Guild Wars 2

Since the 2/22 patch, when Drakes are in melee range of their target, the AI does not perform Chomp or Tail Swipe when they are available.

Tested this out in the Special Forces Training area and all they do is perform their auto attack.

What is the Ventari build that can crank out 10k heals every 2s? Geez, that seems a bit ridiculous.

InsaneQR.7412:

Striders defense should give us something like 1 stack of might every time you evade an attack (not an evasive roll), most dangerous game should give less might stacks but beginning at 90%. Light on your feet should give you a stackable buff when you evade an attack that improves condi dmg and duration. The duration of the stack should be reasonably long so you can benefit from it.

Eh, I’d rather those traits have more synergy with other traits in Skirmishing. Like I have been suggesting for awhile on those traits:

• Strider’s Defense moved to Grandmaster and changed so we get a buff that lasts 2s whenever we apply vigor to ourselves that makes all weapon skills destroy projectiles. Keep the cooldown reduction and add a 10% damage modifier while wielding a sword to make up for the aftercasts introduced with the new sword animations.
• Most Dangerous Game moved to Master and changed to give 1 stack of Might (5s) every second we have vigor. We can then start having a synergy combo of Primal Reflexes -> Most Dangerous Game -> Strider’s Defense with vigor as a common thread.
• Light On Your Feet changed to simply add +10% condition damage when we have Swiftness. It would be flexible with many condition builds across all modes, and has synergy within Skirmishing with Tail Wind minor and Evasive Shot on shortbow.

If we can have those changes, then Sharpened Edges can stay right where it is, even though its current iteration and spot doesn’t really bother me. I just want better synergy in Skirmishing.

Karaha.3290:

How about add a knock down, if target is moving? (work in the same way like immobilize.)

Perhaps. Slipping on mud is a common occurrence anyway. How many people would take it though if it worked like Engineer’s Slick Shoes where it can knockdown a target for 2s only once, and still pulse cripple?

No to slow, though.

Chrury.4627:

So I guess my question is: if there was one trait in every tier that was the best, no argument, for condi, why would you run anything else? If you made sharpened edges baseline, wouldn’t that reduce build diversity?

Well, the the first question is better answered if Skirmishing traits – though solid – had a bit more self-synergy within itself.

Sharpened Edges being made baseline wouldn’t reduce build diversity not one bit. Not to mention, build diversity was drastically reduced with the new trait layout back in 2015.

Thanks for clearing that up. Perhaps place that response in the first post, as that was the piece I was missing as to the goal of your proposal, aside from personal curiosity.

I assume feedback would have to be realistic, or low-hanging fruit, based on past responses (or lack thereof) of Anet?

And yet, what does what you are intending to do accomplish? If there is proof that indicates that a pet adds little or much to the profession in comparison to other professions, where does it go from there?

I don’t see the point. I see the 2 questions you want people to pose, but at this late stage in the game: What does this accomplish or do other than affirm or disprove a personal suspicion?

You’re better off conducting your own tests, present your data, and see where it goes from there. Otherwise, you might as well doing something that presents data other players can use such as updating the DPS chart post-patch where Guild Wars Hub’s charts left off.

So, you want – as well as others to help you – do this just to affirm a suspicion you have?

It could be done and I can see why some would want it to. Though, I wouldn’t merge Tail Wind with Furious Grip.

Move the Swiftness into Primal Reflexes, then have “+10% critical hit chance on bleeding foes” as a new adept trait rather than a change to Hunter’s Tactics.

It would be a trait that would be able to benefit power and condition builds since it’s an increase to critical hit chance, and skirmishing would have a bleed on-crit minor.

Though, it wouldn’t surprise me if Hidden Barbs took a hit to like 25% if Anet made the change. Everything comes with a price.

Check my signature. Test results are all there and last I checked, still remain.

Why didn’t they just adjust the hit-boxes of enemies in PVE to have a universal radius rather than nerf Meteor Shower? Or would that make too much sense? :/

Chokolata.1870:

My biggest gripe is that it conflicts with trappers expertise. Those should complement each other not be either/or.

You know, for as much as people want to say that both traits should be a choice against each other, it was once planned to be able to take both. Unfortunately, Most Dangerous Game happened. Anyone remember that?

Jon Peters: “Hold on a second. I want this trait [Most Dangerous Game] to be a Grandmaster. Move the Trap trait [Trapper’s Expertise] down [Master to Adept] and make the Shortbow trait [Light On Your Feet] into a Master.”

Though, Strider’s Defense eventually was moved from Grandmaster to Master since Anet wanted to thematically keep both Bow traits as Grandmasters. Ah, fun times.

Eh, I’m okay with this change. It would be better to focus on the other skirmishing traits that can be a bit better with a bit of tweaks. Sharpened Edges is all right.

Nozdu.5971:

You are right, pets a crucial part of Rangers. Any idea to make them interesting with this e-spec ?

I’ll take a shot, as I like your ideas.

I’m fine with taking one or the other – it provides a meaningful choice. I just want the burning on Incendiary Powder to have a “(Single attacks can activate this trait more than once before recharging.)” like Necromancer’s Chilling Victory. That way, if I hit 5 people and 3 of them receive a critical strike, those 3 people are burned rather than just 1 foe.

Well, increased range on Pets is always worth celebrating. For Wyverns, the addition of reduced cast and aftercasts is a huge bonus, but only for PvE instances. Against players, Canines, Birds, and Smokescale are still the top melee oriented pets.

Canines now have competitive melee ranges with Smokescale, holding the second highest auto attack melee range (240) behind birds (300), and a faster Crippling Leap burst with added range.

Also, Birds have had all their damaging moves adjusted to 300 range, which means Owl and Raven F2 bursts are easier to hit on moving opponents since pre-patch the ranges were 130.

Probably more than you might have been looking for, but yeah, the Wyvern improvements won’t help them out when facing other players – and that’s kind of all right (for me). To each their own though, as I’m just happy they are finally effective somewhere.

I’m not experiencing that at all. However, there was a bug introduced from the final balance patch last year that dropped Mauls’ tool-tip damage by roughly 5% that was never fixed.

Haven’t been able to get 3.4k or above without Two-Handed Training on the setup I was testing this on.

I’d really like for Electric Wyvern to create a lightning trail combo field like Revenant’s Inspiring Reinforcement (Jalis) so it can be easier to setup.

Wing Buffet aftercast definitely needs a look, as it does remain idle after executing the move for about full second.

Pet changes were definitely the highlight of this patch, and there is always room for improvement.

Just a quick note here for PvE Rangers. Testing out Drake & Wyvern DPS on a stationary golem since the updates due to shorter cast times on skills. Here are the results (averages) with Beastmastery and 25 stacks of vulnerability on the golem. Sharpened Edges, Refined Toxins, and Companion’s Might were not slotted.

Drakes: 573 DPS
Wyverns: 1024 DPS
Felines: 1518 DPS

Even though neither Drakes or Wyverns apply vulnerability, the cap is easily reached anyway, and it was done for consistency since I had to run a Feline for comparison in the same conditions. I’m well aware it’s cleaving pets to a single target pet, but let me have my apples with oranges. :P

Note that the previous DPS of Wyverns conducted on Guild Wars Hub were done with the old Sharpened Edges (66% vs 33%), Refined Toxins, Companion’s Might, and a clean golem (no conditions). Following this setup, the new and old numbers for Wyverns are:

Old DPS: 424
New DPS: 986

That’s a 232.54% increase post-patch. Not bad, right? Wyverns definitely seem to be the better choice over Drakes as a cleaving Pet. They not only provide CC for break bars, but now have better DPS – approximately 178% better.

Hope this helps some of you out. Cheers!

+Note that F2 abilities were not used during either tests.

The Meteor Shower change for PVE is the harshest change among a mostly positive patch. I hope that ICD is reduced to 0.25-seconds (and soon) if they intend to keep it.

Greatsword and Pet changes are top-notch, but some things look out of place or odd.

• Increased damage to “Throw Torch” seems odd.
• Banners received an increase to 10 allies, as did Grace of the Land, but why not Spirits?
• The reduced cooldown for Lightning Reflexes and Spike Trap seems as though it can also be beneficial for PvE. Why wasn’t the reduction applied to that mode as well?

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel as though a few more stuff could’ve been squeezed in?

• Viper’s Nest target increase from 3 to 5 to match other traps.
• Predator’s Instinct having the cripple and ICD reduced in half for more access.
• “Guard!” and Glyphs to work underwater.

Just off the top of my head, or might those make it on the next balance patch?

So, the questions are directed towards any developer that happens to stumble upon this. Many thanks on the update to Pets. No sarcasm, as the improvements are ace. Onto the questions.

Questions for Developers

1) There was a note for the Smokescale that all the on-land attacks were increased from 130 to 200. The Smokescale has only one attack that was below the 200 range, yet, the auto attack has been 190 since Heart of Thorns: Was this intentional?

Also, if it was intentional to increase the auto attack range to 200, the auto attack range is still at the default 190.

2) Most on-land attacks for many Pets were increased to 200 range, with a few noted ones such as Canine’s Crippling Leap which was increased from 130 to 180. However, a few on-land Pet skills were left at default ranges.

The skills I’m referring to are:

• Moa’s “Peck” (auto attack) – 170 range
• Moa’s “Frenzied Attack” – 130 range
• Bear’s/Ursine’s “Bite” – 130 range
• Shark’s/Armor Fish’s “Bite” – 150 range
  (not on-land Pets, but couldn’t hurt to ask)

Were there any plans on also increasing these or are they to be left as is?

3) Last question: Any plans to update Moa’s “Harmonic Cry” and Wyvern’s “Wing Buffet” tool-tip to remove the range description? Both tool-tips now have a radius and range description, which can be confusing to (new) players.

Note for all Rangers:

All on-land range updates to Pets that can also be used underwater have also been affected by the change.

Cheers!

Happy Pets. Happy Ranger.

RANGER
The ranger will see a variety of changes during this update. Of particular note, we are reducing Grace of the Land’s damage bonus and reworking it so that it’s compatible with all Celestial Avatar abilities and affects ten allies around the druid. We hope this improves the value of a single druid in large-group scenarios.

Many pet attacks have had usability and movement enhancements in an effort to improve general damage against moving targets. The greatsword has had a couple of improvements for better damage and pet synergy. Finally, a few underused (and even some meta) utility skills have undergone general quality-of-life improvements.

[Weapons]

• Maul: This skill now grants an Attack of Opportunity to the ranger’s pet, causing its next attack to deal 50% more damage.
• Hilt Bash: This skill should now land more consistently when used at max range. This skill no longer grants a damage bonus to pets, but it will now refresh the greatsword’s Maul skill when striking an enemy.
• Throw Torch: The physical damage of this skill has been increased by 33%.

[Utilities]

• Sharpening Stone: The number of stacks that this skill applies has been increased from 6 to 10.
• Muddy Terrain: Immobilize duration applied by this skill has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Signet of the Wild: Fixed a bug that caused the ranger to be unblockable.
• Lightning Reflexes: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.
• Spike Trap: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.

[Traits]

• Sharpened Edges: The chance to bleed a target on critical hit has been reduced from 66% to 33%.
• Soften the Fall: Immobilize duration applied by this trait has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Grace of the Land: Damage per stack of this trait has been reduced from 3 to 2. The number of targets affected by this trait has been increased from 5 to 10.
• Natural Convergence: This skill will now provide Grace of the Land on every pulse when that trait is equipped.

[Pets]

Avian Pets:

• Updated on-land nonbasic attacks so that they more consistently hit enemies and can be executed from farther distances.

Canine Pets:

• Updated on-land basic attacks to more reliably hit enemies, with their executable attack range being increased from 130 to 240.
• Crippling Leap: Increased the attack range of this skill from 130 to 180. Also increased the reliability of this skill by increasing the movement speed and duration. This skill will now be affected by quickness.
• Brutal Charge: Reduced the warmup casting time by 0.5 seconds. This skill will now be affected by quickness.

Smokescale:

• Updated on-land basic attacks to move slightly toward the target when executing attacks on land. Increased the range at which the creature will attack from 130 to 200.
• Takedown: Updated this attack to have a slight movement toward the target. Reduced aftercast by 0.25 seconds. Increased the range at which the creature will attack from 130 to 240.

Wyvern Pets:

• Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target on each swing. Greatly increased the attack speed of this skill from 3.3 seconds to 2.2 seconds. Increased the range at which the creature will attack from 130 to 200.
• Tail Lash: Updated this attack to move farther toward the target when executing. Reduced the attack of this skill from 3.6 seconds to 1.2 seconds. Increased the range at which the creature will attack from 130 to 200.
• Wing Buffet: Reduced the initial casting time of this skill by 0.5 seconds. Increased the attack radius from 240 to 360.

Drake Pets:

• Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target when executing on land.
• Chomp: Updated this attack to move farther toward the target when executing on land.
• Tail Swipe: Increased the radius of this attack from 225 to 280. Greatly increased the attack speed of this skill.

Feline Pets:

• Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target when executing on land.
• Bite: Updated this attack to move farther toward the target on land and have a faster recovery once the skill has been executed.
• Maul: Updated this attack to move farther toward the target on land and have a faster recovery once the skill has been executed.

Moa Pets:

• Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target when executing on land.

Pig Pets:

• Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target when executing on land. Increased the attack range from 130 to 200.
• Maul: Updated this attack to move toward the target when used on land. Reduced the start-up and aftercast by around 0.5 seconds each.
• Brutal Charge: Reduced the start-up of this skill by 0.5 seconds. Reduced the aftercast by 0.5 seconds.

Bear (Ursine) Pets:

• Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target when executing on land.

The best we’re gonna get is…

Josh Davis.6015:

Looks to be fixed internally. Should go out with the next balance update.

Thanks!

…said 4 months ago. Unless they forget to add it or it remains bugged in today’s patch.

SOURCE

Agree with what Insane wrote.

@OGDeadHead: The active is enough flavor, though, I’m tired of Anet trying to add “flavor” and mucking it up to the point I’d rather things be simple and efficient.

Also, I’d assume Water Spirit would be a 10% more outgoing healing modifier if they ever took Spirits in that direction.

Xyonon.3987:

Woah woah – imagine guys, the GYRO KIT. All the gyros on kit skill 1-5 xD The toolbelts could have been the utilities. :o

All right. I’m down for this. +infinite

bearshaman.3421:

I would like it to be a KD instead of a KB. I hate having a skill I can’t use in group content.

Nah. Change the knockback to a launch instead and alter the values. 600 (0-300), 400 (300-600), 200 (600-900), 0 (900+). Start bowling groups out of boredom and kinda get a knockdown at 900+ range since they’ll just flop. That and we’ll be able to get downed people off points.

Predator’s Instinct for most useless trait.
Med Kit for most useless skill (with the most potential).

Genesis.8572:

Kodama.6453:

And keep in mind: tomes are NOT kits. They work totally different. They replace your weapon skills, but you are not able to switch out to your normal weapon without losing the tome. The tome itself has a cd. Different mechanics here.

Keep in mind: Regardless of what tomes were or how they operated, ANet had raised the possibility of bringing Guardian tomes back as kits.

It’s more likely Anet would introduce Guardian Tomes as an F5 mechanic like Druid. That way they wouldn’t have to design multiple Tome-Kits, and have 1 button over take the weapon skill slots so there’s no complaint from Engineers on Guards receiving kits and being able to swap between 2 weapon sets.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Who, besides maybe thieves, uses interrupts in PvE? You use it once, it gets a long cooldown and the mob resets and uses the skill again a few seconds later. Waste of time and effort. Auto attack kills just as fast.

There are traits from various classes that allow even PVE players to use interrupts for extra damage. Moment of Clarity and Power Block as an example. But yeah, why should PVE players do that when all they do is auto attack. :^)

You are correct that the changes made to Moas would improve their performance against moving targets. If we were to include all the Moa changes, a slight increase of DPS is to be expected due to lower cast times of Frenzied Attack and most F2 abilities.

The exceptions would be the Pink & Black Moa, which have an F2 that deals damage, even though their F2 vary strike counts (1 and 3, respectively).

I did a bit of testing for Moa’s mobile DPS while I was at it. Using the numbers and noted setup from Guild Wars Hub, the improvements resulted in a 19.32% increase (562 DPS vs 471 DPS) for Moas against the mobile golem.

No F2 commands were used during testing, but it’s safe to assume both the Pink and Black Moa would pull slightly ahead of the others, with Pink being better against faster mobile targets due to a faster cast time and less time rooted.

In relation to other pet families against a mobile target, it nudges Moas past Canines, Porcines, and Drakes. Unfortunately, the increased range was applied only to the auto attack. Meaning the Bristleback, Devourers, Spiders, Smokescale, Birds, and Felines remain as better alternatives in terms of DPS on moving targets.

Since you play open-world solo with zerg meta events, might I recommend a modified boon version of what you have since it seems like you want to play a power Ranger.

Modded Build

You trade some precision, power, ferocity, and vitality for toughness with max boon duration for permanent, self-sustainable quickness, swiftness, might, fury, regen, protection, and vigor for you and your pet.

Also, if you feel like being a group player during zerg events, you can drop Marksmanship for Druid, take Grace of the Land, and replace Signet of the Wild with a Spirit; Frost for more damage or Stone for more protection.

It’s open-world, so if you’re going to play a power Ranger, why not have some fun with it?

The charts and tests from Guild Wars Hub should still be valid. Last I recall, the only changes done to pets from the time it was published was Jaguar’s F2 cooldown was reduced from 30s to 24s and Spider’s poison lob was buffed. It’d be safe to assume a small DPS increase for those pets.

As for moving targets, most of the Devourers and Bristleback should be the only ones able to keep their constant DPS rating. The Whiptail Devourer that fires a spread poison shot on F2 is the only one that would have a slightly lower DPS on a moving target.

As for the pets themselves, I’d be content if Anet would just allow them to have their precision/critical hit chance formula be the same as the one used for players. It alone would help pets out tremendously. Wouldn’t solve all the issues but, d-mn, that’d be a nice place to begin.

Seems like a standard Zealot Druid healer to me, except the concentration sigil. The base 35% boon duration (Nature Magic + Monk Runes) has only a slight gap in protection uptime and there is usually plenty of might/fury/swiftness in (proper group) raids.

Use Delicious Rice Balls for +100 healing AND +10% outgoing healing rather than the food you have slotted. That is, unless, you really need the +5% karma boost.

As a side note, even though GW2Skills build editor does not show an increased boon duration stat when Nature Magic is slotted, the boon durations on the icons, weapon skills, and utilities are updated (might have to give it a few seconds if the stat changes).

For pets, Tiger for additional group fury and as one of the highest DPS pets. The second pet can be whatever the group or encounter requires. If the group is pretty solid on all bases, then take a Bristleback or Lynx as your second.

Firebird Gomer.9563:

Vow of Silence – Spells cannot target you (including your own)

That’s so Dark Souls.

Yeah, Concentration sigil is a good substitute for more power. As for conditions, Signet of Renewal instead of “Protect Me!”.

Still retain 2 stun breaks and trading extra protection for more might ain’t so bad. Then there’s saving “Strength of the Pack!” to convert 2 conditions due to Leadership runes.

Core Boon Ranger

Still keep 2 stun breakers, and you trade a drop in power for (exactly) 100% boon duration of pet and self-quickness/might/fury/swiftness/regeneration/protection/stability.

If you feel the need to help allies in the open-world, drop Signet of the Wild for Frost Spirit, then trait for Steady Focus and Nature’s Vengeance. Could also sub “Protect Me!” for Stone Spirit.

Drop Remorseless for Predator’s Onslaught in meta events/group fights since those conditions are applied by others. Besides that, be swift and stay quick.

I’d tweak the numbers on a few utilities and alter/tweak/change nearly all of the traits. I’d even leave pets as-is if traits were redone.

Fluffball.8307:

I don’t think there is any solution until a 2nd round of epecs are released.

There are solutions, but it would involve a lot of work and redoing traits/utilities while cutting off much, if not all, synergy to elite specs from core.

Almost to the point where an elite spec augments a singular focus rather than an overall premise. That workload is more than what Anet is willing to do and elite specs would be reduced to… side-grades.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

If you’re taking a low-tier trait over a higher-tier one, there’s something very wrong balance-wise. That was one of the biggest flaws of the old trait system.

The choices of the old trait system was more for customization and niche builds. Granted, there were some (meta) builds that never incorporated GM traits, which was very wrong balance-wise on Anet’s part of creating GMs that had little significant impact or potency.

Not to mention, the old trait system did not have the power creep of the current one. Traits mostly provided 1 effect unless they were in the Master or GM slots. Now, we have many traits with 2 effects in all tiers, and a fair share of GM traits that do 3 effects, on top of being able to have 3 full traitlines.

Even though the old and the new versions have pros and cons (as noted by the OP), the balancing flaws are on the developers, not the system layouts.

I’ll +1 this with the exception of the 5th suggestion. The 3rd suggestion covers all the options, allowing the player full freedom to unlock traits/skills as they please.

Granted, I would suggest a change to the 5th suggestion. Rather than locking select traits/skills behind certain events/bosses/modes, why not have those be able to unlock an entire traitline? If a player is victorious against a certain boss or challenging event, an entire Elite Specialization (for example) can be unlocked upon completion.

These can be finer tuned to things that already exist, such as being rewarded upon a story instance boss when a challenge mote is activated, making the encounter much more difficult and rewarding aside from achievement points.

Future raid encounters could also incorporate this idea as an alternate avenue aside from a story-based challenge mote with future elite specs in mind. Beat a raid with a previous elite spec or core spec and a player can fully unlock the new elite specialization by defeating a certain raid boss or entire wing.

Didn’t want to completely disregard your 5th suggestion since I felt like the idea and heart was in the right place, it just needed refinement (in my opinion).

I just really want the developers to sit down and do another overhaul on profession traits and core specs. Even as far as making the 5th traitline of core specs into an elite traitline where it has to be the 3rd option and cannot be slotted with expansion elite specs.

Cut down on power-creeps while making traitline choices more meaningful, and fill in the missing utilities for professions, like a Signet elite for Thief and Ranger, and Elite Well for Necromancer.

I hope the trait system would step back a bit for more customization and niches. Have it so we can slot adept traits in master slots, and adept and master traits as grandmaster traits like before, with the above mentioned trait overhaul to balance things out.

New maps, events, items, and elite specs are a guarantee with new expansions, but I really want the core professions to be more fleshed out and be able to stand more on their own; not left in the dust for the next shiny new thing that comes along.

+1 for this rune to be available in all modes.

And even though nothing is off the table; that ship left with the table.

15 second cooldown is all right. I just want them to increase Grace of the Land’s duration in PvP/WvW to go with it. Maybe to 12s.

GotL is not an ideal PvP/WvW trait, and it became less appealing with a larger gap-time when CAF got the cd increase.

Give it a duration boost for those few (or one) Druid(s) that like to use it in zergs. Received it a few times in WvW zergs before, so someone out there brings it. ¯\(~~)_/¯

Aside from ace footage, I highly recommend using Instant ground-target instead of the other two (normal, fast with range indicator).

With instant, you can adjust the trajectory of ground-target and directional-target skills mid-cast before the move produces projectiles or skill.

Being able to land attacks with split-second adjustments with the cursor because they dodged or moved out of my initial target-spot is an advantage using that specific option.

Shaogin.2679:

What would make sense is that when one of the puddles knocks someone down, it gets consumed. In this way, it would go back to being very effective in raids, while still not being OP in pvp.

+1 to this. Slick Shoes creates 7 oil slick puddles, so multiple knockdowns can ensue while providing up to 1400 defiance bar damage to break bars.

They are working on more skill splits, but whether Slick Shoes is on that list or not is unknown. Even so, the nerf impacted it in all modes. No Engineer would take Slick Shoes for just the 1 knockdown in raids against a break bar.

They might as well buff Slick Shoes across the board with the 1 hit per target nerf in place like upping the knockdown to 3s and lowering the cooldown to 30s.