Guild Wars 2

It just feels too slow. The auto-attack chain needs to be changed a little. Personally, I think the first two strikes need to be 1/2-1/2 with the last strike fine at 1 sec with the current damage output. Though, to be honest…I’d rather the whole chain be sped up…even if they have to reduce damage on the skills. It’s just too slow.

The whole chain is 2.5 seconds….with my current gear/traits/etc I’m looking at….

Necro GS Auto is 2.5 sec (.75+.75+1) for roughly 3.3k = 79.2k damage per minute

Guard GS Auto is 1.5 sec (.5+.5+.5) for roughly 2.8k= 112k damage per minute

Warrior GS Auto is 1.5 sec (.5+.5+.5) for roughly 2.6k = 104k damage per minute

Now, I know this is a super rough comparison and doesn’t account for a lot of things, but just eyeballing my characters in this way disturbs me. I understand it’s probably not even the most accurate of eyeball tests, but still. Geez.

To be completely honest, I’m thinking part of the problem is that the new guild revamp is clearly geared towards very large guilds. That’s great for the people that like those guilds, but there are lots and lots of people who don’t. I see lots of room for improvement in the current system to give some love to the smaller guilds. Perhaps a much smaller guild hall with access to the basic things we have lost like banners and perhaps scribe. That would make lots of people happy and besides the resources required to do so, I see no real reason why this isn’t a good idea. Different sized guild halls for different sized guilds makes sense.

Wildkitten.3872:

GreyWolf.8670:

@Wildkitten: Sorry, I have no interest in discussing this with you anymore.

I’m not surprised in the least. I’m sorry that you can’t accomplish guild things solo anymore, but there is no reasonable argument to be made to be allowed to have solo guild stuff.

Why is an argument needed to allow people to play the way they wish to play? If you want a guild to be about playing with a large amount of people that’s fantastic. If another person wants their guild to be ultra small that is fantastic as well. The two instances don’t impact each other in any way.

The bottom line is that if it requires the same amount of resources to put together who cares how many people it takes? If 2 people (or even 1 person) wants to put forth the effort and time it would take 100 people to do, then who cares? Let that person put forth 100x the time and effort to do play the game they want.

Letting somebody have their own guild by themselves and playing guild content doesn’t impact you. At all. So why bother arguing it?

Harvey.7820:

The issue here is that Revenants are supposed to manage 1 resource: Energy.

What you mean to say is:

“The issue here is I WANT Revenants to manage 1 resource: Energy.”

What you want and what is supposed to happen are not usually the same thing. Chances are, if devs have you managing both energy and skill cds it’s because that’s the way they want it and therefore the way it’s supposed to be.

zaxziakohl.5243:

Set your weekly challenges to PvE. Guild Rushes (Races) have no mimimum requirement of people and as far as I know you can recruit non-guild members to help you finish them. Even on easy, doing it once will give you the favor needed to get a guild hall.

Then it’s just a matter of collecting money, and getting people to help you claim the hall.

Good information from all who’ve pointed out that PvE Missions have no population requirement. I think this needs to be shared amongst everybody having issues with the guild mission part to gain favor for their guild.

Again, guys I don’t think the Guild Hall missions are quite the issue. From what I understand you can group with others just fine and accomplish this and people are completing the mission with as few as 4 people and no guild requirement. Correct me if that is incorrect.

The issue is that to even begin the guild hall mission you need a certain amount of favor which is only obtained through guild missions, which are gated by a required population. This is the issue, as I see it.

And since they’ve moved certain things we used to have access to into guild halls…small guilds have LOST content and gameplay.

To those arguing against allowing small guilds the opportunity to have this content:

How does my girlfriend and I having our own guild hall affect the game as a whole or your gameplay in any way whatsoever? It’s not interfering with anybody else’s gameplay or the integrity of the game or guild system. I’ve played Guild Wars 2 since launch and Guld Wars since its launch and I’ve seen guilds come and go, big and small. All guilds are is friends playing together and some of the best guilds I’ve ever been in have been small, tight-knight groups that have destroyed content together. So saying a small guild isn’t a guild is just silly.

I think you’re looking at this wrong. The wiki and things like Dulfy are tremendous resources that other games (that DO need such things) sorely lack. I’ve never played an MMO that spoon fed me on how to accomplish everything in game. Guild Wars 2 is definitely not going to teach you how to play very often. It’s a game that will require you to figure things out and if you can’t or need some help…that’s why there are resources to fall back on.

So, to answer your thought process…if you’re looking for a game that will go…

1) Grab spoon
2) Pick up spoon
3) Move spoon to food
4) Insert spoon into food
5) Move spoon from food to mouth
6) Insert spoon with food into mouth
7) Eat food. Don’t eat spoon.

…then perhaps Guild Wars 2 is not your game. /endsnark

Just asking to let us be given the opportunity to work our tails off to get a Guild Hall and some of the content. It’s very disheartening to not even be given the chance to try. We’re not looking to overthrow the big guild dictators and their minions or disrupt the cosmic balance of the universe. We simply want to play the game with a small number of friends in a stress free environment.

Just asking for a little love is all. Small guilds need love too.

My girlfriend and I have been playing the game together for the last year and after joining a larger guild in the spring decided we have had a much more pleasant time on our own and have been playing in our own guild with just the two of us. We both have other friends in the game that we know, but we just like having our own thing to play together. In the past, we’ve been able to do just about all the normal guild things we need. Making banners for ourselves using influence etc. We were hoping to be able to get our own guild hall and she was excited to decorate it and all that, but from what i’m understanding this doesn’t seem to be possible with 2 people. I can’t even make a magic find banner now from what I’ve seen.

Are all guild missions going to require at least 3 people? Are guilds with just two people not going to be able to have any perks to playing together and be forced to join larger guilds?

I get the attraction and resources a large guild offers, but it’s really not what we’re looking for. Any help regarding this would be awesome. Thanks

Excellent. It feels way better just after a quick test. I love being able to end celestial and still have some AF left for the next fight. Well done Irenio.

Namica.2951:

Let me start by saying I love my ranger to death. I love its skills, its utilities, its look, even the pets I kinda like even though I think we should have a no pet option.

But I would also like something new after so many months playing Ranger. Was hoping the changes in HoT would rekindle my joy for the class. Instead we get a staff which, imo, is a clunky weapon to use and, while effective, isn’t really fun. And we get glyphs, which ranks up with mantras as the worst skill type in game.

I really dont know what anet was thinking with Druid. But for me its garbage and simply doesn’t fit ranger. Glyphs are slow and clunky, and when I think ranger I don’t think “heal bot”. But apparently a-net does, so I’m now looking for another class to main.

Honestly, completely disagree. I love the glyphs and it’s such a refreshing change and I’m beyond thrilled to have some utility skills that are useful and can be slotted in a wide variety of builds. +10% party damage? AOE knockback? AOE daze? AOE condition bomb that cripples/poisons/weakness? A 1/2 second induction heal that’s really useful? Not to mention some really solid group condition cleansing, crazy awesome healing, surprisingly good ranged dps with staff, great new pets….I could seriously go on all day.

Of all the new specs, Druid is easily my favorite and I feel the best all around. I feel like it adds more to the profession than any other elite spec does for their respective profession. The build opportunities, whether you are using Staff/Celestial or not, have opened up tremendously for us.

So no, I’m definitely not quitting ranger.

I’m not sure how a problem with another profession’s spec is a slap in the face to this one. The specs are completely different and it’s pretty impossible to draw any comparisons. Playing both professions and specs it’s way easier to manage Adrenaline compared to Astral Force atm. Not just do you build Adrenaline faster, but we also have multiple ways of boosting adrenaline gain including two complete fillers. So if you want to complain about them losing degen out of combat and gain the same type of ability to gain their resource, ok…otherwise it’s just kind of silly. We’re just fine with adrenaline. Astral Force is a mess.

I’m mostly okay with the way it’s set up with one big complaint. I have an 80 of each profession and I can only even start using the new weapon on the two I have done map completion on. That’s…a little insane to me. I play a lot. Too much probably. And 2? We should at least be able to use the new weapon to start using the spec right away. Even if we have to earn the traits and utility skills. But to be forced to grind out hero points on every character to even begin to use the new specs is just a little too much, I think. I’m not saying the system is broken, but it needs some tweeks.

Ah thanks I was in the SW when I noticed the issue. That seems kind of silly, but at least I understand now. Thanks.

I know this is a busy week for everybody working on the game, but pleaseeeeee try and clean up the gold sellers spamming chat, especially in Heart of the Mists. Getting a tell every 2 minutes and then reporting/blocking seems to be accomplishing nothing. All day. I hate crying about things, but this is seriously annoying.

Anybody else having issues with this trait not working? Virtue of Justice won’t reset on kill for me right now.

SamTheGuardian.2938:

Nocta.5274:

You’re not really familiar with what Betas are for I guess.

Here’s the deal, it is a beta. But it’s the FINAL beta meaning what we’re getting is pretty close to release. No they aren’t balanced. If these elite specs are allowed into Ranked matches then goodbye GW2 sPvP. Not forever, but for a few months until they sort out what is OP and what needs buffed, etc… Allowing these Elite specs into Ranked sPvP on launch day is WORST THING ArenaNet could do to the game. They would be taking three years of work balancing and throwing that away. Destroying the fun. PUG groups suck, but they suck a lot less today than they did at launch or even in 2014. It’s taken years to get us to this point….

sPvP this beta weekend has been complete garbage. There’s nothing wrong with a reset on Meta, the game could use that. But if you reset meta builds and introduce several new classes that are not well balanced (some under some OP in PvP) then you remove a players ability to win on skill. No one interested in e-sports (casual or pro) will have any interest in wasting their time when another player can get such a large advantage over them due to horrible balance.

Look at how effective the mild nerf to D/D ele has been. D/D ele was moaned about for months, but it really wasn’t THAT OP, some of the new professions and certain combos are insanely imbalanced. It won’t be tolerated by seasoned players, they will rage quit and go elsewhere. Some may eventually come back, many will find new games. This could all be avoided if they keep this new Elite specs and Rev out of Ranked games for several months following launch… Perhaps the entire PvP season

This.

Was really just giving a few examples of things where balance is completely off, but since you mention it…..maybe introducing a few specs and giving them only one beta weekend isn’t so smart? Maybe? Possibly? I think so.

Considering this is the last beta and things are this bad….I’m guessing betas are for giving us a glimpse of what’s to come.

It’s bad…really bad.

Reapers with 25 stacks of might/vuln (while i seem to remember somebody just nerfing rangers because they could get like 18 stacks of might and nerfed down to 3 on copy, but hey whatever).

Druid healing is….well, yeah.

Scrapper Dazes…Berserker broken rifle burst…etc…etc….etc…

I mean, really, this is awful. I love this game, but there seems to have been zero effort at balancing this stuff with existing professions.

Yeah, I bug reported. Hopefully somebody is working on a fix.

My first impression was → this is fantastic. So, well done on that.

Further thoughts I’ve had…

-Most of the issues stem from Astral Force…acquisition and expendeture.

-Because of the nature of Astral Force building, it makes our 2nd weapon seem pointless. Perhaps make it so our other weapons can still build AF, but at a slower rate? That way we aren’t completely punished for using a 2nd weapon set. Otherwise, it just feels off.

-Staff holding animation could be better

-Losing all AF when we choose to leave form early is very frustrating imho. I would much prefer it to be like Death Shroud where you have more control of your resource pool.

Aeolus Skylla.5037:

My pet is completely disabled. It’s acting like I have my pet hidden, but it won’t let me reactivate it. Happened when I went to Heart of the Mists, then back to the PvE world.

Also should be noted my pets aren’t disabled in Heart of the Mists, but I can’t pick the new ones.

Same

Firelysm.4967:

By far the MOST unbalanced clunky stance.
- Requires full energy to get into Avatar…
- Removes all energy IF DOWNED, GET IN STANCE AND LEAVE IT
- Can fill energy ONLY AND D**MN ONLY STAFF… [what????]

-Just like Berserker requires full Adrenaline
-CAPS CAPS LOUD NOISES CAPS CAPS
-Almost a valid point. Astral Force only building with staff weapon skills makes the other weapon set feel a little…cast aside?

Bow feels good now. No complaints really besides #2 root. Much prefer a longer cd with being able to move. Otherwise the damage needs to be slightly higher I feel. Root is a big, big problem. The amount of damage you’ll take while rooted is probably going to outweight the damage it does making the skill a no no except in certain situations.

Spear of justice lacks “umph”.

Wings of Resolve needs a blast finisher at the end imho.

Shield of courage cd is ridonkulous.

Traps feel ok, but meh. Seeing people asking for stun breaker…I think what it needs is Stability. Add on to the trap trait a small amount of Stability granted to yourself when an enemy activates a trap. 2 seconds of Stability I think would be perfect. I know, 10 seconds of stability if all 5 traps are activated at once seems like a lot, but if this is the new set of skills we need a real reason to use them, especially if there is no stun break.

(p.s. I don’t see how a stun break on a trap would even work, which is why i suggest stab)

I’m one of the people who believes the pet mechanic is core to my Ranger. I do not want the ability to not have my pet. I simply want it to work more effectively and also have a little more control over my pet.

My idea is decently simple and I believe it would add lots to both gameplay and builds.

Currently the Pet Bar has 4 real buttons
-Attack Target
-F2 skill
-Return to Me
-Switch pet

Toggle Pet Guard/Avoid Combat and Hide Pet I’m counting separate.

I propose a two part change.

1) Add an F3 skill that Pushes Return to Me down one space. Similar to the new Thief F skill.

2) Give Rangers the ability to choose which two skills of the Pet’s 4 skills go in those two slots.

The ability to choose when to use the Moa heal so it isn’t wasted, or the Wolf Knockdown to time our burst or even the piggy knockdown, the lizard blast finisher, the spider immob, swiftness from birdies…etc etc

Give me that and I’m a happy person. Nothing drives me crazier on my Ranger than seeing my pet use skills at pointless times.

Levetty.1279:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Zatoichi.1049:

lets face it, we never needed a buff to WHaO. Pretend the buff never happened and ask youself if it did, it didn’t…

but Shouts in general do…

If they were to to say, "yeah we kittened up, well take this as an opportunity to take a look at under utilized shouts and make improvements there " then im ok with it. If they can somehow synergize the shouts, make the “others” useful, and tweak the knee-jerk nerf to WHaO slighty (mostly in regards tweaking the might limitations), maybe we can come out of this ahead. That’s what I would like to see come out of this anyway

Since the boon buff to “WHaO!” was nerfed to very short durations, it could really be applied to ALL shouts now and not be OP.

That would be a pretty nice improvement to shouts in general, imo.

Hmmm, remove the boon sharing from WHaO add the aoe swiftness and regen as base. Change resounding timbre to share boons between ranger and pet. Rename it ‘We think as one’.

I like this idea, but I think it then becomes too strong in its current place as a trait. I think switching it with Honed Axes would actually work and fix a couple issues. People would use Honed Axes more, perhaps, and also you then can’t use Zephyr’s Speed with the boon sharing.

Because Gaile is awesome.

Disappointing “fix”. Very frustrating to main a profession that is treated this way.

Feedback…cap quickness, fine. Cap swiftness even, fine. Cap regen, ok. But the might cap, is ridiculous. There is simply no reason to do this. Especially compared to other professions.

/signed make it so

Anybody who plays Guard with any frequency knew this was coming. Relax. It’s not that big a nerf. I’d much rather they did this with the CD than affect the duration of the shout.

Sicarius.4639:

drgast.1469:

I’m all for the new restrictions on free accounts for map chat, but at the same time….I’ve already seen one hiccup in this. If you’re a new player and maybe you have some questions when you first join the game…it’s not easy to do that. Even people trying to help new players have an awkward time starting a dialogue.

My suggestion is to add another map-wide chat channel clearly designed for help or something of that sort that is available to all, but with a timed limit similar to the whispers. Also make it clear to people when they log on their accounts that it’s quite easy to simply turn the chat channel off if you dont want to see it, but give the new people a way of not just getting their questions answered, but also feeling perhaps more involved in the community.

I’m sure other people can come up with better suggestions as well, but I see this as a possible issue in the current plan to mitigate unwanted chat traffic from free accounts.

I thought this would be an issue for new players, just like taking away the ability to ask questions on the forum, it’s quite funny actually for a community that loves to pat itself on the back for being friendly, we’d much rather shun newcomers because there may be a possible inconvenience to ourselves.

Well, I completely understand the restrictions because I have seen what can happen, but I do think it’s a little bit of one step forward and one step back. If the goal is to get new players into the game and to join the community, then the current restrictions make it hard for new people to feel like a part of that community. I’d like to find a middle ground to allow them to really feel part of it and want to pay for the expansion for more than “well, I want to actually be able to talk in map chat”. I’d much rather the reason be, “Man, the game was awesome and I really felt like a part of the great community and want to experience more of it.”

I’m all for the new restrictions on free accounts for map chat, but at the same time….I’ve already seen one hiccup in this. If you’re a new player and maybe you have some questions when you first join the game…it’s not easy to do that. Even people trying to help new players have an awkward time starting a dialogue.

My suggestion is to add another map-wide chat channel clearly designed for help or something of that sort that is available to all, but with a timed limit similar to the whispers. Also make it clear to people when they log on their accounts that it’s quite easy to simply turn the chat channel off if you dont want to see it, but give the new people a way of not just getting their questions answered, but also feeling perhaps more involved in the community.

I’m sure other people can come up with better suggestions as well, but I see this as a possible issue in the current plan to mitigate unwanted chat traffic from free accounts.

Besides all of the intelligent restrictions they’ve added…I fail to see how botting really affects my gaming experience much. I get tells from gold sellers and stuff occasionally, but that’s a quick 2 second report and i’ve yet to play a popular game with an economy that didn’t have that type thing (or worse). I dunno, maybe I am just oblivious too other players around me more than most people.

Key word being speculation. I’m not gonna overreact too much about anything either way, especially without all of the info. However, as I said…mislead not because of false information, but rather for lack of what many people would call essential info.

Translation: A person Pre-purchases HoT thinking they are getting a really good deal with the full game free included and always wanted to try it so why not. Then finds out they could get the core game free and then decide if they want to get HoT. I know it’s a fine line, really I do. But it is there nonetheless.

Again, all pure speculation at this point from IGN’s mess-up.

Crossaber.8934:

New player get free core game BY purchase HoT.

You can’t get a free core game WITHOUT paying HoT at least $50. No body is getting core alone for free. Unless it is a free trial.

Right, but the speculation from the IGN blunder is that this will no longer be the case moving forward.

I’m not here to argue the merits of a f2p model or against it, but rather to simply say that if this indeed coming I feel like this is information that should have been shared with people before Pre-Purchase happened. Not because it would change my decision necessarily, but because consumers deserve to know what they are getting before they spend their money. I’m a long time consumer of GW dating back to Prophecies and I’m going to play regardless. However, I also convinced many friends to get the expansion early when I saw the core game would be included for free. But if I had known the core game would be free on its own, I would have said wait and try it first. I hope that distinction is clear.

Again, I know all the information isn’t out obviously and I love the game. I simply don’t like feeling mislead and if people spent money when they didn’t have to…that starts to qualify, I think. Either way, looking forward to more information this weekend. Cheers.

Just a quick thank you to whoever the dev was that helped make minions responsive. Sincerely, thank you very much.

Yeah, I can’t say I’m thrilled atm as somebody who plays Guardian because I enjoy support. I’m looking at those skills and thinking, “wow…if only i had those shield skills my mace/shield would be an utterly amazing support combo”. Still lots to see and balance, but I’m starting to definitely give some thought that Rev might be better suited profession for support (especially in the healing area). Never know, but it seems that way right now.

Any update on this? I know they are busy with HoT stuff, but it’d be nice if this wasn’t taking so long :\.

My issue is that switching legends mainly just feels like switching kits for engi or attunements on ele, but with less impact on gameplay since your weapon skills don’t change. Think about how your gameplay changes on ele when you switch and go from fire to water (all your weapon skills change and many of your utility skills have different effects based on attunement)….or on engi going from nade kit to elixir gun to pistol/shield etc. With the Rev, you switch attunements and you get new skills, but somehow it feels off.

I think weapon swap is the simplest answer atm. It opens up builds and doesn’t make you feel quite so trapped.

lordhelmos.7623:

STAFF CHANGES:

-Staff 1: Chain 1 and 2 unchanged, final strike grants a short burst of quickness. No more random shards falling on the ground. The healing works differently with the new ventari mechanic I’ve outlined. See below.

-Staff 2: Change to a leap skill. Revenant needs movement. Leap 900m, strike inflicts aoe weakness in a small radius where it hits. Cripples the primary target also.

-Staff 3: Unchanged, decent skill.

-Staff 4: Borderline useless. Now grants temporarily invulnerability when activating. CD adjusted. Vulnerable to interrupts. Healers get focused, they need something like this.

-Staff 5: Unchanged.

TABLET CHANGES:

-Tablet movement speed and pathing increased. Tablet now teleports to the player instantly if stuck.

-Tablet passive changed. Instead of pulsing heal, a each time the revenant deals damage allies around the tablet are healed for an amount. Synergizes with the staff quickness, allowing the revenant to land blows quickly in aggression and heal for more. Works like the Chloromancer from RIFT. While in ventari stance the revenant gains half of this healing even if the tablet is not in range of him. He gains the full bonus if it is in range.

-Tablet Utility 1: Now allows allies inside the field to resurrect downed players 10% faster.

-Tablet Utility 2: Grants aegis immediately on command then the delayed heal hits after. Allows the rev to save people being bursted.

-Tablet Utility 3: Now grants resistance after removing conditions to allies in range.

-Tablet Elite: Energy fragments now grant protection as well as healing.

No. Lots of no.

Unrealized potential

It either needs weapon swap or effects based on Legend Swap similar to Elemental Attunement because right now it just feels off. Honestly, I just don’t know why weapon swapping isn’t there. It would make the class far more enjoyable to play imho.

Am I missing something or is this a very limited profession in build diversity? No weapon swap? Utility skills all determined by legend?

Ele no weapon swap works because you have attunements giving 4x weapon skills and you can freely choose between 6-10. Engi works because of kits and the toolbelt skills, and again being able to freely choose between 6-10.

If I can’t choose between 6-10 freely and it’s tied to my legend….plus I have a resource to manage and no weapon swap…I just feel horribly trapped.

Please tell me I’m missing something

Biggest issue I see with staff is that it looks like a really good support weapon, but it requires you really to be within melee range to do that and with one short range gap closer on a 20 sec cd and no way to slow a target…very difficult in anything other than PvE do accomplish that goal of support. Can keep yourself relatively clean of conditions and stuff, but if you can’t slow a target it just doesn’t matter. I mostly sPvP and WvW and i have a lot of trouble with the idea of using that

Kubrick.5740:

I am having a really hard time finding a build that is enjoyable since they’ve changed the traits around. I solely play PvE.

Spirits are unplayable because they can’t move, they last 60 seconds and have a 20 second cd that starts after they go away.. and you can’t make them go away early, so you literally rarely have them, and they have mediocre buffs anyways. It was only good when they could follow you and lasted the entire 60 second duration. Especially since they have an annoyingly long channel to summon.

Traps are unplayable because they can’t have ground targeting. (for range might I add)
Shouts are just… no.
Signets are underwhelming.

And I hate how a lot of the traits give bonuses “under the health threshold” of 50%, and there doesn’t seem to be any really amazing traits. There are only 1 or 2 that I actually really love (like the one for longbow recharge and piercing and attack speed, amazing).

I don’t know if I’m alone in this feeling, but I am really disappointed in what they did to the Rangers. I had a lot of fun with them in the past, I’ve always mained them, but now they just seem horrible because there are literally no skills that are good. I’m basically forced into a signet spec if I want to be ranged, otherwise I have to play melee in order to have an actual spec?

I’m always going to play with a longbow, and my alt weapon is an axe/warhorn.
I am unwilling to switch weapons because I hate melee. Hence why I picked a RANGEr to begin with when I originally started playing.

Why on earth did they decide to get rid of trap ground targeting and spirits not moving? Those were really good talents… well, really good because they gave you an option… it should just have ground targeting base. And I thought I read somewhere that wells and traps were getting ground targeting base, but clearly not at the moment. Is that coming with the patch or am I crazy?

Anyways, any tips on a good build that has proven useful that is RANGED? I do NOT want to play melee.

Maybe you should play a different profession. If you limit yourself to only playing longbow you’re limiting yourself to a fraction of the build possibilities out there and you shouldn’t be surprised when you start feeling limited. Sitting at range and pew pew is fun and effective, but you ask why they change those traits…and it’s because the profession is about more than that.

Spirits are far more useful now than they were before. If the 20 sec cd in between consuming and dropping is that big of an issue for you in pvp maybe you should rethink how you’re playing. If you’re running a full spirit build just rotate drops a little that way you don’t go 20 seconds without a spirit up. For things like meta events spirits are incredibly useful. The proc was increased and the cd lowered. Moving with me was nice, but kind of stupid and I’m glad they were made back to the way they were in GW1 as AoE buffs. The buffs are definitely not mediocre in a 5 person group. The boons from Nature’s Vengeance are also nice. If you’re not seeing the value of spirits in gameplay you’re just not using them correctly. Lots of value in the game currently.

Traps are more powerful than they were before and that’s the sacrifice for no range. A trap build with lots of condition damage is extremely strong right now. Again, I’m sorry but if you’re not seeing the value of traps you’re just not using them correctly. The knockdown added to spike trap is amazing. Using traps with a ranged weapon that isn’t sb/axe kind of defeats the purpose of using traps anyways. Again, this is a change that reverts a skill back to the way it was in GW1 for the most part and I’m extremely happy about it. Build around toughnes/vit/condi damage and watch things melt.

Shout builds are extremely effective atm because of “We Heal As One” and “Strength of the Pack” being shouts. You can have just those two shouts on your bar and with Pack runes stack swiftness pretty effectivelpy. I duo in WvW with another ranger sometimes with both of us running Pack runes, “WhaO”/"SotP, and traiting Resounding Timbre we have perma swiftness and regen by timing our shouts. It makes for extremely effective roaming. I use a very similar build sPvP effectively and also for running around in PvE a lot. Sic Em is also a very underrated skill and so is Protect Me (especially considering it’s essentially a mimic of a heavily used war skill “endure pain”.). So shouts…yes, very yes.

If you’re unwilling to use Traps, Shouts, or Spirits you are limiting yourself to Signets and Survival skills and coming up with a build out of those and the traits shouldn’t be that difficult. You can pretty much trait Lead the Wind, use QZ w/ Stone Sig and Sig of the Wild and faceroll everything in PvE without leaving your longbow.

Aomine.5012:

drgast.1469:

People exploit a trait with no ICD then complain it’s broken when the devs put an ICD to stop the exploiting….craziness.

LOL, funny thing is:

1. It’s there since launch. 3 years later suddenly claimed it’s an exploit?
2. It cannot really use in PVP anyway aside from the initial encounter in which you stow your pet.

Another ignorant ranger hater..

No, you’re right. I am a hater of ignorant rangers. As a ranger main I know the only thing this affects is people abusing how pet stow stupidly acts like swap. While I’m sure changing pet stow mechanic would be nice, but more time consuming…this ICD accomplishes the same goal of stopping people from doing it and gets 2x the quickness. If you think the trait can’t be used in PVP you’re just not doing it right. Quickness 1/5 of a fight is good no matter what you’re doing. The trait is still ridiculously powerful as it has been in the past. The only difference is now we can get 3 GM and Beastmastery was reworked to be more viable in builds.

So much crying about a 5 second ICD…wowza…..it needed it. No ICD on that trait was insane.

i only use shield if i’m doing a meta event where i want something besides staff for support…otherwise zero use for me