I agree OP
For traps to be any good they need several things
1) 900 range
2) trait compression so they dont take 30 points
3) They need to not take up all 3 utility spots
At the moment traps just aren’t worth it given the trait and utility requirements.
IMO traps should work the same way as an engineers bomb/nade kit does (with ALL traps in 1 kit). If this was done then I would be ok with fully traited traps taking 6 points in crit damage line; freeing up 2 utilities for survival options.
OR
Each trap has 2 seperate functions, both a damage component and a trapping component: Fire/immobilize ; Spike/frost fro example.
ATM traps are only good for hotjoin zerging when they could be much more.
Is that some sort of shatter condition build op? idk if you’re going to have the damage necessary.
aoe condition spam is hard to deal with when illusions vanish instantly. Greatsword isnt strong damage on its own, especially in a condition build.
The most luck ive had with engineers is when i go power and manage to land a phantasm burst. ie: GS2, phantasm, 3 followed by pistol phant/ interrupt/blurred frenzy. Hopefully every phant gets at least 1 hit in this way, you can then try to wear the eng down with GS from a distance until the burst is reasdy again.
The amount of aoe pressure an eng can dish out is insane, but they also tend to be squishy.
As far as condition mesmers go, pu is probably your best bet some variety of 4/4/6/x/x scepter torch with staff.
But w/e the build you use, chances are your going to have to kite an engineer, its impossible to stay on a point with 1 these days
@Prysin
Find 1 point of contention in the op and trash entire thread
Hardly seems fair
That being said, pets both suck and blow. They hit relatively hard for ai (if built that way—sucks to fight them with the regen possible) and are easily kited, as such your damage output as bm blows (potentially)
Necro: The condition ones have an I win button when fears are off cooldown; and everyone loves that button (when they can find it). The power/well ones seem tankier, which is ok with me (they need it)
Engineers: 7seconds of burn every 10 is too high, especially with the ridiculous amount of cond cover they have. Nerf the Balthazar runes pls
Warriors: Sigils of intelligence on hammer combined with runes of strength= dead opponent if stun breaker is on cooldown/not a mesmer. Nerf pls
Ele : no idea rly, they still seem to die while generally not killing you in a cc chain or from 1500 units away lol
Guardians: Can come close to insta gibbing (lousy mechanic if i have to say it)every 40 seconds, otherwise the dps builds are meh
Thieves: See all posts on stealth/burst/avoidance over 2yrs lmao
Rangers: Spirits are worse, otherwise the same
I feel like much more a threat now on my bm.
Still not great in a team fight, slow as well but the pet does significant damage again.
So maybe a good back point bunker
Im not doing anything different today vs yesterday, but im seeing big numbers everywhere.
Pet is hitting even harder on downed state players, got a few 8k plus hits
f2 for birds is over 4k *2, It wasnt that high before, also 30 sec cd down to 18
IDK whats up, but it certainly feels like something has changed.
Playing BM wasnt this easy yesterday lol
Eh, I thought the pet was bugged when i started playing my bm ranger.
Birds are critting for 7k (double strike each hitting, if crit, for 2k upwards of 3.5-3.8 k with only the extra crit damage trait which is 30%), Non crit double strike is 1.5k so not a bug i guess, BUT HOLY HELL THEY HIT HARD LMAO
return of the bunker bm?
Edit: they upped the f2 damage as well as lowering its cooldown all the while making it more responsive. Good times:D
Edit: good luck killing pet unless its 2/3 v1 lol
Question-Are my lvl 2 pvp alts missing gear (head shoulders) when i move to the mists; or is it given a full set of gear?
I ask because the character shows missing gear slots, yet the runes show all 6.
I tried unequiping some gear and the the armor stat dropped but not the toughness or any other stat.
Anyone know whats up?
@Oidmetala
Those are some neat changes for both LB and GS. A combination of survivability and steady damage boosts. Cool:D. These would make the weapons and power rangers themselves, interesting to play in pvp again without being overpowered (Maul may have to adjusted).
Looked at from a hotjoin point of view thieves, mesmers and warriors. The first 2 have lots of stealth/escape mechanics that allow for zerg escape, the latter has tons and tons of sustain.
For soloq- thieves, warriors and decap engineers are strongest
Dueling- mesmers are strong, havent done a whole lot of dueling lately, but there are several builds that do ok 1v1 bm regen rangers, thieves, cond warriors
Havent done much team q either, but from what i understand guardians and spirit rangers are strong when there is good communication and organization
All classes have an ability to safe stomp true, most of these are 1 min cooldowns/ utilities that would otherwise be used for defence, so not a fair comparison.
I would also add that most of the pvp in this game is not the voip/organized type where i get to call out the situation/ ask for help. That small area of the game is the 1 place where stealth finishers can be more easily dealt with. Unfortunately that level of coordination is not a reasonable expectation in other modes thus stealth allows for a risk free, largely uninterruptible, stomp.
But like any thread on stealth, it gets flooded with myopic l2p posts
Power/Med guardian, sure, as other posters have pointed out, crazy burst or cc is needed to kill a thief before the reset. So as long as everything lands you can do ok. Burst on cd? (judges intervention is what 40sec?) Med guardians suffer the same fate as other zerkers in the hands of a thief
Sry but traps are terrible, soon to be worse with the possibility of 50% damage reduction while stealthed.
That only applies to normal damage. Conditions still melt thieves. hint hint
True but there is a physical damage component to traps. They are balanced between phy and cond. Lose 50% of 1 part and your left with 3 underpowered utilities.
“Your own incompetence”
Yes because like fighting ai, stealth places close to the entire skill burden on the toon without that ability.
And by skill, I mean running around mashing 1 /pbaoe’s or trying to get out of backstab range (gl).
Kitten, your right.
This is a helpful insight into my own negative, at times, behavior.
TY bhagwad
Deep breath
Deep breath
Just a game…..K….Now you may type
Certain proffs’ essentially define what can or cant be played, thieves are one those that define the meta, along with bunker toons (guardians); while others (like mesmers) have just enough abilities (invis and ai) to be really annoying and excellent duelists. If you want to win 1v1’s against these toons, then you need to build a certain way. I would add that depending on proff chosen (outside of an insta gib fresh air combo, ele is sadly 1 of those atm), you may still not be able to win . I started playing this game 1yr ago on a power ranger, quickly realized they were free kills for most builds and went regen BM; even with the nerfed pets its the only build that works well as a duelist. Ignore the play as you want/build as you want marketing; everything in this game is very narrowly defined and if you play outside of specific role and build , its not going to go well.
Was hoping that power builds would be interesting. 30/0/10/30/0. But then I remembered that longbow cd is in skirmishing…….
This proff badly needs some trait compression.
If they were serious about build diversity, then they would move empathic bond to a 20 or even 10 point trait as Rivebise pointed out
On the positive side, they may have allowed for a bunker build that is pretty much immune to conditions……cough cough
mm arent hard if you play an eng, power necro or hambow. On anything else glassy they can be a real pita and will probly survive at least long enough for reinforcements to arrive, but that is the point i guess. Problems start to arise when they can go strong offense in the same build and they can atm.
I get the impression that a lot of proff mechanics (AI, stealth) werent designed with what its like to fight them in mind. They are beatable, but the skill requirements rest largely on the non ai/stealthed opponent.
Meh hotjoin is ok in doses. Getting mugged 3/4v1 by a bunch of warr/mes/theif rats….er Asura gets on my nerves. When I feel the rage start to build, like the hulk, I stop and breath deeply and do something else:D
@Fluffball
Im not saying ive never killed a thief, I outplay them all the time. If its even skill however, I wont win, I may get an advantage only to see the thief reset.
People complain about thieves in spvp all the time lol. Theres like a 5 pg thread on how they drive away other power proff’s. That being said, thieves do get easier when you gain a bit of experience with them. Some helpful tips (no more qq’ing:D): theres a 3?(unless they chain it) second window in stealth, it can help to count it out and time a dodge or evade. As the op points out, relying on big hits lb4 for example, can be a real pita with the constant blinds/resets, but if you want to use lb, then you need to time the channel for right before stealth, thats the only advantage for that weapon sadly. Bottom line is that to killa thief, you need lots of burst or cc and while we have some soft cc (pet f2 hopefully is more responsive after 15th), the ranger proff is designed around steady-non bursty damage.
Any thief, especially in wvw , that plays well/dosent want to die, wont, its really as simple as that.
If they stick around and fight, then they have the stolen water field; several condition removal options; the best burst coupled with the best avoidance in the game. As Urdriel pointed out, power is hopeless 100% of the time vs a good thief while tanky rangers may not have enough damage to kill 1. I would add that even in a spirit build (outside of the elite being rdy), thieves often have the upper hand (depending on their build).
So what to do? The best outcomes ive had have been with bm regen (bounce around with sword and hope for lousy pet ai to actually hit, which it wont vs a thief who uses good movement).
Best way to beat a thief is to focus them when revealed….in a group fight ’cause its not a fair fight 1v1 imo.
Yea there will always be “pro’s” telling you how things should be/ l2p. However, 1 clever forum edit does not change a proff’s mechanics unfortunately.
Not a whole lot you can do vs a thief tbh. Generally vs any decent thief its a question of build (yours) If you play as tanky bm/regen then you have a shot through attrition, otherwise your hooped lol.
Woudnt be so bad if the requirement to drop someone off the map were increased. I dont think it would bug me nearly as much if it took even just 2 cc’s to knock someone off. For example a hunter using knockback followed by an engineer with any 1 of their 1000 cc’s. A little co-ordination/skill and maybe a chance to break the chain would end a lot of the qq.
I dont like the map, but some do. That being said, if Anet would allow players to either blacklist a couple maps or provide a ready now button that functioned and would put teams back in q if 1 didnt accept (Its beyond me why they haven’t done this) instead of the “benching” system they have now, we would see a lot less 4v5’s. Personally I havent soloq’d fop ages due to skyhammer and the orb one.
@op
Your right. Builds and roles are very narrowly defined. Want to roam—thief. Want to bunker ? Guardian Team support? spirit ranger Generalist? Warrior. Thats all, and within those prof’s their are builds that must be run. As far as I can tell its the same in pve, the encounters are the most scripted ive ever seen in an mmo; stack in this corner, skip these mobs or be 1 shot etc. Any deviation from optimal script not only is more difficult, but in many circumstances wont work at all.
99% of the time I play pvp and when I experiment, or when I play a non meta proff, or even if I try a meta build in a non meta role, it dosent go well vs any prof that adheres to the narrow boundaries that make up the meta.
Its not like the solutions are difficult, there have been many excellent posts from people who play various professions, simple things like trait amalgamation, nerfing certain abilities; ok the forums are full of qq and buff me pls to the stars, but, if you read enough posts and play enough to have a sense of where things stand, then determining what is required is not, in fact, difficult.
I guess well see what the 15th offers us; most posts seem to be quite pessimistic given the amount of information we have atm. If nothing changes, prof’s and builds become even further entrenched where they are then i can hardly see myself grinding pve for pvp skills. Its likely where ill be getting off and tyvm for the fun Ive had
1) “Almost had a chance” Traps will now do 10% more damage to stealthed targets
2)“Master of scheduling” All RNG abilities now have a 15% chance of being applied by/to pet as well
3) “Evades avatar” Once evades are on cooldown, the ranger merges with its pet for 5 seconds, followed by instant and cost free respawn.
Useless trait for mesmers to be honest. A regular interupt 5 sec cooldown is enough to insure death for most classes. So its a little like moa i suppose, an “I win” button whenever you see your opponent waving its hand in the air.
Yerp, couple more bunker trait options; power still kittened; 30 point investment for everything except LB —now 50 point requirement lol.
On a positive note we may or may not have fixed pet f2 skills (sry bout the rest of the pets ai),
Have a good day.
How about Ranger taking less damage overall when melee’ing, 15% would then be acceptable? As it is, terrible, as op pointed out, not even good for sigils lol.
@Seras
True, the thing with marks is they provide front loaded damage, step on 1 and you get the full output; unlike traps that require 3 pulses (3seconds) for full damage output. I honestly don’t know how they could make this work without giving us more on demand soft cc, either through working pet f2, through utilities (for which we have 0 room), weapon skills or a combination thereof and that would still leave a very squishy trapper.
@op
Yea, these are 2 proffs that have been complained about, with good reason from both beginners and veterans, from launch. Believe it or not, they both used to be much stronger…shudder….
@soon./balance.tm
Ive played all toons. Your right, there are extremes of burst and bunker, still, in this game. To be fair, some people do enjoy playing those styles. They only become a problem, really if they define the meta without a strong middle ground, (ie: the elusive balanced spec) and in the case of guardians and thieves, they both have from the start. Theres a long thread on thieves driving other damage dealers away (or forcing other proff’s to build for cond bunkers if possible), its accurate imo (same could be said for guardian bunkers, but a bunker i can walk away from lol).
True, but then, who wants to play bunker lol.
Eh, the only good generalist is the warrior, only good roamer is the thief, only good bunker is guardian. All others have niche roles/comps in which they can do ok.
Part of the problem is the 6 mth wait for balance changes = Stale meta/static roles
Well idk,
Its possible that any weapon skills that basically requires the opponent to stand in a little circle for any period of time without lots of cc is doomed. Kind of too bad, mechanically its a pretty fun build, with more (potential) burst and skill shots than any other ranger option atm.
. On anything else glassy they can be a real pita and will probly survive at least long enough for reinforcements to arrive, but that is the point i guess. Problems start to arise when they can go strong offense in the same build and they can atm.