VDAC.2137

I have a question along similar lines as OP: I would like to have a core ranger build (thematic reasons I don’t want this particular character SB, indulge me) that is relatively easy to play and survive in HoT and PoF maps (power reaper = facetank and destroy anything! while power weaver = PITA). I geared them full vipers from before PoF when that was still useful in group PvE and have shortbow and axe/torch or sword/torch. I’ve been referencing MetaBattle and trying different traits and utilities, but it still feels sub-par, slow damage with average survivability. Perhaps it takes more finesse to play condi ranger well? Or is condi just not a good choice for open world core ranger?

I mostly followed the recommendations on SnowCrows, Discretize for build. I use Harrier’s armor but my accessories are a mix of Harrier, Magi and Minstrel for improved survivability. I play my Druid in fractals and raids. You’d certainly want a different build (probably not Druid) for soloing open world. I used to just swap staff for longbow and otherwise rely on my pet for damage and even that is slow-going but with the upcoming nerf to pets, I probably won’t at all on that character.

Play the game as I usually do and hope this means fewer “balance patches” prompted by WvW and PvP players crying for nerfs! :p

> @"AlexxxDelta.1806" said:

>

> And then that bored rich person and everyone like them end up fully controlling the market for pretty much everything. Which can happen to an extent currently but with no account bound it would be happening in all aspects of game economy and completely unregulated. No thanks, I prefer playing video games, not cash stores that may have some game elements here and there.

I cannot think of how that would be the case. If the item is account-bound, then you cannot buy it but must acquire it yourself. If the item isn’t, then you COULD buy it, or acquire it yourself as before. I don’t see what is being taken away from you. You can ignore the market entirely or even sell extra materials that you don’t need but acquired through gameplay that you enjoy.

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> You should define what you mean "viable." The plain English meaning is "capable of working successfully; feasible." However, gamers tend to think of "viable" as meaning, "in the ballpark of comparable to meta" and some even equate "viable" with "nearly optimal." Rather than let the thread digress into which meaning is correct, you can clarify (or, better yet: use different phrasing that is less likely to be misconstrued).

>

> For example, "all vanilla builds are inferior" need not mean the same as "there are no viable vanilla builds." A build can be inferior and still viable, from the dictionary definition. If you mean something else by "viable," please specify.

Good point! Hopefully I have now clarified this in the title and description? I have been enjoying vanilla guardian and would like to have a good vanilla ranger build (for thematic reasons). I realize that not even every elite spec is “meta” but having a greater variety of builds that are good and even situationally shine would be nice. :) I don’t know if this might already be the case, at least for some professions, just going mostly by what I see others play and the build ratings on MetaBattle.

Before PoF, I knew several people who had DPS vanilla rangers but now I can’t say I’ve seen any non-elite specs in fractals or raids. Especially with Anet emphasizing that they want the elite specs to have trade-offs, vanilla builds should generally be as good as them, just with different strengths and weaknesses. This is what I mean by “viable”, although it was perhaps not the best word choice, I wanted to keep the poll options concise. As it stands, are elite specs always better?

I have level 80’s for each profession, two for several, but some I almost never play because the style doesn’t suit me (revenant) or I haven’t taken the time to learn it yet (engineer).

Yet I work on fully equipping them, at least at exotic level, some even ascended and with expensive (for me) skins even though I almost never use them! XD

> @"Etria.3642" said:

> Well someone I know started playing the game four months ago. He bought gems, converted to gold. Bought Eternity. Bought outfits, bought materials, in one month he had five completely outfitted and leveled characters. He bought the collections for legendary raid armor.

>

> Then bored, he asked us what on earth to do. Following our suggestions he bought someone to help and completed the griffon that week. Then next he had someone drag him through HOT map completion and began crafting Nevermore.

>

> It took him a month of hero trains(which he did on each of those other characters to get them specializations) but he got all masteries. He linked Nevermore a couple weeks ago.

>

> I see him rarely now. Which is a shame since he seriously must have pumped well over a thousand real life dollars into the game. He bought skins, keys, outfits, tools. At one point he sent everyone in the guild one of the new dye kits.

>

> I guess if you have the disposable income there are almost no time gates.

>

> Also if you keep an eye on the market there are times the materials will sell for more than the completed item.

That doesn’t seem like any kind of argument for making stuff account bound and/or time-gated. If people want to spend their time and money that way, that should be their prerogative! And a boon for all those players this one bored rich person paid, lol!

No, I want to be able to sell stuff I have in excess, even if only to merchants, but preferably to other players as that helps everybody.

How does it make anything better to make materials account bound? If they are needed, someone is going to go to the map to collect them — no reason it has to be the same person who wants to use them!

I enjoy the exploration aspect, getting to every area of the map, but some of the hearts are tedious, thus my vote is “sometimes.”

> @"Xar.6279" said:

> Dont cry about Glyph of Empowerment. Now you will be able to use it everywhere you want. As elite skill. Without wasting your utility slots for it.

No, it’s being removed entirely but the new Glyph of the Stars sounds cool.

Thank you for the updates!

The changes to berserker seem interesting and I’ll be interested to see how it affects playing condi berserker in particular.

I must say that I am sad to see that Druid pets will be nerfed. As others have pointed out, you already sacrifice your DPS to take this traitline, further across the board nerfs seem unnecessary. Open world is slow going as a solo Druid as is. Now dropping Glyph of Empowerment I can understand as it was a unique buff and I’m all for a variety of support/healing builds being equally viable or different ones might be ideal for different encounters.

Certainly, it’s not a big, but I agree that it would make sense to have additional options (and I am always happy with additional sylvari-themed content!) Shield does seem an odd choice; I would have thought any melee weapon — greatsword, hammer, staff, sceptor, axe, mace, dagger at least, but I’d be happy to be able to collect all weapon forms. :)

Depends on how you determine your main(s)! B)

I love my elementalist character and they are the ones I play through the whole story on and am working on map completion but I really do not like how squishy the class is so I rarely use them for farming nor group content.

I’ve been plying Druid healer longest for raids and fractals. I love playing a healer!

Necromancer is increasingly my go to class for farming, open world events, and when I want to play DPS in group content. Reaper is lots of fun to play, lots of damage without being made of glass! I’ve also like the option of support scourge for variety. :)

> @"Hirdy.7836" said:

> @"VDAC.2137" my screen isn't actually going black, it stops getting a signal to the PC until I unplug and and plug back in. I'm not sure about your issue sorry.

Have you gotten yours resolved? It turns out in my case I was partially disconnecting — people could no longer hear me on Teamspeak either for I don’t know how long, even though I continued to hear them without interruption.

> @"Aaralyna.3104" said:

> @"VDAC.2137" : That one sounds like a connection issue. Check [https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/201863018-Common-Error-Codes](https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/201863018-Common-Error-Codes "https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/201863018-Common-Error-Codes"). If you can't find it yourself, contact support so they can help you. If its an external issue you may need to contact your ISP, but they (support) will tell you where the problem arises :)

Thank you for the advice! It does seem to have been a connection issue after all and is happening much less now. Since it coincided with an update I had thought it a bug. I checked connections, firewalls, etc. but could not find any problem but my issue has resolved.

> @"Chadramar.8156" said:

>

> Actual armor skins over outfits, for all the reasons that have been stated many times.

>

> _Non-gendered armor_. Let me wear the exact same, beautifully themed, practical and/or impressive gear that men get to wear. No skirts, heels, underwear, b-plates, b-windows or other "strategic" naked skin.

>

Agreed! Especially on the non-gendered armor! This is why I haven’t created more human or norn female characters. I hate the look of most of the female armor options, the female version of the human assassin armor being a case in point. >_>

I’m all about options and customization! How about being about to choose make-up options for all characters? Most of the human females options come with obvious makeup that I would like to change. And for that matter, I wouldn’t mind the option for some guy-liner for some of my male characters. ;)

I love all things sylvari and would love to have a jackal mount made from leaves like the fern hound and there could be a swirl of leaves as they port forward.

I would also like a way to exchange items only available from chests or the gem store — revive orbs, hair styling, merchant summons etc. Some of these I like; some one can definitely have too many of! I would love to be able to exchange these items for those lion statuettes that come in the Black Lion chests.

I use multiple tiers of the sylvari armors.

Alas, that did not fix it. I was only on for a few minutes before I got the black screen and a box saying “Game client unable to connect to login server.” What can I do???

I have been having the same or similar problem ever since the update that expanded unidentified gear drops and which temporarily caused the bug where you could get stuck on your mount.

Previously, I rarely disconnected and often others in my party would see that I had before I realized it; then I would be sent back to the character selection screen. Now the screen suddenly goes black and I have to hit the Windows key to manually close GW2 and then restart it. It may not appear to others that I have dc’ed until I close GW2 — I hadn’t thought to ask. I do still hear the audio.

My computer is not audibly running any different when this happens. I am making sure everything on my system is up to date, etc. and restarted the router. I’ll see if that’s fixed the problem tonight.

I think it’s quite understandable to try to form a balanced group for T4 fractals and since many people play multiple roles, it’s hardly elitist in my opinion.

Now what IS elitist and really bugs me is how many LFG include LNHB as a requirement when they’re not doing CM Mistlock Observatory.