Guild Wars 2

Draygo.9473:

I don’t want credit given for building siege, as that can be abused (build flame rams on the walls, drain the tower supply!)

This is another problem that already needs to be addressed. The right solution to that problem could also make it OK for people to get credit for building who deserve it, and punish those who abuse building.

Draygo.9473:

Because good servers will defend nearly as often as they attack. Otherwise they will lose significant PPT.

But on many servers defending often boils down to just bringing in your zerg to attack whomever is attacking your tower or keep, as opposed to pre-building siege, keeping watch, scouting, etc., which is what the OP means by defending, I believe.

Both on my current and previous home worlds (both top-tier) I’ve seen a frustrating failure to build, maintain and use defensive siege. I do those things myself, night after night on our home BL, and it feels like a thankless task which about 50% of the time does nothing but cost me money and time. Yet I continue to I do it because I know the attack will come, and that our best defense is well-placed siege, especially when outnumbered.

Spending your time building and maintaining siege is a gamble that seems just as likely to result in failure as success, even if you do a thorough and flawless job, because you still depend on help to refresh it when you’re away, intel to call out attacks, commanders/players to respond in a timely fashion, and players who know which siege to use and what to target.

So, since each piece of siege retains the name of it’s builder, give the builder some reward for the kills, even if he’s not the one pulling the trigger. This would encourage smart siege building. Also, give a small reward for siege refreshing. (It should be easy to spot any bots doing that.) Additionally, as suggested in another thread, make the name of the builder visible on the weapon, so abusers/supply wasters can be reported.

Santa Claus is getting tired. Give him some milk and cookies.

I think he means they did a good job improving the GS, and now it’s time to work on the LB.

I’m on Kain and have been loving it, and T2. Lots of great battles, and every server fights hard every week. I’ve been quite pleased with most of the commanders (when I run with a zerg) and have been really impressed with how well we’ve done even when facing much larger numbers. The teamwork between players in voice comm has been really nice, and fun, too.

I’m not optimistic we did get such a buff, but I’d be thrilled if we did as this is one of my gripes about Rangers, i.e., that one of our “weapons” doesn’t get the benefit of our sigils.

Another source of Chill is the food Ghost Pepper Popper, which gives 40% of Chill on Crit at Night, and 40% chance of Might on Crit during the day. I use them along with a SB with Sup Sigil of Ice at night in WvW. While I generally prefer canines during the day because of their CC, I switch to cats for more damage at night since I get tons of CC from my bow’s Chills.

I think the mindset Shiren points out is pretty pervasive even the the top tiers, but there’s more to it than karma-training, maybe. I’m in T2 now and was in T1 quite a bit while on SBI and at least in the BLs, I don’t see that much pre-battle defensive siege building by the masses. Normally it’s done either by a precious few defensive minded, dedicated people, or it’s done after the assault is already underway or a big enemy zerg has entered the map. Of course at that point you’re pretty much limited by the amount of available supply at the moment.

Sure a lot of people join the zerg for the loot and stuff, but the commanders decide what the zerg does. In my experience playing on top-tier server BLs , most commanders are focused on keeping offensive pressure on the enemy as much as possible. Few of them will ever say to their zerg, “OK guys, let’s focus on sieging up this keep for the next 15 minutes and then split up and control our supply lines for a bit.” I think the majority of them just have an offensive mindset, they want to bring as much power to their punch as they can via numbers, and they want to stick it to the enemy nearly constantly.

Even for defense, if your zerg is big enough to wipe the enemy zerg and your commander good enough, you don’t “need” pre-built defensive siege. Of course, that tactic falls flat on it’s face when your map population drops from 60 to 20 and you have no commander, no defensive siege built in your keep and little to no supply, which is something that’s inevitable on any server that doesn’t have perfect coverage.

So really, I think zerging is in the hands of the commanders in a lot of ways. It’s a tactical choice based on their goals and preferences. I have seen time and again our BL garrison fully upgraded, with 1700 supply, yaks strolling in unmolested, and not one piece of pre-built defensive siege, while two commanders are down south flipping camps and towers. It’s frustrating to me, but that’s because I’m a defensive-minded player. I think most commanders are just offensive minded.

urzen.7096:

Again, this is already settled. AN has said before they do not want a single tap to contest a waypoint. They are working on a way to fix it.

This is as it should be. Allowing way points to be contested is fine and probably necessary, but it’s way too easy for some classes/builds to do so.

Yep. This is a HUGE improvement. Well done A-Net. Now, please give us the option to just show a colored arrow over the heads of each player (as mentioned in another thread) so we don’t have what seems like sometimes thousands of words cluttering up the screen.

soistheman.7208:

I also think be able to see name tag far away is another problem. Now it’s too easy to detect players. Name tag should only appear when distance is close enough. (not too close though)

IMO it’s always been too easy to detect players (when they were not culled) because of the nameplate. It’s silly that you can’t hide behind an object unless it’s 10-15 feet wide because of your nameplate sticking out. IMO if the player’s body can’t be seen due to an obstruction, the nameplate shouldn’t be visible either.

Darksundown.2973:

Anet, give us a variety of options, please.

Toggle names on and off.
Toggle “Blackgate Invader” on or off.
Give us an option to shorten the server names (i.e. Jade Quarry Invader = JQ Invader, Sanctum of Rall Invader = SOR Invader)

Even before the culling fix and extended nameplates, this was what I wanted, in particular the shortened server names.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Rangers-skipped-over-again/first

I like the added build creativity and diversity nourishments allow and would prefer to seem them left in WvW.

Sigil of Fire is pretty nice.

I’m not a commander, but were I one I’d probably run what I run now – a BM/Healing build. You’ll be the two most juicy targets on the battlefield rolled into one as a Ranger and a commander, and on the front lines no less. I run a my own variation of CRabbit’s 0 0 20 20 30 build posted somewhere here in the Ranger section. I usually run Fern Hound + Wolf (with the trait adds an AOE cripple to the F2 from canines and spiders) for some nice CC. Your damage will be lacking, but survivability very good. When running with the zerg, I focus on snaring and finishing off close targets while on the front line. It’s not going to have a major impact on the battle, but being dead early and often is not very compatible with being a commander.

This is just a minor suggestion and were it to come to pass some might find it irritating, but I would probably like it if my Ranger would say “I’ll save you!” when my pet dipped below 50% health. It seems like ANet put that in as a audible heads-up to the Ranger, but by the time I hear it, it’s usually too late to save the pet.

Jos.8793:

give sigil of generosity a try, with a good crit rate and the shortbow it works fairly well.

Have you confirmed for certain sigil of generosity works? I put one on my SB, then found a number of claims online that it only works in PVE. I tested it in Heart of the Mists with the sparring NCPs and couldn’t get it to work. Sigil of Purity would be an option, but not nearly as nice.

Some people, including me, want auto-loot, and some people don’t. Seems to me the solution is pretty clear. Make it optional.

awge.3852:

Also a broken mechanic with passive/aggresive toggle that needs to be refined: Dungeon boss fight! your pet dies in passive mode, ok so swap pets and in comes a pet with an F2 support skill such as the fern hound. The boss is raging and we’re all attacking, I want my fern hound to stay next to me for those constant heals, that’s why right now I need to use that F2, fern hound houls healing me and my allies, but wait why did it run to the boss in passive mode? Not the intented action. F2 mechanics + passive mode is not working properly in this sense.

This is part of the reason we need to be able to put the pet in “heel,” where they stay by our leg, and don’t aggro.

Firstly, a big THANK YOU to Robert for participating in this thread. This type of interaction is what the Ranger community needs in order to not give up hope in the Ranger class, and for some, GW2 itself.

As a WvW-focused Ranger, I like a lot of what has been discussed and can see where it could also help us out in WvW. I would like to add my voice to those asking for a permanent stow option and subsequent boost to our stats, or at least some way to make our pets truly useful during sieges such as adding range and speed to the devourer’s attacks and giving us a few other options such as at least letting birds and spiders be able to fly/climb up/down walls. Right now, the only way I feel I add value to my team during siege is either manning a siege weapon while on defense if one is available, or standing lookout while on offense. Lookouts are useful, but it gets old when that’s pretty much the only thing you can do.

Thanks again Robert for sharing your thoughts, and hearing us out.

IMO, full auto-loot for WvW, and the Loot Bags for PVE. Both systems as they currently exist make it fairly easy to miss loot. In WvW there’s not always the time or opportunity to stop and search for bags, and in PVE since there are no bags, sometimes it’s just plain difficult to see where the loot is. I would love to be able to hold down a key in PVE and see those yellow letters “Bag of Loot” or even just “Loot” over all my drops. As it is now, I scurry around over all the remaining corpses, just in case I missed the sparkles, and it’s a pain.

Bear Grylls, huh? I guess they could make Dolyak dung a consumable for us. : D

As I mentioned in another thread, I think Rangers should have a straight-forward condition removal they could use on themselves or another player(s) similar to Mending Touch (from GW1). I think some sort of AoE camouflage might be fun, and fit the class.

Any new info on this? Further testing, or word from Anet (I know, I know)?

This is really important. Please Anet, what’s the deal? What is the cause of this reported damage reduction? Was it by design? If it wasn’t intentional, when will it be fixed?

^^^ My mistake.

Regarding Mighty Swap, my memory was faulty. Fortifying Bond indeed does not double in number of stacks, but it does double the duration of the 3 stacks of Might on the pet to 20 seconds.

It’s with the Jungle Stalker’s Mighty Roar, if it hits the Ranger, that the number of stacks on the cat does double to 10 if you have FB.

You could run both MR and RA, if you drop Speed Training.

Look at Mighty Swap as an option to Rending Attacks. RA only gives a 1-second bleed on crit. However, Mighty Swap + Fortifying Bond = 6 stacks of might on your pet on swap, if it’s near you.

ensoriki.5789:

You’re aware concious ranger’s can juke their pet to mindkitten with premeditated CnD’s, to waste ini?

By juke you mean hit F3 to change the pet’s direction?

I would assume F3 removes the thief from the pet’s aggro table, so you’d have to re-acquire the target anyway then hit F1, assuming the pet is on passive. If that’s correct, I believe that would nullify the new nerf to stealth in those instances. In other words, once your pet jukes, it’s up to you to find and target the thief again, without assistance from the pet. Again, that’s just theorizing based on a couple of assumptions I have not tested.

The thought of a condition call “Grunting” makes me giggle. But seriously, I suspect they won’t make any more changes other than the NPC/pet aggro one they just did, until they fix fulling and re-assess stealth at that time.

Prysin.8542:

slingblade.1437:

It does seem to me that rangers, being masters of nature, should have more access to healing, especially of conditions.

healing spring does that already

Yes, I’m aware of that. So does Nature’s Renewal. HS is great, and NR is currently pretty much useless in WvW. Our other condition removals are spotty and one just got nerfed hard. Maybe something like Mending Touch from GW1, which was a two condi removal with a low CD that could be used on the caster or one ally.

^^^Thanks for the info in the above replies.

Awkward.1286:

It does not scale walls anymore, it can only climb down them still.

I’m glad to learn at least they can still climb down. I do use that to attack siege weapons, sometimes.

Anyway, sorry for de-railing the thread.

I do like the creative thinking in the OP.

It does seem to me that rangers, being masters of nature, should have more access to healing, especially of conditions. Maybe a small AoE condition purge they could apply to themselves and/or allies where they wave their arm and some green aloe leaves flutter down in the AoE circle.

SilverWF.4789:

OP, you forgot about Engineers – we are also useful for ourself only class…

“Guard – Your pet will aggressively protect the target area. Pets can scale/jump down walls.”
Did you read patch-notes?

I was being sarcastic We HAD a skill that made us at least a little special in WvW.

Guard – Your pet will aggressively protect the target area. Pets can scale/jump down walls.

Doggie.3184:

slingblade.1437:

As a wvw-focused player who’s endured months of stealth+culling nonsense, I love this thread. The wolf came out of nowhere!

Why still focus thief? Since the update a while back everyones culling

Culling is of course a huge problem, but in small-scale battles I don’t find it to be a factor when fighting other classes. For thieves however, it’s a big advantage. It’s like a bug that allows one of the strongest skills of some other class to activate way more frequently than intended. I’d love for there to be a bug in WvW that allowed Rangers to have 3 wolves active at all times, and for it not to be fixed for months and months

As a wvw-focused player who’s endured months of stealth+culling nonsense, I love this thread. The wolf came out of nowhere!

firebreathz.7692:

slingblade.1437:

I watched my fern hound track and hit a thief at 1500 range last night. It was pretty cool because there were a half dozen allies around me that had no idea where the thief was, but I watched my good puppy dog run in a straight line down a slight ridge, out of sight, and then saw white numbers pop up. It may not work all the time, but it works part of the time, at least.

thats culling… not stealth..

It was most likely both. We fought the thief. My pet kept picking him up without me having to retarget him. When he realized he was in a fight he couldn’t win, he stealthed, fled, came out of stealth (but was culled) while still in aggro range of the pet, so the pet charged after him.

Some of the thieves are qqing about it:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Pet-chasing-me-to-the-end-of-the-world/first#post1548241

Raven Paradox.1860:

A big reason the temples in Orr are such popular events is because people use their karma to buy the armors and then throw them in the mystic forge to create better exotics… likely ones that have superior runes that can only be obtained via the mystic forge.

I’ve never used the forge, nor done any crafting of any sort. Can I just go buy four pieces of karma exotic armor and toss them in and have a fair chance of getting something that will sell for a decent prices on the TP, or do I have to go research recipes and gather various ingredients to do any good?

I watched my fern hound track and hit a thief at 1500 range last night. It was pretty cool because there were a half dozen allies around me that had no idea where the thief was, but I watched my good puppy dog run in a straight line down a slight ridge, out of sight, and then saw white numbers pop up. It may not work all the time, but it works part of the time, at least.

I was able to get fury up to 2m and regen up to 1 min, but that seems to be the max, so it doesn’t seem to be infinite. Even still, having both of those for the first roughly 1-2 mins of a fight would be great. Granted, I’d want to swap out the moa before combat began.

So despite my disdain for PVE, I decided to get with the program and go find and do the required event so that I could buy some Skale Venom, especially since I’m pushing my Ranger build more towards crits. I figured “since I’m here, I might as well sock up,” and purchased 350. Then I go straight to WvW to try it out, and I can’t consume it. Back to PVE, and I can consume. Is this another stealth-nerf? Granted, it’s fine with me if nobody can use it, but I’m just curious if I am indeed a day late and a dollar short.

Boomstin.3460:

Wait a minute?!! When you open the pet management, in pet attributes theres new slots for
critical damage 0
Healing Power 0
Condition Damage 0
Agony resistance 0

Or have those always been there and i’m losing my mind one stealth fix/nerf at a time :P

I believe that’s always been there.

Dardamaniac.1295:

jaguar can do 5-6k,with some buffing ofc.I

This is what I was wondering; if maybe some particular buff got nerfed or is now bugged…?

I was running Fern Hound and Wolf and WvW last night and didn’t notice any drop off in damage. Granted, I didn’t record anything and wasn’t watching closely for any changes in damage.

I hope to God there wasn’t a nerf. I’ve never threatened to stop playing Ranger or GW2, but if there was a nerf, I’d sure consider it. And that’s coming from a customer who’s spent probably between 200 and 300 US dollars on gems (for gold) so far because I refuse to grind PVE for gear.

I can’t offer much help, but I will say, I tried a spider in sPvP and was quickly disappointed at how frequently it’s arching-projectile type attacks missed and gave up on it.

Mysteries.3659:

I’m a thief, a good one at that. I constantly have new thieves asking me for advice on builds for WvW. That being said, bunker builds aren’t killable for me. Obviously I can get away because I don’t know of a single bunker build that can burst down all my health while I’m stealthing and healing and stunning and rolling. But I can’t kill them. Not the bunker ranger, not the toughness gs warriors, and definitely not the bunker guardian. It really is a L2P thing.

Sounds to me it’s a “roll a bunker, or else” thing : P

Not that I dislike playing a bunker, but that’s not L2P, IMO.

Speaking as a solo player who came to Kaineng from SBI, I’ve grown to like it more and mover over the past few weeks. As Mayo said, we need coverage at times, but the community itself has been quite good. I generally just do my own thing rather than stick with one party, but I have gotten in TS a couple of times when following a commander and been really impressed with how they handled the group both in terms of tactics and just being fun, helpful, and even-tempered. I get the impression that there are a lot of people there who are willing to work together over a period of time to continue to improve the overall performance, and make it fun for all.

Beardmonger.4692:

I wonder if this will assist with the rampant culling with thieves and stealth. Will my pet be able to attack him even if I can’t target nor see him?

That’s my current understanding/hope: when the Thief is not cloaked, but just invisible due to culling, the pet will pursue/attack. Could be awesome for trappers.

Last night I noticed in WvW my pet was running back and forth as if it was chasing something, even when I couldn’t see the Thief. I didn’t really have time to evaluate it, but it looks like it could be quite helpful. I got the sense it might also have been tracking a Mesmer I fought, but I’m very uncertain about that at this point.

I did notice in WvW that my pet seemed to be moving with a purpose even when I couldn’t see Thieves I was fighting. This could come in really handy.

Guard was one of the few unique and fun things a Ranger could do in WvW; a way for a beast master to contribute during sieges, other than manning a siege weapon or standing watch on the flanks.

I consider myself a pretty patient and tolerant person, but this kind of treatment is getting really old. It baffles me that Thieves can fight in the midst of 5+ enemies, get kills, and survive, and that’s working as intended, yet now even my bird or spider can’t make it over a 10 foot wall and somehow contribute a little bit to the battle.

I believe they’ve already acknowledged at least some of the issues with Ranger pets, and hence did at least try to improve the “melee” pets ability to hit in one of the more recent patches. As I recall, it was Jon Peters who posted about it and did the actual work.

Not saying everything is wonderful, but there was an admission several weeks ago that things needed to be improved.