ANet stated that Legendary weapons will always be top tier gear, so if they release Ascended Weapons (I hope that never happens) then they’ll bump up Legendary Weapon stats to match them.
This.
Once you have it you’ll never have to replace it unless you want to. Although I’m still unsure about the forced stat distribution thing and what happens if you transmute different stats to the skin.
Otherwise it’s entirely a personal decision. Do you like the skin/prestige enough to go for it?
The best way to make money is doing something you enjoy. Some things are more efficient than others but if you hate it you aren’t going to be doing it for long.
Here’s some options:
- COF path 1 farming
- Other dungeons
- DE farming
- DE chest farming
- Fractals
- Playing the TP (though if you aren’t good at it you’ll probably lose money)
- Map clearing if you don’t have 100% yet
Some ‘investments’ you can make that cost money now but pay-off later are:
- Leveling Crafting, there’s a few ways to make money with crafting but breaking even on leveling costs takes a while. Crafting more saves you money in the long-term because you can make a lot of things cheaper than you can buy them.
- Leveling alts, a lot of things that are good money are “once per day, per character” so the more characters you have the more you can do them. Leveling a character 1-80 and doing 100% map completion takes me about 70 hours and nets about 40 gold profit if I don’t buy exotics for the alt (about 10 gold if I buy/make full exotics).
Here’s some things to avoid if you want money:
- WvW
From the trend it looks like the price will continue to drop for a good while yet. Probably continue dropping until a patch changes something or speculators spike the price before the next patch.
lets not forget the infusions, 100 EACH, and we need 6…
No, you do not need those infusions.
There you go, hope I helped.ha ha very funny, if you want to play that game, nobody NEEDS anything on here since it’s a game
Actually I believe his point was that under no circumstances do you ever “need” the omni-infusions that require the passion flowers. You can just make offensive or defensive infusions and use passion fruits or karka shells instead.
I understood his point perfectly, the implication was that you can just use the agony resist infusions, if you’re trying to get to the very peak of your stat growth however you do need them.
If you’re absolutely obsessed with each and every infusion having +5 to the same stat you need 2 omni-infusions. So 200 is the absolute most passion flowers you’ll ever need. Not the 600 you originally claimed.
Jeweler would be the cheapest route for someone without any crafting at all.
You could also use weaponsmithing or huntsman and make 40 of these and you’re done:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bronze_Plated_Dowel
Edit: Just the dowel, no fine crafting materials required. Just Bronze and Wood.
(edited by Unspecified.9142)
lets not forget the infusions, 100 EACH, and we need 6…
No, you do not need those infusions.
There you go, hope I helped.ha ha very funny, if you want to play that game, nobody NEEDS anything on here since it’s a game
Actually I believe his point was that under no circumstances do you ever “need” the omni-infusions that require the passion flowers. You can just make offensive or defensive infusions and use passion fruits or karka shells instead.
Not trying to downplay the issue here (nobody likes nerfs) but I just recently switched to Mesmer from 700 hours on Ranger and run a 20/20/0/25/5 spec with full zerkers.
IBerserker is still ridiculously strong compared to anything a ranger can put out. Maybe I missed its glory days but coming from a ranger I still think it’s absolutely amazing.
For the record, if Whirling Defense hits 12 times and the final number is 9.9k then each hit was only 825.
You also better hope your opponent doesn’t decide to move two steps to the side or back since you really have no way to lock them down for the duration and you can’t move. (Entangle might work but that’s only maybe)
Do you believe and support that whirling defense, needs a buff, and if it did, would become EXTREMELY viable? Buff as in, moveable, channeled but not interuppted if hit, etc..
All it really needs is the ability to move, or give the ranger some way to lock people down more easily.
It’s actually strange to me that ranger is the only profession with a “spin to win” that can’t move while doing it.
For the record, if Whirling Defense hits 12 times and the final number is 9.9k then each hit was only 825.
You also better hope your opponent doesn’t decide to move two steps to the side or back since you really have no way to lock them down for the duration and you can’t move. (Entangle might work but that’s only maybe)
Only one emote I want:
/JumpSit
(or maybe I should say I want it back?)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aurora%27s_Remains
There is absolutely no reason to ever go there apart from one event that rarely spawns.
No idea what you might be missing in the shiverpeaks though.
Sounds like your missing the new one in Strait of Devastation. It’s in the water just north of Elysium Beach.
Edit to provide better directions.
(edited by Unspecified.9142)
How high do tiers go? Is it 100 dynamic events?
100 events, 100 veterans, craft 40 masterwork (green) or higher items, 5 dailies.
Once you’ve finished your daily and can see the Monthly list in the UI, you can mouse-over each element there to see the real totals, without anything hidden by the whole tiers thing.
For me, i think the hardest to achieve is 100 vets… Playing causally will probably take me about 20 days.
If killing enough vets is a problem you could try farming this mini dungeon:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tears_of_Itlaocol
Also gets the maguuma veterans for the daily done really fast.
Ahh yes all that “hope” we have that’s been festering for 4 months. It feels so good to have that…
Not sure I have any sympathy for a build based entirely on a consumable getting broken.
The problem is really that it only adds 350 healing power which is, quite frankly, bad at level 80.
It’s probably the best weapon we have against a stealth thief. It has a very wide arc so it’s pretty easy to hit a stealthed thief with it. Plus the evade on the third attack can cause you to evade the backstab sometimes.
The thing I like most about it is that unlike a sword I can be relatively stationary. The less I move the less my opponent moves. The less my opponent moves the more my pet bites them.
Disclaimer: I’m in no way saying the greatsword is ‘great’ or even ‘good’. It has it’s uses but could really use a damage buff of ~20% or more across the board.
I’m sure the feedback here and the other threads will kick Anet into gear and fix what needs to be fixed in the coming patches.
I would really, really like to believe that but I’ve played a ranger since beta.
Here’s a quote from some time in July 2012 (source quotes it on August 2, 2012):
“Ranger’s are missing 3 utility skills. All 3 are ones that give you some interesting control over your pet. So first of all they are just short 3 skills. Secondly they are one of many professions who need a good strong balance pass on their utilities to bring the bad ones in line. I think right now the professions with the strongest utils are Warrior, Elementalist and Guardian. We will work to catch the others up before ship.” -Jon Peters, Official Forum BWE2
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/46277-ranger-pet-utility-skills/
(I had to pull that quote from GW2Guru because the original is long since deleted off the official forums)
The 3 missing utilities were the shouts. Not exactly exciting. In fact… Here’s a quote from 4 months ago:
Poof! Someone called and I am here. We made some ranger changes this patch, but had to go back on them because of risk factor. There are some bugs being fixed and quality of life improvements coming in the next patch, as well as some other significant ranger improvements. I would Literally tell you but I think it would be considered a bit of a spoiler so you will have to be patient.
While we work hard to keep updates going on all professions, not very build us going to contain fixes for everyone due to the nature of software development. One problem with rangers is the lack of build diversity created by a number of sub par utility skills. Many signets, a shout or two, and spirits are all a bit lackluster. That is the first place to expect improvements. Second is trying to improve the feel/ pacing on some weapons.
Ok I can’t type more with tiny phone finger keypad. See you in game!
Jon
Notice it mentions shouts are lackluster.
Ranger utilities have not been changed in any way since BWE1 except for spirit nerfs.
Sorry to QQ here but I’ve been (mostly) quietly waiting since the first quote was made. The ranger patch history is just really starting to get to me.
1) Buy Silver.
2) Buy Nuggets
3) Make 40 Intricate Jewels (filigree + nugget)
4) Move on.Total Cost = ~40 silver
- Is it only 40 items?
Yes, 40 crafted Masterworks.
And they don’t have to be completed rings/earrings/necklaces. Just the intricate jewels is enough for credit.
1) Buy Silver.
2) Buy Nuggets
3) Make 40 Intricate Jewels (filigree + nugget)
4) Move on.
Total Cost = ~40 silver
Prolly a waste of my time posting this but i don’t think the changes made are outlandish at all. I think they are fine. Although i do feel as if the “balancers” do semi ignore on the ranger thread, similar to engies. Time, my friends, our time will come!
I’ll this again:
It’s not about what changed. It’s about what didn’t change.
It’s the things missing from the patch that are a problem and not so much what is there (admittedly the guard and EB changes stung but that’s really just salt on the wound).
When people group with rangers they think they just plain suck, however I can out live almost anyone I play with and deal more damage. The only good builds in Guild Wars 2 are the ones you make yourself.
Dodger Rule
What other professions have you played?
That was my experience as well.
The thing that really struck me was just how much incidental support mesmer and especially guardian provide. You just have all these random bonuses scattered around through skills and traits.
Ranger has the same ‘incidentals’ but unfortunately they all affect our pet instead.
Edit: Figure an example might be good.
Empowering Might (Guardian) – 5 seconds of might to allies on crit
Companions Might (Ranger) – 1 second of might to our pet on crit
These aren’t even in the same zip code for usefulness.
(edited by Unspecified.9142)
Odds are that they forgot to swap it out for the dungeon (I’ve done that) and didn’t really notice because unless you’ve traited traps the viable options are almost non-existant.
While I understand other professions find themselves thinking “ kitten I wish I had more utility slots!” For a lot of ranger builds it’s more like “Sigh… I guess I’ll take that?”
Signets: Actives are all pet centric. Pets + Dungeons = Bad times.
Traps: Traited or useless in a Dungeon
Spirits: Hahahaha… No.
Shouts: Hahahaha… No.
Survival: Muddy Terrain is not that useful most of the time. QZ is alright. If you need LR you probably failed at something and if you aren’t condition specced Sharpening Stone is just going to kitten off the condition specced players in a group.
The fact is most of our utilities just aren’t worth a slot in a dungeon and for some builds none of them are really worth a slot in most situations period. We just have 3 slots we have to fill so we do.
Although if they were dying to poison they probably should have had Signet of Renewal slotted but that was already there, well there’s nothing else to be done. Also activating SoR is generally a bad idea because of the 60 second CD. If you get a condition more than once in 60 seconds you want the passive instead.
And I want to know a few things. I’m hoping the Ranger community can help me out.
1. What are the most popular defensive builds?
2. How capable would you say a good Ranger is of taking on 2+ level 80s and winning?
3. Are there any absolutely garbage weapons for the Ranger?
4. Are there any absolutely garbage attributes for the Ranger?
5. Which is more viable: a power- or condition-based build?
While I tend to agree with the first response you got I’ll try to answer as best I can.
1) 0/0/30/10/30 or variations on that. I’ve had success with 0/0/15/25/30.
2) If you run a healing power/toughness build you can pull off a 2v1 though if they decide to leave you aren’t getting a kill. You will only kill people who over commit.
3) Honestly every weapon has a place in the right situation and the right build. Choosing weapons on ranger is more about utility than anything (e.g. greatsword for mobility and face tanking, shortbow for single target ranged, longbow for AoE ranged, axe for mid range multi-target, sword for evasion tanking and single target damage). Damage is pretty bad all around. It’s just not like choosing weapons on a Guardian or Mesmer (I have 80s of both).
4) I’m not sure what you mean by attributes. There’s a lot of garbage traits, spirits are terrible, and vitality isn’t very useful to a ranger in most builds/situations (healing power and toughness will get you way better staying power most times).
5) The ranger community could probably argue until the cows come home over this one. Both work but both also have some severe problems. Your weapon choice will determine if a condition build is even possible. Rangers just suffer from a lack of ways to reliably stack bleeding against a competent opponent. Our on crit bleed trait is a 1 second bleed and is frankly terrible. Shortbow has a flanking requirement which means someone who can face you through most of the fight negates your ability to bleed. Otherwise it basically falls on traps to provide conditions. We can maintain almost permanent burning very easily with Flame Trap and a Torch though. You also always have your pet putting out decent raw damage (pet conditions never get good, 350 condition damage when traited is as good as it gets).
The sad fact is really that Ranger in WvW is just not great. If your goal is simply to roam around and fight whoever you come across and maybe cap some camps and neutrals (basically PvE instead) you can do alright. If your goal is siege and defense of keeps/towers or zerg warfare… well you’ll likely be disappointed if excelling at those activities is your goal. Unless you want to excel for a ranger, that is compare your success to other rangers instead of other professions.
Playing another profession was the worst thing I ever did for my enjoyment of ranger. Before my Guardian and Mesmer hit 80 and got good builds and exotics I was pretty happy with my ranger. Not so much now.
You can hate this patch all you want and you can make outragous claims of how ranger are totally screwed. With all things consider this was a good patch.
Guard was really abused in WvW. (in conjuction with mesmers) This Guard neft most likly had the least affect on overall wvw game play and still correct a problem.
It’s not so much about what was there as it is about what wasn’t there.
This really isn’t a difficult thing to understand. It’s the absence of meaningful improvements that has people so upset. We’ve been waiting since beta for them to fix the ranger.
Still works for me.
I just went to bloodtide coast, sent my drake off to kill something while I stood there. Waited until it was at ~75% and used Healing Spring. Pet got healed.
I’ve been silently hoping for ways to get ascended items that are not calender gated. That seems increasingly unlikely as each patch just brings a new “daily” we have to do to get an ascended item for another slot. This isn’t what I imagined when they said “more ways to get ascended items.”
As for the balance portion of the patch….
I’m a ranger. Go to the ranger forum and it’ll tell you all you need to know.
We would have been better off if they ignored us.
It’s a sad day when the October patch was better for rangers than the current patch.
I find it interesting how it dropped in price, instead of an increase.
9 copper to 30+ copper is not a drop in price.
You’ll not see Jon Peters back in this forum. He knows he’s been found out and we can’t be fooled any more (I’m saying “fooled” to try and remain somewhat civil).
I think it has more to do with the fact there’s just nothing to say.
- 6 months since launch.
- 5 months since acknowledging significant problems.
- None of the problems even remotely close to solved.
There’s just no way to explain that away. Usually I’m very forgiving of devs because I know things take time. I also understand they don’t want to ‘break’ something or make something incredibly OP. I also know there’s other professions but most of them are in pretty good shape. It wouldn’t be such a terrible idea to not worry so much about them (or hell skip them for a month like they did to rangers).
My patience is running very thin because currently it seems they aren’t even trying to fix the ranger. There really hasn’t been a patch note since launch that has made me think “At least they’re trying” other than the projectile speed (not ranger specific) and pets hitting moving targets (better but still bad).
Every patch just leaves me wondering “What the hell have they been doing for the last month(s)?”
P.S. I currently have 4 level 80s with 100% map completion and full exotics. Ranger used to be my main but I just feel bad playing it in any group setting now when I have Guardian and Mesmer as options (the other is a thief who I dislike personally).
I appreciate what you’re trying to do but this forum has had no shortage of constructive posts/threads with suggestions for improving the ranger. I’ll do you one better though and just link a thread I created about a month ago. It’s filled with suggestions for improving traits. Pick one.
As usual people totally ignore the things an item is actually used to make.
Black Peppercorn – 76 copper each
Pile of Salt and Pepper – 23 copper eachMakes perfect sense….
Yeah that happened about 30 minutes after I posted.
There’s always that lag when an item spikes. It can be anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple days for the prices of things an item is used to create to catch up with the price spike on the base item.
well the fire/frost auras is a nice buff.
It’s really kind of sad when the most notable “ranger buffs” since launch have actually been game wide buffs that just so happened to affect rangers as well.
Too late to worry about it. Lynns is now gone since the patch went live 5 minutes ago.
no actually nerfs and just a major buff…i cant see a reason to be sad for the rangers..As for the pvp community,i can sense some saddness
Let me put it this way:
The way most professions would feel about significant nerfs is how the ranger community feels when nothing changes.
For a profession that works well a nerf might break something and what used to work is now broken. People don’t like broken.
For rangers things are broken and not being fixed. If something is broken and you don’t fix it, it is still broken. People don’t like broken.
Every profession gets massive buffs while Ranger is ignored, what’s left to discuss? This is basically every single balance patch.
I wouldn’t say every profession got massive buffs, but for the most part they all got minor buffs and maybe some minor nerfs like RTL for ele’s. The problem is that Rangers need a big buff and were told to be getting one that hasn’t come in months… I would say Guardians probably got a bigger buff this patch and already were pretty solid in PVE and PVP. Little love for the Ranger this patch again…
You kidding right? Have you seen gasmask playing as a trap ranger? He can solo 3 guys and kill them, if you think rangers needs a buff I’ve bad news for you mate.
People are not looking for trap ranger buffs. 1 build does not make a profession
People are looking for buffs to pretty much every single part of the ranger that is not used in trap builds because almost every single other part of the ranger is somewhere between mediocre and craptacular.
Seriously..85% increase and you still complain?
This doesn’t change anything meaningful about the profession. It’s one ability almost nobody used. Yes it’s a nice change but unless this one ability is magically OP the profession is still borked as a whole.
I think I’m actually more kitten off now than I was in October when we got nothing.
In October I still had some hope that a patch would come that I would read and think “Wow, now I could do this, or that, or use that. Ranger actually has viable options now!”
Today I just don’t have any hope left. I’m starting to honestly believe I could quit the game for 2 years and when I got back it would still be the same situation as today.
There really hasn’t been a single patch since launch that has actually changed the way the ranger works and what is good and what is worthless filler. There was the aquaman patch but let’s be honest, Speargun was already the go-to underwater weapon, it’s just a bit better now.
What I really want for the ranger is changes not minor tweaks but real substantial changes. Minor tweaks isn’t going to cut it.
When the trunk is rotten no amount of trimming the branches will save the tree.
As usual people totally ignore the things an item is actually used to make.
Black Peppercorn – 76 copper each
Pile of Salt and Pepper – 23 copper each
Makes perfect sense….
I really have nothing to say about this update (or lack of an update really) that is not a very rage filled rant (several different rants apply). So instead I’ll just summarize everything in this:
/sigh…. :*(
As many seem to misinterpret, Guild Wars is a reference to lore not a game mechanic. But GvG would be nice, although it’s weird to balance depending on how big your guild is.
This.
I’m getting really sick of this same stupid argument. The game name is a lore-based thing. It has nothing to do with GvG.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone complaining about the lack of actual Warcraft in WoW. Warcraft is the art, science, or craft of war. It’s not just some franchise by Blizzard.
I’ve also never heard anyone complain about the lack of dragons in Dragon Age Origins (I know there’s a couple). Instead everyone is just okay with fighting a blight all game.
This is quite literally the only game I’ve ever played where people kitten and moan about the title of the game because they actually took it literally.
(Age of Wonders also never made me wonder… What’s with that?)
Something more than the October patch but less than “substantial changes.”
Best bet in my opinion would to still be able to deal the damage of the bleeds if a target can no longer receive any bleeds. Of course there would have to be much thought and formulaic expressions for this to ever work and show some semblance of balance.
This was basically what I was just thinking about.
If there are 25 bleeds on the target and a new bleed is applied just take the damage the bleed would have done over time and apply it as burst (maybe X% of the damage if needed).
E.G. If a target with 25 bleeds gets hit with a new bleed that would do 100 damage per tick for 6 seconds that’s a 600 damage burst instead.
This way condition builds don’t lose their damage to the nether realms and they also don’t care about incidental bleeds from things like ranger shortbow/felines and mesmer clones/phantasms.
Shouldn’t be much of a problem for the bandwidth and it honestly shouldn’t be much of a balance issue.
Why I think Ranger is hard to fix-
Problem here is that Ranger is actually 3 classes rolled into one.
1st you have the archer with range and piercing arrows traited
2nd the Trapper utilising all the trait skills that enhance that gameplay
3rd the beastmaster running the pet enhancing traits & skills
This variability ultimately means you have to sacrifice one thing for another , and then compensate via gear and runes etc. to get a more than halfway decent build .
add to that how much support healing do you want to give your teammates and you probably have 4 sub-classes eg Spirits, and if you choose that your’e gonna have to trait so they move with you.And that in my opinion that diversity is probably why there are so many issues with the ranger, ie too many choices for the player , and for devs to fix and balance without breaking something else.
Just posted this in another thread , but maybe devs and players alike can give it some thought.
I’ve thought much the same thing but I’ve always thought of it more like this:
Traps: 20-30 points
Longbow: 30-50 points (50 conflicts with 30 traps)
Shortbow: 20-40 points (40 conflicts with 30 traps)
Pet: 30+ points
Personal Survival: 30+ points (multiple options, all 30 points)
Spirits: 30 points
Basically it’s a case of “Pick 2 and throw the remaining points somewhere.”
Almost everything about the ranger is like that. If you want to use it even half-way decent it’s 20+ trait points going somewhere.
I know other professions invest 20+ points into things to make them better too but after leveling a Thief, Guardian, and Mesmer to 80 I realized the “Must invest to make it good” is not shared across those other professions. My guardian uses a greatsword or hammer a lot of the time. Not a single trait went to a greatsword, hammer, or 2 handed weapon trait and I don’t feel gimped for it. Mesmer is similar, doesn’t matter how you trait things are useful/good. You trait to make it even better than good.
On of the major problems with this whole situation (imho) is accidental bleed/burn/poison stacks by power builds.
On my ranger, mesmer (need those clones on dodge so stuff bleeds), and thief it doesn’t matter how I gear myself I’m putting out bleeds here and there. They might be crappy 40 damage bleeds but they are going up. Unfortunately this means that whether I like it or not I’m hurting real condition build’s dps potential.
Since so many power/crit builds can throw up conditions at ~50% effectiveness compared to a full condition build without actually trying while still putting out full power/crit damage levels it means that condition builds bring even less to the party.
There’s pretty much a guaranteed net dps loss by having a condition build double the damage of your groups allotted conditions but bringing less than 50% of the dps of a power/crit build.
Why do you need crit chance with cond damage?
So many sigils and traits that cause bleeding or some other effects on crit that it is worthy to have an ok crit rate, like around 50%.
Our bleed on crit trait is a 1 second bleed
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sharpened_Edges.
It is garbage. If and only if you stack the cap of +100% condition duration (I think rangers can get there with food…) can you even make it tick twice. Stacking a bunch of precision for a 50% chance to get an extra 100 damage is pointless.
Sigils aren’t really a great reason to stack precision either.
Other professions do have reasons to stack precision on condition builds (mesmer and engineer for example) because their crit = condition traits are actually good. Ours aren’t.
What do you mean by ‘this’ patch? Are you aware of a class balance patch soon?
The large patches every month double as balance patches. The next one is Tuesday. Unless something suddenly changes there is every reason to believe that is the next round of balancing.
As for the rest of it, the OP’s “I heard from the devs” is probably referring to the state of the game podcast from the 7th. Which as was covered in another thread did not contain anything even remotely close to devs saying “trap rangers are getting nerfed.” There’s good reason to believe D/D Eles are getting hit but not rangers.
This is just another person over-reacting to some comments about trap rangers being on the ‘watch list’. But if you actually watch that you’ll also see that the devs seem to take what Java said about trap rangers NOT being OP quite seriously. He basically said they aren’t OP just new to the meta and people haven’t figured it out yet.
Anet moves at a snails pace with balancing. No reason to think they’ll rush out a knee-jerk reaction to something new like Trap Rangers.
Just wait 2 days and see what happens but you really shouldn’t be crying foul and doom and gloom about something that likely won’t happen.
Mesmer for the lulz. You could just troll people so hard with the powers a mesmer has.
Clones, mind control, “Hey, stop hitting yourself”, purple butterflies, teleporting, etc…
There are no “taunts” in GW2, at all.
Aggro is handled differently. Mobs choose targets based a few things: Toughness, proximity, healing, rezzing, ranged/melee opponent, and probably other stuff too.
The 2 biggest factors from my observations are Toughness (well armor really) and Proximity. Enemies like to target things with lots of toughness that are close to them (generally).
The problem with your polar bear is that bears have terrible armor values. They are just giant sponges. You will actually find pets like Canines, Drakes, and to a lesser extent Devourers (ranged reduces aggro) with high toughness will keep aggro better than a bear. Of course if you stack toughness on yourself then you’ll pull the aggro more often.
There is no 100% guaranteed way to control aggro but you can manage it to an extent.