Guild Wars 2

Just playing around in the editor, not sure what you’re talking about – condi druid looks pretty viable to me.

> Should solar beam cause burn?

No, staff should be a pure healing weapon.

I agree, very well done to Irenio on both elite specs.

Druid is exactly what Ranger needed, and while there is still some tweaks needed, I am very happy with what we got, and optimistic for the future of the profession.

ShadowKain.9410:

Vendetta.1958:

I’m a straight PvP player / WvW roamer. Druid is precisely what we needed in our profession toolset.

We always lacked meaningful team support/utility, and now we have it.

Druid has some bugs, and some skills that aren’t perfect (vine surge, unity glyph) but this is a step forward for our profession, and I think that it is a very well thought out elite spec.

I see alot of people complaining that druid is too support-ey and lacks damage. I understand where those people are coming from, but as Irenio said, if you’re looking for heavy offense, you probably shouldn’t be running the Druid spec.

Elite specs are supposed to open up new combat options and playstyles for that class (see druid, scrapper and dragonhunter) not be flat out upgrades to the class (see reaper and herald)

This is constantly re-hashed on the forums, however, take a look at turnout for the Elite Specs. Player favorites are Revenant, Reaper, Daredevil, and Tempest.

Of these, Revenant is its own class, and therefore irrelevant in the Elite Spec “purpose” discussion. Reaper is not a new combat option/playstyle for the Necromancer. Thematically, Necromancers have always been aggressive and already have two weapon sets designed for up-close combat. Even since GW1, Necromancer was a favorite among melee classes and other damage-dealers for it’s dark magic damage and life-stealing ability. Reaper is not a new playstyle, it is an expansion on the class and it’s already existing capabilities. Daredevil is almost entirely dodge-mechanic focused, again expanding on the pre-existing playstyle of the Thief class. Tempest is a PBAoE Elementalist with animation flair, but more-or-less the same in regards to overall playstyle.

The rest of the Elite specializations are either largely marginalized and considered relatively mediocre, or polarizing in nature, such as the Druid – which ham-handedly forces an entirely new playstyle on the Ranger that has virtually zero synergy with the other trait lines. With a small minority loving it, a small (but larger than the first) crowd that absolutely hates it, and a majority that are ambivalent but agree the class needs re-working.

At it’s announcement, Anet made it a point to mention Druid early alongside HoT, making it clear that the Druid would be plant-based, not Celestial with only one plant-based skill, the vine attack from the trailer, a re-skinned Earth Ele Eruption, and a terrible pustule plant proc.

Returning the Druid to what it had been announced as, and turning it into a truly plant-based spec that enhances and expands the class as a whole (like the other specs) is what Rangers desperately need.

Save the Celestial mechanics for a future class, because I am genuinely a fan of the Celestial theme and skills. Just not for use on a Ranger Spec – they do not fit.

There’s a ton of fluff in that post.

I predicted exactly what Druid would be 4 months ago, with the only clues being that it was called ‘Druid’ and wielded a staff, simply by looking at our core traitlines and asking myself what we are missing.

Again, as my original post quite clearly stated – elite specs are not supposed to ‘fit’ the stereotypical gameplay of the class. They are supposed to, as you quite aptly put it, expand.

I’m a straight PvP player / WvW roamer. Druid is precisely what we needed in our profession toolset.

We always lacked meaningful team support/utility, and now we have it.

Druid has some bugs, and some skills that aren’t perfect (vine surge, unity glyph) but this is a step forward for our profession, and I think that it is a very well thought out elite spec.

I see alot of people complaining that druid is too support-ey and lacks damage. I understand where those people are coming from, but as Irenio said, if you’re looking for heavy offense, you probably shouldn’t be running the Druid spec.

Elite specs are supposed to open up new combat options and playstyles for that class (see druid, scrapper and dragonhunter) not be flat out upgrades to the class (see reaper and herald)

Healing from Water and Renewal sigils do not build astral force.

lifts ale jug a big cheers to Irenio!

Not only did he provide precisely what we as a profession require – an avenue for team support that isn’t a joke, he did so in such a way that completely revolutionizes our potential build diversity.

I hope we get to keep him!

Five players or less

How much OCX small scale is there in tier 2?

Zapperx.1649:

The bird is OP because of the way taunt works with its F2. It is very hard to avoid it because the bird will get in your face to use slash so it is low risk for the ranger because all he has to do is press F2 and the bird will follow the target and get within unavoidable taunt range where as all the other pets will stop and use the F2 when it is sort of close. The fact is that taut is kind of broken with the bird just go test it with target dummies. ie. stand with it at your side and press F2 then try it with every other animal.

Yeah I agree, I think taunt + bird is broken, but not because of the bird. Taunt on F2 should have a 30 sec ICD, and its competing traits brought up to par.

I’ll be the first person to point out that a ranger mechanic is OP, but IMO, bird F2 is fine as it is for the following reasons:

1. With the exception of longbow, ranger weapons have lower damage coefficients than their counterpart sets for other professions, due to them being nerfed after release to compensate for the damage their pets are supposed to output.

2. Bears/Drakes/Devourers are not good pets. Their F2 is either on a ridiculous channel time that will never hit (Drake) have massive cooldowns for underwhelming skills and deal no damage (Bear) or have straight up gimmick F2’s (Devourer)

If one of these two points are addressed, then it would be fine to Nerf bird F2s

Tl:dr: Bird F2 is very strong, but all the other pets are garbage, (except dogs) so nerfing bird is a terrible idea until the other pets are made viable.

Zerk shortbow is viable.

I have run zerk SB as my main build since January.

It’s a different animal to other weaponsets, and requires practice to perfect. Remember, all of your arrows do the same upfront damage, it’s a matter of using the correct arrow for the situation.

Of course, sitting at 2k range auto attacking with longbow will do more damage, but I prefer to work for my kills and not rely on a gimmick weaponset.

I think you mean beastgate

nacario.9417:

Vendetta.1958:

Puck.9612:

Vendetta.1958:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Vendetta.1958:

If I’m being honest, Beastly Warden should probably be on a much higher CD than it is. It’s extremely OP in the current state.

Well, at least we get one thing, then.

Well, two, if you include how trivially easy it is to be a devastating force on the field with longbow.

I sorta liked being the underdog i.e. March last year.

In all seriousness, nerf the BW and buff the bad GMs like the Nature Magic heal on F2 so we can have some nice build diversity.

Or maybe for once rangers can just get buffs without seeing something else nerfed. A 15 second cooldown that relies on the pets crappy AI and pathing doesn’t seem nerf worthy to me. It’s a strong trait but there are plenty of situations where zephyr’s is better to take in its place.

Well, pet AI argument is wrong, if you’re pressing F2 when your pet isn’t in BW range you should l2p rather than blame it on poor AI. 8/10 times a bird/dog/cat will be in range, and if not, press F1 and wait or cripple/immob the enemy and then press F2.

Being able to spam an unblockable CC that locks you out of the targeting system every fifteen seconds is extremely overpowered.

How is 15 second ICD regarded as a “spam”? It doesnt work in Your favor trying to justify something by using bold inaccurate words. BW isnt the holy grail that will save your entire team, but it is a strong and reliable CC for the ranger. All classes have nice things, and ranger is far from the top.

13% uptime (without factoring in +% duration) from a single trait on a CC that forces your enemy to retarget and move away from you is spam.

Wildfang.3271:

Vendetta.1958:

Solandri.9640:

Vendetta.1958:

Being able to spam an unblockable CC that locks you out of the targeting system every fifteen seconds is extremely overpowered.

Out of curiosity, doesn’t stealth do the same thing – unblockable and locks you out of everyone’s targeting instead of just players nearby?

Stealth does not:
- Stop you from evading
- Stop you from using AOE skills to counter stealth
- Prevent you from re-positioning
- Fully lock you out of the targeting system (you can attack a secondary target until stealth ends)
- Have a single trait that grants almost guaranteed access to stealth every 15 seconds

Stealth does:
- Force the user to stop attacking if they wish to remain in stealth

Taunt does:
- Stop you from evading
- Stop you from using ANY skill other than stunbreaks (Even though it’s GG for Judges Intervention)
- Prevent you from re-positioning
- Fully lock you out of the targeting system (you can’t attack a secondary target until taunt ends)
- Have a single trait that grants almost guaranteed access to stealth every 15 seconds
- Have increased duration with +% condi duration.

Taunt does not:
- Force the user to stop attacking if they wish to keep the enemy locked down

You also conveniently forgot to say that one can cleanse or stunbreak out of taunt. And that it is useless against enemies that have stability on. And that some professions still can reposition themselves after being hit with taunt using teleport skills like elementalist’s lightning flash, mesmer’s blink and thief’s shadow step. Furthermore, what was the point of comparing a CC skill with a damage prevention skill? Because I totally don’t see the connection. You are better off comparing it with fear but the CD for DS fear is just slightly more than taunt and can be traited to be closer to 15 secs as well. So if taunt is considered spammable, so is fear. And seeing that revenant’s taunt also work the same way as in forcing the victim to switch targets and lock it unless being stunbreak/cleanse, I would say that it is intentional by ANET devs. The only thing which is likely bugged is the taunt going through evades.

> Furthermore, what was the point of comparing a CC skill with a damage prevention skill?

Good point. I was referring to the poster above if you’ll read my post properly.

> You also conveniently forgot to say that one can cleanse or stunbreak out of taunt.

Yeah that’s true. Which stunbreak do you use that comes up every fifteen seconds? I’d like to put it on my bar. Cleansing Taunt requires you to have a passive cleanse which is pure RNG if it works, or an ally to clean for you.

> You are better off comparing it with fear but the CD for DS fear is just slightly more than taunt and can be traited to be closer to 15 secs as well.

So a cornerstone of the Necro playstyle – fear – is a justification for us to have an afterthought trait that comes out of nowhere in terms of class theme, and for us to have that taunt on a shorter CD than Necro, and to be able to theoretically deliver that taunt at up to 1200 range? Wow.

> And seeing that revenant’s taunt also work the same way as in forcing the victim to switch targets and lock it unless being stunbreak/cleanse, I would say that it is intentional by ANET devs.

Yeah definitely. That isn’t the argument here. What is being argued is the fact that this mechanic is on a fifteen second cooldown.

Soilder.3607:

Vendetta.1958:

If I’m being honest, Beastly Warden should probably be on a much higher CD than it is. It’s extremely OP in the current state.

Taunt revolves around the pet. Pets are unreliable. You can make taunt more effective by, say, swapping in a pet within melee range of an enemy and immediately pressing f2. This will guarantee taunt to hit if your opponent if he hasn’t dodged. But that type of play is on you and shows your skill instead of good A.I behavior. Pets can still die; pet swap recharge still goes on a 48 or 60 second cooldown. When that happens, you lose access to a grandmaster skill for the entire duration. For this reason, taunt should be strong.

If your pet dies, you have done something wrong.

EG: If I see an ele dropping Ring Of Fire, I immediately call my pet back so he doesn’t fry himself. If I need to in a fight, I will drop a Troll Unguent to keep my pet alive if he’s low and my swap isn’t up.

If you think ANet should balance pets for rangers who play sloppily and get their pets murdered, then I’m not entirely sure what to say to you.

Puck.9612:

Solandri.9640:

Vendetta.1958:

Being able to spam an unblockable CC that locks you out of the targeting system every fifteen seconds is extremely overpowered.

Out of curiosity, doesn’t stealth do the same thing – unblockable and locks you out of everyone’s targeting instead of just players nearby?

Necro has several unblockable ways to fear players….

So can I spec my Necro with a single trait to have a single unblockable fear skill every 15 seconds?

I probably could if I rotated three or four different fear skills correctly, but that’s because fear is a distinct feature of the Necromancer class. Taunt is not a feature of the ranger class, BW seems more like an afterthought than anything.

If it were on a 30 or 45 second cooldown, you guys would still take it, because taunt is still extremely strong.

Zera.8907:

Vendetta.1958:

If I’m being honest, Beastly Warden should probably be on a much higher CD than it is. It’s extremely OP in the current state.

What is this madness? No, just……NO! We’re barely being kept afloat, we’re still the black sheep in many aspects of this game and you want to take away one of the very, very few tools we have that makes us unique. Why? There are so many more out of whack things that need to be toned down instead of BW.

Why?

Because I don’t think our class needs to be carried by a gimmick. It’s the same thing as longbow.

They have given us BW and LBow which are extremely strong, and now we won’t readily get buffs to stuff that would be really cool and promote build diversity like MDG, LoyF, Invigorating bond etc because we’re made competitive because of one or two broken features of the class.

Solandri.9640:

Vendetta.1958:

Being able to spam an unblockable CC that locks you out of the targeting system every fifteen seconds is extremely overpowered.

Out of curiosity, doesn’t stealth do the same thing – unblockable and locks you out of everyone’s targeting instead of just players nearby?

Stealth does not:
- Stop you from evading
- Stop you from using AOE skills to counter stealth
- Prevent you from re-positioning
- Fully lock you out of the targeting system (you can attack a secondary target until stealth ends)
- Have a single trait that grants almost guaranteed access to stealth every 15 seconds

Stealth does:
- Force the user to stop attacking if they wish to remain in stealth

Taunt does:
- Stop you from evading
- Stop you from using ANY skill other than stunbreaks (Even though it’s GG for Judges Intervention)
- Prevent you from re-positioning
- Fully lock you out of the targeting system (you can’t attack a secondary target until taunt ends)
- Have a single trait that grants almost guaranteed access to stealth every 15 seconds
- Have increased duration with +% condi duration.

Taunt does not:
- Force the user to stop attacking if they wish to keep the enemy locked down

Dolt.2731:

if warden is op then what does that make mesmer’s mantra of distraction?

Also, is anyone else running blood/ air sigils? I’m really liking it.

Mantra of distraction is also broken.

Puck.9612:

Vendetta.1958:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Vendetta.1958:

If I’m being honest, Beastly Warden should probably be on a much higher CD than it is. It’s extremely OP in the current state.

Well, at least we get one thing, then.

Well, two, if you include how trivially easy it is to be a devastating force on the field with longbow.

I sorta liked being the underdog i.e. March last year.

In all seriousness, nerf the BW and buff the bad GMs like the Nature Magic heal on F2 so we can have some nice build diversity.

Or maybe for once rangers can just get buffs without seeing something else nerfed. A 15 second cooldown that relies on the pets crappy AI and pathing doesn’t seem nerf worthy to me. It’s a strong trait but there are plenty of situations where zephyr’s is better to take in its place.

Well, pet AI argument is wrong, if you’re pressing F2 when your pet isn’t in BW range you should l2p rather than blame it on poor AI. 8/10 times a bird/dog/cat will be in range, and if not, press F1 and wait or cripple/immob the enemy and then press F2.

Being able to spam an unblockable CC that locks you out of the targeting system every fifteen seconds is extremely overpowered.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Vendetta.1958:

If I’m being honest, Beastly Warden should probably be on a much higher CD than it is. It’s extremely OP in the current state.

Well, at least we get one thing, then.

Well, two, if you include how trivially easy it is to be a devastating force on the field with longbow.

I sorta liked being the underdog i.e. March last year.

In all seriousness, nerf the BW and buff the bad GMs like the Nature Magic heal on F2 so we can have some nice build diversity.

This doesn’t sound all that exciting for roaming guilds, seeing as most of our fights are against pugs these days anyway, but I’ll try and turn up to listen in.

If I’m being honest, Beastly Warden should probably be on a much higher CD than it is. It’s extremely OP in the current state.

Most of the stuff on that list would make ranger, especially Condi, extremely overpowered

True, but Necro sceptre does pretty much no physical damage. Ranger SBow with cele/zerk can physically hit for a decent amount to be viable for both those stat combos

Hey guys.

This regards the Ranger Grandmaster trait “Light On Your Feet”. I put this in the ranger bugs thread, thought I’d share this here as well to raise community awareness and get a fix:

As you can clearly see, the “Light On Your Feet” buff for +% damage and condition duration only lasts for THREE SECONDS whereas the trait is advertised as four.

Before you reply, the 1s that is missing is definitely not because the icon appears late.

To test that hypothesis, I used earth runes and the ‘Lingering Magic’ trait in the Nature Magic tree to make the on-dodge protection off ’Companion’s Defense’ (minor Master trait in Wilderness Survival) last for 3 seconds. The icon for ‘Light On Your Feet’ and the protection boon appear at the same time, and vanish at the same time, which means that LOYF definitely only lasts for 3 seconds, assuming they proc in the same way.

bump for buff duration fix

The entire point of shortbow is to use the five abilities on your bar at the opportune moment, as they all deal the same damage. That is, unless you’re running some dumb faceroll Condi build. In which case, if you lose, you should probs reroll to a cele DD ele or something.

As I said, 80% of you insist that the only source of damage is the bleeds, and you’re straight up wrong.

Shortbow imo has the highest skill cap of all ranger weaponsets.

The fact that 80% of you insist that it is a condition weapon is laughable, and demonstrates that you have not fully experimented with the weapon.

Leave shortbow as is.

Bump for Duration fix

BUMP

LOYF got nerfed, but not fixed!

Maybe, but I doubt it. Companions’ defense doesn’t have that problem, not sure why LOYF would.

I was in the OS for like 30 mins doing this with a stopwatch, and consistently got around 3 seconds per.

Hey guys.

I posted this in another “Light On Your Feet” thread, and put it in the ranger bugs thread on the bug forum, thought I’d share this here as well to raise community awareness and get a fix:

As you can clearly see, the “Light On Your Feet” buff for +% damage and condition duration only lasts for THREE SECONDS whereas the trait is advertised as four.

LOYF is considered by most as a niche grandmaster at best, and even on some shortbow builds, it’s competitor, quick draw, is still preferred. I personally like the trait, but with this bug, it’s not all it could be. I hope this is addressed soon.

Bump for LOYF fix

I use LOYF, but on a zerk sbow build. The +10% damage is nice, and the pair of nice sbow traits it comes paired with seal the deal for me.

I only wish they’d fix the bugged duration.

If they are going to buff the GS autoattack, why not mainhand sword? Our sword auto is clunky as, and requires we basically stand still to cast ‘kick’, yet on a full zerk spec I still do less damage than the much more user friendly thief sword auto.

Bump for LOYF fix

Here’s a video of the bug in action. It is clearly three seconds of buff only.

Here’s a video of the bug, it is clearly not four seconds. I did this for about 45 minutes tonight with a stopwatch out, and the buff definitely only lasts 3 seconds after a dodge roll.

Light On Your Feet only gives 3 seconds of the effect, rather than the advertised 4.

I’ll upload a video in a few hours of it, the timer starts at 2 seconds, so including the 0 second tick, it’s only up for a total of three seconds per dodge roll.

Dagger 4 needs the range back. +1

Veypa Windclaw
Blackgate
WvW/sPvP

Invite pls

Bump, fix pls anet

Skill is bugged as well and only gives 3s of the effect. Anet fix pls.

So yeah, just tested, it only lasts 3 seconds. Starts on 2, so including 0, we get a total of 3 seconds of up-time.

I like this trait, but we’re getting pretty badly ripped off here.

Hahahahahahaahahahaha

I very much hope that LOYF isn’t bugged

Tragic Positive.9356:

I don’t really find it that harsh.

We got Quick Draw that will provide you with 2 evades instead of one. And for that – the range abuse might as well got tuned down.
I don’t see a problem with this change. Daggers will still be a viable choice for many builds – especially the ones that focus on evades. And you don’t need Ambidexterity if you intend to focus on power evade specs. Quick Draw will buff that role just fine.

Problem with that is I don’t want to run Quick Draw. I want to run LOYF, because my favorite unconventional build is zerk shortbow, which I am concerned is being indirectly nerfed by changes such this, and the WS line’s new condi centric focus.

If you assume everyone will be running Quick Draw your argument makes sense, but telling everyone to take a whole GM trait to compensate for dagger being unnecessarily pigeonholed (as far as we can tell) into the condition weapon bucket isn’t really a great workaround.

LughLongArm.5460:

Vendetta.1958:

LughLongArm.5460:

Frigoris.7853:

LoYF should be a shortbow defining trait.
Personally i don’t care about piercing arrows, with such short range we won’t hit much else, it only works well for longbow because of their massive range.
Having given it some thought heres what i think would make LoYF a viable option that could compete with quickdraw.

Reduce SB skill CD 20%
Increase movement speed in combat 25% when wielding SB and gain 3sec of swiftness and vigor after succesful evades while wielding SB
Conditions applied while flanking last 20% longer

Poison master needs a rework for sure, but it may be worth waiting until we experience the new condi stacking to ask for changes. Once we’ve tried them out we’ll know exactly what to be asking for.

Your idea for SB is just terrible, why would i want vigor and swiftness? swiftness is cheap for ranger, you can c it everywhere. You have a minor on this trait line that gives 9sec swftness on 9sec CD. Vigor got nerfed is close to trash now, also you have trait that can give close to 100% vigor uptime. The movment speed is just a waste(c explanation on prema swiftnees). Piercing arrows is a must, cant c how you dont want it. LOYF should stay the same with just litle change – replace “dodge” with evade, make it stackble, give it cap of like 4-6 stacking – done.

That would be cool. I still think the damage should be upped a bit. 5% isn’t a great buff, but I would use it if I could proc it whenever I used quick shot/serpents strike.

5% for both damage and condi duration is quite high for a stackble buff. If it will be on evade, you find yourself many times evade several attacks with one evade ability, aslo this buff is workign with every weapon and not just the SB(GS evade on AA for example). Keep it at 5%, make it on evade, I dont think its even needs a cap, rarly u’ll get it buff you for more than 20% for 4 sec.

Oh you mean stackable intensity. I was thinking just stackable duration.

Eh, I’d prefer it to be +10% damage for 5s after an evade and stacks duration. That would stop me from Lightning Reflexing through an enemy zerg and pulling a 20k maul on some poor soul in the back :P

Tragic Positive.9356:

Wilderness Knowledge – not really too strong. It just has the best potential. Conditions that can be cleansed on demand and can “stack” up to 10 condi cleanse in a few seconds? Definitely better than EB. But EB provides more Condi Transfer per second assuming the cooldown on your abilities.

Quick Draw – yes. Definitely too good for other traits to compete. The thing is – this trait is the only trait that might make us viable and the only trait that will make the ranger more fun.

I think with stackable burning and poison, on demand clears will be better than paced automatic clears. Condi burst builds with 3k armor will soon be a thing, I’m afraid.

Also I don’t quick draw is too strong, rather that it’s competition is quite frankly crap.

Traits like Remorseless and Quick Draw will be build defining traits, like static discharge for engis, or fresh air for eles. It’s just a shame that they watered down cool things like LOYF and put SotF in Wilderness Survival, as they could have been the same thing.