Guild Wars 2

^ true shot is virtually spammable and that was 4.2k with Carrion gear.

RF should have always been on the SB because it’s impossible to fire an LB that quickly, and abilities like Trueshot and Deflecting Shot (just the skillshot part) always belonged on ranger’s LB. I fantasized about this 2 years ago, and hoped they would improve LB is a more intuitive way. instead they just cranked up the damage on the AA and RF. but of course we cant complain about that too much because it was good for us.

Rampage is completely out of control. don’t mind lich, you can actually dodge the projectiles or run away. Rampage has too many gap closers and hits for insane amounts. it’s an I-Win button for bads, and in the hands of a skilled player is OP.

Sebrent.3625:

Trueshot #2 and Deflecting Shot #3 both look like they’d hurt … .

they do. they both pierce and trueshot was doing 4.2k crits on carrion gear. that’s without any of the burning damage being procced. sure, trueshot has a short cast time but its cd is ridiculously short and it gets you to pop your defensive cd’s and use up endurance.

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

#1.. cripples, bounces, and deals good damage? I hope it has less damage than LRS because if not, it just seems like an improved version of it
#2.. basically ranged maul? doesn’t look that op, but looks like something that would be better fitting for rangers
#5.. just looks like an improved barrage to me.
.

i’ll just play a bit of devil’s advocate.

1. cripples with bounces on autoattack. how’s that not OP? do we have a ranged cripple on autoattack?

2. how is a ranged maul not OP? he was critting 4.2k+ on carrion gear. and it’s nearly spammable

5. “just” an improved barrage? it’s basically a long range ring of warding in an aoe. thankfully, the cd is fairly long.

also #3 does decent damage and hardcounters longbow rangers. in addition, it’s a really fun long range skillshot, something ive always wanted on my ranger.

I have a feeling they buffed longbow rangers just so they can make them obsolete with all the reflect hardcounters and “new tech”. cuz no other spec or prof really depends on projectiles as much as we do. it’s all become clear, well played ANet.

LughLongArm.5460:

Its uncomparble, think about palying LB with out stealth and strong KB. Rnger LB is much more suited for kiting and landing big spike rotaions. Gurdains are like slow SB with rifle damage(not the mega shot)..

I sort of understand what youre trying to say. but what im saying is that LB rangers have no utility in comparison and deal similar damage, only with a little bit more burst. DH brings so much more utility AND survivability while doing similar damage.

Holland.9351:

I haven’t seen it yet, but if Dragonhunter is really much better than Longbow Ranger, then that’s actually good news.

could be. our skirmishing condi bunkers builds will be beastly, and druid will likely be a support spec. so i was likely gonna completely move away from LB play anyways. but my point is…whats the point of glassbow now?

Skullface.7293:

From what I’ve seen I don’t see how people think this looks superior to Ranger, because while the Longbow may have similar gameplay, their skills aren’t the same.

as I explained above: DH brings utility + survivability in addition to doing similar damage from 1200.

thoughts on livestream…lets see…

RIP LB RANGERS

i’ll be the first to post this. the intuitive mechanics, the utility, even the applied damage. no pet required! LB rangers are JUST ranged assassins with next to no team utility. what gives? (yes im mad about it)

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/657277834

/discuss

p.s. im not just talking about the LB on the guard. im referring to how well its integrated with the virtues, utilities and elites available to the guard.

I have a feeling it will be a combination of ranged, ground-targeted and skillshot attacks. I want melee, but I don’t think we’ll get it.

Lux.7169:

This game is far too forgiving and rewarding for the amount of dodges we are given. If anything it should punish people a LOT more for failing to dodge appropriately.

for this to work, they need to increase cast times of many abilities and overall slow the pace down. otherwise it’s too easy for kitten y specs like d/p thief to bait dodges. there are also a slew of hard-hitting abilities that simply aren’t dodgeable, unless you use intuition or guess.

but poison stacking in intensity is what’s gonna make it deadly. 5 stacks of poison could hurt for as much as, say, 10 stacks of bleeds. or however they decide to do the math. I think with this stacking change, they are trying to bring poison in line with the other condis. also, heal factor will remain unchanged according to Peters.

this will be my dude

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with cele engie and medi guard. theyre right where they need to be.

Sandzibar.5134:

well dragon hunter reworks virtues… so maybe druid will remove the godawful pet

pets aren’t being removed. but their taunt is looking really strong.

am I the only on here who thinks pets will be very strong with maxed out BM, and when combined with 2 other GM’s? u guys know birds still whack people for 6k with 25 stacks of might, which is very easy to stack with axe?

the guard is my other main, so im happy about the DH spec. but I don’t think he’ll be as offense-oriented as my ranger.

I think SB will be very, very strong with the upcoming buff to traps, or even without traps strong on its own in some kind of poison stacking build. in fact, I think the new SB will be all about hitting that Poison Volley shotgun to stack 4-5x poison, and less about the AA. also if combined with quickdraw, u could chain evades or even dazes. it will be quite survivable.

im thinking SB/s/t, or SB/a/d with a source of burning. as jc said, the major disadvantage of SB is that it generates mostly one condition only – bleeds. if combined with others to generate multiple condis and mask the bleeds preventing cleansing, it could be very strong. 0/6/6/0/6 with Quickdraw or Poison Master, and hard-hitting pets will be money. and who knows…maybe even spirits will be interesting.

im against the move, but I think NM needs a strong alternative GM. combining EB and IB to create a competitive NM GM is probably my favourite idea. EB could be nerfed to 2 condis/10s in this case.

Sebrent.3625:

I’m right there with you loving Druid. Was a WoW Druid myself … so versatile!

playing my WoW druid is still the most memorable and fun time ive had in online games. I generally go out of my way to play any games that have the druid in them =)

Tragic Positive.9356:

This only proves that you have no idea.
Not only you are skeptical as hell, you can’t even get out of the meta that someone else made for you (which means you didn’t think for yourself even for a second).

It’s fun that neither PoS nor WD is ever powerful for you, while it was a game changer for me countless of times.
What is more likely to be true? My experience that shows that it is useful (that I can prove) or yours based on your lack of experience that only shows you haven’t tried ?

I do have an idea. Im sorry that 1500 hours in pvp as a ranger makes me the way I am. it’s not that my head is “in the meta”. in fact, ive put out some of the most experimental ranger guides in the past. I have over 200 hours on my sentinel and cleric builds ALONE, both of which actually revolved around the OH axe after it was buffed. just because I liked OH axe and how flashy WD looks and how amazing and situational it is, doesn’t make it a viable offhand relative to our other weapons and builds. so it’s too bad u weren’t around when I was doing those vids and guides – they were very well received.

ideas to improve OH axe are all over the forums. PoS is too slow, even after the buffs, but we all like the damage. it’s fun and hilarious throwing it in the middle of zergs, but it doesn’t have any role whatsoever in 5v5, skirms, 1v1, or conquest. WD is suicidal and overly situational because the channel is too long and projectiles aren’t and never have been a problem. there are better ways to handle glassbows and other projectile sources. standing still and channeling is just horrible design. if we could generate the reflect while doing other things like moving, doing damage, debuffing, or evading while channeling, then it would be extremely beneficial.

Tragic Positive.9356:

mistsim.2748:

OH axe needs a rework for pvp. Whirling Defense is unusable/suicidal, and while PoS does massive damage, its CC remains too slow and clumsy.

and it’s a powerful situational for PvP, too.

it’s not. ever.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You can’t have everything. If PoS were reworked so a to be easier to hit, they would reduce the damage for sure. Use PoS as another link in your chain CC, it’s no good just throwing it out there.

WD is trash, so OH axe never gets used. LB power builds always work best with GS, and sword/x is almost always the less versatile option. even then, OH axe is not used.

toxicity is very normal in pvp games, in fact mobas are the same if not worse. our situation here is that a lot of rage comes from constantly losing in an unforgiving and lame meta, which is funnily the best we’ve ever had. at least in mobas, you can enjoy your game and contribute a lot while losing. conquest isn’t like that.

I saw it coming. his presence has dropped off and Aspect GG seems to have been the last attempt at creating GW2 material. GW2 is sort of a dead end for casters due to low interest in its pvp. he will be missed, but yeah, ded gaem is ded gaem (relatively). I hope to see things improve with the xpac, but likely they will remain about the same due to snail’s pace of fixing major bugs and exploits, and balancing. competitive pvp games need dedicated professionals playing and understanding the game at a high level of play, and in turn cranking out updates fast. this is why I play dota 2 (and hopefully Overwatch soon if it gets the right support from Blizz).

but im sure most of us will still buy the xpac for the novelty, as we’re probably really attached to our characters and want new toys. ANet is good at that. they aren’t very good at iterating and providing timely fixes. in fact, they are probably the worst company for that.

Collero.7963:

I don’t blame him. It was painful to watch him put effort into a game where the developers couldn’t give a flying kitten.

they care, and they care A LOT. but either 1) there aren’t enough of them, or 2) they are quite incompetent/inexperienced. I think it’s a little from column A, and a little from column B.

p.s. I didn’t know OE left as well. he was quite fanatical and loved the game. it’s probably the healthiest decision for him, but still. ded gaem.

OH axe needs a rework for pvp. Whirling Defense is unusable/suicidal, and while PoS does massive damage, its CC remains too slow and clumsy.

Dreamthistle is my favourite.

Entangle is fine. Rampage is stupidly OP. Slicks shoes knockdown shouldn’t stack the way it does.

oh well that’s great. poison volley will be interesting with stacking poison

Gotejjeken.1267:

mistsim.2748:

Light On Your Feet is a pretty significant buff though. piercing arrows on SB will increase condi application (especially if it works with poison volley), and reduced CD will give us more dazes and evades. SB will synergize with a/d beautifully, especially if you go 0/6/6/0/6 with Quickdraw or Poison Master, and traited traps, and pets that hit like a truck. either rabid or settlers stats.

I’m pretty sure poison volley already pierces.

Even after the patch I still see it being power ranger (LB/GS) and survival / condi ranger (S/T + A/D). That is, I do not see SB factoring in, even though I personally like the weapon. It’s just too easy to counter (reflect, confusion, etc.), has no gap closer or get away, and the chasedown skills (#4 and #5) are negated by blocks and invulns.

it doesn’t pierce without piercing arrows, which you never pick up on any SB condi build. Light On Your Feet will give it to us in the skirmishing line.

Levetty.1279:

I’m hoping it at least goes back to 1200 range. Also a revert on the ‘animation fix’ would be nice.

then it wouldn’t be a shortbow. the animation fix was a fix. so none of this gonna happen.

SB on its own will not work and does not work because you cant just stack one condi type on someone and expect them to die. bleeds get cleansed if applied on their own, or with 1 or two other condis. im thinking SB will work well either with traps or with a poison stacking build.

Light On Your Feet is a pretty significant buff though. piercing arrows on SB will increase condi application (especially if it works with poison volley), and reduced CD will give us more dazes and evades. SB will synergize with a/d beautifully, especially if you go 0/6/6/0/6 with Quickdraw or Poison Master, and traited traps, and pets that hit like a truck. either rabid or settlers stats.

Cufufalating.8479:

What Heimskarl said. SB is great because it’s so hard to counter. It’s ranged, making it hard to kite away from, it does decent condition and direct damage making it hard for any one build to shrug it off, and it is AA dependant meaning it can’t be countered with a well timed evade / block / reflect (like Axe, GS and LB can be), and it’s condition damage is done through short-duration fast-application meaning it’s not really even effected by cleanses.
.

im afraid it doesn’t work this way in practice. SB is useless right now because a/d s/t combo does so much more damage and gives a lot more survivability. also, you can generate different condis making cleansing more difficult. SB is too reliant on spamming bleeds and AA, which is why it doesn’t work. and also, kiting isn’t really possible in this game, which is a good thing. every build has a multitude of ranged attacks and gap closers

as I said, with the upcoming poison stacking buff, Poison Volley will be extremely powerful which may bring SB back into the game.

Ehecatl.9172:

Please don’t direct people’s attention to the cleric beastmaster build next. If that gets nerfed into the ground I don’t know what I will do. It’s one of the funnest and most challenging builds I’ve come across and I absolutely love it, and we all know that when it comes to AI many in the PVP community aren’t exactly civil.

cleric BM isn’t viable in any way, shape or form in any aspect of pvp. it used to be when double ravens were critting people for 7k. so don’t worry, it’s not getting nerfed.

however, with the upcoming changes, 0/0/6/6/6 condi bunker will be very strong having all the tools it has now, plus 25 stacks of might on a bird supplementing your massive condi damage.

sword really doesn’t belong on zerker builds. ive tested a variety of power melee builds and spamming sword autoattack is suicide due to the animations. it’s not bad when finishing off a target, and it might be interesting on a tanky cleric build with Remorseless.

if CD and cast time are left the way they are now, then pet hitting the target should give 3 stacks of might at least per hit. so after 5 instances (which is rare in a longer encounter, how pathetic), we get 15 stacks and this wouldn’t be too bad for an elite.

again, eles and warriors finishing the fight with 20+ stacks by just facerolling. and that’s without the use of an elite.

I would say the #1 mistake all players make is wasting their evades and dodge rolls by being anxious and incorrectly trying to predict the opponent’s commitment. If you watch yourself play, I guarantee you’ll see most of your dodge rolls being completely wasted due to your anxiety.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

The loss of Nature’s Protection from NM is HUGE and I’m thinking that some of the Protection will have to apply to the Ranger as it is really the only trait we have that prevents us being 1 shot by thieves everytime when playing glassbow.

not really. now we’ll have Oakheart Salve and Barkskin. Barkskin will make the opener weaker, and -5% damage taken with perma regen is probably better. this is in addition to prot from dodge rolls.

for glassbows, Barkskin will be huge. and I think they will make Protective Ward apply to the ranger. it would make sense.

RaO is a bad skill right now and it isn’t seeing any play in pvp (if the ranger is good. sorry.) Entangle is too strong with the condi wipe (on condi specs) and amazing immob that annihilates engies, other rangers and necros. even on glassbows, Entangle is superior allowing you to get away or secure a kill. choosing RaO over Entangle is indeed very goofy.

when I did slot RaO I mostly used it for stomping people. the damage increase from this elite is non-existent because the pet cant hit a target more than a few times to give you significant might stacks. fury is nice, but you can get it from swapping weapons; swiftness isn’t needed because you should be using Traveller runes.

it just makes sense to have it act more like a reactive skill with no cast time, and on a much lower CD given how ineffective it is in its damage boosting role.

it will be perfect if the prot applies to ranger, and not the pet.

by far the best looking staff in the game with an organic theme is the Dreamthistle staff, which I got before the prices went insane. if u can get anything Dreamthistle and like the organic themes, that’s what I would suggest. that’s what my druid’s gonna be sporting with sylvari t3 armor, a few Jade Dragon skins and other Dreamthistle skins.

huh? the cooldown of Beastly Warden is 15s. you can achieve this with most F2’s and the new Loud Whistle. choosing a sub-15s F2 wont maximize BW.

it’s interesting how Beastly Warden will interact with other CC like fear and immobilize. will the target require two stunbreaks on wolf’s F2? or will he need a stunbreak and a condi cleanse on the hound’s f2?

if one stunbreak gets rid of both cc’s (taunt + fear for example), then it may be pointless to use pets with a pbaoe CC. instead, we can branch out with other pets. from testing, birds are by far the hardest hitting pets on moving targets. so I was thinking rolling with two birds which would both have a low enough F2 CD in addition to hitting like trucks.

alternatively, we can go for fern hound and blue moa + compassion training. Moa’s heal becomes 4200 over 3 seconds, and the hound’s becomes 1350 instant + 1700 over 10s. the pet’s regen is 174 with compassion training + SoW 119 (settler’s ammy), which gives us almost 300 HPS.

then we are agreed! traps would work best with an optional activation action which would give us a secondary effect. stun break, an on-demand combo field, etc. hope devs are taking notes

just wait until xpac. im holding onto all my armor chests and laurels.

im expecting Resistance boon, Slow condition, poison source(s), heals and condi cleanses incorporated into staff skills. some kind of synergy with healing spring. I at least expect those things.

oh yeah, we’re still not sure how Protective Ward is going to work. hope it applies that protection to ranger, it would make it strong.

StickerHappy.8052:

Just a thought, how can you get Quickdraw and Traited SB? they both share the same spot in GM.

Peters mentioned SB trait will move to adept or master at least. we should be able to get all 3, and I think it will be important to.

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

I would prefer a 6 sec unreavealed by triggering a trap. But I think traps are good in there current state, because they are really strong and cool for roaming with trapper runes. I think if they will get stronger, that will be a nerf for trapper runes. Or they need a buff, that don’t synergize with the trapper runes to get imbalance.

well I was hoping theyd incorporate that mechanic into the specialization! it’s pretty intuitive.

tooltip for what? the axe trait?

it will be tough picking this over Beastly Warden, no matter what build youre running. but MH axe is cool in general because it can get your pet 25 stacks of might in a multi-opponent scenario. ac JC said i think it all comes down to how the aoe is going to work.

ive been thinking about traps a lot. and mostly, I agree with you. traps lack utility and survivability in their current state, while the damage and CD’s are fine.

this can go two ways. if they truly want there to be “trappers”, meaning a ranger who is fully slotted with 3 traps, then yes they absolutely need a secondary function – boons, stun breaks, a stealth mechanic, etc.

if traps are to be supplementary, i.e. something we do on the side, then it might be sufficient if we synergize with other abilities:

- 3 wilderness utilities: TU, LR and Entangle
- two traps
- Shortbow, axe/dagger
- 0/6/6/0/6: Quickdraw, traited traps and traited SB; rabid stats

^this way, we get survivability and utility through our pets and weapons. 3 evades, Beastly Warden, and a few condi wipes through Wilderness. im not sure if a build like this would give us enough survivability, which is why im reserving my opinion until they show us what they have planned for traps. but in general, i also think traps need a secondary function. i think trap specialists really need one more source of short stealth on a medium cooldown, and this would thematically make a lot of sense.

either reduce recharge or give them 50-100% more HP. it was totally unnecessary to completely destroy the spec. I hope they don’t leave this issue for the next two years.

also, this is what happens WHEN YOU DONT TEST THINGS PROPERLY ANET. builds get KILLED.

Sebrent.3625:

I have a feeling we may end up dumping this thread when the Druid info is released and start having Druid/X/Y builds :-p

well the whole point of these discussions is to help them acknowledge that the base prof should be perfectly viable, strong and relevant. meaning, they need to address the useless traits and weapon skills on top of working on the elite spec.

chronomancer looks like an insane skill-based build that could totally change the outcome of any fight

there’s no way to effective use s/d with a power build right now; and sword should only really be equipped on condi bunkers.

you should either get the hang of LB/GS zerker builds but theyre not for 1v1’s and thieves will crush you. condi bunker would be for holding points and doing 1v1’s. check out metabattle for those builds.

Razor.9872:

I think the reason is as Cafard said. Reducing the cooldown could make RaO “spammier,” essentially changing the skill from being an impactful decision to a no-brainer-use-off-cooldown sorta skill.

lol. RaO doesn’t impact anything right now. at the very least it needs to be instacast so we can get that stab when we actually need it. and because it’s a bad elite that doesn’t impact the outcome of fights, keeping it on such a long CD is really counterproductive.

with turrets being vulnerable to crits and condi damage, simply buff their hp by like 30%. should be fine.

all I know is that whenever one of those “nerf turret engie” threads popped up, I always said something along the lines of “no theyre fine, l2p, kill their turrets, put condis on them”. i handled turret engies on my glassbow, I handled them on my condi bunker, I handled them on my medi guard. I have never played an engie.

problem is people don’t know how to time their dodges and do other skill-based maneuvers so they get on the forums and cry. anet listens, spec dead. like totally dead dead.

turret engies are dead. one cast of my bonfire destroys all their turrets. gj anet. this is what happens when u listen to a bunch of vocal noobs.

I just hope they don’t leave spirits, shouts and traps in the dust for another two years before looking at them again.