rangers need a lot of work, at this point moreso than any other prof except maybe necro. but there are a few strong builds. I have about 70-75% winrate with my particular build soloq, so im not crying in a corner or anything. id like to see more improvements though.
what gets me though is that ANet 1) just isn’t delivering timely balance changes and 2) theyre always delivering a half-finished product. they never have and they never will deliver timely balance changes. they need help, yet they don’t want to give us a PTR.
the most interesting game with a team dedicated to pvp and its balancing is Overwatch. the minute I get into beta, im gone.
no don’t get me wrong, I totally agree with you.
don’t waste QZ on the LB. use it to land your GS attacks and f2, or use it defensively to survive impossible situations. quickness eliminates GS telegraphs, makes maul and hilt bash virtually instantaneous. QZ makes the decent GS into something next level. ive landed 15k damage on people so fast they had that deer in the headlights look. from downed state. chain hilt bash with BW, they cant do anything else but get schmacked.
QZ also turns fights around. when people cc you to setup their combo, just stunbreak with QZ, hiltbash/f2 and burst them back. QZ is probably the best utility for any power ranger, but not for the reasons OP lists at all.
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Basically, engi would have been better for condi cc with FT/TK imo , no matter what you could do with ranger, another class does better.
I don’t agree. i think engies are in a worse spot. and any necro build other than signets, but that doesn’t matter cuz everyone is running the exceptionally strong signet cele build.
it’s interesting how nos refused to give the ranger props. not sure if annoyed or just skeptical. i ran into his ranger quite a few times in spvp and never thought much of him. my opinion is that marauder builds aren’t particularly strong, but it worked so good on them. definitely nice to see more rangers out there.
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axe/axe is the perfect opportunity to give the ranger a CC-heavy weapon set. there should be a block in there, and path of scars should be a massive attack that changes the ground to create a wall or a ditch or something. split blade needs to be more appropriate for power builds, and ricochet probably needs a 200% buff on power builds so that it crits for at least 1.5k per throw.
sadly, I feel staff will get all the cool new tech (as I assumed, only the elite specs are looking shiny while the old weapons are getting left in the dust) and axes will get ignored once again.
what puzzles me is how the devs still don’t understand why a/a fails on power builds after THREE YEARS. the recent patch was an opportunity to fix axes, SB and warhorn and they missed it AGAIN. it’s just so frustrating, but least 2/3 of our weapons are usable.
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lots of good suggestions here, upvote the man.
I don’t really understand your point, mind clarifying? The two major things wrong with our condi builds in spvp are 1) bonfire range reduction and 2) can’t use vit-less ammies in current “meta” so u have to go cele with scav runes. if the ranger became a high hp med armor prof, I could go settler or rabid again. then id just need bonfire to be 240 again. rest is fine.
^I think SotP should give pets a huge cleave range for the duration and also enlarge them for the additional damage. they should just remove the might stacking portion of SotP because realistically the pet wont make contact with its target more than 3-4 times tops. you can also argue that if you want cleave, just use drakes. which sucks, but people will say that.
Is it just me that thinks the GM trait Protective Ward in Nature Magic is incredibly awesome?
nope I use it in my bunker build. it’s very good and the entire NM line is strong with allies’ aid and evasive purity. along with WS line, if you get your dodge rolls in, you can have almost perma prot. thing is, it’s hard to trait into NM if youre using a power build. otherwise, damage output or utility are severely lacking.
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some positives:
LB damage is great, I don’t think people contest this point too much though. LTW is deadly with the piercing arrows and the increased RoF. you obviously feel the need to “prove” yourself on these forums, so at least you put up some footage. respect for that. you also did a pretty good job staying with your squad and receiving the benefits.
some criticisms:
the gvg itself is very low tier, so imo u cant really use this footage to “prove” anything. you guys received zero backline pressure, the drivers seemed really inexperienced as the groups kept dancing around each other, so you never really felt a good train on you. you were able to freecast the entire time while clicking your skills =P when you did receive a tiny bit of pressure, you crumbled. having seen the kind of environment you play in, I can safely say you don’t have a complete understanding of higher level play.
a freecasting ranger is indeed a powerful force, but again, players generally don’t complain about the LB’s damage. most complaints come from a high mmr spvp environment, where the issues are much different. imagine having a gank squad on you at all times =P in fact, I feel power rangers are quite strong in a wvw environment where their shortcomings can easily be made up for simply by the presence of many other players in large scale engagements.
as long as youre having fun, that’s all that matters though! cheers
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There are a lot of bad ideas in this thread… Some of them would kill axe mainhand for condi users in spvp, some of them would kill axe off hand for pve and our only reflects/aoe pull. The good ones are changing from ferocity to precision and the reduction of splitblade precast. Axe main is only good as a condi weapon, and it’s not effective either in pve or pvp with power gear.
all weapons should be useful for condi AND power builds. they must change their design philosophy. the individual weapon skills need to scale better, depending on how the player chooses the stats. for instance, Split Blade should receive a 300% bonus to the “white damage” portion with zerker stats, and 0% bonus to the condi portion. Honed Axes trait was a step in the right direction, but not nearly enough.
I like your suggestions. ranger especially needs to be a high hp medium armor prof. this would open back up the rabid and settler builds at least.
they also need to address useless weapons, utilities and GM’s. warhorn, OH axe and SB need revamps. traps need an associated defensive function to them (either built in or traited stealth, stunbreaker, condi cleanse, etc.). MDG, honed axes, poison master, empathic bond, etc. all need to be greatly buffed.
Problem is regen is very subpar right now in the current bursty state of the game. WH needs a complete rework as it has a crappy #5 and completely useless #4. I like the suggestion to give #5 ally quickness, but hunter’s call needs a revamp desperately.
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Things that can beat d/d ele 1v1
Pu Mesmer
Good lb rangers
Good trapper rangers
in your wildest fantasies….lol.
there is too much wrong with WD, there’s no point in discussing it until its channel time is halved and until it’s castable while moving. or completely reworked.
It would be a neat skill if it hit harder and had less hits (that retaliation :O).
.
my suggestion was to simply reduce its cast time to 2.5 (keeping damage the same) and make it castable while moving. this is bare bones though…even then im not sure id take the weapon.
there isn’t a single power ranger in the game that can kill a well played condi bunker ranger 1v1. simple as that. which is why I cant take this kid seriously.
but i extend challenges constantly and no one will prove me otherwise.. .
it’s not that no one wants to duel you, it’s just hard to take you seriously. build a name for yourself and maybe someone will prove you otherwise.
So if i add you and invite you to a 1v1, you will decline? Wasnt meant to be taken as i dont have people to duel, just no one has proven to me that LB ranger is as dead as people make it seem…
but you have to be somebody for me to duel you. good luck in your journey.
there is too much wrong with WD, there’s no point in discussing it until its channel time is halved and until it’s castable while moving. or completely reworked.
pretty good. winter’s bite aoe needs to be baseline and whirling defense needs a rework.
the problem with lb/gs is the ranger must leave the area when pressured even a little bit. this is why the build is so lackluster. I stick a few condis on any power ranger and just walk away to fight someone else. that’s the sad reality of it.
if you use a more defensive ammy, then you just don’t do enough damage. this is why I only really like valk with 3 stunbreakers in spvp for power and a lot of tank.
but i extend challenges constantly and no one will prove me otherwise.. .
it’s not that no one wants to duel you, it’s just hard to take you seriously. build a name for yourself and maybe someone will prove you otherwise.
I respect hitzer much more for his thief play, but yes hes running a pretty cookie cutter lb/gs build. the new lb/gs can look really nice if played aggressively, but really doesn’t bring much to the table and crumbles under pressure.
burning damage on celestial ele is absolutely insane. but I don’t think burning even needs that much of a nerf. I just don’t think a celestial build should be able to pump out that kind of damage. nor should they be able to maintain 20-25 stacks of might.
I actually agree. without rampage, I think any warrior would be as relevant as my ranger, at which point I think i’d rather play the ranger. it’s gonna take some work, I don’t think rampage needs a nerf but other aspects of the warrior need to be competitive choices as well.
I figured that the Ranger never really had convincing damage, may it be power or condition. What makes/made the Ranger decent in 1v1 scenarios is that he can keep the enemy at bay. A fight usually revolves around lowering the damage taken to the point that your damage starts to hit your enemy harder than your enemy is able to hit you.
which is why im loving my cele bunker right now. I can 1v1 any bunker if given enough time, or just evade spam until I get help. I can kill thieves and eniges, pressure the new Mesmers without getting 2-shot. it’s all pretty neat until you look at the big picture – that Mesmer can just leave, stealth, pop one of your teammates into downstate and move on; that warrior can wipe your entire scrub team and maybe I can even fight him 1v1 with rampage on, but that doesn’t matter if my team is kissing the ground all game. my point is, I just cant make enough of a difference in these crazy times. no ranger can. and that’s the frustration right now.
I just haven’t been successful with any vit-less ammies in spvp. I was still getting popped for 80% of my HP at 3k armour by a single combo. with high vit, at least you have a nice buffer to shrug off the burn spam.
but yes I can see Remorseless builds with the right mix of cav and valk being very effective in wvw, especially for frontline play. 20k HP is sort of the sweet spot, at which point one can just invest in cav stats.
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but the Ranger can combo many subpar traits and abilities to halfway decent builds. .
but other profs can combo many powerful traits into extremely effective builds. maybe that’s why JROH has been walking that line. and tbh all the most skilled rangers in the game are finding it difficult to go on until a major balance patch is released. ive settled into my cele bunker build that plays exactly how you describe. and it’s pretty good. but in the current state of the game it’s also meaningless at the level that I play. and how could it be when a bunch of highly skilled individuals are only playing d/d eles and mesmers? you literally don’t need to play anything else, and those who are min-maxing the game wont.
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waiting has never really paid off for us now has it? it’s been a month and still no balance in sight. most amulets are useless for us because on low vit, we get popped for 80% of our HP in one shot. we have two useless offhands, a useless weapon, and two viable power weapons that are virtually hard-countered by the popular builds right now. Anet keeps adding more reflects into the game, and blocks have been spammed for too long now. we have an entirely useless utility line (spirits) and a utility line we cant use because it removes all of our survivability (traps).
so im not sure what im waiting for tbh. for them to fix half my prof? or to nerf other profs until my broken prof is usable? they haven’t even patched the insanely broken kitten that’s making pvp a circus right now. I doubt the ranger is any of their concern.
given the tools other profs get, hilt bash should be a cone attack castable while moving that can cleave 3 targets. but that’s not gonna happen now is it?
just make it castable while moving.
quickdraw has been a bit of a let down for several reasons. mostly that going into skirmishing pretty much kills our survivability, in one way or another. if it was a built in mechanic, or an adept/master in a more useful trait line, it would be cool. I was very excited bout it, but ranger just doesn’t work without a few key GM’s right now, and quickdraw just isn’t one of them. one could argue ranger doesn’t work at all, but each to their own.
ive stopped using amulets other than valk and celestial. theyre the only ones that give us a good combination of survivability and damage. ranger is in a tough spot right now, but tbh so are other profs and many other specs. i’ll still play my bunker ranger over the signet necro, thief, or any engie spec in the game, for example.
Ok, can we have a serious list of builds that work?
both of mine work every day, top mmr bracket. the key right now is to not use amulets other than valk and celestial. theyre the only ones that give us enough damage and survivability in the current state of the game. unfortunately, none of the other vitality-less ammies work either. it’s tricky being a ranger now.
100th post!
celestial condi beastmaster, for those who enjoyed the condi bunker prepatch.
http://intothemists.com/guides/6050-ikyros_celestial_condi_beastmaster
Added that one. It gave me an idea though….
Celestial Spirit & Boon Support
Have been trying to make something with NV for a while, just never seemed good with anything, this seems better. What do you all think?
I really like the idea behind this, but it severely lacks damage and there is no invuln. maybe if/when spirit actives and passives are buffed by 200%, it would be interesting. right now spirits are sad pandas.
I think traps right now would be more interesting as “support”. celestial traps?
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ive beaten plenty of good Mesmers 1v1 with my builds, but that’s not my point. the Mesmer simply contributes more damage and utility to a fight, and is much more effective against better players. so obviously, no need to bring a ranger over a Mesmer. we literally have zero utility. spirits are useless, cant slot traps without getting smoked, and beastly warden has been nerfed into near-uselessness for no kittening reason.
@Situations
I might have been misunderstood, but what I meant is that players expect the “1 button game” to be as effective as the Ele’s full rotation. And of course – just like you already said – there’s much more there is to it.I’ve always said that Ranger is the easiest class to play, but the most difficult one to master. The skill cap on our class is pushed the furthest.
this is only because our tools are pathetic. our best power set, LB/GS, is laughably clumsy in comparison to what other power builds bring to the table. playing a flawless ranger and never making a mistake doesn’t get you anywhere against a perfectly played Mesmer, warrior, d/p thief even, or d/d ele for example. all these guys can basically come to any fight and either spam pbaoe’s and cc’s while tanking 2 people like the ele, or instagib people repeatedly like the warrior and mes.
^that’s been suggested before by many people. devs just haven’t a clue. u might get a variation of the pet mechanic with the druid, but pet functionality and scaling need to be revamped baseline for all ranger specs. THAT, im certain, we wont ever see.
ive stopped logging in until the next balance patch hits. there’s no point in playing in my mmr bracket because all I see is ele/Mesmer cancer carrying teams. I think it’s insane that we haven’t yet seen a major balance patch since the big release a month ago. then again, this is GW2 and this is ANet.
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I don’t mind the pets right now. I feel the worst offenders are the useless GM’s and extremely weak weapon sets. even our utilities and elites, other than spirits, are quite good.
at this point ive basically lost faith in the devs. too much incompetence, team too small, and lack of understanding of top level gameplay have made me give up on this game, until im proven otherwise by the devs. and surprise, surprise – still no balance patch a month after a major patch, and we’re forced to play garbage. kitten like this makes me look forward to Overwatch. when that’s out, im outta here. and ive stuck through the thick and thin for 3 years.
d/d cele eles and mesmers are the reason I don’t log into the game any longer. at the top mmr bracket, these two specs carry teams and to be frank im tired of it. im not talking about scrubs, im talking about the top players facerolling with these specs and achieving results that shouldn’t be possible in a team game. surprise, surprise – still no balance patch since the big release, just bug fixes. Overwatch can’t come any sooner.
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Mesmer is really good right now with several viable builds. Take domination, dueling, and a greatsword and you’re all set, the last trait line is just for either some extra support/sustain/survivability. The condi shatter builds are also pretty decent with carrion too. Don’t play the faceroll mantra builds though, it’ll keep you from getting better since the stunlock mantra won’t teach you how to shatter at the right time and it’ll probably get nerfed anyway. Playing mantras would just make it harder for you to learn how to be a good mesmer.
Elementalist is another very good class. The best builds are sustain based builds either cele D/D (fire OR earth, then water/arc) or cele staff (earth water arc). You provide alot of sustain, can hold points fairly well, and support your allies while dealing pretty high damage. Right now the burn damage from ring of fire and dreakes breath is really strong and fire traits give you tons of might.
Ranger, probably the worst class in pvp atm but its not terrible. The power longbow builds require expert posititoning, kiting, and knowing when and how to use the GS. Basically if you get focused, run away, its the only way to survive. Power ranger is also map dependent. It sucks on forest of nifhel, but its great on legacy of the foefire. The condi builds (either trap or survival) are excellent in 1v1s due to condis being strong there, but signet necro builds will end you and make your life useless in pvp. The build is strong in smaller fights, but it can be focus fired very easily in teamfights.
I hope this info helps.
I share the same sentiment about these 3 profs, and im an expert ranger playing at the top MMR. in fact I don’t play other profs much. ive basically hit a wall in my progression when facing top players in this game – mesmers and cele d/d eles make my ranger completely irrelevant, especially after the Beastly Warden nerfs. I can hold my own in some games, but a good Mesmer or d/d ele will always be a stronger choice.
the only prof right now that’s in a worse shape than the ranger is probably the engie, but that doesn’t make me feel better.
im someone who did wvw only for two years before I got bored and moved to doing spvp only. pve in this game is less than garbage because it was never challenging and always just about looking pretty. when I want to do pve, I will play games that are challenging and interesting like Witcher 3 etc.
spvp balance is a joke right now as well and I think Stronghold was a miss, so im basically just counting down to Overwatch at which point I will have enough fun pvp games to play long term. at that point I will likely never log into GW2 again.
there are 3 overarching problems: 1) devs who don’t understand their playerbase, 2) a small team of devs who are hit or miss at balancing pvp (some decent decisions, many outright incompetent), and 3) not enough devs. this has been the problem since the game launched and it’s absolutely not any different 3 years later.
also Mike is a tool, which explains problems 1-3 being here since launch.
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spike trap is undoubtedly very good. in fact, all traps are. spike trap needs its CD lowered to 35s baseline, 30s traited.
then, certain weapons need to be revamped so we can actually slot 2 traps without getting blown up instantly. not sure how many people realize this but most of ranger woes originate from terrible weapon skill design. our utilities are actually on par with the rest of the profs, more or less. even most of the traits are decent. but the problem lies in the horrible weapon design.
I had a very very long post that brought up this issue years ago. Probably still in my post history. Idk if it was on this acct or my old banned one lol. But yeah, not going to change. Ever.
Anet changed sword skill AA functionality in the beta yet didn’t bother redesigning the actual skills so they’re still using the same lame animations which lock you in place unnecessarly. The entire weapon set feels like a relic from GW1. Absolutely no personal control. If they don’t bother fixing actual broken skills they aren’t going to fix a skill that is obviously out of place regardless of any reasons you, I, or anyone else brings to light.I’ll personally buy 100$ worth of gems, convert it to gold, donate the gold to new players, and write a actual leter of thanks and apologies if these things ever get addressed. But they won’t. Ever.
the only functionality they changed in beta was to make it so the second skill in the sword auto chain wasn’t a 150yd knock back because that was stupid broken.
omg…I want.
Ignore him, 5v4 rest of his team.
He probably won’t join large scale fights, because hes horrible in those…
pretty much this. ignore cuz hes a bad, or just spike him down with your team. all rangers are feed now.
there is no META, stop misusing the word. right now at the top MMR bracket, we see mostly Mesmer and cele ele cancer, cheese condi guards and an odd rampage warrior and d/p thief which are actually most balanced right now.
necros are good if u play the signet build well. rangers and engies are bottom of the barrel and they are mostly feed. the state of the game isn’t really much different. it’s basically still celestial eles, Mesmer aids, and a few cheese specs.
Overwatch beta cant come and sooner, and once it’s out later this year, buh bye gdub pvp.
why is the sky blue? because ANet is clueless. theyre bads who have been bad a game design and balancing since the game was released.
to the point, SB could have been good if poison volley was a true poison nuke. I called it when the changes were announced – if poison volley was bad, the entire weapon would be useless. this is mostly due to poison stacks not doing enough damage. I thought we’d be able to coordinate nice condi spikes with poison volley, but even that flopped. in fact, the entire weapon does horrible damage. the AA is bad, #3 and #4 are bad utility abilities. u get no survivability, no damage, and very limited utility.
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I hope so, it would increase pool of players for matchmaking
agreed. RF makes no sense on a bulky, heavy, long range weapon like the LB. many many things in this game make no thematic sense.
Mesmer aren’t that strong at high level tpvp but the blind through everything should be fixed just like they did for the ranger taunt.
A simple fix to the annoyance level of the class would be to make any phantasm apply reveal to the mesmer if they hit anything meaning the mesmer would have to shatter before stealthing
mesmers carry in “high level tpvp”. meaning that a benchwarmer like backpack can learn it a week and carry the Abjured. only at Arenanet. ESPORTS!