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Ranger Upcoming Balance Patch Notes


Anjo.3170

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I always try to look at all the patch before having an opinion. Since I only play ranger I had a harder time reading all the patch this time because I did not recognize most of the traits or meta things from the other classes ^^. I am not going to count bug fixes here.

The + (fair changes and decent additions)Point Blank Shot: I think it is a fair change.Barrage: It is good. This long cd skill was only usefull on static group of mobs and I like having 1 more option to control an area in sPvP (also needed with the - section).Sublime Conversion: Since the skill is supposed to be used in front of the team or to combo blast so I am not sure. But giving it one more effect is still good.Frost Trap: It is ok. Maybe a decent option for aoe damage in PvE. After all ranger has mostly been focused on single target damage. Just ok.Twice as Vicious: Really good. The dps will be smoother and less reliant on getting the cc then a burst.

The - (so much hate for ranger unblockable in this patch)Call of the Wild: Weak.Clarion Bond: Same.Second Skin: Ranger is already weak VS condition pressure.Unstoppable Union: I like the dispell but even more unblockable hate here.

Unsure (bad and good at the same time):Ancestral Grace: Really bad for our survivability in PvP,. It was also great in PvE for some extra dodge / save. I really want to put it in the - category. The new effect is : Do it for your allies, not for you. I guess it a noble intention and is ok in PvE because it will give more heal. I wonder what triggers first. Quickdraw then the reduction or the opposite? If this is quickdraw first it will be strong, if this is the other way around it does not change anything."Sic 'Em!": 5-10% reduction would have been fine. Maybe it is ok with the twice as vicious buff. But not with all the unblockable hate.Light on Your Feet: I am 100% sure it used to work like this in the past. Did they change it at some point or was it supposed to be a bug?

Conclusion :The thing that comes out for me is that most of the changes are aimed at sPvP. And this patch is just really bad for our damage and survivability. I am just going to say "Guardians and engineers". Just those 2 classes alone have so much projectile hate, and did not get affected by the patch. Anyone playing ranger knows how much LongBow is reliant on the unblockable when Line Of Sight (obstacles) already damages us. Loosing condition damage reduction is also going to affect a class who has not a lot of cleanse and is weak VS burst. It passively nerf the bear stance because you will take more damage when you use it (like my build).

I have been playing sword / axe for more than a year. I feel like I cannot handle condi / power pressure anymore and I have to pick greatsword like everyone :/.

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@VDAC.2137 said:Thematically, I wouldn’t have minded if shouts/commands were disabled for SB as it seems odd to yell “sic ‘em!” etc. while merged with your pet.

Disregarding how much of an awful decision that would be, that logic can be applied to any shout with an affect on the caster.

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@aymnad.9023 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:no fresh reinforcement nerf/ fixgarbaggio changes

There is no problem with it..

Do'nt feed the troll. He just hates ranger. Read some ranger nerf thread to see it.

wow you guys are clueless.how is doubling might with one button press a good idea? its one of the top reasons soulbeast meme builds exist.

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@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:no fresh reinforcement nerf/ fixgarbaggio changes

There is no problem with it..

Do'nt feed the troll. He just hates ranger. Read some ranger nerf thread to see it.

wow you guys are clueless.how is doubling might with one button press a good idea? its one of the top reasons soulbeast meme builds exist.

Ok as a soulbeast though you'll either be doing 2 things

  1. Facing a 1up from a boon steal larc strike and already fighting a SB on point who is ripping your boons
  2. In a team fight on node against a scourge and firebrand. too with a potential 1up on thief as well

Annulment exists, as well , which almost every meta runs.

While those boons are great on paper, what made those boons even matter/appear busted was the fact you had an unblockable on a low cooldown. So you're putting those boons to use without barely any counterplay before outside of LOS / invuln. Now with the new patch there is counterplay making these boons potentially useless in terms of an offensive approach. Defensive approach is meh, considering we get vigor from many sources anyway and protection is laughable in this burst meta.

Fresh Reinforcement is simply not a problem, especially now and I will straight up say, if anybody is complaining about ranger after this UN nerf , then you basically just need to get better because no matter how many nerfs they give to Soulbeast at this point it will probably never help them beat them if they don't understand them.

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@ZhouX.8742 said:snipsright so... ok lol. there are two classes in pvp that will make the trait irrelevant. can be avoided with good game sense. then there is wvw, you know, this whole other game mode. if you don't think fresh reinforcement is a problem, you don't know how to build a memebeast so this convo is pointless. no one is complaining about balanced builds. please do some research.

edit

what made those boons even matter/appear busted was the fact you had an unblockable on a low cooldown.you do realize fresh reinforcement and unstoppable union are in the same trait tier right?

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@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@ZhouX.8742 said:snipsright so... ok lol. there are two classes in pvp that will make the trait irrelevant. can be avoided with good game sense. then there is wvw, you know, this whole other game mode. if you don't think fresh reinforcement is a problem, you don't know how to build a memebeast so this convo is pointless. no one is complaining about balanced builds. please do some research.

edit

what made those boons even matter/appear busted was the fact you had an unblockable on a low cooldown.
you do realize fresh reinforcement and unstoppable union are in the same trait tier right?

Yea my apologies, for some reason I was thinking of the shout heal copying boons over for 20+ might and then utilizing UN.

For boon removal... There's annulment which is 2 ... Mesmer, spellbreaker, rev, necro, thief can all remove boons... Boons aren't AS much of an impact anymore like they used to be. in PvP esp when annulment came out. The culprit in survivability is mostly the plethora of blocks, invulns and evade frames flying around. Even more blocks now with SB out of the picture and rev dmg dropped and unblockables removed, welcome to bunk meta.

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@"Euthymias.7984" said:So, Frost Trap may see some use in PvETwice as Vicions is a little better for sustained damageBarrage has gone from filler trash when LoS is used to meh.

I wouldn't call it meh.Whirling defense: 7.92 coeff over 3.25 seconds. 7.92/3.25 = 2.4 coeff per sec.Barrage: 4.8 x 1.25 buff = 6 coeff over 2.25 seconds. 6/2.25 = 2.66 coeff per sec.That number is iffy since it takes about 7 seconds for all the barrage arrows to land but as far as damage per cast time is concerned, barrage will be stronger than WD after the patch. I doubt LB will replace GS in raids but LB+S/A could maybe beat out GS+S/A in fotm burst scenarios.

Frost trap was also meta in burst situations. It going to get a 250% buff. After this, I think it will always be best in slot compared to vulture stance. Problem I have with frost trap is that it doesn't seem to scale with ascended weapon strength which was why the damage seemed lower than it should be. 250% buff is nice though.

Most of the "PvP/WvW" changes seem fair. Except staff 3. Why are they still stomping druid?

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@ZhouX.8742 said:For boon removal... There's annulment which is 2 ... Mesmer, spellbreaker, rev, necro, thief can all remove boons... Boons aren't AS much of an impact anymore like they used to be. in PvP esp when annulment came out. The culprit in survivability is mostly the plethora of blocks, invulns and evade frames flying around. Even more blocks now with SB out of the picture and rev dmg dropped and unblockables removed, welcome to bunk meta.

not many run power mes, spellbreaker boon removal is kinda easy to dodge (biggest is dagger burst, no one really runs break enchantments). necro and teef will get you.all of this is not really relevant tho dood. yes some guys will get memebeasts boons. most of the time tho its easy to get the burst off with mad range or stealth attacks. this is about getting rid of the garbaggio builds out there that ruin game play for everyone. do you think its ok to have a trait that doubles might with one button press?

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@DuckDuckBOOM.4097 said:

@"Euthymias.7984" said:So, Frost Trap may see some use in PvETwice as Vicions is a little better for sustained damageBarrage has gone from filler trash when LoS is used to meh.

I wouldn't call it meh.Whirling defense: 7.92 coeff over 3.25 seconds. 7.92/3.25 = 2.4 coeff per sec.Barrage: 4.8 x 1.25 buff = 6 coeff over 2.25 seconds. 6/2.25 = 2.66 coeff per sec.That number is iffy since it takes about 7 seconds for all the barrage arrows to land but as far as damage per cast time is concerned, barrage will be stronger than WD after the patch. I doubt LB will replace GS in raids but LB+S/A could maybe beat out GS+S/A in fotm burst scenarios.

Frost trap was also meta in burst situations. It going to get a 250% buff. After this, I think it will always be best in slot compared to vulture stance. Problem I have with frost trap is that it doesn't seem to scale with ascended weapon strength which was why the damage seemed lower than it should be. 250% buff is nice though.

Most of the "PvP/WvW" changes seem fair. Except staff 3. Why are they still stomping druid?

Well the math doesnt work like that with barrage, Barrage is coe 0.4s. So now it will be 0.5s.My guess a full zerker sicem SBeast would do something around 3k tick.Keep in mind the AoE last 12 seconds unless using quickness.

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@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@ZhouX.8742 said:For boon removal... There's annulment which is 2 ... Mesmer, spellbreaker, rev, necro, thief can all remove boons... Boons aren't AS much of an impact anymore like they used to be. in PvP esp when annulment came out. The culprit in survivability is mostly the plethora of blocks, invulns and evade frames flying around. Even more blocks now with SB out of the picture and rev dmg dropped and unblockables removed, welcome to bunk meta.

not many run power mes, spellbreaker boon removal is kinda easy to dodge (biggest is dagger burst, no one really runs break enchantments). necro and teef will get you.all of this is not really relevant tho dood. yes some guys will get memebeasts boons. most of the time tho its easy to get the burst off with mad range or stealth attacks. this is about getting rid of the garbaggio builds out there that ruin game play for everyone. do you think its ok to have a trait that doubles might with one button press?

i got you man, my bad also about mixing up the heal with the trait i was thinking of something different

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@anduriell.6280 said:

@"Euthymias.7984" said:So, Frost Trap may see some use in PvETwice as Vicions is a little better for sustained damageBarrage has gone from filler trash when LoS is used to meh.

I wouldn't call it meh.Whirling defense: 7.92 coeff over 3.25 seconds. 7.92/3.25 = 2.4 coeff per sec.Barrage: 4.8 x 1.25 buff = 6 coeff over 2.25 seconds. 6/2.25 = 2.66 coeff per sec.That number is iffy since it takes about 7 seconds for all the barrage arrows to land but as far as damage per cast time is concerned, barrage will be stronger than WD after the patch. I doubt LB will replace GS in raids but LB+S/A could maybe beat out GS+S/A in fotm burst scenarios.

Frost trap was also meta in burst situations. It going to get a 250% buff. After this, I think it will always be best in slot compared to vulture stance. Problem I have with frost trap is that it doesn't seem to scale with ascended weapon strength which was why the damage seemed lower than it should be. 250% buff is nice though.

Most of the "PvP/WvW" changes seem fair. Except staff 3. Why are they still stomping druid?

Well the math doesnt work like that with barrage, Barrage is coe 0.4s. So now it will be 0.5s.My guess a full zerker sicem SBeast would do something around 3k tick.Keep in mind the AoE last 12 seconds unless using quickness.

What are you talking about? It doesn't matter when you apply the 25% buff. The math will be the same.(0.4 x 1.25) x 12 = (0.4 x 12) x 1.25 = 0.5 x 12 = 6

The aoe lasts 7 seconds which starts when you first begin the channel. Arrows fall every ~0.6 seconds. Quickness doesn't speed this up much. As far as PvE players are concerned, that doesn't matter as long as the boss dies in 7 or more seconds. See lava font on ele lasting 6 seconds as an example. It's coeffs per cast time that matter.

GS2,5,2 opening is 4.4 coeff over ~3 seconds.LB 2 by itself is 3.75 coeff over 2.25 seconds. These are actually pretty close.

LB5, owp, lb4, 2, WI, into axe 4, 5 is going to be a strong burst. By the time the axe 5 ends, you'll be close to having barrage finish. Sic'em will cover the entire rotation. This may replace GS in some fotm fights. GS will likely win out if you have to do more than 1 full weapon swap rotation due. Actually, having a 20 second instead of 30 second CD also makes LB5 fit better in the rotation. Still probably won't replace GS in long fights but it's closer than you think.

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@DuckDuckBOOM.4097 said:LB5, owp, lb4, 2, WI, into axe 4, 5 is going to be a strong burst. By the time the axe 5 ends, you'll be close to having barrage finish. Sic'em will cover the entire rotation. This may replace GS in some fotm fights. GS will likely win out if you have to do more than 1 full weapon swap rotation due. Actually, having a 20 second instead of 30 second CD also makes LB5 fit better in the rotation. Still probably won't replace GS in long fights but it's closer than you think.

I was actually fooling around to see if LB would be ''viable''. I think as long you have an Axe offhand, it should be good enough. The new cooldown will rotate well.

Sw/A + LBow, maybe ?

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@"Shin Skysinger.1570" said:I love the Druid playstyle and That evade nerf is a little too much if the idea was to tone down SoulBeast. Why the hate to druid and their staff?

I've been playing around with a good Druid build trying to find a sustainable staff/long-sword, capping points build even if it's not meta anymore. I've been quite successful finally nd I've been wondering why my disengage has been horrible with Ancestral Grace. I've been using Ancestral Grace this whole time and I had no idea it was nerfed like that because the description of the skill does not reflect this. Why the hate?

Druid was designed to be a support spec, being a sidenoder was a byproduct and it was left there till PoF release,now Anet wants druid to cover its intended role and AG got actually buffed ...as long as you try to support allies and not simply run away, a similar treatment has been applied to ride the lightning

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@Arheundel.6451 said:

@"Shin Skysinger.1570" said:I love the Druid playstyle and That evade nerf is a little too much if the idea was to tone down SoulBeast. Why the hate to druid and their staff?

I've been playing around with a good Druid build trying to find a sustainable staff/long-sword, capping points build even if it's not meta anymore. I've been quite successful finally nd I've been wondering why my disengage has been horrible with Ancestral Grace. I've been using Ancestral Grace this whole time and I had no idea it was nerfed like that because the description of the skill does not reflect this. Why the hate?

Druid was designed to be a support spec, being a sidenoder was a byproduct and it was left there till PoF release,now Anet wants druid to cover its intended role and AG got actually buffed ...as long as you try to support allies and not simply run away, a similar treatment has been applied to ride the lightning

AG in this patch is not buffed in any way, even not when you play "support". The loss of the evade frame is huge my man. "Buffing" the skill from a CD of 18 secs to 15 secs when you support someone is just hilarious.

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@Arheundel.6451 said:

@"Shin Skysinger.1570" said:I love the Druid playstyle and That evade nerf is a little too much if the idea was to tone down SoulBeast. Why the hate to druid and their staff?

I've been playing around with a good Druid build trying to find a sustainable staff/long-sword, capping points build even if it's not meta anymore. I've been quite successful finally nd I've been wondering why my disengage has been horrible with Ancestral Grace. I've been using Ancestral Grace this whole time and I had no idea it was nerfed like that because the description of the skill does not reflect this. Why the hate?

Druid was designed to be a support spec, being a sidenoder was a byproduct and it was left there till PoF release,now Anet wants druid to cover its intended role and AG got actually buffed ...as long as you try to support allies and not simply run away, a similar treatment has been applied to ride the lightning

If they intended Druid to be a support spec rather than a sidenoder, they wouldn't continue to nerf it further and further away from the bloated firebrand spec that is currently occupying that position, with no changes that actually makes it compete as a proper support. They nerfed the only really good skill on the staff, the weapon is a joke.

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@Lazze.9870 said:

@"Shin Skysinger.1570" said:I love the Druid playstyle and That evade nerf is a little too much if the idea was to tone down SoulBeast. Why the hate to druid and their staff?

I've been playing around with a good Druid build trying to find a sustainable staff/long-sword, capping points build even if it's not meta anymore. I've been quite successful finally nd I've been wondering why my disengage has been horrible with Ancestral Grace. I've been using Ancestral Grace this whole time and I had no idea it was nerfed like that because the description of the skill does not reflect this. Why the hate?

Druid was designed to be a support spec, being a sidenoder was a byproduct and it was left there till PoF release,now Anet wants druid to cover its intended role and AG got actually buffed ...as long as you try to support allies and not simply run away, a similar treatment has been applied to ride the lightning

If they intended Druid to be a support spec rather than a sidenoder, they wouldn't continue to nerf it further and further away from the bloated firebrand spec that is currently occupying that position, with no changes that actually makes it compete as a proper support. They nerfed the only really good skill on the staff, the weapon is a joke.

They did buff the glyphs and gave a new elite which can be quite useful in my opinion when used from the sidelines and out of sight; clearly druid is meant to be a hybrid ranged support where firebrand is full melee , they can't give druid any further buffs I am afraid for quite some obvious reasons, the same ones used to nerf it in the first place.

Firebrand is not that durable once singled out where a druid can still escape to safety , same reason they don't buff tempest to same levels of firebrand; at the same time Anet is trying to reinvigorate core specs and frankly they're doing a good job.

I am really enjoying core ranger now and I use elites only where necessary , in the end of the day elites were supposed to be sidegrades and not upgrades

P.S dunno why it's hilarious the idea of running to support somebody and be rewarded for it, the idea is sound..you're using a dash move to reach a dieing friend and support him , CD reduction to remain in the battle to support others instead than dash away to reposition , it's the same idea applied to ride the lightning years ago and that's why this change comes as no surprise to me , neither I consider it such a huge nerf

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@Arheundel.6451 said:

@"Shin Skysinger.1570" said:I love the Druid playstyle and That evade nerf is a little too much if the idea was to tone down SoulBeast. Why the hate to druid and their staff?

I've been playing around with a good Druid build trying to find a sustainable staff/long-sword, capping points build even if it's not meta anymore. I've been quite successful finally nd I've been wondering why my disengage has been horrible with Ancestral Grace. I've been using Ancestral Grace this whole time and I had no idea it was nerfed like that because the description of the skill does not reflect this. Why the hate?

Druid was designed to be a support spec, being a sidenoder was a byproduct and it was left there till PoF release,now Anet wants druid to cover its intended role and AG got actually buffed ...as long as you try to support allies and not simply run away, a similar treatment has been applied to ride the lightning

If they intended Druid to be a support spec rather than a sidenoder, they wouldn't continue to nerf it further and further away from the bloated firebrand spec that is currently occupying that position, with no changes that actually makes it compete as a proper support. They nerfed the only really good skill on the staff, the weapon is a joke.

They did buff the glyphs and gave a new elite which can be quite useful in my opinion when used from the sidelines and out of sight; clearly druid is meant to be a hybrid ranged support where firebrand is full melee , they can't give druid any further buffs I am afraid for quite some obvious reasons, the same ones used to nerf it in the first place.

Firebrand is not that durable once singled out where a druid can still escape to safety , same reason they don't buff tempest to same levels of firebrand; at the same time Anet is trying to reinvigorate core specs and frankly they're doing a good job.

I am really enjoying core ranger now and I use elites only where necessary , in the end of the day elites were supposed to be sidegrades and not upgrades

P.S dunno why it's hilarious the idea of running to support somebody and be rewarded for it, the idea is sound..you're using a dash move to reach a dieing friend and support him , CD reduction to remain in the battle to support others instead than dash away to reposition , it's the same idea applied to ride the lightning years ago and that's why this change comes as no surprise to me , neither I consider it such a huge nerf

No offense, but your entire comment screams of someone that hasn't played druid at a somewhat "high" competetive level. Yes, in a vacuum the elite glyph can be very good when you pull it off and people stay inside it. But at the cost of the only source of self-stability druid has, those situations are slim.

No one gives that much of a damn about the CD change (other than the fact it's annoying how it doesn't line up with weapons swaps). It's the removal of the evade frame that hurts.

What do they give druid in exchange for removing the evade frame and gimping its, in your words, escape capabilities? A skill or trait change that would significally improve its support job without necessarily bumping self suriviveability back up? No. They add regen to the wall. Would have been a nice little extra thing a while back, but now it just looks like salt in the wound.

" Anet is trying to reinvigorate core specs and frankly they're doing a good job."

Yeah, right. That must be why the marksmanship minors are more or less the same as they were at launch, and that there is still only one of the GM traits that interracts the opening strike mechanic (and when they had the chance to change that, they gave the longbow trait this useless "swiftness when projectile comboing" effect instead adding some opening strike synergy to it), while other classes have had reworks to their corresponding lines.

Stop arguing from the perspective of what you think Anet is trying to do, and look at what actually works. Hybrid ranged support? Would be better off completeley reworking both CA and staff, and a few traits, to be more close ranged focus, because that hybrid nonsense is never gonna fly. Outside of PvE that is. Druid is pretty much a raid spirit bot.

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@niconori.7235 said:Point Blank Shot: This skill now scales knockback distance dynamically between a range of 100 and 600 based on distance from the target.

Can we change PBS to 1500 range then? Have the knockback distance range between 0-600.

Yes i agree that's a bug, we could ask to be fixed.You should have your knockback at 1200 thou. Difference is now you won't kick back the target so it goes out of your reach, instead they are knock back almost in place.Can you still push down the clift with PBS? yes, a little more tricky thou.Can you PBS somebody at any wall in wvw and make them stay in reach of more damage now after the change? Yes, definitaly you should be able now.Random PBS will push enemies out of the damage now? No, unless you have a ranger with LB in melee range.

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So, Thieves received Preparations and their Smokescreen was altered into a circle. Meanwhile, Sublime Conversion is still a wall but now grants regen rather than being a dome.

But instead, regen is added to Druid, nearly 4 years after its release. And of the 3 utility skills on Staff that don't grant a boon, it's placed on the skill that benefits allies most when positioned to shield them from projectiles.

Just dome it already and have regen pulse to allies within the dome while destroying projectiles. The janky sprinkle heals can f-ck off for all anyone cares.

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