Guild Wars 2

There’s only one answer and it’s Kamohoali’i Kotaki.

And not only because it’s hilarious to hear your guildmates attempt to pronounce it when you link it on guild chat. I mean, sharks! Does it get any better than sharks? I don’t think so. And you have to prove your mad hunting skills againsts sharks all over Tyria to craft the precursor, the leggie itself looks made from sharks, and on spear 3 it even procs a giant spirit shark. The shark-based bad*ssery is off the scale, frankly.

And if you’re not convinced yet, just think of the futre. Which legendary weapon will be the de facto icon of our brotherhood when the underwater expansion comes and we get the Sharknado elite spec? Or when Landspears and pet Landsharks are inevitably introduced due to popular outcry? Duh. There’s only one answer and it’s Kamohoali’i Kotaki.

AEFA.9035:

I would have to disagree with SB gaining range, its a skirmishing weapon.

Only because it was made so with the range nerf. It used to be a pretty good power weapon in early group wvw with 1200 range and piercing arrows.

For an idea of the time, it took me a month and a half to get to 30 HoM, with a tiny headstart (had played before, not massively but enough to know some stuff), but that was still starting with a freshly created character. If you’re a fast learner and use guides, I’d say it’ll probably take you two months.

Going for 50 points will be more tedious though. It will involve either a lot of effort soloing difficult dungeons or getting up to speed with the meta and grouping up. You’ll also probably need to do some platinum grinding and purchasing from other players in Kamadan.

Finally, GWAMM is even more work than the 50 HoM points. It’s the crowning achievement and will involve a lot of grinding to max out plenty of titles (eating 432858234 sweets, drinking 9623412 beverages, winning 86234123 luck-based minigames, losing 9643281 luck-based minigames, etc).

My recommendation would be to give it a go. GW1 is a very good game, heroes make it fully playable solo, and you’ll learn a lot about the world, gaining a new appreciation for lots of characters and places. It also has a ludicrous amount of contents between the three campaigns, the Eye of the North, all the post EotN content leading to GW2, the historical bonus missions if you pick them up, the PvP if you make some friends and play at the same time to enjoy the many formats…

After a few areas, you should get used to the graphics and controls. In fact, the graphics, as simple as they are by today’s standards, still have a majesty that GW2 hasn’t managed in some regards: the scale of landscapes and places feels much greater. Kaineng City makes Divinity’s Reach look like a miniature diorama. If you find you like the gameplay, the route to 30 HoM will be enjoyable. 50 is probably beyond your commitment, and I wouldn’t dream too much of GWAMM. It’s very very unlikely you’ll get there, but if you fall in love with the game, who knows…

If you’re interested in my road to 30 points, I summarised it there:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GuildWars/comments/39wd5i/after_action_report_a_month_and_a_halfs_journey/

tl;dr: 30 HoM is very doable in a couple month. Anything more is unlikely unless you’re really hardcore.

Water transitions need work. Rangers were already losing all pet boons when getting into water, now the SB beast form drops and goes on cooldown (not sure why a cooldown is required either since the form is a sidegrade rather than a clear powerup). Beast form should be maintained above and below water, just flipping the beast skills between the equipped land/water pets.

Haven’t played with the other specs, but some of them might also have issues with water transitions.

Durzlla.6295:

cafard.8953:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Yeah, 1500 is too much for a SB, 1200 is good. Just make Poison Volley a single projectile that explodes at your target dealing the Poison in an AoE.

Or a ground targeted poison field to avoid pathing issues and projectile hate. Since we’re not going to get thrown traps again…

a ground target that still launches a projectile is still affected by projectile hate, so unless the AoE will be like muddy terrain where there’s no projectile (It wont), then it can still be destroyed, or reflected before it lands and turns into an AoE.

EX: Warrior Longbow burst skill

Just add Unblockable to the tooltip then. :p

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Yeah, 1500 is too much for a SB, 1200 is good. Just make Poison Volley a single projectile that explodes at your target dealing the Poison in an AoE.

Or a ground targeted poison field to avoid pathing issues and projectile hate. Since we’re not going to get thrown traps again…

I like it how it is thanks. If they can’t design a spec, it’s their problem, I’d like to keep my core skills. And having been on the other end of tons of silly damage spam, with rev’s (ranged) CoR spam in wvw being the freshest in mind, I wouldn’t mind being the kid everyone else complains about for once.

Lacklustre?! The Moot is like the Best Legendary Ever, with a footfall effect to die for. It’s the first one I made, and my main can’t even use a mace!

anduriell.6280:

Tharne.3298:

anduriell.6280:

Irenio’s team must change the gazelle, but not nerf the damage: they must add a knockback(to the sides) from that skill so the target is only hit once.

The pet skill F2 in beast mode does the same… People should try it out to check if also it does ridiculous damage.

I don’t even know how to reproduce that, I tried a lot of things (immobilize, kockdown, stun) but the target only ever suffer one hit, be it from the Gazelle or from me.

probably if the target it locked against a wall or something. that place in wvw has like small step where you must jump over to continue walking.

because the skill doesn’t launch you get hit many times. It could be used as designed as a way to punish brainless drones which don’t use the space awareness but i’m not sure if that was the intended use or it was just lazy low effort development.

Note that the current skill makes it a hilarious way to punish Stability which imho is vastly missing in the game.

Is there an icd on Predator’s Cunning? Can’t remember. I like the idea of it, with the WS trait for poison, poison on sword, dagger, SB poison trap… Might fit well for constant attrition and sustain in a wvw trapper runes build.

Well, I guess I’m one of the rare people enjoying it. It’s just more of the ranger I love. Same jack of all trades, with a fair few additional tools and combos on demand. It’s fun to play, and doesn’t feel completely unrelated like the final Druid design felt to me. Don’t care much for the dagger or even the stances, but the beast skills and pet traits affecting the ranger while merged are enough to make me a happy bunny. I’m just waiting for the inevitable gutting before seeing the final state ot it all since some skills/pets are obviously overtuned and Anet doesn’t generally do half-measures…

Darrio.6098:

I can deal with no petswap at Beatmode if Beastmode CD will be lowered to 5-7 seconds or even gone to 1s.

Beastmode just give us alternative ways, not empower us in some state drastically like Death shroud or Celestial Avatar.

This. Beastmode is a complete sidegrade. We gain buffs/utility but lose the pet dps and support in exchange. That 10s cooldown could be seriously trimmed down if even needed at all.

The utility provided by the beast skills is great. Knockdown on F2 and pull+immob on F3 on some canines is going to be lots of fun combined with the canines themselves and abused with LB and off-hand axe for more knockback/pull lulz.

Thornwolf.9721:

ErikViking.2754:

I actually had a similar idea.

Using the Rifle as a Shotgun on medium to short range with high single DMG and Breakbar breaking abilities. I wouldve called it the Big Game Hunter but Stalker sounds nice aswell.

Instead of the Petty little baby Pets he would be able to use more grown up BIG pets like Minotaurs, Hydras or Stoneheads (these Thingys from HoTs) which should be alot stronger than the normal ones since its his special ability.

He could also just be able to use 2 normal pets at the same time if Anet is too lazy to make new EPIC pets.

As utilities you could go with some kind of whistles. Skills that when activated make the Pet do the ability instead of the Ranger himself which would make this Spec strongly pet based as a kinda opposite to the Soulbeast.

Just a little idea to make Power Ranger actually good aswell

I like the idea of stoneheads, as well as the ability to have two pets at once although I think that it would be kinda lame to just have two regular pets.

Or you could Pet Merge the two equipped pets into a mutant beast! Cathog, Ravenhound, Swamp Bearake, Rainbow Jellyshark, Fire Pigvern…

The druid spec is ridiculously convenient. Staff 3 for mobility/blast is insane compared to our previous options, and with staff 5 counting as a water field, that’s something to blast too. Then you can trait a full condi clear on F5 freeing up some utility slots, and get a choice of stealth+superspeed on exiting F5 or an improved perma-swiftness.

I don’t like the idea of it, but pretty much never unslot it for solo PvE stuff.

For all the calls about bringing it back, imho the bunny thumper is pretty much there with Soulbeast. Between canines knockdown and cc F2 and the beastmode knockdown from the ranger, we’ll be able to chain a lot of hard cc.

OGDeadHead.8326:

If it isn’t a pet swap mechanic, will that also mean that if your pet was loaded up with conditions and at half health when you merged, it will come back in that state?

For years they were unable to store something as trivial as pet names. It seems very very improbable they’d actually manage to store a pet’s full health status with cooldowns, boons and conditions. Imho beastmode in/out will turn out to be a full pet reset.

Having it count as weaponswap would be sexy for Quickdraw.

I think we’ve all been there.

I know most people don’t care about it, but in underwater combat, moving spirits were pretty awesome, given the lack of ground targeted aoe nukes. Plus the swimming with spirit dolphins looked great. If even just the UW spirits were made to move again, I’d be a happy bunny.

Well, you’re going to need a bit less than 6600 additional tickets (1095 per piece) to upgrade the armour pieces from ascended to legendary, so unless you really need the ascended set now, you’ve got plenty of time to decide.

Well, if you can live with the grayed out portraits in the pet selection screen… Personally, I hated that so much I went back to GW1 to finish the HoM and unlock the last few pets.

That said, pet collecting is one of the fun perks of playing a ranger imho. No other class gets this little joy you get when you find a den and scan around to find a Juvenile at the back.

Justine.6351:

Idk why I even waste my time on these forums,
https://youtu.be/N9yRtPZMlc4

Yeah, that’s the kind of angles you need for that range. I had a few kills like that in wvw from the cliffs of the NW tower in the desert BL (Academy). It’s pretty rare to find yourself in the situation, but it feels great when it happens.

mistsim.2748:

Aveneo.2068:

Some of you may not remember JP’s antics but the infamous shortbow firerate nerf where his explanation (excuse) made no logical sense

oh, I remember.

Ah, the “animation fix”… Still doesn’t hurt as much as the infamous “Pet Leash distance increased to 2000” patch note. I don’t think they hate any class, but I’m still very bitter about that pet leash nerf. WvW used to be glorious with proper hunting pets, but since the range inconvenienced Conquest…

200 ranks a month is a lot actually. I’ve been playing wvw more or less exclusively since launch and I’m around 750. Of course, ranks were only introduced later.

I guess the OS farming exploit had a good few people power level, but apart from that what you’re looking at are players who played wvw for years.

@jcbroe

Haha, that’s very flattering but I’m no expert. I barely play sPvP and spend most of my time in WvW or kitten ing in PvE with celestial stats because until I get a legendary armour, I can’t be bothered to min-max (apart from the infamous Bear Charge build but sadly, it’s well and truly dead now). So my views tend to be biased towards convenience and flexibility more than optimal effect. That’s why I find it interesting when people into the numbers game go wild, it gives me a peek at the game from another angle.

Regarding the wasted cleanses on skill use, I thought of it while I was typing the previous post. But wasn’t too sure how to go about it, and in the end, I thought that in a way, your opportunity cost is touching that already. The more traits/skills/runes you need to get your clear, the more ‘stuff’ you waste from your build (both ways: you waste your shout main effect if you proc it for a cleanse, or lose a cleanse if you proc it for its main). It works for big cleanses too, as going to celestial form to cleanse comes at the cost of your weapon skills, etc.

In that regards, the old SoR is probably the most economical thing we had as it was pretty standalone (bar eventual might on signet use and the required pet swap in case of heavy condi cleanse). So using it doesn’t impair anything else from your build, which the low opportunity cost reflects.

I guess at the end of the day, your numbers will end up reflecting the obvious in that case. That depending on whether you’re facing a big burst or regular conditions, the one-stop-shop cleanse or the spread around approach will perform better, with the caveat that the one-stop-shop will often fit in more builds. The old SoR was pretty neat in that regards, working a bit as both for the price of a single utility. While it was a bit too purpose-specific to my taste, it came handy at times when skipping WS. I find the new regen a bit meh.

sevenDEADLY.5281:

Fluffball.8307:

Bast Bow.2958:

It’s like SoR was the only cleanse ranger had? While we had a ton of other cleanses and now we have even more. We have a 1000 options via other skills and traits to cleanse ourselves which are a million times better than old SoR, that 1 condi-clear every 10 secs. Really guys? Falling over that? I’m tempted to give 100 gold for the first person that can name 3 types of condi clears pre-patch we already had, and three new ones. Then we can all hold hands and sing a happy song!

SoR and EB changed (both for the worse IMO) and we didn’t gain anything. I relooked over the patch notes and didn’t see any new condi cleanses. Did we gain some I’m missing?

Edit: I am absolutely sure, I poured over the patch notes, we gained NO new condi removals. Your 100 gold offer is invalid.

Again, going out of your way to purposely ignore the new sources of condi cleanse. As 500 people have already clearly pointed out in this thread. New zephyrs speed interaction with WS traits = 2 condi cleanses, new soften the fall interactions with any heal = 2 more new condi cleanses. TU now 4 potential condi cleanses. You’re willfully being obtuse at this point.

Being a big fan of the WS line, I’m absolutely loving it right now. But let’s not get too carried away. That was the positive part of the update, now we have to wait for the nerfs before knowing what we’ve actually got left.

I like your accounting of opportunity cost in terms of skills/traits/rune requirement, but you don’t seem to take account of the granularity of the cleanses (and therefore the potential cleanse waste). It’s obvious that in a 10s burst scenario full cleanses will be the obvious best performers, but that’s not the only scenario.

If you get 2 condis applied to you every 10s, that single full condi cleanse before a 50s cooldown is going to be less desirable than 4 separate dual condi cleanses.

In that context, the old SoR was very prone to wastefulness. You don’t control the single cleanse which might happen when not needed, and the full cleanse will rarely be used up to its theoretical maximum.

Not that it matters anyhow, it’s done already and we don’t have a say, but for the sake of comparing what’s left, I feel that granularity/potential waste should be accounted for.

RIP Bear Charge build. It survived many direct and indirect nerfs, but this time, it’s really over. :’-(

jcbroe.4329:

As far as net totals go, SoR was one of the best condi clears in the game. The list of single utility skills that could remove 6 condis per minute in the game is incredibly low, it’s more than the Soldier Runes + the 3 “common” shouts (WHAO, PM, SotP) combined.

WHAO by itself, with Soften the Fall and WK traited now clears 2 condis every 20s, so 6 per minute (in addition to healing, sharing boons with the pet, granting fury and proccing an aoe immob+slow+cripple). If you add the Soldier Runes, it’s 3 condis every 20s. Give it a try, it’s very very good right now.

Hidden Dragon.7523:

I believe the only change i like is the Signet of Renewal. Everything else seems irrelevant (that is if you like to play WvW/PvP).

Dunno. The new MT with Soften the fall and WK looks pretty nifty. That means our heal skills not only proc their own effect but also an aoe immob+cripple+slow, gain fury and clear 2 conditions. In fact, HaO and Trooper Runes would make that 3 condis. And unless there are some longer internal cooldowns hidden in there, that’s every 20s. I don’t play sPvP but for WvW it looks solid.

Yeah, the Muddy Terrain/Soften the Fall updates are great.

Don’t mind the potential repeat for people that have the time to do so personally, but speaking as one that will never have the time to reach Diamond every week, the spreading out of tickets is a very welcome change.

StickerHappy.8052:

Kilrik.4630:

An important note… I’m guessing dolyak stance is only available to soulbeast. Strength of the pack and the old version of signet of the wild are core skills available no matter what the elite or build traits you take. I did not care for the nerf of strength of the pack with both cooldown and taking away the reapply ticks of stability. This is now followed by removing the only other form of stability that is not gated behind celestial form. I think the complaint is justified. Less options and more pigeon-holing not a good move for the game in my opinion.

Lets face it, who uses SoTW for stab in pvp? Even in highest tier pvp. No one.

There’s more to the game than sPvP though.

Very weird update. I can’t make head nor tails of most changes. That said, taking away our only non-elite source of Stability to lock it into an elite line is a low blow…

Caeledh.5437:

Khenzy.9348:

Caeledh.5437:

Khenzy.9348:

What happens if the pet is dead, can you still meld with it?

Necrobeast!

I’m… ok with that.

I was only joking, of course, but now I want it.

Beastshroud, eh?

NemesiS.6749:

Thelgar.7214:

That’s not accurate. Look at the patch notes from the change. Short bow was nerfed to make long bow more attractive because it wasn’t being used. Then long bow was buffed because nerfing one thing to make another thing attractive predictably didn’t work. But short bow never got it’s range back. I was also a ranger main at launch, until the range nerf, and the short bow/greatsword gameplay was the most enjoyable in the game with rapid fire and frequent dodges as you floated around the battlefield. Range 900 isn’t like being ranged at all.

Yep, if we all remember and have been here since the first day SB was nerfed to make longbow look good. I haven’t had so much fun with a ranger since the SB/GS days. In fact i have a legendary dreamer in the bank, doing nothing because well i made it before the famous nerf and after that longbow became the new hot thing.

Ugh, it still hurts. Piercing SB was a delight in large wvw fights. But then, even if the range was still there, there’s so much projectile hate these days that it’d probably be useless.

I really like Drakes for generic PvE. Tanky, hard-hitting F2, and Tail Swipe is both a big AoE nuke and a blast finisher.

Khenzy.9348:

Do these skills share CDs with pet skills?

Let’s not start giving them ideas?

Ohoni.6057:

The thing that interests me though is, how much added benefit will these bring? I mean, yes, the Ranger now gets these abilities, but the Ranger always had them, he just had to command a pet to use it. On the face of it, other than being “cool,” it’s actually a downside to shift these to the player character, because it means that while you’re doing them you can’t be doing other attacks, while on the pet they were fire-and-forget. Also, while you had a pet, it was drawing agro, taking hits, all that.

I’m interested to see what sort of benefits they are offering to make these abilities stronger than their pet versions, to make up for the various pet benefits we’re losing.

Even without them being stronger, we get to use them more often with Beastform acting a bit as a third pet in cooldown terms. Say you want to go for cc and run with dog and wolf. Engage in Beastform and land the knockdown. Leave BF and your dog will land his own knockdown pretty much immediately. Then it’s got the immobilise F2. Swap to wolf for another knockdown and a Fear. By that time, BF should be available again with another knockdown. The extra availability of those skills should make for some cool rotations.

(add Quickdraw and a longbow, and the knockdown spam build might become hilarious)

Drake, in addition to the big damage of Tail Swipe, also gives us an on-demand blast finisher.

Also, all that extra cc will come in handy for break bars.

Fantastic news. \o/

Shiren.9532:

On the other hand, if merging with the pet does give all that power to the ranger (even if it’s reduced on some level) why would rangers ever use a pet?

We haven’t tried it yet, so well, that’s just guessing, but while staying in Beastform certainly looks easier (and a way to run in a wvw zerg without losing part of your build), I can’t see it being optimal. Skills and traits affecting the pet won’t all affect the ranger in the exact same way as they do the pet right now. Or if they do, expect it to be nerfed immediately.

I think a lot of switch back and forth will make the spec shine by preserving access to the F2 (two skills you miss out on if you stay merged) and (ab)using some of the most useful pet family skills. If the drake’s tail swipe works as well on the ranger as on the drakes, there’s some burst potential in merging after it procs to pop it yourself immediately. Same for chain cc with an additional access to the canine/porcine knockdown. And the merge itself will come in handy to save your pet from death when swap is on cooldown.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

cafard.8953:

Well, I still want a ‘hunter’ rifle-based spec at some point, but this spec looks fun to play, main-hand dagger always looks cool, and it actually synergises with pets, unlike our current cosmic healer spec… Looking forward to it.

Erasing your pet is not “synergizing with it”.

The pet family will determine which skills you gain while merged, pet skills we had no fine control of until now, the merging itself will take a wounded pet out of harm’s way avoiding pet swap on a long cooldown, potentially proc pet swap events on merge in/out, and pet buff traits/skills will now have a second form depending on being with or without pet. Personally, I find it to synergise pretty well with the pet and its related skills/traits, it’s directly linked to it. Everything you gain from the merged shape comes from the pet choice and traiting. Look at the Druid by comparison…

You can cripple from a distance! What else would you ever need?

Mackanstein.2503:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Mackanstein.2503:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Mackanstein.2503:

Miellyn.6847:

cafard.8953:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

cafard.8953:

Well, I still want a ‘hunter’ rifle-based spec at some point, but this spec looks fun to play, main-hand dagger always looks cool, and it actually synergises with pets, unlike our current cosmic healer spec… Looking forward to it.

Deadeye.

I’ll give it a go for sure, just as I tried rifle warrior and engie, but they never quite feel right. I miss the pet and the rest of our toys.

But neither rifle nor pistol fit the ranger theme in GW2. It’s all about nature and those two are the complete opposite. I don’t see this happen in the near future.

That’s so narrow-minded. Rifles have for a long time been the companion of the outdoorsman and explorer. American longhunters used hunting rifles, and they were very much nature guys. If the problem is that rifles are manufactured, then we shouldn’t be able to use swords or any other forged blades either. A GW2 Ranger with a rifle can be whatever you allow it to be, you just need to be a bit creative. The whole idea that rangers can only ever be themed around spirits and entangling roots just anchors the whole concept into a druid template, but we already have a druid spec.

Souldbeast is a cool concept though, and dagger makes sense as substituting a claw or fang, very bestial.

Rangers are nature magic themed, not outdoorsman, hunter or explorer themed. A rifle has mechanical parts and requires the use of chemicals and other mechanisms to manufacture and operate. You can make a bow and arrows purely from totally natural materials without refinement. I think this is why most people do not agree that rifle/pistol is a Ranger weapon.

Well, my point was that thinking of the ranger as being nature magic and nothing else really paints the concept into a corner. Ranger in itself is a very versatile concept, with the druid spec hamming up the nature magic side of things, and Soulbeast going down the bestial path. After that, there are lots of things that ranger can be but then all we discuss is what it cannot be. Saying that ranger is not allowed to be outdoorsman, hunter or explorer themed is just sad creatively speaking. May as well have called it Druid or Shaman from the start then.

Well, I think the theme you are going for is more suited to Engineer.

I was never going for a theme, I was defending some other guy who wanted rifles. Bother to read.

Appreciated mate.

And apologies for starting the debate, wrong thread for it, let’s keep this one about daggers and pet merge.

Rashagar.8349:

I love this part of the release phase where theorycrafting and suppositions are running wild, and balance is sort of hand waved aside since nothing is set in stone but everyone is still thinking up combos to try out for fun (as opposed to when it’s already “solved”)

It’s my favourite time too, with the early preview weekends, when you can have fun and abuse it all before most of it gets balanced into averageness. Also, in WvW and sPvP, there’s the fun of not quite knowing what new toys the other classes got. It’s a precious moment that you don’t get to enjoy for long, a bit like early WvW when we were still figuring out the mechanics and the maps…

Wonder if the pet-targetting skills will affect the ranger while in Beastmode. That +40% damage from Sic’em would be epic… Beastmode Tail Swipe on a power build with Sic’em and SotH activation buff would be something to behold!

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

cafard.8953:

Well, I still want a ‘hunter’ rifle-based spec at some point, but this spec looks fun to play, main-hand dagger always looks cool, and it actually synergises with pets, unlike our current cosmic healer spec… Looking forward to it.

Deadeye.

I’ll give it a go for sure, just as I tried rifle warrior and engie, but they never quite feel right. I miss the pet and the rest of our toys.

Well, I still want a ‘hunter’ rifle-based spec at some point, but this spec looks fun to play, main-hand dagger always looks cool, and it actually synergises with pets, unlike our current cosmic healer spec… Looking forward to it.