bigo.9037

You might be right, but I haven’t fought a holo in wvw on my level in quite a while so.. at high tier play the difference is very small in 1v1, and holo has more aoe and group utility than a boonbeast does, and you need to play boonbeast to be comparable to holo in 1v1, but then you suffer in dmg and cleaving camps. That’s why I still think it’s higher tier even tho they are probably close to 50/50 in 1v1.. scrapper wins most of the time, but oddly can lose to things like heralds which soulbeast has an easy time with. But nades being what they are means it’s solid #2.

1: thief (dd or de) best duelist, best mobility but not I’m not sure how fast they can actually kill the npcs. 2: holo or scrapper, very versatile, good mobility, only wins out vs soulbeast cus of nades tbh. Scrapper has reflects for npcs so cleaving camp is ez and fast. 3: soulbeast good mobility, best single target dmg but not as much aoe dmg as nade engi, has pet to agro npcs for easy cleaving 4: probably warrior, reve or mesmer, maybe weaver but idk. War has good mobility, good sustain and aoe, rev has good mobility and probably higher dmg than war but less cc, mesmer has 2nd best mobility in game but power is not great, relies on condi stats which have low dmg on camp npcs. 5: everything except necro is a tie from here

In wvw tho??? Sharpening stone is just a bad utility all around. There are much better options out there.. it’s like, you want damage, so you use sharpening stone.. but then you play staff? Which has no damage.. it will only deal dmg while using sharpening stone.. and even then it’s not a lot. Condi in general on ranger is just not even on the same level as power. Hybrid, maybe because of new cele buffs but.. eh..

The single largest problem I see in wvw when it comes to the actual game mode and its objectives is EWP. EWP ruins everything. You spend like 30 minutes clashing with enemy server over a t1 keep , quite similar in numbers or at least in ability. Then when you finally get close to lord or inner goes down after an hour of fun combat and strategizing, EWP is pulled and everything is over. Defender blob comes out of nowhere and wipes your whole team out, rebuilds structures and siege despite spending a long time draining defenders supply. EWP basically makes it impossible for small groups to take keeps because big blob can be doing whatever they want on BL#1, meanwhile small group tries to take bay on bl#2, and as soon as small group gets in big blob instantly ports and wipes everything, and then they go back to whatever they were doing on bl#1. It just feels incredibly demoralizing when you fight for such a long time just to lose everything because of EWP, and the 30m timer is not long enough. Breaking into a keep often takes up to an hour, that’s 2 EWP resets…

All the legendary spvp rank players are just gatekeeping the gizmos and titles I want, I, along with everyone else, should be able to get all the spvp titles and gizmos by doing pve. If you disagree, you’re just a gatekeeper!

You mentioned visual clutter, and what I mentioned is a solution that is already in use but on a different skill. The nade radius is small enough that I think it’s justifiable.

The same reason it was a bad idea to let pve plebs grind out spvp for gear and gizmos.. this is also bad. You should have to put in the work if you want something from the game. Not everyone should get legendary wvw armor, not everyone should get titles and other spvp rewards, and not everyone should get pve mounts etc.

Unfortunately these days the playerbase has been around for a long time so you’re gonna be behind the curve for a while unless you put some effort into getting better for a while. ranger is not that strong in spvp atm, it plays best in wvw when it comes to pvp modes. There it’s also easier to learn the ins and outs. i wouldn’t recommend condi tho, it’s a lot harder to deal high damage and it’s also more difficult to survive. what you need to learn first is NOT your damaging abilities, but your defensive abilities. Damage will come , staying alive is more important. Especially when you’re just starting out. heres a rotation tip for gs/lb, use with grain of salt.. or maybe an entire pile. But it’s something to get started: start Lb, use lb#4, then lb#2. Continue auto attacking until enemy retaliates, then use hunters shot and reposition yourself. Now cast lb#5 on top of yourself, and auto attack enemy until they come close. ( assuming they are melee) when enemy comes close, cast gs#4 and block their attacks, follow up with the gs#4 again to knock them back, then cast gs#2 to deal damage. Now unmerge with pet, (smokescale is a must) use the smoke field, use gs#3 to leap into smokefield for stealth. depending on what enemy does now, stay gs and try to land another gs#2 on enemy, or switch to longbow and open with lb#2, then cast lb#4 as soon as they start doing literally anything just to interrupt them. Follow with auto attacks, or lb#3 if enemy uses stunbreak and tries to hit you back with melee or ranged abilities. rinse and repeat. You have a LOT more options than this, and there are many counterplays to certain classes including mirror fights, but with this rotation you’ll get the hang of it. the most important part is using lb#3, gs#4, and leaping into smokefield for stealth with gs#3. and I haven’t even mentioned the merged skills.. but the base weapon skills are most important to learn, the merged pet skills are more of a utility or counter play measure which isn’t important when you’re just learning the basics. As for utilities, dolyak stance gives you stab but also 33% dmg reduction, so if you’re in melee and you’re gonna be trading hits, it’s a good idea to pop that skill while trying to deal damage depending on situation ofc.

I think celestial stat getting a massive buff was slightly more to blame for influx of hybrid builds.. but resistance too no doubt

Well, a proper hybrid setup is so strong it’s kinda crazy people are losing fights with them. Imagine someone being so bad they have 60% more stats than someone who uses a mix of 3 stat combos.. and they still lose. And it’s 60% more stats that include a lot of concentration, which is already a “carry-me” stat.

I think celestial stat getting a massive buff was slightly more to blame for influx of hybrid builds.. but resistance too no doubt

Last i was linked with mag we were losing hard. ( mag was ). Idk. People come and go. Mag doesn’t have enough peeps to cover all maps.. they only focus on ebg.

Wow. We have build templates.. and I’m guessing pve folks or new players have access to at least 2, so since you’re grinding wvw might as well make a template with extra mobility. All you need is like 2 leaps and swiftness access and you’ll keep up with blob. It’s that easy. When I started playing gw2 as my main game in 2013 I had ppl tell the truth as it is when people complained about stupid things like “I can’t keep up” or “nerf all damage cus I’m dying in 2seconds to 1 guy”.. instead of just getting better mobility and running more toughness and protection boons to stay alive longer. I took their advice as a newbie and then I kept at it and got better. New ppl should do the same. Ask for advice, don’t complain about something you don’t know.

I think the main issue is the holo kit just comes standard with this mobility built in whereas a lot of specs have to build for mobility specifically. Ele, ranger and war to an extent.

In spvp and wvw it hits like a wet noodle. It barely even tickles. Building CA is done much faster simply by taking small amounts of damage and getting regen from protection or regen boons + other sources passively. A proper druid build doesn’t need to think about building CA cus it always has a full bar when it comes off CD. I’m really hoping this is some kinda open world pve context cus why would you ever use sharpening stones while using staff on a druid in wvw or pvp… that sounds absolutely terrible…

Spike trap as it works currently is actually pretty insane. The only bad thing about it is that if the player is blinded the trap will “miss” despite the trap being a separate object from the player. Other than that it’s genuinely very strong. Healing spring also decent. If anything, whao is just a bit overtuned rather than other skills being too weak. Sure they should add some dmg back to frost trap and probably also fire but.. 2 solid traps is nice. I think they should add an elite tho. thematically ranger traps make more sense than DH traps tbh. It’s a wilderness roamer/ranger… traps make a lot of sense for that. Elite trap should be added tbh.

All the nades are within a certain radius so .. it would be similar to ele fire staff #5.

Well I’m not talking about that. Also, no, not everyone has easy access to unblockable. What I’m talking about is making ranged combat just slightly more viable in larger scale combat. Regardless of class. you’re right though. I don’t wanna settle for “just play melee”. I think ranged combat needs to have it’s place. And it’s kinda sad to see the “hunter, archer, ranger” class in this game being utterly terrible at dealing meaningful ranged dmg to more than 1 pug standing outside the blob. All rangers are good for in wvw medium to large scale combat, is sniping thieves and other rangers. There are many specs that have better melee for large scale than ranger.. and ranger, among other classes, shouldn’t have to attempt to take their place cus it just doesn’t fit well thematically. picture a battle field. Who is front line? Heavy armor classes. Then there are lights which can be backline, and medium which can fill midline with a few exceptions here and there. Currently, there seems to be 0 midline and a TINY backline with weavers casting aoes and maybe heralds with hammer. I want to increase the combat diversity. But sure, let’s just be completely binary and tell everyone to compete for the same melee spots in squad, that makes total sense.

No? I’m in favor of buffs that can distinguish between reflect removal and unblockable. Say, if SoH was anti reflect with ranged weapon or unblockable on melee set. Could be utility bar, traits that proc under certain conditions or an elite for ranger or other ranged classes like ele or mesmer that isn’t a mere buff but perhaps something similar to rev elites or the holo lazer elite) or… you know. Could just tune down the amount of spammable reflect available to FB and scrapper meta? Idk. Either one is fine. But stop reaching, having the majority of the blob combat be melee or red ring focused is boring cus there’s a lack of variety, it’s not just hurdur i want RF to instagib enemy tag.

I’m talking about access to unblockable effects. Oh ok so now any ranged weapon built for DPS other than herald should just be forced to play melee cus of overtuned access to reflects by blobs? Seems like a good idea to enforce melee only. Definitely a good idea to just ignore all the other various roles that could be played if ranged was actually on par or even just CLOSE with melee in general.

Yea, that was actually me lol. Woops. I actually believe anet and players need to ditch the idea that core specs should remain viable compared to especs. Core has less complexity most of the time and in general relies more on simple trait bonuses. Especially for ranger at least. Core is often paired with NM for boons, which barely adds any additional gameplay to your class, it simply makes the few things you have even stronger through passives and more boons. anet needs to STOP adding “tradeoffs” and rather apply balance between hot, pof and the new eod specs. Forget core. With 3 especs, there should be enough variety to choose from with all the traitlines and other customization that core not being viable wouldn’t limit build diversity in any meaningful way, but at the same time we get much more fun, engaging, deep and balanced gameplay. The game is getting old, and especs are suffering ( and thus overall gameplay) because of the tradeoff mentality.(which isn’t even equally applied across classes…)

The regular pet f skill is extremely important to how viable a pet is, which is why 95% of people use smokescale in pvp and wvw. And I’m not just talking about the regular pet skills. A lot of merged abilities are just not good and borderline useless. And only a select few pets actually have special unique abilities while merged. who cares about what it was like before? The current state of slb is 1 pet only.

Ranger has one of the worst tools to deal with reflects. 40s useless passive signet that lasts for 6 hits… ” just make good build choices “ ok just pick different class then? Or what about don’t like aspect of game? Just quit bro. You’re homeless? Just buy a house lol. You can’t tell ppl to make better build choices when the choices are not available equally between classes.

Wait, plague doctors are based on science now? Lol

???? What? Lol. They created those skills for nothing cus most of the pets are useless AND you can only use 1 at a time. Like I mentioned, the in-combat complexity is quite low on ranger.