Chokolata.1870

It just goes to show, that if you whine hard enough on the forums, Anet will listen and nerf.

> @"Trevor Boyer.6524" said:

> > @"Chokolata.1870" said:

> > Can anyone tell me what is the golden standard in the current meta for how a class should perform? Perhaps that would help focus the discussion on whether the ranger is OP or not.

>

> Depends if you're talking bell curve play or high tier play.

>

> And that right there my friend, is the very essence that fuels the pvp forum wars balance discussions.

So from what i seem to understand here is, that at mid to low level ranger is strong due to pet damage reliability but at the higher level of play isn't. It is just a matter of who you are balancing for, correct?

Can anyone tell me what is the golden standard in the current meta for how a class should perform? Perhaps that would help focus the discussion on whether the ranger is OP or not.

The trade off is fair considering how good the perks that SB spec brings are. They could have even limited the pet to one, but considering they gave engineers and elementalists weapon swap options out of combat they left pets with that option as well.

Soulbeast is good in all game modes except large scale WvW

Ranger is viable/meta in all content except organized squad based WvW.

In Fractals,Strikes or Raids:

- Power DPS soulbeast (3 variants)

- Condition DPS soulbeast

- Heal Druid

PvP,WvW roaming:

- Core power ranger

- Sick them soulbeast

Hope this helps. There are sites with specific builds you can check out.

The main problem with Ranger condition builds is that it does not offer any trait-utility-weapon synergies.

Even the main PvE condition build is all over the place and is for the most part single target with a flanking restriction to boot.

The reasons for that, in my opinion , are:

- sharpened edges and trap mastery are in direct competition with each other (instead of sharpened edges being a minor)

- traps (other then healing spring) offer no utility and sub par damage (no stun break for example)

- torch offers no utility or control; its just one stack of long bleed and some AoE bleed ticks (for example throw torch could be a blind or a daze)

- hidden barbs is just a damage boosting trait for the ranger and not the pet.

Things that I would do...

Traits:

- sharpened edges is now a minor adept trait

- hidden barbs moved to master minor slot; changed to - 25% bleeding damage to ranger, 50% bleeding damage to pet

- tail wind and furious grip merged into a adept major trait

- Hunter's tactics is now a 10% critical chance bonus against bleeding foes (no flanking requirement anymore) for both pet and ranger

- Light on your feed - removed the dodging mechanic damage bonus; flat 120 expertise, another 120 when wielding a Short bow; removed piercing (added to some SB skills default)

- new trait - Preparedness - cast a spike trap when hit by CC effects; 90 seconds internal CD

Utilities:

- Spike trap - no cast time and is now a stun break

- Ice trap - 1.5 second AOE freeze on trigger

- Flame trap - blinds on initial burst

- Vipers nest - weakens on initial burst

- Healing spring - pulses some heal tics alongside regeneration and condition cleanse on activation

Weapon skills:

- poison volley pierces by default

- crippling shot pierces by default

- concussive shot changed to concussive blast - 240 AOE 1 second unblock able stun

- throw torch dazes for 1.5 seconds on impact

- bonfire pulses 1 might

You can take traps, short bow and a condition off set and still have some utility and sustain.

Thoughts?

The nerf to pet attributes is irrelevant for PvE. The glyph of empowerment removal was noticeable however.

As for PvP or WvW, removing pet stats is a big deal because of much less health and damage reduction on them. Perhaps a better way to go about it would have been to remove pet swap for example.... but even then...

Astral form is cumbersome to use as you have to jump through many hoops to use it: generate astral force, time limited, CD limited.

It also has no damage skills.

The new glyph is very strong, especially in Astral form. It revives extremely quickly

As someone who has completed the golem backpiece recently I have to say:

- Serpent's Ire is best done with one of the big PvE teams like GW2 community

- Sandwswept isles meta is fairly easy and u can attract players from your map quickly

- Temple of kormir has 2 events - defend the village and stop the zaishen that usually come one after the other

Hi guys,

looking for some help if possible. This achievement has been stuck for me on 5/10 for weeks even though I do the Kourna meta event at least once a day. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? I do loot the room with the passcode btw.

I suppose this has been brought up already, but I will do it regardless.

What is with this event? It is fairly difficult to do with the overall level of PVE effort people make in open world. I have started doing the event again to complete the golem backpack and for days on end we were unable to complete the CC section on the event. Unless you have 70+ people who all know what the break bar is the event fails. And just having 70+ people is a task in itself.

Thoughts?

Talking about the Queens gauntlet festival achi category. I have killed all bosses and completed all achievements, yet this one is stuck on 6/7. I have also unlocked all gambits.

Any tips?

Thank you in advance

Hello to everyone who might spare some of their time to read this!

I am a long time Ranger player and secret Necromancer admirer, but always saddened by a lack of a dark roamer/ dark archer theme missing from guild wars. Recently, I have stumbled on a poll on what archetype the next Necromancer elite spec should fill and Dark Ranger was one of those listed. Having thought about it for a while myself, I just wanted to throw in my thoughts on the matter.

From what I understand, balance aside (DPS meters, numbers, etc..), Necromancer currently covers three distinct roles:

Core - versatile with Shroud form providing a jack of all trades form (but lacking in multiple ways)

Reaper - melee AOE DPS/brawler (pseudo Dark knight)

Scourge - Heavy AOE condition/boon strip pressure (pseudo Dark priest)

So from what I could tell the game play archetype that is missing is the single target ranged pressure spec. Hence why Dark Ranger.

Niches to fill:

- single target ranged pressure

- dueling through life leach and active defenses

New Mechanic: **Unnatural Quickness**

There would be no new shroud form or alternative abilities considering that we already had two of those. This would be more of the approach Daredevil had with an extra endurance bar.

A twist on Rangers grand master Quick Draw could do the trick.

Swapping weapons/Entering should procs **Unnatural Quickness** which reduces the next Weapon/Shroud ability CD by 50%. Internal CD of 5 seconds

New Weapon: **Longbow**

A 1500 range weapon that focuses on single target spike damage along with integrated active defenses and disabling abilities.

**Frost arrow** - Longbow 1 - Fire an arrow that inflicts 1s of Chilled if the target is above 900 range - Rate of fire slower then other longbows, but does more damage

**Black bolt** - Longbow 2 - Charge up and fire an arrow that does more damage and applies more stacks of torment and weakness duration the further the target is away from you

**Strafe** -Longbow 3- directional movement ability (similar to warrior whirl) that dashes the character 900 units forward while evading attacks. Takes 1.5 second and shoots up to three times onto 5 different targets

**Tormenting shot** - Longbow 4 - Fire an arrow that immobilizes the target and steals health and life force

**Wailing death** - Longbow 5 - Fire a slow moving wall that destroys projectiles, strips boons and does heavy damage to enemies it passes through

New Utilities:**Cantrips**

**Drain Life** - Heal - restore initially for a moderate amount and link up to an enemy. Drain up to 4000 life from target to self over 5 seconds. The Chain breaks if the enemy disables you

**Unholy frenzy**- break stun and apply quickness to yourself. Steal up to 15% of damage done as health. Duration 6 seconds.

**Ghost Dance** - break stun, clear 3 conditions and teleport up to 1200 away

**Ghastly Familiar** - summon a ghostly wisp that follows you around and provides 5% extra critical chance and life leach for up to 10 characters. Detonate familiar for AOE life steal.

**Possesed weapon** - Imbue your weapon with otherworldly entities providing un-blockable and extra condition damage and power damage for 4 seconds. Ammo 2

**Charm** - Elite - Cause a long lasting taunt up to 3 seconds on enemy while providing revealed, weakness and slow. Lowish CD.

Minor Traits:

**Unnatural Quickness**

**Imbued sight** - Deal more damage to enemies based on their distance. 7% below 600 and 13% above 600. Applies to both condition and power damage

**Insatiable** - Critical hits drain life

Adept Major Traits:

**Cursed Bow** - Gain 250 ferocity while wielding a Long Bow. Long Bow skill CD are reduced by 20%

**Lingering spirit** - Use **Lesser Possesed Weapon** when you hit an enemy under 50% health.

**Nether Weave** - Entering or exiting shroud provides 1.5 seconds of distort

Master Major Traits:

**Shadow's embrace** - Enemies that attack you from beyond 600 range proc regeneration and protection on you for 3 seconds. (20s ICD)

**Cantrip Proficiency** - Cantrips restore health,life force and have a 20% reduced CD

**Siphoned Vigor** - Entering or exiting shroud restores 25 endurance

Grand Master Major Traits:

**Doom** - Deal 12,5% more damage to Stunned, Dazed, Taunted or Feared. Double that if the enemy is further then 600 range

**Eternal Thirst** - All life leech damage and healing is increased by 50%

**Between life and death** - When in shroud take 15% less damage, when outside shroud attack 15% faster

I believe that a simple moving of traits in the Druid trait line would be enough.

- move Druidic Clarity to Grandmaster tier

- move Celestial Shadow to Grandmaster tier

- move Lingering Light to Adept tier where Druidic Clarity was

- Move Ancient Seeds to Master tier where Celestial Shadow was

What this would do:

- it would separate extreme condition cleanse, disengage and might stacking from a single build

Currently you can burst cleanse all conditions on a 15 second CD while resetting fights with Shadow and buffing your pet with 25 might stacks via GOTL. If the three traits are in conflict with each other then you have to pick which role to specialize in. Either be ultra resilient with Clarity, maneuverable with Shadow or damage oriented with GOTL.

Druid is supposed to be about sustain and heals though, and nerfing Core ranger traits is not an option imho as it affects Core and Soulbeast.

My 2c

I am enjoying ranger and have been since start. It is viable in all game modes I play: Fractals, Raids, Open world and PvP.

For PvE in general i play either druid or soulbeast, both condi or power. In PvP I usually play core GS/LB for the funzies.

Also, using the plethora of other characters when asked.

Hi Irenio!

Thank you for the opportunity to express our thoughts on balance in this manner.

I would just like to express a few thoughts on the balance changes in this patch and a few things that have been bugging me for a while regarding balance/design of some of Ranger's Core traits and abilities.

Throw torch (Torch 4)

- I am fully aware that the goal of this patch was to limit burst conditional application, however with this skill now applying 1 stack of burning perhaps adding another perk to it could be a solid idea? Perhaps a daze or a knock back?

Hornets sting/Monarch leap (Sword 2)

- Hornets sting seems rather unreliable due to its high casting time. Perhaps lowering it would increase responsiveness and the overall evasive feel of the weapon

Evasive shot (Short bow 3)

- the default movement when free cast is to jump you back. Perhaps making the ability jump you forward if there is no target would increase the QoL of the ability and increase its viability in PvP and WvW.

Farsighted (new trait)

- I feel that it is rather weak considering its a major and comparing it to the Dragon Hunter trait. Also, projectile only is a very limiting factor

Traps

- The trap skill set is missing a stun breaker. Spike trap could be the perfect candidate