Guild Wars 2

mistsim.2748:

terrorshard.3854:

I really can’t justify subbing in WS for BM…I feel like you are giving up so much just to get a tiny bit more condition removal.

you get a ton more condi removal. TU interacts really nicely with Soften the Fall, so you never have to slot MT. Lesser MT just allows you to bunker a lot better. you get more prot, and more vigor. QZ increases our burst quite a bit.

BM does next to nothing for our damage output.

QZ seems pointless, what burst? Sword auto attack? Staff Autoattack?

Might as well run LR at that point.

Smokescale and that big ohko deer thing.

I really can’t justify subbing in WS for BM…I feel like you are giving up so much just to get a tiny bit more condition removal.

I’ve been running the first version with a couple minor changes….that you will probably disgree with.

Instead of OH dagger, I have been running Warhorn. I like having the extra blast finisher and on demand boons/damage. At the cost of an evade.

The next change is, instead of running Zephyr’s speed, I have been running beastly warden, which works really well on the smokescale to help me survive.

Is it great? Meh it’s ok.

It was better back in the day when there wasn’t as much CC…at least I think.

The only success I ever had with early release ranger was throwing traps at everyone.

Oh man ranger was putrid when the game came out.

I’m running something similar to the staff and s/d but instead I have been running warhorn and its trait. Gives me a tad more offense and an unexpected burst pet attack. Can’t carry on this build though, if your team is sub par you can’t really save them.

Loss 1:

Teammate: Crap wrong weapon! Sorry guys RIP

Loss 2:

Teammate: Hey guys haven’t played in a long time

grrr arg why me

Tier 0 (in every team): Mesmer, Thief

Tier 1 (worthy of a spot): Ele, Guard

Tier 2 (isn’t dead weight): Ranger, Engi

Tier 3 (needs help): Necromancer, Warrior

Tier 4 (troll pick): Rev

They just DOUBLED it’s cool down so maybe we should let that settle a bit first.

Conditions are going to be everywhere, if we even try to dump druid our condition removal is complete booty.

Well, let’s make the best of it. Someone post their best take on a shortbow centered build. Maybe a hybrid power/conditions.

Man our elites stink now.

Is there a point to purchasing the LW seasons? Do you get anything specific or just some single player stuff?

Trepidation Lost.3469:

as someone who has mained druid with bow staff since hot released i have never lost a 1v1, and own 4v1 often in wvw. I can say ive tested all weapons bar ax and short bow and staff bow is the way to go, only way mellee weapons are better is for escaping, but whenyou practice the invis and super speed is enough. Feel fre to messege me in game for duels if you wish me to show you.

Do you have your build posted somewhere? I’d love to try it.

Me too. Sign me up

I love that Ancestral Grace puts me in combat. Free Clarion Bond pet swap at the start.

Does remorseless give Opening Strike back to the pet as well? Feels like it but I can’t really tell?

Whether it should or not I am not sure but I think it is doing it.

It’s very Radagast the Brown-y

I’ll try it out and let you know. Seems like it wont survive though.

Morwath.9817:

ranciddy.8243:

I see someone is forgetting IWAY Warrior/Rangers. There will always be a ‘meta’.

or Spike Eles…
or Spike Rangers…
or Spike Necros…
or…

Problem isn’t fact that meta exists… but fact that it can only evolve with patches, since majority of utilities/weapons/traits aren’t good enough to give us solid counter comps to meta and reshape it without help of dev team.

We got static meta instead of dynamic and changing one, because of lack of balance.

Those teams never really made it far. The season my team went undefeated we just ran heavy physical pressure with a mesmer lol.

2 War
1 Paragon
1 Ranger
1 Mesmer
1 Necro/Ele (I think she switched it up randomly)
2 Monks

That was able to beat everything and anything

I loved smokescale from before this patch. Now I am struggling to replace it. The only demand burst damage was awesome.

Premades complain that it wastes their time because it lengthens their queue times. I honestly think pubstomping is an even bigger waste of time.

smokescale was awesome….hate this change…

They are def everywhere. a lot of that might be because people say it is OP and easy, which gravitates even more people to jump on it and start rolling around in unranked.

I think we can at least agree that DH’s are everywhere though

I gotta say though, hybrid Druid is great against DH.

I don’t think Rangers will care if the traps get nerfed in any way. They aren’t playable as it is so no issue at all.

SlayerSixx.5763:

terrorshard.3854:

DH is everything I wanted my Ranger to be from day 1. I find it kind of insulting honestly.

And druid is what every bunker guard wanted to be from day 1. Trade?

In a heartbeat. How Ranger LB and traps can be so blah for so long, only for them to come out with an awesome LB dps and amazing traps specialization for Guardian. Head scratcher for me.

DH is everything I wanted my Ranger to be from day 1. I find it kind of insulting honestly.

I recently hit 80 a few weeks ago and have been farming CoF and such. I finally bought a full set of Berserker’s gear / Greatsword with CoF tokens and spent what money I had on that type of jewelry and runes of the Ranger. Now I’m broke and out of tokens.

I really wanted to be a longbow/GS power build even though I realize it wasn’t great. Now without QZ it is really really bad.

Is there any way to petition a GM to swap my gear for the condition version? I plan on swapping to full blown conditions and traps now…

I can’t stand the thought of grinding CoF all over again for the next few weeks and basically starting completely over. I imagine I’ll just go back to practicing my Blood Bowl for my league starting soon.

P.S. It is amazing how every patch I expect Ranger to get better and he ends up actually being worse.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

Ision.3207:

Robert, let tell you what I think adding a pet dodge mechanic will resolve for 90% of your Ranger player base: nothing.

Like Gutbuster has stated, “Often it’s difficult enough to know exactly when you need to dodge in order to avoid some damage, with a pet dodge you’d be required to not only keep track of your own position but also your pet’s exact position which also trying to see your pet amongst all the spell graphics surrounding bosses getting nuked, seeing red circles on the floor which may be behind the boss since that’s where your pet is, camera angles etc the list goes on a bit. In addition you’d also have to hit your own dodge key as well as an additional F key or any other key bind you have.”

I agree with him whole heartedly.

Yes, without a doubt there will be a small fraction of Ranger players that will benefit from the mechanic: the “Pro” player, if you will. These people have ridiculously quick reflexes, as well a superb RIGs and a mouse with dozens of key binds they have no problem dealing with. I’m NOT talking bad about these players; hey, god bless ’em, they are the exceptions to the general rule, and they make the most of it. These tend to be your best of the best players and are often found in sPvP/tPvP.

But for the non-PRO player, adding a dodge mechanic for the pet will be an utter waste of time in dealing with the problem of Pets dying from AOE too much in dungeons —- the difference will be insignicant for the typical Ranger player who is under heavy duress from swarms of mobs, surrounded with heavy particle effects and trying to keep himself alive and contributing to the party.

Look, I’m not talking about that bottom 5 to 10% either, the folks that really have very poor reflexes and positional awareness, and who really can’t cope with the basic pace of this game. At least not in a difficult dungeon setting anyway. No, I’m referring to that big fat mass of players in the middle: also known as: the “majority” – the “average” – the “typical”.

For this group, many of the ideas being offered here will only result in the outcome stated by Shiren, “So micromanaging and resource management are the game-play being pushed by that kind of design. A lot of us play the class for the AI companion, not a micromanaged companion. Micromanaging, while increasing the skill cap (in a certain way), isn’t going to solve the problem for a lot of rangers, and for many players it takes the class in a direction they don’t want to go in.”

In essence many of the changes being proposed would transform the Ranger into a class that does not resemble the one that many people were looking for when they rolled it. Please keep this in mind as you consider the many OTHER options that exist to address pet mechanics and survivability.

Thank you.

We’re aware of that. Again part of what that list is, is a launching point for conversation and dialogue. Part of our jobs as designers is to take feedback and try to figure out the core of what is being said, and develop plans around that. I’m not saying those things are going to happen – I wish I could, but I can’t. It’s just something I can turn into a bullet point for us to address and talk about. These things take time, but I promise you I will be bringing these things up.

EDIT:
Oh, and in regards to the Jade Maw targeting pets, I made the conscious decision to allow it to target non-players. I have the ability to change that, but I prefer not to on the grounds that there is some gameplay there. My pet has made the ultimate sacrifice quite a few times while we res’d a down party members, providing groups with a much needed window to help others up and recover. I know it can be a bit frustrating if everything is going great and you’re not having any problems, but I’d much rather the pet provide a moment of relief for those struggling. I am open to debate on the subject, but that is for threads over in the dungeon forum, not here

DOUBLE EDIT:
Jade Maw should not target downed pets. We have a bug on it already and are aware of it.

Robert,

Is there any chance you could just revert the Ranger back to the BWE2 version. Not sure why it was gutted from that version but it was very playable. If the concern was that it was OP well I can assure you it wasn’t as good as current Guardian/Thief/Ele.

I honestly think the answer to a lot of the rangers problems is simple. Take 40-50% of the damage the pet does and put it back on the ranger. Like the ranger was in BWE2. The ranger we all fell in love with that made us roll it at launch. Not the BWE3 monstrosity we are all used to playing now.

Are you guys as sick of this trap build as I am?

It is sad we all use the trap build…and I can bet you all hate it as much as I do.

Zen.2450:

They just fixed trap cooldowns, however they broke the 20% cooldown reduction trait.

Fabulous…

Can you give us 1 viable build for spvp? At least we would be able to play with the others until you figure out how to fix this class.

Right now I’m twiddling my thumbs in the mist because the only build I have any success with is full on traps. It isn’t even that good and very 1-dimensional but at least it was playable. Now that it is broken I am just sitting here…throw us a bone.

Edit: LOL at you dev thinking longbow is a good weapon. We are doomed.

Yes, BWE2 is what made me decide on Ranger. Not sure who was giving feedback but Ranger got nerfed in every aspect and right into unplayability. Give us back our BWE2 Rangers, we would only be as good as current warriors…what’s the big deal?

Edit: Not to mention… how did axes go from a great weapon/alternative to a bow to the embarrassment it is now? On top of making the axe critical trait totally butt?

Sick Em stinks anyway. Just stick to traps or LR, QZ, and X. Or play a warrior for now. It is much better and can play the same way.

The point I was making is how the exact same ability for one class is op but for the other it’s sub par. 150% of bad damage is still bad damage.

I find it funny that trained signet of the hunt is exactly the same as the recently nerfed assassins signet. Yet for ranger it sucks…because the ranger just sucks

I hope something changes to the Ranger game play and soon. Lately I haven’t had the desire to log in and play for very long.

Yes, it was after that change Ranger’s became very bad. Every new beta I liked the Ranger less and less.

I think we should be better because of our mechanic, not be hindered by it. we have low damage because we have a pet that deals damage…that seems like a downfall to me.

Why doesn’t the warrior have low damage because they have a free high damaging adrenaline skill?

Anyway I’m not sure what the answer is, I don’t want the pet to be a non-factor, but I also don’t want it to make my damage look terrible. fully spec a cat out with +30% crit damage, and it out damages us easily. Even fully glass cannon spec’d. I feel like I am the pet….

deepwinter.9015:

I read posts like this and often times discover a player who has very little experience with game design. These people generally like to throw around large percentages like “20%” and add arbitrary nerfs amid buffs to appear they’re making “fair” changes. They also look primarily at a single ability and improve it without looking at the larger picture and the dynamics these abilities have with other abilities – both within the profession and combo’d with or pitted against other abilities.

I get that you were bored at work, but you weren’t really thinking outside the box with this list of changes. From the very first item I saw red flags and all the way down I saw more issues.

You are correct with your assessment. They are arbitrary percentages that would need to get tweaked. I mostly tried to undo the damage they did in one of the beta’s by removing a lot of the damage from the ranger and giving it to the pet. In my mind it felt like a 20% or so shift.

Pets:

-Pets damage has been lowered by 20% across the board.

-Pet attack animations have been sped up to near instant. This will allow pets to hit moving targets more efficiently.

-Pet F2 abilities animations have been sped up to be near instant.

-Pet base movement speed has been increased by 10%

Weapons:

Axe:

-Axe attack animations have been increased by 10%

-Ricochet damage has been increased 15%

-Splitblade’s bleed duration has been increased 10%. If an opponent is hit with all 5 attacks they are knocked back 600.

-Winter’s Bite – Damage has been increased 25%.

-Path of Scars return attack causes a knockdown.

-Whirling Defense has a 25% chance to block incoming attacks.

Sword:

-Damage has been increased 15% across the board

-You can now freely move during Sword 1 auto attack.

-Serpent’s Strike roll animation has been increased by 15%.

Greatsword:

-Damage has been inscreased 15% across the board

-Maul’s bleed has been removed. Attack now hits twice, each hit gives 1 stack of might and fury to the Ranger and his pet.

-Swoop’s charge animation has been increased 10%

-Hilt Bash now gives 2 seconds of stun instead of 1.

Longbow:

-Damage has been increased by 15% across the board.

-Long Range Shot’s attack speed has been increased 15%. Arrow speed has been increased 15%.

Shortbow:

-Damage has been increased 10% across the board.

-Crossfire’s Bleed durations have been increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.

-Poison Volley has been Switched to Poison Arrow.

-Poison Arrow deals 2% additional damage per condition on the target. Poison arrow inflicts poison for 10 seconds.

-Crippling Shot attack cannot miss or be blocked. Cripple duration has been increased from 3 to 5 seconds.

Healing:

-Heal as One now removes a condition.

Support:

-Spirits now have 75% damage reduction to AoE abilities.

-Muddy Terrain’s cast time has been reduced from 3/4 to 1/2.

-Lightning Reflexes now removes immobilize.

-Protect Me’s Range has been increased.

-Sick Em’s Damage buff to pet has been increased. Duration has been increased to 20 seconds.

Signets:

-Signet of Renewal – Now reduces all condition durations on you by 20% – Activate remains the same. Cool down has been reduced to 45 seconds.

-Signet of Stone – Toughness bonus has been doubled. Cool down has been reduced to 70 seconds.

-Signet of the Hunt – Movement speed bonus increased to 15% – Activate also makes the next attack crit for the pet.

-Signet of the Wild – Health Regeneration base has been doubled. Cool down has been reduced to 50 seconds.

Traits:

-Trapper’s Expertise and Trap Potency have been moved to the Wilderness Survival line.

-Martial Mastery and Off-Hand Training have been moved to the Skirmishing Line.

-Two Handed Training has been moved to the Marksmanship line.

-Pet’s Prowess, Companion’s Might, Carniverous Appetite, Malicious Training have been moved to the Beast Mastery Line.

-All Pet specific traits in Beast Mastery Line has been removed.

New Skill:

Natural Stride – Gain 8 seconds of Swiftness. For the next 5 seconds you dodge 50% of attacks. 45 Second Cool down, Survival.

New Traits:

Tracking the Target – Marksmanship trait tier 2 – You gain 20% chance to critital and 10% critical damage against foes below 25% health.

Skirmishing Tier 1 sub Trait becomes – Gain Natural Stride on weapon swap in combat.

Evasion – Tier 2 Wilderness Survival – After being Knocked down or Stunned you gain stability for 8 seconds. 30 second cool down.

This was just me having fun being bored at work.

Man this is really disheartening. Not even a word. Every class got some kind of fix or change…except the crappy ranger.

They must know the ranger is under performing. I trust Anet will make Rangers viable like they were in beta. Not sure who gave the feedback to make rangers not do damage because they have a pet.

I meant mmo’s developed in the style of WoW and not in the style of Guild Wars even though I feel Guild Wars was far superior.

I was in Cow in GW1. Guild Wars will always be the best in my eyes. Nothing has ever came close to that level of competition. It was fierce competition…the monks got g-kicked by Kry any time we lost.

I knew GW2 wouldn’t be 1, but I hoped at least it would go more toward the direction it created than the way WoW went. Wow and GW came out around the same time, it looks like WoW’s style won out over GW.