Guild Wars 2

Quarktastic.1027:

jubskie.3152:

I see these people as the kind of people that absolutely hate change. Their toy truck with big wheels got changed to a toy truck with small wheels, but in exchange they are given a new race car as an alternative. They will kitten and moan about the changes to their beloved toy truck and completely ignore the new race car.

This is all well and good. Except the new race car has broken wheel and is covered in dents.

The toys are metaphors for builds. It’s amazing that you can already judge that the new meta build is broken when it hasn’t even emerged yet.

Poor new meta build, aborted by Quarktastic before you were even born. :’(

Leave it to the ranger section forum goers to turn an innocent question into a spam fest for their QQ.

@Topic

I haven’t tested this yet but this is what I was thinking for a full melee build. (I can’t remember what weapons i put in there (the site is blocked at work), but GS + Sword/Warhorn or S/D should work fine with it.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|c.1c.h2.g.1c.h4|1.1c.h2|1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x|4u.0.2u.0.3u.0.2u.0.3u.0.2u.0|0.0.u4ac.u35c.a3|2m.1|4i.4y.4l.4k.55|e

Almost 2.4 power, 27k hp and 3k armor, with perma swiftness, perma regen, a condition cleanse every 12 seconds and 2 stun breakers and the pet will also get 83% protection uptime.

This is designed to be in the brunt of a zerg. Not sure how well the damage fares, but in a zerg, staying alive is more important than dealing as much damage as possible.

gawker.8340:

Reverse the swap please. Instinctual Bond is worthless. Since ALL pets have been made completely useless, there’s no reason to dump 30 points into BM tree for Zephyr’s Speed. Before the patch, rangers have guaranteed access to 2s of quickness to stomp but now they can’t even do that.

Sweeping generalization much?

Jaguar Burst is still a thing. I’m going to repost something I said in another thread:

jubskie.3152:

Jaguars still have ridiculously high crit chance while stealthed, its just not 100% anymore.

(2061 base precision – 822) / 21 = 59% base crit chance

59% base crit + 25% stalk bonus crit chance = 84% crit chance when stealthed

With 30 points in BM, thats an additional 14% for a total of 98% crit chance. I doubt a 2% decrease in crit chance is gonna be a big enough factor in Jaguar spike.

The Feline Maul skill was nerfed by 50%. It used to do something like 4k-5k damage, now it’s reduced to 2k-2.5k. But it is on a 20s cd and Feline auto attacks are untouched so Felines are still top DPS pets albeit a tiny bit weaker.

Atmost, you lose 3k~ or so damage every 20 seconds.

Also, 2 seconds of quickness is not enough for a stomp at all. See this thread.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-s-Confirm-Bug-Please/

Although I will admit, I’m going to miss quickness Barrage, quickness Rapid Fire, and quickness rezzing from petswap.

Nope, I’m pretty happy with my ranger despite all of it’s shortcomings and the perception of players in this forum.

I agree with jcbroe’s analysis of the ranger community in this forum. They take everything in a negative light and blow it out of proportion (see aquaman).

My personal gripe about the community is that the negative nancys believe that their opinion is absolutely correct and disagreeing with them gets you labeled as a troll or they start to question your intelligence. Present them with facts and they will ignore it or they will still try to enforce their belief that they are correct. (see 84% crit chance with Jaguar Stealth).

While I agree that some of their complaints are valid (I’m pretty upset about the pet damage nerfs just as much as they are), they present them in such a offensive and repulsive manner that it’s hard to take it seriously. More so for developers that want to see player feedback but get turned off by all the crap they have to slog through just to get the decent ones. And when one of them finally has the guts to participate in discussion, they get viciously attacked. (See Robert Hrouda)

I see these people as the kind of people that absolutely hate change. Their toy truck with big wheels got changed to a toy truck with small wheels, but in exchange they are given a new race car as an alternative. They will kitten and moan about the changes to their beloved toy truck and completely ignore the new race car.

TheDarkCynder.4618:

I dunno.

My build was focused around black jaguar. Is there ANY build now with decent damage?

Jaguars still have ridiculously high crit chance while stealthed, its just not 100% anymore.

(2061 base precision – 822) / 21 = 59% base crit chance

59% base crit + 25% stalk bonus crit chance = 84% crit chance when stealthed

With 30 points in BM, thats an additional 14% for a total of 98% crit chance. I doubt a 2% decrease in crit chance is gonna be a big enough factor in Jaguar spike.

The Feline Maul skill was nerfed by 50%. It used to do something like 4k-5k damage, now it’s reduced to 2k-2.5k. But it is on a 20s cd and Feline auto attacks are untouched so Felines are still top DPS pets albeit a tiny bit weaker.

Minor Rant: I hate the search function in this forum :/ Someone already posted this in this forum but I couldn’t find it. Ended up retyping it on reddit and copypasting here.

Do you have any experience running these runes on warrior/guardian? Any idea how these runes work on their shouts?

I’m suspecting that the runes are bugged for rangers if they work fine for warriors/guardians.

Hmmm.. I wanted to test this myself. How near were your allies when you used the shouts?

Based on the notes, Owl F2 wasn’t changed so it should still hit pretty hard.

When you test the F2 skills, please don’t forget that Eagle F2 is 2 stacks of 15 second Bleeding. When it’s traited, its 21 seconds of bleeding on a 6 sec cooldown. :O

I’ll change builds. For the DD505, I’ve put 5 in BM for the quickness. Since that’s gone I don’t have a reason to put points there anymore.

I was thinking of putting it in WS instead so I get access to the WS adept traits.

Faux Sheaux.6179:

Regardless, this still makes a viable roaming build. And 360 is still a decent radius. Not sure where all the hate over that is coming from lol.

Also, I was only trying to show how you can replace the old “beastmaster” mindset. This is a proposition, not a guide :P

When they say 360 AoE, does it mean radius or diameter? This would really change things up if it were radius.

Dodge roll distance is 300, so if it’s radius, anyone a little over a dodge roll would get buffed.

Durzlla.6295:

Bear DPS is new meta bro! Gonna have to get that pet might on crit trait though…

Black Bear looks like an interesting pet post patch. An 8 second weakness (12 if traited) in a 600 AoE is nothing to scoff at.

GUFF.5692:

I am surprised they didn’t do more with the adept, master, and grandmaster traits in the Markmanship tree.

Opening Strike, Alpha Training, and Precise Strike look good on paper but are so bad in practice. If we are supposed to be the constant damage dealers they say we are shouldn’t we have traits that help us through-out the fight and not indicate a spike damage role which we can no longer even attempt to fill? We need some help in this area ANET. DD builds are still lacking against our Condi counterparts and the MM tree is one reason why (along with main stat mechanics).

I’ve been thinking about this and figured since they made Protect Me a viable shout, we won’t need traited SoS as much as before. This opens up the Marksmanship GM slot for Remorseless. Although a lot of testing has to be done to figure out if it’s a good pick.

Why thank you! I’ll will, in fact, enjoy them a lot

Some points to further illustrate my joy:

1. Rangers are no longer forced to use Signet of the Hunt if they want faster movespeed. Call of the Wild is just enough as a source of swiftness.
2. It gives rangers a reason to invest 30 deep into NM. It just so happens to give 3000 hp and +30% boon duration. Oh hey look, ANet is promoting trait diversity :O
3. It gives rangers a reason to use shouts. Huh what? ANet is promoting utility diversity too? :O
4. It makes using Soldier Runes viable on rangers. And guess what? Rangers have a 15 second cd shout that gives the pet protection and stealth! This is arguably the best shout to use with Soldier Runes. The closest contender is Shake It Off because its a stun break and removes another condition, but it has a 25s cd. (no regen/swiftness for them though!)
5. Regen and swiftness might not be great in PvE/Dungeons, but they are incredible in sPvP/WvW. One of my biggest issues with BM Bunkers is that I don’t have access to SotH or Swiftness so I’m forced to stay at back point even though I want to do secondary objectives (like getting Stillness). With this change I finally have a way to reliably get swiftness.
6. How many classes have access to Regen and Swiftness on such a low cooldown?

I will admit I’m going to miss Zephyr’s Speed but then I get 5 more trait points to move around and use to try out new builds. So many changes were made, it’ll be a fun month figuring out new builds

Interesting variation, you’re still keeping the RRR feel alive and different at the same time. I have 2 questions though:

1. What are your thoughts on soldier runes?
2. How are you going to cope with the loss of damage from pets?

nagymbear.5280:

I would like to try something like this. But I’m a cheap kitten, and prolly won’t spend much. With easy acces to might on crit, pets will be able to deal some nice bleeding damage, especially with RaO.

Edit: kitten I forgot I don’t have 20 in BM and bleed on crits for the pet nvm

OMG, I just made the exact same trait build (with slightly different trait choices) :P

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|3.1c.h17|1.1c.h15|1n.7i.1c.7i.1n.7i.1c.7i.1n.7i.1c.7i|411.0.211.0.311.0.211.0.311.0.2v.0|u28b.p5a.f5.0.0|54.1|4i.4y.4l.4p.55|e

Labbes.5678:

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all the theorycrafters out there (not only jubskie) who make awesome posts like this and make me not lose hope in my ranger.

Glad to help!

Also, I think I understand why Lacerating Slash was nerfed. It’s a freaking 2 stacks of bleed that lasts 15s on a 6 second cooldown. O_O

With Soldier Runes, yes.

Manekk.6981:

Durzlla.6295:

Except Bears, i think Bears may have just climbed a lot higher on the ladder of DPS, because a 27% nerf to my canines damage means he should be hitting for ~100 more damage than my bear…. and bears attack faster….

Maybe this is some conspiracy ending in us all looking like complete noobs with bears and longbows?

Or the another way to look at it, is that ANet wants to make longbow + bear THE pro build for rangers :P

Actually, it does look viable with Protect Me being turned into a stun breaker. Bears are definitely the best pet to use that shout with. It could replace SoS and SotBM won’t be as needed anymore.

Ooooh~ so much theory crafting to be done~

EDIT: changed a word

Well, if you’re just after PvE, then yes, just build for glass and use pets for their utility (jungle stalker’s 5 might stacks or red moa’s 15s fury). No one really says no to more fury, right?

Cleyran Knight.8291:

I was kinda “meh” about the patch, but this thread got me really pumped!

The more I think about it, the more I am too I showed the new trait to our WvW commander and he was like “Jubskie, get soldier runes and a greatsword. You’re going on the front lines”

I was thinking something like a power based shout build 0/0/30/30/10 in full soldiers gear (first posted by Sebrent).

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|c.1c.h2.g.1c.h4|1.1c.h2|1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x.1c.7x|4u.0.2u.0.3u.0.2u.0.3u.0.2u.0|0.0.u4ac.u35c.a3|2m.1|4i.4y.4l.4k.55|e

Almost 2.4 power, 27k hp and 3k armor, with perma swiftness, perma regen, an AoE condition cleanse every 12 seconds and 2 stun breakers. Edit: Oh and the pet will also get 83% protection uptime.

This will probably be nerfed in the July patch. Lol.

They moved the quickness higher up to traitline give players a reason to still invest that deep into BM, despite the DPS loss from pets. Would be interesting to see if people will still go for it though (I’m still too attached to DD505 to do it :-s)

I like the changes on WS too. It didn’t need changes at all as its already a solid traitline. Just minor buffs to further solidify it.

The other changes were already listed in the leaked notes last week so I’m not gonna comment on those.

Kimbald.2697:

This is a wonderful write-up indeed.

Quite possibly next patch will stirr things up a little, if not a lot… But starting from this list it will be a lot more clear to see what pets are usable outside of BM or not.

Thanks for your time of doing this, a few months ago but still
I’m sure you’ll be adding the changes to this next week.

Personally, I don’t think much will change in terms of utility based pets as they weren’t depended on for damage (although having it was nice). Would be interesting to see if things do change though.

McWolfy.5924:

what i dont understant : why i forced to play with pets? why am i need to switch between 2 pets? why cant switch between a pet and a sniper mode (or something like that)

Sorry, wrong thread to ask this. Your question has already been asked multiple times in other threads, you can start your own or look for those instead.

Exhumed from the deeper page numbers of the ranger section!

Seeing as pet focus is being shifted (forced?) into utility, the information here is more relevant than ever! I’ll update this after the patch notes hit as some of the info here is outdated. (Like the bears not lasting for 20 seconds and the black bear roar lasting 10seconds)

Dojo.1867:

I am saying this a lot but single target dmg really isn’t what puts LB > SB and I doubt this will ever change (maybe it is a bit more bursty if anything). Everybody is overlooking the huge utility of 12 sec cd point blank shot. The team DPS buffing of 10 stack vulnerability of hunter shot. The AoE cripple/dmg of Barrage.

I’ll highlight this this little bit of info in the quote as it seems to be forgotten in the OP. The 10 stacks of vulnerability to buff everyone attacking the target is one of the biggest perks the LB has over the SB.

The advantage of the LB over the SB is not the auto damage but the utility it has in LB #2-5.

McWolfy.5924:

something about pets : once i sent my wolf after a suply dolyak in wvw while i caped the camp. i watched my pet and laughed… the puppy just bit the air if its target move. the pets stop to hit and the target walk away.
something about ranger : nearly impossible to use longbow in pvp. easy to hide behind something or must go closer—>low dmg.
and btw u cant keep distance. we have 2 skills to root down the enemy, but they are useless. easy to get out.

This is straight up bull. Dolyaks don’t move fast enough to dodge pet autoattack by just walking. :/

Xsorus.2507:

-snip-

This is the one game that i’ve seen where the player base just doesn’t want to deal with actual strategy, They want to stick to their nice safe strategies and not change the meta any. This is partly the reason why I think they shouldn’t be trying to balance this game around the Esport nature, Because it’ll never be an Esport…Because the TPvP is a joke…

While I dislike your tone, you make a very good point. I feel the same way with necro summons and phantasms. I just ignore them and beeline for the player, often getting myself nuked by clones or knocked down by a flesh golem.

I feel this picture is very appropriate with what you said and the overall atmosphere of the ranger section:

Cleyran Knight.8291:

Add soldier runes for maximum support! Guardians ain’t got nothing on us!

Now, seriously, could be pretty good. Two shouts + Signet of Renewal + Healing Spring = Awesome condition relief. You can even get Empathic Bond if you want to go balls really deep.

Yeah, condition cleanse every 12 seconds looks really good. The additional 165 vit and 50 toughness is nothing to scoff at as well. This just might solve the ranger issue of not having active condition removal.

Cleyran Knight.8291:

Get a Red Moa with Commanding Voice and Concentration Training for 80% uptime on Fury. You can still get Keen Edge or Sharpened Edges with 30 points in BM and NM. With Rare Veggie Pizzas (or dirty cheap Koi Cakes) and a Giver’s Bow, the damage is still good but the support capabilities increased ten fold.

That’s an interesting point of discussion. Sharpened Edges and Keen Edge are similar yet very different from each other. Getting them both isn’t always possible as well. Looks like I have something to write about again

Encountering the same as well. As soon as I type in 2 characters “no search results” appear

ilr.9675:

…another worth mentioning, is that other AI, mostly Champs Legends, maybe even silver elites… actually seem to do BONUS damage to our Pets. I can regularly get overwhelmed by certain mobs all spamming their Burst openers on my Vit/Tough Ranger while my Wolf seems to be able to withstand them longer. But against Higher Rank mobs… it seems like the opposite situation where even my Polar Bear gets 2-shotted while it takes atleast 3 of their biggest hits to put any hurt on me.

If I could figure out a clean way of testing this, I’d document it with a Video :p

I usually just attributed it to vets and higher as having more damage than normal mobs. Would be interesting if they actually did do bonus damage and your vid can get it fixed

Vox Hollow.2736:

Mmmm.

I think we’re missing one of the real > of focusing on might stacking gameplay and downplaying our glass cannons. Cat/bird burst is limited to cats and birds, and might stacking works for every pet. A damage spec was previously limited to bringing vulnerability and swiftness and blind to the table, because cats/birds were far and away better options. Now the opportunity cost for swapping one out and picking another pet to throw different utility on the table is much less.

This is basically an offensive mirror to what they’ve already taken steps towards defensively. Pets were given better defenses so that they could survive better in more dangerous situations, and people migrated away from devourers/bears and a larger swath of pets became acceptable to carry around. Granted, they obviously need to take greater strides in the field of pet defenses, or take a different approach with damage output in dungeons. But both these changes do fit a theme; they seem to be helping builds avoid being pigeonholed to specific pets.

If you think about it, a mechanic that can swap to pets with various utilities on-the-fly was not being best served by options that encouraged pigeonholing. I think we’re moving towards the removal of ‘Tanking pets’ and ‘Glass Cannon pets’. And I think that’s a good thing. (Even if flattening the higher points of our damage curve in an effort to give optional higher sustained damage to all pets currently strikes an unfortunate juxtaposition with the burst-heavy meta, and pets that don’t have traits are taking an awful pounding right now)

Good analysis, something I had swirling at the back of my head but couldn’t put into words. Maybe they could buff up Speed Training (10% cd reduction on pet non-F2 skills) to make it a more meaningful pick to buff up pet DPS. This would benefit all pet families except for felines as their auto is untouched.

That said, I still don’t understand why Moas got a 7% damage nerf. lol

I’d love to see a non-insect ranged pet. I was thinking something like boars that shoot quills but pigs are already taken >_<

Maybe porcupines or hedgehogs?

Forzani.2584:

I am going to wait until I know with 100% certainty what the patch notes are before spending too much time theory crafting. I would drive myself insane making the perfect build and finding out it isn’t valid !

Fair enough. If you notice, I didn’t make full builds, just bits and pieces that might fit well with already established builds. No harm in having a little bit of theorycrafting fun

thefantasticg.3984:

Speaking my strictly from a PVE/dungeon perspective where DPS is king, only 1 & 3 interest me… Seems like most people in this ranger subsection pvp in WvW or t/spvp and do little else. I do neither.

Don’t you think the possibility of perma regen/swiftness appealing in PvE/Dungeons? Although, I will admit having to recast guard every 12 seconds is a bit of a hassle in PvE.

thefantasticg.3984:

(I’m having to do WvW now strictly for map completion and badges for legendary.) I’m currently trying a traited for bows and swords 30/20/10/10 build. So far I am finding 0/30/5/5/30 with cats and/or drakes the best so far for overall DPS with s-w and SB. I need to try and off hand axe (as I hate the main hand axe). I also run PPT gear with dolyak runes

Knights with dolyak are fine in WvW, if you’re just into zerging. With 30 in skirmishing, you can also trait for throwable traps so that’ll help you with your tagging as you have enough toughness to take a few hits. Just be mindful of your positioning!

Seetoo.9316:

I’m only just happy I can pet swap quick stomp again (if it goes live).

Yeah! But I don’t know if going 30 deep into BM is as good as it was before just for the quickness on swap. I’m going to revise the DD505 guide after the patch

Substance E.4852:

The only one that really opens anything major is the perma aoe swiftness and that will be heavily determined on how large the radius is and whether there will be an aoe target cap on it.

Isn’t it a 360 AoE? That would mean allies within a little over dodge roll distance. I’m guessing it’ll also be affected by the 5 player limit.

Substance E.4852:

The other changes are nice but none of them really make up for proposed pet nerfs in terms of damage output. Companion’s Might may make up for it but I doubt they would nerf the damage on pets only to provide us a way to buff their damage higher than ever with effortless might stacking.

Agreed, but as someone who rarely relied on pets to do damage and provide utility instead (one of the perks of the DD505), I don’t really feel as badly for the pet damage. My pets will still immobilize and knockdown my targets just as well as they did before. Effortless might stacking does seem really OP, but the duration keeps it balanced. I just hope companion’s might doesn’t have a cooldown to keep it interesting.

Eh? No other replies?

Guess people would much rather QQ than explore the possibilities opening up with the patch. /shrug

Chopps.5047:

Ya they really nerf longbow hard right now. You can’t even use longbow on the clffside fractal. I’m not joking: every single attack bugs out and goes invulnerable. So if you can hit a harpy, but a harpy can’t hit you: invuln. Even if you close the gap so you are in range of harpy: invuln.

What the hell is the point of having 1500 range on longbow if you can’t even use it on cliffside? And now they want us to use longbow more? Shortsighted if you ask me. Fix bugs then change weapons IMHO.

This is what the shortbow nerf was for! See? It’s all connected!

/s

(no, its not a jab at the nerf. i haz sense of humor too lol :P )

Oh the tower defenders I’m gonna pull >:]

I can see the loot bags now~

@topic
That would be too much. We already have so many sources of immobilize and snares, it would be too strong if we had another one and it’s followed up by a pull. Also, guys please don’t talk like everyone is gonna dodge all the pulls every single time. If they dodged your pull, you just made them waste a dodge. Or better yet, make them dodge twice before using this to make sure it connects.

Xsorus.2507:

Keen internal is 45 seconds, Its basically a Talent version of SI

You mean Sharpening Stone? Darn. Was hoping it didn’t have a cooldown :P I know, I know, it’ll be OP. Vague patch notes stirring my dreams :P oh wellz

Kimbald.2697:

- set spike trap or chilling trap a your feet, use Path of scars in the untriggered trap.
You pull, they trigger trap.
Benefit compared to using roots: my experience as engineer with a pull showed me they always dodge if you manage to pull them, they always always do.
You might waste your elite skill if they are really fast.

Good catch! Spike trap or muddy terrain might work, but their durations are too low to maximize a good spike, but that’s better than blowing a 150s cd skill.

Kimbald.2697:

- use the shout ‘guard’ with the new trait for a pet with swiftness and protection, and regen that is chasing an enemy in stealth…
Swiftness is the new thing here: guard just became ‘fetch’.
Guard has a 1200 rage, if the enemy is in the ‘guarded zone’ the pet will attack it if it’s not on passive anymore.

Yep, basically the same as the #6 I listed

Kimbald.2697:

- Shared Anguish: unchanged, pet takes stun etc from you
Combined with new ‘stability training’: bears etc don’t just get stability when disabled, but simply ignore the effect.
Depending on how ‘disabled’ is defined with the changes, this means that bears simply eat your stun and even gain stability for it.
I know, I know… bears… but at least they got to be a little more usefull now, even if they still do next to no damage.

Main reason why this last one is a theorycrafted one: not many people take 20 points in BM line and use… a bear!
But who knows.

This might be true, but the only 2 bears I would consider is Murellow for the poison field, or the black bear for the 8s AoE weakness. If I needed a pet that would use stability training, pigs would still be better. A cleaving knockdown with environmental weapons brings more to the table. The only thing that would sway my decision would be if Protect Me and Defy Pain (bear skill) would consistently work together.

Chopps.5047:

Jubskie, you are a god amongst mere mortals in my book. Thanks!

Lol! Thanks, I guess :P QQers will QQ, theorycrafters will theorycraft. Happened every patch before, will happen every patch to follow.

Since all the QQ posts have gotten stale, I’ve been thinking about the possible new combos for the new patch. These are all theoretical since we can’t test them yet, but some of these look pretty interesting. I’m pretty sure these are not the only ones and I would love to have discussions with the other creative ideas that people can come up with

1. Storm Spirit Bomb

• Call Lightning: Increased damage by 150%. (new)
• Nature’s Vengeance – Activated skills of spirits are larger and trigger when the spirit is killed. (existing)

The storm spirit can now do 1500-2000 damage in a 360 aoe. If it is able to use the skill and killed shortly after, thats a 3000-4000 damage nuke. The skill is used as a damage skill and not used for the buff. This can also work with sun spirit for a blind bomb.

Viability: not sure how well 3k~ damage would translate to, but it is in a 360 AoE

2. Do A Kholer

• Path of Scars: Now pulls enemies on the return flight. (new)
• Entangle (existing)
• Whirling Defense (existing)

Use Path of Scars to pull, use entangle as they get close and use Whirling Defense and make them eat the entire channel while they are bleeding from the roots.

Viability: We don’t really know how entangle and the pull interacts with each other (we might entangle them and the pull will make them leave the roots). If it works, you can switch whirling defense with any melee combo as well. (Like QZ + Sword#1 spam)

3. Ranger BURST+! :O

• Beastmasters Might: This trait now grants 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds. (new)

While running a full signet build, pop 3 signets (Wild, Stone and Hunt) before executing the tried and tested Swoop-Hilt Bash-Maul combo, but now you get 9 stacks of might

Viability: Ok, popping Stone might not be such a good idea as it is a panic button, but 6 stacks of might is still better than absolutely nothing before

4. I bleed it out digging deeper just to throw it away

• Keen Edge: This trait now activates when you strike a target that is below 50% health, instead of when your health reaches 75%. (new)

Additional bleeds for 10 points in Marksmanship sounds really good. Now all we need to know if it has decent internal cooldown so we can gauge how useful it will be.

Viability: depends on the internal cooldown. Its activation condition is so much better than what it was before

5. Evasive Purity

• Evasive Purity: This trait has been moved to the Master tier. (new)

Ok this has been ignored mostly because its a GM trait but it doesn’t have that wow factor that GM traits are supposed to have. I see this mostly as an effective way to remove poison which is the direct way to counter (or at the very least hamper) regen builds.

Viability: It’s much better than what it was before, but I really wish that it removed 1 condition on dodge instead of just poison and blind.

6. Perma Regen/Swiftness

• New Grandmaster trait – Nature’s Voice: Shouts apply 10 seconds of regeneration and swiftness to allies in a 360 radius. (new)
• Shout Mastery (existing)

This new GM trait is in the NM tree which means you get +30% boon duration with it. That means the swiftness and regen on you is actually 13 seconds. Adding shoutmastery to it, you can lower Guard’s cd to 12 seconds. Perma regen/swiftness yo.

Viability: Rangers can remove SotH from their bar and get near perma protection on pets and perma regen/swiftness on yourself and any allies within 360 AoE. The only thing limiting it is the x/x/x/30/10 requirement. With Faux already thinking of switching to 0/0/30/30/10 for an after patch RRR build, it might be a really good thing. (especially in small group WvW)

7. 12 seconds of no direct damage

• “Protect Me”: This ability now breaks stuns. (new)

With traited Signet of Stone and Protect Me, rangers now have 12 seconds of immunity from direct damage (provided pets survive the spike). Adding a stun breaker to it just further adds ranger survivability which is always good.

Viability: As pets are now being sent(forced?) towards utility instead of damage, they could serve rangers better as literal meat shields without minding the loss of damage too much. Pets surviving 6 seconds is a separate topic of discussion.

8. Mighty Pets

• Companion’s Might: This trait now grants 5 seconds of might to your pet, up from 1 second. (new)
• Barrage: Increased cripple duration by 50%. (new)

Barrage is a much better control tool which hits 5 people every 0.6 seconds. That means a potential 5 stacks of might on your pet every wave, for a potential 25 stacks of might if everything crits. Groovy.

Viability: With the pet nerf, 25 stacks of Might might not be a lot of damage, but pet condition damage wasn’t touched, so condition based pet damage will get quite a boost for the 5 seconds that they have it.

As was pointed out, companion’s might only triggers from the ranger’s crit, not from the pet. The might also only applies to the pet, not the ranger.

Compassion training only improves the buffs applied by pets.

What we don’t know, however, is if the ranger’s boon duration affects the 5s might on pets.

Hi,

Can we have all the tooltips updated to show internal cooldowns of traits? I would love to see how long certain traits take before they become useable again. I’ve mostly stayed away from traits that don’t have these skill facts and I really don’t want to test them out manually. This would help greatly for theory crating as well.

Hope you can put this in the july patch

Jayw.1045:

how many do I get? I figured with 80 levels I got 80 points? like I said I’ve only been playing for a week.

you can only use 70 points. The first 10 levels don’t have trait points.

nagymbear.5280:

Bran.7425:

With the general state of discontent on this sub-forum I doubt we will see a developer here for some time.

Trust me, they are reading this. They won’t comment here though. Its hardly a strange coincidence that the patch notes were leaked so that players can discuss it all during the weekend.

So how about giving some constructive feedbeck on these “leaked” patch notes.
Like how about Natures voice doesn’t give 10 secs of swiftness, but 5 secs of vigor. Or gives 10 sec of vigor, but guard cooldown is raised to 20s. Rangers never had much access to protection/retal in the first place, but vigor fits Rangers well.
Or how about eagle eye raising shortbow range as well.

I would also remind everyone that the devs are listening to us to an extent. Evasive purity was moved 1 tier down, path of scars does pull targets now, spirit traits were merged, they shortened the longbow aftercast, and raised projectile speed as well, they fixed Companion’s might. We were moaning about how pigenholed we are (other classes were as well mind you) into 1-2 viable builds. Of course its not all amazing, but there are changes that were necessary, and that we asked for. Some we didn’t get, like the buff to longbow that everyone wanted, but lets test longbow first. Maybe – and its a massive maybe – this 15% projectile speed increase will solve a lot of out of range/missed problems we were having with it.

Yay! Finally someone that makes sense

Fomby.4295:

Yeah, shortbow was kinda of my favorite weapon. I’ll still try to use it and see if it works. (Which I’m sure it’ll be fine in spvp and pve, it’s just going to hurt a lot in WvW)

Also, now that crossfire has been damage nerfed, can we apply conditions no matter where we hit them from? I don’t think that’s so unreasonable with the coming changes.

The damage is still the same, only the range got nerfed.

Boomstin.3460:

Shortbow having 900 range may or may not be the correct range. But saying it makes players somehow better and it doesn’t affect anything is just false.

Did you even read and understand what I wrote?

Boomstin.3460:

Every shot counts before you switch to melee, or when you are trying to land that cripple to an escaping enemy.

Ok, I’ll give you that. The additional 14% damage may or may not help to down your target before they try escaping though.

Boomstin.3460:

jubskie.3152:

I do see it as a good thing. It’ll make shortbow play more dynamic because we have to actually learn how to dodge better because we can actually get hit now. Sure it was easy to dodge red circles at 1200 range, now we have to actually pay attention. Sounds horrible, right? People have been using MH Axe at 900 range and there were no complaints about it’s range.

Also, I didn’t bring up “i’ve been posting longer”, he did when he asked if I really mained a ranger.

Hmm, what on earth are you talking about? I thought other professions had gap closers in their arsenal to counter the range advange somewhat? Reducing weapon range somehow enhances persons ability to dodge? And if i’m at close range it’s somehow more difficult to move away from the aoe circles than at 1200 range? Can i try not to step on the aoe circles or do i need to always dodge away from them?

I’m learning so much here, thank you.

You misunderstood my post so many times I’m starting to think you’re trolling. I’m bored, I’ll reply anyway.

• I thought other professions had gap closers in their arsenal to counter the range advange somewhat?

Yes they do. Will 300 range change this? At most, you can make them “waste” a dodge roll to get closer to you, but I doubt all rangers are high level enough to take advantage of that. Even if you could do that, your enemy dodged an arrow or two so its not a total waste.

• Reducing weapon range somehow enhances persons ability to dodge?

When did i say it does that automatically? I said “learn how to dodge better.” You must’ve missed that.

• And if i’m at close range it’s somehow more difficult to move away from the aoe circles than at 1200 range?

More circles appear at closer range than at 1200 range. Also, there are a lot of PBAoE in the game that can never reach 1200 range, but can be dangerous at close and mid range.

• Can i try not to step on the aoe circles or do i need to always dodge away from them?

I’m gonna assume you meant “step off.” And my reply is of course you can. When did I say you can’t?

You’re trying too hard to be snarky when everything is based off your misinterpretation of what I said.

Terkov.4138:

“Bird: Slash: Increased damage by 15%.”
For BMs instead of jag.

“Spider: Spit: Increased damage by 10%.”
Not big, but maybe viable option now for others?

What do you think?

About SB: tbh it’s good change. I mean, they shouldn’t nerf it, but 1200 range was just stupid for SHORT bow. Tho, they should compensate it more than dmg boost on skills that aren’t for dmg anyway…

Birds were used mostly for their bursty F2 skills (it can go up to a total of 4k-5k on full BM without other buffs), and not for their auto attack. Although, Bird auto was more reliable than the other pets because it hits twice and can go up to 3k if both hits crit. It might actually be an overall buff for birds.

Spiders are really bad direct damage dealers, I don’t think adding 10% to its auto is enough to change it. That said, I’d still use them regardless. An innate immobilize and poison field every 20 seconds are still really good skills.

@SB I agree :P

Personally, I’m more stoked about this change:

• Keen Edge: This trait now activates when you strike a target that is below 50% health, instead of when your health reaches 75%.

Can you imagine getting additional bleeds for dropping someone to half hp ? O_O I’m just curious if it has an internal cooldown and how it interacts with Barrage.

Boomstin.3460:

jubskie.3152:

jdmThor.3806:

jubskie.3152:

jdmThor.3806:

hahaha. come on admit it. you don’t main a ranger. if you really are, it’s not our fault you can’t turn an additional 300 range into a great advantage

HAHAHAHAHA. You must be new here.

yeah i am new in the forums, not in the game. i don’t know who you are sorry lol.

Lurk moar.

Anyway, if you’re resorting to questioning my credentials and not rebutting my points, I don’t see why I should keep replying to you.

If you don’t see that removing the distance advantage of shortbow is not a good thing , there’s not much point in going on with this anyways.
And i guess ’ i’ve been posting on the forums longer than you ’ makes your opinion more valid than his.

I do see it as a good thing. It’ll make shortbow play more dynamic because we have to actually learn how to dodge better because we can actually get hit now. Sure it was easy to dodge red circles at 1200 range, now we have to actually pay attention. Sounds horrible, right? People have been using MH Axe at 900 range and there were no complaints about it’s range.

Also, I didn’t bring up “i’ve been posting longer”, he did when he asked if I really mained a ranger.

jdmThor.3806:

jubskie.3152:

jdmThor.3806:

hahaha. come on admit it. you don’t main a ranger. if you really are, it’s not our fault you can’t turn an additional 300 range into a great advantage

HAHAHAHAHA. You must be new here.

yeah i am new in the forums, not in the game. i don’t know who you are sorry lol.

Lurk moar.

Anyway, if you’re resorting to questioning my credentials and not rebutting my points, I don’t see why I should keep replying to you.

jdmThor.3806:

hahaha. come on admit it. you don’t main a ranger. if you really are, it’s not our fault you can’t turn an additional 300 range into a great advantage

HAHAHAHAHA. You must be new here.

jdmThor.3806:

lol obviously they’re not for damage. that was my point. the 14% buffs on them mean nothing. tiny 14% kick on skills you never use for damage vs a 300 range nerf? you’re supposed to be a ranger that uses sb and you’re okay with this? what are you smoking man.

Oh you gotta try it. It’s called logical thinking. Stuff’s expensive so not everyone can afford it, unfortunately.

Never use SB 3-5 for damage? I use it for both utility and damage. Having a bit more damage with the same utility is fine with me.

Personally, I never really found much use for 1200 range on the SB. I have to constantly move to flank my enemy anyway. Being 1200 range away from him makes it harder to circle around the target’s flanking spots. My comfortable range for SB is 700-900. So yes, I’m ok with losing 300 range and getting a buff to 3 of my utility skills that are considered a loss of DPS when used.

jdmThor.3806:

now you’re making things up. i never said that lol.

Oops, my bad. You said “doesn’t make a bit of difference” and I equated it to you not wanting them. Point still stands though, we finally get a damage buff on weapon skills, now we just need to get them spread out to the other skills.

jdmThor.3806:

but these buffs are next to nothing considering sb dps mainly comes from 1 skill. they’re nowhere near high enough for me to consider using those skills as a source of damage and not just for utility.

Because you’re not supposed to use them as damage sources. You just get a tiny more kick out of them when you use them. I see that as a good thing.

Lastly, my point is that SB1 damage is untouched. The damage is still the same. In fact, you get a little more damage because of the buff on SB3-5.

jdmThor.3806:

jubskie.3152:

jdmThor.3806:

sigh. just when i’m about to get my ranger to 80, they’ll do this to the short bow. i hope this is all false information but it doesn’t look like it.

It still does the same damage, and the SB3-5 got slight damage boosts. Tell me why losing 300 range makes you sigh.

because it will lessen my effectivity in wvw a lot. don’t ask me why, it’s just related to one of the things i do in wvw.

I actually responded to that.

jubskie.3152:

Also, to be on topic, losing 300 range on a shortbow suddenly made it’s DPS lower? It’s still the same weapon, but you have to more mindful of positioning. In dungeons and PvE, it’s not that hard to adjust. In PvP, players rarely have opportunities to stand 1200 range away and pewpew indefinitely. In WvW, the only time i see this as a problem is when zerging (but longbow is superior to shortbow when zerging anyway due to barrage). Most solo roamers are within 900 range of their enemies already.

jdmThor.3806:

about the dmg buffs to other sb skills, tell me why you didn’t read the posts explaining how that doesn’t make a bit of difference.

Wa-wa-wait. So you mean to tell me you don’t want the damage boost on shortbow 3-5? Oh the irony. Months of asking for weapon skill damage boosts and then you say that when rangers finally get one?