Mell.4873

I'm saying its a good thing, I really want to play a bunker style Mirage. I used to run all the signets and which made me un-killable and I had quite a bit of burst.

I have notices some really strong Mesmer players and i can only imagine if they return the second dodge to Mirage. I mean bunker Chronomancer is definitely starting to be a thing now with ability to easily duel 2 or 3 people and not die. The only real counter I have seen is a good stun + cleaving the location they were in. It really sucks if you are Ranged at the moment since there is barely anything you can do. Almost makes me want change off Ranger, maybe with Mirage I will finally.

Yeah the boon Chronomancer build is amazing since it can cover either Quickness or Alacrity. https://lucky-noobs.com/builds/power-chronomancer-support I use an almost identical version for my Raid/Strike build.

I think a good idea which was brought up in another thread was let the pet Unleashed skills change based on pet Type like Soulbeast. Here are some of my own ideas: Stout, F1 should be another boon strip, F2 damage immunity, F3 is now a projectile reflect Deadly, Add bleed, F3 should have a bleed charges like Sharpening Stone Versatile, F2 should have pulls to mimic the soulbeast version with F3 being a root Ferocious, Switch out all the Condition damage to Power, F3 could be a lighting storm Supportive, All healing and condition cleanse skills with the same F3 projective block. A few things to add, F1 should always be a Teleport and F3 should be some sort of consistent AoE but not always a projectile block. A cool idea along with this is much like Soulbeast merges provided stats well the Unleashed pet could have a slight bump to its stats based on the pet type. To answer your question we need to have more choices to compensate what we are lacking, like defensive or damage which will help with the complex Untamed rotation.

Why play Quickness Warrior when Quickness Firebrand exists, why play Specter Alacrity when Alacrity Mechanist exists. The reality it is all preference, The main reason you play anything in that supportive role is because you are very good at whatever that class can bring. A perfect example is I play Mesmer for all roles in end-game content. In practice I can pick Mesmer for Healing roles because I'm amazing at the Mesmer rotation. I'm able to seamlessly change between Well + Alacrity healing to Mantra + Quickness healing. Okay on to Ranger and by extension Warrior. The reason to play these Classes in support roles is because the entire profession has access to a unique boon. That means you could play a DPS Soulbeast slot in 2 spirits and provide some Alacrity to a Strike/Raid group or play full Harriers Druid and be a main Healer + Alacrity. That's the point of Ranger.

I think people want to move away from the pets being OP or being the focus of balance (imagine a PvP damage nerf to Ranger Player due to pet). I think the focus should always be that pets are a utility for the Ranger to do damage (Canines having a long cripple skill to trigger Predator's Onslaught)

Again it would do Zero to improve Ranger. Get them to buff the pets first since boons do nothing. The highest I have seen any pet go was about 5k DPS(full raids buff). Compared with the Mechanist's Mech which can get something like 15k+ this means nothing.

It heavily fluctuates on what time you play and the Meta(kind of the reason for the post). I mean the top 250 players was recently down to 1400 so that could be why. I'm sure if the top 250 jumped back up plat then my rank will climb again. You have to realize I play a lot but I'm consistently in Gold 3 for most of the season.

All great point, I will add to this by just saying you don't have to stick to one Ranger build, I currently have 3, two Untamed with one Power and the other Celestials. Then I have one Soulbeast with a team based stance share build which is pure hybrid minus "sic em".

That is what I used to play a lot but ultimately I use either Untamed for Solo or just change to Mesmer. I find the DPS different between most Ranger builds very negligible in the open world. If you can get 10k you will kill most things just fine.

Exactly so why do you need your boons to be copied to the pet with a signet style skill. Again the pet is just utility, I mean for all the problems with it in WvW at least it can trigger traps.

Pets don't even do any damage so I don't know why you would even want them to get boons. The core traitlines are fine and pets are just utility.

I am willing to bet with the recent wave of removing Trade-offs we will see the return or buff of most Thief traits/skills. I mean the most abused stuff is for the most part gone. In terms of Open World the return of a lot of its sustain would help. I think providing Thief with better time gated damage windows would go along way with a class that is heavily reliant on Spamming one to two skills in a given scenario. Dead eye in particular should be providing Quickness to a group and not Might/Fury. A cool idea is just had 4 seconds group quickness to Fire for Effect since the other grandmaster already provides and extra buff for with self Quickness.

I play a rather off-Meta Untamed Ranger that provides tones of CC and roots to a team fight. If I duel or get chased in a team fight by any other meta pick I can easily be shut down But if I am left to fight I can brutally punish even the most well played Class. I have even shutdown one of the best US players in this way (It was on of the posters GrimJack I believe) Along with this playstyle I have moderate mobility with two Swiftness application (Shortbow and Warhorn) with one super speed application (Quickening Zephyr). Tones of stability with interrupts and Pet swap with some amazing bleed duration (50% in sPvP). When I get it right I can easily carry most team fights though even the most abusive Meta picks (like Engineer).

Honestly the best counter I have found being a Ranger main is to just load up on Stability right before I engage. Then I can somewhat stand right beside him while he does nothing to me. The real problem with the stuns is that it put every skill on a mini cooldown when you get interrupted.

In a funny way this current Meta heavily incentivizes you not to play any sort of role, rather you need a jack of trades. If you que as a roaming Thief in Gold and end up getting paired with silver players you will probably lose every team fight and end up in 1v2 situation. Even in when you get pared with gold players could equally get matched to a team of Warrior CC machines or Engineer DPS machines. You essentially need to build around the fact that anything can happen and no role will work when it is a big question mark if you need it. The number of times I have seen a Support Guardian being absolutely useless since he is trying to heal Silver Players is to hard to count.

We already have it in the form of a trait that means the pet receives a copy (Fortifying Bond).

I love the merge skill (F1) but it should be an un-Reflectable projectile like Longbow Barrage. It is so weak already and if someone has a shield up it does no damage. I would love to give Rangers a good WvW ranger option when they are playing a more duelist role in a Zerg and have nothing better to do except throw green orbs at people.

I notices a massive uptick in Warrior players in Gold 3 and Plat. At the moment I think it really counters some of the more staple picks like Engineer and Elementalist and can really punish other squishy picks. I had to adjust my playstyle twice to stop being CC'ed forever with stability being you best defense to prevent endless stuns. Stun breaks really do nothing when they can stun you again right away.

The real Ranger to play is Untamed, the entire kit lends itself to being more flexible than core Ranger. It obviously has a learning curve but camping player-Unleashed for Power and pet-Unleashed for Condition is the best combo. The ability to switch fills the Open World niche of needing extra power damage to clear Ads and then extra defense on bosses.

Ultimately its how you play, Soulbeast iconic mechanic is "Sic em" + Stances. This creates a setup and payoff playstyle which works wonders in group content when you can time it with exposure windows. For Open World if anything interrupts that playstyle you will lose most if not all your DPS. Conditions escape the paradigm so it is much more consistent but suffers a lack of Power damage which excels in OW. There is really no best Soulbeast rather can you make X work, Sometimes Condition damage is to slow while power is to reliant on setup.

Again i have only superficially play it but that was my breakdown. Any easy class when played to the extreme can be much harder especially if you rely on certain tricks for damage. I also see it played a lot in PvP but not so much in PvE probably due to what you state.

I had the opposite experience I changed to Mirage because I could get more damage and survive just the same. While Mesmer you have many tools to prevent damage, Ranger has very few rather you just need to survive though healing which can be hard for some Open World mechanics (even on Untamed).

I only really play Ranger and Mesmer but I know Necromancers have a lot of survivability with moderate mobility on Reaper. But Ranger is the correct Elite since it does have the highest mobility/survivability mix, as reported by multiple Youtuber tutorials (I mean one of the traitlines is literally called Wilderness Survival). Soulbeast over all is a really good for group content but can suffer a lot in solo play (like other professions). The real trick to get any solo build is Self-Healing and Stun prevention. The two main way you will die is you cant maintain your health or you become CC extensively so you lose access your survival skills. For Ranger the best healing method is: Healing Spring + Trapper's Expertise: Tones of healing and condition cleanse plus a long Regeneration with the trait Troll Unguent + Wilderness Knowledge: Good mobile healing and some Condition cleanse The best stun prevention method is: Quickening Zephyr & Lightning Reflexes + Wilderness Knowledge: Amazing CC breaks Shared Anguish + Pack Alpha + Zephyr's Speed: A very strong Combo "Protect Me!" + Resounding Timbre: Group stun break

I think Guardian suffers what other Classes suffer as a whole. We have 3 Elite Specialization that are used drastically differently. Dragonhunter: Simple to play but with high burst/trap potential Firebrand: Hard to play but rewarding if you cycles Tomes correctly (almost Elementalist like) Willbender: Tones of Mobility and different damage types Its almost as if each of them address a problem with Core but this is all coming from someone who hates Guardian gameplay.