aymnad.9023

> @"Leonidrex.5649" said: > > @"aymnad.9023" said: > > > @"Sansar.1302" said: > > > i think one dev once said that a good player had 5x to10x the damage output than the average player. > > > > When talking about raids, story and so on. So that is in PvE. > > > > well, you can get over 50% off class dps just by holding down auto-attack on most classes in raids. > and the fact that most people are incapable to doing 80% less dmg than I would have by sipping piña colada and holding m1 button should show how kitten bad the average peep is. If you do read my second answer you know why I do not agree with you. You are using an extreme case as a comparison. Try what you wrote with the “average raider” (or whatever that means). I am trying to find an analogy. PvE is like a board game that everybody can use for different games. Since I do not know many board games the closest thing I can think of would be a deck of cards. Some people use it to play poker, solitaire or whatever. And you are telling me the solitaire player that goes into poker is really bad… That does not make any sense since both are so different. Big edit : Also for my background : I mostly played PvP and story / exploration for years. In PvE I had been using the citadel of Flame armor until they added the second legendary tier (shiny armor) in PvP (and I play almost since the start). I was not playing raids and I was not playing fractals before. I only started to look at rotations when reaching T4 in fractals (so >8months after starting to get a few leg pieces). I only started looking at the impact of runes after multiple raiding and fractal months. And finally I started doing it on multiple professions / builds with a guild 2-4days on any boss every week while still playing PvP. I perfectly understand anyone who just come into those modes to discover, just do a few once a week, progress little by little. I still keep the citadel armor in my bag even if I do not use it anymore (I just like having it and remembering how I liked / played the game). I have been one the people targeted by Anet when they added the leg armor in PvP. It slowly “got me into PvE”. I also have seen people who play in sPvP / WvW come into fractals, people who just play open Word coming into sPvP or raids. I know how they (under)perform and perfectly understand their mindset / frustrations / challenges and so on.

> @"Sansar.1302" said: > > @"aymnad.9023" said: > > > @"Sansar.1302" said: > > > i think one dev once said that a good player had 5x to10x the damage output than the average player. > > > > When talking about raids, story and so on. So that is in PvE. > > > > yet it tells how mutch skill does in Gw2 ,( pve skill and pvp skill is wildly different but still.... ) 1) How is that different from any other game? How many competitive games do you know without “disparity between average players and hardcore players”? 2) Even if this is taken from PVE context it does not tell us anything about a specific PvE game mode (raid, open world exploration, story /lore enthusiasts, fractals) since everybody can set a different goal. That sentence had nothing to do with pvp, will never tell us anything about pvp, is even incomplete in a PvE context and has nothing to do with skill.

> @"Sansar.1302" said: > i think one dev once said that a good player had 5x to10x the damage output than the average player. When talking about raids, story and so on. So that is in PvE.

Weaver : Fewer barriers is a good thing Engineer Flash shell : great Impact savant : ok Bulwark gyro : not sure if it was necessary with impact savant nerfs, will see. Ranger : I have been saying for a year that ranger was only good at 1 thing which was “push, push”. This nerf still is a surprise. I expected an immob nerf but I think this is a way better target. It leaves immob as a support option and lessens push as the main goal of rangers. Rev : ok I guess. I do not know much about renegade but less damage seems good. Warrior : Full counter : I have been saying 2 seconds was a bad idea since the start for a skill that already does a lot so I am happy about this change. Call of valor : had a ridiculous amount of utilities build into it so that’s good. Vigorous shouts : Need to see how it goes. We could see some tempest back. Runes : Rune of speed : YES! THANK YOU! Rune of resistance : I might have chosen 40s but it is a good change. Necro : Nothing I really care about. Necro is mostly fine (outside of lich auto) It is a really good patch. I just think that the meta will mostly be guard and guard for every teamfight, some rev and maybe necro to try to counter the fact that you see a guard every fight. (I could also try deadeye again for multiple steal). Sidenode might be a little more open.

> @"Ragnar.4257" said: > > @"Avatar.3568" said: > > > @"Ragnar.4257" said: > > > > @"Crozame.4098" said: > > > > > @"Ragnar.4257" said: > > > > > Guardian beats mesmer, engi, thief > > > > > Guardian is 50/50 with necro, warrior, these matchups really come down to skill or 1 lucky hit turning everything around. > > > > > Guardian loses to rev/ren, ranger, weaver > > > > > > > > > > So, no, guardian is not "the strongest". If you're a mesmer or thief I can imagine you'd think that. But if you're a renegade guardians are free food. Guardian actually has a fairly balanced mix of matchups, with some being easy and some being very hard. > > > > > > > > > > I'm assuming this is a troll post; the above is just an FYI for anyone else reading this. If it isn't a troll post...... yikes. Just try asking anyone in the top 100 what the strongest 1v1 class is. It'll be a looooong time before anyone says "guardian". > > > > > > > > > Guardian is 50/50 with necro, warrior, these matchups really come down to skill or 1 lucky hit turning everything around. > > > > > Guardian loses to rev/ren, ranger, weaver > > > > Depends on build right? > > > > > > > > Again war, FB can win quite easily? Core bunker can not loose to it and can win the node, same for rev? > > > > ranger, at least it is super easy to kill the pet for a burn guard? > > > > > > > > > > Well, yes it depends on build. The above is a general guide, not true for every possible combination of builds. FB from a year ago would beat warrior easily.... but you must have missed like 10 balance patches to think that's still true. > > > > > > Ranger pet will only die in a 1v1 with guard if the ranger isn't paying attention and doesn't make use of pet swap/recall. Obviously if the ranger is bad, the guardian will win. That's not really a valid comparison. > > > > It's possible to pay attention, but if you sawp your pet because it has 100hp and your full pet comes without cd increase, it's possible that it can survive the 15 seconds or it survives 3 seconds because it gets hit by 1 spirit sword > > > > > > Do tell me more about how a spirit sword, which will do at most 8k burning damage if all 4 hits connect, can insta-kill a pet with 28k-40k hp. > > In a 1v1 scenario, if your pet dies its your own fault. Simply no other way of looking at it. Obviously in big fights its different, but 1v1 its very clear. > > So you only use 1 skill in 15s? Must be quite challenging… I have had no issue killing most pets on power scourge / bruiser scrapper and recently core power guard. Only a few are really tanky like jacaranda. Since most of the pets cannot dispel conditions I have a hard time seeing condi being worse than power builds… Also the pet only has 2 positions (go for the target or stay close) the only way you can prevent that is to have him close to you and far from the node which would mean a decap. So you can find ways to deal with the pet. On deadeye I didn't go for the pet. When there is a high ground I just hit the ranger, go down before the pet reaches me, then tp back up.

I am not sure what I think of them right now but it is quite positive. My experience completely changed between the 2 sets :smile: 1. It felt too long, had mobs that had too many boons (stab and aegis oh my god) and took too long to kill, I did not like some of the dialogues (Taimi and Ryland pls stop saying so much nonsense). As a bonus when the player who started it was experiencing connection issues you would get kicked out and lose your progress. Just like when the game came out, yeah! 2. When the second part came out it felt faster, had a decent challenge on some parts, I liked the map changes, I liked the dialogues way more and experienced less issues. After this second set and some time I think that DRM (with the CM) are good. They are not filled or as impressive as new maps but I do like them. * The small QoL at the start (unlocks the next part once the events are done) changed a lot. It feels so much better! * The difficulty does not feel that hard until you played with some random people / builds and you realize that the difficulty is somewhere in the middle. (but it could be a little harder) * I thing having some stab avoids the quick stacking with mounts followed by a burst which is a good thing but it also makes some mobs annoying and just dangerous for no reasons sometimes (especially the one who acts like a flamethrower and suddenly has no counter). I am not sure but maybe some stat increase and fewer boons could be the way to go? * Gathering people, killing mobs followed by an escort and finally a boss makes you do a lot of different things and while I like having those outside of the open world event, it sometimes feels similar between each DRM. Maybe there could be a few additional mechanics or a different gimmick between each one like a mini jp or areas to capture like those who were added in fractals but instead of agony bubbles you could have a ground with lava. * The allies are a fun addition. Some are really strong or fun (I like the charr, the watchknight and the Crystal Bloom ), some could be improved (sylvary hound and Ebon). * Edit : I do not know if we still get kicked out if the owner gets dc. If we still do then it should be changed I liked that it felt like a middle ground difficulty, content using some maps with a heavy emphasis on story. Kind of like… dungeons? It could the closest thing to an alternative. I think the main reason to go there at the start will be unlocking some success (the emote is awesome :smiley: ) and then gathering some resources.

I use left CTRL +1 for the build 1 and left CTRL + F1 for the weapon set that goes with it, then CTRL + 2 / CTRL + F2 for the other. If you have something else mapped you can change and with some time you will get used to it. If you try different combination you will find something you like. My weapon swap key stopped working for some reason so I mapped my weapon swap to A (which is the equivalent of Q in my language). After some time I got used to it.

I have a rant against most players and the forums opinion about ranger but I think I already made it clear a few times and am not sure if it would be worth to put it here. So I am just going to once again state “According to the forums ranger should not be meta or good but average at best because it has a low skill floor”. Spoilers, all the professions have easy mechanics, builds, gimmicks that are annoying or carry them. For guard mobility : I think it was supposed to be low because they have other tools, especially defensive ones. But most guard builds compensate with runes (speed, lynx, trapper) so this weakness is barely notable or existent. Also while I believe this “low baseline mobility” applies out of combat without any target, it changes in fights. I have recently picked core power guard and the in combat mobility is awesome. DH : I do hate how low effort this build is and how impactful it can be. This is even worst when they have a support with them. I am not sure if the rune should be the main target instead of the talents. I also think spear of justice does too much (yes even if people do not activate it) because if you get hit by it on a berserker build you are going to lose a huge part of your health and give access to an unblockable undodgeable cc. Power herald : the question never was will it come back but when? And the answer was as soon as renegade feels a bit harder to play. I have seen some terrible revenant players who just play it in duos. And together they just destroy anything in seconds. It still is tanky considering all the damage and all the mobility they have. (the unblockable burst feels so cheap when playing core power guard). + Renegade : It can have such a high pressure and be so hard to kill too. It seems to be a constant with revenants builds... I have not looked into rev enough or found something specific. (maybe shiro?) Immob druid : a stupid playstyle. Knockbacks and immob are really annoying to fight but thankfully it has a low pressure. If I do not have utilities on cd I mostly win with power builds. Do I want to see it nerfed? Maybe? I am not sure because I can understand other people hating it but I seem to do fine vs them (players I fight could just be bad). My stance on druid is not going to change that much long as it does not have the ability to be a main support anyway. For jacaranda I do not know. The damage definitely seems crazy when you are stuck in it (like when you are trying to finish a down target or maybe immob). But as long as you are not going for this specific play style you are better with any other pet. Weavers : I never saw it as something weak especially when playing ranger because they deal with the pets super easily while being hard to kill. They are in my top most unfun builds to fight between the constant pressure, barrier application, evade uptime. Maybe more of them are coming because the other professions slow nerfs make them harder to burst and people start realizing that it is better than they thought? I am not suprised. For the players on the forums something is "unplayable" and all your arguments make you a bad player until a mAT winning team plays with it. Edit : I am thinking about going back to ranger at some point. I still hope for some mid support option in the next expension. Right now it still feels very limited to a single role (side node) with 1 somewhat ok mid option (sicem). As soon as I see some builds doing fine vs my damage or just cleaving the pet while having more impact mid I just sigh. Then again it could just be an issue with ranger core mechanics. Having a kit with way less options to support, way less aoes, less flexible / having less options in fights. I still believe the pet is a good mechanic. I like how core can play around it, how each spec found a way with some and not others. (I still think it is a good profession in solo queue because most of the builds do not ask you to be with your team) I think the meta has a lot of good and decent builds. There are some mechanics I will never like (core guard on the sidenode beeing tanky and having retaliation, lich form 2 shots, magebane) but just like you I think some professions would be better if they could go more into a "specific role".

I do not think this idea was that explicit until Snargle Goldclaw books but the first time I remember seeing something that looked close was with a human who seems to have strong feelings toward a sylvari. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Protect_Historian_Fia_on_her_search_for_gorillas https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crusader_Jasper

> @"snoow.1694" said: > > @"aymnad.9023" said: > > First of all I did say this to you in a game (where I was core guard) not too long ago after you moved in a weird way and you said you had rune of speed. As I told you in game I did check the buffs on you and did not see any so it can be a mistake on my part just like it can be for any player. But not only is this rune a perfect excuse for speed hackers, it also makes player do some weird movements during a fight. > > > > Now for the main point, saying there are little hack or little bots are going on would be being really unaware of the situation. > > > > A few seasons ago I started with a goal “sticking to a new profession (I did not play many of them in sPvP) + a single build supposed not to be great for a full season” (seems stupid and very precise but I have a lot of fun and it can be hard). I usually start in silver for a few weeks, then move on to gold for most of the season, and usually end up bottom plat 1 or really close. You will see more bots and hacks more than you seem to believe. Not every game but you will see weird stuff and people almost every 3 games. > > > > Granted, you cannot always make out the difference between a “bad player carried by a build” (barely dodge and move like scourge with minion), someone just “using a game mechanic” (sticking on you really hard and avoiding like a mirage), “a player stubborn” (going for the same objective all the time even if you kill him again and again like a trapper ranger) and a bot on first sight. You can even add to the list of suspicious actions a team going faster than a thief to get the close node at the start, people who stop chasing every time just when you reach some range, someone moving faster than you without any buff. None of those guarantee a bot or a hack you say? Well 1V1 those for some time or stick vs them during fights and you will change your mind. In multiple rounds I was suspicious seeing some ally actions but was also too busy thinking where I should go or which skill I should use next. Then a few rounds later you fight against them and it becomes clear. This is why you will see more bots on the enemy team than in yours. Even old tricks do not always work because as I said in an other thread some bots do not even go for those 1000+ games in a season. > > > > At the end of last season I was on deadeye. I found a core necro in gold 3 (played by a human btw because he was answering), hit him from behind with dj and there is no damage, no miss, no block, no dodge animation. A few seconds later same scenario, I use skirmisher shot, no damage, no malice, no miss, no block, no dodge animation. And it happened again and again, every few seconds some damage would just “disappear”. Was it a hack as I thought and he told me? Or was I just waiting to get carried like my team said or trolled by him and some game mechanic I missed multiple times? > > > > You can have a good rank which lowers the chances of meeting a bot (when I was playing in plat I also noticed less) but I highly doubt you only met 1 hacker / bot in 7 seasons. > > Sorry don‘t know who you are, not good at recognizing account names, but you are basically proving my point. You mistook Speed Runes for actual speed hacking if I understand correctly? > If you were on core bunker guard then yes. But did you only read the first 3 lines? Edit : it was on EU unranked and I was training on power core guard :)

First of all I did say this to you in a game (where I was core guard) not too long ago after you moved in a weird way and you said you had rune of speed. As I told you in game I did check the buffs on you and did not see any so it can be a mistake on my part just like it can be for any player. But not only is this rune a perfect excuse for speed hackers, it also makes player do some weird movements during a fight. Now for the main point, saying there are little hack or little bots are going on would be being really unaware of the situation. A few seasons ago I started with a goal “sticking to a new profession (I did not play many of them in sPvP) + a single build supposed not to be great for a full season” (seems stupid and very precise but I have a lot of fun and it can be hard). I usually start in silver for a few weeks, then move on to gold for most of the season, and usually end up bottom plat 1 or really close. You will see more bots and hacks more than you seem to believe. Not every game but you will see weird stuff and people almost every 3 games. Granted, you cannot always make out the difference between a “bad player carried by a build” (barely dodge and move like scourge with minion), someone just “using a game mechanic” (sticking on you really hard and avoiding like a mirage), “a player stubborn” (going for the same objective all the time even if you kill him again and again like a trapper ranger) and a bot on first sight. You can even add to the list of suspicious actions a team going faster than a thief to get the close node at the start, people who stop chasing every time just when you reach some range, someone moving faster than you without any buff. None of those guarantee a bot or a hack you say? Well 1V1 those for some time or stick vs them during fights and you will change your mind. In multiple rounds I was suspicious seeing some ally actions but was also too busy thinking where I should go or which skill I should use next. Then a few rounds later you fight against them and it becomes clear. This is why you will see more bots on the enemy team than in yours. Even old tricks do not always work because as I said in an other thread some bots do not even go for those 1000+ games in a season. At the end of last season I was on deadeye. I found a core necro in gold 3 (played by a human btw because he was answering), hit him from behind with dj and there is no damage, no miss, no block, no dodge animation. A few seconds later same scenario, I use skirmisher shot, no damage, no malice, no miss, no block, no dodge animation. And it happened again and again, every few seconds some damage would just “disappear”. Was it a hack as I thought and he told me? Or was I just waiting to get carried like my team said or trolled by him and some game mechanic I missed multiple times? You can have a good rank which lowers the chances of meeting a bot (when I was playing in plat I also noticed less) but I highly doubt you only met 1 hacker / bot in 7 seasons.

> @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: > > @"aymnad.9023" said: > > > @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: > > > > @"aymnad.9023" said: > > > > > @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: > > > > > Thats the thing. If you get a bead on the target from 1500 away you preemptively negate the condis and stuns. Again, if they dodge they wont dodge the full spike and the follow up AA shots will still proc OWP if they double tap their dodge key. RF is 10s untraited, which is not terribly long given that you can also stealth and swoop away to maintain range and will still tops out at 26k on such a build enough to down most players. There are still other skills on the bar and a second weapon set to fall back on. That is how low effort the spike is, 2-3 skills tops in most cases, 4 if you suspect built in blocks, 5 if you want them to die before reaction times kick in if you bring Sic'Em, but most of the time, its just OWP+Rapid Fire. > > > > > > > > That’s a valid point, but I still somewhat disagree with it. You can find tools on multiple professions / builds to avoid it. Will most of players react to it fast enough? No. But this is going for “I need to be the first one to hit, I better not miss, I better have my cds”. There are so many situations were the conditions needed for the burst are not met (or you just die after). > > > It's a give and take thing. LB Ranger has the ability to engage from further away and resolve combat while not ever being in danger of a reprisal. As I said though RF itself can down someone, if not then OWP and AA can hit together for 10k, that is still strong enough to end a fight, or is 10k too low to count as a spike? OWP+RF is powerful but together are only needed for tank busting. > > > > > One trick ponies are just that one tricks. But one trick ponies are still fun for people to play, and this is one of the safer ones to play. > > > > A low effort spike tied to long cds that leaves you pretty weak. As soon as your burst is gone or missed or you are the target, or there just are more people then your strength drops a lot Again this is why I think “too easy” needs to be detailed. > > > Linked build still can get 4-5k AA hits, not like it's damage drops off a cliff relative to HP totals. > > > > > > > > > Besides this was all in reply to a minstrel FB wondering how a Soulbeast downed him so quickly. I posted a build that was not even 100% optimized for damage that hits for over 60k in a spike. There is plenty of room to lower the damage for more survivability, which speaks even further to the point that Soulbeast doesn't even need to go full DPS to get meme level damage spikes. > > > > If you do you then become vulnerable to other things like blocks / reflects or just loose dps (which you will definitely feel) because those 3 specializations are used to get increased damage. There is always a drawback. > > > You could drop either of the two core traitlines and not be impacted greatly in dps loss. LB should carry unblockables anyway to secure spiked on the relevant targets. It's the other two utility skills that are truly open slots for either more dps or more survivability. > > > > > Can't do anything when they are already dead, which is why people meme out on Soulbeast so often. Its the safest one to meme on. > > > > It probably is a strong contestant. But outside of sniping someone alone (or maybe 2 weak players) you are quite limited. > > > > > > And yet outside of zerg fights that is the majority of what you'll encounter. Solo roamers and small groups. > > > > You probably based yourself on the damage formula on something with 0 defense because, sure “on paper” that’s what you get. I tried the build tonight for 1h30 and the highest I got was probably more around 8,5k. (~4.6auto, ~3.6 wolf) > Based on 2681 defense, which is more than most players have. I did state that it was top end potential, which is not what you should expect on every encounter. I was upfront about that, but are proving my point that it isn't even needed. > > I did erased people almost instantly. I definitely broke many people. One of my first target was a reaper who got deleted in seconds. The build is very boring to play and probably unfun to encounter. Almost disgusting. > Again, you are proving my point, it deletes people. Actually I cannot think of a single line where I said the opposite. I literally said multiple times that yes you will but if conditions are not met you fail, run and do nothing while waiting for cds time or die. So once again, all those stand but I did underestimate how unfun it can be in WvW when you can have more downtime (between the map size, having 2-3 more players with you, the time of the day). > > But literally everything I said stands. People did invuln + blinked away, supports did stand the damage, stunbreak and dodges happened (even stealth without sic'em). Anytime I would take a single hit before starting the burst I would loose my modifiers and go down a few seconds later, in zergs the damage was nullified after a few seconds or immediately (if not body blocked), anything coming when my skills were on cd was pretty bad for me. > Then that's on you for not using GS for the block plus double swoop to reset the burst. You'll always encounter someone better than you though. > > As far as I am concerned that’s still not a build I would rank as good (I prefer a more balanced version) but I can see why people would hate it. I do not play WvW that often because I feel like I lose my mind in zergs and get frustrated in solo when dying to os builds. > That's fine. It isn't a balanced setup at all, and wasn't meant to be. It was meant as an example of how Soulbeast on its top end can delete anything even on a minstrel set. > > Edit : Last time I dropped some damage for survivability I definitely felt a difference, maybe I will try again an other day. Loosing stats, modifiers or unblockable is 100% going to affect your dps and your playstyle because you will have to go for gs. > > Of course it will. But your also need to play more like a stalker on that build to ensure you get the jump on people and ensure success. Thanks for the tips. However I feel like I have way more hours playing sicem in sPvP than you seem to think :)

> @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: > > @"aymnad.9023" said: > > > @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: > > > Thats the thing. If you get a bead on the target from 1500 away you preemptively negate the condis and stuns. Again, if they dodge they wont dodge the full spike and the follow up AA shots will still proc OWP if they double tap their dodge key. RF is 10s untraited, which is not terribly long given that you can also stealth and swoop away to maintain range and will still tops out at 26k on such a build enough to down most players. There are still other skills on the bar and a second weapon set to fall back on. That is how low effort the spike is, 2-3 skills tops in most cases, 4 if you suspect built in blocks, 5 if you want them to die before reaction times kick in if you bring Sic'Em, but most of the time, its just OWP+Rapid Fire. > > > > That’s a valid point, but I still somewhat disagree with it. You can find tools on multiple professions / builds to avoid it. Will most of players react to it fast enough? No. But this is going for “I need to be the first one to hit, I better not miss, I better have my cds”. There are so many situations were the conditions needed for the burst are not met (or you just die after). > It's a give and take thing. LB Ranger has the ability to engage from further away and resolve combat while not ever being in danger of a reprisal. As I said though RF itself can down someone, if not then OWP and AA can hit together for 10k, that is still strong enough to end a fight, or is 10k too low to count as a spike? OWP+RF is powerful but together are only needed for tank busting. > > > One trick ponies are just that one tricks. But one trick ponies are still fun for people to play, and this is one of the safer ones to play. > > A low effort spike tied to long cds that leaves you pretty weak. As soon as your burst is gone or missed or you are the target, or there just are more people then your strength drops a lot Again this is why I think “too easy” needs to be detailed. > Linked build still can get 4-5k AA hits, not like it's damage drops off a cliff relative to HP totals. > > > > > Besides this was all in reply to a minstrel FB wondering how a Soulbeast downed him so quickly. I posted a build that was not even 100% optimized for damage that hits for over 60k in a spike. There is plenty of room to lower the damage for more survivability, which speaks even further to the point that Soulbeast doesn't even need to go full DPS to get meme level damage spikes. > > If you do you then become vulnerable to other things like blocks / reflects or just loose dps (which you will definitely feel) because those 3 specializations are used to get increased damage. There is always a drawback. > You could drop either of the two core traitlines and not be impacted greatly in dps loss. LB should carry unblockables anyway to secure spiked on the relevant targets. It's the other two utility skills that are truly open slots for either more dps or more survivability. > > > Can't do anything when they are already dead, which is why people meme out on Soulbeast so often. Its the safest one to meme on. > > It probably is a strong contestant. But outside of sniping someone alone (or maybe 2 weak players) you are quite limited. > > And yet outside of zerg fights that is the majority of what you'll encounter. Solo roamers and small groups. You probably based yourself on the damage formula on something with 0 defense because, sure “on paper” that’s what you get. I tried the build tonight for 1h30 and the highest I got was probably more around 8,5k. (~4.6auto, ~3.6 wolf) I did erased people almost instantly. I definitely broke many people. One of my first target was a reaper who got deleted in seconds. The build is very boring to play and probably unfun to encounter. Almost disgusting. But literally everything I said stands. People did invuln + blinked away, supports did stand the damage, stunbreak and dodges happened (even stealth without sic'em). Anytime I would take a single hit before starting the burst I would loose my modifiers and go down a few seconds later, in zergs the damage was nullified after a few seconds or immediately (if not body blocked), anything coming when my skills were on cd was pretty bad for me. As far as I am concerned that’s still not a build I would rank as good (I prefer a more balanced version) but I can see why people would hate it. I do not play WvW that often because I feel like I lose my mind in zergs and get frustrated in solo when dying to os builds. Edit : Last time I dropped some damage for survivability I definitely felt a difference, maybe I will try again an other day. Loosing stats, modifiers or unblockable is 100% going to affect your dps and your playstyle because you will have to go for gs.

> @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: > Thats the thing. If you get a bead on the target from 1500 away you preemptively negate the condis and stuns. Again, if they dodge they wont dodge the full spike and the follow up AA shots will still proc OWP if they double tap their dodge key. RF is 10s untraited, which is not terribly long given that you can also stealth and swoop away to maintain range and will still tops out at 26k on such a build enough to down most players. There are still other skills on the bar and a second weapon set to fall back on. That is how low effort the spike is, 2-3 skills tops in most cases, 4 if you suspect built in blocks, 5 if you want them to die before reaction times kick in if you bring Sic'Em, but most of the time, its just OWP+Rapid Fire. That’s a valid point, but I still somewhat disagree with it. You can find tools on multiple professions / builds to avoid it. Will most of players react to it fast enough? No. But this is going for “I need to be the first one to hit, I better not miss, I better have my cds”. There are so many situations were the conditions needed for the burst are not met (or you just die after). > One trick ponies are just that one tricks. But one trick ponies are still fun for people to play, and this is one of the safer ones to play. A low effort spike tied to long cds that leaves you pretty weak. As soon as your burst is gone or missed or you are the target, or there just are more people then your strength drops a lot Again this is why I think “too easy” needs to be detailed. > Besides this was all in reply to a minstrel FB wondering how a Soulbeast downed him so quickly. I posted a build that was not even 100% optimized for damage that hits for over 60k in a spike. There is plenty of room to lower the damage for more survivability, which speaks even further to the point that Soulbeast doesn't even need to go full DPS to get meme level damage spikes. If you do you then become vulnerable to other things like blocks / reflects or just loose dps (which you will definitely feel) because those 3 specializations are used to get increased damage. There is always a drawback. > Can't do anything when they are already dead, which is why people meme out on Soulbeast so often. Its the safest one to meme on. It probably is a strong contestant. But outside of sniping someone alone (or maybe 2 weak players) you are quite limited.

> @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: > > @"aymnad.9023" said: > > > @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: > > Can you define easy for me please? Because avoiding a lot of drawbacks and situations leading to a disadvantage seems like cherry picking for me. > > > > If I can spike someone from 1500 away with enough damage to knock them off of Warclaw and straight into downstate with an elite and a single weapon skill that is easy. There is sufficient damage in the spike that you can still take condi cleanse and stun breaks. Or you can go full yolo since a fair number of players don't watch their 6 close enough and have enough shots left in Rapid Fire to tab to the next target and down a second person if need be. > > Yes, they can dodge part of the spike. They'll still get hit by part of it, and if they are not full tank they will die anyway. Blocks or projectile destruction? I posted a link with unblockable attacks in it. Anything else is negated by superior range advantage and winning initiative. I saw your build. But I actually think that there are a lot of drawbacks. Poor condition cleanse (even with bear stance), poor stunbreak, poor survivability overall. What if the burst is not available? What if someone ports / invulns / dodge anyway? You do one thing great, but that's it. If getting a os in the back and doing nothing after is what you are looking for then yes the build is easy.

> @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: Can you define how you rate easy for me please? As in easy to use, effective in a lot situation, or just getting one thing perfectly or anything else? Because avoiding a lot of drawbacks and situations leading to a disadvantage seems like cherry picking for me.

Maybe you really mean it. Maybe you think about this with the best intentions. I used to defend some nerfs because I believed in this idea that there would be adjustments / reworks. I probably was the only one defending some druid nerfs like a year ago. Well that’s not going to happen anymore. Anytime the ranger is considered “good” that’s already too much. Since February I have been saying that the only benefit of a ranger is pushing. Nothing has changed. Axe 4 : I remember when ranger did not need to target the area. It was terrible in short range but was great for medium range and you could pull people off platforms, now it is the complete opposite. This buff could be good but I would be more in favor of giving it some damage back and make it scale depending on the range. It is hard to hit with it for a low effect. Dagger 5 : I think it is fine as it is. Greatsword : No, no and no. It gives the exact same thing as other professions kit with main / off hand weapons. But yes other weapons are not that great. I loved when sword / axe was a combo with a fast dodge (with a smaller amount than now) and more damage. I was playing it instead of gs. Multipliers on soulbeast : I would even argue the opposite. Core ranger damage is laughable. You are going all in with your pet. You need a glass pet. And then it dies. A lot. And fast. If you want to benefit from those multipliers on slb you are vulnerable to “sticky” professions. Even with those modifiers some of the meta builds have a lot of counter options. What am I supposed to make out of those 10k mauls you mentioned? I’ve been getting 11k dj on deadeye when conditions are met (enemy under 50%hp, full might), yet people do not complain about it because the builds have vulnerabilities. If you nerf slb you need to buff core, but then people are going to complain on the forums and nerf it again. Beastmastery : and it brings a lot to core ranger too. This is more like a mandatory option because the rest of ranger kit is not that great. (see point above) Axe mainhand : What your are describing looks more like numbers with damaging stats. Axe is a bit weird for me. It looks like a weapon for teamfight, yet ranger isn’t. It looks like it is ranged, yet it does not have a great range pressure / defense. It is both good and bad at the same time. I do not think those nerfs are needed. Axe 3 is already a slow projectile and something you can notice (but loaded with a lot). Maybe add a color during the cast because it can be harder to notice in close combat. Druid stealth : annoying? Yes. Good? Not really. To be honest I do not know if this is an issue that needs to be solved. I do not like it, but that’s the least of my problem with the spec. I am still waiting for other changes (hint : terrible support with CA, inexistent without CA). Ancient seeds: probably the only thing I agree with.

It is definitely a good patch. The builds are still playable just less over the top in some domains thus allowing some already good options to have more value. Healbreaker still looks playable, holo will be fine, revenants will always have a good build (cannot tell how much renegade got affected but I understand what they were going for) It is especially interesting for thief because you would always find players saying that thief is “only viable” / “only playable” because of sb since… quite some time. Some used it as an argument against any nerf the profession could take. Time to find out... (but I would have expected something different)

The changes look fine. I think healbreaker will still be playable. You might be right about necro being the next target but it is mostly fine. For renegade it also looks fine but that's a lot of small numbers and I do not play it so for me it can be hard to grasp the impact (but I agree with the idea). Unless new builds rise I think having a shorter gap between the top builds and the rest is a good thing. > @"Kuma.1503" said: > ##Binding Roots outside of ancient seeds (which should be reworked) not much to see here. Since february ranger has only been about pushing but the forum community is happy about it (seeing damage on ranger scares people). Edit : >Power Herald is being kept in check by other meta specs. Nerf them and It'll terrorize the meta again. I keep asking myself when it will come back... never liked it and I feel like it still is strong. Looks like there are some solid candidates between your 2 lists ^^.

I think pretty much the same for this patch. Even if it is small I am pretty excited to see how it opens room for some builds that were completely overshadowed by some of the top options. (even though they were good).

My issues with dh are actually more issues with the current meta in ranked. Lots of the played builds are quite tanky, they have good damage and are (mostly) aoe based. Way too many teams in ranked are filled with those builds that can just rush a node, drop stuff without thinking and do good. I just give a look at the comp and most of the times know it is not going to be fun. You would think those necro / renegade / dh / spellbreaker builds (some of the most common builds) would be at least weak to range pressure but that’s not even close to being the case. Most of the time something will block (or body block) the projectiles and they just have more ways to shrug off the damage. Then there is thief which is an entirely topic in itself with blinds, mobility and so on.

> @"weaponwh.9810" said: > one last question i'm assuming this is build u using for sb + dag/torch, except with quick draw? > > https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Soulbeast_-_Condi_Shortbow_DPS This is the build with only sb which you can use without changing anything but I was thinking about using the axe / dagger build on snow crow (or metabattle) and just swapping this weapon set for sb. https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Soulbeast_-_Condi_DPS https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/ranger/soulbeast/condition/ I think condi has a lot of solid variations. You can try to see if you like one more than the other. > also how diffcult is power soulbeast, longbow or GS + dag/axe rotation compare to the condi SB variant, also whats the dps output of power build? GS + dagger / axe is a bit harder compared to the condi builds but should also be easy to learn. The dps output of power slb can be massive and once you get used to it you can play it almost anywhere (fractals / raids). The main drawback is that all the burst is tied to the sic’em rotation and you are static for a few seconds. You need to know some bosses well to have an idea if they are going to invuln / phase / move / use a big aoe and wait for the next time where you can use the sicem combo.

> @"weaponwh.9810" said: > > @"aymnad.9023" said: > > > @"weaponwh.9810" said: > > > > @"aymnad.9023" said: > > > > > > > I was refering to shortbow + dagger / torch > > > > > > > > I checked on youtube, it looks like there are double or single shortbow builds. I gave a quick try to the single one (because I do not have 2 viper sb) and it works pretty well. I lost an additional ~1.5k on my quick try. I would still recommend getting used to dagger / torch. > > > > > > shortbow + dagger / torch for this combo, i assume i need the quick draw trait, also whats the rotation for dagger/torch once i switch from SB? > > Yes you need quickdraw. The rotation is : > > 5 – 2 – 4 – autos until 2 and 5 are synched (~3 auto rotations)– 2 – 5 – autos until 2 and 4 are synched (~2 auto rotations)– 2 - 4 > > > > cool thanks, sound like just get 2 to sync either 5 or 4, fill auto in between. Exactly :) just like for sb you will use your other utilities (F2 / F3 / traps/ ...) instead of autos when you can. Dagger has a small difference with sb. All sb autos are the same while for dagger the last part of the auto chain does more damage than the other. If you can, try to wait for the last part of dagger auto before using them. (but if you miss that's still fine)

> @"weaponwh.9810" said: > > @"aymnad.9023" said: > > > I was refering to shortbow + dagger / torch > > > > I checked on youtube, it looks like there are double or single shortbow builds. I gave a quick try to the single one (because I do not have 2 viper sb) and it works pretty well. I lost an additional ~1.5k on my quick try. I would still recommend getting used to dagger / torch. > > shortbow + dagger / torch for this combo, i assume i need the quick draw trait, also whats the rotation for dagger/torch once i switch from SB? Yes you need quickdraw. The rotation is : 5 – 2 – 4 – autos until 2 and 5 are synched (~3 auto rotations)– 2 – 5 – autos until 2 and 4 are synched (~2 auto rotations)– 2 - 4

> @"weaponwh.9810" said: > ok sounds like for shorbow just spam 2-4 then auto, then spam all utility skill when not in cd? Yes that is pretty much it :) > when you say 2 build difference is 2k dps, you refer to sb vs dagger/torch axe/dagger build? I was refering to shortbow + dagger / torch VS axe/dagger + dagger / torch. I checked on youtube, it looks like there are double or single shortbow builds. I gave a quick try to the single one (because I do not have 2 viper sb) and it works pretty well. I lost an additional ~1.5k on my quick try. I would still recommend getting used to dagger / torch.