A couple of questions of a returning customer regarding the state of Rangers in GW2

Welcome everyone

As I'm currently downloading the game client I figured it wouldn't hurt to jump into the forums to ask a couple of questions. I've been away from the game for several years and as such my knowledge about the game and the ranger profession is probably a bit outdated and I would appreciate it if you could take your time to answer them. Mostly because I want to determine if I should bother to play my old ranger - or if I should swap to a different profession.Yes that statement makes it fairly obvious that I'm sort of biased about the ranger profession. But here is hoping that maybe some of the - less call them less enjoyable - gameplay elements were addressed in the past years.

I'll add an explanation whenever I feel like it is neccessary and later add my question below said explanation to keep this post from turning into an unclear mess.

Starting up with pets. In my time pets had a series of issues. One of them being that pets had a tendecy to implode in group PvE encounters whenevery they got hit by random AoE abilities or just basic cleave attacks.

• Q: Are pets still subject to die instantaniously from AoE effects in PvE encounters?

Next pet related issue were conditions applied by pets. If a pet applied a conditation that - let's say deals 200 dmg a tick - and you swapped the pet out for your second pet. Said condition's damage would drop down to ~10 dmg a tick. Because the game couldn't find the source of the condition anymore and therefore the pet's conditiom damage was no longer factored in. Now with the new specialization on the table that will give the ranger a new option to swap/remove the pet it feels like this could cause a lot of problems depending on how they've fixed the issue.

• Q: Did they ever address the issue with pet conditions and pet swap mechanic?

The ranger's direct damage builds always had an issue with the scaling due to the fact that the ranger's damage is split between the pet and the ranger. Sadly the pets didn't scale with the equipment of their master and that ensured that they've become weaker and weaker the better the equiptment of the ranger got. Now I've read that HoT did introduce a new tier of equipment above the core game's exotics. This brings a couple questions to the table. Both for core gameplay and for the new soulbeast specialization how the pets are fairing in this new environment and if the dev team ever added a scaling option for them.

• Q: How much of the ranger's average damage output comes from the pets these days? (a percentage value would be appreciated)
• Q: Did they ever introduce a form of scaling for pets to get stronger based on the ranger's equipment?
• Q: How big is the power creep between core GW2 exotics and the 'new' item quality?

Some PvE encounters were quite frustrating for rangers because the pets refused to attack certain targets. Like constructs, walls, cannons, but also massive targets like dragons were often ignored by pets.

• Q: Does the pet AI still refuse to attack certain PvE targets?

The following question may make me sound lazy. But it was nevertheless an issue in my opinion. As a ranger you brought a couple of aoe buffs with your pets F ability that you could manually trigger. Sadly those buffs all had an extremely short range so you basically had to 'find' your pet and go hug it to get the benefits of your own profession. Even then it was not guaranteed that you would get the benefits of your own buff as other players or npcs could just consume the buff instead of you. It always felt weird to me that they never included a guaranteed buff for the ranger on those F abilities.

• Q: Did they ever add a mechanic to ensure that pet buffs would always affect their master?
• Q: Did they increase the range of pet buffs or do rangers still have to 'hug' their pets to get their own buffs?

One last point about pets before I move to other topics. I've watched the soulbeast showcase from Woodenpotatoes and the 'math person' in me can't help but notice that the soulbeast transformation sounds like a huge self nerf. We get two of the pet's skills as F skills. (the 2 abilities that the pet uses without our control). But we sacrifice the pet as a dps source for that and those 2 abilities would be used regardless of whether or not we merge with the pet. We just get more control over 'when' they are used. It really sounds bad to trade the pet for 200 or 300 attribute points. Maybe attribute points are much more valueable these days. Yet as far as I remember a character easily got up to the 2-3k mark on them.

• Q: Does the soulbeast mode have an unlisted percentage based modifier or do we really trade the dps of our pet for 200-300 attribute points?

Onto some non pet related questions.The 2handed sword was a great weapon and it had a really strong dps and scaling on the basic attack in the beta of the game. Sadly it got nerfed prior to the game release and for straight direct damage we were sort of forced to go with the irky 1handed sword. Well several years have passed since then and this brings up the hope that some things may have changed.

• Q: Did the 2handed sword ever recover from the old beta nerf and is it basic attack chain once again a reliable and powerful dps weapon?

Sticking with swords. The 1handed sword. The mother of all nightmares as I used to call it. The basic attack chain of the 1handed sword was driving people insane in my time. In addition the other two abilities on the 1handed sword also had some issues. Mainly that they failed to hit mobile targets and especially targets on elevated positions like stairs or ramps. Your chances of your character jumping all over the place - but not towards your target - on a ramp/stair were sadly really high.

• Q: Is the 1handed sword basic attack chain still driving rangers insane these days?
• Q: Do the 1handed sword's 2 and 3 abilties still struggle to hit mobile targets or targets on a different vertical position?

Regarding traps and spirits. I've sort of absorbted the information that rangers can't trait for traps to be thrown or spirits to be mobile anymore. A quick look at a trait builder confirmed that for me. This opens up to options. They are now either baseline mobile/throwable - or those abilities are now limited to very static fights and barely useful outside of such stationary-esque fights.

• Q: Are spirits now baseline mobile / traps baseline throwables?

Ranger and ranged weapons. People coming from different games had to adapt to the fact that ranged weapons would never be the top dps weapons for a class. That took some time to get used to, but I've learned to accept it and to work with it. Still it always bothered me that the ranger was the only profession which had to invest into traits to get their ranged attacks to affect more than just 1 target. While others had aoe or cleaving attacks baseline baked into their ranged attacks.

• Q: Is the ranger still the only profession in the game that has to spend a trait to get their ranged weapons (bows) to hit more than one target?

Last but not least. Opening strike. A mechanic that sounds so great on a first impression until you realized the massive restrictions on it. First of all the once per fight part was fitting for the name. But obviously decreased the value on longer fights. But there was a way to regain opening strikes during a battle. Sadly the 'once per fight' part of opening strike was not the worst part about it. The main issue was that most of the strong ranger abilities were multi-hit attacks. The issue here with opening strike was that all the benefits of an opening strike would only affect the 1st hit of such an ability and it was completely pointless for the follow up hits. To go with a simple example. If you had an ability that hits 5 times and you had an opening strike ready. The 1st of these 5 would be a crit and deal more damage. Yet the remaining 4 hits would not get any benefits. I've heard that thieves got a mechanic that is very similar to opening strikes with stealth attacks and that they would get the full benefit for an entire ability. So this brings up the hopeful question.

• Q: Does opening strike still exist?
• Q: Did opening strike receive a tuning to affect an entire ability instead of just the 1st hit of an ability?

That is all I can think about right now. Thank you for taking your time. I appreciate every little bit of information that you can toss my way.

Wish I knew about all these problems before I came back, good on your for asking. I can only answer that spirits don't follow, traps aren't throwable, bows still need trait to pierce, and opening strike does exist.

Q: Are pets still subject to die instantaniously from AoE effects in PvE encounters?Don't know, somehow my pets don't seem to die very often due to AoE

Q: Did they ever address the issue with pet conditions and pet swap mechanic?Pet swapping condition "bug" is still not fixed

Q: Did they ever introduce a form of scaling for pets to get stronger based on the ranger's equipment?Pets have their own stats. These stats are unaffected by the stats or the gear of the player.

Q: How big is the power creep between core GW2 exotics and the 'new' item quality?"New item quality" Do you mean ascended gear? If so, then you only need ascended gear for fractals or for certain people in raids that think they can't handle the content without additional 2-3% dmg per player.But there are new stat sets like vipers which have 4 stats instead of the usual 3 and in some cases those are noticeable better than the old stat sets. But this has nothing to do with exotic vs ascended stats.

Q: Does the pet AI still refuse to attack certain PvE targets?Pet AI was not improved, with soulbeast, spawning/despawning/pet swapping constantly your pet will be useless most of the time anyways because it always gets teleported back to your position and has to run back to the target after a short time of the AI orientating after getting spawned. And when you merge with your pet its attacks get interrupted.

Q: Does the soulbeast mode have an unlisted percentage based modifier or do we really trade the dps of our pet for 200-300 attribute points?Soulbeast really gets only 200-300 points.

Q: Are spirits now baseline mobile / traps baseline throwables?Traps aren't throwable, spirits don't move around

Q: Is the ranger still the only profession in the game that has to spend a trait to get their ranged weapons (bows) to hit more than one target?You need a trait to do that

Q: Does opening strike still exist?Yes

Q: Did opening strike receive a tuning to affect an entire ability instead of just the 1st hit of an ability?No, unless you count abilities that can hit multiple targets at the exact same time, then every hit will be counted as the first one. But I don't remember that this was ever different and only now, with soulbeast we will have a heavy hitting AoE attack which can make use of this.

A few months/years they made it so minions/illusions/pets etc get 95% less dmg when not focused by enemies in PvE

Also pets got NUMEROUS improvements but are still a bit wonky

Can now save names, have better base stats, multiple tweaks to family skills and unique skills, less after cast, lower CDs, greater range etc

Also I don't get whay you mean by "only profession" to hit one target? Both bows have st least 1 trait that affects multiple targets and it is not the only profession to have its AA hit one target

Greatsword

• GS is a defensive bursty weapon, not designed around high DPS but burst and utility
• Got numerous buffs aswell and better synergy with itself and some specific builds

Sword

• They removed leap from sword auto so you can now move and cancel chain to do other actions

Opening Strike

• Has greater syngery with traits now, excellent for bursts too

Q: Are pets still subject to die instantaniously from AoE effects in PvE encounters?Depends. In PvE, Pets have a 95% reduction on incoming damage and condition durations when not targeted by an NPC enemy. However, some encounters such as the Darkwing's ground-wipe during the Silverwastes Vinewrath meta event are still able to instantly kill Pets.Q: Did they ever address the issue with pet conditions and pet swap mechanic? No.Q: How much of the ranger's average damage output comes from the pets these days? (a percentage value would be appreciated)Depends on build and Pet used. Full DPS and Condition builds using the appropriate Pets average anywhere between 10-15%.Q: How big is the power creep between core GW2 exotics and the 'new' item quality?Full ascended averages over 10% to full exotics. A bit more with infusions.Q: Did they ever introduce a form of scaling for pets to get stronger based on the ranger's equipment? No.Q: Does the pet AI still refuse to attack certain PvE targets? Yes.Q: Did they ever add a mechanic to ensure that pet buffs would always affect their master? No.Q: Did they increase the range of pet buffs or do rangers still have to 'hug' their pets to get their own buffs? No. We still have to be close.Q: Does the soulbeast mode have an unlisted percentage based modifier or do we really trade the dps of our pet for 200-300 attribute points?You trade the Pet DPS for attribute points.Q: Did the 2handed sword ever recover from the old beta nerf and is it basic attack chain once again a reliable and powerful dps weapon? No.Q: Is the 1handed sword basic attack chain still driving rangers insane these days? No. Sword auto attack animation was changed last year to not root/stick.Q: Do the 1handed sword's 2 and 3 abilties still struggle to hit mobile targets or targets on a different vertical position? Yes.Q: Are spirits now baseline mobile / traps baseline throwables? No.Q: Is the ranger still the only profession in the game that has to spend a trait to get their ranged weapons (bows) to hit more than one target?Yes and no. Renegade has a piercing trait for their shortbow, however, all of their skills are able to strike multiple targets by default.Q: Does opening strike still exist? Yes.Q: Did opening strike receive a tuning to affect an entire ability instead of just the 1st hit of an ability?No. Opening Strike still applies the effects to only 1 target or the 1st target struck on the 1st strike of a skill (assuming multiple strikes).

Adenin, thanks for tackling that wall of text.I wasn't about to!

Q: Are pets still subject to die instantaniously from AoE effects in PvE encounters?The Pet AI is stupid. It will stand in an AoE field not even knowing its taking damage. It's still up to you to f3 your pet out of harms way.

Q: Did they ever address the issue with pet conditions and pet swap mechanic?There was an issue brought up no more than two weeks ago, about the pets standing around and doing nothing for several seconds after swapping during combat.

Q: Did they ever introduce a form of scaling for pets to get stronger based on the ranger's equipment?The beastmastery trait usually can change up the damage your pet does. But there is no scalability due to your personal equipment. I always thought they should add pet Collars or Pet gauntlets to give additional damage or defensive bonuses. Would have been cool.

Q: How big is the power creep between core GW2 exotics and the 'new' item quality?The ascended gear has minimal point advantage over exotics. Most don't see a big difference. However Legendary Armor and Weapons and Trinkets do give a HUGE advantage with the ability to change Stats at a moments notice. This saves a whole bunch of resources you wont' have to waste, or a need to keep multiple armor sets. If you did have multiple armors, having Legendary gear would definitely free up space in your inventory.

Q: Does the pet AI still refuse to attack certain PvE targets?Pet AI when it comes to targets came down to the Pathway to target and the special ability not going off until it reached minimum range of target. If there was no pathway that your Pet was able to identify to the target, it could not target it because it could not get to it. As for the special attack/defense ability the f2 skill, the pet would have to get to minimum range of said target before the ability activated. And even then, the skill had 1-3 second tell before it activated, and by then sometimes the target may have moved from it's original position, giving your pet a 100% miss opportunity. It sucks. The pet AI attacks and movement have always been too SLOW. I find it amazing that an Asuran with no legs can outrun a Jaguar. And Anet wonders why people wanted to Stow pets. This is the reason that a lot of Rangers chose the HoT Smokescale for a quick DPS, and is more heavily relied on to hit the target without worry of missing.

Q: Does the soulbeast mode have an unlisted percentage based modifier or do we really trade the dps of our pet for 200-300 attribute points?The beta Soulbeast was so buggy, I was unable to actually test it to it's possible full viability. I'm gonna say nobody PROPERLY knows for sure, and they shouldn't pretend to think they do know considering how screwed up the traits and the skills were during the beta. We'll find out tomorrow for sure how it will be.

Q: Are spirits now baseline mobile / traps baseline throwables?Used to be mobile for spirts, not so much since they changed traits. It's fixed from activation site. Traps are where you stand, and your tell gives away that your setting a trap when you kneel down during combat depending on the trap.

Q: Is the ranger still the only profession in the game that has to spend a trait to get their ranged weapons (bows) to hit more than one target?Yep, you still need to trait to shoot through your first target to hit targets behind them. Up to 5 targets.

Q: Does opening strike still exist?You betcha.

Q: Did opening strike receive a tuning to affect an entire ability instead of just the 1st hit of an ability?I don't believe so. It's just it's samo samo.