sticker ^ its also because of poison master set ups , they can survive for a long time through evades and other team support (druid or Tempest ele).
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV8YnUqA1CitsAerActgBDhyb9XY27OIYraOAm6SvkFFG-TZRFABnXGI9jAAAPAA83fIhLCAA for example.
i see SB builds AA as more of a Hp regen prevention and reduction of Light healing countering Druid staff AA’s ect
here, try this:
fair enough, im just talking about pvp.
Uh, not so fast please. why dont you test the changes a bit more rigorously before putting up praise threads? are you aware of what other professions are capable of? that being said:
OH axe has been made…viable, or almost viable. it’s a good offensive weapon that pairs well with sword.
MH axe is a fully viable weapon now, on condi and hybrid builds. i only wish aoe #3 was baseline.
sword works better, despite a big damage nerf.
sadly, SB changes were way off the mark. the entire weapon needs either a complete rework or more drastic buffs. i got excited for a split second when i heard about this, then my heart sank upon reading the changes and after i tested. every ability other than #5 is lackluster, and the weapon is still dependent on AA spam that inflicts more damage on the ranger via reflects, retal and confusion, than it does on the target! What gives??
and im still waiting on WH #4 to be buffed. it hasnt been touched since release. it’s a pure garbage skill that makes WH non-viable outside of niche might stacking builds.
some improvements, a lot more needed.
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it’s already an esport, played by like 30 people.
light whirl finisher is way too situational unfortunately. i wish they actually removed the RNG from projectile and whirl finishers. not like people actually use them much now. whirl finishers should for sure be 100%.
still though, WD on top of smoke is pretty kitten, especially in a team fight, or on top of a downed enemy.
i just like to double tap #4 for PoS. u can also animation cancel a little bit.
my impressions so far – Whirling Defense is a respectable ability now. it’s low CD, it applies a ton of blindness whirling on smoke field, and damage is decent. even more interesting with quickness. there are lots of projectiles around, so it’s not as situational as before.
The top-3 builds are maybe still a bit too strong (power-rev, clerics ele and condi-mesmer) but the rest got much more closer together. Srsly: If they tone down the top-3 builds a bit, it might be the closest balance between classes yet.
First glance opinion of course.
but isnt this the story of gw2 pvp? “if they just…”
like if they just removed celestial instead of forcing us to play cele builds for 2 years. if they just…
There have been times with better balance than during other times. It will never be perfect, but the meta we have at the moment is really far from being perfect or even “good”.
yes but my point is they always miss the most obvious solution. even if it slaps them across the face and we cry about it on the forums for a year.
The top-3 builds are maybe still a bit too strong (power-rev, clerics ele and condi-mesmer) but the rest got much more closer together. Srsly: If they tone down the top-3 builds a bit, it might be the closest balance between classes yet.
First glance opinion of course.
but isnt this the story of gw2 pvp? “if they just…”
like if they just removed celestial instead of forcing us to play cele builds for 2 years. if they just…
if by rework you mean minor buff, then you’d be correct. maybe 2017 for that rework?
… And that’s when it hit me. I stopped using all the abilities for 1 match and felt close to zero difference. There was literally no significance in using the abilities. They do not feel rewarding enough and they do (did) not have any true purpose.
yes that’s because skills 1-4 make absolutely no difference in application. Concussive Shot has always been wonderful, but it’s not enough to make SB viable.
literally nobody asked for a ground-targeted #4
well the first thing we asked, or what we’ve been asking for 2 years, is that we lose the root on the #5. i just assumed that was priority. i guess im not sold on OH axe, even though #4 is a bit more interesting now.
you think sword/axe/staff might be interesting on some kind of offensive druid build? is WD actually usable for cleaving the downed? all i know after 3k hours on my ranger is that standing still for more than a split second with enemies around you will get you dunked. i last played in October, are things different now?
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i perused these notes as i was debating reinstalling the game, and im just seeing the same old ANet pattern, in a different package. not saying it’s all bad, but it’s certainly disconnected from reality. in other words, there’s nothing in there that makes the core ranger as viable as any druid spec.
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i dont remember anyone asking for a physical damage buff lol. i think people were thinking more along the lines of, say, complete weapon revamp given how disconnected the set is from the game’s meta.
the SB still does paltry damage (both condi and physical), while still relying on AA SPAM which gets reflected, or causes massive retal or confusion damage. the SB only has one evade that does nothing else. did you guys ask for more swiftness? i dont remember asking for more swiftness given that we almost always had perma swiftness. not to mention unlimited sources of swiftness from your allies.
the SB has no nuke, no mobility, no invuln, no cleanse, no heal. and literally the only good thing going for it is #5, which was always solid. poison builds certainly weren’t viable a while back, and i doubt they are now, so #2 remains average at best. #4 is completely useless, and the one evade from #3 is just symbolic really.
the SB changes are completely disconnected from the reality of what the weapon set needs.
for me, the nail in the coffin of these “long awaited” patch notes is the lack of iteration on the countless other CORE ranger issues. useless GM’s, useless pets, warhorn #4, dagger, OH axe, and so on. literally nobody asked for a ground-targeted #4, yet everyone asked to not be rooted on the #5 and to have the ability do something other than just a reflect. these changes aren’t BAD, but theyre not even close to game-changing. maybe 2017 will be more kind to the core ranger?
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I just need to say this cause all this “balance” talk is pointless.
If you played this game since release then you remember actual balance patches. Every game update had some balance changes in them now we just have changes after every few months.
April 2014 trait redesign changed basicly how every class works afterwards basicly no balancing of changes.
Expansion same thing it was like 2 times minor changes, do you really think that anet is so perfect company that can achieve what noone else has ever achieved, even WoW has PTR much larger company and much more players who are actually allowed to see changes beforehand and even they gotta work hard on balancing after expansion.And after expansion same thing they shuffle meta every quarter release and leave it there.
They stack up on changes and do them all at once when you only need to adjust one variable, like with necro buff and bunker nerf, necro needed buff cause cele classes were to powerful, so instead of one or another they remove cele amulet and buff necro.Perfect example is chill nerf, it had to be nerfed ages ago and if every time they put outfit or glider skin in gem store someone would adjust chill dmg it would be tested and balanced but instead they did nothing and now nerfed it by what 80% and made into bleed. So thats 2 huge nerfs aka just butcher it and move onto next meta.
There is no such thing as perfect balance in mmorpg especially in one like GW2 but they dont even try anymore.
So ye just find the new OP things and enjoy them for next 3 months then move on.
hey man, this is why i left the game back in October. when i cared a year or two ago, i strongly advocated for a PTR. it would improve balancing and quality assurance, which are catastrophic on their end. consulting the esport kiddies doesnt quite cut it because everyone has their own interests in mind. it’s human nature. besides some of them being self-serving, there just isnt a large enough pool of high tier players to use as reliable guidance. make it an open, democratic process. it greatly served games like WoW, D3, Eve Online, and others, in nipping horrendous dev ideas in the bud, and finding lost opportunities. with gdub, you kinda have to sit through a whole year of a “bad dev idea” or a “bad QA feature” in the live game before there is enough salt on the forums and the feature gets nerfed into nothingness or removed.
and yes it is very much about shuffling the meta. i mean IceFrog does it in Dota 2 as well, but there are so many viable heroes that it doesnt really matter. in gdub, this approach is unacceptable. as you said, something is either OP (i.e. meta) or useless. and it’s on a rotation.
im staring at these patch notes, thinking about reinstalling. but finals end in a week and then Overwatch is out. besides, it’s looking like more of the same old philosphy, in a different (new meta) package. i still see a lack of vision and direction, and a general cluelessness about how high mmr pvp really works (like look at the ranger shortbow buffs, theyre totally out in space).
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Hugh, all you guys have to do is make more maps like Foefire, Nilfhelm and Temple. They were very well designed, and its always interesting having a small “pve” objective for clutch plays.
Skyhammer revolves around a PVE objective, which makes it silly. I’d rather you removed the map and not waste resources on it. create more maps like the 3 i mentioned.
im too busy playing LotV ladder to care. but if I did care, id feel pretty disgruntled. I play a druid so it’s not like I was having issues. but honestly I got bored of playing against the same 5 specs over and over again after two weeks (cele scrapper, carrion necro, chrono, DH and other druid cheese). state of pvp got especially sad with two profs basically MISSING from competitive pvp ayy lmao. Anet antics, and so on. it’s always the same story with this game’s pvp man. everything is always half-baked. the xpac was the last attempt for me before leaving and never re-installing again. it took a lot of deliberation and effort to buy HoT, most likely a mistake. just need to buy some time till Overwatch, at least sc2 is good that way. so my days here are numbered if there isn’t a serious balance patch soon, which is unlikely.
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they did what I feared the most when elites were getting announced: they left the core profs in the dust, giving most of the new tech and fresh design ideas to the elites. core specs might as well not even exist.
but honestly, this is ANet. like, is anyone surprised? they’ve been delivering half-baked goods since vanilla’s release. for instance, 2/3’s of ranger’s grandmasters are useless. half of our weapons and utilities are also useless. same goes for most other professions. like, how does a company make new stuff without iterating on the old? just sweeping the garbage under the carpet. it’s absolutely absurd.
DD ele still works. Soldier engie rifle still works. And warrior was proven OP by Crysis yesterday. So you got that.
LOL
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ive never lost a 1v1 to a tempest on my druid.
LB 5 animation is ridiculous in the first place, and needs to be completely revamped. like, why animate the little pillars with the chains? am I lined up to buy a movie ticket or something?
just animate one arrow penetrating the ground tied to a floating chain around the target.
chrono, druid, cele scrapper, and carrion reaper are basically tied. Rev and DH aren’t too far behind. I honestly don’t think there is one best spec for 1v1 atm. which is nice. profs that underperform across all of their specs are thieves, eles and warriors
my issue is the lack of balance between defense and offense. keyboard turners can survive for like 30 seconds by just permablocking everything and healing to full a few times. even with old d/d eles, players had to cycle through some combos to stay alive. with the DH, you can just faceroll and live for a bit while doing some pretty high damage.
I don’t mind DH’s keeping their offensive utility. but this permablock garbage has to go.
yeah, that’s the drawback. we use the glyphs offensively at times, so if your avatar is down, youre boned. I cant kill a good carrion reaper 1v1 with the crusader version, which sucks. I stand a good chance on my WK/marauder build though.
it simply just speaks to the MoC crusader needing a team to truly shine. it’s not the ideal soloq build, but ive been making it work. if anything, it relies more on avatar than other versions.
the issue with celestial is that u just cant spike people down. I can land instant 12k Remorseless combos with maul, pet, glyph and quickness. u just cant do that with cele.
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Oh and I almost forgot, anyone who hasn’t tried the tiger pet with Remorseless is totally missing out. I’ve seen this thing hit 8k before.
yea it’s great, I love the tiger/smoke combo. tiger is nasty in 1v1’s
Had previously run the first build for a little with Marauder. WIll give it a go with Crusader, didn’t think of the remorseless/BM synergy so it will prob be good.
yes u can get 17 stacks of might without sotp. with Remorseless, maul hits so hard. Crusader has really high power stats so we can grab the defensive runes. the extra vit is really important.
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Hi devs,
could we please make this GM useful once again? no one in their right mind is slotting it in pvp. this is why we’re all spamming Ancient Seeds and daze. gets kinda boring after a while
the ICD needs to be 6-8s, as suggested by everyone and their grandma. its design is really fun, and it’d be a shame to see this go to waste, like half of our other GM’s.
alternatively, maybe justify for us why this GM is ok in its current state. (because it’s not)
Cosmic Ray is completely useless and you should never ever use it. it’s a crappy 1k heal with 560 HP. I asked Irenio to increase its range, or eliminate the cast time. but for some strange reason, this skill was left untouched.
I was hoping SoL would receive a slightly increased range as well, but it’s overall very solid. it helps you bunk a point with its blinds. I spam it after LI if I’m getting trained.
The hardest part about playing Druid right now is trying to decide whether I like Greatsword or Longbow on swap better >.< Both are strong and fun.
I guess. for me the decision has been pretty easy. GS outperforms LB when it comes to mobility and survivability, simple as that. and GS works so much better with Remorseless and MoC. getting another 3s daze is nuts. I can basically perma-daze someone, or get him to blow all of his stunbreaks in a matter of seconds. this is why MoC is so ridiculous with a good team.
I suppose an alternative could be LB/Staff/LTW.
I updated the build to include Glyph of Alignment. this glyph is so good in avatar form…it heals for 4k and clears 4 condis, not to mention its low CD and access to aoe weakness. I guess at this point I’m sort of left wondering why ROM is being stubborn about Tide. Tide is GOOD, but not better than Alignment.
I have about 70% winrate in soloq against top players so far. no way for me to prove this, but it doesn’t really matter. the crusader build is solid. hope people try it out. in general, it’s better than celestial because it hits way harder. Remorseless makes this an efficient ammy for us.
Here is the build I have been enjoying recently
I question a few of your choices, but I like the idea behind the build. I love running WH for the extra support it has.
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correct me if I’m wrong but youre complaining about not having enough daze to procs AS? that’s nuts.
well technically, leagues will get better the longer we play due to MMR becoming more accurate. and bads wont get carried any longer. that is the hope.
oh I for sure don’t turn the blind eye to it. without WK (or SoR in your case), relying on Verdant Etching can be pretty rough.
Tiger is awesome. especially with Remorseless
been testing this one for a long while, and it’s my favourite atm. i played it in BWE 3 as well, and been using it for the last 10 days. i believe ROM figured it out recently and is running it now, or something similar.
Team Build
- sigils to taste. i like hydromancy on staff with Primal Echoes. procs pbaoe AS instantly
- avatar Tide glyph also procs AS in a pbaoe; upon entering avatar u’ll proc it with the hydromancy sigil, wait 10s, then proc it again with Tide
- swap Crusader for Celestial, but be warned…you’ll hit significantly weaker. 500 power is a huge difference.
- Nature Magic doesn’t really work too well; and you don’t need prot with 2400 toughness. some disadvantages of using NM: less might stacking, lower GS cd’s, worse pets
- this build is incredibly strong in team fights. you can spike people down, CC them, support your mates with daze spam, and so on.
- DC > PE against condi heavy comp, or if youre having trouble surviving
- the build is pretty susceptible to condi/immob bombs, so it’s not yolo and without a team it’s not as effective.
Pub Stomping
- this is the version i usually run in soloq. it’s a little bit less survivable but mobility and damage are huge. utility is quite a bit lower due to only 1 glyph, inability to bunker a point, and weaker heals. but it gets kills easily.
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the problem with DH’s isn’t so much their traps (even though you could argue it). it’s their sustain, i.e. permablock to full heal on a pretty short CD. it’s ok for a spec to nuke/deny the point in this manner, as long as he can get focused down and killed quickly.
WvW always slows down during holiday events and new PvE content.
.
this certainly wasn’t the case 2 years ago. even if it did “slow down”, there were plenty of people left to fill up BL’s and EBG. WvW just isn’t attracting anyone at all.
Stronghold. all the nubs are there, conquest for real pvp’ers for the most part.
trap runes are still really good if youre running 3 traps and a ton of condi damage, like with Carrion.
Tide has a ton of synergy with AS. you just have to use it in avatar to pull people in. It procs aoe AS instantly where they land. the proc is out of place when knocking people back though. Tide into Natural Convergence is a pretty nasty combo. Each to their own, but I feel using any signets other than SoS to be inefficient.
the other trick to proccing aoe AS instantly is Primal Echoes with hydromancy sigil. for some reason, it registers the daze first then the sigil’s damage. Running PE over DC is actually doable with GS, because of the extra survivability from GS and reduced staff cd’s.
GS is also much better for hunkering down on point, and actually holding it. you have the evades, the bash, and the block. if youre actually gonna hold a point under a ton of focus fire, it’s a no-brainer. it’s also why ROM uses it very effectively.
I also like your choice of Smoke + Tiger. Tiger’s leap is super reliable and does a ton of damage.
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the point is, Stronghold was a total failure. especially given how much resources and time they dedicated to it. I would have preferred if they kept cranking out maps like Foefire, temple, and Nilfhel.
I don’t think that’s the point of anything in this thread so far. And I love Stronghold.
I think general gaming community mentality has changed since GW1. Expectations and attitude are different, and a totally random TDM solo queue arena would probably be a point of complaint these days.
it’s definitely the point. most people don’t enjoy SH. all the serious pvp’ers aren’t interested in it, and are queuing primarily for conquest. in other words, SH will never have a “community” around it.
iterating on conquest and successful pve/pvp maps like Foefire was the right course of action.
the point is, Stronghold was a total failure. especially given how much resources and time they dedicated to it. I would have preferred if they kept cranking out maps like Foefire, temple, and Nilfhel.
I agree with some of this stuff.
druids are fine. they are hardcountered by condi pressure and CC. druids wont be seeing any more nerfs because of this reason, I can guarantee it. it will come down to bringing up other support specs like poster above me said, especially ventari. this will bring more build variety. given that we’re talking about Arena Net, this likely wont happen for 6 months to a year, if it happens at all.
you speak of a bunker rev. there is no such thing. there is the marauder glint/shiro, and it’s the only viable rev build. it has way too much invuln up-time. I called this out in BWE3, but no one listened. it’s becoming a pretty big problem as people are learning the build. it’s somewhat countered by condi pressure, but given how small the window is for condi application in between shield 5, glint heal, and UA, it’s not as effective as it should be.
Dragon hunters – im perfectly ok with their damage and area-denying traps. what im not ok with is the perma block. for a marauder spec, they take too long to kill 1v1. same could be said for chrono, but chrono doesn’t even come close to the DH in terms of utility and damage.
burn guard – not sure what youre talking about here. the burn guard was fine before HoT, not much different now. just bring condi cleanse and fight outside of the consecration.
overall, and as usual, im quite disappointed by the low build variety. there are very, very obvious best choices that people figured out in a matter of weeks. im already bored of the game, so im basically waiting for leagues and another large balance patch.
im also sick and tired of only marauder and cele stats being viable. a little bit of vit needs to be added to cleric, settler, cavalier, rabid and other vit-less ammies. but this is a whole different discussion.
How about reapers that do too much damage for their tankiness?
reapers are actually extremely well balanced. you can kill the best ones if you don’t make any mistakes. if you make mistakes, they will destroy you. I love fighting reapers….it’s highly rewarding and challenging.
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it’s not a l2p issue, it’s a difference in play style. I found it more valuable to have a higher on-demand burst and a little bit more might because micromanaging the smoke field and spending my blast finishers on it instead of on Sublime Conversion for instance was less efficient to me.
oh, SA was gutted though. target can now mitigate most of its damage with a single dodge roll, and u get less might out of it as well. in other worse, SA isn’t nearly as bursty as it was. anyway, don’t bother responding to this any more, it’s just my opinion and I think I’m done with this discussion.
Besides mobility, is there really a point to running GS though? The burst is a bit more on demand but makes you sacrifice positioning, and almost all other things are equal, except that LB has more decap capability and works “better” with Ancient Seeds.
Nobody can deny the map roaming capability of GS/Staff is absurdly good, but doesn’t LB bring more pressure, reliability, and utility?
I like GS for the extra survivability, hilt bash, mobility, and a bit more spike. it synergizes nicely with staff in general. but I’m biased, I really like ROM’s playstyle because that’s how I play my ranger.
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Doesn’t really matter to discuss this any further. All hail the reaper overlords.
no I guess it doesn’t, as your job is done. your Smokescale whine cost us quite a bit. re-roll reaper I guess.
btw, I like rom’s build a lot. I played a MoC/Remorseless GS/staff variant during BWE3, and I just dusted it off again after hitting my head against the wall for a bit. GS/staff is definitely a thing.
low HP druid definitely doesn’t work. ive gotten my best results running marauder with staff/x, and carrion traps.
cele druid is crushed by condi pressure, which i basically called in all the cele druid threads the moment they appeard. unless the druid runs some survival with WK instead of BM, and gives up might stacking. when people figure this out and actually start running some effective condi builds, I’m not sure how far the build will go. right now people are starting to run condi reapers, and it’s just nasty. cele scrappers can put out lots of condis as well.
the pressure might stacking cele puts out is nothing to laugh at, but it’s insignificant compared to might stacking marauder running WK/survival, which has the same if not more survivability. there are a lot of marauder builds that work right now.
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For me the triggering works fine: you have to strike an CC’ed mob to trigger.
it doesn’t work with spike trap
Because nobody enjoys being one-shot constantly by DH.
this is so far from the real issues, it’s laughable.
I personally feel like SH was a flop. I no longer queue for it, which is probably the case for many others. I don’t feel like babysitting door breakers and “champions”. that’s not why I play ARPG’s.
conquest I think is gonna be really hot when leagues start up. i hope they invest resources to make more maps like Foefire. that’s where it’s at.
This is all horse crap. DH’s are imbalanced, they are capable of so much more than every other profession could even hope to achieve in a wet dream.
Get real if you think DH is competitive and balanced. Get real. People are just stoked because they don’t have to play a Burn guard anymore.
All of the elite specs for the most part need to be toned down.
thanks, this was very entertaining indeed.
I don’t need to make a DH to feel good about my play. but I get what youre saying – less effort for greater effect. this however isn’t an issue in higher mmr games. the issue is that random scrub getting 1-shot and feeding all game.
why? just get a thief.
Could say the same thing to you. Want DPS and shadowstep to your dying target to down them? Just get a Thief. Why play Ranger for that?
the Smoke Assault F2 is just more user-friendly. druids right now don’t need more utility. they need more damage if anything.
I don’t main a guard, although I’m familiar with DH mechanics. my druid eats DH’s for breakfast generally, unless the DH gets +1. I spent some time in the mists…I would encourage others to do the same.
?? I have been reassured time and again by forum goers that a DH cannot “oneshot” a player, apparently that is “sci-fi”.
if you step on a stack of traps without reacting, u get 1-shot. happens too often to too many people.