Guild Wars 2

i might try it if i ever actualy care to run a non minion master build on my necro (was building a full arah armor zerker set for fun as an alternative to my minion master power toughness Healing power set wich prety much overheal all damage within seconds) I always find interesting to read about meta build even if i wont necesarely use them.

This build look like something interesting but i dont like having to go to melee range at all time for my dps more then necesary as i prefer to circle around placing debuffs on mobs spamming regeneration and focus vulnerability for my pets to get things done right. Id rather leave the melee role to warrior guardians and thief and im willing to part way with damage for a sustain build necro.

By default the heal rate for this necro build must also be quite unforgiving, necromancer heal / total health is terrible unless specialised for attrition and you are way less likely to recover from a hit using a glass cannon necromancer then a warrior or a guardian. Of course a build defence/damage ratio is based on the skill of the player who use it so if you can matrix dodge you will be all right anyway and wont need to heal constantly. I dodge fine but i prefer minimised risk with fairly good results when it comes to spellcasters.

Having fun with my minion master necro in fractals lvl 30+… its just lovely how easy the imbued shaman becomes with this many pet poking at his shield. Non meta run in fractals are so enjoyable i realy dont know how anyone can even have some form of fun constantly running metas but again i guess they just here for the business and dont care about fun in itself. Money becomes so useless once you got everything you want. Im just running fractals for the ascended rings and weapon now in case i can gear all my alts from it

NA isnt bad theres actualy very good player there.

Guild wars 2 does actualy possess tanking unlike what some would believe. Minion masters and mesmer exemplify this principe. While active defence still is the most used form of tanking around pet menagery get things done in many instance because of the fact bigger numbers means less hit taken as a rule. Guild Wars always did its tanking via pets and minion and this is not likely to change anytime soon. Guild Wars 2 unlike what you pretend do have a Trinity called DPS CONTROL SUPPORT wich is similar to world of warcraft tank dps heals however the roles impact and importance where minimised to leave place to actual player true skillplay.

I can no longuer blame a BAD tank for ruining my fight neither can a crap dps blame a healer for having not saved his sorry head after having stood stupidly in the firewall. Roles and skills of player behing defined independantly you no longuer require a specific party setting to do a dungeon.

TESO seems to fellow the same logic as Healer and tanks are no longuer required to do dungeons (i finished banished cells with 5 nightblade all of them behing pure glass cannon dps using bows, this was my best dungeon run ever) potions and self Healing technique is the new brand of the Trinity in a party right now and its perfect that way as every player is independant and no one will be able to blame the others for his own downfall. While having a healer might be a boon it must not become so important as to be REQUIRED.

I played dungeons and dragons (3.0, 3.5 and pathfinders) for years, with a party made out of a warrior, a ninja, a Wilder (psionic) and a sorcerer we didnt had a healer or anyone in the party that could do ressurections and heals but we did keep alive quite well trought guile, guerrila and cunning play against possibly overwelming odds, we bought some potions leveled our alchemy improved our gears then ran in the dungeons while messing every mob heads up DM gave us no actual mercy either but we did manage quite fine. The Trinity is a party standard not a imposed model it should be that way.

i like the new one i bought it on both my necromancer and my warrior and for god sake the colors are matching my purple and pink armor so well its making me cry like a crazed fan at a uber cool show. Either way ill be playing my female asura necromancer actively for the next 10 day

Ill tell you one thing I did both TESO and Guild wars 2 beta and while TESO is likely gunna be pay to play for a couple month i will still play it. Why? Guild Wars 2 used to have some form of magic atmosphere that made me felt like an important character Inside an immense story i was participating in. I didnt care for the small endgame related content availlability (time would increase its size anyway) neither did i care for scarlet or any other bull crap the living story included what was the death of me is the staling the class developement has gone on for a full years. Dont even dare speak about new Healing spells this is a total joke, builds are still dictated by a 100% dps ruled model tons of useless traits and half of a bad utility bar or crap weapon. Guild Wars series was the epitome of freedome of build and originality (1 build for each situation and even then you can still surprise me after years of play!) while guild wars 2 is stuck up on so many level. Elder scroll online will provide me ALL the tool i ever wanted to constantly try and create new skill builds (with a single class thousand specialisation possibility from a warlock to a barbarian!).

You speak like if the pay to play will be a deterant but ill tell you one reality there is some people in this world who have money to spend and are willing to use it on games and i dont care how much the game ask per months long as it keep me busy and happy wich in the post 7 month guild wars 2 failed to do. I spent over 100$ per months in guild wars 2 in the cash shop, playing TESO will cost me 1/10 of the price while maintaining the originality and fun up because its one of the magic of elder scrolls games wich hasnt died with its mmo you can start and create a character in a thousand different way every new game is a new experiance!

I will still be rooting for the success of Guild Wars 2 but i might disapear from it until the content actualy gives me a serious reason to play. Im in a very cool guild i got a high rank as well a good achievement point total but im willing to loose it all for a little bit of originality. In the past 3 months i traded Guild Wars 2 for Dark Souls and skyrim, i even played League of legend a little. Im tired of waiting for new content and a class balance wich will never come so they better give us serious reason to stay

ive been experimenting with ranger since launch right now im prety stable using 0 25 0 15 30 but i wish pet actualy got more power. Im kind of sad so many ranger want to actualy ’’stow’’ the pet out

To be honest I think pet damage as a source of sustain should actualy be improved for character who actualy runs damage based armor and builds because right now pet are statics and prety much jacks of all trade at best when traited wich is kind of sad for how many traits it takes just to make them decent at all. If ranger REALY is the master of sustain then it will have to gain a serious boost too its condition damage (not appening) or its pet stat (can be done)

You know… i played thief and cap leveled it to 80 before i even played my ranger. I wanted to run a dual pistol build based on the gunner from final fantasy… heck i was so disapointed.

this needs to be a Beast mastery trait….. seriously

Comfort Animal – Removes all conditions from your pet when using a heal skill. Resurrects pet if dead. (50% health)

Simple idea Allie and it will take down 2 bird with one stone is to change heal as one to something that reflect back what GW1 Heal as one was so heres my subjestion

Reason:

Pet dies constantly are downed for to long and technicaly heal as one is one of the worst ranger heal in the game.

Change to the mechanic:

Heal as one: heals you and pet for the same amount of damage as before… Revive pet on use with 50% hp. Could also as a bonus proc a boon to the ranger that cause pet strike to leech health for the ranger (or for itself but if for the ranger reduce the base Healing gained by an ammount the same way you did for skelk venom) for a set amount for the next X pet attacks (Aka some additionnal sustain)

Anticipated results

People now have a quick mean to pull back their pet into battle reguardless of pet death (due to heal as one relatively quick recharge cooldown), Heal as one becomes the main beast master ranger Healing ability (effectively scoring itself its own niche in the game) and ranger get to have another efficient source of sustained damage.

Risk

Beside of pet fan using heal as one instead of troll unguant or Healing springs wich are overused in comparison to water spirit and heal as one. This actualy give another viable heal to ranger and if you also give it the life leech an option to deal better pet damage for a few hit or sustain damage. I dont see heal as one as a tool to power creeping. Naturaly ranger who dont care about pet wont take this Healing skill, its give or take.

Criminal.5627:

I would still like to see anet buff pets to the point that was near the damage output in GW1 with 16 beatmastery when you put 30 points in the current rendition of the beastmastery trait line… Also if we could get a list of ideas they had taken from the thread so we knew were to focus the rest of the week it would be grand.

The people screaming to remove pets still need a slap in the back of the head cause they are kittening off people who are trying to post ideas on how to fix the pet mechanics or possible ways to fix pet mechanics.

My main in Guild wars 1 name was ‘’true beastmaster’’ take a guess at why? 16 beast mastery and 14 expertise using a staff or a spear/shield on ranger was a force to be reconned with but now what do we have? A jack of all trade pet who is master of none as its stat arent focused anywhere (crit damage + 30% or 300 condition damage… you must be joking!) If we give pet stat scaling and remove those traits from the game i can easily see pet doing a comeback as the ranger burst specialisation.

what of those people who actualy use the pet on purpose because they are build centralized around it? I dont mind perma stow for those Animal cruelty lovers as long as having the pet out is utherly more rewarding then stowing it when traited right.

To be honest while pet stow is actualy an interesting idea Id rather have the pet stat scaling and making it deal considerable damage before implementing aspects as Beastmaster will be reguarded as a ‘’casual who wants to play a poorly designed mechanics rather then run the new usefull stuff’’ if the pet isnt given at least as much worth as the aspect mechanics wich is totaly wrong (if i want to play a pet build based on running a specialy traited pet i should be able to and it should be as much viable as stowing it for some buffs!). Regardless pet aspect should also be part of the beast mastery trait lists as major trait wich could be alternative to the pet themed major traits

Ranger always has been separated into two type.
People should know this much but ranger even in guild wars 1 was able to do heavy burst damage without multispecialising so here ill point out some stuff

1. In GW 1 Ranger altrought realy good at sustain from condition interupter was still able to burst without specing into another profession as a beastmaster however you did ned about all of the campaign to even get a serious results (Most important campaign was obviously faction prophecy and eye of the north because of the fact all the heavy damaging pet move as well as heal as one where obtained from those campaign). A ranger with 16 in BM and about 10+ in expertise could easily overdamage a warrior if not even a dervish deals 7 degen per second and tank like a godlike behing. Beast mastery was FAR from useless in GW 1 unlike what some believe and actualy was a very dangerous build in pvp (I know about it because i ran a full beast mastery bar including only pet skills heal as one and pet buffing shouts!) those monk who got nuked by the angry pet of a spear beastmaster will quite remember it.

2. Pet in guild wars 2 cannot be actualy specialised like they were in GW1 (aka dire, healthy) and are way harder to ressurect (A beastmaster spamming heal as one would ressurect his pet on every cast if it was dead, also pet didnt have a death penality else then in pvp thus making them ideal frontline soldier and weapons).

3. Guild wars 1 and guild wars 2 are different in therm of the fact that gear now is ’’stated’’ Pet however doesnt scale at all with gear and is actualy specialised into nothing wich makes its damage source reguardless of specialisation kind of bad because lets face it 30% crit damage or 300 condition damage wont actualy change anything (might as well say our pet got a full set of nerfed celestial with 30% total critical damage and 20 point of condition damage per piece and that is if the player even bothered to put point into those traits!. As such weither you a beast master or not you end up with a pet wich deals about very cheap damage tank like Feather pillow (wich means not at all) and is about as treatening to other player as the lazy housecat on the sofa.

For sustained damage to become efficient ALL burst cooldown should at least be doubled on all class wich can actualy proc a constant bursting dps or sustain damage (autoattack, condition) in itself should be increased wich i dont see as a very good idea because condition damage curently rules pvp and while pet stat scaling could easily be controlled by the fact gear is awfully nerfed in spvp condition damage would become even stronguer then it is now.

Allie altrought Sustained damage would work agaisnt a burst that goes on a long cooldown ill remind the devs that a character running its double weapon set all right can keep itself bursting about 90% of the time. Warriors meta involve using HB fellowed by whirlwind before switching to axe deliver a heavy adrenaline burst damage in a single second auto attacking 1 or two hit then switching to sword again and repeating without even having to wait. Burst skills have so little of a cooldown its 100% possible to be permanantly bursting. Guardian chains up greatswords and sword/focus while mesmer are relentlessly spamming more clones to shatter at will.

Burst doesnt exist in its proper meaning in guild wars 2 because of how short it takes for skill cooldowns to recharges and even spec wich should be deemed as ’’burst’’ actualy end up behing an over strong version of sustained damage due to how skill chains are done (this is what high end players calls a rotation). A decent warrior will likely very rarely end up autoattacking as he will constantly activate burst skills that runs off cooldowns or swap weapon bar. Sustaining class such as necro (dagger mode) and ranger end up as 1 button spammer for the purpose of using the most damaging ability as fast as possible to even manage to reach the same level of damage in the same lap of time.

Coulndt add this to my line as the post was way over 500 letter but ill put it bluntly. Ranger lacks a decent damaging source that isnt sword auto attack has pathetic party buffing (I must trait spec 20 into marksmanship for such a BAD buff just because i got nothing else and everyone wants at least one or two buff? I also need to waste trait point and a utility slot to frost spirit wich is only worthwhile because its cooldown between buffing is bugged and as a end result to behing fixed would only be good for removing from the game) and the main mechanics wich is pet actualy doesnt work in any usefull way even when dedicated to it save for reviving people and getting itself killed in your stead. While i can apreciate the principe of fodder unit such as minion pets doesnt come in bunch of 6 that can be sacrificed like pawns for the group greater goods. Is Anet ranger pet considered a sacrificial unit? I dont think so but right now its prety much the only purpose it can fill right.

Behing constantly shunned for actualy dedicating my class and my time to playing my Beast master ranger on the same level as elite builds sometime realy makes me want to just delete my tier 3 geared character. Right now ranger is not a nature magic user, neither is it a beastmaster or a archer, the only path meta actualy brand us for is limited to spamming auto attack with a sword denying anything our pet may provide and dodging when you about to get hurt. This is no defrent from shortbow 1 spamming reguardless of what people may pretend. If i wanted to spam a sword auto attack id be running a warrior not a versatile ranger, my deemed useless build use about both weapon slot chains and up to 7 skill all at once (no utility included) to beef up the pet as much as possible yet this guy who is spamming 1 deals better damage then i do. Someone in this forum stated it quite well as ‘’spam to win’’, i think ranger is more then this.

Since so many people talk about perma stow ill talk about keeping it up. My ranger been a 30 pt BM since launch and ive NEVER had issue with pet having trouble to hit a boss or not. Pet survivality remains a problem nonetheless and as a general rule despite the fact targets doesnt move in pve it still deal so little damage and bring so little to the team save for that slight dps its hardly Worth it..

Specific Game Mode
PVE and Spvp

Proposal Overview

Pet is constantly taking lethal aoe hit scale poorly with ranger gear is actualy specialised at nothing specificaly save for behing a distraction and actualy lack personnalisation. The shouts wich is used to beef it up are totaly selfish if not actualy self detrimental my proposition here is to actualy make all those mechanics usefull at once.

Goal of Proposal

Giving traited and untraited pet some actual usefullness without removing it allow rangers to fill a damaging or a condition damage role as a pet trait specialist all the same as a non pet user. This also aim to make shout actualy usefull party wide and make pet viable in pve dungeons.

Proposal Functionality

1. Give pet the evasion effect for the dodge duration at the same time ranger is dodging. This allow to reduce the pet HP bar by a large amount in compensation and provide them some survival option against Map covering red circle and mechanics of the like that normaly 1 shot an untraited pet and 3 shot even the traited Brown bear.

2. Give pet a static set of stat then instead of adding +10 per trait point into BM line give it a percentage of the master total base stat (Vitality, power, condition damage, ferocity, Healing power, thoughness) I subjest 30 to 45%

3. Give shouts meaningfull teamplay application. While sic em is usefull as a pet damage booster what can we say of guard, protect me and search and rescue? So here are concept i thought about.

-Sic em: Same as before but also add pet a haste effect that last for 5 second

-Guard: The zone the pet is guarding provide a recurent protection buff to up to 5 unit or player in the area it is guarding (about the same size as the previous guard) Pet gains no buff

-Protect me: Allow pet to keep dealing damage while defending you and reduce damage you take by 50% for the duration of the effect (also call pet back to your position) pet take 25% of the damage you are ignoring as a result (no more pet sacrifice yet the ranger can STILL be damaged) Give pet swiftness

-Search and rescue: keep the current fonctionnality but allows the pet to also rush to nearby target and help it recover from a crowd control while procing it aegis and protection for a small duration (break the nearest friendly target crowd control) If used to revive a player double the cooldown.

Associated Risks
While all those buff to shouts and pet stat looks powerfull they are viable only when a ranger is heavily traited in 30 pt of Beast mastery wich effectively force it out of using these same point into a damage line such as marksmanship or skirmishing. Moreover a beastmaster will likely always deal way less personnal damage then an actual petraitless ranger who entirely dedicated to his personnal damage. Traiting in nature magic for the regeneration shout do proc ranger regeneration but force them out of the 20 base point required in skirmishing to actualy gain both the 30% increased critical damage to pet and the might on critical hit to them. Running less trait in Beast mastery also means a weaker pet stat scaling so ranger will have to choose wichever path they will take. Since pet stat are now tied to the ranger gear it will no longuer be possible to run a Ranger tank with heavy pet damage.

Pet are AI and by default are their own counterplay. AI are limited by jumping/walls/invisibility/stuns (no stun breaker for them). Im not proposing anything related to increasing the pet AI. Im well aware that beside improving the pet attack reach its totaly out of possibility to make it hit everytime it scores a blow neither is it possible to reduce the F2 casting time, as a GOOD ranger who actualy plays his pet for real will keep a foe constantly frozen or crippled i have no concern about the viability of such build in pvp long as the player is actualy using an axe or a longbow to keep his target pined to the ground and unable to move out of pet clawing reach.

The overall results

Shouting rangers becomes a viable source of partywide boons such as protection and even regeneration, Pet traiting becomes a viable spec as an alternate to selfish traiting, Pet become usefull even when untraited (shouts can be used effectively reguardless of specialisation) and stop dying constantly in boss encounter because it now can ’’evade’’ boss attack when the ranger time his own dodge right.

i easily overcome the handicap my pet pose because im 100% specialised for it.

1. my pet doesnt die
2. i have decent survivability
3. i actualy manage to do a average but ordinary dps

Reality is im speced 0 25 0 15 30 for the purpose of maximising pet effectiveness and i run a full zerker gear. However my spec feels like despite the fact i run a build based on improving pet damage deals absolutely no damage in comparison to a rampaging warrior. Truth is on a 0 to 0 basis i hit as hard as the war or the thief but the moment we start scaling up the power with food/buff my pet becomes increasingly weak because

1. pet has 30% critical damage at best and only when traited wich is sad
2. pet needs to be buffed trought signet of the wild 25 might stack and sic em to even become barely damage viable and even then i have to sacrifice most of my party utility to make it worth it. Beastmastery easily becomes a selfish specialisation centralized around itself only even more so then the warrior who runs a single banner is. Truth is while i bring dps comparable to what the other teamate do unbuffed i cant compete with the damage of an organised team at all and my build becomes damage viable only in pugs filled with clerics and other bunker type unit. Im a glass cannon all the same as them yet i dont pull my dps share despite im 100% traited for a damage centralised build. The guy who made the pet traitline didnt seem to care about giving beastmasters the option to deal damage trought their pet as much as one could in guild wars 1.

Now we say ranger lack utilities. I say lets bring back the rainbow pheonix from guild wars 1 give it a aoe heal ability and a party ressurection on F2 and well have our support pet.

Game Mode
Pve/Spvp

Proposal overview

Beast master ranger (30pts and all other trait pet oriented) hardly feels like the pet actualy realy is doing dps to begin with. The pet is utherly squishy and deals next to no damage. Pet stat should be based on the master stat to determine their damage and armor level instead of the meaningless + 300 point. Also id like to note that pet gains no benefits from food and that this deeply undermine pet ranger dps.

Goal of Proposal

While minion master and turret enginer are build by choice ranger is forced into using the pet therefore its only natural for the pet of the ranger to actualy be able to deal damage with this many trait centralized around it. Why a maximised cat pet with 25 stack of might on a full berserker set ranger against a full 20 stack of vulnerability cant deal 4k auto attack is beyond me. Goal is to ultimately invalidate the possibility of playing bunker pet ranger while actualy making beast mastery (pet damage lover) path viable to glass cannon ranger using zerker or rampager.

Proposal Functionality

-Replace the 300 stat point to a +2% of master total stat per trait point (up to 60, it could also be 45 or 30). This effectively make a ranger with 3000 power give 900 power to his pet base stat (30%), Of course you should tone down pet base stat if you go for this but not so much as to make it feel worse then before in everything else (aka a pet should be able to cap the 4k+ power when having 25 might stack if the master is actualy geared for damage)

-remove the pet critical damage and condition damage bonus trait from the game unless you dont plan adding ferocity to the beastmastery % bonus given formula wich i highly recommand

- Change the beast mastery trait that give + 25 stack of bonus stat to the pet functionnality so that it isnt removed when the pet dies but when the ranger dies or is downed.

Associated Risk

Risk? Main risk we have here is likely the pet ranger will actualy be able to rival top dpsing class on the single target damage level if not even above (oh right it actualy already do by spamming sword auto attack but know what i think that move should be nerfed anyway as it doesnt promote inteligent playing), however id like to mention pet rangers are single target dps by default unless using drakes and that the damage we do is situationaly proportionnal to how long our pet stay alives. If the glassy pet gets killed by a boss aoe we have to switch pet to even start dealing damage again and if both pet dies its litteraly a good 45 second cooldown before we can resume hiting seriously. If i spend 30 point in my pet i guess its only normal i get something decent. if we tie our pet stat to our gear our pet will likely become even more glassy but im willing to pay the price if its to get something decent.

Torment would indeed be a welcome addition to the shortbow or the axe skill set.

Could also give birdies the option to deal torment damage from pecking on the head of people :P (hey getting hit on the head by angry birds pecks is actualy uber tormenting)

Rainbow pheonix is due for a comeback. Deadlyer, larger, more anoying because of body block and twice as shiny

Well i guess most player who will play TESO will be vampire anyway so at this point why not. MMO needs more vampires.

I Wonder if pet will benefit from a +300 ferocity bonus for ranger when traited in BM :P

I deeply apologize for the wall of text but this hardly can be resumed on without using very harsh words.

I cant help but think that most of those change where actualy legitimate and couldve opened a window for additionnal build options and this is something that guild wars 2 is cruely lacking in.

I do hope the balance team actualy work something out for ranger and co before april because at the rate the game is going and despite how much i love it i might get to play it way less often (once in a week just so to keep myself visible in guild) once TESO and Dark Soul 2 comes out. The lack of new content after i got close to all my 9 character to 80 and got my weaponsmithing to 500 is starting to bear down on me and making and trying new builds is prety much all what i got left.

Since we are prety much limited in those therm by the current meta and the traitline of class im prety much starting to lose interest like many a player and could just sign off anytime only to return in 1 year or two and spend the 100$ i put in the cash shop every 2 month elsewhere like in a new console or an actual upgrade to my PC. The dev team wont get people hooked up on the game with new armors in cash shop alone or temporary content wich adds a small item wich not even half the player will bother farming for. I aint gunna farm 24/7 for a backpiece if im unsure ill have the time to aquire it and knows it will be impossible to aquire soon, even less if i dont like it, stuff like these shouldnt leave the game so early that you can no longuer get them the moment you finaly have enought money to buy them. I have skipped the whole of scarlet arcs because of temporary gear, lack of actual novelty in the builds and meta redondance to go play stuff like neverwinter (wich was poorly made btway) and WoW mist of pandaria (god save me this is the worst WoW expension yet pvp wise).

What guild wars 2 had and lost with time is that magic that made you say oh my god this game is so inovative so responsive so immersing (lot of game now use the base of active dodge defence guild wars 2 set in because GW2 combat system became a standard in new MMO genre and it will likely go that way for several more years before an even better combat system is added in). In a world where every game is based on the same principe as guild wars 2 (small skill slot bars, active defence, fading of the Holy Trinity and capture the point pvp styled game) what guild wars 2 brings in that the others don’t? Its what the devs needs to work on so that their game despite all the clones around keeps behing the best in those regards.

There is still some of that magic left and theres still time to rekindle the fire but they need to actualy expend on the current game more then they curently do now. While living story bring interesting new content most of it leaves the game after a month or two at best and you end up with nearly the same game as what you bought at release. The game is good but after doing the same quest over and over again you start to seriously get bored.

The issue is you guys needs to give us incentive to create new characters try out new builds and actualy theorycraft our own instead of running constantly the meta build. It just doesnt feel rewarding to run anything else then the 1 or 2 build that has been made by meta player for your class because traitline are either centric in such a way there is only 1 or 2 build option or the utilities just are plenty useless (tell me why would i use this utility if it isnt usefull anywhere to begin with or that trait that is actualy not helping at all?) trait and utility are hardly equals amongst themselve and generaly this lead to narrow minded builds.

Way to fix that is to either insert a GREAT diversity of abilities and by great i mean like 8 or 10 new utility like 3 per ability type (aka survival, minions, phantasm, shout), or to give back some worth to abilities wich are curently deemed as useless (why would an enginer use battering ram and the speed boots or why would an elementalist even use flame axe to begin with).

Detharos.3157:

kyubi.3620:

guard wasnt designed as a mean for self buff you know… i guess they just caugh on to how often it is easy to spam for shout procs and decided to nerf it. However we could use a major dps upgrade on our weaponry and puting pierce in the same traitline as invis reproc to opening strike is outright silly. whos gunna get piercing Arrow to begin with? just remove that trait from the game and give bow shot the ability to pierce by default like enginer do or merge it with the eagle eye trait.

So your saying Guard and shouts only purpose in existing should to be buff 30%- of your character that is tied down by bad AI, predictable attacks and a whole variety of other problems, and needs a GRANDMASTER trait to even be worth using at all? And without proper cooldown effectiveness, returns to being just another useless pet skill?

All the while your character’s cast/animation execution time on them exposing you to interrupts and attacks?

If that’s what you think shouts should be, then you go enjoy that. Because I guarantee shouts will return to the gutter of disuse they were at before Nature’s Voice made them viable if those changes are real.

Attacking various ranger survivability methods is NOT the answer to toning down easy mode condi spam and run bunker builds. Nerfing condition damage output is a much better solution. The level of survivability we can achieve is NOT the problem and still far, far less to what you can achieve passively on a warrior or actively playing skillfully on a thief.

Also, you think those of us who use Guard are successful with it because of how it affects us? You are sorely mistaken. Its main use has and always will be strengthening the pet’s defenses, and now the frequency of that occurrence is down. If this the direction this company wants to go with rangers, then I have to demand that pets become optional.

Indeed the spell likely was designed that way. However i agree guard could use some buffing to compensate for the fact its only used as an ‘’condition clear and regeneration spam’’ utility. They need to make guard actualy worthwhile for the base purpose to begin with, like idk give pet retaliation and might stack gain for as long as he stand in his ’’guarded’’ area. Protect me simply put is a ‘’die for me’’ move and should be redesigned otherwise while Sic Em could use a increased attack speed buff to its effect. Btway i use Sic em in my build constantly despite the fact it is considered as ’’useless’’. Guard and protect me along with search and rescue however needs a beefing up. If SAR CD was reduced by 30 second and given to actualy work 100% of the time it would definitively become a must have in dungeon runs.

Ranger indeed should get some improved condition removal but i dont see it coming from our shouts.

guard wasnt designed as a mean for self buff you know… i guess they just caugh on to how often it is easy to spam for shout procs and decided to nerf it. However we could use a major dps upgrade on our weaponry and puting pierce in the same traitline as invis reproc to opening strike is outright silly. whos gunna get piercing Arrow to begin with? just remove that trait from the game and give bow shot the ability to pierce by default like enginer do or merge it with the eagle eye trait.

Chrispy.5641:

kyubi.3620:

I still think a chance to gain might on critical with longbow is nice… however that should be a 100% to begin with

LOL, what? You would get 25 stacks of might and maintain 25 stacks of might, whenever you use barrage on a group of enemies in zerker gear. thats too powerful.

besides, you should get some nice big might stacks if you combine this trait together with this sigil:::
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Strength

Yea but i think they should just reduce the duration and give it a better happening percentage instead. While this effect do make using longbow rapidfire and barrage somewhat worthwhile you wont proc it more then once every 3 strike or about and beside those two cooldown longbow is a very slow weapon. I aprove on pet regaining oppening strike on stealth however

Saw this on a suposed upcoming patch note site… no idea if its troll or not but if longbow realy gets a 33% chance to proc might on critical hit i easily see myself running that weapon as a BM might stacking build

183.
Marksmanship III—Keen Edge: This trait is now listed as a Survival skill.

184.
Marksmanship VIII—Piercing Arrows: This trait no longer affects Hunter’s Shot.

185.
Marksmanship X—Eagle Eye: This trait now grants a 33% chance on critical hit with a Longbow to gain one stack of might for 10 seconds.

186.
Marksmanship XII—Remorseless: This trait now also grants opening strike to your pet if they gain stealth.

187.
Skirmishing 5—Tail Wing: This trait now grants 9 seconds of swiftness, up from 5 seconds.

188.
Skirmishing IX—Honed Axes: This trait now reduces the recharge time on main hand axe skills by 20%.

189.
Skirmishing XII—Moment of Clarity: This trait now applies the Moment of Clarity effect to you and your pet on interrupt and now grants 200% damage on the next attack, up from 150%. This trait is now able to stack with the Attack of Opportunity effect for a total of 250% damage. This trait now has a recharge time of 10 seconds, up from 5 seconds.

I still think a chance to gain might on critical with longbow is nice… however that should be a 100% to begin with.

Likely ill run 30 20 0 0 20 after patch for constant 10 vuln stack every 12 second and if i add in rapid fire we might even get a 20 :P

Issue:
1.Pet deals to poor damage for a dps build based on it and too much damage for a tank build who use it as its source of dps
2. Pet cant dodge and dies to much

Solution:
1. Remove the + 10 per point to all stat from beast mastery traitline and replace it with gain 2% of all the master stat per trait point.
2. pet are considered as blurred (blocking all damage) when ranger dodge (this could be a beast mastery trait)

This result in:
1. No more heavy pet damage tank now all tank ranger will deal cheap damage reguardless of how many point they put into pet, Pet becomes a viable build as a glass cannon dps for both condition build and critical damage physical build.
2. Pet no longuer dies constantly from Alpha map covering aoe or other boss mechanics wich should not actualy hit a correctly dodging target.

As someone said above increasing pet range would help increase its value in pvp content but what of pve? In pve altrought the pet does hit on every strike the damage even when traited is so minimal its just not worth playing one otherwise then as a tank, the issue is not one of hiting or not mobs wont move around its one of keeping the pet alive and having it deal GOOD damage when speced for it. Make it so pet gain increased damage based on the master ferocity, power condition damage and precision on gear so to promote an actual dpsing BM as an alternate to a pet tank. Reduce base pet stat by 30% and replace the 300 to all stat from beast mastery traitline to

-gain 2% of master total stat per trait point (Up to 60% of the master stat)

this result into:

-Pet tank: good survivability poor damage even with a power boost, the build will work but wont be as good as puting a damage dent as a true damage build and as such is working as intended in the way someone running a tank should be.

-Pet damage: poor survivability but very good damage by using gear like rampager, berserker or assasin, Pet gains heavy damage bonus but has cheap life span if targeted.

The reason is that if the pet damage or survivability was based on the master gear we could actualy use them fully as damaging Tools and it would prevent their use as a mean to deal heavy damage despite running a pure tank build.

Despite this damage increase pet in pve would have to stay unable to do cleaving attack even on melee range. Pet ranger will likely be a pro single target dps unit but a very poor aoe damage user (well i dont mind each class has its weakness after all)

Those that dont trait BM… well pet will likely be dealing 30% less damage then before but as a compensation Anet might actualy beef up ranger somewhere else for non pet user. Altrought my guess is if running a few point in beast mastery becomes viable most ranger wont bother running without some trait in the pet.

Tought i should post it here as well

Since we about to gain a new stat called ferocity one things come to my mind

Beast mastery traitline suposedly adds +300 to all main stat, If we consider that power, precision, vitality, thoughness are main stat could we actualy think of Ferocity behing a new main stat as a +300 bonus as well? This would definitively make puting 30 in BM help the pet deal better damage as +300 ferocity give the pet a slight increase of about 25 to 28 bonus critical damage (if we consider traiting 30 in a spec that gives critical damage give 30 critical damage and that ferocity is suposed to be near 28% at 300 point). If you add the ferocity to the 300 in all stat a BM get maybe we can actualy make pet somewhat a little more better to run damage Wise to fill for all the nerf it took, Pet defintively didnt need to be nerfed with all the problem to AI it got and how easy it is to evade it. If the issue was PVP damage ranger pet is likely one of the easyest spec to counter in the game likely because of how easy the pet is to avoid and how the ranger who rely on pet loose a most of its damage the moment the pet becomes unable to hit wich is likely most of the time. If the build is weak in pvp it should at least be worth its gold shine in pve but the pet actualy gets constantly killed from aoe it cannot dodge. Considering the pet cannot use food has very poor critical damage,and no damage scaling how is it supose to be any good in late game pve to begin with save for a pet tanking ranger wich is still bad in all aspect of the end game play.

Critical damage was a offset stat like boon duration and condition duration. If it becomes scaled on a main stat such as ferocity will it actualy be added to the +300 to all main stat pet formula?

BM traiters could definitively use a +28% critical damage for pet.

ikr me too i Wonder why i didnt get one yet

for some funny reason the moment someone ask for a warrior change every troll on the warrior forum jumps in and scream at the outrage because they rather run a rofling Healing signet auto attack spam build then an actual spec based on doing an inteligent damage combo and are still effraid of going back in the early day warrior builds. Warrior is likely the profession that dumbs down the game to the lowest level when it comes to spvp so why not give it better damage at the sacrifice of some survivability.

Warrior in early game was harder to play in spvp because it lacked survivalism and was way to easy to dodge counter. It was also because running raw damage in pvp doesnt reward well enought save for backstab thief. Give warrior better skill chains more focused on controlling the ennemy and dealing damage then overlasting it trought raw survival and we might get to see something good instead of some double sword condi tank spammer.

I respect the hundred blade warrior who actualy works a full skill chain to run a multi skill KO build yet works realy kitten the fight to both stay alive and kill his target more then i respect the HS Hambow or dual sword user who just swing his weapon at random.

Warrior in spvp needs better damage and control at the cost of some survivability and Swagg likely has the right idea here. Weakening Healing signet and increasing the value of other heal (HS will still remain the best Healing skill of dodgers and blockers due to its HPS wich combined with regeneration and adrenal Healing makes it wonderfull to run).

Since we about to gain a new stat called ferocity one things come to my mind

Beast mastery traitline suposedly adds +300 to all main stat, If we consider that power, precision, vitality, thoughness are main stat could we actualy think of Ferocity behing a new main stat as a +300 bonus as well? This would definitively make puting 30 in BM help the pet deal better damage as +300 ferocity give the pet a slight increase of about 25 to 28 bonus critical damage (if we consider traiting 30 in a spec that gives critical damage give 30 critical damage and that ferocity is suposed to be near 28% at 300 point). If you add the ferocity to the 300 in all stat a BM get maybe we can actualy make pet somewhat a little more better to run damage Wise to fill for all the nerf it took, Pet defintively didnt need to be nerfed with all the problem to AI it got and how easy it is to evade it. If the issue was PVP damage ranger pet is likely one of the easyest spec to counter in the game likely because of how easy the pet is to avoid and how the ranger who rely on pet loose a most of its damage the moment the pet becomes unable to hit wich is likely most of the time. If the build is weak in pvp it should at least be worth its gold shine in pve but the pet actualy gets constantly killed from aoe it cannot dodge. Considering the pet cannot use food has very poor critical damage,and no damage scaling how is it supose to be any good in late game pve to begin with save for a pet tanking ranger wich is still bad in all aspect of the end game play.

Critical damage was a offset stat like boon duration and condition duration. If it becomes scaled on a main stat such as ferocity will it actualy be added to the +300 to all main stat pet formula?

Regardless of this change how much do Anet plan to improve on pet damage for true pet specialist who actualy care to put that 30 point in BM and roll their build entirely around glass cannoning a lion tamer, because yes true user of the beast mastery tree could realy use a major improvement to the pet damage in pve.

1 thing they could do

Give option to personnalise the pet in depth such as pet traitline (depending on your number of point into beast mastery you can spent a specified number of trait point into the pet, we remove the +300 to all stat and make it a +30 trait point for pet)

Regardless of traitline bears and cats will still have their own stat style but will be changeable with defrent abilities. We can then take all those pet trait that have no place in the regular ranger spec tree (actualy all trait that arent in the beast mastery tree) and put them in the new pet traitline so that the master can personnalise his pet as he wants to as long as hes actualy specialised into beast mastery. Then we replace these trait who should be for pet user only with actual survival or ranger damage oriented trait like idk an increased damage at X range or a boon that makes the ranger gain might on critical strike or an increased range on weapon, god knows what long as its actualy based on the ranger itself. There needs to be serious incentive to run 30 in beastmastery because right now the +300 to all stat (not even true because it doesnt beef up critical damage Healing power and condition damage) is not Worth the point and the traits just wont make most people jump on a pet spec reguardless of how cute having a cat is.

Those that dont put point in BM gets to have a pet somewhat looking like what we curently got with current damage reduced by 75% but you keep the pet utility for the F2. Ranger damage will be increased by 25% to compensate the huge nerf on the pet damage. You can now theoricaly play as you ever wanted to play your petless sword ranger and might as well carry a moa or a spîder for immobilize because between 100 and 500 damage your pet wont do much effect save for the F2 and the slight tanking.

just by the color of your skin and your little back wings i can tell you actualy are a devil trying to lure people into a lie so you can steal their soul o_O please dont take my soul

as the topic subjest will this new patch bring anything new but the living story for the class?

to hell with the light and the sun all shall embrace chaos

By a pyromancer who joined the chaos covenant

stack should remain until player itself goes down not the pet.

why was that thing not in the game in the first place if we saw it in the manifesto… thats lame

As a chaos magic researcher and disciple off dynamics i think Chaos magic can be attributed to purple and pink and that those color should rather denote a specialisation branch within the rank of our scientist then an actual fashion choice. Chaos magic hold both dangerous power and tremendous potential wich despite its dangerous and volatile nature could be used for greater purpose and technological advancement. I as of one think a deep observation of the Pink and purple syndrome is a great way to study chaos magic and its impact on the mind of asurans and the lesser race alike maybe it even hold the key to the comprehension of the eternal alchemy. Chaos magic is the power of change and revolution and i see no harm in studying its effect.

Chaos Golemancer Tripxi – Snaff Savant, College of Dynamics

Raven.3248:

Im stuck at work, what is your excuse

Im actualy a good player who never actualy cared to read forums for help or tip when everything was already doing quite well (doing high fractals got my dungeon master title and finished the game in prety much all angle not to mention i got a fairly good spvp ranking). Plus the fact I joined and played Prior to the creation of the meta builds prety much at the release and back then running 15 in defence on a war was still considered a virtue. I didnt hear about the ranger hate or the necro minion hate until i actualy bothered to check the forum and even if its over present here its prety much invisible in the game. I made most of my builds by myself… sometime unknowingly using the Meta itself.

dungeon selling shouldnt be possible in the first place… all those scamming exemplify why

make the mobs in dungeon like in WOW.. give them an endless agro leash.

because i liked my phoenix back in guild wars 1. Because the internet is full of furry maniac who are phantasming over blaziken and because running a bird archer or a tengu blademaster likely is the dream of a lot of people around here… If you bring in the tengu pls dont forget to give them katana and other asiatic weapon as their tier for the people pleasure, we still miss canthan weapon style a lot.

nah we gunna have a flying skyship like that sky pirate base and then well all hang up in the heaven

I agree with neither of you. Beast mastery should be a damaging school in its own right the same way minion master or phantasm spammer is. If they are to reduce the pet base damage to 15% i hope they make it so that pet gain the double or 3 time the current stat when traited appropriately.

While i do agree the pet of non beastmaster ranger should hit like crap at best and have some utility i think beastmaster specialist should be rewarded more for running a build based on their pet.

My beastmaster curently feels more like a fight as one build then as an actual animal tamer controlling a furry killing machine so here is what i propose.

Reduce pet base damage by 75% and add it more utilities for those falconer archer who just want to have some small buff
Quadruple the pet stat benefit from running the beastmastery trait line for those cat and bear user who wants to run some kind of pet based DPS so to compensate for the stat drop.
Add a stat scaling system based on the master total stats.

1. Ranger (Especialy longbow/axe damage and pet damage/survivability, please give us damage scaling already on pet or improve our ranged weapon so to make them stronguer damagewise)

2. Elementalist (the damage is very bad for a class thats suposed to be the ultimate cloth glass cannon, elementalist are both easy to kill and unrewarding please help us)

3. Necromancer (Save for its condition damage spec wich i dont care about, necromancer power spec are awfull they could use a damage boost on most of death shroud special ability other then life blast and could have minion damage scaling on power in pve, You made some ability have different effect in pvp so why not minions in pve wich tons of minion master are dreaming to run)

does vampiric master heals you when invulnerable in that block of ice ive never checked it out? That would perfectly justify the use of this rune in the build. To be honest however i prefer having 30 in blood magic for the sake of getting my condition cured by my minions every 10 second and loosing death nova instead of loosing the blood fiend wich heals like a pro. I usualy run staff, dagger/focus and spam vulnerability condition transfer and clease regeneration fear and buff removal (focus off hand realy crash those heavy buff relying builds).

I dont feel Minion master should get his damage from his weapon but rather from his minion wich still deals more then enought to kill most player. The master itself should stay out of reach as long as possible by spamming fear immobilize and slow on the targets.

Of course loosing death nova also may means that you loose the ability to proc poison but eh… its a reality one has to live with.