Guild Wars 2

im currently playing a GS mesmer. it’s like the longbow ranger, except i have more survivability, more dps, more burst, more AOE and more utility. all of mesmer’s abilities and weapons are useful. the ranger has signets and a few survival skills. shouts, spirits, traps are all useless in pvp.

until spirits, pets, the GS, and the SB are useful once again, i’ll be away from the class.

if you still love the ranger, great. i do as well. unfortunately, there is only one viable spec for tpvp, which is conditions. the bottom two trees? yeah, theyre next to useless.

very very nice. a little too much faceroll for my personal playstyle (zerker & duelist lulz), but still fun to watch!

definitely not. pet must be active.

ErkiB.8375:

The issue Im having here is that, I play a ranger, Longbow/double Axes. The damage is great, its a ton of fun, Rangers are good in PvP with the right setup (I kill Thiefs and Mesmers 1on1 like its nothing, issues are only with Guardians for me). Works well in WvWvW, so whats the deal?

To be honest with all of you, I just think that you are full okitten*, Literally, just whining about being a strong class when it actuality you just are poor at playing the game, its sad…

not to sound elitist, but casual pvp’ers cant really see much wrong with the ranger. but any semi-serious pvp’er understands the prof is literally rotten from the inside. in spvp/tpvp, conditions is the only viable build that can potentially melt faces, but it’s a one-trick pony and, well, boring for a lot of us.

ele bunkers are just as bad as guardians. bunker builds are ruining spvp.

just went back to my mesmer and guardian, and i gotta say im loving the game again. i feel like all of my abilities are actually useful to myself and the team

dps pets are viable in pve, but not against world bosses or in dungeons. you can steamroll the open world content with anything.

Empathic bond is a 30 pt. trait in survival. it’s a big deal. it’s decent currently, but rangers need reliable condition removal. my suggestion is to keep its current characteristics, and to add condition removal when swapping to a fresh pet. thematically, this makes sense. this change would also promote synergy with the BM tree.

well, i am sort of holding my breath hoping that JP is so swamped working on various fixes across the board that he hasnt had the time to respond. i am also hoping that he has moved ranger fixes higher on his priority list.

after many nights of experimenting with builds in spvp and tpvp, i have also decided to shelve my ranger after becoming convinced that the recent SB nerf greatly reduced the effectiveness of my favourite build. the prof requires a lot of work and i just hope ANet responds reasonably soon.

for pve, anything is viable. for organized pvp, what youre talking about is not viable.

after 100 hours of near non-stop spvp and tpvp on my ranger, it is time to shelve him. currently, only the condition ranger is viable for tpvp. skillful power/precision, evasion, trap and/or melee play pale in comparison and are bottom of the barrel in tpvp.

i do not want to spec for conditions. being a condition machine is boring, and simply not my style. let me break it down:

- GS is completely broken, period. not enough damage, and the ranger simply does not have enough sustain for such close encounters.

- SB: reduced to a decent secondary weapon for axe/torch rangers to keep some bleeds up and for the interrupt. while it previously had some decent burst and condition application, it is currently extremely subpar for this purpose due to the recent nerf. in addition, this weapon is flawed by design. you simply cant flank good players, period.

- pets: too many threads on this, but in short – horrible pathfinding, cant keep up with target, overshoots target on approach, and despite decent utility, they simply get melted in the thick of battle. no amount of skill-based micro can help us…this is what grinds my gears.

- Nature Magic and BM trees: packed with unusable traits. spirits and pets (along with shouts) are not viable in tpvp mostly due to very poor uptime. these trees would be significantly better if spirits and pets had some survivability in organized pvp

- no reliable condition removal: empathic bond – not reliable; SoR – pet is too often dead; healing spring – unreliable; spirit elite – great, i can cleanse every 4 minutes.

as things stand, the ranger is a bland profession that brings nothing interesting to TPvP and WvW (which is a different discussion). things that made the ranger interesting (spirits, melee, evading, skirmishing, and pets) are completely broken or underpowered. we are left with a few gimmicky builds, and using our pets as lifeless voodoo dolls via signets.

obviously no amount of meta evolution will make these problems go away. I hope ANet is listening to the feedback, and some communication would be much appreciated by all rangers out there.

from a personal perspective, ive lost a lot of my drive to play the game because i grew so attached to my ranger since BWE1. this prof is it for me, despite its many flaws, and i dont feel like playing anything else. dont mean to whine too much here, but this is the time for me to take a break from the game. i can only hope you guys address this prof at some point in the near future.

my power SB build. significantly nerfed recently, but still viable.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/69896-power-sb-evasion-tank-spvp-build-and-footage/

welcome. ANet has been great at squashing all sorts of bugs over the last month, so you’re coming at a great time. game is mostly stable and lots of new features are coming up soon.

no dedication. no growing together. no retention. spying. guilds leaving, new ones coming in.

when will you stop free transfers? currently, servers cannot grow as communities because people keep flaking and moving around everywhere en masse. keeping the free transfers for so long makes no sense, unless im missing something. people have settled with their friends, it’s time to start building communities.

have fun in PS2 for like a week. if you were disappointed by what GW2 offered, get ready for a world of heartbreak grinding certs, and having no win conditions or purpose to anything you do.

i guarantee you’ll be back for the Oct 22 patch, if you havent already come back.

rangers are far from useless. heck, they even have 1 or 2 viable builds for tpvp. but they are far from interesting or polished, unlike most other profs.

for pve, it doesnt matter. you can run with 0/0/0/0/0 and still faceroll through most of the content.

i am also disappointed in the balancing “team”. this stinks of WoW, all over again. i have horrible memories of not being able to play my favourite classes and specs because they were utterly useless in raids or arenas. and having to wait months, or even a year before any of it was addressed.

i cant help but sense…arrogance and stubbornness…in the way this is being handled. the lack of communication is just salt on the would, and the “nerf first, wait and see, and ask questions later” attitude is infuriating. many points lost ANet, in the eyes of one fan at least.

if GW2 borrowed WoW’s pet system, id be the happiest gamer in the world. Blizz spent years getting it right…no reason why we cant learn from that.

anyway, nice to see some people adapting. but pets (especially for us beastmasters) do a significant chunk of our dps. all pets need to be viable in every way, not just for boons.

youre confused. WoW was whack-a-mole. GW2 is skill based (timing, positioning, evading, etc). by 30 you have most things unlocked, but the funnest part of the game is trying out different builds, and making loadouts for specific situations.

youre about 2 weeks late with this topic. most people have accepted GW2 for what it is, and have either left or are enjoying the hell out of it.

i just had a couple of run-ins with world bosses and tougher mobs, and i came to a conclusion. pets often cant even take one hit from a hard-hitting mob or a boss. no amount of micro or trait allocation can fix this. considering this is a skill-based game, i feel underpowered and disabled when my utility and 20-30% of my dps are gone and there’s nothing i can do about it.

/signed, sad ranger.

if it were up to me, id redesign spirits =( but it’s not up to me.

given how youve pummeled the ranger prof into the ground, im genuinely curious what steps you’ll be taking with the warrior to even out the battlefield. thanks.

i like:

-evading
-pets
-nature
-agility

the nature theme has not been executed well in GW2 unfortunately (healing spring being maybe one cool ability), and the pets are a bit of a mess. yet i continue playing because the ranger is the best prof for my “needs”, hoping that ANet will one day fix the prof.

lol guys, F2 casting is the least of a beastmaster’s concerns >.< i actually dont have any problems with F2 casting.

updated OP to add lackluster shouts. please keep the hostility down, i know we’re all frustrated. i want ANet to read this discussion.

docMed.7692:

Just to comment on the OP’s #1…

It doesn’t stop, it is casting one of it’s abilities in it’s own rotation that requires it to stay still (such as leap).

not from my observations today. the pet literally sits there for about 1.5 secs, doing nothing (maybe writhing a little).

he just stands there, does not move at all.

unfortunately, ANet did not do a good job in making all profs equally appealing. JP mains a warrior, so lucky you warriors. same crap in every MMO, GW2 being no exception.

NPC does not move or do anything on approach when i attempt rescue.

here is another bugged DE. 8th wave of ogres does not arrive. im posting this in good faith. so far, i havent seen a single reported DE fixed (i reported about 12 since August).

it would be too strong. you already have two dodges on the sword, and u have 3 if you equip the dagger. sword, dagger and horn are ranger weapons im happy with.

agreed. they somewhat successfully created a symbiotic relationship between master and pet. the pet can cleanse conditions, take the bullet for us, can CC for us, etc. unfortunately, ANet did not give the pets any survivability and responsiveness, rendering all melee pets entirely useless. due to this poor design, i can rarely use my pet’s utility and dps. it just cant keep up with its target.

i use pets to their max. i micro them well, invest points in BM, pick the right pets, etc. in any sort of organized pvp encounter, i am usually pet-less. both my pets simply get melted and im stuck with 30-40% less dps, and 50% less survivability.

yeah i also cant believe this nerf. it makes no sense. most of their other balancing moves werent schizophrenic.

i didnt know JP mained a warrior lol. this explains a lot. it’s like Ghostcrawler all over again =(

I like where pet damage and utility are at right now. But the pet has two problems. You can reproduce them by having your melee pet attacking the moving heavy golem in the mists.

1. After a pet attacks in melee, it stops and sits there for 2 seconds, then it tries to catch up to the target to hit again.

suggestion: speed up the end part of the pet’s attack animation so it can continue chasing after the target sooner. keep the time between attacks the same, but the pet must pick itself up and follow earlier.

2. if the target makes sharp turns (even without swiftness), the pet will get juked every single time and miss the strike. it will overshoot by a few steps, then backtrack. it seems the pet is incapable of moving in an arc, it just moves in zig zags

suggestion:is it possible to make the pet move in an arc?

3. pets are melted by stray damage. they absorb whatever they walk in front.

suggestion: give pets AOE resistance. it took Blizzard 5 (?) years to learn this, maybe you can make some changes earlier? due to poor pathing of pets, unfortunately, we cannot micro the pets well enough. one workaround to not making pets OP is to either make em stick to their targets most of the time, so they are extremely responsive to master’s commands; or simply give them more survivability if theyre gonna be bouncing around aimlessly as they struggle to pathfind.

4. Shouts are often dropped for a more practical utility skill.
-Sick ’Em simply does not do enough; 15% dmg is decent, but ultimately lackluster, and the speed buff is not useful due to poor pathing of the pet (it will run, overshoot, turn a few times before finally catching up to land one hit)
-Guard: not much to explain here. the stealth is entirely pointless because the pet drops it upon attacking, and it does not last long enough to act as an “ambush”; the protection buff is nice, but thats all.
-Search and Rescue: simply way too situational to warrant a utility slot

suggestion: Sick ’Em needs utility; add something like cripple, or fury; something. Guard would be really cool if stealth and/or protection lasted way longer, and the pet got some sort of damage buff; Search and Rescue – give it a function when there are no dead players in the area; it needs to be less situational; for the pet to rez someone reliably every once in a while, give it stability, teleportation and a knockback.

5. Lackluster BM traits:
-+300 to healing. why? what is the reasoning behind this design decision?
- Nature’s Wrath: why would i be stacking healing?
- Natural Healing: this is simply not a grandmaster trait, period. this passive regen does little for us, even in a 1v1 scenario. in a larger battle, it is entirely useless. if you wish to make this a grandmaster trait, increase the regen bonus by like 300%
- Master’s Bond: this is in complete opposition to the idea behind the BM tree, which is to encourage pet swapping for different situations. even if im able to keep my pet alive for 10 kills or so, id never give up the quickness on swap in a realistic scenario for a few more attribute points
- Stability Training: highly, highly situational. who would blow their CC on a pet?
- Instinctual Bond: is this supposed to encourage me to enter the downed state? it is really silly because im doing everything i can to not get downed, and often i roam for many minutes before getting downed. highly situational at best
- Compassion Training: i can see this being ok with Search and Rescue, but again, too situational. the design flaw behind pets rezzing downed teammates is that they will never get there before the stomp.

in conclusion, despite decent dps and utility, pets are merely situational due to poor pathfinding and animations. they simply dont connect with the target frequently enough. investing more than 15 points into BM is simply a waste for pvp.

i would love to hear if ANet thinks whether or not pets have problems. in the eyes of just about every ranger player, they do. are devs in agreement with the players?

Sky.9347:

Enokitake.1742:

- no new modes
- no new maps
- no leaderboards
- no observer mode

You’re not alone. This disappointed me so much. I don’t want point cap, and honestly, I don’t enjoy it. I want team deathmatch from GW1 back. If point-cap is permanent GW2 pvp style, I’ll be highly disappointed.

Leaderboards and Spectator support are on the docket to be addressed – they told you that.
Modes & Maps will have to wait a while, because they are focused on Conquest right now. The reason is (and again, they TOLD you this) because they want a game mode that will be easy to spectate, commentate, and watch. Deathmatch is none of those things.

thanks captain obvious. we know theyre addressing this. the disappointing part is (by the sound of the blog) they havent even started working on it. and it’s not being prioritized.

broken events do seriously break immersion. the sad thing it, i reported a lot of these as far back as BWE2 >.< id love to hear a bit of an update from the PVE team. JP said they were looking into scaling issues back in mid September.

i like the traits that allow your cats to bleed on crit, and birds to give you vigor. they make a big difference.

im very disappointed in the way this was handled. you dont just nerf balanced specs without compensating the players with new mechanics/numbers, and then re-evaluate weeks/months down the road. brings me back to my WoW days when theyd decimate specs and classes with unreasonable nerfing/buffing, only to fix it 1 year later.

while this nerf does not break the prof completely, it adds to the list of unaddressed problems:

- sprits broken
- GS not being used by anyone
- LB subpar
- bugged abilities/traits
- axe/torch being highly situational
- inefficient pets

JP will be monitoring the numbers and re-evaluating the weapon in the future, which will take weeks and months. sort of a “nerf first, ask questions later” approach, which singlehandedly destroyed WoW’s pvp. it’s Blizzard all over again.

the proper way to do it is to implement appropriate buffs to balance out the nerf. because SB specs were in no way OP. you dont just start nerfing viable, balanced spec because you dont want people spamming 1,1,1.

im very disappointed in the way this was handled. mostly because i thought ANet would know what theyre doing with the pvp aspect of the game (main reason i bought it)

the damage nerf is very noticeable, and the SB is actually a horrible condi weapon because it requires flanking, which is next to impossible against a good opponent.

rangers have joined the ele and necro as the kittens of GW2.

the big problem with this treatment of the class is that our faces were kicked in while we were down. spirits are broken. GS is not used by almost anyone. axe and torch are very situational. then you nerf SB dps by 7% (25% with quickness) without compensating us in any way.

how does that make sense? and now we have to wait months before the weapon is re-evaluated. it’s freaking Blizzard all over again. this along with a complete and utter lack of iteration and bug fixes for most profs (including the ranger) is making me lose trust in JP and the spvp team.

all the while backstabs still hit for 17k on my 1900 toughness ranger.

I like where pet damage and utility are at right now. But the pet has two problems. You can reproduce them by having your melee pet attacking the moving heavy golem in the mists.

1. After a pet attacks in melee, it stops and sits there for 2 seconds, then it tries to catch up to the target to hit again.

suggestion: speed up the end part of the pet’s attack animation so it can continue chasing after the target sooner. keep the time between attacks the same, but the pet must pick itself up and follow earlier.

2. if the target makes sharp turns (even without swiftness), the pet will get juked every single time and miss the strike. it will overshoot by a few steps, then backtrack. it seems the pet is incapable of moving in an arc, it just moves in zig zags

suggestion: is it possible to make the pet move in an arc?

3. pets are melted by stray damage. they absorb whatever they walk in front.

suggestion: give pets AOE resistance. it took Blizzard 5 (?) years to learn this, maybe you can make some changes earlier? due to poor pathing of pets, unfortunately, we cannot micro the pets well enough

in conclusion, despite decent dps and utility, pets are merely situational due to poor pathfinding and animations. they simply dont connect with the target frequently enough. investing more than 15 points into BM is simply a waste for pvp

pets are very solid in pvp, but you still need skill with your respective weapons. a stealthed panther can unload like 10K damage while stealthed with quickness, as long as the target is crippled. lynx can close distance by leaping, in addition to helping u stack bleeds. birds give vigor and swiftness. you need skirmishing to improve pet speed and critical damage.

Jon, SB damage was fine previously. it was more than fine, it was middle of the pack in terms of damage output. you nerfed my power/condition build for absolutely no reason. i have high skill with this build and i never once felt OP against any prof. it’s not wise to nerf non-OP builds without compensating the weapon in any way. now i have to wait 2-3 months before this is addressed? gg.

bro just stop. most people arent actually hating on the ranger. the community is upset about the unjustified SB nerf, so let them vent.