Guild Wars 2

The fact that there is a skill that can be cast from 1500+ range away and fairly reliably deal 6-10k damage depending on your target IS NOT balance.

The fact that longbow can deal more upfront damage at 1500+ range than any of the ranger’s melee weaponsets can at 10 range IS NOT balance.

If you want to tell me I’m wrong, queue for PvP before you do, and replace your LB with either a GS or S/D, change your traits to suit, and tell me how your match went.

I feel disgusting just looking at the longbow in my inventory. How you guys can use it in PvP and think that it is ‘fine’ or takes skill to play is beyond me.

I’d like to join and rep occasionally while roaming, but I can’t meet any rep requirements whatsoever.

I also won’t xfer.

If that’s cool, invite me:

Vendetta.1958
Beastlord Veypor
Blackgate
I’m a WvW roamer and sPvPer

I personally think that rapid fire and LRS need to be toned down slightly, and other weaponsets need to be incentivized. My greatsword autoattack does less damage than a ‘close range’ LRS, which is dumb.

Things like GS auto, maul, counterattack, whirling defence, axe auto and Sword auto need to have their coefficients raised, so that more rangers put away the longbow, and can run a >1000 range build without feeling like a wet noodle in comparison to other classes.

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.

I can guarantee you that Stalker’s Strike is affected by OHT. It converts the skill from a spin on the spot to something roughly equivalent to a thief’s flanking strike.

The Crippling Talon baseline buff is good I guess though. Was that mentioned in the update post? I don’t recall.

I agree that the poison uptime was pretty nuts, and I’m glad they toned that down. I just don’t understand why they would make Ambidexterity such a condition based trait and not carry over a great utility like the range increase. The 150 condition damage is completely wasted on power builds that want to run S/D with a CD reduction. (Which alot of Rangers prefer over greatsword in my experience)

I had hoped it would be made baseline also, seeing as almost every other longbow trait was made baseline, and that weapon is already is an extremely powerful place as is.

(From a PvP perspective)

I have some serious reservations about the coming balance patch, but none more so than the future of melee Rangers’ offhand weapons.

While OH axe can hit like a semi-trailer with Path of Scars, Whirling defense is far too situational due to it’s self-immobilize and the lackluster damage it deals, which kinda spoils the weapon IMO.

Offhand dagger is taking a considerable nerf in the next patch when applied to the context of a non-longbow power build.

As Stalker’s Strike stands now, the poison is nice to counter a heal, and the damage is poor, but it really shines when paired with the Offhand Mastery trait, which makes it a nice short range gap-closer, which can make tactical use of poison to counter a heal, as opposed to a slow and predictable pirouette the skill is without it.

I fear that the new evolution of Offhand Mastery – Ambidexterity – will relegate offhand dagger to a strictly condition-based weapon, due to the removal of Stalker Strike’s range increase option, thus making the skill mediocre on any spec that does not stack condition damage to benefit from the physical poison damage.

This could have flow-on effects to sword’s viability in a PvP scenario, as the options for our offensive Offhand weapons are arguably fairly mediocre.

How many of you guys use Offhand Mastery, and who will miss the range increase come Tuesday?

Lazze.9870:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

2. LoYF: Agree, it is utterly useless right now because SB skills don’t really need a CD reductio.

LOYF makes the shortbow pierce aswell. I thought someone should mention it.

Just change the trait back to what it was or add movement speed to it. That would be fine.

Even if they added a constant 5% damage & duration while moving in addition to the on dodge stuff we will have Tuesday would be cool.

We would still have to actively proc it to get the additional +5% duration and +5% damage, but when actively using it, you reach the +10% of both the original trait had, but only for short periods after dodge rolls, and while moving.

Plenty of counterplay, (hard/soft CC and damage or condi suppression after a dodge) and also plenty of tactical ways to take advantage of it actively. (eg: dodge through a melee, about face, poison volley, keep moving through.)

It would also lend itself to the philosophy of both the Skirm line and the trait itself, what with constantly moving and out-maneuvering your adversary, employing quick attacks.

That would be a worthy GM to compete with Quick Draw, and pave the way for some inventive shortbow builds.

This is an excellent post.

I don’t see how Invigorating Bond would ever be a good trait. Unless it healed for like 4-5k base.

I would have preferred it if Bark Skin was left as it was and ported into Nature Magic, or even better, keep Wilderness Knowledge (SotF) in Nature Magic and Bark Skin in Wilderness Survival as it is right now.

Or, just up the damage on it. ATM we do less damage that a warrior’s offhand axe spin skill, and they aren’t rooted during it.

I would be happy to stay still if the people that close to auto-attack me with melee are actually punished for coming near me, as opposed to the ~2k damage in total it dishes out.

I was pretty dissapointed by the LOYF nerf from when it was first revealed.

It’s first iteration seemed to pave the way for hybrid/power shortbow builds, which could really open up some interesting builds, and as someone that PvP’s with Zerk shortbow, I was cheering.
As it is about to be implemented, you’re exactly right that Quick Draw almost completely surpasses it.

I am actually a bit disappointed with what we’re getting on Tuesday as far as balance. With some of the cooler and more diverse GM’s nerfed into triviality before the update is pushed, all of our condition clears stacked into a single condi-oriented traitline (which will now be mandatory for any serious PvP build) and the loss of Offhand Mastery’s range increase to make Stalker’s Strike an excellent skill, it seems to me that we’re being pigeon-holed into the already meta faceroll survival build, or the low-risk high-reward Longbow life.

Successful solo roaming in T1 is possible, but resilience is key. Many new transfers come here and apply the same playstyle they learned in lower tiers.

You will get blobbed down frequently if you choose to come here – it is inevitable. But each time you learn, and apply a different tactic next time.

Soloing here is hard. I love it because of the challenge. You quickly learn how to 1vX, and how to evade larger groups. All that is required is an open mindset and a willingness to learn.

As for server choice, I would echo either JQ or TC. Especially so because you have friends on JQ.

Best of luck.

Buttercup.5871:

Vendetta.1958:

To be fair, the actual pass does become account bound on activation.

AH!!!!

Beloved terrace, here I come! I’ll get 20 weeks worth of passes I think. I hope they’ll have come up with a permanent solution by then.

I have bought another four weeks in the hope that Anet will read this thread and take action. However, I won’t be redeeming them or buying more until the system’s flaws are fixed.

I love the Terrace too, and would have no problems paying for access every fortnight, but this very obvious and annoying flaw ruins the item for me.

To be fair, the actual pass does become account bound on activation.

My complaint is that the character needs to literally have the activated access pass in it’s hand in order to access the Terrace. If you spawn a character in there, even if the pass is in your inventory, you get booted out anyway. Which isn’t so bad, as a quick double click will allow you in.

However, should you not have the activated pass on the character you spawn in on, you must travel to a place with a bank (defeating the purpose of paying for the terrace) and withdraw the pass from your bank, then return to be permitted access.

This means that every time I want to swap characters during a WvW session, I have to log out to character select, log back in on the toon with the pass, deposit the pass, log onto another character, be booted out of the terrace where I parked it, go to the bank that I would have used without the pass, withdraw the thing, and then finally enter the Terrace.

I would totally buy a ton of these if the system was reworked to just ‘unlock’ the terrace area for my characters for the allotted two weeks, meaning being able to spawn into the Terrace without being kicked out, and to be able to come and go without the silly pass.

My point is, for an item that boasts in it’s description ‘the ultimate convenience’ it sure is a pain for those of us that play more than one character.

I purchased a pass to see if it was worth stocking up on before it leaves the store, and the Terrace is perfect for what I need. I am an exclusive WvW player, and I want to use the Terrace as a base to load in to, and to return to at the end of a session to craft and mystic forge stuff without lag and awful load times. I do not really have a main, and swap between my five characters every few hours.

The only thing stopping me from stocking up on passes is the very annoying fact that you need to have an active pass on a character in order to access the area with that character.

This really defeats the purpose of the pass, as I have to load into a zone with a bank in order to retrieve the pass for a given character, then go through another loading screen to reach the terrace. The only other alternative (as far as I’m aware) is to have five passes running at the same time, which amounts to 1500 gems.

I believe that activating a pass should unlock access to the terrace on all of your characters, without having to juggle the pass between your characters, or spend ridiculous amounts of gems on passes that run parallel to each other.

Failing this, Anet should place a bank merchant directly outside of the Terrace, so characters can withdraw the pass without having to travel to Minister’s WP to grab it and then jog back.

I love the convenience of this gem-store item, but the inconvenience for those of us that want to enjoy the Terrace on all of our characters spoils what would be a very nice luxury item.

renmei.3102:

kaedric.2308:

With an even population the lower tier servers would still get crushed. Stop running zerker gear, learn to fight together and cover each other’s weaknesses. Learn how to defend towers, keeps, and camps. Come to a T1 server and see the huge difference in play style.

There is a lot of truth to this post. The idea that lower tier servers don’t/can’t zerg with the same numbers as the T1 servers is kinda a myth, just not across all 4 maps. The population diff is real, so usually they give up on the 2 enemy BLs and pull back into their home BL and maybe their EB corner where they blob it up with numbers equal to or greater than ours. The problem is that an 80 players zerg of zerker longbow/bear-pet rangers, flamethrower/nade engis and other non-synergetic builds and classes just melt on contact. I think that more mismatched matchups will have lower tier servers adapting and the blowout will be much smaller.. I hope.

As a former commander of a T5 server before I transferred in February, this is very true. We were a very dedicated PvE server, and most Zerglings were zerkers. Once my guild and I joined JQ, the synergy that more team based builds allow was obvious.

Pinko.2076:

Vendetta.1958:

kerona.3465:

Vendetta.1958:

You can do it! I know you can!

Used to play against you guys before I joined JQ, you can all fight well, you just need to persevere! (And use lots AC’s)

The difference between us and tier 2, the MAJOR difference and why we are NOT tier 2, is that we have no SEA population (just insomniac college students and a few Aussies). If we can get 20 ppl together on a map when Bony is not on during Oceanic times, we’re succeeding.

The definition of success is determined by individuals’ goals and circumstances.

You may not be able to beat us this week, but you awesome people can all log on and hold the line, and it’s still likely that you’ll all end up with some evolution points to increase your rankings for your efforts. (and some lootbags too. :P)

That’s a success.

Just trying to tell you guys not to give up and have a PvE week before you’ve given it a go is all.

If your idea of fun is losing sleep to sit on siege to watch a digital number go up, then I don’t know what to tell you. You and Mag are on different wavelengths.

I probably won’t be poopsocking to try and hold off 50 guys with 5~

No need to get hostile.

Perhaps a defeatist attitude may be the reason why you have 5 people? – I don’t know, I have never fought for Maguuma, I don’t know the situation. I’m sorry for trying to help.

I like a good fight in WvW, and PvDooring isn’t very fun, so I’m encouraging Maguumans to try their best. If you want to sit the week out, that’s fine, not JQ’s problem.

I do hope that you can find some enjoyment this week in WvW.

Escthiil.3210:

JQ’s PVP guild should rename themselves to ZVP (Zerg VS. Player). Chasing down 1 player with over 10 people from North to South must have given you quite a sense of accomplishment that you will reject my party invite. I guess shame still works its fair bit of work on you in that aspect.

I believe they’re called People Versus Person, so I guess they were just acting out their guild’s advertised purpose? :P

kerona.3465:

Vendetta.1958:

You can do it! I know you can!

Used to play against you guys before I joined JQ, you can all fight well, you just need to persevere! (And use lots AC’s)

The difference between us and tier 2, the MAJOR difference and why we are NOT tier 2, is that we have no SEA population (just insomniac college students and a few Aussies). If we can get 20 ppl together on a map when Bony is not on during Oceanic times, we’re succeeding.

The definition of success is determined by individuals’ goals and circumstances.

You may not be able to beat us this week, but you awesome people can all log on and hold the line, and it’s still likely that you’ll all end up with some evolution points to increase your rankings for your efforts. (and some lootbags too. :P)

That’s a success.

Just trying to tell you guys not to give up and have a PvE week before you’ve given it a go is all.

kerona.3465:

Vendetta.1958:

(you can fight us and succeed in SEA, don’t take the week off!)

Brought a tear to my eye to be quite honest.

You can do it! I know you can!

Used to play against you guys before I joined JQ, you can all fight well, you just need to persevere! (And use lots AC’s)

Ah! My good friends from Maguuma! I thought our T2 holiday was over.

Looking forward to logging on tonight. (you can fight us and succeed in SEA, don’t take the week off!)

And we got lucky enough to play with FA again! Keep up the good fights you guys.

As always, good luck to you all!

Ah, this should be interesting.

I’m kind of glad we don’t have to fight BG again this week. (Sorry CuddleStrike!)

I enjoyed the last match-up we had with DB, this one should be even better.

Good luck to all!

A score update, and the HUGE force JQ had on BGBL this afternoon.

Quick score update: