Guild Wars 2

It’s good to take a break from this for awhile. I can empathize. Hope you do come back, it would at least mean those points you have listed were resolved (in some way). Cheers, ’til then.

Healing Bolts from Sublime Conversion are low probably due to it being a Water Field. Irenio may have tuned it this way. If it wasn’t a water field, sure, bump up the heal, but since it is one, the healing from projectiles converted are just a minor bonus.

Tether range on Unity should be higher. 600 seems right, as it’s the same as Necro’s Tainted Shackles.

Agreed. I would like Druid to hold the staff like a caster and not a melee brawler. Solar Beam is giving me issues. Even with max settings, the beam often does not show up, and when it does, it’s a rather lackluster string of light.

The animation for it is also weird for any Druid that isn’t an Asura. All the rest of the skills are ace, though. Major kudos for the hippie, peace ‘n’ love wallflower.

Also #AsuraDruidMasterRace

Chokolata.1870:

-snip-

Would take all of these fixes.

/signed & approved.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I made #1 a cone because a ground targeted AA is a terrible idea imo, I really hate Grenade kit for that but totally want to use it at the same time. I wish it worked like it does underwater, above water.

Fair enough. As someone that also mains an Engineer, Cosmic Ray currently has makes me feel right at home. If they ever removed ground-targeting from Grenade Kit, I’d actually cry.

F5 -> Glyph of Tides -> Lunar Impact -> Natural Conversion -> F5 -> Glyph of Equality -> GS Maul -> Swap to Staff -> Entangle -> Ancestral Grace away -> Vine Surge.

illenos.5134:

Tagging is not a great issue while running with a group but Anet has to change the way you “contribute” to the battle. Putting a damage component on your heal skills is not a solution.

Agreed.

No thanks on the cone for Cosmic Ray. Increase the radius to 180 and it would be fine as 120 is too small. Lunar Impact daze duration would be fine at 2s or even at 3s with an increased cooldown of 8s. Poison is fine on #2.

Skill #4 is better served as a fire & forgot skill. It’s a water field and already has a high base amount of healing. It doesn’t need regeneration and that 1 stack of stability, though helpful, isn’t much. ½s cast time and let it pulse.

Not sure about adding torment to skill 5 – just seems like a random way to add more damage when that damage should be allocated elsewhere so CAF has a bit of damage spread out among its skill set instead of on a couple.

I tried to say during the reveal ¼% on damage was too low. Anyway, I’m game for Regeneration adding to Astral Force, but only on application.

Works for me.

/15char

This build is what I have been using for PVE for this Beta Event: Control Druid

I’ll note that Druid of any build will not be as effective in old-world PVE content, but in the new areas, I can actually see my contribution during events against enemies and bosses. Been able to crush break bars entirely or take out significant chucks to the point where it is noticeable, even in large scale events such as the Wyvern fight.

I like the Electric Wyvern’s F2, just not Wyverns in general. Been using Smokescale + Bristleback/Tiger.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

All good suggestions fellas, but the ground targeting? Uuuugh, not for me tyvm, I really like the PBAoE nature of them, although they need a bigger range.

Not sure if you’ve been able to log in to test these out yourself, but adding ground-targeting to some of them adds more benefits to them than simply increasing the range in practice.

Alignment and Tides are two that I can think off where being able to cast it at a range extends their utility and makes them much more flexible with different styles. A lot more. The other ones can remain PBAOEs.

Thanks for taking the time to read our feedback, Irenio.

Edited for grammar.

Works for me, but it’s not as quick to apply its effects as slotting the signet.

I wanted to post my build, but I’m a dedicated control Druid. =/

Still a lack of synergy in the trait lines. Some improvements to traits, but small ones.

Not liking these suggestions. I’d rather opt for some of the Glyphs to be ground-targeted and unifying their radius to 360 with Tides. Only ones I agree with is a self stun-break on the normal version of Equality and extending the condition durations of Alignment.

More powerful than the old ones? Hardly. New pets suffer from the same issues as the old ones, with the difference of a few of the new pets’ F2 commands being tuned as a “step in the right direction” from my stand point.

Take a look at the Tiger’s F2. It has a base 10sec cooldown and gives allies Fury within a 240 radius where it lands. Other felines that have pouncing abilities are on a 30sec cooldown. That said, I would like to see the old pets looked at and have cooldowns reduced to some degree for higher usage.

Then we have F2 commands of the Wyverns. The Wyverns themselves are horrible pets but their F2 abilities are nice and instant. The Electric Wyvern has an instant F2 command that I would like to see applied to old pets (as you mentioned) as well.

On a side note, I really wish they would turn the Jungle Stalker’s “Mighty Roar” just like the Tiger’s Pounce. No more 3s animation doing no DPS. Just a straight up, hard 2-hit combo pounce that grants allies Might would improve it so much.

Daharahj.1325:

First thing I noticed- You lose all your celestial “shroud” bar when leaving early. May I know the reasoning behind it?

Probably to avoid having a cooldown placed on it.

Druid idle animation for staff is so… eh. It’s like wielding a hammer when it should be a staff.

Also, the Druid auto attack depends on race. Only the Asura do the auto attack right, all the other races hold the staff up above their head oddly. The Asura point it forward and fire from the hip like a boss.

Yes projectile combos will apply regen to allies that pass through it. During the Wyvern boss event in Verdant Brink, I often lay Staff 5 on top of the people within melee range of it so they can get regen from finishers.

Pretty nifty toy so far.

You think that’s bad. If only Wyverns could be used in PVP. From my experience so far in open-world.

• Wyvern does 2s channel 1-2 punch combo.
• Enemy moves out of range and the 1st punch of the auto attack misses.
• Wyvern remains in the same spot continuing the auto attack and punches air.
• Wyvern readjusts its body position before moving on.

I’ve stopped using Wyverns completely in PVE. Could only imagine how bad they are chasing actual players.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I figured a light field would be good, so the projectiles that come in to heal also combo and give regeneration.

Water fields give regen, not light fields. Light fields cleanse conditions with projectile finishers. Staff 5 is a water field as mentioned. Pretty good where it’s at.

Rinse.6094:

Not even the removal of the rooting effect on Axe #5?
That is also a real big one if you would ask me..

Sure. Change the animation to Whirling Axe and have it move. I’m fine with that. There was so many proposals I was bound to overlook something.

Only things I can agree with:

• CD reduction on Sharpening Stone & Quickening Zephyr
• Shortbow auto attack applying bleed on hit & shortbow 3 being a possible leap.

That’s literally it.

Made this prediction at the reveal. A daze duration reduction on Lunar Impact down to 2s or the cooldown would be increased to 8-10s are the most-likely outcomes. Wouldn’t surprise me though if both measures were taken.

Nice to hear and good afternoon!

Mcrocha.3891:

It’s actually a 20s cd (assuming BM wasn’t slotted, which it does not appear to be so from the trait review) as seen on the video reveal which could be 16s with BM line so it could be up pretty frequently.

Yes, I had to re-watch the footage out of curiosity. It seems Irenio had Marksmanship, Skirmishing, and Druid trait lines slotted throughout the stream: Even better that the base duration is 20s. >:)

Interesting. I’d possibly like this alternative. It’s more guaranteed and does benefit others when some allies may be at full health.

I’ll give a +1 to this.

Giving this another bump so finding our pets in the menu is not as difficult as finding them in the open-world. (obvious stretch)

mistsim.2748:

I don’t want to do that. but I’m just saying a smoke field on a 25s cd is very, very strong, given how many blast and leap finishers we have.

Really? Compared to Thief or an Engineer…

…Really…

Puck.9612:

What exactly happened to the 3 years worth of suggestions that have been posted in this forum already? Why should we believe that “they are really listening this time”?

I want to think that they are listening (this time). Back then, there were no forum specialist reading, reporting, and communicating directly with Anet staff. Irenio is also new (to our knowledge) on the balance team.

Take that for what it is, but usually, new people have fresh ideas. Also, take note that there are a few developers that are no longer with Anet that, I felt, held the game back more than push it forward.

Jonathan Sharp is no longer present, and he is noted for being against adding more class mechanic keys and keybinds because he feared things would become “too complicated” for the players. Now, we have a keybind for toggling pet aggression and other classes have gained an additional class mechanic button.

Jon Peters is no longer with the company, so the unbalanced “balance” is a presence that will not be missed. One that seemed to turn-the-cheek to flawed design and simply told the player base to “L2P.” Let’s not forget that sword is working as intended and there are no plans of that changing.

That said, maybe I’m being naive. I’m certainly salty through 3 years of Ranger “balance” that led me to take a 1-year hiatus from the game. However, I’m going to put some faith in Irenio. The guy has shown with both the Ranger and Engineer (the two classes I play the most) that he has ideas, creativity, and initiative.

Seriously, we haven’t had a developer openly say that he plays a Ranger since Robert Hrouda. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Irenio gave us Quickdraw. Just think about what impact and direction he could have on the class if given more control.

mistsim.2748:

and the smokescale’s smoke field would be huge for us. I certainly hope we can interact with that field. now that you mention it though, this sounds a bit too good to be true because it would give us an insane amount of stealth. one idea would be to simply give it a long CD, maybe 1 min.

Why would you want to increase the CD of the Smokescale’s F2 when it’s on par in both duration and cooldown with the other utilities that provide a smoke field? It’s a 5-sec field on a 25-sec cooldown.

Yes, that’s the presentation. It’s an interesting piece to watch, even if one may not have too much interest in it. Highly recommended for every Ranger to watch since it will (possibly) impact us the most.

mistsim.2748:

look at the new pets. they were beautifully designed, and all 4 will be immensely useful. now to your point, they need to go back to the old pets and give them that same

Beautiful, yes. Beautifully designed, not really. Take a look at the footage again when they showcased the new pets. There are obvious issues with them that hinder them when you look past the flash.

HERE were my concerns on them that was also posted in the Druid feedback. Not sure if Irenio read it, but it apparently went over most peoples’ heads because they can’t get over being able to charm dragons.

To add on allowing more controls on pets and their skills, I would like to suggest the following (as it does not include overhauls).

• “Attack My Target” & “Return To Me” are keybind options.
• F1 & F3 are replaced with the other pet skills.

QoL stuff that would further augment pets and management.

• Stow/Activate Pet keybind option.
• Visible Pet Boons & Conditions on our UI.
• An organized selection panel. (shameless self-plug – see signature)
• More pets that can cleave.
• Foods and other consumables to also affect the pet.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

They should just make Hunters Call a cut/paste of the Mad king (6) bonus imo. Would be a massive improvement.

Either that or the other thing I’d like to see is it remain single target, but add a 1/2s blind per strike on it for burst shutdown utility.

Right? Literally both of those and Hunter’s Call would be SO much better. Though, I would really like it if Windborne Notes improved HC in some way as well. Even if it adds that regen to it.

I digress here, but traits like Windborne Notes & Honed Axes that affect/improve only one of a weapon’s skill set bother me because so much more potential is just left untouched.

There was a presentation about improving the AI. It should transfer over to our Pets, but at the same time, I wouldn’t want an exact copy since Ranger pets have access to skills the AI does not have and vice-versa.

We’ll see though. If I can see pets like the Bristleback run away back to 1200 range when an enemy closes in and drops an AOE on top of him, I would probably get a stroke from the shock.

Zenith.7301:

If only they were as quick to hotfix mainhand sword not locking you out of dodging

That seems to be tied to the range attached to 1b and 1c. It’s just a hunch on my part after observing how Moa form works and other physical skills with range that exceed 170.

I honestly don’t think there is a hot-fix for main-hand sword the way it’s coded to allow dodges while retaining its current behavior. There are alternatives, but those seem to cause more controversy to the minority that like sword the way it is.

IE: Reduce the range to 130-150 on 1b & 1c; Convert the entire auto attack chain to a standard sword chain; code 1b & 1c to output coned strikes so the attacks can retain the range at the cost of the player not leaping towards the direction/target (think Lightning Whip on Elementalist main-hand dagger – 300 range).

Again, all speculation.

Edited to add more.

Indeed, boon stripping doesn’t have a theme attached to it. Apparently, the class is either given it or not. As you pointed out, it doesn’t make “thematic sense” on thieves, either.

Bountiful Theft for example, so a thief can steal boons/enchantments? Okay. If that flies, then I guess they can add some boon strip to a trait to have pets remove boons from foes, or have a specific weapon remove boons.

Going back to your suggestion of Hunter’s Call, I guess that would be the odd-one-out since it hits multiple times. I know this sounds like a shot to the devs (it’s not), but they probably don’t know how to approach adding triggers to multi-hit attacks without getting into further complications.

Do they attach it to the first hit? The first strike that lands? Does it happen at set intervals? Does the intervals start on cast or when the first strike lands? A bit different than just laying down a static field that automatically pulse an effect.

Probably attach boon strip to something simpler. A trait, a shout, or weapon skill (that isn’t multi-hit). Either/or and even all of the above.

Usually when I see “piercing” I envision a very narrow lane (arrow piercing) vs the standard wide-cone cleave, thus why I disagreed before.

Last I recall, Monarch’s Leap does the same damage as the 1c, final auto chain. I’d be up for increasing the damage, even doubling it.

Wasn’t sure about your Serpent’s Strike suggestion either. “Spray” is a different way of saying “cleave” for sure.

mistsim.2748:

necros are masters of condis, yet they get to strip and convert boons.

Necros are masters of condition manipulation which is why they have such a vast amount of boon strip and corruption.

Disagree with these suggestions. Besides the auto attack being able to be broken to evade, sword 2 and 3 need minor tweaks overall.

• Kick on 1b auto attack chain needs to cleave. Either strike 2 or up to 3 targets. It’s limiting and also flawed when an Ascalonian Ranger (NPC enemy) can do a roundhouse kick and strike up to 3 players but player Ranger can only hit 1 target.
• Hornet’s Sting needs to have the cast time removed. Plain and simple. Hornet’s Sting & Monarch’s Leap also need to cleave up to 3 targets.
• Serpent’s Sting needs to cleave up to 3 targets. The skill is pretty nice for the evade and poison.

Sword is too focused on striking individual targets when the past update to daggers hit more. That (to me) is wrong.

Quincy.5490:

Barrage arrows are just a visual effect. It actually just pulses damage to the 5 enemies closest to the center. Would be awesome if barrage behaved similar to ele’s Meteor Shower though.

Agreed. It would be so nice to have each arrow have it’s own impact.

As for boon strip on Hunter’s Call, maybe. I kinda wish they would improve Hunter’s Call before adding anything. It’s kind of sad how the 6th bonus of a rune (Mad King) is better than Hunter’s Call since it can attack multiple foes instead of just one.

Okay, cool. Thanks for the quick replies!

Couldn’t find anything on this but when using Reaper Shroud underwater, will it have its own skills or will it be using the DS ones?

Hi, Irenio.

Zatoichi.1049:

Puck.9612:

Gnat.9405:

Bran.7425:

I think while Roy was the one to implement the change it was likely at Peters direction.
That being said the ranger community puts up with things a lot better than most of the other profession, even those most other profession get some warning and time to discuss changes instead of hasty knee-jerk reactions.

John Peters isn’t with ANet anymore.

Good riddance to bad rubbish

what happened?

Peters left to join another company around June. He hasn’t been at Anet for awhile.

Tried to say it before. Anet looks only at if it can be done or not. There is no care about whether it’s viable or not.

Next up on the slate: Daze durations, Moment of Clarity, and the Druid. Mark these words: More nerfs are coming, and it’s going to hit the Druid hardest and trickle further down affecting the core Ranger.