Guild Wars 2

Looks like Warriors Thiefs and Rangers havent got the Dev response yet.
So I’ll post my view and maybe it will prompt.

Warrior:

I LOVE the direction you are taking but I am scarred it might be too much of a swing, what happened to taking it slow. Moving opportunist and nerfing hammer damage, please start with 1 of the two and see how it goes.

I also thing the Sword/x Bow Condi build is stronger than people think and will come out more once the hambow nerf hits. So thats something to watch.

Thief

Overall its ok, I am concerned about limited weapon sets like P/P.
If these changes hit, I also think S/D thiefs should be due for a 3% damage increase overall. (once again taking it slow) as they will be evading a lot less and forced into combat.

Ranger:

Like the direction,
Enlargement will be a huge buff to some Niche WvW builds who want a passive stunbreaker.
Confused about Fury on Greatsword since Greatsword is a defensive weapon, I and a few other rangers think Retaliation might be a better boon for this trait. I would especially like this combo with fortifying bond in larger group scenarios where AOE is too prevalent.
I am still very concerned about shouts, I see guard being used for Natures Voice more than for what guard should be about. Ranger shouts are all over the place and I don’t ever see builds running 2 or more shouts, I think Ranger shout builds are hurting right now because the shouts don’t work well together, (IE one could kill your pet, One buffs your pet, and Sickem can be canceled if you try to control your pet)

Those are my thoughts.

Kain Francois.4328:

Nature Magic X – Enlargement. This trait now uses Signet of the Wild to trigger. This reduces the cooldown to 60 seconds and allow it to interact with the Signet of the Beastmaster and Signet Mastery traits.

Too unreliable, but a step in the right direction. I would suggest making a more reliable way to trigger it, or increasing pet HP threshold. In its current state however, it’s too unreliable.

Overall though, although many of the changes are good in theory, most fail to fix the core issues with Ranger (pulling their own weight compared to other professions.)

You misunderstand
Threshold on ranger no pet
Pretty much a free stun breaker if your dying in a Zerg if you have sig of beastmaster

This is a huge buff to melee and mid range signet builds. I will love using this

Overall happy with changes and defiantly worth given it a shot.

I do feel that greatsword won’t make much use of fury. It’s a defensive minded weapon. I feel retaliation would be a more appropriate boon for this trait.

My 2 cents

JonathanSharp.7094:

@ GvG: There’s a lot of equivocation around "GvG’. Keep in mind that when we’re talking about GvG here, we’re talking about a GAME TYPE. Don’t get this confused with two guilds fighting each other for positioning on a ladder. That’s something else we can do (and want to do), and that would work for CTF, or KOTH, or GvG, or conquest, etc.

For the GAME TYPE, people seem to be asking for:

• 2 lords. If you kill their lord you win.
• There are obstacles in the way (a lot of people use the MOBA analogies of having NPC’s or towers in the way…you defeat these in order to get to the opposing guild lord).
• I assume there’s a time limit?
• Do we do VoD again to stop people from turtling?

Hi John,

There are many interesting game modes we would love. Heck even Factions introduced some really cool modes with the Kurzicks and Luxons? (hope i remember right) So there are many creative angles you could take away.

I understand your hesitancy about GvG with towers and it resulting in bunkering forcing VoD, I’ve read posts about how this was the reason conquest was implemented.

I think there are unexplored ways to make this work without going this route, I’ll share my thoughts and visions. Have you ever considered the following.

All you need to prevent bunkering and just fighting in your base with NPC’s is and objective out in the open field, something worth fighting for, an objective, that would give an advantage should Victory or Death occur.

This would also make both teams choose a decision, play for the secondary objective, which is fine because it still leads to some great open field fair fights, or play a strategy that would try to wrap it up before VOD.

This way you can force 2 teams to push at each other while smaller skirmishes happen at the secondaries as people will be concerned about them for end game. No team can bunker because it would basically loose them the game as team one just sends a lot to the secondary,

If a lot of fighting happens at the secondary, it could open up some interesting sneak attack tactics with some of the scout classes.

As an example,
*Take the conquest points and make it so the more territory you controlled, the more powerful your NPC’s at the end of the game became, It would prevent bunkering as people would leave the base to go control these territories. If VoD were to occur, the team that played the best through the match and controlled the most territories would be rewarded by powerful buffs at the end of the game.
*Or perhaps you get additional NPC’s for each territory under your control should VOD occur.
*Obviously you can even add another secondary objective like Flag running (OLD SCHOOL) to this to create intresting side fights and advantages and disadvantages to the main fights.

This would work great because you likely can still use the maps you would create for this for conquest as well.

Substance E.4852:

The guardian and warrior also both have superior self preservation abilities either through boon spam, higher base stats, or just plain amazing traits. We may have more defense focused gear, but we are at best equal in that department while they clearly outpace us in offense.

If you want to bring in outside factors, you’ll find it very hard to show it mathematically, I’d keep it inside the box and do fair weapon comparisons. Very few builds “do it all” and A net has stated indirectly that “any build that does it all and brings everything to the table will get nerfed” Want proof? Check out the warrior thread.

Ya I feel bad for Engi, Kits hurting you. Both our classes have issue with this. It’s not a ranger stand alone issue.

Hate to say it, but Comparisons between Ranger Great sword should never be made with Guardian and Warrior Great sword. Yes the skill Co’s are a little low but the weapon was designed for defense while Warrior and Guard GS was designed for offense. Ranger GS has evade built into 1, an interrupt and a block.

So OF COURSE its weak in damage in comparison.

In my personal opinion, NONE of the ranger weapons except for long bow were designed for full on offense. And since LB is ranged in a melee meta, it OF COURSE feels weak.

Even sword, the weapon that does the most, was designed with build in defense evades, Thats just the sad state, no real offensive designed weapons.

A more fair comparison might be comparing Ranger sword to Guardian Sword, or thief sword.
The 1 skill does good damage, and skills 2 and 3 are defensive minded.

Another good one might be Long bow compared to Mesmer GS,

But what you would rather do is compare the sword to the warrior axe just to make a point without taking weapon design into account.

I’d like to see better comparisons in weapons to support your argument,

I think you have a point, the same point that has been made since Ascended gear came out and that we all know about, but its not nearly as bad as you make it seem.

Title says it all,
Want your opinions

Can a Steal/Backstab build work w/o Executioner?

Been getting board of S/D Evade builds and want to go backstab. (wvw roam)

If I do it though I want it to do a couple things.
1. I want steal to be powerful, (Thrill of Crime, Daze, ETC)
2. When I steal, I want my opponents to have no idea where I went. This means I want stealth on Steal. Which requires 20 in shadow arts.

I want these things to create some decision making hesitancy. If I can get my opponent even for half a second to react slow when I stealth on steal and try to figure out whats going on, the backstabs should come but will it be powerful enough?

So right now I am at 0/0/20/0/30.
D/D with Pressure P/X
Obviously I don’t have enough points for executioner, so can backstab still work here? Or do should I really just conform and drop the stealth on steal.

Wow,
What can I say, I have run all three of these builds. Pretty much exact traits.

Trapper was my first and favorite build, great for pve dungeons and mobs, still a good go to roaming build.

Spirits, I had my run with spirits and its my best dueling build. I don’t use anymore outside of Spvp.

Build number 3 is my favorite right now as well. I did tweak it to go 30/25/15 instead of the extra 5 in skrimish.

This build is fantastic, In some situations, instead of long bow i use Axe/WH for group support. I easily get 75% crit chance with spotter and fury. I crit often and LOVE that I am still able to bring something reliable to the group with spotter. when I am in a situation for Long bow, the build is flexible and I sometimes switch spotter out for Piercing arrows when the situation calls for it. #3 has a lot of flexibility and I also recommend.

Donkey kong.

F2 ground pound blast finisher
Auto throw poop for a 20 percent chance to blind

Jasher he probably got tired and didnt want to go to matchup details. For the record. I do play tourneys

I play a spirt ranger and win or stalemate 80% of my 1v1 against warrior. Usually though its a stalemate though if the have hammer and mace shield.

My spirit build is not the typical spirit build. It uses runes of forge sun and earth spirit and sig of renewal as my stun breaker And anti condition utility. I use the melee spirit tourney build. Not the bow ones. I feel I have access to more on demand evades. Which I will use to wear you down. I will probably have to disengage often just to let conditions tick for a bit

If i do get caught, My blind from sun spirit easily disrupts the warrior chain of cc and if he gets past that I have a stun breaker and wolf. I feel that if any ranger is using well timed evades the warrior ranger matchup would be more of a stalemate. A good ranger saves his sun spirit blind in this matchup for when its needed. Killing my sun spirit with your cleave will blind you resulting in an escape opportunity for me.

I can also use pet f2 to disrupt your timing as it is available even when I am stunned. Not to mention pet swap to another dog for single target knockdown cc.

Better leave greatsword at home and bring both hammer and mace. That’s your best shot and the only time I have any real trouble. Cause hammer can stun my spirits preventing their actives. I forced to use stunbreak early. i have evades on weapons and can draw these warriors out at least 60. Before they finally catch me.

If you try to cc me and pop stance so my counter cc doesn’t go through. Blind might but it also wear off too quick. Ill notice though and pop stun break.

Rangers who run 3 spirits with no stun break these days are crazy mofos

Side note
I play warrior to btw though I prefer sword sword

Durzlla.6295:

Chopps.5047:

Ya, taym is right. You have to think more critically about what you’re saying. Game design is not simple. There’s a reason the devs are developing and we’re playing.

He actually isn’t… by making them merged you’re actually hurting a lot of trap build options because you NEED to throw it, that just takes too much time in a lot of scenarios and it gives them plenty of time to dodge it with the stupidly obvious “Throw Bundel” animation that we use…

If we had a trait, probably adept so you could take all 3, that made your traps larger and say put the spike trap on rez (just combine them since that one is useless anyway) then you could be a pretty effective trapper by only spending 10 points instead of 20, which allows you to spend those elsewhere. Not to mention for players in sPvP who just drop the traps on points anyway it frees up a master major trait slot…

Personally if they split the traits i’d like to see the 900 range trait also allow you to “Detonate” your trap within, say 5-10s of it being cast (doesn’t affect the CD).

Glad somebody understands, the extra “throw” animation plus “set” animation takes a long time for traps to appear. Splitting up in my opinion and buffing the traits would significantly help build options. Making this optional enhances and quickens ranger builds. If you are willing to put up with the throw bundle animation this you should at least get 900 range.

I think that the detonate trap button would be op on a 900 range trait but adding it to a “traps are larger” could be fair, though they might scale back radius or something. In this case you can just hit your trap button again to detonate the field.

I personally wouldnt want them to move to WS because it competes with too much. Empathetic Bond etc….. Some traps like Frost, don’t even scale off of condition damage. And would be better in a CC condition condi duration build at least WvW wise. Once again though, personal preference.

Auberon.4653:

rpfohr.7048:

I disagree. I could get closer to those crit numbers and still have toughness if I sacrificed my pvt and Tanky runes for more cavalier. That’s a personal choice I made though. I’d also bet your running more offensive weapon set than I am. I am focusing on defensive weapon set so I really never die

I am also proud to say I am in one of the better gvg guild and we have used a squad consisting of a ranger and a thief in an assassin group. It works well and we have a great record. Can’t go further into this or guild would be mad at me for spilling beans.

I`m sorry, but you can`t. I know only Maul can make such crit and usually only with zerker build or, perhaps, on upleveled player with low armor.
Also, “never die” depends on you are not run in zerg, in zerg even bunker guardian dies fast when focused, and 300 armor doesn`t make big differens.
Also, please, couldn`t you tell me how many Guardians, Warriors, Ele and Necro your guild has during GvG and how many rangers, just to compare number?

I do have a guard and warrior too you know and I know that if I put the same type of armor on them only the 2 skill would reach the 5000 range. My ranger crits are only probably around. 1k behind my warrior swinging a hammer around by my axes bounce and my gs is defensive. You must be trying to compare warrior greatsword or something like that to a ranger

For gvg
15 man team
4 gaurd
4 war
2 necro
2 ele
1 Mesmer
1 ranger
1 thief

Sometimes we have an engin over something because we have really good spvp engi in our guild

I can’t go into builds sorry. I can only tell you the wvw build is different than the gvg.

When I say never die. It means usually don’t die early and I can stay up until we are wiping. In fact I usually living longer than some wars and guards due to positioning and the defensive cc at my disposal

Auberon.4653:

rpfohr.7048:

For zerging

In battle with spotter I had over 60 crit chance and my crits were each about 1200 with occasional mail at 3.5k

I have armor=3082 and I see on me thief`s, warrior`s & mesmer`s crits 3600-7000+ very often. So, I proudly say that ranger`s “crit” just a piece of junk.
Yes, rangers may play WvW, but nothing special, mostly ranger with some kind of builds very good in roaming, in small scrimish 1vs1, 2 vs 2 or something like that. At large zerg battles rangers have no special role, also in GvG usually rangers are unwelcome.

I disagree. I could get closer to those crit numbers and still have toughness if I sacrificed my pvt and Tanky runes for more cavalier. That’s a personal choice I made though. I’d also bet your running more offensive weapon set than I am. I am focusing on defensive weapon set so I really never die

I am also proud to say I am in one of the better gvg guild and we have used a squad consisting of a ranger and a thief in an assassin group. It works well and we have a great record. Can’t go further into this or guild would be mad at me for spilling beans.

For zerging

I went 30 25 15 0 0 today and felt very viable in a mix of pvt cavalier and knight.
Used axe wh and gs. My group loved spotter and I could do melee train since I could bring self stability with sig of wild and my armor gave me enough toughness for 3300 armor after toughness sig

In battle with spotter I had over 60 crit chance and my crits were each about 1200 with occasional mail at 3.5k

We won battles because I thre muddy terrain in the right place allowing for better aoe bombs a d I could stay alive and lay down the important cc for the heavy hammers.

Most people just look at numbers and thing rangers are bad but we do bring some useful things to a Zerg if built right.

Yes. My plan would be to move the part where traps are larger to t1 and something like pet speed and consolidate with with carniverous appetite

With each tier having 1 traps trait like spirits.

I don’t see how that would be a nerf if you want to go 20 in skrimishing you still get 900 range traps. And it’s balanced by making you pick up all three trap traits if you want to.

First i will expain the idea and the why and how it is balanced

split traps into 3 traits

Trappers expertise: traps are twice as large
Master trapper: traps use ground targeting and have 900 range
Trapper potency remains as it is.

As a long time trapper. I really feel this needs to happen for the following reasons

Aoe is the way in wvw and the 900 range would be excellent for rangers to compete on a team level more. Ranged Aoe is too dominated by necro. I’ve tried melee train ranger and its very difficult. Sword makes it tough to stay on leader cause of animation forcing me to pickup gs and axe/x which leads to less damage on a medium clas armor. 900 trap range out be enough to bring interesting frost and fire combo feels from a good distance.

Splitting the ground target and larger traps could bring about interesting melee trap builds where the ranger doesn’t have to pick up ground target. This can become more potent in dungeon and roaming builds. I also think it would be an spvp boost and give a better option to zone with melee.

In my opinion this would be balanced as you need to pick up 3 trap traits instead of 2 but 900 range is sexy. Snare builds. Imagine spike plus frost trap power builds at 900 range.

This would require consolidation of two traits. Perhaps carnivorous appetite and another pet trait in that tier.

Any thoughts?

After visiting the their forms. They would produce enough poop to crap not only their pants but yours too if it worked like op said.

They are funny

I appologize I thought you were arguing that stealth and attacks that grant stealth are a unique class mechanic. Stealth attacks are unique to thief and I admit my fault and the soundess of what you said

Regardless the op was concerned about how sickem had no weakness because it is not block able. Just to reiterate kill the pet to nullify skill. The skill has an exploitable weakness in this regard and can be countered. Especially by thiefs who can deal single target dps so fast

I am sorry Ryan and I are right
The definition of a unique class mechanic Is that no class except yours has access to it
Hunters shot is a longbow 3 attack skill yhat grants ranger 3 secs of stealth
Dont blow your mind up though maug.
my point stands

You should know that I’m like this on all forums including ranger
Especially ranger because the doom and gloom there often leads to tons of inaccurate statements

evilapprentice.6379:

rpfohr.7048:

Boohoo. So it’s a hard counter to a strategy that itself was a hard counter. As I stated earlier its not like its destroying your class mechanic initiative and steal.

Stealth is not a counter to anyone who knows what they’re doing. It doesn’t block access to your traits, therefore it is not a hard counter in the same way as denying stealth to an SA build. Stealth may hard counter you, but plenty of players have figured out how to deal with it.

Furthermore, Stealth is a thief mechanic – we have an entire traitline dedicated to “on stealth” effects, and each of our weapons get a special attack when in stealth – no other class gets anything close to comparable.

I get it, you don’t like thieves. Disagree all you want, but don’t lie or delude yourself, it makes you look foolish and does nothing for your argument.

I repeat again. Stealth is not our class mechanic initiative is as well as steal. Thief just happens to have lots of stealth access the class mechanic is located in the last trait line check it out for yourself!!

Also thief is my second favorite class. So I love them and play one.
I hate complaining and incomplete thoughts
Think about why it was given to ranger and you will realize that any future skill that would get this would have a more apparent weakness

Lastly once again killing the pet negates the skill. Weakness found now go use it

Boohoo. So it’s a hard counter to a strategy that itself was a hard counter. As I stated earlier its not like its destroying your class mechanic initiative and steal.

I actually think its good design. Perhaps on another class that can block or use aegis or evade it would be bad. But on ranger with free hits on pets for permanent stealth and cloak and dagger

In this instance it was good design.

What’s more poorly designed. That your strategy has a counter. To one of 2 classes that couldn’t counter before? Or maybe it’s that cancels itself out every other time.

This is a small picture thing so stop trying to make it big picture

Also here is your way to counter sickem. Kill the pet. The they cannot use skill. Did you think of that? Last time I checked ranger shouts unusable without pet. So kill it. Your a freakin thief. If your concerned about he future I am sure they will have a weakness and be on a weak skill as is he case with this

This is so untrue. A lot of people are not happy. If you want to see a real whining forum go check out ranger. But ya thief still needs a small buff

I feel like you are helping my argument by stating the weakness of sickem. It adds an anticipation factor to the skill.

And if you are concerned about trait lines not being used. Well I don’t even remember the power trait line for guardian because the bottom 3 are just so good. All classes at different points of the game have been forced away from certain trait lines this complaint I get. I have been there and understand you just want viable trait lines. But then sickem isn’t an issue. Maybe only an inconvenience. The real issue is the trait line is in need of buffs

evilapprentice.6379:

Ryan.8367:

evilapprentice.6379:

Kaizer.7135:

A hard counter is better than no counter at all, and whoop-de-doo, 4 second reveal isn’t going to get you killed unless you suck at Thief.

Please read all the other posts that have said this.

The CD, the length of the effect, whether or not rangers run it – NONE OF THAT CHANGES THE FACT THAT AN UNAVOIDABLE HARD COUNTER TO UP TO 42% OF CLASSES TRAIT POINTS AS WELL AS 33% OF THEIR CLASS MECHANICS IS STUPID DESIGN. It’s following on the poor precedent set by anti-stealth traps in Wvw (Like I said would happen when they announced anti-stealth traps). It’s lazy and it removes skill from the equation, because it can’t be avoided.

Just fyi, you guys get unavoidable CND’s on our pets that can’t dodge too. I guess abusing bad design only works one way.

If you’d like to make a case that pets that you chose to bring to the fight (Excluding Ranger pets, since they can’t choose to not bring their pet) are too easy to CnD, please do so, only elsewhere. It has no bearing on this conversation.

Being able to CnD a pet that can’t dodge is in no way comparable to an undodgeable, uncleansable hard counter to stealth, because a thief going stealth off your pet doesn’t have the potential to negate 30 trait points and part of your class mechanics.

It has lots of bearing

Your point is faulty if you think stealth is your class mechanic and this locks you out. Stealth is a choice you make and your class just happens to have significant access to it.

Your unique class mechanic is really initiative and stealing.

Sickem is a hard counter to the stealth strategy and secs considered this for ranger because ranger has no ability to counter cloak and dagger on pets that dodge or be stowed. Not to mention ranger has no access to agegis to block it.

Sorry they were given a way to counter a thief strategy they were unable to counter before

I also want you to know that the rebuff does not stack in duration. By no means is this op. besides the skill wasn’t evadable before. If it was evadable the other half of this skill would work even less properly than it already does.

And if you feel pigeon holed into stealth. Think about how ele feels with their trait line.

I’ve run minimal stealth build like s d with withdraw and you know what. You don’t have to spam stealth to win or even feel forced down that trait line

End rant

Uh,

Tail Wind and Furious Grip tool tip Bug?
Always thought duraiton was same but furious Grip tooltip is double?

Tested duration is the same

A monkey that throws blinding poop for AA and donkey kong ground pounds for F2 Blast finisher

I just saw that too.
FIRST thing I noticed.

Did the trait always function as tooltip says? where it only gave a fixed duration to pet or was it the whole thing in the past, just curious

Unique group support,

Still bring spotter and frost spirit but using traps rather than something like QZ or sickem for unique aoe on dungeon mobs.

Anybody ever run a direct damage trapper?
Could be used for dungeons and pve in general.
Has the standard group support plus some interesting aoe.
SB used primarly when I need breathing room.

Use to run one back in the day until quickness nerf. Was wondering if anybody does run something like it. Especially since traps in crit line.

Build might look similar to this.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNBMhVakoqqutSvi1SQsUsn93FwecIH9I/hSlynqwUSA-jADBYfQoiBkgAkoAisAIBKaJSDhtMsIasabYKXRW/SI1grIa1A-e

Running something similar except I got soldier gear instead of zerker, I do have the zerk trinks though.

Working well for me but was interested in another opinion before I go buy zerker gear.

jcbroe.4329:

rpfohr.7048:

Enjoyable thread. I agree and think most of those changes are op.
I would like it if axe 5 forced you into a walk speed. No run speed.and the retaliation was replaced or removed by something not as strong.

I still dislike shouts. I won’t touch sickem till after buff but particularly the other three. None of them synergize well making shout build near impossible. A net should have tested in beta.

I think if the pet is going to gaurd a target area so be it. But I’d like it to be more of. Oh that pet is my ally and over there. Fighting near it is good. Thus I would like the cd increased to 60 and it pulse a powerful boob in the area. Either stability protection or retaliation

For example if search and rescue caused fear to everyone nearby the downed ally and gave pet protection I would consider using this.

Or if it was duration based. For 30 secs pets find near allies and res them.
I really try to compare this to other Rez skills. Yes banner is an elite on a long cd but its also aoe and inta Rez. For its cd I feel search should have one of those two aspects to it.

I made another thread with ideas about the other two shouts. Ill try to find and edit post

If I remember correctly, during the betas, rangers didn’t even have their last “shout” utility until like BWE3. Maybe it was sooner, but I could have sworn it wasn’t til BWE3.

Only search And rescue was in beta 3. Other shout descriptions were released but not until live could we use them

Enjoyable thread. I agree and think most of those changes are op.
I would like it if axe 5 forced you into a walk speed. No run speed.and the retaliation was replaced or removed by something not as strong.

I still dislike shouts. I won’t touch sickem till after buff but particularly the other three. None of them synergize well making shout build near impossible. A net should have tested in beta.

I think if the pet is going to gaurd a target area so be it. But I’d like it to be more of. Oh that pet is my ally and over there. Fighting near it is good. Thus I would like the cd increased to 60 and it pulse a powerful boob in the area. Either stability protection or retaliation

For example if search and rescue caused fear to everyone nearby the downed ally and gave pet protection I would consider using this.

Or if it was duration based. For 30 secs pets find near allies and res them.
I really try to compare this to other Rez skills. Yes banner is an elite on a long cd but its also aoe and inta Rez. For its cd I feel search should have one of those two aspects to it.

I made another thread with ideas about the other two shouts. Ill try to find and edit post

More is needed. Rangers are very trai dependent and I think this is one rout A net should go. I believe that you need both this and ai. Too many of the pet traits are either offensive or battle of attrition defense. Need more defense against the burst of wvw. Pet shouts seem lacking and need some sort of secondary effect as well like they are doing to sickem.

For example if search and rescue caused fear to everyone nearby the downed ally and gave pet protection I would consider using this.

I just don’t think people are being creative in their ideas. I keep seeing the same ideas over and over.

If what anet wrote about adding traits to the game is true back in the 2013 preview Then they have an opportunity they must seize.

The BM trait line is very weak. The primary reason people choose this trait line is for the stats and not for the traits.

If it included traits to help pets do better in zergs.

For example at 15 percent health your pet gets endure pain.

Or remove pet class restriction so bird can bleed and drakes can get the stability.

How a out your pet takes 50 percent less damage whe you are over 90 percent Heath. Would allow you to stay further back.

What if your pet gained retaliation and protection if its health dropped too quick. Now that mindless aoe is hurting the Zerg

Bm trait line has a lot of potential.

Instead of complaining about pet mechanic and whining for its removal give a net valuable ideas that enhance it. That is what they want and will help us.

Also don’t complain about being forced into something for wvw many classes are. Think a guardian is taking summoned weapons into battle? No they will just be looking at the bottom 3 trait lines. This at least is a doable option. Removal of pets ain’t gonna happen

Writing this thread because I want to convey my feeling about ranger, which I never have before, with my experience playing since launch.

1. A net will not change how pets work as our mechanic. We need to learn to deal with it.

2. Pets should be thought of in 2 categories for wvw. Range and melee.

3. Melee pets in zergs die to often and need the health or aoe resistance. Happily we may be getting health. In my opinion these pets should be taken in a melee focused ranger and synergize.

4. Range pets should not be viewed like a melee train needing health to survive. Rangers in wvw zergs cant melee train and do best with longbow taking down priority targets like ele and necro. What ranged pets need is the flowing ai priorities follow the ranger then attack. I feel it’s too focused on attacking and not following ranger. This may cause less attacking and a dps loss so attack speed must increase

5. Beastmasters needs help. Weak trait line. Trait line needs to include traits to help pets deal with aoe scenerios

6. Rangers need better support utility. Rangers have no real way to support zergs. Piercing arrows with sigil of fire is like all we have. Spotter too. spirits only great for roaming and too situational for large fights. More group support options are needed. I think that if pets are the way a net wants to do this. Shouts should be re worked. Sick em is a good start but more work needs to be done.

I also think we need a 1hand cc weapon and mace fits that

Auto 3 chain attack
Body blow
Hit their body for damage
Hit it again for damage
Hit their heart causing internal bleeding. 2 stacks for 2 seconded

2
Lunge
12 second cd
Leap at foe 600 range and hit them stunning for 1 second

3
smash his head
15 sec cd
Swing mace at his head to interrupt him and cause 2 stacks of confusion for 4 seconds

I agree that pets should be MOSTLY regulated to utility. This way if people still want a pet damage build, they can have at it.

I think out of all the species lets say there are eight.

2 should be offensive (cats / birds )
1 should be defensive (bears)
Everything else should be utility (Dogs, drakes, Spiders, Devourers ect….)

To give an example of utility I look to my trap ranger.

I set up with concussion shot then chain to a well timed Drake hound immobilize, allowing me to throw traps onto my target.

Currently I feel only K9’s provide enough utility. Perhaps this is just my playstyle though. Spiders have some potential too.
I feel Moa has utility but it isn’t good enough. If their utility durations were buffed, and there damage stayed as it stands or just a letter less, They would be where I’d like them.

I feel the rest of the pets arn’t there.

I feel the solution is to lower pet damage and increase direct damage coefficients as well as condition application on the condition weapon set.

A re-tweak of some F2’s to gain access to some utility.

And finally, a new pet class or two.
(Perhaps Apes with a donkey kong ground pound blast finish as an F2)
(Let them throw poop for blinding I don’t care. as long as it brings utility)

If Anet is unwilling to retool the F2’s then a new utility pet class is a must in my opinion.

In my opinion, 90% of the damage should be from the ranger for more active game play, and if people want to run a pet build, make the BM trait line scale betters better. This would allow for more viable build that don’t spec into defense.

I also feel that a lot of the moaning on the Ranger forms are over PvE and WvW gameplay being balance around sPvP. I feel that redistributing the damage back to the ranger would make them feel better when their pet is not dead in WvW

8/10
It’s cleaver and retains some elegance but adding “the” in the beginning sounds like “i’m the great one and will smash your head”

I choose Atrios Wynn.
(Pronounced A-Tree-Ohs Win )
Because of trees of course.

When spotter is activated, the icon that appears above your 6-10 skills still reads 70 instead of the new 150

Opening strike is bad and keeps me away from that trait line. Needs to be condensed, I’d also be in favor of instead of a timer its based on attack speed.

Minor 1: Opening strike: Leave as is
Minor 2: Alpha Strike: Opening strike crits, pet’s have opening strike
Minor 3: This is now remorseless
New Grandmaster :
Lucky 7: Every 7th attack, you apply opening strike.

Sube Dai.8496:

Manekk is correct.

I have experimented with many different power setups – full knights, knights/cavalier, clerics, zerker…

What I have learned is that regen is > toughness for a ranger, but if you are going to run regen then you need ways to trigger it, and you need to extend the duration, ie. Dwayna Runes.

I also dont see any point in running power without at least 50% crit and some decent crit damage. Power on its own is so weak for a ranger, you at least need to be crit’ing and proc’ing some fire sigils to kill things.

This is my latest attempt at this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMEQJARVjEVV2JWCWs2Bgli9CspgTLZPOkxFvYlSkA-jkyAYrARWCUybIsZxoV3KiGrqGVXjpcDiGGSFDLDg5CA-w

I don’t have all of the traited regen triggers but having 50% crit without food allows me to run mango pie. So I’ve already got constant regen, some triggering of Dwayna, plus healing spring.

This is exactly what I run but instead of 30 in skrimishing I did 30 in marks to pick up spotter. At 150 it’s a great pick up

I think you should have both. The f- toggle which and f3 go to.

It would still be 4 f buttons but with more control.

Currently guard isn’t on an f I would still argue that in a guard non attack state pets should at least take less damage

I’d like to restate I think the stealth and port are great. Keep these. It’s the positioning and cast time that’s killing me. Coming from a wvw and pvp perspective I find little use for it. You seem to come from a dungeon perspective more

It’s not a problem if guard was designed to spam natures voice. Which I don’t think it was.

are you so concerned about pet positioning in order to keep it alive you would use a utility. You shouldn’t have to. An f1 toggle between guard and attack would do better. Pet is invulnerable in guard mode. Effectively this allows your pet to dodge but a cool down would be needed to prevent abuse. 2 seconds maybe??

Paprika and I have a lot of the same ideas….both with shouts and lb

Lb 1 power shot .75 cast time
Deals x damage and d additional damage to vulnerable foe

Lb 2 charged shot 5 sec cd
Fire an arrow that does x damage
Blast finisher

Lb3 Marked shot 12 sec cool down
Fire a shot that applies 5 secs of 5 stacks of vunerability and grants you and your pet might 3 stack and swiftness for 5 seconds

Lb4
Point blank shot
Knock back your foe. Apply two stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds to your foe.

Lb5
Barrage
Same except more power and without the cripple

I think if Pets were invulnerable on guard mode, and this acted like a toggle f1 perhaps it solves a ton of issues. Effectively no more pets die in dungeon traps. And you now control a dodge for your pet.

Thoughts??

Paprikaspice.8462:

The positioning does not apply to what you say about guard. What if guard just buffed the pet with stealth and prot? Same use, much more streamlined. Your pet takes your target if you want it to, or takes any target you give it. You would not need to do interrupt the pet when using it. This shout is still clearly designed to be spammed and right now it just makes it so you have to retarget which feels to me like a broken mechanic. Either the shout should not be spammed, or the non-buff part of it should be more than extremely situational.

I agree, I think it needs to be streamlined, The pet positioning aspect is overrated, people do like to protection though…..

This would actually find its way onto my skill bar if it was insta cast and protection on my pet.

The skill is being used to spam natures voice which is a design flaw. NV should be activated through a variety of shouts with a shout build if you want to use it.

This seems fun…

1) Rework shouts
2) Better damage scaling
3) Pets able to survive in wvw zergs better.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAnXRjEV91dVWVg2BilC9s/mCOZJ3D/TqTlwvOeP-jUyAoLIMWAJIQkFACEY2rIasF1ioxqtx0wER1A-w

^^ Idea for a spirit build (traiting them to explode in WvW)

Has some support with spotter and durable.

Thoughts?? Trying to get creative here….

Cufufalating.8479:

Surely the obvious solution to the SB issue is:

>Keep the SB range nerf
>Increase LB to 1500 always
>Replace the LB range trait with SB range to 1200
>???
>Profit

Common assumption is just to use eagle eye for shortbow.

Another idea I had for this, I don’t think anybody has posted this idea.

Keep longbow range the way it is with the trait.
Maybe buff the trait from 5% to 10% damage..Maybe….perhaps like 10% if over 1000 range….
Rework longbow (doing it anyway???) into a better weapon so it can function without CD’s from quickdraw. (see below to understand where I’m heading with this)

Change quick draw to a grandmaster trait over moment of clarity
Remove cool downs for longbows and leave only short bows
Add “increases range on short bows to 1200”

Dev’s I hope you read this. I’ve been preaching what the OP stated for so long.

Guard is now used just to spam natures voice and for pet boons.
Sickem may just need a general buff.

If I want to place a range pet somewhere just go where I want the pet to be, hit F3 then when he comes I hit F1. Now my ranged pet is attacking from range.

The “place your pet here” functionality has fallen out of use and the cast time is long.
I preach it guard needs additional utility to see use outside of Nature Voice spamming.
I still suggest reveal stealth in the area as a unique thing rangers could bring to WvW.

Lastly, I feel held back and cannot run a ranger shout build because I feel the shouts don’t have a lot of direction, they are kind of all over the place.

Defensive? Offensive? Utility? How do you want shouts to play out. One of each is bad because I feel I can only take 1 shout, 2 if I’m lucky, in a shout build.

How were ranger utilities NOT addressed.

I have 1 offensive shout
1 defensive shout

and 2 I have NO idea what to do with in a PvE or WvW setting.

I really don’t want to be forced to take Guard for the sole purpose of just to spam Natures voice.
Can any additional utility be added to this? something unique like a 1 time stealth removal?

Can’t it be re-worked into something like
“Reveal” / “Smell”
or
“Protect yourself”

I have 100% interest in the boons to pets but not much in sending them somewhere.

Also 1/2 our utilities are for our class profession the pet/ Signets /Shouts
Does anyone else think this is slightly overkill?