Guild Wars 2

I actually hate bears. They are a great set-it and forget-it pet but imho canines are vastly superior in almost every way if you can actually handle your pet. Just because a lot of people use it doesn’t actually mean it’s ‘the best’

Personal opinion here but I order pets as follows:

1) Canines (CC, tanky, and good DPS)
2) Birds (great dps)
3) Devourers (if you need ranged only)
4) Moas (great for buffs and heals in groups)
5) Cats (really squishy though)
6) Spiders
7) Bears (for those who can’t use a better pet)
8) Porcines
9) Drakes (because they are broken)

For underwater it’s Jellyfish or nothing for me.

Azjenco.9425:

Basically, will the update go live in a few hours, or in over a day’s time?

It is currently Sunday, 2:37 PM in the land of PST.

The absolute earliest the patch would go live is in 9.5 hours but odds are it will be more like noon-ish PST since they seem to like to launch patches when they are at work to deal with any problems (which honestly I appreciate).

So probably looking at more like 20-22 hours from now if it’s noon PST (or as much as 30-34 hours if it’s late evening).

I think we could use a lot less Ranger Smith and a lot more of the rest.

Somehow stopping smarter than average bears from stealing picnic baskets just isn’t a useful skill in GW2.

(Also, Legolas isn’t a ranger or a beastmaster)

As of right now nothing has changed regarding ascended gear since it was introduced.

As of 2 days from now things are changing. From what I gather there will be more changes in the future patches as well but the best answer anyone can really give you is read the patch notes on Monday and decide how you feel about it.

Karizee.8076:

Patch notes are always posted directly after the patch goes live. You can find them here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news

It’s actually up to an hour after the patch goes live so if they aren’t there immediately just be patient. The notes always go up in the section of the forums linked by Karizee shortly after the patch.

1) Guardian
2) Warrior
3) Mesmer

All great builds for a ranger wanting to run dungeons. (I’m joking but it was going to be said eventually)

More seriously though, I’d actually like to know the answer to this as well. I think it’s finally time I started doing dungeons (800+ hours and only a few story modes done) and I’m not going to play anything but my ranger anyway.

Speculators.

It’s probably more based on the situation with Piles of Putrid Essence (the next tier up from vile). Piles of Putrid Essence are technically comparable to lodestones in all ways (same tier and drop rarity per kill) except the enemy type they drop off is easily farmed and they are not used for anything useful outside of a few superior runes (relatively unpopular ones).

All it would take is Anet to introduce a single desirable recipe that makes use of Putrid Essence in reasonable quantities and the price will skyrocket from the 50 copper to 1 silver it’s been floating at since launch (even 50-100 for an infusion would do it).

Mystic.5934:

arg! actually, this is the perfect time. now I haven’t wasted them even further. I didn’t know there was anything (that has a recipe) that couldn’t be put in the forge. items bought with karma can… items bought with dungeon tokens can… why not items bought with commendations?
in that case, there is no backup plan. wait, can they be salvaged? I think I’m on plan ‘F’ right now…

Nope, basically if Lyns has the same stock as before minus keys there is absolutely no way to spend 10k+ commendations on anything useful and still have any bank/bag space left over to spend the remaining commendations.

That’s why I comment the same thing in every thread I see about Lyns hoping Anet reads it:

“Please include something on Lyns (since keys are gone) that is useful and will allow us to use up 10k+ commendations. Picks and Salvage kits are great but I don’t have enough storage space for the amount I can buy.”

My main is an 80 ranger. I also have an 80 thief which I don’t like and a 61 guardian that is okay and low level alts of the rest of the professions.

This game lives or dies for me based on the ranger though. Right now it’s wonderful for general PvE and decent for WvW (imho). I’ve been waiting on something to make dungeons…. better before I really bother with those though.

If Anet ever did to the ranger what they did in the beta again I’d probably rage quit for a while though. On the other hand if they really fix the ranger I’ll probably play more.

Nuka Cola.8520:

don’t buy gw1 just for HoM lol rewards are worthless. Not only that but getting hom points in a deserted gw1 will be the most boring experience you’ll have and don’t expect to do missions on hard with heroes/henchies

Personally I liked GW1 and never played it as anything but single player. Doing missions on hard and vanquishing with heroes/henchies is perfectly possible and if you use a good mesmer/necro setup it’s actually afk-easy.

@OP
You would want Nightfall and Eye of the North bare minimum if you wanted to go for HoM rewards simply because Nightfall provides the most points for the least effort but all 3 campaigns in a box together is only like $20-$30 so you’d likely end up with all 3 anyway.

If you did a good amount of research and went only for the easiest points possible you could probably get the White Raven in ~200 hours (starting from scratch with no outside assistance from other players).

Lionguard Lyns will be back on the 28th without keys (not sure what she WILL have mind you) and will be hanging around for about a month to give people a chance to use up all their commendations and then she’s gone for good.

Although without keys unless something is added 50k commendations is too many because you simply don’t have enough space to store the things you could buy from her old stock.

Edit:

Lionguard Lyns will be returning in the end of January build without the Black Lion Keys in her inventory. She will then remain up for everyone to liquidate their Commendations and will likely be leaving entirely after about a month.

From: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Lionguard-Lyns-not-back-yet-merged-threads/page/2#post1215053

It’s not until level 60-70+ content that the flaws start to show. Before that Master’s Bond + a Canine pet can pretty much do everything for you. Literally, everything.

Somewhere around the time you get to Orr the pet system starts to break down due to stat scaling (10 points in BM at level 20 practically doubles your pet’s stats at level 80 it’s more like a ~6% increase), harder mechanics, and more enemies.

I’m definitely not one of the “Ranger is terrible” people but I’m not blind to the faults either. It just really does take until higher levels for the problems to show themselves. You may also notice issues if you go into dungeons and/or WvW.

Crowd Control. Emphasis on Crowd

I don’t know the other classes extremely well but I don’t think anyone else can do it as well as the ranger can. I don’t really do this anymore because I prefer solo roaming and camp/neutral capping. Build doesn’t matter a huge amount but I’ll outline the general idea starting with the skills.

Important Skills
Swoop – As far as I’m concerned this is an absolute must have. You just need to be able to get in and out of enemy zergs and/or chase and catch your target and nothing else works as well. This does mean you’re using a greatsword as one of your weapons.

Longbow – Barrage
Axe – Winter’s Bite
Shortbow – Crippling Shot/Concussive Shot
Dagger – Crippling Talon
Spike Trap
Frost Trap
Muddy Terrain
Entangle
Signet of the Hunt
Canine Pets (Wolf, Drakehound, and Arctic Wolf preferred)

Your Job
Basically your job is to stop the enemy from getting where they want to go, that’s it. If they’re running away you swoop after them and cripple, chill, and immobilize everyone you can. If you’re running away, do the same thing. If a warrior or a thief darts in to your zerg to poke and/or skirmish you make sure they don’t leave again. If someone on your side does the same you make sure they get out when they want to.

I know this doesn’t sound very glorious and odds are many times no one will notice you did it, but it works and it helps.

Back when I used to run this sort of setup I used a 0/30/30/0/10 build with GS/Axe-Horn and Spike Trap, Frost Trap, Signet of the Hunt, and Entangle. I would go in zerg fights and the second I saw some people from the other zerg had over extended I would make them suffer for it.

Send in the non-wolf and F2 -> Swoop -> Entangle ->Run Deeper with Counter Attack -> Throw Traps to prevent retreat and/or lockdown new targets -> Pet Swap to Wolf -> AoE Fear (enemies behind get feared into my zerg) -> Weapon Swap (I had Axe) and use single target CC on choice targets.

You aren’t actually trying to kill anything, once someone is locked down and your zerg is pouncing you keep running to the next target. Your goal is simply separate the weak ones. If you time it right your zerg will sense the weakness and pounce on those you hit with CC. You set them up, they knock them down. The other zerg will likely retreat or at least not push back because your side suddenly has momentum.

I don’t know how well I explained all that but the tl;dr is basically spam AoE CC everywhere at the right time and win because your bloodthirsty zerg will jump on them.

I agree with Agadar, though the other thing you get from 30 in BM is Natural Healing which doesn’t say it but it also heals you for 133 every 2 seconds (pet is 125 per second).

Personally I run a 0/0/20/20/30 build right now though I’ve also run 30/10/30.

They main goal of a bunker ranger is focus entirely on healing power and toughness (grab either power or condition damage as your 3rd stat) and take all survivability traits. Then let your pet do the heavy lifting while you use your skills to primarily disable targets, buff your pet, and defend yourself.

Without any healing power your staying power is going to be severely limited. If it works for you go hard, but there are far sturdier bunker builds available.

If you’re going bunker ignoring your pet is also a pretty big mistake. It’s one advantage rangers have. We can go heavy bunker and not completely sack our dps because pets don’t care about gear.

This happens in every game. Honestly I have zero sympathy for people who are paying the ignorance tax.

Learn to google and/or explore, or in this case simply check the vendors and see what they have. Checking vendors is really something everyone should do just so you know what is there if you ever need it.

For WvW I’m currently running 0/0/15/25/30 using full Healing/Tough/Power gear.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBhODbkoKyOxSwC1OQ0PMp3j0z+27ZMK/XwlE;TsAgzCmo6x0joHbPuek9sKYUwuBA

I basically do what I want and unless there’s multiple people focusing me or I do something really dumb I don’t die.

Earlier today I was killing Dredge in EB since another server had them at the time. There was a thief about and I made him run away several times but overall I just ignored him.

I also ran across a D/D ele the other day at a supply camp (his camp). We fought for a while and eventually I got bored and wandered away. He chased me for a bit before he gave up and walked away too. We just couldn’t kill each other.

I can kill most people easily enough though thieves tend to run away and other bunkers tend to lead to long boring fights that may or may not actually end.

Pneg.7302:

Wall of text,

Sorry about that, I tried to format it a bit but I find the formatting options to be severely lacking here. There just isn’t a good way to really break it up with sub-titles, titles and indentations that I’ve found (maybe I’m missing something).

Durzlla.6295:

PS: I know it sounds like i disagree with all your points, which i don’t, i just disagree with a lot of your solutions and a lot of your reasonings as to why traits are bad.

That’s fine with me. I actually learned a few things from your post that I didn’t know (e.g. what makes enlargement good). It’s also never a bad thing to have multiple suggestions about how to possibly fix traits that are lacking.

I guess I can understand your point about not wanting traps to be ground target but I’m just so used to them being ground target I throw them at my feet if that’s where I want them.

Your suggestion to swap traps and signets would definitely make sense. Given that signets are best in a power/crit build and traps would at least get condition duration there (which is the only thing that helps frost trap).

No one has any other traits they think or useless or wants to explain how I’m wrong about one of these traits?

This is the kind of thing we need to do if we want to see real changes to the ranger traits. Lay it out for Anet what exactly isn’t working, why it isn’t working and what can be done to fix it. If you have an idea for a new trait to fill one of the (many) gaps that would be created by my suggestions that’s something too.

I know traits are a complicated issue but a little bit of brainstorming never hurt.

Wilderness Survival
Healer’s Celerity – I just can’t ever think of a build where I actually want this. Swiftness on rez just isn’t useful. Swiftness is a great boon for some situations but after rezzing someone you probably don’t care about it one way or another.
Solution (?)
Change it to Vigor, Regen, Protection, or even fury or might to make up for the lost dps from rezzing. Just not Swiftness.

Hide in Plain Sight – I wish I could like this trait. It sounds so good on paper but it just doesn’t work out well. The biggest problem is the stealth effect is short lived so odds are you aren’t going to get to move anywhere before it wears off. Anyone who knows about this ability (in WvW or PvP) is going to know exactly where you are so it won’t help you at all in most situations since most attacks don’t need a target. A Bullrush -> Hundred Blades warrior doesn’t care if he can see you or not, you’re getting hit anyway. I’ve run across rangers using this in WvW and I just don’t care. I just use some attack that works fine without a target on the spot I know they are standing.
Solution (?)
Either ranger stealth needs to be fleshed out and more full-featured (even defensively), add a small teleport (even 100 ranger would be enough) or just scrap it (maybe in favour of the above mentioned Trap Potency?).

Nature Magic I’m not going to even touch the spirit related traits because until the spirit utilities aren’t so problematic the traits for them are irrelevant and may as well be replaced

Circle of Life – There’s nothing really wrong with this trait it’s just horribly out-shined by other options that are available. You shouldn’t be traiting to making dying less painful. You should be traiting to die less.
Solution (?)
If this was changed to also trigger when rezzing someone it might be worth taking.

Two-Handed Training – Also nothing really wrong with this trait but it feels weird being in Nature Magic and 5% isn’t really much. This trait line is used for either better healing/regen or spirits and both of those already take all your traits so there’s never really a build you want to take this for.
Solution (?)
It’s needs something more to be worth anything. I would suggest just scrapping it and adding the effect of it to Martial Mastery in Wilderness Survival making a single trait.

Enlargement – I’ve read some people like this trait but personally I find it pretty bad. If I’m at 25% health I don’t really care if my pet does more damage and has stability. That isn’t going to help me in 90% of situations since I can’t reliably use my pet’s new found strength for anything. I’m still screwed.
Solution (?)
I’d just scrap it but making it effect the ranger as well wouldn’t be terrible. Though that would be effectively painting a target on yourself when you hit 25% health. (“Oh, the ranger got bigger he’s almost dead time to focus fire”)

Evasive Purity – This trait makes me cry. I played with it in beta when it was actually worth a kitten though. This trait is seriously useless. It has no place as a Grandmaster trait and it really has no place in any build at all.
Solution (?)
Return it to it’s former glory (probably OP) or just get rid of it altogether and put in a grandmaster trait people might actually use.

Beast Mastery
Master’s Bond – Wonderful concept and great at lower levels but complete garbage for any sort of content aimed at 80s. I hate to beat a dead horse but here are the problems,
1) It directly conflicts with Zephyr’s Speed making one of the 2 traits useless
2) It resets on pet swap and pet swapping is almost required to keep pets alive
3) It resets when you go in the water
Solution (?)
Make it a buff that is shared between all pets that only resets if a pet dies (any pet dies and the stack resets) but as long as your pet never dies any pet you use benefits from the stacks. This way Ranger’s can actually go in and out of water or swap pets with losing the stacks.

Rending Attacks, Stability Training, Intimidation Training, and Vigorous Training – These traits just feel entirely too restrictive forcing you to either use a limited set of pets or have a useless trait 50% of the time.
Solution (?)
Merge these 4 traits in to a single trait called “Advanced Training” or something.

Instinctual Bond – This just isn’t helpful. It might be if it overlapped with Lick Wounds but the CD on Lick Wounds and the duration of Instinctual Bond ensure that never happens. It is not worthy of being a Grandmaster Trait either.
Solution (?)
Just scrap it entirely or bump it down to a master level trait at least.

It seems fairly well accepted on this sub-forum that ranger traits need work. So in the interest of being constructive I thought I’d outline what traits I think need to most work and why. Also some suggestions about what can be done to fix it.

Marksmanship
Opening Strike – 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds on the first attack when entering combat.

This one has always bothered me. It seems like a good idea in theory but in practice I find it severely lacking. On it’s own (only 5 points in MS) it’s actually pretty terrible. Against a single target 5% more damage for 5 seconds is either 1) pointless because the enemy is weak, or 2) Useless because it’s a hard enemy and 5% for 5 seconds is nothing (champs and such). Against a group of enemies it only effects one target so overall it is also completely useless.

The 15 point trait that gives it to your pet as well really doesn’t change anything. It’s still pretty bad.

At 25 you get auto-crit on opening strikes but that really isn’t that useful either. Sure a free crit to start a fight is nice but for a 25 point minor it’s BAD. Also without +crit damage crits really aren’t a huge DPS boost and if you’ve put enough into +crit% to make it worthwhile you’ve either got ~50% crit rate or you’re an idiot. With a 50% crit rate a free crit is really not useful.

The last part of this whole Opening Strike debacle is Remorseless (Regain Opening Strikes when you kill a for). This slightly improves OS but let’s be honest, the situations where you really want OS to be constantly reapplied things aren’t dying constantly. Situations like a hard boss fight in a dungeon/fractal, sPvP, or WvW there isn’t constant deaths and if there is you probably don’t really need 5% more damage for 5 seconds against a single target.

Solution (?)
What I would like to see is this:
5 points – You and your pet gain Opening Strike.
15 points – Opening Strikes always crit (Should probably be more than just a free crit but not sure what)
25 points – Regain Opening Strikes on weapon swap This is really the big thing for me. There needs to be a way to easily and reliably reapply that 5 stacks of vulnerability during the long drawn out fights you actually want it for.
Remorseless – Gone. Just get rid of it and make a new trait.

Skirmishing
Sharpened Edges – This needs to be either scrapped or improved. 1 stack of bleeding for 1 second is garbage and in any group setting can be VERY detrimental. If an enemy is floating around the 25 bleed stack cap and you apply a 1 second bleed 0.5 seconds before a necro tries to apply a nice 5+ second bleed you may have just screwed the group out of 4 seconds of bleeding.
Solution (?)
Scrap it or make the bleed 3+ seconds minimum.

Trapper’s Defense – Does anyone actually use this? I just don’t see why anyone would take this over other traits in this line.
Solution (?)
Scrap it.

Companion’s Might – This needs some serious work. 1 stack of might for 1 second to your pet on a critical hit is not worth taking. Might is great but a 1 second duration on your pet is terrible. Pets only attack every 2-3 seconds as it is so the odds of your pet actually attacking in that 1 second duration is only ~33% in the first place. When you then consider the odds of the pet actually hitting the target it gets even worse.
Solution (?)
Just increase the duration of the might stack to 3 seconds so that there’s at least a reasonable change the pet will hit something while the might stack is active.

Trapper’s Expertise and Trap Potency – The trouble with these traits is tied to the trouble with traps. Without at least Trapper’s Expertise traps are garbage. There’s also the matter of why they are in Skirmishing in the first place. Instead of beating a dead horse I’ll just propose solutions.
Solution (?)
1) Remove Trapper’s Expertise entirely and make traps ground target by default.
2) (new) Trap Potency – Traps recharge 20% faster, are 50% larger and conditions last twice as long.
3) Move Trap Potency to a Master level trait in Wilderness Survival.

Moment of Clarity – This trait seems great on paper and out of context. The problem is the Ranger’s severe lack of stuns and dazes and other interrupts. It’s just not worth taking with the Ranger’s current skill set especially since it doesn’t apply to interrupts done by pets.
Solution (?)
Scrap it entirely unless the Ranger is getting more ways to interrupt, especially more stuns and dazes to make it a worthwhile Grandmaster Trait.

My opinion on this is pretty simple (and all from a PvE/WvW perspective):

If you’re using traps and NOT using Trapper’s Expertise you’re an idiot. Traps without ground target are just… bad, and the 50% larger AoE is almost mandatory too. They come as a package though so it doesn’t really matter which is the “must have” and which is the “nice to have.”

Trap Potency on the other hand is decent but it just doesn’t seem to quite work right in the ‘double duration of conditions’ part. I’m not sure if it’s the conditions are just so short to begin with it doesn’t matter, the durations don’t stack and/or reset with each application, or it just doesn’t work at all. All I know is the only part I actually notice is the 20% shorter CD and I barely notice that to be honest.

Quickdraw tends to fall in the same category as Potency for me. There’s just other things I find more valuable. Shortbow skills are highly situational and so I very rarely actually care about using them 20% more frequently especially since it hurts DPS to do it. Longbow it might be better but I just don’t like using a longbow for longer than it takes weapon swap to finish its CD.

So, if I had to take 2/3 it would probably be both trap traits because I probably just wouldn’t be using a bow (Axe/off-hand and one of the swords instead). But if I was dead set on using Longbow (not Shortbow) I might drop Potency for Quickdraw.

Budchgon.2108:

Just leveled a warrior and checked the prices for gear … wow!!!
Full set of berzerker exotic 18-20 gold! then there is the cost of runes/sigils etc…

The gold sellers looking very tempting …

Believe it or not when people hit 80 for the first time back around launch we didn’t jump straight in to full exotics. It took a week or so to get it all together. There’s no good reason you should ding 80 and get to put on full exotics, nor is there a reason you need to. Also, 18-20 gold really isn’t that bad.

But if you’re considering ‘buying gold’ just do the right thing and buy gems to convert to gold. It would cost you ~$20 at current prices which I know is higher than gold sellers but at least that way you’re supporting the people who made the game instead of some kitten who problem hacked someone’s account or stole a credit card.

Skybreaker.3264:

Brangien.7462:

---

#2
Every tick removes one condition (every 3.5 secondish)
also HUGE

Why does every tick removes a condition?

Because that’s just what Healing Spring does. Every time it applies regeneration (every 3 or 3.5 seconds or w/e it is) it also removes 1 condition.

I really don’t think server mergers would be a good idea at this time. The main problem is not so much a ‘dead server’ as it is ‘Why the heck would anyone not doing map completion or story on an alt go to Fireheart Rise?’ (edit: or CoF)

The blog post today basically said their plans for the next few months is getting people out of fractals, dungeons, and LA and back out in the world, and out in ALL zones not just Orr.

At least wait and see how that turns out. More people on the same server who have no reason to ever go to Fireheart Rise isn’t going to make Fireheart Rise more populated.

LinseyMurdock.4165:

Lionguard Lyns will be returning in the end of January build without the Black Lion Keys in her inventory. She will then remain up for everyone to liquidate their Commendations and will likely be leaving entirely after about a month.

I won’t lie and say I’m not disappointed by the lack of keys, but I understand it.

My only hope is that Lyns has something to replace them that is in some way useful/stackable enough for those of use with 30k+ commendations. The salvage kits and tools are great and all but the amount of them you can buy with 30k+ commendations is a bit… extreme.

P.S. I fully acknowledge my, and others, awkward situation of having 30k+ unspent commendations and potentially nothing to spend them on is our own fault for speculating. It doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to hope for something.

I ran across a Ranger using this the other day and it was kind of annoying but it’s actually fairly simple to interrupt the pet who is healing the ranger and/or just kill it putting the pet rez on CD.

People are just too obsessed with killing the ranger and they ignore the pet.

This isn’t new. It’s always been the case that your pet takes 1-2 seconds to acquire a target and another indefinite amount of time to get to the target if it’s a melee pet.

If you’re ranged and using a melee pet the 2 seconds of quickness is totally useless for your pet. If you’re melee and using a melee pet it might actually use 1 second of that quickness.

This doesn’t even get into the fact that sigils may not be applied to a swapped in pet for up to 10 seconds, the general dps loss from a swapped in pet running to the target, or the fact that a swapped in pet can/will miss it’s F2 a lot of times because it will seldom appear facing the target but will leap/breath/whatever in the direction it’s facing if you don’t wait the 1-2 seconds for it to acquire a target. There’s other issues connected with pet swapping as well like lost boons/RaO/Master’s Bond stacks but none of this is new.

I’ve seen nothing about a major ranger rework actually happening. Although many people, myself included, are really hoping for one.

I’m also not sure why February. The next likely candidate for balance changes is the end of January update since Anet seems to do balance changes once a month with the major monthly updates. There’s still no reason to believe it will be anything more than what we’ve got the last few months though since Anet prefers the iterative approach.

We we’re told there would “substantial changes” to the ranger class though but that was back in October (?) and then we got the Aquaman changes so I wouldn’t put much faith in that anymore.

I’m not completely sure I agree it wouldn’t be OP but I would certainly LOVE this change.

Healing Spring + 1,300 Healing Power + Greatsword + Appropriate Traits would result in ridiculous amounts of healing between the leap and blast finishers.

Possibly Mesmer but I don’t think any profession has really ‘changed’ that much. Just which builds work ‘the best’ has changed. (Unless you go back to BWE1, then there’s been some pretty massive changes since then but you said launch and beta was beta after all.)

You’re very unlikely to ever see massive changes to any profession in a few months. That’s just not the way Anet does things generally. It’s lots of little changes over a long period of time.

StevesDad.8213:

Bastionhawk.7120:

The name Ranger isn’t indicative of being ranged.

Best contribution to the thread by far, thank you so much for this awesome post! I screenshotted it even

Considering how often the argument “Ranger, the word ‘RANGE’ is in the name” is used on this forum that actually IS a worthwhile contribution.

I’ve considered making similar posts explaining the etymology of the word and how it refers to policing an area (ranges/roams/travels around) and in this case “range” is more like “home on the range” rather than “pew pew at range.”

Traits are my main gripe at the moment. Although I consider the utilities problem to be more of a trait problem. Most of our utilities require traits to be good instead of traits making good utilities better.

Also the fact that almost every trait line has a number of useless and/or superfluous traits in them (pet specific F2 boosting traits and Master’s Bond come to mind). The there’s the placement of traits in certain trees, like trap traits in the crit line.

More than anything I think the ranger is in need of a complete trait overhaul. somewhere between 1/2-3/4 of the traits are fine but the rest need to be condensed, thrown out completely, reworked to something better, and/or shuffled around (either up or down tiers or to different trait lines completely). But, that would require the ranger getting ~10-15 totally new traits that do something useful.

Arsenic Touch.7960:

Or you know we’re making a logical leap based on anet’s track record with taking away things that hurt their gem sales. Couldn’t be that. But keep whining about people whining, it shows a lot of character to sit here with a holier than thou attitude while doing exactly what you’re complaining about. Two thumbs up.

Ah yes. Because the dye changes during beta that made it so you can actually get more than one dye every 24 hours was clearly aimed at getting more money out of people.

And those new collectible tabs that suddenly freed up dozens of bank slots for people are obviously intended to make people use more gems on storage. The aledged dungeon token collectibles tab is obiously aimed at that too,

Speaking of dungeon tokens, you remember when they made them account bound so you didn’t need a different stack of tears for very character. They obviously were trying to make bank space harder to come by there too.

Oh and how could I forget the 5 character slots. I mean come on, 5 obviously they want people to buy character slots only giving people exactly enough to have one of every race and 1 more than necessry to have all the crafts! Those money grubbers just can’t give us a break.

/endsarcasm

Not worth it anymore.

I have one I was using and either I didn’t notice for a month and a half or they just fixed some bug with the sound. It plays a sound of a chain saw starting up on almost every action you take (including dodging) but it never stays running so every 3-5 seconds it plays the sound again.

It’s like Quip’s slightly less annoying big brother.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wintersday/Lionguard-Lyns-sure-is-taking-a-while/

That’s the most anyonr knows unless Anet decides they want to share more (unlikely at this time).

3,127

I only really care about some achievements because they provide a check list of things like jumping puzzles and open world mini dungeons. Spent some time chasing both of those sets because it was stuff I hadn’t done.

I’ve also salvaged a fair amount of crated rares into ectos for profit at various times which pushed my point total way up.

I just have a hard time caring but something which doesn’t mean anything. Anyone could hit 15k achievement points if they were willing to salvage a lot.

Look what you did!

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24335

It always kind of amazes me how little threads like this can effect the market.

I am inclined to believe this material will be useful for something eventually. As Vol pointd out Anet seems inclined to ‘manipulate’ the market by introducing/modifying recipes. It wouldn’t surprise me too much to see these used for future ascended gear in increments of 50-250. Of course if that happens these would shoot up to 50+ silver each pretty quick. Then again it might never happen and they just sit at under a silver forever.

- There was a problem with a DR bug in the wintersday events causing people to get less cogs.
- Some people were ACTUALLY cheated out of getting their 2 minis.
- Anet came up with a solution so people were NOT cheated.
- You got EXTRA stuff you were never supposed to get because of Anet’s solution.
- You come on here whining you got unexpected freebies too late.

…. /facepalm

Edt: For what it’s worth I have 5 minis, 5 tonics, and 450 spare cogs. I just realize I was NEVER SUPPOSED TO GET THE SPARE 450 COGS. I got them because Anet was trying to make it right for others (yes, there are other people in the world).

kiwiburner.2186

36, 000 commendations? I am interested – how did they become so prevalent so quickly? Something to do with wintersday items?

Kinda a shame if that’s the case because anet would need to consider their massive inflation before reintroducing Lyns… which would slow things down.

The Snowflake jewelry. Before they fixed it it cost ~60-70 silver to make an exotic earring (1 ecto, 12 ori ore, 1 snowflake), the crahed price of ectos helped a lot here. So for around 1.8 to 2 gold you could get 2,000 commendations. At normal exotic trinket prices it’ more like 6 gold or 2,000 commendations. Sofor 36,000 I spent ~36 gold instead of 108+ gold like it would cost with normal priced exotic trinkets.

I’m taking a big gamble that I’ll ever have use for that many commendations but I decided to risk it. The opportunity to get commendations for rougly 10 copper each has passed already and was only realy available to people who had donatio packaging from before Wintersday started (I actually made a mistake and bought way to many a while ag). It’s back up to the prices from before wintersday whenver Lyns comes back though.

Anet has been silent on this issue in spite of many threads. Usually when they don’t talk it means 1) People are freaking out over something that isn’t a problem long term they just don’t have information about the future, or 2) They are working to fix it.

That said I thought of what I thought would be a pretty good solution for all involved (including Anet). Introduce a new MF recipe:

Sunreva.8714:

Took like 10 attempts form me to get the griffin.

Figure if you throw 4 of these into the forge, the percentage chance to get the endless toy tonic (a 50g item) should be pretty hard. If it was higher then the cost for glue and stuffing would be 10x what it is now.

People are reporting they have gotten the tonic by tossing 4 of the other endless ones into the forge. Should be like 5% or something, which is fair. It’s a gamble, be prepared to lose, but hope to win.

You’ve got your cause/effect backwards. The price of the mats is determined by the supply and demand (currently demand is finite, supply isn’t). The price of created things is determined by the price of the mats used to create it (with any RNG factored it, worse odds spike prices and better odds drop prices).

So if everyone could use a mat which is plentiful and of limited use to produce their very own Endless Toymaker Tonic easily then less people would by them and/or the market would be flooded. End result, the price of Endless Toymaker Tonics crashes and stuffing and glue remains about where it is now and eventually crashes as well because no one needs it anymore but more is still entering the market.

I had a thought about this issue today when I was talking to someone who was confused about the recipe. He thought the recipe for the tonics was:

And this is why the obsessive thread merging is a problem… There used to be a nice thread about how you should NEVER put 4 tonics in the MF because it seems to give back the one you didn’t put in with a (allegedly, no proof I’ve seen) small chance of getting a Dolyak or Toymakers Tonic.

Unfortunately that information is now buried in this thread and not obvious until page 3 and then the “conversation” is scattered:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wintersday/Endless-Wintersday-Tonics-Thread/page/3

But there used to be a thread called “PSA: Don’t put 4 tonics in the forge” or some such and another one that was also labelled something that might catch the attention of people considering this.

I’m sorry you are another victim of this stupid, stupid MF recipe. I only hope they make it possible to get more than one frame so those who are inclined can get the tonics again. Though I’d prefer they just change the recipe to give Endless Toymaker’s Tonic and find a way to compensate those affected by this.

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

I’m thinking maybe Toy Toxx?

This is highly unlikely.

Given the fact that every single mini has a spot in the collectibles tab and there is no mini there that it isn’t known exactly how to get it I wouldn’t dare risk putting these minis in the forge.

It’s almost guaranteed to be just the usual 4 mini recipe that gives some random mini back with a chance at a higher rarity. Since these ones are Masterwork and cost ~7.5g because of gem prices you’d be gambling away 30g with the best possible return being a rare mini worth ~7.5g at best on the TP.

Raebfle.5914:

If you put your Snowman, Golem and Infinarium (All acquired from the Wintersday Box in the BLTC Gem Store) with 50 magical stuffing,. you get the Baby Quaggan Mini I believe.

This is mostly correct. You just need any 3 minis from those 3. It could be 3 snowmen, or 3 golems, or 2 golems and an infinarium. Just has to be 3 minis of those ones. The Toy minis from Tixx dungeons don’t work.

Da Poolp.6809:

Unspecified.9142:

- Entangle: Immoblize for varying amounts of time (stupid people get it for a long time)

Not only “stupid people”, roots can’t be damage by the foe’s ranged weapons. So if you don’t have a “melee” weapon, or AOE, you’re not able to break it.

You can actually walk/dodge out of it a lot of the time because there’s about a 0.1 second gap in the immobilize applications. Condition duration might solve this I’m not sure, but by default you can just walk out a little bit at a time. (This seriously needs to be fixed but it has been this way since beta)

I don’t think legendaries should be able to be sold in the first place so that part of your argument means very little to me. It’s kind of pathetic to call it a legendary and claim they show a person has played a lot as Anet has when someone can just BUY one with real money their first day playing.

Also considering dungeons are already the fastest and easiest way to make money without messing around on the TP constantly I have little sympathy for you wanting to make MORE money at dungeons. You just can’t make the kind of money you do in dungeons from general PvE or WvW so I hardly think it needs another bump in profitability.

Otherwise, I am inclined to agree ascended items should not be soul bound/account bound but the rest of it should be. They are things you should have to earn by actually playing the game.

All wintersday minis are account bound, both the ones from frames and the ones from the gem store boxes.

It’s rather irritating to say the least.

I also generally prefer to just use Canines for the knockdown (better than immobilize) and cripple, plus immobilize on Drakehound, Fear on Wolf, and Chill on Arctic Wolf if you want it (and these are AoE).

Immobilize and cripple aren’t particularly special on a ranger either. Without pets we have:

- Spike Trap: Immobilize and Cripple. (Immobilize isn’t on the tooltip but it happens)
- Muddy Terrain: Immobilize and Cripple.
- Entangle: Immoblize for varying amounts of time (stupid people get it for a long time)
- Crippling Shot: Cripple
- Crippling Talon: More cripple
- Crippling Throw: Yup, cripple
- Kick (sword 1): Still more cripple

Also worth mentioning is Chill since it is superior to Cripple in every way:
- Winter’s Bite
- Frost Trap

If you like 2 spiders though and it works for you, then just roll with it. It seems most rangers are all about bears, bows and Rampage as One. I run Greatsword and axe/horn with traps specced 0/25/30/0/15 and Arctic Wolf and Wolf as pets and I use Entangle for an elite. Works great for me in PvE and WvW and my opponents almost never move full speed.

It really depends on how she plays her ranger and how you want to play those professions which is a better fit. Really you can make any combo work if you want it to.

If she likes to hang back and pew-pew with bows then I would go with warrior, guardian, a bunker style d/d elementalist, or a greatsword (or sword) ranger. It’s really very helpful to have a player that is melee based but 2 ranged works just fine. Pets don’t hold aggro so well later on and especially if she likes the shortbow having someone else up in the enemies face so she can flank is a big bonus.

If on the other hand she likes to smash faces in melee range then you might be better off with something like a staff elementalist or a thief.

When it comes to combo fields/finishers the ranger is really good and laying down fields if trap specced, no traps means almost no fields (Healing Spring, Flame Trap, Frost Trap). Finishers are almost exclusively projectile (which are pretty bad tbh) with the exception of a few leap finishers and a whirl.

I would just pick which one you have the most fun with and then figure out what works for you two.