Guild Wars 2

Won the map, flew west to the chest, client crash on the chest island.

Relogged into an empty Dragon’s Stand map.

Tried to rejoin party on the correct map: “Network Error: please check your internet connection”.

Yay.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Perma tonics are available cheaply, to skip a Ranger should have one at all times.

Any self-respecting player – let alone a ranger – should have the Endless Mystery Cat Tonic. It turns you into a random cat. Random cat. That’s you now. A random cat. That can stand on its hind legs to scratch with its front claws. Or pounce. Or take a cute pose and pop pink love hearts. It’s, like, the best item ever in the history of RPGs, and i include pen and paper. For crying out loud, people are gushing now about a tiger pet, but i was already using my tonic to be the tiger pet of my ranger guildies. Ha!

If you don’t have the Endless Mystery Cat Tonic, you disgust me.

Leash Range.

It’s 2000. It should be at the very least 3000 which was the range of the original Sic’Em, and pets used to attack way past that anyway. So much that i basically never noticed the invisible leash nor cared about its maximum range. It felt like a proper tame wild beast that roamed with me, had its independence but would always find me back afterwards. Unlike the DPS-on-a-leash that they have been reduced to since. In WvW it was trememdously useful, to harrass guarded distant siege or chase away a stalker.

That was nerfed because sPvP complained about a ranger fighting on a point with the pet on another (and Balthazar forbid that having a pet should provide a tactical advantage) and at the time it was “impossible” to split sPvP from the rest of the game modes.

Since there’s now been plenty of sPvP/other modes splits, we should be getting back our pet range in non-sPvP. There’s been plenty of pet nerfs, but i can deal with them all. The range however, still hurts.

I preferred the smoke cloud on F2. I do a lot of wvw, both in zergs, and in guildies roaming parties. I don’t choose my partners, it’s whoever is around at the time. Having an on demand aoe stealth out of combat is a great asset, and if my ranger can carry it, that’s incredibly useful when i’m paired with an ele, a guard or a warrior. An additional burst is just an exercise in min-maxing. As is the smoke cloud for tanking. I’ve got burst pets, and i’ve got tanky pets. I don’t have an aoe stealth option.

The way i see it, the current smokescale is a boring yet statistically better pet. Min-maxers will love it. To me it’s a major yawn. Not to mention it’s ugly to boot. I’d take the additional tactical option any day.

In PvE they’re great with the minion mitigation. I rarely unslot Sun Spirit these days.

In wvw they’re still useless.

ICDs are kitten in this game imho. Traits should proc, all the time, and be balanced accordingly. They’re not skills, and bar a few exceptions don’t tell you when they are available or not. And even those few who do, they seriously break the “we want you to play the game, not the interface” idea.

Pet leash range. I’m still mourning.

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

cafard.8953:

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

This was in PvE land, but still managed to see the numbers and I regret that I did not take a screen cap when I saw a glorious 52k Smoke Assault. I was on the edge of tears seeing that amount of damage from a pet.

An ambient caught by the aoe?

That said, such numbers remind me of pre-nerf norn bear form in the pre-nerf crit damage days. Good fun was had…

It was Arch Diviner on Fractal 24 for the Daily, and was testing before as well to see how high I could get the numbers up to. Signet of the Wild – 25%, Sic ’Em – 40%, Grace of the Land – 15%, Glyph of Empowerment – 10%, Frost Spirit – 10%, Max Vulnerbility – 25%, with 25 stacks of might for a total of a 125% damage increase with however much 25 stacks of might affects that. Again, I regret not taking a screen cap of it.

Think of what all this could have done to the bear charge… sigh

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

This was in PvE land, but still managed to see the numbers and I regret that I did not take a screen cap when I saw a glorious 52k Smoke Assault. I was on the edge of tears seeing that amount of damage from a pet.

An ambient caught by the aoe?

That said, such numbers remind me of pre-nerf norn bear form in the pre-nerf crit damage days. Good fun was had…

kevvy.5081:

Smoke assault wasn’t even the best spike damage pre-nerf, Tiger’s Furious Pounce is. For your reference, that smoke assault link has pre-nerf damage. It is now around 800 at 24sec CD, while the Furious Pounce has 1689 damage at 10sec CD although it says 1.5 sec in the wiki.

Thanks for that bro. I’ve just had a look at the PvP forum in the future and look what you’ve done:
“Tiger OP”
“Nerf Tiger”
“Why are ranger pets so OP?”
“OMG nerf tigger already!”
“how did tiger get allowed??!”
“We need to talk about Furious Pounce”
“OP tiger needs nerf”
“Cele ele is just fine”
“Did you even test tiger?!!”
“Tiger F2 is iwin button”

Holland.9351:

Smokescale was OP. Lingering Light was OP.
Can we at least agree on that?

No. They may well have been, but we’ll never know since they got downgraded before the meta had any chance to adjust and deal with them. Not even a week. I don’t play guardian much (and have yet to log my guardian, let alone unlock DH) but i feel the same about DH traps that caught the nerf bat too.

Right now, i haven’t found any need for a druid in the HoT PvE. I don’t need the healing personally, WS gives me more than enough survival options. From my experience, events (Tarik, Dragon’s Stand…) fail because of lack of numbers or bad organisation (nobody on one lane), not because of lack of healing characters.

So by going druid, all i’m doing is lower my damage, tag less, and end up with less lootbags and mastery progress, while not changing anything to the events outcome. I tried it for a little while once i got it fully unlocked, but went back to core ranger. The pet/spirit aoe damage mitigation did me wayyyy more good in PvE than the druid.

To be fair, some of stuff may have indeed been an issue, deserving to be toned down.

Where it hurts, for me, is the “may”. Because some of it “may not” have deserved it It’s not even been a week after the release of 9 elite specs introducing new mechanisms, and additional possibilities have been added to sPvP in the form of new stats and rune sets. Is less than a week really enough to judge that there is no counterplay, that the meta has been shattered and dominated by one class, one skill, one build or one set of stats?

I don’t mind the balancing, even when it tones down my main class. I do very much mind the apparent kneejerk reaction to loud complaints when the community hasn’t been given any time to work out builds, counterbuilds, and find out where the balance actually lies.

Also, but i feel like a broken record on this one, the technology is apparently there to split skills/effects between sPvP and the rest of GW2. Could that please be used more? Please let the rest of us enjoy the game modes of total imbalance.

And that’s a grandmaster trait?

Classic. WvW has been dealing with those runes for a while now. They get unlocked in sPvP and it doesn’t take a week for the QQ nerf train to take them down.

We really need sPvP to be split apart by default skill-wise. Stuff is never going to be balanced both for 5-a-side with objectives and mass deathmatch. This is getting very old.

Use the free mentor apple tag: an apple a day keeps the healer away…

:p

While waiting for an event chain yesterday, somebody dropped an Aviator’s Memory Box. Having laughed my kitten off when the original April’s Fool was running, i threw myself at it, extended my arms, and proceeded to play pretend airplane.

Except now, we’ve got HoT. And this time, i could jump from high positions and glide while making airplane noises with my arms stretched out. That was, like, epic.

But this is where the glider skin gets in the way. I have an aviator cap, i have “wings” deployed, and i’m humming the engine noise: I DON’T NEED A GLIDER! I KNOW I CAN FLY BY MYSELF BECAUSE I’M AN AIRPLANE!

The gliding/aviator combo screams for an invisible glider skin. One that works. Because i should add that yes, i do have an invisible glider in wvw, but it has very poor glinding capabilities, causing me no small amount of broken bones. Please ANet, consider it. Or add a switch to show/hide glider like helmet and shoulders. Invisible shoes are good, an invisible glider is even better!

Ramethzero.3785:

Hrm. I misinterpreted then. 95% total overall reduction is a much nicer game changer.

It is indeed. Pets and spirits are wayyyy better now in PvE. With the current state of the Druid and Smokescale, this minion damage reduction is the single best thing that happened to the class with the expansion. I just wish it also applied in wvw.

Oxidia.8103:

Or orrrrr, here is a fun idea. Play for fun not grind. Masterys are going to happen eventually.

Sure. Let’s do the story!

“You need gliding Mastery level 1 to continue the story”
“You need Itzel Mastery level 4 to continue the story”

Celestial with Traveler runes. Change build on the fly just because you can (well, apart from trapper rune build, but then an exotic dire set is cheap).

Ascended accessories are cheap, use them to tune the stats when needed.

OGDeadHead.8326:

I think the solution, at least to sword#1, will come with the new camera mode

If the kick part of the auto-attack on a norn shows the two-footed fly kick in first person view, i’ll never ever use another weapon.

On the positive side: no more queues at reset.

Kamehamoa!

Please reconsider… In EU time, that ruins half the weekend of wvw, with the after-work friday evening and most of saturday (and seeing the comments here, it’s even worse for SEA zone players…).

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

There is obviously too much trait synergy with MoC

Show me the meta being turned around and i’ll believe you. But of course, that won’t happen since it’d require some restraint rather than playing whack-a-mole after a single weekend when the trait line was new.

Solandri.9640:

No other class can lose their class mechanic while not downed.

That’s a very good point. Pets should be made immortal. For balance.

Irrespective of your point, as the celestial daze:
- is limited to celestial form
- has a red circle tell
- can be dodged
- can be stun-broken
- is hard countered by stability

… your approach to solving problems is to nerf the core ranger through adding more ICD to this game? ICDs are the cancer of this game’s mechanics. Traits should be balanced properly rather than overpowered and later limited in use. There’s skills with visible cooldowns for that. Through picking up traits, you are deliberately trying to put the emphasis on some skills. Having ICDs all over the place kills that emphasis.

I’m not sure who your “regular rangers” are who pick Moment of Clarity and equip a single daze, and a short one at that, but if they feel that’s a good deal, i’ve got a bridge to sell them.

Kitty.1502:

Rifle and mantras. Mantras can act as like different types of ammo, so you might have a damage ammo, a condi ammo, etc.

That is a pretty cool idea. GW2 mantras to act up a bit like GW1 preparations and make the ranger count the bullets for his rifle.

Yes, they do. That adds up to the tankiness, the F2 and the big damage tail swipe to make them the best all-rounder pets we’ve got imho.

Nike.2631:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The best healing in the game being available without using any healing power; this is not good for the game.

You need to apply that particular mind-set to EVERY HEAL IN THE GAME.

I don’t think this can be emphasized enough… I appreciate the balance idea that healing power should be required for powerful heals, but right now, every single class including base ranger has some very serious healing skills/traits that work with 0 healing, and that’s before even taking water fields into account.

Rifle. \o/

People wanted the whole nature magic support thing and not having to bother with pets, and druid caters to that. My fingers are crossed for the hunter aspect now, with a focus on damage/control and pet synergy, and a take on more modern hunting could fit. The only issue is that i’d see shouts and traps as the most fitting skill types to go with such a spec and we already have both.

Alternatively, melee staff or main-hand dagger would be neat for a Robin Hood style forest robber.

Ideally, I’d like to see specs as sort of GW1 secondary classes, adopting another class niche with the main class spin. In that sense the druid is sort of a ranger/monk (though there’s no monk in GW2), the rifle hunter a take on ranger/warrior and the forest robber a ranger/thief.

Well, if the idea is to lower the base and increase the coefficients so that full healing gear brings us to the current numbers, that’s a serious downer…

Alarih.5279:

Someone said that he likes how Druid holds staff (like a hummer)

Now THAT is an awesome idea. Bring on the jungle, my druid and his mount are ready!

Don’t you guys have the impression that the reaction around here is very much like the kneejerk people were ranting about for WHaO? The spec has barely been tried out for a couple of days, yet it’s already being branded broken, useless or OP, in its entirety or in details. It’ll take weeks at least for people to get the bigger picture after the meta adapts around the new specs.

Lupini.6938:

There is just too much potential for annoyance or griefing, but at least I’ll always have this weekend with my embiggened four-legged artichoke.

The Little Bristleback ~ A Story of Tyria

https://youtu.be/7sL0WgbilBg

Love it. <3

Leaa.2943:

As much as i laughed at them when seeing them the first time, they actually caused us to wipe on eb ealier today were the two of them were blocking the view when entering kitten in the wall and missing that enemies was pushing out, so for me this need to be fixed instantly or removed from the beta or at least wvw until it is done.

ANet, if aesthetic arguments were not enough, you have the proof right here that this feature should stay: for the first time since launch, RANGER PETS decided the outcome of a wvw zerg fight!

It’s so beautiful i have to wipe my tears now. Thank you for this testimony, comrade.

Awwww, bug fixed even before we got to notice it? That’s cruel!

BillFreist.1527:

Sure, but that’d mean a feature from HoT would have to be cut in order to make up the lost development time. Is that something you could live with?

Of course! Pick any feature you want from another class! :p

Chicho Gosho.6507:

Building up astral force outside of healing is too hard so i’m forced to use the staff.

Though it’s a breeze with the staff, Troll Unguent, just by itself, fills up the celestial pool almost entirely over the 10s duration. Probably the way to go if you want to avoid the staff.

Zalladi.4652:

Couldn’t agree more:

Love the second shot! Angry Bristleback is angry!

With the caveat that this was only for wvw, i used the GS. Staff 3 + GS 3 gives plenty of movement, and for disengaging, you have Staff 5 and GS 4 to deal with projectiles in your back. If you’ve got MoC traited for the celestial form too, GS 5 gets double daze, which may have its use.

It’s purely for defense/mobility though, and i was using the staff most of the time, but there you go.

Haha, i’m probably the only one, but i’m loving it. It looks savage, wild, violent. Like a primitive shaman that you don’t kitten with, especially when he’s got a big heavy stick in his hands.

Ran it for a while in wvw and loving it. Love the green numbers all over the place, love the BIG green numbers while under F5, love the easy F5 buildup while zerging, love the avatar cc/heal combos, and basically, love having a point in zerg fights. Can’t comment for the rest of the game modes, but for zerg fights in wvw, i’m enjoying it a lot.

Really like the staff auto for basic tagging/healing, and the targeted cc/movement are pretty handy. After losing the placed traps, it’s great to have some new ground targeted skills. Oh, and unlike 99% of the population (so i’m not feeling like i’m gonna win this one), i love the violent style of staff handling. Suits my max size Norn down to a tee. “You don’t kitten with a Druid!”.

The glyphs now, well, i tried, but i can’t see any reason to use any of them. Tiny range, big cooldown, minor effects, meh. Maybe they’re a sPvP thing, dunno, but as they are, i’m not touching them.

The pets are neat, and the Bristleback in particular is hilarious in its current bugged state when using Signet of the Wild. It’s like we’ve got a Siege Pet! PLEASE DON’T FIX IT! XD

Please, don’t start multiplying identical threads:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Prediction-about-MoC-and-Lunar-Impact/

Unless i’m mistaken it is:
- a celestial avatar skill
- an AOE RED CIRCLE OF INCOMING DEATH skill
- a skill with a 1s cast time and an unknown delay between the end of casting and the impact

So it can only be used during a limited time after certain conditions have been met (the transform), is telegraphed, interruptable and dodgeable.

Wouldn’t anyone daze-locked by this skill be the equivalent of “those” wvw players that manage to die to a longbow from 1800 range?

Lazze.9870:

Chain of three is better than nothing, but just overall inferior, less viable and more clunky than an easy ground targeted version.

Clunky indeed, but it’d have the benefit of catering to both the static and follow crowd. It could be a good excuse for a neat animation too, with the second skill showing the spirit ‘take root’.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

cafard.8953:

OGDeadHead.8326:

Neither the leash range nor the ability to send them up on walls was insanely OP. The leash range had some bugs in it that would allow a pet to be out of combat state while still attacking, and the ranger could also be out of combat while the pet was in combat because of it. They could’ve fixed the bugs. The extreme leash reduction was a bit over the top imho. I still find myself hitting F1 to attack things but being out of range. It’s annoying to this day!

The leash range had an aggravating factor: sPvPers complained about it, as the ranger could fight on a point with the pet fighting on another one.

It really is annoying to this day alright. The pet really feels leashed, rather than a friendly wild beast roaming away from you. It was great to chase away a thief or put pressure on distant siege.

Yeah, the leash really should be increased (not removed), if people want to QQ about it, they can just kill the pet as a counter, its not hard, they have no defenses. Being able to fight in two different places at once should be something that sets Ranger apart.

Couldn’t agree more. That should be the main benefit of a pet class. Otherwise it’s just splitting damage/hp for the sake of it.

How about a skill chain of 3 to allow for static/follow behaviour without an extra F key:

Summon Spirit: summon the spirit, it follows you, skill becomes Place Spirit.

Place Spirit: spirit stops following you. Skill becomes Sacrifice Spirit.

Sacrifice Spirit: spirit is destroyed, triggering its on-death effect, skill becomes Summon Spirit and goes on cooldown.

Random comments on suggestions:

- I’d be very wary of changing Sic’Em too much. It’s a very useful skill for spiking up stealth-spamming target, in a very small set of Reveal-applying skills. I’d even argue that the 6s Reveal debuff is much stronger than a simple “aoe pop-out-of-stealth” effect which will simply be cancelled out by the next stealth skill. The current shout’s combo of speed, damage and reveal is very efficient at what it does. It’d be a pity to water it down.

- regarding stealth, it is an awful unfun (for the opposition) mechanic imho, and we don’t really need more of it. Trapper runes have been slightly mitigated by the throwing trap nerf, but adding player stealth (or worse, aoe stealth) on Guard would inevitably lead to invisibility spamming tactics only fun for one side.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Neither the leash range nor the ability to send them up on walls was insanely OP. The leash range had some bugs in it that would allow a pet to be out of combat state while still attacking, and the ranger could also be out of combat while the pet was in combat because of it. They could’ve fixed the bugs. The extreme leash reduction was a bit over the top imho. I still find myself hitting F1 to attack things but being out of range. It’s annoying to this day!

The leash range had an aggravating factor: sPvPers complained about it, as the ranger could fight on a point with the pet fighting on another one.

It really is annoying to this day alright. The pet really feels leashed, rather than a friendly wild beast roaming away from you. It was great to chase away a thief or put pressure on distant siege.