Guild Wars 2

Pendragon.8735:

As someone that roamed solo often, I find the new ruins too much like sPVP, a lot of the open field randomness, organic nature, and route running of how you roamed prior to the patch has been lost.

I.e. Do I hit this or that camp next, go after this yak or too dangerous. Hey there’s a zerg, better scout and tail them to notify my own team commander. Can I kill those 2 guys, one is underleveled, oh here comes 3 guys, better bail. It was an interesting cat and mouse. There was also less help around, committing was more lethal. Now its easy for people to stall out battles or escape into allies due to the central location.

The ruins are just like a big deathmatch area in the middle of the map, and while some want just the pure fighting only, the combined thinking about where to be on the map to best help your team that went into roaming is lessened.

If all people wanted was mindless preset point locations to fight over, the game already had that, hot-join sPVP.

You can still do it the old way I guess, but most of the other non-zerg players are just running into the middle over and over.

but isn’t this what WvW needed? everyone was complaining about zergs. now you’re complaining about lack of zergs.

Urrid.4593:

mistsim.2748:

new BL’s have revitalized WvW and eliminated zergs in BL’s. it’s great fun.

Tier 1 player.

yeah, lovin it. i wasnt logging in for a few weeks until patch.

new BL’s have revitalized WvW and eliminated zergs in BL’s. it’s great fun.

it’s not a troll. im not at all noticing any huge imbalances due to bloodlust. in fact, you CANT notice any difference as it’s basically microscopic. im in JQ (third place atm) and we usually have 1 orb anyways.

MH axe is probably the most useless ranger weapon. spamming axe 1 as power will get u killed due to horrible range, and the dps is lower than spamming LB 1 from 1200-1500. MH axe is only used *effectively in condi builds.

MH axe needs more.

nothing too groundbreaking here, but it is possible to use the new terrain to go a pretty glassy with the LB at 1500 range. ive been having a lot of fun with this build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJARTjEVV2FWSWs2Bi1j9s/+0UwJLxUcIGVwmK-jUyAocAMHEZBi8Ak+KiGbxtIasqFMVJRUtPpIa1SBExwI-w

- about 2600 power with stacks
- 47% crit without spotter
- 100% crit damage

you can make various tweaks to this, like piercing arrows instead of spotter. i wouldnt go with signets in this case because you need to keep 1500 range on all targets to maintain 2500-3.2k autoattack. using spear underwater, GS and LR, you can kite anyone forever. at the moment, im only dying for overcommiting or when i make a serious mistake. im able to take down condi engies, thieves, mesmers, and warriors just by maintaining range. of course, this build crumples in melee, but there are times it’s acceptable to swoop in and do a bit of burst.

IF pet AI and responsiveness get fixed in October, i’ll likely be running Sic Em with cat/wolf to annihilate mesmers and thieves quickly. utilities are pretty flexible, but LR is necessary

i wanted to thank the devs for the new BL’s. theyre so much fun for a few reasons:

- underwater combat: it occurs spontaneously in the canals. a little bit of it is a lot of fun and a nice transition between land

- new terrain allows for a new variety of skirmishing builds; more build diversity. it is possible to use terrain to your advantage, reposition, evade, do all kinds of stuff. guardian/necro/staff ele gvg meta is basically useless, so there’s some variety for u.

- zergs are virtually non-existent and they actually kitten your server in the current BL’s. im in tier 1.

- non-stop action: there are always people out there skirmishing. lots of small gang action

hope everyone else is having a lot of fun!

condition builds are not viable in GvG’s. especially a ranger one. rabid necros have some use in 10v10. i dont know what GvG’s u guys are playing.

hi,

how come we don’t have access to a Public Test Realm? is it due to lack of resources, or is it due to philosophy?

PTR’s have done wonders for quite a few games out there. Dota2, EVE, even WoW to an extent (when they chose to listen to the players). is there a specific reason things are so different here?

reasons for PTR:
- more feedback, better metrics for you; you may have a lot of internal testers and i know you invite people, but obviously the sample is not big enough
- less bugs when releasing content patches
- faster balancing; hotpatching little tweaks into PTR would allow players to play around and tell you right away whether it works or not

reasons against PTR:
- ????

it revolves around 100% crit damage, high crit, stacking and sharing might with your pet, and using sword 1 on autopilot. the damage is comparable to all other zerker profs. but i dont like playing my ranger that way.

nowhere to go but up for rangers. it’s the only profession that has received nothing but buffs since release. i have a necro and guard, but i keep going back to my ranger

the problem is rangers cant actually output any burst damage, unlike glassy mesmers, thieves, rifle warriors or valk/zerker necros (who can actually do top aoe damage without giving up survivability and single target burst), which is why you dont see them in backline pressure role. rangers WERE able to output DECENT burst before they nerfed the cats and quickness into oblivion. i actually ran a quickness-based SB build with good effect, but quickness nerf totally killed it. GS has good burst, but is too telegraphed therefore mostly dodged by good players.

what the ranger CAN do well currently is spam aoe immobilizes while outputing medium dps.

devs have no VISION for the ranger profession. this is the problem, even though theyre doing everything “right”. what is the ranger supposed to be?

- superior ranged damage/sniper/hit and run – nope. see GS mesmer, rifle/GS war
- evasive melee fighter – nope. u have a couple of evades true but ranger melee builds are too easily shut down and they dont do enough damage
- support – nope. ranger doesnt give valuable boons to the group (prot, stab, might) and cant heal the group. guard and ele do this more often than not while dishing out great damage
- attrition – yes maybe in duels. condi regen bunker is a fantastic dueling spec, but becomes fairly ineffective when facing more than 2 good players. not enough stun breakers, no target drops, no escapes, too few effective condi wipes.

the ranger is basically a HYBRID, but the devs arent fixing the prof with this in mind. hybrid can basically do a little bit of everything, but currently ranger is kitten by pet’s lack of utlity, a number of highly ineffective utilities, and overall low dps due to being chained down to pet mechanic.

yeah good point. one option is to run LB with increased range and survival utilities, which is what i used to play months ago. problem: all other professions can run while doing damage =) if youre constantly on the defense, you will buckle eventually, usually very quickly.

lets say you trait for increased LB range, and have GS, LR and protect me. we have:
1. Hunter’s Shot (often gets blocked, sidestepped or evaded, so guess what no stealth for Captain Ranger Danger).
2. GS swoop and #4
3. LR
4. Protect Me (does nothing against condi builds)

you can potentially do a bit of hit and run, but you will always get chased down. the question is do they feel like chasing you. if they do, you will die from stray damage and condis with a low HP pool if youre constantly on the defense. anyway, this has been my experience in tier 1 anyway.

if you wanna run glass, try valk armor instead, it gives you about 3k more HP. 100% crit damage with 2300 base power is pretty decent if you have the element of surprise or if youre not being focused, but as i said when im playing against good pvp’ers they’ll have tons of ways to mitigate or avoid my burst. LB 1 and 2 can still be side-stepped unfortunately and most profs have devastating gap closers that will nullify your range advantage. rangers are glass cannons without ANY sustain. even when im roaming with a few friends, i’ll basically get primaried by all the thieves and mesmers and once my SoS, GS cd’s, and Hunter’s Shot are used up, it’s seconds until my death. this is the problem. if you look at engies, thieves and mesmers, they have a lot of sustain, condi cleansing, escape, stability/invuln, stun breakers and escapes. all in one build.

i know youre experimenting and probably enjoying it, but ive tried just about all the possible build and gear combinations over 1200 hours and 300g+ in WvW on my ranger, and there really isnt much you can bring to the table. but the PVT build i posted is something unique and u have quite a bit of sustain with it.

again just to emphasize what most people are saying, rangers and most decent pvp’ers dont require anti-mesmer or anti-thief abilities. ranger survivability in WvW is awful and people dont have the room to give up their signets or survival utilities for something like this. Sic Em won’t see any play outside of maybe low tier spvp.

now if you give sic em an additional function like 10 stacks of might for you and the pet, im sure more would consider using it.

i also want to point out that ranger shouts are a total disaster and all of them require complete reworks. no serious pvper is using them outside of maybe guard in pve.

i’ll just emphasize this one more time, sorry to disagree with you Aesuga, but unless youre a masochist, do not attempt any sort of glassy build (unless youre pew pewing from a tower like he said). you will get totally turned off the profession. any mesmer/engie/thief/warrior will annihilate you in like 3 seconds. rangers dont have enough escapes and condi cleanses to be viable in this kind of role and as things stand right now do not make viable glass cannons. you will always get the most out of your ranger by playing his as a hybrid (utility/DPS/melee-ranged)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJATRjEVJ2FWOWo2Bi1DCFoB1UwJLxUwfGVwqG-j0yAocIsFAZBg8Al9KiGbZsIas6FMVJguMyqzk6TKiWtUALJMC-w

this is a revision of my sentinel/knights build. u can use sword/axe instead of GS for better damage (with path of scars) but less survivability.

if youre in the higher tiers where there arent any uplevels and where people know how to pvp, do yourself a favour and dont leave your spawn point without:

- 3k armor
- 18-20k HP
- -60% condi duration (ranger doesnt have reliable condi wipes on low CD)
- 2k power and 40% crit

do yourself another favour and dont even attempt running a glassy spec if youre in a higher tier server, unless youre in a larger group where you cant be focused down. if you want to attempt something like that you can try this

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJATRjAVJ2FWOWs2Bi1j9EoB1KoJ2D+zoFVwmK-jUyAYrARWAoPQpvioxWcLiGreBTVKkqLjs3oIa1SB8wEA-w

but bear in mind you dont have enough escapes or any condi cleanses for small gang fights. i also advise against condi/bunker for anything more than 1v3 against good opponents, because this build operates in melee range and has next to no escapes.

ranger is pretty kitten in WvW, but the top build i recommended brings something interesting to the table (multiple aoe immobilizes and decent damage). i would wait until october patch for pet, GS and MT buffs/fixes to play the ranger.

PVT LB/GS with canines, signets, HS, entangle and muddy terrain. this kind of stuff can annihilate a backline, or get a few kills when the other team is regrouping.

exactly, if they think it’s too much to manage, set the second pet skill to autocast but give us the option to manage it. i would love to have drake’s tail swipe and the dog’s tackle on the f3.

we can dream.

Atherakhia.4086:

They need to just make all pets do the same damage.
Reduce that damage to the point where Ranger weapon and skill coefficients can be increased to normal levels.
Make all F2 abilities stop what is going on and activate immediately.
All F2 abilities will be given a .5 second cast and they can continue the animation after.
Engage and recall put on the same button via a basic if-then-else script.
F3 changed to activate secondary pet skills in the same fashion as F2 above.
F3 set to auto-cast so pets don’t change in functionality at all so new players aren’t overwhelmed.
When the Ranger dodges or uses a skill to evade, the pet gains aegis for 5 seconds.

This isn’t complicated, requires next to no real effort, and would solve the vast majority of problems with the pets. I’ve given up on them ever actually hitting a moving target as simple circle strafing is enough to beat most PvE content in this game. Can’t expect pets to be different without an engine revamp.

yep this ^
i think theyre aware, JSharp said they were tweaking our “numbers”. GS is getting another serious buff. i think it’s gonna be a great weapon with another maul buff.

LB, SB and sword require further tweaking. our off hands are in a great shape with the exception of whirling defense. it needs something more.

no need to write an dissertation about this.

what pets need:
- responsive movement
- instant F2’s
- more HP
- more utility

what we’re getting:
- support pets revamped
- 75% more HP
- “have programmer working on f2’s”

also i think rangers need to have the option to spec their pets for utility + survivability, OR DPS via the beastmastery tree. maybe a grandmaster trait that gives ranger more dps, enhances F2’s, and gives pets the ability to generate boons at the expense of doing little to no damage.

it might be a good time to be a ranger when pets get buffed and revamped in october. right now, pets and a number of terrible utilities are holding us back.

If they want me to use sic em, they need to increase dmg bonus to 100%. I can kill thieves without revealed debuff.

huttball = esports

xDudisx.5914:

For wvw I like to run 0-10-30-30-0 staff/gs armor: PVT/sentinel + celestial jewlery +pvt backpack., knight weapons. Sigil of generosity on staff, bloodlust in gt ; sigil of energy after 25stacks. Around 21k hp with wvw buff, 3k atk with 25 stacks, 3.1k armor , around 60% crit dmg, 30% crit chance. 45% boon duration.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJAWRlYgyC33xKEf4EhVBCi9AjZsjXPcIFZIA-j0CBYgBiCEggAKnLsZPDRrMMaVXBp8KsqaER1KbY2cFRrGA-w

thanks for the suggestion, but that hits like a wet noodle.

sigil of generosity sounds cool, but having extra 2 dodge rolls on swap easily mitigates as much if not more damage

swinsk.6410:

Evan, can’t you throw us build templates? I know it’s not a super easy feature to implement but it ought to be less thinking and more coding. Not like reworking a reward system which requires a lot more thinking than coding IMO.

they said theyre working on build templates.

JonathanSharp.7094:

We are working on new game modes. As we get closer to being ready to talk about them more, we’ll give you guys more details!

we saw the leaks and we’re very excited. team DM will be the future of GW2 pvp, especially if it births GvG as well. you may notice that all the profs are very naturally balanced around team DM, including much greater build variety. conquest is what made everything whacky.

AnarchyMike.2597:

Just use pvt armor, zerk/knights trinkets, soldier runes and a x/x/30/30/x build
I wouldnt get nearer than staff range to an enemy zerg without at least 20k hp, 3k armor and protection
You can get pvt armor for karma
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armageddon_armor

i dont agree with this. you dont need that much HP and armor if youre running AH EM or cleric’s. im looking for something that can bring on the pain =)

Quick Mouse.7635:

knights with zerker trinkets, 0-5-30-30-5 is totally viable

viable definitely. but the problems (for me) with this combination are 1) not enough toughness, 2) not enough HP (16k is min i would say), 3) power and crit damage are quite average.

so far the combo that’s giving me the best stats for what i wanna do (AH EM tank, and burst) is my valk/cavalier/knights build. and i can always swap out valk with ranger runes to PVT with melandru or soldier runes.

if someone can give me 1.9k+ power, 1800+ toughness and 80-100% crit damage WITH more vit or crit chance, im open suggestions =)

I improved my build a lot using some cavalier trinks.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASRlUgiCnFyKEfIFRuAbBYPwI8741jESRGC-jUyAYrARfCU6rIasFViox2AqeBTdmUVsgs3QZVGA9JA-w

1930 power, 99% crit dmg, 1670 + 150 toughness, 40% crit with food and 16.2k hp. I would feel safe zerg diving with this but id also have a pvt set with melandru.

@tans

Howd u get your power so high? That must be with 30 in zeal?

5k, 10k, 12k etc., leave those numbers for PVE because the risk is way to high for the ranger doing that damage. where you do 12k with rapid fire, glass rifle warrior can do about 16k in less time with volley. GS mesmer will do about 12k as well (15k if using mantra of pain), but his dps is more reliable as lasers and izerker cant be side-stepped.

if we’re talking WvW, some thief will 1-shot you for 10k (the other 5k you would have lost to retaliation after one barrage). other glass eats zerker rangers for breakfast. reason is pretty simple: they have more target drops and more burst than you. after extensively pvp’ing with the LB, i concluded Hunter’s Shot is extremely unreliable. chances are it will get dodged or blocked.

glass rangers will never do as much damage as other glass profs simply due to our ridiculous pet mechanic. with the exception of PVE where environment is very controlled and pet can dps stationary targets, ranger dps is probably 20-30% lower compared to the other profs for this reason. this answers the “where [zerker rangers] need to be” from OP title.

i have to agree with OP, and the stats will back us up: most pvp’ers are in WvW, not in spvp, at any given time. WvW streams and vids get more viewers at all times. these are facts. not e-sport dreams.

Xsorus.2507:

So the meta hasn’t changed.

The meta has always been Hammer Warriors/Guardians/Necro’s with a few Elementalist.

Thanks for clearing that up.

we’re actually seeing glass thieves, glass mesmers, rifle warriors as part of the newer meta. EP guild seems to run the greatest variety of builds and theyre the most successful atm. this has evolved organically. just like guard-heavy comp evolved out of warrior hammer trains as a response. and just like power wellmancers evolved out of that.

so 1: you missed 2 profs 1 of which is absolutely necessary and the other which is a bonus, and 2: all i said is that the meta evolved toward the better, as in more specs and different comps are being used now compared to last year. spvp meta has been forced to change for the worse.

and that vid u posted i could do a play-by-play for you, and tell you exactly what everyone is doing and who the baddies are. but i doubt you’d appreciate my time. maybe it’s just me but i find gvg’s much more entertaining to watch compared to duels and spvp. e-sports is so 2012.

sorry for using such strong wording. i want to emphasize that this is my opinion and experience with it after thorough testing in dungeons and WvW. i played a zerker LB build in spvp and enjoyed it there the most actually.

rifle warrior is the better version of the LB if the LB was a single target weapon. faster animations, faster projectiles, more burst. the only thing that makes LB kind of an aoe weapon is barrage, but damage and utility are subpar compared to other aoe abilities (Well of Suffering, Earth Shaker, etc.), most of which are instant!! my fav LB ability is actually point blank shot, especially with piercing arrows…it’s quite strong.

berserker ranger needs to be more like the rifle warrior. LB still hits like a wet noodle, and i tell you this after spending 60g on valk + zerker gear (way better than full zerker because u get about 3-4k more HP), appropriate runes, and quite a few hours in testing. i had 50% crit, 2400 base power, 100% crit damage, and some survivability. i was gonna make another guide about the LB, but the weapon is so full of fail that i couldnt go on. even with the recent buffs and Hunter’s Shot.

LB is garbage. you cant really focus down single targets, because they RESPOND when you channel damage at them (barrage and RF), even with QZ (which was more viable pre-quickness nerf). if you just autoattack, then you have NO BURST. your only real aoe is barrage, which doesnt do anything against a packed, mobile mob because it’s channeled. cripple is a very inadequate condition. barrage needs to briefly immobilize, or combine weakness with cripple, and cast time needs to be no longer than 1.5s. RF needs to be completely reworked, or its channel also needs to be reduced to 1.5s similar to the warrior’s version. MAYBE with some of these changes id be willing to try the LB again.

if you want to play a long range damage dealer, try a full glass rifle warrior and u wont regret it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyUDtmWhzw8). GS full glass mesmer is another option, but slightly less effective at range than the warrior.

lol yea my bad, i wasnt thinking. i just threw on a random power rune. anything else i could improve? im kinda of torn between valk + ranger runes, and PVT + soldier, which would give a lot of survivability. the only thing that would suffer would be my crit damage.

thats 12 runs, which isnt terrible. due to their cheap price, i’ll be trying scavenging with bursting sigil first and see how i like it. 13% additional condi damage at all times is very simple to manage, whereas stacking might is a bit of an involved process. have to pre-cast your heal as well for max burst =(

and still no nerf according to leaked notes (which will be mostly accurate, as the last ones were).

VIVorcha.7853:

mistsim.2748:

actually, youre thinking of rangers. engie is at least fun to play. for example, ranger has NO viable builds for higher tier WvW.

Rangers are insanely fun to play. Engineers have some viable builds but are a chore to play, especially with the lame mechanic they got.

got a little over 1k hours on my ranger plus a handful of guides and stuff, so id know a thing or two about that. but that doesnt change the fact the ranger is bottom of the barrell in wvw.

actually, youre thinking of rangers. engie is at least fun to play. for example, ranger has NO viable builds for higher tier WvW.

it’s tougher to pull off than just going straight for max condi damage with scavenging, but do 16+ stacks of might give more condi damage? bip, sigils of battle, runes of noble

whats the name of the dire trinkets? btw, for anyone who doesnt know yet, u can get dire armor from COE. and weapons!

full dire synergizes better with fearmancing imo (0/30/20/0/20). no dhuum so you dont worry about crits. youre just stacking bleeds and spamming fears with a huge tank.

dire armor + rabid weapon and trinkets with coral jewels gives you enough crit to proc dhuum all the time. may synergize better with a 30/20/x/x/x build.

i dont see a reason to go full rabid any more in WvW. thats my 2c anyway.

Very nice. My fav utility combo is epi, sw and bip. Didnt know about the noble runes. Will definitely try em out with some dire gear

Are you able to get 2 ticks of terror off without necro runes? How do you feel about scavenging runes?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASRlUgiCnFyKEfIFRuAbBYPwI8741jESRGC-jEyAYrARfCU6rIasFVioxKMqeBTdSEV7NKiWtMA6TA-w

hey guys could i get a bit of feedback on this? i went for well-rounded stats and a more offensive build. with food:

1950 power
49% crit
81% crit damage
1568 toughness (+150 with trait)
16.2k life

combo of valk, knights and zerker stats. if i wanna be tankier, i would swap valk gear with PVT + soldier runes. Retreat is there for extra for extra AHEM heals, but i could swap it out for save yourselves.

in addition to pet AI and f2 improvements, i feel pets need a 30% aoe resist in wvw and PVE, or some kind of dodge or aegis mechanic as u said.

pets also need to make more of a difference. right now, theyre used mostly for the DPS, with the exception of spiders and wolves, which are used for the CC. this is just wrong. pets need to be a toolbox of utility. one step in this direction would be to give drakes’ tail swipe as active ability for on-demand burst and blast finisher.

thanks for this post Ayden. pets are entirely useless in WvW. they kept getting nerfed in spvp, and are still subpar in PVE.

flame blast doesnt crit.

according to latest stog interview, they have a programmer dedicated to fixing pet behaviour and f2 activation.

because rangers dont kite.

oh wait…