Light on Your Feet.
And your build goes for Quick Draw.

Well, LoYF is getting nerfed anyways.

Chokolata.1870:

You do not understand, Ele, Thief and Warrior will not be nerfed for PvE. They even reverted the icebow barrage 25% damage nerf. And the reason the engi is not taken even though he can stack stealth, vulnerability and has 3rd best DPS in the game is because what he does on rotation the elementalist does on a singe click and has far more DPS and ICEBOW.

So what do you suggest? Asking A-net to buff 6 other classes just because they won’t nerf Warriors and Eles?
Is there any logic?

And thief having such a high damage is fine by me. He doesn’t really have any offensive party support. I see a problem that support classes can beat him in DPS by clicking 2 buttons.

Chokolata.1870:

It is quite funny seeing people talk about how PvE Ranger is better then before. Sure we lost some flat damage modifiers with the change to hunters tactics, we do not have to trait the spirit anymore to use it. The pet will do more damage and RaO is a shout now.

But you always have to look in comparison to other classes. And the 3 main classes in PvE, Thief, Elementalist and Warrior got buffed so much more.

The PS warrior is doing the DPS of a pure DPS warrior build. Ele got insane modifiers as did the thief.

I have over 3000 hours on Ranger and finally I am at a point where I can not justify myself taking my ranger into a dungeon anymore. I can sit in Fire with the Ele and spam 1 and 2 on my staff and do twice as much damage as the Ranger. And i can AoE Blind and use Icebow to produce results that are far beyond the scope of any Ranger build out there with a single click.

But this in my opinion is a fact where Elementalist is overpowered. PS just came in the same way. But that doesn’t say anything about Rangers.
Everyone says that Engie can maintain 25 vuln stacks by himself… So why didn’t I see him in a dungeon or Fractal in like … Well, a really long time.

This is not about Rangers being weak. This is about Eles and Warriors being over the top for as long as I can remember.
I said it a hundred of times – it’s not Rangers who need buffs. It’s Eles and Warriors who need to be toned down.

From a perspective of balance – a supportive specialization (which ele and warrior are) shouldn’t be the ones to deal the highest damage. Period.

EDIT
P.S. if ideal parties does not have to include 2 eles and 2 warriors – much more diversity would become available. Rangers fitting the meta as well.
The group might as well consist of 1 ele, 1PS, 1 ranger, (Guard/Thief/Mesmer/Engie) – depending on what the group needs.
Once again – Rangers are fine. Eles and Warriors are the problem that everyone else feels weak – which means those need to be nerfed, not rangers buffed.

It was a quick build I made – but this might just work.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARTjUqQBL2vCOsAXLG+Dq91XgAo73aYG8cvHC+SWRUA-TpBFwACOEAULDw4CAs4BA0a/BAHBAA

Beast Mastery has a clear answer of “no” since the only pet that stays alive for a bit is Bear – and that pet is not really useful to take into Beast Mastery. And Nature Magic offers lots of boons like protection to your pet to help it survive for a bit longer, and Bark Skin helps, too. Pets will just die in Zergs sooner or later (rather sooner). You’ll have to deal with it.

leebe.2093:

pve is easy right? you don’t need the best build, play what you like, it’s still easy don’t let the need to be meta take away from the fun in diversity

And this is absolutely correct.
But there is the thing that I said in this forum a bunch of times and I’m going to say again.

If the player wants to play what he likes – let him do so. Be it a Vita,Tough,Healing Ranger – but you can tell this build would suck. For everything except Commanding in WvW.
But if he came to forums – stating that everything is weak – I expect him to search for effectiveness. If he doesn’t want to play build that is effective – I suggest him to save his precious time and avoid forums searching for help because he wouldn’t take any.

But if he sticks to his favorite role-play build that weighs other people down – then he can’t expect that he’ll be called anything else then yet another bearbow.
If he’s fine with that – than everything is perfectly alright.
In case this is about open-world PvE – than no one really cares.
________________________________________________
If he’s fine with non-longbow setup – this is a ranged build that hits the roof of effectiveness in DPS (even though Axe is most effective in point blank range). Aim for full Sinister stats (I made it in PvP editor to save time).
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV3fnMqAtrgdrAuCCctghEhqT3d9p5FozPgPAS2ZOjfKR2D-TJRGwAAuIAJeCAMLDUa/BA
EDIT: video for demonstration https://youtu.be/5wKjGbrzf9I?t=846 (video is from before patch update, since then the build has been buffed a lot)

Sol.4310:

This is why we always been different Eura when comes to builds, remorseless is weaker in team fights by long way imo. Ranger’s best damage comes from range not GS that’s too easy to kite and block and put you in bad positioning if I wanted to go melee take a warrior or thief they do decent melee damage. Ltw’s for team fights and if your backpoint just take Condition Survival build.

Clarion Bond doesn’t work out of combat. After using Shout Heal, traited you come to understand how important having big up time on mobility outside combat is. Only other set of runes I would take are Ranger, but until we get mobility no point.

I actually have to support Sol on this one.
LtW increases the damage done in teamfight by 100% only by hitting 2 targets.
But something that is the most important of it all.
- It guarantees to hit your target. And this is supper important for a Ranger. If you know you can will hit the knockback followed by Rapid Fire – that is a key moment. A 25% bonus damage on whatever damage you use will never compare to fact that your focus can be reliable.

That’s just my 2 cents, though.

leebe.2093:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Let me explain a few things.

Kubrick.5740:

I solely play PvE.

none of your post has any relevance to pve

Than you have absolutely no idea how this game works.

Only 1 paragraph touched PvP topic (5 lines?) mentioning other competing other classes.
Every other mentioning of other classes do touch PvE topic.
Mesmer ports help a lot of people in PvE in speed runs. Breaking protection on bosses is a huge thing as well. But my bad. There is no such thing as boon in PvE. <sigh>

But if your goal is to go right past me hand in hand with this game as such, I won’t mind.

“If a player came to forums for help – I expect him to search for results and effectiveness. If he intended to come here hoping for his dream come true – than he’s probably at a wrong place.”
There are thousands of people playing selfish useless builds at the moment. If that is what makes you (and others) enjoy the game – where’s the harm? (except making the game less enjoyable for everyone else).

A full Zerk melee party can clear full AC run in 40 minutes. Without dying once. A condition/zerk/ranged party with everyone playing what he wants usually completes in 1 hour with obvious wipes where 1 melee player is being killed over and over again. And I was able to see that people started to blame Zerks for being useless (since they die 1st if mobs live ling enough – which they do if people run condis).

I believe this discussion became irrelevant. I can bet that most of people who came searching for answers are not interested in correct ones and are only waiting for the ones they want to hear.

Kubrick.5740:

Honestly, I think you are reading too much into what I’m saying.

While I don’t particularly like change, I don’t mind it if it’s for the best.
These changes are not for the best.
Yes, okay, throwing traps is “wonky” but that’s how they made it, it’s been like that for a long time, and it’s fitting for a ranged class.

What are the 4 absolutely amazing builds? Because I’m having a hard time even finding 1 build that is “absolutely amazing” for a ranged ranger. If you are so all-knowing, spare your knowledge please!

I don’t feel like I should be forced to play melee. And only shouts and signets are viable ranged. And like I mentioned, signets seem very lackluster compared to other classes. The traps were my favorite before with ground targeting, but I don’t see how you can stand to play a ranged ranger without ground targeted traps. I’ve tried it and it’s really annoying constantly running in and out. And spirits are complete garbage. The movement is the only thing that saved that spec, in my opinion.

Let me explain a few things. Please, be noted that my reply is not meant as an offense, not even as an attack, but as a pure will to teach new players who do not play for so long.

At this point – you have been mistaken by a long shot.
Guild Wars 2 has been a game where Melee > Range at every single game scenario, every single map, class and even build.
There is no environment that would promote Ranged fights except for kiting. Because while kiting – You can deal damage and your enemy can’t (some fractals are done through this method because of high HP pools – but it takes time).

Because of this – every single melee or semi-melee spec has a significant advantage over Ranged one. Unfortunately – new players like yourself jump to conclusion that Rangers are supposed to play Longbow because that is the weapon.
Which is not true. It’s a power weapon used for utility and higher ground safe-fire. Which, sadly, has very limited uses in sPvP.

Regardless of how much you like it or not – Ranged combat is just not the way to go in guild wars 2.
Of course – there is the possibility, but has it’s price. If you want to press your way for the Ranged combat – you have to be prepared to lack plenty of other mechanics that other classes have: such as Burst, Evades, Boon strip, ports and so on.

If you really want to stick to the ranged combat – you need to utilize the most out of your proposed game-style = kiting. And that’s one hell of a job in the new burst meta while playing against classes with high access to immunities, stealth, ports and burst.
But it is still possible. The build Eura is using is the build that goes around Longbow. And it uses Spike Trap that helps you shake enemies off a huge ton.

But you should get one thing into your head. They will get to you sooner or later. Regardless of how much of a sniper you want to be – your potential will only be as high as your weakest point – melee range.

law.9410:

Faux’s RRR build! I think it would be cool if it locked your pet in one location but it boosted your pets abilities significantly, like a defensive “node” you could set up.

I would actually change it to a trap system.
Make the pet stationary at a location – give him stealth, and once an enemy target enters the node – your pet’s next attack will immobilize for 1 second and apply 5 stacks of Vulnerability (5 seconds).
If your pet is called off before triggered – the stealth will stay but the next attack will no longer be buffed.

Voila! A Functional shout for various purposes. Especially for those longbow builds that are like … No longer powerful.

Elorna.5329:

It should be unblockable, but not undodgeable or going thru immunities.

I was actually thinking a mechanic to counter immunity would be exactly what I’d think that a Ranger could be wanted into competitive play.

Because there is nothing else a Ranger has to be better than Burst mesmer/thief or almighty d/d Ele that has been dominating PvP scene for … almost a year now?

~PvE has been buffed. Significantly.
~PvP is broken. A-net themselves confirmed this.
~Traps are fine. Even some of the top Ranger players are using traps for their kit. Not a 17 trap Ranger, but they still fit.
~Spirits are underwhelming. This I can agree on.

~Signets are Fine. Signet of Stone is used for almost every spec.
SoR is the best AoE condi clear in the game (that kills the pet on spot, though, but the team support is amazing – it’s also a stun breaker)
SoW is the best PvE ability and SoH is often used in WvW.

From my perspective, you are just a player who cannot play a certain playstyle anymore and feels sad about it.
And it doesn’t matter for you that we got like 4 absolutely amazing builds now. Because I don’t know… You can’t throw traps anymore.

I was aware that people are going to feel this way, but with all due respect – it’s nothing but a human syndrome that refuses to adapt.
Rangers in PvE still pull out higher numbers than a Guardian or Warrior. If icebows get nerfed we might as well get our way into meta.
For PvP… Who knows. No one does. Not even A-net themselves.
________________________________________________
As for the advice, Eura (Ranger from competitive scene) shared his build. You might try to go with that one.

People who want Taunt nerfed are people who can’t suck up the fact that Rangers can be now useful.
… And still less useful than insta 8 stack burning guardian or ele.

Elorna.5329:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Excuse me … Ressing? Does Zephyr work on reviving an ally? Or is this another form of ressing like rallying via faster stomping – which is stomping itself?

It increases the speed of reviving, the stomp animation, etc. It basically increases the speed of every action. Useful in PvE for speedy mining as well.

Thanks for clarifying. I remember trying it without any effect, so it’s good to learn something new from time to time.

Elorna.5329:

FrownyClown.8402:

birds are def better if you want to do some burst on an opponent. If you switch out quickening zephyr for sic em I dont think you will be disappointed either.

QZ is also a stunbreak and cond removal with the trait. Don’t think this would work half as well without it. And the uses you can get out of it for ressing and stomping are also great.

Excuse me … Ressing? Does Zephyr work on reviving an ally? Or is this another form of ressing like rallying via faster stomping – which is stomping itself?

EthanLightheart.9168:

Playing condi-ranger feels like joining the fight weaponless.

Holding a point is the goal of PvP, after all. You can bunker a point with Ranger – and for this we have plenty of stuff up our sleeve.

Valderius Rex.4108:

I feel much stronger, but I’ve been a SB bleeder since the beginning. Suppose I’m the wrong ranger to ask.

No wonder, conditions got buffed a bunch with this update.
You are not a wrong person to ask. Sinister trapper with A/T + SB has the potential to become the meta. But none of us knows, yet.

A lot depends on the new HoT content. While the old content stays – Zerk still holds the upper hand.

Yup, I’ve been doing fine.

All of my builds I had success with are posted in this forum already. You’ll find them by

[PvP build]
- I guess I posted 3 of them by now.
Unstoppable Duelist
Marauder
Zoo bunker

If you start the auto-attack chain – the whole sequence will complete to your 1st selected target.
If you, however, make a pause / the target dies / or the sequence gets delayed/interrupted by any mean – you can get your proposed effect of travelling past your former target (to another, or just into the distance).

Nature’s Vengeance

Regardless of how you guyz believe this trait is underpowered I see a lot of potential in it.
The truth is – it’s actually a 33% boon uptime to every single boon it provides.

• 33% Protection uptime is quite high
• Swiftness combined with the effect on spirit provides around 125% uptime all by itself
• 33% Regeneration uptime has a potential to cover up uses with Windborne Notes(horn)
• 33% Vigor is not bad, either.

The only thing is Might…
… And yes – this is plain terrible. Doesn’t stack in duration but intensity. And the amount is plain horrible.

Solution:
Frost Spirit – Grants 1 second of Quickness every 3 seconds.

For this – your DPS from beast-mastery goes down noticeably, but your team-support goes up. And this is a grandmaster trait what we are talking about. And it should feel like it. Moreover, it would stack with other Quickness applications just as every single boon that is provided via Spirits. (Means it will be an option to prolong Guardian’s Quickness, but will not be OP at boss fights because of Mesmer’s long-lasting Quickness)
__________________________________________
This would make Rangers finally a choice for PvE. Spotter has a cap, Frost Spirit is not as effective as other classes’ buffs.
And since it’s only for 1 second – it won’t make it OP. This is the solution to our PvE problems.

FrownyClown.8402:

Rather than look at each class individually, try to look at the pve meta as a whole. The fact that winning means going as zerker as possible is what is wrong. They need to punish zerker players that go within melee range more. Dungeons shouldn’t be about speed runs for farming gold. If they want real team coordination the overall damage/AI of monsters in dungeons needs to be improved

You might have been correct, but you definitely are not.

Here’s the deal:
~Guild Wars 2
- This game has been made as a community game. A game where everyone is useful and everyone is free to play whatever he feels like.
- This game offers a vast variety of choices of game-styles.

Since this game offers different classes with different designs, different offerings and different mechanics, but most importantly, different numbers, there will be that thing called efficiency

While what you are saying is true – and developers of the game had a goal of “everyone can play what he wants and it’s okay” – you can’t deny that there’s gonna be the issue of efficiency.
No game in he world can be balanced as long as there is diversity. There will always be that one who has better potential/DPS/defense/mobility/utility/CC than others.

And that’s fine. As long as these numbers are not that distant, it’s okay. And we as the community strive to close the gap between differences of these classes and their builds.

While people like you are searching for enjoyable ponies (exaggeration, don’t take it seriously) in this game – there are those like me who search for results. And you can’t deny that people who spend hundreds of gold to create the most efficient armor, weapons and food have the right to point “selfish players looking for ponies” out – which are also the reason why zerkers die (if the boss doesn’t die in 7 seconds – the zerker does).

I find that if a player sacrificed his time and personal tastes of the game for efficiency – it’s absolutely correct and fine for him to ask the same of others. Because whether you’d like to admit it or not – players who play for own personal enjoyment at a cost of other people’s time – are nothing more than selfish players.
For role-playing system of builds – we have open world PvE.
_________________________________________
Which leads me to conclusion that looking at each class individually might as well be the right thing to do. And if a way of improving the diversity is found – and it helps people fit in with their favorite class or spec. than this is what we should search for.

And I fail to understand how Ele,Warrior overflooding the demand in dungeons is helping the system. After all, if I made an Icebow Ele and was able to 2-men every dungeon, I would expect everyone to do the same. Because if they don’t – they clearly ignore my time for personal selfish reasons.

StickerHappy.8052:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Wondrouswall.7169:

“Hornet’s String, Monarch’s Leap, and Serpent’s Strike now destroy projectiles.”

Projectile destruction is controlled, on-demand, and the cooldown reduction can be taken more advantage of while on sword. Projectile destruction is done during the cast when there are no evade frames (ie: cast and damage portions only).

This way, you can actually Monarch’s Leap back into or Hornet’s Sting away from incoming fire safely. Since these skills have decent cooldowns, it’s not overly strong or random as the current trait.

Yes, very nice.

Still, evade or block would be better for synergy with other things.

No love for GS tho?

I’m not sure if GS needs this. It already has Counter-Attack that does it on a quite long time period.

Elorna.5329:

Ok, so that’s why the hyena. Hm guess I’d have to try it, seems a bit overly focused on the spirit if that’s also a reason for taking a normally underpowered pet. Do people realize its importance? How long does the spirit survive?

Actually, the pet is underpowered from Direct Damage perspective. It always was the best CC option right after wolf.
It’s just a nice addition to scale with Sun Spirit.

Anyways, the spirit can live the whole duration if used at a strategic place, but usuallt lives around 5-15 seconds depending on the enemy.
I usually blew it myself for the extra burn, though. The effect persists for 14 seconds after the spirit dies.

Fluffball.8307:

The more I think about this build, the cooler I think it looks. I refuse to play PvP until they fix the bugs though.

Since you’re pretty light on defense, have you tried blind and weakness spam with an eagle? Or are you cancel casting the F2 to get the spam out anyway? I feel like actually using the F2 on an eagle would outperform the owl.

Yes, I indeed have. But I found myself swapping the bird way too fast to make the best use of it. That’s why I stick to the high-burst chill Owl. It blows around 5 conditions on a single F2 press and and taunts the guy for my condition bomb. After that – I usually ended up spawning the Hyena to keep the enemy down.

But you are free to make adjustments. My builds are pretty much a template with potential. Everyone has a different play-style and everyone will do just better with his own.

Elorna.5329:

Whenever I took empathic bond in this new “meta” I didn’t have a pet, too many conds flying about. Also why is hyena your secondary pet? Wolf or dog should outperform it.

To make the most out of Sun Spirit.

I didn’t mention it earlier – but with this build you, hyena, hyena’s ally, and parrot spawned out of the rune – all proc Sun Spirit.
And that fact is enormous. I’m aware that Empathic bond is not the best solution possible, but with Healing Spring this turned out to be a huge success since both you and your pet are getting rid of the conditions – actually you being cleansed a bit more.

Also, Hyenas are there for the disruption as well. You have very powerful disruption potential (since you are going to bond the people through burning anyways).
For direct damage spike – the Owl is there (owl applies Taunt on every taunt, CD is 14,3/4).

To summarize what this build has:
- scary condition bomb
- impressive condition cleanse
- potent hard-CC

Negatives:
- loses most of the potential at chasing or out of the point.

But when I was testing this build – I really felt like shouting
“You are in my kingdom now!”

Wondrouswall.7169:

“Hornet’s String, Monarch’s Leap, and Serpent’s Strike now destroy projectiles.”

Projectile destruction is controlled, on-demand, and the cooldown reduction can be taken more advantage of while on sword. Projectile destruction is done during the cast when there are no evade frames (ie: cast and damage portions only).

This way, you can actually Monarch’s Leap back into or Hornet’s Sting away from incoming fire safely. Since these skills have decent cooldowns, it’s not overly strong or random as the current trait.

My name is Tragic Positive and I approve this idea.

As a variation of a turret Engie – this is the build I came up with.
A build based on high HP pool, immense condition bombing as well as Direct Spike via Snow Owl.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-J73Fk;0wEkw-d2gEF-0;9k-C;1Z_b;0256136036;4U7m6X;1k2Ewk2Ew1J

As the tittle says – this build is merely designed for holding onto a point. It doesn’t excel at teamfights (even though it works – but you die fast when focused) due to low Toughness, but is able to survive various 2v1 fights.

This build is extremely deadly, and durable in small scale fights.
To be noted: your Sun Spirit is going to trigger from 4 targets with just you on the point. This is not to be underestimated.
_____________________________________________
Hope I’ll help some of those bunker enthusiasts.

I was able to win various 1v2 match-ups with this one.

mistsim.2748:

…

Fact is, people just dont want to test builds. So I have nothing left to argue.

Then I’m not a person. Definitely.

Truth be told, our taunt currently holds the highest potential.
Of course you don’t need that to be viable in PvP. But if you want to take Ranger instead of other class – Taunt is why will it be the Ranger.

Everyone has damage. Everyone has evades. Everyone has heals. Everyone can do what a Ranger can. Ranger has always been the one to chase after others in everything.
This is the only thing that can Rangers do and others can’t.
Until they say they are changing this. Which I could understand but would disappoint me.

LughLongArm.5460:

Chokolata.1870:

I really really really think you people are overestimating a 2 second taunt. Like really!

M8, it breaks blocks, it breaks stealth, it breaks enemy rotations, it locks the target on pet and u cant re-tab during the effect. Have you even tried it? Its not another little boost, for me its a game changer.

This.
Finally an ability with the potential to make Rangers WANTED IN PvP!
That is a unique ability with potential to counter other classes! It’s a mechanic that has the potential to bring Rangers to tournaments!

This can’t be overestimated. But for this to happen – the Ranger has to be skilled in pet awareness, positioning and management as well as keep track of it’s cooldown.

Well, as far as it goes, my two mains are Mesmer and Ranger.

But from a very simple point of view – I can clearly see that Ranger is far ahead in DPS. And it still amuses me how people want Mesmer and Mesmer only for runs (when I ask which class they prefer).
And I first realized this in CoF (P2) when I tried to kill down the 2 Devourer Nests. And it took me twice the time of my Ranger.

Then I went out to the DPS station gollem (pvp area) and guess what – results were obvious. Mesmers had far superior burst but Rangers had far superior DPS.
From what I believe to be true – people never take pets into account. And of course – without them our DPS is weak. But with them – the DPS is high. Much higher than one could expect.

But as far as it goes – people will always believe in “numbers”. As it was pre-buff in rangers. Rapid Fire was considered powerful even at that time. Because it hit for 12K… Over 5 seconds… I know right? And people believed it was a huge damage ability!

But basic maths or analysis is not very common, so it can’t be helped. People play games to enjoy and that’s how it should be. It’s just that I enjoy being useful, useful as much as I can.

singinggecko.5736:

Oh my. That would be deserving of grandmaster status! I would soooo use that. Really really cool idea and probably op but man would that be fun with Signet of stone or protect me right when you hit low health to stay alive for that monster hit.

Well, in the current meta, you usually live for 3 seconds starting from 100%.
But this would be the answer for tank builds as well as builds with SoS / Protect me to make sure you don’t die.

And as it says – it would be The Most Dangerous Game.

~ Most Dangerous Game
When at or below 50% health a trigger will activate to note the damage you received. After 3 seconds – your next auto-attack will deal bonus damage equal to 100% of the damage you received. This effect has a 15 seconds interval cooldown.

Thoughts, anyone?

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

armadillo “add to silverwastes and desert areas”
high damage tank pet with low hp and low Precision.

I’m laughing my head off.
You made my day sir, I give you that! +1

Sube Dai.8496:

When you select MDG, automatically switch to QuickDraw…

Seriously though I’m not taking this thing ever. Quickdraw is one of the best skills in the game, especially for pvp. The only reason not to take it would be for a pve damage modifier.

In PvE – Quick Draw is a damage boost as well.
And you are capped at 25 might anyways. What’s the point ?

Rangers are not that bad.
But one thing you should keep in mind is:

Rangers are not hunters. Hunter in WoW is a ranged class. Ranger in GW2 is not a ranged class. We are a pet-class that can pick a ranged weapon just as a warrior can.

Overall, we are not bad. But we are a long way to go to become meta. If you want to be overpowered everywhere you go – make an Ele.
If you want to enjoy pets – Ranger is the way to go.
But Ranger =/= Hunter. This has to be noted.

mistsim.2748:

^bah i just cant convince anyone with words alone. Remorseless isn’t situational! if you have like 4 instances of fury and two-handed training, youre good to go =)

What I meant is rather that if I wasn’t able to land muddy terrain – I rarely hit Path of Scars. Which means a lot of wasted potential if I didn’t.

But if I managed to land that MT > PoS > Swap > Maul > Entangle > Swoop > Hilt Bash > Maul, sequence
I was pretty much good to call it a game.

The problem was that the build was all about this and couldn’t do anything else. That was the problem I’m talking about. All the access to fury was weapon swaps (very cool and reliable – yet – very easy to read and counter) and basically muddy terrain. Everyone expects Entangle theses days.

It’s not like Remorseless is situational. It’s just that ways to obtain it basically shout for counter-play by skilled players.

Eurantien.4632:

It’s hard for me to justify remorseless because it sounds near impossible to really optimize.. that being said when it works IT WORK! Turning around and getting a 7k maul with a 7k crippling strike from your dog is awesome. I’ll give it a shot with RaO, I hadn’t considered that combo… maybe it will just flow together with my combos perfectly? Mainly I use entangle because it can help lock a target down and that means a kill. It can also make people waste CDs. Given the strength of rampage, if they have a lot of warriors I will swap in RaO.

I was playing around a style of Valkyrie build (but I didn’t give it much of an attention) and I based it solely on those High Maul damage spikes. I was thinking of running it a full melee build with disruptive properties.

Remorseless works amazing with Wilderness Knowledge. And if I managed to land my Muddy Terrain, I could just as well use path of scars for huge numbers – use entangle – swap and maul.

But I didn’t like it that really much since much of the opportunities are situational, but the possibility of that synergy is something you might try to consider. It was, sadly, not my play-style.

Took you 43 seconds against a Stationary Gollem that doesn’t move or defend.

~ The position you are referring to has zero importance in PvP matches
~ Every higher ground is accessible instantly by Mesmers and Thieves

Care to explain how is the Longbow OP?

Kicker.8203:

Zietlogik.6208:

Taunt is a mechanic that causes players to only autoattackthe target, that has been stated.

It is basically: Walk towards and Autoattack the target.

So it makes sense, it isn’t a stun, or a daze, or a knockback, it is a taunt, a new mechanic.

That’s perfectly fine but why does it have to change my target to achieve that? And deny me from targeting anyone else for the time of taunt.

One perfect reason.

If you were able to select another target and keep auto-attacking the caster of the Taunt (Ranger’s pet)…
Can you remember what Ranger’s Sword #1 Auto-Attack does? Well yes – it would send you flying all around the map like an idiot. And that wouldn’t be intended. And no, sadly, I am not aware of a coding system that would prevent you from hitting a specific target while having a completely different one targeted.
Ranger’s Sword sequence is the answer you have been looking for.

Moreover, this is a new mechanic with new functionality. Which means working as intended. Without flaws such as the one I just explained.