Guild Wars 2

The bow playstyle for Ranger just doesn’t work. In PVE bows don’t do enough damage, and in WvW all you need to do to render a bow ranger a free kill is to just get in his face.

The simplest fix: Add into the right-click menu on legendaries the the following option : remove sigils.

That’s really all that needs to be done.

Too many gap closers are abused for mobility/kiting purposes. Also some ranged specs/classes do not have nearly enough kiting/gap creation options (Ranger mainly and ironically has some of the worst when compared to other classes).

mcarswell.3768:

Obsidian Sanctum…

Even Obsidian Sanctum was designed mainly for GvG battling. Anet does almost nothing to support small scale battling and instead caters to Zergers.

RTL CD nerf should be reverted and all mobility skills meant to be gap closers (rush/rtl/savage leap/heartseeker/swoop/etc) should be changed to only function (in combat) when you have something targeted.

Any profession that can take a -33% trait can combo that with melandru/lemongrass to get near complete immunity.

The only changes to immobilize that are needed is priority removal and allowing you to mouse turn your character while under its effects.

Lunaki.6935:

We pay the same amount as people who have bigger characters.. With less to show for it. As soon as I put it on I was immediately disappointed. I mean the size scaling for Asura has always been terrible, (I’m still annoyed about the tiny effects of my Immobulus) but this is scaled down even more than usual. Our heads are pretty big for our bodies, and the halo doesn’t fit to our head size. Plus it’s off center (too far forward).

I mean in my screenshot you can barely even see it!

I don’t understand why Anet isn’t more willing to make some cosmetics comically oversized for Asurans instead of really tiny. Look at the horns on the helm on Braham’s armor skins for example, and imagine how much they’d suck if they were proportioned to be small. A lot of back piece skins are also way to small.

5 mesmers, maybe switch one for either a guard/thief/necro.

I remember when Beastmaster Ranger was kind of fun in WvW. Back in the day the pet had enough range that you could send it out of a keep, or even on top of keep walls with guard. It was great fun to send a hard hitting jaguar against say, a squishy backline ele.

The sPvP people ruined all of that sadly Would it be too much to ask to revert the pet leash nerf in WvW?

The Lost Witch.7601:

I think we would need some other sources of essence than just mostly player kills to make this work.

Since borderlands bloodlust cap points earn no ppt, I think they would be an ideal way to get mist essence, since at the same time the area would attract players to encourage fighting. Maybe make it so that in addition to earning a flat amount for a player kill, you also steal what they already have.

However since there isn’t a bloodlust area in EB that would need to be addressed, plus a lot of minor details (should essence degrade over time? should it reset when changing BLs?)

Proposal Overview
Change the capping mechanics in WvW.

Goal of Proposal
The goal is to discourage PvDooring unguarded keeps, and encourage splitting the zerging and moving toward small scale combat, and actual PvP.

Proposal Functionality
A new mechanic in WvW: Mist Essence. Mist Essence is earned primarily through player kills, tags offering only partial essence and full essence from individual stomps (any pve style methods of earning it should be very limited, i.e. capping borderland bloodlust points, no npc farming).

To fully cap any major ppt-earning point (camp/keep/etc), players must “deposit” their essence, otherwise at most you can only reduce a point to neutral state (no karma/exp when neutralizing).

Cap points where a player put in essence return some interest (in the form of essence/buffs/etc), after some time can be withdrawn (maybe in the form of pure loot?).

Interrupting an enemies’ capture lets players loot the invested essence for that cap.

Associated Risks
This is a rough idea that would probably run into issues through testing/implementation. Would probably need several iterations.

Also in a game mode that is mostly mindless zerging, such gameplay mechanics might be too confusing for players if not effectively communicated (I remember as a new wvwer it took some time to understand how the ppt thing worked)

Karma trains/farming would effectively end, this could be seen as a good or bad thing among wvwers.

Hammer Warrior, Lockdown Mesmer, D/P stealth spam Thief.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Easiest way to fix the problem with condi duration? Code CC to be unaffected by condition duration, and start giving players a form of defiance to prevent CC spam. Because I’m sorry, the ONLY condition I find annoying due to longer duration is CC, everything else is easily managed.

I agree. Fix all cripple/chill/immob durations to a static value, remove traits like dogged march and make +-food/runes only affect damaging conditions (bleed/poison/confusion/burning/etc).

Looking at the Warrior in that list, I would say no, that list is not the list Anet uses anymore.

I think Eles have to tools to handle conditions better than most other classes, but to really counter condition builds Eles have to equip themselves to be glassy with high burst, which most don’t seem to be willing to do, since it opens them up to classes like Thieves even more.

But I dont think classes should have it both ways anyway, just look at Warrior or pre-nerf Ele as an example of what happens when a class can package too much of everything.

Allie Murdock.8152:

If we fixed those things, but maybe also added in the aspect idea, I think we’d be in a spot where everyone would be pleased, no?

Just musing!

What if things were tweaked to encourage a mix of stowing and having the pet out? Combine the F1 and F3 to be a toggle, and make the new F3 a stow. Introduce a pet synergy meter that builds as the pet attacks, and that meter gets spent when a player used the F3 to equip the pet as an aspect, with a new special F2 ability that the Ranger can use. Sort of like mixing Warriors Adrenaline and Necros Death Shroud. The Beastmaster traitline could then also boost the rate at which this meter builds and the strength of the passive stats that get inherited.

Azreell.1568:

The PU specs offer absolutely nothing in terms of SPvP group play, WvW group play or in any PvE environment.

I dont know where you are getting at with the WvW part of that comment. They might be useless in zergs, but PU Mesmers are amazingly strong in small group settings.

Support wise they have Mass Invis for ressing/group disengage, and some nice condi clearing mechanics with the mantra/phantasm. Supporting offensively, they have invulnerability/stealth stomps, a stun on pistol offhand and an immobilize on sword mainhand. And the body blocking and distractions of clones/phantasms in chaotic battles that you often see in WvW (where there is less coordination) is a lot stronger than most people, including Anet, give credit to (sort of like other mechanics like the current state of the Blind condition since it was fixed).

For small group down to solo roaming there isn’t anything in the game more brokenly OP than a PU Mesmer (except Warrior or D/P Thief maybe). Ive seen roaming groups running with naked PU Mesmers wrecking enemies with good sucess.

12k of (easy to apply) Torment damage on an 8s CD.

xev.9476:

Nike.2631:

ARENANET’S RANGER DESIGN PHILOSOPHY:
THE BAD, THE UGLY, AND THE PETS

snip

Devs, please read and re-read Nike’s post. It’s towards the bottom of page 8.

From a pvp perspective, personally I find the dps you can squeeze out of bows fine. The issue is that to beat a bow Ranger all you have to do is get in his face, and there is very little that he can do about it. Ranger lacks effective defensive(kiting) mechanics when using bows.

Compare to some other classes-
Thief – SB #3 and #5, P/D #3, plus the myriad of ways to access stealth/teleports.
Warrior – 5s weapon swap into GS, then back to rifle/bow (plus immunities to soft cc).
Mesmer – Staff #2, plus blinks/stealth and clone body blocking.
Ele – Burning retreat plus hard/soft cc on staff, lightning flash.

Does (Bow)Ranger have anything close to what’s listed above? No. Also soft CC is kind of useless for kiting in a meta where you run into a ton of Warriors that are immune to it.

Specific Game Mode

WvW

Proposal Overview

Make bows viable. Ranger does not have enough survivability options to enable ranged combat that isn’t babysat.

Proposal Goal

Bows are a weak option in WvW. When it comes to “having some of the best single target and sustained damage”, Ranger is beat by most of the other classes, particularly Thieves. Single-target-dps is already incredibly niche in large battles, and while Thieves have the tools to achieve it and survive, Rangers do not (with bows especially). Goal: enable a ranged combat playstyle by improving survivability.

Proposal Functionality

• Add mechanics to traitlines for faster weapon swapping, allowing Ranger to switch over to a kiting/evasive weapon and then back to bow quickly.
• Fix the bow weapon skills themselves, such as making SB #3 work like lightning reflexes instead of an evade that keeps the enemy in your face. With longbow you could make it so that Barrage is a two step attack, pressing it again while channeling causing an effect similar to Staff Elementalist’s Burning Retreat.
• Fix the pet utilities, such as making the pig forage abilities a) non random (perhaps based on your hp) b) placed immediately in your hands. Another possible would be allowing you to share the F2s, such as Jaguar stealth.
• Fix the main utilities, such as Lightning Reflexes with either a shorter CD or curing soft CCs.

Associated Risks

Ranger has one strong build in Spvp and the proposed changes could have an impact with that build (Spirits).

Warrior is primarily known for its melee ability, and either way needing to be in 1200 range has no counterplay other than what already exists (poison, burst dps).

Should be changed to 600 (or less) range to the targeted enemy, and the active could be something like 500hps for 8s. I also like the suggestion about stacking 2s of healing per hit. I think regardless of what Anet eventually goes with (hopefully not that 8% cut with buffed active), they make it so that a warrior has to actively fulfill a condition to get the healing.

Instead of horns they should have made the potion apply a devil tail or something (in the case of charr, modify the existing tail).

I wish Anet would give up on this mythical idea of a GS Maul build. Such a build doesn’t fit into anything, WvW, sPvP, PvE, and as a heavy burst style build, it is completely outdone by other classes such as Thieves/Warriors. It just wont work. Ever.

Best way to fix the class is to bring up its ability to kite, which would bring bows back into the picture. And the best way to do that would be to give the class some access to faster weapon swapping.

I.E. If the damage boost on moment of clarity was replaced by a weapon-swap reset when you interrupt.

It’s dumb that a Warrior can outdo a Ranger on the ranged kiting game simply by being able to swap to GS and spin away every 5s.

The plus:
The update seemed polished and issue-free, interesting setting and atmosphere.

The minus:
It’s a zergfest that does nothing to challenge the player. The best updates, such as Zephyr Sanctum, Adventure Box, Queen’s Jubilee, etc all had elements that challenged players in a variety of interesting ways, giving memorable experiences.

I give it a 5/10. One step forward with the Marionette fight last update, two steps back with this boring blobfest.

BlackBeard.2873:

It wasn’t stated, but the argument is also to significantly reduce cleansing too. Currently, we have the result of an arms race between MOAR CONDI spam-procs and MOAR CLEANSE, to the point that if you aren’t packing max-cleanse you get demolished.

It goes the other way too, if you incorporate conditions in your build generally its best to go full condition, +duration, etc otherwise you’ll also get shut down. What gets hurt the most are those in the middle, the hybrid specs, or the power specs that rely on utility conditions over damaging ones. For example, a power build that makes use of cripples/immobilize etc is pointless in a meta where one of the most common classes seen has outright immunity (unless you spec completely into a condi setup, +65% duration or more)

Unlike other professions, a flexible all-round WvW build doesn’t really exist. You either build for zerging or for small scale roaming, and in neither case is Ranger particularly amazing.

For zerging the best luck Ive had is going double bows with piercing arrows and fire sigils or regen-bunker greatsword build. For small scale the best luck Ive had is with either hybrid trapping or apothecary condi bunkering.

Fairest change: Initiating a stomp removes and makes you immune to stability, invulnerability, transformations (such as mist form), quickness, and invisibility.

Julie Yann.5379:

The main reason Rangers are hated in WvW is that the class attracts so many bad players that don’t know how to position themselves, manage a pet, or do anything but pew pew with their long bow and die. Rangers are usually the first to die for those reasons.

There is also a reason that good players don’t bring out their Rangers, the class just isn’t good. By the time anyone becomes good they realize there are greener pastures.

Id actually try to use such an elite in Eotm, but its cd would probably be really long for some reason to make it not worth it.

I think the cast time should be decreased and the scaling changed to operate on thirds instead of half health (sort of like Heartseeker on thieves). It would do full damage when an opponent is at less than 33% health, but at the same time decent damage at >33% and <66%.

I think it could work if it didn’t trigger revealed and only worked on blocks/blinds, but I don’t think it is a significant issue. The ease of access to blinds + slealth on the d/p set is a much bigger issue IMO.

urieldhynne.2743:

Is EBG 2.0

I don’t understand arenanet. they want to try to discourage massive zerging and they release content over and over to encourage massive zerging (scarlet invasion, queens event, etc…) What am i missing?

Even some of the datamined WvW Masteries that the devs are probably tinkering with hint at being zerg focused (tired of being ambushed?, here is some stealth and swiftness when you leave spawn to let you get to your commander!..). :/

As usual the art and visual design is great, but gameplay is pretty disappointing. Since it’s an overflow some PVE stuff is justified in case of an empty map, but since ppt is out the window the primary focus should have been on encouraging combat instead of zerging and keep humping. So no, not everyone loves Eotm.

Simonoly.4352:

It’s entirely dependent on you attacking the Mesmer when he’s blocking and it’s also entirely dependent on the Mesmer landing the counter-attack.

There is only a split second to dodge the attack once it triggers. An enemy doesn’t even need to be focusing on you to use it, just walk into his cleave/aoe (for example, if you see a hambow’s fire field just walk into it and press#2, 90% of the time it will connect). If PU’s Opness was entirely restricted to 1v1 it wouldn’t be so bad but it extends into 1vX’s (though in sPvP stealthing takes you out of capping/preventing caps, the only thing holding PU back really).

But small scale battles, 1v1-3v3etc are incredibly fun and I hope Anet does more to enable that kind of combat and deals with the builds I mentioned accordingly. Too much of the game glorifies zerging and spam, but I digress.

selan.8354:

roamzero.9486:

Warrior/Dp Thief/Spite Necro come close but I dont think Ive played anything quite as brokenly OP as a PU Mesmer. The main culprits are the ability to stack the best boons (Aegis/Regen/Prot) plus the insane pressure of scepter #2 and the pistol phantasm..

insane pressure from scepter? since when? scepter is suuuper slow. pistol phantasm is great though but with the current bug mesmer is completely useles vs everything, so i guess your mesmer problem has been solved!

With decked out gear the torment on scepter #2 does over 12k damage, and can be easily applied (especially on an Asura) every 8s.

If anything cleansing Ire should be moved away from the Defense line and put into Strength master or even grandmaster. Similar shuffle should also be done for other classes so that glass counters condi (and condi counters direct damage bunkering/regen, and bunker counters glass, etc). The only class that should come close to having an absolute defensive privilege is Guardian.

Warrior/Dp Thief/Spite Necro come close but I dont think Ive played anything quite as brokenly OP as a PU Mesmer. The main culprits are the ability to stack the best boons (Aegis/Regen/Prot) plus the insane pressure of scepter #2 and the pistol phantasm..

Buff Ranger
Nerf Warrior

Well, at least I feel a lot less guilty running a pu mesmer.

Power PU Mesmer. High uptime on protection, stealth spamming, and that trait that gives up to 9% damage reduction make toughness less important. Regen boon also has the good scaling with healing power and you can achieve high uptime on that as well.

Other than that I think you’d have to mix zealot with other stat sets like clerics to get something more well rounded.

Dahkeus.8243:

Stealth preventing stomp is a good mechanic that provides additional considerations for stomping players so that a downed player isn’t an automatic, brainless press F encounter.

I think OPs suggestion would still cause stealth to prevent a stomp, if used before someone begins a stomp (if no target, no stomp initiation). It would be a fine change imo.

Only reliable way is to outcheese them, either signet of spite them with a 100% duration condi Necro, or wear them down with a PU Mesmer or blind spamming d/p Thief. (Im mainly talking about WvW where they can get -100% duration on CC conditions)

Personally I think the issue with Healing Signet for Warrior is that a Warrior doesn’t need to do anything to keep the healing flowing, unlike nearly every other similar signet (Thief’s/Ele’s signet heal require attacking for example, Mesmer’s needs clone uptime, etc). I think the base heal could be cut down to what it was pre-buff, and allow access to the current heal rate with some strings attached.

You could make it so that needs to be up close to a target to get the full heal, or make the passive heal boost itself on-interrupt/blocks for a few seconds, or make it affected by having more/less adrenaline. Then make activating the signet give a guaranteed passive heal for a few seconds as a counterweight for situations where it might be difficult to meet the passive requirements.

I think the downed state should stay, because there are some major mechanics surrounding it (Warrior banner elite for example).

However, there are two major issues with the downed state in WvW:

A) In large scale battles, it’s too easy to rally off someone you barely grazed and too easy to give rallies for spamming AOEs and going down.

B) In small scale battles, players that do well when outnumbered are punished because players that are downed are rezzed too quickly. Lucky trash mob rallies when you fail for going in over your head are equally stupid, though far less common.

To help fix A, I really like the idea of stomps triggering rallies only. I also think that down state HP should be lowered or rez-rate tweaked, maybe not even in an absolute manner but perhaps through the wvw mastery system (i.e. spend 75pts to get quickness when stomping if you stomp an enemy that had only you as the damage source)

PS: I also think that if you initiate a stomp animation on a player and they stealth, the stomp should follow through if the player remains in the same position. It’s pretty dumb that a 60s CD shadow refuge utility can perform nearly as well as rezzing utilities and elites that have 120-240s CDs.

Cleansing ire should be changed so that on burst skills that always drain adrenaline (like LB) won’t trigger a cleanse unless they hit something on the first damage tick.

likes
-PvP that lets you use your PVE stuff
-Lets you use the combat system to its fullest
-Large scale to small scale variety
dislikes
-PvDoor zerging
-No way to punish cowardly play (e.g. run away from 1v1, but gladly come back with a buddy to 2v1)
-Downed state punishes players’ success when outnumbered because of easy rezzing

Make traps transfer 1 condition per pulse.

A) GS fix – remove Rush and swap in Arcing Slice (operates like the lvl 3 version and becomes a blast finisher), new burst move operates like a mix between lb and hammer burst, a ground targeted 1200 range leap that creates a fire field at the end, always draining adrenaline

B) Cleansing Ire fix – Conditions are only removed on burst attacks that connect per adrenaline spent (New GS burst and LB burst no longer remove conditions unless damage is done on first tick)

C) HS fix – HS passive now only works at full effect in 600 range of target, otherwise it ticks once every 3s. Active changed to a 600hps heal that operates regardless of target/range for 8s.

D) CC fix – When immobilized players can now turn without needing to use the turn keybinds. Control effects (stun/knockdown/knockback, etc) can no long be chained into eachother, having one effect applied makes you immune to all others.

Anyone else think this looks like a good fit for a power PU build? (0/10/30/30/0 or 0/20/30/20/0)

-Lack of toughness can be compensated with high uptime on protection boon + the trait that reduces damage by up to %9 (in addition to the stealth spamming)
-Healing power scales best with the regen boon, which you also have a high uptime with PU and Phantasmal Healing

The main issue would be the lack of crit damage however.

I dont think its fair to compare skills cross-class. I think there is a reason ele utilities have higher CDs, presumably because of the utility of having 4 attunement weapon sets at their disposal which a class like guardian doesn’t have.