Dezember.1295

I absolutely 100% agree. At least allow us to change it back to previous screens... I've hated the PoF one ever since it arrived and miss the vanilla one so badly I often YouTube it to get the feeling back...

"The Hunter" ... Been using it for my main ranger ever since I got it. Why? Because that suits her well.

Other than that, I really like the "Closer to the Stars" one... But I do not have it :(

I also love the "Armchair Commander"... Absolutely amazing title.

> @"Edge.8724" said:

> Runes of Ranger is a very nice rune to use, especially if you are a ranger.

Figures! I am leaning towards Ranger runes since their flat 7% is pretty good... I mean, I am most definitely not holding 7+ boons at all times (in combat) so it should be worth it even though I am running Bountiful Hunter...

However, it's been so long since I didn't run these boon-sets that I don't really remember what my boon uptime is without them... Might be worth getting a few Diviner pieces?

I most sincerely hope so!

I get that a lot of rangers want this "true petless" spec (and yeah, I get it - rangers per definition should not be forced to have pets) - but I am hoping soooo badly for a spec that focuses on strengthening our pets rather than punish them (SB merging with them, druids losing flat 20% stats)... And I seriously doubt that they would release a true petless spec right after soulbeast - that just wouldn't make much sense... ... ... Although, I guess Anet is Anet so who knows xD

I would be so happy to see some kind of spectral specialization that allows rangers of said spec to tame more powerful pets (spectral pets, according to your observations / theory). :D So I, for one, hope that you're right.

I really like your ideas in general - especially the part where you actually went through the effort to give a bit of a side-story to each spec. :D

However, as a ranger, I do really hope for another elite spec. Both of rangers current elite specs hit their pets as "compensation" for the power of the elite spec. Druids got their 20% flat stat nerf on all pets and Soulbeast.... Well, they merge with their pet.

I would REALLY like to see some kind of beast master (but using another term since the beast master trait is already a thing) spec for ranger - with either unique pets that require this particular spec to tame and use or temporary bada$$ upgrades of our existing pets (like Pokémon uber upgrades) ... Or some kind of proper summoning spec for necromancer or elementalists (and no, not their current sorry excuses of summonings). I really find it so saddening that a game with so much class fantasy variation has nothing for those of us that love the idea of summonings - necromancer minions are nothing but meat shields / zerg fodder and elementalist summonings are so incredibly underwhelming that they are barely used ... Ever. :(

Lastly, completely separate from my earlier whining, I find it very difficult to believe that they would introduce so many new ability forms (like beacons, totems, locks etc) when the ability types always' been the same. The only thing that is new is the "Command" form that rangers got instead of their shouts - which hopefully means that there is something pet oriented coming our way... But with my luck, it'll probably be a ghost army for guardians. ;)

Even though I have at least one of every profession at level 80 with at least full exotic gear with appropriate stats, I can't say that I play much else than ranger.

And the "why" is very simple - I enjoy it. In games in general, class/character fantasy is the biggest make or break for me. I need a character with a class fantasy that makes me feel like I enjoy the character. I do not enjoy the warrior-like style nor do I enjoy the mesmer's pink clouds and illusions. I enjoy nature themed professions - hence ranger (maybe elementalist in the future, but right now I do not enjoy elementalist at all).

The druid elite specialization is close to perfection, when it comes to my own personal preference, fantasy-wise. But the entire elite spec execution in the live game is... Underwhelming. So nowdays I usually run a core ranger spec while waiting either for a proper summoning spec (no, not those tiny necro pets nor shabby elementalist summonings - I want something like the Tamer in BDO, Spirit Master in Aion or Summoner from FF14) or for a proper druid rework to make them at least somewhat better at DPSing.

> @"Gabrya.6297" said:

> Yes the blue moa is in fact the only pet to give protection but ranger got plenty of source of protection hehe ^^''

Well, yes. Fair enough! :D

> @"Gabrya.6297" said:

> Ah sry to make you sad but yeah moa , bear and wyvern need some love....they need to give us a patch just to revamp all the pet in game (even the necro ones ! and guard spirit got a treatment too recently !).

>

> IMO they need to give a Gap closer to every melee pet or a little jump forward in their AA (this jump shall be really fluid).

> And for the ranged ones they need to give them a bash or a defensive tool because if they are focused they are like....sitting duck in front of the enemy shooting at point blank...

>

> Last thing is that some pet when you swap them really fast and use their F2 directly the F2 goes in CD like if he was stun and thats really annoying....imagine swap from smokescale to bristleback from a fast rapid fire from the F2 and....nop 3sec CD !!

> Weird thing is thats the newer pet who got this bug ; the feline, birds etc don't have this problem...

Hahaha, I don't hold you responsible for the state of my favorite pets, nor do I blame you for stating the fact that they could use some DEV attention... :D After all, most of us rangers just want all pets to be at least viable! More variation for all of us :D

> @"InsaneQR.7412" said:

> I use fireworks for my oPvE boonbeast.

> Its great for boon generation. Always gives a dmg boost especially with bountiful hunter and the vigor and fury is not to shabby either

I can imagine! Luckily, I bought 6 runes during the celebration just in case I wanted it later. :D Looking at the market right now, I'd say I made the right choice.

So, recently I've been looking around at our options when it comes to runes for power based builds (I, personally, usually play core ranger - I really dislike SB and druid just feels so "meh" DPS-wise) - open world only (and maybe casual fracts)... Now I wanna know what you guys use when you're **NOT USING SCHOLAR RUNES**.

These are the runes I've been looking at - which one would you choose and why?

1. **Fireworks** - new year's special... The extra movement speed is welcome for core rangers and the boon delivery upon entering combat is pretty neat. It has lower cooldown (but shorter duration) than Pack runes.

>! Firework set bonus:

>! 1) 25 Power

>! 2) 5% Boon Duration

>! 3) 50 Power

>! 4) 10% Boon Duration

>! 5) 100 Power

>! 6) Gain 25% movement speed. Gain 6 stacks of Might, Fury, and Vigor for 6 seconds while in combat. (Cooldown: 20 Seconds)

2. **Pack**- pretty decent, especially if you play with other players. Boon share but longer cooldown (and longer duration) than Firework runes.

>! Pack set bonus:

>! 1) 25 Power

>! 2) 5% Boon Duration

>! 3) 50 Power

>! 4) 10% Boon Duration

>! 5) 100 Power

>! 6) +125 Precision; grant nearby allies 5 stacks of Might, Fury, and Swiftness for 8 seconds while in combat. (Cooldown: 30 Seconds)

3. **Strength** - for those who can maintain a high strength uptime... A pretty decent budget version of scholar - 5% damage while under the effect of might.

>! Strength set bonus:

>! 1) 25 Power

>! 2) 10% Might Duration

>! 3) 50 Power

>! 4) 20% Might Duration

>! 5) 100 Power

>! 6) +20% Might Duration; increase damage by 5% while under the effect of might.

4. **Privateer** - just a fun alternative rune for people who like pets (birds, in this case)... Similar to Rune of the Pack in buffing allies.

>! Privateer set bonus:

>! 1) 25 Power

>! 2) 10% Might Duration

>! 3) 50 Power

>! 4) 20% Might Duration

>! 5) 100 Power

>! 6) Shout "Yarr!" while in combat, summoning a parrot and granting Might to allies. (Cooldown: 60 Seconds)

5. **Ogre** - also an option for people who likes pets (rock dogs, in this case)... Gives a flat 4% damage (which is 1% less than scholar) - but gives no additional 125 ferocity.

>! Ogre set bonus:

>! 1) 25 Power

>! 2) 35 Ferocity

>! 3) 50 Power

>! 4) 65 Ferocity

>! 5) 100 Power

>! 6) +4% Damage; summon a rock dog while in combat. (Cooldown: 60s)

6. **Golemancer** - the final "summon" rune - summons a golem. More crit oriented than the Ogre and Privateer runes.

>! Golemancer set bonus:

>! 1) 25 Ferocity

>! 2) 35 Precision

>! 3) 50 Ferocity

>! 4) 65 Precision

>! 5) 100 Ferocity

>! 6) +125 Ferocity; summon a golem while in combat. (Cooldown: 60s)

7. **Eagle** - For crit builds, including 10% more flat damage vs. targets under 50% health.

>! Eagle set bonus:

>! 1) 25 Precision

>! 2) 35 Ferocity

>! 3) 50 Precision

>! 4) 65 Ferocity

>! 5) 100 Precision

>! 6) +125 Ferocity; damage targets with less than 50% health for 10% more.

8. **Ranger** - Crit build AND pet lover runes! 7% flat damage whenever you have an active companion!

>! Ranger set bonus:

>! 1) 25 Precision

>! 2) 35 Ferocity

>! 3) 50 Precision

>! 4) 65 Ferocity

>! 5) 100 Precision

>! +7% damage while you have an active companion.

9. **Rage** - For those who maintain a high fury uptime. 5% flat damage increase whenever under the effect of fury.

>! Rage set bonus:

>! 1) 25 Ferocity

>! 2) 10% Fury Duration

>! 3) 50 Ferocity

>! 4) Gain Fury for 8 seconds when entering combat. (Cooldown: 10 Seconds)

>! 5) 100 Ferocity

>! 6) +20% Fury Duration; increase damage by 5% while under the effect of fury.

EDIT: ... Sorted the wall of text up a little bit.

> @"Gabrya.6297" said:

> Especially the Moas...they are utterly trash they can't even touch their enemies in movement with their Frenzied Attack who does multiple hit...but the Gazelle does with Kick !

> Even the bears are more usefull and hit more often than these little ostrich birds....

:( The red moa is my favorite pet, along with the brown bear and the fern hound. Based solely on looks, obviously. Whenever I run open world I usually use one of these - but I obviously swap to more useful pets whenever I am doing PvP or any "harder" PvE content like fracts.

... I do like that little bit of extra range on the red moa F2 compared to the tiger... I honestly feel like the tiger sometimes doesn't give me the ferocity boon even though I am standing right on top of him. :(

... The blue moa is also the only pet that can provide protection (? correct me if I am wrong).

I really wanna see some new aquatic pets... Like a tank/support sea turtle...

But yeah, an overhaul for pets in general would be nice... Both look-wise, ability-wise and AI-wise.

> @"InsaneQR.7412" said:

> Call it personal preference.

> Honestly all pets need visual and mechanical updates. 90% is outdated.

I suppose so. And yes, I absolutely agree that most pets are in a severe need of an update - both visually and mechanically. But I always found wolves in GW2 to be extremely weird... I think it is really weird that their faces look so... Unfinished while most other pets seems pretty decent or better (imo, of course). :D

> @"InsaneQR.7412" said:

> Read the threat and you will understand. It's about visuals not dmg.

Yeah, I did read them (obviously) ^^ And therefor I was curious why people want an visual update *specifically* for the hyena when it is such a weak pet. I would much rather see them do something about the poor wolves (like seriously, their faces are just derpy)... ^^

> @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said:

> I've actually encountered some very strong Druids in WvW lately. Granted, they were just great players who may have won regardless of spec, but to say Druid isn't viable isn't reflective of the one's I've fought post 'update.'

That is interesting. I have not encountered many druids in zergs at all. Druid and thieves are the only professions in this game that does not have any viable zerg build AT ALL when you look for WvW zerg builds.

And as for roaming, in my personal experience- the few times I do see a druid they're dead within seconds. I am pretty confident to say that druid is not viable when it comes to WvW considering there isn't a single recommended build for druids in WvW anywhere. Not for roaming, not for zergs. That's not saying that they are a complete heap of garbage no matter what - excellent players can make pretty much anything work... But that's really a mute point since it doesn't prove anything at all - bringing a druid to a zerg when you could have been LITERALLY any other support profession is still considered a waste of squad boons... Ask any commander about that.

Sooo... I been taking a break due to my job and now all of the sudden there's discussions about the hyena?

I've been checking the patch notes that I've missed out on but couldn't find anything related to the hyena - only the shouts being remade to "commands".

Sooo, anyone wanna explain why we're discussion the hyena now? Last time I checked (which was some time ago, to be fair) hyenas are by far the worst pet for DPS and their stats seem to be unchanged as far as I can tell.

Honestly, I believe that if they just made druid viable in terms of PvP (sPvP and WvW) most of these problems would be solved... Give the ranger profession as a whole some variation instead of "forcing" the roaming spec upon us - nobody wants any type of roaming build in their zerg group, but neither does all ranger want to herd dolyaks or decap points all day. Win-win.

Druid has next to zero usefulness outside of acting as a spirit herder in raids or fail-safe net in fracts... There are sooo many good suggestions regarding druids in these forums that I do not even know where to begin - but seeing as they just recently nerfed the druids potential for anything else but their current roles (pet stat reduction and stationary Elite skill)... Yeah, it does not look very bright :(

Here's mine!


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I feel confused, is this post a copy of a DEV post? Or is it just a way of attempting to get their attention?

Are these actual upcoming changes or wishful thinking? x'D

Like you, I have a very strong preference to the druid. The entire class-fantasy is pretty much ideal to me and I have done my very best to stick with my druid despite everything.

I even ran druid in my open world build for months before admitting defeat and speccing back to core ranger for open world purposes. I also tried every single build I could find (and come up with myself) in sPvP and WvW without much progress - sPvP worked decently enough, but WvW ... Well yeah, everybody who has played any kind of ranger in WvW knows exactly how it went.

I was also kinda shocked at the pet nerf as it was extremely uncalled for - pets were already disliked in general for PvP purposes (which is why the soul beast is much more popular in both WvW and sPvP)... And in PvE content, druid were already the absolutely lowest damage dealer spec-wise even if they went for 100% power or condi build. It just really does not make any kind of sense gameplay-wise. AND, their excuse lore-wise just left me baffled: "as their focus on celestial magics means less time strengthening the bond with their pets." ... What the honest truck do they even mean? A ranger spending more time bonding with nature (and celestial magic) is supposed to have a WEAKER bond with their pets!? Might just be me but in my book ANYTHING that is called a "druid" should not be LESS connected to anything regarding nature than a regular ranger...

Obviously, historically (as in irl) druids can mean a lot of things depending on which part of history you look at... But if Anet intended their druids to simply be the "scholar"-type then

A ) Why give it to rangers and not elementalists?

B ) Why portrait druids in the fantasy druid theme, having a tree straff and nature themed abilities like "SEED of Life", "NATURAL Convergence", "VINE Surge" and so on?

... I am actually more mad about this "explanation" than the actual nerf...

I sincerely hope they intend on fixing this because currently, I cannot think of a spec that is unplayable in all parts of the game but 2 modes (raiding + fractals) - I mean, druid is not even very viable in open world - there is no way you'll ever be able to get a druid to deal as much damage as a core ranger or SB (and to be fair, SBs even brings more utility in terms of self-buffs and low-CD ress for pets by unmerging).

Most definitely an interesting idea.

I am also glad to see that so many elementalists are happy with their elite specs :D

Interesting ideas - I am here, late for the party and bumping up the thread =)

> @"Trevor Boyer.6524" said:

> > @"Fyrestorm Rayevnsky.5497" said:

> > So I'm seeing more and more druids in spvp at the moment which to be fair is quite refreshing, are they viable at all as im thinking of trying one out, not just pvp but all game modes.

> > Ty

>

> Pretty sure I'm the only person left that is seriously playing Druid in ranked and ATs. If you want to Druid, here is how you do it in 2019:

>

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEJwTjfSYlA

>

I watched your entire video and I really wanna thank you (and everyone involved in the video) for your time and effort. It was easy to understand and it is very informative. I especially like the part where you show gameplay vs. the current meta builds - it was very interesting to watch and it felt like the video was barely 10 minutes long even though it is almost reached 40 minutes.

Haha, my ranger also recieved an update. Less edgy, more rangery :D !

I actually enjoyed the story. If you people feel like not playing just because everything wasn't a cake walk this time around, then okay - your free time is yours to spend however you see fit. But I actually feel more encouraged than ever to actually play because finally it feels like elder dragons pose a **serious** threat.

>! Main characters dying is nothing new to GW2, and GW2 is not made for children under 12 for those complaining that the story eventually made your children upset. I am sorry - but most players are not here for fairy tales where the good guys always make it no matter what... And - I am actually happy that we didn't just kill Krak as we did with the previous two dragons... I mean, Elder dragons are supposed to be as powerful as GODS (!) - I been wondering why it has been so easy for us to kill them (and Balt for that matter)... Sure, it was heartbreaking - but finally it feels like the dragons could actually pose a threat instead of "Ooooh, so Random Dragon is causing trouble? No problems, lets gather some resources and kill it." and actually failing for once felt a little bit more realistic than always having this successful plan that more or less smoothly kills the dragon with as little damage as possible.

> @"DiMasta.9725" said:

> I currently play every game mode, but I'd prefer something that works well in PvE and PvP (mostly PvP, since PvE can be done with pretty much anything). I had thought about ranger, but they always seemed a bit too supporty for me. Is power soulbeast that strong then?

^ When it comes to rangers and sPvP the most common and appreciated builds are shoutbow (druid - staff - LB) and bunker (druid - staff - S/WH) and as you guessed they fill a rather supportive role (shoutbow not being as supportive as bunker, but still supportive enough). Power ranger is nothing I'd personally recommend in rated... At all. They are far too squishy and does not deal enough damage to make up for it - even in Beast Mode (soulbeast). Condi ranger is even worse considering the amount of condi cleanse there is - you will hardly kill anything and most professions will kill you just by looking at you.

In unranked however, most people play professions that they're new to and they dont play very seriously so of course you'll be able to enjoy pretty much anything there. Just going to give you a headsup that it wont be much fun in ranked - especially not in higher ratings.

> @"DiMasta.9725" said:

> I thought of holo, seemed fun. But a fear i have with melee classes is being kited to death. Maybe cause that what happens frequently with reaper.

> Does holo have enough stability/gap closers to prevent that? The holos i play against seem to find their way to get on top of me, but scourge isnt really that hard to close gap anyways.

Holo and SB warrior got enough gap closers to stay ontop of almost any ranged unit. The only two professions I can think of that they can't catch up to is mesmer and thieves... But then again, nobody can catch a good mesmer or thief.