As far as escaping enemy zergs, I find I can cover ground plenty fast with Sig of the Hunt, Call of the Wild, and a Great Sword. I usually have the GS equipped for travel, and just swap in the Short Bow when I’m ready to fight. It’s nice to be able to move from the back of a zerg I’m in all the way to the front, and it’s especially easy if you trait the 20% cooldown for sword skills.
I think it comes down to play style. Both methods (burst v. cc/sustain) are effective. I do think you have to be pretty selective in WvW as to when you use cats, since they’re squishy. I’m not a fan of birds because of the slow windup before they hit, but I guess if you’re patient and observant enough you can time your bursts to match theirs.
(edited by slingblade.1437)
I have no problem with them only triggering on crit. My gripe is that Ranger pet crits don’t trigger sigils. Running a BM build, I have a very low crit chance with my weapons, but my pets crit tons. Sadly, the on-crit sigils are not an option for me since Rangers’ pet crits apparently are not worthy of triggering sigils, for some reason. Rangers gimped again.
This may be the dumbest thing I’ve heard…. Spirit weapons, minions, Thief pets, turrets, summoned elementals, and clones all do not proc the effects either, so please, cry harder about how ranger is gimped. If you use a short bow, or longbow you should be able to fire enough arrows out in rapid succession that procing the higher crit ones (IE nullification and purification) however the other ones are a little more rough for lower crit builds.
PS: there is no rule out there that says “if thou art a BM ranger thou must use non crit!”
Ranger pets are unique in that Anet has reduced the damage Rangers can do with their weapons/skills, relative to the other classes, and offloaded the responsibility to the pet. And of course, they have no choice but to use a pet. Neither of those conditions apply to your examples.
But hey, thanks for the insulting language anyway. ;-)
Do you have Guard set to auto-attack, maybe?
I have no problem with them only triggering on crit. My gripe is that Ranger pet crits don’t trigger sigils. Running a BM build, I have a very low crit chance with my weapons, but my pets crit tons. Sadly, the on-crit sigils are not an option for me since Rangers’ pet crits apparently are not worthy of triggering sigils, for some reason. Rangers gimped again.
My typical speed buffs:
Call of the Wild (Warhorn)
Rampage as One
And not truly Swiftness, but Sig of the Hunt.
Also, Birds (one of their auto-use skills)
(edited by slingblade.1437)
For starters, mostly just follow the zerg or join a havoc squad and:
- Learn the maps and “shorthand” names of all of the locations.
- Learn the tactics and standard practices.
- Learn what is and is not important/appropriate to say in /team or /map.
The other tasks are also very important, but IMO a look-listen-and-learn approach is the quickest way to get a handle on things. You’ll be much more valuable as a solo yak escort, for example once you’re able to successfully defend the yak, and also correctly report intel based on what you see while escorting.
I think you just have to learn to accept that which you can’t change such as the fact that upgraded camps and structures will be flipped, unless your server has dominating coverage ‘roud the clock. Consider that your upgrades, more often than not, helped the greater cause. Upgraded camps normally mean more supplies delivered and quicker upgrades on structures which normally means you hold on to those structures longer, which means more points in your server’s favor.
I too sometimes get frustrated when my investments in upgrades, siege building, and time spent standing watch sometimes feel fruitless. I have learned to be somewhat judicious as to when and where I will upgrade, and I do take some nights off and just run with the zerg, getting as much loot as I can and spending little to nothing.
Drop Honed Axes and put the 5 pts in Beastmastery. The 2 seconds of Quickness, you will find, is a must-have. Hunter’s Shot + Pet Swap + Rapid Fire is probably the best burst you’ll get from your build.
I hate the in-combat slowdown, too, but if your pet is in combat, it’s reasonable that you are also. One of the cool things about pets is that they can work for you at a great distance, around corners, etc., when you are just standing there doing next to nothing. I’ve gotten kills in sPvP when someone I’m fighting flees a point and I stay to cap but my pet chases and downs them. Then there’s the uses for Guard in WvW. The ranger mostly just watches as the pet destroys siege and players on top of a wall.
If I’m fleeing, and the pet is dragging behind, in combat, at lot of times a pet swap will do the trick to get you out of combat.
All that being said, the calls for the ability to perma-stow or put the pet in heel such that it won’t aggro are totally valid.
Have weapon sigils effect pets
…
drakes- faster cast time for F2
…
Yes to sigils. I’m running a beast master build and get ton’s of crits from my cats (if they don’t miss), but very few from my weapons. I cry when I look at all the “on crit” sigils and know there’s no point in me equipping any of them, despite all of the crits my build generates.
Yes to F2 cast time, but for all pets, not just drakes.
In addition to many of the things already mentioned:
Return to Me (F3) puts the pet in a tight heel with their nose almost touching the side of your left knee, like a will trained dog, IRL. They stay there until you send them to a target (F1) or release them by hitting F3 again.
Anything I can jump on, my pet can and will jump on. Anything I can jump off, my pet can and will jump off to either follow me or attack a target.
I want my EoE bomb!
I’ve played a lot of WvW as Ranger and I agree with the OP in that the Ranger is not a great contributor in large-scale fights, but there are many other ways to impact the success of your server. I’m more of a solo kind of player, so it fits me quite nicely.
Rangers have great mobility, meaning they’re good scouts, can be first on scene to man siege, kill or defend yaks, defend camps, etc., provide the supplies that allows the arrow cart to be completed that turns back the assault on a gate., etc.
They’re considered OP in the water, so they’re good for controlling the nodes and causing multiple enemies to waste time trying to kill them.
Their pets can destroy siege and res allies nobody else can reach, due to walls or distance.
That’s the kind of stuff I do in WvW most of the time, and I consider it all important, though not glamorous nor very profitable.
I’m not saying they’re the best or anything, but to say they contribute zilch is just not accurate.
(edited by slingblade.1437)
Multiple people have tested and report that the Jag’s first three hits while stealthed are crits.
I think nearest enemy will be most helpful to you guys as it only targets the closest enemy to you..
What the OP is saying is that this feature does not work reliably. It seems to be related to which way the camera is facing more so than which enemy is closest.
I would say there there is never a logical reason to auto-target a non-hostile. )
It’s not uncommon, at least in WvW, to rally by killing non hostiles. I don’t know how often people use auto-targeting, but it’s possible. That being said, I agree that “target nearest” is not nearly has helpful as it should be. There have been many times when I’m running solo in wvw and fleeing a group of players, I’d love to send my pet to attack the closest one on my tail, but I have not figured out how to do that without physically turning around, which means I die anyway. Even when I us my “look behind” button, I can’t click on a target, which is a whole ’nother problem.
This was a big problem in GW1 where matches involved randoms. Leechers and bots for leeching were common. If there’s a way to get glory without putting forth any real effort, there will always be people who try to take advantage of that. That being said, I don’t know if people who just stay in base get any points, so I can’t say for sure that’s what the OP was witnessing, but either way, people idle for 2 minutes should be automatically kicked from the match and replaced.
It very well may not be working as intended. If it is ever addressed, I hope it’s only done so after the other myriad of problems Rangers and their pets have are first fixed, such as faulty AI/pathing, attacks that wiff, and going teets up in AOE all the time..
Short Bow + Conditions is what most people focus on, I think. As far as runes, there are a number of good choices, depending on your specific build and playstyle.
HaO is our burst heal. If your defenses are fragile, HaO is the heal for you.
TU is our efficient heal. If you’re a bunker build, TU is the heal for you.
HS is our group heal. If you’re in a group (and your group knows to stay within the radius to get the regeneration boons and knows how to utilize the water combo field) HS is the heal for you.
Those are good, concise rules of thumb, but HS does have advantages besides being a group heal that make it appealing to any ranger, IMO. Condition removal and a combo field for for the ranger and his pet can be very handy, plus, I like the short cast time. I like to use HS with swords, for the leaps, and also firing into the spring from outside with a bow, for the regen.
Mine says 25%. Just restarted the game after a post-update patch.
I don’t think thats whats happening. Mind you, I can’t get into the game to check right now (download is still happening and very slowly at that) but I’m pretty sure what the OP was saying was that he used his Wolf’s F2, swapped pets, swapped back expecting the cooldown to have been reset by the swap (as would happen previously), and it wasn’t. Not that pet F2’s are actually sharing cooldowns.
OK, if that’s the case then I can see where an argument can be made for it.
I’m praying it’s just a bug. It wouldn’t make sense. Your weapons don’t share cooldown times on swap, so pets shouldn’t either. There’s already a pet swap cooldown in place, just like the weapon cooldown swap.
Actually, it makes perfect sense.
Weapons don’t share cooldowns, but swapping weapons doesn’t instantly reset a cooldown on the weapon you swapped out. The cooldowns are kept in-tact even when swapped, so that you always have to wait the whole cooldown period before you can use the attack again, swap or no.
Lets use Barrage as an example. Lets say you use Barrage with Longbow, swap to Shortbow and attack for 10 seconds, then swap back to Longbow. Barrage still has around 20 seconds left on cooldown, you don’t get to use it right away again just because you swapped.
Pets now behave in the exact same way. Instead of swapping ignoring actual ability cooldown timers and just resetting them the second the swap occurs, the cooldowns are kept constant even in the background. If you use Terrifying Howl then swap your Wolf, wait 15 seconds, then swap back, instead of the normal 45 second cooldown being ignored and letting you use it again right away regardless of cooldown, you now have to wait another 30 seconds for the entire ability cooldown to occur.
I’m ok with this. Its “technically” a nerf in the way that its worse now than it was before, but it was something that should have never been like that in the first place. Pet swapping was never intended to get around cooldowns.
But with your weapon analogy you’re talking about the cooldown on one weapon, but we’re talking about the cooldown on two different “weapons” when we’re talking about pets. In other words, if you use skill 2 on your LB and then swap to SB, SB skill 2 is not on cool down. But as I understand it is with pets now, if you use skill F2 on a feline, then swap to a canine, skill F2 is still on cool down. Different pets should behave the same as different weapons. This is painful to me if it was intentional.
Arenanet, can we please get a response to this? Was this intentional? Will it be put back to the way it was before?
(edited by slingblade.1437)
I’m saying that the pet has nothing to do with our stats. They are there to supplement our damage, yes, but they don’t take our stats, they have separate stats of their own. We are not one “unit”. The ranger is a unit with its stats, and a pet is a unit with its stats. When the ranger is buffed, the ranger is buffed 100%. When the pet is buffed, the pet is buffed 100%. Where does it say that stats for a ranger and pet are divided from only one set of stats?
I’m pretty sure I read on this forum that Anet confirmed that a percentage of a Ranger’s damage is routed through the pet. Some have said it’s 40%.
So, when a pet dies, the theory goes, the Ranger loses 40% of his potential damage. It’s like having some debilitating condition stacked on you, even if you’re completely condition free. Couple that with the already-poor pet AI and you’ve got a class that rarely is able to live up to the potential it has on paper.
Show me the quote from A-net, and I’ll believe you. You are thinking of pets in the wrong way lol.
So, put the pet on passive and don’t use F2 at all. Where, under this circumstance, would you rank a Ranger’s damage output compared to the other classes?
I’m saying that the pet has nothing to do with our stats. They are there to supplement our damage, yes, but they don’t take our stats, they have separate stats of their own. We are not one “unit”. The ranger is a unit with its stats, and a pet is a unit with its stats. When the ranger is buffed, the ranger is buffed 100%. When the pet is buffed, the pet is buffed 100%. Where does it say that stats for a ranger and pet are divided from only one set of stats?
I’m pretty sure I read on this forum that Anet confirmed that a percentage of a Ranger’s damage is routed through the pet. Some have said it’s 40%.
So, when a pet dies, the theory goes, the Ranger loses 40% of his potential damage. It’s like having some debilitating condition stacked on you, even if you’re completely condition free. Couple that with the already-poor pet AI and you’ve got a class that rarely is able to live up to the potential it has on paper.
I love WvW because of the number of different ways it can be played. I normally roll as a lone wolf and will join/split off from havocs and zergs as I see fit, doing everything from escorting or ganking yaks, controlling power nodes, flipping camps, building defensive siege, scouting, etc.. I guess the fun comes in for me by finding something useful to do, in the moment. You don’t have to always run with the zerg.
Thanks for sharing. Have you tested to confirm the boon durations from your runes stack? Seems like I read they did not, but I could be totally wrong about that.
(edited by slingblade.1437)
Been running a BM/Healing build in WvW. I like the cats for damage, but even with tons of self heals they are still too squishy for big fights, so I mostly run Fren Hound and either Wolf or Drake hound. Right now I’m playing GW/Sword+Horn, so my pet needs to be tough enough to take constant damage . Part of the reason I like drake hound is I find the solid brown body easier to see amongst the chaos of battle.
I’ve tried the Eagle some, but don’t like the long pauses between attacks.
(edited by slingblade.1437)
There was another one posted yesterday, i believe it was from the twitter chat. They said $5 – $7 to transfer.
The real problem is that the guilds that are exploiting the free transfers are staying on a server for a month or two before they get crushed in the upper tiers and transfer again. In other words, it’s only going to cost them $5 every couple of months to continue doing what they have been and ruining WvW.
Anyway, this is business 101. Granted it’s bad business and the higher ups in Anet should seriously consider a course in business ethics but it’s still business. Paid transfers are for the sole intention of making profits and what guilds are doing regarding transferring and WvW is irrelevant so long as long as it’s profitable. I’m a small business owner, i actually own 3. It’s not hard for me to see what Anet is doing and why they are doing it. I do the same myself the only difference is that i am honest with my customers and explain to them the “why’s”. Unlike Anet who is exploiting the “profit before people” business model and using PR to justify it.
OR, they are trying to kill two birds with one stone: Reduce transfers to stabilize the servers and increase customer satisfaction, AND open up a new revenue source. Doesn’t sound necessarily like such bad business to me. Now, if they’re charging 5-7$, it would seem as if they’re only interested in generating more profits, but if the fee is truly high enough to discourage hopping, I think they are indeed reasonably likely to accomplish two goals.
(edited by slingblade.1437)
Been at SBI since the beginning, and it’s a great server. Lots of really skilled, knowledgeable and helpful players. Plenty of people with great attitudes, and outstanding leadership.
If that sounds like what you’re looking for, come on over!
Find a way to put 5 points into BM for Zephyr’s Speed. 2 Seconds of Quickness on pet swap is well worth it for your Rapid Fire burst, finishing move, and rezzing.
Also, if you don’t already do this, learn to swap out utility skills based on the situation you find yourself in at the moment, i.e,. zerging, havoc squad, keep defense/keep assault, etc.
(edited by slingblade.1437)
Rangers have issues, no doubt.
Traps are a perfectly logical thing for a ranger to have, considering they are supposed to be masters of the wild and trapping is a real-world wilderness activity.
I’m on SBI and play the BL maps, and though we’ve managed to stay in T1 for awhile now, the WvW community is excellent. Great player skill level, attitude and leadership both in battle and in general interactions. Of course there’s occasional disagreements, but the drama is minimal and I love the vibe of the WvW community.
I don’t see such a trait being implemented anytime in the foreseeable future, but I guess it would be fun and funny to have dogs or spiders spamming all their CC on a target constantly.
Why zergs are so popular ?
Point system review
+ Some points should be earned on succesfull capture of a point.
+ Points per tick given by any structure should increase over time. Such as camps starting at 0 points first tick (but still you get 5 points for the cap), then 5 more points second tick, 7 points third, 4th – 10pt, 5th – 14pt and stops there.
Same goes for keeps, 2nd – 25pt, 3rd – 30pt, 4th – 35pt, 5th – 40pt.
This way just capping something for the tick will be lot less rewarding than holding it.Supply system review
+ When they get capped their depot should be empty, so there is no use for a zerg to rush to a camp and flip it just for the tick and resupply. Supplies will go to whom defend the camp.
+ Dolyaks should be a lot harder to kill, at the moment is useless to escort them cause any burst built toon can just suicide on it and take it down in 3 skills. I’d say they should have like 4000armor and 50k hp.
+ Dolyaks should have one additional upgrade to carry more supply, like 75 – 125 – 250.
+ There should always be 2 guards defending a dolyak, and 3 more should come with the upgrade. Yaks shouldnt be something that you kill passing by…. they should be really something to care more, by both sides.General changes
+ A little damage increase to Siege Weapons.
+ 5 targets cap removed on aoe, BUT some skills would then need to be adjusted with such a change, for example barrage and elementalist storms, they should have their radius reduced a little. This would promote strategy, like the use of choke points to hold zergs, and will greatly discourage stuff like turtling.
+ Let karma be a currency for structures upgrades.
These are good ideas. Love the idea of giving more points the longer you hold on to something. I’m not fond of the zerg-it + flip-it + abandon-it game.
Regarding the AOE cap, I prefer the idea that it tapers down damage from the middle of the circle towards the edges.
1 & 2 I like a lot. 3 & 4 I’m not so sure are as necessary, but are worth considering.
And, of course, we embrace our SBI cousins that face these difficult times with dignity. We welcome each transfer to Jade Quarry as a brother or sister. We want you to know you will always have a home here.
That was a pretty eloquent and honor-filled post, but man, it sure ended with a self-serving closing. As a someone who’s still at SBI, I say, go recruit from some other server, it’s been a bad enough day for us already! :p
Testing a similar version (same exact traits, but geared for 1300 Healing Power) of this build and I have a question. My Fern Hound’s F2 regen tool tip says 13 1/2 seconds. On him it’s actually 18s (awesome), but on me it’s only 10. I’ve got 6 Sup Altruism runes. Why do I only get 10s of regen?
The OP raises a very valid concern: diminished returns on the same investment. Hopefully we’ll get some clarification from one of the devs.
CRrabbit, thanks for sharing your build. Would you mind elaborating on your armor?
Same error for me, started this evening. I’ve been mostly in WvW or LA trying to get into WvW. I have a continuous ping running to google.com and no timeouts there, nor problems loading web pages.
Maybe teleport back to spawn to ensure you’re out of combat before DCing?
Personally, I’d look to adjust the #4 skill as said above and in the other thread on this same topic. This way if the target is close, you do the knock back and if the target is far away you do the long shot/snipe attack or you can do it as above where you simply charge the ability and the longer you charger the more damage it does, but they are thrown back less.
I actually kind of like that idea. If you hold it and charge it all the way, then it does a separate type of power shot, and if you don’t, then it does the basic point blank shot. Given how limited the use of point blank shot is, this would be the ideal situation. It would make #4 useable in far more situations.
It’s debatable how useful a snipe ability would be to ranger, since ours probably wouldn’t do half the damage of a warrior’s killshot, and would have twice the casting time, but it’d be a fun tool.
I like this idea. Up close, it’s a knockback. At range it’s a high-power snipe.
Why not make all rewards in WvW for easily bot-able activities account bound? Would that not greatly reduce the reason for there to be bots?
Lack of help on defensive/preventative tasks is my number one frustration in WvW, and I hope it gets addressed. A lot of people need more incentive than just doing those things because they help the cause.
On top of that, defensive-minded players like me who prefer to not PvE or do jumping puzzles are often strapped for coin. Siege gets expensive when you’re on a fixed income. Being rewarded with things like account bound siege prints, food, boosts, badges, etc., would allow those of us who just want to WvW be able to do that, and make those un-glamorous tasks feel less thankless.
there are two things i would like the pet fixed if possible.
1. why do i slow down when my pet gets attacked. it annoys me because when i am trying to get away from a 75+ lvl mob and my pet is limping or under heavy attack, i cannot escape fast enough.
2. Allow us to point at an enemy (rather then clicking it) which highlights it and I can tell the pet to attack.
1. I’m not sure if this only applies when you have SotH equipped, but when you do and go “in combat,” your speed is reduced,. I think you may also just always slow down when in combat. So, when the pet is attacked, you are in combat, and thus slowed down. I don’t understand it, or like it, but I assume there’s a reason for it.
2. Not sure exactly what you mean by “point,” but you can either use your mouse or targeting keys on your keyboard to select an enemy, then press F1 to tell the pet to attack it.
….or an auto-loot feature that doesn’t require us to stand over the sparkles and search.
When doing events and killing mob after mob in Orr I find I have to really look hard for the loot, and I’m sure I’ve missed some. At least in WvW you can hold down a key and see yellow text that says “Loot Bag” over an image of a bag. There’s still problems with picking up loot in WvW, but you do have the option of making it more visible once the battle is over. In Orr the bodies and sparkles just don’t always stand out enough. Please give us full auto-loot, yellow text on demand, or some other way to make loot stand out in PvE.
Great idea! This should apply to PvE as well.
I’d rather just see Rangers be made the class that’s best with a bow, which is only logical. Until GW2 adds LotR Elves as a class, Rangers should be second to none when it comes to bows.